Movies a risky business for Yale alum

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Movie mogul Jack Lechner, BK '84, talks about life with power, glamour, and money. You wish you were him.

When Jack Lechner, BK '84, walked into the Berkeley Master's Office, he didn't look like a big-time Hollywood exec--until he was ushered into another room to finish his cell phone conversation.

So I eavesdropped. "Great, let's get things moving. Bye...(beep) Yeah, I'm back...yadda yadda yadda...advanced billing, post-production...." Yup, this was the guy.

Lechner returned to his alma mater on Wed., Feb. 24, to give a Master's Tea entitled "What's Wrong with the Movies." At Yale, he majored in Film Studies, an experience upon which he draws upon heavily. "I actually get to use the stuff that I learned at Yale, and I do, every day," he said. Before joining Miramax as a producer in 1996, he worked as creative executive with Columbia Films and as vice president of Home Box Office Original Pictures. He has been involved in the production of Deadly Voyage, The Crying Game, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shallow Grave, and Backbeat, to name a few.

Lechner likes to tell the story of the time he was a contestant on Jeopardy! and set the record for most money lost in Final Jeopardy ($15,000). If taking gambles is a key part of the movie industry, as Lechner claims it is, he's the right man for the job, and Miramax is the right company for him. The artsy studio has produced some of the more daring and groundbreaking films of the past 20 years, roping in many Best Screenplay Oscars.

Lechner boasts of successful risks like My Left Foot, Good Will Hunting, Shakespeare in Love, and one of his favorites, Velvet Goldmine. These "niche films," as he calls them, appeal to a select audience, and their limited demographic allows them to be innovative. Lechner also has a term for films that speak to no audience. He calls them "LOLA" movies--"Loss Of Life Accrued."

Lechner began the Tea by taking the audience through a day in the life of a movie producer. In a single day, Lechner will handle three movies already in production, which means dealing with filmmakers, agents, and other producers. He must also go through the countless submissions that cross his desk in the form of scripts, books, and plays--he reads them all.

Lechner spent much of the talk discussing what could potentially go wrong in a movie. He condemned producers who shy away from a film because it might not bring in box-office dollars. He also stressed the importance of attention to detail. "A movie is like a great big fruit. It will go bad by sheer inertia," he said. Lechner added that no element of the movie-making process can go unchecked.

Lechner believes a niche film studio like Miramax can pay closer attention to these details because it has more time to work on a film than a large studio. But he pointed out the movie business is tricky, even for smaller companies. Sometimes the most successful films come together with little effort, and the worst after a long and grueling post-production process. "I didn't spend much time at all on Shakespeare in Love, but I spent a lot of time on a horror movie called Dust Devil which I hope you never see," he said.

Lechner fielded questions about everything from the length of movie previews to the morality of modern cinema. He recounted anecdotes about miscastings ("She was so bad, you don't care whe-ther they fall in love, you don't care whether she lives or dies, you just want her off the screen"), firing directors, and flying to Africa to keep a self-absorbed actress from upsetting the cast and crew.

I asked Lechner about Velvet Goldmine, a movie he mentioned frequently as one of his favorites to produce and now to watch. I hated the movie passionately--it was a LOLA flick to me. But his response encouraged me to give it another try. He assured me that the second time around, there would be no loss of life accrued.

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