Town & Country (film)
Encyclopedia
Town & Country is a 2001 film
starring Goldie Hawn
, Warren Beatty
, Diane Keaton
and Garry Shandling
and directed by Peter Chelsom
. It is a romantic comedy
in which Beatty plays New York City
architect Porter Stoddard, with Keaton as his wife and Hawn and Shandling as their best friends. It holds the distinction of being one of the biggest money-losing films in American film history. This is Beatty and Keaton's second film since 1981's Reds. As well, this is Beatty's third film with Hawn since 1971's $
and 1975's Shampoo
.
$90 million, not including distribution and marketing expenses. The total worldwide box office came to $10,365,000. Considering that typically half of the gross box-office receipts go to the exhibitors and half to the filmmakers, Town & Country lost the studio at least $100 million, and probably much more if costs for distribution and marketing are considered, which average around $35–50 million for a studio picture such as this. The studio, having already spent in excess of $90 million, backed a very limited distribution and marketing campaign in the $15–20 million range, bringing the total cost to $105–110 million.
. Filming was originally supposed to wrap by the fall of 1998 for a summer or fall 1999 release. Various problems occurred during filming, however, including Beatty's meticulous demand for many takes. Also, the script was still being developed, as writers were not satisfied with the ending originally written by Michael Laughlin
. Various other screenwriters were brought in, including Paul Attanasio
and Gary Ross
. By April 1999, production was still going, but Garry Shandling
had to leave to do another film (What Planet Are You From?
) as did Diane Keaton
(Hanging Up
). It would take a full year before they could gather the cast back together to film the new pages written by Buck Henry
.
. An article from The Hollywood Reporter
lists Town & Country as the fifth-largest box office bomb
of the 2000s.
Due to the film's poor reviews and dismal reception by audiences, most of the cast were not seen in major motion pictures for a lengthy duration of time. For instance, it is Beatty's last film appearance to date. The only members of the cast that came out unscathed from the film were Diane Keaton
, who went on to star in the box-office smash hit Something's Gotta Give
and maintained a successful career thereafter appearing in films to this date; Jenna Elfman
went onto further film roles and television sitcoms; and Goldie Hawn
made one more hit film (The Banger Sisters
) before taking a break from films.
2001 in film
The year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
starring Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
, Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
, Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
and Garry Shandling
Garry Shandling
Garry Emmanuel Shandling is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show....
and directed by Peter Chelsom
Peter Chelsom
Peter Chelsom is a British actor and film director. He has directed among others such films as Shall We Dance? and Hannah Montana: The Movie...
. It is a romantic comedy
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
in which Beatty plays New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
architect Porter Stoddard, with Keaton as his wife and Hawn and Shandling as their best friends. It holds the distinction of being one of the biggest money-losing films in American film history. This is Beatty and Keaton's second film since 1981's Reds. As well, this is Beatty's third film with Hawn since 1971's $
$ (film)
$, also known as Dollars and in the UK as The Heist, is a 1971 American caper film starring Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The movie was written and directed by Richard Brooks and produced by M.J. Frankovich. The supporting cast includes Gert Fröbe, Robert...
and 1975's Shampoo
Shampoo (film)
Shampoo is a 1975 satirical film written by Robert Towne and directed by Hal Ashby. It stars Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, with Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Tony Bill and in an early film appearance, Carrie Fisher....
.
Cast
- Warren BeattyWarren BeattyWarren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
as Porter Stoddard - Diane KeatonDiane KeatonDiane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
as Ellie Stoddard - Goldie HawnGoldie HawnGoldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
as Mona - Garry ShandlingGarry ShandlingGarry Emmanuel Shandling is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show....
as Griffin - Andie MacDowellAndie MacDowellRosalie Anderson "Andie" MacDowell is an American model and actress. She has received the Golden Camera and an Honorary César.-Early life:...
as Eugenie - Nastassja KinskiNastassja KinskiNastassja Kinski is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films , as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris,...
as Alex - Jenna ElfmanJenna ElfmanJennifer Mary "Jenna" Elfman is an American television and film actress. She is known for her role as Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Billie on the short-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose....
as Auburn - Charlton HestonCharlton HestonCharlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
as Eugenie's Father - Josh HartnettJosh HartnettJoshua Daniel "Josh" Hartnett is an American actor and aspiring producer. He first came to audiences' attention in 1997 as "Michael Fitzgerald" in the television series Cracker. He made his feature film debut in 1998, co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later for Miramax...
as Tom
Production costs
The production costs of the film totaled an estimated USDUnited States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$90 million, not including distribution and marketing expenses. The total worldwide box office came to $10,365,000. Considering that typically half of the gross box-office receipts go to the exhibitors and half to the filmmakers, Town & Country lost the studio at least $100 million, and probably much more if costs for distribution and marketing are considered, which average around $35–50 million for a studio picture such as this. The studio, having already spent in excess of $90 million, backed a very limited distribution and marketing campaign in the $15–20 million range, bringing the total cost to $105–110 million.
1998-1999
The production itself began on June 8, 1998 on a budget of $44 million, including $5 million up front for Warren BeattyWarren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
. Filming was originally supposed to wrap by the fall of 1998 for a summer or fall 1999 release. Various problems occurred during filming, however, including Beatty's meticulous demand for many takes. Also, the script was still being developed, as writers were not satisfied with the ending originally written by Michael Laughlin
Michael Laughlin
-Filmography:*The Whisperers *Joanna *Two-Lane Blacktop *Strange Behavior *Strange Invaders *Mesmerized...
. Various other screenwriters were brought in, including Paul Attanasio
Paul Attanasio
Paul Albert Attanasio is an American screenwriter and producer of film and television, who is currently an executive producer on the television series House.-Life and career:...
and Gary Ross
Gary Ross
Gary Ross is an American writer, director, and actor. He is best known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, both of which featured Tobey Maguire in the lead role...
. By April 1999, production was still going, but Garry Shandling
Garry Shandling
Garry Emmanuel Shandling is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show....
had to leave to do another film (What Planet Are You From?
What Planet Are You From?
What Planet Are You From? is a 2000 comedy film starring Garry Shandling and Annette Bening. It was directed by Mike Nichols.-Plot:A denizen of a faraway planet occupied only by highly evolved males is ordered to find a female human, impregnate her and bring the baby back to the planet...
) as did Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
(Hanging Up
Hanging Up
Hanging Up is a 2000 American comedy-drama film about a trio of sisters who bond over their ambivalence toward the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father, to whom none of them were particularly close...
). It would take a full year before they could gather the cast back together to film the new pages written by Buck Henry
Buck Henry
Henry Zuckerman, better known as Buck Henry , is an American actor, writer, film director, and television director.-Early life:...
.
2000 reshoots
Reshoots began on April 10, 2000, and wrapped by late April/early May 2000. More money was spent since the other cast members had to be paid their full salaries again.Release and reception
The film finally made it into theaters on April 27, 2001, nearly three years after filming began. It received generally poor reviews and was called "boorish" and "obtuse" by one reviewer. It holds a generally poor rating on the review aggregate website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. An article from The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
lists Town & Country as the fifth-largest box office bomb
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
of the 2000s.
Due to the film's poor reviews and dismal reception by audiences, most of the cast were not seen in major motion pictures for a lengthy duration of time. For instance, it is Beatty's last film appearance to date. The only members of the cast that came out unscathed from the film were Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
, who went on to star in the box-office smash hit Something's Gotta Give
Something's Gotta Give (film)
Something's Gotta Give is a 2003 American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Nancy Meyers for both Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. It stars Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton as a successful 60-something and 50-something, who find love for each other at a different time of life,...
and maintained a successful career thereafter appearing in films to this date; Jenna Elfman
Jenna Elfman
Jennifer Mary "Jenna" Elfman is an American television and film actress. She is known for her role as Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Billie on the short-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose....
went onto further film roles and television sitcoms; and Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
made one more hit film (The Banger Sisters
The Banger Sisters
The Banger Sisters is a 2002 American comedy film produced by Fox Searchlight Pictures about the reunion of two middle-aged women who used to be friends and groupies when they were young. The movie starred Goldie Hawn, Susan Sarandon and Geoffrey Rush...
) before taking a break from films.
Awards
- Golden Raspberry AwardsGolden Raspberry AwardsA Golden Raspberry Award, or Razzie for short, is an award presented in recognition of the worst in movies. Founded by American copywriter and publicist John J.B. Wilson in 1981, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day...
- Worst Director - Peter ChelsomPeter ChelsomPeter Chelsom is a British actor and film director. He has directed among others such films as Shall We Dance? and Hannah Montana: The Movie...
- Nominated - Worst Supporting Actor - Charlton HestonCharlton HestonCharlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
(also for Cats & DogsCats & DogsCats & Dogs is a 2001 American-Australian action-comedy film directed by Lawrence Guterman. The screenplay by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra centers on the relationships between cats and dogs. It was shot in Victoria and Vancouver. The film was released on July 4, 2001 by Warner Bros...
and Planet of the ApesPlanet of the Apes (2001 film)Planet of the Apes is a 2001 American science fiction film, based on Pierre Boulle's novel and a remake of the 1968 film of the same name. Tim Burton directed the film, which stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, and Estella Warren. It tells the...
) - Won - Worst Supporting Actress - Goldie HawnGoldie HawnGoldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
- Nominated
- Worst Director - Peter Chelsom
External links
- "Stumbling Toward a Theater Near You", a 2001 article from The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
on the making of Town & Country.