WE GET LETTERS . . . : ‘Gladiator’

In regard to last Sunday’s Film Clips item about the motion picture “Gladiator” (“Well, They Were the Good Old Hollywood Days,” by Andy Marx):

Marx uses extensive quotes from anonymous sources to deny the legitimacy of my credit as one of two producers on “Gladiator.”

These quotes do not reflect the facts. “Gladiator” was a project abandoned by both Columbia and Universal when I acquired it for my company in 1988. Though Steve Roth was contractually still attached, I became the producer in first position with full creative control, which I exercised to produce a commercial, mainstream movie that Columbia can now be very proud of.

When I was asked to head Columbia Pictures in 1990, I, by contract, would do two Price Entertainment pictures a year. It was under this arrangement that “Gladiator” finally was made. But while Price Entertainment would be credited, my personal producing credit could not appear. Once I was no longer head of Columbia, naturally my credit was restored.

Marx conveniently omitted the fact that I was producer of the movie before heading Columbia and that contractual reasons precluded me from receiving my credit while running the studio.

In addition, Marx did not talk to the creative people who did this film: The director, the writers, the film editors, the composer, the music supervisor, the head of post-production would be more legitimate sources for information on my role in producing.

FRANK PRICE

Chairman and Chief

Executive Officer

Price Entertainment Inc.