Whatever Became of Film Series?

What ever happened to the much-ballyhooed Filmharmonic series initiated by the Los Angeles Philharmonic last year? The orchestra was supposed to perform original compositions created by pairs of A-list film composers and directors--but it’s an idea whose time hasn’t come.

Conceived as a bridge between the orchestra and the entertainment community, the series fizzled after “1001 Nights,” the first and only offering, was presented in April 1998. Despite forays to Europe and overtures to entertainment conglomerates closer to home, the Philharmonic and the Hollywood music agents working on the project have failed to finance the other four installments. Directors Tim Burton, Renny Harlin and Paul Verhoeven, and composers Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, Graeme Revell and Danny Elfman, who were lined up for the project, are essentially on hold.

Agents Lyn Benjamin and Richard Kraft, pro bono producers of the project, have shifted their focus in an attempt to salvage the series. Things are looking up, they say. If all goes well, an American independent film production company--which, they will not identify at this time--will lend leadership and resources to help shape the project and raise money. Instead of tapping the commercial arena, it will target the nonprofit world, they explain.

Though negotiations are still ongoing, Emily Laskin, development director of the Philharmonic, predicts that Filmharmonic will be back on the orchestra’s program in the 2001-02 season.

“We found an artist-friendly company with a concept that will make this bigger and better,” Benjamin says. “We’ve found the engine that’s going to make this work.”

What went wrong with the original vision? Blame the absence of a viable game plan and a full-time overseer--as well as a considerable dose of naivete.

“The idea that big-time Hollywood is interested in this kind of endeavor is a stretch,” says Bernstein, whose scores include “Cape Fear” and “The Age of Innocence.” “Hollywood cares about last weekend’s grosses--not about the art world.”

The first Filmharmonic installment, a collaboration between composer David Newman and Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano, was financed primarily by Bellsystem24, a Japanese marketing and communications concern. Kraft and Benjamin maintained, at that time, that funding for the others was imminent. Filmharmonic, Benjamin said, was a “great way for corporations to market themselves”--with videos and additional performances with other orchestras a promising source of revenue. A decision was made to use bankable names to add to the appeal.

The agents, who conceived the project along with Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, put out feelers to a number of major studios and power players, including Sony Pictures Entertainment and “Matrix” producer Joel Silver. The fit, they soon discovered, was wrong.

“We were asking mainstream companies to line up behind a nonmainstream product,’ Laskin says. “In Hollywood, things are sold on the basis of familiarity--’Clueless’ is a modernization of ‘Emma’--and there was no frame of reference for Filmharmonic.”

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One top executive did commit $5 million from his studio--but with stipulations, including linking the installments thematically. Kraft found that untenable. Some view this as a missed opportunity, but Kraft disagrees.

“Linking all four would work against the Filmharmonic goal of individuality and creative freedom,” he suggests.

Benjamin and Kraft also conferred with companies based in Europe and Asia interested in DVD technology--a possible format for the series. And Willem Wijnbergen, former managing director of the Philharmonic, searched for European corporate sponsors before his abrupt departure last June. The mixed critical response to “1001 Nights,” a 23-minute animated short inspired by “Arabian Nights,” didn’t help matters.

Turnover at the Philharmonic added to the challenge, Kraft and Benjamin point out. “The succession of managing directors from Ernest Fleischmann to Wijnbergen and now to Deborah Borda created a stop-start situation,” he says. “It’s like losing a studio head who has greenlighted your movie.”

Meanwhile, some Filmharmonic composers and filmmakers began moving forward in the hope that something would break. Verhoeven discussed the creation of an oratorio set to portraits of Christ (“A Christian version of ‘The Omen,’ ” he said) with his “Basic Instinct” collaborator Goldsmith. Without financing, however, other projects took precedence.

Director Harlin (“Deep Blue Sea”) invested $250,000 of his own shooting footage of photographer Peter Beard, the subject of the piece he planned to create with Graeme Revell (“The Saint”). Whether Filmharmonic flourishes or not, he plans to turn the material into a full-length documentary.

Bernstein, after Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese declined to join him, removed himself from the project. “Lyn and Richard wanted me to procure the services of a director, which felt very haphazard,” Bernstein says. “That’s the job of the producer--and, besides, most directors I work with wouldn’t have the time.”

Filmharmonic was an “intriguing idea with no follow-through,” he suggests.

About a year ago, the Filmharmonic team realized it needed a third partner, Laskin recalls. What they sought was an entity with production and post-production experience--and access to elusive resources.

“It was naive to think we could enter the filmmaking arena without partners more strategically placed,” Laskin says.

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The agents say they are putting the final touches on a deal that would broaden the undertaking, making it an ongoing proposition--with videos of each piece. And zeroing in on the nonprofit sector, Laskin observes, expands the creative possibilities as well.

“The redesign allows for greater diversity of filmmakers,” she says. “My wish is to include more independent voices like Henry Jaglom, John Sayles, the Coen Brothers, forming cool partnerships among people used to dealing with smaller budgets. That should make for a more interesting mix, one more aligned with Esa-Pekka’s sensibility.”

Salonen declined to comment on the situation until the deal is finalized.

If the financing comes through, organizers plan to pick the brains of the Hollywood community, seeking advice on how to present the series--at the Hollywood Bowl, as a onetime subscriber event downtown or spread out over the year.

Goldsmith is confident Filmharmonic will ultimately take off--now that some hard lessons have been learned.

“They thought they could wave a magic wand and the financing would come through,” he says. “Though exploring the natural synergy between Hollywood and the Philharmonic is a great idea, there are a lot of people competing for funds out there.”