It Was a Tough Sell, but Fate Smiled on ‘Gods’

Just 24 hours after “Gods and Monsters” received three Oscar nominations Tuesday morning, independent producer Paul Colichman and his partners at Regent Entertainment received a baffling phone call from a large Australian distributor that was going to release the film.

“We were told ‘the film is too difficult’ and they didn’t feel they could do it justice,” said Colichman, who, in light of the film’s Oscar kudos, was flabbergasted that the distributor was backing out.

The response was disturbingly similar to one Regent received last year when seeking a U.S. distributor. “We already have one of those kinds of movies,” a prominent specialty film distributor told them.

Colichman believes the reactions were euphemisms for “We don’t want to distribute a gay film,” or, in the case of the domestic distributor, another gay film.

Colichman said the U.S. response was particularly disheartening because “Gods and Monsters,” a $4-million independently financed movie written and directed by Bill Condon and released by Lions Gate, is not a “gay film” but “a film in which one of the characters is gay.”

Sir Ian McKellen, who received a best actor nomination for his performance in the film, portrays retired horror movie director James Whale, creator of the famous “Frankenstein” movies of the 1930s, who strikes up a friendship with his straight, handsome gardener (played by Brendan Fraser).

Colichman, who is gay, says what he likes most about “Gods and Monsters” is that it “portrays gay people as normal human beings, not as some freakish, marginalized group.”

Hollywood generally doesn’t see much commercial potential in gay-themed movies. A major mainstream box-office hit such as “Philadelphia”--which grossed nearly $80 million in the U.S.--is considered an aberration, with its success largely attributed to the popularity of its star, Tom Hanks.

Condon, whose screenplay for “Gods and Monsters” received a nomination Tuesday for best adaptation, said there’s a rule of thumb in the industry known as the “Gay 3”--a perceived $3-million ceiling on the grosses of gay-themed movies, such as Orion’s 1995 release “Jeffrey” and New Line’s 1997 film “Love! Valor! Compassion!”

“Gods and Monsters” has also grossed just $3 million to date, but Condon and others affiliated with the film believe it will break through that barrier, based on momentum from its Oscar nominations, which also include a best supporting actress nod for Lynn Redgrave. The movie’s box office jumped after Redgrave won a Golden Globe.

Colichman said he knew from the get-go that “Gods and Monsters” would be a tough sell, noting, “For the past two years, I feel like I’ve been fighting a war.” He first read and fell in love with Condon’s script in 1997, after it had been rejected by many companies.

“We were the last stop on the train, and it troubled me that no one had responded. I wondered if I had lost my touch,” recalled the 36-year-old, who over the last 10 years has produced more than 40 low-budget movies and television projects, including the independent cult favorite “One False Move.” (Before Regent, he was a founding partner with Miles Copeland III in IRS Media.)

Colichman, who wanted assurances that his tastes weren’t out of step, had his straight partners at Regent read the script and was relieved to find that “they were very enthusiastic about it.” They were so enthusiastic that the group decided “Gods and Monsters” would be the first movie in which Regent would risk investing its own money, which it had raised from insurance companies, real estate investment sources and private equity, plus gap financing from Imperial Bank of Beverly Hills.

Regent was formed in 1996 with $1 million in equity from Colichman and his two partners, Mark R. Harris and Dallas investment banker Stephen P. Jarchow, who also arranged a line of credit. Former entertainment attorney Peter Dekom, responsible for putting together the partners, has a minority interest in Regent, which also owns several movie theaters and a domestic and foreign sales organization.

Colichman said that almost from its inception, Regent began generating revenue from producer fees, with projects such as “Twilight of the Golds,” a $3-million, made-for-cable movie that was fully financed by Showtime and subsequently released theatrically through Lions Gate. Regent also is one of the largest independent suppliers of TV programming to Fox Family Channel, counting among its more recent premieres “Doomsday Rock,” “Loyal Opposition” and “Storm Chasers: Revenge of the Twister.”

When it came to financing “Gods and Monsters,” Regent put up $2.5 million from equity and gap financing, after pre-selling all rights in Britain to the BBC for $500,000 and all U.S. rights to Showtime for $1 million.

The film--based on Christopher Bram’s novel “Father of Frankenstein”--was shot in Los Angeles in 24 days in the summer of 1997, with cast and crew agreeing to defer their salaries.

Under its deal with Showtime--which had planned to premiere “Gods” on its cable service--Regent had the option to pay back its $1-million advance after the film was completed if a theatrical distributor could be secured.

That was no easy feat. “There was a deafening silence from distributors,” Colichman said, following the film’s debut at the Sundance Film Festival early last year, which screened it out of competition at a midnight showing.

Lions Gate eventually put a “modest advance” on the table. “They laid out a really impressive release pattern,” Colichman said, even though it was “less than half of what we needed.”

Meanwhile, one of Regent’s private financing groups--Flashpoint, based in Britain--saw the film and decided to make up the shortfall of $625,000, plus put up additional cash to further enhance the production and help fund the Oscar campaign. This enabled Regent to buy out Showtime, which retained U.S. pay cable rights and an equity position in the film, and to get the film a theatrical release.

Regent, which so far has sold the film to only a handful of international markets (including Italy and Spain), has about $1.5 million at risk in “Gods” and will be lucky to break even, even if the film goes on to gross the additional $2 million or so expected after its Oscar attention.

Lions Gate made a minimum commitment of $500,000 for prints and advertising and has since increased that to launch an Oscar campaign and re-release the picture in more markets. The film, currently on 80 screens, will be booked on an additional 70 this weekend, and another 100 next Friday.

Asked why Lions Gate was willing to roll the dice on such a risky movie when others weren’t, co-President Tom Ortenberg said: “Conventional wisdom pigeonholed this as a gay film, and we don’t think conventionally. We’ve made a business out of turning out difficult pictures.”