For Universal, It’s a New Dance

At Universal Focus, the new specialty film division of Universal Pictures, executives are anxiously awaiting the arrival Friday of “Billy Elliot,” cautiously optimistic that the small British story will make box office waves on this side of the Atlantic.

Comparisons to “The Full Monty,” Fox Searchlight’s 1997 smash hit about unemployed British steel workers that cost $3.5 million to make and grossed $256 million worldwide, have become inevitable whenever a low-budget, gritty-yet-sentimental British drama is about to debut, inspired in part by wishful thinking. “Billy Elliot,” which has proven an audience favorite at film festivals and screenings in recent months, is the coming-of-age story of a young boy in industrial Northern England who by chance discovers a love--and gift--for ballet dancing.

“Movies like ‘The Full Monty’ or ‘Waking Ned Devine’ ultimately proved themselves to be more broad-based in appeal than niche-oriented, even though they started out that way,” says Mark Kristol, the Universal executive who is supervising Universal Focus. “They needed the support of the public and the press to make it sound like they were OK and would be enjoyable.” That’s where Universal Focus comes in. The studio announced the formation of the division in June. “When we think about what would qualify to be released through the Universal Focus label, one of the most important considerations is that it would be a film that leaned toward being publicity-driven,” says Universal Pictures Chairman Stacey Snider. “Something that needed that special TLC in terms of generating stories and word of mouth to garner attention.

“We feel that a domestic audience can relate to ‘Billy Elliot’ despite the strong accents and very localized story. My hopes and expectations are that we present it in such a way that there’s time for people to talk about it.”

Snider notes that a specialty film usually “isn’t easily simplified to a one-line, high-concept idea, so what you want to do is literally walk that movie around to its prospective audience.” That takes time, a deliberately paced market-by-market build and a hands-on approach to exhibition that is different from the 2,500-screen opening-weekend blitz common to big studio releases. (“Billy Elliot” is opening on nine screens in four cities.)

The low-budget “Billy Elliot,” is also the first movie produced by WT2, which is an offshoot of Working Title Films, the partially Universal-owned British production company. Working Title has been responsible for such hits as “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Fargo” and “Notting Hill,” and is producing “Bridget Jones’ Diary” for the studio.

Before the formation of Universal Focus, the studio’s specialty films, such as “Being John Malkovich,” were distributed through USA Films. But some of the filmmakers who worked with Universal were interested in doing specialty films. “It became obvious that without having to go out in search of projects, we could fill a pipeline, that we had access to a new product flow,” Kristol points out in an interview. “The question was, what is the most appropriate way to handle it?”

The answer was to form Universal Focus, which would, according to Kristol, develop these specialty projects while at the same time using the studio’s clout to support the films.

Universal Focus’ initial goal is to release eight to 10 films a year. Claudia Gray, a marketing veteran who came to Universal via its acquisition of Polygram Filmed Entertainment, is handling marketing and publicity, and Paul Hardart, who has been with Universal for four years in strategic planning, is overseeing operations and distribution.

For the most part, Universal Focus will draw upon existing exclusive and first-look deals with companies such as Jersey Films (which develops its specialty films under the Jersey Shore Films banner), DNA Pictures and Shooting Gallery. Snider also notes, in reference to the recent Universal acquisition by French media conglomerate Vivendi, “It’s conceivable that through some of the Canal Plus acquisitions [the French pay television company that is also a subsidiary of Vivendi] there might be a specialty film release for us as well.”

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“Billy Elliot,” the first film out of the gate for Universal Focus, also represents the debut effort of WT2. “The timing between us setting up WT2, this script coming in, people responding well to it and Universal setting up Universal Focus couldn’t be better,” says Jon Finn, producer of “Billy Elliot” and head of WT2.

“The main slate of Working Title has moved on to bigger films,” he explains. “But the tradition in the U.K. of making small-budget films at about the 3-million quid mark (about $4.5 million, the budget for ‘Billy Elliot’), that’s how the company started.”

Working Title financed the film with Tiger Aspect Pictures, which had developed the script with the BBC. The film was aided by funds from the National Lottery. “Billy Elliot’ is also the first feature-film effort of director Stephen Daldry. Like last year’s Oscar-winning director, Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”), Daldry has had an established theatrical career in England, including a six-year stint as the artistic director of London’s Royal Court Theatre.

He’s best known in the U.S. for his Tony Award-winning direction of the National Theatre revival of J.B. Priestley’s “An Inspector Calls,” which is still running in London’s West End. Daldry was sent an early draft of “Billy Elliot” by its writer, Lee Hall, a friend of Daldry since the mid-1980s.

In fact, the two met at the time of the nationwide miners’ strike that serves as the backdrop for “Billy Elliot.” Daldry felt an immediate attachment to Hall’s script; he especially liked that “it’s not embarrassed about expressing emotions,” a feature he admits is “unusual for British films.”

Billy’s widowed father and older brother have worked in the mines all their lives. Once the strike is settled, they plan to go right back to work and expect Billy to one day follow suit. But that’s not what Billy wants--he wants to be a dancer, and, knowing the macho men in his family will disapprove, he hides his dream (and the dancing lessons he’s taking) from them for as long as possible.

The title character is in practically every scene, so finding the right boy to play him was pivotal--and a real problem, recalls Daldry during a phone interview from London. “The character comes from a very particular place in England, and the actor needs to have the acting ability to hold down the entire film, dance well enough to be convincing and have the stamina to go through the whole process of making the movie.”

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The filmmakers found their Billy Elliot in Jamie Bell (now 14) who hails from Billingham, in the same northeast region of England where the story takes place. “Billy Elliot” is Bell’s first film, but he’s already something of a show business veteran, having performed all over Britain since he was 8 years old.

“I started off with tapping, and then I was in the National Youth Music Theatre, which was singing, dancing and acting,” Bells says by phone from London.

Like Billy, Jamie was reluctant for a while to let friends know what he was doing in his spare time, but, unlike his film character, Jamie’s family has always been supportive of his dancing. Before he signed on to do “Billy Elliot,” the young performer gave no thought to working in film, concentrating instead on stage performances and the more standard pursuits of adolescence.

Since production of the movie wrapped, he’s returned to normal life in Billingham, albeit with time off for rather unique sojourns--to film festivals in Cannes, Edinburgh and Croatia, and a three-week publicity tour of the United States, accompanied by his mother, Eileen. It’s Jamie’s first visit to this country, and, exhibiting a teenage focus that is universal, he’s most looking forward to “shopping until I drop.”

The selling of “Billy Elliot” will incorporate conventional tools such as trailers and print and TV advertising, but the studio hopes word of mouth will make the film a hit. “I think there’s no advertisement for this film like the film itself,” Snider asserts. “The key is to be measured in our presentation, so that audiences feel as if they’ve discovered something special.”

The studio also has high Oscar hopes for the film and its young star. Universal has hired publicist Tony Angellotti, well known in the industry for his post-release campaigns for Miramax Films (for whom he has helped shepherd such films as “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Cider House Rules” to multiple Academy Award nominations). Angellotti, who also continues to work with Miramax this year, will assist in the Oscar campaign for Universal’s mainstream releases such as “Erin Brockovich,” and “Billy Elliot,” which is being pegged by the studio as a ready-for-prime-time player as Oscar consideration season looms on the horizon.

“If that’s the case, you couldn’t ask for a better launch,” declares producer Finn, seeming both delighted and a bit bemused by the possibility of Oscar nominations.

“‘When we first tried to pitch the film to people, saying it’s the story of a little boy who wants to be a ballet dancer set against the miners’ strike, it did seem a bit impossible,” he admits. “We’re even more thrilled at how much people have liked it.”