Dumping policy calls for quiet disposal

Haley Joel Osment has put together a pretty impressive string of recent films. He got an Oscar nomination for his role in the blockbuster “The Sixth Sense”; co-starred opposite Jude Law in Steven Spielberg’s “A.I: Artificial Intelligence”; and appeared with Kevin Spacey in the drama “Pay It Forward.” But the movie the young actor really put his heart into is a movie that you may never see.

Called “Edges of the Lord,” it features Osment as a blond, blue-eyed Jewish boy who is given a chance to survive by passing as a Gentile during the Nazi invasion of Poland. The film, which co-stars Willem Dafoe -- no slouch himself when it comes to appearing in high-visibility films -- as a Polish priest, was acquired by Miramax Films two years ago and has been sitting on the shelf ever since.

Having his film go unseen has been a rude jolt for Osment. His father, Eugene Osment, says he and his son are disappointed. “We’re trying to understand -- why isn’t this in the theaters?” asks the elder Osment. “It was a difficult movie to make, but it’s even more painful now because the movie isn’t out there for other people to see.”

“Edges of the Lord” isn’t alone. Every year, Hollywood studios quietly dump movies -- even ones with top stars -- that aren’t worth the money to distribute in theaters. Call it Hollywood’s dirty little secret. With marketing costs spiraling higher every year, studios increasingly have both economic and psychological incentives to cut their losses by keeping their stinkers in the closet.

Sylvester Stallone is the star of “D-Tox,” a $60-million crime drama from Universal Pictures that was filmed in early 1999 and has never been seen in the U.S.

Al Pacino plays a press agent in “People I Know,” a film Miramax bought 18 months ago and has never released.

Miramax has a cupboard full of orphaned movies. “Daddy and Them,” a Billy Bob Thornton film that starred Thornton, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd and Andy Griffith, was recently sold to Showtime after sitting on the shelf for several years. Michael Caine stars in “Shiner,” a boxing drama that Miramax acquired in February 2001 and has just released on home video without a U.S. theatrical run.

Miramax is also the distributor of “The Third Wheel,” a romantic comedy that features Luke Wilson, Ben Affleck and Denise Richards. Shot in 1999, the film has been on the studio’s release schedule for two years without ever coming out.

“Sometimes you have to face the fact that some movies are better off on TV or DVD than in a theater,” explains Miramax Films co-chief Harvey Weinstein. “You’re asking a lot of an audience to pay nearly $10 to see a movie, so you don’t want them to feel cheated.”

Most of these movies never see the light of day for an all-too-obvious reason: They’re awful. In its review of “D-Tox,” which was released overseas earlier this year, Variety called the film “almost totally merit-free.” One Internet review of a “Third Wheel” test screening called it “a laugh-free comedy,” saying Wilson was “excruciating to watch” in the lead role. Even Weinstein admits that “The Third Wheel” would be better off as a video release. But since Affleck and Matt Damon, who have close ties with Miramax, produced the film, Weinstein says he’ll let them make the final call.

“It’s up to Ben,” says Weinstein. “He’s going to run the company someday anyway, so I have to be nice to him.”

Studios, of course, put out bad movies all the time. Just ask anyone unlucky enough to have sat through such recent Warner Bros. releases as “FearDotCom” and “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” a film that sat on the shelf for years before reaching theaters. But Warners has a big incentive: Many of its movies, including “FearDotCom” are financed by other companies, which also often pay for the film’s marketing expenses.

However, if you have a film that needs to reach a discerning adult audience, reviews count. Miramax had been giving the cold shoulder to another Caine film, “The Quiet American,” until the film got a rave review in Variety when it played the Toronto Film Festival. Barely a month earlier, Miramax had been shopping the film, hoping another distributor would take it. Now the studio has given it a November release date and is pushing Caine for an Oscar nomination.

So why is this film getting a theatrical release and “Edges of the Lord” is still buried in the vault? “If the critics would champion ‘Edges of the Lord’ the way they’ve supported ‘Quiet American,’ we’d love to put it out,” says Weinstein.

Miramax competitors say other factors are at work. Miramax is one of the few remaining studios that’s run like a personal fiefdom. When it comes to acquiring and marketing films, Weinstein is involved in virtually every major decision. Unlike most of today’s studio chiefs, who are often influenced by corporate concerns, Weinstein still operates on gut instinct. If he is passionate about a movie, it gets the studio’s unstinting support. If he is unmoved, the film is often neglected.

Weinstein has also spent considerable energy in recent years pursuing more ambitious projects. Producers of smaller films often find it harder to get his attention.

“I think Harvey has lost interest in those little quality films,” says “Edges of the Lord” producer Zev Braun. “It seems that he’s going after more commercial movies that are a lot easier to market and sell.”

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Standing behind his brand

Miramax is one of the only studios, besides its parent company, Walt Disney Studios, whose brand has a strong identity in the marketplace. So, Weinstein is especially cautious when it comes to releasing a film that might tarnish a brand that has come to stand for quality filmmaking. Still, if a studio knows that it has a stinker on its hands, why keep it on the shelf for years when it could at least get some return on its investment by selling it to pay TV or putting it out on home video?

One reason is financial. As long as the film hasn’t been released, the studio can keep it on its books as an asset. The minute the film comes out -- and fails to deliver at the box office -- the studio must write it off as a loss. So, most companies wait as long as possible before taking a write-off, often delaying the decision until they can hide the loss among several big hits.

Psychological issues also come into play. Studio chiefs are human -- they prefer to avoid dwelling on any unpleasant reminder of failure. “When you know you have a dog, you’re in no rush to deal with it,” explains one top executive. “It’s like remembering a bad love affair. You just want to sweep it under the rug.”

Sometimes, films are stuck in limbo because they deal with untimely subjects. Miramax has delayed releasing “Buffalo Soldiers,” a critically praised film that it bought in Toronto just days before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, because the movie -- based on real-life events occurring at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall -- portrays the American military in a negative light. When the studio screened the film shortly after the terror attacks, a test audience hammered it.

Miramax has delayed its release, waiting for emotions to cool. The studio plans to put it in theaters next spring, although a war with Iraq could postpone its arrival again. Not every film has been permanently damaged by sitting on the shelf. New Line’s “new” gangster comedy, “Knockaround Guys,” was shot in the fall of 1999 but wasn’t released until earlier this month. However, in the three years since it was filmed, its team of young actors, who include Vin Diesel, Barry Pepper and Seth Green, have become recognizable names, especially Diesel, who has starred in two megahit films. As New Line marketing chief Russell Schwartz put it: “ ‘Knockaround Guys’ and its stars have improved with age, like wine or a good cheese.”

But few on-the-shelf movies get a second chance. Millenium Films chief Avi Lerner, who bankrolled “Edges of the Lord” and “The Grey Zone,” another Holocaust drama that is now being shown in theaters, thinks Miramax is selling it short. He believes “Edges” would be less difficult to market than “The Grey Zone,” a portrait of the Jews at Auschwitz who cooperated with their Nazi guards.

“I like both movies,” he says. “But ‘Grey Zone’ is much more dark and horrifying. At least ‘Edges’ has a happy ending. In my opinion, this is a unique movie people should see in a theater. And that’s what is sad -- right now, no one can see it at all.”