A FEEL FOR REAL STORIES
As chief executive of Universal’s Focus Features, James Schamus knows firsthand what his awards nominees feel because he’s been there himself.
Schamus’ longtime collaboration with director Ang Lee gave him best screenplay and best song nominations for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and a best picture nomination in last year’s Oscars for “Brokeback Mountain.” He lost each time. This season, Focus is pushing “Hollywoodland,” starring Ben Affleck as 1950s “Superman” star George Reeves; “Catch a Fire,” starring Tim Robbins and Derek Luke and set in the 1980s during South Africa’s apartheid era; and the documentary “The Ground Truth,” about soldiers returning home from Iraq.
How do you see your awards season shaping up?
For us, it’s been a very modest year. Last year, we had “Brokeback Mountain” and “The Constant Gardener.” That said, we’ve had some tremendous performances we’re proud of and we’ll just see because the pictures performed modestly.
So you see this as less of a year for the pictures than for the performances?
Yes. Unless you’ve got an angle I haven’t seen yet.
Does box office performance help or hurt a film for awards?
The answer to that, unfortunately, is complicated. The Academy Awards recognizes achievement, and our industry is one that, even in its most specialized corners, prides itself in reaching out to audiences and succeeding. On the other hand, box office should not be a determining factor in recognizing achievement in film. But it’s hard. We are a business. When films don’t perform, there is something of a stigma.
What attracted you to “Hollywoodland”?
There’s a very smart, melancholic tone about the price of not just fame but the pursuit of it. It rang very, very true to me. Ben’s performance is radiant. He was the nicest guy ever to work with. This is a real person who has been through the celebrity wringer. If you or I went through that, we would emerge as fairly damaged people. This guy has emerged hopeful, smarter, more collegial, more generous. Everybody is kind of just rooting for Ben here.
Did he need any persuading to do it?
He recognized it. It’s a part that really had so much to it that it didn’t take long to respond.
What about “Catch a Fire”?
With Tim and Derek, these are parts that are few and far between. Phillip Noyce, the director, is a guy who is capable of making the grandest Hollywood spectacles imaginable. But in the past decade he’s devoted himself to telling stories that tradition has left to the side very often.
How do you interest today’s audience in the subject of apartheid?
Well, we’re trying. It’s funny, though. We got a reviewer who said it’s a well done film, but why are they bringing up this topic now because it’s old news. I took that review and pasted it into an e-mail. Every time the reviewer mentioned apartheid and how nobody cares about it, I put in the word “Holocaust” just to see what it looked like. It was insane.
On the Web: For the extended version of this interview, go to TheEnvelope.com.