What does it look like when a Hollywood movie producer suddenly has nothing to lose? Meet Charlie Berns, a guy whose suicidal tendencies give him the chutzpah to con a major studio into a $100 million deal on a script he hasn't even read.

At the very moment when his idealistic screenwriter nephew knocks on the door, toting a solemn art-house period script about Benjamin Disraeli, Charlie has literally had it with life. But the trade papers have announced that a recently converted black action star is actively seeking Jewish material, so the serendipity is too absurd to resist. Charlie masterminds a plan, making it impossible for the studio not to green-light this project, which, while Jewish, couldn’t be further from an action flick. No matter. In Hollywood, perception is everything. Along the way, Charlie meets his match in Deidre Hearn, a sharp-witted development executive who sees right through his games but also recognizes that maybe his caution-to-the-wind philosophy has serious merit.

The mischievous charm in this smart screwball satire about renegade producers bamboozling a soul-crushing industry hinges on the wonderfully crackly Tracy-Hepburn chemistry between William Macy and Meg Ryan. Steven Schachter's tongue-in-cheek romp revels in sending up Hollywood stereotypes—zealous star, histrionic director, slippery suits—but also Ryan’s legacy as romantic comedy’s “It” girl, and even the notion that it’s possible to make a meaningful movie.

Steven Schachter - Steven Schachter has directed numerous projects for HBO, TNT, CBS, USA, and Lifetime, including The Engagement Ring, It Must Be Love, and Just a Walk in the Park, which he also cowrote with William H. Macy. Schachter and Macy won an Emmy for cowriting the TNT original movie Door to Door, which also earned Schachter a directing Emmy. The two have also collaborated on Above Suspicion, The Con, Every Woman's Dream, and The Wool Cap. Schachter studied theatre with David Mamet, cofounded Chicago's St. Nicholas Theatre with him and Macy, and directed Mamet's The Water Engine on Broadway.

Screenings:

Tue. January 22, 9:30pm, Eccles Theatre, Park City
Wed. January 23, 8:30am, Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
Sun. January 27, 3:30pm, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, SLC

Roy Bodner
Peace Arch Entertainment Group
228 Main St., #14
Venice, CA 90291

(310) 450-1711
rbodner@peacearch.com
www.peacearch.com