MOVIE MAN

D Magazine, Sep 01, 2001 by Whitley, Glenna

Then lightning struck.

Gods and Monsters

AT 11 P.M. ON A COLD NIGHT IN JANUARY 1998, Jarchow sat with his daughter Boo and Colichman in a stuffy screening room at the Sundance Film Festival and watched as their eighth film, Gods and Monsters, premiered.

The story of the last days of Frankenstein director James Whale, it was a risky script to produce. The main character is a dying gay man who forms an unlikely friendship with his young, straight gardener. But both Colichman and Jarchow had loved the screenplay by Bill Condon, and the great British actor Ian McKellen had signed on to play Whale. It was too good a chance to pass up.

Regent had acquired the rights from Disney to a screenplay called Twilight of the Golds. They cast Brendan Fraser.

Colichman later sent Fraser the screenplay of Gods and Monsters. He loved the screenplay and was eager to work with McKellen, so he agreed to play the gardener at a manageable rate. British actress Lynn Redgrave signed on for $50,000.

Jarchow financed the $3.6 million budget by selling U.S. rights to Showtime for $1 million, UK rights for $500,000 to the BBC, and then getting a $1.5 million loan from Imperial Bank in LA against those two contracts. The company borrowed another $1.5 million against the rest of the rights. Still a half-million dollars short, Jarchow wrote a check on his own account.

The movie would end up being refinanced three times.

Though shot in only 24 days, the costs crept up to $4 million. More money was needed for music and a few additional scenes. Jarchow put up another $500,000. Although Regent didn't have the clout to secure it a theatrical release, he hoped a major distributor would pick it up.

The screening at Sundance was a hit. Wonderful acting, a strong story, the audience loved it. But in the weeks that followed, nobody stepped up to the plate. Miramax, Sony Classics, Fine Line-they all passed. It was too gay, too serious, or not serious enough. "Paul was devastated," Jarchow says. "I was only vaguely disturbed. I expect nothing to go right."

After Sundance, thinking the film needed more exposure, Regent entered it into more festivals. After the New York Film Festival, rave reviews started rolling in, particularly from Janet Maslin at the New York Times, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, and Harry Knowles of the web site Ain't It Cool News. Lions Gate, just coming into its own as a producer and distributor of independent films, agreed to put $2 million into prints and ads. Jarchow had a tough decision: pay off Showtime to get out of the contract so the movie could be released in theaters or stay with Showtime and watch the movie disappear into the maw of cable TV.

Pondering his next move while driving aimlessly around Beverly Hills, Jarchow stopped at the Beverly Hills Hotel for a drink. "We may never make a movie this good again," he said to himself. Jarchow wrote the check for $1 million to buy out Showtime. It was a gamble on quality and it paid off. Named best movie of the year by the National Board of Review, the film received nominations for three Academy Awards and four Golden Globes. Jarchow was in the audience when Redgrave won a Golden Globe for best supporting actress and, later, when Condon received an Oscar for best adaptation for a screenplay. "I realized my life had changed," Jarchow says of the intimate ceremony at the Golden Globes, where he met stars like Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Gregory Peck. More than 100 critics put Gods and Monsters on their "top 10" lists. and so far it has produced more than $10 million in box office sales and on video.