Reprinted without permission
Spyglass' Faith is in Norton
Thesp making helming bow
By MICHAEL FLEMING, Variety, December 8, 1998
NEW YORK - Spyglass Entertainment partners Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber will make the Edward Norton-directed comedy Keeping the Faith the first project they’ve hatched from scratch since forming their production and financing entity.
The romantic comedy marks the directing debut of the American History X star, who’ll co-star alongside Ben Stiller in the Stuart Blumberg-written script.
Spyglass has greenlit the film, budgeted in the $30 million range, for a May start, and it will be distributed domestically under the Touchstone banner by Buena Vista. BV Intl. will distribute the film in certain foreign territories such as Latin America, the U.K., Australia and Singapore, with Spyglass’ other partners taking the rest.
Norton will play a priest and Stiller a rabbi who as children forged a close friendship, along with a girl the same age. Their friendship with her ended when she moved away at age 12, but something closer to love blossoms between her and each man as she re-emerges when they are in their late 20s.
Crisis of faith
By this time, they’ve got more than the usual problems of two friends falling in love with the same woman. The crisis of faith for the priest is obvious because of his vow of celibacy, but the rabbi is also thwarted because while he can marry, the girl is not Jewish. Their pining for the girl is said to be closer to the tone of The Philadelphia Story or Sleepless in Seattle than There’s Something About Mary, in which Stiller recently starred. The search is under way for a star to play the female lead.
The film will be produced by Howard Koch Jr., Norton and Blumberg. Norton and Blumberg are pals from Yale, and with Koch they originally set the film at Columbia in a deal worth $650,000 against $1 million (Daily Variety, Oct. 23, 1997). Recently, they got back the project in turnaround. Spyglass exec Derek Evans brought it in late last week and his bosses jumped on it immediately.
"We read it last Thursday and bought it Friday morning, and Gary and I are very excited to make this the first script that Spyglass has purchased and put into our production slate," said Birnbaum, who along with Barber and Jonathan Glickman will be the execs on the project. "We read the script and had a conversation with Edward. We’ve all seen his work as an actor and rarely have I come across anybody as bright and sophisticated in articulating his vision of a movie. We came away with zero doubts about his ability to direct this."
Worked with tyros
Koch said he has worked in various production capacities with first-time feature directors including Warren Beatty, Taylor Hackford, Robert Benton and Greg Hoblit, the latter of whom directed Primal Fear, which marked the Oscar-nominated acting debut of Norton. "Edward is as much if not more ready than any of those," Koch said, "and we think that Ben and Edward make a great twosome."
Norton is finishing co-starring with Brad Pitt in the David Fincher-directed The Fight Club, and will make the film his next. He was repped by Endeavor.
Stiller is shooting Mystery Men at Universal, and is also prepping What Makes Sammy Run, which he’ll star in and direct at Warner Bros., and Zoolander at Paramount, in which he’ll star. Stiller is repped by UTA. Attorney Robert Offer repped Norton and Spyglass.
Keeping the Faith page
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