If you hear folks chanting “Jerry! Jerry!” on Monday night, don’t worry. You aren’t having flashbacks to Sandra Bernhard’s deranged fan stalking talk-show host Jerry Langford in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy.
If the adulation at the Hotel Grand Pacific reaches a fever pitch, it will be for Jerry Weintraub, the legendary Hollywood producer whose hit movies include Nashville, Oh, God!, Diner, The Karate Kid and the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy.
The Tinseltown titan who once managed John Denver, made Elvis Presley a superstar and staged Frank Sinatra’s comeback will share his story during An Evening with Jerry Weintraub (jerryweintraub.eventbrite.ca), starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are $50.
Brooklyn-born Weintraub, 75, is a veritable story machine. His fascinating autobiography, When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead, and His Way, a 2011 HBO documentary on him, are aptly titled.
In addition to sharing his insights on entrepreneurship, we’re hoping the showbiz insider will recall tales of how he shared a joint with Robert Altman before producing Nashville, or how every studio turned down Behind the Candelabra before Weintraub, who boldly cast Michael Douglas as Liberace, took his passion project about the flamboyant pianist’s relationship with lover Scott Thorson to HBO.
“I call my own shots. I do what I want to do,” the irrepressible A-lister, once described as “the last of his kind” by frequent collaborator George Clooney, told Larry King in 2010.
“I just don’t believe you can’t make anything happen. … If something’s good and you believe in it and you care about it,” he told Interview magazine.
The loquacious mogul and philanthropist will likely share that can-do philosophy at Monday’s fundraiser for Royal Roads University’s Eric C. Douglas Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies, with RRU alumni and senior executives in attendance.
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CASTING CALL: Got a modest oceanfront home you can vacate for a week or so? The producers of an independent feature that might soon shoot here want to hear from you. Film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert says the challenge lies in finding a seaside home that can be made to look rundown and pass for a “fixer-upper” in a Nova Scotia fishing village.
Landing the right location could be the perk that green-lights production here, says Gilbert, adding the request was a refreshing switch from other recent enquiries. “We’ve had a string of whale requests lately, for some reason.”
Call 250-386-3976 or email [email protected].
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OPERA STAR: Rob Kalyn lived up to his new job title as SilverCity’s senior operations manager Wednesday morning.
Kalyn, who cheerfully wrangled dozens of elderly patrons who lined up for first crack at season tickets for The Met: Live in HD series, was besieged by many who wanted to express their appreciation to his staff for their efficient service. Some had waited since as early as 2 a.m. to be first in line for seats when 13 tills opened for business at 10 a.m.
Kalyn admitted staff has come a long way since the first, pre-online year, when it took eight hours to process the crowds. “That was a bit of a nightmare, but we’ve been doing it this way for two years. I think people are enjoying the social aspect.”
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RUSHES: Dozens of local film and television production community stakeholders gathered at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel Thursday afternoon for the Vancouver Island South Film and Media Commission’s summer mixer. Commissioner Kathleen Gilbert noted there were more than 40 shoots here last year, despite the region’s continuing struggle to be included in the distant-location tax-credit zone.
Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen also addressed the crowd, reiterating his community’s industry support.
Gilbert announced a new marketing campaign that will leverage the additional six per cent tax incentive. She said there have been 67 recent location requests. Productions that have filmed in the CRD recently include Dark Waters of Crime, Godzilla, Psych and Spooksville, the series for the Hub network in the U.S. that wraps a three-month shoot today in the Cowichan Valley.
