THR^ CONFIDE
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Hollywood^ history
questions^ answer
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By^ Stephen^ GallowayAbout Town
People, Places,
PreoccupationsTHE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 28 NOVEMBER 13, 2019
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IA^ GETTY^ IMAGES.Got a question for THR Confidential? Email [email protected]Taylor Schilling and Kyra Sedgwick
are coming down. I’m still wait-
ing to hear from Don Cheadle and
Mark Ruffalo.
I’m hoping celebrities will read
this and want to come join me.
I’ve reached out to everybody I’ve
known. We need you here. It’s not
scary. Even if you [get arrested],
it’s a misdemeanor, not a felony.
You pay 50 bucks and you get out.
Having celebrities means a lot ...
What we’re protesting is a ticking
existential time bomb that encir-
cles everything — everyone’s life,
the economy, health, the military,
national security. We are facing a
real catastrophe. The science tells
us we have 11 years to make sys-
temic changes in order to prevent
it from becoming uncontrollable.
In retrospect, how did you find your
overnight jail experience after your
fourth and last arrest?
I’m a white movie star, what are
they going to do? The conditions
are not great, frankly, and you
have to sleep on a metal slab. And
I’m almost 82 years old and I hurt.
I was in for 20 hours. In my cell, it
was just me and the cockroaches.
But after seven hours I was taken
to another cellblock where there
were four other women. And then
another one where there were six
other women. I talked to them
and heard their stories.
Interview edited for length
and clarity.
‘One of Michael Crichton’s
Most Iconic Pieces of Work’
‘It wasn’t an easy decision’ to approve a follow-up to 1969’s
The Andromeda Strain, says his widow, Sherri Crichton, who shares studio
fever over a potential adaptation and what’s happening with Micro By Chris GardnerN
ov. 4 marked the 11-year
anniversary of the death
of Michael Crichton, who
passed away at age 66 after a cancer
battle. “There’s no better day to
celebrate all [his] gifts of literature
and entertainment,” says his widow in
a rare interview, on that date. Sherri
Crichton serves as CEO of Crichton
Sun, the film and TV production com-
pany overseeing his vast archive. The
work of the massively prolific Crichton lives on,
with more than 200 million-and-counting books
sold worldwide, Universal premiering Jurassic
World 3 in June 2021, and HBO debuting sea-
son three of Westworld in 2020. And on Nov. 12,
Harper releases a sequel to Crichton’s sci-fi novel
The Andromeda Strain, 50 years after the extra-
terrestrial-contagion tale was first published.
Daniel H. Wilson, known for his New York Times
best-seller Robopocalypse, got the nod from
Sherri to tackle the new installment. Out Nov. 12,
The Andromeda Evolution picks up decades later,when “a bizarre anomaly of other-
worldly matter and telltale chemical
signature of the deadly microparticle”
is detected, she says. Sherri, who
retained final manuscript approval,
offers only that there’s a “female
scientific edge” to the story. As for
an adaptation, nothing is set. “I have
gotten a lot of enthusiasm from
people,” she says. “Universal is home
to Andromeda from years ago, so
there’s a wonderful synergy there.”
Also on the Crichton Sun slate: an adaptation
of 2011’s Micro, published after Crichton’s death
in partnership with The Hot Zone scribe Richard
Preston. Sherri confirms that the project is mov-
ing forward with Amblin Partners and producer
Frank Marshall as they “fine-tune character work”
on the nanotech thriller: “We’re almost there.” So,
what would Mr. Crichton think of today’s AI auto-
mation, self-driving cars and global warming? Says
Sherri: “I would love to be able to open [one of his]
drawers and answer that.”Left: Michael and Sherri
Crichton off the Amalfi
Coast in 2007. Above:
The Andromeda Evolution
publishes Nov. 12.The Andromeda Strain: a 1971
film (above) and 2008 Ridley
Scott-produced miniseries.READ^
TO^ RE
EL?POSTHU
MOUS^
SEQUELDecember day in 1952, “there was a violent
argument,” writes Matthew Bernstein,
author of Walter Wanger: Hollywood
Independent. “Wanger fired two shots.
One struck Lang in the groin, and he col-
lapsed to the ground.”Despite industry lore that Lang (who
later produced 1971’s Play Misty for
Me) was shot in the testicles, the bullet
missed his vitals, says his son, filmmaker
and historian Rocky Lang. “I’m living
proof,” he quips. (The affair became the
basis for Billy Wilder’s 1960 classic The
Apartment.) After pleading insanity,
Wanger served a four-month sentence at
Castaic Honor Farm, emerging to make
two acclaimed prison movies: Riot in Cell
Block 11 and I Want to Live! By the time
of his last film, 1963’s ill-fated Cleopatra,
he was able to see the humor in what had
happened. “You chaps just talk about
agents,” he once joked to a group of studio
executives. “I’m the only one who ever did
anything about them.”Which^ Age
nt^Shot^ Anoth
er^Agent^ in^
the^ Groin?
He was one of the most flamboyant figures
in Hollywood, a womanizer and producer
of such pictures as 1939’s Stagecoach.
But by the early 1950s, Walter Wanger’s
career was on the skids. He’d declared
bankruptcy and was being dogged by
creditors. “Walter was in his worst position
ever,” says granddaughter Vanessa Hope.
Then things got worse. Wanger began
suspecting his wife, Little Women star
Joan Bennett, of having an affair with her
agent, Jennings Lang. Wanger hired a
private eye and found they were spending
time in New Orleans, the Caribbean and
a Beverly Hills apartment. Furious, the
producer grabbed a gun and waited in the
parking lot of Lang’s agency, MCA. When
the actress and the agent emerged that