THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 60 AUGUST 21, 2019
AL-MANSOUR: CHRISTOPHER PATEY/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES. PARKER: DWIGHT WILSON II/STERLINGLIGHT.CANDIDATE: COURTESY OF RAZOR FILM.Venetian Bind :
IS FEST CACHET
WORTH THE COST?
BRINGING BACK
Nate Park e r
For studios and indies alike,
a trip to the Lido isn’t cheap,
and insiders wonder how
much bang they really get for
their buck (or euro)
BY SCOTT ROXBOROUGH AND PAMELA MCCLINTOCKProducers behind the controversial
director’s follow-up to Birth of a Nation say
they have no reservations about betting
on his American Skin BY ARISTON ANDERSON- When A Star Is Born
premiered alongside
Ven ice t it les Roma and
The Favourite last year, it marked
an escalation of the awards-
season run for the festival that
has included Oscar winners La
La Land, Spotlight, Birdman and
Gravity. But while Venice in
recent years has bolstered its
reputation as an Academy Award
launchpad, a trip to the Floating
City comes with a particularly
heavy price tag.
For a big title like A Star Is
Born, bringing in talent and
hosting events on the Lido may
have cost Warner Bros. upward
Tarak Ben Ammar and Mark Burg
think Nate Parker deserves a second
chance. The two producers bankroll-
ing American Skin, Parker’s follow-up to his 2016
directorial debut, The Birth of a Nation, say they
have zero reservations about working with the
writer-director despite the controversy — a 1999
college rape trial at which he was acquitted —
that nearly sank Parker’s career.
“We have to assume facts: One, he was
acquitted and is innocent. Two, he’s a great
film director and [American Skin] is a great
movie,” says the Paris-based Ben Ammar, whose
producer credits include 2007’s Hannibal Rising
and whose company, Quinta Communications,
distributed Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the
Christ in France. Ben Ammar says he and Burg
split the budget on Parker’s “under $5 million”
film 50-50. (A third producer, Lukas Behnken,
referred questions to Ben Ammar and Burg.) The
film, which has no domestic distributor, tells the
story of an Iraq War vet who seeks justice after
his son is shot and killed by a police officer.
Burg, best known for producing the Saw
franchise, believes the media narrative around
Parker should be reframed. “If you look at it, in a
racist world, how was a 19-year-old scholarship
student, represented by a public defender who
wanted nothing to do with the case, acquitted
by [a jury] if they really thought he was guilty?”
Burg says. “It’s only by the grace of God that Nate
Parker didn’t get lynched [or] end up spending
time in jail. Nobody wants to write that there
was a woman who lied [about] what happened
that night. With Nate Parker, the truth came out.
And yet America still wants to say, ‘Well, that’s
not good enough.’ ”
Plus, Burg adds, “everyone in America”
deserves a second chance: “There are people
on the streets that have murdered people. They
do their time, they get out, and guess what —
they deserve a second chance. Why is it that
Hollywood doesn’t think Nate Parker deserves a
second chance?”
Parker directs and stars in American Skin, a drama about an Iraq
War vet whose son is shot and killed by a police officer.“Saudi women don’t like to be in the spotlight,” says Haifaa al-Mansour. “They don’t like to be visible.
They tend to hide. It’s important to encourage them to believe in themselves.”