FORTUN THE BR NE FAVOURS RAVEHEART
Cer on battle to get Scots projects made
Jenny Morrison
As one of Hollywood’s most successful producers, he has worked with the world’s top stars and been the driving force behind many of the industry’s biggest films.
Studio boss Alan Ladd Jr – known as “Laddie” to friends – is the man responsible for the Stars Wars movies being made.
He green- lighted the making of other iconic films including Alien, Blade Runner, Police Academy, Gone Baby Gone and Thelma & Louise.
His movies have been nominated for more than 150 Academy Awards and he helped build the careers of directors including Ridley Scott, Ron Howard and George Lucas.
Now a new documentary about one of the most modest and respected figures in the movie industry reveals that two of his proudest career moments involve battles he faced to get films with Scottish links – Braveheart and Chariots Of Fire – on to the big screen.
Film boss Ladd revealed the making of Braveheart meant so much to him that he took the script with him when he left movie giants MGM and signed a deal as an independent producer with rival f i lm company Paramount.
It took two years for Mel Gibson to agree to star in the movie – which went on to win f ive Oscars, including Best Director for Ladd and Best Picture in the 1996 Academy Awards.
Again, it was thanks to Ladd that Gibson – who had directed only one film before Braveheart, 1993’s The Man Without A Face with a small, by Hollywood standards, budget of £18million – was given the chance to take on a blockbuster with a production cost of £52million.
The producer said: “With my severance agreement with MGM, I was able to take any two projects I wanted that had been in development with me. One of them was Braveheart.
“We’d given the script – while I was at MGM – to Mel Gibson, who’d said, ‘I’m not interested because I’ve just done The Man Without A Face, Maverick, and I’m doing another Lethal Weapon in the meantime.’”
After finishing the movies he had been working on,
Gibson went back to Ladd and was delighted when the movie mogul agreed to allow him not just to star in but direct the film.
Gibson said: “It was about two years later that I went back because somebody said, ‘What are you going to do next?’ and I said, ‘ You know, I read this script once that was kind of cool’, told him the story and he said, ‘S***. I want to see that.’
“I went to a meeting and Laddie came in and I said, ‘ I really want to direct it.’ There wasn’t even a pause and he said, ‘ I haven’t got a problem with that.’ I thought, ‘ Wow.’”
While Gibson portrayed William Wallace on screen, Ladd had his own behind-thescenes battle to stop funding for the movie being slashed.
He said: “When we started out shooting in Scotland, it was so rainy there every single day. Paramount got cold feet along the way. They said to me, ‘We’ll make it for $20million.’ So I went down to [former CEO] Sherry [Lansing] and said, ‘How do you shoot this one battle scene for $20million? You’ve been a producer. Tell me how you do it? Couldn’t answer. So we got [20th Century] Fox as a partner.”
Filming of the 1995 blockbuster, based on the story of 13th- century hero Wallace, was split between Scotland and Ireland. Financial incentives given by the government in Ireland, including tax
of Irish reservists in given at the time as much of the Scottish
e struggled to find the ion to shoot the epic tured.
were no areas in the to really get the scope o do . hat over in Ireland it e the scope we wanted tle scenes.”
40s and 50s movie star n the documentary that Braveheart to be given d, he also had to battle a Scottish link. based on the true story ” Eric Liddell, a devout gold medal for the 400m at the 1924 Olympics after refusing to race in his preferred 100m event as one of the heats was held on a Sunday.
One of the most famous scenes of the movie is filmed on the beach at St Andrews.
He said: “It originally started when I was at Fox and I green- lit the deal. Head of distribution saw it and thought it was the worst piece of garbage he had ever seen in his life.”
When Ladd left 20th Century Fox, the company said they didn’t see any future for the classic film – despite having the right to distribute it in the US.
Ladd picked up the movie as a project for his own production company. The film went on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, including best picture.
The documentary, Laddie: The Man Behind
The Movies – which is available for digital download from April 26 – is made by his daughter Amanda Ladd Jones.
She told how, growing up, all she knew about her dad’s dazzling Hollywood career was that it kept him away from home.
She onl y star ted to understand the role he played in some of the world’s biggest films after seeing him visit Scotland and work alongside Gibson for the filming of Braveheart.
So she joined forces with stars including Ben Affleck, Sigourney Weaver and Morgan Freeman to make the documentary paying tribute to her 83-year- old father’s career.
In a heart-to-heart filmed with Gibson for the documentary, Ladd Jones said: “I used to say I never knew what my dad did for a living but the truth is I just never really knew my dad. He was making movies and running studios instead of being at home.
“I was in my 20s when you guys made Braveheart and I remember visiting him on set and that was the beginning of this change in our relationship because for the first time I was seeing him from an adult perspective.”
Ladd started his career in the mailroom of a talent agency. After just three weeks, he became an agent and went on to have clients including Judy Garland, Joan Collins, Robert Redford, Peter Sellers and Natalie Wood.
He became a producer and studio chief, with his films winning 50 Academy Awards.
Ladd Jones said: “Today studios are run by corporations and films are often made by committee. But there was a time when the decision to make a movie rested on the shoulders of one person.
“And for so many iconic movies, that was my dad.”
The head of distribution saw it and thought it was garbage