Boxoffice-July.1995

26 BOXOFFICE
SNEAK PREVIEW
NOTHING BUT "NET"
Director Irwin Winkler Ventures Into
Cyberspace With A Thriller,
By Jean Oppenheimer
''The Net"
A patriotic Irwin Winkler with actress Sandra Bullock and
other project members on the set of Columbia 's "The Net.
Ahalf-dozen crew members,
freed from duties
on a Los Angeles set for a
few minutes, crowd around a
big-screen TV to watch the
NCAA basketball finals. The
UCLA Bruins have pulled
ahead, and a production worker
heads over to director Irwin
Winkler to tell him the news.
Winkler nods his head approvingly,
pleased the hometown favorites
are holding up under
championship stress.
How people react in such situations
of crisis is a favorite theme
ofWinkler's, running through the
30-some films he's produced
("Raging Bull," "The Right Stuff,"
"They Shoot Horses, Don't
They?" and "Rocky" among
them) as well as the two he's directed,
"Guilty by Suspicion" and
'TMight and the City." The theme
of the project he's working on
now—a techno-thriUer involving
a different kind of net (cyber, not
hoop)—likewise falls into that crisis
category. A Columbia release,
"The Net" tells tlie story of a computer
analyst ("Wliile You Were
Slceping's" Sandra Bullock) who
finds herself in harm's way.
"Most of my films [o)ncx;m)
what happens to a cKiracter when
he or she Ls in a crisis situation,"
Winkler says. "How Rocky responded
to the opportunity of a
lifetime. How the Jessica Lange
character in 'Music Box' responded
to finding out her father
has betrayed her In
'GoodFeUas,' the Ray Liotta character
turns [his friends] in when
feced with a crisis; in "Guilty by
Suspicion," the Robert De Niro
character doesn't
"If you go through all my
films, you'll see that basic
theme." He laughs, adding,
"Although I never knew it
unto someone told me. It
was all unconscious."
In "The Net," a skilled
but reclusive computer expert
analyzes a puzzling
prototype of an Internet
program. She discovers it
allows a user to access
highly sensitive databases,
including those of the Federal
Reserve Board, the Internal
Revenue Service and the
Atomic Energy Commission. As
she continues her investigation,
her life becomes endangered;
on a trip to Mexico, all her belongings
are stolen, including
her passport and identification
papers. Logging onto the Internet,
she Hnds every record of
her existence has been erased.
"Here's a woman who likes to
stay at home, who finds comfort
dealing with the world through
computers," Winkler says. "The
crisis is that, when she does
leave, somebody tries to kill her
That can be the worst thing that
can happen to someone, but in
this case it turns out to be the
best, because it opens her up to
the world. In
order to save her
life, she has to
get away from
the computer
and get out into
the world and
face reality."
Born and
raised in
New York
City, Winkler
began his entertainment career
in the William Morris mailroom,
then worked as a projectionist,
secretary, assistant
agent and agent. With Robert
Chartoflf, he formed a theatrical
management company and
then segued into producing—
first with Chartoft', then solo.
Always a hands-on producer,
Winkler prefers to be intimately
involved in the development of
a script, as well as in financing,
casting and editing. No matter
how immersed Winkler became,
however, the picture was
never tes— film being a director's
medium— so the longtime
producer decided to try his
"Most ofmyfilms [concern]
what happens to a character
when he or she is ma crisis....
Ahhough I never knew it
until someone told me.
It was all unconscious. "
hand at helming. Winkler's first
behind-the