16 BOXOFFKE — Cover WILLPOWER How producer Karen Spiegel helped get "Absolute Power" to the screen By Bridget Byrne Karen Spiegel describes herself as "a pretty relaxed person," but she's also, by her own admission, a phone fanatic who can use up multiple cordless phone batteries in a day. "I've always been able to keep anyone on the telephone, so I guess I was destined to be a producer," she laughs, acknowledging the qualities of perseverance that helped her keep her footing and now triumph in a difficult business rife with rejection. But it was more than phone skills that led her to become coproducer of "Absolute Power," sharing the credit with Clint Eastwood, the film's star and director. This thriller, a Malpaso production for Castle Rock Entertainment, is based on the best-selling novel by David Baldacci. It was Spiegel, who met Baldacci in 1992, who helped the author bring his three-line synopsis to fruition. As an avid believer in the art of story, it's not surprising that Spiegel can tell a good one of her own. Seated in a conference room at Castle Rock, she is an appealing mixture of old-fashioned common sense and cutting-edge enthusiasm. She's wearing a stylish dark checked suit redolent of "power lunches," but her still-girlish face is more refleaive of a cozy sorority gab fest. She's "thirtysomething" and a player of both volleyball and bridge (worthwhile, enjoyable endeavors, but also good networking sports). She has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California's Cinema/Television Production program, several years of experience in assistant producer and production coordinator roles at various studios including Paramount, Warner and Sony, and her own company. Copper Beech Productions. 'That's beech, not beach," she points out, aware that this is the West Coast. (She's from the East and attended Boston University before use.) She chose the Copper Beech name for a number of reasons. "It's a very thick-trunked, deep-rooted tree, hard to knock over. And I'm a big girl, hard to knock over," she explains. "And it's a tree that pn)vides the greatest shade, a place to sit and think under or to take a nap! Also, I've always loved mysteries, and there's a Sherlock Holmes story called 'The Case of the Copper Beeches,'" says the upward-bound producer, whose projects in development Photo Credit: Hugh Milstein 'I've always been able to keep anyone on the tele- phc lone, so I guess I was destined to be a producer. " include the 54 stories and two novels which made up the old radio series "I Love A Mystery." The case of "Absolute Power" started when a friend from Connecticut linked her up with Baldacci, a Washington, D.C. lawyer who wanted someone- in Hollywood to read a screenplay he was working on—someone who would be "honest and forthright, and tell him what he ought to hear," Spiegel says. Spiegel liked his script, an action thriller, loved how he told a story and developed character. but told him "Obviously you've never read a screenplay, because this has no structure." On her way back east for the holidays, she stopped over to meet him, and they soon became friends as he continued to write. Most importantly of all, she picked up on a tlueesentence idea he told her about a burglar who witnesses a crime involving the President He turned the idea into a four-page treatment, but they realized "it sounds bigger than a screenplay," and he began, with her input and encouragement, to write a novel, which she then helped him sell. The novel went for $2 million to Warner Books. Then, almost instantaneously, the movie rights sold for another $ 1 million. Still working as a production coordinator on the Jodie Foster/Matthew McConaughey starrer "Contact," Spiegel found herself in a production meeting for "Absolute Power," fielding calls from the 1 lollywood trade papers for a front-page story. When William Goldman was signed to write the script, she saw copies of each new draft: she visited the set when Eastwood was directing; and she was able to see dailies. She accepts graciously that higher clout has taken the reins, and she's philosophical about some changes made from novel to screen. She's glad that the concept that originally hooked her Baldacci's interest in "things that aren't necessarily what they seem to be"—has remained intact. What particularly pleases her is the consummate professionalism of the people who have taken on the project she was so enthusiastic about, and she describes Eastwood's set as running like "a well-oiled machine." someone who loves the challenge of As"calling," "finding," "making happen"—what she terms "getting water from the moon"—she has plenty of sound advice for anyone who wants to enter the movie business. "I always stress the importance of enthusiasm, the art of communication, the art of visual communication, the belief in a great .story that communicates, the imptirtance of throwing 110 pereent into what you believe in until it's realized. And how to do 'good phone.'"
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