89 Years of THR Memorable moments from a storied history 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1994 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 25 Years Ago, Cool Runnings Was a Gold Medal Hit For <strong>The</strong> <strong>Hollywood</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong>, 1993’s Cool Runnings was a “near-perfectly executed tale” that centered on “one of the nuttiest and most inspiring modern sports stories.” <strong>The</strong> Jon Turteltaub film is the loosely factual tale of the Jamaican bobsled team that competed in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. (Three decades later, the Pyeongchang Games begin Feb. 9, and there’s a 25th anniversary screening of Cool Runnings a day earlier at the El Capitan in <strong>Hollywood</strong>.) “It’s the timeless story of the underdog,” says Jeff Sagansky, who acquired the script in 1989 when he headed TriStar Pictures. “And here, the underdog was going to the Winter Olympics from a country with no snow.” As difficult as it was for Jamaicans to make it to Canada, so it was for the film to get made. When Dawn Steel became head of Columbia Pictures in 1987, she became aware of the Runnings script because TriStar was a sister company. After she left in 1990, Steel made it the first film she did under her new production deal at Disney. “To me, it was Rocky,” said Steel, who died in 1997. <strong>The</strong> $15 million production ($25 million today) went on to earn $155 million worldwide ($263 million). Along the way, the script went from a drama at TriStar to a family comedy at Disney. Hiring John Candy as the team’s coach was a key piece of casting. “[Studio chief] Jeffrey Katzenberg was the one who said we were going with John,” says Turteltaub. “Up until then, we were thinking ‘Olympic coach? Kurt Russell.’ And Kurt ended up playing [Herb Brooks] in Miracle. I guess he was born to be an Olympic coach.” Turteltaub’s most vivid memory of the shoot was being awakened at 1 a.m. on location in Calgary and told by Katzenberg that he’d be fired unless he could get the cast to speak in an understandable Jamaican accent. “He said, ‘If you can’t make them sound like Sebastian the Crab in <strong>The</strong> Little Mermaid, I’ll find a director who will.’ So the next day I told the cast I’d be fired if they didn’t start sounding like Sebastian the Crab. And they laughed and found the in-between.” — BILL HIGGINS ↑ From left: Leon (as Derice Bannock), Rawle D. Lewis (as Junior Bevil), Malik Yoba (as Yul Brenner) and Doug E. Doug (as Sanka Coffie) in Cool Runnings. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Hollywood</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong>, Vol. CDXXIV, No. 6 (ISSN 0018-3660; USPS 247-580) is published weekly; 39 issues — two issues in April, July, October and December; three issues in January and June; four issues in <strong>February</strong>, March, May, August and September; and five issues in November — with 15 special issues: Jan. (1), Feb. (2), June (4), Aug. (4), Nov. (3) and Dec. (3) by Prometheus Global Media LLC, 5700 Wilshire Blvd., 5th floor, Los Angeles CA 90036. Subscription rates: Weekly print only, $199; weekly print and online, including daily edition PDF only, $249; online only, $199; digital replica of weekly print, $199. Single copies, $7.99. Periodical Postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. Non-Postal and Military Facilities send address changes to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Hollywood</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong>, P.O. Box 125, Congers, NY 10920-0125. Under Canadian Publication Mail Agreement No. 41450540 return undeliverable Canadian addresses to MSI, PO BOX 2600, Mississauga, On L4T OA8. Direct all other correspondence to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Hollywood</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong>, 5700 Wilshire Blvd., 5th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90036. Prometheus Global Media, LLC: Vice President, Human Resources: Angela Vitacco. Advertising/Editorial Reprints: Reprints of editorial or ads can be used as effective marketing tools. For details, please contact Wright’s Media: (877) 652-5295 or e-mail at pgm@wrightsmedia.com. Permission: Looking for a one-time use of our content, as a full article, excerpt or chart? Please contact Wright’s Media, (877) 652-5295; pgm@wrightsmedia.com. Subscription inquiries: U.S. call toll-free (866) 525-2150. Outside the U.S., call (845) 267-4192, or e-mail subscriptions@hollywoodreporter.com. Copyright ©2015 Prometheus Global Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the publisher. THR.com PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. BUENA VISTA PICTURES/PHOTOFEST THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 84 FEBRUARY 7, <strong>2018</strong>
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