Hi,
It's always good to know both sides of the story. Here's our version. No matter what, David is a good man and a great writer. I hope people read his books and come see our movie.
Response to Author Dispute and “The River Why”
Disputes between filmmakers and authors are, unfortunately, not unusual in the film business. PJ Travers was never happy with Disney’s interpretation of “Mary Poppins”. Ken Kesey wasn’t happy with Michael Douglas’ interpretation of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Those are just two well known examples. There are many more.
Perhaps it will help if you have some background on the making of “The River Why” from the producer of the film.
After the film rights had been shopped around Hollywood without success, my husband, Tom Cohen secured them in the mid-1980s. He offered David the opportunity to write the script. David was appreciative of the offer, gave it a shot, but then acknowledged he did not have “the Zen beginner’s mind” to do so, so Tom then hired John Osborn (author of
The Paper Chase) to co-write the script with him. David indicated he wanted to take another stab at writing the script about a year later, but it was too late as the script was already in process. David read an early draft of the script in 1984, but has not read one since. Tom planned to direct, but the recession of the late 1980s’s forced him to put the project on the back burner and he became a lawyer.
We always planned to shoot the film in Oregon, even going so far as to scout locations on our honeymoon there in 1987. We had occasional inquiries regarding the rights throughout the 1990s, but no serious interest. So, in 2004, following the success of my documentary, “Vertical Frontier”, I decided to give The River Why one more shot and produce it myself.
We filmed in Oregon in 2008. What motivated us to shoot that summer was not the threats of David’s lawsuits (I did ask him to join me in the effort to make the film in 2004 and again later, but he wasn’t interested). First, two of our principle actors – William Hurt and Zach Gilford – only had small windows in which to work that year because of their other projects – William on “Damages” and Zach on “Friday Night Lights” ; secondly, the outdoor shooting season is short in Oregon and we couldn’t shoot in January when Zach would be available again. Zach Gilford is an avid outdoorsman who still leads wilderness trips for kids when his schedule allows and we wanted him in the role. Thirdly, because of the threat of the SAG strike that summer and the slow down in production, we were able to work with some of Oregon’s finest film crews.
I hope our movie is successful for many reasons, but I can outline two here. Part of the film has been funded by what I call “socially responsible film investing”. About one-third of the money was donated. This amount will be “re-gifted” to non-profits that support rivers and fish. If the movie is successful, that amount will grow. It is my hope we will be supporting some of the very issues David has written about so brilliantly in his other books.
As David says on his website, “I was awarded a settlement”. He was also paid for the rights to make the film. He cashed the checks from the 1980’s agreement and again from the settlement in 2008. The last I heard, he has never seen the finished film. He also says “Peace”. We both want that. I wish him all the best and hope the movie will encourage even more people to read the book.
