Billy Bathgate
Short description
Set in New York during the 1930s, Billy Bathgate follows a teenage boy from a poor Bronx background who attaches himself to Dutch Schultz, a gangster whose criminal career began during Prohibition and who now runs a shrinking empire. Billy becomes the older man's protégé, learning how the underworld works from the inside while Schultz grows increasingly erratic and violent. The situation is complicated by Drew Preston, a woman close to Schultz, with whom Billy falls in love, and by the shifting fortunes of rival criminals such as Lucky Luciano.
Robert Benton directed the film, which came between Nadine and Nobody's Fool as the fifth of the nine features he directed; Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay. Loren Dean plays Billy, with Dustin Hoffman as Schultz, Nicole Kidman as Drew Preston, Bruce Willis as Bo Weinberg, Steve Buscemi as Irving and Stanley Tucci as Lucky Luciano. Twenty-four cast members and 102 crew members are credited.
Produced by Touchstone Pictures, the film cost about 48 million dollars and took roughly 16 million dollars worldwide, a substantial shortfall. On IMDb it holds 5.9 from around 14,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 5.8 from about 249 votes. A critics' rating of 4.9 from 25 reviews places it below even the moderate audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Due to numerous deviations of the script from the original text by Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (1931-2015), the author of the novel on which Robert Benton based this film, he later refused to consider himself in any way involved in its creation.
- It is known that Dustin Hoffman and director Robert Benton constantly argued and disagreed with each other. It reached the point where Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Disney, had to come to the set at one point to intervene in another dispute.
- Disagreements between Dustin Hoffman and Robert Benton led to filming delays and reshoots; an alternative ending to the film was even shot, but ultimately the original ending was retained. The total production cost soared to $40 million.
- At the time, Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg chose to produce this film over Barry Levinson's 'Bugsy' (1991), considering the latter, costing $40 million, to be too expensive. This film ultimately cost $50 million (and failed at the American box office).
- Due to numerous deviations of the script from the original text, the author of the novel, Edgar Lawrence Doctorow, subsequently refused to consider himself involved in the creation of the film.
- Dustin Hoffman and director Robert Benton constantly argued. It got to the point where Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Disney, had to come to the set at one point to intervene in another argument.
- The disputes between Dustin Hoffman and Robert Benton led to delays and reshoots; an alternative ending was even filmed, but it was then decided to keep the original ending.
- Disney's then-president Jeffrey Katzenberg chose to produce this film rather than Barry Levinson's "Bugsy" (1991), considering the latter, costing $40 million, too expensive. This film ultimately cost $48 million (and flopped at the American box office).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
