Entertainment Weekly (August 16, 2002)

USHV has post-Oscar 'Mind'-set
By Brett Sporich
The Hollywood Reporter (4/16/02)

With best picture Oscar winner "A Beautiful Mind" still playing on 1,100 screens nationwide and topping $167 million at the boxoffice, Universal Studios Home Video made the unprecedented move of announcing the June 25 VHS/DVD release of "Mind" along with the release of USA Filmsâ best screenplay Oscar winner "Gosford Park" on the same date.

Typically, studios wait until after the theatrical run of a film to make such an announcement, but video industry distributors and retailers had let the release-date cat out of the bag even before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated "Mind" and "Gosford" in several Oscar categories.

The release of "Gosford" marks the first USA title USHV will be releasing since the dissolution of the studio this month.

While many in the industry knew when "Mind" would hit retail shelves, details of the two-disc Awards Edition DVD were a tightly held secret until Mondayâs announcement by USHV president Craig Kornblau.

"Both (director) Ron Howard and (producer) Brian Grazer were extensively involved in the six hours of bonus materials on the Awards Edition DVD," Kornblau said.

The "Mind" DVDâs bonus chapters are hosted by Howard and Grazer, who both guide the viewer through a vast array of chapters that follow the filmmaking process from its initial story conception to its completion, including behind-the-scenes footage, screenplay development and the musical scoring process.

The DVD bonus chapters culminate with exclusive coverage of the duoâs Oscar acceptance speeches and a glimpse at the backstage celebration at the 2002 Academy Awards.

Howard said that seeing how the film was developed through the use of bonus chapters should help viewers gain a better understanding of mathematician John Forbes Nashâs journey. Russell Crowe received a best actor nom for his portrayal of the tortured Nash. . .

. . . The 'Gosford" DVD carries a suggested retail price of $26.98, while the "Mind" DVD carries a manufacturerâs suggested retail price of $22.95, with the VHS priced to move at $14.95, Kornblau said.

Ron Howard upset over potshots aimed at his A Beautiful Mind
By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
1/15/02

Ron Howard is "frustrated and upset" over potshots being leveled at his "A Beautiful Mind." The film opened with predictions that it would be a frontrunner in the Oscar race -- for Best Picture, for Ron's work as director and for Russell Crowe's portrayal of 1994 Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr., a victim of schizophrenia. But in recent weeks, reports have spread questioning the factuality of the story. Ron feels that in some cases, they have been the work of "individuals who haven't even seen the film and are looking for a platform to express their agendas." Some feel the put-downs are the work of studios pushing other pictures for Oscar glory.

As far as complaints that Nash's purported bisexuality wasn't touched upon in the picture, Howard notes, "We fully explored all the different avenues of Nash's life, with its many interesting twists and turns, and found that the freshest, most powerful, most creatively objective way we could go would be to focus on the journey of his mind -- genius, madness and his remarkable recovery. We kept trying to develop the other subplots, but there simply wasn't room for them."

As far as assertions that Nash -- unlike what the film would have us believe -- was not able to do his serious work in game theory while he was under the grip of schizophrenia, Howard declares, "No one can be quite sure when the onset of the disease occurred. The diagnosis of schizophrenia is better today, but is still erratic. Nash's wife talks of his having periods of great creativity when things were the worst for him."

Taking the sting away from the reports that would negate the importance of "A Beautiful Mind" is the flood of positive feedback Howard is receiving from mental health sources and individuals whose lives -- or the lives of loved ones -- have been plagued by the disease.

"People write me letters and even approach me on the street thanking me for making a movie about a schizophrenic that offers so much hope and compassion."

Adds the beloved and distinguished filmmaker, "Nash just sent me one he received. It reads: ' ... My mother and my younger sister are both paranoid schizophrenics. I have witnessed their suffering and constant battles with demons and drugs since the seventh grade. In all my years, and in all the books and films on the subject that I have read and seen, yours is the only one that actually shows what a person with schizophrenia actually experiences ..."

MEANWHILE: Howard hasn't decided what he'll take on for his next directorial endeavor, but tells us it well might be "The Alamo," which is going though a rewrite by John Sayles. There's also a possibility that he'll make "The Burial," which is about Mississippi black personal-injury lawyer Willie Gary, who took on the case of the owner of a local funeral home chain who claimed he had been swindled by a major funeral parlor conglomerate. "And then there are a couple of other pictures I might do. I haven't decided yet what will be first."

Also in active development at his and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment is "Curious George," which will be made as a computer-generated movie, the Hugh Hefner biopic and "The Cat in the Hat," which Ron expects to roll this year. No decision has yet been made on casting.