Saw Trumbo, and therefore some Spartacus and then Kubrick story: I am Trumbo

[Mark Thibodeau]

Just wanted to chime in here to say that that story comes from Douglas and
ONLY Douglas, who developed an intense dislike for Kubrick during the
shooting of Spartacus when an executive made the mistake of telling Douglas
that he was "lucky" to get Kubrick after firing Anthony Mann, who had shot
the salt mine scenes before being fired by Douglas (who was producer) over
"artistic differences". Things between Douglas and Kubrick became tense
thereafter, with the former telling the latter he would no longer have
script control, a change which led to Kubrick "disowning" the film and not
counting it as part of his official filmography for years, afterwards.

Just saying. I certainly hope they don't have Kubrick grasping for writing
credit in the Trumbo biopic. Because that would suck.

J

On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 5:28 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Kirk Douglas insisted that Trumbo be given screen credit for his work,
> which helped to break the blacklist.[7] Trumbo had been jailed for
> contempt of Congress in 1950, after which he had survived by writing
> screenplays under assumed names. Douglas' intervention on his behalf
> was praised as an act of courage.
>
> In his autobiography, Douglas states that this decision was motivated
> by a meeting that he, Edward Lewis, and Kubrick had regarding whose
> name(s) to put against the screenplay in the movie credits, given
> Trumbo's shaky position with Hollywood executives. One idea was to
> credit Lewis as co-writer or sole writer, but Lewis vetoed both
> suggestions. Kubrick then suggested that his own name be used. Douglas
> and Lewis found Kubrick's eagerness to take credit for Trumbo's work
> revolting, and the next day, Douglas called the gate at Universal
> saying, "I'd like to leave a pass for Dalton Trumbo." Douglas writes,
> "For the first time in ten years, [Trumbo] walked on to a studio lot.
> He said, 'Thanks, Kirk, for giving me back my name.'"[2]
>
> The filming was plagued by the conflicting visions of Kubrick and
> Trumbo. Kubrick complained that the character of Spartacus had no
> faults or quirks, and he later distanced himself from the film.[8]
> __
>
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> A compromise was reached by filming the intimate scenes in Hollywood,
> and the battle scenes, at Kubrick's request, in Spain. Kubrick found
> working outdoors or in real locations to be distracting; he believed
> the actors would benefit more from working on a sound stage, where
> they could fully concentrate. To create the illusion of the large
> crowds that play such an essential role in the film, Kubrick's crew
> used three-channel sound equipment to record 76,000 spectators at a
> Michigan State – Notre Dame college football game shouting "Hail,
> Crassus!" and "I'm Spartacus!"
>
> ___________________________________________________________________
>
> In the climactic scene, recaptured slaves are asked to identify
> Spartacus in exchange for leniency; instead, each slave proclaims
> himself to be Spartacus, thus sharing his fate. The documentary
> Trumbo[7] suggests that this scene was meant to dramatize the
> solidarity of those accused of being Communist sympathizers during the
> McCarthy Era who refused to implicate others, and thus were
> blacklisted.[33]
>
> Regarding this scene, an in-joke is used in Kubrick's next film,
> Lolita (1962), where Humbert Humbert asks Clare Quilty, "Are you
> Quilty?" to which he replies, "No, I'm Spartacus. Have you come to
> free the slaves or something?"[34
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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