By Terry Tang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It is Thanksgiving, a day to cherish family, friends and
life.
A fisherman, minding his own business, suddenly finds a
distraught and dehydrated boy clinging to an inner tube in ocean
waters off the Florida coast. After an intense rescue effort, the
little Cuban boy is welcomed with open arms by U.S. relatives and
his recovery is dubbed a Thanksgiving miracle.
Before next Thanksgiving, most Americans may be seeing this
heart-wrenching scenario on their television screens. But the
powerful image won’t be from NBC’s
“Dateline” or ABC’s “Nightline.”
CBS network execs hope to launch a made-for-TV movie or
miniseries dramatizing the turbulent custody battle over 6-year-old
Elian Gonzalez by next November. L.A.-based Craig Anderson
Productions is currently developing the project, according to their
spokeswoman. By broadcasting it a year after the young boy was
first discovered adrift, the network will cash in on both the irony
and sweeps season.
But CBS isn’t the only one caught up in Elian fever. It
was announced on Wednesday that another producer, Sam Lupowitz,
will start shooting “Elian: The True Story of Elian
Gonzalez” in mid-July for a fall broadcast.
Though some critics will roll their eyes at rehashing the Elian
saga, his story is the ideal fodder which Hollywood masterminds
seek. Sometimes original stories cannot duplicate the drawing power
of real-life events.
According to Brian Lowry, television columnist for the Los
Angeles Times, channel surfers may stop for these telepics because
they already have some knowledge about the
ripped-from-the-headlines plot.
“It’s very hard now to get people’s attention
with any kind of movie or something that’s kind of a one-shot
deal. Though if you have something pre-sold that’s Elian
Gonzalez, that’s it. Everybody knows what you’re
talking about. That saves you in the marketing of it,” Lowry
said.
“It doesn’t always work. But it’s easier to do
that, often times in TV especially, where you got to pick and
choose your spots and what you’re going to
promote.”
Besides the advantage of built-in recognition, real-life
tragedies and triumphs can make more compelling entertainment.
For Howard Braunstein, a veteran TV-movie producer and head of
Jaffe/Braunstein Films, real-life incidents are sometimes more
enthralling and worthwhile narratives.
“It’s not brain surgery. I look for a story that has
a fascinating beginning, middle and end and has inherent drama in
the middle of the story,” Braunstein said. “Something
about people overcoming struggles, adversity, all of that stuff,
makes good movies, period. For television, for cable, for features,
it doesn’t matter. It’s all the same
principle.”
These reality-based TV movies, however, sometimes carry a
stigma. Some viewers perceive dramatizations as evidence that
Hollywood only cares about real people if their stories get real
ratings. As a result, people generalize that only tacky and
indecent interpretations get churned out. But as Braunstein said,
that is a silly argument as many true stories have inspired moving
and successful motion pictures.
“You can point to a million stories. “˜Erin
Brockovich’ is a story about a real person and it happens to
be an interesting film,” said Braunstein, who is currently
developing several TV biopics, from Rosa Parks to the U.S.
women’s soccer team.
Before running any script by lawyers, TV screenwriters sometimes
have to look to news reports to determine the angle of the story.
No doubt, last month’s sudden seizure of Elian by federal
troops had an impact on any dramatic retelling.
According to Jody Frisch, spokeswoman for Craig Anderson
Productions, the telepic is still at an early phase where the news
can influence the story. For screenwriter Rafael Lima, who happens
to be of Cuban heritage, incorporating media updates of the
tug-of-war for Elian doesn’t affect the creative process.
“It’s research. That’s where you start with
any project,” Frisch said. “You have to research your
subject. He’s researching right now. It’s too early to
tell what direction it’s going in.”
One concern attached to these types of small screen films is
that they can significantly shape the perception of viewers who
forget they are watching a screenwriter’s dramatic
retelling.
Furthermore, screenwriters are not held to the same standard of
objectivity as reporters. Yet, those who happen to tune in may lend
these films the same credibility.
“Human beings, when representing a story, inevitably color
it in a certain way. Audience members probably have an impression
that they understand the issue after watching,” said Jill
Stein, professor of sociology and a mass media researcher.
“They think of it as factual because they have information to
form opinions.”
Stein also added that even viewers who follow hard-news stories
most likely don’t know enough to make judgments about news
events.
“Dialogue and understanding of events in the world is
often based on sound bites, bits and pieces of information,”
Stein explained. “Now, the news media is competing with
tabloid TV shows.”
For Braunstein, whose production company has put together about
40 TV movies, accuracy is an important obligation. But it also
depends on which angle makes the most riveting narrative. For any
dramatization, there are more than two sides to the story.
“My responsibility is to be true to their story and their
vision,” Braunstein said. “But the drama has to be
there to begin with.”
“I would approach it with what’s the best dramatic
way to tell a story. Maybe the Elian Gonzalez story isn’t
best told through Elian’s eyes. Maybe it’s best told
through a relative’s eyes. Or maybe it’s best told
through Castro’s eyes. I don’t know,” Braunstein
continued. “But you sort of want to look at it and say
“˜What is the best way to tell this movie and what’s
inherently the most dramatic way?'”
With the ratings boom of recent TV movies such as ABC’s
“The Three Stooges” and CBS’s dramatization of
JonBenet Ramsey’s murder, Hollywood has proof that an
audience for these fact-based films still exists.
The boundaries for what newsworthy events are open for Hollywood
treatment seem to be fading. Though one might assume that
executives would never touch traumas like the Oklahoma City bombing
or the Columbine High School shootings, it wouldn’t be a sure
bet.
“I don’t that there’s necessarily a limit.
There’s certain things, especially right at the time, that
would look bad to be doing,” Lowry said. “The level of
tragedy doesn’t, in any way, preclude it from being a movie.
Whatever is the story of the moment that seems that much more
provocative.”