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Mel Gibson

by Kim Williamson
photos for BOXOFFICE by Carlos Serrao

   Fourteen years ago, actor Mel Gibson was worried about the future of the Australian film industry. "Canada seems to have blown it. Australia could well do the same," he said. Gibson, who'd come to prominence with such Oz productions as "Mad Max," "Tim" and "Gallipoli," had just finished another Down Under effort, "The Year of Living Dangerously." On the bigscreen, the continent had also recently produced such hits as "My Brilliant Career," "`Breaker' Morant" and "The Man From Snowy River." But Gibson feared that, fueled by success, the country's production would expand too quickly, causing a ramp-up in costs that would lead to the industry's downfall.
   Cut to a gray day in summer 1997. Whatever worries Gibson had about moviemaking Down Under seem to have dissipated like this morning's marine layer over the Warner Bros. lot, where Gibson's Icon Productions is housed in a two-level bungalow of offices. In a casually appointed suite, Gibson, as chairman and creative force of Icon, and Bruce Davey--who, drawing on his chartered accountant background, oversees the nine-year-old company's financial affairs as president and CEO--are talking about the company's future in an exclusive interview with BOXOFFICE. And the future at Icon seems busy and bright. In February 1996, Icon announced it had signed two major-studio production deals: a continuation of its original Warner pact, in place since January 1991, plus a new agreement with Paramount, domestic home of Icon's Oscar-winning "Braveheart." This past August, Icon entered into a three-year joint venture with Fox Filmed Entertainment to develop, produce and distribute films in Australia, using Fox's still-under-construction Fox Studios Australia in Sydney as home base.
   "I think it's the same as it's always been," Gibson says of Australian filmmaking today. "Pretty much just really talented people operating on a shoestring, turning out quality stuff from time to time. Per capita, there's a lot of activity down there, even compared to the film community here. It's like a drop in the ocean, and yet they manage to more than fulfill a kind of populist quota."
   In their yet-to-be-named Aussie venture--at the moment, just call it Mel & Murdoch, Inc.--headed by leading Down Under producer Timothy White ("Angel Baby," "Oscar and Lucinda"), the companies will work together on a yet-to-be-determined number of pictures. The films will be owned by Fox/Icon, with Fox distributing outside Australia. (Other Icon productions are copyright World Icon, an investment group originally formed to finance "Hamlet" when no studio would.)
   "Our association with Fox came through `Braveheart,'" Davey explains. "Fox took the foreign side of `Braveheart.'" "When Fox started to build their studio down there," Gibson adds, "it seemed like an opportune time to get into bed with these guys that we'd had such a good experience with."
   But a sense of national pride was also involved. "I don't know whether Mel and I ever had the specific conversation," Davey says, "and if we didn't have it, it was most probably thought: that one day we'd like to give something back to Australia.
    "I think it will be fabulous," Davey adds, speaking of the entire $120 million Fox effort. "There will be state-of-the-art soundstages and TV studios and theatrical studios. The first production there is underway--they're doing the sequel to `Babe.' It's going to be great."
   Gibson poses a question for his partner. "It's going to take a while for it to really wind up, isn't it?"
   "Yeah," Davey replies.
   "It always takes time," Gibson adds, nodding. "When we started Icon, we were at it for about three years before we got a shot off. It just takes a long time to generate things. But this is going to be very valuable, and I think a lot of good work's going to come out of there."
   When it comes to discussing the specifics of Icon's involvement with Fox, the partners prove more reserved. "We have an office facility at the moment--not on the lot, but they will move," Davey says. "We have only three employees down there. They're identifying projects for us to jointly develop with Fox." As to what percentage of Icon projects will be shot in Australia, Davey says, "We can't say. After `Braveheart' we did nothing for a couple of years. We aren't going to make a movie for the sake of making a movie, and you've no idea whether something's going to come along." Presented with a hypothetical scenario, in which Icon would make a dozen movies between now and the year 2000, might a significant number be made in Australia? "We can only hope that that would be the case," Davey says carefully. But Gibson's response is equally interesting; almost to himself, he adds, "A dozen projects in three more years? It's possible!" He laughs, as if implying it's not probable. "The company would have to grow."
   Fulfilling its Warner and Paramount pacts might demand exactly that: that Icon grow. Industry reports state Icon--which has made 12 films since its 1988 launch--will make four pictures for each studio over the next three years, with Gibson starring in one, directing another, and producing two more. "You know more than I do," Davey says, prompting more laughter from Gibson. Both partners take a certain pride in not having a formal business plan. The uncertain availability of worthwhile projects is the cited reason. "The business dictates that in a lot of cases," Gibson says. "It's so fickle. You get things coming from left field and right field."
   "I can give you an example," Davey adds. "We did `Braveheart' and then we did nothing for almost two years. And then we found ourselves shooting three films on three separate continents at once." (Those are "Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina," released stateside by Warner this past April; "187," an urban drama opening via Warner in late July; and the charming "FairyTale--A True Story," a family film Paramount has slated for October.) "Since those three films, it's been 12 months since we were physically shooting. With that sort of scenario, how can you possibly build a business plan?" Without such a plan, will Icon meet its Warner and Paramount commitments--and develop fare for its Fox/Icon venture, and allow time for Gibson's extramural adventures, such as his new non-Icon thriller "Conspiracy Theory?" "You can only do your damn best, I think is the answer," Gibson says. "You might not get to four. But it won't be through lack of trying. You might get three--you might get five! You just have to keep looking all the time and developing ideas you think will work and see how they take hold."
   Of the two studio deals, Gibson says, "Basically, it's our call, so it's up to us to get stuff to a stage where we're happy with it." Still, as Davey says, "They all want Mel Gibson projects," exemplified by Paramount's demand for at least one action picture to star him.
   "You don't know what's going to work with what studio," Davey says. "It's no secret we took `187' to Paramount first, and they passed. And Warners picked it up. And what might not work for Warners might work for Paramount."
   "You're a bit like the Fuller Brush man," Gibson adds. "You come to the house and you say, `Hey, we got some of these, some of these, some of these, and these--what do you like, you like anything?' And he says, `Yeah, the onion peeler. That's a good one.' They have to like it too. [After all,] we're not alone in this."
   "It's a two-way street," Davey says. "It's not going to work if they're not sending us stuff, and it's not going to work if we're not sending them stuff. And we want it to work." Or, as Gibson puts it, "You just have to keep in mind your obligations, and try not to stiff anybody."
   Along with its Australian and American ventures, Icon has entered a third continent: Europe. In September 1995, Icon Entertainment International was formed to handle overseas sales for Icon productions and third-party films in which the company takes an interest. The following month, it bought international rights to 20 films from the Kings Road library, including "All of Me," "The Big Easy" and "Jacknife." Located in London's Soho Square and run by former Lumiere managing director Ralph Kamp, Icon International this past fall also acquired Majestic Films, another London-based sales company, in a $10 million deal.
   Previously, Majestic had handled foreign rights for certain Icon titles, counting among its 220-film library Icon's "The Man Without a Face" and "Immortal Beloved." Despite apparent duplication between Icon International and Majestic, Davey says the two will remain separate. "We're running them side by side. I think that it's appropriate to keep Icon for Icon films. Icon, I think, has earned a certain reputation." Majestic will handle "films that we're going to finance and other people are going to go and produce." The first such production is "Saint Ives," a Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation being made by Ireland's Little Bird.
   The overseas effort was launched out of bottom-line pragmatism. "We [opened Icon International] because I figured out that what we were paying Majestic to handle our films would cover our overhead to do it ourselves," Davey says. "It then seemed prudent to try to cover the overhead of [the international] operation by library acquisitions, so that we weren't put in the position, like a lot of these sales companies are, of having to go out and find product. Once again, we don't want to make movies that we don't want to make, so you don't want to be selling movies for the sake of having to cover your overhead. Having a library is a foundation--it generates cash flow, which leaves you free to concentrate on fewer movies, and hopefully distribute them better, on the basis that less is more."
   Two prominent film companies that, like Icon, made studio films for which they retained the copyright are/were Castle Rock and Cinergi. Both companies, while trying to grow their libraries from the inside, eventually had to sell out to conglomerates (respectively, Time Warner and Walt Disney Co.). On the other hand, on the morning of BOXOFFICE's visit to Icon, Wall Street sources were insisting that MGM--which like Icon has been making library deals, in its case to make itself more investor-attractive--is readying to go public via a late-1997 stock offering.
   Neither selling stock to shareholders nor selling out to an entertainment giant interests Gibson and Davey. "I've talked to other guys who went public," Gibson says, "and it's been like a nightmare for them."
   Davey agrees. "Those things are often put together by lawyers and accountants for their own reasons, and not for the benefit of the company." But wouldn't Icon love the access to virtually unlimited capital that a large corporate parent might provide? "Yes, but the interesting thing about the way we do our movies is that there is a discipline in the way that we work," Davey says. Which is this: Their sales experts define how much the market will invest in any particular production. "They come back and say, for example, `We can raise $15 million.' So I say to my physical production guys, `What's this going to cost me to make?' And they say, `It's going to cost $20 million.' Well, you know it's not going to work. So you either come up with a way to make it for $15 million, or we can't do it. If someone said, `Here's a pot of $100 million [to draw on],' people are going to lose sight of the discipline to make it work at $15 million. It's too easy to say, `We'll just take $2 million from that hundred million.'"
   Icon is no stranger to making rigorous budgetary decisions, even on works that are especially dear to Gibson and Davey's hearts. A story Gibson tells about shooting `Braveheart' illustrates the point. The production was running low on time and money. "Literally, there was a place and a day near the end of the shoot where we did rip 12 pages out of the script. And it forced us on the creative side to be creative. Because we had to find a short cut there somehow. And we came up with something better than what was there in the first place."
   Gibson and Davey hail from different continents--Gibson was born in Peekskill, N.Y., while Davey is a Down Under native--but their partnership of 17 years feels like a good one. Part of that is due to their shared Aussie sensibility; Gibson's family emigrated to Australia when he was 12, and he still maintains a ranch in the Australian Outback. As the 41-year-old has put it, "I formed my opinions in Australia."
   The two men's different career abilities complement each other. "I'm a fiscal imbecile," Gibson says. "But Bruce is really good at that stuff. He's got a better overview for, like, business plans and situations than I do."
   "The business plan that we don't have," Davey reminds him, laughing. "I think as time has gone on, Mel has exhibited this `fiscal imbecility' of his, but he's not such an imbecile these days as he used to be." At that, it's Gibson's turn to laugh. "Vice versa: In terms of learning about creating things, I've learned a lot from Mel."
   "But we both get snagged," Gibson says. "Every now and then, you just stand there and you think, `Oh, man, we've just been done over,' or `We came out the worst end of this deal,' or `Gee, we won't do that again.' And it usually costs in some way, either financially or emotionally. We call it `school fees,' which is a kind of good way to look at it." He chuckles. "I guess."
   "We're still paying them," Davey laughs.
   "Yeah," Gibson admits. "But we got a gold star along the way, here and there."