In 1995, New Line Cinema spent $150,000 for "The Powers That Be," an original script about wealthy, white teenagers in Los Angeles who talk, dress and act like gang-bangers and think they're pretty tough -- until they encounter the real thing.
The purchase made big news, not so much for the intriguing storyline but because the screenplay had been written by Jessica Kaplan, a 17-year-old student at Crossroads High School in Santa Monica, Calif.
(This was years before 13-year-old Nikki Reed co-wrote and co-starred in the acclaimed independent film "thirteen." Apparently we're only a few years away from a 6-year-old selling a screenplay based on his addiction to juice boxes.)
I remember reading about the sale of the script and thinking that "The Powers That Be" sounded like a provocative look at white kids who embrace the music, the fashion and even the speech patterns of black gangsta rappers, never realizing how ridiculous they look and sound as they appropriate a culture that has nothing to do with their actual lives. Whether it's Brentwood or the North Shore, 1995 or 2005, pampered Caucasians pretending to be ghetto-hard is a social reality worth examining in film form. (And no, "Malibu's Most Wanted" doesn't count.)
I liked the idea of a movie that showed these kids getting in way over their heads. "The Powers That Be" sounded like a movie worth waiting for.
And waiting.
Creating 'Havoc'
Like 95 percent of screenplays that are picked up, "The Powers That Be" was soon mired in development limbo.
According to the trades and updates provided by Internet Movie Database and Yahoo Movies, actors such as Ethan Hawke and Christian Slater were under consideration for the male lead -- a white kid named "Havoc" who runs a "gang" in a wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood. At one point a screenwriter named Stephen Gaghan was brought in to rewrite the story. (Gaghan would go on to win the Academy Award for his adaptation of "Traffic." He is the writer and director of the political thriller "Syriana," maybe the best movie I've seen so far this year.)
As the years passed, ingenues such as Kate Bosworth and Mandy Moore were mentioned as possibles to play Allison, Havoc's girlfriend. There was much Internet talk about the sex scenes in the script, including a raunchy group encounter involving Allison and her best friend and some Latino gang members.
After seven years, New Line put the project in turnaround, meaning they were giving up on actually filming it. The screenplay was picked up by MDP Worldwide and was retitled "Havoc."
In June 2003, a small plane crashed into an apartment building in Los Angeles. Among the five victims was a 24-year-old woman who had been in the plane, piloted by her uncle
The woman was Jessica Kaplan, the former high school student who had written "The Powers That Be."
Coming soon -- to home video
Production on "Havoc" finally began in the fall of 2003, with the role of Allison going to Anne Hathaway of "Princess Diaries" fame. This announcement set the Internet on fire, with much talk among fanboys about Hathaway's multiple nude scenes.
With the titillation meter at 10, with Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple in the director's chair, with a supporting cast that included such young stars as Bijou Phillips and Shiri Appleby, "Havoc" still sounded like one of the more provocative films in the pipeline -- but after the film was finished, it sat on the shelf for nearly two years.
Now, finally, "Havoc" is being released. Straight to home video.
I screened an advance copy of the unrated version of the movie -- which is now available in stores and via the Internet -- and I can't fathom why "Havoc" didn't merit a theatrical release. Kopple has delivered a gritty and troubling film that brings to life the original premise of Kaplan's screenplay. Hathaway is a million miles from her "Princess Diaries" persona as Allison, a whip-smart, perpetually bored teenager with absentee parents. She talks "street," she uses sex as a weapon -- and when her wannabe tough-guy boyfriend crumples after a harrowing encounter with a hard-core gang-banger, she plunges deep into the gang-banger's world. For the attention-starved Allison, it's just another edgy lark -- until she and her best friend find themselves in a hotel room with a half-dozen gang-bangers, seriously considering whether they should go through with an initiation that requires group sex.
What happens next is difficult to watch. What transpires beyond that hotel room rings true -- sadly true. "Havoc" isn't a perfect film, but in a year in which the likes of "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "The Pacifier" get nationwide releases and play on thousands of screens, it deserved to find an audience. That's where the DVD comes in.
Julianne Moore is superhot but even she can't save this film. The concept was very neat but the writing was horrible.
- Meh. Way, WAY too long. And Zeta-Jones' accent is as bad as I've ever heard. She's still smokin' though. It borders on Wild Wild West territory (but doesn't get there).
The vision of Hitler was and is astounding in it's wickedness. And the fact that he nearly pulled it off with 1940's technology is even more unbelievable.
add a star if you own a motorcycle
I lmao.
If she's the lead it is a min. 8
