This article is about a 2006 film . For a landmark in Hollywood, California, formerly known as "Hollywoodland", see
Hollywood Sign.
Hollywoodland is a 2006 American biographical docudrama film directed by Allen Coulter in his feature directorial debut. The film documents a fictional account of the investigation surrounding the death of actor George Reeves (Ben Affleck), the star of the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman. Adrien Brody plays Louis Simo, a fictional down-on-his-luck private investigator on the case, as he questions Toni Mannix (Diane Lane), who was involved in a long romantic relationship with Reeves and was the wife of MGM studio executive Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins). Reeves had ended the affair and had become engaged to a younger woman, aspiring actress Leonore Lemmon (Robin Tunney).
In 1959, Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), a Los Angeles private investigator more interested in generating an income than in devotion to his clients, is helping out a client named Chester Sinclair by spying on Chester's wife, under the impression that she is cheating on him, by taking pictures outside of a building she goes to from time to time. On a visit to see his son and ex-wife Laurie, Simo learns that his son is upset over the death George Reeves, the actor who played Superman on television. Reeves was recently found dead inside his Beverly Hills home with a gunshot wound to the head, which lead the police to rule his death as suicide. Simo learns from a former colleague on the police force that the Reeves suicide has aspects that the cops don't want to touch. Simo, sensing the potential for making a name for himself, begins investigating the case and notes several apparent conflicts with the official version of Reeves's death. Simultaneously Simo bickers with Laurie over his failures as a father, particularly now when his son seems so troubled.
In 1951, Reeves, a charming man whose acting career has stalled, catches the eye of a beautiful woman and they end the night in each other's arms. In the morning, a newspaper photo reveals to Reeves that the woman is Toni Mannix, the wife of Eddie Mannix, the general manager of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Frightened that an affair with a studio boss's wife will destroy what's left of his career, Reeves is angry that Toni didn't tell him. Toni, however, tells Reeves that she and Eddie have an open relationship and not to worry. The pair fall in love and the much wealthier Toni begins to buy Reeves expensive gifts such as a house, a car and jewelry. During their relationship Reeves gets the starring role in the television show Adventures of Superman. The role makes Reeves famous and gives him a steady income, but he longs for a more "serious" role and is uncomfortable with the public identification of him as Superman. As the years pass and Toni ages, Reeves becomes bitter at being a kept man and at Toni for not using her clout to help his career. He meets a young woman in New York, Leonore Lemmon, and leaves Toni for her. Toni is broken-hearted and furious, and Eddie seethes at her "mistreatment" by Reeves.
Meanwhile, Simo initially suspects that Leonore Lemmon might have accidentally shot Reeves during an argument and imagines how the scenario might have played out. Later, Simo arrives back home to find thugs, who apparently were working for Eddie Mannix, in his house who beat Simo in hopes of scaring him off the case. This and other evidence lead Simo to suspect that Eddie had Reeves murdered and, again, Simo imagines what such an event might have looked like. Simo then learns that his client Chester Sinclair has murdered his wife because he got tired of waiting for information from Simo. A stricken and guilt-plagued Simo gets drunk and visits his son at school, but his inebriation scares the boy. Later, Simo visits Reeves' manager, Arthur Weissman. Weissman speaks highly of Reeves and his charm. He gives Simo a home movie Reeves had shot in hopes of promoting wrestling work. What Simo sees in the film suggests to him a sadness in Reeves, a weariness and humiliation with where his life has led. Simo's final imagined variation on Reeves' death concludes with the actor shooting himself. This is the most vivid of the three scenarios, with Simo imagining himself standing in the corner of the upstairs bedroom, and even making eye contact briefly with the weary Reeves.
Each of the scenes imagined by Simo begins with Reeves playing guitar and singing "Aquellos Ojos Verdes (Green Eyes)" in Spanish for his house guests. Reeves himself was fluent in Spanish. The Spanish lyrics of the popular song lament a love that can never be fulfilled. After each of the three imagined renditions, Reeves says goodnight to his guests, then retires to his bedroom upstairs, just before the gunshot.
Reeves' quest for fame and success and Simo's realization of how that quest is paralleled in his own existence causes the detective to re-evaluate his life. Simo watches another home movie, this one of himself and Laurie and their son in happier days. The film ends with Simo coming to Laurie's house wearing a suit and tie, and greeting his son hopefully.
Hollywoodland takes liberties with actual historical events for dramatic purposes. Several events and places are condensed to fit into the film, including:
- During a personal appearance at a children's western show, George Reeves meets a boy with a loaded gun, who almost shoots bullets at him. Reeves talks him into giving up the gun by saying that they would bounce off him but hurt innocent bystanders. Although Reeves repeated this story himself, researchers have never been able to find anything to corroborate the story.[1][2]
- After Reeves's death, Leonore Lemmon is shown at the reading of his will, stunned when everything he owned in his estate goes to Toni. In reality, since Lemmon was not included in his last will and testament, she was not invited to the reading. Lemmon did, however, make public statements akin to the dialogue in the film.
- The depiction of Reeves's scenes in From Here to Eternity suffering audience derision at a test screening (and subsequent cutting of his scenes) is part of an urban legend. No test screenings took place, and the finished film includes all Reeves's scenes that were present in the original shooting script. No alternate cuts of the film have ever been proven to exist.[1][3][4] However, curiously, Reeves name appears nowhere in the credits, as if to corroborate there was some reservations on the part of Columbia Pictures that Reeves cartoon typecast might detract from such a "serious major motion picture."
- The scene showing Reeves barbecuing his costume is based in fact: Reeves is said to have burned his costume at the end of each season, not just the one time to celebrate the cancellation of the series.
- The detective Louis Simo is a fictional character based somewhat on an actual detective in the case named Milo Speriglio.
- A scene in the filming of a first-season Superman episode shows Reeves in an alley, "taking off," suspended by wires. A wire breaks and Reeves crashes to the studio floor. The oft-repeated alley takeoff in the real series was stock footage and was performed by a stuntman. However, Reeves did take such a fall during a cable-aided takeoff, in a studio-bound forested setting, in the episode "Ghost Wolf," and never consented to use cable again in the series.
During its production, Hollywoodland went through many rounds of getting clearance from Warner Bros. Pictures to use different aspects of George Reeves's Superman persona to reflect the actual nature of his career. Time Warner is the parent company of both Warner Bros. and DC Comics and as such has all final say in the depiction of characters relating to their properties.
At first using the title Truth, Justice, and the American Way, Superman's well-known patriotic catchphrase, Warner Bros. threatened legal action unless the film's title was changed so as not to associate the classic slogan with Reeves's death—especially since Warner Bros. was banking the film Superman Returns which was released a few months earlier in June 2006. The filmmakers changed the title to Hollywoodland, not as a reflection of the ailing Hollywood Sign, but in reference to the general milieu of "movieland" itself.
The filmmakers wished to use the familiar filmed opening of Adventures of Superman in context within Hollywoodland, but Warner Bros. refused to license clips from the show itself. The movie recreated the show's opening and substituted a re-recorded version of the opening theme.
Arguably, the largest hurdle for the production was over the usage of the Superman "S" symbol, one of the most iconic superhero symbols, and a seemingly obvious requirement for the costume Affleck had to wear when portraying Reeves shooting Adventures of Superman. It was originally reported that the Superman costume in the film would be missing the "S" because of Warner Bros. ownership; later reports claimed that while Focus Features could not use the logo in promotional materials, the costume would sport the iconic letter "S" in the film, which it does.
Hollywoodland received generally positive responses from viewers and critics, garnering a 70% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.9 on the Internet Movie Database. Ben Affleck earned the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his performance as George Reeves. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls.
Hoskins and Lane have also been applauded for their performances. Critics at The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair called this film and 2006's Brokeback Mountain (also from Focus Features) Oscar contenders, but the film never received any Oscar nominations.
The film debuted at #2 at the box office. Shot on a budget of less than $14 million, 'Hollywoodland' grossed $14,426,251 in the United States as of October 26, 2006. A further foreign gross of $1,878,000, plus $9,140,000 in DVD rentals and a spot in the top ten DVD sales for its first three weeks of release (ref. Rentrak Corporation, 3-3-2007) allowed the movie to turn a profit.[5]