Hollywood: The Oral History

by Jeanine Basinger

TOM HANKS: When Jeffrey Katzenberg called me and said, “Would you be interested in doing a voice for a new project we have?” I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.” “So come on by, and we’ll talk about it.” And what they were doing is talking about Toy Story.

MARK CANTON: A perfect example, again, of all the geniuses that run Hollywood: Peter Jackson makes Lord of the Rings. Nobody wanted to make a movie with Peter Jackson.

JON FAVREAU: There’s only two types of movies that are going to be making money, I think, in this era of piracy. One is a big tentpole event film, where you have to go to the theater, like an Avatar, and the other is a semi-low-budget-ish comedy that can break $100 million.

MARK CANTON: It used to be, the sequels will do half or three-quarters of the original. Now they can far exceed the original because that’s the impact of DVD and home video.

JULIA PHILLIPS: You know, there’s a battleground atmosphere in New York that makes you feel that it’s reality. PENNY MARSHALL: I was cold in New York.

HARLAN ELLISON: Yes, there’s no denying that if you happen to be somebody’s brother-in-law, you can probably get financed a hell of a lot sooner.