USA: JOHN TRAVOLTA AND DUSTIN HOFFMAN ATTEND THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THEIR NEW DRAMA "MAD CITY"

Record ID: 531493

  • Title: USA: JOHN TRAVOLTA AND DUSTIN HOFFMAN ATTEND THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THEIR NEW DRAMA "MAD CITY"
  • Date: 27th October 1997
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 27, 1997) (REUTERS) DUSTIN HOFFMAN SAYING, "I THINK THE TOUGHEST THING ABOUT THE REPORTER'S JOB IS BOSSES THEY WORK FOR. DO I SEE A SMALL SMILE? I THINK WHAT YOU'RE PUSHED TO DO, IS TO DO THINGS FOR THE RATINGS THAT HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH JOURNALISM JUST AS MOVIES ARE PUSHED TO DO THINGS TODAY, THAT HAVE LITTLE TO DO WITH THE QUALITY OF A FILM AND MORE TO DO WITH BEING FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD AT THE BOX OFFICE THE FIRST WEEKEND. AND I THINK THAT BOTH ART FORMS HAVE REALLY LOWERED THE STANDARD IN THE LAST 20 YEARS OR WHENEVER IT IS I DID "PRESIDENT'S MEN." (ENGLISH) JOHN TRAVOLTA SAYING OF FILM'S MESSAGE ABOUT T.V. JOURNALISM, "BUT IT'S NOTHING THAT WE DON'T KNOW, IT'S JUST FUN TO WATCH IT AT ITS PEAK, LIKE IT WAS FUN TO WATCH "NETWORK" YOU KNOW, 18 YEARS AGO, OR WHENEVER IT WAS. IT'S FUN TO WATCH THIS." (ENGLISH)
  • Embargoed: 11th November 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/ FILM lOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAXXCQ1IE0EWSAHYQ8EV7EZFN1
  • Story Text: John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman attended the Los Angeles premiere of their latest venture "Mad City" on Monday (October 27).
    Arriving for the screening, Hoffman joked that he and Travolta had left their wives to live together and open a furniture shop.
    Travolta, oblivious to Hoffman's joke at his expense, said the actor had never played jokes on him off camera. "I think he was more excited about making a great movie than playing practical jokes," he said.
    The premiere was obviously Hoffman's chance to have the last laugh.
    Travolta's "Grease" acting partner Olivia Newton John attended the premiere and said he had always been an amazing person. "As an actor he's grown, but it was always there, he just didn't have the opportunity and he gets better every film." In "Mad City", Oscar winner Hoffman teams up with Travolta, to tell a "Network"-esqe story.
    Hoffman plays Max Brackett, a television investigative reporter whose on-air temper tantrum sent his career into a downward spiral, landing him as a beat reporter in tiny Madeline, California. As a result, he's prepared to do anything to return to New York and the fast track.
    Travolta plays Sam Baily, a man whose life couldn't be more different. He grew up in Madeline, joined the Air Force and married. He lived a modest life until losing his job at the local museum.
    While covering a story at the museum, Max and his idealistic young assistant Laurie, played by newcomer Mia Kirshner, run into Sam just as as he's confronting his old boss with a gun. Within minutes, the situation turns into a hostage crisis, with Max on the inside of the museum, along with Sam, his gun and a group of schoolchildren.
    Soon after, Max is broadcasting the story of the crisis live and the entire nation is watching it with bated breath. Max realizes that as long as he can keep them watching, his career has a chance, while Sam knows that as long as he holds on to the gun, someone will listen to him.
    Max starts out attempting to manipulate the images from inside the museum, but neither man realizes how thoroughly it can be distorted by the forces outside.
    To prepare for his role, Hoffman watched hours of videotapes he received from different news correspondents, but he says that he did not pattern himself after any one particular journalist. He also claims that he would not have taken the role had John Travolta not agreed to play Sam Baily.
    Also starring in "Mad City" are Alan Alda, who plays Kevin Hollander, the powerful and popular network anchorman, Blythe Danner as Mrs. Banks, the museum's curator, and Robert Prosky as Lou, the news director at Max's small local station.
    The film is directed by Costa Gavras, whose previous films include "Missing" starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, "The Music Box" with Jessica Lange, and "Betrayal" starring Debra Winger. But he is best known for his film "Z," which won a Best Foreign Language Oscar and the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
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