EXCLUSIVE: The Day The Clown Cried is getting one other likelihood on the massive display screen. Rewritten by Jerry Lewis who starred in and directed a 1972 characteristic drama that went unfinished and unreleased, the script for the Holocaust story is being revived by Ok. Jam Media founder Kia Jam. Jam has been a part of the financing and producing of movies starting from The Killing Recreation to Within the Coronary heart of the Sea, Sin Metropolis: A Dame to Kill For and quite a few others.
Jam stated he has executed a purchase order settlement on the unique script by Joan O’Brien and Charles Denton. Lewis took a hand in re-shaping it as a starring and directing car. Jam goes again to the unique screenplay. He stated he has the manufacturing financing, and the following step is to safe a filmmaker with the center to inform a most harrowing story.
Lewis disavowed the movie and did his greatest to ensure it by no means received launched, most likely due to a mixture of rights points and an outcry over the audacity of the enduring comedian actor setting a movie within the focus camps involving the deaths of Jewish youngsters by the hands of the Nazis in WWII. He was accused of unabashedly chasing an Oscar.
Lewis starred as Helmut Doork, a failing German circus clown long gone the times when he was a well-known performer touring North America and Europe as a part of the Ringling Brothers circus. Issues worsen when he’s overheard drunkenly mocking Hitler in a bar. He’s turned over to the Gestapo and imprisoned in a Nazi camp for political prisoners. There, he finds an outlet for his abilities: entertaining the struggling Jewish youngsters who’re segregated in part of the camp. After struggling quite a few beatings for partaking the kids, the clown is utilized by the camp commandant as a Pied Piper to assist load the kids on boxcars to Auschwitz. He winds up a passenger on that practice, and, in a selfless act uncommon for the beforehand self-absorbed clown, he escorts of the kids to their deaths and is himself killed.
THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, Jerry Lewis, making use of make-up for his unreleased movie, 1972
Everett Assortment
For an unreleased movie, The Day the Clown Cried has a mythology uncommon within the annals of movie, to the purpose a documentary on the movie and its undoing referred to as From Darkness To Mild will premiere on the upcoming Venice Movie Competition. Lewis made the movie when he was squarely recognized for comedy, nicely earlier than he turned in lauded dramatic performances in movies like Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy. That, and the subject material, led to press protection largely coloured by derision. Since then, quite a few Holocaust movies have drawn acclaim by telling tales of braveness, and the unbelievable cruelty proven by Hitler’s Nazi Germany. These movies vary from the newest Oscar winner Zone of Curiosity by Jonathan Glazer to Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winner Schindler’s Listing. Roberto Benigni’s Oscar profitable Life is Stunning, to the Barry Levinson-directed Ben Foster-starrer The Survivor, the Mark Herman-directed Boy within the Striped Pajamas, the Robin Williams-starrer Jakob the Liar, the Taika Waititi-directed Jojo Rabbit, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, the Mick Jackson-directed Denial starring Rachel Weisz., and quite a few others All are exhausting tales by gutsy administrators who importantly hold alive the reminiscence of a darkish second in historical past crammed with genocide and cruelty.
Although it has changed into an obsession that led him to spend years cleansing up the rights, Jam’s entry into The Day the Clown Cried started with an opportunity assembly in a hallway with a Rabbi.
“I received approached 14 years by any person I knew, who was a Rabbi,” Jam instructed Deadline. “We occurred to simply work on the identical ground of a constructing and we had some mutual buddies, and he comes as much as me someday and says, I’ve a script I’d such as you to learn. I’m considering to myself, oh, nice. Now I’m getting a script from a Rabbi. He’s such a pleasant man that I stated, in fact, positive, no downside. I put it on my desk and perhaps I used to be capturing one thing of blending a film, however I used to be not very accessible. Per week goes by, he calls my workplace and he says, Hey, have you ever had an opportunity to learn it? And I stated, no, I’m so sorry. It’s proper right here. He says, no downside. I’ll name you in every week. He calls me a second week, and I nonetheless haven’t learn it. I don’t take his telephone name and I really feel like a jackass. I’m like, who the hell am I that I don’t have an hour to learn a script for this good man? I shut the door, inform my assistant to carry my calls and I begin studying.”
His mindset shortly become ardour.
“The primary 20 or so pages are a little bit clunky and felt very dated. Then, I received into the story, I used to be so taken by the script. When it was carried out, I used to be sobbing. I ended up simply going residence. I couldn’t actually do something for the remainder of the day. I referred to as him up and I stated, I learn it its, and it’s as highly effective as you stated. I stated, inform me you personal the chain of title. I’ve been down the chain of title Rabbit Gap just a few occasions. And he’s like, yeah, I received all of it. He reveals as much as my workplace with considered one of his bins of rolled up, fax paper, light paperwork. Some sadly have been lacking signatures.
“It was an entire catastrophe,” Jam stated. “However I made a decision that this film is value it, and I used to be going to take this on. It took me most likely three or 4 years and a small fortune in authorized charges to trace everyone down and clear up the rights; there have been signature pages, lacking paperwork that had expired. There was a lien placed on the undertaking 20 some odd years in the past when Kushner-Locke had it below possibility. They went into chapter 11, however they didn’t launch their lien. So I needed to monitor down who was controlling their chapter. It was an entire ordeal.
“Lastly I managed to wash all that up,” he stated. “I discovered all the suitable individuals, received all the suitable paperwork with the rabbi’s assist, and began to work on financing the image. I had it financed a few times through the years, however was unable to convey on the caliber of filmmaker that this wants. You actually need a grasp craftsman to inform his story. The actors that signal on to be on this film are going to need to know they’re in excellent, succesful fingers. I used to be unable to do this..”
He saved renewing the choice, unable to shake what he’d learn, whereas totally conscious of the historical past with Jerry Lewis.
“I haven’t seen the film, and I actually don’t have a need to,” Jam stated. “That’s not the film we’re going to make. I’ve nothing however respect for Jerry; I grew up watching his motion pictures and he clearly was the grasp. Jerry took the script. I consider that they had it below possibility, however they by no means exercised their possibility, in order that they by no means actually had the rights. And he rewrote it. The film that he shot was not our script, not the script that I personal and management. I simply sort of needed to distance myself from it. The script that I personal, the unique one which was written by the writers again many years in the past is, by far, probably the most highly effective script I’ve ever learn.”
Armory Movies’ Tim Zajaros and Christopher Lemole got here aboard with the financing for the movie, after Jam lastly executed the acquisition of the screenplay. The search resumes for the filmmaker who’ll shoot in Europe.
Kia Jam
Courtesy
“It is going to be a extremely highly effective movie,” Jam stated. “It’s finally a redemption story. And I believe with the whole lot that’s happening on the earth immediately, now greater than ever is the time to make a film like this. It’s going to be tough. There’s loads of misinformation on the market by way of the unique film and what Jerry did and didn’t do, and the way the film was good, or it was dangerous, no matter individuals need to say. Jerry himself has stated that he wasn’t terribly happy with the ultimate product.
“However the script’s core is the redemption story of our lead character, any person who misplaced his manner and finally finds his objective in life, which is bringing pleasure and laughter to those youngsters who’re on this horrible, horrible, horrible state of affairs,” Jam stated. “And it’s what he sacrifices and finally what the individuals round him find yourself doing to assist him, and the short-term pleasure and laughter that he brings to those youngsters who want it so badly. It isn’t based mostly on a real story, however as you learn it, it definitely appears like it’s.”
A part of the hassle can be in clearing up misconceptions about Lewis’ movie. There are experiences his property turned over a replica to the Library of Congress, stipulating the movie not be proven till this yr.
“There was one thing in regards to the Library of Congress having a replica and so they might display screen it,” Jam stated. “I believe it was June or July of 2024, really. I reached out to them and I principally stated, respectfully, should you do have a replica of the movie, you don’t have the rights to display screen it. And so they stated, we don’t have the movie. We simply have some parts. And so they’re right here in case any person’s doing analysis, they’ll come and have a look at the stills from the set and issues like that. And I don’t actually care about that. There’s the documentary in regards to the film being proven at Venice. I attempted to trace down the filmmakers of that. I emailed them their legal professionals and Venice, simply to see what it’s they’re making an attempt to do.
“I nonetheless haven’t heard again from them, however I’m not right here to cease anybody from doing anything,” Jam stated. “What I’m right here to do is to make the unique script. I despatched it to a really pricey pal of mine who’s a particularly achieved producer and make motion pictures on the highest degree. He stated, name me in two hours. I referred to as and he was in tears. Why did you do that to me, he requested? That is probably the most highly effective factor. In order that helped me actually really feel that we’re onto one thing right here. And once more, this is a vital film that should get made. It’s an essential film. It’s an attention-grabbing perspective on what went on when it went on.”
