The Mallrats director was quick to shoot down the term “mentor” to describe their relationship. Smith also made it a point to distance himself from Weinstein, who made Clerks a success after buying it at Sundance.
Robin williams good will hunting movie#
I was on the movie as a co-executive producer, so we were privy to some details, and I remember the day when Good Will Hunting was leaving theaters and it felt weird because it was like, “Wait? There’s all this Oscar buzz, so why would you pull it if it was just making money?” And they did it because keeping it in theaters meant that more of the money would go to Robin, whereas the moment it went to video the split wasn’t Robin-heavy. Good Will Hunting was doing so well, in fact, that it almost broke the $100 million barrier, which would result in paying Williams a larger cut, so Weinstein pulled the film to Smith’s surprise:įrom what I remember, Robin’s split would be even greater and he’d get a bigger percentage if it crossed $100 million, so every dollar the movie made at the theatrical box office would have to be split-I’m not sure if it was a 50/50 split-with Robin Williams. During the TFF discussion, Van Sant confirmed that a lot of the lines in the movie were improvised, including the one Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) says after reading Will Huntings (Matt. Robin Williams and Matt Damon used to joke around in-character in between takes. “And the deal that they’d made with Robin was a high-percentage first-dollar gross-a movie-star deal-and it was great, because instantly by putting Robin in the movie their pre-sales paid for the whole f*cking film.” Here are 7 fun facts we learned about 'Good Will Hunting': 1. “It was doing incredibly well,” Smith told The Daily Beast‘s Marlow Stern. According to Smith’s book, Weinstein allegedly pulled Good Will Hunting out of theaters specifically to screw Robin Williams out of his back-end deal on the film, despite the fact that the acclaimed actor helped to clinch its box office success. The two actors that I was referring to earlier are Robin Williams and Matt Damon. As I have gotten older, the themes of the film stick with me more and more. But, in a movie that exudes quality, however, it is Robin Williams that provides both its heart and its highlight - the Oscar, in this case, was entirely deserved.While promoting his new book, Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash, the always talkative writer/director opened up his interactions with infamous producer Harvey Weinstein, who already had an unscrupulous reputation before his #MeToo reckoning in 2017. ‘Good Will Hunting’, released in 1997, over twenty years ago is a film that I have gone back to again and again throughout the years since I grew up with it in a way. Damon is superb, his pal Affleck equally strong. Director Van Sant steers well clear of unnecessary sentiment, opting instead to find the emotional reality and harshness within the story. Williams was the movie’s big star at the time and ended up winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Written by Affleck and Damon, and with Damon in the title role, the film follows 20-year-old South Boston laborer Will Hunting, an unrecognized genius who, as part of adeferred prosecution agreement after assaulting a police. Smith was attached to Good Will Hunting as an executive producer.
Robin williams good will hunting driver#
The strength of Good Will Hunting lies in the amazing assurance of its script, and the backing both its cast and makers give it. Good Will Hunting is a 1997 American drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver and Stellan Skarsgård. Together they find an understanding and, in some small way, a path towards redemption.
A professor (Skarsgard) tries to nurture his talent and tame his temper, enlisting the help of jaded shrink Robin Williams - the boy knows life in abstract, the man knows the pain of the real thing. But unlike the friends he hangs with, he also has a photographic memory and an amazing ability to solve mathematical problems of the highest order.
The result was a beautiful piece of filmmaking that found bothOscar glory and box office success.Ī janitor at a technological institute, Will (Damon) is a 20-year-old caught between Boston's working class environs and its elite academia.
Within months, their script had sold for a million dollars (plus change), the two actors were set to star, Gus Van Sant was on board to direct and Robin Williams was lending big name clout to the supporting roles. Two young (then unknown) actors - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck - wrote a script that dealt with the commercial double suicide that is mental health issues and genius mathematicians. Good Will Hunting may well be the Rocky story of the 90s.