Do you remember Jacquelyn Mitchard, the first author selected for Oprah's Book Club? Her debut novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was published in June 1996, and Oprah-endorsed in September of that year, which helped it rocket to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. But it wasn't all smooth sailing for Mitchard from there: 13 years after the success of The Deep End of the Ocean, Mitchard received a nightmarish phone call: All of her bank accounts - including funds set aside for her children's college education, were empty. Mitchard's husband had hired a financial advisor, who, as it turned out,...
- 3/18/2016
- by Alex Heigl, @alex_heigl
- PEOPLE.com
Do you remember Jacquelyn Mitchard, the first author selected for Oprah's Book Club? Her debut novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was published in June 1996, and Oprah-endorsed in September of that year, which helped it rocket to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. But it wasn't all smooth sailing for Mitchard from there: 13 years after the success of The Deep End of the Ocean, Mitchard received a nightmarish phone call: All of her bank accounts - including funds set aside for her children's college education, were empty. Mitchard's husband had hired a financial advisor, who, as it turned out,...
- 3/18/2016
- by Alex Heigl, @alex_heigl
- PEOPLE.com
On this day in 1996, Oprah Winfrey launched her book club and announced that “The Deep End of the Ocean” by Jacquelyn Mitchard would be her first selection. Oprah’s Book Club quickly became a hugely influential force in the publishing world. The popular daytime talk show host's stamp of approval on books often sent them to bestseller lists. Other notable Sept. 17 happenings in pop culture history: • 1957: Louis Armstrong canceled his trip to the U.S.S.R.. Announcing that he would not participate in a U.S. government-sponsored tour of the Soviet Union, the jazz musician said, “The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell.” • 1967: The Who ended a nationally televised performance of “My Generation” with a literal bang — an explosion, caused by explosives packed into Keith Moon’s drum kit, rocked the stage, singed Pete Townshend’s hair and...
- 9/17/2015
- by Emily Rome
- Hitfix
Breaking: New York-based Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents has under its banner authors including Jeffrey Deaver, Tracy Chevalier, David Nicholls, David Rabe, Chris Bohjalian, Carolyn Hart, Meg Gardiner, Alan Lightman, Madison Smartt Bell, John Burdett, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Glen Duncan and Evan Hunter/Ed McBain. The alliance with ICM Partners just announced today will see the formation of a new entity, Gelfman/Schneider/ICM Partners, with the agency co-signing authors and journalists and also repping film, television and media rights from the rich library of titles now at its disposal. ICM’s Media Rights Department has had plenty of success in this realm, brokering deals for such projects as Steve Jobs, Lincoln, No Country For Old Men and Sex And The City. Gelfman Schneider will keep its offices on Seventh Avenue, with ICM Partners’ agents down the road in their Fifth Avenue HQ doing the deals. The pact comes after ICM Partners...
- 6/18/2013
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
Jacquelyn Mitchard
If I’d erased Oprah Winfrey’s message from my answering machine just one more time, there might never have been an Oprah Winfrey Book Club.
Think of it! No Toni Morrison intoning, “That, my dear, is called reading …,” no Mr. Franzen regrets, no James Frey becoming a millionaire for doing the wrong thing — twice.
In 1996, I was a widowed mom, stone broke, writing a novel as an alternative to spending the rest of my life sitting in...
If I’d erased Oprah Winfrey’s message from my answering machine just one more time, there might never have been an Oprah Winfrey Book Club.
Think of it! No Toni Morrison intoning, “That, my dear, is called reading …,” no Mr. Franzen regrets, no James Frey becoming a millionaire for doing the wrong thing — twice.
In 1996, I was a widowed mom, stone broke, writing a novel as an alternative to spending the rest of my life sitting in...
- 5/27/2011
- by Jacquelyn Mitchard
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
What does it look like when you have a job to write a feature film about Albert Einstein?
Well, that’s the right kind of question for Stephen Schiff, because he has been hired to write it for Odd Lot Entertainment.
He will write an original screenplay drawn from Einstein materials archived at Princeton and Hebrew Universities, as well as the Walter Isaacson biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe, published by Simon & Schuster in 2007.
At this moment we don’t have many details about this project, but we know that producers Gabe and Alan Polsky of Polsky Films acquired Einstein’s life rights in 2007 before Isaacson’s book was published.
The pair later brought Isaacson on board the project as a consultant. In the deal, Polsky Films secured access to Einstein’s personal and professional materials at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which was co-founded by Einstein in 1918.
The film...
Well, that’s the right kind of question for Stephen Schiff, because he has been hired to write it for Odd Lot Entertainment.
He will write an original screenplay drawn from Einstein materials archived at Princeton and Hebrew Universities, as well as the Walter Isaacson biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe, published by Simon & Schuster in 2007.
At this moment we don’t have many details about this project, but we know that producers Gabe and Alan Polsky of Polsky Films acquired Einstein’s life rights in 2007 before Isaacson’s book was published.
The pair later brought Isaacson on board the project as a consultant. In the deal, Polsky Films secured access to Einstein’s personal and professional materials at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which was co-founded by Einstein in 1918.
The film...
- 6/8/2010
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Variety reports that Paramount Pictures has paid mid-six figures to option the feature film rights to the Jacquelyn Mitchard novel A Theory of Relativity. Luis Mandoki (Trapped) will direct, with a script by playwright-screenwriter Lisa Loomer. The domestic drama concerns the custody of a 5-year-old girl when a tragic accident happens to her parents and centers on the journey of the victim's brother, who becomes a man by becoming a father.
- 9/3/2002
- IMDbPro News
Playing a mother whose 3-year-old son vanishes and remains missing for nine years, portraying possibly the worst type of prolonged anguish inflicted on human beings, Michelle Pfeiffer dives into one of her best roles and pulls the viewer into the stormy waters of director Ulu Grosbard's involving adaptation of Jacquelyn Mitchard's darker 1996 novel.
While its boxoffice take will be ducky at best, a tsunami of tears will flow from the target audience of women and mature couples. "Deep End" should more than tread water internationally and has a successful voyage ahead in ancillary seas. Teenage girls may also show more than passing curiosity when word gets around about Emmy winner Jonathan Jackson's career-making performance as the eldest son who flounders in a dysfunctional riptide in the wake of family tragedy.
Destined to be remembered next awards season, Pfeiffer's performance is heartfelt and unmanipulative. Grosbard's unobtrusive yet carefully calibrated direction, accompanied by Elmer Bernstein's fluty orchestral score, showcases the actors and employs few of the standard tension-building techniques or storytelling shortcuts, though the black clouds hanging over the characters tend to block out most scenes of normal, relaxed interaction.
With her three children, photographer Beth (Pfeiffer) motors from Madison, Wis., to Chicago for her 15th high school reunion. In a jammed hotel lobby, middle child Ben Michael McElroy) disappears without a trace. Friends help Beth look for him, and a reassuring police detective (Whoopi Goldberg) shows up with a small army. But the hours tick off, and there's no news. Unable to maintain her composure, Beth bursts into hysterics. Husband Pat (Treat Williams), arriving in an agitated state, tries to take charge -- but still no Ben.
Oldest son Vincent (Cory Buck) and Pat are the unintended victims of Beth's severe depression that results from Ben's unknown fate. Beth almost brings the family down by neglecting her baby daughter, never getting out of bed and giving up her career.
The story takes a nine-year leap, with too-quickly matured Vincent (Jackson) evolved into a high schooler with a sullen, seen-it-all attitude, though the family appears to be back to normal.
One day a young boy named Sam (Ryan Merriman) mows the family's lawn, and Beth starts to believe in miracles. Goldberg's character swings into action again when it's proven that the boy is indeed Ben and a possible kidnap victim. At this point, the details of the disappearance and the plot in general flirt with the unbelievable, but the focus settles on Sam's dilemma -- should he go to his real family or remain with the adopted Father John Kapelos) who has loved and nurtured him most of his life.
At first, Vincent is a jerk because he's never known the love and attention lavished on Sam -- who moves back home and shows up his Big Brother in basketball for starters. But the bonding of the brothers is presented as the only hope to reconstructing a family long-ago torn asunder. The tough truth is Kapelos' character is such a decent bloke -- as shocked and devastated as the others by the turn of events -- that Sam's return is not necessarily permanent.
Keeping pace with Pfeiffer and Jackson, Merriman (HBO's "Lansky") is superb as the sad but precocious Sam. In one giddy scene, he leads a party group in the dance from "Zorba the Greek", but he also shines brightly in intensely emotional exchanges with his co-stars. Williams is solid as the father and husband caught in a nightmare that finally ends with a tidy, optimistic finale.
THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
Columbia Pictures
Mandalay Entertainment presents
A Via Rosa production
Director: Ulu Grosbard
Screenwriter: Stephen Schiff
Based on the book by: Jacquelyn Mitchard
Producers: Kate Guinzberg, Steve Nicolaides
Executive producer: Frank Capra III
Director of photography: Stephen Goldblatt
Production designer: Dan Davis
Editor: John Bloom
Costume designer: Susie DeSanto
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Casting: Lora Kennedy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Beth: Michelle Pfeiffer
Pat: Treat Williams
Vincent: Jonathan Jackson
Sam/Ben: Ryan Merriman
Young Vincent: Cory Buck
George: John Kapelos
Candy: Whoopi Goldberg
Young Ben: Michael McElroy
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
While its boxoffice take will be ducky at best, a tsunami of tears will flow from the target audience of women and mature couples. "Deep End" should more than tread water internationally and has a successful voyage ahead in ancillary seas. Teenage girls may also show more than passing curiosity when word gets around about Emmy winner Jonathan Jackson's career-making performance as the eldest son who flounders in a dysfunctional riptide in the wake of family tragedy.
Destined to be remembered next awards season, Pfeiffer's performance is heartfelt and unmanipulative. Grosbard's unobtrusive yet carefully calibrated direction, accompanied by Elmer Bernstein's fluty orchestral score, showcases the actors and employs few of the standard tension-building techniques or storytelling shortcuts, though the black clouds hanging over the characters tend to block out most scenes of normal, relaxed interaction.
With her three children, photographer Beth (Pfeiffer) motors from Madison, Wis., to Chicago for her 15th high school reunion. In a jammed hotel lobby, middle child Ben Michael McElroy) disappears without a trace. Friends help Beth look for him, and a reassuring police detective (Whoopi Goldberg) shows up with a small army. But the hours tick off, and there's no news. Unable to maintain her composure, Beth bursts into hysterics. Husband Pat (Treat Williams), arriving in an agitated state, tries to take charge -- but still no Ben.
Oldest son Vincent (Cory Buck) and Pat are the unintended victims of Beth's severe depression that results from Ben's unknown fate. Beth almost brings the family down by neglecting her baby daughter, never getting out of bed and giving up her career.
The story takes a nine-year leap, with too-quickly matured Vincent (Jackson) evolved into a high schooler with a sullen, seen-it-all attitude, though the family appears to be back to normal.
One day a young boy named Sam (Ryan Merriman) mows the family's lawn, and Beth starts to believe in miracles. Goldberg's character swings into action again when it's proven that the boy is indeed Ben and a possible kidnap victim. At this point, the details of the disappearance and the plot in general flirt with the unbelievable, but the focus settles on Sam's dilemma -- should he go to his real family or remain with the adopted Father John Kapelos) who has loved and nurtured him most of his life.
At first, Vincent is a jerk because he's never known the love and attention lavished on Sam -- who moves back home and shows up his Big Brother in basketball for starters. But the bonding of the brothers is presented as the only hope to reconstructing a family long-ago torn asunder. The tough truth is Kapelos' character is such a decent bloke -- as shocked and devastated as the others by the turn of events -- that Sam's return is not necessarily permanent.
Keeping pace with Pfeiffer and Jackson, Merriman (HBO's "Lansky") is superb as the sad but precocious Sam. In one giddy scene, he leads a party group in the dance from "Zorba the Greek", but he also shines brightly in intensely emotional exchanges with his co-stars. Williams is solid as the father and husband caught in a nightmare that finally ends with a tidy, optimistic finale.
THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
Columbia Pictures
Mandalay Entertainment presents
A Via Rosa production
Director: Ulu Grosbard
Screenwriter: Stephen Schiff
Based on the book by: Jacquelyn Mitchard
Producers: Kate Guinzberg, Steve Nicolaides
Executive producer: Frank Capra III
Director of photography: Stephen Goldblatt
Production designer: Dan Davis
Editor: John Bloom
Costume designer: Susie DeSanto
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Casting: Lora Kennedy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Beth: Michelle Pfeiffer
Pat: Treat Williams
Vincent: Jonathan Jackson
Sam/Ben: Ryan Merriman
Young Vincent: Cory Buck
George: John Kapelos
Candy: Whoopi Goldberg
Young Ben: Michael McElroy
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
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