A Film by Cass Warner

Represented by Lawless Entertainment

THE PROJECT:

On a late afternoon in February of 2007, Cass Warner, granddaughter of Harry Warner, patriarch of the fabled Warner Bros Studios, visited with Dennis Hopper at his home in Venice Beach. As a filmmaker, Cass had assigned herself the mission to get to know the real Dennis Hopper. Were all the stories she had heard really true? Was he the studio pariah, the rebel filmmaker, the freakish rogue who brought an almost demented intensity to his roles? Or were those tales just part of the Hollywood rumor machine.

What Cass captured on camera that day with Dennis was candid, insightful and historically compelling. Now for the first time meet the man who defined a generation, and whose contribution to the hippie counter culture, is now legend. This is the most intimate interview ever undertaken where Dennis Hopper has given freely of himself, his career and his world creating a television event that puts Hopper’s career metamorphoses into its proper perspective…

Excerpts from DENNIS HOPPER: IN HIS OWN WORDS

...I did a television show called “Medic” and I got nominated for an Emmy and seven studios called me and wanted to sign me to a contract. Columbia was actually the first one to call and Warner Bros was the second. So I went and had a very unfortunate meeting with Harry Cohn, where uh, they banned me and my agencies from, from Columbia, because he um, he said he'd just seen me in the show and he though I’m the most naturalistic actor since Montgomery Clift, and then he said ‘what have you been doing,’ and I said I’ve been playing Shakespeare down at the old globe theater in San Diego. And he said, “Oh my god, Max, Max” [Max Arno head of casting], he said, “Give the kid some numbers, send him to school, but take all the Shakespeare out of him. He can't - we can't have any of that in motion pictures.

I told him to go screw himself and at that point he said “What?” and kicked me out of the studio, and the agency, and I was banned from Columbia until I came back with EASY RIDER with [Producer] Burt Schneider. And finally Abe Schneider [Cohn’s successor] was in and Harry was gone….”

Hopper’s initial roles had him playing the stereotypical “troubled teen” in films like REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and FROM HELL TO TEXAS in which he so incensed cast and crew with his insistence upon multiple takes to explore his improvisational techniques that he soon found himself becoming a Hollywood exile…

You know I was never really interested in striking an individual path. I know it might seem strange, but I’ve always really wanted to work inside the system, you know. It was never really my choice to become this rebel outside the system, which is what I seem to have become. And I enjoyed, as I said, I enjoyed the studio system. As a matter of fact, if I had anything to do with it I’d put it back into play because I thought it was a wonderful way to work and a wonderful way for young people to learn and just the whole thing worked in my mind—a great pool of talent….

Long a pariah, immediately after EASY RIDER Hopper was suddenly acclaimed as a major new filmmaker. But the film that would follow, THE LAST MOVIE, was an excessive, selfindulgent mess that, while acclaimed by jurors at the Venice Film Festival, was otherwise savaged by critics and snubbed by audiences. Dennis had spiraled out of control spending much of the 70’s in a haze, earning a notorious reputation.

Director Philippe Mora:

Yes, he was bloody mad – that’s why we hired him to play MAD DOG MORGAN. He was persona non-grata.

Dennis Hopper:

Well you know, I suppose if you just live long enough everything will be ok. [Laughs] And you gotta love it, because it’s not an easy way to live being an actor, being a director, being a writer. These things are not, not easy paths to follow. But if you love it, there isn’t any other way to live anyway, so you just go for it.

View the trailer here

Project is currently available for viewing.

Actual program running time is 47-60 minutes. (Able to be edited to specifications.)
All forms of Television including VOD and Home Entertainment rights available.

CONTACT:
Cass Warner
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Phone: 818-766-6952