Wednesday, April 15, 1998
MATT DAMON RIDES 'PRETTY HORSES' from Mr. Showbiz
It was the battle of the It boys, but the Oscar winner has emerged triumphant. The Hollywood trades report that Matt Damon has landed more than $5 million, his biggest payday by far, for the sought-after lead in the Billy Bob Thornton-directed big-screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's acclaimed novel All the Pretty Horses. According to Daily Variety, Leonardo DiCaprio, whose asking price has soared to the $15-to-$20 million range, was in talks for the starring role until late Monday night, but when it looked like the "Titanic" star was still on the fence, the producers agreed on Damon. The actor, who with his friend Ben Affleck took home a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for "Good Will Hunting," is reportedly a big fan of McCarthy's book, which won a 1992 National Book Award.
The coming-of-age story, a romance-adventure set in 1949, will star Damon as a young Texan who rides to Mexico, where he falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and powerful landowner. The girl's father has the cowboy tossed into a Mexican prison, but the young Texan survives, exacts justice, and returns home a man.
The project is being co-financed by Miramax and Columbia, and is scheduled to start production in late 1998 or 1999. And chances are that the script will match the novel's high standards: director Thornton took home a screenwriting Oscar for "Sling Blade," the last movie he helmed; Ted Tally, who's writing the adaptation of Pretty Horses, won a golden boy for "Silence of the Lambs." Damon, who recently wrapped the Miramax poker pic Rounders, will segue now into Kevin Smith's Dogma and Anthony Minghella's "The Talented Mr. Ripley."
