David Field was the United Artists exec whom Michael Cimino completely ignored (i.e., walked right by him, not saying a word) during the Montana filming of Heaven’s Gate. Field and co-production chief Steven Bach tried and failed to control the disastrous overspending that doomed this infamous 1980 western.
Field on “L’affaire Huppert” — a sharp casting dispute between Cimino, who wanted Isabelle Huppert in Gate‘s lead female role, and Field and Bach. The two UA producers had come to a verbal agreement with Cimino that if they felt that her accent was too thick and that she wouldn’t work out, he would agree to find someone else. So they flew to Paris to hear her read dialogue. After listening to Huppert struggle with the English language, Field and Bach decided she was really wrong for the part. A hard decline.
Field: “A couple of days after we said said no, the phone rang and it was Cimino, and he said ‘I’ve been thinking about [your decision] and it’s still Isabelle Huppert.’ And I said ‘you know, this is a problem now because it’s no longer about isabelle Huppert. This is now about your word. You and I had an arrangement which now doesn’t mean anything. Cimino said ‘what’s your point?’ I said ‘my point is that I’ll give you 48 hours to tell me you didn’t mean this phone call, or I’m going to do my level best to make sure we never make this movie.’ He told me go fuck myself and hung up.
“[Transamerica honcho] Andy Albeck asked me what my problem with the movie was, and I said that my problem with the movie is (a) I no longer know what Cimino’s word means and (b) I don’t know what the movie could cost. I don’t know anything any more, I said, because of what just happened.”
Watch and listen to Field’s remarks in Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate (’04):