The Player

A studio executive is being blackmailed by a writer whose script he rejected but which one? Loaded with Hollywood insider jokes.

• Director: Robert Altman
• Genre:Comedy / Drama
• Runtime:119 minutes

Cast

Tim Robbins : Griffin Mill
Greta Scacchi : June Gudmundsdottir
Fred Ward : Walter Stuckel
Whoopi Goldberg : Detective Avery
Peter Gallagher : Larry Levy

Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a Hollywood producer with a studio executive girlfriend Bonnie Sherow (Cynthia Stevenson). Mill’s job is to hear story pitches from screenwriters and decide which films have the potential to be made into films and which are rejected; 12 out of about 50,000 submissions he claims. His job is suddenly in danger, though, when up-and-coming story executive Larry Levi (Peter Gallagher) begins work at the studio having left 20th Century Fox. Rumors swirl that Mill may be replaced soon by Levi. Griffin has also been receiving threatening postcards, assumed to be from a disgruntled screenwriter whose pitch he rejected, but Mill can’t recall who it might be.

Mill delves through records and surmises that the disgruntled writer is David Kahane (Vincent D’Onofrio), who had previously pitched a script to him. Griffin lurks around Kahane’s home and is told by Kahane’s apparent live-in girlfriend, June (Greta Scacchi), who he watches while talking to her on the phone, that Kahane is at a movie theater watching The Bicycle Thief. Mill goes to the theater in Pasadena, pretends to recognize Kahane in the lobby after the film and offers him a scriptwriting deal, hoping this will stop the threats. The two go to a nearby Karaoke bar and have some drinks, whereupon Kahane gets intoxicated and rebuffs Griffin’s offer; he points out that Mill came in for only the last five minutes of The Bicycle Thief, and denies responsibility for sending Griffin any postcards. Kahane leaves the bar followed by Mill, Kahane then continues goading Griffin about his job security at the studio. Kahane pushes Griffin in the parking lot and the two men scuffle. In a rage, Mill accidentally kills Kahane. Thinking fast, Griffin makes the death look like a robbery gone wrong.

The next day at work, he receives another postcard, confirming that his stalking writer is still at large. Mill attends Kahane’s funeral and gets along with June, Kahane’s girlfriend; she knows none of the other mourners. Studio chief of security Walter Stuckel (Fred Ward) confronts Griffin about the murder and says that Pasadena Police know Griffin was the last one to see Kahane alive. Pasadena detectives Susan Avery (Whoopi Goldberg) and DeLongpre (Lyle Lovett) suspect that Griffin is guilty of murder. They question him and DeLongpre starts to keep an eye on Griffin. Griffin receives a postcard from the stalking writer suggesting they meet one evening at a club. While Griffin is waiting, he’s cornered by two aspiring (and annoying) screenwriters who make a story pitch for Habeas Corpus, a film that would feature no major stars, coupled with a depressing ending. Leaving the club, Mill receives a fax from the stalking writer in his Range Rover, who advises him to look under his raincoat, whereupon Griffin discovers a live rattlesnake in a box, causing a near-death experience that makes Griffin realize how he has sudden and deep feelings for June. Persuading Bonnie to leave for New York on studio business (a task he would normally handle), Griffin takes June to a Hollywood awards banquet and their relationship blossoms. Read more

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