16 years ago: GRAVITY announced on Variety’s front page

Looking through my old files, I came across this headline 1999 article on the front page of VARIETY.  I remember my excitement at the time, the enthusiasm of everyone involved, and all the assurances that GRAVITY was going to be a huge movie.

Now, 16 years later, I think back to the advice I once got from a screenwriting friend: “Hollywood will break your heart.”

NEW LINE IN ORBIT WITH AMG ON PIC

New Line has made an outright purchase of the feature film rights to bestselling novelist Tess Gerritsen’s upcoming spacebound medical thriller/love story, “Gravity,” with $1 million up front for the scribe and another $500,000 once the film is produced.

Artists Management Group, the 3-month-old management-production company whose partners are Michael Ovitz, Rick Yorn and Julie Silverman-Yorn, will produce the pic, although the firm’s deal is not yet finalized.

While no writer is attached yet, New Line and AMG view “Gravity” as a major event pic and look to move quickly to put a scribe and all the other elements in place, with an eye toward releasing the film in the summer of 2000 or 2001.

Packaging with home team

AMG will likely package the project with as many of the banner’s clients as possible; Rick Yorn told Daily Variety that he expects to have most of the major above-the-line talent in place within the coming weeks.

The “Gravity” manuscript was brought to Yorn’s and AMG production topper Cathy Schulman’s attention Tuesday by the Renaissance Agency’s Joel Gotler, who brokered the deal on behalf of Gerritsen’s Gotham lit agent, Meg Ruley of the Jane Rotrosen Agency…

At New Line, prexy of production Michael De Luca read the galley, which De Luca describes as “a story with a really good central rooting character and with great commercial potential.”

De Luca then made a preemptive bid to secure the project late Wednesday. He and New Line VP of production Donna Langley will oversee development of the project for the studio.