ABSTRACT
With the exodus of key executives to form Orion Pictures in 1978, United Artists was left with very little in the production pipeline. Although the company was bolstered by continuing franchises and film series, the volume of original productions diminished during this period. By the fourth quarter of 1980, UA was reduced to five releases: the horror comedy Motel Hell and the backstage drama The Idolmaker, along with three auteur projects, Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, and Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate. With negligible marketing efforts and grosses for the first two films, UA executives Bach and Field focused their energy on the auteur driven films. By the fourth quarter of 1980, the press was ready to engage with the UA auteur films as much for their budgets and production histories as for their aesthetics. The era of the ‘risky megabuck trend,’ to cite a Variety term from the era, was evidenced in a direct way by UA. This chapter examines this point in UA history with an eye to understanding how two factors – the construction of a cautionary tale within Hollywood on big budget auteur projects and the rise of enfotainment (entertainment industry news) – helped to shape the discourse surrounding Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate.
