Bottle Shock premiers today at the Sundance Film Festival and it’s one of the hottest tickets at the Festival. It’s tipped to be the next Sideways movie and has pipped its rival film on the Judgement of Paris to the post.
There has been controversy between the two films and the widely respected
Steven Spurrier (who is played by Alan Rickman in the movie) had threatened to sue as he was upset about his portrayal in the film and the Hollywood handling of the actual events.
Randall Miller, the Director, has said that: “We’re not
trying to make a movie that maligns anybody . . . this is not `Three Stooges Go to Napa.’ In our film, Spurrier is
heroic.”
The producers of the Judgement of Paris film control rights to George Taber’s 2005 book on the tasting and the life story of Steven Spurrier, who ran a Paris wine shop and staged the competition. Miller has admitted that since receiving Spurrier’s complaints there has been some toning down of the movie.
Bloomberg.com reports that Bottle Shock does have a lot of fictional additions to the events and that:
“big chunks of truth apparently have been jettisoned for wider cinematic appeal, and an invented love triangle has been added.
“It’s completely Hollywoodized,” said the real Bo Barrett, now 52. `”My character has this great girlfriend — I had zero luck with girls back then. I’m sure my friends will hoot with derision when they see it.”
Though Montelena’s winemaker at the time, Mike Grgich, made the winning wine, he’s not a major character. His assistant, played by Freddy Rodriguez, gets a key role, though, including one side of the love triangle.
Still, Barrett said, “I’m personally amused by the movie.
It’s a love letter to the wine business. And, of course, it will draw attention to Château Montelena.”
Chris Pine is playing Bo Barrett and Pine’s next movie role is Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek.
If you’d like to know more about the film you can find the Bottle Shock site here and watch movie trailers here. Alan Rickman fans can read the details on the film here.
Apparently the script on the rival film is nearly finished, according to the writer Robert Kamen but the project can not move forwards till the Writers Guild strike ends. Kamen is himself a winemaker and owns Kamen Estate, where A Walk In the Clouds starring Keanu Reeves was filmed. Kamen’s previous films have been the Lethal Weapon movies, The Fifth Element, the Karate Kid movies and Bandidas.
Kamen his 100 ha vineyard with earnings from his first script and given his background the Judgement of Paris should be a good movie with some big stars lined up. However given that his background is mainly in action movies I wonder what angle the film will take?
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