To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (19069 ) 5/14/1998 4:14:00 PM From: Keith Hankin Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 24154
Matt Drudge, The Drudge Report, sent out this email bulletin this evening: PARAMOUNT MAKING FILM LAMPOONING BILL GATES **Exclusive** As if Bill Gates doesn't already have enough nightmare over tomorrow's expected court action against his MICROSOFT. Enter Hollywood. PARAMOUNT and Sydney Pollack's MIRAGE ENTERPRISES are about to begin production on a black comedy based directly on Gates! 20 BILLION, likely to star Mike Myers, is now expected to start rolling in July. The film will be scripted and directed by Michael Tolkin [PLAYER, RAPTURE, NEW AGE]. Tolkin has created a character that is obviously based on Bill Gates, according to one source who has seen an early script. The title is pulled from a speech near the beginning of the story that explains how much money $20 billion actually is! The scene is described as hilarious. One plot twist has the Gates character buying a trip to the moon. Why? Because he can. Another scene has Gates meeting with a woman he is attracted to, a woman that is one of his employees. After he suggests that they go grab something to eat, the woman finds herself in the middle of her very own Food Court -- a Food Court that the Gates character owns and staffs with teenagers 24 hours a day for his very own use! "We wanted to make a movie about the most fascinating person in our culture right now, and we wanted to ask the question 'Why does anybody need $20 billion?'" Tolkin recently said. "The answer is going to be such a surprise, we won't be able to let people leave the theaters until enough see it, for fear they'll give away the ending." Tolkin himself is expected to pull in seven figures for the film. [Now why does anybody need seven figures? Wink-Wink.] A PARAMOUNT executive laughed when asked on Tuesday if the film wasn't just kicking a man while he's down, in light of the impending Justice Department action and overall anti-MSFT wave.