This Article Courtesy Of Entertainment Rewired

Interview With GEORGE LUTZ,
survivor and rights holder to
THE AMITYVILLE HORROR

By Ranting Ryan


Article Courtesy Of Entertainment Rewired

Almost everyone has seen the classic 1979 film The Amityville Horror.  It came out fresh off the tidal wave of attention given to the actual haunting that affected a man, George Lutz, his wife and children.  If you were alive during that time, then you know the story:  a family fled the house after living their for only 28 days.  During their stay, bizarre phenomenon nearly drove them insane.  World renown investigator Ed Warren came in to investigate.  Since then, other investigators have come in such as Hans Holzer, John Zaffis and others.

George Lutz came to speak at Penn State this October.  Not only do I run an online webzine, but I have a strong interest in the paranormal and therefore convinced the university to give us about $10,000 to throw an annual paranormal conference.  George spoke about the events.  He then announced a three picture deal well before any other news group reported it.

Having known George and talked to him from time to time, its the opinion of this lowly college writer that he genuinely wants his story heard.  He lived a terrible ordeal, and Hollywood found potential to tell a great story.  The trouble with Hollywood, as George later states in the interview, is that whoever controls the money has the final say.  And in this country, even the stupidest sonofabitch can be wealthy.

I've spent the last two weeks trying to piece together a big package story about The Amityville Horror.  Unfortunately, the studios haven't been that big of a help.  MGM at first had no knowledge that they were doing this film (way to go, guys), and Dimension eventually told us to talk to MGM since they were the domestic distributors.  Finally, I got a hold of someone at MGM who knew who I was supposed to speak with, and this was Friday (March 12), and needless to say, studio reps don't work on weekends (although they should).  Scott Kosar's rep was very kind and said that he'd be open to do an interview about the subject, but he was contractually forbidden to talk about the film until after it is released.  Calls to Michael Bay's production office weren't returned.  So what we have here really is a film in the very early stages.  Kosar's rep confirmed that he is currently writing the screenplay as we speak.  

Now, after talking to George and researching the material, I think it's safe to say that Kosar is putting together a draft that will likely be presented to George, Bay, and the studio(s), and then the discussion of legal rights between George's lawyers and the studio's will commence.  This can be very tricky, because it is possible for this film to sink due to legal issues.  I'm hoping this isn't so, because I honestly think the true story is much more interesting than that falling-into-a-pit-of-black-goo movie released in 1979 and its unrespective sequels.  But the truth is that all the legal entanglements don't look as if they've cleared yet.  At first, Dimension and MGM were going ahead with their own remakes at the same time.  But now they've merged to do only one.  

Keep checking Entertainment-rewired.com because we will be following this story very, VERY closely since we have a few contact sources (including George) on the film.




So there’s a rumor now that both Dimension and MGM are doing the film? MGM doing domestic rights? Did you have anything to do with this cooperation merge?

That’s what I’ve been told. I own the sequel rights for the Amityville Horror for everything after and before the 28 days that are contained in the original book. Cathy and I own those together. MGM believes that they have the right to make a remake of the original movie. There are a lot of legal difficulties to that, I’m not sure that they completely understand just yet. When Dino De Laurentis made the second movie, he violated our sequel rights in a fashion that caused a lawsuit that was 12 years long. (It ended up being a settlement). And, at that point, American International Pictures was then bankrupt; their film library was bought out by MGM. So that’s how they got the rights that they hold, in terms in being able to license them, etc. What happens with any contract is that, if you breach any part of it, you breach the whole thing. You don’t get to pick and choose which parts you wish to honor and which you don’t. So when they breached our sequel rights, there was breach of contract, notable enough to make a settlement for us. So in that process, our position is that they don’t necessarily have all the rights that they think they do.

So, Michael Bay was looking around for projects to do and it was announced in the trades that they had bought the rights to do a fictional movie that I had licensed. The first part of that deal was done 1 ½ years ago, the option that is. The Barstu Productions deal was done in May. When that was exercised, they looked around for financing and they continuously found better and better financing. So the ability to make a better movie surfaced. Dimension called us back in and asked to do a three-picture deal. So this last October, it then became an illusive three-picture deal. Then the people over at Michael Bay’s thought it would be better to do a remake plus two.

Have you met with Michael Bay and his production company yet?

We’ve had scheduling problems with Michael Bay and we’re trying to talk about this. I don’t have a problem with Michael Bay’s company; they’re kind of new to the equation in my mind on how to deal with this. We’ve been talking about me possibly helping out as being a consultant.

When did the idea to remake or rather, retell the Amityville Horror events come about? Were you approached?

I never had the right to retell the original. The 28 days would regard to my family. I’ve had the right to tell the story of the investigation of the house, but that hasn’t been done yet. There are a lot of stories there that haven’t been put on film.

Why did you decide to retell it?

My attitude about this is that anything that gets this in the public’s eye, that gets them to know the truth about this, to learn about it, anything that does that is a good and positive thing. I consider that to be very important.

Have you been working closely with screenwriter Scott Kosar? What is he doing differently?

As my understanding, that’ll be part of the meeting that we have in the upcoming week and a half or so.

If they do have the right to do this, then they’re limited to the 28 days and to the wording in the book. The original screenplay limits them as such so that they’re options to retell the story become pretty much line-by-line of the original. In other words, they have a very narrow definition of what they can do.

Would you like them to tell the true version of the events?

That’s something I’d very much like to see happen of course, the 28 days happening realistically. If we can get that to happen that would be wonderful. The problem is that most people don’t understand, that when rights are transferred for movies, you don’t have creative controls, the people who put up the money have the controls as to what goes on, how its depicted and the rest. And, it’s pretty rare for even a writer that has sold the rights from a book to be a movie, for them to ultimately be happy on what was transferred to screen. If you don’t put up the money, you don’t get the say. It’s a hard reality. That’s the way it is.

What’s the production status right now? Just waiting for the script?

It’s my understanding that he [Kosar] is writing right now. I try not to get involved in all that because it’s not my place is, I mean I’m always interested but I won’t interfere. These are busy people, and there’s a lot on the line in the investment.

So can you explain a little bit more about what you licensed to Dimension, and elaborate on the whole rights situation?

I licensed three fictional movies for Amityville. Amityville Horror is a trademark, as such to use the name, it has to be licensed. So they come to me and they ask me, and we come to certain agreements and it goes forward. When it happens, the people who put up the money have the ultimate control over it. We try to work with them so it’s not something totally off the wall and crazy. In the process, then, people find out that it’s a true story, part of all that fiction becomes education.

Who wants to believe that this stuff is even possibly true? I still don’t want to believe that this stuff happens. This is not the good stuff that life is made of. But I had to face this, and the fact is that other people are facing this as well. If someone watches one of the fictional movies and is motivated to learn more about the truth, then that’s a good thing. It becomes educational.

What’s funny is that Jay Ansen’s (the author of the book) original screenplay was much more accurate. The studio rejected it. The guy they hired was a dentist who wanted to be a screenwriter. They liked what he did and did his version of the movie. But Ansen’s is much more accurate.

    The Amityville Horror Truth Forum          The Amityville Horror Truth Website

© 2004 www.amityvillehorror.com all rights reserved.
"The Amityville Horror" is a registered trademark, unauthorized use is a violation of applicable trade laws.

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