Alan Rickman to play Steven Spurrier in rival 'Paris Tasting' movie July 19, 2007
Adam Lechmere
Hollywood star Alan Rickman will play Steven Spurrier in a rival to the forthcoming film of the Paris tasting, decanter.com can reveal.
The actor - renowned for his portrayals of charming though sinister Englishmen - plays Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. He became an international star with his role as the evil Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
But Rickman is taking part in a film called Bottle Shock, which also stars Danny DeVito, and is a bitter rival to the Judgment of Paris, the official movie of the legendary 1976 tasting.
So incensed are producers of Judgment of Paris that they are considering suing their competitors, who they consider are mounting unfair competition.
Producers Elizabeth Fowler and Clark Peterson of Clear Pictures Entertainment own the life rights to Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher (his business partner in Paris in the 70s), and rights to George M Taber's book The Judgment of Paris, the official story of the 1976 Paris Tasting.
Fowler told decanter.com they are consulting their lawyers 'regarding filing a lawsuit against the production of Bottle Shock.'
Their film is scripted by Robert Kamen – whose credits include the Fifth Element and Lethal Weapon. Bottle Shock has been commissioned by Jim and Bo Barrett of Napa property Chateau Montelena.
Fowler and her colleagues consider Bottle Shock has at best a cavalier attitude to history. The script allegedly makes no mention of Warren Winiarski, whose 1973 Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon came out top in the legendary 1976 tasting.
Meanwhile, Clear Pictures have mooted several different stars for the part of Spurrier, including Hugh Grant and Jude Law.
Other actors have been suggested for key supporting roles, including George Clooney for Winiarski. Producers were also looking to net Keanu Reeves to play Napa winemaker Mike Grgich of Grgich Hills.
Rickman himself is an Italian wine fan - Spurrier and he have met before, having stayed at Montalcino property Castello di Argiano at the same time.
Spurrier said Rickman called him to tell him he would be playing him in Bottle Shock.
'Knowing that the script described me as “an impossibly effete young Englishman”, I wished him the best of luck,' he said.
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Let's hope the script writers and the director ad at least as much fun to either of these movies as their counterparts did in "Sideways". The story of the Paris Tasting certainly has both enough humor and intrigue to make a great movie. It looks like both projects are moving along in the right direction thanks to the producers seeking out such great talent as those mentioned in your story.
For those of us that were around Napa and Sonoma making wine in the late 70's the Paris Tasting was as great a shock to us as it was the French, well, maybe not quite as much. I had started making wine in Berkeley in 1972, then an incubator town for young winemakers and foodies, such as Alice Waters and Narsi David. Northern California was in a renaissance of food and wine that would transform the cuisine of the entire country. Alfred Peet started Peets coffee (the first American coffee roaster to make a dark roast) around the corner from Alice Water's Chez Panisse, Artisan bakery (a multiple year winner of the French Bread bake-off in Paris) began down the street and the Berkeley Cheese Board brought in cheeses from around the world that many of us had never tasted spurring California cheese making to new heights. (California cheese will be next to win a French competition). The American chocolate truffle was being invented at Cocolat by Alice Medrich. Wine and the People, a home winemaker supply store and later on Berkeley's first licensed winery, was a meeting place for many budding winemakers, many now famous names.
What set Northern California food and wine makers apart then and still does is that we are a community. We share our knowledge and our passion. You could always go talk to Mike Grgich and pick his brain. Andre Tchelistcheff regularly attended gatherings at Wine and the People to talk shop and taste wine. I went up to Warren Winiarski ranch after hearing about him winning the Paris Tasting and talked him into selling me and my friend 2 tons of his Cabernet so we could make wine from this now honored vineyard. He invited us in, opened some wine and made us feel at home. We picked our two tons and made some great wine, better than his, I thought at the time. He chastised us afterward for cherry picking the vineyard. We picked just the perfectly ripe fruit and left the others. We were a bit ahead of our time.
The spirit given birth in those heady days of the late 70s in Berkeley and the wine country of northern California live on today. It's why there are no better wines in the world than California wine. It will be a great treat to see it's infancy celebrated in either or both of these movies.
Robert Rex, Deerfield Ranch Winery, USA
Your article is generally very interesting but the use of the locutions "the official film" and " the official story" are a classic example of thoughtlessly irresponsible and misleading journalism, implying as they do that there exists some entity that might be entitled to declare a particular cinematic or literary account of an historical event to be the official one. Such a notion might make some sense in describing, say, a film version of the Russian revolution that had been sponsored by the Soviet government, but even here it would be only one official version, not "the" official one. Happy as your preposteriously gratuitous bestowing of this official status to the producers of the judgement of paris film may make them, I predict it gets them nowhere in their efforts to suppress the right, which anyone else certainly has, to treat the same event in their own fashion.
william randolph, kansas city, USA
Robert Rex wrote, 'It's why there are no better wines in the world than California wine.' Thanks for further reinforcing the American stereotype of boastfulness. California produces some great wines, yes, but don't bruise yourself by patting yourself on the back too much. A blanket statement like that is ludicrous, irrespective of your own personally deemed provenance.
Chick Wells, Atlanta, GA, USA
In your article you state that, “Bottle Shock has been commissioned by Jim and Bo Barrett of Napa property Chateau Montelena.” Is that speculation or fact? Although the narrative story of Bottle Shock is build around the father-son relationship of Jim and Bo Barrett and their 35+ year winemaking partnership, I believe calling them the sponsors of the project is inaccurate.
It has been reported in other well-informed media sources that in fact Bottle Shock is the brainchild of Brenda Lhormer who, with her husband, Marc, have been the long-time Executive Directors of the Sonoma Valley Film Festival. Bottle Shock is to be directed by Randall Miller, who directed the film "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School," which opened the Sonoma Valley Film Festival in 2006.
Joel Coleman-Nakai, Napa, CA, USA
For official list of persons involved in Bottle Shock, go to the Internet Movie Data Base, www.imdb.com and search Bottle Shock.
Ron Shelby, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
As one who has benefited from Hollywood's portrayal of the wine country (Sideways, Fox Searchlight, 2004), I am pleased to see this seminal wine event portrayed on the silver screen. But I think this niche market of movie goers only has sufficient thirst for EITHER movie, not both. Hence the lawsuit, I suspect. And Decanter's reference to the "Official" version, which I simply understand to mean the independent one, the one written by the only journalist who attended and recorded the tasting, George M. Taber. He authored the highly readable book on the topic that came out about two years ago, which coincided with the redux of the tasting last year.
However, since Bottle Shock was commissioned by the Barrett's of Chateau Montelena (a participant in the 1976 tasting), one wonders if their portrayal might not be a bit more fun and irreverent, self-serving though it's likely to be. Shall we put it to a vote?
Dave Chambers, Wine Merchant
Robert Rex suggested that a Berkley coffee roaster mad the first dark roast. Wrong! While a student at Stanford, I purchased dark roast coffees from an Italian gentleman who imported coffee and roasted it in North Beach in San Francisco. We used his coffee at the coffee shop built by students at the International Center on the campus. I was the student who found the coffee and pastery sources [Authentic Greek and Danish pasteries] and taught others how to use the espresso machines, make Turkish coffee, and make a half dozen other coffees.
On another note, I'll grant that some California Wines are absolutely as good as wines made anywhere else in the world - but not all California Wines are equal [which is true of all other wine regions].
Texas now ranks 5th among the states in wine production, and as with California not all Texas wines are equal. Some Texas wines can hold their own against similarly priced wines from around the world - including California. But don't take my word for it - do your own blind tasting. I'd be happy to suggest Texas wines.
By the way, there would probably be no French, Italian - or even California wine industry as we know it today, were it not for a Texan named T. V. Munson.
Bruce Anderson, Winemaker
Sunset Winery, Burleson, Texas
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Let's hope the script writers and the director ad at least as much fun to either of these movies as their counterparts did in "Sideways". The story of the Paris Tasting certainly has both enough humor and intrigue to make a great movie. It looks like both projects are moving along in the right direction thanks to the producers seeking out such great talent as those mentioned in your story.
