The Player (film)
| The Player | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Robert Altman |
| Produced by |
David Brown Michael Tolkin Nick Wechsler |
| Screenplay by | Michael Tolkin |
| Based on |
The Player by Michael Tolkin |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Thomas Newman |
| Cinematography | Jean Lépine |
| Edited by | Geraldine Peroni |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Fine Line Features |
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Release date
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Running time
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124 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 million |
| Box office | $21,706,100 |
The Player is a 1992 American satirical comedy film directed by Robert Altman from a screenplay by Michael Tolkin based on his own 1988 novel of the same name. It is the story of Hollywood film studio executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) who murders an aspiring screenwriter he believes is sending him death threats.
The Player has many film references and Hollywood insider jokes, with sixty-five Hollywood celebrities agreeing to make cameo appearances in the film. Altman stated, "It is a very mild satire," offending no one.
Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a Hollywood studio executive dating story editor Bonnie Sherow (Cynthia Stevenson). He hears story pitches from screenwriters and decides which have the potential to be made into films, green-lighting only 12 out of 50,000 submissions every year. His job is threatened when up-and-coming story executive Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher) begins working at the studio. Mill has also been receiving death threat postcards, assumed to be from a screenwriter whose pitch he rejected.
Mill surmises that the disgruntled writer is David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio). Mill is told by Kahane's girlfriend, June Gudmundsdottir (Greta Scacchi) that Kahane is at a theater in Pasadena. Mill pretends to recognize Kahane in the lobby, and offers him a scriptwriting deal, hoping this will stop the threats. The two go to a nearby bar where Kahane gets intoxicated and rebuffs Mill's offer; he calls Mill a liar and continues goading him about his job security at the studio. In the bar's parking lot, the two men fight. Mill goes too far and accidentally drowns Kahane in a shallow pool of water, then stages the crime to make it look like a botched robbery.
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