Inside Man
At the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, Russel Gewirtz, an old friend of Daniel’s, approached him with an idea for a movie. He pitched him the opening and ending scenes, and Daniel was hooked. The only problem was that Russ hadn’t thought of the rest of the story yet. So began a year-long journey. Daniel sent Russ his favorite scripts for inspiration and, after tens of drafts, the final script was sold for a million dollars in a three-way bidding war. A few years later, Daniel and Spike Lee plotted to attach Denzel, Clive and Jodie to the film, and with that, Inside Man became the most profitable movie for Universal in 2006, also winning the AFI award for Top Ten Film of the Year. Not bad.
Novocaine
When Daniel read the Novocaine script he made a deal with the writer, David Atkins: if he found a film studio willing to let David make his directorial debut, he would produce the movie. So, over the next three years, Daniel ran around Hollywood trying to make that happen. After he attached Steve Martin to the film, the financing, Helena Bonham Carter and Laura Dern fell into place, and the final result was a film that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. The Novocaine set was Daniel’s first, but it wouldn’t be his last.
Righteous Kill
The story behind bringing Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino together for the first time on screen is a great one and one that Daniel’s happy to relay in person after you’ve been checked for recording devices.