What is reality? What is illusion? Just because you can't see something, does it mean it isn't there?
Seven year-old Albert (HALEY JOEL OSMENT) was raised in a shiny world of sequins and showgirls, surrounded by the magic and fantasy of Las Vegas. But when his single mother is suddenly killed in a car accident, Albert is sent from Vegas to live with his mother's childhood best friend whom he never knew existed, Harriet Franklin (WHOOPI GOLDBERG), in the decidedly not fantastic and not magical city of Newark, New Jersey.
As if raising a newfound "son" isn't trying enough for the fiercely independent Harriet, Albert has brought along a friend -- an imaginary one that no one else can see -- a stupendous, gentle giant of a Frenchman named Bogus (GERARD DEPARDIEU).
As Albert and Harriet struggle to get used to each other, Harriet's world of reality is brought face-to-face with Albert's world of imagination. While she grapples with sharing her one-person existence with this strange little boy who seems to talk to himself, Albert begins to rely more and more on his fantasy episodes, hoping to keep hold of the place he once called home.
Acting as part teacher, part playmate and part guardian angel, Bogus leads Albert -- and eventually Harriet -- through an enlightening experience of imagination and trust. Harriet ultimately discovers how to feel like a kid again (or maybe for the first time), and Albert grows to learn that there's more to love, friendship and magic than meets the eye.
Academy Award-winner Whoopi Goldberg and internationally acclaimed actor Gerard Depardieu star with seven year-old newcomer Haley Joel Osment in "Bogus," a heartwarming story directed and produced by NORMAN JEWISON ("Moonstruck"). Producing with Jewison are ARNON MILCHAN and JEFF ROTHBERG. The screenplay is by two-time Academy Award-winner ALVIN SARGENT ("Ordinary People," "Julia") from a story by Jeff Rothberg and FRANCIS X. McCARTHY. MICHAEL NATHANSON, PATRICK MARKEY and GAYLE FRASER-BAIGELMAN are the film's executive producers.
Rounding out the cast of "Bogus" are DENIS MERCIER as Mr. Antoine, who teaches Albert the intracies of magic, and NANCY TRAVIS as Albert's mother, Lorraine.
In addition to screenwriter Alvin Sargent, who wrote Jewison's film "Other People's Money," "Bogus" marks the second collaboration between the director and several other members of the film's key creative production team, including "Moonstruck" director of photography DAVID WATKIN, B.S.C., who won an Academy Award for his sumptuous imagery in "Out of Africa"; Oscar-winning production designer KEN ADAM ("The Madness of King George," "Barry Lyndon"), who worked with Jewison on "Agnes of God"; " . . . And Justice For All" costume designer RUTH MYERS; and "Only You" film editor STEPHEN RIVKIN, A.C.E. The music for the film is by MARC SHAIMAN ("The American President," "Sleepless in Seattle").
About the Production . . .
Producer/director Norman Jewison, who was supervised for much of his youth by two elder aunts because of his parents' time-consuming job of running a family store, readily admits that he, like Albert, had imaginary friends as a little boy. "I had dozens of them, all kinds, big ones, small ones, twins, triplets."
In particular, he credits one of his aunts, a schoolteacher, with stimulating his imagination and subsequently laying the foundation for his artistic life, first as an actor, then as a director. "She taught me to read at a very early age," he says. "I used to memorize psalms from the Bible and Robert Frost poems. Very early on, I learned the power of imagination. I began conjuring up my own imaginary worlds, worlds I could fill with imaginary people, places and games that would take me away from my real world."
Jewison is quick to point out, however, that his childhood was not an unhappy one. "Quite the opposite," he says. "The point is that children have a natural ability -- and the freedom -- to daydream, to imagine anything, to create their own belief system. At some time in their young lives, they inevitably look to an imaginary person or place to help them cope with their real world, to be a friend or safe haven when they need it most.
"That concept really is the essence of 'Bogus,'" the director continues. "It's a story about acceptance, the power of belief and the redemptive value of imagination as seen through the eyes of an innocent, loving little child who finds himself facing a very difficult change in his life . . . a new family."
According to Jewison, "Bogus" is one of his most personal films to date. He explains: "For several reasons, really. Not only because it recalls so much of my childhood but also for the fact that the film's themes are timely and socially relevant for the audiences of the '90s.
"It's a tough enough world out there for adults to handle, let alone children," says Jewison, proud father of three and grandfather to four. "These days, kids are faced with innumerable challenges and really hard decisions. It's unfortunate that they have to 'put away their childish things' so much earlier now. I think they end up stowing away their imaginations along with their toys, which inevitably limits their ability to see and feel so many exciting things in life.
"I had many reasons to do 'Bogus,"' Jewison says, "but it all comes down to the little boy's story. It's the most adventurous, most original one I've told in a long time."
Thelma and Louise?
"The genesis of this project for me started when I bought a new car," recalls Jewison. "I was thinking that I had never driven across America. So I called my friend, screenwriter Alvin Sargent, and suggested that he meet me in Buffalo and drive back with me to L.A., work on a rewrite of this script that I had acquired and see America at the same time. It quickly became two men doing a 'Thelma and Louise' together."
Their stops along the way included St. Louis (where native Canadian Jewison introduced Sargent to his first hockey game) and Las Vegas. It was there that they came up with the idea to set the beginning of the film in the fabulous Glitter Gulch.
"I've always had a bizarre attraction to Las Vegas," says Jewison, smiling. "It reminds me of a squashed orange in the middle of the desert. It's an American dream factory. Nothing seems real there except for the fact that you go there to lose your money so it can feel very real. It became the perfect place for young Albert to live, what with his fascination with magic, illusion and dreams. It also served as a natural counterpoint to Newark, New Jersey."
Six months after their departure in Buffalo, Sargent had finished his rewrite. But it was still a father-and-son story as it had been in Jeff Rothberg's original story. That is, until Whoopi Goldberg's name was mentioned.
"We heard that Whoopi was interested," says Jewison. "After Alvin and I batted around the idea of turning the role of the father into a godmother image, we had lunch with Whoopi and gave her our take on the film. By the end of the meeting, she was in. And a year later, we were shooting the film."
"I thought it was very funny that Norman and Alvin came and saw me in the middle of nowhere Arizona finishing 'Boys on the Side' to ask me if I'd be interested in this movie," says Goldberg. "I mean, if Norman Jewison asked me to hang by my nostrils from the top of some skyscraper somewhere, I'd say sure. And, God knows, no one in the American cinema would ever put me and Gerard together except someone like Norman. So, I thought, get it while you can.
"The film is about all those things that we let slip out of our lives over time," the actress continues, "and we don't even know they're gone until, suddenly, something happens and you hear a laugh come out of your body that you haven't heard for 25 or 30 years. It's really about being human, about holding on to that which is great and good in all of us and keeping ourselves open to great exchanges with each other."
Jewison discovered that his Academy Award-winning star had no lack of imagination, unlike her repressed on-screen character. "Whoopi was so supportive of the storytelling process. I think it stems from the fact that she started out in the theater, alone in the center of a stage, controlling the elements of her own unique stories."
Deux Enfants
By now, everyone is familiar with the old Hollywood precept about never working with kids or animals. Director Jewison clearly broke that unwritten law with "Bogus."
"I actually had two child actors to direct," says Jewison kiddingly, "one was a little American boy named Haley and the other was a big Frenchman named Gerard.
"This film is Albert's story," explains Jewison. "Without the right child actor in that pivotal role, the outcome would have been disastrous." The filmmakers auditioned kids in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Minneapolis and Chicago. After screening hundreds of hopefuls, they chose Osment, who also appeared as Forrest Gump's son in the Best Picture Oscar-winner "Forrest Gump" and is currently one of the stars in the television series "The Jeff Foxworthy Show."
Jewison says, "When you're casting a child this young, it becomes very difficult because most six year-olds don't have an extensive body of work to examine. We finally got to a point where we had to make a leap of faith, take a chance and hope that we had found the right one.
"I honestly don't think we could have found anyone more imaginative than Haley," says Jewison, "or more sensitive to the demands of the role. And that face . . . a great little face to photograph . . . so wistful, so lovable."
"I had a lot of fun and everybody was really nice to me," says Osment. "Whoopi always made me laugh, and Gerard taught me some French words. My best friend was my stand-in, Ryan Henry.
"I turned seven years old when we were shooting in New Jersey, and they had a big birthday cake for me," he remembers. "The most fun about making the movie was getting to learn all the magic tricks, and when I got to swordfight with Gerard."
Director Jewison smiles when he recalls that swordfight sequence, which was filmed over several days in Toronto's High Park.
"It was remarkable," says Jewison. "It reminded me of recess on a playground. Seeing Gerard Depardieu -- France's national treasure, cinema's Cyrano de Bergerac, a man with 96 feature films to his credit -- swordfighting, running around and playing 'Falling the Best' and 'Cowboys and Indians' with Haley. It was priceless to see him completely and naturally become this seven year-old's playmate and confidant.
"And contagious, too," says Jewison. "The more I blocked and rehearsed that sequence, the more I found myself rolling around the ground with the two of them."
Jewison notes that the role of Bogus -- whom the script describes as "big, stupendous, colossal, amazing, fantastic, magnificent, unbelievable" -- was written specifically for Depardieu. "Gerard is all those things and more," says Jewison. "We developed the project with him in mind. His sensitivity, his power, his warmth, his wonder and his imagination were all key to the essence of the character."
And how did the big "kid" get along with the little "kid"?
"Ah, he's the little prince, the little genius, il est formidable, il est brilliant," says Depardieu, in his now-improved yet still slightly broken English. "I learned many things from Haley . . . fresh things like naivete, courage, simplicity, honesty. He just does it, he listens, he feels."
For Depardieu, it was "a big honor" having the role of Bogus tailor-made for him, a part he says he "believed in."
"I was very proud to be part of this with Norman and Alvin and Whoopi," he says. "I believe in magic, in fantasy. I believe you should never forget to be a child. Yes, sure you must grow up and be responsible, but it is sad when you leave your childhood. As the script says -- 'imagination is a nice place to visit, not so good to live there.' Bogus let me be a child, let me go visit back there. C'etait extraordinaire."
On Location
"Bogus" began principal photography in Las Vegas, where the production was headquartered at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino for two weeks of shooting.
In addition to "The Trop," the film shot on location at the Mirage, Treasure Island, the Flamingo and Barbary Coast hotels and casinos, outside Jerry's Golden Nugget Casino, McCarran Airport and a mobile-home park overlooking Lake Mead. Las Vegas' Paradise Cemetery served as Lorraine's final resting place.
The filmmakers and many of the cast and crew also took the opportunity to attend several Las Vegas shows as research for the film, including performances by illusionists Lance Burton and Siegfried & Roy, as well as the Cirque de Soleil's "Mystere."
The next stop was Newark, New Jersey, where the production would be based for another nine days of shooting, including their day trip to Donald Trump's Taj Mahal Casino and Hotel.
Sites in the Newark/Jersey City area used by the production included Pennsylvania Station, the Mural Walk at the New Jersey Performance Art Center construction site and several streets, bridges and turnpike ramps.
The company arrived in Toronto just after the Easter holiday weekend and set up shop at the Showline studios, where most of the interior sets were built and housed. Across the street were the Cinespace studios, which was home to the film's fantasy sequences.
Exterior location sites in Toronto included High Park, the Orde Street Public School, Pearson International Airport and the University of Toronto's MacMillan Theater.
Regency Enterprises Presents a Yorktown/New Regency Production of A Norman Jewison Film: Whoopi Goldberg and Gerard Depardieu in "Bogus," starring Haley Joel Osment, Denis Mercier and Nancy Travis as Lorraine. The music is by Marc Shaiman. The film is edited by Stephen Rivkin, A.C.E.; the production designer is Ken Adam; and the director of photography is David Watkin, B.S.C. Michael Nathanson, Patrick Markey and Gayle Fraser-Baigelman are the executive producers. The screenplay is by Alvin Sargent from a story by Jeff Rothberg & Francis X. McCarthy. Norman Jewison, Arnon Milchan and Jeff Rothberg are the producers. "Bogus" is directed by Norman Jewison and distributed by Warner Bros., a Time Warner Entertainment Company.
