Oregon State grad Mike Rich has found his niche in Hollywood

By Kevin Hampton
Corvallis Gazette-Times

BEAVERTON — The man on the phone had a Scottish brogue familiar to millions, but 9-year-old Michael Rich had no idea who this Sean Connery was or why he was calling for his dad, Mike Rich, who was in the shower.

Dutifully, Michael went to the bathroom and knocked.

“It was Michael and he said, ‘Dad, Sean Connery’s on the phone,’ ” Mike Rich said. “I knew he wasn’t lying because of the fact that he would have no reason to come up with that name.”

Rich threw on a towel and rushed to the phone.

It was, of course, the Sean Connery. It was the beginning of a new career for Rich.

When success finally found Rich, it happened nearly overnight.

For years, he wrote short stories in his spare time, serving as what he calls a creative release. He started during high school and kept up while attending Oregon State University.

After graduating in 1982 with a business degree, Rich was hired by KINK radio in Portland to do the morning show. He continued to write on the side and eventually tried his hand at screenplays in the mid-1990s.

The first few scripts were done through trial and error, mostly error. He struggled to write dialogue that seemed natural for the characters. He watched a lot of movies and read as many scripts as he could. Slowly, he began to develop his skills.

In 1997, he began “Finding Forrester.” It took about a year before Rich decided he had the final draft. He eventually entered it in the Nicholl Fellowship competition.

It was one of five winning scripts that year and Columbia Pictures came calling.

“There were a lot of great things that happened in a short period of time, within about two weeks where it was awarded the fellowship, it was sold, Sean Connery came on board as an executive producer and star,” Rich said. “So, as I like to say, there were a lot of two champagne bottle-nights during that time.”

Suddenly, Rich was part of Hollywood. He worked with Connery, director Gus Van Sant and the rest of the cast and crew.

But no red carpet was rolled out. That would come later.

There was a lot of work to be done and little time to do it. The movie started filming in April 2000 for a Christmas release. Rich spent time traveling to Toronto and New York and was constantly writing. He re-wrote the script six times.

“It was hard work. It’s tough re-writing yourself,” Rich said. “I remember asking Gus when will I be done with this script and he said, ‘When we’re done.’ ”

“Finding Forrester” opened up Hollywood for Rich. The offers began to flow in and Disney snapped up his next script, “The Rookie.”

The script, based on a true story, was about a youth baseball coach who found he had some life left in his arm and made a run to the majors.

When “The Rookie” had a solid showing at the box office, Rich not only had made a name as a strong screenplay writer, but he had found a niche in the market.

Sports movies.

Rich discovered a deft touch for writing movies combining sports themes with character studies.

Basketball was a base “Finding Forrester” was built on, but the film revolved around the relationship between Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) and writer William Forrester, played by Connery.

“The Rookie” and “Miracle,” the story of the United States hockey team’s upset of the Soviet Union and eventual gold medal win in the 1980 Olympic Games, were more straightforward sports stories, but Rich was able to weave the human element into both.

Rich also wrote “Radio” (2003) which starred Cuba Gooding, Jr. as a mentally disabled young man who helped out with the local high school teams and formed a close bond with the football coach. The script was based on a Sports Illustrated article by Gary Smith.

Using sports as a base for his scripts came easily to Rich, who said he knows a little bit about a lot of sports and is a fan, often making the trip to Corvallis for Oregon State football games.

“For me, from a writing standpoint and a storytelling standpoint, it’s just an interesting genre,” he said. “It’s very effective as a storytelling arena because there’s seldom any gray area. You either win or you lose. You succeed or you fail. I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m attracted to those stories.”

One that caught Rich’s eye was “Invincible,” the story of Vince Papale.

The Philadelphia Eagles held an open tryout as a sort of publicity stunt one year in the early 1970s, and Papale not only made the team but stuck for several seasons at wide receiver.

Rich was asked to re-write the script and use his skills to polish the original draft, written by Brad Gann. It’s a common occurrence in the business.

“Brad did the heavy lifting,” Rich said. “He interviewed everybody and found the story and really developed this wonderful structure and these wonderful characters and convinced Disney to make it.”

The movie is scheduled for release this year.

While Rich might get a shared credit with Gann, he did not get credit for his work on Miracle, despite writing the script that was used. Writers who have the original idea usually get the credit.

“The writer’s guild has pretty strict rules,” Rich said. ” ‘Miracle’ was kind of a different situation in that I hadn’t read the scripts beforehand and I kind of approached it as an original. The work that was on screen was much more representative of the work that had gone in. It’s kind of a tricky business when it comes to credit.”

Autographed posters of “Finding Forrester” and “The Rookie” hang on one wall alongside a framed article from Variety and newspaper clippings.

Hockey jerseys from “Miracle”, one Team USA and one Soviet, are spread out next to a small closet as if discarded after a long day on the ice.

A basketball from “Finding Forrester” and baseball from “The Rookie” are perched on the top of a shelf next to a few gleaming award statuettes.

This is Rich’s home office, or at least will be until the family moves into a new house in the near future.

Filling most of the cozy space is Rich’s desk, where he spends his writing time.

Rich rises early, eats breakfast and reads the paper before hitting the computer for about five hours of work. Then he pulls back and spends the rest of the time thinking about the next scenes.

Rich also looks through possible projects. He said he receives a list once a month of ideas, most sparked by books or magazine articles.

“Some of them are just you shake your head and you go, ‘My goodness. Where is this idea coming from?’ But then you see little nuggets that can serve as a spark for a great movie,” he said. “Sometimes I can spot them and sometimes I can’t. You see a movie like ‘Hotel Rwanda’, for example. I never would have thought of that one, but you see these guys that are able to go with that nugget of an idea.”

He also wants to feel comfortable taking on a script. There have been opportunities that Rich passed on that have worked for other writers, such as “Madagascar.”

Once he decides to take on a project, the writing begins. With a book, that means condensing the material. Magazine articles often need expansion.

Then there are ideas that need different research, such as “Speed Racer,” Rich’s current project. The idea is to make a live action movie based on the cartoon series. Rich is working with actor Vince Vaughn, who is also one of the executive producers of the film.

Rich typically prefers working on his own, but he has met with Vaughn frequently to find the perfect direction for the script.

“I’ll go down and the guy is so smart and so quick and so insightful,” Rich said. “He’ll sit there and there’ll be a scene on the page and he’ll go, ‘All right, let’s read through this. I’ll be Speed. Mike, you be Pops.’ And you read it and when you’re reading it out loud, things will pop out or you’ll get a feel for something or an idea will (grow).”

Rich’s main task as a screenplay writer is to produce dialogue that is both witty and natural for the characters.

It was a struggle at first, but he finally realized he needed to concentrate on each character to learn who they are and where they are headed.

“And I find that the more I know these characters, the more they’ll just talk for me,” he said. “You have to have the ability to almost see the movie in your head and hear it in your head.”

Seeing the movie when it’s done can be a strange experience for Rich.

He is familiar with every line and has a tendency to anticipate the audience’s reaction.

“It’s great when they laugh at something you wanted them to laugh at,” he said. “But I’ve been surprised when they’ve laughed at things harder than I thought they would.”

He said director Cameron Crowe did not realize the phrase “Show me the money” would be the big line from “Jerry Maguire.” For “Finding Forrester,” it was a line he overheard Connery utter.

Connery was sitting with some of the young actors from the movie at lunch. He was wondering why calling someone “dog” wasn’t derogatory. When they assured him it was a good thing, Connery said, “You’re the man now, dog.”

“So he said it right at that moment and everybody laughed and we both kind of knew we had to find a place to put that in the movie,” Rich said. “We were already filming and popped that in.”

Rich has had the opportunity to work with actors such as Connery, Harrison Ford, Kurt Russell and Dennis Quaid as well as some top directors.

Yet his turn on the red carpet comes only when the script has been made into a movie and it’s time for the premier.

He might give an interview or two and get his picture taken. It’s a brief moment in the limelight after a long process.

“A lot of people say, ‘Boy, you’ve got a glamorous job,’ ” Rich said. “On premier night, they’re right because premier night is the culmination of everyone’s work. You get a limousine to pick you and your family up and they drop you off and you walk the red carpet and you celebrate what you’ve done.

“But that’s like point-two percent of the experience. Most of the time, it’s a very solitary occupation. The majority of the time is spent with me in this room staring at that blank screen.”