[Cz-L]Twenty Two Thousand Saints - From the horse's mouth...

Meine Lieben Czernowitzer:

Regarding the storm in the teacup in the Romanian press announcing that
Dustin Hoffman is Jewish and that his parents are from Romania and that
he has signed up to play Popovici in our film, Romanian journalists are
highly imaginative.

I will copy here the press release that I had sent out in January which
snowballed into this mountain of misinformation. One doesn’t send out
such releases so early in the game but I was hoping to find another
co-producer and that part of the release, as well as other meaningful
parts, may have got lost in translation.

If any of you lived in America between 1957 and 1962 you may remember
Jack Parr on the Tonight Show and a little routine they frequently
played in which they would bring out Jose Melis, Jack’s musical
director, who had a thick Latin accent. Jack would tell Jose a joke
which Jose would retell in Spanish to a Berlitz teacher who would in
turn tell it in German or Czech to another teacher who would tell it to
another fellow in yet another language who then would retell it to Jack
in English and, of course, there was nothing left in the joke that
related to the original.

I note in the Romanian text of the Hoffman-Popovici story that Reuters
is credited as the source. That’s very interesting since I didn’t send
it to Reuters. But Reuters may have a stringer in Romania who received
it from me or from one of the sources to which I’d sent the release.
Reuters, as most of you doubtlessly know, is a famous, independent, 150
year old news service which surprised many in journalism back in 2007 by
selling 53% of itself to the Thompson publishers which provide financial
information to banks and financial institutions. Thompson, a Canadian
company, had a chain of ma & pa newspapers as well as some big ones but
sold them and got into financial info which I hope sticks more to facts
than their folks in Romania just did or their subscriber banks and
financial institutions will be led down a garden path.

Yes, Dustin is Jewish and his parents may be from Romania. For all I
know, they may be from Cz. I had no intention of approaching Dustin or
his agents before I had a completed screenplay to show him and nothing
in my press release stated that he had committed to play Popovici.

No one, in fact, will play Popovici because the film’s story takes place
in the present - we will hear stories about him from a Romanian
historian and from Holocaust survivors who survived because of Popovici.
Hardy, in his own confusion, showed great concern about Dustin shaving
his head in an impersonation of Popovici. But this is an interesting
idea and, if we do get Dustin, I’ll try to persuade him to shave his
head for the role since he is in reality ten years too young for the
role I have in mind and a bald head would help age him and give him an
entirely new look.

If you go to Google and type in “Hoffman, Romania, Popovici,” you will
find basically the same story in Romanian and English and German in
countless publications and websites with the same misinformation – a
mother lode of free press which is of no help to the project at this
point. My own projection of getting into production before the end of
the year is unrealistically optimistic so we might all relax and go back
to nice exchanges of Czernowitzer recipes, genealogy and travel tips.

Here is the original release:
 
-----
“Twenty Two Thousand Saints”
In Development by Veni Vici Entertainment
to Film in Romania, the Ukraine & Israel
 
Toronto- based Veni Vici Entertainment Inc is developing a feature
length docudrama focused on Traian Popovici, the man known as Romania’s
Schindler, who saved sixteen times as many lives as Schindler did.

In the film a number of Holocaust survivors who survived thanks to
Popovici are united when they come to Romania for the unveiling of
Popovici's statue. While there, they share their personal stories of
survival made possible by Popovici's courage. A cast of international
actors may be headed by Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman.

Popovici, son of a Romanian Orthodox priest, was mayor of Cernauti in
Romania, now Chernivtsi in the Ukraine. Shortly after his appointment in
1941, German troops entered Romania. On orders from Prime Minister
Antonescu, the governor of Bucovina created a ghetto in that city and
began deportation of town's Jews to an area in the Ukraine which became
a type of concentration camp from which few survived.

Disregarding risk to himself, Popovici protested to the governor and to
the Prime Minister that the Jews were vital to the city’s well-being.
His ruse succeeded and he was allowed to issue permits to up to 5,000
Jews in essential services. Popovici, however, continued issuing permits
totaling over 19,000 thus saving as many lives.

It cost him his job. More than twenty years after his death in 1946,
Popovici was honored by Israel’s Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the
Nations, the first Romanian to be awarded this distinction.

Yad Vashem has documented and honored over 22,000 heroic non-Jews in 44
countries who risked their own lives to help save the lives of Holocaust
victims during the war.

Andy Halmay, head of Veni Vici Entertainment, states, “The film pays
tribute to the heroic good guys of history who could not stand by when
gross injustice was perpetrated by evil forces during dark periods in
history.”

Veni Vici is in co-production talks with Vienna based British producer
Philip Moran. An Eastern European producer may be added to make up a
tripartite under the official co-production treaty between Canada and
fifty other countries.

A book of the same title, “Twenty Two Thousand Saints,” will be
published by Virtue World Press in advance of the film release.

The film is slated to get into production late this year and to be
released in 2012
-----

Andy

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
 Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
 in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
 the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
 or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
 an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
 searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Please post in "Plain
 Text" if possible (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).

To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/elist/lyris/leave.html

To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to:
owner-Czernowitz-L_at_list.cornell.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on 2011-03-06 22:07:00