Altman Page #4

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Cut. Print that.

So I get the documents together

and was trying to sell the house,

but then lngo came into the picture.

Lngo Preminger was a talent agent

that had a script he wanted to produce.

Lngo thought Bob would be perfect for it

after he saw a short film that

Bob had made about smoking pot.

Everyone in town had turned it down,

but Bob saw something in that

script that noone else saw.

I talked to lngo Preminger for two hours

and I said if you want to make

the picture I want to make,

I'll do it.

Here's what I want. Here's what I see.

And he said okay, let's go.

Fox did not want it to be a Vietnam thing.

The war was still going on in Vietnam.

So they did not want to,

the studio did not want to come

out with that kind of picture.

I don't think I would of

gotten away with this,

except Fox at the time had two

other war films going on.

So they were concerned about

those and I was aware of that

and I said I've got to

go on the back lot there

and keep a low profile

and not draw attention.

Let nobody pay attention to me.

Elliott Gould.

How do you do?

This is???? who is the cameraman.

How are you?

You'll be playing what, Hawkeye?

We were a little minor film.

We didn't have any stars in it.

I went up to San Francisco.

There was a theater company up there,

one of those improvisational companies

and I hired most of them

as incidental players.

Radar!

Yes sir.

Why don't you get ahold of Major Burns?

Tell him we're going to have

to hold a couple of surgeons

from the day shift onto the night shift.

To the surgeons,

we're sure gonna need them.

It was taking an ensemble cast

and doing it in a humorous way.

I think you will find these accommodating,

they're quite dry.

Don't you use olives?

Olives? Where the hell do

you think you are, man?

Dear God, protect our Supreme

Commander on the field.

Frank, were you on the

religious kick at home

or did you crack up over here?

I'm married, I'm happy, I love my wife.

If she was here I would be with her,

there is no question.

I wonder how a degenerated person like that

could have reached a

position of responsibility

in the army medical core.

He was drafted.

We had a script which

we used as a blueprint,

and as we would rehearse it would evolve.

If something occurred to

us that seemed to work,

we would do it.

Now when German starts coming

over here like he's hurt...

hey Scotty when he gets over to you,

we'll give you a spot and

you're going to say,

"For god sakes Gorman, this

is... get back in the game".

He says, "I've got the ball".

And then you say, "you've

got the ball, well run".

And then you say, "you've got

the ball, he's got the ball"!

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