The Paper
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{{Infobox Film
| name = The Paper
| image = ThePaperUK.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[Ron Howard]]
| producer = [[Brian Grazer]]<br>[[David Koepp]]
| writer = [[David Koepp]]
| starring = [[Michael Keaton]]<br>[[Robert Duvall]]<br>[[Glenn Close]]<br>[[Marisa Tomei]]<br>[[Randy Quaid]]<br>[[Jason Robards]]<br>[[Jason Alexander]]<br>[[Spalding Gray]]
| music = [[Randy Newman]]
| cinematography = [[John Seale]]
| editing = [[Daniel P. Hanley]]<br />[[Mike Hill (film editor)|Mike Hill]]
| distributor = [[Universal Pictures]]<br>[[Imagine Entertainment]]
| released = [[March 18]], [[1994 in film|1994]]
| runtime = 112 min.
| country = [[United States]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| budget = $6 million
| gross = $38,824,341
| amg_id = 1:131178
| imdb_id = 0110771
}}
'''''The Paper''''' is a [[1994 in film|1994]] [[comedy-drama film]] directed by [[Ron Howard]] that stars [[Michael Keaton]]. The movie depicts 24 hours in a newspaper editor's professional and personal life.
==Plot==
Henry Hackett is the metro editor of the ''New York Sun'', a fictional<ref>The real ''[[New York Sun (historical)|New York Sun]]'' closed in 1967, but the film version shares the same [[masthead (publishing)|masthead]].</ref> New York City tabloid. He is a workaholic who loves his job, but the long hours and low pay are leading to discontent. He is at risk of experiencing the same fate as his editor-in-chief, Bernie White, who put his work first at the expense of his family.
The paper's publisher, Graham Keighley, faces dire financial straits, so he has Alicia Clark, the managing editor and Henry's nemesis, impose unpopular cutbacks. Henry's wife Martha, a reporter on leave and about to give birth, is fed up because Henry seems to have less and less time for her, and she really dislikes Alicia Clark. She urges him to seriously consider an offer from Paul Bladden to leave the Sun and become as an assistant managing editor at the ''New York Sentinel'', a fictional newspaper based on ''The New York Times'', which would mean more money, shorter hours, more respectability...but might also be a bit boring for his tastes.
A hot story confronts Henry with tough decisions, deadlines and personal crises. He literally has to yell "stop the presses" to correct an injustice, while his star columnist, McDougal, is threatened by an angry and drunk city official named Sandusky that McDougal's column had been tormenting for the past several weeks. Their drunken confrontation in a bar leads to gunfire. And Henry's wife is rushed to the hospital at the end of a wild 24 hours.
==Cast==
*[[Michael Keaton]] as Henry Hackett
*[[Robert Duvall]] as Bernie White
*[[Glenn Close]] as Alicia Clark
*[[Marisa Tomei]] as Martha Hackett
*[[Randy Quaid]] as Michael McDougal
*[[Jason Robards]] as Graham Keightley
*[[Jason Alexander]] as Marion Sandusky
*[[Spalding Gray]] as Paul Bladden
*[[Catherine O'Hara]] as Susan
*[[Lynne Thigpen]] as Janet
*[[Jack Kehoe]] as Phil
*[[Roma Maffia]] as Carmen
*[[Amelia Campbell]] as Robin
*[[Clint Howard]] as Ray Blaisch
*[[Geoffrey Owens]] as Lou
*[[Jill Hennessey]] as Deanne White
*[[William Prince]] as Howard Hackett
*[[Augusta Dabney]] as Augusta Hackett
*[[Bruce Altman]] as Carl
==Production==
Screenwriter Stephen Koepp, a senior editor at ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, collaborated on the screenplay with his brother David and together they initially came up with "A Day in the Life of a Paper" as their premise. David said, "We wanted a regular day, though this is far from regular."<ref name= "Schaefer, Stephen">{{cite news
| last = Schaefer
| first = Stephen
| coauthors =
| title = New edition competes with small screen, too
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[Boston Herald]]
| date = [[March 27]], [[1994]]
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref> They also wanted to “look at the financial pressures of a paper to get on the street and still tell the truth.”<ref name= "Schaefer, Stephen"/> After writing the character of a pregnant reporter married to the metro editor (that Marisa Tomei ended up playing in the movie), both of the Koepps' wives became pregnant. Around this time, [[Universal Pictures]] greenlighted the project.
[[Image:Paper1.jpg|left|thumb|260 px|[[Michael Keaton]] as Henry Hackett confers with director [[Ron Howard]] and [[Glenn Close]] as Alicia Clark.]]For his next project, Ron Howard was looking to do something on the newspaper industry. [[Steven Spielberg]] recommended that he get in touch with David Koepp. Howard intended to pitch an idea to the writer who instead wanted to talk about how much he loved the script for ''[[Parenthood]]''. The filmmaker remembers, “I found that pretty flattering, of course, so I asked about the subject of his work-in-progress. The answer was music to my ears: 24 hours at a tabloid newspaper."<ref name= "Arnold, Gary">{{cite news
| last = Arnold
| first = Gary
| coauthors =
| title = Tabloid press gets the Ron Howard touch in ''The Paper''
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[Washington Times]]
| date = [[March 27]], [[1994]]
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref> Howard read their script and remembers, “I liked the fact that it dealt with the behind-the-scenes of headlines. But I also connected with the characters trying to cope during this 24-hour period, desperately trying to find this balance in their personal lives, past and present.”<ref name= "Uricchio, Marylynn">{{cite news
| last = Uricchio
| first = Marylynn
| coauthors =
| title = Opie’s Byline: ''Paper'' Director Ron Howard was drawn to Keaton’s Style, Newsroom’s Buzz
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]
| date = [[March 25]], [[1994]]
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref>
To prepare for the film, Howard made several visits to the ''[[New York Post]]'' and ''[[New York Daily News|Daily News]]'' (which would provide the inspiration for the fictional newspaper in the film). He remembers, “You'd hear stuff from columnists and reporters about some jerk they'd worked with...I heard about the scorned female reporter who wound up throwing hot coffee in some guy's crotch when she found out he was fooling around with someone else."<ref name= "Kurtz, Howard">{{cite news
| last = Kurtz
| first = Howard
| coauthors =
| title = Hollywood's Read on Newspapers; For Decades, a Romance With the Newsroom
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[Washington Post]]
| date = [[March 27]], [[1994]]
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref> It was these kinds of stories that inspired Howard to change the gender of the managing editor that Glenn Close would later play. The casting of Michael Keaton also injected more humor into the screenplay.
Howard met with some of the top newspapermen in New York, including former Post editor [[Pete Hamill]] and columnists [[Jimmy Breslin]] and [[Mike McAlary]] (who inspired Randy Quaid’s character in the movie). They told the filmmaker how some reporters bypass traffic jams by putting emergency police lights on their cars (a trick used in the movie). Hamill and McAlary also can be seen in cameos.
Howard wanted to examine the nature of tabloid journalism. "I kept asking, 'Are you embarrassed to be working at the New York Post? Would you rather be working at the Washington Post or the New York Times?' They kept saying they loved the environment, the style of journalism.”<ref name= "Kurtz, Howard"/> The model for Keaton’s character was the Daily News' metro editor [[Richie Esposito]]. Howard said, “He was well-dressed but rumpled, mid-to-late 30s, overworked, very articulate and fast-talking. And very, very smart. When I saw him, I thought, that's Henry Hackett. As written."<ref name= "Arnold, Gary"/>
The director also was intrigued by the unsavory aspect of these papers. "They were interested in celebrities who were under investigation or had humiliated themselves in some way. I could see they would gleefully glom onto a story that would be very humiliating for someone. They didn't care about that. If they believed their source, they would go with it happily.”<ref name= "Kurtz, Howard"/>
In addition to being influenced by [[Ben Hecht]] and [[Charles MacArthur]]’s famous stage play ''[[The Front Page]]'', Howard studied old newspaper movies from the 1930s and 1940s. Howard said, “Every studio made them, and then they kind of vanished. One of the reasons I thought it would make a good movie today is that it feels fresh and different.”<ref name= "Dowd, Maureen">{{cite news
| last = Dowd
| first = Maureen
| coauthors =
| title = ''The Paper'' Replates ''The Front Page'' for the 90’s
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[New York Times]]
| date = [[March 13]], [[1994]]
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref>
One of Howard’s goals was to cram in as much information about a 24-hour day in the newspaper business as humanly possible. He said, “I'm gonna get as many little details right as possible: a guy having to rewrite a story and it bugs the hell out of him, another guy talking to a reporter on the phone and saying, 'Well, it's not [[Watergate]] for God's sake.' Little, tiny - you can't even call them subplots - that most people on the first screening won't even notice, probably. It's just sort of newsroom background.’”<ref name= "Carr, Jay">{{cite news
| last = Carr
| first = Jay
| coauthors =
| title = Director Ron Howard goes to press with ''The Paper''
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[Boston Globe]]
| date = [[October 10]], [[1993]]
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref>
==Reaction==
In his review for the ''[[Boston Globe]]'', Jay Carr wrote, “It takes a certain panache to incorporate the ever-present threat of your own extinction into the giddy tradition of the newspaper comedy, but ''The Paper'' pulls it off. There's no point pretending that I'm objective about this one. I know it's not ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', but it pushes my buttons.”<ref name= "Carr, Jay">{{cite news
| last = Carr
| first = Jay
| coauthors =
| title = ''The Paper'' gets the story right
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[Boston Globe]]
| date = [[March 25]], [[1994]]
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref> Peter Stack of the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' wrote, “In the end, ''The Paper'' offers splashy entertainment that's a lot like a daily newspaper itself -- hot news cools fast.”<ref name= "Stack, Peter">{{cite news
| last = Stack
| first = Peter
| coauthors =
| title = Extra! Extra! ''Paper'' Really Delivers!
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[San Francisco Chronicle]]
| date = [[March 25]], [[1994]]
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref>
However, Rita Kempley wrote, “Ron Howard still thinks women belong in the nursery instead of the newsroom. Screenwriters David Koepp of ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' and his brother Stephen (of ''Time'' magazine) are witty and on target in terms of character, but their message in terms of male and female relations is a prehistoric one.” Kempley wrote this even though the paper's managing editor is a woman, one of its top reporters is a woman and the editor's pregnant wife continues to work on the paper's breaking story.<ref name= "Kempley, Rita">{{cite news
| last = Kempley
| first = Rita
| coauthors =
| title = Stop the Presses! Roll The Cameras! It's ''The Paper''
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[Washington Post]]
| date = [[March 25]], [[1994]]
| url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/thepaperrkempley_a0a41b.htm
| accessdate = 2007-05-08 }}</ref>
[[Janet Maslin]] was also critical of the film. “Each principal has a problem that is conveniently addressed during this one-day interlude, thanks to a screenplay (by David Koepp and Stephen Koepp) that feels like the work of a committee. The film's general drift is to start these people off at fever pitch and then let them gradually unveil life's inner meaning as the tale trudges toward resolution.”<ref name= "Maslin, Janet">{{cite news
| last = Maslin
| first = Janet
| coauthors =
| title = A Day With the People Who Make the News
| work =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher = [[New York Times]]
| date = [[March 18]], [[1994]]
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==External links==
* {{imdb title|id=0110771|title=The Paper}}
* {{amg title|id=1:131178|title=The Paper}}
{{Ron Howard Films}}
[[Category:1994 films]]
[[Category:American films]]
[[Category:English-language films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Ron Howard]]
[[Category:Comedy-drama films]]
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