Ed Harris Plans Pollock Role

Two of three films to be based on biographies of Jackson Pollock are no closer now to the big screen than they were two years ago. But the third, based on Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith's 1989 Pulitzer Prize-winning "Jackson Pollock: An American Saga," has a star committed to playing the lead and financial backing from a well-known South Fork resident.

Ed Harris, the Hollywood actor who is known for "Apollo 13," "Nixon," and "Glengarry Glen Ross" among other films, told The Star last week that, after years of seeing the project take tiny steps, Peter M. Brant, a founder of the Bridgehampton Polo Club and chairman of Interview magazine, had agreed to provide the financing. Mr. Harris said he was ready to play the pioneering Abstract Expressionist, to whom he bears a more than passing resemblance. He also noted that a new screenwriter, Susan Emschwiller, had begun work on the script.

"We have a very strong project here, and we're moving steadily ahead," said Mr. Harris.

Next Spring

Ms. Emschwiller is a daughter of Edward Emschwiller, a video artist and filmmaker. Mr. Brant, who has a house in Montauk, is a partner in Brant Allen Films, which backed the acclaimed film biography of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Mr. Brant, reached at his office in Connecticut, said the script was expected to be finished this summer and that production could begin by next spring. He said some filming would definitely take place in Springs, where Mr. Pollock spent several summers and then lived year-round for the last four years of his life.

Mr. Harris explained that he had taken a copy of the biography shortly after it was published to James Trezza, a New York City art dealer, and convinced him to option the book for a film. It would have been his first foray into the industry.

Recent Visit

Two years ago, Mr. Trezza said that Barbara Turner, who wrote the screenplay for "Georgia," had completed a script focusing on the last 15 years of Mr. Pollock's life, and that Jennifer Jason Leigh, who played leading roles in "Backdraft," "Dolores Claiborne," and "Georgia," would play Ruth Kligman, the only survivor of the 1956 car crash on Fireplace Road in Springs that killed Mr. Pollock and another woman passenger.

Mr. Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner, lived nearby, part of a group of artists and writers who found the hamlet both congenial and inexpensive after World War II. The couple's house and studios overlooking Accabonac Harbor are preserved now as the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center.

Ms. Emschwiller is rewriting Ms. Turner's treatment, said Mr. Brant. She visited the Pollock-Krasner House in April and Mr. Harris said he would visit here soon.

Whether or not Ms. Leigh will be in the film was uncertain this week. Mr. Brant said only the lead was definite so far, to be filled by Mr. Harris, and that casting would not start until after the summer.

Krasner Role

As to the part of Ms. Krasner, a renowned artist who failed to gain recognition until after her husband's death, Frances McDormand, who won an Oscar this year for her role in "Fargo," has been mentioned.

Mr. Harris confirmed he had been after the Pollock role for years, and said he was more optimistic than ever now that the project was nearing production.

"I'm not going to put a timetable on it because it takes years and years to make a film, but we are in real good shape," he said.

Legal Battle

Mr. Harris is most often cast as a good guy with a bad temper. Mr. Pollock's kindest acquaintances say he was "touching" when sober. Others, including the "American Saga" authors, describe the painter as a tormented person who turned nasty when drunk.

The dispute over just how complicated a personality Mr. Pollock was became a factor in a $1 million counter-suit brought by the biographers against Jeffrey Potter, the East Hampton-based author of "To a Violent Grave," after Mr. Potter sued them for alleged "misappropriation of material."

The suits were settled out of court.

A compilation of interviews with many friends, contemporaries, and foes of Mr. Pollock and his wife, Mr. Potter's book was criticized by Mr. Naifeh and Mr. Smith as romanticized. Mr. Potter, in turn, called theirs harsh and sensationalized, and said there was no truth to their implication that Mr. Pollock struggled with homosexuality.

Still Possible

Mr. Potter's book was optioned by Barbra Streisand's Barwood Films, which was to work with Columbia Pictures and Robert DeNiro's Tribeca Productions. That option expired last year.

Mr. Potter, who spends summers in Nova Scotia, said last week that Rocking Horse Productions now held the option. Gene Davis, brother of the late actor Brad Davis, and his wife, Penny Perry, a casting agent, are the principals of the company. They are said to be pursuing a production as well.

The third project, seemingly in last place in the race to put Jackson Pollock's life on film, would be based on Ruth Kligman's 1974 "Love Affair." Al Pacino, the most recent holder of the rights to her book, reportedly has allowed them to lapse.

Driving Force

Meanwhile, Mr. Brant said he agreed to back Mr. Harris's project after seeing the successful actor "was doing his own research and quarterbacking" - much like Julian Schnabel, an artist and friend of the late Jean-Michel Basquiat.

"Ed is spending a lot of time on this, his own time, and that's why we're so encouraged. That collaboration, with us on the business end and him as the driving force, is the formula that will make it work," said Mr. Brant.