Just a couple of minor comments regarding your Bonnie and Clyde DVD review :
you didn't mention Gene Wilder in the interviews - is he not included? Also you
mentioned Faye Dunaway's error in calling Warren Beatty the first actor-producer
and Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, etc having their own production companies much
earlier. Actually, you could go even further back and trace actor-producers
clear into the 1920's with Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks
leading the pack. This crew along with Buster Keaton and Roscoe Arbuckle
co-wrote and often co-directed many their own films, too. Just a
thought..
Bill Shaffer
Topeka, Kansas
CR: Bill, very good point. In fact, Chaplin, Fairbanks and Pickford had enough independence and clout to start their own studio, United Artists. Yet, by the time the 1950s rolled around, the other major studios did everything they could to discourage actors from acting independently as producers and directors. They feared that they would eventually become too powerful and not be held under the thumb of studio moguls. Their fears were well-founded. Not only did actors begin to control their own destinies, they also used their production companies to make socially relevant films that the major studios wouldn't touch. In the case of Kirk Douglas, he broke the Hollywood blacklist by hiring Dalton Trumbo for the screenplay for Spartacus and giving him screen credit under his own name. Today, studio moguls are extinct and the real power lies in the hands of actors with their own production companies.
As for your other question regarding the Bonnie and Clyde DVD, Gene Wilder is the only major participant who is conspicuoulsy not featured on the documentaries, though we don't know the reason why. These projects are generally put together under very aggressive deadlines and Wilder may simply have not been available.