Catching Up With EOE Exec Producer Geoff Reiss
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| EOE Exec Producer Geoff Reiss |
With the start of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival today, EOE Exec Producer
GEOFF REISS, who is coordinating the festival for ESPN, spoke
recently with Television Editor Paul Sanford. The collaboration of ESPN and the
Tribeca Film Festival features the screening of 14 sports films, a panel discussion
and outdoor festivities, as well giving these films a high-profile platform.
Q: What is your favorite sports movie and sports movie character?
REISS: I totally claim the right to change my mind on my favorite
sports movie on a practically hourly basis. Like anybody else who loves this stuff,
you have favorites for different reasons at different times. My favorite sports
films run the gamut from “Raging Bull” to “Breaking Away”
to “Slap Shot.” I almost have to say my favorite sports character
is Oscar Madison just because he gives such a great portrayal of a sportswriter.
Q: Who are your favorite actor and actress?
REISS: You’d be foolish not to have ROBERT DE NIRO
on the list just because his JAKE LAMOTTA was how sports movies
get made. It’s hard to beat the TIM ROBBINS/SUSAN SARANDON combination
in “Bull Durham.”
Q: Who would portray you in the “Geoff Reiss Story?”
REISS: When I was at Spy (Magazine), we did a “separated
at birth” and they had me with JAMES SPADER. I’m
flattering myself there — somewhere between James Spader and DANNY
DEVITO.
Q: How many times a month do you attend a movie at the theater?
REISS: Not nearly often enough. If I’m lucky, I’m
getting out once in a month. I watch a lot of stuff at home. The last four or
five times I’ve been in a theater watching a movie it’s been at a
private screening thing just to look at something, not even buying a ticket. So
it’s a little bit different.
Q: Are you a Netflix.com, Blockbuster.com or TiVo person?
REISS: I am a TiVo/Amazon guy. I like to own stuff because I
buy something and it may take me three months to watch it.
Q: Having seen all the films at the festival, is there a theme
that runs throughout all of them?
REISS: They all touch on one or more different kinds of characteristics
or parts of ESPN that makes them fit and makes them kind of belong in the film
festival. They all center around an incredible collection of characters.
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Reiss Hopes To Catch A Non-Sports
Films Like “Napoleon And Me” At Tribeca
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Q: Is there a non-sports specific film you want to see during
the festival?
REISS: I’ve got a list of about eight that I’m going
to try to go see, ranging from a documentary on PETE SEEGER to
a feature called “Numb” to another feature called “Napoleon
and Me.” I’ve got 8-10 movies that I’m going to try to figure
out how to go see, and if I’m successful, I’ll go see one or two of
them.
Q: What has been the early buzz around the festival?
REISS: The early word I’m getting is the general volume
of the conversation around the sports films is a lot greater than they would generally
expect at this point.
Q: Having served as a Senior VP at ESPN.com, do you see the Web
site playing a bigger role in the presentation of the festival in the future?
REISS: There’s a great opportunity for us in subsequent
festivals to create short programs that can live both in Tribeca and ESPN’s
Web environment. We’ve gone from a point of basically signing this deal
and announcing this deal in the latter part of 2006, to three or four months later
having a festival that encompasses these 14 movies and a street fair. But clearly,
there’s a lot of room for growth.
Q: What topic or subject makes for a good EOE project?
REISS: It’s not about approaching it from a point of view,
“Hey, let’s go out and get us a basketball movie.’ It’s
about finding the best possible characters and the best possible storytellers,
and it’s going to be that way for anything we’re involved in. We don’t
sit around and think, “Gosh, we haven’t done a basketball thing in
a long time.”
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