The studio’s influence prevented “Good Will Hunting” from becoming an action film

July 14, 2024

Miramax

The 1997 awards season was shaping up to be surprisingly competitive in the early fall of that year. L.A. Confidential, Boogie Nights and The Sweet After were making big waves, while summer-closing films The Full Monty and Ulee’s Gold were likely to stay in theaters while everyone awaited the arrival of supposed heavyweights like Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, James L. Brooks’ As Good As It Gets and Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. But when James Cameron’s Titanic, an insanely expensive coin toss from a director best known for popcorn flicks, screened for critics and unions in early November, everything fell into place. The boat movie was a sure-fire Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director, As Good As It Gets had bagged Best Actor and Actress, and everyone else was jockeying for the honor of being nominated.

One film that no one expected, at least not as a nominee in nearly all of the major categories, was “Good Will Hunting.” A character study about a Boston “Southie” with a brilliant understanding of mathematics and a penchant for self-destruction, written by a couple of attractive young actors, it didn’t sound like an award contender. Nor did it seem like a good fit for director Gus Van Sant, best known for offbeat indie flicks like “Drugstore Cowboy” and “My Own Private Idaho.”

Even when Good Will Hunting was successful, the best chance at an Oscar seemed to be Robin Williams’ supporting role as a psychiatrist who saves Matt Damon’s title character from himself. That Damon and Ben Affleck could beat previous winners Brooks and Woody Allen in the original screenplay category seemed absurdly unlikely. But the script charmed Oscar voters, something that probably wouldn’t have happened if Rob Reiner hadn’t advised a rewrite several years earlier.

Good will, Beverly Hills Cop?

Good Will Hunting – Matt Damon and Robin Williams

Miramax

In a 2013 oral history of Good Will Hunting for Boston Magazine, Ben Affleck described how the script they sold to Reiner’s Castle Rock Entertainment was dramatically different from the film they ultimately made. According to Affleck:

“We had this idea of the brilliant kid and his friends from the city who was special and who the government wanted to get their hands on. And it had a certain ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ or ‘Midnight Run’ vibe, where the kids from Boston were constantly outrunning the NSA. We improvised and drank about six or twelve beers or something and recorded it on a tape recorder.”

What seemed like fun with a few six-pack abs wasn’t right for Reiner. Although he saw enormous potential on paper, the story desperately needed to be tightened up. If they were going to set this film in Castle Rock (which still exists today thanks to Reiner’s clever storytelling instincts), they had to figure out if they wanted to make an action comedy or a more intimate drama about a boy and his therapist.

Affleck and Damon had to choose a film and they made a wise choice

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Matt Damon Ben Affleck

Miramax

According to producer Chris Moore, Reiner gave Affleck and Damon an ultimatum:

“(Reiner said) ‘Look, in this script you have two movies, and the movies are fighting each other. There’s the thriller aspect of the kids from Southie disrupting the plans of the big government agency, and then there’s this really great character story about this math genius and his relationship with this psychiatrist. And we don’t think those two can live together.’ And to their credit, Castle Rock said, ‘You wrote a great script and you’re the stars of the movie, so we’re putting it in front of you. You have to pick one.'”

The guys eventually settled on the math genius and the psychiatrist, but the film was not going to be shot in Castle Rock. After studio bosses tried to push established names like Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio on the duo, they managed (with the help of Affleck’s buddy Kevin Smith) to sell the script to Miramax. And the rest is Hollywood history!

As for the action comedy version of Good Will Hunting, we got a glimpse of something similar thanks to Mr. Smith. And as for me, I’d be more than happy to get the gang back together for Good Will Hunting II: Hunting Season.