"It was bait and switch," Grossman says. "He said, 'If you don't do this, I won't work with you.' He had a great deal."
Mullen tells a different story: that he brought credibility and interview subjects for the screenplay, then saw the whole project jeopardized by Grossman's absolute insistence that he direct the film himself.
"It was supposed to be that Darby was number one," Mullen says. "Then Darby became like number four on the totem pole, and the No. 1 priority was that Rodger could break into screen directing. He acted like it was his birthright, like it was given to him. It's a mess."
Now Mullen hopes that Grossman's film will never see the first take.
"I'm not trying to poison this thing, and no one's against him," he says. "It's just that no one thinks he can do it."
More than anything, Crash's friends worry that Grossman's film--like the Anders-Voss project before it--will turn what they see as an underground, rebellious movement into The Doors or The Buddy Holly Story. After Mullen's departure in 1995, Ghaffari got involved; she says she came on board because she read the script and knew it needed help--her rationalization being that as it was probably going to be made, it had better be accurate. And even without Mullen, Grossman still had one consolation prize: A small film company called Cineville had optioned the script, so he had potential backing and a real contract.
But eight months ago, the deal fell through--and brought Grossman's entire film to a screeching halt. One way or another, though, the director is determined to finish shooting before his option runs out in a year. This despite his conviction that he'll be sued by at least three different parties--Mullen, a producer at Cineville, and an independent financier--if he ever completes the film. He might be able to add a fourth name to that list: Bolles, offended by his characterization in the script, half-seriously says he might take Grossman to court if Secret is ever made.
"It shows me getting into a fight, and I've never been in a fight in my life," he says. "It portrays me in a vile manner. That script's not even bad-funny in a nihilistic/existentialist way."
Despite the naysayers, though, Grossman seems determined to forge on.
"I could've made three movies by now about two guys and a girl on a road with a gun," says Grossman, who grew up listening to second-generation SST punk. "That's not so hard...but that's not what I'm about."
On the bright side, Grossman claims many of Hollywood's Young Turks have warmed up to the idea of playing Crash on the big screen: He cites interest from Balthazar Getty, Steven Dorff, My So-Called Life's Jared Leto, and Joaquin Phoenix, but says that David Arquette (Scream's dim-witted Sheriff Dewey) will play Crash, though the actor hasn't officially committed. (A Web site devoted to all things David Arquette does mention the movie, though with the disclaimer "probably will not be made.") Anders, for one, isn't surprised about all the interest.
"Young people will be dying to dress up in cat-eye eyeliner and crazy haircuts," she says. "With these young stars, you can get your pick."
If you can ever get your movie off the ground. (Ironically, Anders says she was recently called by a producer about resurrecting her script.) But while everyone seems to disagree on the right way to tell it, few deny that Crash's is a good story. What the singer and his motley crew--drummer Bolles, bassist Lorna Doom, and guitarist Smear--seemed to personify was the immediate moment, a burgeoning, performance-art-like music scene that always seemed poised on the brink of destruction. It was fast, brutal, primal, and anti-everything, and not something initially created to be packaged, sold to, and devoured by much more than a small circle of friends. And even in trying to do so--in the middle of all the infighting, the potential lawsuits and the debates about "truth"--there's one fact about which everyone seems to agree:
Grossman: "If he could look down and see everybody scrambling to get a piece, he would be laughing."
Anders: "Wherever he is, he's laughing his ass off right now."
Bolles: "Darby would love it. He was into psychedelic pranksterism and mind control. He was a legend in his own mind.
