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By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
John Woo, director of "Windtalkers,"
on location at Kualoa Ranch.

Struggle pays off
for ‘Windtalkers’
producers

---

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

WAILEA, Maui -- To those who don't know the difference between a grip and a best boy -- that's Hollywood talk for some behind-the-scenes people -- Alison Rosenzweig and Tracie Graham seem far removed from the stereotype of producers who can get a $100-million film made.

For years, the two women dreamed of getting "Windtalkers" in production. The John Woo-directed film stars Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach and Christian Slater and principal photography on Oahu is nearing its October completion. The film is scheduled for release next summer.

The film is about Navajo code talkers and their American military role during World War II. It was Rosenzweig's brother who a decade ago urged her to make the film.

"I told him it was a documentary, but he kept talking about it for years as a feature film," she said.

Two years ago, Rosenzweig teamed up with friend Graham in Los Angeles and they began talking about how to tell this story. After doing some intense research about codetalkers, Rosenzweig uncovered a startling fact.

"Code talkers had been assigned white bodyguards whose first priority was to protect them, but if the Navajo was going to be captured, they had orders to kill him," Rosenzweig said. "The code was far more important than the individual.

"The moment I read that I knew this could be a feature film."

Screenwriter John Rice, who is married to Graham, was not enthusiastic about the film. "I thought it was a hard sell; though I loved the moral dilemma from the get-go," he said.

Major obstacles were mostly the audience appeal problems: the number of WWII films being released and having Native Americans in lead roles.

"Could we have come up with any more strikes against us?" Rice said.

Graham and her husband "battled it out endlessly" about the idea. Numerous script changes resulted in at least 13 drafts.

"There would be days or nights when I would just say I can't talk about this right now, I need a break," she said. "But what we had in common was passion for the story."

"I liked the idea of having a war as a background for red man-white man issues," Rice said. "The more I thought about it, the more intrigued I became."

By this time, Rice's writing partner, Joe Bateer, was brought into the fold to help develop the pitch that would be made to directors and studios.

Rosenzweig can't hide her passion for the film's theme and characters, saying the genre is "far less important to me" than the relationship between two men with diverse backgrounds.

"It's a story of their growing friendship; basically a heterosexual love story" between the characters of Cage and Beach, Rosenzweig said. "Nicolas' character is psychologically wounded, emotionally unavailable and he finds a new appreciation for life through Beach."

Landing Cage for the lead was important not only for his commercial value but his ability to portray a tortured soul.

"He's perfect," Rosenzweig said. "He was always the No. 1 choice; the only actor we actually talked about doing this film."

Cage, who has worked with Woo before, reportedly liked the story so much he committed on the first draft, Graham said.

But Rice and Bateer say they didn't write the lead with Cage or any specific actor in mind -- though the Hollywood A list is pretty much the "C crew": Cage, Cruise and Clooney. What they wanted was an actor who could play a damaged leading man, Rice said.

"We had to have someone who can show he needs to work through something, in this case, his own redemption story," he said.

After months of perfecting the pitch, the writers began meeting with directors. "We did every dramatic beat; it was a live staging," Rice said. "We became the characters, reciting 25 lines of the strongest dialogue."

And Woo loved it, Graham said.

"He stood up in the room and clapped and said 'That's my kind of movie,'" she said.

Rice has written several screenplays about Native Americans, including "Lewis and Clark" and "Man of Honor."

The producers hired Navajo and military consultants to ensure the film's accuracy. Navajo consultant Albert Smith had volunteered at age 15 to enlist in the Marines -- lying about his age -- to be a code talker.

Research shows that as many as a dozen code talkers were killed during WWII but there's no evidence they died at the hands of their American bodyguards, Rice and Rosenzweig said. Information about code talkers and their bodyguards wasn't even declassified until 1969.

"It was all kept very secret for a very good reason," Rice said.

The film contains racist themes, although Cage's character is not a bigot, Rice said.

"He's just a man who follows orders and has gotten into a really tough spot," he said. "Cage is not interested in any friendship with the man he's guarding because the last time he got to know some guys his orders dictated that they were not going to make it home."

Rice said some changes in the original script, including the addition of several major action scenes, reflect Woo's vision.

"But he's been courageous to keep the essence of the writing," Rice said. "A big war movie is better than a small war movie."

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