Culkin Invited to 'Party'
By Dana Harris
(Daily Variety; 22 February 2002)– In his first film in eight years, Macaulay Culkin will star in Killer Film's "Party Monster," the sick and true story of 1990's party promoter and convicted murderer Michael Alig. Ed Pressman and John Schmidt's ContentFilm and Fortissimo Film Sales co-finance the pic, with John Wells serving as exec producer. "Party Monster" makes its market debut at the ongoing American Film Market in Santa Monica.

Budgeted under $5 million, "Party Monster" also will star Seth Green (Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me") and will begin production in Gotham in mid-April. Pic will be the feature writing and directorial debut of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, whose documentary credits include "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," as well as their doc on Alig, also called Party Monster.

Killer has long pursued Culkin to portray Alig, a "club kid" and party promoter who rose to prominence in the early 1990's. At his peak, he had his own record label and magazine. He also was doing a lot of drugs and, as his addictions got worse, his party themes became darker and more twisted. Alig's saga reached its tragic crescendo when he murdered his drug dealer by injecting him with Drano and throwing him into the East River. The power he wielded on the club scene made him feel untouchable, so he didn't hesitate to boast of the murder. The press thought it was a publicity stunt until the body washed ashore.

Bailey and Barbato's script is based on the book "Disco Blood Bath," which was penned by fellow Alig club kid James St. James (to be played by Green). Pic is a Darkly comic take on Alig's life. "(Bailey and Barbato) have their fingers on a kind of zeitgeist that is kind of amazing, a pop culture sense that's like playing great music," Killer's Christine Vachon told Daily Variety. "They started following Michael Alig, when he was a busboy at Danceteria."

Killer, Bailey and Barbato have long wanted to produce the pic, but the subject matter made it a difficult sell. "When our deal was at MGM, we tried to get them to make it," Valchon said. "It was almost like we had to wait for Macaulay to grow up." Culkin's last feature role was in the 1994 "Richie Rich," but he received good reviews late last year for his performance in the play "Madame Melville," which was produced in both London and New York.

Killer's Vachon, Jon Marcus and Bradford Simpson will produce along with Bailey and Barbato's World of Wonder shingle. Killer's Laird Adamson brought the project to ContentFilm's East Coast head of production, Sofia Sondervan. She will exec produce along with pressman and Schmidt, as will Fortissimo's Michael J. Werner and Wouter Barendrecht.