Jack Nicholson: Blue Champagne

The road that follows the history of cinema is littered with the bones of movies that didn't quite make it to the finish line - all the way from unproduced treatments and screenplays to fully completed films that never saw the light of day. While it's something of a given that many a low-budget or independent film project can suffer this fate, it's not something exclusive to those without large resources at their disposal - even the involvement of the most powerful filmmakers and movie stars can't guarantee that a production in trouble can be saved from cinematic oblivion.

Jack Nicholson is no exception to this rule, by any means. In the early 1990s, he was truly one of the greatest movie stars in the world, but there's an odd little entry on his filmography from this time involving a failed venture which few will remember, and far fewer have ever seen.

Rebecca Broussard

Following the commercial and critical failure of The Two Jakes in 1990 (along with the near-impossible and painful five-year effort it required to bring it to the screen at all), Jack still wasn't deterred from a role behind the camera. In August 1991, it was revealed that he was financing and co-producing an independent film by the name of Blue Champagne, which was intended as a launching pad for the acting careers of both his new girlfriend, Rebecca Broussard, and his daughter, Jennifer Nicholson. The cast included Jonathan Silverman (Brighton Beach Memoirs, Weekend at Bernie's) and Diane Ladd (Chinatown, Wild at Heart). 

Jennifer Nicholson

The film was written and directed by actor/writer Blaine Novak (They All Laughed, Strangers Kiss), with Jeff East (best known for his role as the young Clark Kent in 1978's Superman) both acting and co-producing. Two members of Nicholson's inner circle (known as the 'Jack Pack'), Alan Finkelstein and Richard Sawyer - associate producer and production designer, respectively, on The Two Jakes - were also on board.

Jonathan Silverman

Described by Entertainment Weekly as a 'psychological romance about a woman who can not control her vengeful jealousy', the film was shot under conditions of extreme secrecy from July to September of 1991, largely at Nicholson's own Mulholland Drive home (which was also used as a location in The Two Jakes).

In January 1992, it was reported by columnist Marilyn Beck that the editing of the film was near completion. In the report, Jonathan Silverman painted a compellingly strange picture of the film:

"It’s a weird piece. It’s bizarre and avant-garde ... I practically get to do love scenes with Nicholson’s entire family,” laughs actor Jonathan Silverman, who plays the husband of Rebecca Broussard (Nicholson’s real-life lady love) and the lover of Jennifer Nicholson (Jack’s daughter) in the film Nicholson produced. “It’s a story of revenge and hate and the power of women — and it's incredibly intense,” Silverman says. He adds that it contains love scenes “like you’ve never seen before. I don’t want to give too much away, but there’s one scene I have with Jennifer that, well ... it involves frozen bed sheets.”
- New York Daily News, January 17, 1992

Silverman also mentions that Nicholson wasn't on the set that often, as he was working on Man Trouble with his old colleague Bob Rafelson at the time, but that he'd been told that Jack watched dailies of Blue Champagne each day, and was pleased with them.

All seemed well - before they'd even finished editing, Blaine Novak announced a sequel, Love Me If You Dare, again starring Rebecca Broussard, that would begin production in June 1992. It was described as "focusing on a man's affair with an abused woman and a turbulent brother-sister relationship".

Unfortunately, the positive buzz around Blue Champagne was quick to disappear. There had been screenings for prospective distributors in the second half of 1992 which led to nothing. It was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival, only to be rejected - then, after being recut and resubmitted the following year, it was rejected again. 

It was speculated at the time that personal matters may have been behind the film's troubles. Despite claiming to have been 'nerve-wracked' by having to perform love scenes with both Nicholson's girlfriend and daughter, it didn't stop Jonathan Silverman from embarking on a brief affair with Rebecca Broussard, who had become tired of Jack's own characteristic philandering. Nicholson and Broussard separated in the fall of 1992, although they were back together by early 1993, with Jack describing the split as "just a silly interlude". Naturally, gossip columns suggested that Nicholson was holding Blue Champagne back as a form of revenge against Rebecca for the affair.

By all accounts, however, the real truth was that the film was just a complete dud. A mediocre, unreleaseable movie that wasn't worth any more time, effort or money, despite having already cost $10 million of Nicholson's own money.

In July 1993, Nicholson's business manager, Bob Colbert, stated that, "The movie isn't finished, and we don't feel like finishing it. We saw what we had and don't want to go back and do more shooting." 

Reports emerged the following year (desperately fuelled by the film's director, Blaine Novak, it seems) that Blue Champagne might yet see the light of day, but the Nicholson camp was quick to squash them. One of Jack's advisers told the press, "I don't care what Blaine Novak is saying. The project is dead. It has nothing to do with the status of Jack and Rebecca's relationship. The movie simply wasn't worth finishing." 

So, that was that. The last anyone heard of Blue Champagne, in 1994, was that, "Reels of the rough print of the flick are gathering dust in the office of Jack's business manager and are expected to eventually go into the trash bin."
Twenty-six years later, with absolutely nothing from the film - no bootlegs, no still photos, not even a script extract - having ever leaked online or anywhere else, it seems that's exactly where the film ended up. 

Blue Champagne does have an entry on the Internet Movie Database, as do many other such unreleased obscurities, one which incorrectly reports it as a 1992 'video' release (suggesting straight to home video, which never happened). Oddly enough, however, the entry does include a rather obscure synopsis, credited to the film's writer and director, Blaine Novak: 

A man loses his wife to an indifferent bed. He is not sleeping with another woman but cannot make love with her. She abandons the marriage, leaving her husband to go back to his self destructive ways that, in the end, she hopes will kill him. As he searches for his poison, he finds a gun instead, puts it in his mouth and, just before he pulls the trigger, he wonders how it got there and who put it there so conveniently. 

There doesn't appear to be anything else to be found to indicate as to whether this synopsis, and/or its source, is authentic or not. Blaine Novak's cinematic career past Blue Champagne is non-existent, the most recent such news about him to be found is a 2006 report of his attachment as screenwriter to a film adaptation of a 1953 crime novel, Say It With Bullets - something which was never made.

The IMDB entry also has a review from 2005, of sorts, from someone who has actually seen the film, giving it a whopping 10/10, raving about its merits, and jam-packed with enough exclamation points to pose as a Donald Trump Twitter post:

Great Film Noir! Blaine Novak is brilliant! The first of its kind!After this film made the rounds at the film festivals,a lot of writers and directors stole from this film in the nineties! Great job! Novak should direct and write more! Jonathan Silverman fans should take notice if they can find this groovy little movie! Should of won some awards on its own merit!Every guy out there in the world should take notice of this film.The music of Louis Armstrong and Manhattan Transfer sets the tone of the film.Richard Sawyer's art direction is wonderful and the smoke that fills the screen will kill ya! Wish the film was a little longer I could get into the lives of Bob and Sam.

Hardly the most objective film review out there, given that the IMDB user credited with the review is 'jeffeast' - I think it's safe to assume that it's the same Jeff East who played 'Sam', and co-produced. At the very least, it does mention that the music of Louis Armstrong and Manhattan Transfer were used, so there are a couple more tidbits to add to what very little is known about the film.

Past that, however, it seems that everything else about Blue Champagne will, perhaps mercifully, remain a mystery.