Sunday, August 22, 1999

From here to Hollywood -- a producer’s story

By Rodger Mullen
Staff writer

Jeffrey Butscher took a roundabout route to his career as a Hollywood film producer. After graduating from E.E. Smith High School, Butscher earned a degree in mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jobs as an actuarial mathematician and a real-estate agent followed.

Today, Butscher deals with actors’ agents and directors’ demands instead of raw rows of numbers. He’s completed two feature movies, has another in the works and plans for many more.

Butscher was back in town recently for a family visit. He brought along his 10-year-old daughter, Brigitte, who has had bit parts in her father’s movies.

Butscher is the son of June Lancaster of Fayetteville and Tom Butscher of Myrtle Beach. Butscher’s stepfather is John Lancaster, a former member of the Cumberland County Board of Education.

Butscher grew up in Fayetteville, graduating from E.E. Smith in 1975. Although he’d been interested in acting, Butscher decided to study mathematics in college.

“At the time it seemed like if you wanted to get a good job, you needed to have a major that was applicable,’’ said Butscher, 42, sitting with his daughter in the living room of his mother’s home. “I wasn’t into being a starving artist.’’

After graduating from UNC in 1979, Butscher moved to Philadelphia to take a job as an actuarial mathematician. He worked for National Cash Register for seven years, taking jobs in White Plains, N.Y., Manhattan, Minneapolis and finally Los Angeles.

While in Philadephia, Butscher had his first taste of the movie business. He had a bit part in the 1981 John Travolta movie “Blow Out,’’ playing a paramedic who unsucessfully tries to revive a murder victim.

In Los Angeles, Butscher took a job selling real estate, and dabbled in video and television work. One day about five years ago, a wrestler named Wayne Eric Boyd came into Butscher’s office looking for help raising money for a film loosely based on his life.

Boyd was a colorful champion who earned notoriety through stunts such as bear wrestling. Boyd’s dream was to wrestle in the Olympics, a dream he never fulfilled, although he continued to try out for the team into his 40s.

Butscher was intrigued by the project, and signed on as producer. He set about the task of raising the $800,000 to finance the film.

“We were raising money as we were making the film,’’ Butscher said. “It was extremely hectic.’’

“One More Shot,’’ written and directed by Robert McNamara, was a fictionalized account of Boyd’s career. Boyd played the title role, a character called Brock Jones, and other professional athletes rounded out the cast.

“It’s a ‘don’t give up on your dreams’ story,’’ Butscher said. “This guy had some drug problems and some alcohol problems and he really overcame them.’’

The film premiered in Stillwater, Okla., in 1995, and played mostly in areas where wrestling is popular. Butscher said the film did well enough to repay its investors and turn a small profit.

Butscher was hooked on the excitement of making a film, and he wanted his next project to be a step up. He wanted to make a bigger-budget film using professional actors.

“The Adventures of Ragtime’’ was inspired by the story of a miniature horse that became a focus of controversy in 1987 when neighbors objected to its owner keeping it in her home. Standing just over two feet high and weighing about 100 pounds, the horse was smaller than some dogs.

The movie is a kind of equine “Home Alone.’’ Two bumbling crooks kidnap Ragtime, who proceeds to foil and outsmart the criminals the same way Macaulay Culkin did in the phenomenally successful “Home Alone’’ and its sequel.

Shelley Long of “Cheers’’ and Jay Thomas of “Murphy Brown’’ and “Mr. Holland’s Opus’’ star as the inept kidnappers. Justin Cooper, who played Jim Carrey’s son in “Liar, Liar,’’ is the boy who loves Ragtime and Perry King of “Melrose Place’’ is the boy’s father.

The movie was completed about a year ago, but Butscher and his partners weren’t satisfied and hired another editor to work on it. Then, one of the movie’s marketers wanted voice-overs added for Ragtime and Taylor, a dog in the picture.

“The Adventures of Ragtime’’ is now ready, and Butscher said he is working on a deal for a theatrical release.

“We’ve had estimates that it could make as much as $20 million,’’ he said. Not bad for a film that cost around $2 million to make.

Butscher said he learned a lot about the film business by working with professional actors -- both human and animal.

“Shelley Long was a real sweetheart. She has a reputation for being difficult, but she wasn’t difficult,’’ he said. “Jay was great because he was just nonstop funny.

“We didn’t really have any problems,’’ Butscher said. “Well, the horse got sick once.’’

Butscher is excited about his next project. It’s a comedy written by Tom Davis, who was an original “Saturday Night Live’’ writer and performed on the show with partner Al Franken.

“Hitting the Wall’’ is based on Davis’ own experiences as a successful young writer who had a career crisis in middle age. Butscher said former and current “Saturday Night Live’’ actors including Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Molly Shannon and Franken have small roles in the film.

The lead actor has not been cast yet, but Butscher said possiblities include Jeff Daniels, Michael Keaton, Christopher Walken and Bill Paxton. Davis is set to direct the movie.

“It’s basically about a writer who has hit the wall of middle age and all his passion and dreams have passed him by and he can’t get back on track,’’ Butscher said. “Everybody who’s a ‘Saturday Night Live’ fan will love the film and everybody who’s an adult will understand what it’s like to go through these experiences.’’

The film will feature flashbacks, vignettes and skits in the style of “Saturday Night Live,’’ Butscher said.

Looking beyond “Hitting the Wall,’’ Butscher would like to return to his North Carolina roots. He’s written a fantasy-adventure called “The Treasure of Pirate’s Cove’’ that is based on the history and folklore of the Carolina coast. He calls that project “a cross between ‘Goonies’ and ‘Back to the Future’ set at the Outer Banks.’’ And Butscher would like to make a movie that’s even closer to home.

“I’d love to do a film in Fayetteville,’’ he said. “This place deserves a ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ kind of film with very rich characters and a lot of drama.’’