Luncheon offers peek at Kubrick film

Melissa Schorr

Thursday, March 11, 1999 | 11:03 a.m.

It sounds like the perfect plot for a dramatic picture.

A reclusive and notoriously picky filmmaker spends the last hours of his life perfecting his first work to be released in more than a decade -- then drops dead.

But this storyline is true to life.

Audiences at a private Warner Brothers luncheon held Wednesday at the annual ShoWest film expo were given a sneak preview of "Eyes Wide Shut," the last film directed by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, 70, who died of natural causes in England Sunday.

"The world lost a master filmmaker, and we have lost a great friend," Terry Semel, Warner Bros. co-CEO, told an audience of 4,000 film executives, celebrities and theater owners assembled in Bally's ballroom to view the studio's upcoming slate of films.

The excerpt, which was not a trailer but part of a scene lifted from the film, featured full frontal nudity from the waist up of husband and wife co-stars Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, who began kissing and caressing while the song "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" by Chris Isaak played in the background.

The words "Kidman," "Cruise" and "Kubrick" periodically flashed on the screen.

Semel noted that he, Warner Bros. co-chairman Bob Daly, Kidman and Cruise had watched Kubrick's final film cut in New York last week.

"We were blown away," Semel said.

"It is a fantastic, suspenseful story about a married couple's sexual obsessions. The performances are electrifying."

Semel noted that the film will be released with an "R" rating despite its highly sexual content.

John Monsport, marketing director for Loew's Cinemas, said he expects the film will be "a master's work."

"It's not for everybody," Monsport warned.

"It will draw a lot of controversy because of its sexual content."

Kubrick, who directed such classics as "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A Clockwork Orange," "Spartacus," "Lolita" and "The Shining," began filming more than two years ago.

Kubrick, famed for his meticulous work ethic, frequently called the actors back to England for additional shooting, forcing them to postpone or cancel other projects.

The film, taken from a novella by Arthur Schnitzler called "Traumnovelle," is reportedly about two New York City psychologists. Filmed under the utmost secrecy, all the stars were permitted to say during filming is that it is about "sexual obsession and jealousy."

The psychological thriller, scheduled for release July 16, will doubtless enjoy heightened attention in the aftermath of the director's demise.

The website eyeswideshut.com is currently displaying a screen of black with the words "Stanley Kubrick" in white lettering above the dates "1928-1999."

The Bronx-born director left the United States in 1961 for a self-imposed exile in St. Albans, England, north of London, where he rarely left his mansion.

Kubrick's most recent prior film was "Full Metal Jacket," released in 1987. Warner Bros. has released all of his films since 1972's "A Clockwork Orange."

Many were expecting the studio to put together a last-minute retrospective of Kubrick's work.

"We expected to see something on his work," Tony Monje, manager of Weatherford Theaters in Fort Worth, Texas, said, "but it's been such a short time (since he died), I guess it's all they could show us. I thought it was interesting -- the last thing Kubrick worked on."