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How did you see him work to embody Halston? He was the only person for the role from the very beginning. We talked about how the piece would move and how it would feel and my idea for how we would structure it, and then at the end of the meeting he said, “I’d really like to do this with you.” I almost fell over. He was very engaged and asked me every imaginable question about Halston the man. I brought all of my research materials to our meeting - photographs, books, a couple of Halston gowns so that he could look at them and touch them - and we had a serious show-and-tell for an afternoon. Ewan had read a draft of the first script and wanted to talk about the role. Christine had worked with him on 1998’s VELVET GOLDMINE. MINAHAN: We put together a list of actors who we liked for Halston, but the one and only meeting I had was with Ewan McGregor. Why was Ewan McGregor the actor you wanted to play Halston from the beginning? We were very lucky to have him be involved. I think Ryan has a very unique relationship with this material because he grew up in Indiana as Halston did, and then he worked building an empire as a gay man in a corporate world as Halston did, so he was really generous with his experience. We all put a lot of ourselves into HALSTON. He has an uncanny sense for story, and I’ve been fascinated for years by the tone he’s able to strike in his work and the depth of emotion that he’s able to express. He draws the best out of people, and he demands excellence from everyone who works with him. He invited me to work on 2018’s THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY, and it was interesting because I finally felt that I could be myself on that set. MINAHAN: Working with Ryan is a unique experience. What did partnering with Ryan Murphy as a writer and executive producer bring to the project? Once RMTV got involved everything started moving very quickly. We were out pitching the show with Ewan when we heard from Alexis Martin Woodall, the President of Ryan Murphy Productions, and she said that Ryan loved the Halston story and wanted to work with us on the show. I realized we could finally tell this epic story over the course of five or six hours. Then about two years ago Christine came back to me and said, “That Halston book is available again.” I sort of recoiled at the idea of going back into it, but then she said, “What do you think of doing it as a limited series?” And it just clicked for me. I would read in the papers that other people had optioned the material, and in the meantime I was continuing to work and really honing my craft. In hindsight, it’s too big a story to fit into a 90-minute movie.
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At first we tried to make it a feature film, but we couldn’t crack the story. I brought Gaines’ book Simply Halston to Christine and we optioned it.
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I had read a book about Halston by Vanity Fair writer Stephen Gaines and thought it was a very rich, very American story about this man’s remarkable riseĪnd fall, it was shocking to me that he was stripped of his name and identity. Christine is the kind of producer you want on your side as a director, she’s fierce and loyal.
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Can you walk us through that journey?ĭANIEL MINAHAN: I had worked with Christine Vachon of Killer Films on a 1996 movie I co-wrote called I SHOT ANDY WARHOL and the first feature I wrote and directed in 2001, SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS. This series has been 20 years in the making. MAKING HALSTON: IN CONVERSATION WITH DANIEL MINAHAN The Emmy Award-winning executive producer and director of HALSTON talks about his 20-year journey making this show, Ewan McGregor’s incredible commitment to the role, and why this story is more timely than ever. Minahan also serves as the series director. The series is Executive Produced by Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan, Alexis Martin Woodall, Daniel Minahan, Ewan McGregor, Eric Kovtun, Sharr White, and Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler of Killer Films. The limited series HALSTON follows the legendary fashion designer (Ewan McGregor), as he leverages his single, invented name into a worldwide fashion empire that’s synonymous with luxury, sex, status and fame, literally defining the era he lives in, 1970’s and ‘80’s New York - until a hostile takeover forces him to battle for control of his most precious asset… the name Halston itself.
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