Washington Post / Dec 2, 2004

For Kondracke Biopic, a Happy Beginning

• Production is underway in Vancouver for a TV movie based on "Saving Milly," Washington journalist Mort Kondracke's book chronicling life with his late wife, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the late 1980s. Bruce Greenwood, who portrayed President Kennedy in "Thirteen Days" and was more recently seen in "I, Robot," will play Kondracke. Madeleine Stowe, whose films include "The Last of the Mohicans" and "We Were Soldiers," plays Millicent Kondracke, who died in July.

"When I found out that she was going to be the star, I flipped," Kondracke said yesterday. " 'The Last of the Mohicans' is one of my favorite movies."

Michael J. Fox, a Parkinson's sufferer and research advocate, yesterday taped an epilogue for the movie, which is scheduled to air on CBS in March. During a visit to the set, Kondracke told us, he found the stars to be "sane and nice," defying his own stereotype of arrogant Hollywooders. "My every association with the movie people has been positive."

Vancouver Province, December 1, 2004

Michael J.'s due in town:
And have you seen Brad Pitt anywhere in Vancouver?
by Sorelle Saidman

Michael J. Fox is coming home.

The Burnaby native is slated to make an appearance in the CBS TV movie Saving Milly, which kicked off filming here last week. It tells reporter Morton Kondracke's story about his activist wife Milly and her fight against Parkinson's disease.

Fox, who suffers from the same ailment, is rumoured to be recreating his heartfelt speech on Capitol Hill pleading for more support.

The film, which stars Bruce Greenwood and Madeleine Stowe, is scheduled to wrap Dec. 22.

CBS Press Release
Monday, January 31, 2005

CBS ANNOUNCES FOUR NEW ORIGINAL TELEVISION MOVIES FOR
BROADCAST AS 'THE CBS SUNDAY MOVIE' IN MARCH, APRIL AND MAY
Released by CBS

Three Theatrical Films Make Their Network Television Debut

CBS today announced airdates for four new original movies, a new "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation and three theatrical films that will make their Network television debut. . . .

The following are airdates for original CBS movies and theatrical films making their Network television debut:

SAVING MILLY, Sunday, March 13 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT), stars Madeline Stowe ("The Last of the Mohicans") and Bruce Greenwood ("Being Julia") in a drama, based on the best-selling book and real-life journey of political journalist Morton Kondracke, that recounts his inspiring love story with his activist wife, Milly, and the dramatic change in their lives in the years after she is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Dan Curtis ("The Love Letter"), David Kennedy ("Our Fathers") and Daniel H. Blatt ("When Angels Come to Town") are the executive producers for Dan Curtis Productions/Daniel H. Blatt Productions, along with Frances Croke Page and Elaine Frontain Bryant from Magna Global Entertainment."

Futon Critic

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Recreating Parkinson's disease for Saving Milly
By Joy Wainwright

Joy Wainwright served as a consultant on the movie and wrote a behind-the-scenes account for the website Grassrootsconnection.com. She kindly offers us a slightly different account with a little more on Bruce Greenwood. Her original article can be found via the link at the bottom of the article.

On November 24 2004 Murray Charters and I met with Producers David Kennedy, Dan Blatt, Tracey Jeffrey, Director/Producer Dan Curtis and Script Supervisor Terry Murray. They were about to start filming the CBS TV movie, Saving Milly. We were there as Parkinson’s advisors and our first job was to help them understand the disease. We sat with them answering questions and discussing Milly’s experience. We wanted them to understand that the disease has many faces, none of them attractive.

Dan Curtis, the director, constructed a step chart showing how he envisioned Milly’s PD progressing. This worked like a road map and we were able to help him identify what to emphasize in each scene to show a logical and believable progression of the disease.

Behind us a video monitor was set up allowing us to watch Madeleine Stowe as the makeup team worked out the details of her transformation into the final stages of Parkinson’s. Later that afternoon we met Madeleine in full makeup. I didn’t appreciate the skill of the transformation until three days later when I met Madeleine again, -this time without the makeup.

For the second pre-production meeting Murray was in Edmonton and I was on my own. When I arrived at the hotel conference room, Maggie Evans, Dan’s personal assistant, was setting up a camcorder. While we chatted, Bruce Greenwood (who would play Mort) arrived followed by the real Mort Kondracke and Dan. We introduced ourselves. An attractive dark haired woman arrived and sat down across the table from me. I hesitantly asked, “Are you Madeleine?” She looked at me slightly puzzled, paused for a moment, then said “Yes, we met on Wednesday, remember?” I laughed and said, “Yes I remember, but you don’t look anything like you did on Wednesday.”

Dan started us from the scene where Milly discovers she can’t write her name properly. He wanted to review each scene with all of us together so there was consensus and give the actors a chance to ask questions of Mort and me. The three-week shooting schedule was to start on Monday and he wanted to be ready as possible. With filming going right through to Christmas Eve, there was no time to reschedule lost hours.

One of the decisions we had to make was: how true to Milly’s actual experience were we going to keep the script. In the end we only modified her slightly, emphasizing tremor, and in later scenes making movement jerky and progressively dysfunctional (where in real life she lost movement altogether).

As we came across things that didn’t work well (sometimes it was a piece of dialogue or something one of the actors was supposed to do), I would say to Dan, “This isn’t right, I think it would have been more like this…” then Mort would get involved, usually confirming my position. At that point Dan would either change it or we’d haggle over it for five or ten minutes. Dan would say “…but how am I going to show this?” There was only one scene where Dan and I hit a stalemate. Bruce finally leaned over to me and said “Drop it, you’re not going to win this one.” I dropped it –but I still think I was right.

As we got further into the story I could see Madeleine was becoming overloaded with verbal information so I picked up my chair and dragged it over to her side of the table and began replicating the movements for her. This helped everyone. Mort was impressed by my skill at mimicking Parkinson’s! Dan told me to pull my chair out into the middle of the floor and repeat my stellar performance for the camcorder. We worked through several of the later scenes this way. At one point in the movie Mort lifts Milly out of her wheelchair. First Mort and I showed them how it would look, then Bruce stepped in as Mort and he and I repeated the scene. Finally Madeleine stepped in as Milly and she and Bruce worked on the scene until they were comfortable with it. By the end of the day Maggie handed Madeleine four hours of videotape showing what we covered.

The next time I saw Madeleine was on set in the familiar makeup of our first meeting. We talked about the real Milly and Madeleine asked if I had ever met her. I told her I only knew her through Mort’s book. Madeleine showed me some footage Mort had taken of Milly including a segment where she speaks about her disease. It was very moving. We were both captivated by her eyes. Madeleine studied the tape for hours, working to duplicate the quality of the voice and the expression in the eyes.

I soon learned that Madeleine was studying me too. Several times over the next few weeks she would stop in the middle of our conversation and say “I notice you do this a lot…” then reenacting my movement she’d ask why or how that was related to my Parkinson’s. Madeleine never stopped observing.

I’m sure Madeleine and Bruce would both tell you this was a very challenging project. The talent and energy they brought to the set was impressive. For Madeleine it was an incredible accomplishment to grasp and demonstrate the devastation that Parkinson’s caused in one woman’s life, and she does it very well. Bruce likewise offers a compelling performance as Mort Kondrake -a man watching his wife die by the inch.

Grassroots Connection 1/18/05