Montecito Picture Co. and the Making of Hitchcock
Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollock’s Little Film Company Goes Big
Not so long ago, you could catch the Montecito Picture Company moguls out to lunch on a regular basis. Mostly they ate at Trattoria Mollie because director Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters, Dave), who owns the Santa Barbara-based moviemaking firm with attorney and former Universal chief Tom Pollock, favored the place. Sometimes he ate there with Pollock, but usually he was there to nosh with Joe Medjuck, a former academic and current-day producer who’s known Reitman since their respective boho days in Toronto during the 1960s. Or maybe you caught them eating thin-crust pizzas on the patio at Via Vai on the bustling, bucolic corner of San Ysidro and East Valley Road, not far from Oprahville.
Even if they don’t have a real headquarters here (the trio used to own a secret lair in the foothills, since abandoned), there is a lot of Montecito in this filmmaking clique. Just look across from Via Vai, and you can see the bell tower that shows up as a logo before all of their pictures. It’s a tribute to the sunny place where these immensely successful guys had a lot of “my people will call your people” talks. And a lot of salumi, too. And if you see them dining anywhere in the next few weeks, be sure to salute them your congratulations. And then let them eat in peace.
Why congratulate? Well, for starters, there’s a little matter of survival. Montecito Picture Company began producing its dozen-plus films the year before 9/11 and survived it, not to mention 2008, with a track record for success that any bigger studio would envy. They’ve also had the usual movie-biz identity crises and a disappearing deal for luxury offices on the Carpinteria bluffs. But most of all, congratulate them because they’ve come a long way from the fun, nearly exploitation flicks like Road Trip and Euro Trip to the Academy-nominated George Clooney vehicle Up in the Air (which Reitman’s son Jason directed). But save the biggest props for now, because this week marks the hometown opening of what is arguably the company’s masterpiece: an all-star biopic featuring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren as Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcock.
