Clive Davis on Producing a Biopic That Captures ‘the Whitney Houston That I Have Known’

Whitney Houston, and Shaun Combs. Davis these days has been consumed with producing a movie biopic of Houston that just landed a big deal at Sony Pictures. In our conversation, Davis talks me through how he assembled the package in an unusual way and how he and screenwriter Anthony McCartin didn't exchange a penny until they were both satisfied with a completed script. It's granular deal making dish from an

industry master. Clive is so passionate about the Houston movie that you can hear him pounding the table as he speaks. Clive Davis, Wow, what a legend. We are so grateful that you stopped by to give us some time to talk about the industry and the many things that you have going on right now. UM, let's dive in you are. Just yesterday we got some big news, some big news moving forward, the Whitney Houston biopic that you that you are Shepherd NG. Can you talk a little bit about

that project. It seems like it's just coming together. Well, yes, I can't talk about the project I was I've really not been happy with the documentaries that have come out on Whitney. Um, they don't reflect any real understanding of music. UM. In the case of the Kevin MacDonald one, UM, you know,

he admitted to me that he doesn't know music. And therefore, not only is there nothing from me or baby Face or any of the incredible influence that Whitney had on not just other autists but people music fans to general public all over the world. So that yes, it's not my intent. It was not my original intent by anything to whitewash any of the battles that Whitney face. But the full story of our the Witney that I have known uh since her main teen years, has not been told.

So I would say it was probably over a year ago that I met Anthony mccaud and the screenwriter. He wrote The Indian Rhapsody, he wrote The Two Pops, was

just nominated the Academy Award. He wrote in a brilliant films on Churchill, on Steven Hawkins, the theory of everything, the dark is to our And so that I wanted you just got a start with a great writer who likes music, and Anthony put that bill and we clicked, so that it was really a year ago that Empty and I not only met, but we started working on

on this biopic. And so that when we've just come, when the announcement has just come that we have made a distribution arrangement with Sony, Uh, we've come with a

full script. We've come with a completed script. And I made sure that Anthony really met everybody that was a key player in the life of Whitney to understand her, not only members of her family, but those that worked with her, those that even her psychiatrist, if you will, and from my files that I was so eager to have other documentaries include, but they just felt music was not that same, and uh, it will be here. This

will be a musically rich biopic. It will be, as I said in the announcement, no hold barm but it will capture with me, and so we're very excited about it. The financing had been raised Sony one of really a fierce battle other labels, Uh, you know studios were passionate as well. Um and um, we're really excited now to move forward with what I hope to be a classic all time film. Do you enjoy that kind of work? Do you like the work of being a movie producer?

This is the first film that I will have produce. But I've got to say I'm no newcomer to the world of film. I was on the board of CBS when it first got into film. For many years. I was on the board of Columbia Pictures. Uh, obviously, and that business was there. Um. You know, for all the years that Columbia Pictures owned arist I was on the board. I was intimately involved. May I say, as my documentary graphically points out David Boston's documentary currently graphically point out

in making The Bodyguard. So although I was not a producer there, I really it. Being Whitney's first film, it was important. Um. And so that when the first cut of that film came in. Uh, it had very little music. It was just a pure mystery for our You have no idea why Whitney needed a bodyguard, And um, I really wrote a long letter, okay, and Kevin Costner and the director mc jackson and said, look, I know him, the head of the of which these record company you

might expect. This time, I'll let her from the head of her record company. But I'm saying to your film, you have got to show why she needed a bodyguard. To drama of the two of them connecting the way they did will be far more uh compelling. And Kevin cuts the board into it, and to his credit he David Foster myself, we just picked in and came up with all the other storms that have made Bodyguard the

biggest song soundtrack album in history to this day. And um, I've been very much involved with Waiting to Excel, which is second film with the tim score. When I thought first saw that the time score was Johnny Mathis, James Taylor, Stephen Bishop, and it didn't promotely speak for the subject matter. What's wrong with that picture? What's wrong with that picture?

And so I suggested, and I think he was sharing. Um, who's such a wonderful, pioneering, brilliant woman movie had um we brought in baby face and um he wrote classics all for each character we had, you know, sitting in my room by Brandy and Ah, I couldn't hurt the Mary Jane plage number one with me had too. I mean it was the plastic film using Musing as the

bodyguard to become a huge world uh sellers. So that I've been involved, you know, really with every Whitney and film as well as a number of bus so it's not a strange area for me. Do I like it? Yes? I have a mission here. I have a mission to make sure that for all time that the full picture would be used in his capture uh in the nohul board film. But musically rich that chose her genius U and chose more for a character than the public has

that alert today you must have had. Your phone must be overflowing with people calling wanting to pitt you actors, to p a Whitney. It's such a plum, such a great role. Well, the one thing that we know of because we have not said a word, and no has there been any effort to cast her yet. But the one thing we know as distinguished from the Aretha bio as distinguished from the eight part TV Genius series where Sane Fa Hudson things as a wreatha or since a

revote things as a wreatha. In the Whitney Bio book, it will all be with UM. So we don't have to go if there is any if there is any UH vocalists out there that could capture a Whitney, I'm not sure there is. UM. It won't be necessary for the artists that portrays or to say, because it's going to all be Whitney, including performances that have not been on record, UH, so that it will not just be all of the greatest. It's better be musically rich in so many ways. Tell me, how how did you go about?

You must have had to approach Sony for them for the rights to the catalog? Was that? Are they involved in the film? How did that go down? No? What happened was that Anthony and I've been a year together, me making sure that this great writer, the Academy Award connected writer that so many of the actors in his films have won Academy Awards as well as UH the films that he has written that he'd be educated and um and so that uh. We decided, both he and I that we would not just have an outline or

taught through, but have the actual script. And so we do have the actual script. We went to all the studios we have obviously, so people have the soundtrack album because of the masters and all the masters that it does. Oh, but we did go competitively. There are four producers here actually certainly mentioned the estate who was thrilled I would produced back Houston and in the spell bouh of the Whitneys in this day to Anthony. They spent time together,

um and um. We went and there was a fierce competition. And I'm happy to say the reaction to the script, to use the word of almost every studio head that called me their passionate. They know that Whitney has been captured and that the opportunity here it is so special and you need when you started with Anthony working on the script, did you write the check to get him going? Did you finance the early development of this project yourself. I did not view getting me as importantly as I

view getting him. He knew that it wasn't that I just signed with he knew that it wasn't that I was there from her entire life and how close we were. I collaborated with her on every song that was joke. I would narrow down my hundreds. I would to the ten she and I met, no matter what who she was involved with, a marriage, Bobby parents who never she never would let anyone else there. So that in the entire selection of music, all the hits, all the background

of her sul stories. Um that, Um, I can pay a penny to him. He didn't pay a penny to me. We just hit it off. We've spent a lot of time at dinners. He came to my home right for him quarantine right now, and where I live in Manhattan. We've really spent a lot of time together going through different um you know, uh drafts of this of the script as he got more and more indicated here. So that no, I didn't finance, and I think in the annivers anybody. We hit it off and the tour was said,

let's do it together. We said that on two projects, the second one we haven't even talked about what we did legally commit to each other. Um. We agreed that there still could be a great film on Janus chocolin, so we said of either of us would never be get involved with Janus Chocolate. We would do that together as well. But we have done no nothing on on that point. But I was happy to introduce him uh to Pat Houston, to LARRYM. Mistell. They spent time with them.

By that time we had the craft of the close to final draft of the script and they were thrilled. And that's how it happened. What do you think it was that allowed you to make such an important personal and business connection with Whitney? Why we Why were you so important in her life? Do you know? It began from the very beginning. I was not the first one to see Whitney used. I was told about Whitnan, had heard about Whitney from UH they and R man that

worked for me, Jerry Griffith. I've heard about her from Luther Vandros because she had done some studio background singing, but um other labels. I know that I think Elector of Epic had seen her before me. But I do vividly remember, no matter what the passing of he is, when I saw her at a club, Sweet Boarders, where she was doing backgrounds from for her mother. Sissing, and she stepped out to do two solos. One was Home from the Whiz. That was clearly I had never matter.

She chose Home from the Whiz. The other was the Greatest Love Wall Now. That was the song I had commissioned eight years before for the Life of Mohammed Ali, and I got Michael Ansome uh he wrote that, and we had the soundtrack to the Greatest was the film called on Mamad. Joe Benson at the top ten record with Never Going to Me auditioning was young eighteen to nineteen year old teenager and it was though I had never heard the song before, she found meaning in her

read of it. It honestly is the genius of with Me. Before I met her and um clearly there was competition, and it was she and her parents and her lawyers who made a request of me that I have never given in my career to any artists before ward me or any artists afterward me, because it's so uncomfortable. And that request was, I will sign with you if you

give me one clause. I said, what's that? If you ever leave the company, I can leave with you because I know what you did for my cousin Deale moment. I know what you did for the long time relationship my mom Sissy have with the REFA Franklin. I need that personal commitment from you. But whatever you've done for Dion, whatever you've done for a Refa, you will do for me. And if for any reason you leave the company, now

that's a tough I could not give up that. I had to go to the parent company and that year in three and involved r c A and general electorate, and I had to say, I know the conflict here. I can make this decision. Give me a lot of quote power if she becomes big. And they asked me one question, are you passionate about her? I said, I am deeply passionate about her. We got the approval, she

got the key mand goals, so that that connection. I did whatever I did do for Dion with I'll Never Love this way again, Djabel and Heartbreaker that put friends of form with the reef Or at the beginning, and so to two years that I knew how you need and special I had. I didn't take anything for granted. I had auditions for the biggest songwriters in the world in New York, in Los Angeles, I said she does

not write she wants the best material. I want the best material bar And that's how we assembled the material for that first album with my good friend Michael Massa. Tractically passed with a few years ago, but I've got father to daughter um from kaush On orished artist to name Jackson got involved and that is the background of the assembling of the material two years before the debut album came out. Five is the with the physical product,

the physical music product, with sales of those dwindling. We we know from artists that the digital revenue just isn't making up the same amount of income that they once got from recorded music. Do you think that the the shift in artists the real money making potential for artists is so often in touring. Is that changing the whole nature of the business. Do you think do you think that that artists are um that recorded music is less of a potential, you know, profit center for artists than

it than it once was. I think, but we're still is an early transitional period um streaming as an electrifying effect on the easy business. All of us in it are greed so grateful that you know, music is more on the present all over the world than ever, and as it develops, um, and it's really still in the process of developing. I'm hopeful that it's electrifying growth will end up where artists can indeed, autists, writers can make more money from digital uh, certainly than has been in

the past. H And get back to that. But touring is very much a part of that's attorning during this quarantine period. You know, we're all human, we're all known. Um. You know we've got a presidential race in November on this issue as to we have to respect. We've got to get better first. Okay, I'm on the side of those Let's say, before we returned to normal, let's get healthy and make sure we stay healthy rather than push

it and have sacrifice by human beings in the process. So, but in Seane before the quarantine, stadium to us like we've never seen before. Uh, it's been astonishing, um, how as I said, and a cheering can be playing with stadiums and just not just a big artists or not just the best selling artists, the older established iconic artists. Uh, it's been amazing. So touring, Uh, it is bigger than ever when normal and told it returns to normal, and I know in this in this period where it's not

normal and people can't tour. I know you've been involved with this, with the really wonderful industry based fundraising effort called Quarantine that has done a lot of good for great organizations focused on COVID been relief. Um, what is that? What have those Zoom concerts? What have those taught you or what do you think those reflect about what music can do for people, particularly in in troubled times. It's

been truly an unexpected amazing experience for me. When Richard White, who we had t people William Mors told me about what he and his daughter de Me were planning on

Zoom for charity. UM, I went on board. I said I would help out right from the beginning, not at all, um, anticipating the magnitude of what it would grow to, and so that we've now raised over ten million dollars for charity and for me, I've freached back and over this few months period, whether it was Rod Stewart, whether it was Barren Madelon, I've gone back to speak to artists that I haven't spoken to sin end decades, but I can think of as a lie, are they golf Uncle?

Whom I did be too. They've all done it. If I called them called the Simon friends of mine, Elvis Costello, Brian Adams, UM, Jennifer Hudson, UM, They've both done it. They loved doing it. A few have done it more than one. Clive, let me ask you, if you were giving advice to your younger self, if you were coming out of Harvard Law School today, in the music and entertainment industry today, what direction do you think young Clive Davis would go? Would you think you would you still

go into music as an executive? Would you go into talent management? What? What would be your interest you think if you were starting today, well, personally correct an impression when I get out of publics, the perfect thing from my mind? What's that I would ever go into the music business. I like music. I was. I was listening to the biggest station at that time of You and the W Martin Black as a pan, But I wasn't consumed by it. I had no thought of a career direction.

Uh in that I got into a ba accent. I was just trying to survive. I had no money. My parents died after my first man year. Coincidentally, tradically traumatically um so I had four thousand dollars to my name. I'm the only way that I would rise upon my station. My father was an electrician, high settled. It was the law. So by luck my law firm that I was accepted by represented womb be a record. By luck. Two years

later they needed a chief counsel. I never thought I could discover artists, never thought I could find songs and our artists repertor. So I didn't say that to myself today. Today. I had to face this simply a few years ago because because of the fact that I got through Colorge and law school to the beneficence of others via scholarship. When I could give back, I'd give him back through music education of endowed at the Cloud David's Institute of

Recorded Music, they get the degree. We were attracting so many young artists, writers, produces who really want a career in music. So to get to your question, before streaming, we were in tough shape. Music had dropped dramatically when people thought they were entitled to it free ofthing, and and now with assurance, I am encouraging all of them

to pursue music as their career. And it became unexpected to me my block, but I poured myself into it and found a career that keeps from impassionate if you will to this day. And um, it's a wonderful life. And music. Uh, it's so important to everybody, so important in times like ease and good times bad times, if you will, um, So my advice would be, if music rings through you, go for go for apply, whether it's in my school or Monty ben Dian's at Syracuse or

ovens now around the country, study it. Keep that work at the card. For me, they don't play your records because you discover drop on those bring sticks. You gotta you gotta be there right with it. Keep your ears from I still listen to every taught record when it comes out to see how music is changing. If you still love it and you still feel it, you never want to go over the hill. And so, um, those

are my tenants and that's my advice. My goodness, when I just think about all the incredible artists that you are, that you have intersected with over the years. Pattie Smith, who was pretty much you know to this day, remains my idol. When I was a teenager, I played that I played that horses, I played the grooves out of out of horses, and that just think of all the artists over the years and that you are still putting together movie projects and moving it forward. Uh. I'm so

grateful that you spent time talking to me today. It's really been a pleasure. And uh, you know, thank you for all the good work that you do. Much pleasure, Thanks so much, thank you, thank you. Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review at Apple Podcasts. We love to hear from listeners, and be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Strictly Business.