Sonoma Magazine Winter 2012
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Without a map, or an airplane, or a family of an angry earth, thinly leavened with the screenplays, I figured out the form, I relationship generations deep, you would a layer of soil to cushion the blanket of turned the novel into a screenplay and six wnever know the land was there. cracked and broken stones. months later, Warner Brothers bought it. Kamen: It lies hidden in a bowl, flanked by Kamen was in Sonoma to visit friends First shot. One draft, that was it. I didn’t knolls and hills on one side of Moon and celebrate the sale of his first screen- even know what I was doing. I didn’t even from Mountain, cloistered by the contours of play. That in itself was an improbable have an agent.” the Mayacamas range, 300 acres, invis- event. A child of New York City housing Like a lot of screenplays, that one ible from the floor of the trench that is projects in the Bronx, he had attended never became a film, but it put a chunk of Sonoma Valley. NYU, gone to the University of Pennsylva- money in Kamen’s pocket and that gave When Robert Kamen first saw it, hiking nia for a Ph.D. in American Studies—one him some unexpected options. up from the end of Norbomm Road, there of the less utilitarian career paths ever— When he got to the top of the land was no route, no path, no real sign of hu- and, along the way, had written a novel that fateful day in 1980, Robert Kamen Karate Kid man development, just fields of volcanic that he showed to a cousin, who knew saw a view that just stopped him cold. It to STORY PHOTOS rock, turrets and towers and buttresses a film director, who read the novel and stretched down to San Francisco, across DAVID BOLLING ROBBI PENGELLY left over from long-finished eruptions, a thought it might make a good movie. the bay to Mount Diablo, out almost as far Cabernet mountainside littered with the detritus “He sent me three screenplays. I read as the distant Sierra. It was above the fog, 76 SONOMA winter 2012 www.sonomamag.com www.sonomamag.com SONOMA winter 2012 77 Lines from some of Kamen’s more well known scripts, including the Karate Kid and Taken adorn the tasting room. almost at cloud level, 15 minutes from the when fate conspired to bring him Phil who are passionate Sonoma Plaza, and he told his guide, “My Coturri, who was already a visionary, about things. I had just God, I could stay here forever.” And the organic vineyard evangelist, if not yet a sold the screenplay for friend said, “You can, it’s for sale.” And legend. Coturri convinced Kamen that Taps, so I had a bunch Kamen said, “Sold.” And he bought it. an organic, biodynamic vineyard was the of money. Having never At that point, Kamen had no particular thing to do. been one to think plan, certainly no grand ambitions involv- “I was totally attracted to the organic anything through, and ing grapevines and wine. “I had the view nature of everything, because I was a child operating purely on in mind. I saw this view and I’d never of the ’60’s and Phil looks like he came instinct and impulse, seen anything like it. I mean, this is one I gave Phil a quarter a destination for high-end wine. I opened of guys go through years between films.” Lethal Weapon movies at $350, that’s $700 of the most amazing views ever. The land of a million bucks and he planted me a my tasting room because we need really Of course, success begets success, but million, so that’s a billion-seven. The is encircled by higher ridges, there’s an vineyard.” good wine on the Plaza.” even with that given, Kamen’s record is Transporter movies did $120 million each, intimacy, it’s closed in, and then you have For the past 32 For several years the grapes he grew Meanwhile, Kamen’s screenwriting startling. so that’s $360 million. It’s a ridiculous this opening. It just spreads out all over years, Kamen has went to make other people’s wine, but career has been on fire. “In 1982,” he ex- “I keep writing, they keep happening. I amount of money.” the place.” been averaging when Kamen had to replant much of plains, “I wrote The Karate Kid. That more get more good projects, especially things Very quickly it becomes clear that, even More than 30 years after he first saw it, the vineyard after a wildfire in 1996, he or less took care of the rest.” like Taken 2, and all of a sudden you blow with off-the-cuff accounting, Robert there is still romantic awe in Robert a film every 18 decided to make his own. He now has a By that point it was clear something up. A Hollywood genius equals how much Kamen, who recently turned 65, has Kamen’s voice when he talks about the months, give or tasting room on the Sonoma Plaza and is radically unusual was happening in money did you make for the studio. I just written more than $2.5 billion worth of land. It’s like his mistress. He thinks about as serious about his estate cabernet as he Kamen’s life. Most screenwriters, even made the studio a shit-load of money, so I movies. And he’s nowhere near done. it at night and can’t wait to see it in the take. That comes to is about any of his screenplays. And now, the really good ones, will knock out a get offered good projects.” “It’s not going to end for at least two years morning. And, while he owns a large about 22 films— in concert with his neighbors around the successful script once every five or six Ask him the standard Hollywood because right now I have two years’ worth apartment on New York’s Upper East Side, he’s not sure, he flank of Moon Mountain at Repris Winery, years. And some will be made into movies metric—how much his films have grossed, of work.” it is the land in Sonoma that holds his he is waist deep in an effort to win and some won’t. For the past 32 years, in total— and he has to stop and think. That includes a movie to be called The heart and focuses his passion, even as it tends to lose track. approval for a new AVA that will recog- Kamen has been averaging a film every 18 “It’s got to be over a billion dollars,” he Sword, about the most famous samurai cost him his wife. nize the unique terroir and climate of the months, give or take. That comes to about muses, and then begins counting. “Let’s sword in Japanese history. Then he’s “I gave up a marriage to move here,” he mountain slopes flanking the east side of 22 films—he’s not sure, he tends to lose see, the first Taken was $280, the new one working on a movie about mermaids who says a little ruefully. “A 23-year marriage. in second in a Jerry Garcia look-alike Sonoma Valley. track. is going to go over $300, so right there, exact retribution on mankind for trashing She wouldn’t move here. I don’t blame contest,” Kamen says laughing. “I was Kamen is deeply serious about the That’s like a baseball player hitting a that’s over $500 million. The Karate the oceans. That’s another collaboration her. We lived in 6,000 square feet on attracted to that and I was attracted to reputation of his wine and thinks Sonoma home run, or at least a triple, every time Kid movies, if you put all four of them with French producer/director/writer Luc Central Park.” Phil’s passion. He was just so passionate can create cabernet on a par with Napa. he comes to the plate. “I’ve been very together, that’s got to be $600 or $700 Besson with whom Kamen wrote The Kamen had not been in Sonoma long about it and I respond really well to people In five years, he insists, Sonoma “can be lucky for a screenwriter,” he admits. “A lot million, so there I’m over a billion. Two Fifth Element, and with whom he has been 78 SONOMA winter 2012 www.sonomamag.com www.sonomamag.com SONOMA winter 2012 79 Kamen spoke at a pitch panel at the Sonoma Film Festival and listened to panalists’ pitches. creatively partnered for the past 18 years. mercial storytelling.” They are a uniquely successful odd couple. He also has a knack for martial arts, “He’s Shrek, I’m Donkey,” Kamen ex- having trained in the discipline since he plains, only half joking. “He’s the creature was 17. The story of how that started is a black belt. I have a story if you want to ing around saying, ‘I got this done and I panoramic view that first seduced him and that owns the swamp, I’m the little donkey like an episode from one of his movies. listen to it. I told him the story of myself got this done, and I got this done. After from his work station he can peer down on that runs around and talks a lot.” Besson “I was at the World’s Fair in 1965, in and my teacher.