Kamen to screenwrite Paris Judgment
British wine magazine Decanter is reporting that Robert Mark Kamen, a longtime Hollywood screenwriter and Sonoma vintner, will pen the script for an upcomping film about the famous 1976 Paris Tasting, in which a pair of Napa wines bested the French.
Kamen’s prolific resume includes scripts to the Karate Kid movies, Taps, The Fifth Element, Lethal Weapon 3, The Transporter (I and II) and, another wine-ish movie, A Walk in the Clouds.
Kamen bought a 280-acre hillside vineyard (not all of it planted) atop the town of Sonoma with earnings from his first film, and has been producing highly reputable Kamen Estate Cabernet Sauvignon since 1999, with the help of winemaker Mark Herold (Merus), and viticulturalist Phil Coturri, two superstars in their own right.
Set to profile the Paris Tasting’s organizer Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant in Paris at the time, Kamen’s script will be based on George Taber’s recent book-length accounting of the event, "Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Tasting that Revolutionized Wine." Taber was the sole American reporter at the tasting, and his subsequent account of it for Time put Napa wines very quickly on the map.
It is rumored that Jude Law or Hugh Grant might play Spurrier. I thought it funny that Keanu Reeves is being sought to play Napa vintner Mike Grgich, the Croatian immigrant in ever-present beret who made the winning 1973 Chardonnay for Chateau Montelena. A man of passion and character, Grgich could be his own feature-length film.
Hmmm. Wonder who might play Warren Winiarski… Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense-mode? Ralph Macchio in a comeback? Hilary Swank back in drag? Can’t wait to see the final casting.
(photo of the Tasting, above, is courtesy Bella Spurrier; Steven is at far right)
