stages. In December 2000, Ben Stiller was in discussions to star as Chuck Barris, with Bryan Singer directing and Clooney still aboard. However, Stiller was forced to vacate Confessions of a Dangerous Mind due to scheduling conflicts with Zoolander (2001) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Although Singer was interested in Sam Rockwell in the lead role, the director cast Johnny Depp to replace Stiller and commenced pre-production in January 2001 on a planned $35 million budget. Renaissance Pictures was holding international distribution rights, but the filmmakers still needed more financing as well as a studio to cover distribution duties in the United States. Grosvenor Park was interested in co-financing with Renaissance, but the next month (February 2001), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was once again stalled in development. Miramax Films had been negotiating for domestic rights, but difficulties arose when Miramax also wanted to cover international rights. Renaissance was also unable to close the financing in time to accommodate both the "production insurance" deadline and the 65-day shooting schedule, which was set to primarily take place in Montreal and British Columbia, Canada. Artisan Entertainment then became interested in covering North American distribution rights but dropped out after the bid went over $8 million. Johnny Depp eventually went to work on other films. Director With Singer busy preparing X2, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was rejuvenated with Clooney taking over as director. Miramax Films agreed to cover distribution duties and co-finance the film. In the end, funding for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind came from Miramax, Clooney's own Section Eight Productions, Village Roadshow Pictures, producer Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance, Allied Filmmakers, and The Kushner-Locke Company. Clooney explained, "I thought if I came on board as a director, for scale, and was able to bring everybody else on inexpensively, if I could get the film back down to $30 million, then I was going to be able to get the film made. That was a big part of my pitch to Harvey Weinstein at Miramax." Because Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was his directing debut, Clooney took inspiration from friends Steven Soderbergh and the Coen brothers for his filmmaking style. Writer Charlie Kaufman said he was dissatisfied with the way Clooney treated the screenplay. "I spent a lot of time working on the script," he explained, "but I don't think he was interested in the things I was interested in. I've moved