The Million Dollar Hotel

src: wimwendersstiftung.de

The Million Dollar Hotel is a 2000 American drama film based on a concept story by Bono and Nicholas Klein, directed by Wim Wenders, and starring Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich, and Mel Gibson. The film features music by U2 and various artists and was released on the soundtrack, The Million Dollar Hotel: Music from the Motion Picture.

Video The Million Dollar Hotel

Plot

A group of very different people live in a hotel in Los Angeles, California including the romantically involved Tom Tom (Davies) and Eloise (Milla Jovovich). The events that unfold are the result of the death of an important resident; the son (Tim Roth) of a billionaire media mogul. His father commissions an FBI agent (Gibson) to look into his death.

Maps The Million Dollar Hotel

Cast

Million Dollar Hotel / Official Trailer (1999) - YouTube

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Production

The story was originally developed by Bono in 1987 when filming the music video for "Where the Streets Have No Name". The movie had an estimated budget of $8 million, but opened to only $29,483 in US box office, with little more success in subsequent weeks or in other countries. It also received very poor reviews, obtaining 25 of 100 on Metacritic and 25% on Rotten Tomatoes, although it won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2000. In an October 2000 press conference in Sydney, before the Australian release of the film, Mel Gibson said, "I thought it was as boring as a dog's ass." He later explained:

It was at the end of a day where I had done 6,000 interviews, some guy was ragging on the film and it just slipped out. Later, I thought 'God, why did I say that? I'm an idiot! I produced this film. I'm distributing it!' It was pretty thoughtless of me, because a lot of people worked very hard on that film, and the fact is there are moments of genius in it. The soundtrack is by U2, and it's phenomenal. So I really regret saying that. I have written a lot of apology letters about it.