Cool things lie at the core of Norm Waitt's film and music ventures. They don't necessarily make him any money—but they do let him hang with the likes of Mick, rock relic David Crosby and the stunning actress Elizabeth Hurley in her skimpy top, not to mention actor Denis Leary and Scream victim Rose McGowan. In January he even got to attend Sundance, the indie film festival.
Waitt owes his wealth to
No matter. "For my brother, Gateway is like an alter ego—he sees himself as Gateway," Norm Waitt says. But for him, "Gateway became a series of meetings. It stopped being fun."
In pursuit of fun—and maybe someday a profit here or there—Waitt plans to pour $100 million of his fortune into movies and $15 million into music over the next few years.He began dabbling in entertainment three years after leaving Gateway, armed only with a credit from a college film class. When some old friends from Sioux City couldn't land a record deal, Waitt offered to finance a CD. The disc, from the group Chill Factor, was a flop.
The film division arose from similar good deeds. After Hollywood rejected a screenplay written by his martial arts instructor, Waitt formed a production company to get it filmed. The movie didn't get made, but the instructor, Kerri Li, became an unlikely vice president. "I like to make bets on people," Waitt says. "The title is subjective. He's a bit of an odd-job guy."
Waitt, who sports casual clothes and shaggy strawberry-blond hair, is one of myriad monied outsiders buying their way into show business, including Marshall Field heir Frederick (Ted) Field and Federal Express founder Frederick Smith. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen ponied up $660 million to fund DreamWorks.
So far Waitt has seen little return. His first film, Double Whammy, is a low-budget ($5 million) flick about a cop with a chronic back problem; Elizabeth Hurley plays his seductive chiropractor. The film opens in the fall, but early word isn't encouraging.
Waitt fared better with the companion CD to the low-budget surprise hit The Blair Witch Project; it sold 75,000 copies. (Gold Circle presciently passed on rights for the sequel, which tanked.) And he hopes the next album by CPR, fronted by David Crosby, will go platinum (1 million units sold). It's a long shot: CPR's first two albums sold just 100,000 copies combined.
What Waitt needs now is patience. The $10 million he's sunk into the record division could take years to pay off. "I've been happy with our product, but sales have been disappointing and kind of frustrating," he says. His losses could multiply, not that he frets much about it. "Gold Circle is something I can really be proud of, instead of ‘Gee, we sold a bunch of computers this year.' How interesting is that?"
Visiting the set of Elysian Fields, the Mick Jagger movie, Waitt stares dreamily as the Rolling Stone and actress Angelica Huston embrace passionately for the camera. "It's so cool," he says.
