Though his Million Dollar Baby fell victim to The Aviator's Oscar sweep, London native Paul Haggis still felt like a winner, last night. "I've already got everything I need. I was part of a terrific film and so I don't have to have anything more than that," said the 51-year-old co-producer/writer of the boxing drama that drew seven Academy Award nominations and recorded an early evening win in the best supporting actor category by Morgan Freeman.
Haggis was nominated in the best adapted screenplay category but, as he had predicted, that prize went to the writers of Sideways, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor.
On Friday, the filmmaker told the London Free Press that he was approaching the Oscar weekend as "a great, big party," regardless of how Million Dollar Baby fared in moviedom's elite contest.
"I want to say hello to everyone I've met, to everyone I've never met and to anyone who knows my name," was the greeting a relaxed Haggis issued to last night's world-wide TV audience as he entered Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, accompanied by his wife, actor-singer Deborah Rennard.
At age 22, the son of the late Mary Haggis and Ted Haggis, journeyed to Los Angeles with the hope of becoming a filmmaker. When that goal was sidetracked, he launched an Emmy-winning small-screen career that saw him create the TV drama series Due South, Family Law and EZ Streets, while scripting a variety of shows.
Four years ago, he read Rope Burns, a collection of short stories by F. X. Toole, and began writing a screenplay that became Million Dollar Baby.
He felt the innate appeal of the story, which profiles the relationship between Maggie (Hilary Swank) a feisty young boxer, and her aging, burned-out trainer Frankie (Clint Eastwood).
"We Canadians empathize with underdogs and seeming losers. We're drawn to them because they refuse to believe they're losers and just keep on fighting."
Haggis also figures his London roots have played a significant role in his success.
"I'm still a Hollywood outsider even though I've been here for over 27 years -- and I also feel like an outsider when I'm in Toronto. But I think that gives me a different perspective which helps me when I'm writing a script."
Haggis wrote and directed Crash, a Los Angeles crime thriller starring Don Cheadle and Sandra Bullock, due for release in May; has just completed the script for Flags of Our Fathers, a Second World War picture being produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Eastwood. He recently finished the screenplay for Eastwood's next screen project, Death and Dishonour; and will direct another film he and Spielberg are now scripting.
One of those could become the London native's return ticket to next year's Oscar night.
