I tried to get
Braveheart (1995) off the ground when I was president of MGM and I had given it to Mel but he turned it down because of scheduling conflicts. When I departed MGM/UA, my separation agreement allowed me to take two projects with me. So I took Braveheart because I knew it was a good story and I admired
Randall Wallace's scribe work so much.
The project went to the back-burner for awhile. Two-years later Mel gave me a call out-of-the-blue and said: 'That project Braveheart, what did you end up doing with it'? I told him 'nothing' and he replied: 'Well, I can't get it out of my mind, I keep thinking about it. Can we meet on it'?