My take away was it was a vanity project from the start. HKM produced some very high end commercials, among them Lou Reed for Levi's, Whitney Houston's Coke commercial, the original 'pin drop' Verizon, etc in the 80s. I used to work on their offices and his and his partner's houses. One of them was a Lloyd Wright house that Diane Keaton later bought and the 50s modern house used in 'Back to the Beach', the Annette and Frankie Avalon movie. By the mid oughts I think he was looking for a diversion.