February 08, 2010
HAH!™
47-year old industryite writes: "At Monkey Bar for Sandy Bullock party-- bringing median age down about 30 years."
Add, Tues, 11:50a - Translation - A Sandy Bullock party at the Monkey Bar means Oscar gladhanding. Oscar gladhanding, even more in NY than LA, means older people.
Posted by dpoland at 07:23 PM | Comments (15) | Retweet
Cop Out - Red Band
You know, watching this, I am actually interested in seeing this film... more so than any Kevin Smith movie in a long while, I must say. And what WB is out selling wide... I just can't tell what movie they are trying to tell me it's going to be... a Wayans Bros mock of cop movies or God knows what.
But this red band trailer - not safe for work or people who get upset by dick jokes - much, much clearer vision.
Posted by dpoland at 06:36 PM | Comments (12) | Retweet
PRESS RELEASE - "THE COVE" SET TO LAUNCH IN JAPAN
London, UK – The Works International is delighted to announce the acquisition of Academy Award® nominated documentary THE COVE by Japanese distributor Medallion Media which is planning a tentative release date of April 2010 in Japan.
Until now Japanese distributors have shied away from the award-winning documentary which generated huge coverage and controversy in Japan when it was finally included in the line-up of the 2009 Tokyo Film Festival after initially being rejected. Despite threats of legal action by fishermen from the town of Taiji featured in the film, the festival scheduled another screening after the first sold out within hours. Most Japanese are unaware of the annual dolphin cull that takes place in Taiji and also the significant risks of mercury poisoning from the eating of dolphin meat which the film so effectively exposes. In spite of continued opposition from the Taiji fishermen, Medallion Media recognized there were many people keen to see the film. Says Norio Okahara, Director of Medallion Media: “In distributing THE COVE we are not taking sides. Rather, we are presenting the film for the Japanese to decide for themselves about the issues it raises. There is a debate to be had here and this important film – and the Academy Award® nomination only serves to reinforce its importance - offers the opportunity for such a debate.”
Joy Wong negotiated the deal with Media Co.'s Norio Okahara. Carl Clifton, Managing Director of The Works International, said of the deal: “Many distributors screened the film and most decided it was simply too hot to handle even if they all felt it must be seen by the Japanese people. Medallion Media has shown real courage in acquiring THE COVE for Japan and we look forward to working with them on it.”
Posted by dpoland at 05:10 PM | Comments (14) | Retweet
Is Plagiarism The Same When The Journalist Is Respected?
Just curious on this one. Gerald Posner was caught cribbing off the Miami Herald for The Daily Beast this last week. And in this case, it wasn't a film guide/production notes situation, it was a steal right out of another journalist's reportage.
Same as Paul Fischer or not? Should Posner get mocked, shunned, and fired?
"There is no excuse," (Posner) said, repeatedly expressing his regret. "I take full responsibility."
According to (editor Ed) Felsenthal, Posner will continue to write for the Beast.
"I'm convinced this was an unintentional aberration in an extraordinary career breaking news and doing top quality journalism with high ethical standards," Felsenthal said.
So is it the game or the player that defines the response?
================
On a similar note, here is a story on publicity veteran Lois Smith in the Boston University newspaper (found via Romanesko) Bolding is mine:
"Between celebrity magazines and websites, there’s so much out there to be filled up, so much information that has to be put out there simply because those publications exist," says longtime Hollywood publicist Lois Smith. "People are desperate to fill the space they've got; they'll print anything, go with anything, pursue rumors, and even create them. It's not what I call publicity."
She's old... she was a flack... but she also gets it.
Posted by dpoland at 11:27 AM | Comments (36) | Retweet
February 07, 2010
Kevin Smith on Cop Out
Ray Pride ran this story and when I clicked on it, I got a big surprise... Kevin Smith directed Cop Out, the movie being hard sold by WB with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan... with no mention of its famous director.
The piece, worth a read, includes some conversation about how the film is being marketed... which is to say, wider than the Kevin Smith base.
Anyway... I am not picking on Kevin with this. I hope the film is a ton of fun. But as I watched the ads, I kept wondering who directed the thing and why I didn't at least see it on the outdoor or at the back of the TV spots. Question answered.
Weird business.
Posted by dpoland at 10:40 PM | Comments (29) | Retweet
DP/30 - Precious screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher
Shot at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
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Do We Really Believe In What "Adjusted Grosses" Mean?
Posted by dpoland at 09:34 PM | Comments (33) | Retweet
Super Bowl Ads
Not a great year for ads. Google's search through a life experience was close... very clever. I liked Dorito's "Play Nice" ad.
I wasn't a fan of the Megan Fox sexting ad for Motorola. I don't know that VW's punch ad, which I mostly liked, needed a kid punching someone in the balls or a joke about Stevie Wonder being blind... distracted from the everyman idea. And what were the odds that there would be back-to-back ads with men running around without pants?
Here's a way to check out all of the ads via Hulu...
And Here are my 4 favorites... 3 of them after the jump...
This one is yet another case of Leno rebuilding his image...
Continue reading "Super Bowl Ads"
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BYOB™ Super Bowl Sunday
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Working Girl To Join Jersey Shore?
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SNL & Ashton Kutcher Explain Twitter... But It Didn't Make The Show
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Weekend Estimate by Klady - Dear Na'vi
Is there more to say?
Hannah Montana The Movie sold more tickets on opening weekend than Dear John.
Oy.
To Paris With Love's opening reminds us just how good Fox's approach on Taken was. And isn't it ironic that the sequel to Morel's first film behind the camera, District B13, also opened this weekend... with a thud? (Magnolia made it nearly impossible to see the film... so I guess they thought it had it coming.)
Decent expansion for Crazy Heart. Sherlock crossed $200m. Ajami and The Last Station showed a little nomination bump on an arthouse scale. An Education and Precious also got small bumps, though they can't be thrilled with their per-screens.
Posted by dpoland at 12:24 PM | Comments (42) | Retweet
February 06, 2010
BO Friday
I will eventually post Klady's chart, but the headline for the weekend will be that Avatar got beat by a girl, as Dear John will likely roll out to business in the low 30s. (Yes, Super Bowl is hard on chick flicks too.)
The more significant storyline will actually be that in Weekend Eight, Avatar may fall back to Titanic's weekend numbers for the first time. The "official" Titanic Weekend Eight was $23,027,838. If Avatar drops only 25% , it will still have the Weekend Eight record. But 30% - Super Bowl! - would drop it just below. And Titanic actually went back up the weekend after Super Bowl... to $28.2m... which will surely beat Avatar next weekend, if the Na'vi are not vanquished this weekend.
$262 million of Titanic's gross came after Weekend Eight. We shouldn't expect that of Avatar. But with the legs it's shown, another $170m to get to $800m domestic, should not shock.
Meanwhile, with over $1.5m in the international bank already, Avatar should pass Titanic's worldwide gross of $1.8b in international gross alone, ending up with over #2.6b at the box office. A 45% bump from the previous record and well over double any other film's worldwide gross. Those who wish to shoot this down as being just about 3D or hype, please start your adjusting/rationalizing engines and know that you should red in the face with embarrassment, not fury.
And if you are looking for Dear John precedent, look no farther than the "same weekend" two years ago... Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour... $31.1m opening... and that was without a lot of women over 20. Simple marketing... give 'em what they want and get out of the way. Smart. Successful.
Posted by dpoland at 09:49 AM | Comments (40) | Retweet
February 05, 2010
Taylor Lautner... Car Wreck of The New Decade?
Someone has to say it.
Studios seem to be having a mass delusion about Taylor Lautner. He's a beautiful kid. And shows not the tiniest amount of acting skill. He make Justin Timberlake look like frickin' Olivier!
I may turn out to be terribly wrong. But I have never seen a lesser show of talent hosting Saturday Night Live... and that includes Ralph Nader and January Jones.
And with due respect to Donna Langley, who is quoted in the Stretch Armstrong press release, Mr Lautner has most certainly not become a movie star in the last few years. He's never even been the lead of a movie. And I believe he will be the latest in a long line of cover boys from the girl equivalent of jerk mags, the gossip glossies, to cost studios tens of millions in wasted dollars, trying to make a star out of a stiff stud.
You tell me...
(Edited, 10:40p, for iPhoned typos)
Posted by dpoland at 06:40 PM | Comments (101) | Retweet
Santa Barbara IntFF
Landed late... no opening night film... but the baby was a celebrity at the opening party. He decided to sleep through much of it. Festival Director Roger Durling was exhausted - he's an early riser and worker... like military early - and late night parties are not his thing. That said, the community continues to support this fest in a big way, some big new sponsors came on board, and his September invites for the hypey part of the fest, the Oscar pre-show, turned out to be prescient.
If you are in SB or will be, a big recommendation for Roy's. The restaurant/bar, at which Roy himself is front and center, not only has excellent food at a pretty good price (entrees including soup and salad) - unpretentious gourmet - but Roy is a real mensch. He's the kind of businessman that I am thrilled to see succeed.
Posted by dpoland at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | Retweet
February 04, 2010
DP30 - Pete Docter, co-director/co-writer of Up
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Bring Your Own Blog™ - Travel Day
Heading up to the Santa Barbara Film Festival for a few days... hoping for less rain than more... limited posting while on the road...
Posted by dpoland at 10:14 AM | Comments (52) | Retweet
February 03, 2010
Mixed Feelings On Angry Young Men
I spent the afternoon researching the story behind the story of Paul Fischer stealing copy from the Sundance festival guide for the "what the movie's about" sections of his reviews from the festival, printed by Moviehole and Dark Horizons.
As Ray Pride put together the pieces for Movie City Indie, I had a strong urge to find a way to offer perspective and not just reportage of all of it.
So I wrote.
And I wrote and I wrote and I wrote.
And the more I wrote, the more I became what I beheld. Long winded... trying too hard to make the point... lacking the confidence that you, the reader, would get it with less.
So here is the short form. There are some guys out there, and the author of the Fisher piece, Chris Parry, seems to be one of them, who have a problem with proportion. And a bunch of them seem to be connected to eFilmCritic.com. This doesn't mean that they don't start with good intentions. But they seem to be forever making excessive threats, looking to score takedowns on the same small targets year after year after year, and making rhetorical mountains out of molehills.
Some would accuse me of the same. But after wasting a lot of ammo on tiny targets when I started out writing on the web, I learned to hold fire until something of size that - in my view - offered some perspective came into my sights. So yeah, if I'm smacking you, it is a backhanded compliment in every meaning of the phrase.
When I read Sean Means on the issue of Fischer, I just wish that it was his story from the start. As a disinterested party, he avoids Parry's near-hysteria. He also sticks to the news and doesn't go on to a typically Childress-ian tear about the evils of quote whores... as though that was remotely relevant to the issue of plagiarism.
Does Parry's Vancouver Sun editor know that Parry has previously written about Fischer, claiming to have run him out of one town and looking forward to running him out of another? I doubt it.
I have shared pleasantries with Paul Fischer over many years. I completely understand what people complain about and, professionally, have never understood completely why people hire him. Perhaps it is because, even with his portly frame, he is a workhorse. He is everywhere in JunketVille™ and seems to be able to knock it out in a hurry... apparently with some unacceptable forms of rhetorical support, though I have to say, copying off of press notes is not as much of a rarity these days as it should be.
The guy is a hack. But he is not taking food out of my mouth or, as best I can tell, anyone else's mouth. And he certainly is not doing anything that isn't being done by at least half the members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, a group primarily for junketeers.
(EDIT - 11:30p, I have been reminded that the founder of BFCA was not a junketeer and was quite virulently anti-quote whore.)
Right now, for me, there is something scarier about the raging across the web than there is about junket whoring... or even stealing copy from a program guide. Paul Fischer is an easy target and very, very consistent over many years. You can find him and squash him anytime you have the urge. But self-righteous rage is hard to get a handle on... it leaks out all over the place... and people are so entranced by the sideshow gotcha of it all, we forget to ask questions that civilians shouldn't have to ask, but many journalists no longer ask.
Sigh...™
(P.S. Minor correction to Parry's piece... Roeper had nothing to do with removing the thumbs from At The Movies. Roger and Gene's estate control the thumbs. Richard had them - all of them - on loan only.)
Posted by dpoland at 06:12 PM | Comments (21) | Retweet
DP/30 - Anand Tucker, director of Red Riding 1983
I had no idea what Anand Tucker would be like when I went to shoot this interview and I could not have been more pleased to meet a gentle, funny, honest guy who obviously loves making movies (and shares my current status of having a newborn in the house). You may not know much about this filmmaker either. Mostly I knew that he has been talked up all over town in recent years. But I encourage you to take a look. He's someone you might like spending 30 minutes with... and his movie - the third in the trilogy - is pretty great too.
Posted by dpoland at 06:08 PM | Comments (5) | Retweet
February 02, 2010
Pride's Obligatory Generic Oscar Nomination Report
Banal lede setting up The Hurt Locker vs. Avatar. Obligatory remark on former marital status. Inevitable and noncommittal response. Diffident pun, like "battle of the exes," revealing writer's lack of buffering layer of editors. Lazy comparison of Biblical small man opposing giant ogre. Team Na'vi vs. Team Bomb Squad. Blue vs. Green. Ten Best Picture nominees are too cold, ten Best Picture nominees are too hot, ten Best Picture nominees are just right. Spreading the wealth. Gratitude expressed that The Hangover and G-Force were not nominated. It was the best of years, it was the worst of...
Posted by dpoland at 03:28 PM | Comments (20) | Retweet
Crazy Flynn - Your Oscar Frontrunner Is Blue.
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I Think The Ex Story Sucks
Jim Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow are about as comfy a couple of ex-es as there are. They both supported the other through their current Oscar-nominated films.
Every time someone leads with the ex story, it is an insult to both of them, but especially to Kathryn. She doesn't deserve to be presented to the large percentage of the world that barely knows her name as someone's ex. She is a great director, in this case raised to her very best work by a script that inspired her beyond the cleverness of her earlier work to importance as a filmmaker.
Even the "first female director," which is also a little dicey, is diminished by the inclusion of a powerful male in the dynamic.
I know why people are doing it. But I want to be on record... it sucks.
Posted by dpoland at 12:07 PM | Comments (35) | Retweet
DP/30 - Your Oscar Nominee HQ
30 minutes with 38 nominees... and more... and more to come...
Best Picture nominees...
Avatar - Jim Cameron, Jon Landau, Joe Letteri
The Blind Side - John Lee Hancock
District 9 - director Neil Blomkamp & star Sharlto Copley, screenwriters Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell and others
An Education - Carey Mulligan, Carey Mulligan & Peter Sarsgaard, Nick Hornby
The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal & Kathryn Bigelow, Jeremy Renner
Inglourious Basterds - Christoph Waltz, editor Sally Menke (also with The White Ribbon cinematographer Christian Berger)
Precious - Lee Daniels, Lee Daniels & Gabby Sidibe
A Serious Man - cinematographer, production designer, costumer
Up - Pete Docter coming soon
Up In The Air - Jason Reitman, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
And...
Crazy Heart - Jeff Bridges, musicians T-Bone Burnett & Ryan Bingham
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Colin Firth, A Single Man
The Messenger - Woody Harrelson & Ben Foster, screenwriters Oren Moverman & Alesandro Camon
Armando Ianucci & Peter Capaldi, Armando Ianucci, In the Loop
Hans Zimmer, score, Sherlock Holmes
Henry Selick, Coraline
Wes Anderson, Fantastic Mr Fox
The Princess & The Frog directors
The Cove, Louis Psihoyos
The White Ribbon director Michael Haneke
Oscar producer Bill Mechanic on the State of the Union
Posted by dpoland at 07:07 AM | Comments (1) | Retweet
Oscar Morning Coming Down
The Surprises - The Blind Side was one I was on top of... A Serious Man staying strong, not so much... and I was never a believer that District 9 would happen, which it did.
Left out - Nine and Invictus.
No surprises in Actor... thank God that Renner gor it.
In actress, no Cotillard... Gabby in... no door opening for Saldana.
Supporting... Matt Damon walks in for Invictus while Fred Molina watches... and Maggie Gyllenhaal pushes out Julianne Moore's turn in A Single Man.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the morning was The Secret of Kells taking an animation slot ahead of DreamWorks, Miyazaki, and Tim Burton.
Burma VJ, The Cove, Food, Inc, The Most Dangerous Man In The World, and Which Way Home are in for Best Doc, which is a surprise mostly because it leaves out both Valentino: The Last Emperor and Every Little Step.
Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead with nine nominations. 8 for inglourious Basterds and 6 each for Precious and Up In The Air.
Nine, weak as it became, ended up with 4 nominations. Up has 6, An Education only 3, District 9 has 4, and only the two actors for both Invictus and The Last Station. The Young Victoria will push out with three nods, though Emily Blunt was not one of them.
Looking at these nods, it is fascinating how in line it is, even in odd areas.
Here is your Oscar ballot.
Damon deserved to be in for The Informant! as much as he doesn't for Invictus.
First guess... Avatar wins 4 Oscars... The Hurt Locker wins 3, Up, Inglourious Basterds, and Star Trek could each win 2. Aside from that, 11 one-offs.
The funny thing about The 10 is... it's just about right. I don't agree with every choice, but every area (except light comedy) is represented. Precious, The Hurt Locker, An Education, and A Serious Man are little engines that could. You have 5, maybe 6, $100 million+ grossers, including 3 of the Top 8 grossers of the year. And right in the middle, you have Up In The Air (which may hit $100m).
You have 2 sci-fi films, an animated film, you have 6 movies based in or traveling to other countries (ironically, not Up In The Air), you have only 3 titles fully funded by studios, 3 festival pick-ups (2 Sundance, 1 Toronto), one output-only film, four titles with female leads, 3 films with major movie stars up front, 5 of the 6 remaining majors represented plus the 3 biggest indies and 2 Dependents.
It's a really balanced list, when you think about it.
Posted by dpoland at 05:46 AM | Comments (97) | Retweet
February 01, 2010
David Brown, 93
Elegant.
That was my experience of David Brown. It's what so many said about the man.
Was there anything that defined the man's history so much as his relationship with Dick Zanuck? Probably not. But they, and later, he showed remarkable taste. Spielberg didn't start with Jaws. He started with The Sugarland Express. And Brown was there for both.
The Verdict, Cocoon, The Player, A Few Good Men. Oscar nominee Chocolat and winner, Driving Miss Daisy.
It's amazing that it has been a decade since the Chocolat journey, which had Brown front and center, often with Leslie Caron, while Binoche and Depp were unavailable. That was nearly the end of his active career. 83 was probably enough. But he was charming and coiffed to perfection and open and as pleasant as could be.
An amazing life.
Posted by dpoland at 11:15 PM | Comments (3) | Retweet
