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November 30, 2005

From "Pop" To "Smart" To "Smug"

Armond White's feature piece for The New York Press this week is so intense, so thought-provoking, and so incredibly abusive to anyone else's opinions, it is hard to know where to start. In trying to pull a quotation for this entry, there was not more than a couple of graphs that didn't include specific attacks, so choosing one would suggest that I was agreeing with that particular rage. Not the case. The fact is, I spent the entire piece agreeing excitedly and disagreeing angrily. Intellectual Whiplash!

But here is a link and here is a pullquote:

Film journalists and filmmakers have lost the instinct to question the presumptions of their own privileged class. Third-raters with more temerity than talent rule. Every word of praise for Clooney, Baumbach and their mendacious colleagues demonstrates the preening self-satisfaction of a media canton incapable of self-scrutiny, heedlessly celebrating its own kind. Now that the privileged children of '60s dissent have risen to power, they discourage the moviegoing public from coming together in assent.

Posted by poland at 12:10 PM | Comments (97)

Is The Deep End Too Shallow Or The Shallow Too Deep?

From Today's THB...

"When MovieCityNews came into the world three years ago, it was simpler. Instead of rewriting other people's stories as our own, we linked to the papers and web sites who we felt did the best job with the stories or if we could, to the reporter who originated the story. We also created our own content - and a lot of it - with writers who were veteran professionals more than capable of handling top reporting jobs at any outlet.

But as the blog world grew, the discussion about the aggregated stories expanded. A thrown telephone could be discussed for months. And, as usual, the really important stuff that is hard to report slipped between the cracks in most quarters. Suddenly, tiny stories that were really quite meaningless started to become "news" because there were so many people looking to make news, that they needed more fodder.

And now we see a more aggressive approach to the web by traditional media. On the film side, there is The Hollywood Reporter's Anne Thompson assuring on hiring that her weekly column will be freely accessible on the web and then starting a blog of her own under the Reporter banner. The L.A. Times starts The Envelope, featuring a grand total of zero writers who have ever delivered news on a daily basis scrambling to do daily news (in an arena where there is almost no real news… ever). And never fear, the New York Times will be rolling out "The Red Carpet" before to long, treading the same well worn turf. Variety has its awards page… The Hollywood Reporter theirs… and on and on."

And two e-mails that have already come in...

"A brave and insightful column today, as usual. I read Defamer for laughts and that german word I can't spell about taking joy in the misery of the elites, but I read The Hot Button first and actually think about it. Keep up the good work, you're doing it right."

and

"Dave, just finished your Nov 30 column and I'm up to my armpits in your angst here. Stick to analyzing box office, which you do quite well. You don't have to keep yourself up all night worrying about the state of Internet news media. I mean, who gives a crap anyway? It is what it is, it always will be thus, and there's nothing anyone can do to change it. Short-term gain, long-term goals, blah, blah, blah - you're not an elected official, you run a movie web site. A fine one at that, but it is not so lofty an endeavor that you have to flagellate yourself over moral standards. Chill out and get back to ripping the other columnists about their erroneous views on the future of the biz. And no more listing your pseudo-ten commandments of responsible Internet journalism, okay? Unless I give you permission. It’s pompous and smacks of self-importance. That’s not you."

Posted by poland at 10:32 AM | Comments (25)

Kaus On Goldstein

Quoting Kaus' entire citation

That's how I feel about sex! The LAT's Patrick Goldstein attacks Oscar prediction blogging, then produces the Buried Weasel Graf of the Week:

Full disclosure: I write an Oscar prediction column too, but I do it once a year, not 47 times a week.

Goldstein adds, "without getting into the Academy Award prediction business full-time, I may be doing an Oscar podcast in the near future too." ... That's OK. Go ahead, do it full-time! As long as you let us know you'd really rather "wrestle with questions about what our movies say about America today." God help us.
... P.S.: Hollywood is an isolated subculture populated by quirky egomaniacs, and movies have long lead times. They are lousy barometers of "America today." Indeed, wrestling with "what movies say about America today" is usually just a disingenuous, intellectually flattering, week-in-reviewish way of writing about glamorous stars and directors and attracting lucrative movie ads. At least Oscar handicappers are open and straightforward about what they're doing. ... 5:55 P.M.

Posted by poland at 08:39 AM | Comments (11)

November 29, 2005

A New Level Of Arrogance

All I can say is, "Wow!"

Slandered by Patrick Goldstein in the morning... the attacking paper wanting free content for their effort in the afternoon.

The e-mail....

-----Original Message-----
From: Rushfield, Richard
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 2:09 PM
To: Rushfield, Richard
Subject: Your response sought

Dear Blogger,

As you may have seen, this morning the LA Times Calendar Section published a piece by columnist Patrick Goldstein taking on the phenomenon of online Oscar prognostication and the effect of blogs and the web rumor mill on entertainment coverage at large. You can read the full piece here:

http://theenvelope.latimes.com/movies/env-et-goldstein29nov29,0,2796255.story?coll=env-home-headlines

The Envelope, the Times' awards site, would like to open up the debate on this question and invite you to respond to the Goldstein column. Over the next few days, we will feature on The Envelope site the responses of prominent bloggers and online entertainment reporters to the column.

If you would like to join the debate, please send your response to me at this address and we will post them quickly. Hope you can weigh in and share with us your perspective and experience on this issue. But please, as we are still a family corner of the internet, we'll have to ask you to check any profanity at the door.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Richard Rushfield
Senior Editor
latimes.com"

Breathtaking. The first thing that actually generates any attention for The Envelope is a piece attacking everyone else. Think of the journalistic significance of that. The only thing left to build the LA Times film coverage on is bitter rage and the subsequent aftermath. Worthy of Karl Rove.

I will not be participating. I have said my share. And any discussion about whether the awards season has gotten out of hand will be on my own terms, not in response to Patrick Goldstein's blathering.

But then again, Jeffrey Wells is already basking in the glow of being called "The Lewis Black of Oscar Blogging" and Tom O'Neil is sending out links to Goldstein and his lame response under the subject line, "OSCAR BLOGGERS BITCH FIGHT!"

Can we get any lower?

Posted by poland at 02:22 PM | Comments (13)

Not So Indie Spirit

The winners?

Sony Classics – 12 nominations
Magnolia – 7 nominations
Sam Goldwyn – 6 nominations
Focus Features – 6 nominations
Warner Indie – 6 nominations
The Weinstein Company – 3 nominations first month out

The losers?

Miramax – 0 nominations
Lions Gate – 4 nominations… Crash relegated to Best First Feature and a Matt Dillon nod
IFC Film – 2 nominations… Miranda July’s film was a natural lock that was locked out of the top categories.
Paramount Classics – 1 nomination… Terrence Howard and nothing else for Hustle & Flow, Mad Hot Ballroom or Asylum
Picturehouse – 1 nominations… Cinematography for the ‘shoulda been a lock” Last Days

More...

Posted by poland at 12:00 PM | Comments (11)

November 28, 2005

Oy, Patrick

You know, Patrick… it’s getting a little sad.

For years, you were hot shit on the Oscar turf. Your couple of columns during the season were chewed on and debated like they meant something. Than last year, with “Oscar bloggers” nipping at your heels, you dedicated the first part of your annual Oscar column to trying to make me and Tom O’Neil and others look foolish by setting up a whiny competitive thing even though I specifically said that I had no interest in saying anything bad about Tom, regardless of what he said about me.

Soon thereafter, you went all out for Spanglish in a column. It was about the same time that I said that only The Aviator could change the tenor of the season enough to stop The Phantom of the Opera. (Get your attack citations right, please.) I was wrong. Million Dollar Baby changed everything. And I was the first to write (and rave) about that movie, as I had been for Sideways, and ultimately, The Aviator, though that movie played better in time (and on a proper print) than it did in the first screening.

And by the way… The Phantom of the Opera grossed $155 million worldwide. Your thoughtful call on Spanglish led to $55 million worldwide. You really showed me! I’m a web idiot!

This year, you came out for Jarhead in September. But your Oscar column never showed up. I guess The Envelope and your increasing irrelevance, as your column veers between hateful attacks and helpful handjobs with little in between, has forced you to go another direction.

So we get the new look… “what’s wrong with The Oscars is the internet.” But you’re “not one of these MSM (mainstream media) guys who resent my Internet brethren.”

You are one of those guys, Patrick. (It’s OM, btw… Old Media… the mainstream is swimming in my pond now.) And unlike those who have a cushy berth in Old Media, those of us on the web have to earn our position. None of us are delivered to the doorstep each morning. It’s real easy for someone not to click on a web page. And in the case of MovieCityNews, we don’t do Defamer stuff, no matter how much attention it gets. We do news. We have fun. But we deliver the news, hard and soft, but not gossip. And that’s why our numbers go up every year while OM’s go down.

You are one of those guys who spends paragraphs attacking someone like me without ever calling to get my point of view. You called others. But not me. Not even an e-mail request. And of course, you have to use old stuff… you dragged out Phantom, which you dragged out last year… to try to hurt me.

You are one of those guys who avoids MCN’s Gurus o’ Gold as a discussion point because even if it fits your hypothesis, you would be dissing people “on your side,” nine of thirteen of whom have Munich in their Top Three sight unseen and four of which have chosen to put it low on their list until they see it.

You are one of those guys who attacks me for Oscar coverage, then praises bloggers who write seriously about their arena, politics, but completely avoid the fact that the vast majority of what I put on the web is very serious, in-depth discussion about films and the film industry on The Hot Button, now eight years and about 1500 daily columns old.

You are one of those guys who will pretend that Jewish Academy members would vote for The Passion of The Christ. Maybe you should talk to Harvey Weinstein or the many top Oscar consultants who used to work for him - or still do - about the math of Academy campaigning. (Amazingly, you used that same quote while attacking me last year. I write no less than 350,000 words a year… you had to jump on that same 50 words two years in a row?)

You are one of those guys who doesn’t understand that the web is a niche business and that the sites that highlight Oscar are embracing a specific demographic… people who want to read about it all too much. Are they not allowed to discuss what they want? Or perhaps they should be discussing how great This Week’s Producer Who You Went To Lunch With is?

The Oscars have spawned no less than a $50 million business around them. AMPAS does not discourage it, as $10 million or so of that goes into their coffers. The trades would be out of business if it wasn’t for the high-priced Oscar campaigns. And the L.A. Times is not above the lowest of it. In fact, The LA Times’ push for The Envelope is the most problematic awards situation on the web, since the quality is inferior, but the hype reaches wide while the brand falsely legitimizes it. Physician, heal thyself.

I guess if I want to compete with your paper, I better start online Summer Sneaks, Fall Sneaks, and Holiday Sneaks sections in order to suck more money out of studios that feel they need features and ads if everyone else is in. And I’ll call you when I give away $50,000 in ads and “infomercial” space to Harvey Weinstein.

There was a time when I would be really angry about a nasty, childish piece like this. A lot of that anger would have been fear. “Oh my… the LA Times is attacking me!” But for better or for worse, I now know that people who don’t like me will enjoy your attacks no matter what I say. People who like me will not. And people who don’t know any better will probably come to MovieCityNews and decide for themselves. And honestly, I don’t know many people who are interested in the business who come to MCN and never come back. So thanks for the new readers.

The person most damaged by your piece will be you. Because even though the idea behind it is completely legitimate - I have written some of my crazy “blog” articles about the same - it is so hostile and personal that if exposes your anger… your fears.

And so, I am sorry for your pain. I really am. To be reduced to web-baiting when you were once someone who really was enthusiastic about the web… and even The Hot Button. Sad.

Posted by poland at 06:33 PM | Comments (105)

Spielberg's Wished

I sat on Laura Holson’s story on the value of Steven Spielberg on Sunday night because I found it frustrating that it didn’t seem to have any answers to its central premise. It also seemed rather confused about how Spielberg has done business and why, both in and before the DreamWorks era. When she writes that the Men In Black deal “helped compound the trend of Mr. Spielberg's being tied to companies all over Hollywood, with a finger in dozens of prospective films,” one has to wonder whether even Steven Spielberg’s personal decisions have to be spun into a trend story.

Amblin was a major product producer for years before DreamWorks happened. Starting with Exec Producing the first two Bob Zemeckis/Bob Gale movies starting all the way back in 1978, the Amblin empire has been at the center of Hollywood’s commercial future. Spielberg essentially launched Zemeckis, Chris Columbus, Kevin Reynolds, Joe Dante, Phil Joanou, and Brad Silberling into mainstream Hollywood. He has also brought Mimi Leder to film, brought Frank Marshall into the director’s chair and gave John Patrick Shanley a chance to break out of theater. He supported projects by veterans, from Tobe Hooper to Dick Donner to Gary David Goldberg to Matthew Robbins to Dick Benjamin to Don Bluth to Scorsese.

This was all before DreamWorks was a glimmer in SK&G’s eyes.

But more importantly, the suggestion that Spielberg “directs around” is really a bit simplistic. There was a period, from Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983 through Always in 1989 in which Spielberg worked primarily for his friend Steve Ross at Warner Bros, who died in 1988. Spielberg would direct for WB again with A.I., but that project was Kubrick’s, so it was already ensconced at WB.

But Universal had been home to Spielberg for most of the pre-DreamWorks period. It is worth noting that Munich is the first Spielberg picture that has been developed and co-produced with Universal since the start of DreamWorks. Spielberg has made only 7 films during the DreamWorks era. Amistad, Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal were the only ones financed by DreamWorks without a studio partner. A.I. (via Kubrick), War of the Worlds (via Cruise) and Minority Report (owned by Fox) were both set up at other studios before Spielberg came onboard and as far as I know, were primarily financed by their releasing studios, though DreamWorks came on as partner. Munich is the first homegrown film that Spielberg directed for DreamWorks that was split with another studio.

It’s worth noting that the next DreamWorks project that will go in front of the cameras, Geffen’s passion project, Dreamgirls, will also be split, this time at Paramount, after Geffen’s former producing home base, Warner Bros, turned a split down. This tells us a little something about the situation at all three studios. Had the GE/NBC/Universal/DreamWorks deal been done in September, the partner would likely have been Universal. But alas, no.

Anyway… between Steve Ross’ WB, the DreamWorks era, and Universal, you’re looking at 18 of Spielberg’s films. He also made Close Encounters of the Third Kind for Columbia – then considered to be a massive risk on a director with one commercial hit to his name – and Hook for the former-era Tri-Star, coming on for a massive piece of the gross, in one of the first deals where roughly a third of the gross was committed to talent.

And finally, you have the three Indiana Jones movies, which were set up at Paramount by Exec Producer George Lucas from the start.

In a period in the film business where such a high percentage of expensive films split costs between studios or foreign funders, the idea that Spielberg is “roaming” is kind of antiquated. He will never accept being forced by contract not to do a project he wants to do. But there really hasn’t been a project where he/DreamWorks was not able to pony up cash for partial ownership. Paramount will not seek partners on Indiana Jones… but Universal would not be out looking for partners on any Jurassic sequels either. From a business position, this is a non-issue.

But getting back to the value of Spielberg…

DreamWorks has really limited his output. The animation work that Amblin was doing has been supplanted by Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation. Spielberg’s other interests in TV have mostly come down to cable mini-series, like Band of Brothers, Taken and Into The West and personal projects, like The Last Days. These have all been acclaimed, but none have been the cash cow that something like Animaniacs or the American Tail series were for Amblin.

Essentially, after taking years off after Saving Private Ryan to help build DreamWorks and ultimately deciding not to build a physical studio, Spielberg has been on a directing tear, making more than one film a year.

And that is the rub on Spielberg’s value. At 58, what does he want to be doing with the last active decades of his working life? He really hasn’t launched another directing career since Silberling, more than a decade ago. (Spielberg's interests are maturing, as would be appropriate.

He has connections to a lot of projects that will still be sequeled, remade, TVed, etc. But what he owns personally and through pre-DreamWorks Amblin, he owns. And none of us know what his library arrangement with DreamWorks is. Amblin is on all of his movies as director, so how much of the film goes to Amblin and not DW is not clear from here.

As a director, Universal can certainly own first right of refusal on funding his projects. But that is only as good as their interest in financing his projects. The reason that he didn’t direct Memoirs of A Geisha for DreamWorks was that his own studio very publicly passed on the project, which is how it ended up at the then Calley-ed Columbia.

I would guess – my guess – that the non-specific value of Spielberg and DreamWorks is what has been the biggest sticking point in GE negotiations. Geffen, who has been lead negotiator, wants to get real value and perceived value. Ron Meyer might be willing to go there. But General Electric most certainly is not. Universal can certainly have the rights with Spielberg that DreamWorks has now. But the determination of what makes sense fiscally will remain on a film-by-film basis.

In today’s Hollywood, you have to pay to play. And there are no studios that are making the kind of commitment to talent that they did ten and twenty years ago. Just this season, you have Jim Mangold, who was born of Columbia, having to go to Fox with Walk The Line. You have Michael London having to take his Family Stone to big Fox after Searchlight (and many others) passed. You have Spielberg splitting costs on Munich with his Schindler’s List financer, Universal. You have Capote made by UA and released by Sony Classics. Etcetera. The only show of overt, stable loyalty is Ang Lee making Brokeback Mountain for Jim Schamus. And that’s a comparably tiny budget.

There is no “Spielberg Magic,” because the industry is a lot less about magic than it once was. There is "only" the best known director in the world today, who works his ass off, understands populist filmmaking (though he seems more resistant to it lately), and has become a lot less the impresario in this last decade.

How much will Universal commit to fund a slate at a dependent DreamWorks? How much of a premium will they pay for first refusal with Spielberg? How much is the library worth? How indulgent is G.E. willing to be of duplicative staff in the form of DreamWorks maintaining some of its marketing and distribution staff?

These are the questions that need answering. Magic? I wish.

Posted by poland at 12:44 PM | Comments (19)

November 27, 2005

Who Isn't...

... going to replace the place in the movie world of Spielberg, Scorsese, and Lucas?

There are a lot of good young directors in the world. But has anyone come close to stepping up into that space that these men have occupied for more than 25 years now?

You could argue Peter Jackson in for Lucas, maybe. Limited palette. Building an empire outside of the Hollywood system.

But have we found anyone who is close to Scorsese? (Meirelles is brilliant, but already 50.)

Will we ever see an impresario like Spielberg, combining his own films and the production of many big hits from others, ever again?

It isn't going to be Roland Emmerich or Bryan Singer or Brett Ratner or Sam Raimi or The Wachowskis or Michael Bay or even Pixar. Or will it?

Posted by poland at 05:23 PM | Comments (89)

Devin Gordon Reviews King Kong

We are shockedshocked by Universal trying to pass off a review as a feature for the howevermanyeth time. (I'm guessing that Devin Gordon didn't have to give up his Blackberry when he saw the film.)

(Note: The piece has a number of spoilers.)

And as though by an act of God, after going all the way to New Zealand to see the film... Gordon LOVED it!!! A miracle! One wonders why Newsweek, which has handled the transition to the web better than any of its competition, continues to degrade its film staff by whoring them out like this. With due respect to top critic David Ansen and all the other fine writers on that staff, the line has been blurred beyond recognition for all but industry and anal people who care about such distinctions. And, of course, studios that want to pretend reviews are not reviews.

That said, an outlet receiving a studios DNA and smearing it all over itself like so much moisturizer does not necessarily make it wrong about the quality of a movie. And I hope Devin/Newsweek's monkey love is reasonable or even understated.

Universal will junket the film later this week in NY, where the film will allegedly be shown on something less than a final print. Anyone who is not junket press will allegedly not be shown the film. But a real print is scheduled to be shown for the first time on Sunday, for Academy members... we'll see how many press get into that screening (20 is the over/under). The press will officially be shown the film under we-don't-trust-you/we-want-perfect-conditions conditions on Monday.

I believe that Kong will be a creative success and a massive hit.

But what tends to piss me off is the notion that anyone ever allows themselves to believe that a story like this is anything other than mutual backscratching, by design and intent.

More about all of this on Monday…

Posted by poland at 11:54 AM | Comments (22)

Sunday Estimates/Analysis 11/27/05

Using BoxOfficeMojo, it is impossible to be sure, since their in-depth numbers only go a few years back, but it looks like this 5-day Thanksgiving may break the record set in 2000 when the second weekend of The Grinch combined with $80 million combined launch of Unbreakable and 102 Dalmations.

For clarity, the $162.1 million 3-day is second to the 2000 record-holding Grinch weekend. But the 5-day may be the best ever, given that Rent, Just Friends and others were a bit front-loaded at the box office.

If indeed this is the second straight record-breaking weekend at the box office, what angle will the boo birds use to keep the dream of a box office apocalypse going? Bet on a lot of chatter about ticket prices being higher than ever and a focus on approximated numbers of ticket sold (since there are no public reports on the actual numbers of tickets sold, expect for the MPAA’s annual address at ShoWest).

As for Potter, the biggest surprise is not its success, but rather how similar it is to Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets, the last Potter movie to arrive in November. Potter 2 opened a week early than IV, but still, by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, they are neck & neck in box office total. Of course, the extra week means something. But as we head into December – particularly starting the second weekend – the competition is more important than the time. Also, the front-loading of box office has continued apace since November 2002, as the massive opening weekend last week suggests. I would expect Goblet of Fire to become the second highest grossing Potter film… but to come up a little short of $300 million.

Walk The Line… solid… ‘nuff said.

Rent did more than a quarter of its 5-day total on Wednesday. As I’ve said… $50 million is a long way off.

Len Klady points out that Syriana did huge business in just 5 theaters, with a $77,600 per screen average, which may be a record.

Pride & Prejudice expanded decently though its per-screen was not overwhelming, slightly lower than for Yours, Mine & Ours. And a note... Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason grossed $6.2 million last year on the Thanksgiving 3-day weekend.

The Polar Express added another $1.2 million to its domestic total with a holiday re-run on 66 IMAX screens. I saw the film again last week and it really is a singular cinema experience on IMAX. If you love film, you have to go if you haven’t already experienced this.

Jarhead is now looking like it will gross just a little more domestically as, surprise!, Cinderella Man. Soon we will be asked to rediscover Jarhead, right? (I am actually quite curious about seeing that film again.)

Title / Distributor / Gross (average) / % change / Theaters / Cume
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / WB / 55.2 (14,300) / -46% / 3858 / 201.4
Walk the Line / Fox / 19.5 (6,200) / -13% / 3138 / 54.5
Yours, Mine and Ours / Par / 17.3 (5,400) / / 3206 / 24.3
Chicken Little / BV / 12.8 (3,670) / -13% / 3475 / 118.6
Rent / Sony / 10.5 (4,300) / / 2433 / 17.7
Just Friends / New Line / 9.3 (3,720) / / 2505 / 13.6
Pride and Prejudice / Focus / 6.9 (5,300) / 221% / 1299 / 15.6
Derailed / Weinstein Co / 4.6 (2,250) / -29% / 2061 / 29.3
In the Mix / Lions Gate / 4.5 (2,820) / / 1608 / 6.3
The Ice Harvest / Focus / 3.7 (2,360) / / 1550 / 5.1
Zathura / Sony / 3.6 (1,110) / -30% / 3232 / 25.9
Jarhead / Uni / 2.9 (1,800) / -39% / 1601 / 59.4
Saw II / Lions Gate / 2.2 (1,670) / -44% / 1326 / 84
Get Rich or Die Tryin' / Par / 2.1 (1,760) / -52% / 1213 / 28.4
Good Night, and Good Luck / WIP / 1.8 (2,980) / 10% / 617 / 19.5
The Polar Express Imax (reissue) / WB / 1.2 (18,360) / / 66 / 1.4
Maurice Richard / Alliance / .94 (7,010) / / 134 / 0.94
Capote / Sony Classics / .92 (3,610) / 9% / 255 / 9.1
The Legend of Zorro / Sony / .87 (1,130) / -63% / 767 / 44.5
Shopgirl / BV / .75 (2,180) / -27% / 344 / 8.8
Dreamer / DreamWorks / .52 (900) / -57% / 579 / 31.7

Posted by poland at 11:38 AM | Comments (12)

November 26, 2005

Early Friday Estimates by Klady

(Note: A mistake on the Harry Potter estimate was made earlier and has now been corrected. My spologies.)

Answers?

Looks like Potter will hit $200 million in 10 days... with less than $35 million to go to reach that landmark.

Joaq The Line will be short of $60 million in 10 days, but still solid and likely enough business to lock up a Best Picture nomination, as the perception of business success is an important part of the Oscar positioning.

Chicken Little looks like it will have more like 125 million acorns at the end of 10 days.

Just Friends, on the other hand, will be lower than I thought yesterday, topping out at about $15 million for 5.

Rent is still heading to $20 million over 5... and $50 must feel a long way away. Alexander opened to about the same numbers last year and got to $34 million. A similar opening three years ago, Treasure Planet got to $38 million.

Title / Distributor / Gross* / Theaters / % Change
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / WB / 23.6 / 3858 / -28%
Walk the Line / Fox / 7.9 / 3138 / +3%
Yours, Mine and Ours / Par / 7.3 / 3206 / New
Chicken Little / BV / 5.5 / 3475 / +55%
Rent / Sony / 4.4 / 2433 / New
Just Friends / New Line / 3.7 / 2505 / New
Pride and Prejudice / Focus / 2.7 / 1299 / +332%
In the Mix / Lions Gate / 1.8 / 1608 / New
Derailed / Wein Co / 1.8 / 2061 / -15%
Ice Harvest / Focus / 1.5 / 1550 / New
Zathura / Sony / 1.5 / 2620 / +2%
Also Debuting
Syriana / WB / 0.13 / 5 / n/a

Posted by poland at 10:49 AM | Comments (13)

November 25, 2005

Is Being Gay On The Big Screen A Win?

Fron a Slate interview with a writer who feels that Rent was ripped off, in part, from here work...

"Slate: Let me play devil's advocate. Isn't Rent progressive? It revolves around people with AIDS. It shows men kissing, women kissing …

Schulman: That's a retrograde point of view. In a time when people denied the existence of gays and lesbians, work that asserted that gays and lesbians existed with some minimum of human integrity could be coded as progressive. But since the AIDS crisis, most Americans personally know people who are openly gay. At this point, to simply represent or acknowledge that gay people exist is no longer inherently progressive, and to depict gay people as people who have no agency is retrogressive."

Is the same not true of Brokeback Mountain and the "it's our movie" mentality out there?

Posted by poland at 11:43 PM | Comments (18)

Kool Aid Time

With due respect to Anne Thompson, the idea of connecting trouble in the American auto business and alleged "trouble" in the film business is horrfying. It speaks directly to my greatest fear... that the intellectual debate about what the future of the film business is will be reduced to non-specific ramblings and irrational connections between things that are utterly unconnected.

In the most simplistic analysis, the auto business is completely different than the film business. The auto business has not been dominated by America the way that the film business dominates the world business in a long, long time. G.M. or any manufacturer release their product line once a year and sell that line for a year. While making a film does take time, no one film involves the kind of massive investment that an auto line does. And no studio, since the end of the studio system in the late 60s, has ever suffered or benefitted from trend buying the way the auto business is. Studios are not building SUVs only and seeing the trend suddenly turn away from that style.

Stealth may have crashed, but another studio tentpole, Fantastic Four, did terrific. Yes, Disney lost by chasing the Asian girl horror trend with Dark Water. But that was one movie with a small loss... and the lesson was learned. And a few months later, girls drove The Exorcism of Emily Rose to huge profits. The ship of movie state is much more flecible than that of the auto business.

And the argument that the connection is that the film business is slow to adapt is completely counter-intuitive.

The DVD business is five years old!!!

How many times must one say it? The DVD business, which expanded revenues by 30% to 40%, is only five years old!

Anne restates the same utterly false, completely unproven notion that texting is speeding up word-of-mouth to lightening speed. Besides people mouthing this absurdity a lot over the last year, what proof is offered? Forget details... just show me a Friday/Saturday drop that suggests it. Second weekend drops are not new. So if things are going faster, it should be seen on Saturdays, right? And before you use Rent as an example, you'll need to find a teenager who saw the movie on Wednesday.

We have seen this kind of hysteria before. It comes and goes. And it DOESN'T mean that there is nothing wrong. Many things are wrong. But this experiential journalism - for which the web must take some responsibility - is for shit. None of us who write about this business are the target for the business. Yet we write endlessly about how we feel... and now that extends to the major papers and teh trades. This is getting very dangerous.

No one who knows anything about the record business will tell you that the troubles that occured in the 90s were a result of technology so much as a result of record company greed. Pricing was just to high.

And for some reason, all these people who are screaming about the end of the movie world as we know it and the NEED to chase technology (let's not even get into the lack of screaming that the studios should have converted theaters to digital projection years ago and could be saving a billion dollars a year now) don't seem to understand that the entire push for home delivery is about expanding the costs of films at home... not serving the consumer more effectively.

If you serve the customer more effectively, the price families spend to receive films at home will go down, not up! And if you prioritize the home experience over the theaterical window followed by the home window, it will go down even further.

The only two arguments for shrinking the window further are: 1. Serving the blockbuster and 2. the notion that people will pay a significant premium for seeing movies on opening weekend at home.

If either of these notions disturb you... and I would bet that both notions would disturb Anne Thompson and Patrick Goldstein as the primary drivers, since neither have written about them... then you have to be taking a stand on the side of strengthening the theatrical business and window before getting to a wide open ancillary business. If not, you are sure to be like the girl who sleeps with the guy on their first date to "get him" and wonders why he then leaves her because he thinks she is a whore.

The film business is a long relationship. The one night stand mentality is not progress.

Posted by poland at 04:06 PM | Comments (7)

Early Thanksgiving Day Estimates

Can Harry Potter IV pass $200 million in 10 days or less? That is the golden question for the weekend.

Walk the Line should near $60 million in 10 days by the time the weekend ends. The solid show in a second weekend bodes well for a nice run into Christmas and position as the highest grossing awards movie when Oscar nominations are released in late January… perhaps by tens of millions of dollars, unless Munich finds commercial success with surprising speed.

Yours, Mine & Ours should come out of the box with about $23 million over 5 days… a bit behind last years Christmas With The Kranks… which projects out to about $60 million total… though that could go up or down, depending on word of mouth.

Chicken Little should have a $23 million 5-day, taking its total to about $120 million. This keeps the title well ahead of Polar Express and it could rebound a bit next week as some of the Harry Potter and Yours, Mine & Ours heat subsides. While Potter will clearly be first choice for second and third viewings by the teens, the little kids can safely be dropped off to have some Chicken.

Rent should get to somewhere between $18 million and $22 million for 5 days. Ultimately, $50 million would be a reasonable expectation for a domestic total, unless the film finds an audience beyond RentHeads… so far, the big Thursday dropoff suggests that it has not so far.

Just Friends will have a decent $20 million 5-day. It is actually a bit of a triumph for New Line marketing, as they got that for a movie with no box office draws and a murky story hook. (“He was fat… now he’s just a clumsy good-looking geek with a slutty superstar girlfriend…”)

Pride & Prejudice numbers are a bit soft. The film should do about $8 million over the 5-day, which is okay, and they are on half or a third of the screens of everything else in the Top Ten, but hitching the wagon to Bridget Jones is appearing to be a connection for audiences to Bridget Jones:The Edge Of Reason, not the original. $40 million is going to be hard to come by for this well-loved-by-critics.

In The Mix died as expected. The Ice Harvest died as expected, but somehow feels like an ugly event.

Early Thanksgiving Day Estimates
1. Harry Potter IV - $12.4m - $145.7
2. Walk The Line - $4.6m - $34.8
3. Yours, Mine & Ours - $3.8m - $7.2
4. Rent - $2.4m - $7.4
5. Just Friends - $2.3m - $4.3
6. Chicken Little - $1.9m - $105.4
7. Pride And Prejudice - $1.2m - $8.8
8. Derailed - $.9m - $24.6
9. In The Mix - $.9m - $1.7
10. Ice Harvest - $.8m - $1.3

Posted by poland at 11:15 AM | Comments (32)

November 23, 2005

Funny What Gets Us Excited This Time Of Year...

Over the weekend, BFCA members got a note from The Angellotti Company explaining tha we won't be getting Munich, King Kong, or The Producers screeners until after release. And this:

"Universal wishes to convey that there will be no press conference with Steven Spielberg of anyone attached to MUNICH as there will be no junket for the film. No other press group will receive an opportunity to interview the cast or filmmakers until much closer to the film's release on December 23.

Also, we have just been informed that, sadly, Mel brooks will not participate in THE PRODUCERS junket in New York. Mr. Brooks will not be available to any other group or journalists either."

Never occured to me that Spielberg not junketing Munich was news... since we all knew this was the case since early October. In fact, there was talk amongst his production team about actually releasing the film with no trailer, no poster and no screenings until the first public screening. That idea didn't even get into meetings at Universal.

The history is that Spielberg doesn't test screen and tends to say "no junket" until at the last minute they decide there might not be enough buzz and they throw something together. Spielberg had Tom Hanks dump a lot of media obligations to reshoot the ending of The Terminal less than two weeks before release. For a long time, there was to be no junket for Saving Private Ryan. And I wouldn't be shocked if a small junket suddenly comes together either right before X-Mas or right after New Years.

Steven does what Steven wants to do. Period.

Anyway... if this is news, I guess Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh's decision not to come to L.A. at all to promote Kong is news. Old news.

Meanwhile, Tom O'Neil is crowing about George Clooney moving to Supporting Actor for Syriana... where they obviously hope he can movie star his way to a nomination in what is the leading role in the film. Good luck to them. To me... still not news.

Posted by poland at 06:55 PM | Comments (11)

Just In Time

New Hollywood-Elsewhere Header Photo

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Posted by poland at 10:39 AM | Comments (5)

The Monkey Mock

A terrific merry mocking from Worth1000.com...

I picked 4 to show here, but take a look at all of them.

Funny to see King Kong already being played with so archly.

And a slightly more realistic view of boarding school...

Posted by poland at 01:24 AM | Comments (7)

November 22, 2005

The New Maxim Is Here!

Guess which magazine quoted in the Rent TV ads published:

"What's worse than sitting in a cafe listening to overeducated, ambitionless hipsters whine aout their personal problems? Having them jump on tables and sing about them. And with all the creativity director Chris Columbus (the man who gave us Home Alone) is likely to bring to the proceedings, they'd have been better off just mounting a camera on a tripod and pointing it at the stage."

Posted by poland at 05:35 PM | Comments (19)

How Many Directors Does It Take To Monkey Around?

The DGA has a new challenging request on their arbitration docket right now.

Peter Jackson wants to give a “Animation Directed By” credit on King Kong to the two men who led the effort that brought Kong to life. Of course, they were supervised by Jackson. But with such a singular task as Kong and the other CG creatures in this film, apparently he feels they are deserving.

The DGA has never allowed this kind of credit before. And unlike Robert Rodriguez, I don’t think PJ is going to quit over it. But he has made the request. And it will be interesting to see if his fellow directors honor it.

Posted by poland at 04:16 PM | Comments (3)

Ask Yourself The Question...

Why do you/they like "The Slump?"

Patrick Goldstein Keeps The "Change Is Coming" Alarms

And Poland Says The Hysteria Has Devolved Into A Big Fat Lie

Posted by poland at 02:23 PM | Comments (14)

November 21, 2005

Help Write A Column...

What are your biggest awards wannabe flops?

Posted by poland at 04:31 PM | Comments (73)

November 20, 2005

OH MY!!!!

If you have the chance, check out NBC's The Poseidon Adventure.

WB should have bought it for $20 million just so no one would ever see it.

It is like the worst episode of The Love Boat ever made.

"Embarrassingly shitty crap" would be such a gross understatement.

Posted by poland at 09:17 PM | Comments (31)

Sunday Estimates - 11/20

So yes… if Klady’s $167.7 million weekend estimate for the Top Ten holds up tomorrow, it will be the single best non-summer weekend in history.

According to numbers at Box Office Mojo – a fine online repository of data – this is the third best weekend overall in the last six years. (Memorial Day weekend this year and the weekend after Memorial Day weekend in 2003)

Now do take this into account. There are other studios whose in-house numbers indicate that Potter is $10 million over reality. So it is possible that the figure will fall… not nearly enough to make this anything worse than one of the best ten weekends of this millennium.

Just this weekend (again, if estimates hold), makes the “slump” from last year just $618 million or 7.5%… and decimal points under a 3% drop is you take out Passion of The Christ.

With Narnia and Kong on the way, things for the year – and the exhibition paranoia – look a lot better. And consider this… if it weren’t for The Passion of The Christ, last year, even with the #2 domestic grosser of all time and the muscular Spider-Man 2, would have been behind both 2002 and 2003.

Perspective.

Walk The Line’s opening is really quite good. Now they have the Thanksgiving weekend to see how word of mouth really is.

The best holdover in the Top Ten films in wide release was 47% for Derailed, which shows just how deep Potter’s footprint is.

Pride & Prejudice dropped just 30% in limited release. And they too have the Thanksgiving challenge ahead.

On Wednesday, Yours, Mine & Ours will go right after the Potter demographic. Rent, Just Friends, and The Ice Harvest are all kind of chasing the same audience as the expanding Pride & Prejudice… young-adult-hip-smart. Someone is going to go home crying.

Title / Distributor / Gross (average) / % change / Theaters / Cume
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / WB / 102.1 (26,460) / 3858 / 102.1
Walk the Line / Fox / 22.3 (7,520) / 2961 / 22.3
Chicken Little / BV / 14.6 (4,150) / -54% / 3514 / 98.9
Derailed / Weinstein Co / 6.4 (2,620) / -47% / 2447 / 21.7
Zathura / Sony / 5.1 (1,590) / -62% / 3232 / 20.3
Jarhead / Uni / 4.8 (2,000) / -59% / 2413 / 54.4
Get Rich or Die Tryin' / Par / 4.3 (2,610) / -64% / 1666 / 24.5
Saw II / Lions Gate / 3.8 (1,490) / -58% / 2557 / 79.8
The Legend of Zorro / Sony / 2.3 (1,090) / -63% / 2150 / 42.8
Pride and Prejudice / Focus / 2.0 (9,140) / -30% / 221 / 5.9
Good Night, and Good Luck / WIP / 1.7 (2,090) / -33% / 803 / 16.9
Prime / Uni / 1.6 (1,280) / -59% / 1229 / 21.4
Dreamer / DreamWorks / 1.2 (770) / -68% / 1543 / 30.7
Shopgirl / BV / 1.0 (2,370) / -46% / 413 / 7.6
Capote / Sony Classics / .81 (2,510) / -32% / 323 / 7.7
Flightplan / BV / .57 (1,010) / -64% / 563 / 87.6
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang / WB / .52 (2,300) / -34% / 226 / 2.9

Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) / $175.10m

% Change (Last Year) / +18%

Also Debuting / Expanding
The Squid and the Whale / IDP / .26 (3,250) / -37% / 80 / 2.8
Bee Season / Fox Searchlight / .22 (1,570) / 79% / 138 / 0.38
Breakfast on Pluto / Sony Classics / 33,540 (11,180) / / 3 / 0.04

Posted by poland at 10:59 AM | Comments (29)

November 19, 2005

Cold Mountin'

What drew me onto the Brokeback bandwagon at this moment was that I don't think Geisha will draw 80% of the "romantic saga" voters at the Academy. Moreover, in direct comparison, Geisha suffers from its limitations. Brokeback has the dryness and love of inaction that pushed me away from it… but it is still more passionate than the overripe Memoirs… or as I have taken to calling it, Cold Mountin' (Or Geisha Mountain or Cold Memoir), in honor of its question mark of a predecessor, Cold Mountain (which, by the way, I also prefer to Geisha).

Yet, with very strong players in most of the tech areas, I still expect Geisha to rack up 7 nominations without even counting a Director or Picture nod. That should be enough momentum to get the picture to one of those top five slots this year. But then again, Cold Mountain… 7 nominations… no director… no screenplay… no picture.

The performance getting all the buzz in Memoirs is Gong Li's… but I would say that quality of performance has little to do with it. She is Memoir's Renee Zellweger… the one performance that has any energy or exuberance, so therefore, it is confused with being very good. Zellweger won, I think, on Chicago guilt. The Academy doesn't owe Gong Li anything.

But the real problem with Geisha is its obsession with style at the cost of real emotion. The classic moment in the film is when Zhang Ziyi's character has her geisha debut. Rob Marshall dresses her magnificently, puts her in these amazing giant shoes, and then lights her, shoots her, and surrounds her with fake snow in a remarkably dramatic sequence. But the problem is, it wasn't about the geisha. It was about Rob Marshall. We don't really connect with her emotionally. We don't really believe she can dance or perform. In fact, if you think about it, the only reason we know this was a huge success is because we are told that it is. We don't feel it in our guts.

I give Mr. Marshall some room here because he had a real problem that few directors could get over. His leads are communicating in broken English most of the way and while it makes sense to us, since we know they are (mostly) actual Asian-born actors, it means that their ability to communicate doesn't have the fluidity that their native languages would have. And just like watching a performer who can't sing or dance try to find their comfort zone so they can actually act well while doing what they are uncomfortable with.

More...

Posted by poland at 06:38 PM | Comments (47)

Early Friday Estimates by Klady

Talk about frontloading!

Klady is estimating Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire’s opening Friday at $41.6 million. This would be the #2 opening day of all time and the #4 single day of all time (two of those are for Saturdays for movies that didn’t have as strong an opening day).

The oxygen in this space is, as it is each time we get there, very thin.

As I wrote the other day in Hot Button, the best ever third weekend in November was $150 million for the Top Ten. By estimate, this Friday was good for $60 million. If this does not end up being the best third weekend in November ever, it will be disappointing. But the weekend should be pushed to more than $130 million from this $60 million by the Sat/Sun of the top two films alone. (Frankly, by regular figuring, Potter would have to do at least $70 million Sat/Sun… but it is sooooo much money!)

The partner in this massive weekend is Fox’s very healthy opening for Walk The Line with a $7.7 million Friday. There really isn’t a precedent for a $21 million-plus-a-bit November opening for an awards hopeful film that isn’t an action thing. Master & Commander opened to $25 million for Fox a couple of years ago, stopped around $80 million, then picked up another $10 million and change after being nominated for Best Picture. Walk The Line won’t beat that opening, but it hopes to beat M&C’s success in every other way.

What will the “theatrical is dying” boo birds have to say? Expect more talk about how this is now a tentpole only business. And I will keep looking at the numbers that suggest that the “middle business” is very strong now and the tentpoles are being the most damaged by the shortened window. The biggest problem in the business is not quality and is not people not wanting to go to the movies, but it is the expense of making & opening a movie. So instead of figuring out how to do both for less, the argument is that the movies have to be bigger to match the associated costs. Suicide.

Speaking of Chicken Little… the Disney CG standard bearer, which went up last weekend, took a beating from Mr. Potter this weekend. But that party isn’t completely over, as CL remains the one big film for little kids in the marketplace. It’s still looking like an $11 million weekend for the Chicken Pilloried.

Pretty much every other film in the marketplace suffered significantly under the weight of Potter & Joaq. The big dropper looks like Zathura, which was off an estimated 73% Friday to Friday. Ouch. It’s not a great movie, but it isn’t that kind of movie either. As tough a marketing challenge as the film was, release date is looking like the biggest mistake made since the film goes right at the young boy, maturing Hermione demographic… and had no chance against the real thing.

Pride & Prejudice will face its real test this next week as it rolls out into 1100 theaters. But on just 221 screens, the 38% Friday-to-Friday drop has to be a little disheartening for those hoping this film was a phenom in the making. Bridget Jones was a wide release movie, but in its first seven weekends, the biggest drop it suffered was 26.1%.

(Added comment, 12:05p - NOTE: Box Office Mojo has come out with a Friday estimate for Potter that is $5.2 million lower than Klady's. This could be because Klady careful calculates Canada and with these kind of dollars, the difference could easily be made up there. Or maybe, one is just wrong.)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / WB / 41.6 / 3858 / New
Walk the Line / Fox / 7.7 / 2961 / New
Chicken Little / BV / 3.6 / 3514 / -68%
Derailed / Wein Co / 2.2 / 2447 / 54%
Jarhead / Uni / 1.5 / 2413 / -65%
Zathura / Sony / 1.4 / 3232 / -73%
Saw II / Lions Gate / 1.4 / 2557 / -59%
Get Rich or Die Tryin' / Par / 1.3 / 1666 / -70%
The Legend of Zorro / Sony / 0.7 / 2150 / -66%
Pride and Prejudice / Par / 0.6 / 221 / -38%

Posted by poland at 10:04 AM | Comments (44)

DREAMWORKS MAKES STAGE DREAMS COME TRUE

"Effective January 1, 2006, DreamWorks Pictures will play the licensing fees for all amateur productions of the award-winning musical “Dreamgirls” in the United States and Canada. This will encompass any amateur productions mounted in the calendar year 2006 at high schools, colleges and community theater, but will not extend to dinner theaters and other professional productions. The program is being offered in conjunction with the owners of the original musical - which include the estate of Michael Bennett, who directed, choreographed and produced the original Broadway musical, and the Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc – with the goal of introducing a new generation fo theatergoers to “Dreamgirls” in advance of DreamWorks; late 2006 release of the long-awaited screen version of the musical.

Theater companies interested in mounting a production of “Dreamgirls” should contact…"

Very clever marketing hook. See this and more at the new Dreamgirls website.

Posted by poland at 01:03 AM | Comments (5)

November 18, 2005

Titanic Numbers

This is the time of year when people start speculating about "Titanic numbers." But it is easy to forget just how singular the Titanic box office reality is.

A grand total of one movie other than Titanic has EVER broken the $1 billion mark worldwide. One!

And how big is the difference between that movie (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) and Titanic? Well, it's more than the difference between this year's box office and last year's, a number that has caused hysteria in the film business.

$726 million.

Titanic's number is $726 million greater than any other movie in history. (Thank you for you rolling eyes, adjusted gross lovers... please make your notes below.)

There may be a movie someday that matches Titanic’s $1.85 billion worldwide gross. But it will be a singular phenomenon. And it is likely to come from an unexpected place. The system has too many natural boundaries now.

Even just on domestic box office, the difference between Titanic and #2, Shrek 2, is just over $150 million. That is more than a third of what Shrek 2 grossed. It is closer to happening, but it is still a long way from likely.

To be one of the Top Ten Grossers of All Time (unadjusted), you need your movie to gross $850 million worldwide. That puts you ahead of both Spider-Man movies and the last Star Wars.

Remarkably, there are still only 26 movies that have ever grossed $600 million worldwide… and only sixteen of those are in this new high-flying box office millennium, with increased ticket prices and a stronger international market. Six more 2000+ movies have cracked $500 million.

That is about 4 films a year to achieve that $500 million mark in this new millennium.

What that boundary means differs greatly from film to film. For Superman Returns, $500 million worldwide means that they still would be about $100 million in the hole, including worldwide P&A, that would likely be made up in DVD. But still… not a smash.

A $500 million movie not a smash! Think about that.

On the other hand, Meet The Fockers or The Passion Of The Christ are massive cash machines at that same number, generating literally hundreds of millions in profits.

As The Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong go, $500 million worldwide is plenty. And anything over $600 million starts to be rich, thick gravy.

That billion-dollar mark is the dream of every tentpoler. But Titanic numbers? It’s beyond anyone’s comprehension, really.

Posted by poland at 08:52 PM | Comments (38)

It's Scientology Friday!

Anyone who saw the South Park episode on Comedy Central last night is wondering just how deep the hole in the desert that Parker & Stone will be buried in will be.

And now, there is the question about Chumscrubber, rolling out via Picturehouse. How does a "Psychiatry Kills" poster make it to a teen wall in the valley? What's so wrong with a few anti-depressants? Is this a secret Scientology movie?

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Posted by poland at 10:18 AM | Comments (42)

November 17, 2005

Is Avian Flu Another Millenium Bug...

.... or should I be stocking oxygen and masks like people do water and canned goods?

(This is meant as much as a cultural question as a literal one... are fads like crack to the American society?)

Posted by poland at 02:52 PM | Comments (4)

Looking Desperately For Anything Worth Talking About

Any ideas?

Posted by poland at 02:46 PM | Comments (57)

November 16, 2005

Oy

Potterphiles, some Christians among them, see Harry, star of six books which have sold 300 million copies and three films, as a warrior in a good versus evil battle against his nemesis Lord Voldemort.

But Christian preacher Steve Wohlberg warns in a new book about "the dark spiritual forces" festering beneath Rowling's narrative, drawing Potter into a struggle between duelling visions of secular and religious America.

"It's really evil, versus greater evil, it is not really good versus evil," said Wohlberg.

More

Posted by poland at 11:34 AM | Comments (60)

November 15, 2005

The Balancing Of Blogs

The Awards Blog gets busy today...

Posted by poland at 04:32 PM | Comments (28)

This Morning's Exchange

-----Original Message-----
From:
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 09:10:39
To:
Subject: Brokeback Mountain

Mr. Poland,

How old are you?

Look up love, sexuality and gender before, yet another, attempted review of Brokeback Mountain.

LD
Alameda, CA

------------------------

From: "David Poland"
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 17:34:18
To:
Subject: Re: Brokeback Mountain

I'm old enough to have an opinion that doesn't have to be yours.

Old enough to have loved and lost and loved again.

Old enough to have long relationships with many people of varied ethnic, racial, sexual, and political persuasions.

Why is it that people who want to take the position of being open minded so often do it by assuming that no one who disagrees with them can be thinking clearly, kindly, or with insight?

Best,
DP

Posted by poland at 09:42 AM | Comments (134)

November 14, 2005

One Of Those Crappy News Days

But do you think that writers and actors should have anything to say about the product placement in the films and TV shows they appear in?

Posted by poland at 02:16 PM | Comments (26)

November 13, 2005

Sunday Estimates - November 13

It still tastes like chicken.

I caught about 20 minutes of Chicken Little over the weekend, which was enough to make me not want to see much more. But I am not the audience for the film. And the audience for this film is turning up. It is not The Incredibles and far from Finding Nemo, but it will easily pass by first CG animation efforts from Paramount, DreamWorks and Sony. And with no true young kids movie the rest of the year (Yours, Mine & Ours is the only other major release slated with a PG or G) and the Thanksgiving 5-day, Chicken Little now looks like a lock to get to the $160 million range of Shark Tale and A Bugs Life. And there is an outside shot that the film could get to the $190 million range where the domestic grosses of Ice Age, Toy Story, and Madagascar.

Of course, I would say that the success or failure having an effect on the Disney/Pixar deal is not only a figment of journalists and “analysts’ imaginations, but it is deeply insulting to the management of both Pixar and Disney. The same way “they” refused to acknowledge that the real problem with the Pixar deal under Eisner was that Pixar wanted hundreds of millions in givebacks that Eisner wouldn’t even discuss. This is not to say that Iger doesn’t have a better relationship with Pixar or that Eisner wasn’t disliked by Steve Jobs. But Iger is reaping the benefits of Eisner’s years of saying, “no,” in that the original deal is coming to an end, Pixar can’t risk Cars underperforming (even if that underperformance is $200 million domestic) before closing a deal somewhere, and Iger will likely have to give up only rights to Pixar (such as reconfiguring the sequel rights to Pixar titles so Pixar has more, if not complete, control) as opposed to taking hundreds of millions out of Dsney’s pocket. The deal itself is likely to be about the same at Disney as it would be anywhere else. Pixar can write its own distribution arrangement now. But Disney is clearly the best family marketer (DreamWorks Animation now a close second) and that is why it is the right deal for Pixar. There are parts of this business where personalities are everything. But Pixar/Disney is a commodities deal, not a movie deal. That means corporate rules, not movie rules.

But I digress…

Zathura is not the The Island of the month, but it has something in common. The studio clearly knew they had a problem getting the word out to the ticket buyers before they had a decent, but hardly thrilling first weekend. There was a reason why the film was the focus of a week of The Apprentice. And it wasn’t just because NBC show is desperately chasing their ratings highs of past seasons and are now stunting everything from Star Wars DVD and videogame releases to allowing trump to fire as many people as he wants each week. And while it was a good idea to do the show, the episode also pointed out the Achilles Heel of the film… a title that people can’t unpronounced or remember.

History evades helpfulness in this case, as there is really no comparably middle-money opening on this date in recent years. Films have pretty much opened under $10 million or over $20 million here. Zathura will have a similar advantage to Chicken Little, though it is more in the wheelhouse of Harry Potter IV, Yours, Mine & Ours and Cheaper By The Dozen II. A decade ago, in a different box office world, Jumanji opened to $11 million in mid-December and went on to gross $100 million domestic. Zathura will have to feel pretty good if they get to $70 million domestic.

If there is a Zathura culprit other than the name, it is the complete lack of any talent with drawing power. Even Owen Wilson as The Astronaut (which is whom I expect they wanted anytime they hire Dax Shepard) wouldn’t have done the trick. Kristen Stewart is terrific in the film and dangerously beautiful jailbait, but she is not a name. They really could have used an Amanda Bynes.

Jarhead fell 55%, which is not good for a prestige picture.

Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, which I have not seen in anything close to a final form (for those of you speculating), suffered from another mediocre ad campaign by Paramount for a black film (see: Hustle & Flow) and, simply, the fact that it is – at least as sold - a black film. Of course, comparisons to 8 Mile are silly. Eminem is a white fantasy… cool as the streets… white as a sheet. That doesn’t diminish his charisma or talent. But in marketing a movie, it is a harsh contrast to the little seen, soft spoken Curtis “50 cent” Jackson, who has had no confrontations with Triumph, The Insult Comic Dog, dalliances with famous young actresses or a few years of crossover appeal to white middle-aged people.

The appropriate comparison is to Ray, which opened to $20 million with a much more famous, established life as the draw. And even as an acclaimed, Oscar nominated film, they still only managed $75 million.

Of course, on top of this, it didn’t help that there was a shooting in a theater associated with this film before the weekend started. Not only is there little doubt that some stayed away from “dangerous” theaters, but some exhibitors started reducing the number of screens they would play the film on, looking to avoid trouble.

Derailed’s opening suffered from too many white people… ha ha ha…

Derailed opened in the same slot as After The Sunset did last year. Clive Owens in for Pierce Brosnan… Jennifer Aniston in for Salma Hayek. Prety much the same result, except that The Weinstein Company’s no-name director delivered a lot less expensively than Brett Ratner. Final answer last year? $28 million domestic.

Saw II continues to hold well for a horror film. Nearly $75 million after three weekends… screens will be harder to come by in the next few weeks, but with other films flopping around, it is possible that this title will get to $100 million. It would cost Lions Gate some more marketing money in a very expensive period to make that happen though.

Pride & Prejudice joined Good Night, And Good Luck, Shopgirl, and Capote in the limited-release-awards-hopeful category. GN&GL is way out front in total box office so far, but showed its first sign of minor slowing this week. P&P opened with the most marketing of any of them and will go wide with its “It’s Bridget Jones without the ass!” sell the day before Thanksgiving. Both Shopgirl & GN&GL go wider next weekend. And Capote is spending ad dollars, but keeping it close to the chest as it waits for awards recognition in early December.

It seems to me that Pride & Prejudice should be the most commercial of the group. Disney’s Shopgirl approach is a bit of a curiosity, but it is hard to argue for or against it at this point in the roll out. And all of these films have the good fortune that Walk The Line and Rent are the only serious wide release competition for adults in the marketplace until mid-December.

Chicken Little /32.7/-18%/81.5
Zathura/14.1/-/14.1
Jarhead/12.4/-55%/47.2
Get Rich or Die Tryin'/12.3/-/18
Derailed/12.1/-/12.2
Saw II /9.3/-45%/74.1
Legend of Zorro/6.7/-33%/32.9
Prime/4.1/-21%/19.1
Dreamer/3.9/-18%/29.1
Pride & Prejudice/2.9/-/2.9
Good Night, And Good Luck/2.6/-15%/14.6

Posted by poland at 10:46 AM | Comments (75)

Tomorrow's NYT Corrections Today

You got my Mexican in my Columbian! You gor my actor in my director!

How many non-Americans does it take to make the NYT editors (and by extension, all American media) look like ignorant gringos? Apparently two.

"One of next year's high-profile films is Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Babel," which stars an international cast headed by Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael García Bernal in four separate stories set in Mexico, the United States, North Africa and Japan."

"Rodrigo García's "Nine Lives," with Glenn Close, Holly Hunter and Sissy Spacek, consists of nine discrete stories, each running 10 to 15 minutes."

"In fashioning "Nine Lives," Mr. García Bernal recognized that audiences might be reluctant to keep reinvesting in a brand new cast of characters."

"Mr. García Bernal has directed episodes of 'Six Feet Under' and 'The Sopranos.'Mr. Haggis got his start writing for shows like "L.A. Law."

"Acknowledging that overlapping plots have become a formula on television, Mr. García suggested: 'Maybe these multiple story lines are just a symptom of our impatience. That could be the downside of this trend.'"

"Mr. García Bernal noted. 'But people have to feel they belong together.'"

Uh...huhuhuh... huhuhuhuh... he said "Garcia"... Uh...huhuhuh... huhuhuhuh

(Thx to Beavis, Butthead & Nate)

Posted by poland at 10:34 AM | Comments (14)

November 12, 2005

When Critics Are Selling Shit

I had to laugh when I read Tom Shales' complaints that Lorne Michaels stole his co-authored book, "Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live," as the template for tonight's SNL in the 80s special on NBC.

"All they did was buy it for $24.95 instead of $50,000, and use it as a blueprint."

In other words, he wants the 50 grand that he thinks is his for recoding a lot of people's stories.

As someone who was involved with the show for two of the ten seasons of the 80s and involved with the lives of certain staffers for another number of those years, I am both amused by the many stories he never heard or got wrong. And as a journalist, I am stunned by the arrogance of someone deciding they own any part of history, much less a TV show involving a few hundred people over the course of that decade. If the show feels familiar to Shales it's because there is only so much interesting material.

In additon, Shales plays the ultimate whore game by attacking Jeff Zucker, but standing by "his friend," Lorne Michaels. If there is any real issue with Michaels' Broadway's Video's insight into SNL in the 80s, it is that Michaels was not there for a few of the years... and that his return was initially marred by massive overspending and not much funny work before he funny adapted the show to Groundlings-driven performance.

When they think they own something, critics quickly become the same assholes that we constantly claim others are when they sell their shit.

Besides, where is my $50,000?

Posted by poland at 11:12 PM | Comments (5)

Frriday Estimates By Klady

Chicken Little - BV - 11.8 - 3658 - +9%
Zathura - Sony - 6 - 3223 - New
Jarhead - Uni - 4.5 - 2448 - 58%
Get Rich or Die Tryin' - Par - 4.5 - 2491 - New
Derailed - Wein Co - 4.2 - 2441 - New
Saw II - Lions Gate - 3.5 - 2949 - 44%
The Legend of Zorro - Sony - 2.5 - 3053 - 20%
Prime - Uni - 1.5 - 1781 - 44%
Dreamer - DW - 1.4 - 2735 - +2%
Pride and Prejudice - Par - 1 - 215 - New
Good Night, and Good Luck - WIP - 0.8 - 668 - +171%

Also Debuting -
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic - IDP - 42,000 - 7
Bee Season - Fox Search - 38,000 - 21
Ellie Parker - Strand - 3,500 - 6

Posted by poland at 08:59 AM | Comments (23)

November 11, 2005

Movie Oh Movie Oh

Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice
'cause they think that it's treason.

So you had better do as you are told.
You better listen to the radio.

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me.
I wanna bite that hand so badly.
I want to make them wish they'd never seen me.

Some of my friends sit around every evening
and they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
and the promise of an early bed

You either shut up or get cut up;
they don't wanna hear about it.
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel.
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
tryin' to anaesthetize the way that you feel

[Chorus]
Wonderful radio
Marvelous radio
Wonderful radio
Radio, radio...

(Note: I actually don't want to bite the hand that feeds me... because the "hand" is the art form and not the industry that pays for it. Sometimes we all forget what the hand is and that we are all just fingers, knuckles and nails.)

Posted by poland at 01:45 PM | Comments (7)

What Would Get You To...

... Review a movie with a gun instead of a word?

Posted by poland at 11:11 AM | Comments (2)

November 10, 2005

Blogging 102

Okay... here we go...

Claude Brodesser - who is a smart, well-informed guy who should try about 90% less hard to be funny on his NPR radio show, The Business, since I have been unhappily forced to take it off my podcast list for the bad forced jokes alone - blogs an incomplete "exclusive" that Harvey Weinstein has a hold on the director of Derailed and it has come up as an issue regarding the director's next picture, which is trying to be at Paramount.

(Suggested replacement joke for the radio show... Deathlok isn't funny... Harvey hiring Mikael Hafstrom by mistake because he thought that Meryl Poster said "Lasse Hallstrom" is funnier. But only a little.)

Anne Thompson then blogs a response that accurately adds out that Harvey Weinstein pulled this "I'll make your movie, but you have to give me your next film or two too" scam on Rob Marshall and that it got in the way of Memoirs of a Geisha for a long while. She also adds that the obligation, which Weinstein set aside in the end for Geisha (it was a bloody, bloody year long battle), is now rearing its ugly head as Marshall considers his next film. Great stuff.

However, a densely written graph on Harvey at an AFM cocktail party and Oscars and whatever distracts from the story. Split it up, Anne. There are four separate things in there... paragraphs are your friend.

And in the end, there is one key thing that was written in neither piece... Weinstein has pulled this schtick on almost every single director and many writers he has financed at Miramax in the last five years. Speaking of Lasse Hallstrom, it has taken him years to get away from Weinstein and I don't even know if Casanova was an internal arrangement at Disney. Not every filmmaker has to be coerced to go back and some have refused the deal and still gotten their movies made. But locking down talent is standard operating procedure for Mr. W... it's not a mystery.

Hit the note. Hit it hard. Move on.

Posted by poland at 04:39 PM | Comments (4)

King Kong Krazy

The first non-junket screening of King Kong is due December 5... and Universal is setting the most extreme "no electronics" rules for a screening yet...

(Editor's Clarification: To answer early comments... the film is being delivered late in November and will be screened at the Dec 1 junket on HD tape... Dec 5 is first screening on celluloid, so you should not infer anything there.)

Kind of reminds me of seeing The Matrix Reloaded at WB. At least we won't be marched through the streets of Hollywood like we were through the backlot.

There will be no wireless of handheld electronic devices of any kind allowed into the theater. This includes cell phones of any kind; BlackBerries, Treos, Palm units or handheld devices of any sort; iPods, pages; digital or other types of cameras; and any and all other types of electronic communication or entertainment devices. If relinquishing such a device form the course of the screening provides a hardship for you, please do not come to one of these early screenings, as you will not be allowed entrance.

Because of the heightened security measures and the expected volume of guests, please arrive at the theater at least 30 minutes before the screening begins. No one will be admitted after the screening begins.

You and your guest must each bring valid photo identification and your confirmation number for check-in.

Posted by poland at 02:09 PM | Comments (39)

How Badly Do You Want...

... some quiet?

Time away from the computer, the web, the iPod, the Blackberry, the cell phone, the beeper, the TVs in public places, the laptop, the Treo, the PS2, etc, etc, etc?

Posted by poland at 11:00 AM | Comments (5)

20 Weeks to Munich

Here

Posted by poland at 10:29 AM | Comments (38)

November 09, 2005

Worth Reading

She may suck up to the journalism power structure a bit too much for anyone who isn't beholden, but Anne Thompson is finding a lot of interesting stuff on her new blog for The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted by poland at 01:17 PM | Comments (5)

November 08, 2005

I've seen the Rosario Dawson music video from Rent...

... "Out Tonight," a couple of times in the last few days.

And I have to say, I wish I liked the movie. I really do. The video makes me want to.

But I don't.

Posted by poland at 01:19 AM | Comments (31)

Nope...

In Peter Bart's column in Varitey this week, he writes:

"The meltdown occurs in the middle films," observes Andy Wing, the astute CEO of Nielsen Entertainment. "Increasingly, the middle-tier movie campaigns have to articulate a focused message to target audiences."

In short, tentpoles like the "Harry Potter" movies or "Spider-Man""Spider-Man" have to carry all the weight, while those in the second rung, whether they be "Stealth" or "Domino," are tanking.

That's not how I read the quote at all, Pete.

What I read is what I've been saying for months... that movies that are not built for 3 or 4 quadrants, the marketing needs to determine the niche and mine it or yes, they will fail.

But it doesn't mean that tentpoles are the only films that are working or that the next tier is bad business. It's just that those "middle movies" used to cost $40 million and now cost $70 million or more. And thus, the meltdown.

Posted by poland at 12:15 AM | Comments (37)

November 07, 2005

Cruise Changing Publicist

You know, the story here is not really that Cruise is dropping his sister as a publicist, but that he has hired one of the only people in this business that you must hire if you are Tom Cruise.

Paul Bloch is not the guy you go to if you are starting your career... at least not at this point. (Besides that he would be unlikely to take you on.) But if you have a mature career and you want a guy who will protect you like a velvet glove, there is no better.

Unlike PMK, Bloch is not known for "heroic measures" or stunts. But he will find a way to build credibility for Cruise's marriage - and that is not a comment on the legitimacy of the relationship, but rather the current perception - and he will position Cruise as a producer, as a major star, and as a man satisfied with his life.

You can bet that the lead up to MI:3 will feel a whole lot different than the insanity that surrounded War of the Worlds.

Posted by poland at 08:14 PM | Comments (19)

November 06, 2005

Sunday Estimates - 11/6

Not a lot of new info.

Chicken Little is estimating even higher than Klady's numbers below. That studio number will probably come back to Klady, but still, a strong show on Saturday after an okay Friday. Disney went out of its way to call Reuters to tell them that the reviews and Friday open weren't upsetting.

Jarhead didn't have the big Saturday leap, but still, $28.8 for a movie that skews old, R, and poorly reviewed is a happy weekend for Universal. Thank you, Kanye West!

Good Night, And Good Luck, Shopgirl and Capote all still show a lot of interest in limited release.

Chicken Little - $39.6 (10,830) - 3654 - New - 39.6
Jarhead - $28.8 (11,960) - 2411 - New - 28.8
Saw II - $17.1 (5,810) - 2949 -46% - 60.4
Legend of Zorro $10.1 (2,860) - 3520 -38% - 30.4
Prime - $5.4 (2,940) - 1837 -13% - 13.6
Dreamer - $4.7 (1,810) - 2617 -23% - 23.8
Good Night,GL - $3.1 (4,670) - +657% - +153 - 11.0 -
Weather Man - $2.8 (1,890) - 1510 -33% - 8.6
Shopgirl - $2.5 (5,140) - 459 - +445% - 2.5 -
Flightplan - $2.3 (1,590) - 1445 -16% - 84.4

Capote - $.88 (4,710) - 187 -20% - 4.8

Posted by poland at 10:19 AM | Comments (32)

November 05, 2005

Jeff Wells Loses His Shit

59-year-old Jeff Wells took one look at the Munich trailer and his response was remarkably, uh, Connecticut.

Here it is… the work of a mind ablaze with "the bringer of the next thing aesthetic."

Looking forward to your thoughts...

"11/ 5/2005 5:25 AM
Saturday morning and the Munich trailer...er, teaser...is up. No surprises, no oddities...precisely the focus and tone anyone who's been following this project might expect. Impressions can be misleading, but the teaser is telling us that Munich will totally adhere to the mode of a typical hard-wired procedural about some Israelis agents killing Palestinians and then feeling guilty about it. A hard-wired procedural directed by a relentlessly praised, obeisance-before-power, affluent-bubble-dwelling, 58 year-old director named Steven Spielberg. A teaser is obviously its own thing, and usually bears a catch-as-catch-can relationship to the film it's selling...at best. But even with this acknowledgment, I'm starting to feel what this film (probably) is...I can feel the radio-antennae vibrations from the raised hairs on the back of my neck. The fact that the teaser starts off front-and-center with clips from Jim McKay's "Wide World of Sports" coverage of the Munich tragedy speaks volumes about the apparent sensibility behind the film. (McKay's Munich coverage is legendary, and therefore the most generic, least-imaginative, what-else-is-new? way to pass along what happened there.) I'm telling you...I'm telling Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea....that while Munich may turn out to be good or thrilling or rich in morality, the whole "wait for Munich....this is the big one...Oscar, Oscar!" drumbeat is based on little more than a generic kneejerk Spielberg kowtow. (There is also, to some extent, the Jewish-entertainment- journalists-who-want-to-see-Israel-kick-ass factor.) Watch the teaser and explain to me how it makes Munich look even a little bit challenging or startling..a bringer-of-the-next-thing aesthetic. It looks like a guilty license-to-kill so-whatter. A decent man with a family (Eric Bana in a '70s haircut with sideburns) accepts the charge of Israel's Mossad (his "M" is played by Geoffrey Rush) to lead a team of four (including a guy played by Daniel "007" Craig) to assassinate the Palestinian perpetrators of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes. Ohhh, we have to do this for justice's sake but I feel a little bit bad. Ohhh, mistakes are being made and innocent people are being killed along with the terrorists. Ohhh no...was that a little girl's voice? Ohhh, I hope my daughter still loves me after the mission is accomplished. Am I a good man or a bad man? Honey, did you leave some pasta in the refrigerator that I can put into the microwave when I come home at 3:30 ayem? Ohhh, what a holiday muddle."

Posted by poland at 02:42 PM | Comments (93)

Rentiles Revenge

The Rentilians are unhappy with my Rent review from Friday and here is a very representative response... they all seem to hit pretty much the same notes, but this is one of the best written.

"Your review about the RENT movie truly disgusted me. In that review, I did not find one piece of constructive criticism. Isn't that what a critique is supposed to be, pointing out the good and the bad? This review would have been much better if you had knowledge on the play itself, which it seems like you do not.

For instance, your little play on "Seasons of Love" was horrifying. That is one of the most beautiful songs in the show. Now, if it was supposed to be making fun of the length of the movie, whatever. It still was not very funny and, actually, to a point of insulting.

Yes, there is a lot of music in the show. The fact that it is originating from a musical could be the reason why. One of the reasons why so many of the parts you found "uninteresting" or "out of context" were like that was because they were trying to stay true to the show and its fans. Think about it; this show has almost a decade of fans plus family of the creator of the show. It would be insulting if they changed it so much that it dishonered the memory of Johnathan Larson.

Saying how "Take Me or Leave Me" should be performed on the street just does not work. But, then again, that's just a little detail that pleases the RENTheads who could be -gasp- the core audience.

Oh, and that is another thing. Next time, get the name of the fans right.
"Renties" = no
"RENTheads" = yes

Next time, see the musical before you see the show. Try it with RENT and maybe then you will realize what "Seasons of Love" is all about."

Posted by poland at 11:32 AM | Comments (19)

Munich: The Trailer

Here it is.

What do you think?

Posted by poland at 11:31 AM | Comments (31)

Friday Numbers...

A weekend of mixed feelings, it seems…

Jarhead is opening stronger than expected, starting with just over $10 million on the way to what is probably a $27 million weekend. Universal marketing did its job. Now, we’ll see how the movie plays.

On the other hand, Chicken Little opened to just over $10 million on the way to what is probably a $34 million or $35 million weekend. And all the stories on Sunday night will highlight that the opening is roughly half of what The Incredibles opened to last year. Incredibles hit $200 million in its fourth weekend, which included Thanksgiving as it will for Chicken Little. Of course, all Incredibles had to compete with was Spongebob and Christmas With The Cranks… Chicken Little will deal with the Harry Potter wake. Still, expect Chicken Little to be at about $120 million before this month ends… and we’ll see how it plays in December, especially on its 3D screens, which will try to mimic The Polar Express' success.

Saw II was off a not-very-unhappy 50% and change… the film passes $50 million tomorrow.

Zorro II’s 45% drop is more unhappy… the film closes in on $30 million this weekend… but Sony is all about foreign on that about now.

Good Night, And Good Luck added 385 screens and will get close to an $11 million total by weekends end with a solid, if not overwhelming, per screen average. (That means it still won’t match Saw II’s per screen this weekend, even though it is on less than one quarter of the screens.)

Shopgirl also expanded to similar success. Per screen’s a little higher… screen count is a little lower… but one wonders whether doing GN&GL numbers will be a very happy endgame for Disney. My guess is that Disney knew they had a film that couldn’t do more than $30 million or so and decided to take the cheapest route there that ultimately relies on the possibility of an awards season boost.

Friday Estimates

Title Dist Gross Thtr %change
Chicken Little BV 10.9 3654 New
Jarhead UNI 10.7 2411 New
Saw II LGF 6.0 2949 -52
Z2 Sony 3.0 3520 -46
Prime Uni 1.7 1837 -22
Dreamer DmWk 1.4 2617 -27
Weather Man Par 0.9 1510 -36
Good Night,GL WIP 0.8 657 +145
Shopgirl BV 0.7 459 +144
Flightplan BV 0.7 1445 -9

Posted by poland at 11:04 AM | Comments (15)

November 04, 2005

Jarhead Discussion Space

I haven't really tried this and there is a lot of Jarhead discussion in other blog entries, but let's try to make this a space for people who have seen the movie....

meaning SPOILERS ARE OK

and

if you haven't seen the film, you are welcome... but would prefer to limit speculation to other posts. I don't mind if it takes a day or two for people to post...

Let's see how it works.

Posted by poland at 03:32 PM | Comments (34)

What About Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeent?

Review of Love

One hundred seventy two thousand frames in a movie
One thousand two hundred thirty cool camera pans
One hundred seventy two thousand frames in a movie
How do you measure the skills of Columbus, man?

(edited for bad math, thanks to Wrecktum)

Posted by poland at 10:35 AM | Comments (50)

Quip It

I just saw an ad for some game when you watch a clip and you and your friends write clever quips about it. Tee Hee

But what was interesting is that when they showed the box, it was dominated by a big, goofy photo of Jon Heder.

Pre-Dynamite? Dynamite related? Weird.

Posted by poland at 09:55 AM | Comments (19)

November 03, 2005

Call of the North

So as the door comes dangerously close to their asses on the way out of Paramount Classics, Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein have left a parting gift for John Lesher, It's called Call of the North and it is the next film from National Geographic Films, which brought us the WIP smash, March of the Penguins.

An equally glib title was hard to find - Penguins was once called March of the Emperor - because this film, now in production, features a pack walruses a couple of polar bears as they grow from “babies” to adult while sharing on slice of Arctic Ice. (Bearly Walrus?)

The film, due out in mid or late ’06, has been seven years in the making, but it only went out to studios for bids in the last few months. Paramount clinched it, according to producer Adam Leipzig, by way of intense enthusiasm throughout the executive suite.

What is often considered a problem on studio films is natural here, as re-shoots continue. “They don’t hang out in their trailers… they don’t do retakes… they do what they want.” says Leipzig of his nature-ally animated stars. He also expects this to be a 4-quadrant movie, opining, “There’s nothing cuter than a polar bear and there’s nothing funnier than a walrus.”

Let’s hope so.

Posted by poland at 06:49 PM | Comments (6)

Ho Ho Harvey!

Perhaps inspired by the amazing response to the intense violence of The Passion of The Christ, Harvey & Bob Weinstein have decided to move

Wolf Creek, perhaps the most disgusting and unredeemably inhumane of the Horror Porn films to day, to Christmas Day.

What a love lump of blood and semen covered coal for your Christmas stocking! Thanks Weinstein Co!

Posted by poland at 05:45 PM | Comments (18)

The Lesher Of All Evils?

A new chief at Paramount Classics... good, bad, do you care?

Posted by poland at 12:15 PM | Comments (8)

20 Weeks - Why We Award

"But these events are just as interested in finding the spotlight as the trades and TV networks are interested in providing one. Most groups use these year-end awards events as their primary way of raising funds. Studios buy tables for the events at which they are being honored, which pays for the event and pumps up the operating budget for most groups. Some groups find creative ways to spend the overage, as LAFCA did last year by funding and fronting a showing of films that they felt had been overlooked at the American Cinematheque. HFPA makes so much money from NBC's rights purchase for the Golden Globes that they both make charitable donations and sponsor every member of the group on a maximum of three fully paid trips to film festivals anywhere on the globe each year."

More... & space for you to comment

Posted by poland at 10:31 AM

Welcome To The Suck (A Jarhead Theory From a A Reader)

As a reader/fan of yours, I think you've misread Jarhead. I saw an advance screening and here's my interpretation.

Who cares if Sam Mendes is "shockingly unwilling to connect with deep emotion"? I don't think that has anything to do with the types of films he wants to make. If you think there's some evidence in his earlier work that he cares about emotion, then maybe he failed here. But I don't see any inclination that he wants to tug at your heartstrings. American Beauty may have had that effect, because you end up caring for the main character, but otherwise it's really static and formal.

I think Mendes makes films that are exercises. And Jarhead succeeds as an exercise in gay metaphor. By emphasizing the male bonding rituals that go on between the troops, Jarhead is the gayest war film of all time.

Recipe for gayest war film of all time:

1. Combine macho homophobic comments of soldiers with showering together (loads of slapping of asses)

2. Mix in tight bonding (note the pairing-off of sniper teams) of often topless hard-bodied troops (even the stereotypical nerdy recruit is ripped)

3. Juxtapose with sub-theme of cheating by far-away girlfriends and wives (including one who is said to only wear her boyfriend's military clothes and have a soldier fetish)

4. Equate shooting of gun with masturbation (x10!)

5. Add General who keeps saying he's getting a hard on while speaking to the assembled male troops

6. Simulate gay group orgy to embarrass Sergeant

7. Climax film with scene about as close as you can get to a literal circle jerk (firing guns into the air until all their rounds are spent)

This film is comparing war with busting your gay cherry. Or, if you want to get all film-crit 101 with it: the sexualization of war. They're all waiting for their first kill, to fire a shot, to do something, anything! And everything they do while waiting is highly sexualized. And then when it doesn't come, when nothing happens, it's like the biggest cock-tease in history.

Most of the early reviews I've read have not pointed any of this out, so I'm starting to feel a li'l bit crazy.

As you point out and I agree with, there are definitely some flaws with Jarhead (including a feeble attempt at a "message" at the end with the Viet Nam vet). But it is so over the top with its (homo)sexuality that it's worth seeing to piece it all together. I may even pay to see it again. Remember how Desert Shield was billed in the media at the time as the first war fought with a large number of women troops? Not one to be seen in this film. The only women here are in photos, most posted on the "Wall of Shame".

What do you think? Am I crazy?

Posted by poland at 01:18 AM | Comments (53)

Are These The Worst One Sheets Of The Year?

Take A look

Posted by poland at 01:00 AM

Bored?

Listen to the Adults Only Sarah Silverman Sound Board

Posted by poland at 12:43 AM | Comments (2)

November 02, 2005

What Is The Problem???

I have taken issue with the New York Times before. But this strikes me as one of the most egregious pieces to come out of any major paper in a long time.

The Headline: Sony Effort to Reach Christians Is Disputed

What is the news… a term I used with a roll of the eyes? A producer -who openly admits that he bought the rights to the Left Behind series speculatively after Passion of the Christ hit - is claiming that his direct-to-DVD movie is not getting enough support from the studio.

Stop there for a second.

How is this a story for The New York Times? How on God’s green earth can a producer of a low budget film that was always slated to go direct to video be SCREAMING about a $1.2 million DVD ad budget for the third film in a series that has a built-in audience and get the New York Times to even answer his phone call, much less run a story?

But there is this… it is a Christian Fundamentalist movie! So in the New York Times, it must be news!

This is the same New York Times that has been pushing an agenda about Sony’s The Da Vinci Code and Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia marketing themselves aggressively to Christian groups as well as stirring the controversy pot about alleged (and ultimately, untrue) problems with the portrayal of Muslims in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven.

And now, Sony is anti-Christian?

Waxman writes, “The newest in the series, the first to be financed by Sony, is significantly more polished in its production values than the first two installments.”

I have not seen the film, so I can’t speak to the polish. But Sony did distribute the video/DVD of the first in the Left Behind series. The hysterical producer who is getting the paper of record to get in the middle of a private and typical daily business arrangement didn’t seem to bring up that if the first film really did sell 3 million DVDs, it was Sony that sold them. Nor did The New York Times.

The producer, Peter Lalonde, pretty much screams to Ms. Waxman that this whole thing is a scam when he says:

“"We're going to do another movie," he said. "Do we self-finance, take distribution back? Our position has been we have to build our own distribution systems, get our own financing, our own pipelines. We lack only one thing: real capitalization."

Why does a series like this lack real capitalization? Is the Christian Fundamentalist movement crying poverty? Or is Lalonde, like every other hack producer in Hollywood, greedy and just dying to get a lot of money to make another movie with a higher budget?

According to imdb, which is often an unreliable source for such things, but is usually low in its estimates, not high, says that the first Left Behind cost $17 million to produce. According to Waxman, this one was made for S10 million. Get it? Budgets are dropping because returns are dropping. Waxman acknowledges, inexplicitly, that the second film in the series sold a third fewer DVDs that the first. Get it?

Didn’t Waxman look at the gross for the one Left Behind film that was in theaters? It did under $5 million. That is why the sequels have had no theatrical life. Maria Full Of Grace was a success with a $6 million gross because it was not marketed on TV very much and never got past 130 screens. The first Left Behind film went out to 867 screens, which is not a model for profitability in future releases. Direct-To-Video makes sense.

Does Waxman as Lalonde how much was spent marketing the first two movies? Isn’t that the FIRST question? And if it isn’t answered, doesn’t that tell you that this story needed to be spiked and spiked hard?

Sony’s Ben Feingold, earlier in the piece, indicates that Sony would be interested in doing further films at the right price. But apparently, you can now use the New York Times to try to embarrass a company into giving you more money.

Moreover, is Waxman’s punchline that Sony Home Entertainment would like to lose money on this project rather than get comfortable with marketing to the Christian audience?

Nobody at Sony got into the Left Behind business again for any other reason than that it is a good piece of business. Period. No one in Waxman’s piece even suggest otherwise. So what is the issue?

Waxman’s opening thesis, “How comfortable is Hollywood with wooing the Christian audience?” is nothing but inflammatory bullshit. And this has become the standard for The NY Times.

The issue of how comfortable Hollywood is doesn’t really get addressed at all. This is a complete non-story. But worse, it really is defamatory. The great game of journalism is to give your victim the freedom to make their case, but to bury them under a malicious headline and spin inside the story.

And what so enrages me about this lousy little 900-word story is that it is so irresponsible. And when the New York Times is this irresponsible, every journalist is a loser. Every corporation pulls the drawbridge up a little higher. Not because they have anything more to hide than usual, but because their paranoia is confirmed as reasonable.

The New York Times now becomes a part of the story on a regular basis. This is not news. This is creating news. And it shames me. It should shame more of us.

A couple of weeks ago, when the NYT was suckered into running an Encyclopedia Brown auction story, I laughed. And when the follow-up a couple of days later indicated that part of what stopped the deal in its tracks was that “a reporter” told potential buyers that the producer involved had a prior criminal record that really had nothing to do with the story – and was not included in the original story – I shook my head in disbelief.

I didn’t write about it, in no small part because I am very sensitive to how often I write about flaws in the NYT coverage of this industry. But if the “reporter” in that second story was Ms. Waxman, it suggests 2 things. 1. The NYT became a key part of the story… someplace it did not belong, since the information that was being spread was not a part of the story, but was only potentially inflammatory background information. And 2. That in the second story, the NYT was being coy about its part in the story… aka covering up.

Does it mean something else? You tell me.

But now I am sorry I didn’t write about that situation.

The Paper of Record. As they slide, we all slide. Do we really want a more earnest, business oriented version of US Magazine? I dearly hope not.

Silence is the same as lying. I don’t want to lie. And I don’t want to have to choose between the truth and showing respect to The New York Times.

Posted by poland at 03:06 AM | Comments (63)

November 01, 2005

Do We Need Another Hero?

Eileen Newman takes the reins at NBR.

Will it help... does it matter?

Posted by poland at 06:46 PM | Comments (15)

Extras Hits Stride

Ricky Gervais' Extras on HBO has been pleasant enough. But this last week's episode, featuring Gervais' character playing the Genie in Aladdin on stage is the first episode of true genius. Absolute genius.

It is very British. And finally, it is not obsessed with actors waiting around for their scenes to happen. I loved Kate Winslet's cameo, but the circumstances around it weren't that great. But here, it is, simply, the life of a bit part actor and the people he and his best friend (Ashley Jensen) run into.

Scene after scene after scene... subtle and brilliant on second and third viewing.

Posted by poland at 07:39 AM | Comments (10)

Wow, That's A Relief...

Just read the first edition of TheEnvelope.com and all I say is... "Phew..."

Old info, silly touts like Donald Sutherland for Pride & Prejudice and Julianne Moore for The Prize Winner of Defiance, OH - box office gross $500,206 - the same old "everyone in the pool" insights from Tom O'Neil and the hot party story from Elizabeth Snead was that George Lucas shook Sam Mendes' hand at the Jarhead premiere last Thursday.

But hey... to give Tom O'Neil his due, they let him break Freedomland's altogether uninteresting move to 2006... well, uninteresting except in view of the Patrick Goldstein column on the artsitic aspirations of Joe Roth which were to be defined by this film... a fact that no one at the Times or Tommy O seems to (or want to) remember.

(ED NOTE: Oops... my mistake... Daily Variety broke the Freedomland news, complete with quotes... oh well... )

Welcome to the pool, boys. Looking forward to reading something interesting sometime.

Posted by poland at 06:14 AM | Comments (17)