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August 31, 2007
Telluride Hum
So, the word up here is that people are a bit disappointed with the list of films up here this year. And all I can say is....
Get Used To It!
We are entering the fall season of films and there will be plenty of quality... but not so much excitement in terms of celebrity or "big" movies. This "problem" is equally evident at Toronto. And it will be an ongoing issue through the entire season.
Here in Telluride, at least before the TBAs start landing, the only films that are high profile enough to get attention from the more casual film lovers are The Diving Bell & The Butterfly, I'm Not There, Into The Wild, and Margot At The Wedding.
Of course, this doesn't mean that it won't be a great festival, only that it isn't a high profile year for indie film. There are also a bunch of films that just aren't going to show themselves yet, even though they are ready, like Things We Lost In The Fire, American Gangster, and the Venice and NY Film Fest bound The Darjeeling Limited.
Myself, I am looking forward to docs from Barbet Schroeder, Kevin MacDonald, and Werner Herzog, a new film from Anand Tucker, who some people think is a genius, and a wide array of little seen Indian films.
If there is a signature on this year's fest from the reconfigured/new team, it is a number of Friends Of Telluride films, including Todd McCarthy's doc on Pierre Rissient, a Norman Lloyd doc, a doc on Peter Sellars, and a worthy, but local guest director in Edith Kramer from Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive.
Things kick off tonight... and away we go...
Posted by poland at 07:51 AM | Comments (11)
Telluride's Content Press Release
Telluride, CO (August 30, 2007) - The Telluride Film Festival (August 31-September 3), presented by the National Film Preserve and Apple, announces its program for the 34th Telluride Film Festival. Celebrating the best in film, past, present and future, from all around the globe, the Festival kicks off another exciting weekend packed with tributes, features, documentaries, shorts, conversations and panel discussions. The Festival opens Friday, August 31 and runs through Monday, September 3.
The Festival will pay tribute to three film luminaries including Daniel Day-Lewis, who captivated filmgoers with his performances in ROOM WITH A VIEW, THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING and GANGS OF NEW YORK, and will be seen next in his much-anticipated role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s version of Upton Sinclair’s THERE WILL BE BLOOD; three-time Academy Award® winning composer Michel Legrand, whose film FIVE DAYS IN JUNE and THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, for which he composed the original music, will both play at the Festival as part of Legrand’s tribute; and world renowned Indian director Shyam Benegal will accept the third of the Festival’s Silver Medallions while Festivalgoers are treated to three of his past works: ANKUR, BHUMIKA and ZUBEIDAA
The 34th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films and documentaries:
· Todd McCarthy’s PIERRE RISSIENT: MAN OF CINEMA about the influential publicist, sometime film distributor and film buff who discovered talent such as Jane Campion and Abbas Kiarostami.
· Lee Chang-dong’s SECRET SUNSHINE stars Jeon Do-yeon, winner of the Best Actress prize at Cannes , as a young woman trying to adjust to a new life with her young son amidst tragedy.
· WHO IS NORMAN LLOYD?, Matthew Sussman’s biography tracing actor/director Norman Lloyd’s 70 years as an entertainer.
· RAILS AND TIES, Alison Eastwood’s directorial debut, stars Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden in a story about two families in physical, emotional and psychological collision.
· Julian Schnabel’s THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY turns Ronald Harwood’s adaptation of ELLE France’s editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby’s best-selling memoir into a celebration of his hero’s two remaining assets: imagination and memory. The film, which won Schnabel the best director prize at Cannes , stars Mathieu Amalric, Marie Josée Croze, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Consigny and Max von Sydow.
· Winner of Cannes ’ Palme d’Or, writer-director Cristian Mungiu’s film, 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS, set in the final year of Ceausescu’s dictatorship in Romania , depicts the horrors of the Securitate and the brutality of its methods used. Starring Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu.
· In Eran Kolirin’s THE BAND’S VISIT, the Alexandrian Police Orchestra, comprised of eight or nine slightly bewildered Egyptian policeman, head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in a foreign city. Starring Ronit Elkabetz, three-time winner of the Israeli “Oscar.”
· A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS, Wayne Wang’s adaptation of stories by young writer Yiyun Li, explores the cultural differences between China and America while a father (Henry O) travels to Spokane to visit his daughter.
· Stefan Ruzowitzky’s (THE INHERITORS, TFF 1998) THE COUNTERFEITERS is the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history set up by the Nazis in 1936.
· PERSEPOLIS, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud’s adaptation of Satrapi’s graphic novel by the same name, is a gripping, bittersweet and surprisingly funny female coming-of-age tale. Catherine Deneuve, Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands and Iggy Pop provide voice support.
· WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?, David Nicholl’s adaptation of poet-novelist Blake Morrison’s memoir directed by Anand Tucker (HILARY AND JACKIE, SHOPGIRL), tells the story of a son's conflicting memories of his dying father. Starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent.
· I’M NOT THERE, Todd Haynes’s (FAR FROM HEAVEN) essay-poem on the life of Bob Dylan, where seven characters embody a different aspect of the musician's life and work, features an all-star cast including Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Ben Wishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams and Charlotte Gainsbourg.
· In TERROR’S ADVOCATE, Telluride veteran Barbet Schroeder (OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS, TFF 2000; REVERSAL OF FURTUNE, TFF 1990; IDI AMIN DADA, TFF 1974) documents the story of the controversial French lawyer Jacques Vergès, a former Free French Forces guerrilla who defended unpopular figures such as Carlos the Jackal and Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.
· INTO THE WILD, writer-director Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction tale of Chris McCandless’s (Emile Hirsch) solo journey into Alaska ’s most remote wilderness.
· JAR CITY, adapted from one of Arnaldur Indridason’s best selling detective-novel series by writer-director Baltasar Kormákur, is a police thriller set in contemporary Iceland starring Ingvar Sigurdsson.
· JELLYFISH, co-directed by popular Israeli novelist Etgar Keret and his wife, screenwriter Shira Geffen, who won Cannes ’ Camera d’Or for their film, follows three women through their lives in Tel Aviv. Stars Sarah Adler, Ma-nenita De Latorre and Noa Knoller.
· In writer-director Li Yang’s BLIND MOUNTAIN, the promise of a decent paying job lures a woman to a desolate farming village in Northern China only to find out she’s essentially been sold in to slavery.
· BRICK LANE, Sarah Gavron’s adaptation of Monica Ali’s controversial Booker Prize-winning novel, follows Nazneen (Satish Kaushik) from her impoverished life in Bangladesh to post-9/11 London , where she struggles to make sense of her life.
· Oscar-winning Kevin Macdonald returns to Telluride (LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, TFF 2006; TOUCHING THE VOID, TFF 2003; FOUR DAYS IN SEPTEMBER, TFF 2000) with MY ENEMY’S ENEMY, a documentary that tracks Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, a.k.a. the Butcher of Lyon.
· CARGO 200, Aleksei Balabanov’s (THE WAR, TFF 2002) controversial film set in 1984 ravaged industrialized Russia offers a detailed portrait of the Soviet Union in its death throes.
· MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, from writer-director Noah Baumbach, tells the story of Margot (Nicole Kidman), who tries to stop the wedding of her sister Pauline (1993 TFF Tributee Jennifer Jason Leigh) to the less-than-impressive Malcolm (Jack Black). Ciarán Hinds and John Turturro round out the ensemble cast.
· In ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Werner Herzog explores the vast empty splendor of Antarctica and, along with the physicists, biologists and volcanologists he interviews, tries to extract meaning from this desolate place.
· WIND MAN, Khuat Akhmetov’s striking second feature centers around a struggling town in post-Soviet Kazakhstan visited by a mysterious, aging, sickly man with wings and the gift of flight.
· In JOURNEY WITH PETER SELLARS, Mark Kidel travels the globe with Sellars (TFF Guest Director, 1999) to reveal the inner life of a true visionary.
· STEEP!, writer-director Mark Obenhaus’s extreme skiing documentary features ski legends Stefano de Benedetti, Glen Plake, Doug Coombs and Seth Morrison.
Along with featuring some of today’s best contemporary filmmakers, the Festival pays tribute to the classic films and filmmakers of yesterday: Pordenone presents a George Eastman House restoration of King Vidor’s silent film, THE BIG PARADE, with a live musical performance by Gabriel Thibaudeau; BOUND BY CHASTITY RULES by Korean director Shin Sang-ok; PEOPLE ON SUNDAY, recently restored by the Netherlands Film Museum, co-directed by Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer from a script by Billy Wilder and Kurt and Robert Siodmark, with a live performance from the Mont Alto Orchestra performing its original score; and Richard Lester’s newly restored and digitally remastered HELP!.
The 34th Telluride Film Festival’s Guest Director Edith R. Kramer, world renowned film programmer and retired Senior Film Curator and Director of the Pacific Film Archive (PFA) at University of California, Berkeley, presents five additional archival programs: GEORGE KUCHAR, MOVIEMAKER, a collection of the director’s work on 8mm preservation prints from the Anthology Film Archives; Marco Ferreri’s DILLINGER IS DEAD; Teuvo Tulio’s THE WAY YOU WANTED ME with the Finnish Film Archive’s preservation print; Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat’s MILLIONS LIKE US restored from its original camera negative by the Australian National Film and Sound Archive; and Paul Fejos’s MARIE, A HUNGARIAN LEGEND.
Backlot, Telluride’s intimate new screening room and film showcase features ten films about films:
· A LUCKY ADVENTURER OF KOREAN FILM: Director Shin Sang-ok, about the kidnapping and imprisonment of Sang-ok and his wife, actress Choi Eun-hie. Directed by Lee Sung-soo.
· BERGMAN ISLAND: Ingmar Bergman on Faro Island, Cinema & Life, features clips from behind-the-scenes footage from THE SEVENTH SEAL, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY and PERSONA. Directed by Marie Nyrerod.
· CHRIS & DON: A LOVE STORY, about British-born author Christopher Isherwood and his unconventional relationship with Don Bachardy. Directed by Guido Santi and Tina Mascara.
· THE DAWN OF SOUND: How Movies Learned to Talk, Warner Brothers presentation of the history of cinema’s sound pioneers.
· ESTRELLAS, a story about Julio Arrieta and the unemployed extras, actors and crews he hires on South American productions. Directed by Federico León and Marcos Martínez.
· FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES: The Story of American Film Criticism, featuring interviews from J. Hoberman, Elvis Mitchell, David D’Arcy, John Powers, Roger Ebert, Richard Schickel and many more. Directed by Gerald Peary.
· HATS OFF, follows the day-to-day life of Mimi Weddell, a 92 year old actress living in New York City . Directed by Jyll Johnstone.
· MAN IN THE SHADOWS: VAL LEWTON, Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones celebrate Lewton, his key team and their films.
· MAURICE PIALAT: LOVE EXISTS, a tribute to the late Pialat. Directed by Anne-Marie Faux and Jean-Pierre Devillers.
· THE STORY OF THE KELLY GANG, a restoration of the original from 1906. By John, Charles and Nevin Tait.
Also in the Backlot lobby, attendees will be able to view a collection on loan from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences entitled, “Erich von Stroheim: A Life Discovered,” a photography exhibit including family photographs, handwritten documents and correspondence to demonstrate the fantasies, fictions and obsessions that would later play out in von Stroheim’s films, along with the stills from the films themselves.
TFF’s annual Medallion Award, which honors the passionate heroes of cinema including writers, historians and other film lovers, will go to Leonard Maltin, writer of the annual Movie Guide and numerous other publiciations, producer, teacher and movie fan. Maltin will present REDISCOVERING VITAPHONE, a selection of rare and delightful Vitaphone short subjects.
Rounding out the Festival’s program is the SHOWcase for shorts, seven short films chosen to precede selected feature films; Filmmakers of Tomorrow featuring three shorts programs by emerging filmmakers, one of which includes eight shorts from Mexico including some produced by Telluride alumni Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Ganzález Iñárritu; six conversations featuring interviews between Festival guests; three free panel discussions open to the public; and two student programs: Student Symposium, which provides 50 graduate and undergraduate students with a weekend-long immersion in cinema, and the City Lights Project that provides 15 high school students and five teachers from three divergent schools the opportunity to participate in a concentrated program of screenings and discussions.
Posted by poland at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2007
Into The Telluride
A confluence of events has led to no prior posting today, but I am now in Telluride... it's beautiful... and the list of films has been posted by the festival. (This year, no one got to jump the gun. The festival released the list and all coverage followed.)
I will start running it all down later tonight. In the meantime, I leave you with this...
Posted by poland at 05:59 PM | Comments (4)
August 29, 2007
Noah Catch-Up
Who Will Be... The Next Scorsese?
About seven and a half years ago, Esquire Magazine asked five film critics to nominate a young director to answer the question, "Who is the next Scorsese?" The man himself even offered up his own nomination.
Let us take a look at the filmmakers nominated by Esquire seven years ago, what they did to earn their nominations, and what they have done in the years since.
Ten Movies To Keep An Eye On This Fall
What follows is my list of the ten films that I think will be worth seeing, for one reason or another (in order of release):
I’m sure I’ve left out a bunch of films and probably at least half the films that will wind up in my year-end top 10 list, but that’s the fun of going to the movies; it’s not about the ones you expect to be good, it’s about the ones that take you by surprise.
The Horrific State Of The Horror Film
So what will be the next film that scares us? What will be the next Blair Witch Project? Will it be Kevin Smith's Red State? Will it be Eli Roth's Cell? Will it be Miike's next flick? I'll be seeing them all, hoping to be frightened just like you, but chances are that none of those films will be as scary as the world we live in.
Posted by poland at 10:49 AM | Comments (117)
August 28, 2007
Sorry...
It's a travel prep day... been getting ready for a few weeks away in Telluride & Toronto...
Make yourself at home... pick some well spiritied fights... new entries soon...
Posted by poland at 04:45 PM | Comments (56)
August 27, 2007
Cheney's Next Gig
Posted by poland at 10:44 PM | Comments (21)
A Monster Musical
Some of the remake shows, including the jukebox musicals, reach well beyond their roots. The Lion King does. So does Jersey Boys. And of course, The Producers. For me, Spamalot is the example of where the line is clearest. The show is at its best when it uses the Python movie as a starting point for its wonderful musical hall style humor, way off the narrative. The show is at its worst when pandering to the audience that is expecting to see “It’s just a flesh wound” or “Pink… no blue… agghhhhh!” Some moments just don’t transfer. And I am pleased to report that Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan had the good sense to realize that the little girl on the see-saw flying back into her bed was just not going to make it as anything but a laugh of recognition in their show and left it out.
In point of fact, Young Frankenstein does a pretty damned good job of walking that line. Reading the reviews in Seattle after first seeing the show on Friday, I was surprised how unilaterally they all seemed to argue that the show suffered from the “already know the lines” syndrome, especially in kicking at some of the performances. Not I. I was actually quite pleased to find that six of the seven major performers really did find their own space in creating these legendary characters for the stage, even when uttering the same lines.
Posted by poland at 12:37 PM | Comments (8)
Owen Wilson
I am not really interestes in covering the Owen Wilson story... sad if it's truly what's been reported.
However, I am fascinated by the dance between The National Enquirer, where the news apparently broke, The Star, which followed, Perez Hilton, who some credited with the story, even though he was quoting the editor of The National Enquirer, and TMZ.com, who seems to have added nothing but (and I have no idea if they were first to get it) a non-comment comment from the police.
At the moment 47 stories come up on Google on the subject and looking through a few, each outlet covering the covering is bending into all different directions when sourcing the info.
Defamer even posted the extremely rare weekend post, in its case, crediting The Star and not the others at all.
Nice to have a competition in which I hope everyone loses.
Posted by poland at 12:27 AM | Comments (12)
More Sweeney Teasing
Posted by poland at 12:12 AM | Comments (7)
August 26, 2007
Sea Attle
Posted by poland at 10:54 AM | Comments (2)
Sunday Estimates by Klady - Aug 26
Posted by poland at 10:45 AM | Comments (12)
August 25, 2007
Greetings From Seattle
Seattle's weather finally turned into "Seattle weather" after a couple of beautiful, sunny days here in the Emerald City. This is the first time I have visited the city (as an adult) apart from the Seattle International Film Festival and thus, the first time with a rental car and thus, a very different and more beautiful experience.
Still, Salumi is easily within walking distance from the hotel and the smoked meat and mozzarella (and more) dive owned and operated by Mario Battali's dad is one of the great lunch experiences you could ever ask for. Truly spectacular... even worth standing on line for... and the line was still 15 deep at 2:30 in the afternoon. (Unfortunately, they are only open Tues-Fri, so no repeat visit this trip.)
The purpose of the journey was to see Young Frankenstein, which happened last night. Going back for another look on Sunday, so details on Monday. But one of the most interesting highlights of the evening, for me, was noticing Bob & Harvey Weinstein sitting at the other end of my row, on their own (meaning it was a business trip), a day after the official Seattle opening… which also struck me as meaningful… meaning that they were they under the radar, not getting photographed the night before at the opening.
The Brothers were co-financiers of The Producers when it went to Broadway. This time around, the money came primarily from Robert F.X. Sillerman (who was also in on The Producers) and Mel Brooks himself with an assist from The Frankel-Baruch-Viertel-Routh Group. Also not invited to invest in this next cash cow were Rocco Landesman, Rick Steiner, James D. Stern and Douglas L. Meyer.
So were The Brothers there as friends of the Brooks family, unable to break away from Nanny Diaries duty to get to the Thursday opening… or were they there to get a first look to buy movie rights… or does the show need some more money on the way to Broadway (the least likely scenerio, since the pre-sale is said to be well into the teens of millions)?
Mel Brooks sat front and center for the show and was quickly escorted out of the theater as he curtain came down. Hundreds of people streamed unawares past director Susan Stroman as she hung out with crew members outside of the theater before the show started. Brooks’ posse of L.A. pals actually came up to Seattle weeks ago, in the first week of the production, so they could give notes.
One thing is undeniable. The audience went crazy for the production. The show could go to Broadway as is and would play for at least a couple of years. But for me, I think it’s only about 80% there, as I will explain in detail come Monday, after I have had a chance to let it all sink in one more time.
Posted by poland at 12:27 PM | Comments (3)
Friday Estimates by Klady - 8/25
Not a very exciting weekend at the box office.
Superbad is holding ok, considering the First-Friday-to-Second phenomenon. Sony can be as precious as they like with this weekend’s spin, but the second weekend record for a movie opening the third weekend of August or later OR after August 15 is The 40 Year Old Virgin’s $16.3 million, which ever way you cut it. Given how Superbad played last weekend, maybe it will beat Apatow’s breakout film. Or maybe not.
The Bourne Ultimatum’s hold may be a sign of an otherwise weak action market and the adult audience just getting around to see one of the best films of the summer… or maybe Universal is making a run for the $200 million mark.
Mr. Bean’s Holiday, by the way, is around $200 million at the non-American box office, so let’s not shed a tear as Universal tips their hat to their partners at Working Title and releases the film here, knowing that there is a limited audience, much as there was for Wallace & Gromit.
War… what is it good for? Not absolutely nothing, but not enough to pull Lionsgate out of their tailspin that started in earnest with Eli Roth’s Hostel II. Don’t expect that 3:10 From Yuma is going to do the trick either. There are some ecstatic reviews for the film out there, but westerns are always tough sells and Crowe/Bale don’t exactly stink of box office at the moment.
Rod Lurie’s Resurrecting The Champ deserves better than to be nearly matched by a Universal dump of Illegal Tender. The Yari Group had a great success with The Illusionist last summer and they seemed sure they could do it again. Perhaps if Jessica Biel was in a corset in Denver, they’d have had a better shot. Of course, The Nanny Diaries had Scarlet Johansson and that didn’t take either… the scene of her vacuuming in a corset was desperately missing from the ad campaign.
The Invasion is making a late season run at being the biggest flop of the entire summer. Very impressive.
Posted by poland at 11:38 AM | Comments (17)
End Of An Era?
When I got a note from a friend who noticed that Ebert & Roeper had changed their internet address, plugged at the end of each show, from ebertandroeper.com (or whatever more detailed URL it was) to atthemoviestv.com, a variation on an old incarnation of the Siskel & Ebert show, I decided to shut up and see what happened before opining on what it might mean. After all, I have been accused in some quarters in having a vested interest in the show, I have a longstanding respectful friendship with Roger, and I know that comments I have made about the future of the show in the past were met with discomfort by some of those involved.
But it has been my position, since the hire of Richard Roeper six years ago, that Disney was making bad decisions along the road that diminished the show and its value as a warm center to Roger’s legacy as on of America’s most favored film critics in history. Roger has consistently disagreed with me about this and was very aggressive about supporting his new partner as he would grow into the job. And he put a positive face on choices like firing longtime staffers, who were part of the legacy of an inflexible commitment to higher standards for the show, as Disney shortened segments and instituted other ideas that were intended to make the show more accessible, but seemed to mostly make it more about rushing to thumb judgment than about discussing the films in any depth.
In any case, Roger went into the hospital last June, expecting to be back to work by mid-July. That isn’t what happened. And at some point, I decided that not writing anything that might aggravate Roger was the right choice… more important than railing against the multiplied failings of the show that went on without him. Week after week, as I saw his name and his trademarked (with Siskel) thumbs being exploited while he was in the hospital, it made me sad and a little sick to my stomach, even when his thumb was represented by quality critics like A.O. Scott.
I was amazed that Disney kept the show going last season (Aug to Aug), but there was the hope that Roger would come back by September… then November… then The Oscars… and then... Well, Roger rejoined public life in April at his own Overlooked Film Festival. He took the public hit for showing himself in spite of still having a tracheotomy hole in his neck, amongst other deficiencies. But it was great to see him out there and even better when he started going to screenings in Chicago and writing reviews again. Just a couple of weeks ago, he got into it with Jon Rosenbaum and Bertrand Tavernier on Bergman… a classic Ebert movie lover’s brawl of ideas.
But as this year went on, there were other troubling signs. Disney fired a couple more veterans from the show’s team, presumably rehiring cheaper talent to fill the slots. The company had already moved the show from its original home at WBBM-TV to the owned and operated WLS, saving money not only on the space, but on production staff that could be shared at WLS. And in spite of a very public declaration of Roeper being re-signed for a seven figure a year salary, word in-house was that the contract was nothing near that and that, in fact, Disney had been asking for salary reductions annually.
The two conflicting arguments about why the show continued to stay in production, especially with no expectation of Roger returning anytime in 2007 and perhaps not in 2008, were that the studio valued the “two thumbs up” imprint so greatly that they were willing to let the show be a loss leader or simply that the show had made multi-year deals and planned on fulfilling those obligations as inexpensively as possible.
And now… Disney puts out a late Friday press release saying that “Ebert has exercised his right to withhold use of the "thumbs" until a new contract is signed.” Roger responds, “I did not demand the removal of the THUMBS. They made a first offer on Friday which I considered offensively low. I responded with a counter-offer. They did not reply to this, and on Monday ordered the THUMBS removed from the show.”
In other words, Disney took action on Monday and said nothing to acknowledge the switch until the very last minute before the first show without thumbs would air. Classic. And then they chose to put the weight of it on Roger… and it is “he said”/”they said,” but I choose to believe Roger, as he has nothing to gain from spinning this at all.
Also note that the company waiting to make an offer for the continuing use of the thumbs until right before the start of the new season. And then, they lowballed him. (And again, Gene Siskel’s wife does have a half ownership of the thumbs, though Roger is the primary active keeper in recent years.)
I don’t know how Disney will keep their syndication deals in place for a show with no thumbs and no Roger for a second year called, “Ebert & Roeper.” Maybe they won’t. Maybe this is their way of canceling the show without canceling it. I wouldn’t put that past Buena Vista Syndication. After all, how do you save face while pulling the rug out from under one of America’s best liked public figures after he has fought back from major illness and while not TV-ready, is back to some semblance of work? In this scenario, if the show goes away, they didn’t break their contracts. They’ll just point to Roger. This negotiation was out of their hands. And if Roger’s name comes off the show, all the more so.
The whole thing is so unfortunate. I not only feel sorry for Roger, being treated like this by the company he has worked with for so long, but for Richard, who will have some sort of career on TV - likely not as a critic - after this and should be allowed to get on with it cleanly and not tainted by this mess.
Roger notes in his press release that, “I love the show and I love the THUMBS and I hope we will all be reunited soon.” But when spats like this go public, it is very rare that the couple gets back together. Roger gave up, in my opinion, a number of the rules that he lived by as a critic, on TV and in print, for decades in order to keep the show alive while Disney drained it. He is a commitment kind of guy. I believe him when he says he loves the show and I believe he would allow actions that were not necessarily best for him to keep it going.
This is probably the end.
And while I have great sympathy for Roger and the physical limitations that have come from his illness, I feel like if this is the end, he is in a good position to maximize his future endeavors. His website is busy and houses the history of his written work. This will only get better as he gets stronger and stronger. He will still be the first quote that studios crave for their films… and the source of the quotes will be his stronger form, the written one, as it has been for years now. And if and when he feels ready to return to TV, plenty of networks will be waiting, thrilled with the opportunity of working with him… probably including ABC, even if all this stays ugly.
Maybe I’m dead wrong. Maybe Disney thinks Roeper & Phillips’ (or whomever’s) "4 perogies up" will do well on TV and become the new “thumbs.” Maybe the show will keep all its markets and time slot commitments even without the thumbs. Maybe. But I doubt it seriously.
And there is the real chance that Roger will get a deal done with the corporation before the next show is taped on Tuesday. Again… Roger is a commitment guy. If it’s going to end, no doubt he’ll want it to end on his terms. And making a deal for the thumbs or one more season allows him to prepare. But Disney broke the trust with their star and you wonder whether he is going to be willing to trust them again, even if it is in the interest of his preferred circumstances.
As you can tell, I would not.
But it is not my thumb or my life’s work or my future in play. Whatever Roger chooses to do, I will be behind him. He has more than earned that, not just in our personal relationship – and for the record, our only discussion on all of this was in the receipt of his release on the matter - but as The Roger Ebert. That is no small thing.
Posted by poland at 03:18 AM | Comments (28)
August 24, 2007
The Brave One... For Them
Watching Fracture, for the first time in my experience of watching Ryan Gosling work, I wonder whether he is, indeed, lacking the skills to be the biggest movie star in the world. Or maybe he has to decide, as Madonna never did, to let it go on screen when it is not a hard ass indie. I mean, he was painfully lacking charm in this film while he leaked it all over Half Nelson in what looked like absolute effortlessness… while playing a crackhead. So we know he can bring it. He did it in The Notebook in a more or less traditional stud role.
The other guy who delivered for the money men is the great – and I mean great… I consider him one of our finest working directors – Neil Jordan. The director has done some spectacular work on films like Breakfast On Pluto and The Good Thief, and The End of The Affair. But no one much saw them. His last real hit was 1994’s Interview With The Vampire.
But Jordan isn’t just going to take the money and run. You won’t see him shooting a Harry Potter or X-Men 4. His new film, The Brave One, teams him up with producer Joel Silver...
Posted by poland at 12:51 PM | Comments (22)
Separated At Mirth?
Posted by poland at 01:40 AM | Comments (19)
Box Office Hell, Update - 8/24
EW and BO Prophets added....
Posted by poland at 12:29 AM | Comments (11)
August 22, 2007
Lunch With... Director Rod Lurie
Earlier Lunches...
Nikki Blonsky & Elijah Kelley from Hairspray
David Stenn, director of Girl 27
Don Murphy, Part 1, Part 2
Patrice LeConte, Part 1, Part 2
Ondi Timoner (Join Us) and Stephen Walker (Young @ Heart)
Scott Foundas, Anne Thompson and Jeremy Smith - Part 1, Part 2
Ratatouille composer Michael Giacchino
Sarah Polley
Olivier Assayas (with guest Ray Pride)
Documentarians Michael Tucker & Petra Epperlein (The Prisoner/Gunner Palace)
Richard Dreyfuss - Part 1, Part 2
Mike Binder
John Pierson
Manufacturing Dissent directors Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine
Paulo Costanzo & Steph Song
Peter Reigert
Paul Verhoven for Black Book
Jesus Camp directors Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady
USA Today's Susan Wloszczyna
Oscar Nominated Borat writers Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham
Oscar Nominated screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga
Oscar Nominee Jackie Earle Haley
Posted by poland at 05:39 PM | Comments (14)
Spider-Man 3 Superset... With Awesome Forgiving Action!
Posted by poland at 10:30 AM | Comments (13)
10
Even on that first day, there were the questions: 1. Did I need a column if I had a blog, and 2. Would the blog get in the way of the column?
I have always argued that the answer to 1 is "yes" and 2 is "no."; But that argument has suffered over the years. Indeed, the column, the blog, and the website headlines are very different muscle groups. But the demands of the blog and the website have distracted from the focus of a daily column ... and then, from the focus on three columns a week, which I switched to about six months ago.
My best advice to all media outlets that feel under pressure from alternatives is to stop, think it out, consider what you really can deliver well, and move forward, even if it requires a great deal of change.
Posted by poland at 10:28 AM | Comments (20)
August 21, 2007
Is This GOOD News?
Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three blu-ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted - nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you - I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.
As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.
So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks!
So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!
Michael Bay
Posted by poland at 05:59 PM | Comments (92)
DreamWorks' First $1 Billion Year
2004 was the best domestic box office year in the 10-year history of DreamWorks as a standalone company, led by Shrek 2, totalling $937.1 million.
This year, the studio, now technically under the Paramount banner, is at $987.5 million, their best year ever with four more movies on the way. The Heartbreak Kid, due October 5, should have them over the $1 billion mark by that Saturday at latest.
Meanwhile, Paramount w/o DreamWorks has had three more releases than the DW side (9)... and a total domestic gross of just over $200 million.
DreamWorks desperately needed a white knight to bail them out and Brad Grey took the bait. He's gotten a few good stories out of it. But not only has he tweaked his #1 producer of product over and over again, but the newly muscular DreamWorks is getting cockier and cockier.
They say never to lend money to a friend because the friend will end up resenting you if they can pay you back or if they can't. Not only does Team DW dislike Grey for being a glory hog, but even as they now do pretty much as they see fit with their movies, they even kind of resent him for bailing them out... because they are obviously so good, they didn't really need the help.
Well, they did. But it is a very, very talented group and the Stacey Snider hire was quite a coup... especially as she now does exactly what she is best at and has less corporate weight on her shoulders to distract her.
It's also looking like we will have the first year in history in which 5 studios cross the $1 billion mark domestically (also WB, Dis, Sony, and Universal, the last of which is only $255m away with 8 movies left to release). Paramount is already there, technically. But come October, you might want to revise the list with the real billion dollar company on Melrose.
Posted by poland at 01:33 PM | Comments (14)
Almost Blu
It’s an interesting turn of events… at least for me…
I recently joined the hi-def world. It was time. The televisions just got too cheap not to do it. And DirecTV makes it pretty easy. The DirecTV DVR is quite inferior to the Tivos that have been lining my home for years now. I wish that they’d just eat Tivo already so the DVR universe could be at peace.
In any case…
Since MCN covers DVD, we get a lot of screeners from studios. I am not a big DVD guy, since I see at least a couple of films a week as it is and the pay networks are not too far behind DVD releases. But the idea of hi-def DVD is of interest. So I started snooping around a couple of weeks ago about getting Blu-Ray screeners.
Like a guy who has a broken arm and suddenly starts noticing how many other people have casts, as a new hi-def person, I started noticing the signs of a winner in the format war. And it didn’t take long to notice that Blu-Ray had basically won. I hadn’t looked at a screen with the two formats or compared the technology in any way. But the market penetration for Blu-Ray was and is clearly a major step ahead of HD-DVD, so much so that it almost seems as though “Blu-Ray” was on its way to becoming the Xerox of brand names that means a format.
Sony, the master of Blu-Ray technology, betting in no small way the future of the corporation on being able to do in hi-def what it missed the boat on with digital music hardware, invested heavily and seemed to be in great shape. (As most of you will recall, they hade a fairly lopsided deal for MGM with the studio’s library becoming exclusively Blu-Ray as the primary target.)
And now, in a desperate, last ditch effort to pull its fat out of the fire, Team HD has invested in turning a second of the six remaining major studios to HD-DVD exclusivity.
And for this early adopter (a little closer to “early majority” in the HD game, though I think we are still well under 20%) , the result was that, indeed, my plans of buying a PlayStation 3 as the least expensive kind of Blu-Ray player, just went kablooey.
It’s not that I have a particular love for the Paramount library or the Universal library… not that there aren’t great titles. And I am not nearly as shy about spending money as I should be. But with five DVD players in the house right now (one 400 disc monster, one Cinea, one all-region, one burner, and one DVD/VHS combo) that I mostly use to watch indie screeners, my urge to invest not only in an expensive machine, but in expensive discs (if screeners don’t come through) when most of the movies will turn up on HBO HD or Showtime HD, knowing that the format wars are not done, dwindles down to, “I don’t need to spend that money now, especially if I can’t get The Criterion Collection in HD and if they ever convert, I don’t know what format it will be in.”
You can feel the agony of Sony Corp in the rage of Nikki Finke’s “reporting” of their “it’s all going to work out” position on all of this. But unfortunately for all of us, that bridge is now passed… and frankly, Nikki’s spin on it, which anyone with a brain knows is directly from Sony, is so extreme that it has encouraged more investigation into the matter… at least on my part. And in doing so, the arguments for HD-DVD have resurfaced for me after I chose to forget them in my personal media thinking just last week. There are players for half the price of a Blu-Ray playing PlayStation 3… and they are actually made primarily for playing movies and even come with a remote control for that purpose. Universal’s library is all HD… and now Paramount’s and DreamWorks Animation and some, apparently DreamWorks titles.
Still… the answer for me in all this is… not this month… and probably not this year. Certainly, no purchase before I leave town for weeks to go to film festivals.
And I literally have a PS3 sitting in my Amazon Prime shopping cart, waiting for me to pull the trigger. If I had been 100% sure on Saturday, when I put it in there, the machine would be sitting in my home today. Instead, no buy at all.
In the months to come, my wariness may well be reduced by price point… as in, if I can get into any format for a couple of hundred bucks, why not try it? (Again, the price of discs is a consideration, though NetFlix could be a good answer to that. I don’t need that many discs sitting on my shelves each month, processing through a few HD or Blu-Ray titles might be worth the 20 bucks.)
It’s a shame, really.
But damned if HD-DVD didn’t stop the bleeding just before they bled out… they’re still a long way from healthy.
Posted by poland at 12:09 PM | Comments (57)
Funny Or Die Delivers A Weak SNL Sketch
But this is pretty f-in g hillarious... especially to D.O.R
Posted by poland at 12:40 AM | Comments (9)
August 20, 2007
And Superman Wept...
Yes, it's time to be amused by
Batman: The Musical: The Website... songs by Jim Steinman... inspiration by God.
And yes, you can download the demos of all the songs.
God bless the internet. Mission Accomplished!
Posted by poland at 11:47 PM | Comments (3)
August 19, 2007
LOVE This
When I posted about box office this morning, I thought I was kind of splitting hairs with the stat, "Superbad's opening is the 2nd best 3rd weekend of August opening ever... behind Freddy vs Jason."
But now I have seen the light!
In a Reuters story was the following nugget - ""Superbad" grossed $31.2 million, breaking a 12-year-old record for movies that opened after August 15, said Rory Bruer, president of distribution for Sony Pictures."
Wow! Freddy vs Jason opened ON August 15... the same third weekend of August that Superbad, which opened on August 17.
So I guess the record is now on a day-to-day basis.
The record for August 16 is Blue Crush with $14.2 million.
The record for August 18 is Mortal Kombat's $23.3 million (the record that was broken).
The record for August 19 is The 40-Year-Old Virgin with $21.4 million.
So you know, the record for the best opening on Friday the 22 or later in the month, meaning the fourth weekend of the month, is Hero with $18 million.
Posted by poland at 08:58 PM | Comments (14)
A Teen-y Proposition
Inspired by Cad's apparent hatred of Superbad, it occured to me...
If John Hughes was smart, he'd be getting his Apatow producer hat back on and finding the right filmmakers to remake his entire catalog, starting with The Breakfast Club with Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Emile Hirsch, Michael Cera, Charlyne Yi, and Kristen Stewart.
Adventures in Babysitting with Amanda Bynes.
Pretty In Pink with Martha MacIssac, Jonah Hill, and Zac Efron.
Dare I even suggest that a remake of a beloved Hughes film for adults, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles now with Seth Rogan and Steve Carrell or John Cusack would be soooo money?
Ironically, Drillnbit Taylor is an old John Hughes script that Apatow picked up to make with a Rogen rewrite.
Thoughts?
Posted by poland at 03:02 PM | Comments (39)
Sunday Estimates by Klady - Aug 19
The stat is a little silly, but Superbad's opening is the 2nd best 3rd weekend of August opening ever... behind Freddy vs Jason. Of course, Superbad could be retitled, Seth vs Vag (pronounces vashhhh).
And reviews had dick all to do with it... as they never have anything to do with a wide opening weekend. The tracking was, simply, poorly read intentionally. Had the evidence that the movie was strong with teens been emphasized and the film come in under 20, the trackers would have been embarrassed for overlooking the precious overall numbers... the ones that everyone who isn't reading the tracking in great detail obsess on and end up being gossiped about. Or, in other words, overestimating the film would have been more problematic with the trackers' employers - the studios - than underestimating.
Once again... all this tracking reporting is fool's gold. It does give you the lay of the land in rough terms. Knowing awareness is important. How it translates is actual numbers is often unknowable... which is why each studio, exec, producer, director, star, and others still hold their breath that first Friday. I wouldn't mind people reporting tracking if the context was emphasized. But it is not. Just as Sunday numbers barely use the word "estimate" anymore and almost no one reports "finals," media wants to "report" tracking as though it is a different fact than it is, I think because it makes them look like they know something and people forget all about the incorrect information of any individual when the story becomes the "surprise" opening.
The much bigger story than Superbad this weekend, in terms of tracking, is tracking being 40% higher than the estimate for The Invasion. Again... it had nothing to do with reviews. It was a complete marketing failure... a dump by the studio, which hated the picture and the production of the picture. (Note: Rumors of The Wachowskis shooting on the film are apparently incorrect... it was their First AD.)
So... we have two movies opening this weekend... one is off by 50% of the tracking estimate and one is off by 40% of the tracking estimate... in different directions. And next weekend, people will still be talking about the tracking as though it is going to tell us everything. If the studios expected tracking to predict box office, they would stop paying for it. But in spite of the problem – and it is a problem – of people reporting tracking badly, the studios won’t give it up because they are in the business of making money, not worrying about bad reporting. And for them, it is a tool they need, as inaccurate as it is in the way the press is now using it.
In any case, Superbad opened to an estimate that is almost identical to Evan Almighty and a little behind Die Hard 4 and Chick & Larry… and it’s estimating $500,000 over Knocked Up. Like The 40 Year Old Virgin, this will feel like a great surprise success with a $109.5 million gross (which is what 40 did), but would have had a better shot at Knocked Up-like numbers ($147m) at an earlier date… or maybe not.
This is the tricky part of summer for smaller films. The time to build on a sleeper is rarely available. You could find a nice, counterprogramming slot and still get trampled over. Or you can find open space and get smacked for not competing hard enough. Hollywood should have noticed by now that there is one great opportunity to counterprogram comedy for adults in June (Knocked, Break Up, Prada). Hindsight is 20/20. And an extra $40 million in box office wouldn’t change the dynamic for these films that are “surprisingly” cracking $100 million enough for the added risk to be of value to the studios. So…
In other news, it looks like Transformers will actually pass Pirates 3 in the domestic charts this summer. Disney will heal its wounds with the $300 million lead over T-Fos in worldwide box office and its place as #5 all-time worldwide for this film. Still... Don Murphy was wrong about the final number, but not by a whole hell of a lot... not enough to tweak him over, certainly.
The Simpsons cracks $400 million worldwide this weekend. Harry Potter V should pass Spider-Man 3 for the #2 international grossing spot for the summer this week. Hairspray cracked $100 million domestic, which is not $200 million (something no one ever expected) but is much better than the boo birds thought. It will pass Dreamgirls to be the 4th highest grossing musical domestically next week and has a shot at passing the ever-playing Rocky Horror Picture Show (at $113m) to become #3.
Posted by poland at 12:26 PM | Comments (42)
Boyz (Not) 2 Men
I am certainly not the first person to point out that this is the state of machismo in Hollywood these days. The top five movies of this year are male leads by Tobey Maguire, Mike Myers, Johnny Depp, Shia LeBouff, and Daniel Radcliffe. There might be plenty to love or lust at for any of these men, but machismo is not a part of the equation. They might outthink you, but don't expect to see a fist from a-one of them.
Even with 300, we are led by the super-CG-ripped Gerard Butler ... aka The Phantom. When Bob Zemeckis looks for his Beowulf, he gets the grand and macho Ray Winstone ... and then makes his body young and ripped with the computer.
The only two stars who push the machismo button in films that have grossed over $50 million this year are Matt Damon as the moody, emotional Jason Bourne and Bruce Willis, still pushing a shaved head and a 3-day growth in Live Free or Die Hard.
It wasn't much better last year, though we got a new, edgier Bond in Daniel Craig (who often goes against machismo in his other roles), a visit from Rocky Balboa, and Borat wrestling nude with a 350 pound dude. On the fop side, Leo tried to get tough in Blood Diamond, Colin Farrell burned off what seemed to be the last of his macho currency in Miami Vice, Jack Black in tights, Vince Vaughn emasculated by the former Mrs. Pitt, Tom Cruise emasculated by a weak script and an ancient Sumner Redstone, Hanks with comedy hair, and even the muscular Will Smith as a man scraping his life back together (though no one would ever call the real Chris Gardner anything less than stinking of macho, even in pastel shirts).
It kind of makes sense that Bond and The Departed were so successful last year. They were the last bastion of manliness in the movie universe.
Posted by poland at 01:05 AM | Comments (43)
August 18, 2007
Embargo: Theater Monster Edition
Interesting Variety piece on Young Frankenstein, which is now playing in Seattle in its out-of-town "tryout."
The primary focus of the piece is on the $480 tickets available for the Broadway run. 480 bucks! But this is Broadway's dance with EBay, StubHub, etc. The producers of the show also put the show in the much hated Hilton Theater, which is about 500 seats bigger and considered by many to be a modern equivalent to a barn.
It’s also fascinating to watch the show’s team rationalize why Young Frankenstein will be a leggier hit than The Producers was… but no one brings up the current struggles of Avenue Q and Spamalot, two other Tony winners that are not as star driven as The Producers was. Spamalot has for months been spending heavily on advertising to bolster what was a saggy weekly gross.
Anyway… the thing that really caught my eye was the notion that Young Frankenstein was “opening” in Seattle next Thursday, the 23rd. Huh? The show has been running since August 7. And the show closes in Seattle after the September 1 show. So…
It seems that the answer is that New Yorkers and others have taken to reviewing major Broadway-bound productions on the road, much to the irritation of producers who are trying to work out the kinks (at $100 a ticket for Seattlers who want the best seats). And so, structure. The show “opens” so that it might close a week later and pack up for New York.
(And an FYI... looks like John C. Reilly may follow up his Dewey Cox turn with a turn on Broadway as Nathan Detroit opposite Debra Messing and with Anne Hathaway & Patrick Wilson as their opposite romantic numbers.)
Posted by poland at 12:52 PM | Comments (5)
Friday Estimates by Klady - Super
Once again, people who don’t understand tracking shouldn’t be touting tracking – which was never meant as a hard, predictive tool, but rather a temperature taker for marketing – because predictions based on the overall numbers are often wrong. On the flip side, I can’t really be angry at the gotta-be-first, it’s-all-about-me types because someone with the tracking numbers – none of these people get the tracking themselves or know how to read it – is handing it to them for the purpose of having it published.
People who do know tracking ins and outs saw what everyone else saw in the big numbers - that Superbad was looking at $20 million and was in a dead heat with Rush Hour 3 – but also knew that that number was not the key. Like Borat, which had crap tracking right until opening day, it was the unaided awareness amongst teens – the core demo for this film – that told the story. They were waiting for this one.
Borat ended up opening to $9,234,183 on 837 screens that first Friday, which is somewhat more impressive than this. Knocked Up opened to a $9,804,465 Friday, so Superbad is already a bit ahead of the mid-summer leggy adult hit. Given that this number is pretty close to the star-driven Ocean’s 13 and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, the only thing that seems likely to keep it from the summer’s Top Ten is time. Superbad doesn’t seem like it will be in that group that does 90% of its business in under 25 days. (40 Year Old Virgin had million dollar Saturdays into the month of October after its Aug 19 release.)
Except for New Line’s Shoot ‘Em Up, there really isn’t category competition for this film until… well, there really isn’t anything going right after this demo for months. The Heartbreak Kid, a bit. But the “adult market” of the fall, which is coming hard in September this year, should help Superbad stick… that is, if anything can really still anymore.
P.S. Greg Mottola has good reason to be upset that he is getting almost no recognition for his work behind the camera on this film. Ironically, being a director for Apatow is a terrific break. On the other hand, you don’t want to be seen as a Sandleresque in-house monkey either.
Speaking of Sandler, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry is settling in to being Adam Sandler’s worst performer to open over $20 million in his career. (The two big under-20s are The Wedding Singer, a hit, and Little Nicky, Sandler’s worst comedy flop by far.) $110 million is still possible, but that still leaves it $10 million behind 50 First Dates, also perceived as a hit. Interestingly, the two Drew Barrymore team-ups are amongst Sandler’s lowest grossers and best liked films. Chuck & Larry is a team up film too. Interesting, no?
The Friday-to-Friday drop for Rush Hour 3 will even out over the weekend, but there just isn’t much must-go out there.
Bourne 3 will be the biggest of the (alleged) trilogy, though it still seems unlikely to crack $200 million domestic.
And The Invasion? The studio obviously knew. How many ads have I seen in prime time this last week? Uh… zero. I’m sure some were out there, but I would be shocked if WB spent anything close to its original marketing budget for this film, choosing instead to keep $10 million to $20 million in its pocket. Unfortunately, the partner on this one is Village Roadshow, not a sucker like Legendary… but they’ll get their make-up sex in December with I Am Legend.
Finally, please note… after by far the biggest opening in Harry Potter’s remarkable history ($140 million by the first Monday), Order of the Phoenix will be the #3 Potter film domestically and #3 or #4 worldwide.
Posted by poland at 10:33 AM | Comments (66)
August 17, 2007
McLovin It!
Here's a place to discuss the last discussable movie of the summer (except maybe Halloween), Superbad.
Is it super, bad, or somewhere in between?
Posted by poland at 07:40 PM | Comments (49)
Movie Mergers
Worth1000.com always seems to have some funny stuff...
Posted by poland at 04:41 PM | Comments (1)
Interesting Stat
In responding to a comment in another entry that was trying to make the case for agents - the unfortunate and self-serving source of most "news" in this town... as in "Both Limato and Morris CEO Jim Wiatt kept telling me this afternoon how "very, very" excited they are." - not thinking more creatively about how to get their clients paid in the industry's current Insider Recession, I noticed this...
Of the Top Ten grossers so far this year, only the top three – all of which cost over $250 million to make - Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, had actor gross point players who got paid “traditionally.”
Of the next seven - Transformers, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 300, Ratatouille, Wild Hogs, The Simpsons Movie, Knocked Up – only Wild Hogs even had a gross point actor starring in the film (they had three)… and none of the trio got paid their “traditional” quote.
This is not to say that there was not a lot spent in effects to overcome the lack of an opening star in Transformers or Potter. But the point is… how can any studio rationalize paying so much upfront and so much of the gross and so much for production if the results are just as possible without such a deep dip into the profit potential… and this is well beyond “studio accounting.”
If you can pay Will Ferrell and Jon Heder on Blades of Glory and still keep the budget under $65 million, you can make money. Add 50% to that budget – and gross points for Ferrell – and you cannot.
If DreamWorks can make The Heartbreak Kid go with The Farrellys and Ben Stiller for a reasonable amount, it is a viable business choice. If you’re paying out 30% of the gross against $30 million, it is not… unless every movie turns into the Fockers franchise… aka A Fool’s Bet.
Anyway… I thought it was surprising how much the proof that stars – who I do think can bring real value worth the mega dollars – was in this year’s pudding. And how this hasn’t kept every star in town from selling their last pre-strike slots like they were at Christie’s with two billionaires with paddles in the front row.
Posted by poland at 11:55 AM | Comments (2)
August 16, 2007
Box Office Hell - SuperAug
Updated, Fri Morning... first chart after the jump...
Posted by poland at 10:46 PM | Comments (23)
The Crow T Poll
In the summer wrap-up entry, the following poll request was made by Crow T Robot... the responses were terrific, so I have decided to make a separate entry, so those not reading the comments might chime in...
Summer wrap up poll time. Give me your choice for...
1) Best movie
2) Worst movie
3) Biggest creative winner
4) Biggest creative loser
5) Most overrated
6) Most underrated
7) Biggest surprise
8) Favorite scene
9) Breakout star
10) Most unfortunate success
My Personal Answers
1) Best movie - Ratatouille
2) Worst movie - Worst I saw was Hostel II.. and I barely saw that. Worst I saw in a theater was Sunshine.
3) Biggest creative winner - Has to be Ratatouille, a brutally tough story to make work
4) Biggest creative loser - Shrek The Third... for a great soulful idea, no soul
5) Most overrated - For me, Once. I like the film, but it has a ton of extra ivory tower cred
6) Most underrated - Ocean's 13 was a goof, in the best way
7) Biggest surprise - The success of The Simpsons... a free TV show AND a mediocre film
8) Favorite scene - Marion Cottiard being painfully crazed Edith Piaf at a dinner party
9) Breakout star - Seth Rogen and his alter ego, Jonah Hill
10) Most unfortunate success - $890 million for Spider-Man 3 might force another bloated sequel when it is so clearly time for a new Spidey generation
Posted by poland at 08:26 PM | Comments (35)
More Nikki Trouble
The ongoing saga of Nikki Finke continues with today’s “exclusive” on Jim Carrey’s salary structure for The Yes Man.
Frankly, if I wanted to waste the time and energy, annotating the obvious sources that are throwing her the gossip (Nikki is now the best place to go, overtaking Michael Fleming, since she will run whatever you tell her and makes her excited, and will swear it wasn’t you until the end) and the basic mistakes in logic in what she writes, I could start another blog.
In any case, today’s Jim Carrey story is classic Nikki.
Let’s work backwards. Last paragraph – “Considering Jim's waning popularity, it's a big question mark whether Carrey can carry a comedy to $150 mil anymore. If he does, and the budget and marketing overages don't occur, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then I'm told it's possible for the actor to make a phenomenal $78M.”
Do the math. For starters, $150 million domestic equals $80 million back to the studio. So the $78 million figure makes no sense in any way in that case.
Let’s try to figure out worldwide theatrical. Carrey’s career has been about 50/50 domestic/foreign (the more verbal the comedy, the lower the overseas percentage). So let’s say Nikki means $300 million worldwide. (Only Liar, Liar and Bruce Almighty have ever hit that mark without Carrey in a mask.) That means about $160 million back to the studio. Nikki is claiming the movie has a $70 million production and $50 million marketing target going into production, so that would leave $40 million in real net after this success. So still no $78 million… even with WB doing the deal with no potential profits. (Note: Using worldwide numbers is also problematic because there is no way that the marketing budget for any major studio movie will be $50 million worldwide… period… least of all for Warners.)
Moving on to Home Entertainment and ancillaries - which is when it becomes truly amusing to read “as much as $78 million,” which is someone’s formula, but inexplicably specific – which by Nikki’s 36.2% figure (“Jim has a cash-break deal in theory of at most 36.2% on the back end”) means a minimum of $65 million is coming from this area, which means that the projected post-theatrical net numbers would have to be $180 million. That seems reasonable, though the ancillary will drop if the gross drops.
Now, in this whole scenario, if Carrey had a $20m/20% with 10% of the Home Ent net, with the same figures, you’re looking at $78 million that way.
So this deal doesn’t seem like to make Jim Carrey any richer if the film is a big hit (unless it is Bruce Almighty big, which would make him roughly $40 million richer in this scenario than in a 20/20). But it does what the studios are trying desperately to do these days… minimize their upfront cash risk. And this deal was clearly crafted so Carrey would make every dime he ever hoped to from a big hit and not so much if the film doesn’t hit.
The biggest thing Nikki doesn’t bother to consider is whether the movie would have gotten a greenlight anywhere in town with a more traditional deal. If Carrey is forsaking $20 million, that means the budget was at $90 million going in. And for the studio, that means that the break-even, with every revenue stream in, would be roughly $190 million worldwide without any gross points coming out… which is a little less than Knocked Up will ultimately do worldwide. Start taking 20% out against the $20 million and your breakeven jumps to $220 million and then, with a net/gross play on ancillaries, it rises to over $250 million to break even.
Crazy.
And of course, this is the insanity of talent deals in the DVD era. These numbers simply wouldn’t even be able to be contemplated before DVD. And now, not getting them is “the worst talent deal ever in Hollywood.”
And let’s look at the downside risk. Forget about, “He’s rich… he can afford to take the hit.” That’s call a backhanded slap, not a rationalization that anyone in Carrey’s camp would use.
But if the film matched Carrey’s worst comedy showing in the last decade, $150 million worldwide for Me, Myself & Irene, Carrey would still make over $20 million. The formula is $82.5 net towards costs from theatrical and let’s say $100 million net on Home Ent and ancillaries, leaving $62.5 million over costs, 36.2% of which goes to Carrey (or $22.6 million).
What a nightmare for Jim Carrey!
Oh… and the source of Nikki’s gossip of the day? Hint: “I know that Nick Stevens was personally and professionally devastated when Carrey lost the Used Guys project, and I can't imagine anyone else doing a better job of agenting for the actor in that situation or throughout his career.” DHD, Sept 13, 2006, shortly after Nick Stevens was fired. Hmmm…
This is the thing about Nikki. She is the hardest working gossip columnist in town. And if you have something nasty to say and can convince her that you are on her side, she will run it from your perspective... because she really doesn't seem to have the knowledge or interest in actually considering these ideas for herself.
This, by the way, is how she got dumped by The NY Post… for writing a factually inaccurate story (based on public statements by Michael Eisner that she hadn’t worked through regarding what it really meant) about Disney and then going nuclear, accusing Murdoch and Eisner of conspiring against her when Disney balked.
The tricky part is, these details are valuable, assuming they are accurate. So on that front, congrats to her. But the problem is the spin, which in an industry of people who love gossip more than detail, gets a lot of attention and leads to a lot of disinformation being touted as fact.
My piece here would not have been possible without her... but it also would not have been necessary. If she just offered the facts, it would be great journalism. But instead, it is malicious gossip... her stock in trade.
And sadly, she is leading others down this road, including some major publications. They can blame the internet all they want, but in the end, we are all responsible for the choices we make... even if Hollywood doesn't demand much accountability from the press... since in the end, the green of money remains more important to this town than the red face of embarrassment.
Posted by poland at 12:35 PM | Comments (33)
20 Weeks Of Summer... That's A Wrap!
This summer being the biggest ever is just as insignificant a stat as The Slump stats were in 2005. To perceive this as a recovery by theatrical, you have to have bought into the absurdity of The Slump in the first place. And to sing to high heaven about two $250 million-plus productions and two $150 million-plus productions and none passing $350 million ... that's silly too.
Given the budgets of this summer and the security of the franchises - 8 of the current 13 $100 million grossers were sequels, two were based on TV cartoons, one was Adam Sandler, Ratatouille is part of the Pixar franchise and only Knocked Up really stood a unique, unfranchised, not-star-driven 9-figure films - we should have expected bigger numbers. Again, all five of the Top Five for this summer grossed $200 million in less than 12 days ... and none cracked $340 million total.
Moreover, the only sequels to do under $97 million domestic were Hostel II, 28 Weeks Later, and the not-really-a-sequel sequel, Daddy Day Camp. Of the other nine sequels - the ones released by the majors - only Evan Almighty was under $110 million domestic or $250 million worldwide. So ... does anyone want to ask the "Why do they make so many damned sequels" question again?
Posted by poland at 12:55 AM | Comments (58)
August 15, 2007
Sluggish As The Weather
Sorry... slow news week... slow heat stroke... slow...
Toronto is coming... but that'll just piss some of you off, no?
Posted by poland at 03:44 PM | Comments (12)
August 14, 2007
More Stuff Sold By Profiles In History
Auctioned August 2-3...
· The original "Johnny-Five" robot from Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2: $138,000
· An original Chewbacca head from Star Wars: $115,000
· Hero laser gun from the Lost in Space TV show: $92,000
· Ewan McGregor "Obi-Wan Kenobi" light saber from Star Wars: Episode 1-The Phantom Menace: $48,875
· Anakin Skywalker's light saber from Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones: $48,300
· Grail tablet from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: $40,250
· Original Klingon Disruptor from Star Trek: $40,250
· Original Stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: $37,375
· Vivien Leigh hat from Gone With The Wind: $37,375
· Elvis Presley personal and concert-worn concho belt: $31,625
· Elvis Presley's karate gi: $23,000
· Elvis Presley's gold stage-worn sunglasses: $5,750
· Excalibur broadsword from Camelot: $23,000
· Original space-worn Russian cosmonaut space suit worn by Svetlana Savitskaya, the second woman in space: $21,850
· Spider-Man costume from the FAILED 1997 pilot The Amazing Spider-Man: $21,850
· Madonna's black "Sooner or Later" performance gown: $16,100
· Alien "Space Jockey" Maquette: $18,400
· Original KWKH / Louisiana Hayride Microphone used by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and other music legends: $18, 400
· Marilyn Monroe's personal prescription medication bottle with eyedropper: $3,200
· Marilyn Monroe's personal prescription medication bottle: $2,300
· Walther PPK Hero pistol used by Roger Moore as 'James Bond': $11,500
· Joanna Cassidy's signature Replicant costumer worn as "Zhora" in Blade Runner: $17,250
· Chris O'Donnell Robin torso costume and cape from Batman Forever: $13,800
· Robin Williams full-size costume from Bicentennial Man: $13,800
· Freddy vs. Jason "Freddy" costume and display: $11,500
· Freddy vs. Jason "Jason" costume and display: $11,500
· Sean Connery suit from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: $11,500
· Screen-used Predator Warrior Bio Helmet with head display from Predator 2: $11,500
· Screen-used "E.T." hands from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: $9,200
· William Shatner screen-worn costume from Star Trek: The Motion Picture: $9,775
· DeForest Kelley screen-worn costume from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: $5,500
· John Haymes Newton Superboy costume: $6,900
· George Clooney screen-used cowl from Batman & Robin: $6,900
· Facehugger prop from Aliens: $4,900
· Original, screen-used Energizer Bunny: $6,900
Posted by poland at 06:54 PM | Comments (7)
The 10 Most Awesome Movies Hollywood Ever Killed
Cracked's list is certainly a conversation starter...
10. Halo
9. Unbreakable 2
8. Ghostbusters In Hell
7. Fletch Won
6. Rendezvous with Rama...
Posted by poland at 05:10 PM | Comments (60)
EXCLUSIVE: Reclusive Star Caught In Sex Tape Scandal
We generally try to stay away from these sordid stories on The Hot Blog, but TMZ.com is really important now and Harvey Levin really hasn't sold his soul to The Devil (according to The Devil, the contract is not yet signed, but negotiations continue apace), so here we go.
We won't tell you where these came from - and there are more photos after the jump - but I think we all can finally know the facts... E.T. is a girl... and she's quite the fan of My Best Friend's Wedding's Rupert Everett!!!
And as this wide shot exposes... E.T. is not a solo act!
And doesn't this close-up look a lot like a critic who is all thumbs in a crappy Charlie Chaplin disguise with a certain grown up Angel?
Posted by poland at 04:56 PM | Comments (13)
PR for Surgery?
Posted by poland at 12:37 PM | Comments (9)
Airport/Comfort Zone/Kitchen
Should we be eating cereal at the movies too?
Posted by poland at 12:30 PM | Comments (6)
August 13, 2007
10 1/2 Grams
Posted by poland at 02:08 PM | Comments (18)
The Video Of Doom?
There is more video at IndianaJones.com... but what really strikes me, with due respect to the power of the internet, in which I obviously believe, is the question of whether the Rings/Kong/Superman on-set online schtick means a damned thing to the movie anymore.
Obviously, there are a lot of big time fans out there who wet their pants every time there is any footage or even a cap nod to their favorites... but they are the most pre-sold of pre-sold audiences.
So riddle me this... is the time and money being spent on these efforts doing anything but setting up expectations that can be shot down with backlash in a few months... only to be lashed back by marketing mega-dollars a month or two later?
Posted by poland at 11:23 AM | Comments (36)
August 12, 2007
International Relations
Interesting to take a look at Variety's report on the international box office...
Pirates 3 is now the biggest grosser outside of North America of the trilogy.
Potter 5 now looks like it will be the #3 Potter film worldwide.
The Simpsons has $230 million international, significantly more than at home.
Transformers has done surprisingly well overseas, with $328 million, topping the domestic gross.
Life Free or Die Hard has grossed $204 million overseas, making it the 7th highest grosser of the summer worldwide, leapfrogging Knocked Up and Ratatouille, though The Rat is out in fewer than half their international markets and should jump past DH4 before year end.
Ocean's 13 is closing in on $300 million worldwide.
Posted by poland at 11:45 PM | Comments (9)
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Posted by poland at 06:21 PM | Comments (10)
August 11, 2007
Friday Estimates by Klady - Aug 11
Posted by poland at 09:37 AM | Comments (29)
August 10, 2007
One Last Thought On The NL Commotion
Ironically, New Line is a truly old school business. The new model has the dozen-plus privately funded production companies funding the kind of under-$20m budget movies that have been New Line's signature since the beginning and the distributors, like New Line, simply making money on marketing and distribution.
The greater irony? It is the expenditures on the potentially big movies, Rush Hour 3 and The Golden Compass, that put the company at the most risk.
Posted by poland at 07:41 AM | Comments (21)
August 09, 2007
Box Office Hell - Thursday, Aug 9
UPDATED - Friday, 7:36a pdt
The most interesting thing about the Rush Hour series is that it has never been that big overseas. Though it is sold as an action film, it is a comedy of misunderstanding, which requires some language barriers to be overcome. And much as we in America hate to discuss it, Chris Tucker is Black and Black doesn't sell very well overseas. It also doesn't help that Jackie Chan is much more overexposed in the rest of the world than he is here in America... and that Tucker has done nothing to make himself more of a world commodity in the years since RH2. All that said, look for the film to do $150m in the rest of the world, meaning that $100 million domestic will put the overly expensive effort into the black... and over that is gravy. (This does not mean that New Line will be happy with less than $200 million or that Russell Schwartz will not somewhat unfairly absorb the heat all the way from Fiji or wherever he is putting his feet up this weekend for that if they don't.)
And for the record, the Rush Hour 2 opening was $67.4 million on August 3 weekend, 2001.
Stardust is almost fully funded by overseas money and Paramount is treating it like something they found on their shoe, much as they did Perfume. They are spending more on ads, by contractual obligation, but the answer to whether Stardust is a flop or not will be found overseas, not here... a fact about which the folks who made the movie are completely aware. The biggest problem with that, however, is that unlike Perfume, the film is not going out to the world until after the U.S. and it could be tainted as a flop here.
The irony of Daddy Day Care is that this sequel to the much critic-killed comedy is so cheap that they will come close to profit this weekend (calculating in ancillaries) if they open anywhere near these projections.
Transformers will hit $300 million tomorrow on its way to doing 2x the total of its first six days.
Evan Almighty is not going to make it to $100 million... and it looks like Universal is not going to attempt extraordinary measures to get it there.
Sicko is fighting to pass An Inconvenient Truth to be the #4 doc box office film... and will probably just get over the finish line... expect some drama or another to rear up before the month is out.
Posted by poland at 11:55 PM | Comments (43)
More From The Road
Just how much does Starbucks make on your grande latte?
A cool spot in South Carolina today.
Sweet relief.
Posted by poland at 11:48 PM | Comments (2)
Luke Saves The Day
A nice get by a Hot Blog regular... here is the piece that goes with this cover art...
Posted by poland at 08:29 PM | Comments (2)
August 08, 2007
Oh, It Hurts
This is that brutal time of year when people get really stupid when they feel a need to pump something out into the news cycle... because there just isn't much legitimate news.
This is when stupid forecast reports from companies who don't know the film industry from their rectal cavities start blossoming. And truly moronic notions start floating through blogs, sites, and major media outlets. Oh, how proud it makes me to be a journalist some days!
In the naked effort to make something out of nothing, all kinds of hyperbole and spin turns up. For instance, if you are going to make comments on how movies are made, it would be good to have some idea how movies are made. If you are going to make comments on industry trends, it is good to have some point of reference other than what sold and how it sold last year.
Buckle up... a storm o' excrement is coming.
Posted by poland at 05:18 PM | Comments (54)
August 07, 2007
Two New Lunches With David
Nikki Blonsky and Elijah Kelley from Hairspray sit down for a chat... here
Director/Writer David Stenn, whose Girl 27 is now in theaters, talks about old Hollywood and new Lo-hans... click here
Posted by poland at 10:55 PM | Comments (2)
Giant Animals From The 50's Attack Myrtle Beach
Posted by poland at 10:24 PM | Comments (1)
August 06, 2007
A New Low
Is this the single stupidest New York Times story on the film business in history?
"At a time when the likes of Paramount and Warner Brothers are having trouble turning a profit on movies that gross $200 million at the box office..."
Oh... you mean at a time when idiots greenlight movies with budgets over $200 million and also make deals to give away major chucks of the gross? So, the profit participants who are not being paid three or more times the average cost of writing these pictures and who have no budget control should pay for that?
Any asshole - and you would have to be an asshole to make this argument if you knew anything at all about the situation - that would use a phrase like "divine right" about residuals is not worth even a brief passing chat. Residuals ARE a part of the payment system. If product is being sold or broadcast, ther is money coming in for that film and thus, money to share. Studios should pay the stars, producers, and directors a piece of every form of ancillary income, but not the writers or non-backend actors? That is the answer to the financial woes of some pictures?
And as is, the residual system is really screwed up. The battle over credits by writers has a lot to do with residuals as well as added payments... which makes those choices which seem to be arbitrary by WGA arbitration panels a brutality to professional writers.
If studios want to pay significantly more upfront, people will live with that. If they want to make writers and actors real partners with the chance of real money from successful films, people will live with that.
And again, for the record, I think a non-residual system can work. But not as a cost to the writers and actors who are already being squeezed out of the middle class that existed and into only upper, lower and non-working classes. If studios are willing to get serious about risk and reward, there are answers. But what I see is studios trying to get away without paying for the many ancillary uses of films and TV shows, more and more of which are not monetized in traditional ways, but are being used to the benefit of the complex corporations that own the studios.
"A strike, of course, would cripple both sides. So, as the battle over residuals boils over, perhaps writers and producers should heed the advice of someone who is both, Woody Allen: Take the money and run," the closer of the piece, is spectacularly infuriating. Who the FUCK is Brooks Barnes or the NY Times to patronize either side with shit like that?
Sorry to be so dramatic, but it reminds me of Broadcast News, where the new anchor says (paraphrasing here) at the end of a news alert, "I think we'll all be okay" and the veteran producer says, "Who cares what he thinks?"
Studios are taking the money and running. There is no question that the writers and actors both have some issues that are overstated. For instance, free internet repeat broadcasting of a network show cannot have a residual structure like a network broadcast. But there are sponsors and there is some financial benefit (if not cash) changing hands. In time, those netcasts may generate more. What is the far answer to that? It is NOT, "take the money and run."
I really have no problem with any paper examining the notion that residuals are an old, flawed idea. But this simplistic treatment slaps professionals in the face with an arrogance that I find truly rancid. Would anyone dare to be so blithe with the New York Times and its place in the world and be accepted by the paper? Of course not.
The most interesting thing about this dumb piece is that it probably as disliked by the studio-side advocates of dumping residuals as it is by the unions... because it sells the kind of blind ignorance that can actually strengthen the rank and file resolve in two unions that have proven to be far to easily shattered in the past.
Posted by poland at 10:15 PM | Comments (31)
Russell Schwartz Exits New Line
Careful…
Russell Schwartz had a good run at New Line. As much as it may seem easy from this perspective, Lord of The Rings was no gimmie. Rush Hour 2, Austin Powers 2, Wedding Crashers, Elf, Monster-In-Law, etc… all up from the original or risky and he got them there with his team.
But the blood has been in the water for a full year. The thing about New Line is that they haven’t had the Rings-level product since Return of the King and so they have been patient… but no one out there could open The Last Mimzy or Hoot… no one. And only an unmitigated idiot would ever suggest that Russell was getting the boot based on Mimzy… not that there was not inordinate pressure on Schwartz and the entire company on that film. Hairspray, weak tracking on the expensive Rush Hour 3, and the fact that if they were finally going to take the plunge, they had to do it now for Golden Compass, their next great hope. You can’t change horses in September or October for the December mega-movie.
Thing is, you need $20 million for The Number 23 instead of $14.6m. You need Take The Lead to open to as much as You Got Served. $11 million for Fracture just won’t cut it.
Russell died a death of 1000 cuts. And the pressure is all on marketing these days. Especially at an old boys studio like New Line.
As it turns out, Russell is one of the last of the old school marketers in the game. Utley and then Van Galder have become the new prototype. These two understand marketing, publicity, creative services, the internet, release dates, and most of all, when they are going to have to suck it up and take the hit internally. A marketing chief has to manage up every single film and every single day.
Warner Bros has split more power in marketing in the last year. Paramount’s Gerry Rich has a much of DreamWorksers looking over his shoulder on more than half his films. Disney has narrowed the herd and have a until-now non-theatrical head of marketing, smart but learning the new territory, overseen by movie boss Oren Aviv and Dick Cook. Fox has been shifting internally with a pretty successful team. And Universal is pretty stable, though the co-big boss in movies has been expanding from his marketing cap for years.
The truth is, New Line has flailed on what to do to move forward for over a year now. Jobs have been offered and turned down. Others have lied about being offered Russell’s job. And the very few good answers with experience in being a head of film marketing have all been intentionally overlooked or turned down.
Look for a television marketer to take the job… no building a two-headed team from publicity and creative services… no Terry Press… no Terry Curtain… and no Dependent marketer stepping up. This is the new wave. Traditions are dying.
And be careful before you post. Know that if you are a known person, people who you know will be trying to figure out who you are if you are unkind.
Posted by poland at 05:23 PM | Comments (44)
Another Superbad Clip... Seriously R
Posted by poland at 12:17 PM | Comments (13)
Travelling Room
Again, on the move today... here's some room to roam...
Posted by poland at 12:09 PM | Comments (14)
48 Minutes @ The 48 Hour Film Fest
Rolled through Richmond, Virginia and caught a few shorts at the 48 Hour Film Festival, which is a worldwide event in 60 cities in which people are given 48 hours to conceive, shoot, and post a movie of 5 - 7 minutes. Richmond had 37 teams competing and 29 were able to deliver in the 48 hours.
The screenings (3 sets) were held in the historic Byrd Theater, a 79 year old landmark theater with all the great glam one loves in an old theater, including live organ performances on the weekends and boxes on either side other screen, one with a grand piano and the other with a harp for performances. Beauty.
There was only time to see five of the films as the experience was unexpected and not on the travel schedule (the whole stop in Richmond was, really). The one clear winner in the group - the most amazing thing about events like this, to me, is how badly people overreach - was Adam Neely's Nine Blocks, which followed a group of friends "ghost riding," which consisted of dancing next to their mini-van as it rolled down the street. And the mockumentary element was that they took the sport very seriously. Funny plus.
One of the big influences on me about YouTube is that I now look at shorts like these and on a show like On The Lot and think, "Would anyone get excited about this on YouTube?" The answer for Neely's movie was, "yes," when everything else - especially from On The Lot - was a definitive "NO!"
All in all, the experience was most like programming a film festival... exciting and more often painful than not. But the spirit was great and that's always encouraging.
Posted by poland at 12:08 PM | Comments (2)
Learning Every Day
People in the south love to bury their loved ones near big, busy streets.
Tiki time in South Carolina means miniature golf.
Hollywood is good at period air fights, but SC miniature golf courses are better.
Vegas does not have the exclusive on volcano tourist traps (more golf)
(Note: The three miniature golf courses are separate businesses within 2 miles of one another.)
Posted by poland at 11:34 AM | Comments (8)
August 04, 2007
Klady's Friday Estimates - Aug 4
Clearly, this will put the film well ahead of the $52.5m for opening weekend for the last Bourne film.
But the question of this summer remains... does anyone with a big opening get to have legs anymore?
The stat of the summer, which I didn't get to publish this week, is that amongst the big openers, 90% of the domestic gross is now happening in 25 days or less. There are minor variations, but with The Simpsons as the sixth film to gross over $100 million in the first week of release this summer, with the other five all at or over $150 million for the first week (most ever in a previous summer... two), frontloading continues to get worse and worse, though the studios are now holding the DVD window more precious than a couple of years ago.
Anyway... all the Friday numbers will be on the MCN front page in an hour or two. Have fun.
Posted by poland at 07:45 AM | Comments (95)
August 03, 2007
New Trailer For The Kingdom
Universal finally figured out how to sell this movie... explain the movie... cause they've got the goods.
They could have kept 3 or 4 shots out of it for my taste, for the sake of surprise, but still... this trailer (Trailer 3) really tells you what they have going on.
Posted by poland at 09:44 PM | Comments (27)
Box Office Hell - July 3
No doubt, there will be late entries from Nikki's Pals & EW... but I probably won't have an available web connection to post them here. Look at the front page of MCN, where someone will update them later.
Note: The Bourne Supremacy opened in 3,304 theaters and grossed $52.5m on July 23, 2004.
Posted by poland at 07:54 AM | Comments (28)
August 02, 2007
Joltin' Joe On The Next Gen
Joe Leydon came up with the following question and proposition on his blog...
Let’s focus on right now: Who are the heirs to those esteemed filmmakers – some living (such as Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer), most dead (Bergman, Antonioni, Francois Truffaut, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, many others) – who came to prominence during the post-WWII era, who I would label The Art House Elders? And looking ahead: Who’s next?
And let's try to focus a little more specifically for the sake of conversation.
I would argue that the Spielbergs, Lucases, and Zemeckises are THE BLOCKBUSTER GENERATION, in that they have been truly envelope pushing filmmakers, now all over 50, and of an era where The Blockbuster was born and nurtured by them.
So who do y'all think fit into that group?
And who is THE NEXT WAVE?
Age is a fluid issue, but is Aronofsky there... Apatow... Snyder... Nolan? Is The Next Wave a wave of art or commerce or the fluid melding of both? Does navel gazing DV production fit into the realm? Do all 3 of The Three Amigos fit in? Can we finally stop pretending that studio Dependents are Indies?
Not only who fits, but I would love for people to offer their idea of rules... where are the thresholds for entrance in the modern pantheon?
Posted by poland at 01:23 PM | Comments (73)
August 01, 2007
Travel Day
Just to let you know, I have been in transit and now have to run around Manhattan working this afternoon and evening.
Use this space at your will.
And please be kind to one another.
Posted by poland at 11:54 AM | Comments (28)