Craig's MovieBlog

Life Does Go On

The loss of Sydney Pollack is incredibly sad.  The world has chimed in with their loving thoughts: Roger Ebert, Ray Pride, David Poland, Jeff Wells, Anne Thompson, the LA Times, the New York Times, and so on.  The world is worse off without him.  Even if I just thought of his recent roles in The Sopranos, Entourage, and Michael Clayton, I'd feel that the entertainment world would have lost someone special.  Fortunately for us, Sydney Pollack gave us so much more, directing Tootsie, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, Out of Africa... and even producing The Fabulous Baker Boys, Sense and Sensibility, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Iris, Cold Mountain, and on and on.  He was a powerhouse.

I had the opportunity to meet him a few years ago at the annual Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley.  I was a measly peon, there to support a non-entertainment executive, but I felt that I just had to go speak to Mr. Pollack during a down moment.  As you would expect, he was warm, generous, friendly, funny, engaging, and a good listener, even to a person who was clearly the least important person in the room.

I liked these quotes from his friends and colleagues:

George Clooney: "Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better.  A tip of the hat to a class act. He’ll be missed terribly."

Robert Redford: "Sydney’s and my relationship, both professionally and personally, covers 40 years.  It’s too personal to express in a sound bite."

I'm selfishly using this opportunity with the loss of Sydney, to also express why I stopped writing for a few weeks.  My heart truly wasn't in it, due to my family's own recent loss, making the entertainment world seem appropriately insignificant.  A few weeks ago, we received some tragic news.  In a horribly shocking, violent, awful moment, we lost our friend and family member, Kevin - a husband and father of two beautiful little girls, and my brother-in-law.  My heart hurts every day with the thought of Kevin, his wife, his girls growing up without him, and my kids not being able to play with "Dodo" anymore.

We are incredibly lucky though, in that Kevin's family is surrounded by hundreds of family and friends who love them and will support them through whatever it takes, whatever they need.

This is beginning to sound cliche and tacky.  I think I now understand Mr. Redford's hesitancy to put his true thoughts about Mr. Pollack in a sound bite.  At times like this, I wish I was a more elegant author.

We miss you, Kevin. 

We miss you, Sydney. 

And for me, it's in ways that are so different, I just don't have the words...

Craigslist

Lots going on out there while I was traveling, so I thought I'd just throw them onto the pile for you:

• The critics awards have begun in a big way, and while MCN has their page, I'll probably find time to pull my annual recap together also. 
• Jim Hill creates an AMAZING list of cameos and cross-references throughout Pixar's film history.  For someone like myself who has been forced to watch Cars several hundred times, these are incredible.  But... he didn't call out the cameo from the Apple car in the first race.  It's just black and white, it wears the number 84, and it's only onscreen for a second or two. 
• David Poland calls Nikki Finke "a piece of shit."  Hee hee... 
• Anne Thompson reminds us that George Clooney is brilliant:  Why were films like Syriana and Good Night and Good Luck embraced by audiences while the more recent rash of political films have not been? "People like ambiguity," Clooney suggested, admitting that he had not seen all the films. "They don't want to be told what they should think."

Sigh...

First I was depressed last week by Anne Thompson's piece on how Michael Clayton isn't making money at the box office, but I didn't want to write about it just yet.

But today, Hollywood Wiretap and the Los Angeles Times are both covering the issue on a broader scale.  No independent films are making money, and the major studio dramas are struggling also.  Here's a sampling, in no particular order:

In the Valley of Elah	Warner Independent	$6.6 million
Lars and the Real Girl	MGM	$0.3 million
The Hunting Party	MGM/Weinstein	$0.9 million
Sleuth	Sony Pictures Classics	$0.1 million
Reservation Road	Focus	$0.04 million
Lust, Caution	Focus	$2.1 million
Rendition	New Line	$4.1 million
Things We Lost in the Fire	Paramount/DreamWorks	$1.6 million
The Darjeeling Limited	Fox Searchlight	$3.8 million
Gone Baby Gone	Miramax	$5.5 million
Into the Wild	Paramount Vantage	$6.5 million
Elizabeth: The Golden Age	Universal	$11.8 million
Michael Clayton	Warner Bros.	$22.7 million
The Assassination of Jesse James...	Warner Bros.	$2.2 million
Eastern Promises	Focus	$16.9 million

There are plenty of excuses reasons for this - poor marketing, too many dramas in the mix, piracy, NC-17 ratings, some of these films haven't gone wide yet (but they won't if they don't perform well when they launch), poor reviews, and of course the easy way out: the depressing state of the world, "the war in Iraq, the housing slump, global warming, the fires..." says the LA Times.  What?  No Halo 3 to blame?  I enjoy pointing at the dumbing down of society, and we're all too busy at home worrying about Britney's kids and watching Dancing with the Stars or Deal or No Deal, but I think that's a scapegoat as well.

The theory that holds the most water to me, is that they are victims of their own success, causing a glut of films that were only attractive to limited audience already:

"Companies such as Miramax did so well that almost every entertainment conglomerate started its own specialty division, and a range of independent financiers, such as Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, also jumped into the fray."

It's also going to be crucially important for studios to keep costs low and perhaps think about this business model differently if there's a much more crowded market for competition.  There used to be a formula detailing how to platform release a film like Brokeback Mountain, The Queen, or even My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but with a limited audience, limited theaters and screens, and a much wider set of options for that small audience to choose from, studios may have to redefine what success means on this smaller scale.

Thank goodness Wild Hogs made $168 million and a sequel is on the way.  Shoot me.

UPDATE: Jeff Wells has jumped into the fray:

I slipped into a preview screening of [Before the Devil Knows You're Dead] last night. It was showing to a group of KCET subscribers -- an older, fair-minded group that likes adult prestige films -- and you just could feel the lack of excitement in the room as they walked out. You could cut it with a knife. They'd just seen one of the year's absolute best and most of them were thinking "hmmm, downer....not very uplifting!"

Anne Thompson Is on a Roll

Just over the last few weeks, the work on her blog has been excellent and especially insightful.  These are short, but they worked for me:

• She comes clean with surprising transparency and disclosure about an incident regarding a piece on Scott Rudin (and perhaps how a piece ended up in The New York Times instead of Variety).
• She notes that not only does Georgia Rule not live up to her expectations, but imagines what it would have been had it been produced by some independent filmmakers... instead of Garry Marshall.
• While everyone's talking about how much Spider-Man 3 cost, and some are talking about how wide it opened (at 4,252 screens, it's the widest release ever), no one else put those two issues together like Anne did.  Just that broad distribution alone cost Sony $22 million.

Ed Norton Smash Internets!!!

The web has been all a twitter with the recent announcement that Ed Norton (Rounders, Fight Club, American History X, The Illusionist) will take over the role of Bruce Banner (aka The Incredible Hulk) in the upcoming re-tooling of the Ang Lee/Eric Bana film from just a few years ago.  You may remember that film as the one where Nick Nolte was stranger than normal, as he slowly transformed into Gary Busey due to accidental radiation overexposure.  Ring any bells?  No?

More importantly, the hiring of one of our best actors into a superhero role is always an interesting one, and I immediately recalled how excited I was when I heard that Robert Downey, Jr. had been cast as Iron Man.  I loved Anne Thompson's quote that Norton is "is constitutionally incapable of selling out" (although apparently she didn't see Red Dragon or The Italian Job).  Maybe it's true though, and he just locks the director out of the editing booth.  :)

Anyway, I'm loving that the studios are looking at real actors to play these comic book roles, rather than, oh I don't know... Ben Affleck or Wesley Snipes.  Even Tobey Maguire has some acting chops - go rent Pleasantville, The Ice Storm, or Seabiscuit.

However, I think it was Better Than Fudge that said it best:

Really? Seriously? Is this just an effort to one up the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man? What’s next? Philip Seymour Hoffman as Captain America?

UPDATE:  I don't know how I forgot to mention Christian Bale in Batman Begins when thinking about "real actors" playing superheroes... but I did.  Also, The Guardian has an interesting take on this trend.

Studio Executives are Drunk or Stupid... or Both

Don't they understand that Steve Carell is funny?  Don't they understand that good writing is what makes people laugh, cry, or cheer?  Clearly not... because The New York Times and Jeff Wells are commenting today that the budget for Evan Almighty is now (good lord) $175 million, and they haven't even touched the marketing budget or distribution costs.

What could possibly be costing $175 million that would make that film funnier?  This is a sight-gag comedy!  It's not like Schwarzenegger is flying Stealth bombers and blowing up cities... All Universal is doing is repeatedly cutting into their profits!  When you see what happened to Superman Returns, a film that made lots of cash, but couldn't be profitable, why would anyone continue down this path?!?!

Of course, if they told me that the budget had a line-item for waxing Carell's chest hair, well, then... nevermind.  I completely understand.

Hollywood and Astronomy

Thanks to Anne Thompson for posting this brilliance...

Tom Cruise Notes for the Weekend

This will probably be my last Tom Cruise post for some time, but among all the noise over the last few days, I did find three well written pieces that I found insightful and enjoyable to read.

First, there's "How the players fared after the Cruise attack" by Anne Thompson in her Hollywood Reporter column:

But why did Redstone insist on kicking Cruise off the lot so publicly? Sounding angry and betrayed, there was something personal about his demeanor. Remember, Redstone is a numbers man. After all the millions that he invested in building up the marquee global movie star brand "Tom Cruise," he was convinced that Cruise's offscreen behavior "effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue," he told the Journal. It seems clear that Redstone simply couldn't bear the fact that Cruise's self-destructive public conduct - most of which took place before War of the Worlds more than a year ago - had cost the studio untold millions in lost ticket sales while the movie star himself walked away with as much as $80 million from M:I-3, leaving the studio with chump change.

Next, there's "Who is Redstone's Target?" by Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times:

In other words, Redstone appears frustrated and angry about something far more worrisome than one movie star's deal. To me, he seems equally upset about what's happened to his flagship investment — his movie studio. By all accounts, something is amiss at Paramount Pictures and I suspect that Redstone, at 83, doesn't have the luxury of waiting forever for his new vassals to figure out how to operate the keys to the kingdom.

What surprised people the most about Redstone's attack on Cruise was that it severely undercut the authority of his studio lieutenants. They had presumably been working out an amicable "we wish Tom well" send-off after 14 years at the studio that would have still signaled Paramount's tough stance on talent expenditures without insulting Cruise or his agency, CAA, which represents a huge percentage of the top talent in Hollywood. Furious with Redstone, CAA has gone on the attack, with the agency's rarely-heard-from President Richard Lovett saying that Paramount has "no credibility," telling the New York Times "it is not clear who is running the studio and who is making the decisions."

Finally, in a tangentially related story, (due to the rumors that Tom either is or isn't working with Wall Street hedge funds to set up his own production company), you may be asking, "what the heck is a hedge fund?"  Claude Brodesser-Akner has a good piece titled, "$200 Million Bet A Hedge...Really" on TMZ.com (which is becoming quite the media magnet these days... where did these guys come from?  or, where have I been?)

Good Buzz on Superman Returns

Good news is leaking out about upcoming Superman Returns.  Anne Thompson and Jeff Wells both have very nice things to say...

Poseidon Sinks: Early Reviews

It's not like we didn't see this coming, but now it's official.  Poseidon will be a disaster in more ways than one.

Roger Ebert says so:

An odd and unexpected word kept nudging its way into my mind as I sat watching Poseidon. That word was perfunctory. I hoped that other words would replace it. I knew I was not enjoying the movie, but I hoped it would improve or, lacking that, discover an interesting way to fail. But no.

Anne Thompson says so:

After my pal Pam and I came out of Poseidon the other night, we were doubled up with laughter. We made fun of the gurgling demise of one of the main characters. We made comments like, "the dialogue in this movie makes Jim Cameron look like a genius." Fans of Titanic have NOTHING to worry about.

Warner Bros. the studio that made Poseidon, says so:

Warner Bros. is nervous about Poseidon, which opens this Friday. In Slate, a senior Warners executive concedes to Kim Masters, "We're all pretty much aware that 'disaster film' will take on a whole new meaning on Friday."

More Mashed Up Trailers

I don't know why I enjoy these so much, but Anne Thompson's blog today pointed me to two new mashed-up trailers:

• Sleepless in Seattle as a Fatal Attraction style thriller
• Fight Club as a quirky love story comedy

Two New Movie Blogs

I just stumbled across two new blogs about the film industry today... they're worth checking out:

• Anne Thompson from The Hollywood Reporter
• Dave Kehr from The New York Times, who says "I don’t think we’ll be seeing a better movie this season than The Ice Harvest" starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton.