Studio 101 Same Old Same Old

Nobody Knows Anything.
William Goldman, Adventures In The Screen Trade read

I admire Bill Goldman as much as anyone in the business. But, Bull read !

Ladies and gentlemen, right here and right now, I, David Poland, will offer you your chance to know the future of the film business. That's right! For the price of your Internet service, no ups and no extras, I will teach you what the next years will bring ... kind of.

First read , the Memorial Day smash of 1998 will be Sony's Godzilla. The Summer of read 1999 will break all known box-office records with 20th Century Fox's Star Wars, Chapter One read on Memorial Day. And look for Fox's Independence Day 2 on the Wednesday before July 4 in the Summer of 2000. read

But those were too easy, you say? You've read your Entertainment Weekly and you know about all the rumors. Well, I've given Fox distribution on two billion-dollar blockbusters they haven't set yet. So there. read

This week's chapter will serve as a prelude to the Studios 200 level chapters where I'll look at each studio read in depth. So, I'll try to go slow for the freshmen. And for you sophomores who are repeating, go back to your Weekly World News.


DISNEY
We start with the company with the cleanest strategy. Disney has taken three major steps to solidify its movie business.

First, it set a predictable cycle for its animated film business. It's one new film every June, some event in November read and two re- releases followed by six-month-window video sell-through read .

Next, the company started making long-term deals with producers that deliver prestige pictures on both high budgets read and low budgets read . These were films that Disney was not in the business of making in-house, thus successfully filling the pipeline with product and creating prestige among adults Disney hasn't had before.

Ironically, the most critical of these relationships was once the most disappointing. Disney lured Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer from Paramount read , where they had produced Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop, among other smashes. Under their big-bucks exclusive deal, they produced just one film before negotiating their way out of the failed relationship. But in 1995, they delivered Disney's early-summer macho- action hit Crimson Tide, which begat 1996's early-summer macho- action hit read The Rock, which begat this year's testosterone-dripping Con Air read . Seeing the pattern? read

Disney also established relationships with companies with product for the kids business, most notably Jim Henson Productions read and Jay Ward Studios read .

Third, Disney started to create its own stable of comedians for the rest of the slate. Some have been hugely successful read , some moderately so read and some not at all read .

Put it all together now. Springtime offers an animated classic, maybe a drama, and some kind of comedy for the kids. The summer starts with a hot Bruckheimer action pic, followed by an animated smash and a couple of silly comedies -- Tarantino if you have it. The fall is Oscar-chasing time with Miramax and Cinergi and another lightweight, high-profile film for Thanksgiving. Throw in the now annual Tim Allen flick, a sequel to a silly comedy that hit the year before, an adult comedy from Interscope and something from big-name kids connections, and you have a year in the life of Disney.


WARNER BROS.
Every year, the folks at Warner Bros. crow about the studio's stability. And every year, they are right. Once you are part of this family read , you are part of it for life. Unless, of course, you are Mel Gibson and the studio won't finance Braveheart, so you go to Paramount. But Mel's back in the fold this summer and is the subject of $30 million plus rumors for Lethal Weapon 4 read . So don't cry for He the Australian read .

That stability should continue for the next decade on the shoulders of two very special men: Bat and Super read . These two look to be central players in Warner Bros. summers for years to come. Once Superman finally gets going with Nicholas Cage and Tim Burton, look for Warner Bros. to push for a Batman and a Superman film once every three years, with a third franchise to be named later. read

Later in every summer there will be two high-profile action dramas. One will have more action, the other more drama. Last year, that meant Eraser read and A Time To Kill read . This year, it's Conspiracy Theory read and Contact read . Notice also that this summer is made up of almost all WB regs, including Julia read , Jodie read and Arnold as Mr. Freeze.

Joel Silver will make something go "Boom!" at least twice every year. Whether it's a building or Cindy Crawford's acting career, Silver will deliver.

There will be some investment in a kid's franchise, whether it be Bugs Bunny in Space Jam, Free Willy 3 or Shaquille O'Neal attempting to be like Mike read by lifting his box- office weight in Steel.

And Warner will invest in big movie stars in front of and behind the camera. Directing and starring right now, the studio has Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner read . Plus Barry Levinson putting Dustin Hoffman read , Sharon Stone read and Samuel L. Jackson read through the paces in Sphere.


20th CENTURY FOX
This studio wants to be your science-fiction friend. That's the word from the top. Sci-fi franchises from Star Wars to Alien to Independence Day is the big-ticket item at the shrinking read studio in Century City. Also shrinking are budgets for dramas and comedies that don't include big gimmicks read .

If you read the name George Lucas or James Cameron or Jan DeBont, look for Fox to be chasing them. If Fox could get one film per year from each of this group, it might consider shutting down the rest of the studio. But, expect one film a year from one of the Big Three.

Franchises are well loved by Fox. This year, it's Alien 4, Home Alone 3, and #2s for Speed and the Power Rangers. Can you smell the one hit of the four? Hint: Think sci-fi and the characters move their lips ... you got it.

Other movies filling the slate could be dramas or comedies, big stars or not, but they will be under $40 million. Fox has been the most public about saying that movies that cost $40 to $70 million are too risky, without enough profit potential. Remember, this is the company that turned down The English Patient.

Expect Fox to start mining its film vaults read . There's gold in them thar movies. When DeBont remakes The Sound of Music, look for the Von Trapps to beat the Germans out of Austria instead of escaping.


SONY a.k.a. COLUMBIA-TRISTAR
This company is getting a personality transplant as I write.

Movie lover John Calley has taken over for showbiz high flier Mark Canton in the wake of last summer's ugliness read . But this year's films still have Canton's fingerprints on it and they look to be hot, hot, hot.

In a nutshell, Canton's 1997 was plagiarism, but great plagiarism. Men In Black is ID4 with more comedy. Starship Troopers is ID4 mixed with Jurassic Park with giant insects in for the dinosaurs. Air Force One is The Fugitive Jones in Clear and Present Danger. Anaconda was a CGI-driven Creature From The Black Lagoon read . Donnie Brasco was regurgitated Scorsese read . Geez, it even had the sequel to the live-action Jungle Book read .

More later, as the personality takes shape.


PARAMOUNT
The studio that was defined in the '70s by Francis Ford Coppola and Robert Evans, and in the '80s by Simpson/Bruckheimer, Eddie Murphy and Grease, is now defined by Beavis and Butt-head and Chris Farley's belly.

Last year, Paramount had some big-quality hits in Mission: Impossible, The First Wives Club and Primal Fear, and even some genius in Albert Brooks' Mother. But the bulk of the product was Beavis, Bradys and Brain Candy read .

This year, Paramount's slate is being dumped like a 30-year-old in Charlie Sheen's bedroom. Night Falls on Manhattan, Till There Was You and Addicted To Love were all off- loaded within three weeks of each other, right into Jurassic Park's path. The studio didn't promote The Relic, and it tried to fit the bizarro worlds of Elizabeth Shue and Val Kilmer into one The Saint. Face/Off is the second Nicolas Cage picture to be released in a one-month period. Titanic moved to Christmas. And its best-reviewed film of this year, Breakdown, was slid quietly into the spring for a quick death at the box office.

Yet Paramount still could rebound from these bizarre decisions to get strong showings from Kevin Kline's In and Out; Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater in The River; Jim Carrey in The Truman Show; and Bryan Singer's follow-up to The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil.

Beyond a regular diet of Lorne Michael's refugees-from-SNL read movies, a load of worn, older franchises read and a number of weak attempts at synergy within the Viacom Family read , Paramount has become a wild card. How do you define a Paramount offering in 1997? The studio made it. That's about as clear as it gets these days.

Hey, what do you know? Sometimes "nobody knows anything" is the best strategy of all.


As always, feel free to e-mail me. Next week, there will be some answers. Promise.

And read the previous chapters of The Whole Picture -- Summer Special



 
June 20 , 1997
 

 

©2002 The Hot Button.com
All Rights Reserved.