Tuesday, 24 February 1998

A LINE OF BULWORTH?: Fox has put the oft-delayed Warren Beatty film, Bulworth, right in the path of Godzilla, telling Beatty and the media that opening on the same day as the mega-monster-movie is a show of support for the film. It seems unlikely. Bulworth will get minimal attention from a press corps drawn to Godzilla like moths to a light bulb (or lemmings to a cliff). And history offers no more support. Last year, Warner Bros. pit Addicted to Love with Meg Ryan and ironically, Godzilla star Matthew Broderick, against The Lost World. It did draw $11.5 million, but much of that was probably dino-droppings from disappointed sell-out victims. Hardly a summer smash. Fox's very own Out to Sea took on Men In Black and drew only $5.9 million. If Bulworth stiffs, the release date makes it Godzilla's fault. Not Fox's and definitely not Beatty's. If the movie is nearly that clever, it will be worth watching.

CHANGING FACES: Eddie Murphy will be putting the prosthetics back on for his next two films. The Nutty Professor II, a sort of Mr. Klump Goes To Washington, will start shooting in September. Before that, he'll co-star with Martin Lawrence (no, he's not in jail) in Life, a comedy about two lifers who break out of prison in their very old age. Eddie seems to have gotten the message: audiences like him a lot better when his ego is covered in latex.

CROSSING THE DIVIDE: Amistad, which chronicles one of the worst moral crises in American history, will serve as a unique export to other troubled countries, as the U.S. Information Agency is planning special screenings in 73 countries, including 18 African nations. Unfortunately, the screenings are meant for "high government officials in the host countries, intellectual and cultural leaders, journalists, members of the diplomatic community, resident Americans, and others." That leaves, as usual, the real people out of the loop, some of whom may actually be descendants of those sold into slavery in the U.S.

KNOWLES KNOWS: Harry Knowles has gone from an underground net phenom to an Entertainment Weekly regular, but the first significant evidence of Hollywood's success in its efforts to co-opt him turn up in the ads for the disastrous Burn Hollywood Burn. Knowles' glowing review blurb, his first in a national campaign, is twice the size of those by the other hack reviewers Disney dug up for the ad. What makes this significant is that Disney and Burn Hollywood Burn was also the first paying advertiser, one of only two ever, on Knowles' Ain't It Cool Web site. Tick, tick, tick. (That's the 15-minute stopwatch, Harry.)

READER OF THE DAY: From Nathan H: "In America, what sells a movie, first and foremost, is the advertising. Next comes the people in the movie, then word-of-mouth. The Lost World was a bad movie, but the promotional hype had you believing that it was the second coming of Jurassic Park. BANG! A $90-plus million opening, but a relatively quick fall after that. It wasn't anything special, but the marketing had you believing it was, so you went."

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E ME: Do you believe everything you read? If not, tell me what you think is pure show biz bunk.