The Hot Button by David Poland

Thursday, 19 November 1998

Greetings from New York City. (It's Tuesday at 2:32 a.m. as I write.) I'm at the ultra-hip Paramount Hotel, where I am paying $175 a night for a room a little larger than my kitchen and with two full-sized beds. They may fix this tomorrow (coughing up the king), but it will probably cost more. I'm pretty sure they consider me lucky to have this berth, which includes the sounds of water rushing through pipes as other guests use their tiny bathrooms. Oh, what a glamorous life I lead. I hope I don't get thirsty while I write, lest I suddenly feel compelled to down a $17 soda from my mini-bar, which is located below my 15-inch TV. But enough of my bitching. I'm here to see Robin Williams and Patch Adams, in that order. Unfortunately, you won't get to read about it until Monday, but, in the meantime, I will remain your faithful correspondent.

MONDAY BLOODY MONDAY: The Waterboy was about the only happy guy in Hollywood on Monday. OK, that's an exaggeration. Tom Sherak and his Fox crew was thrilled with the building heat over the Star Wars trailer. (I'm going to stop writing out Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace from now on, if you all don't mind. It's not like you don't know it's coming.) Warner Bros. was happy they had Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan selling You've Got Mail all weekend to a fairly receptive press throng. And Paramount was happy that RugRats has Viacom head honcho Sumner Redstone so distracted that he hasn't noticed that no one seems to care that Star Trek: Insurrection is coming during all this Star Wars hoopla.
But that didn't keep four souls from meeting Joe Black on Monday. First, on the TV side, Fox Entertainment president Peter Roth bit the dust, losing his job to Comedy Central president Doug Herzog. (I fully expect "The Simpsons" to start cursing, Craig Kilborn to break his CBS contract to join "Melrose Place" as "the guy with the hair" and a Janeane Garofalo/Laura Kightlinger musical variety show.) A few miles away at Sony, Columbia Pictures president of production Chris Lee was kicked upstairs to a producing deal after 13 years at the studio. (And then there were four: Amy Pascal, Lucy Fisher, Gareth Wigan and John Calley. Calley is rumored to be the next to exit, though of his own volition.) And Disney's head of marketing, John Cywinski was moved out of his position to an unknown position. Could anything be worse? Being fired and not even having a production deal to hide your embarrassment. (More on his replacement below.)
And at Universal, Frank Biondi found himself stabbed in the back with a $25 million-plus golden axe, losing his gig as Chairman and CEO to Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s decision to create a smaller team, led by himself and Ron Meyer. What does that really mean? Well, Edgar is officially taking over the music side of the business, leaving Meyer with no responsibility for that division. And Meyer gets everything else: TV, which is basically controlled by Barry Diller (staffers even call the division "Dillervision"), the Theme Park Operations, which Bronfman hired Cathy Nichols to manage and expand just last year, and feature films, which is still teetering on the precipice of danger. The next head expected to roll is Production Chief Casey Silver. If that happens, it still seems likely that a partnership like the Diller relationship will be made with either DreamWorks or Imagine and that they will control film, making Meyer all but irrelevant.
Also at Universal, the process of engulfing and devouring PolyGram Filmed Entertainment has begun with publicity flacks for stars already sending out word about films that Universal will release Summer '99 that aren't officially under the banner yet. (That would be, primarily, Notting Hill, folks.)
PULA'S BACK: The man who knew too much for Warner Bros., Chris Pula, has now officially resurfaced at Disney as the new president of Buena Vista Pictures Marketing. He replaces John Cywinski, as noted above. Congratulations are in order to Pula and both Joe Roth and Dick Cook, who know how good he is and are willing to rock the Disney boat a little to move forward. Now that Pula is part of the Evil Empire (ha, ha), I will have to stop kissing his butt in this column. Hopefully he'll give me reason for simple, straight-forward praise. The wheel keeps turning.
THE FIX IS IN: If next year, the NFL teams suddenly stopped offering massive contracts to star players, the shouts of collusion would begin. Well, I'm shouting it about the movie business, though I think that it's a coincidental convergence, not a conspiracy. Disney seems to have joined Universal and Warner Bros. as studios that are no longer ready to green light films that cost more than $100 million. That has put a halt, at least for now, to Bicentennial Man, the Robin Williams/Chris Columbus comedy about a robot who wants to be human because the film's budget hit the Burton Line (Tim Burton's Superman was the first likely mega-hit to be squashed because of its more than $100 million budget. Maybe I should call it the Schumacher Line, since Batman & Robin, which cost more than $200 million, caused the film to bend into a pretzel to avoid admitting the enormous cost of the project. But if the superhero fits, Burton will wear it.) Given that the studios, overall, have started to shy away from all non-genre films between $45-$75 million (meaning less than stellar stars and no effects to draw a crowd) and there is a cap at $100 million, how wide a range of films can we expect, stylistically? Let's all chew on that question for a while.
READER OF THE DAY: The ROTD is a little self-congratulatory today, but I decided not to cut out the love. Hope you all understand. Eric J: "You know I wouldn't call myself a die-hard fan. I don't belong to the fan club; I never chat about the force on the 'Net; I don't have a devoted Web page; I've never been to a convention and I don't buy the newest action figure that is out this month. I'm a 26-year-old father who's been married six years. I have had a higher education and I hold a salaried position as a web designer. I guess I'd consider myself an average guy. I'm a big movie fan, write reviews for fun, and read your column daily, the movie industry intrigues me and I like your insight as to how things work. Today I paid $5 to watch two minutes of film. As I was on my lunch break and Mr. Black hangs out 3 hours, I watched the trailer then headed back to my office. The only thing I could really think for the rest of the day was as Mr. Wunder would put it, 'WOW.' I can't explain what the experience of Star Wars has done to my life. Am I a different sort of person because I grew up playing and idolizing my favorite Jedi, or bounty hunter? I'm not sure. All I know is there is something about these films that touches my soul and sitting in that theater today I felt like a young boy, the future seemed bright and I kind of forgot about everything else. Strange? Maybe. All I know is it will be a long six months, actually longer because I'm not willing to camp that long. For what ever it is worth."
And Monday ROTD BenDavid Grabinski has a lot of you to thank. (THB 11/16) He wrote on Monday: "They moved it. Enough people called in and complained, I mean hundreds of people called. That rules!! I will read your column every day it's up from now on." And then, on Tuesday, he sent this missive: "I just saw it and it just plain rocked. I don't know what else to say. My little escapade ended up on our local news. Thank you." See, gang. You made one of your own a local hero. Give yourself a big pat on the back.

E ME: What about the rest of you who went to see the prequel trailer on Tuesday? I know you must have an opinion. Let's hear it. And what do you think about the budget crisis? Do you really care what movies cost? Should studios be proud when they pass the $100 million mark and use that as part of the sales pitch?