The Hot Button by David Poland

Thursday, 21 January 1999

Welcome to the last "normal" column before the start of The Sundance Film Festival. For the next 10 days, every day including weekends, there will be a new column covering the previous days' events. Instead of our normal 5:45 a.m. EST posting, the column will hit the Web each day by noon EST. In addition, every night of the festival, starting on Friday night, there will a live chat on Yahoo! Chat. Check back often to see what new chats come up as the days pass. I expect a lot of surprises. All this, and I'll be going to Slamdance, Lapdance and Nodance, too. So, I'll see you from the snow. And now...

EDGAR WATCH 1999: On Monday, the owner-operator of Universal Studios, Edgar Bronfman Jr., called L.A. Times reporter Claudia Eller, the reporter most likely to get a phone call from a studio chief who wants to tell their story, and told his story. Bronfman told Eller that he wouldn't be selling the Universal movie division to Barry Diller. He told Eller that he wasn't selling out to anyone. To quote part of what he said, "... you can't be a leading entertainment company without being a motion picture distributor." Ahhh... so what didn't he say? He didn't say that he wouldn't turn over a non-controlling percentage of the movie division to Diller, Imagine, DreamWorks or anyone else. He didn't say that he needed to be in the business of MAKING movies, just in the business of DISTRIBUTING movies. Bronfman admits that even his wife asked if he was dumping film. Not dumping, ma'am. Just aligning strategically with an expert who knows how to make money. If there isn't a new controlling force over Universal Pictures production by next January, I will eat a hat of your choice.
SPEAKING OF UNIVERSAL: Production will finally begin next Monday on Universal's WWII submarine thriller U-571. The sub will be put through its paces in the second largest water tank in the world (behind the Titanic tank in Mexico), which is the Cinecitta tank in Rome, Italy. Writer-director Jonathan Mostow lost his star, Michael Douglas, but construction had already started on the multi-million dollar sub, so Universal kept the light green and brought in Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton (a last minute addition) and Harvey Keitel to fill the boat. The studio is claiming a $90 million price tag for the film, but estimates run more like $120 million. Of course, Universal isn't making $100 million-plus movies anymore, so it must cost only $90 million, right?
LEE WARD: Earlier this year, the churning mill at Sony churned up President of Production Chris Lee for the soon-to-disappear TriStar. One of the rare executives of color (I hate that PC phrase, but it fits), Lee has now joined also-former-Sony-ite Kevin Jones (the last black senior studio exec) in the producing ranks with a two-year production deal at the studio. Lee says he will focus on films that involve "boy popular culture." That makes it sound like he will be making movies that will fit in at the new Screen Gems distribution outlet, taking responsibility/credit for The Big Hit, the upcoming horror-comedy Idle Hands and relationships with Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich and John Woo. He also developed another little film. More on Go just below.
MARCHING TO SUNDANCE: Before I even get to the festival, I believe that I have seen the film that will have the most successful commercial run of all the films at the fest. It's called Go and it's director Doug Liman's follow-up to Swingers. The tag you'll be hearing from the media as we get closer to the March 26 release date is, "It's Swingers meets Pulp Fiction." Well, let me be the first to tell you, it's Swingers meets Pulp Fiction. But better in certain ways. The young ensemble cast is truly an ensemble. There is no singular force like Vince Vaughn was in Swingers, but there is not a member of this ensemble who doesn't swing for the fences. Sarah Polley leads the show, but Taye Diggs, William Fichtner, Jay Mohr, Timothy Olyphant and Katie Holmes all show real movie star stuff. And there wasn't a bad performance in the room. And unlike Pulp Fiction, there are no real stars about which to make cultural references.
Also unlike Pulp Fiction, the film doesn't have to play any games that leave you trying to figure out what happened as you leave the theater. It all fits together like a glove. Smoothly and snugly. Every time you think you know what's next, you don't. And, Liman and writer John August never seem to feel the need to beat you over the head. They take you for the ride and you never feel yanked about. The film also has one of "those" sequences that will be talked about forever. All I'll tell you is that... well, I just won't tell you anything. You deserve to see it yourself the first time.
It seems that Sony has shifted the film from Sony Classics to Columbia Pictures. Thank God. This is not a film, like my beloved Rushmore, that needs help developing an audience. This is a film that needs to start on about 1,500 screens and to expand to more than 2,000 a couple weeks later when the film hits the country like a wave of fun. This could easily be a $70 million-domestic grosser -- or more if it really hits right. True, it's unlikely that Go will be my Best Film of 1999 when the year ends. I'm not even guessing that it will be the best film at Sundance, but it is easily the best film featuring today's teen experience since Scream, a traditional horror film that surfed the hipness wave. And it's the most purely entertaining film since There's Something About Mary. And all for reportedly $6.5 million. I'd love to see more than one film every three years from Liman, but if it takes that long to find this kind of wonderful mixture of actors, screenwriting and style, take your time, Doug. We'll be happy to wait.
READERS OF THE DAY: From B.C.: "Call me shallow, call me superficial, but do not ever call me to go see another Terrence Malick film. I know he is supposed to be God's gift to cinema, and I know he made two movies 20 years ago that tend to show up on Cinemax at 4:00 in the morning. This movie is easily the most overblown, overhyped movie this year. This was some kind of Buddha-inspired, hippie poem put on film. I and a few other brave souls stuck it out after a third of the audience walked out of a packed screening about two hours into it. (My grammar is terrible, sue me.) My take on the film is that maybe it was about man and his connection to himself, or his environment, or to war, or maybe to pretentious narration, or yet maybe to 50,000 shots of the sun shining through a jungle, or the entire industry indulging an egotistical wacko. In the technical department it was superior. The cinematography was excellent, if a tad redundant. I know me (sic) and every other Malick-phobe will be persecuted for our inability to understand a GOD of the cinema. We will be called sacrifices to the (Jerry) Bruckheimer altar, champions of anything (Adam) Sandler. I just hope this guy crawls back to whatever rock he crawled out from. I will never get those 166 minutes back. It is just my opinion."
From Mark F.: "After seeing previews for The Thin Red Line I wasn't so sure whether or not it would be as good as, or stand up anywhere near Speilberg's masterpiece Saving Private Ryan. But after hearing you rave about it so much I decided to check it out this past weekend. I must say you were right about this movie! It truly is a masterpiece and is a totally different movie than Pvt. Ryan. Where Pvt. Ryan has just one story, Thin Red Line is more of an experience. After seeing it and reflecting about it, I felt as if I was with those soldiers and shared their thoughts, emotions and actions. This movie is what movies are all about -- it entertains and makes you feel something! Anyone who doesn't go see this movie because they have already had their World War II is missing out on one fantastic and brilliant piece of American movie cinema. The only thing Thin Red Line has in common with Pvt. Ryan is that they are both set during World War II and are both masterful works by two masterful artists."
From MDF: "David, are you going to fight Goldberg? He told me that he wants you. What are you going to do?"

E ME: I'm going to kick Goldberg's ass, of course. After I get back from Sundance. (First, I'll have to actually watch WCW, which I really don't do. I do remember Goldberg as a lineman for the Atlanta Falcons though.) Free swim!