The Hot Button by David Poland

SHOWEST 1999: THE PHANTOM MORASS

Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace. Eyes Wide Shut. Tarzan. The Green Mile. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

These are the five films that emerged from this year's 25th edition of ShoWest with some serious buzz. Of course, all five also arrived with some serious buzz. For this reason and others, this year's ShoWest was more about maintaining expectations than about creating them. The return of Warner Bros. and Disney was much heralded and much appreciated by conventioneers. But, in the end, even with Will Smith and George Lucas aglow, there was something odd about a WB luncheon without The Arnold or Mel Gibson to add mega-wattage. (Mel is now shingling at Paramount and Arnold is making End of Days for Universal.) And while Disney absolutely blew away the crowd with an almost complete screening of Tarzan followed by a live rock concert by Phil Collins, they couldn't (didn't try, really) match the intensely emotional experience of The Lion King presentation they did here a few years ago. In other words, the bar was very high for both of these companies. Both delivered just enough, but didn't leave exhibitors as breathless as usual.

The most important footage of the week was less than four minutes long in total. The new trailer for Episode One and a clip from Eyes Wide Shut were all the rage. And while the crowds were wowed, in general, once they thought about it, all they could do was complain and moan that it wasn't enough to satisfy their appetites. Not fair, but real. But the clips were the real thing. The Episode One trailer has to be seen a half dozen times to be believed. (Or, as one exhibitor commented, "Sam Jackson wasn't in there." But that's not true. He was. But there was so much more to see.) The Eyes Wide Shut trailer is already getting backlash. Ignorant backlash.

I was amazed at Mr. Showbiz's Jeffrey Wells' ability to find so many people willing to make dumb comments about the clip. Of course, Wells himself starts off with "I'd use the word titillating if it didn't sound like a cheap gag." Uh, Jeff, titling your Kubrick remembrance, "Eyes Closed Shut" was the cheapest and most offensive gag I've read in a publication in a long while. And the one genius opines about the trailer, "You wonder, is (Nicole's character) feeling sexy or troubled?" Uh, that's exactly the point. That's what it's about. Not the sex. Get it? It's about obsession, not seeing Tom and Nic naked. And this came from an "editor of a trade magazine." What trade? Carpentry? (That comment is going to get me in trouble with someone, but I don't care. It's what I feel and I hate that "industry professionals" can be so myopic in ripping the work that just doesn't happen to fit their tastes. And to those of you who just started thinking of the e-mail you'll send accusing me of the same, I try to always make a point of noting my odd personal reasoning when I hate certain movies that I just can't connect with for potentially personal reasons.)

The Spy Who Shagged Me was expected by many to be good, but what New Line showed looked like a significant improvement on the original. The highly stylized camera effects and production style felt like a real '60s movie on steroids. And there were plenty of laughs, especially from the not-expected-to-be-revealed Mini-Me, the mini version of Dr. Evil. And Heather Graham as sex unbound is working within her element. And Mike Myers adds "Fat Bastard" and "'60s Guru" to his list of characters. We didn't see Lucy Liu, the now ubiquitous Ling of "Ally McBeal" and dominatrix of Payback, but I'm sure she will be a tight-clothed selling point when the film comes to theaters.

The real kick of the convention was The Green Mile. It didn't quite have the oomph of the Forrest Gump footage that magically made it everyone's favorite at ShoWest a few years back, but it looks great. And it co-stars the one great discovery of this year's event, Michael Clark Duncan, who charmed us all whenever he was around. And Warner Bros. didn't even emphasize what are supposed to be the remarkable special effects segments of the movie. They just went for the heart. If the film is as powerful as the clip and the effects elements draw teens, this could be a massive hit next Christmas. And a major Oscar® contender. Frank Darabont has taken forever to finish principal production on this film, but it looks like it will be worth all the effort.

The other story coming out of this event is a new heat behind Digital Cinema. There were crowded exhibitions about technology throughout the week and George Lucas announced that he will put Episode One in four digital-projection-only houses in June. But with the impressive looking quality (one of the major breakthroughs being that they discovered that saving the movie was better than narrowcasting it over satellite), the trouble still remains. Who will pay the bill, which looks to be in the billions of dollars, to convert theaters to the new projectors? My look at all this forward motion always comes back to cable TV. The 500-channel universal is a reality now. But cable companies across the country keep upgrading in tiny leas, still unwilling to spend the money on the set-top boxes that will be required to change the world of TV and the Internet. Who will make the leap? Well, both theater owners and studios will be spending a long time looking into the abyss before deciding to take the plunge. As usual.

Well, that's about it. After a week of columns that would make Tolstoy blush, I'll keep today's short. ShoWest 1999 will long be remembered as the last ShoWest at Bally's. (Next year, we go to Paris. That's the Paris that's being built next door to Bally's. Ooh la la.) It will be remembered as being the best organized show that anyone can recall. It will be remembered as being a little less warm than usual, but it will also be remembered as the kick-off for some very big movies, returning Warner Bros., in particular, to a big chair at the Hollywood table. (Unless The Wild, Wild West does less than $150 million. Then, it will be remembered as the last time we saw certain executives.) It will be remembered for its two micro-focused events, Star Wars and Tarzan, and the difference between them. It will be remembered for the nachos and hot dogs and pizza and "South Park" lamps. But, mostly, it will just be remembered. And a year from now, it will start all over again. Thanks for coming with me this year.

Next week, The Hot Button returns to its normal, old-fashioned, butt-kicking format. I haven't be riled real good all week, so wind me up and watch me write.

READERS OF THE DAY: From Jay: "The reason Miramax is holding back on any Dogma teasers is quite simple. We know how active a lot of those religion-pushers can be, so if they spring the film on everyone next October, that won't give The Christian Coalition, etc. very much time to form protests that may hurt the film's box office take. I hate it when people tell other people what they should or should not see... let us make our own decisions."

From D.C.: "The last I heard, Dogma is being held off strictly so that it may be entered in the Cannes Film Festival. Miramax isn't hiding anything... they think very highly of this film. And so do all of us Kevin Smith junkies. So, 'I don't appreciate your ruse' when you start to doubt the impact Dogma will have when it opens in October of 1999!"

And from Sam He Am: "It seems to be that Dogma is a dog."

E ME: What films are you most looking forward to this year? I mean, besides Episode One.