Weekend, 24-25 April 1999

NEWS BY THE NUMBERS

The combination of a slow news week and my life in Champaign-Urbana has led to a News By The Numbers where every story is tied for least relevant. I hope that those of you who are just finding the column via the festival will stick around for a week or two and see what happens when The Hot Button gets pushed really hard. (Including the Overlooked Film Festival coverage next week.)

10. More good news on Mission: Impossible 2 as they slowly get closer to somewhat delayed start date. They just added Brendan Gleeson to the mix, adding to the list of terrific actors who are not big money names, like Steve Zahn, Thandie Newton and once again, reportedly, Ian McKellen. Sir Ian hadn't read a screenplay and thus, had not committed when I spoke to him late in February and I have seen no announcement of him since, but I'll trust The Hollywood Reporter on this one. Add recurring players Ving Rhames and some guy named Cruise and I'm getting excited. Especially about seeing what John Woo will do with a presumably less melodramatic storyline, still being cobbled by Robert Towne.

10. Two development and acquisitions people from Artisan Entertainment were at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival last week, talking about how Artisan hasn't really established what "an Artisan film" really is. I agree. So, finding that the company is trying to buy Harvey Entertainment (think Little Lulu and Richie Rich) strikes me as odd. I mean, I guess it fits with their release of Jerry Springer: Ringmaster, but comic movies do not an art company make. But no worries. It looks like hack-house Kushner-Locke will win the company. Thank God! I need a good movie about Dollar and Cadbury: Lovers at Last.

10. Hang on to your student I.D.s, folks. If you are over 40 years of age, you only have access to one-third of the roles that Hollywood is filling. And if you are a woman, reduce that to less than one-quarter of the roles. Though some would blame the increasing percentage of ageism directly on the absence of Wilford Brimley from the one-in-every-three films that he was in for a while, it seems safer to be way over the hill rather than just peaking over the hillside. SAG will hold a seminar called "Ageism in Hollywood: Defining the Problem and Facilitating Change." Appearing as Erin Grey will be Tiffani Amber-Theissen. As Victoria Principal, it's Jennifer Love Hewitt. And Jerry Mathers is still The Beaver.

10. I thank Lew Irwin at showbizdata.com for digging this horror story up. ATMs in New York, Chicago, San Diego and Los Angeles will be showing movie trailers as you get your money. Since the first of these ATMs will be at 7-11s, you will get to watch advertising while you pay to get your money. Lovely. Still better than sitting through a local newspaper ad with Jean-Claude Van Damme trying to speak English.

10. Barry Sonnenfeld told the L.A. Times on Monday that the budget for Wild Wild West was at $116 million. He claimed that "the numbers people are telling you, whether it's $175 million or $200 million, are just insane." I think the world of Barry Sonnenfeld, but he's either poorly informed or lying. The budget isn't up to $200 million, but it is right around that $175 million with the new re-shoots and some now-last-minute post-production fixes to go with them. Trust me on this one.

10. The AMPAS or "The Academy" as it's known in March has won another legal war. The eternally litigious organization, which insists on such excesses as the use of a trademark of every use of the word Oscar® in media like this column and that takes itself even more seriously than Entertainment Tonight, won the right to keep Academy members from selling their Oscar® tickets (See? Another trademark.) or even giving them to friends or loved ones. That's after they bought them for $500 a pop. Lots of the formerly famous are about to lose a $5000-a-year stipend.

10. I know it's HBO, but they just gave a green light to If These Walls Could Talk 2 and somehow in the process, the subject changed from abortion to lesbianism. I know, it's not easy being a lesbian. But the problems of that lifestyle, which I believe has a major genetic component, do not begin to match the violence and rage over abortion rights. Kind of like comparing the Serbian situation to the Jewish Holocaust. Or, for that matter, Jews who feel that their holocaust is infinitely more significant than any other atrocity, such as American memories like black slavery or the taking of the west from the American Indians (or is that Native Americans? I can't keep up.)

10. The first major honor to be bestowed upon Stanley Kubrick since his death will come in the form of a major re-release of nine of his films on DVD and VHS just before the release of Eyes Wide Shut. According to the trades, the re-release had been planned before Kubrick's death, along with the war in Kosovo, the Wild Wild West reshoots and the clothes I chose to wear today. I'm not saying that Warner Bros. is fudging on everything they are saying, but it's amazing how nothing is allowed to be a reaction to his death, at least in the media.

10. The news that Richard Nanula, who was the very popular CFO at Disney, may come back to Disney is apparently exciting some on Wall Street. However, what is going on when this well-respected man can't stay in his new job for one whole year? Nanula left Disney to go to Starwood Hotels & Resorts last April. And now, that's over. Quick. Maybe he should go to work with Mike Ovitz.

10. Speaking of stupidly correct politics, MGM Home Video is trying to recall all copies of The Basketball Diaries, a movie that has a dream sequence that has been linked, at least in the media, to the killings in Littleton, CO. Fortunately or not, depending on your point-of-view, MGM isn't distributing the video right now, Polygram Video is. And what exactly does taking this movie off the shelves at video stores do? Nothing helpful in terms of the mental health of teen America. But it does sound the signal to the government that the film industry believes that movies can create violence like this. Bad signal. Now, if I were HBO or another cabler (like TNT) and I had that film scheduled, I'd pull it for now. But watching cable is a far more passive choice than going to the video store and renting a tape. Interfering in that would be, in my opinion, censorship.

READER OF THE DAY:: From Woodge: " David, I too picked up The Phantom Menace issue of Time Magazine. I began skimming the article but as soon as it began divulging the plot I stopped reading and hid the magazine away. I was both amazed and disgusted. Did George Lucas realize they were going to include spoilers in the article? I doubt it. And Richard Corliss' comment about reading the script only reinforces my previously held opinion that reading reviews before seeing the movie is a complete waste of time. Anyone who truly loves movies, wants to be surprised and above all, entertained. These reviewers who include major plot points in their reviews show a complete lack of regard for their audience. Besides, I never agree with any one reviewer all the time, so why read them in the first place? The best movie experiences I have had have been when I knew next to nothing about the movie beforehand. I don't understand all these people out there hunting around for details about The Phantom Menace before seeing the movie. It's like Christmas. Isn't half the fun the anticipation of surprises?"

And from Amy: " 1) The Time Magazine Star Wars Story: Wow! After reading that interview, I want to go back to school and do a Masters thesis in Anthropology - ''Star Wars: A Metaphor for Modern Faith and Thought''. More than that, I want to be a regular around the Lucas family dinner table! (I didn't read the article. - Spoiler phobia!)

2) The Haunting Photos: I must confess this is the first I've heard of the film. I'm not a big fan of the horror genre, but this looks like it could be a good ''psycho thriller'' - is that the word? - really glomming on to our childhood fears (a la Spielberg's Poltergeist). I liked the production design in Casper. I thought it harkened back to the days when movies were about fantasies. So while yeah, this looks like "Casper on sterioids", that's not necessarily a bad thing. :)

3) Dreamworks' Raison d'�tre: To be sure, Dreamworks is about S, K, & G MAKING MONEY. But more than that, it's about the new old boys saying "Who needs you?" to the old old boys, and I think that's just swell. The Carl Laemmle's and Charlie Chaplin's - and even the Lew Wasserman's - (the guys with the dreams) aren't running the mainstream studios anymore. Why shouldn't the guys with the talent and smarts be the ones holding the purse strings?

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