Thursday, 1 July 1999

GOODBYE TO THE CAFTAN MAN: Allan Carr was the master of the big show. He embodied what the '70s was about, for better or for worse. Big, outrageously dramatic, and always partying first, asking questions later. Grease was his only true mega-hit and yet, there was Carr, in the midst of Hollywood royalty in every other glam photo you'd see. Carr orchestrated some of the biggest parties, the largest human pick-ups and, occasionally, did some work. But that was the resume' of the era. Me, I'll remember Can't Stop The Music as much as Grease. Any film that stars The Village People and offers up Valerie Perrine, Steve Guttenberg and Bruce Boxleitner as talent is a classic in my book. There will be a next Allen Carr. There always is. (Maybe Jon Peters will gain some weight.) But this one defined a decade as well as anyone could, and certainly better than any of his movies ever did. He had been ill for a long time, and he's already been missed.

WRESTLING REALITY: At the very bottom of a Variety story on the WCW signing up with CAA, there is a line: "And touting its corporate synergy, WCW has a feature in development at Warner Bros." Bzzt! Wrong. The film is already in pre-production. It's coming, whether we like it or not.

FRIENDS & SUPERWRITERS: I've known Bill Wisher for a long time. Over a decade. So does Bill Wisher call me when he signs to do Superman? Nope. Will Bill Wisher give me any scoops on Superman? Nope. I'll have to hear about his script on AICN when some assistant leaks it to Harry. Oh the pain. One thing I can tell you about Bill Wisher. He will deliver to Warner Bros. what Warner Bros. asks him to deliver. Not so much creatively, but economically. It's one of the great things about hiring an experienced action guy, and why so many of them get called in for huge dollars to "fix" action movies. They know the price of flight, and they know when to write around it. Of course, far too often, studios will hire one action guy to cut the big effect they requested out of the film for budgetary reasons and then bring back the first guy to clean up the scarring. Studios and producers sometimes can't get out of their own ways. Which brings me to what may be a truly critical question for Warner Bros. and this project. Will they let Jon Peters muck it up? After all, it would be a lot of fun to see a good Superman movie. Let's hope "they" let it happen this time. Bon voyage, Bill.

BOX OFFICE LESS THAN EXTRA: Some folks wrote in this morning (Wednesday) for the box office extra for the long weekend. Oops. Here, in a nutshell, is my take on the weekend. Box Office Extra, which will include Summer of Sam, which opens Friday, will appear on Friday as usual. First, I should point out that the 3-day weekend is not a normal 3-day weekend because Monday is a holiday. So, the 5-day number will be a bit skewed as well, from a historical perspective. In any case, I expect Wild Wild West to win the weekend, but not with some astronomical number. Something in the mid-to-low 30s over the 3-day and near 50 for the 5-day. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut should follow, in the high 20s for the 3-day and in the 30s for the 5-day. Big Daddy should take third, losing about 30 percent on the last 3-day, which would normally be a 40 percent fall. Tarzan may go up, with families rushing to avoid South Park and willing to head back to the jungle. I like Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace to pass up Summer of Sam and The General's Daughter for fifth place. More tomorrow.

TURAN TURAN: It was a good day on Wednesday for the Los Angeles Times. I thought Ken Turan's review of Wild Wild West was balanced and reasonable without getting too bent out of shape about CG. And John Anderson's review of South Park was dead on, and not a spoiler-thon. Anderson also did a commentary on quick cutting that may have missed the reasons why cutting has sped up, but looks at its effects and history admirably. One question though? Why is John Anderson's Newsday criticism of a major film running in place of Times employees Turan or Kevin Thomas'? South Park is going to be an issue for weeks. I suspect we'll see Turan's point-of-view on it in the next week or so in the form of a commentary. I'm happy to be reading you here, John and I would love for you to come to the L.A. Times. But is the top newspaper in the movie business' hometown serving its readership by running a syndicated review, even if I agree with it? I don't think so.

Page Two: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - Five Big ROTDs!'"