27 June 2000

THE BART LOT: Sometimes, reading Peter Bart is like reading Bart Simpson. Sometimes, Bart the Bear (Rest in Peace). And sometimes, he hits the ball right out of the park. His current rant about the woes of producers strikes me as absolute crap. Essentially, he is pitching woe for studios getting out of the business of doing housekeeping deals with producers, no longer paying for expensive offices, staff and crates of Veuve Cliquot. And while he mentions the international financing deals that are now so much a part of the business, he fails to point out that the upside for producers that are working is greater than ever. It is indeed the Kopelsons and their ilk, who did major housekeeping deals and then proceeded to virtually stop making movies, that studios cannot afford to keep floating on an ocean of studio cash. Guys like Joe Roth, who will make a lot of movies, aren't doing international financing deals because no studio will pay their overhead, but because that's the way to make the most money and assert the most control. I assert that there has never, ever been a better time to be a producer in the history of movies. The amount of cash floating around out there to build empires with is astounding. The freedom that non-studio money brings is unprecedented. Producers who can deliver are thriving and surviving. Producers who can not are falling by the wayside. It's called evolution. And in a business that often doesn't seem to make sense, it's about damned time that someone notices that some people have opposable thumbs and some do not.

On the other hand, Bart wrote a pretty smart piece about trying to estimate production costs and the futility of it all. That one, I can link you to. For the producers piece, you need to go to Variety.com or to wait a day or two for Reuters to catch up.

GUNS, GUNS, GUNS: The issue of Fox's ads for Big Momma's House and the rolling pin vs. the gun in Martin Lawrence's hand was addressed by Fox in the L.A. Times, it turns out, back in May. It turns out that Fox felt the gun was a stronger image for billboards and the rolling pin was really their message and that the pin would be on all the more intimate print ads. A Fox rep told Judith Michaelson at the time, "The gun issue is not the reason [for the change]. The outdoor ads still have the gun. Basically, for the outdoor ad, because it is a moving medium, we used the gun to shortcut to the fact that he is a FBI agent. In the newspaper ad, the rolling pin gives us the opportunity to play up another joke in the film, which takes place in the kitchen. That's because a newspaper ad is a medium where you can spend time and look at it." I asked again on Monday and was told nothing by deadline. If I eventually hear something other than what the L.A. Times ran, I shall report it to you here on Thursday.

READER OF THE DAY: JG in Chicago writes: "I went to see M, M&I Sunday and was disappointed. The scene where Hank emerged was as funny as anything I've ever seen from either Carrey or the Bros. Farrelly (which is saying something) but the picture peaked with it. Nothing in the rest of the film was even remotely that funny. The story was confusing and sloppy. How about that ham-fisted narration shoveled over the holes in the plot? I have to compare it to the amazingly well put together TSAM and it's just not in the same league.

I also can't wait for Coyote Ugly to open on August 4, because then I will never have to see that trailer again."

And this from SESy Gal: "Saw Irene, loved Irene. Come on how can critics rag on a movie where a guy's idea of survival supplies is a bottle of Bacardi and a dildo. That's hilarious and priceless :-). I see a return trip in my future."

And JB writes in about TwoJ's Monday correction: "Oh dear DIETY. Green Lantern dates back to the '40s, with a first appearance in All-Star Comics #2, and regular stories in All-American Comics and Comic Cavalcade as well as his self-titled comic. After a complete revision of the DC comics line in the early '60s came appearances in such comics as The Brave and the Bold and as a backup feature in The Flash, as well as a relaunch of his own title. The only series entitled Emerald Dawn that I know of was published in the early '90s as a modern retelling of his origin.

While I'll believe TwoJ that the power/responsibility quote was used therein, using it to claim GL has as much right to it as Spiderman is akin to claiming that any of the dozens of re-uses of the 'stinking badges' quote are as valid as in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. (As he valiantly drags movies back into the discussion.) I'm sure the topic is done to death by this point, but I *hate* it when people submit a 'correction" that's so completely wrong."

E ME: Which would you rather have to fight off a robber with, a gun, a rolling pin or a bottle of Bacardi and a rubber phallus (only one use of the "d" word per column, please)?