17 July 2000

THE BAD: Hidden deep in the L.A. Times's Sunday Metro section is a story about Roman Polanski being accused by Artisan of "abscond(ing) with over a million dollars" that was meant for the budget of The Ninth Gate. The studio says that Polanski actually deposited production money in his personal bank account. And as if that weren't bad enough, the L.A Times reminds us that Polanski "fled the U.S. in the wake of charges that he had slipped an underage girl Quaaludes and champagne, then seduced her in a hot tub." I have no problem with reminding everyone that Roman is a high-end pederast, but the specifics struck me really funny.

THE UGLY: Bill Mechanic was never much appreciated at Disney, where he built the video business into the monster that it was until recently. Now, he has been bounced out of Fox just before X-Men proved him right about the gamble he took by making a superhero movie for "only" $80 million and not for the $150 million that a wider range of visual effects would sure cost. He had the guts to stick with Bryan Singer despite all the Internet whining that followed his hiring. And now, with the film's massive opening and likely $180 - 220 million domestic box office take, the entire film business will be transformed for a while, as other studios try to duplicate the "Big Studio Movie At Indie Prices" effort that was brought to bear on X-Men. For instance, look for Daredevil to get greenlit at $70 million. And with a $10 million-plus star. Look for Warner Bros. to hire a more-cerebral-than-expected director for Superman. (Could Oliver Stone be back? Alexander Payne? Spike Jonze?) Look for Spike Lee to be approached to do Black Panther. And where is Bill Mechanic? Somewhere. Probably laughing. Ready to go to the next place where he won't be fully appreciated for the visionary that he really can be. Bill Mechanic gets the joke. As long as I've been in this town, watching the gates, no one has been as honest and as on the mark on a macro level than Mechanic. On a micro level, he made Anna and the King and Titan A.E. I hate myopia. And I'm not saying that the Fox team isn't still strong without him. But if you took the out-of-work team of Bill Mechanic as your studio head and Chris Pula as your marketing chief and Jeff Blake as your distribution chief (though he may well survive the upcoming putsch at Sony), you could have one hell of a foundation for a new mini-major.

RADIO RADIO: Unfortunately, Bryan Singer couldn't make the show this week, but we are expecting to make it happen next Saturday. Check out the column in Friday to see if we closed the deal.

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Comic-Con is coming to San Diego this next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Friday, Bryan Singer will actually be in San Diego in person. Plus, Chris Carter, Paul Verhoeven and all kinds of cool stuff, including a Saturday panel with Kevin Smith, Harry Knowles, Chris Gore, Den Shewman, Patrick Sauriol and myself on the Web and movies. Should be scary. To find out more, check out the Web site.

BAD AD WATCH: Let's give the QWs and the studios that love them a break today. I'm still in a great mood.

READER OF THE DAY: Simon says: "Being from Australia, I had the (surprising) pleasure of X-Men being released here 36 hours before the US. I'm mostly a fan from the cartoon series, but have begun on the comic about a month ago. Lately, I've been scouring the Web looking for anything on the movie, expectations, reviews of rough edits, and word didn't seem to be that good. Thankfully I get to you guys and read how good it is, although I think it's absolutely fantastic, and I'm not a kid (well, not in body...29!!). Sure, there is talk that character development wasn't all there, but I think that is not entirely true. For starters, there is only so much character development you can fit into a 2 hour movie (if even that long), and it's obvious they wanted a sequel as all the main characters are signed up for one…or is it two sequels. Anyway, I think all the actors did a great job (Hugh Jackman especially), and for once there is a comic book adaptation that Hollywood can be proud of."

And The Baysider writes: "I just saw X-Men and I gotta say, I dug it. I know nothing about X-Men TV or comics or anything, but I'm eager to see a Bryan Singer film and this did not disappoint. The action scenes were sleek and tasteful (are actions scenes ever "tasteful"?), the story was always moving forward, Ian McKellen is given his finest chance to be a scenery-chewer-upper, the characterization was the core of the film and it was driven by smart, funny dialogue--pleasant surprises from summer action fare.

My one complaint: as in virtually all good guy/bad guy movies, the bad guys were far more interesting than the good guys. In this film it is extremely interesting to note that with only the slightest tweaking of the script, the bad/ good roles could easily have been reversed. I personally would have preferred the X-Men's nemeses to be the good guys and have Jean-Luc (I apologize to the man for not knowing his name, but man, I don't), and his ilk be the fly in the buttermilk, as it were.

And when compared to how clumsily the M: I franchise has been built, this seems like genius. X-M 2 is surely on its way and will be a big hit (I noticed an interview with Singer where he admitted that Beast was actually his favorite character, but he was "saving" him), and I'm already interested in seeing it. I still have no interest in the comics or cartoons or TV or whatever it was they were, I'm a Bryan Singer fan first and foremost and as long as he's at the helm, I'm geeked. Also--please bring back Toad, he was the best one!!!!!!"

E ME: X-Mania lives! What do you see for the future of the comic book movie?