Friday, 29 September 2000

WEEKEND PREVIEW

I'm in Cincinnati, Ohio, stuck between Boca Raton and Montreal...interesting airport. I'm beginning to think I should write a book, but then I think about the people who are actually out there more than 200 days a year and I shudder at the thought.

The TNT retreat at The Boca Raton Resort & Beach Club has been going along in surprising and interesting ways. Before long, there will more changes at roughcut.com that reflect the new branding of TNT as it will develop over the next 9 months. Don't worry...the changes will be subtle and I suspect that the majority of you will be really happy with them. As much as anything else, the result should be expansive rather than reductive.

In any case, that's why the column is a bit late today. (At least, I think it is...I'm sending it in rather late on Thursday night. Similarly, Box Office Extra is probably a bit tardy as well...my apologies. But do click here to see it when it finally does arrive.

I'm on my way to Montreal to the set of Driven, the new Stallone race car movie directed by Renny Harlin. I finally got around to reading the press materials that Warner Bros. sent and besides Sly, the movie also stars Burt Reynolds, Gina Gershon, Stacy Edwards, Estella Warren and Brent Briscoe. So, I hope that they are all around for chats as well. More on the visit in the weekend column.

Meanwhile, Remember The Titans and Beautiful are opening wide and I've managed to see neither. On the flip side, Girlfight and Best in Show are both opening in a limited number of theaters...you should see both if you have any inclination towards them. Also opening in limited release is Barenaked in America, a film directed by Jason Priestly and Broken Hearts Club, a gay romantic comedy. And on just one screen each, Anna Devere Smith in Twilight: Los Angeles...a great stagework by the actress/writer/performance artist and titles unknown to me, Cleopatra's Second Husband, The Prince of Air and Running on the Sun.

THE GOOD: I am alive...that's about all I can think of at the moment.

THE BAD: I screwed up on Open Your Eyes' domestic release date. I saw the film at ShoWest, but it was, indeed, in 1999 and not in 2000. My apologies to Variety, even though they were still off by a year in their reportage. And thanks to the many, many, many who write in on this. I am thrilled to know that you are paying attention to both me and to a movie that had as low a profile as this one.

THE UGLY: It seems that Congress and the movie industry are trying to cultivate "The Ugly" as their permanent home on The Hot Button. The latest lamest comes from Wednesday's WAH! (War On Hollywood!) testimonial, which drew banner headlines about the studios admitting to marketing some movies to people under 17. In USA Today's coverage, Stacey Snider admitted that Universal marketed Erin Brockovich and Boyz 'N the Hood to teens too young to see the R-rated films without parents. Too bad that Boyz was a Sony release. And now, it's a freakin' field day out here.

Okay, pop quiz! Who said what?

A) "I'm sending a signal across the bow."
B) "Putting it as bluntly as I can, they have not done enough."
C) (referring to the studio chiefs) "They will lose in the court of public opinion...We'll make them famous."

1) Republican John McCain
2) Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson
3) Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee Joe Lieberman

The answers are below, but there aren't any real answers here, just pathetic stabs at manipulating the public that is the true force behind the lost childhood of American kids. On page 14A of Thirsday's USA Today, the Andy Seiler story on the studios offering even more self-censorship (I'll get to them) is right next to the headline "HIV Report: Educate Kids About Sex." The report was prepared by a think tank at the behest of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coincidentally, I also heard a report on NPR the other day that said that the vast majority of parents of young teens want more sex education for their kids, including frank discussions on AIDS, birth control and homosexuality. But make sure that they wait to see those arbitrarily rated movies out there on cable TV where their parents who have easy access to V-chip technology can't be bothered to restrict their kids' viewing. And let's make sure that we blame the marketing instead of the theater owners who are the ones who have allowed teen theater jumping to become the standard because they aren't as glamorous a target and because they are all in or near Chapter 11 and can't afford to expand their staffs to deal with a real and effective crackdown at the only level where they can do anything, at the movies.

Of course, none of this speaks to the real problem, which is that this is all about censorship. In the freedom of filmic expression, the only thing that is "too far" is bad filmmaking. But you can't legislate -- nor has anyone suggested legislating against -- bad filmmaking. So you get this arbitrary system imposed by the MPAA, which is corrupt and convoluted and which Jack Valenti has claimed -- I think with some intended truthfulness -- that the MPAA ratings are intended as a guide, not as a law. Yet, here you have the government of the United States bringing the hammer down on companies based exclusively on this unofficial, unchangeable group in the valley, whose rulings, given the force of all, are without any question, constitutionally unenforceable. Yet this is the game of cat and mouse that's being played.

And the three companies that have gone above and beyond the proposed 12-rule "solution" that McCain/ Lieberman & Co. have already rejected as too little too late, are not exactly being straight either. Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. all have motivations that have NOTHING to do with R-rated marketing in trying to stay above the fray. Disney is acting as they did in China, willing to sacrifice their freedom of content to gain a superior negotiating position, especially as they try to knock down the Time-Warner/AOL merger. In reflection, Warner Bros. needs help in Congress to make sure that the merger -- which would clearly create a nightmarish need to de-integrate the two companies which are already well into their integration process -- gets done as soon as possible. And Rupert Murdoch's Fox actually does have some real issues with edgier product, however, Murdoch's efforts to buy DirectTV and to take an even bigger position in the worldwide satellite-based content delivery business, also will need Congressional supporters. The others (Sony, Viacom, MGM, DreamWorks and Vivendi/Universal) are all in eternal need of governmental supporters, but none are in the current high wire ballets of the Coincidental Three.

I'm sick of all this already...and it's just beginning. And we haven't really seen the ugly head of self-censorship reared yet. It's coming. It's coming in a big way. And it's time for Hollywood to stand up and be counted with at least the same vigor they have used to fight for Gore/Liberman ticket. But, alas, we won't see much of that...the Presidential election is too close and Hollywood will surely choose to shut up until there is a Democrat in office...who they hope will be more rational (in Hollywood's eyes... you don't need to write in to defend the right wing..."The Right Wing, new this fall on TNT!") on a lot of issues. And then, we can all watch the CG-enhanced version of Erin Brockovich, where Julia Roberts' top are de-cleaved and her language is cleaned up and people can proudly spend careers trying to kill what they choose not to understand.

A2, B3, C1...all of this makes me sick.

RADIO RADIO: Me & George...actually in the KABC-790 a.m. studios (also on kabc.com) on Saturday at 11a.m. PST.

READER OF THE DAY: The Big G sent this tidbit in: "Well, the over-reaction to the MPAA/Congress hullabaloo is already starting. When you go to the newly-opened www.BillyElliot.com, you get a massive (on my PC anyway) R Rating warning. You've got a well-designed poster image of Billy and the girls in the background, but it's obscured by this big black box. Sure, the window is easily closed, but it mars the visual presentation of the site at first sight... though, looking at the way ads are often printed in European magazines, this might just be where we're headed."

And Venture Capitalist makes mincemeat of the Michelle Williams press release: "Actually, she did a British accent for about 10 seconds in Dick when she was pretending to be a secretary when they called Woodward and Bernstein."

E ME: A HA!!!! Even more so, since I now know that my screw-ups get more mail than anything I could write about...not that I'm complaining. To paraphrase Mr. Crowe, you got me at "Hello, you idiot, why did you screw up the release date? Have a great weekend...tell me about the new movies.