Continued ...
25 May 2001

THE GOOD:  When I was a teen, the cool way to spend the summer was the teen tour… traveling with 30 or 40 other kids by bus through the U.S. or Europe or wherever.  Not exactly Girls Gone Wild, but still, a lot of fun.  But now, I’ve found something that kicks the heck out of that old summer thing.  There is a non-profit organization called the Young Filmmakers Academy, started by Shannon Gardner in 1998, dedicated to giving kids an opportunity to learn about being part of the creative experience of filmmaking.  And this summer, they have seven workshops, including three in Europe (one for adults, even) that seem like sensational opportunities for kids who have a real interest in starting a life in film.  Interested?  Find out more at www.youngfilmmakers.org.

THE BAD:  The L.A Times’ Patrick Goldstein broke the story on Friday that Sony had paid theater owners to insure that the trailer for The Animal played with The Mummy Returns by some exhibition circuits.  As an individual event, no big deal.  Sony got something they wanted and were willing to pay for it.  But as DreamWorks' Terry Press went on record saying, this could be the beginning of something ugly.  Trailers are the best marketing tool that studios have in selling their films.  They speak to a targeted audience, it’s an uninterrupted two-minute sell and you can come pretty close to closing the sale right there.  And, best of all, the distribution of the ads is pretty close to free.  But not anymore… maybe.  Generally, theater owners limit their trailer count to four before each film.  In this case, Sony had already taken a slot for Final Fantasy, Universal had the slot right before the film, as is the tradition and in normal situations, two other studios might get the other two slots.  But The Animal needed all the help it could get.  So, Sony bought a slot for a second film.  But if $100,000 is there to help push The Animal to The Mummy Returns crowd, how much would a Pearl Harbor slot be this weekend to launch, say, Vanilla Sky or The Majestic?  And what slot do you want your movie in?  The first, while people are still settling in?  The second slot?  The third?  How much?  So many possible ways for the exhibitors to get back at the studios!!!  (Read Patrick’s story here.)

THE UGLY:  Landmark Theaters was happily plucked out of bankruptcy – well, in the process of – by former Landmark execs Paul Richardson and Bert Manzari.  Good news, especially for art film lovers.  But here’s The Ugly – it seems that just before this deal was done, one Landmark landlord was on the verge of kicking Landmark out onto the Chicago streets.  But, as the story goes, the landlord didn’t realize that Landmark wouldn’t just leave their theaters intact for the next possible tenant.  Oops.  Landmark threatened to pull everything out.  The landlord backed off.   The lease negotiations continue. 

BOX OFFICE EXTRA:  You can find it here.

BIG LIST O’ QUOTES:  I think we’re going to go bi-weekly on this list.  In the meantime, Voices of Hollywood has finally made the list after weeks of existence.  Look for a pull quote on the new Moulin Rouge ads.  And I didn’t even get to sit down with Baz and Nicole.

NOT BAD AD WATCH:  Speaking of my pull quote, it is one of nine from online outlets.   Very interesting.  The tag line is ”Get Online For Moulin Rouge… The Critics Already Have!”  Of course, they cheat a little, adding Newsweek.com and Time.com, but hey… it’s good for the web. 

READER OF THE DAY:  Dear Jurisprudence writes:  “The idea of re-making Helter Skelter, as a theatrical feature, is truly perverse.  From day one, this was clearly TV movie material and TV movie  material only.  The only reason to make a movie out of Manson's story is to exploit and cash in on the brutality of the Manson gang's murders.  They're not going to make a meaningful, intelligent film because no person capable of such a film would ever get involved with this.  Helter Skelter isn't Oliver Twist.  This is real life and repeatedly commodifying it in this way seems consistent with Hollywood's commodification of the Holocaust, slavery, etc. 

Are they planning a big screen OJ Simpson movie yet?  They can get Anthony Hopkins to play OJ and, after killing his wife, he can eat her with Clarice.  If they do go ahead with the Manson movie they should, for the sake of consistency (in their perversity), hire Roman Polanski to direct.  Hell, they might as well enlist the unimprisoned members of the Manson gang to play supporting roles (ie. lawyers, judges, themselves, etc.).  I'm almost getting enthusiastic about this.”

Not Pa sends this thought about yesterday’s ROTD:  “Let's face it, how did a piece of crap like Gone in 60 Seconds actually got to 100 million dollars in the box office? I'm currently in High School and I can tell you plenty of guys here often bring their latest issue of "Import Tuner" to school to share with their classmates or like any guys would, check out the girls. Recently, free passes to the test screening of The Fast and the Furious were given to students taking auto shop. And the word just spread quickly and everyone I know who has their hands on these tickets were actually looking forward to it not because of the cast, not because of the director(thank god for that), but because of the cars that appeared in the trailer. While I'm 16 and thinks that The Fast and the Furious looks like a straight-to-video movie, there are other among my peers who will actually shell out 9 bucks just to see that cars. For me, if I want to see a good car chase, I'd take out my Ronin laserdisc. But believe me, The Fast and the Furious WILL be a success, and Gone in 60 Seconds was a success because of the 15-25 teen market. Never underestimate the power of a teen, David, especially ones who likes cars.”

E ME:  Bombs away!!!