WELLS-ING UP:  When I got back from Miami, there was a film sitting around my apartment that one of my festival filmmakers had sent.  I idiotically forgot to watch it.  And then, there was a story in The New York Observer about Julian Schnabel that rang a bell so I pulled the tape out of the mothballs, found Jeff Wells – who had introduced me to filmmaker Vikram Jayanti in the first place – and took a look.  We saw a terrific movie about a moment in history with an artist who I appreciated as a filmmaker first and as an artist, almost not at all.  Anyway, I will write more on Vikram’s film, Julian Schnabel Looks At Hell, later this week.  But you may want top check out Jeff Wells’ Reel.com column to read some of the reporting he did on the movie.  You see, it seems that Julian wants bury the movie.  Which is pretty silly, considering that it is all but a love letter to him and his work.  In fact, it has gotten so contentious that Vikram didn’t really want Jeff or I to write about the film at all.  The BBC paid for the film and it is up to them to figure out the legal issues.  But now the cat is out of the bag.  And the question must be answered: Why would an artist try to stop another artist from displaying their work?

OVERCOVER BROTHER:  At what moment does a studio suddenly figure out their movie and how to advertise it?  As anyone who’s been reading the column lately knows, I am an Undercover Brother fan.  But the ad campaign didn’t quite get the real tone of the gags in early TV spots.  And then, in the third quarter of the Lakers/Kings game, there was the first great Undercover Brother spot, one that finally gave potential audience members a taste of the smart wordplay of the film.  Of course, it is unfair to say that Universal didn’t know how to sell the movie.  They have been pushing three very specific gags from the film.  And it is a mark of the overall quality of the comedy that the “women showering together” gag is not nearly as strong in the spots as it plays out in the movie itself.  Now if I can only get a spot where Chi McBride says, “I’m getting to old for this BLEEP,” and then looks over his shoulder at the photo of Danny Glover.  Or the individual character spots, a la Armageddon, that feature Smart Brother or Conspiracy Brother or Sistah Girl.  Or even better… The Man!

LUCAS PERSPECTIVE:  Imagine my surprise when it turned out that Michael Sragow, once of Salon and now of the Baltimore Sun (my original hometown paper), has not just one, but two pieces out there, connecting with George Lucas Star Wars’ creative co-workers.  Neither seems to be a toady.  And both seem to support the view that has been supported in this column for the last few weeks… you may not like what Lucas is doing in Phantom Menace or Clones, but he is doing what he has done in all five Star Wars movies to date… bringing his personal, idiosyncratic, perhaps emotionally immature vision to the series from behind the camera.

Of course, there is also material in these interviews for the Lucas bashers out there.  But the arguments, as so many do, seem to shift to fit the moment.  If you want to discuss specific moments, great or painful, in the series, please do.   If you want to discuss the overall story and tone in each film, please do.  But don’t pick all the negatives and attribute them to Lucas and all the positives and attribute them to anyone but Lucas.  That’s simply unfair and surely inaccurate.

Sragow’s excellent stories/interviews are with Irwin Kershner and Lawrence Kasden.  And will the first person who wants to apologize to Lucas for claiming that he was so internalized that he refused to consider any collaborators on Clones or who want to give Leigh Brackett any credit for Empire please buy me some skates, because I know that hell will have to have frozen over for any of you to admit that you were ever wrong about anything.

ON THE FLIP SIDE:  Star Wars obsessives have gone out of control, as evidenced by this story from the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Steven Rea.  Jeff Wells has been kind enough to share some of his mail born out of our exchange of last week and I would have to say that killing, maiming and/or penetrating Wells or his family with inanimate objects is excessive.  (That would be humor by understatement, for those of you who are literal-minded… God, how do you put up with me if you are literal-minded?)  

This column defends the right of anyone to hate any movie.  Movie.  Even if you want to ignorantly misunderstand Eyes Wide Shut or Fight Club or Kundun, we all have our own tastes and in the case of those movies, interest in looking at film at different depths.  (Which is not to say that you aren’t deep if you don’t love those films, but each demands more than surface examination to be fully appreciated and not everyone wants to dig for their meaning… and those who do dig may still hate them.) 

What this column cannot accept is the assumption by people who really don’t know the players, or have first or even unbiased second hand knowledge about the production, that they know filmmakers’ intentions or motivations.  Worse are those who twist comments.  Beware people who quote Kershner quoting Lucas as saying, "I'd rather be a toy maker," and claim that it means that all Lucas wants to do is to sell action figures.  Context is key.  Lucas prefaces that comment by saying, “A director sounds like somebody who runs a business.”  Judge the movie.  Take responsibility for your opinions.  Get some perspective.

THE RACE TO EXPLOIT RACE:  Patrick Goldstein’s L.A. Times column started as a sign that the L.A. Times was ready to push a little harder in their coverage of the industry.  And then, it seemed like they tightened up a bit and the column got a little more feature-y.  (Please note: Patrick has expressed that he does not feel that he was ever restrained.  I believe that he feels that way, but I am only judging by the column, not the man.)  In the last two weeks, Patrick seems to have taken off the restraints… to mixed results.  Last week, I took Patrick to task for his personal attack on George Lucas.  This week, he takes a rather fresh and smart idea and overreaches to the point that he all but destroys his initial idea. 

The column is entitled “Action Heroes for a Changing America” and focuses on two budding action stars, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vin Diesel, who are both racially mixed.  The idea that America is finally ready to accept people of color as action heroes is a great foundation for a story. 

The big problem is that Goldstein tries to turn this into a trend piece by misapplying details and by getting quotes from the usual suspects, who are personally invested in suggesting that race can be a box office positive after Hollywood has unfairly and inaccurately (and idiotically) taken the position that race is an inherent box office negative.  He also manages to get through the piece without any voice of disagreement.

Hollywood is a business of relationships.  Absolutely.  Racism and sexism continues internally for that reason.  But in terms of movie stars, there is only one color.  Green.  Vin Diesel is already being grossly overpaid because Hollywood thinks he may be the next big action star.  I hope he succeeds.  I hope the movies are good.  But with due respect, it has nothing to do with him being beige.  It has to do with that voice, that head, that body and that attitude.  If bias is an issue in regards to Diesel, it is sex bias.  Diesel is being paid two and three times what Reese Witherspoon is being paid and he has never opened a movie and she carried a $100 million movie completely by herself. 

Goldstein seems to insist that Universal made a mistake by focusing their marketing efforts on the actual star of The Fast & The Furious and not Diesel.  But the premise is false.  One, the movie opened based on the style and premise of the movie, not any particular actor.  Second, Diesel, as the film’s spice, had all the good lines in the trailer and ad campaign.

And in the end, when Diesel priced himself out of The Fast & The Furious 2, Universal was willing to move forward without him and with the pasty white guy.  Will they find another strong personality to bring edge to the film?  Absolutely.  Will he be mixed race, black or white?  Who knows?  It won’t be another bland white kid, but it sure could be James Franco, coming off of Spider-Man and God knows, they would love to get a Colin Farrell, if they could afford him (also way overpaid considering what he hasn’t done, not mater how good an actor he is).

As for The Rock and The Scorpion King… 1) a brilliant marketing move by Universal, setting up a spin-off in a sure smash sequel and 2) The Rock was a major American star of action hero proportions before ever making a movie.  As popular as Hulk Hogan was, he was an aging, balding dude when he went Hollywood.  Howie Long was really just a football player with a couple supporting roles under his belt.  “The Rock” was so big that he sold millions of books… books that were made up primarily of words!!!  He was Arnold with his “I’ll be back”-style tag – the eyebrow raise – already in place before a frame of film was shot. 

When the next hot action hero is white, will it make all of this moot?  Of course not.  People pay to see movie stars, not white stars or black stars.  Eddie Murphy’s first two movies were with white co-stars.  He rose above them all.  Not because America was in the mood for a black comic hero, but because America is always ready to accept a great comedian… at least in the last decade.   Jim Carrey didn’t change the trend white and Martin Lawrence didn’t make it black again and Tom Green…. ewwww, Tom Green!

Patrick uses a horribly misapplied stat in suggesting that the foreign market hasn’t evolved at the speed that America has.  (HAH! on the face of that.)  He compares domestic and international grosses for Jurassic Park 3 and Rush Hour 2, suggesting that race is the defining issue for Jurassic doing less than Jackie/Chris in America and more overseas.  But anyone in the business will tell you that comedy is the American movie export that travels most poorly and that action travels best.  Ironically, the overseas box office for The Fast & The Furious was less than a third of what it was here… is that Vin Diesel’s fault?  (It is, however, yet another reason to wonder why they are paying him so much money.)  Goldstein touts The Scorpion King’s Asian grosses, but the movie still hasn’t done as much overseas as it did here.  How did Universal make Asia work?  They promoted “The Rock.”  Race is not the issue.  Stardom is.

And what of a not-so-new generation of stars making interesting ethnic moves?  Jennifer Lopez is out there right now being stalked by the oh-so-white Billy Campbell in Enough.  One of the truly ballsy moves by a studio in recent years has Michael Clarke Duncan playing The Kingpin in the movie of the comic book, Daredevil… that character was always white.  Wilson Fisk.  Great.  He is the right guy, physically, to play the role.  So they made the call.  I just hope he can get regal enough to pull off wearing a cravat.   And don’t forget Wesley Snipes’ success as Blade. 

Again, I think it was a great idea on Patrick’s part… what happened, if anything, that “suddenly” made America ready for brown movie stars?  Has a wall come down?  Is there a trend?

But don’t tell me that people are buying movie tickets because of the color of these two stars.  It’s insulting to me, to the stars, and to the films.   And let’s not forget the race issue brought up by the two Oscar wins earlier this year, by Denzel for playing a police thug and by Halle as a poverty-struck woman surrounded by racists… can black actors be awarded for playing character of stature?  Don’t forget that Diesel rose to fame by playing a serial killer (Pitch Black) and an somewhat redeemed car thief (TF&TF) and that The Rock is a chiseled body with a hard-swinging sword, not exactly an intellectual. 

Let’s take a hard look at the Hispanic market, which has regularly rejected any effort to sell them Spanish-language film.  Let’s take a hard look at selling a movie like Undercover Brother… does Marc Shumger find that tricky or is it just another movie?  One of the best quotes in Goldstein’s piece is from an MTV exec who says, “Now the studios are all saying, ‘How can we find more black actors?’ “  That’s a whole column right there.  What kinds of roles? Leads or supporting characters?  And is this really a youth phenomenon for films as cheap as the ones MTV makes or will a Vin Diesel soon be offered a movie like The Sum of All Fears?

SOLD AMERICAN!:  You know, I thought that Bowling for Columbine had been picked up, but I couldn’t find any evidence of the sale… until the e-mail started coming in yesterday.  United Artists, which released one of the year’s best specialty films of 2001, the Oscar-winning No Man’s Land, will be looking to score with Columbine in the fall.  But, oddly enough, Michael Moore is still afraid of corporate interference.  Read his note on the whole Cannes experience by clicking here.

READER OF THE DAY:  The Lone Assassin Believer writes:  “You asked what I saw this weekend - I'd have to say I hit the two extreme points of the movie going spectrum.  On Friday night my hubby and I saw Insomnia - very good pic – great performances - except that I have to confess, whenever I see Al Pacino performing, I never quite get involved with his character - he is always Al Pacino to me.  Does that make sense?  Don't get me wrong - I think he is a fantastic actor, but his style is so overwhelming that I can't see anything but him.  I guess I can't see the forest but for the trees....  But I digress - Insomnia's story was well presented and compelling.  It really makes you think about crimes vs. accidents and intentions vs. happenstance. Kudos.

On Saturday night I visited the other end of the spectrum by purchasing a ticket to that piece of crap called Star Wars - Attack of the Clones.  It is hard to say where Lucas went wrong - it was bad on SO many levels.  Do you blame the poor acting on the pathetic script or on Lucas's inability to direct?  Or did his preoccupation with CG and setting creation cause him to drop the ball on the script and the human players?  Not sure if we'll ever know the answer - suffice it to say that it was just excruciating to watch.

I really wanted to discount Jeff Wells assertion that Lucas was out of touch, but after seeing that celluloid excrement, I can't help but agree with him - Lucas needs to be told that his emperor has no clothes.

EME:  You know the drill.