January 17, 2003

It’s one of those national holidays that’s only kind of a national holiday…

For a moment, it seemed like there would be an early national holiday when I got word that there was going to be a junket for The Matrix Reloaded this week.  And indeed, there was.  Keanu, Larry, Carrie-Anne, Jada and Joel were all on hand at The Avalon this Tuesday when about 30 journalists from a half-dozen countries came to town for a sit down.  But, amazingly, the journos weren’t even shown the 20-minute reel that caused Newsweek Magazine’s Devin Gordon to wet himself earlier this month.  Worse, none of the talent would discuss any details about the film.  But Jada did say that Will saw the 20 minute reel and admitted that he was wrong to have passed on the project back when he was offered it.  In fact, she described him as “rolling on the floor” when he saw the clips. 

There is a national holiday in Park City as the suckers come to town to spend $80 a meal pre-paid on haute cuisine (before drinks) and they show a few movies.  Sundance is underway.  Most of the coverage you are used to in this column will be seen at Movie City News, as Ray Pride and others strut their stuff through the snow drifts.

Thursday was a national holiday for the six films that got Best Picture nominations from the Producers Guild of America – Adaptation, Chicago, Gangs of New York, Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Road to Perdition.  A couple of notes on the nods.  1. Adaptation is the only film that stands a real chance of topping out under $50 million domestic, which must mean that PGA voters liked it, they really, really liked it.  2. If the Oscars were to end up nominating Chicago, Gangs, Rings and Hours, there would only be one film that could end up winning without putting Harvey Weinstein on stage.  Surreal.

Speaking of Miramax, have you noticed that they are trotting out the long-dead Tadpole?  The Supporting Actress category, in which Miramax’s own CZ Jones seems a mortal lock to take the gold, is lame in slots 4 & 5 nonetheless.  So why not give Bebe Neuwirth another shot as a contender?  And oh the press they could make of the Broadway Velma and the movie Velma both being up for Oscar nods.

Speaking of another Miramax film, the ongoing discussion over the sound in the final battle sequence in Gangs of New York has gotten a little tense.  A few people wrote in to point out that making fun of the mortar & a monkey claim isn’t fair and that sound effects are made of all kinds of noises.  Fair enough.  But listen to the effect and then tell me that it doesn’t sound like an airplane.

Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese is getting a Lifetime Achievement Award from the DGA, which could play out one of two ways.  It could end up being the consolation prize.  Or it could be the extra thumb on the scale that puts Scorsese into the Best Director race at the Oscars.  Things will be clearer when we find out whether Lifetime Achiever Scorsese is nominated by the group for his 2001-2002 achievement.

Interesting that HBO will team with Brian Grazer to do a feature documentary about the making of Deep Throat.  Auditions start on Tues… oh… documentary… well, recreations… uh…

WEEKEND PREVIEW:  It’s a very masculine weekend as we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy.   You have a kangaroo who doesn’t actually talk, a cop who isn’t actually a cop and a marketing effort that doesn’t seem to want anyone to know that Selma Blair is in the movie. 

You know that the holidays are over when five, count `em, five films are losing 5000 screens or more apiece.  The biggest drop in count is for The Hot Chick, which coughs up 935 screens.  The rest, in order, are Maid in Manhattan, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Wild Thornberrys and Two Weeks Notice.  Also, you have Pinocchio losing 419 screens… which isn’t overwhelming until you realize that it leaves the film with just 40 playdates. 

Of the three new films, I have only seen Kangaroo Jack, which is better than expected and as soft and bloated as Estella Warren’s lips.  The big surprise to me is that I’m actually curious about seeing A Guy Thing.  Can’t explain it.  Well, I guess I can… Julia Stiles having fun is a very appealing idea.  In fact, seeing her hosting a showing of 10 Things I Hate About You on USA, it also occurred to me that the real reason why Heath Ledger’s career is not as hot as expected is that he hasn’t really had fun in a movie since that one.  Even in A Knight’s Tale, he played straight man to everyone, especially Paul Bettany.  Of course, Bettany gets Jennifer Connelly and Heath gets to be Billy Bob’s son. 

WEEKEND GUESSTIMATES

1. National Security - 2729 venues – new - $17.7 million
2. A Guy Thing - 2515 venues – new - $14.1 million
3. Kangaroo Jack – 2818 venues – new - $12.3 million
4. Catch Me If You Can - 3050 venues – off 35 percent  - $9.5 million
5. The Two Towers  - 3110 venues – off 40 percent  - $8.9 million
6. Just Married - 2769 venues – off 55 percent  - $7.9 million
7. Chicago – 557 venues - n/a - $5.1 million
8. About Schmidt – 946 venues - off 30 percent – $4.5 million
9. Two Weeks Notice - 2240 venues – off 43 percent  - $3.9 million
10. The Hours – 402 venues – n/a - $3.8 million

READER OF THE DAY:  NOY BRYAN writes:  “In a way you are right about there should be a way to make a film for $80 mil, but I think Sonnenfeld's position is that this is a tentpole franchise for Paramount similar to Potter and LOTR (something they no longer have given Trek is in the tank) and the effects budget alone for something like this is gonna be $40-50 mil, similar to the effects budget for both Potter films each. So with Carrey's pay you are talking $30-40 mil for everything else. To me he is justified given what the other studios have spent for similar "event" films. But then we are talking Paramount...

Besides, isn't DreamWorks in on this as well? And don't Sonnenfeld and Laurie Parkes HATE each other? The budget just might have been an excuse to bail.”

NOT THE FORMER YANKEE writes:  “The film "Heaven" finally made it to my city.  I thought the turnout would be sparse, but there was a pretty good crowd for the matinee I went to.

The question is:  Since this is a Miramax film, why didn't Cate Blanchette's performance get any kind of push for award nominations.  She gave a very good performance, and I think she deserved as much attention as the other Great Ladies of Acting whose names we've seen over the last couple of months.”

SCRUMPDILLYICIOUS writes:  “What I want to know is why THE MAJESTIC got pilloried for lifting Capra chapter and verse, but FAR FROM HEAVEN is getting lauded for lifting Sirk chapter and verse. (I say this only knowing THE MAJESTIC by reputation, to be sure.) Perhaps Darabont was two years too early, or didn't have a semiotics degree?”

And THE LUNG coughed this up:  “Saw Catch Me if You Can a few days ago.  It's pretty good, but strangely enough, it shares the same weakness as the last two Spielberg movies - it goes on too long, past the point where it should logically end.  All three films, AI, Minority Report, and now CMIYC have a natural ending which resolves everything that needs to be resolved.  But then, all of them get a tacked-on 10 minute epilogue which ties everything in a neat little bow to supply a "happy ending".  I don't know why a storyteller of Spielberg's genius could continue to make the same mistake, time after time.  If you think about it, even Schindler's List had that completely unnecessary speech by Neeson at the end when he agonizes over "This ring!  How many lives could I have saved with this ring! I didn't do enough!"  For one thing, that scene was transparently artificial and stagey.  For another, the movie would have been that much more powerful if Schindler had remained something of an enigma.  (As he was in life, actually.)  But Spielberg simply can't leave anything even slightly ambiguous.

It's interesting to contrast Spielberg with Kubrick.  As you may know, A Clockwork Orange (the British edition of the book) ends with an epilogue chapter showing Alex a few years in the future, after he has been deprogrammed.  He starts finding being a juvenile delinquent to be limiting and pointless, and he starts becoming a law-abiding guy of his own accord.  Kubrick wisely chose not to film this chapter, so that Alex's final disposition would be left in doubt.  In fact, no hint is given in the movie that Alex will ever be anything but a criminal.  I would bet my life, however, that if Spielberg had been the one to adapt Clockwork Orange, he would have filmed that final chapter to show that "all is well, and everyone lived happily ever after."

E Me:  Will any of you spend money on new movies this weekend?