June 16, 2003

I hardly know where to begin…

One of the most breathtakingly bizarre cross-promotions ever to hit network television came to a head on Sunday with a 12-minute summer movie package in the halftime of the ultimate NBA final game.  (San Antonio won… congrats.)  Yes, 12 minutes of Joel Siegel and the rundown of the rest of the summer’s films, wrapped up with a music video for The Hulk, whose love/attack/fight/end title/hype song “Set Me Free” is performed by a who’s who of metal. 

Universal has had a deal with the NBA and has run Hulk-themed spots throughout the playoffs.  My guess is that ABC parent company Disney decided to reduce the value of the Universal deal by tying it in to a long, long package.  Of course, the whole thing kicked off, after a Siegel tease, with a full, newly cut 2-minute Pirates of the Caribbean trailer.  “Before we get going,” Mike Tirico read off prompter, “we want to show you the latest release from the master of blockbuster action movies, Jerry Bruckheimer.”  Oy!  Of course, it is moves like this that has turned the early buzz on Pirates right on its head.  I haven’t spoken to anyone in weeks who doesn’t tag Pirates as one of the season’s sure hits. 

Universal also paid their way into a second bite with a Seabiscuit :30.  And ABC’s actual information package took up almost 2:30 of the 12 minutes.  The Hulk “music video” by the way… more footage than anywhere else so far.  There seems little doubt that Universal has turned the corner in a big way with opening weekend just days away.  Every marketing turn seems to be dead on, which has been helped in great part by a bold willingness to give up a lot of Hulk footage in a lot of different formats… kind of the opposite strategy to Bruce Almighty… which will pass $200 million this next week.

SPEAKING OF BOX OFFICE:  Zzzzzzzzzzzz… oh… did something open? 

It’s not real complicated.  1. Harrison Ford playing against type doesn’t sell (See: Sabrina).  Josh Hartnett couldn’t open a cold Coke on a hot day.  2. Rugrats Gone Wild is a direct-to-video title that opened.  Paramount would have loved a $20 million surprise, but they will live with a $25 million domestic total and a massive video/DVD campaign.  And by the way, I haven’t seen a scratch-n-sniff movie since Polyester. 3. $10 million for Dumb & Dumberer… same deal as Rugrats, though there could have been more upside.  The movie is not even Maxim raunchy.  There should have been nudity and really wild stuff and probably and R rating.  Hasn’t anyone at New Line seen the numbers on Jackass: The Movie?

SPEAKING OF JOHN WATERS:  It has occurred to me that there hasn’t been a hugely successful animated musical, in the “people sing for no reason” category, since The Lion King took things into the ‘comedies with an occasional song” direction.  Why?  Well, the truth is that a good one is really, really hard to do.  But the guy they should be chasing now is Marc Shaiman, who just took home the Tony for Hairspray. It would probably best to do a 50s/60s bobby thing that would best fit Shaiman’s light touch.  But he is great with lyricists and one of the most flexible musicians around.  And if you don’t know anything more about him, he did the songs for South Park and the opening numbers for Billy Crystal’s Oscar appearances. 

REST IN PEACE:  Upcomingmovies.com reports that one of those killed in the Fairfax District plane crash of last week was Jessica Kaplan, a 17-year-old who had sold a script to New Line last year for $150,000.  Very sad.  Read a little about Jessica here.

RETURN TO 28 DAYS LATER:  I saw Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later for a second time at the IFP/Los Angeles Film Festival at the outdoor John Ford Amphitheater.  Wow. 

I am almost loath to say how I really feel about this movie, because it feels like one of the true home runs in the history of the horror genre.  The film has far more in common to Boyle’s work in the BBC’s Vacuuming Completely Nude In Paradise than his work in Trainspotting.  It may be the best use of digital photography for a narrative drama to date, because the bottom line is that the work may have cost less to do, but there is never a sense in this film that he is doing anything less than he would do with motion picture cameras. 

The thing is, this zombie movie is not really a zombie movie at all.  It is a movie about rage.  Rage is the name of the infection that takes over.  Man’s tendency to kill other men under “regular” circumstances is mentioned more than once.  And the rather profound, if unanswerable question rings throughout the film… how does one handle an out-of-control world without losing your own humanity? 

The ambiguities of this film are what makes it more than your typical horror film.  Yet it is not tied to a moment in political history like The Day The Earth Stood Still or to mindless, unstoppable violence like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Halloween.  The themes of this film will never age.  Do humans need other humans?  Is there a hierarchy in love?  Is the military more likely to do the right or wrong thing?  Do we lose our humanity by fighting fire with fire or is that the simple nature of humanity?

The only two actors in the film that you are likely to be familiar with are (The Great) Brendan Gleeson and the ever-evolving Christopher Eccleston.  That also adds to the sense of being in the movie and not just being at the movies.  Boyle manages to keep a complex and constantly changing playing field clear.  He manages to help you develop relationships with each character very quickly without reducing them to pure stereotypes. 

In terms of basic filmmaking, Boyle succeeds in the most critical element of a suspense movie, in my opinion.  He gives the audience a chance to do most of the heavy lifting itself.  He twists the clichés, turns in odd directions and inspires characters to surprise.  Yet, you can anticipate both horror and laughter and the expectation makes it all the more exciting when it happens. 

GREAT DOC:  I saw my first great distributorless film at the IFP/LAFF on Sunday.  I’ll write more about it later.  But it was a smooth and warm doc called My Life With Count Dracula, about Dr. Don Reed, the guy who started The Count Dracula Society and the Golden Saturn Awards.  I’m sticking it in here because it plays again on Tuesday at 7pm at the Sunset 5 and you should catch it if you can.

Also, this doc was preceded by my favorite short in recent memory, Nosferatu Tango.  The animated film, which combines many forms of animation is the most compelling original piece of animated filmmaking I’ve seen in a while.  I love The Animatrix and this was right up there in vision.  The filmmaker is named Zoltan Horvath and he lives in Geneva, Switzerland.  An incredible talent. 

READER OF THE DAY:  DELUGE writes:  “I think IMAX movies really DO totally brainwash you in certain films. I mean,

I saw Star Wars: Episode II on IMAX and EVERY SINGLE complaint I had about the film (90% of which stemmed from the horrid dialogue and clunky story) upon seeing it on a "normal" sized screen vanished. You're assertion that press screenings should be held in IMAX format would GUARANTEE good reviews.

I think it's the sheer spectacle of seeing a big budget, effects laden film on such a HUGE freaking screen that makes you forget issues with story. Star Wars: Episode II was just plain AWESOMEin IMAX and I was only "luke" warm on it at first. I completely forgave the crappy dialogue and bad exposition though because when the action is that ENORMOUS, there's no time to think.

I did ”like” Matrix: Reloaded but I bet the issues I have with it would be washed away by 5 stories of movie screen!”

E ME:  How much would you say that publicity effects you , as balanced with pure advertising?