Week Of July 24, 2006 - Mon / Wed / Fri

July 24, 2006

Micro. Macro.

When I was down at Comic-Con on Friday, I kept finding myself confronting these two perspectives. After all, what is Comic-Con all about? What has it evolved into? It is the perfect micro event… controllable, definitive, and joyous, all but completely irrelevant in the end.

This is no insult to Comic-Con. Quite the opposite. Comic-Con is the butt about which Hollywood thermometer pushers dream.

Macro picture, studios still have to market all of these movies, just like every film. Comic-Con can't claim to have ever launched a movie. You can have 6000 people screaming and crying over Serenity butgetting past The Geek Opening, $8 Million is still a lot of work. Flip side, Comic-Con has never killed a movie either. If it looks like crap at Comic-Con, it's probably crap. But the heaving masses in San Diego will be there on opening day for most of these films anyway… the very same Geek Opening - $8 Million.

Micro, it's possible to screw up in San Diego.

Macro, you can get a real read on what works with an audience and what doesn't.

The perfect example, in my brief time in Auditorium H, was Sasha Baron Cohen, who entered from the ladies room (didn't work), climbed onto the stage (worked a little, then took too long and stopped being funny), and gave a speech as Borat (sparse laughs). And then they ran a clip from the film of Cohen as Borat and his "producer" in the film, Ken Davitian, angrily wrestling… without a stitch of clothing on. As they tumble out of their room and through a hotel filled with unsuspecting guests and ultimately into a ballroom filmed with mortgage brokers, the laughs rise and rise and rise until it is the funniest sequence you've seen since There's Something About Mary.

I would guess that you will see more of Sasha Baron Cohen turning up on talk shows as himself, selling Borat, than trying to make the character work as a live show character. The movie clips are so funny that Cohen, who is obviously extremely funny, can't match the intensity of produced segments. Just can't. I expect that Fox has learned that lesson.

Micro, Bryan Singer shows up for a Superman Returns victory lap.

Macro, Superman Returns is going to lose money for the studio and Legendary Pictures and Singer added insult to injury, announcing that the Krypton sequence won't be on the DVD because it may be "underwhelming" and taking a passive aggressive piss on the marketing department, even though he had marketing approvals across the board… and used his authority to the despair of the people trying to sell his ill conceived motion picture conceit.

Micro, Jack Black didn't bother to come down to The 'Con, but the clip of The Pick of Destiny that they showed rocked hard, a wild comedy combination of Tommy, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and a little Nacho Libre.

Macro, the image of JB in the tights was money, money, money for Paramount and New Line still has to find that kind of clean selling opportunity for this movie, which needs the trailer of the Fall in order to start the drive for Nacho Libre-like numbers.

Micro, the trades were down in force, covering The 'Con like the Hollywood event it thinks it is… and did a good job making the most they could out of almost no real news at the event.

Micro, "all of Hollywood is still buzzing about Nina Jacobson and Disney."

Macro, anyone at Comic-Con who doesn't earn a living from or doesn't cover the studios would answer the question, "Who is Nina Jacobson?," with the answer, "Is she that cute chick from Final Destination 3? She didn't look very Jewish."

Micro, this event is about like-minded people gathering together and having a convention based not on the requirements of their work, but from the passion of their hearts. This is a place of freedom, of expression, and raw, often socially awkward passions floating free through the convention center, the Gaslamp District, and all across downtown San Diego for four straight days.

Macro, Comic-Con San Diego has become another one of those annual events that has to be put on the schedule, not so much because it changes the future of your product, but because everyone else is there, getting a load of free publicity, most of which is coming long before its really useful. (One notable change this year was not only the ubiquity of the studios, but the lack of big name talent, whose personal publicists seem to have decided have something better to do.) If you don't go and put your best foot forward and your movie doesn't do well with the geeks, you have left one stone unturned.

There was a real sense of whiplash at The 'Con this year. "Everyone" was there, yet there was some sense that the event had "jumped the shark." Less and less, these panels are single movie, must-see events and more and more, they are ShoWest-like opportunities to try to make the B-list stuff look better by putting it next to the hot title.

I have never seen so many L.A. people in San Diego, just rummaging around before, yet the whole thing has gotten so huge that even familiar faces are cloaked in the anonymity of the milling crowds. That may be fun for them. But what does it mean for Comic-Con?

I don't know.

In the classic and often repeated words of P. Bradley Bird, "When everyone's Super... no one will be."

Maybe the studios are so built into the event now that things will normalize and people will become more blasé about that part of the event. It's not unlike the challenge facing Sundance, where the commercial nature of the business built the reputation, but has grown to the point of diminishing returns.

Micro, after a long, hot, and sweaty day, I had enough fun, even after some free drinks, good conversation, and laughs.

Macro, Toronto is six weeks away and there we will see actual movies, have something substantive to talk to all those stars about, and get a real sense of how these films fit into the year ahead at the movies. Bring it on.

E Me.

---

Week Of April 3, 2006 - Life In the Bubble - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 10, 2006 - List Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 17, 2006 - Review Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 24, 2006 - Overlooked Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 1, 2006 - Mystery Week - Tue / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 8, 2006 - How We Watch Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 15, 2006 - Premature Week - Oscar Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 22, 2006 - B-13 Mon / Inconvenient Wed / Fri
Week Of May 29, 2006 - Wed / Fri
Week Of June 5, 2006 - 666 Tue / Iraq Doc Wed / Seattle Fri
Week Of June 12, 2006 - SIFF Mon / SIFF Wed / Fri
Week Of June 19, 2006 - Cinevegas Mon/Deliver Us Wed/Prada Fri
Week Of June 26, 2006 - Pirates Mon / Super Again Wed / Fri
Week Of July 5, 2006 - Wed
Week Of July 12, 2006 - M. Night Mon | You, Me & Wed | Monster House Fri
Week Of July 17, 2006 - 8 A Year Mon / Water Wed / Revamp Fri