Selling Your Soul

As if one needed another reason not to vote for Hilary in 2008, Variety Managing Editor Ted Johnson reports on the latest campaigning in Hollywood. For more check out his blog, Wilshire and Washington.

Hillary Goes for Young Hollywood

There were women in bikinis. Women in lingerie. There were women everywhere in
party scenes from Sunday's "Entourage" at Brett Ratner's Beverly Hills home,
which the director allowed for use as part of his cameo on the HBO series.
So that certainly gives you a sense of what an unlikely a place it will be
for a Hillary Clinton fund-raiser next Wednesday. Although the Ratner event is
aimed at young Hollywood, organizers assure that the vibe will be quite a bit
more staid with Clinton's visit. But the $250-per-person event reflects the new
efforts that presidential campaigns are taking as they search for new campaign
dollars.
As the year goes on, it becomes harder and harder to find untapped
donors, particularily since so many people have maxed out. They cannot give
more. So like Barack Obama, Clinton is turning to cheaper and hipper events.

Now I realize that the scene described in the lead is from Entourage, not Hilary's event, but still...come on! Everyone knows who Bret Ratner is and what kind of party he hosts. Hilary could have had a party at any number of hip places that aren't a mini-version of the Playboy mansion. Still, she's willing to have it there. A person who claims to be the friend of women who endorses, heck, embraces raunch culture's use of women as mere objects for sexual gratification is no friend of women.

Call me old fashion or pietistic, I don't care, 'cause I know I'm not motivated by either of these things. I care about our society's tendency to comoditize sex and women are in the cross-fire...heck, guys like Bret are aiming the gun.

Sitting down, Tim?

It's official, there's one movie between now and the release of Harry Potter 5 I want to see, and the trailer's right here.

Oh, wait. I want to see Knocked Up, too...but not as much as this one.

Ringing Endorsements

There are some great review excerpts for Pirates 3 over at Metacritic.

My favorite so far is from the Village Voice:

Long before the third, fourth, or fifth climax in this endless, obligatory summer diversion, I slunk into my seat in a passive, inattentive stupor, fully submitting to the fact that I hadn't the slightest idea what the hell was going on.

Though, this one from ReelViews is probably the most telling:

The last 60 minutes offer adventure as rousing as anything provided in either of the previous installments. Unfortunately, that doesn't account for the other 108 minutes of this gorged, self-indulgent, and uneven production.

Jerry Bruckheimer's amazing. He must have gotten Disney to bankroll this thing (probably easily $225M) and been given final cut, even though the long film drives up the costs and makes it harder to get as many showings in a weekend. If this movie was 90-110 mins instead of 170, I might even go. For example, if Transformers is short, fast-pace, and people say the effects make it watchable, I'd be willing to go. No way you can get me to spend three hours at Pirates, even though it's probably the better of the two movies.

If Disney made a financial mistake with these Pirate movies, allowing Bruckheimer to make them long was it.

Lost it

Instead of redeeming an OK season, last night's episode unfortunately confirmed that the producers have taken the show into untenable waters. The whole show played like the season itself. It was a slow start, but it started picking up at the end with some really good (although predictable) stuff. Then, it had a surprise which was a big let down. It certainly wasn't the Polly surprise ending from last season.

The show is now projecting itself into uncharted waters. I think it's pretty safe to say that last night's show will kill much of their already dwindled audience. The producers better hope that their new contract doesn't have an out clause for ABC, otherwise, as ratings drop even more ABC will want out to cut their loses.

Oh, well. I'll watch the season opening to see where it's going. But unless it's incredible, I'm not going to rearrange my life around the show any more.

George W. Bush's new rap video

I don't think it gets any better than this. I may not agree with him on his views but at least he's got soul!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kFZF9oQkpFw&mode=related&search=

Watchman and the Loss of Hope

Was reading the latest casting update on Zack Snyder's upcoming Watchman movie.

I was indifferent to this report until I read the last two words...and then my heart was ripped out of my chest.

From DarkHorizons

"A long-time source for AICN indicates that in the upcoming "Watchmen" adaptation directed by Zack Snuder, Night Owl is tipped to be played by Patrick Wilson, Ozymandias is looking like Jude Law, and Doctor Manhattan might be Keanu Reeves..."

Dear Lord, help us all.

Major revision necessary

On my way to Spidey 3 with Jonathan, I asked which summer movie he was most looking forward to. He said Transformers. It was then I realized that this movie is going to be big.

Today I saw the final trailer. It's going to be sooo Michael Bay, and therefore, it's gonna be so bad. But, man, does it ever look cool. Special effects are going to blow anyone with a Y chromosome away.

$150M opening. Minimum. That means $325 domestic. Minimum.

Medellin at Cannes?

Haven't been able to watch it yet this season, but this report speculates that Vinnie's movie is going to premiere at the Cannes festival.

check this out from /film.

Word has begun to spread that HBO will be filming some scenes for a future episode of the series later this week on the Croisette. So why are the guys at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival?

My best guess is that the fictional movie within the show, Medellin, a Pablo Escobar epic penned by Paul Haggis, has either gotten into the festival or is in the film market (a section of the festival devoted to the sales of indie films). We discovered in the last episode that the boys were going to produce the film independently. It will be interesting to see if the production puts up fake billboards and advertisements for the film, as was done with James Cameron’s Aquaman.

My Leo

I would like to make this a long post, but I don't have the time right now. So here it is...


Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the best, no, he is the best actor of our generation. He is just incredible! Hopefully, I can expand on this later. :)

Nike+

Ok, this post has nothing to do with media...well, maybe a little.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that there’s very little here to be proud of, but I still wanted to post.

I’ve been looking forward to this run for over six months. I had hoped to start earlier this spring, but my operation pushed it back to Memorial Day. I couldn’t wait, so in complete disregard to my doctor’s instructions, I ran two miles this morning.

I’m in awe since my running experience has fundamentally changed and will never be the same. It’s a weird feeling when you realize that your kids will never be able to identify with some of your most raw and formative experiences. Running with a tape deck and relying on a car odometer for information on distance and pace was the way I experienced running from day one.

This was my first run with digital media (I tried running with a portable CD player once, but that doesn’t really work). Man, does that make a difference. You can easily skip to a more appropriate song in an instant. That helps so much. I thought a lot about my playlist for several days before I went out, but I didn’t do it right. Didn’t matter, press the skip button a couple times and BAM! a more appropriate song is playing and motivating you forward. Plus, the iPod’s designation of a power song is a great feature. You’re coming into the final half mile or so and without having to browse, you call the perfect song to get you to kick it to the end. Awesome idea…would have been better had I picked a better song or had my last half mile not been up hill, but all things considered, it’s pretty cool.

As big of a change that having an mp3 player is, the tracking feature of the Nike+iPod probably changes things even more fundamentally. You know the drill. You have a watch and several previously noted markers on your route (0.25 mile, 0.5 mile, and each mile afterwards). As you hit each of these markers you look at your watch and for the next minute you do the math in your head. “Ok, I ran that first half mile at a 6-min mile pace, better slow down…but wait. Did doing the math slow me down? Maybe I’m already down to a 7-min mile pace. Maybe I should be kicking it up. Well, I’ll wait and see what I’m doing at the mile marker.” Maybe I’m just psychotic, but that conversation was a fundamental conversation I had with myself for every run in the past 15 years. I may never have such a conversation again.

I pressed the button to start my workout. Once I ran the 30 feet to the next driveway I looked down at my iPod to see if it was working. AND HOW! There is was: I was currently running at 7:30-min mile. At any point during the run I knew exactly how fast I was going. When I was dying on a hill, I could see that I wasn’t really running any slower than I had been. When I felt good running across the park, I looked down and saw that I felt good because my pace had dropped a full minute, even though I never would have guessed it. The old school method would have had me note my pace at the mile marker and I would have concluded that I needed to work the hill harder when in reality I needed to work the flats harder.

And now that I have a run under my belt, I have the data to compare my next run. I averaged a 9’03” mile…which really sucks…I was optimistically hoping for a 8’30”. But now I know what I should be aiming for, and throughout the run, at any point, I can look down and see if I’m faster or slower than I should be.

I know tomorrow’s gonna suck, and I wish I could explain away my performance on my operation, but I can’t and I’m going out there again tomorrow with the goal to hear the voice at the one mile mark say, “It’s your best mile ever!”

Six-Word Post

Pirates' HSX strike price = $160M

Discuss!

Birthday Present to Me

Thank you, Mr. Moore. Now there's a decent film I can go see on my birthday. I was worried that I'd be stuck going to some Pixar crap.

From DarkHorizons

At last it has a date. Michael Moore's "Sicko," the acclaimed documentary filmmaker's first project since "Fahrenheit 9/11," will get a June 29th rollout in cinemas.

MichaelMoore.com reports that the Weinstein Company and Lionsgate will partner on the release which has its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this month.

Weinsten will handle internationa rights for the the project - a critical look at the U.S. health care system - which is said to be less controversial and divisive than 'Farenheit'.

Coincidences in Spider-Man

There's a great review of Spider-Man 3 by a screenwriter. It's a fascinating perspective on things. I strongly suggest holding off on reading it until after you've seen the film, but you definitely have to read this (and what follows in the jump).

From JohnAugust.com

Like several million people worldwide, I saw Spider-Man 3 this past weekend. And like a substantial percentage of these viewers, I got frustrated by the number of unlikely coincidences in the movie.

There’s nothing wrong with coincidence, per se. Almost every movie is going to have some incidents where one character just happens to be in the right place at the right time. In fact, many movies are built around a “premise coincidence.” In Die Hard, John McClane just happens to be in the building when the villains attack. That’s okay. McClane’s being there is part of the premise. Likewise, in the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker just happens to get bitten by the radioactive spider. No problem: it wouldn’t be Spider-Man otherwise.

The premise coincidence is one flavor of what I’ll call a Fundamental Coincidence: an accidental confluence of time, place and motivation which greatly impacts the story.

In a romantic comedy, when The Guy would have proposed to The Girl except that he just happened to overhear a conversation he interpreted the wrong way, that’s a Fundamental Coincidence. In the first Spider-Man, Norman Osborn just happens to be transformed into The Goblin just as Peter is becoming Spider-Man. That’s a Fundamental Coincidence, but we accept it because it feels true to the genre.

WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW. (Mostly things you’d glean the trailers or ads, but still.)

Let’s look at the Fundamental Coincidences in Spider-Man 3:

• The asteroid carrying the symbiote (utlimately, Venom) happens to land near Peter Parker. Peter doesn’t hear it, doesn’t investigate.
• The symbiote happens to attach itself to Peter’s scooter.
• Flint Marko happens to fall into the sand pit at exactly the moment the scientists test their billion-dollar Dyson vacuum.¹
• Flint Marko happens to have been the man who killed Uncle Ben. (A retcon.)
• Eddie Brock happens to be the only person in the church at the moment Peter tries to get rid of the black suit.

Any one (or two) of these Fundamental Coincidences would probably go unnoticed, particularly in a superhero movie, where credibility takes a back seat to spectacle. But put together, they make the plot feel rickety, particularly when you factor in the large number of what I’ll call Minor Coincidences — things that don’t fundamentally change the story, but feel convenient all the same. (more)

The End is Near

There's been buzz about this for a while, but I guess now it's official. I like the three 16-episode seasons idea. I think that's clearly the way to go.

From Darkhorizons

It's now official. ABC has agreed with the producers of Tv's "Lost" and set an end point for the serial drama - with the finale to air during the 2009-10 television season.

The producers have stated before that they wanted to finish off the show after five seasons, but the network wanted more - and so a compromise had to be reached.

Variety reports that "Lost" showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have signed new multi-year overall deals with ABC Television Studio to continue with the series until the end. Part of that deal was figuring out the end to the series.

The result? Rather than two seasons consisting of the standard 24 episodes each, there will be three seasons of 16 episodes. These three 16-episode arcs will run uninterrupted each time, allowing the network to turn it into an 'event'.

When they will air is unsure, though the finale has to screen no earlier than late 2009. The current third season will wrap up at the end of May, and combined with the 48 new episodes, the show will ultimately air approximately 119 episodes of television.

Top Opening Days

Here’s the information you’ll want to know tomorrow.

These are the top Friday openings of all time (3-day totals in parenthesis).
I’ve included the other members of the top ten opening days group that opened on non-Fridays below.

1. Pirates 2 - $55M ($135.6M)
   
2. X3 - $45M ($102.7M)
   
3. Harry Potter 4 - $40M ($102.7M)
   
4. Spider-Man - $39M ($114.8M)
5. Harry Potter 3 - $38M ($93.7M)
6. Harry Potter 1 -$32M ($90.3M)

• Star Wars 3 - $50M (Thursday) ($108.4M)
• Spider-Man 2 - $40M (Wednesday) ($88.1M)
• Matrix 2 - $37M (Thursday) ($91.7M)
• LOTR 3 - $34M (Wednesday) ($72.6M)

Editor's note:
Where's Shrek 2? Shrek 2 opened on Friday with $28.4M. It's Saturday haul was $44.7M. It's weekend haul was $108M.

So here's the rundown:
If Spidey 3 has ties the biggest school-in-session Friday ($40M), the biggest Saturday ($47M), and the biggest Sunday ($35M) it will hit $122M...significant, but not a record. Spidey 3 has the widest opening ever, so each of these days can be beaten. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

HSX Blockbuster Warrants

Here's a list of the strike prices for the current HSX warrants (movies opening in May and June). These are their estimates on how much the movie will gross by Labor Day.

• Shrek the Third H$350
• Spider-Man 3 H$350
• Pirates of the Caribbean 3 H$350
• Ratatouille H$170
• Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer H$150
• Evan Almighty H$120
• Live Free or Die Hard H$120
• Ocean's Thirteen H$100
• Surf's Up H$100
• Knocked Up H$80

How to sell Potter

I'm torn on whether or not to post this one. First, I must say that I did not notice this on my own. It was pointed out on /film, a sight that I've found to be very tasteful.

The first thing I thought of was Batman & Robin, where Silverstone had her butt digitally slimmed. Then a couple summers ago there were rumors that Lohan's bosom was digitally reduced for Herbie...though that was probably just rumors.

Thinking of Lohan made me remember the great SNL skit with Lohan where they did the Harry Potter spoof that probably gave the studio the idea for the change in the poster.

But assuming these posters are legit, it's pretty sick that a major would pay someone hours to Photoshop Emma Watson, a 16-yr-old at the time of filming. It was funny on SNL because it was parody.

The thing is, the only reason why a studio spends money (in this case to have a graphic artist spend hours and hours on Photoshop) is because they believe they will see a return on the investment. It's sick that they're pointedly going to try to get people to see this movie who otherwise wouldn't because Watson's chest wasn't big enough.

I'm not sure if I'm feeling pissed or sick...probably a lot of both.

Rush Hour Trailer

Ok, I just defiled my browser with the Rush Hour 3 trailer. I can't believe that New Line can sell that thing. It's terrible. I'm changing my rankings from a $45M opening and D to a $20M opening and F, and therefore it's off the list. I might totally shoot myself for this if the movie makes over $100M as many predict, but its looks so bad...sooooo bad. Go Michael Moore!

Jackson playing studios for fools

From DarkHorizons:

Director Peter Jackson's planned adaptation of the Alice Sebold novel The Lovely Bones is being shopped around to studios this week, with at least four studios vying to snap it up.

It seems a slam dunk in some ways - the script is done, an October 29th start of shooting date guaranteed, a locked picture for late 2008 release, and the involvement of much of the same behind-the-scenes crew involved in "The Lord of the Rings" and "King Kong."

Yet there's several catches. The subject matter is almost arthouse fare in nature; the budget sits at around a hefty $65 million and could reach up to $90 million for the total deal; and whatever deal in place comes with hefty promotional commitments and supervision by Jackson on how the studio should market it.

With a potential guild strike being talked about, studios are more than ever in demand of choice scripts requiring few, if any re-writes. Thus DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Sony and Universal are all said to be in contention for the project at present.

Hollywood is so messed up. Mark my words: $90M (heck, $65M) plus marketing is too much to recoup for this project. From what I know about the source material--which admittedly only comes from two friends who have read it--it's a great read, but probably won't make a movie with wide appeal.

Studios need to make a stand here. They need to unite and turn a collective cold shoulder to Jackson to reign him in. King Kong should serve as a shot across the bow (expensive with not much return). He's a great filmmaker, but he needs to keep things cheap. If they cave to him now, he's just going to bully them for the next decade.

Jackson's gotta know that he's asking for too much. But, heck, if he can get it why not? As long as his next movie is a popcorn flick or epic, he'll be able to demand top dollar for it.

Eric's Summer 2007 Guesses

Here's my updated list. I stuck with my philosophy that it's all about openings. So, in light of the Yahoo post I adjusted some of the openings I had anticipated. All changes to my opening-based guesses are noted in parenthesis.

1. Harry Potter 5, $400
2. Spider-Man 3, $360 ($120, C)
3. Pirates 3, $342 ($120, D)
4. Shrek 3, $330
5. Simpsons Movie, $264 ($80, B)
6. Ratatouille, $260
7. Bourne Ultimatum, $200
8. Evan Almighty, $198
9. Transformers, $191 ($85M, F)
10. Chuck and Larry, $149
11. Live Free or Die Hard, $114 ($40, D)
12. Knocked Up, $112
13. Surf's Up, $111
14. Fantastic Four 2, $78
15. Ocean's Thirteen, $73
16. 1408, $66
17. 28 Weeks Later, $63
18. Invasion, $60
19. Hairspray, $56
20. Sicko, $50

Choke Gets Greenlit

I know Erin and Tim will be interested in this:

From /film

According to the author’s official fansite (a great site about not just Chuck but also authors and writing), Choke has finally been given the greenlight. Sam Rockwell is set to star, and first-timer Clark Gregg will be directing.

Spider-Man HSX trading at $138!

Hollywood Stock Exchange set the opening weekend strike price for Spider-Man 3 at $125M. It's call stock is now trading at just under $13/share. Put stock is trading at just under $4/share. The movie stock itself is trading at $366. Just for reference, last year's megahit, Pirates 2, cashed out at $358.

Meanwhile, they've set the Shrek 3 strike price at $105.

Final reminder: final posts for summer predictions are due tomorrow.