MCN Blogs
David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

News By the Numbers

10. I LOVE ME, YOU LOVE ME, I’M AS HAPPY AS CAN BE: There’s a guy named Dennis Woodruff who drives around L.A. in a car that he’s painted green and has him name all over it. Desperate for acting gigs, he has essentially become a town joke, unless you consider having his self-promotion car crushed in Volcano an honor. Going in that same direction is Tony Kaye, a multimedia artist turned movie director who directed American History X for New Line. The film, which I fondly anticipated after seeing some footage at ShoWest last March, is in editing hell. New Line wanted changes, made changes, tested changes and found out that audiences really preferred changes.

Tony Kaye,
first time director, threatened to strip his name from the film which would force New Line into using the dreaded Alan Smithee name in the director’s credit slot. I’d be happy to see both versions and access whether he’s a visionary or a crackpot who is acting like a 4-year-old (or a 20-year-old with a producing deal). But until then, I’m guessing crackpot. When a studio lets you make a drama about skinheads your first time out, you have to be willing to give a little. And it doesn’t help that Kaye has bad things to say about all the actors who were involved in the film, too. Apparently, only Tony Kaye knows anything. It’s one of those true clichés: Film is a collaborative medium. Get used to it or get out.
9. CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: Warner Bros. is evolving. Some would say it’s desperation. Others that it’s just good management. You make the call. Just months ago, they greenlit their first low-budget film, Je’ Mappelle Crawford. Now, they are starting a new division of the company to get its 6000-title library of films (a great number of which came from merging with Turner) back into theatrical exhibition. The studio’s 75th Anniversary Festival of Classics did $96,000 a week at one L.A. theater, significantly more than a new blockbuster will tend to do. As a result, we get to see classics on screen around the country. Whatever the reasons, great idea.
EDITOR’S NOTE: TNT’s rough cut’s parent company is Time-Warner.
8. ITS A GREAT NIGHT FOR OSCAR, OSCAR, OSCAR…: Oscar’s officially moved to Sunday now. Not only has it moved, but it will now start on ABC at 8:00 EST/5:00 PST with an ABC pre-game show, which could well blow some of the syndicated pre-game shows out of the water since ABC will have access to more than anyone else. The Academy’s also been making deals with other TV outlets, such as “Entertainment Tonight,” for special access, which could be curtailed as ABC flexes its Disney-clad muscle. The big show will now starts at 8:30 EST/5:30 PST, so kids can go to sleep a little earlier on a school night, and the stars can go directly from lunch to the Oscars.
7. OLD MACDONALD HAD A FLOP: Norm MacDonald continues to bug people in high places. First, NBC’s Don Ohlmeyer personally pulled the plug on MacDonald’s Weekend Update career at “Saturday Night Live” and now MGM, gagging on the grosses of MacDonald’s movie star debut, Dirty Work, has pulled the plug on Ballbusted, his once-and-never next movie star turn. But being dragged down with the Canadian comic are Golden Globe-winning screenwriters of That Darn Cat (of course, they were awarded for The People vs. Larry Flynt) Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who were supposed to make their directing debut on Ballbusted. The project may well spring back to life as MGM has $5 million in pay-or-play deals attached to the film that was just five weeks from principal photography when the plug was pulled. Alexander and Karaszewski are going to stay in Vancouver with their crew and hope that their producer can turn the red light green again. The last time this happened to them as writers, it turned out OK. The film was the Oscar-winning Ed Wood.
6. WHO NOSE?: The answer to “Who Killed Coppola’s Pinnochio?” is in the hands of the jury now. In Thursday’s closing arguments, Coppola’s lawyer went right at Warner Bros. chairman Bob Daly. Even though Daly was relieved of testifying by the judge in the case, Coppola counsel Robert Chapman closed with “Where is Bob Daly? He wouldn’t talk to Mr. Coppola, and he wouldn’t talk to you.” Not exactly, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” but a clever ploy to attack the big, bad studio. Of course, Warner’s position is that Coppola double dealed them and Columbia trying to get the most money out of the follow-up to his smash with Dracula. The verdict may be in by the time you read this (I’m writing on Friday afternoon.) May the best really-rich entity win!
5. THE FALL OF THE FALL: The video shelves are getting awfully heavy withGodzilla product this fall. First, Titanic sails September 1. re-launches in a little plastic box about which size doesn’t matter at all (no, Sony will not release the film in Betamax) in early November. And now, Lost In Space, which I’m pretty sure will look better and be more palatable on video, has taken an October 6 date. New Line will spend $20 million in media for the launch. I will see none of it. Humph!
4. TIL MALIBU DO US PART: Don’t know what broke Bruce and Demi up. Maybe it was his inability to deliver that XY chromosome that is needed for an heir to the Die Hard throne. When the story broke, the wires ran it on top of their overall headlines, as though a world leader had been shot. That tells you how slow a news week it’s been. (I bet Bill Gates paid the world off to stop fighting, killing and dying so Windows 98 could launch properly.) In the end, who cares? They are both movie stars, but this is hardly the romance of Bogart and Bacall or Tracey and Hepburn. Heck, Tracey and Hepburn weren’t even married. (Well, he was. But his wife was just for show by the end.) Much more interesting back in the good old days.
3. GET FAT, GO BALD OR MAKE HUDSON HAWK 2: Now that he’s single, Bruce Willis may do what most married men do. Put on 40 pounds or so. He’s talking about doing Ump, a hot-and-cold-running project about a hitman who obsessively believes in a hitman code of conduct. The last guy to be close to making the film was Sylvester Stallone, coming off CopLand. But that fell apart when Stallone switched agents, and then switched agents again. While the weight was apparently an issue for Stallone, Willis may actually avoid the physical manifestation of the aging character as written because he has a sign of age that Stallone will likely never show. A bald head. (Maybe that was the problem with Demi. Three bald heads in the family was too many!)
2. MOVIN’ ON UP: For those of you worried about the paydays of female stars, Meg Ryan just signed a contract for $10.5 million against 10 percent of the gross to lead Columbia’s Hanging Up. But the estrogen power doesn’t stop there. The director is Diane Keaton (who I feel made one of the greatly underappreciated films ever with Unstrung Heroes), Lisa Kudrow is “in talks,” and the film, about three sisters and their dying, alcoholic, manic-depressive father, comes from the pens of the Ephron sisters. But what about Ginger Spice?
1. RUINING DISNEY’S PICNIC: Our friends at DreamWorks, innocent little “they’re going out of business because The Peacemaker and Amistad weren’t big hits” DreamWorks, pulled one of the great show biz switcheroos ever this week by moving Antz, their film previously announced for next Spring to October 2 (one day before my birthday, as though anyone cares). That puts them into theaters seven weeks ahead of Disney’s insect movie, A Bug’s Life. The truth is, Antz has been more promoted than any DreamWorks non-summer picture already, so the switch shouldn’t have really surprised us. But it did. In the end, the switch will avoid any “I’ve seen this before” attacks on Antz as DreamWork’s second animated release, while Disney is still Disney and should suffer no such fallout. Meanwhile, DreamWorks has got what looks like a hit parade of Mousehunt, Deep Impact, Small Soldiers, Saving Private Ryan and Antz. Anyone else in town go five for five lately?
THE EYEBALLS: Those of you who are “weekend only” readers, you are behind the The Beyond curve. Readers are sending in their grossest moviegoing experiences in chunks of no more than 100-words. The grossest of the gross will be published next week and the writers will receive their very own eyeballs from The Beyond. Eye know you want an eyeball, so write me now!
READER OF THE DAY: From Shawn H : “Sheesh, I can’t believe I’m doing this….but I’m actually ready to lay praise upon Bob Saget and Dirty Work. Why hasn’t anyone commented on its word-of-mouth success (is success REALLY the right word?)? I mean, it seems to hang in there, despite the terrible reviews and all. The theater I work at has actually seen the grosses for Dirty Work CLIMB following its opening weekend. And it constantly refuses to drop out of the Top 10 on the weekdays. What does all this mean? I don’t wanna know. I just hope I never have to see a skunk and a chihuahua tangled in the throes of passion EVER again.”

Be Sociable, Share!

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon