MCN Blogs
David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

News on the BEach

A passionate reader, Ms. Sheila H of Houston, Texas, wrote in to give me somhttp://mcnblogs.com/movabletype/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&blog_id=15#
Bolde info on the novel, The Beach, including the fact that it is not, as I miswrote, about war. Sorry about that. Here, in her words, is what it is about. “The Beach is a superb book about a backpacking subculture of drifting Gen-Xers in search of paradise or, at least, a paradise not yet discovered and overrun by tourists. It is set in Thailand, and the central character is given a map to ‘paradise’ by a mysterious stranger who commits suicide. It could be described as a cross between Lord of the Flies and something out of Joseph Conrad. The main character is a guy obsessed by video games, nicotine and movies about Vietnam, and he bites off a whole lot more than he can chew. Anyway, it’s well worth reading whether it gets made into a film (it could be a great one, IMO) or not. And could be the perfect director for this. It’s also a hell of a better fit for Leonardo DiCaprio than American Psycho.” Thanks, Sheila.
40 ACRES & A GATE: Funny, I can’t tell whether that title is a racist thing or just an appropriate reference. I guess you’ll let me know. Anyway, BET founder Robert Johnson is in the process of starting the first black-owned movie studio ever. The studio will make black-themed films for TV and the big screen. As New Line and Fox 2000 have proven, this can be a very lucrative business, and there is a lot of talent just waiting for an opportunity. Johnson’s initial capital investment will be $100 million, in stark contrast to the $1 billlion or so invested in DreamWorks so far. But Johnson is looking to start with three low-budget films a year and 10 TV movies, so the investment in that amount of product, before distribution, is probably less than $60 million total. That’s less than the budgets on most of the DreamWorks products to date (Paulie and Mouse Hunt were cheaper).
ARMAGEDDON SPIN WATCH: America is doing great at the foreign box office, but I have to wonder why Variety gave Armageddon the headline in Monday’s story. As I read the article about Armageddon‘s record opening in South Korea, I realized it’s the same story I read last week. But the story was dominated by Deep Impact‘s No. 1 position with $9 million in 18 territories and reaching a cumulative international gross of $137 million so far. And Dr. Dolittle was clearly the No. 2 story, opening in Australia (a much bigger market than South Korea) with the second biggest opening there ever (beating ID4) with $3.9 million. And Mulan and Six Days, Seven Nights are kicking butt, too. I’m not suggesting that Armageddon be buried, but it seems to be getting excessive coverage for opening magnificently in one territory.
GODZILLA TOKYO WATCH: Can’t accuse Variety of burying Godzilla. El Lizardo set an all-time attendance record in Japan as 500,000 people saw the new and abused version of the Japanese icon. The film had the advantage of also having more screens than any other film in Japanese history, but it beat out the previous record-holder, The Lost World, by about 150,000 audience members. Of course, that’s a lot fewer people than who saw the film here in America on its opening weekend, but Japanese box office analysts expect the film to top $100 million in Japan alone. But will that help Sony? Toho holds the distribution rights to Japan as part of the deal for remake rights. Will Sony see any of the money? Probably. If not, $100 million could be the highest licensing fee ever.
MORE ON HALLOWEEN: H20: Saw the movie with a recruited crowd and a bunch of journalists Saturday night. I don’t think Miramax meant to do it, but they even got a drunk guy in there who was yelling at the screen at the wrong times. Just like real moviegoing. The film, which stars Jamie Lee Curtis and completely disregards any Halloween sequel since No. 2, has one of the best horror flick third acts ever. Almost no dialogue. Action is king. Then there are the first two acts. Kevin Williamson‘s name is all over this project, but whatever contributions he made are either negligible or worthless. There’s no thrill to Michelle Williams from “Dawson’s Creek.” (I don’t want to wait for our death to be over.) This new kid, Josh Harnett is as beautiful as he is wooden. And it’s a treat to see Asam Haan-Byrd all grown up. But the teen angle that was so fun in the original film is just filler here. On the other hand, Janet Leigh is used particularly well, especially if you are a film geek. Director Steve Miner does an OK job, but one really wishes Carpenter had been on board. He’s just better. But this is Jamie Lee Curtis‘ movie and no one else’s, and she delivers big time. I think Miramax may have overestimated the film by moving it to August. It isn’t the next Scream. Nothing new here. But old, for lack of a better word, is good. Old works.
STAR WARS PREQUEL EXCLUSIVE: This exclusive glimpse at page one of the Star Wars script comes care of Vishal Sharma. Click here and don’t worry. No spoilers here.
READER OF THE DAY: From Jamie T: “I enjoyed your roughcut.com article on scenes cut from The Truman Show. When I saw the movie, I felt that there were two scenes missing — scenes you didn’t mention in your article. 1. I read a newspaper review of the movie that mentioned Truman’s wife was paid $10,000 each time they had sex. I expected to ‘learn’ this in the movie when Christof is interviewed, but it wasn’t there. Did I miss it? 2. Toward the end of the movie Truman is introduced to a new co-worker. He seems attracted to her, yet the next scene has him ‘escaping’ from his basement. Was there a relationship between them? Do you know if other scenes were cut which explain my confusion?”

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