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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Sunday, September 20th, 2009 - 12 Comments »
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Notes…

1. Get Ready For More Ass, Boys – We saw a lot of it in Toronto… and in less than 48 hours in LA, I have seen it a couple times already. Women are wearing their tights, often sheer ones, with no shirt or shorts or whatever covering.
I don’t know what genius gay man talking them into this as a fashion statement, but if you enjoy looking at the female derriere, it seems that this next month or two will be full of ID by ass tattoo and, inevitably, a lot of young ladies who really aren’t meant to be wearing less than a string bikini bottom in public.
2. Oprah Didn’t Recognize Daniel Craig – It was a great show biz moment. They decided to surprise Oprah in Central Park with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, who are now in a show together on Broadway. Oprah did not have the slightest idea who Daniel Craig, who is now bearded for the role, was. She clearly knew she should know. And had no idea. The relief that came over her like a wave – including lots of stuttering about his credits – when she finally got an eyeful of prompter is one of my favorite moments of the media year. Craig, of course, took it like a man.
3. Why So Seriously Overhyped? – There have been 15 comic book adaptations that have grossed over $300 million worldwide in the last 8 years since 2002’s Spider-Man launch.
The Dark Knight
Spider-Man 3
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Transformers
Iron Man
X-Men: The Last Stand
300
Men in Black II
X2: X-Men United
Superman Returns
Batman Begins
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Fantastic Four
One is from Marvel Studios. It’s right there in the middle of the grosses.
They just sold the entire company for less than 6x the gross of that one film.
Now… explain to me how we know they are geniuses over there? Other than selling the company for more than its worth?

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12 Comments »

12 Responses to “Notes…”

  1. tfresca says:
    September 20, 2009 at 6:31 pm

    Ok Dave but how many of those movies are based on IP marvel owns or created. Hollywood has lots of money but few ideas. Marvel comics has lots of ideas. Will all of them have $500 million grosses? Probably not but a few will. If they ever get the rights to the characters for theme park rides it will be money in the bank.

  2. Geoff says:
    September 20, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    Dave, tfresca kind of referred to this, already, but EIGHT of those films were based on Marvel properties. And you have already acknowledged that Disney might eventually renogiate terms for future sequels – you basically contradicted your own point.
    And come on…no mention of Patrick Swayze? Not saying he was the greatest actor ever, but just judging from the stuff being dished on cable at any given time….Red Dawn, Point Break, Ghost, the guy had as many memorable roles in memorable movies as a Dom Deluise. He deserves a blog.

  3. Joe Leydon says:
    September 20, 2009 at 7:08 pm

    Hugh Jackman’s opening song for this year’s Oscarcast just won an Emmy. I love it.

  4. IOIOIOI says:
    September 20, 2009 at 8:53 pm

    I am still of the wild and crazy belief, that Marvel went to Disney for one reason among many. That reason being to get some corporate muscle behind their quest to get their properties back from FOX in particular.
    If you have a corporate parent as big as Disney, and some goofs at small little FOX are wasting your properties. What better way than to get your big daddy involved in fixing this problem? Crazy? Sure. I just have a feeling this is going to happen within the next 10 years.

  5. movielocke says:
    September 20, 2009 at 9:45 pm

    this may be the most important hot blog post ever, are we talking asses in movies, asses in real life, asses in LA/NYC or some combination of the above?
    but if this is a new fashion thing that is going to sweep through LA, life is damned good. 🙂

  6. Roman says:
    September 20, 2009 at 10:50 pm

    It’s not just about movies, David. It’s about toys, theme park rides and brand power.
    Did they overpay? Absolutely, in the short term they did. But it would be wrong to think of this acquisition as being separate from a larger effort on the part of Disney to grow itself into something truly formidable. Just think of how far they’ve came from the late Eisner years. If my memory is correct, just a few years ago they were on the verge of being sold and now they’ve got Pixar, Dreamworks, Marvel, etc… Something bigger must be going on here.
    And just think of what a non-original character like Winnie the the Pooh did for Disney. Do you know how many untold millions they rake in on the strength of the character alone worldwide? Sure, he’s no Mickey but he doesn’t have to be. The marriage between Disney and Marvel is one that makes perfect sense and I bet that (for better of for worse) they will milk Marvel characters even better and more efficiently than Marvel itself ever could.
    [Insert a Gainax joke here.]

  7. Roman says:
    September 20, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    I mean they do own the rights to Marvel’s characters, right?

  8. Wrecktum says:
    September 20, 2009 at 11:32 pm

    Half the time I see girls in tights it’s girls who have NO BIDNESS wearing tights.

  9. Triple Option says:
    September 21, 2009 at 10:12 am

    I, for one, am ready to embrace the new ass movement!

  10. a_loco says:
    September 21, 2009 at 11:34 am

    I second Wrecktum. Sure, there’s a few nice bums out there, but when every girl wears tights, it quickly loses its appeal.

  11. hendhogan says:
    September 21, 2009 at 12:03 pm

    You can’t really count “Transformers.” That was an animated show first and then they made comics from it, like “G.I. Joe.”

  12. Krazy Eyes says:
    September 21, 2009 at 12:24 pm

    Here’s a link to the Oprah/Craig meeting if people want to see for themselves what DP is talking about in #2.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AGrG1ylPNM
    Oprah’s reaction is fairly amusing. Altogether fairly awkward as she doesn’t seem to know who Craig is but continues to GUSH about Jackman. I almost thought she was going to say “Hey, guy” to Craig at some point before the prompter saved her.

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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.”
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