April 26, 2024
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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.”
~ 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
Really? 139.6? We just can’t get a round 140? COME ON! What’s 400k between friends? That aside, Happy Feet really did get curbed this weekend, and next Wednesday releases probably aren’t going to help it either.
Of the 20 or so films that cost at least $100 million to produce this year, only “Mars Needs Moms,” one of the worst bombs of all-time, had a worse opening than “Happy Feet.” Ouchie. Even “Gnomeo and Juliet” opened to $25 million.
Why did Happy Feet 2 open this weekend? First, the first movie didn’t need a sequel. Secondly, there are so many other upcoming family films that are bigger and more attractive.
That has got to be a very disappointing number for Strand on Tyrannosaur. Does this put a final nail in any Oscar talk for Olivia Colman’s performance?
Does anyone know how I could find a list of theaters playing Melancholia and where they’ll be expanding it to? I’m dying to see the movie but I don’t know how to. Thanks.
http://www.imdb.com/showtimes/title/tt1527186
“That has got to be a very disappointing number for Strand on Tyrannosaur. Does this put a final nail in any Oscar talk for Olivia Colman’s performance?”
I’m going with ‘Yes’
Waterbucket: here is Magnolia’s own playdate list.
Jack and Jill might be one of Sandler’s lowest grossing “broad movies” in some time. Zohan did $100M. This might do $75-$80M, we’ll see. Lot of family movies coming out in the next couple of weeks.
Agreed Happy Feet Two was not really necessary and choosing it against Twilight was bad.
I saw the Descendants and the response from my crowd was pretty good. The “shoe in” Best Picture, Best Actor talk is just that. talk. I could imagine certain crowds not liking this film.
I just noticed the ‘For Your Consideration’ ad for Harry Potter. Have they ever run those before? Seems like a longshot outside the technical categories.
Or am i totally reading the race wrong?
Someone mentioned Best Actress.
Glen Close, Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams and……..
Ray, thanks for that! I had been wondering if Melancholia would hit Brooklyn’s Nitehawk or BAM, as coming attractions/web info for those theaters had promised. I held off going to see it at the dreaded Angelika for that reason, only to not find it on the schedule for either theater through early December, and I couldn’t find more info on the movie’s own site. But the Magnolia site is superuseful, and I see now that, strangely, Melancholia is going to play those two shitty arthouses in Manhattan, as well as further-off Queens, Bronx, Long Island, and New Jersey locations… but no Brooklyn. I guess the lure of more current Oscar-y fare over the holidays changed Nitehawk’s and/or BAM’s minds, which is too bad, because I’ve been ignoring a Melancholia screener so I could see it on a proper big screen. The Angelika doesn’t really qualify, but it’ll have to do.
J&J might yet hold on to 100; Sandler’s movies often drop by half in their second weekends, then stabilize going forward. Granted, this wasn’t the case with Just Go With It (slightly soft opening, but decent holds) or Zohan (strong opening, harder-than-usual drops), his other two to hover closer to 100 than his usual 125-140 or so, but Grown Ups, Click, and 50 First Dates, among others, all followed that pattern to some degree.
But yeah, the 26 million opening might’ve been too soft to propel this one to 100 without an exceptional hold. I’m sure this will be written about as Sandler going too stupid/too far/too crass and needing to rethink things, but he’s only a year and change off from one of his biggest hits ever with Grown Ups, a far lazier and less funny movie than J&J (which isn’t very good, but is far from his worst). And he has a box-office consistency with his comedies that most film comedians would be happy to live with.
Also, have studios just flat-out forgotten how to program release dates in relation to each other at all? I harped on this before, but November had what seemed like the right movies in pretty much universally the wrong dates, save perhaps for DreamWorks moving Puss in Boots to a softer weekend overall that gave it a great second-weekend hold and more playing time as the only big family movie.
But apart from that: you open the month with TWO comedies that don’t overlap 100% in audience, but could certainly cannibalize… one of which is a Christmas movie now guaranteed to be out of theaters by 12/2 or so.
Then you follow that with a THIRD comedy that also doesn’t 100% overlap with the same audience, but still chips away at both (broader/older audiences from Tower Heist, teen/college audience from H&K), and in what seems like the one smart scheduling move (that seemed weird at the time), an action-fantasy fanboy-ish movie.
Then a Twilight movie that will obviously do huge business (but would do that huge business at any time) and a family sequel, which makes sense on its own but in reality is going to get clobbered by the THREE family movies coming out five days later — even if none of them are big hits, it would be enough to kill Happy Feet Two.
And then you put out those three family movies at the exact same time?! Hugo in particular seems to be sticking by this date out of studio laziness; they aren’t even giving it a particularly wide release (yet not going so limited that they might use a small release to build word of mouth).
Basically, save Twilight and Muppets (which I still think will do quite well over Thanksgiving), almost all of November’s wide releases would’ve made just as much sense if not more on other dates in November or December entirely.
I realize this “you” I refer to is actually a bunch of different studios, but good lord do they seem to be knocking into each other and cannibalizing each other for no reason.
Paramount is going with an interesting strategy with HUGO like they did on PUSS with Dreamworks. They’re only pushing it into 1,200 theatres next weekend while ARTHUR and MUPPETS go wide, because they’re hoping that word of mouth will be good while ARTHUR bombs (a good bet given how it’s faring outside of Britain so far), and MUPPETS has a built in ceiling (less of a good bet) and HAPPY FEET fades (a good bet). You CAN built work of mouth at 1,000 theatres; look at BORAT in November a few years back.
Very risky strategy, but there are no family releases for the two weekends after Thanksgiving so I see why they’re giving it a shot with all the cannibalization.
Also, it depresses me how many of you have spent money on J&J while there are so many good indies out now. I seriously hope all of you live in Bumblefuck, Missouri and have no arthouse theatres or you have mentally challenged friends who you’re going with…
Happy Feet Two opened this weekend because Happy Feet One opened on the same weekend five years ago. Simple. If it worked the first time, why mess with it? I mean, Warners figured that there wouldn’t be a huge overlap of audience with Twilight.
Thanks, Ray. Too bad Melancholia isn’t expanding anywhere near New Orleans. I thought this city would be a good place for this kind of artsy movie.
EthanG, I try to see everything that remotely interests me, and Sandler interests me. I actually would’ve gone to a press screening of it but I was busy the night I was offered. Even without going to an official screening I wound up writing 1300 words on the movie: http://bit.ly/uqrCgb
… because I found it interesting. I’d rather criticize a movie from an informed place than “this looks stupid so it must be a waste of time and money.” I’m not that into the high-culture/low-culture/you-must-be-an-idiot-if-you-like-X sort of thing. I mean, I’m as capable of biases and dismissing stuff unfairly as anyone, but I don’t actively try to do those things.
I do sometimes feel bad that because indies are sometimes easier to get screenings and screeners for, I’ll wind up not paying for something (potentially) cool and offbeat, and paying to catch up with junkier multiplex movies. But, you know, I see more movies than most people so I think it balances out.
I think I’m caught up with the indies, save Descendants because I was out of town this weekend (trying to go tomorrow).
I will admit that I skip almost all documentaries. I’ll take a crummy Sandler movie over a doc any day; just not my thing.
Also, RE: Hugo, I don’t see an upside to going in 1200 theaters. Borat was in more like 800, and that was for a movie with a bit more found/cult/buzz type of appeal. I think it might’ve made more sense to bring out Hugo on, say, 100-200 screens over Thanksgiving, and then wider in December… but 1200 seems kind of neither here nor there to me. I hope it’s great and I hope it hangs on even if it isn’t, but Arthur Christmas has long-term playability too as a Christmas movie (although I imagine both will be hit by Muppets: parental interest + Disney marketing machine should = at least $100 million domestic).
jesse I understand your point of view I guess. It just galls me that “Tyrannosaur” and “Another Happy Day” gets this result with Sandler still raking in millions. Last year AMAZING comedies like “Four Lions,” “In the Loop,” and “Black Dynamite” lost so much money their directors may never work again, but Sandler thrived with “Grown Ups.” And even informed people went to see it.
My biggest problem with Sandler though is he throws around 80 million on every single one one of his “comedies.” That is INSANE and PREPOSTEROUS. Even if you think his movies are funny the production values are uniformly TERRIBLE. These movies could be made for half the cost, and the rest used to created actual jobs. He has to have a better slush fund than Jack Abramoff at this point.
Regarding HUGO, yes it’s a huge risk and I still think Paramount shouldn’t have been scared of TINTIN and traded HUGO for MI4. Re: BORAT 826 theatres=almost 1,000 nowadays. Regardless, Paramount has experience turning a 1,200 debut into 150 mil worldwide with “Sweeney Todd” and they’ve had a brilliant year, so I think it’s more likely that Sony’s the real misfire here with Aardman given respective histories.
Not to defend Sandler’s budgets since they are insane in relation to what’s on screen…but those huge budgets ARE going to jobs. Big budget movies have hundreds of people getting paid.
Black Dynamite animated series is coming..
DP with the guys from Black Dynamite from 2009
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2503677056095964218
jack and jill is at 4% on rottentomotoes .. Sandler care at all ?
is Sandler part of that 1% who is s actually helping the 99% ?
Sandler is robin hood.
Big Perm if Sandler cared he could donate half of every budget of every movie of the last decade he’s made to a charity and then make the EXACT same movie. It’s disgusting. None of his movies need more than half that budget to be made. Let’s waste tens of millions on he and his friends f*cking around every year because it’s profitable still!
I’ll believe the Black Dynamite series is real when I see the live action Star Wars series promised to start by 2008….
DP is the biz guy – a special dp/30 with Sandler just on movie budgets for all this movies.
tintin 2011 cost 130 million . crazy stupid pressure for
this movie to make money.
movies that cost 100 million or more = how many super smart people are involved ?
Ethan, they’ve already done a pilot episode of the Black Dynamite animated series. It was on Cartoon Network’s website for awhile. I’ve seen it and it’s fantastic.
Ethan: No offense, but it’s not like some studio boss ever says, “OK, I can spend $80 million on an Adam Sandler movie — or $80 million on AIDS research.” Or even, “I can spend $80 million on an Adam Sandler movie — or $80 million on 40 really cool indie movies.” Who knows? If the $80 million weren’t spent on Sandler, it might get spent on someone whose movies you like even less.
Also: I think In the Loop was two years ago. And its writer-director, Armando Iannucci, is gainfully employed even as we write. He’s working on a new political satire TV series titled Veep, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Regarding Hugo, how many $170 million movies have been released on only 1200 screens? It’s going to be a real tough sell for families with young kids (including my own). 130 minutes is way too long for my son. We’ll be seeing Arthur Christmas or The Muppets (probably the former as he really doesn’t seem to care for the latter yet). Hugo is going to need some exceptional word of mouth.
are you fucking kidding all of us with this $170 million Hugo number?
I am not fucking kidding you actionman. Easy. NY Times story last week says budget was $170 million, while producer Graham King says it was closer to $140 million.
If the movie is as great as some people already have claimed it to be, who cares how much it cost? (Well, who except the people who actually invested in it.)
I was merely wondering if it’s common for a $170 million (or $150 million) movie to be released on 1200 screens. I don’t really care how much it cost.
Paul, it’s definitely not common recently, but Paramount seem to be going for a long haul strategy in November. Which is strange given that those sort of strategies happen in December, but they might as well try something different. Where they are going to get extra screens from at this time of year for an expansion is a mystery but if it’s a great movie. Here’s hoping it finds those screens.
Ethan- Sandler has used production money to fund a number of charity cases- Rob Schnieder, David Spade, Nick Swardsen…etc.
shouldn’t Tina Fey been involved with Bridesmaides ..
not sure if it would have been funnier or not but she would
have made a lot of money being a producer
that money she could have made would help make more comedy films.
i liked Kristen Wiig in Paul but hated her in MacGruber
there’s probably 100 really funny comics – some get tv shows which lead into huge movies.
happens all the time. finding talented people early
is the key part. a lot of them are on snl but sometimes it takes 5 years or more for people to notice they are
funny.
right now Judd Apatow still has a monopoly on comedy.
when is the government going to break that guy and force
him to do a serious film with Pitt / Clooney or Dicaprio
Any chance that Hugo does not have access to all the 3D screens they might have hoped for so they are trying a large platform release to build word of mouth (and possible Oscar chatter) and strike mega-wide when the other family movies are played out?
I get a strong ‘Polar Express’ vibe from Hugo, mostly due to the picturesque storybook similarities, and while Polar didn’t open to blockbuster numbers it had remarkable legs. Of course it wasn’t staring down Chipmunks, Tintin and a Beauty and the Beast rerelease.
Apatow tried doing drama with Funny People. Results were what they were. I know some people defend sections of that movie, but i think it’s a gigantic mess of a movie.
Hugo’s budget does not surprise me. Scorsese’s films have always been costly, at least since the 2000’s.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/11/arthur-christmas-who-will-survive-the-face-off.html
Looks at tracking for Hugo, The Muppets, and Arthur Christmas, if anyone is interested.
Apatow already does serious films. Most of Knocked Up plays out like an afterschool special.
Jack & Jill is a semi-masterpiece, maybe Sandler’s best in 15 years, and one of the best movies of 2011.
It is genius.
Someone trying trying to get back into standup?
Interesting read Paul. It has been the subject of this blog for awhile now. It’s an amazing game of chicken. Remember the days when studios made decisions based on what the other studios were doing so that they could pick the best possible dates for their movies? Has that day past? 5 family movies will be in the marketplace this weekend, not counting Jack & Jill, then nothing for 3 weeks till Alvin on the 16th, then 5 days later on the 21st is Tintin. I’ve said it before, but I think Hugo will suffer the most from this. And that’s just too bad. I’m getting more buzz from Tintin than Hugo right now, and Tintin is weeks away. It’s just too much, in such a short window. Maye they should have tried for a late summer release this year. For the entire month of August, the only real family released was Spy Kids. Imgine that.
Cool article, Paul, and totally unsurprising.
with all the hype – hugo / tintin / mi4 / dragon tattoo.
chances are there will be sellouts during the first week.
so people see another film or go home.
good for smaller non hyped films ?
Yeah this studio’s release schedule seems a little odd. I think that Sherlock Holmes 2 and Mission Impossible opening the same weekend is weird. It seems to me that they are marketed to almost the same audience. One of them should have been moved to this Wednesday. I mean with the exception of The Immortals and maybe the aging Tower Heist, there seems to be a lack of a big action film this weekend. Plus, Sherlock or Mission will have three weeks of open space before the holiday films invade.
I would think that Sherlock is on firmer ground than MI4, but certainly neither of them wanted to go against the second weekend of Twilight which will probably pull in at least another 50 over next weekend.
And it’s kinda unfortunate that it’s an all-PG weekend as far as new wide releases go. Though I guess after the box office performance of Burlesque, Love & Other Drugs, Faster, Ninja Assassin, Australia, Transporter 3, Hitman, August Rush, and The Mist, studios can’t be blamed if they’re wary of releasing a non-franchise, non-PG offering over Thanksgiving weekend. Some did OK, some didn’t, but not any real breakout hits among them. Then again, Four Christmases and This Christmas did well, so maybe titles like Ninja Assassin Saves Christmas and A Hitman’s Christmas would have led to better box office.
EthanG “Last year AMAZING comedies like “Four Lions,” “In the Loop,” and “Black Dynamite” lost so much money their directors may never work again”
Ridiculous. Sony has made it’s money back on BD. The US distributors lost so much money on those two UK titles as well? Says who? You? Both films were acclaimed and both directors are in demand for projects. They just don’t need to jump on any piece of shit. One cannot just trawl imdb pro or videoscan and think they have concrete data. If you don’t have access to the books then you are wildly projecting. Publicly available data is only half the story.
I just want to comment on the Hugo release. It’s pretty obvious Graham King has given up. It’s not a Paramount movie. They didn’t make the movie, nor are they paying for the advertising. Par is just a distributor. GK has obviously seen the tracking numbers and decided to cut their losses and bet their hopes on the overseas markets where Scorsese’s brand name has always been stronger going all the way back to the 70s.
“To be honest with you again, I think it’s the idea of male frontal nudity. It just baffles me: Women can parade around naked all the time, but the guy conveniently has his pants on. I remember my mom always complaining about that to me, saying, “This is such bullshit, it’s always the women who are naked” … so I did this one for you, Mom! [Laughs.]”
‘the fassy’ and his mum (note to american writers: please stop changing mum to ‘mom’ in your article quotes as if americans are too thick to comprehend the change of one vowel) are clearly my kind of people.
jts i’m stoked the dude who wrote ‘in the loop’ (iannucci) is working, he’s my hero
Okay, those TDK-R details pretty much confirmed a sneaky suspicion that I had about that film. Nolan couldn’t come up with a good idea. Schucks, it will probably be fine, but having Bats quit for 8 years demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the character.
Ninja Assassin had one of the best taglines ever…
“This Thanksgiving leave the carving to us!”
(or something to that effect)
Funny, I remember my mom always saying of cinematic nudity that any who appears naked is a WHORE and will BURN IN HELL.
Lex: Did she ever say this about Richard Gere specifically?
So sorry to hear about the passing of playwright Shelagh Delaney. But reading about her passing also reminds me: Does anyone here know why Charlie Bubbles (which she wrote) has never been released on homevideo in the US?
Just women. Sex was also referred to as “the bad thing.” In particular Madonna was considered the most Satanic figure since Satan.
Francis Dolarhyde’s mom was probably more liberal about sexual content than the way I was raised.
“Schucks, it will probably be fine, but having Bats quit for 8 years demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the character.”
If he just quits, yeah. But I have a feeling that 8 years is recoup time from a broken back in a world without magical insta-cures.
I love how that New York story says Martin Scorsese is a director who means nothing to kids. Um, like Sarah Smith or James Bobin is a directing name that does mean something to kids?
Also, isn’t “My Week With Marilyn” fairly wide this week? That’s not PG.
dolarhyde was raised by his grandmother with her giant wooden dentures and scissors
Story, we live in a world where you can get over a broken back in six months. There’s no reason for him to take 8 years off. It’s simply not Batman. He’s all about the mission and the mission never ends. Having Bruce Wayne act as if it does have an end, is so weird on every level, but Nolan lives under the delusion we wanted him to tell a trilogy. Obviously this is why DC are going to reboot Bats in 2014 or 2015 but still, it’s weird storytelling, and I hope the guy can pull it off.
And sometimes people with broken backs never walk again.
6 months is an optimistic time frame to be walking with crushed vertebrae, being Batman takes a slightly higher level of physical prowess than moving without the aid of a walker, I’d wager. There’s some room for adaptation to what the story needs is what Im saying. But that’s as far as Im going on that thread – Im not getting into a pointless argument with Captain Alwaysright.
Isn’t it just as likely that Bats continued doing his thing for eight years but we are just fastforwarding to a more important chapter?
Story, what’s the point of the snark? Seriously, why should I respect anyone whose going to respond to something that snarky? You and your Mr. Defensive attributes aside, they are not going down the backbreaking route in this film. Basically Bats retires for 8 years and much like with Michael Corleone, Bane pulls him back in, and that’s not bad. Batman never quits, he never gives up, and he wouldn’t sit around for 8 years. Azrael exist for a reason dontcha know.
ETA: That’s not the way it’s been taken, that could be it, but it comes across more like he quit then anything else. It’s at least what the trailer hints by the words Gordon uses to address Bats and how he left him.
hcat – Could be. But with the possible content of the preview scene, and some of the pictures that came out during production, it fits. And leaving a gap that long with an active Bats leaves the door open for WB to make more films in that gap, when Nolan seems to really want to close the door on “his” Batman.
I could be totally wrong, and kinda hope that I am – but that’s the vibe Im getting.
If Bats is still going it alone all those 8 years in the future then on behalf of Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and a young Tim Drake… BUGGER THAT! Oh include Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Kal-El, Diana Prince, Arthur Curry, and John Jones along with Helena Bertinelli, Oliver Queen, Dinah Drake, Vic Sage, and the entire roster of the Justice League International in the above as well.
We’ve known for a while Nolan was never going to include Robin either way. Which Im fine with for a finite set of films like this. For the inevitable reboot, there may be enough distance from O’Donnel to make it work.
Every Nolan movie gets SO thoroughly trashed by his detractors (mostly online), that I never look forward to them anymore and indeed await each one with a homework-like sense of dread. Then I invariably go, think it’s awesome… then within five days everyone on the web hates it SO much– and the debates over them get SO tired– that I absolutely never rewatch them on TV/DVD, and it’s an endless cycle.
That said, just to SHUT THE NOLAN HATERS the fuck up, I hope hope TDKR is CHOCK FULL of all that wack COMEDY and IRONY and cartoon-drive-in silliness you guys seem to want so much, and it clocks in at 84 minutes and has They Might Be Giants music and the entire supporting casts of Community and Parks and Recs combined, and a redheaded love interest who speaks in period faghag dialect.
Then maybe THE INTERNET would like a movie.
Story it’s not about including Robin but everyone else Bats should know in his career, and the fact that he’s ending it without meeting them is rather frustrating. I know he wants a self-contained world but Batman works best when he’s around others and possibly never getting Bale’s Bats interactions with the JLA or other Batverse characters is distressing.
The idea of Bale-Bats with his Cookie Monster voice talking to a bunch of other guys in tights is an idea that makes me chuckle, I must admit.
I dig the hell out of Nolan’s films, no doubt. But that voice…
And Lex, you’re bordering on incoherent.
It’s not complicated. Every time a new Nolan comes out, the usual suspects complain it’s too long, it’s too serious, he has no “lightness” of tone, he’s too cold, “he doesn’t ‘get’ dreams,” etc. They complain so loud and so hard about hating Nolan, that I start to hate him too, just because I get sick of the discussions and debates.
Out of curiosity, has ANYONE, EVER been won over by another person via “discussing and debating” any movie? Some movies don’t wear the scrutiny well.
JS
Are you seriously dismayed that Bale’s Batman is not going to interact with the DC universe? Are you joking around or 14 years old? The reason The Dark Knight is the #3 grossing domestic picture of all time is that they cut out most of the crap that only 9 year olds want to see. Does anyone really need to see Bale teaming up with Plastic Man or the Hawk Woman?
Wow another random asshole attacking me for something a lot of people want to see. Jesus Christ, try some fucking civility you dick. Also, his interactions with Plastic Man are awesome. See the Brave and the Bold. His interactions with HAWKGIRL would mean the rest of the JLA would be there and that’s tremendous.
If you don’t want it, that’s fine, but please stop trying to insult me with your pointless shit.
ETA: If it’s with these ragamuffins then that would be a great big “NO”.
“Jesus Christ, try some fucking civility you dick”.
today’s million dollar t-shirt…
chris: Though the New York article doesn’t phrase it very well, they’re referring to using Scorsese’s name as a brand to sell the film. While this may get some parents into the theater, it means nothing to the kids. As far as I know, Smith’s and Bobin’s films aren’t sold on their names, because they mean nothing to anyone.
Scoot, glad you liked it!
i musta be reading this blog too long that i think i can mostly understand what j f sebastian is talking about (no offence to the binary one really, i don’t think people understand half of what i say here either)
but this bit “Also, his interactions with Plastic Man are awesome”, i can just picture nolan trying to do plastic man dead serious. i’d like to see that, his head might explode
(eta nolan’s, not plastic man’s)
being a gangster was better than being president of the united states
He has really awesome interactions with Plastic Man and a ton of other characters, but this shit confounds Nolan. A guy who seems to think that you know, it’s only about Bats interactions with three people, when that’s not the character at all.
Bats has created a support system for himself and a family. He has a family and that Nolan ignores it, is rather silly, but hopefully the next guy or gal will reboot Bats to have the Bat family intact.
Like Bond, there will now never be a time when there is not a Batman movie in some stage of development. And like Bond we will get different interpretations and various levels of seriousness. I for one am glad we are getting Nolans. If for the next cycle we get a lighter Batman or one with the supporting cast of the comic series, fine. But it seems odd to me to complain that you are not getting exactly what you want when the quality of these films has been exceptional.
Could this really be the same IO who once told us that The Dark Knight was the greatest thing to hit the screen since that train pulled into La Ciotat Station?
I love Nolan and every movie he’s made. Memento is still my favorite, but I would gladly sit down and rewatch anything he directed any time. I guess backlash is inevitable at a certain point. Considering how good Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are, I am more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with TDKR. Nolan has earned it.
Joe, yes, Danny Boyle robbed Chris Nolan in 2009, and that’s never going to change. It’s just, the eight years, is very goofy. If his back is broken by Bane in the prologue that doesn’t even change anything because it means he’s only been BATMAN for a very short of period of time. Think about that for a minute: he’s only been Batman in this third film maybe 3 or 4 years baring a broken back, and that’s ridiculous.
Seriously Hcat, if there were ever a time to introduce more of the Bat family, that 8 years would be the time to do it. Having him basically hanging out with two old dudes is really a stretch for me.
Paul, it’s not about the benefit of the doubt. It’s about those story details that are way too damn much for their own good. I had a feeling he’d do something goofy but eight years and MORTAL KOMBAT BANE are even goofier than I could have imagined.
It’s different for people like you IO. You have much more invested in Batman than I do. You read the comics right? You’re a long-time fan of the character? I’ve never read a Batman comic and so that kind of stuff (8 years later) does not bother me at all. I love Batman Begins and TDK and just want another good Nolan Batman movie. Details like “8 years later” don’t really mean anything to me.
Hell, Im an obsessive fan of the character, with more Bat-stuff around my home and office than would generally be considered healthy – and Im not all that bothered by the idea.
Of course, if it really is eight years later… will Alfred be moving around with a walker?
By the time it’s released, it will have been 7 years since Begins. Cain will essentially be playing his own age, and he still seems mobile enough.
Paul, it’s inferring. It’s easy to infer where this is going and unless things drastically change they are not for me. Most folks are probably going to be like Story but that’s not me nor my best friend, so I at least have a brother in arms who is also bothered by the time jump.
ill take nolan’s movies over some stupid cash grab cram up with batman and a dozen other superheroes.
js, more people want nolan’s batman than a justice league movie.
when Avengers comes out and does 300 million to the Dark Knights’ 533 million (And the Dark Knight Rises 400-450), you’ll see that good storytelling with one comic book hero is more important than a giant cartoon with a half dozen heroes who barely get enough screen time to develop any sense of story or character.
Die hard fanboys want these giant mash up movies. Your typical movie fan doesnt know who plastic man is and couldnt give a fuck about seeing Batman team up with them.