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
Anchorman 2 officially greenlit
Apatow/McKay/Ferrell/Rudd/Carell back
not mentioned, but i assume david koechner will return as well
I think Koechner will be able to make time. WHAMMY!
Billy Corgan talks about the dying music industry –
different ways for musicians to make money…he says
twitter / facebook and social media doesn’t amount
to more sales ..
worth checking out even if you don’t like his music
15 minute interview –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8z6tU4at30
I’m not that excited. I love the original, don’t get me wrong. But we’ve been down this road before. Everyone’s excited about a sequel that ends up paling in comparison to the first one and lessens it’s esteem.
Ahh. It’s a deep burn. I don’t know if you heard me counting but I did over a thousand.
60 percent of the time it works every time.
Applegate doesn’t get enough credit for playing the straight lady opposite the cast o’ asses. She was very integral to make Anchorman work and can’t be replaced by anyone who is going to try and be goofy with the boys.
I’m wondering if this deal got made because the principles have all been on a downswing.
Carrell is animation gold, but he hasn’t had a top-billing hit since 40-Year Old. Rudd is at the crossroads in a big way.
As for Ferrell and McKay, they had The Other Guys, but Wahlberg is an opener in his own right. McKay couldn’t get any movement on The Boys, and save Megamind, Ferrel’s been cresting downward since Talladega.
I’m guessing they’ve dropped all the “Anchorman: The Musical” demands and came to the table with a reasonable offer. I don’t know why Par would agree to anything exorbitant at this point, since Ferrel has done such a great job of killing the sequel heat in past interviews. Par doesn’t need to do this like they did four years ago.
hey DP – are you done with international actors / directors who’ve won awards – Asghar Farhadi – Jean Dujardin – Berenice Bejo – Steve McQueen – Michelle Yeoh and many others .. will they be back for more interviews this year ?
all of these people get a nice boost with awards but then probably go back outside the US to keep making films ..only a few stick around like Noomi Rapace with Sherlock Holmes 2 and Prometheus..
“Carrell is animation gold, but he hasn’t had a top-billing hit since 40-Year Old.”
Last time I checked, GET SMART was well over 130 million domestic (plus another 100 mill overseas) with a sequel on the way.
Date Night did well too. I don’t have much faith for Seeking a Friend at the End of the World.
Looking very forward to seeing Ferrell/Applegate/Carell/Rudd/Koechner/Willard/Parnell deal with the 1980’s.
Yeah, Martin S, I feel like you’ve busted out this “Ferrell on downward crest” incorrect pet theory before, and the numbers don’t really match up (except that Talladega is indeed his biggest hit since Elf… but by that logic he’s also been on a bigger “downward crest” since Elf).
Since Talladega, Ferrell has had three $100 million-plus comedies, and given that he still mostly makes comedies, $100 million isn’t a bad bar for succcess, one that he cleared with Blades of Glory in 2007; Step Brothers in 2008; and The Other Guys in 2010.
And Cadavra is right (though I’m not sure how far they are in actually doing that Get Smart sequel). Carell, since 40-Year-Old Virgin, let’s see, he’s had two solid comedy hits (Get Smart and Date Night), several respectable-grossing dramedies (Dan in Real Life, Little Miss Sunshine, Crazy Stupid Love) showing actually greater non-broad-comedy success than many of his peers. And even his box-office misses (Evan Almighty, Dinner for Schmucks) show a certain fanbase. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World looks like it goes back to the humanist-sad-sack-Carell well one too many times, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes $50 million or more just because that sad-sack thing seems to be something he can actually work pretty well (I half-hated Crazy Stupid Love but it obviously connected with some people).
Rudd could certainly use the heat; he’s just not a big box office star, no matter how great he is (and I do consider him one of the most talented comic leading men around).
Usually I’d be reluctant to get super-excited about a sequel when I’d rather see something new from McKay and Ferrell, who have never disappointed me together. BUT I have to assume the quality-control on this thing will be high. And I’d rather see McKay do this than adapt The Boys, which from what (admittedly little) I’ve read of it seems totally juvenile and self-satisfied in a way McKay’s satires rarely are (and I like Garth Ennis’s comic book PREACHER a lot; would love to see a movie of that, as unlikely as it is to happen).
Clash 2 opens this weekend. I still haven’t found the time to see Clash 1. I always seem to have a reason to watch something else. Maybe tonight I will finally get around to watching it.
‘American Reunion’: Producer Chris Moore Argues With Fans On Facebook
“I do not want $50 mil I do not want teen age girls owning the boxoffice. No ofense [sic] to them, I am rasing [sic] a beautiful one myself, but if the only movies that make any dough are twilight and hunger games than that is all you are going to see … Now I am pandering purposely because I want to win.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/american-reunion-producer-chris-moore_n_1386019.html?ref=entertainment
Best Buy says it will close 50 big box stores, cut 400 jobs
http://www.startribune.com/business/144875875.html
so DP was kinda right ?
The Lessons Of Best Buy
“Best Buy is not too long for this world – The idea of a brick and mortar retailer competing with internet and FedEx/UPS is near over”
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/12/the-lessons-of-best-buy/
“Par doesn’t need to do this like they did four years ago.”
They are certainly in a better place but they got there mostly by relying on Dreamworks products. Plus losing Marvel tosses a giant 300 million dollar hole in their usual market share, I can see how they would be anxious to jumpstart any and all possible franchises.
I haven’t seen Anchorman since the theaters but I remember finding it so off-kilter, with it being the first Apatow/McKay comedy it really wasn’t what I expected. The stopping of forward motion so they could do a few minutes on Rudd’s cologne, the rumble turning into gladiatorial games, the talking dog, plus there was what would become the usual Apatow adults with junior high/high school identity problems. I came out of the theater thinking What The Fuck Was That.
And one other thing that struck me as weird about Anchorman was how the movie was mocking the boys club establishment of 70’s newsrooms while being made 40 years later by an industry that is just as much a boys club as the one it was mocking. Sort of like how an executive who works 80 hours a week will greenlight the picture of the hero who gets out of the rat race to spend more time with their loved ones.
Are we sure those Best Buy closures are a reflection of the market and not one of that Walmart scheme outlined in a few docs where a store comes in strategically to bounce local merchants and when that’s done, they close and consolidate?
“Sort of like how an executive who works 80 hours a week will greenlight the picture of the hero who gets out of the rat race to spend more time with their loved ones.”
Bingo Dingo!
Chris Moore? That awesome jerk producer from the Project Greenlight series? Glad to see he’s still working. of course, it looks like he produces all the American Pie movies as well as every other Matt Damon movie.
Season 1’s Pete Jones (Stolen Summer) wrote Hall Pass.
Season 2’s writer Erica Beeney (Battle for Shaker Heights) never got another job. Co-director Efram Potelle now mainly does visual effects (The Devil Inside) while co-director Kyle Rankin mainly does shorts.
Season 3’s director John Gulager (Feast) made the straight-to-DVD’s Feast 2 & Feast 3, and he just wrapped Piranha 3DD, while the writers Marcus Dunstan & Patrick melton, in addition to writing Feast 2 & 3 and Piranha 3DD, wrote the last four Saw movies, The Collector, The Collector 2 (coming soon) and The Occult, with Rufus Sewell, Anne Heche and Colm Meaney.
Don, Best Buy is hardly a local merchant. If anything they were responsible for the demise of the local merchant record store/stereo shop. They have already been in competition with other Big Box’s for awhile, if Circuit City didn’t hurt them, then I doubt Wal-Mart did. If anything this is probably a response to Amazon and Apple stores.
The people Wal-Mart is gunning for is more likely apparel and grocery.
hcat-
I meant the opposite. Best Buy is a big box store and those typically get placed in areas to drive OUT local merchants. I was wondering if the store closures were more of a “mission accomplished” type of thing because local stereo installers, electronics dealers, etc. had been driven out. I think Best Buy pretty effectively killed Circuit City as well.
I think Anchorman 2 should be a time-travel comedy – have Ron and he news team magically transported to 2013, make it a riff on 24/7 cable news media, etc. Could be very, very funny.
Also, FWIW, Koechner tweeted earlier today that he’s in, so the whole team’s on board.
Sorry I misinterpreted you Don. I think Circuit City pretty much killed themselves. Didn’t the purge the store staffs of anyone making over minimum wage? I remember going in there a few times in the years before the closure and the staff that I could get to help me knew nothing about the products. I asked what was the difference between two models of Blu-Ray players and the guy answered “this one costs $30 more.”
if every movie critic is comparing the hunger games to battle royale – then how are battle royal dvd sales /rentals going ?
shouldn’t there be banner ads on every movie blog about battle royale … they got a limited time before people
forget about the hunger games comparision and move on ..
BR should be released in theatres again … theatres can
be cashing in …if hunger games makes 150 million ..
BR could make 10 million off everything else if the movie
critics who hated the hunger games just mentioned BR to the audience in clar simple terms that they really should watch this movie .
the teen audience might have trouble watching a 2 hour movie with subtitles ..
movie critics should hang outside movie theatres and just give out free dvd copies of BR to people .
Carrell, wide releases, total, with animation…
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/fpez9
Carrell, without animation…
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/aros2
Cadavra’s right about Get Smart being his peak for live. But, it’s been downhill since.
As for Ferrell. Wide, total, minus animation…
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/vmjcj
While Other Guys did better than I gave it credit for, it’s can’t all go to him. When you look at Wahlberg’s numbers alone, he is that extra difference. And as I said before, every commercial I saw featured Jackson and Rock.
I don’t see the consistency some of you guys do. Carrell should have been able to hold some type of momentum with Smart, but after Virgin, the reaction has been meh-to-bleh and it’s caught up. Same thing with Ferrell. I think he realizes that on his own, Talladega and Elf are in the rearview, but with some kind of ensemble, he can get back to 150M. Anchorman fits that.
Hcat – Re: Par. I agree losing DW is probably what made them open to this, but what Ferrel and McKay were asking for the last time was doomed to fail. A few weeks on Broadway, then shoot the movie. Save Parker and Stone, has a musical comedy worked? Popeye to Producer’s 2K?
I love Ferrell’s Robert Goulet, which is what a Burgudy musical would be, but who the hell is paying to see that and expecting it, outside of me and some others? That’s not something you can open on 3K screens, and I have to wonder if that was the litmus test with Casa; see how far Ferrell/McKay could push things and how much of an audience shows up.
wouldn’t it be better if they made a 13 part series on cable for anchorman 2 instead ? might save money to make but it’ll be around for years cause of repeats .
After ‘You’re Welcome America’ Ferrel might be itching to get back on stage and feels that Burgendy is the only guarentee to put people in the seats. They need Paramount to release the rights so there’s some quid pro quo. Who knows.. the stage show might be completly different from the completed film which will probably shoot 30 hours of footage and cut it down to 89 minutes.
But there has been no mention of the stage show in the deals. It might be possible that they gave up on it.
And an Anchorman movie will play for more years on cable than a 13 episode run of a series.
Martin, I think you have weirdly unrealistic expectations about what consistency, er, consists of. No one does $150 million comedy after $150 million comedy. Sandler, the most insanely consistent comedy star out there, has gotten above $150 million twice in the past ten years. Basically same as Ferrell (counting his 148 for Talladega). And no, The Other Guys was not sold on The Rock and Sam Jackson, and if you want to talk averages (like how Wahlberg “mathematically” adds a ton more, even though Other Guys only made about $25 million more than Ferrell’s non-action Step Brothers), The Rock at that time (pre Fast Five) had starred in a grand total of zero movies that made as much as The Other Guys domestically and very little sold on Jackson alone (or even Jackson co-lead) has ever been a big hit. They add some value but Ferrell is a MUCH better stand-alone bet than they are.
You’re also saying Carell’s career is in bad shape because he was in a HUGE animation hit. So he’s not doing well because his $250 million hit wasn’t live-action? See also: MOST ACTORS EVER. To me, the animated hits are nice bonuses, not valid points of comparison for asking why more of their movies aren’t bigger hits.
It’s not great analysis to say “this movie was a peak, and it’s been downhill since.” I mean, that’s what a peak is (well, actually, it’s not, but I’m assuming a loose interpretation of “downhill” as your graphs don’t show a downward trajectory. They show peaks and valleys, with peaks being a few years ago in both cases). Hardly anyone’s career goes up and up and up. I mean, Will Smith’s biggest domestic hit is still Independence Day. By your logic, it has been “downhill ever since” for him.
And as I said, I don’t think $150 million is the bar for comedies. $80-120 million range for comedies is a business studios are happy to be in.
trailer that pretty much gives a lot of the movie away … but seems like a solid drama
People like US trailer – Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GLP9xxS2r4
Also, I don’t think audiences would reject Anchorman 2 as a musical. I think that movie would open to $40+ million no matter what. Maybe it wouldn’t end up making way more than the original’s 80ish, but it probably would.
Despite its action elements, THE OTHER GUYS was a ultimately a comedy, and Wahlberg was not a comedy draw prior to that film. Still, there’s no way to know at this point what motivated the audience to buy their tickets; it was probably a mix of Ferrell fans, Wahlberg fans, comedy fans and action fans. To the extent that the ads may have misled some to believe that Jackson and Johnson had leading roles, they may have been a factor, too. But I don’t think the film’s success requires an asterisk by Ferrell’s name. Seems to me that, since ANCHORMAN, when he and McKay shoot for a mainstream comedy hit, they get one.
Rest in peace Warren Stevens–one of my favorite character actors.
While it’s hard for me to believe Anchorman 2 took this long to happen, I’m pleased it is happening now. Martin S is right about Applegate being an underrated asset in that movie and in general. She’s great. Having read the script to the Boys when it was going around, I can say it is truly a special thing and would be a really exciting departure for Adam McKay, but I am not displeased at all to see one of my favorite film makers going back to his bread and butter.
Floating around Facebook right now is a picture of Travolta and Sam Jackson in PULP FICTION with this caption:
“What do they call ‘The Hunger Games’ in Paris?”
“‘Battle Royale’ with cheese.”
God, I wish I’d thought of that.
Jesse – And no, The Other Guys was not sold on The Rock and Sam Jackson
I never said that.
I said every commercial/trailer I ran across featured them prominently, as if they were part of an ensemble.
Look at Trailer 1 compared to Trailer 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VVmGSxmnEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOVVGe3f2SE
and if you want to talk averages (like how Wahlberg “mathematically” adds a ton more, even though Other Guys only made about $25 million more than Ferrell’s non-action Step Brothers)
I never said that, either.
Ferrell’s hits pre-Other Guys are about 20Mil less in total. Look at Wahlberg’s numbers, and it’s obvious he brought around 20Mil on his own.
You’re also saying Carell’s career is in bad shape because he was in a HUGE animation hit. So he’s not doing well because his $250 million hit wasn’t live-action?
No, I’m not “saying” that. I showed both charts so people weren’t thinking I was trying to distort his record by not giving him credit for his animation hits. I left it off of Ferrell’s because Megamind is an anomaly where Carrell has made animation a steady part of his slate.
As I said in response to Cadavra, I didn’t realize how well Get Smart performed overseas. It did 30Mil more each than his usual domestic and international numbers. It makes sense domestically, but not globally. Get Smart is not something I consider as a global “brand”.
This is not a criticism of not permanently trending upward. It’s about retention and Carrell gained nothing from Get Smart. His successes have had incremental drops since Virgin, and Smart should have reversed that trend. What it shows is he’s losing his audience.
Ferrell’s record is more problematic. Domestically, he’s been bleeding audience retention since Talladega, which did 150M stateside and 15M overseas. Other Guys made only 8mil more than Talladega, but 50Mil of OGuys came international, leaving 120M. That’s a 30M drop at home, and I’m ignoring Land of The Lost.
Trendlines show they are both losing audience, Ferrell moreso than Carrell, but I think he was staved by The Office. Fey also had a lot of steam coming into Date Night and it still did 20Mil less than Virgin/Evan, let alone Smart. The domestic for Date should have been stronger.
As for studio happiness, that’s Dave’s territory. Each one has their own barometers.
I think what’s problematic is your assumption that any movie that doesn’t perform to peak levels (in this case, any Ferrell movie that doesn’t match Talladega is therefore representative of “lost audience” — people who won’t go see a Ferrell movie anymore, is that the idea? — or any Carell movie that grosses below Get Smart represents the same).
I mean, Sandler’s Grown Ups is one of his biggest ever at $160 million or so. His next movie made “only” $100 million. Does this mean that his audience has abandoned him, never to return? That his next movie couldn’t make $120 million?
And if it’s as fluid as that, then I think describing it in terms of an “audience” that ebbs and flows is misleading. Having an audience doesn’t mean that audience will pay to see you in literally every comedy you make. Pretty much no one has that. Nevermind that Crazy Stupid Love did quite well for an adult-targeted not-super-broad comedy.
Or that you’re flat-out wrong about Date Night: domestically, it made a whopping two million less than Evan Almighty (without a big summer push) and a shocking $10 million less than 40yoVirgin. In no universe should Date Night be considered a downward trend from Evan Almighty.
Again, I bring up Will Smith. Does his lack of an Independence Day-size hit mean that he’s “trending down”?
It seems pretty clear to me both actors have a fanbase. Ferrell’s can be counted on to the tune of $40-50 million in a broad comedy; $100 million or so if it’s a comedy that really works.
Carell can consistently push a movie above $60 million, even if it’s more of a dramedy; his broad comedies (which he’s done fewer of lately) routinely do more.
Both of them can still open movies in the $15-25 million range. Sometimes higher.
Talladega is an outlier, not a standard. Step Brothers, a far more off-putting and weird comedy than the NASCAR-friendly Talladega, did $100 million opposite The Dark Knight for its entire run. To me that’s impressive.
Neither of them are bulletproof. Far from it. But the standards you’re using are crazy.
For all of the talk about how movie stars are over in terms of being sure things at the box office, it’s this kind of talk that drives me crazy: when has there ever been a star (save Will Smith, who has managed his brand very well, if conservatively) who could just AUTOMATICALLY get a movie to $100 million? Maybe Tom Cruise for most of the nineties (although Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia didn’t make it); Tom Hanks for a big chunk of that time. But this idea that for someone to count as a STAR with a fanbase, they have to deliver ever-rising grosses and uninterrupted strings of $100 million hits… just ridiculous.
Is Triplets with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, and Eddie Murphy real or an early April Fool’s joke?
My standard for “box office star” would be consistent $15 – $20m+ openings. My standard for superstar would be consistent $100m dom grosses
I think that’s fair, DP. By those measures, Carell and Ferrell qualify for star easily while flirting with superstar, though not quite there; Carell has had four in that $100 million territory, while Ferrell has had five (not counting animation).
Considering this metric, seems like the following meet the “box office star” standards over the last five years or so: Will Smith, Pitt, Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Sandler, Carell, Ferrell, Carrey, Johnny Depp, Downey, Sandra Bullock… DiCaprio is surprisingly on the edge considering how many big hits he’s been in over the past decade.
I’m sure I’m missing some, though.
This is grading on a curve right in regards to smaller films right? Everything Must Go can’t be held to the same standard as The Other Guys, and the same with Carrell’s forays into the dependents.
It’s insane to close brick-n-mortar stores just because people are buying DVDs and HDMI cables online. Anyone wanna buy a TV over the internet? I sure as hell don’t, considering the new one I just bought had a patch of dead pixels on it and had to be returned. There’s no way I would want to deal with UPS over that one.
Is Colin Farrell contractually obligated to reinterpret every iconic 80’s movie now? How long before he gets paired with Eddie Murphy or Sam Jackson for a Lethal Weapon reboot?
Actually, I just want to have that argument about whether FRIGHT NIGHT was really a classic again.
FRIGHT NIGHT is a minor genre classic. It’s certainly the best vampire film of the 80’s – even over NEAR DARK. Sarandon is just so damn good and there’s not a frame not filled with horror movie afternoon matinee espirit de corp. And Roddy McDowall – just watch that scene where Evil Ed dies. McDowall is ACTING.
Fright Night might be seen as a classic vampire movie because outside of the original Dracula there is not real top of the heap masterpiece vampire movie we can point to like we can for Westerns or Musicals or even in the horror subgenres Haunted Houses or Zombies. Think of what you might consider your top ten or twenty horror films and see how many vampires appear. Let The Right One In might maybe make the list.
And though this might contradict what I wrote above, I do like the original Fright Night for how it, for lack of a better word, deconstructs the genre, like Princess Bride, Unbreakable, and Scream do in their respective genres. It is part homage, part gentle satire where the participants sort of realize they are in a movie (or at least need to follow the movie rules).
And if we are argueing above about the Rock contributing to another star’s gross I would say that Get Smart is the one we should be looking at rather than the other guys. With Hatheway, Rock, and Arkin off his oscar win, Warners did a pretty good job at having something for everyone. I like Carrel quite a bit and think he’s a legitimate star, but he certainly didn’t do ALL the heavy lifting when it came to Get Smarts BO.
When the FRIGHT NIGHT remake hit (which isn’t that bad, REALLY!) I said how much I LOVED the original and I think the fact that it hit in the wheelhouse of me and so many of the geek bloggers elevated it to a higher status. I mean, we were all 8-18 years old (give or take) when it hit theaters and cable and I loved it. I still love it but alot of that is nostalgia. I do think it’s a great 80’s horror film though and a nice twist in the genre. It’s the kind of movie that if seen as a kid or teen of that time AT that time has a lasting impression.
I love the way Roddy McDowall is purely ACTING (!) as it fits his character and personae and that kid who played Evil Ed is fucking fantastic in an honestly weird and creepy way. And not just because he entered gay porn later; it’s a skeezy performance no matter what happened to the guy later.
Speaking of geek bloggeratti overpraising….I saw THE RAID last night and umm…no. It was totally fine and I liked it but once again, people are overpraising a very o.k. piece of genre work. I loved alot of the fight scenes but simply thought there was too many. They all felt the same after a while. The attempts at drama feel slapped in purely to give people a break from the endless, countless fight scenes. There’s no drama in the drama. I despised the grey color palette as well. A perfectly fine video gamey beat-em-up and nothing more.
I missed the original Fright Night during its heyday, so I only saw it for the first time about a year ago – and I found it rather painful, really. But then, I have an extremely low tolerance for camp. I much preferred the remake, and thought it was only alright.
To me, The Lost Boys is the definitive 80’s vampire movie.
“How long before he gets paired with Eddie Murphy or Sam Jackson for a Lethal Weapon reboot?”
Ratner’s been attached to a Lethal Weapon reboot for a while now. Some friends and I have laid money on Farrel playing Riggs.
It’s gratifying that even in jest I can draw as many perceptive comments as the redoubtable Martin H. Leaf on that other thread…
I agree with the insights of christian, hcat, and Don concerning the charms of the original FRIGHT NIGHT. And I can certainly understand why storymark might be turned off by the camp elements… to a certain extent, you really have to put yourself back in that era, with the sexual hysteria and undercurrents of homophobia underpinning the horror of a pansexual and voracious Jerry Dandrige right at the time that AIDS was hitting mainstream cultural consciousness. On the other hand, it’s true that the movie trades heavily in nostalgia itself (for the old “Chiller Theatre,” “Creature Feature” and Svengoolie-style Saturday afternoon/midnight TV packages, for Hammer horror, for Roddy McDowall, even). So it’s not surprising that nostalgia for an era when it was still possible to see some vampire movie or chopped-up Italian gothic masterpiece on television (rather than cable) — as well as the fashions, crappy music, bad hair, and dubious tropes of the Reagan era — is a big part of its appeal for those of a certain age (me and Don R. Lewis, apparently).
Still, I find it difficult to comprehend how storymark finds THE LOST BOYS any less camp than FRIGHT NIGHT.
And thanks for sharing the intel on Ratner’s involvement with a LETHAL WEAPON reboot. Add S.W.A.T. to his resume, if Farrell gets on board he will undisputed King of the Rehash!
Larry King style…
Did Harvey Weinstein cite “Gunner Palace” when he was appealing Bully’s R-rating? … That’d be funny if Sam Jackson got the Lethal Weapon reboot since he already starred in Natl Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon Part 1. … I love asparagus.
I only went to Circuit City once and felt overcharged… Just saw Take Shelter and marvelled at two things. 1) Michael Shannon’s performance, and 2) Jessica Chastain was in this movie too? How did she find time to star in seven movies in one year?
I’m trying to think of a TV station that has lower ratings than Current TV that Keith Olbermann could go to now that Al Gore fired him. style? OWN? Fuse?… I dreamt I won the MegaMillions last night so if the numbers I dreamt wind up winning, I may have to find the nearest cliff and jump. I live in one of the few states that doesn’t participate… Carnage would have made some money if it opened next week on 1000 screens, but no, they had to go the Oscar-bait route… West Virginia is one hilariously-shaped state.
Can’t wait for Season 2 of Game of Thrones… I’ve started using Axe body-wash, and I have not seen an uptake in hot babes throwing themselves at me… Are Jason Segel and Emily Blunt dating in real-life? They’ve been in a few movies together… Why do I get the feeling that Jack the Giant Killer is going to be the John Carter of 2013?… The Undertaker’s WrestleMania win streak will continue.
Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise ruled the 1980’s and 1990’s, but Hanks’s star power has slipped more than Cruise’s… The Broncos and Jets will finish with the same record next year… I wish they’d move up Django Unchained’s release date so I can see it before the end of the world… MAYAN POWER!… Lex is still amusing on Twitter… Chronicle is still my favorite movie of 2012… Triscuits are my favorite cracker.
Lindsay Lohan face in 60 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_0Mi5Q-ExZ8
I too have felt over charged at Circuit city. I did like it when they were around though because I thought they had items not available at Best Buy. Comparison shopping was great. They’d get so pist if you didn’t pony up for an extended warranty. It’s like, “dude, they’re batteries!”
Jets & Broncos finished w/the same record this past year. Broncs ’12 schedule is brutal! I was skeptical on Sanchez being a top ten pick but I didn’t think he was as bad as he was last year. Jets will have to split w/NE, take care of Hou at home then hope they get San Diego early and Buff late. Maybe Mario in their div means 2 less wins? If they dump one to the fins or get caught sleeping on the road, then maybe they’re a .500 by week 11 and Ryan is shown the door?? Could that happen??
I’ve not heard word one about Salmon fishing in Yemen. Anyone? Worth the trip to the theater?
When is the Titanic re-release? What’s the over/under on it? What do I have to hope it doesn’t hit so Casablanca, Gone w/Wind, Raiders of Lost Arc and E.T. aren’t necromanced back in 3D form?
new abc tv show preview – comedy
Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt 23
lots of new actors in this and dawson from dawson’s creek.
20 minutes
http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/dont-trust-the-b-in-apt-23
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is definitely not worth a trip to the theater. The leads are fine and it’s got a low-key pleasantness when it’s trying to be funny. But the more serious stuff (which overwhelms the last 45 minutes) is forced and unconvincing. When it turns melodramatic it falls apart in a hurry, and it never recovers.
I was reading a debate between Kubrickians and Spielbergites over what we’re supposed to take away from A.I. when I had to go to work, and on the way there I heard on the radio that the right-leaning justices hearing the Obamacare case are more interested in what James Madison might have thought about national health care than what the Constitution actually says.
Same fight.
It doesn’t matter what you were thinking about during development hell, the only thing that counts is the final release.
And I’m in the “camp” that considers THE LOST BOYS awful from beginning to almost end, rectified by one of the best last lines of the era. And that is way intentional camp whereas Tom Holland, wrote and directed FRIGHT NIGHT and clearly gets the genre. I’m not a nostalgia wallower and I knew THE GOONIES sucked opening day when I was 13. Sarandon and McDowall bring a lot of weight to the roles. Updating Peter Vincent to a magician is just…beyond the point.
http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/serious-dan-harmon-chevy-chase-beef-on-community.html?mid=rss
Mr Chase is apparently unaware that he’s lucky to be working at all these days. And unlike Charlie Sheen, I don’t think anyone will buy tickets if he does a Defending Myself ’12 summer tour.
making movies off smartphones –
they go into detail about which apps and which lens and other gear you need
7 minute video
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9710004.stm
youtube now on dvd .. 2 minute video .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y_UmWdcTrrc
“Michael Bay’s next project will be a black-and-white film entirely in German about a sad clown and a lonely priest on a roadtrip during the Spanish Civil War. It is adapted from a screenplay by Terrence Malick.”
http://them0vieblog.com/2012/04/01/the-top-30-under-reported-news-stories-of-2012/
“Hoping to cement ties between Marvel and its new parent company, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury had a cameo at the end of Disney’s John Carter, but it was cut due to time.”
its been a month since that Kony video …
the entire internet as failed to catch this one super bad guy.
why isn’t there a dozen documentaries about this guy …
why isn’t cnn not trying to catch him ..or have this
as breaking news all day long .
its more fun to watch super bad guys in movies than to catch real ones .
“Ratner’s been attached to a Lethal Weapon reboot for a while now…”
proof of the coming apocalypse — the end is extremely fucking neigh
(i’d give ‘near dark’ the edge as best vampire movie of the ’80s, then ‘the hunger’, fright night, vampire hunter d, lost boys)
I was going to say “Buffy” but that came out in ’92. Oops. (Still, Paul Reubens for the win.)
Tried to watch the TV show but couldn’t stand it. Too hipper-than-thou.
Ratner seems to be also attached to a Midnight Run sequel that will reteam DeNiro and Grodin. Between that and the ‘Triplets’ sequel it makes me wonder what is going on at Universal. Not that I am adamantly opposed to reboots or long range sequels, but they are just choosing the wrong properties. Is Burt Reynolds quote too high to put together another Bandit movie (even DTV?). Hire Bernadette Peters to play a Russian Mafia kingpin’s scorned wife (she seems like she would enjoy doing a campy accent) that an FBI agent has to get across the country to a grand jury. Due to a leak in the department she decides to hire her father’s (Snowman) old partner to help deliver the prisoner. Along the route Reynolds and Peters flirt with each other, they run afoul of the usual biker element, are attacked by Russian hitmen, and gain the attention of a third generation texas law officer. The thing writes itself (or doesn’t write itself, there was no evidence of a script in either of the sequels) and can be done cheaply and easily promoted alongside the vehicular highjinks of the Fast and Furious franchise.
I mean if you are going to do cheap returns to your catalog at least exploit the already tarnished masterpieces. And for Christ’s sake get another Jurrasic sequel together, it’s embarrasing it is taking this long.
“Get Smart is not something I consider as a global ‘brand’.”
You’re forgetting that the original series was created as a Bond spoof, and thus it did very well in syndication overseas, where non-American audiences could relate to it more easily than they could to a wacky-family sitcom.
Ratner is a great, good-time charlie.
He is death to the projects he touches.
He’s artistic death. Aside from TOWER HEIST he’d been on a roll financially speaking I thought.
Are they still planning on a Jurassic Park 4? Seems like after Michael Crichton died, they weren’t going to do any more.
I watched the first season and a half of Buffy about four years ago. That was enough.
Since Grodin’s not going to be in it, who’s the actor you hope to see in Midnight Run 2? If it’s any of the three guys from The Hangover, we must unite together and stop it.
Since the NYT is quick to delete comments critical of the piece’s writer, I guess I’ll comment here on the article linked to on the front page:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/morley-safer-launches-a-halfhearted-salvo-in-his-war-on-the-art-world/?src=tp
If someone needs to “put in the time” to “tell good from bad”, then doesn’t that mean there’s no obvious difference between good art and bad art anymore? Perhaps no one’s even trying to produce good art in their pursuit of the all-important dollar.
Some of the attacks on Safer in the article and in the comments are unbelievable, all because he had to gall to state that 95% of art is garbage. The nerve! Especially since Sturgeon’s Law states that the figure is actually 90%.
(The percentage came from a nearly identical article by Jerry Saltz: http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/jerry-saltz-on-morley-safer-60-minutes-art-world.html )
Surely some people are trying to produce good art and are not solely focused on getting rich. And most must realize that they are unlikely to strike it rich in that line of work. I know some local artists who run incubators and other open work spaces who are definitely not concentrating on making tons of money, or much money at all.
As for Safer, an old dude declaring that most art is garbage hardly seems revolutionary or insightful.
The very first commenter stated that Safer should quit and let someone younger have a chance, as if being a TV commentator is an elected position.
And yes, I have known plenty of local artists who are making jewelry and wind chimes, but only because no one has taken any interest in their “art”.
I dragged that discussion in here because it obviously pertains to film, and though I’m glad to see people making small movies (I just rented Melancholia), is it a general rule that the main character in an art-house flick has to be mentally ill? (I fast-forwarded through the entire reception sequence, which was half the film.)
I can’t bring myself to scroll through the comments accompanying a news item. Life is too short.
I found that having every one of my comments deleted at Cracked.com was a liberating experience. By not returning I gained back so much free time which I’m, uh, wasting here.
I called Reagan the third most evil president in American history.
All about prioritizing how one wastes free time.
They really deleted that? That seems awfully touchy.
“I watched the first season and a half of Buffy about four years ago. That was enough.”
Then you literally stopped just as it was about to hit its stride.
For a comedy site, Cracked can dish it out but like the NYT it can’t take it. They erased my account and 200+ posts made over 3 years.
And I was going to wisecrack that 18 months is an awfully long time for a show to get its shit together, but then the X-Files didn’t even pretend to be anything more than monster-of-the-week until Anderson’s pregnancy forced them to get creative…which they did on a weekly basis with no overall plan in mind.
Buffy’s first season (which Im not wild about myself) was only a half run as well. So really, halfway through seaosn 2 was essentially the end of their first “full” season, so to speak.
Funny that you mention those episodes of The X-Files, though. I just watched the “Anderson’s preggers/Scully’s missing” arc over the weekend.
podcast roundup – i listened to lots of podcast recently.
Adam Pally – actor on happy endings – only interesting thing he said was he hates when people come up to him
and talk to him or take photos .
Michael Cera – actor – only interesting thing he said was people come up to him and they think he’s Jesse Eisenberg + he reads old books nobody has heard about
Gillian Jacobs – actor – only interesting thing she said was she likes theatre/plays – listens to radio / npr and seems super smart …
Amber Tamblyn – actor – only interesting thing she said was she like poetry and written and perform in front of
people … she’s friends with lots of different artists.
if actors do podcasts – they seem to have more personal
stories than doing a dp/30 . it makes actors more human.
every year when actors are up for oscars – somehow DP makes actors less human . Gary Oldman / Jason Reitman /
Michelle Willams are good examples .
Jennifer Lawrence dp/30 is the highest rated ever – why ? LOOK AT HER!!! but also she kept it real for the entire interview … Juno Temple dp/30 also kept it real for entire interview should get more views but she’s not
in a 200 + million dollar movie …
i don’t see DP admitting to doing a bad interview where he screwed up.. at 5%-10% …somewhere during
the interview there is a screwup.