What Can Brown Do For Warner Bros

Okay… I’ll give it up… Warner Bros has not done a job to try to cover the cost of their big summer film (aka MEFE, aka The Most Expensive Film Ever). This is an entry in a Worth1000 Photoshopping content called “Superhero Dayjobs.”

How Hip?

When is the last time you saw a movie poster with the name upside down?
It may seem minor to you, but I think it’s an interesting concession to the new media world and the idea that audiences want to be challenged… or to at least feel challenged.

The Future Of Newspapers By A True (And Truthful) Newspaper Man

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce – commonly known as the RSA

Oscar

The Academy announced its dates for 2007 this morning and as disappointed as I am that they haven

Small Stories Light The Way To The Future

More and more, the future of the film business can be seen in the news about other forms of media. There were two key stories in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.
First, there was a large story about profit declines at some of the major newspaper groups in which this one line really stood out

Friday Estimates by Klady

Those teenagers are really staying away from the theaters in droves!
I didn

Friday THB

Apparently, I gave up sight for lent and missed a few very obvious entries in the top adult book adaptations category on thb today.
The corrected list:
1. Jurassic Park – $357m/$558m
2. Jaws – $260m domestic/$211m international
3. The Exorcist – $193m/$208m
4. Gone With The Wind – $190m/$202m
5. The Perfect Storm – $182m/$146m
6. Schindler’s List – $96m/$225m
7. A Beautiful Mind – $171m/$143m
That said, Forrest Gump doesn

Summer Preview

So what kind of summer do you tihnk it will be?
Here’s what I think…

Good, Bad Or Indifferent?

Does the LA Film Festival’s choice to honor George Lucas as Guest Director of this year’s festival an invigorating crossover from what is traditionally thought of as independent film to a guy who plays the independent game to the tune of billions?
Or, is it a desperate stab at attention, using a guy who overshadows and contributes nothing to the hard-core indie movement that still struggles year after year to do powerful, provocative work with little or no money to get it done?
Or, is it just a non-issue?

United 93

I am going to keep this extremely simple until I see the movie again.
Still fairly early in his career, Paul Greengrass is a master at this form of filmmaking. He and his team of camerapeople and editors really know how to make it vibrantly alive and yet not lose you. And the performances always spark of a gritty reality.
The question on people’s lips is, “Is it too early for this film.”
And my answer is an answer to the words in that question, but not to the intent of that question. There were moments that I felt spikes of emotionality during the film, but not in a see-and-react way. Hearing the CNN description of the morning hit me hard… perhaps a filed away memory powerful in recall.
My reaction is that it was too early for the filmmakers, and perhaps the studio, to make the movie they meant to make. I don

Who Are The Biggest Stars In The World?

Part I – Laying The Groundwork of The Retired, The Still Suspect, The Bodies, The Combackers, and The Anticipated
Part II – 55 With $5 Million
How much more valuable is The Rock than Harrison Ford?
Who is the highest ranked woman (at #15)?
Why are Leo and Clooney so low?
3:57p – An e-mail correcty pointed out one I really did miss…
42a. Jack Black (Added Late) – It’s actually a fairly wide open issue about how much Black really is worth at the box office. Nacho Libre will give us a better idea. But Shallow Hal was big concept and still traded on the Farrelly cache. Envy is unfair to judge him on. And School of Rock was a perfect role in a great concept film. Developing…

Superman EXCLUSIVE!

The genius known as Bryan Singer has apparently recruited Mr. Hat, who was fired from South Park after his partner had a sex change, to appear in Superman Begins III (aka The Most Expensive Movie In The History Of Movies). Here is an image of him, without his signature hand (or hat). Revenge is sweet.

More On…

Some mornings, reading the Wall Street Journal is just a thrill. Today, the paper went past others and really did a great job of thinking deeper about some of yesterday’s news.
First, a smart piece on Disney’s web strategy and the question, which I completely missed, which was just how much reruns on the web will interfere with the value of syndication.
The funny thing, for me, is that I have already gotten past believing that there is any future for local station syndication, outside of branding like TNT/TBS have done, where a local station runs nothing but comedies and local news and anotehr run nothing but hour-longs and news… basically offering a free answer to the pay cable networks to come.
Second, a nice update on the technologcal move allowing you to watch your computer on your TV. The one thing the piece doesn’t adress is the difference in quality in the files sized for watching on your computer vs the materials you watch on your TV.
Finally, there is a stat in this story that hits home – “The New York Times in yesterday’s editions noted, a bit smugly, that the Daily News had ‘pulled out all the stops.'”
In fact, the Times, a unit of New York Times Co., has actually spilled more ink on the Page Six scandal. As of last night, it had written 10 articles totaling 10,865 words since the news broke, compared with 6,588 words for the News, in seven articles. The story was on the Times’s front page Saturday and Sunday, and the fronts of two sections yesterday.”
Ha.

Freedom

Disney is taking the next step in what will, somewhat inevitably, be the slow steady move towards individual studio on-demand networks for television. Or as the old joke goes,

Animated Gifing With Lucasfilm