The Hot Blog Archive for November, 2006

20 Weeks – The Season That Couldn't Shoot Straight

This was the year when everyone was ready to cash in. A number of major Traditional Media outlets decided to ramp up their awards season efforts, chasing fading print ad dollars. Websites added new areas of “coverage” to their content, seeking awards ads. And studios almost all seemed ready to jump into the fray, ambitious and hopeful as we entered a new season.
And now, with 90% of the season to be defined, Oscar included, in the next two weeks of endless awards and nominations, there is the sense out there that, yawn, it’s all beyond boring.
We have been seeing all the same old reporting about how things are the same… but they haven’t been. More than half of today’s frontrunners were released in October or earlier. Does that change the reality of various strategies? No. But watch next year’s reporting reflect this year and not next year when next year rolls around.

The rest & the charts…

123 Comments »

Sundance Interesting?

So, competition was announced yesterday and more today
Anyone excited?

26 Comments »

Auteurs Gone Wild

These seven films – with the kinda-exception of one that was made by one studio’s division and released by another – are studio movies, not independent films. And all seven filmmakers are highly creative, highly respected, and responsible for movies that their studios will consider fiscal failures that will be leveraged by some to avoid making similarly challenging films in the future.
In other words, they got the shot… and now, others will have to wait a while before the opportunity comes up again.

The rest…

31 Comments »

Guruing… 8 Weeks To Noms

This week’s charts are up…
BEST PICTURE
Dreamgirls
The Departed
The Queen
Babel
Little Miss Sunshine
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Queen
Little Miss Sunshine
Babel
Volver
World Trade Center
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Little Children
Flags of Our Fathers
Thank You For Smoking

27 Comments »

The Fox Searchlight Family 2006

searchlightgroup06.jpg

13 Comments »

What happened to the Indie Spirit Awards?

It

20 Comments »

Leaving On A Jet Plane

I am about to fall off the earth, literally, for a half day or so. More when I land in Bermuda. But for now, free swim!!!

30 Comments »

The Left Turning Right?

Is it just me or hasn

56 Comments »

Little Children Soldier(s) On

In its eighth weekend in theaters, New Line

39 Comments »

Klady's Sunday Estimates – 11/26

bosun1226.jpg

23 Comments »

Friday estimates by Klady – 11/25

Happy Feet + Casino Royale + D

30 Comments »

Surprise Screening Event?

Very quietly, Warner Bros booked the New Beverly Cinema, L.A.’s only revival house right now, with a double feature of The Good German and Casablanca, including a Good German Q&A, tonight.
They must have told someone, rught?
There may be some group invited, but regular tickets are for sale…

11 Comments »

Package It!

The lesson here is not just for digital music. The lesson is for movies and all other things.
The new iPod Shuffle has landed and the electronics conceit is great, the price is almost half of what the original 1 Gig Shuffle was, the move from all plastic to a metal look makes it seem more indestructible…. but the magic, to me, is the Wow! Factor.
ipodshuffle.jpg
The package says everything. 20 albums on something smaller than 2 quarters. And hidden underneath are all the beautiful designed stuff (aside from a computer) you need to make it all work.
Is the product better than anything else on the market? Damned if I know. Damned if I will ever know until someone proves to me that their product is considerably better

16 Comments »

Betty Comden Exits, Stage Right

The Party’s Over
It’s time to call it a day
They’ve burst your pretty balloon
and taken the moon away
It’s time to wind up
the masquerade
Just make your mind up
the piper must be paid
The Party’s Over
The candles flicker and dim
You danced and dreamed
through the night
It semed to be right
just being with him
Now you must wake up,
all dreams must end
Take off your makeup
The Party’s Over
It’s all over, my friend
The Party’s Over
The candles flicker and dim
You danced and dreamed
through the night
It seemed to be right
just being with him
Now you must wake up,
all dreams must end
Take off your makeup
The Party’s Over
It’s all over, my friend
Singin’ In The Rain, On The Town, and so much more… a seminal writer in my movie love… truly a big part of the soundtrack of my life.
She wasn’t young, so the shock isn’t great. But she and her partner, Adolph Green, performed live into their 80s, touring with their lives and music. Part of the reaction was,

7 Comments »

Happy Thanksgiving All…

A place to discuss… whatever…
Here is the Box Office Hell chart for a little something to spark you…
bohell 1123.jpg
And… Box Office Mojo’s Wed Estimates
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Rank. Movie Title (Distributor) / Theater Count
Daily Gross | % Change (Last Week) | Total Gross | Days in Release
1. Happy Feet (Warner Bros.) / 3,804
est. $7,400,000 | – | est. $55,971,000 | 6
2. Casino Royale (Sony / Columbia) / 3,443
est. $6,650,000 | – | est. $55,823,000 | 6
3. Deja Vu (Buena Vista) / 3,108
est. $3,600,000 | – | est. $3,600,000 | 1
4. Borat (Fox) / 2,580
est. $2,500,000 | +19% | est. $96,371,000 | 20
5. Deck the Halls (Fox) / 3,023
est. $2,050,000 | – | est. $2,050,000 | 1
6. The Santa Clause 3 (Buena Vista) / 3,043
est. $1,850,000 | +253.2% | est. $55,206,000 | 20
7. Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny (New Line) / 1,919
est. $1,350,000 | – | est. $1,350,000 | 1
8. Stranger Than Fiction (Sony / Columbia) / 2,258
est. $1,125,000 | +69% | est. $25,486,000 | 13
9. Flushed Away (Paramount (DreamWorks)) / 2,621
est. $1,075,000 | +127% | est. $50,771,000 | 20
10. The Fountain (Warner Bros.) / 1,472
est. $875,000 | – | est. $875,000 | 1

15 Comments »

The Hot Blog

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon