WGA Strike Chat, Parts 1 & 2

The first half of a talk about the WGA Strike and the issues around it, for the union as well as for other unions. Out guests are Scott Wilson, a longtime SAG member and activist, Marjorie David, a television writer and showrunner, and Paul Haggis, feature writer, writer/director, and television veteran.
How did Haggis make so little on Crash, NetFlix’s most popular rental ever? How did the WGA end up with such a lousy residual on DVD? What is the future? Who is paying for the strike already? And are the studios really robber barons?
Part 1
Part 2

Lunch with… Hal Holbrook

At 82 years of age, Hal Holbrook has a lot of stories to tell… and we get into them. From his early beginnings in theater, the man who got him into Twain, to the many relationships that have driven his career. But there are a lot of big surprises too, including why he identifies more with Emile Hirsch’s character in Into The Wild than his own, his faith in Middle America, and his strong political passions.
The discussion…

A New York State Of Strike

After a day of running around The City… seeing yet another movie that is going to be very successful but about which I cannot write (the other one was a much bigger surprise… and is going to be shockingly successful, even if it gets shredded by some cranky critics who can’t see the schmaltz for the aesthetic)… and spending a bit of time with the still-charmingly unassuming Amy Adams (who could end up in the movie Nine now that Catherine Zeta-Jones has dropped out… a notion which Amy not only didn’t come up with, but didn’t seem to think was possible)… I’m writing in a coffee shop… the natural habitat of all writers.
And…
The vibe around New York

3D Too Hot?

I’ve landed in NY and posting via iPhone is still an iffy proposition… But Beowulf’s soft Saturday really struck me… Did the 3d gambit narrow the overall number?
Does it matter if it did? Will it create legginess?
The experiential story is my nephew last night, who went to the 2d when all 3d shows were sold out. He went, but how many people decided to wait for 3d?

BYOB – November 18

It’s a travel day… and though I have figured out how to post via iPhone, I will be flying when box office numbers land. So here’s some space for you.

Getting Out Of The Box

Two front page stories in the Wall Street Journal this weekend really caught my eye. First, there was the story of how Alex Rodriguez is on the Verge of resigning with the Yankees for more money than ever in history by taking his agent

Classic…

The self-marketing element of the WGA Strike is now in full force.
Nikki Finke has become The Blog Of Choice for people who want to get their story out… and well she should. She run anything that anyone tells her, offering no perspective but plenty of humorous bile. It’s ironic that she is the darling of the writers while all the while she continues to acquire the ideas and stories of others and tagging them as “exclusive” or selling her “innovative” thoughts that she found elsewhere. But such is life.
Today, it’s one of Nikki’s masters, Bryan Lourd, starring as…Lord of the Strike Dance. In days past, it’s tons of drama about backdoor negotiations when, in reality, the choice to come back to the table by the AMPTP has always been tied to waiting long enough for the studios to reap the fiscal benefits of a strike, i.e. force majeuring deals out of existence. There was the bullshit about Eddie Murphy walking off a production because of the strike. There was the bullshit about the Teamsters supporting the WGA by not crossing lines. There was endless hype about the guy who got hit by a car on Day One of the strike… which amazingly has not become a story about the strike as weeks and police reports have passed.
My personal favorite remains the excitement over a site that pirates music putting together a list of great songs to strike by. So… the union that is fighting to get paid for the use of their material is supposed to be pleased and amused by stealing the work of singers and songwriters? Excellent! How singularly myopic can you be? (Hint: The world record is being pushed every day in this town.)
You know… it’s all just more gossip under the bridge. The writers are ANGRY and Nikki is happy to burn bridges – all the while secure that those who feed/run her column will keep doing so as long as she licks their faces like an eager lapdog when they get home from work, through off their shoes, and deeply breathe in the scent from their feet, which never stink – so it’s a marriage made in heaven… and hell. Hyperbole doesn’t settle strikes. But then again, words are not really the issue here. Money is. Always has been. Always will be.
Some writers I respect feel that the public relations effort in this war can play a major part in it. And indeed, if the WGA just disappeared into the woodwork, it would be easier for the studios to make it all seem like it wasn’t happening and that Dave and Jay were just in reruns like usual.
Thing is, as things shake out… as real people in the WGA lower middle class and who work hard at the studios and who start having a hard time covering rent with tips, etc, etc… as things get rougher… and as the strike gets quieter and quieter… the self-promotion rises to the top. And to me, selling yourself off of the real misery of others is a great sin.
But this is Hollywood… where great sin is par for the course. We can hardly claim gossips are in a league of their own. Today, the NY Times decided to run a months-old story about DreamWorks’ overtures to Universal

Friday Estimates by Klady – 11/17

No at terribly interesting weekend. And one with Friday numbers leaving some doors open.
Will Paramount/Zemeckis

Box Office Hell – Nov 16

The Academy Doc Short List Emerges

6:00p Update
Last night and today is the tome when The Academy lets filmmakers know whether they are on the doc short list. This entry will evolve as more informations comes in…
Already in:
Autism: The Musical
Body of War
Lake of Fire – no official website available
Nanking
No End In Sight
Operation Homecoming
The Price of Sugar
Sicko
Taxi To The Darkside
War/Dance
Next rumor at #11 – The Rape Of Europa
Amongst the “expected by many, but unheard from as of yet”:
Crazy Love
For the Bible Tells Me So
I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal
Jimmy Carter Man from Plains
My Enemy’s Enemy
My Kid Could Paint That
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
Primo Levi’s Journey
Sharkwater
Terror’s Advocate
And apparently Out are:
Darfur, Now
The Devil Came on Horseback
In The Shadow Of The Moon
The King Of Kong
Manda Bala
Protagonist
Steal a Pencil for Me
We Are Together

The Bella Thing

People have been humming about the success of Bella. Far too many have simply written it off as “a Jesus thing.” Unfair. The film, which I still haven’t seen, has been very successful as a feel good audience favorite, winning at places like Toronto, where films as edgy as C.R.A.Z.Y. and Ginger Snaps have won in the past.
Anyway… got a remarkable press release for the film today, which really offers a lot of information about the people who do love this film.

Sweeney Tease

The Evening With Tim Burton at Lincoln Center delivered the first real glimpses, outside of Venice, of Sweeney Todd. The choices of what to show were clearly carefully selected.
In the case of

Home Is Where The Stuff Is…

A long and rewarding day today, but when I hit the homefront, a bevy of pleasures was waiting for me.
In one envelope, the Blu-ray of Superbad… a film that I felt would be cool enough from early on to go out and make a unique purchase…

But first

16 Weeks To Oscar – Slippin

It

New Media

I’m trying this out…. Blogging from my phone.
It’s not bad, but it doesnt exactly inspire verbosity. I can’t add photos either.
All good things in time, but it feels like a step…