I Get Misty… And Not So Much In Love

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LWD – The Namesake

Director Mira Nair, screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala, and actors Irfan Khan and Tabu come outside to “lunch” with David, talk about their film, as well as Bollywood, Nair’s upcoming project, Shantaram, and Khan’s work in The Darjeeling Limited and A Mighty Heart.
The Interview

BYOB – Nov 14

It’s funny how even an internet project can start to feel like “real” television.
We continue to knock out Lunch With Davids that will, I am told, arrive soon… we swear. Very time consuming, but very, very pleasurable. Amongst the LWDs that are in the editing bay right now are the entire Diving Bell & The Butterfly family, Hal Holbrook and Emile Hirsch from Into The Wild, Phillip Bosco from The Savages, Todd Haynes & Christine Vachon from I’m Not There, the director of Hairspray, Adam Shankman, and more.
Right now, it’s a little like a production. I’ve done my work. Now it’s in post. Then we have to get it out to you. The team is getting better, in front of and behind the camera, each week. And tomorrow, we’re shooting A Very Special LWD.
In the meanwhile, sorry if I am not as blog attentive as usual. I also missed my weekly Hot Button this morning, which I am still working on. But you all have been great in your responses to a couple of the recent posts.
And again

Gurus of Gold – 16 Weeks To Go

The chart above lists all the films and talent that got multiple votes from the Gurus on the films and people we are personally wishing might be nominated… even though they seem to be underdogs now.
Of course, this begs the question… who are your favorite underdogs?
Here’s the whole chart, plus the Best Picture chart with everyone’s projected, not personal, Top Ten.

Lunch With… Frank Langella

Langella on his current release, Starting Out In The Evening, a remarkable career in the theater and movies, and the film he had just finished shooting days before we met, Frost/Nixon.
The Interview…

Do You Sniffle In The Aisles?

Desson Howe’s “Why We Cry At Movies?” made me think it was an interesting conversation for this room…
I cry at movies. As the years go by, I find myself tearing up at things that are not on-screen emotion, so much as when I feel the movie connecting in some unique. special way. I used to get a chill from it. Now, I find myself getting oddly and not very macho-ly weepy.
A movie can also jerk a tear or two now and again. But not as much as they once did. Now, it really is the rush of emotion when everything in a film is working… that is the most rare event in my moviegoing, movieloving life.
How about you?

I AM BEOCRITIC!!!!

Beowulf is not complicated.
Beowulf is not challenging.
But Beowulf is solid, stirring, exciting, unexpectedly thoughtful, and beautiful.
I find myself oddly uninterested in spinning words about this film. It is an experience that is completely self-explanatory

Off The Lot

Thought it was interesting… at least two studios (Fox and Paramount) are moving all guild/Academy screenings off of their lots. This will require an addition of about $25,000 a week to many studio awards screening budgets and will make quality screening rooms a major commodity… even more than normal.
This will also make it an even tougher market for indies, as the studios with money will be chasing screening opportunities – heavy on weeknights and weekend matinees – at The Grove, The Arclight, and the Landmark Pavillion and guild members will start facing, to their dismay, events at the crappier theaters rooms all over town that we all thought were no longer options that anyone would choose.
If the strike lasts into late December, things will get a lot more dramatic, as screens become even more valuable to the exhibitors who own them and the studios who have films in traditional release.

Sunday Estimates by Klady – Nov 11

Something about Friday….
I’m not sure what happened on Friday, but pretty much every film performed under expectations on Friday… and almost every film was stronger on Saturday and in Sunday estimates than you would expect based on Friday. I really don’t know what the story is, but it is a curiosity.
At the same time, Los Angeles’ AFI film festival was selling out over 90% of their shows on the weekend and about 75% during the week, a rather strong showing for the event.
Interestingly, Fred Claus opened at just about a million less than Santa Clause 3 last year and about 21% behind The Polar Express. Odds are that this film will not be as leggy as Polar and it doesn’t have the excuse of being the third in a series, but this opening is not quite the disaster that people want to make it. The new trend of overstating “failure” on Friday evening, based on east coast numbers and west coast matinees and “industry expectations” which are based on weak analysis of tracking… well, it’s just dumb. I’m not saying that Fred will have a huge comeback. But the idea that high 20s is the minimum for a decent opening is nuts.
In a market with no other light fare for adults, Dan In Real Life is holding exceptionally well. It’s not building, particularly, but it is finding an audience that wants something in that category on Saturday night.
Lions for Lambs is simpler than people want to make that one too. It’s not about Tom… it’s not about Iraq… it’s the idea that it’s a dry polemic, which no one wants to see on any subject, is being confirmed ahead of time by the one audience, adults, who still read critics enough to find confirmation of their suspicions.
Let me just state the obvious… critics obsessing on the morality of No Country For Old Men don’t understand No Country For Old Men. Some people just don’t like the truth. And those people include those who LOVE movies that are too cool for school… which really means that they are too cool to actually say anything at all, other than to make the viewer think they are smart for “getting it.” They like their art all of the surface also, though I prefer them to the wannabe censors. Part of the genius of The Coens is that they are stylized and actually do say something of significance in most of their films. There isn’t an enormous subtext. The messages are simple. But they are profound.
Not a sensational expansion for Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead. But there is still time.

Friday Estimates by Klady – 11/10

All three wide openers will underperform this weekend. Not much of a surprise for Lions For Lambs or P2. Fred Claus at under $20 million is a bit brutal for WB, though there was a clear indication of trouble as the ad campaign changed focus right near release, trying to make people think of it as a feelgood family film instead of A Wedding Crasher Visits The North Pole.
The No Country For Old Men opening is very, very good. However it doesn’t really fit easily into any comparison this awards season. Of course, the long game is what’s key, but in the short term, Across The Universe is the closest comparable opening… and No County wins that fight, and the Miramax history lesson is The Queen, last year, with $1 million on 46 screens in its third weekend of release. It seems that the studio has reconsidered the speed of its platforming, to no small success this weekend.

Box Office Hell

BYOB – Too Much

Just a note and some free space before I run off again.
This week has been relentless and the blog has suffered. On the other hand, I have no interest in being a Disposall for every e-mail that comes my way regarding the strike. God bless those who wish to position themselves so, but there is so little discussion of the real issues and so much discussions of celebrities on picket lines, alleged “secret meetings.” firings that never happened, etc.
The sad part is that everyone knows that very few people are interested in a serious discussion of the issues… even less so when the strike ends.
I wish it were a lot more complicated than knowing that when WGA actually struck, the studios went into a well-planned mode of response, which will actually make about a month of the strike profitable for the studios. If you want to know why there is so little coverage of the strike in town, it’s because there is no news… just more rumors and personalities. The borderline for some between gossip and news seems permanently busted.
Meanwhile, careers go on, production continues across the globe, and the story of how this strike is all about working writers making another $10k a year isn’t really playing. The stakes just aren’t high enough or important enough to make it a national story more important than whether you’ll see a new Leno next Monday. And remember, all the talk shows combined reach less than 10% of the American population these days.
Sigh… off to another screening…

Interesting Angle…

Gurus o Gold & Gurus 2.0

Here is this week’s Gurus chart and the 2.0 chart.
The major differences between the two groups is that the 2.0ers are a lot more committed to Into The Wild than the Old Schoolers. For Best Director, O.S. goes Ridley, while 2.0 sticks with Penn.
The seemingly logical balance flips on its head while the Gurus go for Brad Bird in Original Screenplay wile 2.0 goes for Paul Haggis. And in adapted, G goes for Ron Harwood and the Diving Bell while 2.0 swings it retro by embracing Aaron Sorkin and Charlie Wilson.
Of course, the new kids on the block do come up with votes for Control‘s script, Jason Reitman for director, and Ben Affleck’s Gone screenplay…

BYOB – November 7

My entries are getting longer and rantier… so here is some space for you to relieve yourselves.