The UBS Evening Television & Movie News 10.29.09
Posted by George H. Sirois on 10.29.2009
A quick look at the latest theatrical releases, the trailer for Invictus, some unexpected news about a Broadway show coming to DVD and film music composers coming together, and the latest “Re-Writing Miss-tory” memo. All this and Andy Critchell in The “Memo to Gavin O’Connor” Edition…
Welcome everyone to the latest edition of the UBS Evening Movie News. I'm George H. Sirois, and if you're on Twitter, you can find me HERE! And don't forget, for all of you who are new to 411Mania.com, make sure you check out all of our zones. We have some of the best writers on the Internet right here, and we love to hear from all of you! So keep coming back to read what we have for you, make us your homepage and if you have Facebook, make sure to join our group HERE!
For those who missed the offer I posted last week, here it is again. I call it, "Chosen Ones, Step Forward…"
"Eons ago, on the planet known as Denab IV, its creator Excelsior appeared as a vision to several people he deemed "Chosen Ones." Those lucky few were selected by him to lead their fellow Denarians in keeping the planet as the paradise he always envisioned. As each passing generation of the Chosen Ones reached a certain age, Excelsior visited them in their dreams to give them the wisdom necessary to pick up where the previous generation left off. This continued on until Excelsior's spiritual form was cast down to the planet he had taken such care in crafting.
After over seventeen years of developing the character Excelsior, it's time for his Chosen Ones to step forward and make themselves known. By sending in your $2 pre-order deposit, you will not only reserve your copy of the upcoming novel, but you will also be acknowledged IN THE NOVEL as the first wave of men, women and children to be told the story of Excelsior's return.
That's right. Reserving your copy will put your name in print! But that's not all! By ordering through me, you will guarantee yourself a personalized autographed copy that will be shipped from me to you once the book is published. So make it happen! You're just one click away from bringing Excelsior's story to the masses…"
And feel free to check out the new blog for the novel HERE!
I want to thank all you guys for sending in your comments regarding my "Re-Writing Miss-tory" segments. And I especially want to thank "Fozzy D'Orazio" – if that is your name – for providing me with one of the most entertaining posts I've ever seen in my UBS report. And here I was thinking only wrestling writers get all the fun stuff.
"Man, oh man.
Let's get this straight. An internet writer, making up a fictitious service to give advice to directors, is giving tips on how to write a better romance story?
I can't wait for your lesson on how to pick up chicks next, dr. love!
Posted By: Fozzy D'Orazio (Guest) on October 22, 2009 at 03:48 PM"
I can understand the confusion here, so let me correct him on a couple things. I'm not just an Internet writer, making up a fictitious service to give advice to directors.
I'm a PROUD Internet writer, making up a fictitious service to give advice to directors. And if it stirs up emotion like this, then I guess this fictitious service is effective.
And by the way, Fozzy, I can understand that since I'm an internet writer and this is probably the first report in many weeks that didn't mention my wife, it's easy to assume that I have a laughable method to "pick up chicks," but all I can say is that whatever I said to my wife over five years ago must have worked.
More thanks to 411Mania writer, UBS reader and friend Todd Vote for coming to my aid and drawing some more ire from Mr. D'Orazio…
"Said the guy who is reading said internet writers column... Gee, what does that say about you?
Posted By: Todd Vote (Registered) on October 22, 2009 at 05:04 PM
You're right, just because someone reads a website, that means they aren't sexually active. Good one, Toddo! That's the stupidest comeback I've ever heard. Virgins Unite! Defend Mr. Sirios to the death! Clown.
Posted By: Fozzy D'Orazio (Guest) on October 23, 2009 at 07:53 AM"
Again, more confusion! But let me see if I can help. Fozzy, you're not the first to make this mistake and you likely won't be the last, but for what it's worth, the name is spelled S-I-R-O-I-S. And there are many girlfriends, fiancées, wives and children associated with 411Mania writers that can attest to the fact that just because someone writes on a website, that doesn't quite mean they aren't sexually active.
And to re-iterate what I had said before, it's easy to assume that since I didn't mention my wife that I not only have a laughable method to pick up chicks, but that I'm also a virgin. The only thing I'm confused about is, why didn't you go for the jugular and say I live in my parents' basement?
This week, we have a quick look at the new releases coming out this weekend, Andy once again brings some quality photos to your eyes, I have the trailer for Clint Eastwood's new film Invictus for you, and to avoid any unnecessary tension, I've refrained from sending another memo to George Lucas and am instead sending one to director Gavin O'Connor.
Galactica Update: The first two discs of Season 1 are all finished, and I'm loving the show so far. Really looking forward to seeing the rest of the season and beyond.
And now, on with the news!
SYBIL THE SOOTHSAYER
UPCOMING MOVIES
The Box: The story of a couple (Cameron Diaz, James Marsden) who are given a box by a stranger and told they will be given $1 million if they push a button on the box - but someone they don't know will die.
This strikes me as one of the many movies that would make a wonderful short film but doesn't have enough in it to make for an effective feature. It does have a hell of a "what would you do?" premise that should carry it through to a decent box office take.
Gentlemen Broncos: A teenager (Michael Angarano) attends a fantasy writers' convention where he discovers his idea has been stolen by an established novelist (Jemaine Clement).
I was never the biggest fan of Napoleon Dynamite, but I am really looking forward to seeing this. The trailer had me laughing almost from the beginning, Clement looks and sounds so much like Alan Rickman it's creepy and the premise is something that I and a lot of other aspiring novelists dread every day.
Credit: TheMovieBox.net
MOVIE TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Invictus
JIM WEBBING AND HIS IT'S THE HONEST TRUTH DEPARTMENT
"But then they unionized…: For the first time in more than a decade, composers and lyricists working in film, TV and videogames are considering unionization. The Society of Composers & Lyricists was scheduled to announce at its annual membership meeting Tuesday night that an "informational meeting" about the possibility of affiliating with Teamsters Local 399 will be held Nov. 16 at the Pickwick Gardens Conference Center in Burbank, Calif.
The SCL, a nonprofit group whose estimated 1,200 members include many of the composers who work in pics, TV and vidgames, has not taken a position about union representation, SCL officials said. Emails alerting members of SCL; performing rights orgs ASCAP, BMI and SESAC; and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences were expected to go out this morning. A website has also launched at Composersguild.org.
Composers and lyricists are among the few creatives left without a collective bargaining agreement. Services like orchestration, conducting and music performance are covered by American Federation of Musicians (AFM) agreements, but not the act of writing music or lyrics. They were represented in the late 1950s and 1960s by the Composers & Lyricists Guild of America, but after a 1971 strike and a 1972 lawsuit against the studios and networks over music-ownership rights, producers refused to negotiate with them. A 1984 attempt to restart the union failed when a Reagan-era National Labor Relations Board declared composers and lyricists "independent contractors."
The trouble with that ruling, many composers say, is that almost everyone in the biz is an "independent contractor," agreeing to perform services on a one-off basis for producers -- yet writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, editors and others enjoy protection under WGA, DGA, SAG, IATSE, the Teamsters and other unions.
Composer Alan Elliott, who launched this latest unionization effort, said he hopes that a greater sense of community and attention to the craft of creating music can also be fostered.
Throwing out a random quote from an Aqua Teen Hunger Force character and making that the headline for this news piece doesn't mean I'm taking this lightly. I really hope this attempt for the film music composers to come together this way is a success. I've always felt composers are second only to screenwriters when it comes to getting the least amount of credit for their work, and hopefully something like this will make an impact with the public and maybe even have them listen to some of this fantastic work that these men and women are developing for their films.
My wife once told me that before she met me, she never really paid attention to the scores in films, and I know there are a lot more people just like that. No matter what the writer or director or actor can bring to the movies, the composer injects the soul and the emotion into the finished product, and the more people realize this, the better chance the composers will get the respect they deserve.
Credit: Variety
From the screen to DVD to Broadway and then back to DVD: "Monsters vs. Aliens" doesn't warrant a sequel, but the soon-to-be-shuttered Broadway play "Shrek the Musical" deserves a DVD release.
DreamWorks Animation unveiled those plans Tuesday as it reported third-quarter financial results that beat Wall Street expectations and propelled the stock as much as 4% higher in after-hours trading.
CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said "Shrek the Musical" was filmed about 10 days ago and will be released on DVD in "unique packaging," though he wouldn't reveal much more.
"We have something very special," he told THR.
"Shrek the Musical" cost the company a nickel a share during the third quarter. It ends its Broadway run Jan. 3, earlier than expected, but then will tour domestically and internationally, and Katzenberg expects it eventually to turn a profit.
"The venture, as a whole, is something we're very proud of," he said.
Katzenberg, who at Disney was instrumental in turning "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King" into stage productions, said DWA intends on sticking with the DreamWorks Theatricals business. "We have some things we're working on," he said.
As for "Aliens," which made $380 million worldwide, with less than half that sum coming from foreign territories, the CEO said he toured 19 countries in 18 days in part to determine why international audiences weren't as receptive to the film as were U.S. audiences.
Although he came away with no "clean" answers, he said it became clear that, while the movie should become a franchise courtesy of TV and DVD, a theatrical sequel didn't make sense.
"We'd be pushing a boulder up a hill," he said.
DWA reported a 48% drop in third-quarter profit to $19.6 million on revenue that dipped 11% to $135.4 million.
With $35.4 million, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" raked in more revenue than any other title during the quarter, driven by international home video and domestic pay television. The movie sold 11.3 million DVDs through quarter's end.
"Aliens" was next with $33.4 million in revenue. That film sold 4.6 million DVDs during the third quarter even though it was released one day before the quarter ended. DWA said it books sales when the product ships.
"Kung Fu Panda" took in $21.9 million in the quarter and reached 16 million DVDs by quarter's end. "Shrek the Third" was good for $8 million and "Bee Movie" for $3.4 million.
"Shrek the Musical" brought in $10 million; about $16 million was generated by library and other titles.
The line "eventually expects it to turn a profit" is interesting to me. I know when the show first came out on Broadway, there were commercials for it over and over again. Then the Tony Awards came and went and the show didn't win for Best Musical, and after that, I heard very little about it. In the past few months, I've heard nothing.
I give "Shrek: The Musical" credit for closing up shop later than "Young Frankenstein" did, but I don't think any of my theater-going friends saw this. (I could be wrong and if you did see it, let me know what you thought.) It seemed to just cater to the families coming in for a weekend from other states, a familiar product that they knew they would enjoy, and not something that would attain such success on the stage that "Spamalot," "The Producers" or other shows that were also based on movies.
At the same time, I'm liking the idea of putting more Broadway shows on DVD since that will only broaden the audience. The DVD of the final performance of "Rent" was put together very well and it was great to see that show again in its theatrical form for the first time since '96. So I'm looking forward to seeing this disc just to see if it would have been worth seeing live, although I still have my doubts about its translation from animation to theatre.
ANDY CRITCHELL'S INTERACTIVE BABE PHOTO NEWS BRIEF WITH ANDY CRITCHELL
Hey fans! Coming off my amazing and controversial appearance in the Movie Zone Fact or Fiction I am back again this week with another smoking hot babe! This week I am going to highlight the lovely Alison Brie. Alison is on my favorite show, Mad Men, and she is on a new show I really like called Community. Let's check her out:
And as an added bonus, here is Alison in a Youtube video just being sexy!
Have a great week everyone!
RE-WRITING MISS-TORY
I mentioned this little problem with I had with this film back in the Scene Anatomy 101 days, and this was quite some time ago, before the UBS Evening Movie News started almost three years ago. But after recently putting this DVD back in my player and watching the scene, I thought it deserved to be mentioned one more time.
So with that, here is my latest "Re-Writing Miss-tory" memo for the 2004 Gavin O'Connor film…
Dear Mr. O'Connor:
As your Quality Control Consultant assigned to you by Walt Disney Pictures, I'm incredibly excited to be working on this project with you and writer Eric Guggenheim. This is one of the greatest stories in all of sports history, and it deserves to get as much reverence as possible. After reading the latest draft for Miracle, it looks like that's exactly what you and Eric were thinking too.
There is, however, one moment that comes off as a bit… what's the word… Disney-like. And yes, I understand that Disney is putting this movie together, but hear me out on this. During the big scene in the middle of the film – where the US Hockey Team is doing the drills after only tying with Norway – Mike Eruzione ends the drills by finally correctly answering the "Who do you play for" question Herb Brooks gives his team at the beginning. For any other story, I'd be able to shake that off by saying, "It's a movie, not a documentary, so of course they have dramatic license to change whatever they want." But I can't do that here.
Why can't I do that here? Because there are so many moments in this story that sound like they were made up to raise the stakes, but they were all true. The 1970s were a mess, the American people were disillusioned, hostages were taken at the American Embassy in Iran, and the 1980 US Hockey Team actually were the catalyst that helped Americans feel good about themselves again. Not only that, but the way Herb Brooks coached the team in the movie was the real way he did it. So, Mr. O'Connor, putting in a moment that didn't really happen and putting so much emphasis on it (I can practically hear music swelling in my head) brings down the other real moments around it.
With this in mind, how can we fix this? I heard an interview once where the real Mike Eruzione said the drills in Norway ended when a fellow player smashed his stick against the wall and Herb declared that if they played their next game the same way, they were going to do the drills AGAIN. The team responded by winning the next game 8-0. If we can blend in footage of Brooks threatening the team with footage of the game where they responded, and during that game, you can see the team coming together and playing how they're capable (you can even add in a shot of the players asking each other during the game "Who do you play for?" so they can all answer "USA!"), then you have genuine moments happening from start to finish.
I hope you consider this in your final re-writes. This is a terrific story and you and Eric are thiiiiis close to making this movie a perfect fit. I look forward to seeing the next draft.
George H. Sirois
Quality Control Consultant
Walt Disney Pictures
And that's a wrap for Chapter 136 of The UBS Evening Movie News! For Andy Critchell, I'm George H. S-I-R-O-I-S, we'll see you next week and Happy Two-Year Anniversary to my lovely wife Cheryl!
Whats really funny about Fozzy is that not only did he bother to troll an internet column, he came back to see if his trolling was effective. I love people who bitch about internet columns, but they themselves have nothing better to do than check back to see if someone paid service to their comment.
Posted By: Todd Vote (Registered) on October 29, 2009 at 10:06 AM
I knew you were married, Mr Sirois. I just wanted to have a little fun poking at your suggestion of making the Star Wars movie a little more romantic. I enjoy the column very much and apologize for the misspelling of your name. I will now drift off into cyber obscurity now that I can no longer use the besmirched name of Fozzy D'Orazio. I will reappear under my new gimmick very soon though. I wish nothing but the best for you and your wife and may you the two of you live foreverly blissful in your mom's basement.
Farewell from the late, not-so-great, Fozzy D'Orazio.
Posted By: Fozzy D'Orazio (Guest) on October 29, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Whats really funny about Fozzy is that not only did he bother to troll an internet column, he came back to see if his trolling was effective. I love people who bitch about internet columns, but they themselves have nothing better to do than check back to see if someone paid service to their comment.
Posted By: Todd Vote (Registered) on October 29, 2009 at 10:06 AM
***************************************
Is there something wrong with that?
Posted By: The Heartbreak Troll (Guest) on October 29, 2009 at 04:12 PM
VINTAGE TROLLING!
Posted By: Michael Troll (Guest) on October 29, 2009 at 04:30 PM
The door's always open for you to come back anytime, Fozzy. I had to put the spotlight on the back-and-forth since it was my first time I've been called a virgin during my whole time on 411. I guess that means I've arrived.
Posted By: Sirois! (Registered) on October 29, 2009 at 04:43 PM
