The UBS Evening Television & Movie News 11.12.09
Posted by George H. Sirois on 11.12.2009
A quick look at the latest theatrical releases, the teaser trailer for Tron: Legacy, two pieces of good news for Lionsgate and the latest “Re-Writing Miss-tory” memo. All this and Andy Critchell in The “Memo to The Wachowski Brothers” 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!
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!
We got another fun-filled edition for this week, and I'm so fried right now due to a barrage of early work days that I can't think of anything else to say. So let's get on with things, shall we…?
SYBIL THE SOOTHSAYER
UPCOMING MOVIES
PIRATE RADIO: Richard Curtis (Love Actually) writes and directs this period comedy about an illegal radio station in the North Sea in the 1960's.
Seeing the commercial on television has me very interested in seeing this. It looks like it‘s going to be a lot of fun, and you can tell Philip Seymour Hoffman had a blast working on this, tapping a bit into his Lester Bangs character from Almost Famous.
2012: An epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors.
I wasn‘t really interested in seeing this, since I felt like I already did when The Day After Tomorrow came out. Then I saw the latest trailer with the Adam Lambert ballad and then I REALLY wasn‘t interested in seeing this. What‘s worse is the new tagline, "One Date Will Unite Us All." That date already happened, guys! INDEPENDENCE DAY, hello???
Credit: TheMovieBox.net
DVD NEWS
Mark your calendars, guys! Because on November 21, 2009, Turtles Forever premieres on the CW4KIDS station. No word yet on when it will hit the DVD shelves, but since this is a Direct-to-DVD film, this seemed like the ideal place to put this news.
April O'Neil
Casey Jones
Donatello
Foot Soldiers
Hun
Karai
Leonardo
Michelangelo
Police Officers Eastman and Laird
Purple Dragons
Raphael
Utrom Shredder (Ch'rell)
Splinter
Miscellaneous
Kevin Eastman
Peter Laird
Not bad, huh? Less than 10 days away...
MOVIE TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Tron: Legacy
JIM WEBBING AND HIS IT'S THE HONEST TRUTH DEPARTMENT
TV Helps the Lion Roar: Lionsgate has swung into the black for its second quarter ended Sept. 30, thanks to hikes from TV shows like "Mad Men" and "Weeds," its TV Guide acquisition and lower film production costs.
The mini-major reported earnings of $31.7 million, or 26 cents a share, compared with a loss of $51.1.8 million, or 44 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenues rose 3% to $393.7 million with $27.7 million coming from the TV Guide operations, comprising the TV Guide channel and TVGuide.com.
The results, announced Monday after the market closed, came in well above analyst estimates and shares jumped 59 cents to $6 in afterhours trading.
Lionsgate had been under pressure to cut costs earlier this year from billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who had hinted at a proxy battle during the spring and summer that never materialized. The company also posted a strong earnings report in August with profits of above analysts' expectations at $36.3 million on a 30% hike in revenues to $387.7 million.
Co-chairman and CEO Jon Feltheimer issued an upbeat outlook. "We are on track to meet our financial targets for the year, and we believe that the current performance of our businesses, coupled with growing returns we anticipate from our new investments and the ultimate profitability we expect to achieve from next year's film slate and beyond, positions us for strong financial results in the future," he said.
Damn, did the small screen bail out Lionsgate for this quarter or what? Of course, it helps that even though some numbers went down for the company, they weren‘t squandering very much money on failed projects. Hopefully the concept of lowering film production prices catches on and the filmmakers they bring aboard to helm the movies will find themselves forced to be creative with the budgets.
Credit: Variety
The Big "Push" (See what I did there?): This year has seen a number of indie films blossom at the worldwide box office, reminding that the major Hollywood studios don't always have the only route to commercial success.
Lionsgate's "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" is the latest example. The Lee Daniels-directed film smashed all records in opening to $585,000 from 18 theaters.
That's the best gross ever for a film opening in fewer than 100 theaters. Last year, by comparison, Focus Features' "Milk" grossed $268,487 from 34 theaters on its first Friday.
The robust domestic debut of "Precious" is good timing for Elephant Eye Films, which is repping the title at the American Film Market. A handful of territories had previously been sold, including to Icon Film Distribution in the U.K., ARP in France and Filmax in Spain.
The film, about an obese African-American girl who finds redemption through harrowing circumstances, won't be an easy sell in certain overseas markets, but success often breeds success through word-of-mouth.
Yes, it‘s a damn shame that a sci-fi flick came and went using the title "Push" while this film - which seems to not only on pace to be a financial success but also has already become a critical darling - is forced to change its name. But in the same vein, it looks like everyone involved with the producing of Precious used this to its advantage by adding "Based on the novel ‘Push‘ by Sapphire" to its title. This allows them to say, "Yeah, that other movie had the bigger budget, but this is the one you need to focus on. This is the "Big ‘Push.'"
The key phrase at the end of this article is that "success breeds success by word-of-mouth" and this usually happens when the word-of-mouth is so strong that the film demands to be seen. So I have to applaud everyone in front of and behind the camera for doing their part to make sure this is getting so much buzz. If they didn‘t do their part, who knows where this would be in the indie world?
Credit: Variety
And I thought Hollywood loves a feel-good story…: Vincent Bugliosi, famed prosecutor and crime author, is the star of the feature documentary "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" that is shopping for distribution at AFM.
Bugliosi -- most famous for securing convictions of Charles Manson and his clan and turning that experience into the bestselling true-crime tome "Helter Skelter" -- got the cold shoulder from most media outlets on "Prosecution," which became a bestseller anyway.
His longtime agent, Peter Miller, said he thinks the global dislike of Bush and the war will lead to a place for the film
Bugliosi knows about prosecuting tough cases. He won courtroom convictions on 105 of 106 prosecutions, and his 1,612-page JFK assassination investigation, "Reclaiming History," is getting miniseries treatment from HBO and Playtone.
Said Bugliosi: "How is it possible for Bush to take the country to war under false pretenses, resulting in cataclysmic consequences, and America does absolutely nothing about it? I could not get on any national network, and it got so bad that ABC Radio refused to take money from the publisher for a radio spot. We couldn't raise a dime for this documentary in America."
The notion of putting on trial a former president for actions taken while in the White House is unfathomable to many. Attorney Alan Dershowitz, while lauding Bugliosi's record, says in the docu he doubts the case will see the inside of a courtroom.
"I'm willing to help any prosecutor, from serving as consultant up to being appointed special prosecutor," Bugliosi said. "I have to measure my words here, but I am making progress toward that goal, and I'm not giving up. I may not succeed, but I won't be satisfied until I see Bush in an American courtroom."
So this is the supposed "liberal bias" I keep hearing about regarding the media and the "Hollywood Elite?" Nobody‘s stepping up to see that this documentary is picked up somewhere and distributed? Where‘s Robert Greenwald in all of this? You know, the guy who did the "Outfoxed" documentary on Rupert Murdoch and FOX News? During Bush‘s time in office, you couldn‘t keep all of the typical celebrities with at least a fraction of 1% of political know-how off the TV screens.
Now, if I‘m not mistaken, doesn‘t Alec Baldwin have his own production company? For all the times he went on various talk shows and put in his more than two cents about the previous administration - he‘s a smart guy but he seemed to talk faster than he thought (Bush supporters are still waiting for him to move to Canada like he said he would in ‘04) - you would think he would give this documentary a look and try to help out. But I suppose now he doesn‘t want to do anything to jeopardize his cozy "30 Rock" job.
If Bugliosi has something new and truly tangible to show the world, then I‘d personally like to take a look at it. It would be a great example of us not learning from the past and being doomed to repeat it, but it would need to be something different from any other anti-Bush breakdown that would just be preaching to the choir.
ANDY CRITCHELL'S INTERACTIVE BABE PHOTO NEWS BRIEF WITH ANDY CRITCHELL
Hi Everyone! For those of you who saw the Interactive Babe Photo New Brief last week you know that I said last week's girl, Ava Rose, was part one of a special two-part episode. Well now for part two, I want to introduce you to her SISTER, Mia Rose.
Mia is younger than Ava and, in my opinion, a little cuter. She also hails from Alaska and is 22 years old. Like her sister she has also been in the porn business for three years. Mia is an avid player of World of Warcraft and even has pictures of herself in an elf costume on her MySpace page if you are into that sort of thing.
If you are, I have one word for you; YIKES! Anyway, let's check out the pics:
She's a doll, right? Check out a video of her being goofy:
You can follow Mia on her Twitter HERE and on her Myspace HERE. She doesn't update her Twitter very much I'm sad to say. She also has a Youtube channel HERE.
Hope you all enjoyed this two-parter. Make sure to come on back next week…
Ah sisterhood…
RE-WRITING MISS-TORY
Thank you again to Luke Annand for last week's submission. And if you would like to send in your own memo to a studio to put in your two cents on what movies needed a little spit-and-polish to hit their mark, feel free to send me your ideas. Just click on the e-mail link at the bottom of the report!
This week, we have 411 extraordinaire Jeremy Thomas sending his memo into the Wachowski Brothers regarding their 2003 hit film…
To: The Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski, Directors; Joel Silver, Producer
From: Jeremy Thomas, Quality Control Consultant
Re: The Matrix Revolutions
Dear Mrs. Wachowski and Mr. Silver,
First, allow me to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to give my input on the final installment of your fantastic Matrix trilogy. I have read the scripts for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, which I understand are to be filmed back-to-back and presented as one story. I think you have a rare opportunity to tell a revolutionary story that can expand beyond the length of just one two hour film, and I think you have a lot of good things going here.
The script for The Matrix Reloaded is excellent. The first film took everything we knew as the rules from the first act and flipped it all on its head; similarly, Reloaded takes what we knew from the first film and likewise spins it all in a new direction, uses our knowledge as an opening to ask all-new questions without betraying what we knew before. I appreciate the dense amount of philosophy and mythological background that is presented alongside what is sure to be some thrilling action and special effects sequences. I can imagine that the fight between Neo and the army of "Smiths" in the playground will be a moment not long forgotten within cinematic history, and at the same time we have a lot of great possibilities that open up for new things.
Similarly, I feel that you have some very good ideas in the script for Revolutions. After so much philosophy, it's time to get some resolution to the many stories that are taking place, and you've certainly found some resolutions. That being said, there are some things that I think weaken what will be the third film and may end up with disappointing audience reaction as well as poorer grosses. I certainly don't believe this is a "start from scratch" situation, and most of what is in the movie works perfectly fine. With some editing and changing around of the story, I think we can make a conclusion to this trilogy that fans will love and that will give your stories the finale they deserve.
As I said before, one of the great things about Reloaded is how it continues the line philosophical questions from The Matrix to their logical conclusion. One of the primary problems with Revolutions is that, after all this questions are raised, there aren't any answers provided. There are some hints to answers, and some partial explanations, but I think that fans will feel like they've been cheated when you explain, as an example, that Agent Smith became different just because he's Neo's opposite. How did he come to be Neo's opposite? Clearly it had something to do with his death, but what exactly? That is just one example of the many questions about the world, both Matrix and "real," that needs to be answered finally. Even some of the concepts raised in this third film, such as the idea of love and how a program can interpret it, are not fully answered. These are things that audiences will want to know the answers to, and it is worthwhile to try to respond to them.
The next problem is in the first act. At the beginning of Revolutions, you have Neo trapped in the Matrix while his body lies comatose. About a half-hour by page count is spent getting him back, which honestly seems like simply an excuse to go back into the Matrix and see Persephone and the Merovingian again and have that gun battle in the lobby of Club Hel. That's quickly disposed of, and I feel that there an opportunity to do more there. This dove-tails with the final problem, which is that the final act is entirely too long. You have what seems like a climax when the defenders of Zion defeat the Sentinels in the dock, but there is still another third of the film left to go and from that point anything in Zion feels extraneous while Neo travels through the Matrix to battle Agent Smith and save both worlds. Audiences will end up feeling like the movie is too long and has too many climaxes, which will leave them ready to leave well before the final moments of the film.
What I propose is fairly simple—a shifting around of the plot. Once Neo and Trinity part ways with the crew in the Hammer, you have two separate plot threads. That allows us an opportunity to play with those timelines. You can cut the plot that happens after the Hammer fires its EMP in the dock, and let those plot threads of the Hammer's trip to Zion and Neo's trip to Machine City happen concurrently. With a little time manipulation, Neo can reach the Deus Ex Machina and then battle Smith at the same time that the Hammer reaches the Dock. This will allow for a cleaner climax and make the film seem less overly long without the second climax. When both victories happen near the same time to each other, it will make that glorious battle in Zion seem more important and not just a battle in vain.
At the same time, this cuts out a good twenty minutes of plot that seems to be spinning its wheels in Zion. All that happens there are more conversations about trusting in Neo and those who doubt him, which we've heard over and over. Those twenty minutes can be added into the first act, to give audiences more time in the Matrix as Morpheus and Trinity try to find Neo. You can use that time to answer some of those questions, either by virtue of the Merovingian and Persephone or people that Neo meets while he's trying to get back to his friends. This will also improve the pace of the film, as it will build steadily upward and won't provide sagging toward the end. You can also add a couple more minutes by cutting Trinity's death down. It also seems to go overly long and has her repeat a lot of the things we've heard before. A quick, clean death with a few words about loving and believing in Neo is enough there, don't you think?
Again, thank you for the opportunity to review this script. I hope you do consider these changes, as I believe the result will be a cleaner, more satisfying ending to what is a hallmark of science-fiction and film-making as a whole. I look forward to seeing the next draft of what I believe will be a great film with these changes.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Thomas
Quality Control Consultant
Village Roadshow Pictures
And that's a wrap for Chapter 138 of The UBS Evening Movie News! For Andy Critchell and Jeremy Thomas, I'm George H. Sirois and we'll see you next week!
