The UBS Evening Movie News 08.23.07
Posted by George H. Sirois on 08.23.2007
The “Buy My Novel” Edition…
Welcome everyone to the latest edition of The UBS Evening Movie News. I'm George H. Sirois, and with turmoil lurking in both my baseball team (thank God there's no more trips to the Los Angeles House of Horrors of Anaheim) and my football team (Eli: F*** me? Hey, Tiki, you read lips? F*** you! Ten bonus points to whomever gets that movie reference), it's good to have some entertainment news to take my mind off things. Enjoy…
TOP STORY
Premium Hollywood interviewed actor / writer / director Ed Burns at Comic-Con in San Diego this past July. Yes, Ed Burns was at Comic-Con. He was there to plug his latest film, One Missed Call, a re-make of a Japanese horror film, and he was very gracious answering a lot of questions from Premium Hollywood.
Not only did he talk about this re-make which is due out in 2008, but he also talked about a film that was recently completed called Purple Violets. Here's an excerpt from the interview…
Ed Burns: Purple Violets is probably the best film that I've ever made. It's a small, talky drama, dramedy, and there's absolutely no audience for the film, theatrically, I'm sad to say. We got a couple of half-assed theatrical offers, but the last couple films I've done I've done that and, you know you do all this publicity and then the movie's released in New York and LA, and maybe Chicago and San Francisco, and if you're anywhere outside of those four major cities, your audience can't find it. So, we're gambling and we're gonna be the first film that is released exclusively through iTunes. It'll be available for four weeks exclusively, and the idea is we'll promote it the same as you would a theatrical release and we'll see what the numbers are. If the attendance, if the downloads, which we expect to be a much higher numbers than the attendance, I think it'll be the way I would go in the future for small movies like this. You know, and then we'll do more festivals than you might normally, so you can hit kinda smaller markets for the theatrical experience, but for everyone else it's available, kinda like what people do…
Reporter: When did you say it would be available?
EB: Um, October 9th.
Reporter: Is iTunes promising you a huge amount of promotion for doing this?
EB: Huge is a relative term. We'll have to see, but they're promising promotion. I hope it's huge.
Bullz-Eye: With the future of moviegoing moving closer and closer to a Pay-Per-View business model - where you're paying a larger flat fee than you would in a movie theater, but in the comfort of your own home - how do you think this affects the industry?
EB: I think it's changing so dramatically, I mean, just two years ago none of us were talking about YouTube - now it's part of everybody's daily life. Who knows what technology is going to come out in six months from now, or two years from now. That's going to revolutionize the way we think about watching films. You know, the idea that people watch a movie on an iPod for someone my age, that's insane, yet I recognize if you've grown up watching small images on your laptop or you've been downloading via friends to your phone, an iPod is a pretty good invention. So, I think it's changing and you have to embrace it. You know, digital cinema is coming at us fast and furiously, film will die, day and dark releases are here already, and like I said, people go to movies for different things. And I mean, even a guy like me that always thought I wanted to make small, talky dramas, that business is a dead business. So the thing that I'm doing right now - that I just announced today - is developed a graphic novel with Virgin Comics called… I had an idea for a movie, a 1920s gangster story - again, New York City, Irish-Americans, kinda my milieu - but I thought, ‘Well, why not sort of look into giving these gangsters slightly hyper-human abilities and strengths. Pitched Virgin Comics on it, they loved it, and a guy named Jimmy Palmetti I think is how you pronounce it, he's writing it based on my outline, comes out in November, and I'm writing the screenplay while he's doing the books. And it's a film we'll make hopefully next year. So it's like, I think you've got to look at how it's changing and you've got to embrace it.
Reporter: I just can't imagine watching "The Godfather" on iTunes for the first time.
EB: But you know what? I think it's analogous, in a way, to music. You know, you have to embrace the change because I know, like, our parents did not buy albums, they only listened to the radio. And then in the '60s, albums came out and people were obsessed with the LP. And then when CDs came out, all the purists were like ‘What the fuck is this? I'm never going to listen to a CD,' and CDs are over now, and nobody buys full length albums when they download it digitally anymore, so it's almost like we come back to the way your guys' grandparents listened to music where it was an individual song by an individual artists that was playing on the radio as opposed to the computer. So it's that thing that happened in 70 years of music that I think is happening now for us in movies, and we'll just have to see where it goes.
Just in case you missed anything, let me point out the first major piece of news that Ed Burns gave: Purple Violets will be the first film distributed exclusively through iTunes! How cool is that?! This is a major step forward regarding the melding of the Internet and Hollywood like never before, and I'm excited about the possibilities. This can only be a good thing since it will inspire other filmmakers to make this kind of move to find an audience.
But wait, there's more! Not only is Burns breaking ground with iTunes, he's also breaking personal ground by working on a graphic novel with Virgin Comics. Plus, he's adapting his story into a screenplay while the graphic novel is being developed. Kudos to him, and hopefully others in the industry will follow his lead.
Credit: PremiumHollywood.com
SYBIL THE SOOTHSAYER
UPCOMING MOVIES
War: An FBI Agent (Jason Statham) seeks vengeance on a mysterious assassin known as "Rogue" (Jet Li) who murdered his partner.
Jet and Jason showed some pretty good chemistry in The One, and that was when they were both working with each other and against each other, since Li played two roles. This one looks pretty decent with a straight-to-the-point plot that should leave plenty of room for some kick-ass fight scenes.
The Nanny Diaries: A college student (Scarlett Johansson) goes to work as a nanny for a rich New York family.
This looks very much like The Devil Wears Prada, and that turned out to be a surprisingly good film. I'm not feeling the strong urge to see this one, but I'm sure that whenever I do, I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it for the most part.
Resurrecting the Champ: Up-and-coming sports reporter (Josh Hartnett) rescues a homeless man (Samuel L. Jackson) only to discover that he is, in fact, a boxing legend believed to have passed away.
Now, this is something that I'm really anxious to see. Hartnett's been making some interesting choices over the past several years, and Jackson looks like he's gearing up for another chance at an Oscar. And if you haven't heard much about this, maybe I can help…
Credit: TheMovieBox.net
MOVIE TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Resurrecting the Champ
JIM WEBBING AND HIS IT'S-THE-HONEST-TRUTH-DEPARTMENT
We got a two-part story going on here, so let's just get to the news first, and then I'll chime in at the end…
Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. will offer next-generation DVDs in the HD DVD format and drop support for Blu-ray, further complicating the race between the competing technologies.
Monday's announcement affects the upcoming DVD releases of the blockbusters "Shrek the Third" and "Transformers," along with movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films.
Movies directed by Steven Spielberg, however, will continue to be released in both formats.
Paramount, which owns DreamWorks Pictures and handles home sales for the separate company DreamWorks Animation, previously released movies in both Blu-ray and HD DVD.
"Part of our vision is to aggressively extend our movies beyond the theater, and deliver the quality and features that appeal to our audience," said Brad Grey, chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.
"I believe HD DVD is not only the affordable high-quality choice for consumers, but also the smart choice for Paramount," he said.
The competition between Blu-ray and HD DVD has kept confused consumers from rushing to buy new DVD players until they can determine which format will dominate the market.
Until recently, many consumers were able to defer the choice because players have been so expensive. But prices have been slashed by about half — Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray player now sells for $499, and Toshiba Corp.'s cheapest HD DVD player sells for $299, with both likely to include as many as five free movies as an incentive.
Standalone HD DVD players have a bigger slice of the market than Blu-ray players. But when you count Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, which comes with a Blu-ray drive, there are more Blu-ray players in U.S. homes.
Blu-ray discs can hold more data — 50 gigabytes compared with HD DVD's 30 GB — but the technology requires new manufacturing techniques and factories, boosting initial costs. HD DVDs, on the other hand, are essentially DVDs on steroids, meaning movie studios can turn to existing assembly lines to produce them in mass.
Studios and retailers have been choosing sides in recent months.
With Paramount dropping Blu-ray support, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. remains the only major studio releasing movies in both formats.
"Spider-Man 3" will only be available in the Blu-ray DVD format when it is released by Sony Pictures, while people with Blu-ray players won't be able to enjoy the action-thriller "The Bourne Ultimatum," which Universal Pictures will release only in HD DVD.
The Blu-ray format recently got a big boost as Blockbuster Inc. announced it would stock only Blu-ray titles when it expands its high-def DVD offerings this year.
Target Inc., the nation's second-largest retailer, said it will only sell Blu-ray DVD players in its stores in the fourth quarter.
Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, The Walt Disney Co., and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are releasing only in Blu-ray.
Universal, owned by General Electric Co., backs HD DVD exclusively.
Quite a bit to take in, isn't it? Well, the continuing saga of this format war took quite a turn on Tuesday when Michael Bay posted on his blog – on shootfortheedit.com – that he was so turned off by Paramount's decision that he was refusing to direct TransFormers 2. All seemed lost for the inevitable sequel to this summer's blockbuster success… for almost 24 hours.
Yesterday, this was posted by Bay on his blog…
Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three blu-ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted - nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you - I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.
As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.
So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks!
So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!
Michael Bay
So all is right with the world, eh? A lot of people – myself included – were set to praise Michael Bay for sticking up for all the PS3 owners – myself excluded since I don't have one – and choosing to walk rather than direct a film that Blu-Ray owners couldn't own.
But then Bay does an about-face and say that not only is he still going to direct the sequel, but that he now supports HD-DVD because of the price difference. Fair enough, but I think Bay might have realized who the executive producer on this summer blockbuster franchise happens to be, Steven Spielberg. And it's already well known in the industry that Spielberg has been demanding non-exclusivity for his films.
Now, I understand that it costs a lot less for an HD-DVD to be made than it is for a Blu-Ray, but what's the harm in everyone just keeping this a 3-Disc market for now and letting the consumer decide the course? Remember when soundtracks were released on records, cassettes AND compact discs??? How about when movies were released on VHS AND DVD?
All I have to say is, you guys fight it out if you want, but keep it fair. Let everyone have the discs they want, and the consumers will decide what direction is the way to go. Oh, and for those who want to know ahead of time who the winner will be, keep an eye on whatever format the porn industry picks.
I'm serious here! The porn industry decided on VHS over Beta, which is why we don't have little Beta tapes in our closets collecting dust. We have bigger VHS tapes in our closets collecting dust thanks to them (some of them are probably directly inherited from that industry), so just keep an eye on what they do and go from there.
Credit: Yahoo.com, Shootfortheedit.com
FILM MUSIC NEWS
* Earle Hagen Inks Content Deal with Spirit Music Group
* BioShock Composer Garry Schyman Fuses 20th Century Music Styles
* APM Music Signs Content Distribution Deal with AMUSE Entertainment
* Top Composers in Concert in Ghent
* Signings and Projects by Christopher Lennertz and Matt Messina
* Music Technology and You - by Peter Lawrence Alexander - "Catching Up With Music Tech"
* The Chart Doctor - by Ron Hess - "Conduct Yourself Accordingly - Part 2"
* Soundtrack Review - By Daniel Schweiger - "I Know Who Killed Me" by Joel McNeely
* The Scoreboard: Hundreds of composers and what they're scoring
* Film music journalist Daniel Schweiger interviews MARKETA IRGLOVA and GLEN HANSARD, the singers and stars of the indie musical hit ONCE.
Download This Week's Issue at: www.filmmusicweekly.com.
MISS MATA HARI AND HER SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET
In a desperate act to save "The Apprentice," Donald Trump is trying to put together a new version of the show with former BFF's Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan as contestants.
"We're negotiating with Britney right now. Can you imagine her doing it? We're not sure what will happen. She's a f**king mess. And that little reality show she had did nothing. But she likes the idea of being on television and I think she'd be great. (Hilton) wants to be on, and we're thinking about it, but I don't know if we're going to do it. (Lohan is) another f**king mess. We haven't asked her yet, but I'm going to call her this week. It would a positive thing for her to do... for all of them."
You know you're gonna watch if this becomes "reality," you just know it. Admit it to yourself now and make it easy on yourself. What exactly would each week's lesson be? And what the hell are they going to do to accomplish their tasks?
The fact that Paris is the only one who's contacted Donald about being on the show and how he's thinking of passing on her is just priceless.
VOX POPULI
1. Superbad - $33,052,411
Total: $33,052,411
2. Rush Hour 3 - $21,353,361
Total: $87,676,529
3. The Bourne Ultimatum - $19,874,370
Total: $164,694,690
4. The Simpsons Movie - $6,829,648
Total: $165,271,443
5. The Invasion - $5,951,409
Total: $5,951,409
6. Stardust - $5,651,343
Total: $19,493,894
7. Hairspray - $4,502,455
Total: $100,805,456
8. Underdog - $3,848,791
Total: $31,927,488
9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - $3,656,379
Total: $278,762,117
10. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry - $3,601,545
Total: $110,484,335
Now that the Tournament of Babes has concluded – with Lucy Pinder joining Elisha Cuthbert and Eliza Dushku in the 411Mania Winner's Circle – I was left wondering who the subject would be for this week. But then a little mini-feud developed in the Hot or Not section, where someone posted quite a ponderous question: Emmy Rossum OR Anne Hathaway?
This has been an interesting year for me here at 411. Obviously quite a bit's happening personally – especially in November – and I've now written 27 editions of The UBS Evening Movie News, which is 27 more news reports than I originally thought when I first started writing here. I always thought I'd just be working on my weekly Scene Anatomy 101 columns and the occasional reviews and zone-wide participations.
When the offer came from The Boss and Leonard to take over this slot, I had no idea how I was going to write this, what I was going to call it, or how I was going to organize all the news. All I had was a deadline, and those can be quite the motivator. Just ask any of the guys here, and they'll most likely tell you that they wouldn't have half the portfolio they do now if it weren't for their deadlines.
But while I've been here doubling up my duties – and overseeing the 411MySpace page and working on the 411Mall at Cafepress – there's been a voice in the back of my head that's been getting a little louder as of late.
The voice of fiction.
This September marks the 5-year anniversary of when I submitted my first novel "From Parts Unknown" to iUniverse.com for publishing. Obviously, I wanted that book to be unleashed to the masses via traditional publishers, but an acquaintance of mine recommended I self-publish it since the story catered to a very niche market. And iUniverse just so happened to have a deal that month where new submissions could upgrade to hardcover for free.
So I went for it, and at the end of October 2002, my first novel was in my hands as a printed and bound piece of work that could be available for purchase on amazon.com. This was a story that first came to me during my freshman year in college, and as time passed, it evolved into an outline for a video game, then to a film treatment, a screenplay, and then a novel. It's been a while since I've taken that long a trip and finished it with such a feeling of accomplishment. When you finish something that takes that long, it can be pretty intimidating to go back and do it again.
I've written other fiction works since then, but with each one, it's been more of a chore to get the juices flowing again. This year, though, the feeling's been a little stronger. And it hasn't been for fixing older works that have collected a lot of dust, it's for new stories and new characters, and I have to say the rush is starting to come back.
Now, this is not to downplay anything I've written here. I've always been proud to be one of the writers of 411Mania, and I don't want to leave here anytime soon. (I already bought a few of my T-shirts anyway.) But there really is something special when you create a character from scratch and watch them grow. (Hollywood should try that more often.)
So consider this my push to get my novel back up to the surface. Click on this link below and pick up a copy of "From Parts Unknown" for yourself. It's a pretty good read, and fellow 411 columnist Jason Goodman – a sterling addition to the Sports Zone – did the cover art, so you get two 411 contributors at the same time. Not a bad deal, huh?
If you get it and you like it, let me know. And if you don't like it, well… be gentle. Oh, and in case you didn't know, former 411 columnist Josh Nason was nice enough to review the book for me, and you can read that review HERE.
Whether or not you like what you read, keep in mind that there's more where that came from, and it's coming soon…
And that's a wrap for Chapter 27 of The UBS Evening News. I'm George H. Sirois, and I'll see you next week!
