THB #93: The Batman (no spoilers)
| March 6, 2022
“Ontario And Québec Movie Theatre Shutdown Is Shameful”: “As a human being who requires some—any!—simple cultural pleasures to make this life worth living, I’m depressed, confused, anxious, distressed, exhausted and Howard Beale-level furious. Ontario businesses, workers ‘disappointed’ in new round of closures, capacity limits…This new shutdown will mark the fourth time that Ontario has closed movie theatres since March, 2020, each instance absent public-facing data proving that cinemas are helping to spur the public health crisis… Cinemas are one of the most controlled indoor public environments available for a quick escape outside one’s home, at least in Ontario: fifty-percent capacity, mandatory masking, little to no talking or movement, and, recently, a concessions ban to foil any mask mischief (a move that also makes the business essentially unsustainable). Ontario’s various movie industry players issued carefully worded statements of regret. Cineplex, which has sixty-seven locations in the province, assuaged customers by noting that all presales would be refunded automatically. And TIFF, whose five-screen Lightbox finally reopened this past September for daily screenings, said it was ‘disappointed that we won’t be able to bring some light and inspiration to our audience for a while, but we look forward to sharing the big-screen experience of community and film with you again soon.’”
-30-
May 1, 2022
"Netflix, the great disrupter whose algorithms and direct-to-consumer platform have forced powerful media incumbents to rethink their economic models, now seems to need a big strategy change itself. It got me thinking about the simple idea that my film and TV production company Blumhouse is built on: If you give artists a lot of creative freedom and a little money upfront but a big stake in the movie’s or TV show’s commercial success, more often than not the result will be both commercial (the filmmakers are incentivized to make films that will resonate with audiences) and artistically interesting (creative freedom!). This approach has yielded movies as varied as Get Out (made for $4.5 million, with worldwide box office receipts of more than $250 million), Whiplash (made for $3.3 million, winner of three Academy Awards), The Invisible Man (made for $7 million, earned more than $140 million) and Paranormal Activity (made for $15,000, grossed more than $190 million).From the beginning, the most important strategy I used to persuade artists to work with me was to make radically transparent deals: We usually paid the artists (“participants” in Hollywood lingo) the absolute minimum allowable by union contracts upfront, with the promise of healthy bonuses based on actual box office results—instead of the opaque 'percentage points' that artists are usually offered. Anyone can see box office results immediately, so creators don’t quarrel with the payouts. In fact, when it comes time for an artist to collect a bonus based on box office receipts, I email a video clip of myself dropping the check off at FedEx to the recipient."
Jason Blum Sees Room For "Scrappier" Netflix
| April 30, 2022
"As a critic Gavin was entertaining, wry, questioning, sensitive, perceptive"
Critic-Filmmaker Gavin Millar Was 84; Films Include Cream In My Coffee, Dreamchild
April 29, 2022
| January 24, 2022
DP/30 Audio: Bombshell, Jay Roach
| December 13, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Jonathan Majors
| December 4, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Mustang, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
| December 4, 2019
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