THB #93: The Batman (no spoilers)
| March 6, 2022
The original Movie City News launched in October 2002. The philosophical core was about curating the best of the news and to add our own take to all of it as well.
A lot has changed since then. There were no blogs. The trades were dailies, printed five days a week. The film industry was driven primarily by DVD revenues, not IP or streaming. I had neither a wife nor a child and had the time to work insane hours, along with my business partner Laura Rooney, to feed the internet beast that had barely started to roar.
The year before we launched MCN, I ran the Miami International Film Festival. I loved the work around the art, but I was too naive to protect myself from the people who hired me. And when the Miami Herald decided to come after me, as I had replaced a local legend who somehow needed to be protected, I was quickly shown the door. (I designed a programming structure that the festival still uses, eighteen years later… but let’s not go down that bitter road.)
Launching into a dying film journalism world was challenging. But I was lucky and was able to make a living and contribute to the lives of other writers. One of the two trades was always having its death sentence written. And the internet was still defined by the rough-and-tumble days of Ain’t It Cool News, followed by a succession of other successful grifters.
I decided not to take on the trades because I realized that I was just a content monkey and didn’t want my primary job to be being a boss to others. I would probably have been well served by being more ambitious… but it just isn’t me. We had a good run.
By 2017, I was pretty much done with entertainment journalism. I loved the work of producing DP/30. I continued to be a big mouth. But interview subjects were spoiled by too many photo shoots and bad interviews as well as people on beats without anyone who had been on the beats forever teaching them to ask the right questions and not just accept lies and spin as fact. I despaired that I was no longer able to help the films and filmmakers that I cared about, because the role of the journalist had been so reduced to either spreading gossip or going along to get along.
So, I spent 2018 pursuing consulting. And I did some. And it wasn’t a good fit. What I bring to the table and what people want from a consultant were not a natural match.
I spent most of 2019 chewing on what would be next for me. How I would put food on my family’s table. And what would be fulfilling over the next 20 years (I hope) of a fully engaged working life.
This is where I landed. Back where I had been for a very long time.
This is a simplified version of Movie City News. And what we launch with today may be quite different than what the site becomes, in terms of content, as the months pass.
I want to create a stew of ideas and arguments and worship of film. As times goes on, I will be out there trying to tame the beast that is television and streaming. If things go well, there will be more theater coverage as well. I want to feed the readers. And I want to be fed by them. Because while I am quite capable of screaming into a void, what would the point of that be?
I am enriched by engagement, good and bad. Every day. By people who think I am an idiot. By people who think I am not. The hours I spend with talent doing interviews bring me immeasurable joy. We are all sharing this journey, as hokey as that sounds. People who are passionate about their work are, as Jule Styne would say, the luckiest people in the world.
Every day is an opportunity to try to figure out what is next in this business called show. Twenty+ years into a journalistic career and over thirty-five years as a participant in the industry, I still love it. I still care about it. I still believe in it.
So I hope you will sign up for our newsletter, try a podcast now and again, comment when you feel the urge, and become a part of the MCN extended family. I am going to work my ass off trying to entertain and inform you.
And away we go…
-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
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Critic-Filmmaker Gavin Millar Was 84; Films Include Cream In My Coffee, Dreamchild
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| 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
Best of luck with 3.0!
But I’m seeing no mention of the Hot Blog, no link to it, and no comments from it carried over to posts that originated there.
Welcome back David!
But I’m with Yancy: don’t break up The Hot Blog family. I’ll cry.
Hi, guys.
It’s true. There will not be a formal Hot Blog page. But think of it like this… it’s all a hot blog page.
And all of the old Hot Blog and Hot Button stuff will not disappear at all. For some reason, the archives are not yet active. But they will be. And all you comments will still be there.
Sorry it’s a sticky transition. It always is, I guess.
Great to have you back officially David! This is a special, comfy little corner of the web and I’m psyched to have been part of this community for over 12 years now. As I taught myself filmmaking in HS, your DP30s were invaluable as no one else had the in depth, long form, process oriented talks back then other than maybe Charlie Rose. Now some of that is a lot more available, but I still go back to some of the Kirk and Angus stuff, the Deakins interview, Kaufman, Cuarón.. priceless. To the next 20 years!
Glad to have you back as well, though not having a formal HB will take some getting used to. Break the other leg!
excited to see where this goes! much love
Good to see you back DP.
Not a fan of the new layout. Very cold looking. I also think you missed the boat by getting rid of the Hot Blog page….that was the reason that I checked into the site a few times a day–I enjoyed getting these many different points of view and it was fun engaging. I don’t see any entrance point for engagement now. I guess it personally feels like a slap in the face as there was a dedicated group of bloggers that showed up everyday when the site was on its last leg….a pretty loyal following–now there is nothing for them here. It feels like this site traded in about twenty different voices and now there is only one…..and if you like Dave Poland All The Time, then perhaps you will be happy here.
Ver peliculas en moviecity
Any and all suggestions welcome!! It is a work in progress that benefits from your input
Hi Glamourboy –
I’m not sure why commenting on something called a blog is different than commenting on a page of of something not called a blog. Function is exactly the same. Form?
We should set up something that is more of a forum for the Hot Bloggers. Something to work on.
D
Missing DVD Wrapup, not seeing any mention of that column.
Thrilled you’re back full time, David, but I’ll echo GB’s comment to this extent:
It did seem like it was the The Hot Blog commenters, along with some staff, that fervently kept this joint going (such as “going” was defined here). I think a specific spot for us all to gather and comment would be awesome (don’t do a forum. They’re hellish to moderate).
I’m hanging all the same. Much luck.
We are working on a place for you all – and hopefully more, to hang out. Thanks for the input.
Trump broke Poland.
Hey, I’m new here. Found you on twitter, where I enjoyed arguing with you. This site and your history with it have captured my interest. I like your style. Good for you for coming back and making this work. Brave man. I wish there were a way to reach you directly and have an offline chat. (I invite you to DM me on Twitter or … my email address is easy enough to locate.) Happy New Year!