THB #93: The Batman (no spoilers)
| March 6, 2022
-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
Has nothing to do with the Golden Globes…
Even though we don’t agree on anything, here’s hoping Leah is okay in the wake of the volcano in NZ.
Sure I’ll play along. Stock up has to be Parasite stock down has to be Uncut Gems. Also, it’s official no one in the world likes Cats.
Ugh Joker. The Fanatic > Joker. Every movie I saw this year > Joker. I don’t put a lot of stock in awards and my favorites are hardly ever recognized and never win but it still irks me to see Joker get nominated for anything that isn’t a Razzie.
I can’t believe Cats didn’t get a nomination, how bad could it be not to have an easy walk in. Parasite would have been eligible for the main categories right? That it only got a foreign language nod yet Netflix takes up four of the ten picture slots might be looked back on as a tipping point a few years down the line. I can see why other distribs were reluctant to have Netflix’s films in contention. They have some pretty sharp elbows.
@Hcat from the wikipedia page on the Golden Globes: “The HFPA,…specifically makes foreign-language films ineligible for its two Best Picture Awards for live-action films (Best Drama and Best Musical or Comedy)”
Thanks Sam. It was worrisome when I thought it was overlooked as the Globes seem to be a little more enthusiastic about foreign language films than the academy.
Folks… we are working on having a space with a number of these threads available for open conversation moving forward. Excuse our dust… but we will get there.
Any suggestions are welcome.
SB, Joker’s just gonna get nominated by the Globes. It’s what you’d expect. Every year they nominate a few unworthy films just to keep the big wigs and the big names happy. It’s a party after all.
But having said that, I know some people who have a hard time saying the Joker is a bad movie, because it does a reasonable facsimile of a good one. The gurus even have it at #10 although it seems poised to drop once the other contenders become more widely seen. But of course, that doesn’t mean WB won’t do everything they can to make sure it’ll get in there. But until it does, I don’t necessarily think the Globes mean anything.
Very true palmtree. I’m just bitter and angry about that movie and all its accolades.