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
Are we disinterested or is the entry to hard to find?
Perfectly fine with the saw a mile coming wins, over the moon about the Parasite upset (after posting this I will be looking up the last time a Palme D’or winner also took the Oscar). Up until Fonda said the name I didn’t think it would win, I thought all the rest was spreading the wealth and 1917 would take the big one.
Loved that Scorsese still got a standing ovation even though he didn’t win. Easily my favorite part of last night.
The broadcast itself was clumsy in spaces but being able to fast forward helps my enjoyment of it immensely. And of course, not enough montages. I would like for them to extend how they presented the International Oscar to all the categories, show a quick minute clip of previous winners work to illustrate the pantheon that the winner is entering, give it a sense of history.
And the In Memorium. Just the worst. I want to see their work along with their names, just a line of them in their prime (a few more for the legends). A still photo does them no justice. I want someone speaking a line of Alvin Sargent’s dialogue, Doris Day dropping a quippy line, Witherspoon shouting, and Douglas walking on some damn oars swinging a sword or drawing his gun and growling his lines for the camera. The man was one of the great movers of the movies, even after he got older he was running through The Fury like a Kung Fu Monkey. Putting up the equivalent of a yearbook photo while someone famous gargles through a classic rock song is lazy.
Marty. All the way back to Marty. Last one to take the Palm and the Oscar.
Which reminds me. I have still never watched Marty!
Didn’t watch the show per usual. Though I did watch some of IMDB’s pre-oscar show which shout out to them was really excellent. The right film won which was good. Listening to podcasts this morning the hosts seem really shocked that Parasite won not sure why. It’s the kind of movie that combines high level film making and entertainment showmanship in a way the academy loves. It actually was by far the most fun and glamorous of the six nominated movies I saw.
Gotta agree on the In Memoriam. A still photo is downright rude, and at times they had more than one showing. Doubling up to same time? Rutger Hauer deserves the movie clip from Blade Runner to be shown with the line “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”
Right Pete? That would have crushed me.
Being the movie fan that I am if I am not in utter ruins by the end of the segment than they did it wrong.
So A24 won BP four years after it was created and Neon did the same three years after it was founded. That’s not too shabby.
Some other stats to go along with what Stella wrote:
Other new kids who made good.
Four years between debut film and Spotlight for Open Road
Two years after moving from production to distribution, Summit landed the Gold with Hurt Locker.
Meanwhile poor Focus has never taken the big prize despite winning director twice in those split decisions.
And between SPC and its earlier forms, Bernard and Barker have been bringing eclectic indies and foreign films to theaters for FOUR DECADES.
Those are great stats. Glad you dug deeper.
Didn’t notice this thread till just now. Bit late, I guess. In my Oscar poll, I got 22 out of 24, maybe the best I’ve ever done. I was the only person who picked Parasite for Pic and Bong for Director. No magic insight, just a hunch, even though my head was telling me 1917. I didn’t see Parasite until three days before the ceremony (then again two days before, because after I told my girlfriend about the story, she wanted to rent it). I was very pleased with the win. 1917 struck me as an amazing technical achievement in service of a rather banal, sentimental script.
I haven’t seen 1917 yet, but Mendes films have often left me a bit cold. He stages things beautifully and they are a wonder to watch, but I never got any emotional depth out of Perdition, and Jarhead just never came together as a whole. Revolutionary Road was a big step forward, but even that one didn’t seem to be the sum of its parts.
So I’m pleased as hell that Universal put the resources into the movie, glad its doing so well and got a boost from the nomination, but over the moon that Parasite won.
I didn’t write my predictions but would have probably only have hit under 80%. Thought they would give Gerwig the adapted screenplay and didn’t see Parasite winning more than Screenplay and International. It has pleasantly proved me wrong consistently.
My extreme cinephile friend went on a 10-minute rant about how 1917 is one of the worst movies he’s ever seen. He was livid after seeing it. Said it’s not a movie at all. Felt like he was watching a video game for the entire running time. He hated it with the fire of a thousand suns. We don’t always agree and he tends to prefer obscure foreign films over everything else, but the intensity of his hatred was something to behold.
Not Oscar related but since its still a BYO…..How the hell has Dolittle held on as well as it has? I thought that was going to open and completely crater but I guess the lack of family films in the market has allowed it to do not respectable but at least not the wiped from the face of the earth terrible. It might end up doing 4X opening.
Sonic might cause it to sink faster but I do think it’s mostly about the lack of family movies during winter. And kids seem to like it. Both of mine did (glad I wasn’t the one who took them).
So pleading ignorance here, Is Sonic still a thing? My kids don’t play video games and I don’t think I ever played it, but is this still an active kids property? Are the games still big sellers?
My kids love Sonic. 12-year-old is very excited about the movie. I’m not sure what he knows Sonic from though. Must be a video game. And I think I read today that tracking suggests a $50 million opening weekend so I guess there’s still some real Sonic love out there.
Hey folks. Been watching and reading a lot of stuff while recovering from hand surgery. Doing great. Glad to see familiar names here again.
Just one film take right now: VFW is hella fun. Total pastiche but I felt like a 15 year old watching a video I’d rented on chance. Could practically smell the Vestron Video intro. Plus the old guys are great. This is what The Expendables wished it had been
I also saw VFW. It’s a lot of fun. Cast is wonderful. Totally buy them as friends. And the gore and practical effects are excellent. Must have the record for movie with most axes to the head.
Great, Stella. Stephen Lang getting consistent work is the maybe the best thing to come fro Avatar, aside fro Zoe Saldana. He is really very good here.
Well that answered my previous question, Sonic is still VERY much a thing. I am not hip to the kids today.
Thanks for bringing up VFW, it was certainly not on my radar and it sounds incredible. Those RJE guys are (pretty litterly) carving out a nice little niche for themselves. Wish them all the best and hope I never meet them on the street.
Big fan of what Cinestate and Fangoria and RLJE are doing. It is a hell of a lot of fun. As Bill said Lang is great and those guys have a natural camaraderie. You believe they are old friends and watching them kick mutant punk ass very entertaining. I watched another low-budget genre movie over the weekend. After Midnight. A very odd but surprisingly affecting monster movie/love story. Excellent weekend for VOD horror.
Sonic caught me off guard, too. It had a bit of the stench of failure after the debacle with the redesign. And I had no idea that my 6-year-old and 12-year-old not only know the character but wanted to see the movie. Apparently it’s been playing well with non-children. Lots of adults sans kids in the theater. I’ve seen worse but have no affinity for the character (never played the game) and overall found it to be a tough sit.
So far the top two films of the year are headlined by Will Smith and Jim Carrey. Since it is 1997 all over again I’m going to buy me some apple stock.
Here’s hoping The Call of the Wild does well this weekend so we can add Harrison Ford to the list.
@Hcat The Dolittle movie is over performing from that perspective. From another though, it literally will make one tenth of the lead’s last film. I know maybe a skewed viewpoint but even so I thought the trailers were fun and the film had no real competition for a month so take that fwiw.
A lot of the discussion around Sonic is about how it’s a big surprise. I think the better question though is why virtually no other straight video game adaptations have been hits? It’s a big brand name, apparently not a creative disaster and opened over a school holiday with little competition. That said I’m not really sure the world needs a CGI Mario movie but I feel like one’s coming for better or worse.
“it literally will make one tenth of the lead’s last film”
For perspective that’s a much more impressive followup than Hanover Street, Paradise Alley, Somewhere in Time, Moment to Moment, Scarecrow etc etc. Just to point that following what is the BIGGEST MOVIE EVER is always going to be a bit of a climb. And I am not praising Dolittle in any way, just pointing out that I thought they had a Postman on their hands and they managed to make it a Wyatt Earp.
As for video game adaptions…its simply because they are horrible. Maybe they are not taken seriously by the filmmakers and not given the talent it takes to make a decent movie (Looking at you DOOM). Maybe the everyday blockbusters feel enough like a live action video game that adapting actual ones is not needed. Wreck it Ralph eliminates the need for an actual Mariocart adaption.
@Hcat Lol I do have to give you points for research and Dolittle is probably beating whatever it’s over/under would’ve been after the opening weekend. And your point about video game adaptations is well taken, I just feel like one of them should’ve been a full on hit before now but yeah most are pretty terrible.
GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY!!!