THB #93: The Batman (no spoilers)
| March 6, 2022
Through this month of October, I have been overwhelmed with 14 in-theater screenings and one “premiere” online. Some have been better. Some worse. But what has struck me, after a year of endless conversation about the financial realities of the film industry going forward, is that almost every single one of these films has been born of a very distinct personal vision. And whether we love or hate or stand somewhere in between on these movies, this is something we should all be thrilled about.
The biggest scale personal film in this period would have to be Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s intimate epic and the smallest would have to be Sean Baker’s Red Rocket, with the closest thing to a movie star in the film being Simon Rex, a charismatic guy whose primary claim to fame before this was bedding Paris Hilton and Jaime Pressly and getting fired by MTV for being in two “solo masturbation films,” though not being, as his character in the film is, a porn star.
For the rest, please visit… https://davidpoland.substack.com
-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."
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Dune was an awful bore. Pretty to look at but empty and soulless. I guess Villeneuve is REALLY stealing Nolan’s schtick.
Also pulled an Alita being half a film and ending in the middle bit, except this one will get a sequel though it’s even worse than Battle Angel script.