I may have mentioned it a few times here and there, but in addition to my work here at Film Threat, I also make films of my own. That way, no one can call me a critic who got into that line of work because he’s a frustrated artist. Bite me haters! But seriously, I love almost every aspect of film and that includes making my own and then going through the sheer terror of presenting my films to audiences. And trust me, it’s scary.
My first film (with partner in crime, boozing and poor judgment, John Beck) “Stringers” made the rounds at a few film festivals and even took home the audience award at the Austin Film Festival. Then it took close to three years for us to get our asses in gear and find a new subject we could agree on. What we chose was this insane demolition derby spin-off called “The Fiberglass-500” in Lakeport, CA.
In short, locals in this little resort town take boats that have been designated for destruction, paint them all up and then attach them to the backs of their race, demolition or personal vehicles. After a regular night of auto racing at the Lakeport Speedway, the main event takes place. When the checkered flag drops, about 25 cars dragging boats start off around the racetrack seeking to destroy each other’s boats. Last man or woman standing wins. It’s totally ridiculous. It’s also fun and for a short subject doc, it turned out pretty damn well if I do say so myself.
So after we shot the thing (with 4 camera people and 4 cameras duct taped in various cars) we hired an editor, got some music and began making the soul crushing attempts to get the film into festivals. We finally caught a break last June when the deadCENTER film festival in Oklahoma City, OK programmed us. Sweeeet. Demolition derby with boats in Oklahoma? Damn straight they dug it! From there we managed to get into Reel Shorts in Chicago, Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, AL, the Austin Film Festival in Austin, TX and the Big Easy Shorts Fest in New Orleans, LA. We even won the programming award in New Orleans!
However the only thing more expensive than making a film and submitting it to festivals is traveling to the festivals. It will break your bank. While I’m so glad I attended at Sidewalk, Austin and New Orleans, I’d be lying if I said I was flowing with cash and my wife was beaming with pride at my extended absences. So, we’ve decided to put “Drag King” to bed next week.
Saturday, February 28 “Drag King” will make it’s west coast premiere at the Beverly Hills Shorts Festival in the 90210. Nothing like rednecks dragging boats behind trashed cars at a screening in Beverly Hills! Should be lively and I will be there. Then, Sunday we will make our hometown/Bay Area debut at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, CA. The film will play March 1 at 11:45 a.m. then Tuesday, March 3 at 9:30 p.m. and closing out our festival run will be a screening at 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4. I will be at the first two screenings but not the last.
I really hope to see some people at these. Not just for my sake, but because these are really great little film festivals that survive mainly on public support. Plus, I know many of you reading this may have had a film reviewed by me and this is your chance to attack me if I gave you a bad review! You can totally heckle me for shattering your dreams and aspirations! Bring it on! Or, if I gave you a good review that helped you, come out, see my film, and let’s have a beer. But seriously, come on out and see what happens when you give a critic a video camera, some editing software and a venue.
In his introduction to his book, Cheap Scares!, Gregory Lamberson explains just “who the hell” he thinks he is to write a book on independent filmmaking: he’s the director of four independently-made, low budget horror movies, most recognizably Slime City, and the author of a number of books, including Gruesome based on an as-yet unproduced screenplay. Considering that he officially has more credits to his name than Diablo Cody—and we still tolerate her presence and inexplicably seek out her council on film matters—that should be good enough for anybody.
Cheap Scares! focuses on the world that Lamberson knows best, the independent horror industry, interviewing some of the brightest names in this more-or-less obscure niche and filtering a lot of their advice through anecdotes about his own productions created over the last twenty years. And for other independent filmmakers, this book is exactly what is needed, if for no other reason than the section on contracts and legality, courtesy of interviews with entertainment lawyer Jerry Gold.
While other indie film books have gone to similar great lengths to both justify the no-budget horror biz’s existence, Cheap Scares! takes things the final step further by presenting this DIY industry just as it is: difficult, draining and, marketwise, bleak. I’ve read—and no doubt you have too—countless books that give you the basics: you write the script, try to raise the money, gather the crew—which consists of x, y, and z, fulfilling functions a, b and c—shoot, edit, then try and market and distribute. Usually, the books end on that upbeat note. Not, for better or worse, Cheap Scares! Lamberson and his knowledgeable interviewees lay it all on the line that the industry is in worse shape than ever. It ain’t the way it used to be, when JR Bookwalter was making movies for $2,500 for the fledgling home video market, or when Scooter McCrae lucked into the DVD revolution. Most of the artists discuss the pros and cons of the digital revolution, how it democratized filmmaking, making production less expensive while at the same time granting anyone who can afford the camera and software the opportunity to make a movie and declare themselves filmmakers. Most importantly, it demonstrates how, nowadays, it’s nearly impossible to land your indie-made movie in a brick-and-mortar store, even if you’re lucky enough to get picked up by a legitimate distributor, as explained in a very insightful section with POP Cinema marketing exec Paige Davis.
It’s bad news delivered over and over again by people you have heard of, like Roy Frumkes and Brett Piper (or maybe weren’t aware you’d heard of, as in the case of Frankenhooker’s James Lorinz or Skin Crawl director Justin Wingenfeld). And in every case, the speaker is incredibly honest about his own shortcomings, those of his films, and the difficulties they faced, particularly in their more recent careers. Along the way, Lamberson illustrates their points with his own experiences making Slime City and Undying Love.
Incidentally, other reviews have criticized Lamberson for these asides, painting them as shameless self-promotion, which it is and isn’t. Any filmmaker undertaking this kind of publication would do the same thing—the best examples are often the personal ones, after all—and, at the same time, if you don’t promote yourself, who will? In context, the personal sections flow almost seamlessly. In fact, if there is one quibble to be had with the book, it’s that Lamberson rarely provides synopses for the movies he discusses—his or anyone else’s—so unless you’re extremely well-versed in Outsider Cinema, you might find yourself getting lost during the discussions of Shatter Dead, Basket Case 2 or Bite Me!
But the matter-of-fact presentation more than makes up for any quibbling. It’s all well and good to exalt these guys for casting aside the doubters and doing things their own way, but the cold-water moments are actually welcome, particularly in light of the final interview with college-age filmmaker Justin Channell, who was greeted with relative success for his movies, particularly Die and Let Live. The moral of the sections that come before say “Don’t get your hopes too high; you probably won’t make a living at this.” While Channell’s section adds at the end: “But don’t give up either; especially if it’s what you care about.”
I usually make fun of people who are constantly astounded by Tyler Perry’s box office prowess. But this time I’d wager even Mr. Perry himself was a little surprised at cracking the $40 million mark. Tyler Perry’s seventh film, and his third Madea comedy, crushed the competition over Oscar weekend. Madea Goes To Jail grossed $41 million, becoming the holder of Lionsgate’s biggest opening weekend ever (it’s a whopping $8 million more than Saw III opened to back in October 2006). Aside from a cameo in Meet The Browns and occasional appearances on the TV series House Of Payne, Tyler Perry hasn’t donned the fat suit since 2006’s Madea’s Family Reunion (which ended up with $63 million). In between Madea films, he’s directed four films, produced two plays, and created two television shows. What have you done with yourself since February 2006?
Perry burst onto the scene in 2005 with Diary Of A Mad Black Woman, which stunned everyone by grossing $21 million over opening weekend and finishing up with $50 million (I personally remember looking at the poster and thinking ‘oh good, someone gave Steven Harris a lead role’). Perry’s follow up was the $30 million opening for Madea’s Family Reunion (it ended with $63 million). On the other hand, nothing he’s done since has come even close to that watermark (which is ironic, as his films have gotten progressively better). Daddy’s Little Girls, the only film in which Perry did not appear, opened to a mere $13 million and finished with $31 million. The follow up, Why Did I Get Married, featured prominent star turns by Perry and Janet Jackson, and opened to $21 million and finished with $55 million. Meet The Browns, which was actually a cocktail of several different Perry plays, opened with $20 million and closed with just under $42 million. Finally, The Family That Preys was crippled by snow storms over opening weekend and had to settle for a $17 million opening. Alas, it never recovered and ended up with $37 million.
So, as you can see, Madea Goes To Jail has out grossed the entire domestic figures of The Family That Preys and Daddy’s Little Girls in just three days. It was less than $1 million away from Meet The Browns, so we can assume that Madea Goes To Jail is now Perry’s fourth highest grossing film. By next weekend, assuming it doesn’t tumble harsher than other Perry pictures (they usually drop upwards of 50% in the second weekend), it will be his new champion. This isn’t just a case of Madea fans coming out in force. Perry really hit the press circuit on this one, and Lionsgate cut a very broad ad campaign that emphasized the larger than life nature of Madea, rather than the spiritual and moralistic elements at play with Perry’s output. As a friend put it, Tyler Perry snagged the ‘Paul Blart demographic’ with this one.
Of course, we’ll see how those unsuspecting white and/or agnostic viewers take to the heavily spiritual and somewhat socially conservative content mixed in with the ‘big fat black guy in a dress’ comedy. Regardless, it is absolutely shameful that no one has bothered to cast Perry in a big studio tent pole. Hell, he’d probably have better luck in Beverly Hills Cop IV than Eddie Murphy would at this point. Cast him alongside Adam Sandler in a comedy and everybody wins. He’s a solid actor and he obviously has a big, expanding fan base. Although JJ Abrams is taking a step in the right direction, casting Perry as ‘Starfleet Academy President’ in the new Star Trek film.
There are only three other box office stories of note. First of all, Taken will cross $100 million next weekend, which is incredible considering the film had been released in Europe for almost a year and there has been a DVD quality bootleg available online for months (I guess piracy isn’t the great Satan of Hollywood). This is a huge win for Fox and if they have half a brain, we will see a sequel in the next two years. Secondly the absolutely fantastic Coraline has now surpassed Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride and the original release gross of The Nightmare Before Christmas (counting those Halloween 3D re releases, the original Henry Selick directed picture has grossed $75 million). As of the next couple days, it will surpass the $56 million gross of Wallace And Gromit: Curse Of The Were Rabbit to become the second highest grossing stop-motion animation picture, behind Chicken Run (which grossed $107 million). Of course, the big problem will come next weekend, when it loses most if not all of its 3D screens to The Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience.
The last major story is the epic, hilariously appropriate death plunge of New Line and Paramount’s Friday the 13th reboot. It grossed $40 million last weekend. It did just $7.9 million this weekend, equaling a stunning 80% plunge. While it’s only 6th on the all-time drop list, it’s by far the biggest plunge for a movie that actually had anything approaching a decent opening weekend. Forget what I said about not making it to $100 million… this one won’t make it to $75 million. We’re talking about a movie that will do nearly 55-60% of its total gross over its first three days. Still, chalking up to the low budget and likely shelf life on DVD, this is still a big hit for New Line Cinemas. It certainly seems like New Line is quickly becoming the Tupac Shakur of film studios, finding its strongest success after its death.
Anyway, tune in next weekend (if time allows) for the um… much anticipated debut of Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chin Li (on the plus side, I hear the new game is pretty terrific). We’ll also finally see the release of the much delayed (and allegedly much tinkered with) immigration drama, Crossing Over (co-starring Harrison Ford, in a ’sorry I turned town Traffic‘ supporting turn). Alas, expect Jonas Brothers to win the day. I’m expecting as large a showing as last year’s Hannah Montana 3D concert, if not larger (after all, girls will see a movie just because they lust over the Jonases, while boys would not do the same for Hannah Montana).
This isn’t a full on review, more of a free association rant. First of all, I don’t want to step on Pete’s toes and second of all, I don’t think the film deserves my full attention.
Congratulations on that epic 80% second weekend plunge. It takes a special kind of disappointment to make The Happening look leggy. My wife and I saw it on a Saturday night, at a major theater. More people died onscreen than were sitting in the auditorium. And yes, even my wife was stunned at its ineptness (and she likes those Sci-Fi Channel horror craptaculars). It’s also the rare movie that is so dark and hideously photographed that it already resembled a bootleg that was shot by a guy with a camera in the theater.
Having said that… it was not boring. Oh no, it was too strikingly, head-slappingly stupid to be boring. My wife’s favorite line was uttered by macho rich kid Trent, who drops his gun in the lake and exclaims, in all seriousness, ‘Where are you, gun?’ To be fair, in what may be a case of me watching far too much Barney/Thomas The Tank Engine of late, I half expected the firearm to answer him with a chipper cartoon voice.
But we both loved the fact that Jason Voorhees seems to be the smartest ‘mentally challenged’ person in the history of cinema. He’s apparently retarded, yet he can create a stunningly complex underground layer that would make Ernst Stavro Blofeld proud. There are animal traps, intricate electrical grids, and alarm bell systems, all cleverly hidden underneath an old turned-over school bus. Oh, and Jason is apparently an expert archer, able to pierce the skull of a swiftly moving target from hundreds of paces (does that new Dark Avengers team over at Marvel have an opening?). Alas, Jason was not smart enough to bring two arrows, so he has to improvise on said target’s girlfriend. Good thing she hid underneath just the right dock… otherwise Jason would have had to swim after her, and we all know he has issues with swimming.
And we loved that Trent was considered a punk for cheating on his girlfriend with the random blond, but that said girlfriend (Jenna) was a-okay for running off with the moody motorcycle-riding drifter who was just looking for his sister. We loved the terrible math on display in the prologue (apparently 2009 is ‘nearly 20 years’ ago from 1980). I loved the geeky GPS dork, who seemed all too overjoyed at being the fifth wheel, the only guy without a girlfriend in a weekend smoke and sex party. And we love that the recession has apparently hit recognizable character actor Richard Burgi, who shows up for what barely amounts to a cameo. Between him and Xander Berkeley showing up for a walk-on in Taken, times are obviously tough for first season 24 vets (Leslie Hope seems to be pretty busy, although Michael Massee could use a steady gig).
But the very finest element of this ‘reimagining’ is the apparent revelation that Jason Voorhees is a stone-cold marijuana dealer. That weed bounty that the kids were looking for in the prologue? Apparently, since no other explanation is given, that weed belongs to Jason himself. Yup, old hockey mask isn’t just crazed, he’s just protecting his crop and his stash. So, ladies and gents, the message of the new Friday the 13th is: “if you mess with Jason’s smack, Jason will smack you right back”. Well then, bring on the unrated director’s cut!
Posted by Scott Mendelson in Writer's Corner at 11:45 PM
PST
Madness is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Scrat has been chasing after that single acorn for seven years. In Rent terms, that’s 3,679,200 minutes (no day but today indeed). At some point, the desperate little squirrel needs to let it go, move on, and find a new food source. You’d think he would have starved to death by now. At some point persistence becomes obsession becomes madness. At this point, it’s really just sad.
Posted by Scott Mendelson in Writer's Corner at 12:07 PM
PST
Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo broke the news last night. The Dark Knight is now the fourth film in history to gross $1 billion globally. The current list - Titanic - $1.84 billion Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King - $1.11 billion Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest - $1.06 billion The Dark Knight - $1.00 billion Two things of note - As Gray pointed out, The Dark Knight is the rare blockbuster of late to earn far more domestically than overseas. It ranks 22nd on the all-time overseas chart with $468 million. Second of all, this benchmark would have been passed a lot sooner had the film not been more or less banned in China due to the subplot involving Chinese gangsters and Hong Kong corruption. A wide release in China would have arguably added at least $30 million to the global coffers.
This is all speculation at this point, but it seems logical to me. Anyway, Mazel Tov to all involved. And let us again marvel at the whopping $723 million lead that Titanic has on the closest runner up. Only 29 movies have ever made more than $723 million worldwide total. Short term opening records will rise and fall. Inflation will eventually catch up to the $608 million that Titanic grossed in America (I’d argue that had the film won Best Picture at tomorrow’s Oscars, The Dark Knight could have closed the $70 million gap). But I cannot imagine in my lifetime seeing the worldwide record tumble. It is the Joe DiMaggio 56-game hitting streak of movies.
Here is Roger Ebert’s long, lovely essay marking the ten-year anniversary of Gene Siskel’s shocking, unexpected death at the far-too young age of 53. It’s really been ten years. I always appreciated how Whoopi Goldberg took a moment at that year’s Oscars to eulogize the man whose advocacy did so much for so many young and/or challenging filmmakers. Pardon the obvious sentiment, but ten years gone and we all miss the man terribly.
I’ve written before about the tragedy of a mediocre or bad film spawning a superior sequel, only for said sequel to under perform because no one was willing to be fooled twice (Tomb Raider: Cradle Of Life, Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian). So while The Da Vinci Code was a huge international smash, almost no one particularly liked it. This of course killed the chance for ‘So dark the con of man’ becoming some kind of adjective catchphrase (’Dude… that car is SO con the dark of man!’). So, while everyone says Angels And Demons is a far superior book to The Da Vinci Code (D&A actually came first, but the film is placing it afterward), the prequel turned sequel to The Da Vinci Code is the surefire candidate for surprise ‘flop’ of the summer (it’s even opening in the same slot as Prince Caspian). By that I mean if it only does $125 million domestic, it’ll be viewed as a ’shocking flop’ and the series will die forever, regardless of how profitable it ends up being (I can’t imagine it cost more than $100 million total).
Ironically, this trailer makes the film look far more exciting and entertaining than the boring as unbuttered toast original (’So dark the con of… zzzzzzz’). For one thing, it doesn’t seem to be taking itself quite as seriously. I do enjoy how the trailer is basically just Hanks’ Robert Landgon explaining to everyone all of the details of the plot. Meanwhile, female lead Ayelet Zurer is allowed merely to look pretty and be impressed with Robert Landgon’s expertise (I’ll assume she is allowed to speak in the actual film). Stellan Skarsgard and Ewan McGregor seem to be having more fun, with just a touch of camp, so that’s a plus. And most importantly, Tom Hanks has ditched that classically bad haircut of part 01 for the more traditional buzz cut.
The money shots are almost identical to the Super Bowl spot, so there isn’t much new to add. The trailer is almost entirely composed of said money shots, without a trace of narrative or storyline (I didn’t notice any music and there are only two brief dialogue scenes). It certainly looks scarier, darker, and much more intense than the campy original (allegedly what Michael Bay is aiming for). This also seems to be more of a ‘how would the world react if this really happened’ movie, which will automatically be superior to the contained and introverted original story. I kind of like the idea of a horror film involving murderous giant robots. Anyway, even if I hate the movie as much as I hated the original, it’ll still likely be worth taking in one viewing in IMAX for the sheer scale of this thing.
I guess the $50 million 4-day Friday the 13th opening means the feared Nightmare on Elm Street remake is about to get fast tracked, right quick (when are we going to see that Martin Campbell remake of The Birds?). For the record, the movie could actually use a remake. The original still holds up as a creepy and surreal horror film, but all of the kid actors are pretty mediocre (yes, even Johnny Depp). And good on Platinum Dunes for getting a hungry, artistically talented rookie to direct the thing. Better a hungry music video vet with something to prove than a theoretical auteur just in it for the glory (think Rob Zombie).
The only problem is that Freddy Kruger will likely be played by someone other than Robert Englund. This isn’t James Bond or Batman, a character so iconic that the actor who plays him is almost irrelevant. Freddy Kruger is a character who is explicitely tied to the actor who created him from scratch. Freddy Kruger is as much a creation of Robert Englund as John McClane is wholly Bruce Willis or Indiana Jones is basically Harrison Ford with a whip. Simple solution - just cast Robert Englund in the remake, make sure he doesn’t ham it up like he did in Freddy Vs. Jason (where he seemed to be doing an impression of Englund playing Fred Kruger), and let the blood fly. He wouldn’t cost too much, he already knows the role, and Platinum Dunes would be buying themselves scads of PR goodwill from the geek community. But since they won’t do that, is there any actor on Earth who won’t feel like a kid in a Halloween costume when playing the legendary Fred Kruger?
