Caught on Film: A Growing Unease in Hollywood (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

New York Times ^ | August 19, 2006 | LAURA M. HOLSON

[MrNatural]

..the old classics..

Watched Bogart and Bacall last night, in The Big Sleep. Screenplay credits included William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett. [Sigh].

[gopwinsin04]

box office numbers from this morning...people wont even go see a horrow movie anymore

Snakes: 7.79 Accepted: 3.66 Material Girls: 1.63 Little Miss Sunshine: 1.5

[Milhous]

Call the Waaaaambulance, Ms Parent.

[Mr. Goldberg, the producer] had no sympathy for those who do nothing but complain. “Let them get a real job,” he said. “They get paid a lot. They go to great parties. They fly around in jets, not only for business reasons, but for personal things, too. I think there are worse jobs to have.”

[BigBobber]

My recommendation to Hollywood:

Make some movies about handsome, brave American men killing Muslim terrorists. You will make billions of dollars.

[sgtbono2002]

I cant wait until Hollywood finally gets a computer system online that completely replaces actors with computer generated people and all actors are put out of work.

[Milhous]

My recommendation to Hollywood:

Make some movies about handsome, brave American men killing Muslim terrorists. You will make billions of dollars.

Riding to the rescue?

A lot of people have been writing us here about this recent Times of London story concerning the possiblity of Bruce Willis top-lining a major pro-Iraq War movie - centered, in this case, around the exploits of the ‘Deuce Four,’ the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul (you can read more about the ‘Deuce Four’ on Michael Yon’s blog).

Apparently word of this potential project has spread like wildfire in the conservative blogosphere - which is fine, although I want to remind everyone that this film is still a long way from being produced - there isn’t even a script, so far as I’m aware. I should also remind everyone that we actually posted on this whole thing two weeks ago, and even included it in our November 21st Newsmax column (you can receive our FREE email columns by signing up here). Which only goes to show that you’ll always get this stuff here first, folks …

I certainly hope Willis gets this film made - and we’ll keep you updated with whatever else we hear about it.

[Uncle Vlad]

And most movies are just plain bad, regardless of the Hollywood agenda. Who wants to pay $20 to see "Dude, Where's My Car 27?"

[TexasPatriot8]

Ohhhhhhhh this makes me so sad. I'm personally devestated that spoiled rotton totally immoral pain in the a** presumptuous liberal actors won't be getting as much money anymore. It breaketh my heart. **sniffle** :) The reason for this is so obvious. Most Americans are sick and tired of the total lack of morality in most movies. They're sick of the smut. They're sick of the language. They're sick of the biased liberal doalogue that keeps getting put in movies as a dig at conservatives and their conservative social and fiscal values.

And as much if not more than all this, most Americans are sick of the assumption that actors make that Americans actually want to hear their liberal political opinions. There are quite a few Hollywood actors who have basically flushed their careers down the toilets because of their radical liberal rantings. Alec Baldwin, Whoopie Goldberg, Tim Robbins, Susan Surandan, even George Clooney. He spends more time out of the country than in it, and even when in it, he wouldn't know a normal every day American if he tripped over them. Most actors only know what normal Americans look like when they step on them to get a leg up. Actors have made the serious mistake that their position as celebrities making millions for pretending to be people that don't exist, gives them the right to be as liberal as they want when interviewed, and not pay a penalty for it at theaters. As though we normal Americans, the REAL Americans, are expected to pay ever increasing prices at theaters; $6 to $10 per adult ticket, as often as years ago, ignoring what these mouthy obnoxious self-consumed arrogant liberal actors say and pretending that our money isn't going to them. Forget it. I won't spend MY MONEY to go see movies starring people I despise. I won't go see either of the new Pirates of the Carribean movies for that very reason, because Johnny Depp is a punk a** wussie mouthy liberal who thinks he knows something because he has millions of dollars, despite being totally ignorant about history or the terrorists trying to destroy America.

Most actors seem totally ignorant of the fact that Hollywood would be target number one for destruction if the Islamo-fascist terrorists controlled the country. Idiot stupid actors! Nothing amuses me more than knowing that they are making a lot less money now. Maybe some of them will have to get REAL jobs for once. And maybe they'll learn to keep their mouths shut so they can still get what they can get, because the bottom line is, most Americans want them to shut up and act. If we want to know their political opinions, we'll give it to them. They're mostly too stupid to know the real details of politics in the first place. I'm glad to know that they're suffering and not being paid as much. They don't earn it anyway. Pretending to be someone else isn't a talent anyway. It's a skill, and ANYONE can learn a skill with time and desire. But you can't learn a talent. You're either born with it, or not. So I guess most actors are physically appealing talentless hacks who learned an overvalued skill to compensate for their lack of real talent. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing the bubble is busting. :)

[Doctor Raoul]

Raoul To Hollywood:
Insult Middle America
Lose Your Mansions

[hosepipe]

Why are there no polls to register what people want to see?...
Like in politics..

[gopwinsin04]

'Snakes On A Plane’ Flakes As Weak #1; ‘World Trade Center’ Loses Audience; ‘Pirates 2' Crossing $400 Mil U.S. Mark

SATURDAY: After all the Hollywood hype, New Line's Snakes on a Plane flakes. I'm told that, despite a long pre-release marketing campaign that sent some Internet showbiz blogs into a writhing frenzy of anticipation, the Samuel Jackson-starring horror flick has come up short for its Friday opening. Sure it's No. 1, with rival studios putting its gross earnings at $6.3 mil yesterday from 3,555 theaters. (New Line says the pic did a total $7.8 including Thursday night's screenings, which technically shouldn't be included in the weekend #s.

A desperate Warner Bros. pulled a similar stunt to increase the figures for its Superman Returns this summer ) But that's at best a weak $15 mil opening weekend -- not anywhere close to the $25+ mil opening (and Variety even put forth a $30 mil guesstimate) that the studio was anticipating because of its huge manufactured buzz.

But it seems only the bloggers cared about this pic. As a result, Sony's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is close behind for No. 2 even its third weekend out. The NASCAR spoof did $4 mil Friday for what should be a $13 mil Friday-Saturday-Sunday

. Also bowing in 2,913 theaters was Universal's slacker comedy Accepted, which took in $3.6 mil for what's expected to be an $11 million weekend and #3 place.

Whereas newcomer Material Girls, MGM's teen girl fantasy starring sisters Hilary and Haylie Duff, earned $1.6 mil from only 1,509 theaters for what may be a $4 mil opening.

Disney / Touchstone's surprise sleeper from last weekend, Step Up, did $3.4 mil for what may be a $10 mil weekend.

And Oliver Stone's World Trade Center wided to 41% more theaters but couldn't hold its audience with only $3.1 mil Friday for what should be well below $45 mil already 10 days out.

Disney's Pirates of the caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest could cross the magic $400 million U.S. mark as soon as this weekend, especially with its $1.2 mil Friday take and anticipated $4.7 mil weekend gross.

Finally, Fox Searchlight's critically well-received Little Miss Sunshine which had been platforming tp garner good buzz opened wider into 694 theaters and earned $1.5 mil for what will be a $4.5+ mil weekend.

As I wrote here five weeks ago, New Line's PR/marketing department was working overtime on Snakes on a Plane. I'd rarely read so much incessant blog chatter, and so early, about what was essentially just another over-hyped horror movie.

What interests me is that so many fine actors -- Samuel Jackson, Naomi Watts, Jennifer Connolly, Nicole Kidman (albeit hers was a classy one) -- have lined up to do this genre. Especially when Steve McQueen spent his career running away from The Blob.

I've been hearing from agents that everyone wants to make anything horror. My best guess as to why? They think they'll make a connection with the younger audiences who turn out for these kind of films so that, when these stars do their normally serious films, maybe the new fans will follow http://deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

[gopwinsin04]

Actually there is studio research to tell the studios what people want to see and where to put advertising dollars, but the system is notiorusly inaccurate with romatic comedies, and horror films

[HarmlessLovableFuzzball]

Could the recent ad put up by Nicole Kidman et al in the LA Times have anything to do with it ?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684987/posts?q=1&&page=1#1

How many movies produced today are worth watching at all, much less pay $10 for? For a long time now Hollywood has been long on cash and short on ideas. Most movies are predictable, its the same rehash of the same themes- often beaten to death with multiple sequels if a movie does somewhat well. The sound tracks are generally awful , not just because they are done on the cheap, because the MDs often have no idea what music to put. And post 9/11 PC has taken root like never before. In other original story, 'Sum of All Fears' was supposed to have Islamofascists, but they were replace with "European Terrorists"(!). What's there to watch any more ?

[sweetliberty]

Perhaps it's because they seldom put out a quality product any more and because performers now fancy themselves as political advisors and spokesmen and they sour much of the movie going audience with their ill-informed rhetoric.

[Milhous]

A desperate Warner Bros. pulled a similar stunt to increase the figures for its Superman Returns this summer

WB's jingoistic eschewment^[1] to suck up to patrons in Dubai fell at least $100 million short of his expectations.

[1] "Truth, Justice and all that stuff."

[gopwinsin04]

Without Bryan Singer we could have had Rachel McAdams as Lois Lane.

[diamond6]

Paying almost ten bucks for a movie and then sitting and being practically forced to watch "commercials" for ten fifteen minutes is not my idea of fun.

I'd much rather rent.

[samtheman]

The last movie I paid to see was 'Dances with Wolves'... and I walked out after 20 minutes.

But Kevin Costner was so thoughtful in that movie.

(made me wanna barf)

[Milhous]

Could the recent ad put up by Nicole Kidman et al in the LA Times have anything to do with it ?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684987/posts?q=1&&page=1#1

Interesting. Thanks.

[Nomad817]

They are suffering from a complete lack of creativity and originality, and they won't take risks on anything that doesn't follow the same formulas.

But doesn't it seem like they're always breaking some new box office record with all these spiderman/pirate type movies. If you look at top grossing lists a lot of them are recent even with inflation adjustment. I guess it just averages out with all the other junk. But we are living in a comic book/scifi/popculture geeks fantasy with all these marvel movies and remakes.