Showbiz Sandbox 29: Camped Out For “Twilight: New Moon”
November 16, 2009
There was a debate over titling this week’s episode “The Profanity Podcast “due to some various disagreements and the name of a new sitcom. Intrigued? Read on.
Harry Medved from Fandango.com joins us briefly to talk about next week’s number one movie at the box office, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” (Did we get the name right? Can’t we just call it “New Moon” or “Twilight 2”?) Yes, that’s right, we’re prognosticating next week’s number one movie in North America. Hey, when women of all ages are lining up just to catch a glimpse of Robert Pattinson and/or Taylor Lautner at the premiere, you know you might have a hit on your hands.
Speaking of hits, is Twentieth Century Fox taking a huge risk by bankrolling a film based on an unfamiliar story with no Hollywood superstars and a budget approaching $500 million? We’re talking about “Avatar,” and particularly Michael Cieply’s article in the New York Times’ on the film directed by James Cameron. (So, is Cameron himself not a superstar?) John Horn and Claudia Eller from the Los Angeles Times write that the movie’s price tag continues to climbe and that its global marketing campaign could cost as much as $150 million, “Avatar” won’t have to do “Titanic” business to make money, but it will have to fill auditoriums around the world for weeks to become profitable. Read more
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Showbiz Sandbox 27: That’s It For “This Is It”
November 3, 2009
This week we begin with Michael Giltz and Karen Woodward disagreeing over “This Is It,” the Michael Jackson documentary/concert film/eulogy. Is the film recommendable? Not according to the box office numbers, where the film brought in a disappointing $23 million. But since the film made $103 million worldwide J. Sperling Reich wanted to serve Michael some crow pie.
If you don’t want to see “This Is It,” maybe you’ll see “Avatar”? The second trailer for the highly anticipated film was released this week, after the first one bombed. The new trailer looks like this movie is actually about something. How about “Precious”? Sperling and Michael disagree over whether this movie is a heart tugging Oscar winner or shallow drivel.
Speaking of shallow, did Jeffrey Katzenberg really add anything new to the future of entertainment conversation in his recent Business Week interview? Seems more like a politician staying message then a mogul adding to the dialogue. Read more
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Showbiz Sandbox 17: Twitter Makes Movie Critics Important Again
August 24, 2009
Anne Thompson of “Thompson On Hollywood” joins us again this week, with big news of her own: Her blog is now a part of the indieWire network, where she will shine the Hollywood light on outlet which has traditionally covered the indie scene. Thompson can now be read at http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood, and you can always follow her on twitter at twitter.com/akstanwyck.
Speaking of Twitter, is the social media platform responsible for the successful opening weekend of “Inglorious Basterds”? “Bruno” and “GI Joe” plummeted at the box office within their opening weekends, and box office watchers posit that social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have a lot to do with it. Bad news travels fast. Obviously so does good news – and the best news is that studios may have to start making – gasp – watchable movies!
Friday, August 21st was Avatar Day, when fans could hustle over to their nearest IMAX theatre to watch 16 minutes of 3D footage from James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Read more
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Showbiz Sandbox 13: Hooliganism At Comic-Con (Or Lack Thereof)
July 28, 2009
We had a plethora of panelists this week, all of whom were in San Diego over the weekend to experience Comic-Con first hand. KPBS’ Cinema Junkie blogger Beth Accomando covered the event for National Public Radio, Todd Gilchrist was there for Cinematical, SciFi Wire‘s news editor Patrick Lee made the trip, as did Phillip Nakov from MovieSet.com and Harry Medved, who helped out with Fandango’s coverage of the event as their director of public relations. Also joining in on this week’s fun is New York Daily News writer and Huffington Post blogger, Michael Giltz.
If you weren’t one of the 126,000 people attending Comic-Con, this episode will fill you in on what you missed. There was whole day devoted to 3D movies, which apparently isn’t just a gimmick anymore. The big hits of Comic-Con were “District 9″, “Avatar”, “Kick Ass” and “Iron Man 2″ and the biggest miss was Roland Emerich’s next movie “2012″ which is either so bad it’s good, or so bad it’s just plain bad. Irrelevant whether it wowed people at the convention or not was “Twilight: New Moon”, because fans just wanted to see Robert Pattinson . Hundreds of young girls, their moms and a bunch of sensitive men camped out overnight to get into a jam packed “Twilight” panel. The festival was “the redemption of “New Moon” director Chris Weitz, who was clearly adored by his cast. It was definitely the panel with the most security.
This year marked the first appearance by Tim Burton (as a presenter), Peter Jackson and Terry Gilliam. Johnny Depp stopped by to say two words (literally) in promotion of Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Read more
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Showbiz Sandbox 10: The Death Of Pop, Pinup Girls and (Possibly) 2D Movies
June 29, 2009
Roger Friedman, senior columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, and Showbiz411.com joins us along with writer Michael Giltz to discuss the death of Michael Jackson. Friedman has been covering Jackson since his first child molestation trial and is one of the trusted reporters covering the pop star’s life and death.
The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences announced this week that the Academy Awards would now nominate ten films in the Best Picture instead of the usual five. Will this allow more deserving movies a shot at the big prize, or is this blatant pandering for higher Nielsen ratings?
“Transformers 2″ stormed the world-wide box office over the weekend, but that still doesn’t make it a good movie. Read more
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Showbiz Sandbox 8: Everybody’s A Critic On The Internet
June 15, 2009
This week “The Hangover” hung around, and “The Taking of Pelham 123” opened at lower numbers than expected. Was the film miscast?
James Cameron proves he’s King of the World, or at least of the digital age, by pushing game publisher Ubisoft to create the videogame industry’s first stereoscopic title. What does this mean for future relationships between films and videogames? In other film news, “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle signed a three year deal with Fox Searchlight; the quasi-classic “Conan The Barbarian” will be remade; and rumors abound that the director of the summer action film “G.I. Joe” was fired. Plus, DVD fans may have to wait a little longer until movies they didn’t bother seeing in the theaters are available for viewing on the couch.
Despite repeated warnings, chaos still ensued when the switch to digital TV finally happened in the United States. And though there were obvious clues about his sexual orientation, “American Idol” runner up Adam Lambert finally came out to Rolling Stone magazine. Plus, the debate rages on: Can Jay Leno survive at 10pm? Advertisers sure aren’t happy about his new time slot. Read more
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