She's Gotta Link It
Tuesday, July 23, 2013 at 12:22AM Deadline Happy news! Billy Magnussen, who is fabulously funny on Broadway in Vanya & Sonya & Masha & Spike (I reviewed it) will play Rapunzel's Prince in the film version of Into the Woods
Variety I started with happy news because ABC Family cancelled Bunheads which is just killing me right now. Another singular piece of entertainment shuttered too soon because networks don't have the guts to support shows that aren't entirely formulaic and interchangeable with other shows concurrently airing. They say "we took extra time to try and find ways to bring the series back for another season" but I see no evidence that they did that.
Signs and Sirens a provocative think piece on Melissa McCarthy's aggressive rise to the top of film comedy
Los Angeles Times RIP Actor Dennis Farina (Get Shorty, Midnight Run, Law & Order)
AV Club bless them for publishing this list of 22 Best Picture winners that were released in the first six months of their years. This topic is dear to my heart and I'm always trying to sell it to Hollywood and nobody seems to believe me. Maybe people will believe the AV Club?
New York Times on Woody Allen's gift with vivid female characters
Cinema Blend The Freddie Mercury biopic is falling apart because surviving Queen members want it to be PG clean? Oy. Best that this project falls apart!
Movie City News David Poland does some thinking aloud about Netflix. I love reading about this even though he loses me once he starts getting into a fast food analogy. But I wish someone would address the issue of accessibility. I really am having nightmares about this post-Netflix world when suddenly it's so complicated to find movies again. For a short while, the first few years of Netflix it seemed like ANY movie was available for watching and for only one monthly price. It was heaven. Now it's constricting again and you have to really search for movies and pay per view instead of subscription fees. I hate it! I do not want to have to look at Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, and Netflix and godknows what else every time I want to seek out a piece of Oscar history. Each new technology change we lose pieces of the history of the movies. It happened with VHS to DVD and it's happening now with DVD to the splintering market of Streaming. It saddens me.
Finally...
Another day, sorta disingenuous Kickstarter plea to get a rich celebrity funding for a movie that they claim they couldn't make within the system even though they got a lot of shit made through the system in years past! Spike Lee is the latest millionaire asking his fans for cash. Now, I respect Spike Lee as a filmmaker far more than the guy who popularized this trend - Lee has made several provocative ballsy movies outside of and within the system that only he could have made. Some of his joints are even incredible movies (Do the Right Thing, 25th Hour) and even his failures tend to be interesting!
This is a mothafuckin body of work right here
I like Spike Lee and I am not against asking for money as my sidebar reminds but asking for money is for people who don't have it ;) People who earn a substantial living doing what they do -- should they really be the same ones shaking tin cans on the street? It's a distortion of the point of crowdfunding. The people who can't get movies made within the system are the ones that Hollywood doesn't know exist, not the ones Hollywood already supports with paychecks. I wouldn't find this trend so distasteful if even one of these celebrities would just speak the truth which is this:
'I COULD get the movie I wanted to make made within the system and get paid for it but it might take a longer time than I'd like and I heard this is an easy way to do it and I don't want to part with my own money -- remember when Francis Ford Coppola went bankrupt with 'One From the Heart'? So just give me some, okay?
You know?
Reader Comments (14)
The McCarthy article - I was with them for a bit, but ended up turning. Here's the deal: She took a runaway hit and turned it into household name recognition, a string of box office hits and awards to boot (Emmy win/Oscar nod). She makes some clever size jokes, as have many many male comedians before her, and she has some lesser films already, like every comedian in Hollywood. She's leaps and bounds above the Will Ferrells and Adam Sandlers of the industry, though, simply because she always commits and is a joy to watch. I'm thrilled for all her successes, and like other comedians, she will eventually work her way into roles that are more fleshed out. Frankly, her little pep talk to Annie in Bridesmaids mines more emotional gold than most comedic actors do in their entire careers.
As for Spike Lee... it feels like he always scrapes his movies together, but yeah, it seems a little silly. It was only a matter of time before big names jumped on the idea though. Hooray for Veronica Mars for getting there first.
Bunheads getting cancelled is ridiculous. They could've easily kept it on and slotted new episodes in between their bigger hits since ABC Family shows go away for two to three months, which would've given them new content at consistent rate and not lose viewers. As for Spike Lee, he's always had trouble getting his films made but this video doesn't even sell the film he's trying to make and I got my own stuff to save up for, so I'll pass on his project.
Yay, yay, yay for Billy Magnussen! He was so utterly charming and gorgeous in Vanya, Sonia et al. I hope this high profile project boosts his career. Posts on other blogs, though, have indicated that the new script for "Into the Woods" trims the Princes' parts (no reprise of Agony in Act II) in order to make room for new songs for Baker, Baker's Wife, and Witch.
Re Kickstarter. I heard Zach Braff interviewed about his reasons for using Kickstarter, and I sort of bought it. But I feel it's only a matter of time before more billionaires start asking because, golly, the studios just won't let them have artistic license. Ed Burns seems to be able to make "his" movies without Kickstarter.
For me the crowd-sourcing thing soured with James Franco. Franco may be donating the proceeds to charity, but the reality is that he is in a rare position where he could get almost any film made. If you're in a position where you can get a movie as relatively obscure as Howl made, you can make other films. And if it's just about the charity, give some of the Oz money you just made to charity and call it a day.
When the price of a movie ticket is already expensive enough by itself, why should I as a theater goer desire to seed into a film's financing, especially knowing that I won't see a single dime of the proceeds? Where is the incentive for me as an audience member to essential pay twice over for a movie, other than seeing it on the big screen? Am I to believe that these tried and approved filmmakers have not the professional equity to call in some favors to influential friends and colleagues? They're getting as bad as Congress.
Is it too late to try to get Netflix to resurrect Bunheads?
THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS.
If you need me, I'll be on YouTube, crying over Michelle and Ginny's final scene and "Makin' Whoopee" all day.
Right now we're in the early days of the streaming wars, just like there was the HD-DVD vs. Blu ray war in the last decade. You've got Amazon and Netflix and ITunes and to a much lesser Hulu competing for dominance, and then you've got dedicated studio sites like the Warner Archive trying to get into the mix as well. I suspect that in the next few years a "winner" will emerge and the market will consolidate. And with the Warner Archive we're actually seeing the upside of streaming/on demand, where vast swaths of their back catalogue that would otherwise remain unavailable are now showing up because they've found a way to make it as low cost as possible.
All of which is to say that you're absolutely right that it's a pain in the ass right now - especially with so many movies either never available or out of print on DVD now (I've noticed an awful lot of movies disappearing off my Netflix DVD queue in recent months) - but I'm hopeful that streaming will still end up a net positive for movie fanatics!
Kick Starter for established personalities and cult brands in Hollywood is inoffensive to me. The fact that video-on-demand is the new normal for challenging foreign and independent titles -- that more and more film talent is headed to TV and you insist on putting you head in the sand because you can argue to the contrary -- whatever. Just remember you have this attitude about Hollywood established brands asking the public for financial resources when Tilda Swinton decides she needs extra monies and believe me she's very likely to use this for her greater artistic sensibility and you better stick to your guns.
Oh, and I find Spike's plea for Kickstarter funds way less offensive than some of the others that have come around in the last few months. Mostly because Spike actually has put his money where his mouth is in the past - he self financed and self-distributed Red Hook Summer just last year. And I think it's ludicrous to believe that just because Spike has directed some studio movies in the last ten years that he's got an extra million bucks lying around to finance a movie. I'm sure the man lives a comfortable life, but it's not like he's Zach Braff living off his Scrubs residuals.
Which of course means Spike's Kickstarter will probably fail, having made less than $90k to date.
/3rtful -- i'm sending you a virtual hug cuz you sound so angry all the time. Breathe, man, breathe.
Roark -- it's a false equivalency sure, but it's less false than Spike compared to no name and start-up filmmakers for whom kickstarter and other crowdsourcing platforms was designed. But don't cry for Spike's bank account. It's not like directing commercials and Hollywood hits pays peanuts. Meanwhile, I hope you're right about a winner emergining in the streaming wars. I can't afford to have a dozen different accounts or pay by title. I need subscription fees
There's also the issue of investors wanting some creative control (and at some point there'll be someone who will). So, what if mormons decided to finance, I don't know, next Lee Daniels's film and they demanded to have some creative control?
Nathaniel - yeah, no doubt about it. You're right - it's not entirely false, and I'm not crying for Spike at all, believe me. It still kind of bugs me - I guess I just figure if someone is going to abuse Kickstarter, I'd rather it be Spike Lee than Zach Braff. Though I'm also a total hypocrite on this subject because I gave money to the Veronica Mars movie, and did so with pleasure, and that's arguably the most offensive of the three!
I hope I'm right about streaming too, 'cause I can't really afford $30+ a month on subscription and streaming fees forever! Our modern age is so challenging. :)
I am a Spike Lee defender of his whole persona, commentary on the state of movies and other filmmakers, and a lot of his movies (that some consider outright disasters). With that said, yeesh Spike, you couldn't just stop buying those surely six-figure Knicks season tickets to make a movie? That said, I support him more than Zach Braff and not because of what Braff pulled or comparing them as filmmakers. I know Spike will have a couple of his NYU students on his side and one of them might be the next Dee Rees.
The only Kickstarter that I have put is the movie my former film professor is trying to fund for $15,000. I get behind those Kickstarter projects.
May another Megan Ellison reach out to filmmakers like Lee who are already established and want their artistic control but that movie will cost a little bit of coin.
Lee can surely get some money from his celebrity pals....