December
19The Great Gatsby Trap


MEMO:
TO: Baz Lurhmann
FROM: Peter Bart

As you complete your final promotional lap on “Australia,” Baz, you’ve let it be known that you now intend to take on another tough subject: A movie based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby.”

My advice (unsolicited) on Gatsby can be summed up in two words: Think again.

Gatsby has been the basis for three movies, a play and even an opera and it never works. Having lived through one of the movies in 1974, I have some theories on why. I’m sure you don’t want to hear them but here they are:

There’s no story. Gatsby is an ill-formed character. Fitzgerald’s gorgeous writing doesn’t translate to the screen (neither did Hemingways).

The upshot: The 1974 project (which starred Mia Farrow and Robert Redford) ended up being a sell in search of a movie. Time Magazine picked up on this with its 1974 cover story entitled “The Great Gatsby Supersell.”

Pauline Kael, the heralded critic, once wrote: “Though the dreamy crushes of Fitzgerald’s doomed heroes are very appealing on the page, they don’t come across the screen.” Her comment was in response to another failed Fitzgerald epic, “The Last Tycoon,” directed by Elia Kazan.

The folks who shot “Benjamin Button” were smart enough to veer sharply away from the Fitzgerald short story on which it was based. They apparently “got” the Kael critique.

Fitzgerald projects always start with a dream. Ali MacGraw, then a superstar and Robert Evans’ wife, loved the novel and wanted to play the lead. Evans wanted to make it. His boss, Frank Yablans, was hesitant. At the time, Yablans was an innovative distribution man who had risen to the Paramount presidency, but he and Evans (who had once played Irving Thalberg in a movie) were often at odds. As Yablans remembers it, Evans promised a cast of Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Ali.

Evans remembers it differently. He says (and Time Magazine stated it, too) that Beatty wanted to direct and asked Evans to play Gatsby. In any case, that plan didn’t work, nor did the Nicholson gambit.

Truman Capote was hired to write the script. All he did for his $100,000 payday was type the novel. I called Francis Coppola to start over and his draft was superb. I assumed we would go after Brando to play Gatsby – after all, Coppola and Brando had proved a damned good combination on “The Godfather.”

But things got weird. Ali MacGraw, who’d started the whole thing disappeared into the hills with Steve McQueen. Suddenly the Gatsby cast consisted of Redford and Mia Farrow and the director was a Brit named Jack Clayton.

The final movie was brilliantly marketed, but it was all style and no substance. The film grossed $20.6 million in the U.S., roughly $85.6 million in today’s dollars, which was better than the paltry $2 million grossed by “The Last Tycoon.” But it was like a rich souffle that lacked flavor and didn’t quite rise to expectations.

Baz, you may do better. You bring a great verve and flair to your films. But Gatsby can be a trap. An expensive trap.

Give it another think.

(Australia Photo by Evan Agostini AP)

Posted: Fri., December 19, 2008, 4:28PM PT || Comments (10)

December
17Bringing Back the Sunshine

Coping with failure can prove daunting, but coping with success often proves equally damaging. It’s not uncommon for filmmakers, for example, to come out with a first film hit only to be paralyzed by the prospect of a follow-up.

Sam Mendes reflected last week upon the shock of hitting it big with “American Beauty.” “The night I received my Oscar,” he recalled, “I didn’t go back stage to face friends and colleagues wanting to congratulate and reassure me. I was promptly ushered into a room full of reporters shouting questions at me and demanding what I wanted to do for an encore.”

Determined to keep working at his craft, Mendes returned to the theater and, three years later, filmed “Road to Perdition.”

Others were not that lucky. The young German filmmaker with the florid name of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has yet to follow up his impressive debut in “The Lives of Others.”

And what ever happened to that loveable husband-and-wife team of Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton who gave us “Little Miss Sunshine” four years ago?

Well, good news on the “Sunshine” front. Faris and Dayton tell me they are ready to roll a new film based on the Tom Perrotta novel, “The Abstinence Teacher.” It’s about a sex education teacher who runs into problems with the culture wars and with evangelical activists in the community.

“Our problem is we enjoy writing,” Faris says. “We feel like we’re making a movie when we’re writing.”

Dayton says the success of “Sunshine” was “validating” but that every stage of the filmmaking process poses the question, “How in hell are we going to do this?” Fortunately, the couple has always found an answer to that question. They also sustain a steady flow of commercials, like last year’s NBA campaign. As well as bringing up their three teenage kids.

While Dayton & Faris have completed their new screenplay, they must now confront the casting process. But they’re determined to start their film early next year at Warner Bros.

And they’re also determined not to be stalled like Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Posted: Wed., December 17, 2008, 6:21PM PT || Comments (2)

December
16The Show will go on!

As readers of this blog know, my “day job” is serving as editor of Variety – and it’s a great job -- but for the last six years I’ve also been doing a weekly television show. Working as co-host with Peter Guber on Shootout has brought encounters with some 533 guests in Los Angeles, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and elsewhere.

After nestling in the Sunday morning spot on AMC these several years, the show will now migrate to a different time and different neighborhood. It already occupies many “hoods”, to be sure – it’s broadcast in more than 50 different countries around the world and also in syndication in many U.S. cities.

In closing this chapter of Shootout, I can’t help but reflect fondly on the many TV encounters over these last several years. The advantage we’ve had on our show is time – the ability to sustain a conversation for half an hour or so and thus avoid the time constraints of the late-night talk circuit.

While some of our guests were aggressive in talking about their projects of the moment, many also reflected on the past. Steven Spielberg reminded us that on “Jaws,” he was given a $3.5 million budget and a 50-day shooting schedule. The film cost $7 million and ate up 105 days – “A near-death experience,” Spielberg recalled. Because of the overage, Lew Wasserman, the boss of Universal at the time, told his young director that he would have to open the movie not only in every theater in America, but also in “every barn and fire station.”

Fortunately, “Jaws” filled all those venues to overflow.

Spielberg was a great guest. Fortunately, we had many others as well. The most aggressive probably was Shirley MacLaine, who took one look at our set and decreed, “You guys have no idea how to light senior women.” She stared at her hosts and added, “Or senior men.”

She rolled up her sleeves and re-created the entire set. We never changed it back.

Many other moments flash back to me after these several years.
  • George Clooney observing (with pain) that the remote town in Africa he’d just left the night before had just been wiped out by neighboring tribes who were jealous of the clean water and medical supplies he’d helped them acquire.
  •  Kate Winslet wondering why Leonardo DiCaprio, having waited with her hour after hour for the “right” lighting on their final “Titanic” embrace, chose to eat an odoriferous onion sandwich just prior to their farewell kiss.
  •  Denzel Washington acknowledging that the only way he could negotiate with Harvey Weinstein on the budget of “The Great Debaters” was to recruit his mother to talk directly to Harvey’s mother.
  •  Clint Eastwood recalling that after digging into “Flags of Our Fathers,” he impulsively decided it might “only be fair” to hire a writer to present “the other point of view” – hence, “Letters from Iwo Jima.”
  •  Sean Combs explaining that he was now determined to build an acting career around his real name and that he was no longer the various characters embodied by his past ghetto monikers – P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, et al.
  •  Roman Polanski acknowledging that he truly missed working in Hollywood but that, even if all the past charges were dismissed, it might not be good for him or his career to move back.
  •  Ron Meyer expressing bewilderment over why Sumner Redstone thought he could “fire” Tom Cruise – “You can’t fire Tom Cruise!”
  •  Francis Ford Coppola reflecting that my personal role in persuading and prodding him to direct the first “Godfather” represented a setback for his career because he became stereotyped as a director of “gangster pictures” instead of focusing on the personal art movies he was bent on creating.
It’s been a good run. Now it’s time to start a new chapter.

Posted: Tue., December 16, 2008, 6:27PM PT || Comments (12)

December
15Ten Reasons Why I Don't Make Lists


The media likes to assault readers at this time of year with year-end summaries, predictions and random “best-of” lists and they’re coming hot and heavy this year (there aren’t enough ads to fill the space).

 

The lists are designed to make media gurus seem thoughtful and profound; instead, they often leave readers wondering, “Why did I trust that critic all year long?”

 

So let me start by congratulating the Economist for admitting that its crystal ball in ’08 was totally cracked. Last year at this time, its prognosticators managed to get nothing right, including the prediction that Hillary Clinton would be heading for the White House.

 

Magazines like Time and New York filled their latest issues with “best-of” lists and they were nothing if not idiosyncratic. In Time, critic Richard Corliss listed “Synecdoche, New York” as the second best movie of the year (behind “Wall-E”), while New York called the film the “Best Mess” (I agree with New York).

 

Time conjured up lists of the Top Ten Break-Ups (Madonna and Guy Ritchie), Ten Top Fashion Faux Pas (Anna Wintour’s fossil dress) and even the Ten Top Bank Slogans (“What’s in your wallet?” from Capital One).

 

New York’s lists go for the truly arcane. Its award for the “best montage” goes to “The Brothers Bloom,” which hasn’t even been released yet (it got delayed till next year) and chose Mathieu Amalric for its list of “movie unforgettables” (he apparently played the black sheep in “A Christmas Tale”).

 

New York’s choice of “best movie script” went to two Norwegian writers who wrote a film called “Reprise” that I didn’t happen to see (or hear of) and anointed “Ghost Town” as the “Best Movie You Didn’t See” (I saw it and would put it atop my list of “forgettables”).

 

Interestingly, very few publications are making lists of predictions this year. Apparently, the last few weeks have proven too traumatic.

Posted: Mon., December 15, 2008, 5:39PM PT || Comments (0)

December
15Worst People of the Week

Keith Olbermann owns the “Worst Person of the Week” franchise and, as lists go, his is the most amusing. If I were asked to help with the list, a few nominees would quickly come to mind. These are the corporate bean counters who keep announcing their layoffs just prior to the holidays.

 

Is there a corporate rule among the congloms that every deed must be accomplished in the nastiest possible manner? There’s no law that says layoffs in January or February are illegal. Why does everyone have to get the word right before Christmas?

 

OK, I know the excuse about the accountants. The books have to be cleared for ’08, write-offs have to be completed. But surely there must be a way of getting around the bean counter’s bullshit.

 

Trust me, folks. Hollywood once upon a time was a clubby place. People protected one another. Studios showed loyalty; so did their employees.

 

So I herewith name the holiday-busting bean counters as the Worst Person of the Week.

 

Alan Rosenberg, you’re next in line.

Posted: Mon., December 15, 2008, 2:51PM PT || Comments (2)

December
12Hollywood Needs its own Car Czar

While there may be a delay in the appointment of a “car czar” to help rescue the auto industry, show biz should nonetheless take heed: Hollywood could surely use a czar of its own to get things back on track.

The possibility of a SAG strike certainly conjures up those proverbial lemmings heading off the cliff. The actors union lacks a scenario, unless it’s the one called “Death Wish: The Sequel.” Yet top stars who would normally exhibit a sense of responsibility seem reluctant to take an anti-strike stand. The management side also resounds with the sounds of silence.

Perhaps a new Hollywood czar could pummel some sense into both sides before the film and TV industries follow the path of Detroit. For starters, he could remind everyone that the community is only one year removed from the writers strike. The principal achievement of that conflict was to subvert scripted programming and cancel movies.

If a Hollywood czar were appointed, he surely could find other things to do. He could beat some sense into the stolid board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for example. The Oscar show could be streamlined, and the arcane nomination procedures of branches like documentaries and foreign films could be brought into the 21st century.

The czar might even meet with the hierarchy of the Golden Globes to ask a few hard questions: “What are your admissions criteria?” he might ask. Sure, the Globes’ fraternity puts on a great show, and their kudo nominations often make more sense than the Academy’s, but a little more transparency would be desirable.

On the TV side, it would be nice if the czar sat down with Jay Leno and led him through a little creative psychotherapy. He could remind him: “You’re going to erase a substantial portion of prime time, Jay, but have you really thought through the possibilities? The same corny gags that work at, say, 11:30, may bomb an hour earlier. How about emulating the adventures of Jack Paar many generations ago and trying some bold new ideas?” The level of guests could improve and so, incidentally, could the level of ideas.

Granted, finding the right czar for these roles could prove dicey. Russia’s last czar, I vaguely recall, was killed in a basement, so some job security would help.

If Hollywood were really serious about the process, an elder statesman like Bob Daly could fill the bill. He managed to build up a strong element of respect among the guilds during his reign at Warner Bros.

If the industry simply wanted to go through the motions, I have the perfect nominee: Condoleezza Rice. She’s managed to maintain her status of dignified invisibility in Washington these last six years and she doubtless could match that performance in Hollywood. With Condi we could have a czar and no one would feel threatened.

Maybe Detroit needs her even more, though.

(Photo: Nash AP)

Posted: Fri., December 12, 2008, 3:56PM PT || Comments (5)

December
12Holding To the Scenario

This is the moment when the “specialty” pictures (translation: art movies) go wide and when the sharp stewards of film promotion strut their stuff.

“Doubt” (from Miramax) and “The Reader” (from Weinstein Co.) open in select markets this weekend while Clint Eastwood’s second movie of the year, “Gran Torino,” opens in eight runs. Expanding aggressively are “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Milk,” both of which seem destined to be hits. “Frost/Nixon,” too, expands its reach. Judging from the weekend numbers the distributors of all these films should feel exultant.

It’s intriguing to see the strategies emerge. James Schamus doesn’t spend a dime on TV until he assimilates his reviews and audience reactions. Now it’s time for Focus to sell its wares aggressively. The peculiar snub from the Golden Globes (only one nomination for Sean Penn) won’t sour Schamus’ recipe.

And guess who’s back – Harvey. Weinstein Co. gleaned eight Golden Globe nominations between “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “The Reader.” Both films are arguably throwbacks to the ‘70s both in terms of theme and mood – they are literate and thought-provoking.

Though it’s mandatory at this time for entertainment journalists to blast the Globes for ignorance and insularity, their nominations, like their show, have established their own validity. I’d long since forgotten that oddly delightful little movie “In Bruges” – good for the Globes for rediscovering it with three nominations. And sure, the cynics will say the Tom Cruise nomination for “Tropic Thunder” represents a device for ensuring his presence on the Globes’ TV show, but the performance deserves recognition.

That leaves the parent Fox studio with a double whammy this weekend. Not only did the company receive zero nominations (Fox Searchlight netted seven), but its big release of “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” – this weekend’s only mega-wide release – has received some severe critical knocks. That studio’s previous wide release, “Australia,” also is having a wobbly time. Both earth and Australia nonetheless ran up nice numbers this weekend.

Fortunately, Fox decided to rent a celestial communications network at Cape Canaveral to beam “Earth” to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth. Hopefully, Fox will enjoy a warmer galactic reception than it’s receiving closer to home.

Posted: Fri., December 12, 2008, 3:39PM PT || Comments (0)

December
7The Obama Presence at the White House

Washington -- There was a ghostly presence at the White House this weekend, but no one mentioned it – not even Barbra Steisand, who tends to pop off about things like this.

Steisand, Morgan Freeman, Roger Daltrey and other celebs were gathered here for the annual Kennedy Center Honors and President George Bush and wife, Laura, were hosting the White House part of the presentation.

Even the fervently liberal Babs performed the obligatory presidential hand shake and photo op, and she did not tell him to buy a DVD of “W”, nor did she break into a chorus of “Happy Times are Here Again.”

But she, like other guests, seemed expectant that Barack Obama would peer out of a side corridor or would otherwise manifest his presence. The Bush Epoch, after all, was now an anachronism. The President had always seemed vaguely uncomfortable at this and other cultural events. Obama, Michelle and their circle would surely “get” this scene.

The President-Elect seemed to affirm this theory on Meet the Press Sunday when he promised to invite artists, musicians and poets to the White House to inspire young people and create greater respect for the “national tapestry.”

This year’s honorees also included Twyla Tharp, Pete Townshend of the Who and country singer George Jones whose work was immortalized at a vibrant show produced by George Stevens Jr.

According to tradition (the event dates back to 1978) the Secretary of State hosts a dinner at the State Department (Condeleezza in years past has even played the piano) while the President the next evening hosts his event.

The guests, an eclectic mix of show biz and Washington celebs, were acutely conscious that the mood was quickly changing in this intensely political town. “This feels like the final days of Saigon, and the choppers are about to take the regime away,” observed one esteemed visitor.

George Bush can see the stage for the inauguration ceremony being built outside his front door. Tickets are being traded with the same fervor that once characterized the stock market.

But the President is not ready to surrender center stage. Politicos at the Kennedy Center joked that Bush is single handedly trying to solve the unemployment crisis – at least among republicans – by making a flurry of last minute political appointments, some 30 in the last couple of weeks alone.

It’s the Obama appointments that have made the headlines, of course. A rumor here is that Obama has quietly set up an advisory board to study policy on the arts and culture and that Michelle Obama is playing an active role. Culture had not been an area of interest for the outgoing president.

Indeed there’s speculation here whether Bush, given his new leisure time, may decide to visit Broadway to see Will Ferrell in his new one-man show. Its title: “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush.” It opens for an 8 week run Jan. 20.

Posted: Sun., December 7, 2008, 11:10AM PT || Comments (1)

December
5How “Slumdog” Emerged From The Slums

I’ve always found that big hits stem from corporate inadvertencies, not from careful planning. Certainly the “Slumdog” saga reinforces that theory.

As “Slumdog Millionaire” picks up heat in the kudo competition (the “top picture” award from the National Board of Review being the latest example) the folklore also builds about its origins. Who had the guts to greenlight a movie in Hindi set in Mumbai?

The answer is that no one quite did.

But Peter Rice at Fox Searchlight looks smart for ending up with the finished movie. And Warner Bros looks very uncool for having let it go.

The movie, under the direction of Danny Boyle, started shooting under the aegis of Warner Independent. Credit Polly Cohen for moving it forward. Rice, having worked with Boyle before, could have cofinanced, but chose not to. One demerit for Rice.

By the time “Slumdog” finished shooting, there was no more Warner Independent. That scared the hell out of Boyle. But Bob Berney from Picturehouse, a company that had been buried along with Warner Independent, offered to handle distribution. He liked the movie – and Berney had built up an amazing record going back to “Greek Wedding” for working with indie projects.

Berney asked Jeff Robinov of Warner Bros. to keep Picturehouse in business for an additional four months so he could deal with “Slumdog.” Robinov and his corporate colleagues said no. One demerit for Warner Bros.

Boyle played his final card. It was back to Rice. This time, he said yes. Maybe he asked himself, how many times can you say no to an old friend?

If “Slumdog” wins an Oscar, lots of folks will line up for credit. My kudo goes to Danny Boyle for persistence.

Posted: Fri., December 5, 2008, 12:52PM PT || Comments (3)

December
4Content Loses its Crown

The favorite slogan of the booming ‘90s, “Content is king,” has undergone a slight change. The new version: Content is crap.

For affirmation, drop by Michael’s restaurant on Manhattan’s 55th street. There, the kings of content assemble at lunchtime to munch on their Cobb salads. The room is still crowded (OK, not quite as crowded as it used to be) but no one’s talking deals for books, movies, network shows or new websites.

The talk instead is about cutbacks and layoffs. It seems the kings of content suddenly can’t figure out how to monetize their products any more.

You can feel the culture shock in the room. Every course brings word of a new round of layoffs. Viacom shed 850 people between my bloody Mary and my shrimp cocktail. I see Jeff Bewkes across the room -- will Time Warner erase another 800 by dessert?

“Why are we in this downward spiral?” I asked one content king at a nearby table.

“You won’t quote me, will you?” he replied. I assured him I wouldn’t.

“Then I’ll tell you the truth. I have no fucking idea.”

Bolstered by that wisdom, I surveyed the room again. This was not Detroit. No one in the room was manufacturing lousy automobiles. To the contrary, the chief of a specialty film company was lunching nearby and, according to the box office charts, he was having an excellent year. People were waiting in line for his movies.

Of course, he, too, was making cutbacks.

My old friend Liz Smith was seated at her usual table at Michael’s, and she always brings a perspective to these passing phenomena. “It’s a question of mass psychology,” she offered. “It turned out that the entire economy seemed to be resting on people’s mood swings.”

So the big question is, will content make a comeback? I couldn’t tell from the mood at Michael’s. At the next table, however, I noticed that the lunch check was discreetly being shoved from one party to the next. No one wanted to be stuck with the tab.

It was still sitting there by the time everyone departed. That did not speak well for the future of the content business.

Posted: Thu., December 4, 2008, 5:40PM PT || Comments (4)

December
1Too Cool to be Hot

Much of the critical assessment of the films these days seems to relate not to their themes or performances but to their temperature. Movies like “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” or “The Reader” are being faulted by critics because they are “chilly.” Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia” may have its faults – exhaustive faults – but it’s earning praise because it’s “hot.”

I understand what the critics are getting at, but I wonder nonetheless if it’s a bit of a substitute for more probing analysis. Critics don’t like to admit that some films move them emotionally and others don’t. Part of the response may relate to one’s own experience – a messy divorce, a death in the family – or part of it is simply how a critic was feeling the day of the screening.

The problem, too, may relate to the mindset of the filmmaker. David Fincher, the man behind “Benjamin Button,” is a cerebral director. I found his latest movie, like “Zodiac,” to be at once riveting and off-putting. Read the original F. Scott Fitzgerald short story on “Button” and you find remarkable and touching interactions between the character and his various friends along his life’s peculiar journey. He was too old, and wise, for the kids around him when he was an “old” baby. Later in life he was too naive and callow for his actually older companions. He was a rather touching character – touching and out-of-touch.

Those nuances are missing from the “Button” character as depicted in the Fincher movie. His is a fascinating journey, but some filmgoers may find themselves observing it with a detached outlook.

In “Australia,” as in “Slumdog Millionaire,” the filmmakers deliberately and daringly turn up the heat. Danny Boyle resorts to shameless sentimentality in “Slumdog” – and gets away with it. He even ends his Dickensian story with an absurd dance video over end credits.

But another question emerges about “Slumdog.” Will audiences find his setting – Mumbai – easier to relate to because of last week’s tragic events? Did reality bring this city to life in people’s minds so that the events overtaking his characters take on other layers of meaning?

In short, did Danny Boyle inadvertently luck into a very hot movie?

Posted: Mon., December 1, 2008, 6:04PM PT || Comments (7)

November
26Ted Turner’s Lesson in Economic Self-Destruction

An important upshot of the current economic crisis is that the so-called experts have finally come to conclude that everything is too damn big. “Citi Faces Pressure to Slim Down,” cries a headline in the Wall Street Journal.

So it’s reasonable to ask, how did we let entities like Citi or AIG grow so powerful as to become unwieldy nation-states onto themselves?

For insights I decided to read Ted Turner’s new memoir, “Call Me Ted,” a tell-all in which the Mouth of the South explains his remarkable rise and fall. Ted had built a formidable news network, CNN, and was busily expanding it when he got caught up in merger-itis.

In his book, Ted explained how things were going great at CNN throughout the mid 1990s – until greed set in. There were sharks in the waters. Jerry Levin at Time Warner was hungry for a deal to get his stock up. Rupert was, as usual, hunting. So was Malone. Michael Milken gave advice to Turner that made him fret about his vulnerability (that was his stock in trade).

So Ted convinced himself that since Time Warner’s stock was trading well below where it belonged, he could safeguard CNN and also make millions more through a merger. Besides, Levin had made him all sorts of promises – Turner could run not only CNN but also HBO and other assets as well.

Of course he lied. Ted was soon basically out of a job. And soon Levin & Co were on yet another path – a $160 billion deal with AOL that ultimately was to pollute Turner’s nest egg (along with everyone elses).

Why did the deal take place? Ted supplies the usual euphemisms: Wall Street craved it. Investors demanded growth. Gurus like Milken were saying that “The AOL-Time Warner deal would create a value substantially more than Time Warner was worth.

Folks within the empire, like Jeffery Bewkes, did not share Levin’s exuberance for the deal. Ted Turner himself learned about it at the last minute at a time when he was consumed with his divorce from Jane Fonda.

Turner explained his misgivings to Levin, who replied by informing him that he was fired. Within two years Ted would loss 80% of his worth.

Hence both Time Warner and Turner ended up transforming companies that were profitable and purposeful into huge corporate blobs whose only purpose was to earn fees for investment bankers.

How does Turner feel about all this? “Sad and frustrated,” he says.

And that’s the way the rest of us feel as we see the Time Warner-Turner scenarios replicated across our economy. Once productive executives become sidelined, productive enterprises become paralyzed.

Ted Turner at least has millions of acres to prowl across and can stare at his herds of bison. Others aren’t so lucky.

(Photo by Thomas James)

Posted: Wed., November 26, 2008, 12:56PM PT || Comments (4)

November
23SAG's Doomsday Scenario

Its other strategies having failed, SAG may now try to obliterate Hollywood’s awards season.

That seems to be the threat implicit in the guild’s announcement over the weekend that it had decided to pursue a strike authorization. The efforts of a mediator to resolve the conflict have failed. Now comes the hammer.

To be sure, the 120,000 members may not deliver support to their leadership. The writer’s strike and the SAG impasse already had brought about a slowdown in feature production. The studios were hoping to re-activate their assembly lines in January and February but the economic crisis may inhibit that aim. Further strike threats would now be a major blow – one that would eliminate many jobs for actors.

If SAG were to throw a monkey wrench into Oscar season, as the writer’s strike did a year ago, its action would doubtless stir wrath throughout the creative community. Hollywood is strike weary. The financial collapse has also taken its toll.

So do actors really want to be both alienated and broke?

Posted: Sun., November 23, 2008, 12:18PM PT || Comments (31)

November
23The Disappearing Star

Arguably the biggest scene-stealer of this season’s films is an 11 year old novice named Brandon Walters. Baz Luhrmann discovered the aborigine lad in the outback. And now he’s dispatched him back whence he came.

“It seemed that within hours of the premiere in Sydney, Brandon had become the hottest star in the country,” Luhrmann told me Friday. Fans and photographers were pursuing him everywhere. Luhrmann became alarmed.

The filmmaker had found his child star after a massive search. He interviewed some 1,000 actors. He trekked far and wide on his search. When he finally found Brandon he spent a week in the outback with the kid and his family trying to gain their trust and also to determine how his young star would respond to pressure.

Brandon’s role is pivotal in the film. His character is part of the “stolen generation” – aborigine kids and half-casts, who are stolen from their parents, sent to training school and brought up as “white” Aussies.

“Brandon turned out to be a natural,” says Hugh Jackman, who stars in “Australia.” “He understood the movie. He understood the camera. He was a joy.”

But though Brandon withstood the pressure of shooting, both Jackman and Luhrmann were concerned about the pressure of stardom. “Australia” represents the biggest movie in that country in generations. The glitz surrounding the opening was overwhelming.

At the end of the film, the boy goes back to the outback. It’s time for a “walkabout.” That’s the plot – also the reality.

After the premiere, it was time for Brandon to go home. Whether he will emerge for promotion is now up in the air. Having created a star, Baz Luhrmann is worried about destroying a boy.

(Photo of Brandon Walters by Janie Barrett)

Posted: Sun., November 23, 2008, 12:07PM PT || Comments (0)

November
23Big Movies, Tough Sell

I do not envy the marketers assigned to build campaigns around the two mega budget blockbusters of the holiday season. This is not to disparage “Australia” or “Benjamin Button.” Both are very ambitious and superbly crafted movies.

But try describing either film in a short, cogent sentence. Therein lies the problem.

It’s a cinch to tell someone what “Iron Man” is about. Even “Slumdog Millionaire.” But these two?

No one knows this better than Baz Luhrmann. Luhrmann set out to create a movie of mixed styles and moods – over-the-top comedy in one section, John Wayne western in another, war drama in yet a third. He loves Hollywood sagas. As a boy in a tiny town in Australia, he and his father endlessly ran Hollywood movies on their jerry-built projector.

“Australia” is the kind of film that should ideally open in a small number of theaters and be discovered by dedicated filmgoers. But that’s not the way blockbuster season works. It will open wide with a massive campaign. I’m just glad I don’t have to come up with it.

Or one for “Button.” David Fincher has conjured up a very long, brooding meditation on … well, it’s hard to pinpoint what it’s about. To the film going public, it’s really about watching Brad Pitt reverse the aging cycle, moving from old to young. Again, it’s a love story, kinda, a war story, in moments and a reflection on the meaning of the experience of life.

Try conveying that in an ad.

“Button” is a masterpiece of filmmaking technique. Its story-telling, however, is, at best, idiosyncratic. The central character is himself more observer than participant. His life journey (or reverse journey) does not provide him with glints of wisdom.

No one knows what “Button” really cost, but it is a truly remarkable film at whatever price -- $150 million is the popular guess (Paramount made a hefty deal for a tax rebate). Some may term it Hollywood’s most expensive art film. Some may argue that it courageously bridges the gap between pop film and art film. Some may liken it to “Forrest Gump.”

Again, I’m just grateful I don’t have to figure out how to sell it.

Posted: Sun., November 23, 2008, 11:54AM PT || Comments (0)


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Peter Bart's Column

DreamWorks' credit problems
Studio's future unknown in economic climate
You know times are really tough when you start feeling sorry for Steven Spielberg. Steven has had a demanding week. First, the Bernard Madoff scandal enveloped tens of millions of dollars from Spielberg and his philanthropies. Then there were the troubles at the newly re-financed DreamWorks. Non-refinanced DreamWorks, that is.
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