“Archie” Gets Nasty, Yeah That Archie

The placid life in Riverdale is getting downright nasty. Those wholesome American comic books based on a mythical, wholesome high school has two powerful people squaring off and being, well, childish. If you believe their lawsuits.

Ok, this isn’t about movies, at least not yet. But if one side gets its way, it will be. Here’s the skinny.

Jonathan Goldwater is the son of one of the company’sfounders. Nancy Silberkleit is the daughter-in-law of the company’s other co-founder. Currently they are co-CEOs of the last family owned Golden Age comic book. “Archie” was created in 1939 and been a mainstay of a gentler comic book philosophy.

And philosophy seems to be the problem. Goldwater has hired super agent Ari Emanuel to help bring the staid comic book into the 21st century and make it a mega-brand replete with movies and other revenue generating ideas.  Siberkleit wants to keep the ‘tradition’ of its family values intact. Both accuse each other of endangering the family legacy. Both are hurling some eye popping accusation.

Goldwater says Silberkleit’s is stagnating the company . He claims she has threatened workers with termination for being over weight or simply not looking right. There have been accusations of sexually harassing female employees, and to make this truly puerile, her dog defecated in the offices. He has successfully gotten a restraining order.  Silberkleit is restricted from being in the office and limits her interactions with employees.

Silberkleit claims that Goldwater’s hiring of Emanuel was not authorized and hence illegal per company by-laws.  His attempt to find outside investors with the planned expansion of the brand is also considered illegal. She has tossed in a defamation lawsuit and said he punctured her tires to her car and had a web assassin hack her web site. She is also vehemently opposed to some editorial decisions, like having the comics support gay rights.

Apparently they have agreed on mediation to prevent this from totally destroying the company. Observers doubt this will end quietly. Where’s a principal when you need one?

“Rear Window” Revealed

Alfred Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW is one of the classics. The story about a wheel chair bound photographer looking out into the courtyard of his urban dwelling and what he sees is great cinema.

Jimmy Stewart plays the photog while a very beautiful Grace Kelly plays his gutsy, faithful girlfriend. I have always had a small problem with her role. What the heck is she doing with a man many years her senior? She cold do so much better.

But that’s not what this is about. What this is about is Jeff Descom. Jeff using Photoshop’s After Effects painstakingly recreate a time lapsed full screen version of what Hitchcock revealed looking out the rear window of Stewart’s apartment.

Watch it and marvel at Descom’s talents and, more importantly, the talents of Alfred Hitchcock who once stated that presentation was more important that content. Perhaps he is right. Now the question is, will Descom’s idea start a trend that other Hollywood classics get a similar treatment?

Review: Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror is another film that has been released that centers on the fairy tale of Snow White. You know the story, a comely, virginal young princess is threatened by her mean, vain, powerful witch/step mother. She is forced into an ‘alternative lifestyle’ relationship with 7 men of diminutive stature in the deep, dark, forbidding woods. That is until a handsome, square jawed presumably boring young man, who happens to be the next in line to a beautiful, wealthy kingdom finds her, rescues her and they live happily ever after or until the peasants become restive.

In this entry, the film is directed by Tarsem Singh. Mr. Singh is from India, you know from the sub-continent best known for call centers for big corporations where you seldom get a satisfactory result. Mr. Singh’s previous work include The Immortals and The Cell. In this re-telling of the fairy tales, Mr. Singh’s visual style is adventurous, his concepts a cut above and the acting very good, more on that in a bit.

Unfortunately, the film tries to be faithful to its source material and be irreverent at the same time. The standard Snow White tropes abound while the characters speak in sneaky post-millennium cultural wise cracks. It is a difficult proposition, be old school and new school at the same time. For the most part it falls flat. This isn’t really Mr. Singh’s fault. It is the fault of the script that lacks the coherence needed to pull this off.

On the acting side, Julia Roberts who plays the Queen does a more than credible job. Her Queen is imperious, mean and with a wicked mouth. She’s perfect for the film. The men playing the dwarfs have distinct personalities and are endearing. Lily Collins has the difficult role of playing Snow White. It is a thankless role and she does OK. It is not until the end of the film where the character becomes strong enough to be liked. Armie Hammer, as the Prince, is the best of the bunch. His characterization as the upright, square, do-gooder royal works especially when he is placed in some unusual situations. In these, he grabs them with gusto and displays his confidence as an actor. Sadly Nathan Lane’s role says more about Lane as an actor these days. It was disappointing to see some with so many obvious talents playing a broad buffoon to little effect. His time on the screen will only satisfy the non-discriminating viewer.

What’s the final verdict? Mirror, Mirror is 50/50. It is fine for kids and adults will tolerate it. Some may even like it, but in the long term, Mirror, Mirror will enjoy moderate success and then drift into obscurity where it will live unhappily ever after.

Tom Sawyer Re-Booted

Hollywood goes through phases.

Take a topic, any topic. Toss into the mix and all of sudden Hollywood gets ‘jones’ for it. It should come as no surprise the people with the film making money like projects that have built in audiences. THE HUNGER GAMES sold 25 million books, that’ll make a good movie. Children have been playing BATTLESHIP for years, that’ll make a good movie. Abraham Lincoln is our most popular President of all time, that’ll make a good movie. Everyone knows a zombie (just look to your co-worker on your right), that’ll make a good movie. Sexy young vampires who can’t make love to their pouty human counterparts, that’ll make a good movie.

You know what else will make a good movie? Take anything previously mentioned and combine it with something else previously mentioned. Ta-da, ABE LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER. Yes, Virginia, it was a book and it will be coming to a theater near you.

With its creation and with Hollywood’s predilection towards copying itself to the point of no box office, is it any wonder that there is a new Tom Sawyer film in the works. One of the lesser Mark Twain works, Tom Sawyer has remained a classic in children’s literature. But the story of a young scamp in early America just won’t play in our SFX driven world of film. No, Tom Sawyer needs an update, a re-boot.

Enter, TOM SAWYER, GHOST HUNTER. Yes, the venerable straw hatted tween is getting his latest Hollywood close-up and, as the press release so euphemistically says, with ‘supernatural elements’. The early script is being developed by some of the same folks that were behind RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, OBLIVION and (sadly) THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE.

I also suspect that one of the reasons this film is getting made is that the source material’s original author is dead. They don’t have to worry about buying the book from him or paying him any of those pesky royalties.

Hey, that could be the plot. Young Tom Sawyer can channel ghosts. He is contacted by the ghost of Samuel Clemens who is angry about a film being made about his characters without permission. He’s going to destroy the world unless he finds satisfaction. Young Tom, with the assistance of Becky (played by Dakota Fanning wannabe) battle evil spirits and set the world right for greedy producers everywhere.

Hitchcock Re-Boot

You know how Hollywood gets a ‘jones’ for a particular project or idea? How many times have we seen competing movies on the same subject come out within weeks of each other? Right now it seems to by Snow White. There’s ‘Mirror, Mirror’ and “Snow White & the Huntsman’. We’ll see how that works out.

Another new Hollywood obsession is Alfred Hitchcock. The oportly old time master of suspense is getting the Hollywood ‘love treatment. Not sure why, perhaps, it yet another example of a paucity of original thought.

First there is a BBC show about Hitchcock’s obsession with Tippi Hendren starring Toby Jones. Then there is ‘Alfred Hitchcock & The Making of Psycho’ being readied to hit the megaplex screens later in 2012. The later is expected to have Anthony Hopkins star as the dark lord of cinema.

Now two classic Hitchcock films are being readied for re-booting. ‘Suspicion’ and ‘Rebecca’ are slated to be updated or butchered, depending on your point of view.

Both are based on novels. ‘Rebecca’ was written by Daphne De Maurier while ‘Suspicion’ was based on ‘Before the Fact’ by Francis Iles. In the later, Hitchcock changed the ending to a more audience friendly one.

We’ll keep a close eye on how these projects develop, but for right now, it’s time for my evening milk. Could you bring it to me?

Oh yeah, in the clip from ‘Suspicion’, that’s Bernard Herrmann’s music.

It was 1968 and the cultural revolution was in full swing. There were marches on campuses. In Paris, the barricades were up. Bras were burned. Draft cards were burned, and sadly, some cities were burning. The sense of change was palpable. Music was leading the way. An unpopular war sparked protest. The emerging economic power of the baby boomers was exploding and The Beatles lead the march. It was the year that ‘Yellow Submarine’ and Sgt Pepper hit the movie theaters.

Blue Meanies, Pepperland and the Beatles music made ‘Yellow Submarine’ a cultural touchstone. Created by King Features for United Artists, it had a distinctly non-Disney animated look to it. Many folks incorrectly assumed that the visual aesthetic was done by or inspired by pop artist Peter Max. The opposite is true. Peter Max’s art was inspired by the animator of ‘Yellow Submarine’, Heinz Edelmann’s and Milton Glaser’s earlier works. Interestingly, the style of ‘Yellow Submarine’ inspired Terry Gilliam’s animation he used with Monty Python.

The success of the film followed by rights issues over the ensuing years has given it a certain cult status. The music is still popular. Even the surviving Beatles consider the film ‘classic’ although their participation was minimal.

There was a planned remake to be done by Robert Zemeckis and Disney. It was going to be done in the motion capture style of Zemeckis’ earlier films, ‘Polar Express’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint, the whole project was scraped when Zemeckis’ “Mars Needs Moms” tanked so badly. Zemeckis has been banished.

Yet fear not, dear reader, ‘Yellow Submarine” will be released in a new carefully remastered DVD on May 28, 2012. It is 45 years after the fact and it still holds up.

And to be honest, every once in a while, I recall that there is a underlying philosophy that pervades this ground breaking film. And that is “All You Need is Love”. It is still true today.

Underneath ‘The Hunger Games”

The Hunger Games opens today, or more precisely last night. It is going to blow people’s socks off.

First the film is well done and should garner very good to excellent critical assessment. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 86%. Then there are the fans of the book. They will be pleased. I have not read the books, but two sources, whom I respect, have assured me, the film is a very good adaptation. For the newbies, who haven’t read the film but are aware of a cultural moment, the film will engage and entertain.

Lions Gate films, the studio and distributor, basically bet the house on this film. The budget was $90 million, but take off $12 million for tax incentives. Now toss in about $100 million for advertising and PR. the film cost just south of $200 million. They have gambled big. Now will they win big?

The predictions are that the film will gross around $120 million this weekend. I expect that number to be higher. It is conceivable that Lions Gate could see the film go into the black on it’s opening week, especially if you toss in global box office.

Good thing, too. Carl Icahn, a minority stockholder, has been lobbying hard to fire the management at Lions Gate. Icahn is euphemistically called a business magnate. A better term would be corporate raider. The success of The Hunger Games will keep him at bay.

So the managers at Lions Gate preserve their jobs. The film will make a ton of money. Jennifer Lawrence who plays Katniss, the heroine, will be huge. The audiences will be pleased and everyone will be happy.

Yet underneath all of this good news are a few darker elements.

The independent theaters who play films like The Hunger Games are under siege. This film will simply accelerate their demise or force a change in their economic model. This will be discussed in a blog this coming week.

The inevitable sequel, and there are three already planned, will be much darker in tone, as are the books they will be based on. This in itself is not bad or dark. Instead, if the successive films are cultural blockbusters as the first one will be, then this will say much about where we are as a society. This too will be explored in an upcoming blog.

Go and see The Hunger Games. Enjoy it. Afterwards start thinking about what you saw. Yes, it is about a young woman being triumphant, but consider where she came from. Consider where some of the other ‘tributes’ came from. Then ask yourself, is this movie an indictment against the 1%?