Posts Tagged ‘Paramount’

With so many bombs like "The Green Hornet" trying to sell 3D (converted no less), which don't even warrant a normally priced ticket, why should we not still consider 3D to be a money-grabbing gimmick that doesn't add enough to the viewing experience to justify the higher ticket price?

Dear Hollywood,

Please stop pushing 3D.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has underachieved in terms of earning first weekend grosses for 3D showings, with more audiences opting for 2D prints. Now, with $90.1 million earned its first weekend in just the U.S., and over $400 million to be earned worldwide by the end of its first full week, the film can hardly be considered unsuccessful. However, numbers show that American audiences’ interest in 3D could be waning. What everyone is trying to figure out is whether fewer 3D tickets sold means audiences are no longer seeing the value in 3D technology or they are becoming less inclined to fork over the extra cash for a 3D ticket.

Guess what Hollywood – if Americans are indeed sick of 3D it’s because of both reasons.

The list of recent movies released in 3D where the extra dimension actually added to the viewing experience is extremely short, including only Avatar, Tron: Legacy, How to Train Your Dragon, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, and Monster House. Notice how four of those six are 100% animated, and the two “live action” films are ones which were greatly reliant on digital effects to the point where one could justifiably consider them mostly animated as well. This is not a coincidence, and such a pattern does not help the argument that 3D is the future of the medium. Personally, I won’t give that claim any consideration until I see a truly live action film wow me like the six just mentioned.

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What could "The Expendables" teach us, besides why you don't want to pick a fight with any of them?

Back at the beginning of Summer we gave a preview of three films that were to come out that have something in common. What these films share is a focus on a tight-knit group of ex-military soldiers who work towards a shared goal of some kind. With The Losers it was about getting revenge, with The A-Team it was about living up to one’s duties as a patriot, and with The Expendables it was about serving the human condition. As you may have noticed, the motivations of the groups got progressively nobler, from serving selfish incentives to fulfilling an intangible obligation to heroic morals; namely the moral that the strong have to protect the weak. The three movies, and by extension the three groups in these movies, may share a similar basic premise, and may interact within their respective contexts in a similar way, but their differing motivations distinguish them from each other more so than we may have anticipated. Likewise, they also shared more in common than we previously thought. What exactly, though, can we learn from comparing them further?

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Gossip magazines like this Photoplay have been around since the dawn of the film industry, but why are they so popular?

For as long as I can remember I have been enormously bewildered as to why so many people find gossip publications like The Inquirer, People Magazine, Star Magazine, and US Weekly so appealing. Beyond having a lack of interest in fashion I fail to recognize the purpose behind holding celebrities’ figures and overall looks under a microscope; praising one on a given week and criticizing them the next. And aside from all of this I also fall short of understanding the undying interest in celebrities’ social and romantic lives. This is not all to say that I consider celebrities uninteresting, quite the contrary, however the sex life of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is not anywhere near the top million interests I have in the film industry and the people who are part of it.

But why is this? Why do so many people follow the romantic storylines of celebrities’ lives? All judgments aside, because for many the interest is indeed a guilty and harmless pleasure, the answers could lie in the history of the film industry – particularly the history of the “star system.” Read the rest of this entry »

Area 51 - It doesn't say filming prohibited!

Oren Peli, director of the supernatural haunting hit Paranormal Activity, has just finished principle filming for his newest film Area 51, which Paramount Pictures has just bought the distribution rights for.

Paranormal Activity has become one of the most profitable films ever, costing just $11,000 to make and grossing over $100 million. Such success for the small independent film allowed Peli’s newest effort to garner much attention in the bidding for its distribution rights. How much Paramount paid for the rights is unknown.

Area 51 is said to be made in a similar style to Paranormal Activity in that it’s made up of “found footage.” Its story is reportedly about three teenagers who wander into the secretive Area 51 section of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, and then experience strange happenings.

“These films show that real franchises can be successfully launched from the independent side of the business — not something the marketplace necessarily believed five years ago,” said Adam Goodman of Paramount. – Variety

Paramount’s unique and successful promotion campaign for Paranormal Activity, as well as other efforts it made for the film, are exciting executives at the studio about creating more high-grossing franchises from small independent productions.

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: It is the opinion of Movie-Thoughts that Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity is a very notable effort that deserves the accolades it has so far received. Its “found footage” style fit well with the material and went a long way towards making said material very effective. To hear that Peli’s latest film is using the same style is – at this point – nothing more than intriguing. However, it is of note because if Area 51 enjoys box-office success (regardless if its the same level of success as Paranormal Activity or if Paramount launches another innovative promotion effort) I see the “found footage” style potentially becoming the next stylistic wave in the horror/thriller genre. Torture films have been on the decline both financially and in popularity (with slight exception to the Saw series), and being that other directors have proven to be able to use the “found footage’s” realistic style with success (unlike during the period immediately following 1999′s The Blair Witch Project, which was filled with mostly parodies), not to mention the style is perhaps the cheapest to finance, studios will be itching to get a piece of the pie (namely Lionsgate, Dark Castle, and that ilk).

Joel and Ethan Coen ("No Country for Old Men")

The Coen brothers are planning to film a remake of 1969′s True Grit, which Paramount will work to release for late 2010, and actors Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are currently in final talks to join a cast that already includes fellow well-known actor Jeff Bridges.

Reportedly, Damon is to be cast as Bridges’ fellow lawman trying with the help of a 14-year old girl to catch a killer, to be played by Brolin. The Coen brothers claim that their completed script is more loyal to the Charles Portis novel of the same name which the original film is based from.

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: Western fans should be very excited just from knowing the directors and short list of known cast members attached to this project. Bridges, Brolin, and Damon are all fine actors and have shown the ability to mold themselves into their parts time and again. I believe we can trust them to continue their streaks. What may be just as exciting as finding out that the Coen brothers are writing and directing is realizing that big, respected names like theirs are being attached to the western genre. Westerns have not been the most popular genre in Hollywood over recent decades, but they’re hardly dead. 2007′s 3:10 to Yuma was considered by most to be a solid effort, and had moderate box-office success by at least breaking even (cost – $50million, gross – $53million). The status of the western should get a boost from having Oscar-winning talent in the directors’ chairs, which if the genre is to make some sort of cultural revival is a darn good place to get started.

Chris Pine

Star Trek’s new Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) is currently in talks with Paramount about possibly being the next actor to take on the role of Jack Ryan, the Tom Clancy character that has spanned four films since 1990 (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears).

The next Ryan film is expected to be a reboot of the franchise, the original script for which is currently being written by Hossein Amini.

Pine’s schedule appears rather full at the moment, with Unstoppable currently filming and him reportedly in talks to be in director D. J. Caruso’s project The Art of Making Money, set to begin filming early next year. But Pine is expected to accept the role.

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: Pine seems to be a perfectly capable actor, so if he is cast as the next Jack Ryan few people ought to have qualms about the matter. However, I would be more interested to know how many people, especially fans of Tom Clancy’s work, are all that excited about yet another franchise reboot. The first ten years of this millennium is already starting to be referred to as “the decade of remakes”, and for good reason. Perhaps a franchise reboot might not be the way Paramount should want to start the next ten years.