Filmonic » Controversy

Tolkien Trust and New Line settle Lord of the Rings lawsuit

Liam — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:31:46 +0000

According to TheOneRing.net The Tolkien Trust, New Line Cinema, and HarperCollins Publishers have resolved the lawsuit relating to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The lawsuit was filled against New Line last year as The Tolkien Trust wanted their share of the profits. Everyone from director Peter Jackson to extras have sued New Line in the past. I guess that’s what happens when films make billions.

Commenting on the settlement, Christopher Tolkien said: “The Trustees regret that legal action was necessary, but are glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow the Tolkien Trust properly to pursue its charitable objectives. The Trustees acknowledge that New Line may now proceed with its proposed films of ‘The Hobbit.’”
Warner Bros.’ President & Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn said: “We deeply value the contributions of the Tolkien novels to the success of our films and are pleased to have put this litigation behind us. We all look forward to a mutually productive and beneficial relationship in the future.”

Now everything is sorted out The Hobbit can continue as normal. If the settlement dragged out or a deal wasn’t reached then it could have affected production on the upcoming Hobbit films. Thankfully filming can now start next March as originally planned.

New Superman film will probably be in the works by 2011

Liam — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:06:32 +0000

Warner Bros., DC Comics and Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel (and his heirs) have been in a legal war over the Superman rights and money for a while, and now Warner Bros. and DC Comics have won a favorable ruling according to Variety:

In a decision announced Wednesday, U.S. Judge District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson found that the license fees the studio paid to corporate sibling DC Comics didn’t represent “sweetheart” deals as they weren’t below fair market value. That means the heirs will be able seek profits only from DC Comics — which earned $13.6 million from Warner Bros. for the 2006 release of “Superman Returns” — rather than from Warner Bros. as well.
The judge, who conducted a 10-day bench trial, also noted that Warner Bros. chairman Alan Horn had testified that he hopes to make another “Superman” movie but added that the property wasn’t under development at the studio, that no script had been written and that the earliest another “Superman” pic could be released would be in 2012.

For whatever reason the Superman rights will revert back to the Siegel estate and that of co-creator Joe Shuster in 2013, so Warner Bros. only have until 2011 to start work on another Superman movie otherwise they will lose the rights. They’ve had since 2006 to decide what they want to do next and nothing has happened, so if they want cash in with another Superman movie they will need to decide what they want to do soon. Will it be a sequel or a reboot? Whichever route they decide go down we will find out over the next 18 months.

Transformers: Critics Didn’t Get It

Dave — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:59:07 +0000

As of Sunday, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen has grossed $201,246,000 in the US and an estimated $281,430,013 worldwide. So, why am I writing a review of a movie after it’s been out long enough to make its production budget back? Because with very few exceptions, critics got this film completely wrong.

I sat down to watch Transformers with low expectations. I wanted to see two things: I wanted Megan Fox to sweat, run, bounce, and never-close-her-mouth, I also wanted to see giant robots, rendered in exquisite detail, beat the living robo-shit out of each other.

What was everyone else expecting?

Roger Ebert, critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and owner of one of the most valuable thumbs in the industry gave this film one star, and began his review: “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments.” Which is all well and good coming from a man who has walked me through Fight Club frame-by-frame and provided a whole generation of movie-goers with solid critical opinion. But…

…in his companion article at the Sun-Times blog titled “The Fall of the Revengers” he begins the piece: “The day will come when “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” will be studied in film classes and shown at cult film festivals.” He argues this because he sees Transformers: ROTF as the biggest, most useless summer blockbuster movie and he can’t imagine that this will do anything but kill movies this big. In Ebert’s mind, Revenge of the Fallen is as far as we’re going to let blockbuster cinema go.

We don’t yet know if that’s true, but that’s exactly why I can’t give Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen anything but an incredibly positive review. Because I haven’t had my face raped this hard in awhile, and Bay pulls it off in that creepy/charming way where I’m starting to wonder if I egged on this film’s lustful robot libdo with my short skirts and flirting. I was asking to be brought to the brink of seizure by robot-battle cinema, so why should I be pissed when the film leaves me used, confused and with my critical pants around my ankles?

I’m not going to summarize the plot, both because it doesn’t matter and if you really want to know it and haven’t seen the movie there are dozens of sites and probably 3 or more of your friends who are willing to tell you how bad it is. The process this film went through when it was being developed doesn’t lend itself to a coherent plot. Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman made a 20-page outline before the writer’s strike, which Bay developed into something like 40 pages as he started to design the robots (and if you think Hasbro wasn’t pushing cool toys all the while, you’re dead wrong). The strike ended and the film was already coming together, so what we have is a plot of faint ideas of why the characters should be in any given place at any given time. The character “arcs” are so one-dimensional that the dialogue is just padding to get us to the next racist joke, bout of physical comedy or massive explosion.

I realized this about the time when Megatron was raised from the bottom of the ocean. The military are tracking the Decepticons as they sink to the lowest depths of the ocean to retrieve the body of their leader, and the radar operator very clearly says there are 5 targets sinking to the depths. Megatron is revived after a tiny robot named “The Doctor” orders four of the Decepticons to destroy the smallest one for parts to rebuild Megatron. The Hugo Weaving-voiced robot then begins to rise our of the ocean along with his cronies and the radar operator says there are now 6 targets rising up out of the waves at an alarming speed. If you can count: 5 going down, one gets destroyed, one gets revived: there should be 5 targets, not 6, rising out of the ocean.

My reaction: “Oh, I guess I should stop listening to the dialogue or caring about the story, because it’s obvious Michael Bay and the script supervisor don’t give two farts.”

The film then goes on to actively try and fight whomever tries to follow the plot. Even if you gloss over the Optimus Prime-sized holes, the climax has Sam going to Autobot heaven before being resurrected like Robo-Jesus. If you haven’t given up on logic by then, I have news for you: You’re watching a movie where the biggest damn robot I’ve ever seen has wrecking ball testicles.

Remember the slow-news-day story of McG challenging Michael Bay to a dick-measuring contest because both of their summer movies had giant robots? Micahel Bay wins. Even though they both made movies that had plots I’d like to transcribe on my toilet paper so I could wipe myself with them, Michael Bay never seems to lose control of science experiment in BOOM. McG, for all his good intentions, made promises about his film that the flick couldn’t keep. The only promise Michael Bay made is that this movie would be the biggest thing you’ve ever seen, and guess what? It is.

I can see where most critics are ready to screw Transformers into the ground, because we’re a picky bunch. There’s always pressure to steer the audience towards something that’s going to elevate the storytelling form. Films that swim around in shark-infested festival waters only to emerge as a popular indie get championed because they had to pay their dues with the sweat of their creative department, on the merits of their stories and characters. But that doesn’t mean that every film that comes out is meant to be judged in the same way. I’m not going to compare every movie to Citizen Kane or One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. If I want to see interesting dialogue, I’ll watch Coffee and Cigarettes. If I want a neat-o character study, I’ll pick up something like American Splendor. But, if I want to see a film that abandons what traditionally makes a film “good,” namely the story-telling elements, my critically-lauded choice is…I don’t know, something like Koyaanisqatsi.

Revenge Of The Fallen showed me visuals that made my mind want to explode, and since I sat far enough away from the screen, I don’t have any of the gripes about the action direction from Bay making things visually confusing. Bumblebee, the smallest Autobot, fights like a bad-ass every time he graces the final battle. He shakes Ravage to f-ing death! Optimus Prime is out for robo-blood in this installment and rips a robot’s face in half. The camera swoops, gibs, pans, flies and twists because it knows you’ve given up on the why, you’re just supposed to focus on the what. And the wow.

The film is like a calzone that has embedded jalapeños made of racial stereotypes and sight-gags. If those “jokes” weren’t so broad, you wouldn’t even notice them amongst the red onions of robot fights and banana peppers of Megan Fox’s blank-stare sexiness. The stereotypes in this film are just being as big as they have to be to get noticed, like the guy who brings fire-crackers to a dildo party.

Ebert might be right in the sense that this might be the pinnacle of the blow-em-up summer movie. Watching the previews for 2012 and The Last Airbender trying to prepare me for the massive CGI fest I was about to see just highlighted how much fighting robots work. Seeing Scorpionok return in slow motion and plunge himself into Jetfire happened so fast and was so lovingly rendered that prolonged shots of an aircraft carrier destroying the White House in the 2012 preview look gratuitous. Michael Bay only shows incredibly cool and unique action/CGI for 30 seconds while Roland Emmerich is doing little more than animating a mildly impressive storyboard.

If you want to see a movie with fantastic characters and a coherent, complex plot, I’m guessing you see a lot of movies in theaters between September and January. When Avatar comes along later this year with the high hopes of being a game-changer, I’ll coax it towards my face, making sure it’s aroused and ready to make love to me. With Transformers, I was straight up assaulted and abused, but I smiled through the whole ordeal.

How is that not a valid film experience?

Universal Cuts Michael Jackson-Sensitive Scene from Brüno?

Dave — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:11:17 +0000

Yesterday, as the news was pouring in about the death of Michael Jackson by cardiac arrest at the age of 50, I was flipping between MSNBC, Fox News and CNN, scanning Twitter and on the phone with people who call me when pop culture figures die.

As I absorbed the news, I completely forgot that Brüno (July 10th state-side) has a La Toya Jackson scene in it, where the Sacha Baron Cohen character asks La Toya for her brother’s number then mocks his voice and glove. Brüno eventually cons her out of her Blackberry – after serving her sushi on a naked Mexican – only to read MJ’s number out loud (in German, and it’s a 555 number). This sends La Toya stomping out of the interview.

Now, various reports, including The Guardian, The Wrap and Risky Biz Blog claim that this decision has already been made. This from Risky Biz:

But after Jackson’s death on Thursday, the studio and filmmakers decided to remove the scene for the premiere screening out of sensitivity to the Jackson family. The film now cuts directly from Baron Cohen’s gonzo interview with Paula Abdul to a focus-group for his faux reality show.
Still, because many critics attended those earlier showings, its content could make its way into reviews. Indeed, removing the scene in a way calls more attention to it, though the studio clearly wanted to avoid even the perception of poor taste at any cost.
“We decided to take it out for tonight, and we’ll reassess before the release whether to keep it out,” said director Larry Charles at the premiere’s afterparty. A spokesperson for Universal also confirmed that it had not come to any decision on future showings.

Several copies of the film already exist, as the film has begun press and test audience screenings in a few US cities, but it’s unclear if more prints have already been rolled out. Cutting a scene out of a movie is all good, snipping fun until it starts costing hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on interns rooting out the particular reel of the film and trimming some negative. Alternatively, though not cheaper by a long shot, Uni could replace only the reel of film with the scene in question on it, also meaning hefty budgets of new printing costs.

All this after reports that Brüno was already edited so it wouldn’t offend the “Hollywood Gay community.”

I can understand the sentiment of not wanting to pick the scab of the sudden death of a pop icon, or wanting to give the man’s family a few weeks without Jacksons being the punchline in this difficult time. However, if the cut really is what Risky Biz Blog claims above – from Abdul to the focus group – then no one will know that when I call Brad Pitt “Bradolf Pittler” that I’m stealing from Sacha Baron Cohen.

Orci and Kurtzman Back Away From T:ROTF’s Racist Bots

Dave — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:11:01 +0000

Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are having a pretty good year, regardless of what you think of their most recent releases, Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. Without a doubt, these two are the biggest screenwriting duo currently working, with their next screenplay being the blockbuster-sized Cowboys and Aliens for Dreamworks.

However, Revenge Of The Fallen happens to feature two possible racist robots, Skids and Mudflap, who talk in ebonics, constantly bicker, can’t read and one even has a gold buck-tooth. Add their ape-like build and the fact that T:ROTF is aimed at children, and the internet goes up-in-arms about racial stereotypes that have no reason being in the film.

As quickly as possible, the PR machine has hit the digital streets to quash the uproar the likes of which I haven’t seen since Jar Jar Binks. AP managed to corner Bay:

Director Michael Bay insists that the bumbling ‘bots are just good clean fun.
“We’re just putting more personality in,” Bay said. “I don’t know if it’s stereotypes — they are robots, by the way. These are the voice actors. This is kind of the direction they were taking the characters and we went with it.”
If these characters weren’t animated and instead played by real black actors, “then you might have to admit that it’s racist,” [Tasha Robinson, associate entertainment editor at The Onion] said. “But stick it into a robot’s mouth, and it’s just a robot, it’s OK.”
But if they’re alien robots, she continued, “why do they talk like bad black stereotypes?”
Bay brushes off any whiff of controversy.
“Listen, you’re going to have your naysayers on anything,” he said. “It’s like is everything going to be melba toast? It takes all forms and shapes and sizes.”

Bay obviously doesn’t care if he’s created racist characters and pointed those stereotypes directly at an audience of children, but Orci and Kurtzman seem to be distancing themselves from the decision to include the Twins, something they insist Bay told them to put in the script (hence their near-total absence from the finale sequence).

From Film School Rejects:

They’ve already claimed in other interviews that the gold tooth and several other elements were Michael Bay’s idea, but when I talked to them, they moved beyond that to claim they were disappointed by the characters.
Cole: I heard that the gold tooth was Michael Bay’s idea, but do you have any response to those who found The Twins offensive?
Orci: Number one, we sympathize. Yes, the gold tooth was not in the script, that’s true.
Kurtzman: It’s really hard for us to sit here and try to justify it.I think that would be very foolish, and if someone wants to be offended by it, it’s their right. We were very surprised when we saw it, too, and it’s a choice that was made. If anything, it just shows you that we don’t control every aspect of the movie.
Cole: Were you offended by them?
Kurtzman: I wasn’t thrilled. I certainly wasn’t thrilled.
Orci: Yeah, same reaction. I’m not easily offended, but when I saw it, I thought, ‘Someone’s gonna write about that.’”

Smart move, guys, just point towards your director and run the eff away! Live to write predictable tent-pole films another day!

Columbia Put The Brakes On Moneyball

Dave — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:25:13 +0000

Today was supposed to be the first day of principal photography on Steven Soderbergh’s Moneyball, an adaptation of the bestselling Michael Lewis novel about former ballplayer William Lemar “Billy” Beane, who combined the Oakland A’s cost-effective strategy with a winning team starting in 1998.

Brad Pitt was attached to play Beane, and the rest of the cast was attached, including real life players Scott Hatteberg and David Justice, camera tests had been done, the budget was in place…but Amy Pascal, head of Columbia pictures put the film into limited turnaround last Friday, meaning Soderbergh can shop the script around to other studios in an attempt to get someone like Warner Brothers (who used to be the umbrella for Soderbergh’s Section Eight) or Paramount (who is still the home to Pitt’s Plan B) to foot the bill and champion the picture.

By all trade accounts, Pascal didn’t like the new draft of the script, still by Steven Zaillian, but tweaked by Soderbergh. The inclusion of non-fiction interviews with ex-ballplayers interspersed throughout the narrative might have been what threw Pascal, but all accounts suggest that she hadn’t actually seen the interviews already shot.

From what’s been reported, Pascal just got $50 million dollar cold feet, knowing that the budget was relatively low for a Brad Pitt flick with an Oscar winning director onboard, but that most American sports films fail to perform over seas. It’s entirely possible that Pascal simply didn’t see the marketing angle or drama in the new draft of the script, though it’s odd that script issues kill a film this close to production.

The whole thing smacks of irony, both with the story of Moneyball, the book, focusing on Sabermetrics, the analysis of baseball through objective evidence and without subjective judgments (so: Baseball movies don’t make much money, this one is expensive, let’s not make it, regardless of how many good folks are on board) and the fact that Brad Pitt dropped out of State Of Play (to be replaced by Russell Crowe) for the exact same reason: the shooting script differed too much from his idea of the film.

As of this morning, neither Warners or Paramount have announced financing of Moneyball.

Will Terminator 5 ‘be back’ at Warner Bros?

Liam — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:57:01 +0000

Terminator Salvation will be released later this month by Warner Bros in the US and Sony overseas, however some studio drama may occur regarding who will finance and distribute Terminator 5, which is currently in development.

From Variety:

MGM has a 30-day right of first refusal to finance and distribute the fifth “Terminator” film, a right earned through the settlement of a lawsuit between the studio and Halcyon partners Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson. According to sources, MGM has every intention of making a serious play for the franchise, potentially trumping Warner Bros., which is distributing “Terminator Salvation” in domestic territories, and Sony, which is releasing the film overseas.
The distribution drama promises to be a real cliffhanger that will begin once Halcyon delivers its demands to MGM along with a first draft of the screenplay for the fifth “Terminator.”
“Salvation” was a much riskier prospect then than the fifth “Terminator” is now. At the time, MGM made its decision knowing only that franchise linchpin Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t returning, and the studio had only an early script by “Terminator 3″ scribes John Brancato and Michael Ferris they developed with “T3″ helmer Jonathan Mostow. That script has changed significantly, with uncredited work done by Jonah Nolan, Paul Haggis, Shawn Ryan and Anthony Zuiker. Though Halcyon hasn’t yet set a writer for the fifth film, the prospects are strong because McG is returning as director, and Christian Bale will reprise as John Connor.
The MGM-Halcyon drama may not play out until a year from now, when Kubicek and Anderson get an early script, but the stakes may well be supremacy for summer 2011 or 2012.

As long as a movie is good I don’t really care which studio is behind it, however you have to feel a bit sorry for Warner Bros (even if they do earn billions). First they had the Watchmen/Fox legal battle and now they could lose a potential franchise they set up.

Catholic League vs. Da Vinci Code: The sequel

Liam — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:52:21 +0000

The Catholic League are at it again. After protesting against The Da Vinci Code back in 2006, they are putting on their protesting robes yet again for Angels & Demons.

From The Guardian:

The League, which is led by controversial president William A Donohue, said it would be pointing out what it says are a number of falsehoods in the new film and the Dan Brown book on which it is based. It also claimed Angels and Demons, which arrives in cinemas on 15 May, had an anti-Catholic agenda.
The League’s determination to repeat its campaign against 2006’s The Da Vinci Code is slightly surprising because statements it made in the run-up to the film’s release were widely suspected to have helped, rather than hindered, the movie’s gargantuan $758m (£540m) global box office.

In the new film, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, played once again by Tom Hanks, discovers the existence of the Illuminati, a powerful secret organisation that has been pitting itself against the Roman Catholic church for centuries. Together with Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) he follows a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols to the heart of “the most secretive vault on Earth”.

Christian Bale says he ‘acted like a punk’

Liam — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:06:08 +0000

Christian Bale called radio show KROQ and spoke about his famous rant on the Terminator Salvation set for the first time.

“It’s been a miserable week for me,” Bale told hosts Kevin Ryder and Gene “Bean” Baxter. “Listen, I know I have a potty mouth; everybody knows this now. The thing that I really want to stress is I have no confusion whatsoever. I was out of order beyond belief. I was way out of order. I acted like a punk. I regret that.”
“There is nobody that has heard that tape that is hit harder by it than me. I make no excuses for it. It is inexcusable. I hope that that is absolutely clear.”
“In [T2] you will meet Sarah Connor. And she is in an insane asylum—why is she there? Because she is crazy. Now I play John Connor her son, and on the day that all of this happened, the scene that we were doing, I was trying to show a little of that in-the-blood craziness, and it went a little wrong… I took it way too far, and I completely mixed up fact and fiction. I’m half John Connor, I’m half Christian there.”
“I’ve not only talked with [DP Shane Hurlbut], we’ve resolved this completely. That very day we kept working for a number of hours. Listen when I’m saying I’m not coming back on that set if he’s still hired, it’s hot air. I don’t believe that. I have no intention of getting anybody fired.”
“And another thing: a lot of people that I was a bully to this guy. That’s an insult to Shane. He is a big guy. I couldn’t have bullied that guy if I tried. He’s much bigger than me—he’s an ex-friggin football player.”
Not that he doesn’t understand the public’s insatiable desire to hear—and mock and remix—the audio.
“Feel free to make fun of me at my expense; I deserve it completely.”

I think this was the best things Bale could have done. At least we now know that Bale isn’t angry 100% of the time and that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. I would have loved to have been in the room when he watched the remixes.

In other ‘Bale rant’ news, the BBC accidentally aired part of the rant uncensored this morning. Enjoy!

Angry Bale: The Remix

Liam — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:30:12 +0000

If you haven’t heard the audio of Christian Bale losing it on the set of Terminator Salvation then click here. If you already have then check out the great remix below.

Warning: Contains bad words