Filmonic » Sony

Sony pushing forward with Venom spin-off

Liam — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:07:06 +0000

We recently learned that Spider-Man 4 would start filming in January which will please fans of the web slinger, but what about Venom fans who were short changed in Spider-Man 3? What’s happening with the Venom spin-off that Sony have been developing for nearly two years? Well writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick gave Sci-Fi Wire an update:

Today Wernick confirmed to us that the project is still moving forward and the writing team has turned the script in to the suits at Sony. “We’ve written two drafts of Venom, and the studio has it, and they’re pushing forward in whatever ways they push forward,” Wernick told SCI FI Wire in an exclusive interview.
So when might Venom be going into production? “We’re not sure, [but] we’ve turned in our two drafts,” said Wernick.
One big question has been whether a Venom movie might happen even before Spider-Man 4, but that now appears unlikely. The latest rumors have Spidey 4 shooting in early 2010. When asked about the relationship between the two movies, Wernick was tight-lipped. “We can’t really talk about that, unfortunately,” the writer said before adding, “Basically, the studio and Marvel and the Arads are taking our drafts and going beyond and figuring out what’s the next step.”

We have no idea what the story for Spider-Man 4 involves, but could it set up the Venom spin-off? Will Spider-Man feature in Venom? So many questions we probably won’t get answers to until 2011!

Sony Close To Obtaining Last Michael Jackson Concert Footage

Dave — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:50:59 +0000

When Michael Jackson passed away a little over three weeks ago, a brief snippet of his upcoming concert surfaced via rehearsal footage shot in preparation of 50 dates in London’s O2 theater. Jackson’s “Farewell” concert series was supposedly almost fully choreographed and included several videos to be shown throughout the set, some possibly in 3D.

Perhaps most enticing are the rights to “hours” of footage shot the day before Jackson’s death at rehearsals in LA’s Staples Center.

Now, The Wrap reports that Sony (complete with watch-list head-honcho Amy Pascal) is aggressively bidding to obtain the footage and release it in some manner. The deal is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $50 million after a short but intense bidding war amongst other studios like Universal and 20th Century Fox:

The rehearsal was recorded in multi-camera HD and 3D, and is of a quality that could be released as a movie, or DVD. AEG later confirmed the report, and said that it had “at least 100 hours” of footage of Jackson during rehearsals, and behind the scenes.
Negotiations had hit a fever pitch over the weekend. AEG is also selling TV rights. By late Sunday evening, the deal was not yet done, but a person involved said that Sony was “very close.”
An AEG spokesman denied knowledge of negotiations on Saturday but noted that most of any profits from such a deal would go to the Jackson estate.

I know that a concert film would be super-popular if Sony could turn the movie around fast enough. It seems like that’s what they plan to do with rumors swirling that the show’s choreographer, Kenny Ortega (also the director of the High School Musical trilogy) would be brought on to “direct” the footage and assemble it into a full work.

However, part of me thinks that this should be shown on TV or pay cable and not the theater. Sure, 3D segments sound like a cinema experience, but when comparing theater dollars to TV dollars, I’d be more likely to spend my money on a DVD after seeing at least a truncated version on television for free.

The world-wide appeal of Jackson is still out there, so I don’t think recouping the investment is going to be a problem for Sony.

Is It Really All About The $$$? Amy Pascal and Sony Gain Clooney, Ditch Soderbergh

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:39:56 +0000

In case you haven’t followed the ridiculous process of Amy Pascal of Sony and Columbia Tri-Star suddenly putting a full halt and turnaround on the baseball pic Moneyball, I direct you to post number one HERE and post number two HERE.

Now, we’re hearing the end of this argument and some details about what exactly went wrong with the script to make Pascal halt the $58 million dollar production mere days before the project began filming with Brad Pitt in the starring role. The word on the digital street was that the script that director Steven Soderbergh delivered was so tonally different from the Pascal-approved draft written by Schindler’s List scribe Steven Zaillian that she ground the movie to a halt. At that point, Sony had already pumped an estimated $10 million dollars into the development of the script.

What were the script details that caused Pascal to boot Soderbergh off the flick, and why is Sony so eager to save money on Brad Pitt films while risking money on George Clooney films?

The Big Picture LA Times Blog actually talked to Pascal about why Moneyball didn’t get started:

“I’ve wanted to work with Steven forever, because he’s simply a great filmmaker,” Pascal told me today. “But the draft he turned in wasn’t at all what we’d signed up for. He wanted to make a dramatic reenactment of events with real people playing themselves. I’d still work with Steven in a minute, but in terms of this project, he wanted to do the film in a different way than we did.”
Soderbergh’s last-minute revisions represented a huge change from the shooting script I read when I was working on a story about the film during its pre-production. The script, written by Oscar winner Steve Zaillian, was a baseball movie, but it was loaded with great comic moments and dazzling dialogue that captured the frenetic energy of Beane, a strikingly good-looking former phenom who washed out after a brief stint in the majors, only to resurface as a general manager who operated more like “Entourage’s” Ari Gold than the buttoned-down insiders who normally run big-league teams. Beane was a born hustler, always wheeling and dealing, staying one step ahead of his rivals as he scouted unlikely unknown minor leaguers to replace the high-priced free agents a small-market team like the Oakland A’s couldn’t afford.
Soderbergh wouldn’t talk to me about all this, but it seems clear that he became obsessed with authenticity, replacing many of Zaillian’s inspired scripted set-pieces with actual interviews with the real people who were involved in the events. The Soderbergh aesthetic, according to one source close to the film, was simple: If it didn’t happen in real life, it wasn’t going to be in the movie.

Summation: Steven Soderbergh went for an authentic re-telling of real-life events and Pascal wanted the Brad Pitt, A-List, possible Oscar nod movie she signed up for.

This would be an interesting creative vs. business argument if there wasn’t another side to the story: the Soderbergh-working-with-Major-League-Baseball side. In an interesting Left Coast/Right Coast bit of reporting dialogue, it was The New York Times that added the new piece of the puzzle:

One reason was to win the approval of Major League Baseball, which was not happy with some factual liberties in Mr. Zaillian’s version. Such approval is crucial in a baseball film that intends to use protected trademarks.
“Typically, on a film like this, we look at it for historical accuracy,” said Matthew Bourne, a vice president of Major League Baseball for public relations. “We’ve been in touch with Soderbergh and Sony, and they’ve been receptive to our requests.”
What baseball saw as accurate, Sony executives saw as being too much a documentary. Mr. Soderbergh, for instance, planned to film interviews with some of the people who were connected to the film’s story.
The executives, who had just seen disappointing results from “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” and “Year One,” rebelled. Ms. Pascal and Matt Tolmach, co-president of Sony’s film operation, personally told Mr. Soderbergh of their dissatisfaction.

Summation: In one corner we have Steven Soderbergh and Major League Baseball and in the other we have Sony, feeling the hurt of Year One and The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3 underperforming as DVD and home video sales decline.

I can understand not wanting to launch a $58 million dollar Brad Pitt film unless you’re damn sure that you will make your money back, but there’s one more piece of news that seems to contradict this fiscally-responsible attitude Pascal seems to be relying on.

Namely, Sony has acquired George Clooney’s production company Smokehouse Pictures after Clooney and production partner Grant Heslov left Warner Brothers. Which is odd, because if Clooney’s flicks were making bank, Warners would have put up a fight, right?

Not to mention some interesting inclusions in the press release:

The Smokehouse Pictures team includes Senior Vice President of Development Nina Wolarsky, and creative executive Alex Meenehan. The company is currently in development on the following projects with Warner Bros:
THE CHALLENGE
Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. An adaptation of Jonathan Mahler’s nonfiction book chronicling the historic Supreme Court case in which two lawyers sued the Bush administration on behalf of accused terrorist Salim Hamdan.
OUR BRAND IS CRISIS
A satirical comedy about American spin doctors competing in the same Presidential election in Bolivia. Based on the documentary by Rachel Boynton, with a script by Peter Straughan (MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS).
FARRAGUT NORTH
An adaptation of Beau Willimon’s critically acclaimed play, set during the Iowa primary of a presidential race.
ESCAPE FROM TEHRAN
The true story of how the CIA used a fake movie project to smuggle hostages out of 1979 Tehran. Chris Terrio is writing the screenplay.
THE TOURIST
A contemporary spy thriller about a spy who risks everything to reveal a conspiracy after he’s accused of a murder he didn’t commit. Based on the bestselling book by Olen Steinhauer. Tony Peckham is writing the screenplay.
THE INNOCENT MAN
Based on the bestselling nonfiction book by John Grisham, the true story of murder and injustice in a small town in Oklahoma. Adapted by David Gordon Green.

Any of those movies sound like a sure-fire hit to you? Probably not. They all sound interesting and intellectually challenging, as is the wont of Smokehouse Pictures, but marketable? As Will Smith would say: “Naw.”

As of now, Moneyball still exists as a project, though Soderbergh has been booted and Pitt is the only name attached. Pascal still has her finger on the Moneyball money button, since Steven was unable to drum up any other studio support for his accurate film while the script was in limited turnaround.

So here’s the question: What is Amy Pascal doing? Is she going to save money, make money, or simply refuse to roll the dice on a project based on creative integrity alone?

Guess what, Amy, you just made my watchlist (though you’ll never usurp the top Most Hated spot from NBC’s Ben Silverman).

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.

Spiderman 4 In 2010?

Liam — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:58:49 +0000

Marvel Vice Chairman Peter Cuneo was asked about the status of Spiderman 4 today. Recently there have been rumours that Spiderman 4 and 5 will shoot back to back, however that was not mentioned.

“As far as Spider-man 4, it’s really up to Sony and it up to them, most likely scenario is 2010 or 2011 but we can’t speak for them and I think that we don’t know. They have given us their re-up payment for that film so you know they’re going to make it within a reasonable timeframe. Sony may be looking at some issues with the cast and so on, I think they have to make some decisions.”

The ‘issues with the cast’ bit sounds interesting, and brings up a lot of questions. Will Tobey return? Will Kirsten return? Will any of them return for that matter? The re-up payment means the rights need to be used within a reasonable amount of time, so expect to hear something later in the year or early next year.