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It’s a comic book summer for Marvel and Disney. One hit after another.
And now: “Ant Man and the Wasp” didn’t do the expected, and brought in just $76 million. Disney had estimated $85-$87 million. Still, the sequel to “Ant Man” made around $19 million more than the first episode which did $57.2 million on its opening weekend.
Is there super hero comic book movie fatigue? Disney has pumped out a bunch of these blockbuster movies this year– from “Black Panther” and “Infinity War” to “Deapool 2” and now this one. Has Disney-Marvel over-saturated?
Interesting: The story of this month is documentaries. The films about Whitney Houston, Mister Rogers, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the Long Island triplets separated at birth have captivated audiences. Suddenly, audiences are wanting to hear real stories. Are we seeing a sea change?
Even more interesting: Box office expert Gitesh Pandya notes on Twitter– “Troubling 30% fall from FRI to SAT – bigger drop than all JUL/AUG #MCU pics: #SpiderManHomecoming, #GOTG, #CaptainAmerica & AntMan.”
This “Ant Man” may not have legs, let alone wings.
French actress Emmanuelle Seigner has told the Motion Picture Academy she declines their off to join the group– especially after they expelled her famous director husband Roman Polanski.
Frankly, it’s bizarre she was sent the invite since Polanski was ousted. Most of her movies have been with him anyway. Why would they think she would accept?
“How can I ignore the fact that a few weeks go, the Academy expelled my husband, Roman Polanski, in an attempt to appease the zeitgeist – the very same Academy which in 2002 awarded him an Oscar for The Pianist! A curious case of amnesia!” she says. “The Academy probably thinks I am enough of a spineless, social climbing actress that I would forget that I have been married for the past 29 years to one of the world’s greatest directors,” Seigner wonders.
She continues:
“Roman Polanski gave birth to unforgettable female characters played by Sharon Tate, Catherine Deneuve, Mia Farrow, Faye Dunaway, Nastassja Kinski, and Sigourney Weaver, nothing like this machismo caricature, a symptom of the evil that ravages the cinema. Academy of Oscars would like me to disassociate myself from this man?”
Ally Sheedy and Rob Lowe were only in two mid 1980s movies together– “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “Oxford Blues” — but they will always be associated with each other as part of the extended Brat Pack. That group also includes Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, and so on.
Rob went on to make a lot of TV shows and movies, some good, some not. but he’s always been affable.
Ally’s career was a little more of a roller coaster, and she might be considered “more serious” in her choices.
Tonight on Twitter, Lowe laments that with all the reboots of 80s, 90s, 00s material, he has nothing — like “Will & Grace” –that he could bring back which also be relevant. He could do a spin off of what happened to his “West Wing” character, Sam Seaborn, I suppose. (Sam was the Deputy White House Communications Director and was last seen as a successful Los Angeles lawyer. Maybe he became a senator, or the Governor.)
I guess Sheedy follows Lowe on Twitter. She was quick to ask him if– with everything going on in the world– that’s the best Tweet he could come up with. We’ll wait for Rob’s comeback.
Black Panther, Infinity War, Deadpool 2, and so on. It’s just been a Disney-Marvel summer of movies that are designed to take our minds off of reality of any kind.
Following that schedule, “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” which is not a Jack Lemmon-Shirley MacLaine movie about a stuck up guy and the off limits girl he loves, opened to a big $33.8 million Friday last night and is headed for an $85 million weekend.
Surfing in on the Marvel Universe of movies, this is a big success for Disney since the first “Ant Man” which did not feature The Wasp, had a $57 million opening weekend. The next episode, building on a theme, will be set in Darien, Connecticut.
His “Scorpion” music sold enough to register 158,000 downloads and almost 600,000 from streaming. The total according to hitsdailydouble is 749,000.
“Scorpion” has also scored many records for streaming. He has the top 20 songs on the Streaming Songs Chart — plus three more songs in the top 30. His sales have dwarfed Kanye West and Beyonce and Jay Z.
Indeed, Kanye’s “Ye” album sold only about 24,000 copies this week. And The Carters sold around 38,000 total of their duet album. Neither act has done much on the singles charts.
No, it’s all about Drake, for better or worse. Will anyone remember these songs? No, of course not. But for now, he’s the king of the hill.
Number 2 for the week is a new album by Florence and the Machine, 81K, only 10K of that from streaming. Hip hop rap R&B is all about streaming. Rock and pop are sales, physical and download.
The discovered John Coltrane album, “Both Directions at Once,” sold just 17,000 copies with about a thousand more in streaming. You can’t stream it, really, but I did because in New York City there was nowhere to buy a CD or LP. Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a nightmare of my worst future predictions from the 1980s.
The world of comics has lost a legend. Steve Ditko, who created Spider Man and Doctor Strange with Stan Lee, has died at age 90. The death was announced this evening although the actual date was June 27th. He was discovered in his New York apartment on June 29th.
Ditko was the actual creator of those comic book legends and all their adversaries. He worked for Stan Lee, but left in the after doing the foundation of the work that has made billions of Marvel and Lee, and now Disney.
Ditko left Marvel in the 60s, returned in the 70s and several times thereafter. He never married, didn’t have children, and it sounds like the end of his life wasn’t so great if it took two days to find him. No matter how crazy Stan Lee’s life is now, it’s a lot better than that.
Well, we thank Ditko, who is described as a recluse and kind of a J.D.Salinger type, for giving us these amazing creations.
Elvis Costello, the great rocker-singer-songwriter-multi-tasker-galore, says today on Facebook he has an “aggressive” form of cancer. He’s canceled the remainder of his current European tour to rest, on doctor’s orders. Costello calls his band The Imposters, but he’s no imposter. He’s always been the real thing. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Costello’s aim is always true. He will beat what sounds like prostate cancer (but there’s no confirmation of that).
Elvis’s Facebook statement follows. His devoted and BIG fans around the world send him prayers, love, good vibes, whatever it takes. Costello has a new album set for the fall, and maybe a tour that starts November 2nd. He announced signing with Concord Records last month. Elvis is married, of course, to Diana Krall, with whom he has twin boys. He’s also got an adult son from his first marriage.
from Facebook:
Elvis Costello has been forced to cancel the remaining 6 dates of his current European tour on medical grounds. His doctor has strongly advised him to take a break from his current tour itinerary and rest.
Ticket holders should go to point of purchase for refunds.
Elvis apologises to his fans and releases the following statement:
“Six weeks ago my specialist called me and said, “You should start playing the Lotto”. He had rarely, if ever, seen such a small but very aggressive cancerous malignancy that could be defeated by a single surgery.
I was elated and relieved that our European summer tour could go ahead.
Post-surgical guidelines for such surgery, recommend three weeks to four weeks recovery depending on whether you are returning to a desk job or an occupation that involves physical work or travel.
It was impossible to judge how this advisory would line up with the demands on a traveling musician, playing 90-minute to 2-hour plus performances on a nightly basis but by the time we reached the Edinburgh Playhouse, I was almost fooled into thinking that normal service had been resumed.
I have to thank our friends attending last night’s show in Amsterdam and those in Antwerp, Glynde and at Newcastle City Hall for bearing me up. The spirit has been more than willing but I have to now accept that it is going to take longer than I would have wished for me to recover my full strength. Therefore, I must reluctantly cancel all the remaining engagements of this tour.
My apologies go to our ticket holders in Manchester, Pula, Graz, Vienna, Tysnes and Rattvik but I would rather disappoint our friends there by not appearing than in pressing on with a show that is compromised and
eventually puts my health at risk.
My deep thanks go to Pete Thomas, Steve Nieve and Davey Faragher of The Imposters for all their deep friendship, love and support during this upsetting time. Thanks also to Kitten Kuroi and Briana Lee whose beautiful voices have spurred me on to do the singing that I’ve managed, whatever the cost. It goes without saying that there are many others who have worked to get us to the stage and from town to town to whom I am also deeply grateful.
To leave you with some more optimistic news, The Imposters and I – together with several of our other friends – have made a magnificent new record of which we are truly proud. It will be issued in October, I believe. We will return at the soonest opportunity to play that music and your favourite songs that still make sense to us all.
Take very good care of your loved ones but Gentleman, do talk to you friends – you’ll find you are not alone – seek your doctor’s advice if you are in doubt or when it is timely and act as swiftly as you may in these matters. It may save your life. Believe me, it is better than playing roulette.”
A couple of weeks ago I was told by a couple of people that Disney’s big Christmas release, “Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” was a total disaster. I admit to hesitating on reporting this news. The director, Lasse Hallstrom, is one of my favorites, and I felt bad about the situation. Look at his movies: The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, My Life as a Dog, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, plus some gems like Hoax, Casanova, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
Now this afternoon Variety reports that the final cut will have two directors’ names– Hallstrom, and Joe Johnston. Lasse evidently turned in his version, Johnston was brought in for extensive reshoots. For maybe the first time ever, two separate directors will have their name on the opening card. Hallstrom will be first, followed by Johnston.
From what I hear, though, only Alan Smithee should be listed– that’s the name directors use when they want their name off a movie.
Even though Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, and Mackenzie Foy are featured, the movie is evidently not salvageable. What’s crazy, too, is that screenwriter Simon Beaufoy– who is always good– he won the Oscar for “Slumdog Millionaire”– composed the script. Lasse Hallstrom, Simon Beaufoy– what could go wrong, right? That’s A plus list talent!
Disney has made so much money this year already with Marvel and LucasFilms, and Pixar, they won’t notice this debacle. But it’s coming on November 2nd.
On Wednesday night they threw a party at the Peninsula Hotel in Paris to celebrate the fashion shows. A lot of models and people you’ve never heard of showed up. The biggest celebrity was Petra Nemcova. Pretty much everyone else was a Who’s That?
Just like in May, after the Cannes gala, amFAR issued no information about how much money was made. We’ve been waiting since May 17th to hear what the annual Cannes blow out reaped financially for the AIDS organization. But president Kevin Frost, now known as Kevin Robert Frost, has never reported it. Frost makes around $550,000 a year. He’s too busy to give numbers anymore.
Aloe Blacc performed.
Meanwhile, amFAR is still paying Milutin “Gatsby” to be their special fundraiser and celebrity wrangler. Gatsby– that’s not his name– used to be thick as thieves with Leonardo DiCaprio and was also his mysterious foundation’s “global fundraising chairman.” His name been removed from the foundation’s website, however, and “Gatsby” is gone.
Claude Lanzmann has reportedly died today in Paris at age 92. His landmark film, “Shoah,” in 1985, brought the Holocaust out in the open, so to speak. The stories of the victims and the survivors shook the world and led the way to Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.” Spielberg named his Holocaust foundation after “Shoah,” the Shoah Foundation.
Shoah runs 566 minutes, or nine hours. It took 11 years to film the survivors. There is probably no more important documentary of the 20th century. You can read the New York Times review here.
Lanzmann never stopped working. He was in Cannes this past May screening “Napalm,” in which he revisited North Korea.
#RIP
Claude Lanzmann Remembered 5 July 2018
Irritating, irascible, the French intellectual writer and filmmaker, most notable of the epic length, 9-hour Shoah, Claude Lanzmann could be charming, and cunning as he got his desired interviews, thereby documenting the Holocaust, the most cataclysmic and defining event of the twentieth century, even as some deny it ever happened. Some call Shoah (1985) the quintessential documentary.
A lover of Simone de Beauvoir and friend of Jean-Paul Sartre, Lanzmann’s life meshed with those of other French intellectuals. As an interviewer, Claude Lanzmann knew what he was after. A younger Lanzmann is seen chain-smoking in trendy sunglasses, finding his subject in Queens, a Holocaust survivor who cut the hair of Jews on their way to be gassed. “You know we both have to tell this story,” he speaks gently to the man as emotion builds on his face. Even in the 9 hours of Shoah, this man is memorable as he tells of women he knew, naked, stripped of dignity and hope, coming into the room. How easily the imagination fills in the horrific aftermath, even as the barber’s words transfix.
After Lanzmann filmed survivors for Shoah in 1975, for example, he teased out several interviews for stand-alone films. Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 P.M., about an uprising at one of the camps, gives lie to the belief that Jews did not resist their processing through the Nazi death factories. Memorable is the sound of geese covering the sound of systematic murder. In 2014, he released The Last of the Unjust, focused on Benjamin Murmelstein, third and last president of the Jewish Council of the Thereseinstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia, who fought with Adolf Eichmann on matters of liquidating the Jews, and how best to complete the final solution.
For him, Hannah Arendt’s summation of Eichmann’s “banality of evil,” is pure rubbish; Eichmann was no bureaucrat, but a particularly inventive murderer. Claiming to have saved lives, Murmelstein, an erudite former rabbi from Vienna, was a controversial figure after liberation, accused of being a collaborator, but freed of these charges. What Claude Lanzmann has said about his film Shoah works for his treatment of Benjamin Murmelstein, his other film subjects, and his world view: “I am not here to judge.”
The world of comics has lost a legend. Steve Ditko, who created Spider Man and Doctor Strange with Stan Lee, has died at age 90. The death was announced this evening although the actual date was June 27th. He was discovered in his New York apartment on June 29th.
