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James Franco Will Make “Dubious” Movie Based on John Steinbeck Novel

Roger Friedman
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James Franco Will Make “Dubious” Movie Based on John Steinbeck Novel

James Franco is going to direct an all star cast in a feature film based on John Steinbeck’s “In Dubious Battle.” This might be called a dubious move since Franco’s previous directing attempts based on novels by William Faulkner’s and Cormac McCarthy’s works haven’t turned out so great.

Indeed, Franco’s take on Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” still hasn’t been released. His version of “As I Lay Dying” managed a meager 41% on RottenTomatoes and was barely released. It made just under $17,000. His “Child of God” (McCarthy) garnered a 38% and made $38,400.

“In Dubious Battle” will star Selena Gomez, Vincent D’Onofrio, Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, Bryan Cranston and Danny McBride. Really? Selena Gomez? Danny McBride? Until Franco can get real about casting, these things are not going to work. I love Selena Gomez’s pop songs, but seeing her in a John Steinbeck movie is not plausible.

Franco is very enthusiastic about film, which is always appreciated. But you can almost anticipate the tedious screenings at film festivals, and so on.

The producers include Franco’s producing partner Vince Jolivette, Andrea Iervolino (“The Humbling,” “All Roads Lead to Rome”), Scott Reed,  Ron Singer, Iris Torres, and someone named Lady Monika Bacardi. The latter is for the fizz. Gucci had been backing a lot of Franco projects, but it’s possible that since they’ve changed creative directors, that may be over.

Report: Jay Z Buys Digital Streaming Service Available Only In Poland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark

Roger Friedman
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Report: Jay Z Buys Digital Streaming Service Available Only In Poland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark

Reports from Bloomberg and elsewhere say Jay Z has bought Aspiro AB, a media company that has a digital music streaming service in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, and Denmark.

OK, why not? It cost his holding company $56 million. That’s what he and Beyonce spend on vacations.

Aspiro has WiMP (really, a terrible name for the US) and Tidal. The latter sells and streams high end audio files which could only be appreciated fully on Sony’s excellent new Walkman A17 or Neil Young’s Pono player. The latter took quite a beating this week on Yahoo with a scathing piece by David Pogue.

Meantime, if Jay Z had wanted a library of high definition tracks, he could check out hdtracks.com, the single best service which already has a huge catalog.

But a challenger to Spotify? Not here in the U.S. Maybe WiMP and Tidal are the future for Europe. But my sense is that Spotify is entrenched at this point, with Pandora right behind.

Oscar Move: Fox Searchlight Puts “Birdman” Into the Ziegfeld for Two Weeks

Roger Friedman
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Oscar Move: Fox Searchlight Puts “Birdman” Into the Ziegfeld for Two Weeks

Fox Searchlight is putting “Birdman” into the Ziegfeld for two weeks starting today. What better way to say We have the Best Picture? They’re going to show it in the world’s most famous movie theater. That is a great idea. And a great Oscar move– especially if they send Academy members in there for free. Imagine seeing Michael Keaton fly around on that huge screen! Is “Birdman” the Best Picture of the Year? Well, SAG and the Golden Globes have given it a good push. Better than “Boyhood,” “Imitation Game,” “Whiplash” or “Foxcatcher”? Who’s to say? I still think “Boyhood” is a masterpiece. But all the nominees are terrific.

Broadway: Without Nathan Lane, “It’s Only a Play” Box Office Is Off By a Million Bucks

Roger Friedman
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Broadway: Without Nathan Lane, “It’s Only a Play” Box Office Is Off By a Million Bucks

Does Nathan Lane have drawing power on Broadway? Evidently, a lot. When he and Matthew Broderick were starring in “It’s Only a Play” during the fall, the average weekly box office was well over a million dollars. The comedy was pulling in weeks of $1.3 million and $1.4 million. The absolute zenith came the week of January 4th– Lane’s last week–at $1,455,818.

Almost four weeks later, the graph for “It’s Only a Play” is pretty shocking. Lane is gone, replaced by the tremendously talented Martin Short. Lane isn’t the only thing gone. So are the receipts. Last week, the show took in $462.008. A million bucks have left the theater with Lane.

Still, “It’s Only a Play” goes on. The producers just announced a new extension through mid June. The very funny comedy is playing at 87% capacity. This is nothing to sneeze at. “It’s Only a Play” is only a play after all. It was doing business like a hit musical. But if the graph on Playbill.com were a real EKG on a human being, the patient would be dead. Luckily, that’s not the case here.

Short and Broderick are still there, by the way, as are Oscar nominee Stockard Channing and Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham. They added one of Broadway’s greats, Tony winner Katie Finneran. Plus Micah Stock remains, hilarious as ever. And the show added Maulik Pancholy, who was so deft as Alec Baldwin’s long suffering assistant on “30 Rock” for years.

I’m going back in the next couple of weeks to see this cast. This Terrence McNally comedy is a hoot– I haven’t laughed that hard in a comedy since “Noises Off.” A good winter pick me up, that’s for sure!

“American Idol” Loses 2 Million Viewers from Wednesday to Thursday, Swamped by “Big Bang Theory”

Roger Friedman
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“American Idol” Loses 2 Million Viewers from Wednesday to Thursday, Swamped by “Big Bang Theory”

“American Idol” is suffering in the ratings already. Last night the show drew a total of 9.24 million viewers and was swamped by “The Big Bang Theory” which had a total audience of 17 million. That’s right — at a time when no one watches broadcast TV, “Big Bang” had 17 million people tuned in. Wow.

But “Idol” had had 11.28 million people on Wednesday night. Not only that, they lost 700,000 pairs of eyes in the key demo– a 2.9 on Wednesday, a 2.2 last night.

I watched “Idol” last night (missing Randy Jackson) and I have to say, it was pretty good. The contestants headed to Hollywood Week look more promising than in a long time. They are also very young– 13, 14, 15 years old. One young lady named Tyana has the makings of a star. I noticed Keith Urban’s and Harry Connick Jr’s mutual reluctance to make these kids into “Idols”– meaning they will lose their individuality once they’re forced into the “Idol” mold.

Ratings wise, “Idol” is now no worse than any other Fox show. And it does better than all of them except “Empire.”

One funny thing: a young kid, proficient musician, I think he was 14, was asked to play a song on the guitar. The song he chose? Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up.” The kid was almost too clever for his own good. None of the judges commented on his selection.

Woody Allen’s New Movie with Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone is “Irrational Man”

Roger Friedman
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Woody Allen’s New Movie with Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone is “Irrational Man”

Woody Allen’s new movie, a drama starring Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, and Parker Posey, has a name. It’s called “Irrational Man” and will be released by Sony Pictures Classics probably this summer.

There’s no other information, but “Irrational Man” is the title of a famous study in existential philosophy by William Barrett, published in 1958. Barrett discusses the works of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre in detail. Barrett was so hugely influential that the great Walker Percy named his lead character in two novels for him. (If you’ve never read Walker Percy, now is the time.)

Woody told me last summer when I interviewed him for the New York Observer that he was just stunned by Phoenix as an actor. He also had fallen in love with Parker Posey. Emma Stone, obviously, is already among his favorite actors.

I have a feeling “Irrational Man” will run along the lines of “Match Point” and “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” and maybe “Blue Jasmine.” We’ll wait with anticipation and see.

 

Lionel Richie Steals the Show at Anne Hathaway’s Hollywood Movie Premiere

Roger Friedman
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Lionel Richie Steals the Show at Anne Hathaway’s Hollywood Movie Premiere

There were plenty of celebrities in the room last week when Oscar winner Anne Hathaway and her producer husband Adam Shulman premiered their movie “Song One” at the new Palm restaurant in Beverly Hills.

But the biggest celeb wasn’t even invited– Lionel Richie just happened to wander in for dinner separate from the roaring crowd. The first person he saw, by luck, was the night’s organizer, New York publicist Norah Lawlor. Smart girl, she immediately invited him. Suddenly the whole party was taking selfie’s with Lionel, who was talking about his upcoming European tour and hanging with money guy Kevin Allyn of Winnick and company.

Not only Anne and Adam wanted their photos taken with Lionel, but also “Song One” director Kate Barker Froyland, rockers Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice (who wrote the music for the film), as well as an eclectic bunch of Hollywood luminaries invited by Peggy Siegal including Susan Blakely, Billy Zane, Gary Busey, Rebecca Dayan, Illeana Douglas, Nastassja Kinski, Heather Matarazzo, Penelope Ann Miller, Ben Platt, Tony Revolori, Peter Mark Richman, Dominique Swain, Jess Weixler, and Madeline Zima.

New York philanthropist Jean Shafiroff hosted the party in awareness and support of The New York Women’s Foundation. And yes, Jean tells me, she got her Lionel selfie too.

Jupiter Ascending is Falling: Will a $175 Mil Flop Hurt Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar Shot?

Roger Friedman
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Jupiter Ascending is Falling: Will a $175 Mil Flop Hurt Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar Shot?

What a mess: Warner Bros., in what will be recalled as a very imprudent move, showed the Wachowski siblings’ “Jupiter Ascending” at Sundance. “Jupiter” cost $175 million, the anti-thesis of independent film. You can only imagine what the people in the Egyptian Theater in Park City thought as this spectacular 3D flop unspooled in front of them: it represented the cost of 100 indie movies.

Now the word has leaked, or rather, exploded, that everyone at Sundance hated “Jupiter Ascending,” which opens February 6th. That’s right in the middle of Oscar voting. And guess who’s one of the three co-stars? Eddie Redmayne, front runner in the Oscar race for Best Actor from “The Theory of Everything.”

By all account, “Jupiter Ascending”– like “Cloud Atlas” and the third “Matrix” movie– is undecipherable. No one understands it, and it’s full of kitschy, overblown performances. That’s certainly what Eddie, Channing Tatum, and Mila Kunis seem to be doing in the trailer.

For Redmayne, this could be an issue. Best Actor is a tight race with him and Michael Keaton deadlocked in the lead. Benedict Cumberbatch is right behind them, and Bradley Cooper could be a spoiler. Oscar voters may get a look at the reviews and reactions for “Jupiter” and wonder if Redmayne is the real thing.

I must say, he is. All the actors in the lead race this year are quite good. It would be terrible if Oscar voters ascribed the horrendousness of “Jupiter Ascending” to Redmayne alone. He simply got caught up in the Wachowski machine. If “Jupiter” is really as bad as described, it should only take down the siblings, not their actors.

What an odd situation. Twitter is full of screeds about that screening. Plus, evidently they didn’t invite press to the screening– you can’t come into a film festival in a closed location like Sundance and insult the media. What is the purpose of that? Consequently, they’ve all turned on the film. Yikes.

Music: Sound Exchange Digital Royalties Up 31% in 2014 from Sirius, Pandora, Etc.

Roger Friedman
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Music: Sound Exchange Digital Royalties Up 31% in 2014 from Sirius, Pandora, Etc.

SoundExchange, the organization that collects digital royalties, says their total was up 31% in 2014 from 2013. We’re not surprised. SE collected $773 million, up from $590 million, for registered recording artists. Most of it is from Sirius and Pandora. And there would be more of it if both of those digital services paid royalties to artists on pre-1972 recordings.

Thanks to lawsuits filed by the Turtles (their hits include “Happy Together” and “Elenore”), Sirius has been on the losing end of this saga. The Turtles’ Howard Kaylan has led the fight to get royalties for pre-1972 artists and recordings which constitute the bulk of Sirius’s playlists.

If you have Sirius, you know that the first few stations are devoted to the 50s, 60s, and early 70s. There are many other stations playing oldies, including my beloved Soul Town (49). Plenty of country music, show tunes, Sinatra–all of it is being played, essentially, for free with no money going to the people whose voices we hear on the radio.

 

Sly Stone Finally Awarded Millions Stolen from Him By Managers in Jury Trial

Roger Friedman
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Sly Stone Finally Awarded Millions Stolen from Him By Managers in Jury Trial

KEEP REFRESHING One of the longest and worst cases in music history may finally have a happy ending. A jury in Los Angeles Superior Court today awarded Sly Stone (Sylvester Stewart) $5 million in lost royalties from his former manager and Svengali, Jerry Goldstein, and Goldstein’s lawyer, Glenn Stone.

Stone signed a management contract with Goldstein’s company, Even Street, in 1989. But Goldstein, the jury found today, proceeded to rip Stone off for the last 25 years. It’s an astounding story.

Stone, long a recluse and drug addict, fell into personal chaos. For the last few years he’s been living in an RV in front of his old house.

The amazing part is that he’s a genius– and the influence for Prince, and nearly every funk and R&B artist since the 1960s– among others. Stewart’s huge number of hits, from “Thank You Falettin Me Be Myself Again” to “Dance to the Music” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Everyday People,” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime” are still played and covered regularly.

Goldstein has not only screwed around with Stone all these years among famous rock stars. He’s also been part of the divisiveness that killed War, the famed R&B group responsible for “Low Rider” and “The World is A Ghetto.” Goldstein has been at the center of lawsuits concerning their music for years.

But he’s hung onto Stone for dear life even as Stone accused him of stealing money. When Stone played ill fated shows at BB King’s in New York a few years ago, it was Goldstein who was standing in the shadows and controlling access.

In 2010, Stone filed suit in Los Angeles, almost five years ago exactly. A week ago, stipulations for settlement appeared in the court record, with Goldstein still walking away with Stone’s money. Now Sly gets his money, although it’s just a fraction of what’s been squandered and pissed away over the last quarter century.

Read my 2007 story:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/12/08/sly-stone-stage-debacle/

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