Today was Sonny Bono’s birthday. How do I know? Cher Tweeted him a Happy Birthday message this evening, around 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern. Okay, it was late in the day and maybe she just remembered. Her “Happy Birthday Son” Tweet was confusing since technically, Cher has two sons– Elijah Blue and Chaz, who was born Chastity. Oh well. What would a Freudian shrink make of all that? Son/Sonny — and she has two sons. And one wasn’t born a son. A cowboy’s work is never done!
SONNY & CHER – A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done… by dm_51a86179671fb
Cher Remembers Sonny’s Birthday, Albeit Late in the Day
“12 Years” Wins BAFTA Best Picture, But Upsets Divide Actors’ Categories
Do the British Academy Awards mean anything to the American academy voters? It’s hard to say. Probably not. But on Sunday “12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity” divided most of the BAFTA big awards. And there were a couple of crazy upsets in the acting categories that must have award-centric websites going crazy. They basically got everything wrong.
While “12 Years” won Best Picture, “Gravity” won Best British picture– so weird since “Gravity” other than its producer, David Heyman, is an American film from a US company (Warner Bros) with two American actors (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney). Go figure. “Gravity” director Alfonso Cuaron, who is Mexican, won Best Director.
Cate Blanchett was the only actor who was a cinch and won Best Actress for “Blue Jasmine” (take that, Farrow family). Otherwise, the other acting wins were upside down– and just fine, but different from almost everything else we’ve thought was going on.
Chiwetel Ejiofor won Best Actor and beat Bruce Dern, Christian Bale, Tom Hanks, and Leonardo DiCaprio, et al for his work in “12 Years.” Bravo! Of course, he is British. Just saying, that doesn’t hurt.
First timer Barkhad Abdi won Best Supporting Actor for “Captain Phillips.” He knocked out Matt Damon, Bradley Cooper, Michael Fassbender, and Daniel Bruhl (who’s British).
Best Supporting Actress went to Jennifer Lawrence for “American Hustle.” Lawrence knocked off Brit Sally Hawkins, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey and more importantly, Lupita Nyongo, who was the favorite.
Otherwise “Philomena” and “American Hustle” split the screenplay awards — adapted and original, respectively. “Gravity” picked up the technical awards.
Everyone got something. But there must have been some dropped jaws. For Ejiofor, the award counters the conventional wisdom that Brits don’t win the BAFTAs. But no Brits won the other acting awards. So there.
All of this means nada. It just means three of the four acting races are wide open. Leto is a little more vulnerable than previously thought. “Captain Phillips” could be stronger in some quarters. Barkhad Abdi is a long shot win in the U.S. but why not? And the way voting works with the Academy, anything could happen. It’s frustrating for the actors and the prognosticators, but great for TV ratings on Oscar night. Everyone loves a nail-biter!
I’ve often said that there are so many good choices this year, you could take any combination of the actors and actresses for the winners, and it would be all right. We were lucky to have such a bumper crop of excellent films!
“Winter’s Tale” is the First Gigantic Box Office Flop of 2014 with $7.7 Mil Weekend
That didn’t take long. “Winter’s Tale,” directed (and written and produced) by Akiva Goldsman, is the first big studio flop of 2014.
On Friday night, the Colin Farrell starrer took in a measly $3.6 million in 2,965 theaters. With about a $9 million total Shock: Just a $7.7 million three day weekend makes the movie based on Mark Helprin’s 1983 novel a financial throwaway.
Thanks to numbers inadvertently supplied by the MPAA in a press release we know that “Winter’s Tale” spent at least $70 million just shooting in New York City. Its total budget would come to around $150 million. And I may be underestimating that figure.
With almost all negative reviews, “Winter’s Tale” will barely make it to $50 million. Thus it will join all the big studio failures from last year, and be a trendsetter for this one. Goldsman, a talented screenwriter (“A Beautiful Mind”), will probably not direct another film of this magnitude again for a long time.
How “Winter’s Tale” got so out of control might be an interesting story. But basically, it’s an artless endeavor. It’s also a case of “more is more.” For some reason, Goldsman thought jamming in everything but the kitchen sink, as well as a “surprise” cameo by Will Smith, would sell the movie. I still have little idea what was going on, and I read the book.
For Warner Bros., it’s just a write off. It’s not like they don’t have hits. “The Lego Movie” is number 1 and just raking in movie. Plus, everyone loves it. You can’t have everything.
“Winter’s Tale” will finish at number 7 or so for the weekend. It’s going to wind up doing half has well as the miserable “Endless Love.” And that’s saying something.
To quote Russell Crowe’s character in the movie, “Shit happens.”
Bravo! Oscar Nominee (“Juno”) Ellen Page Comes Out as Gay in Speech
Past Oscar nominee Ellen Page made headlines Friday night. She revealed in a speech in front of an LGBT group that she’s gay. It’s probably not a shock to a lot of people. But for Page it was a brave moment. I can’t think of another young actor who’s been so honest and courageous. Good for her! Ever since Ellen took off in the movie “Juno” she’s been a refreshing presence in the movie world. She’s a great actress, and a pretty good human being. She says “I was tired of hiding.”
Listen to her speech here:
Leonardo DiCaprio on Scorsese’s “Wolf”: “This is the Director’s Cut”
Last night Leonardo DiCaprio’s mom was in the audience at the Ziegfeld Theater for a brief, but informative Q&A with the star of “Wolf of Wall Street” as well as editor Thelma Schoonmaker and screenwriter Terence Winter. Director Martin Scorsese was somewhere between the Berlin Film Festival and scouting locations in Asia for “Silence.”
DiCaprio– who’s in a hard charging race for Best Actor with Matthew McConaughey and Bruce Dern–drew in a full crowd including about a hundred or so people who paid just to see him and didn’t stay for the screening of “Wolf of Wall Street.” (Most had seen it, and had just watched Scorsese’s Oscar winning “The Departed.”)
Will DiCaprio win the Oscar? He’s turned into an excellent campaigner, and one who can express the sentiment of his movie and how it was made very articulately.
Moderate Kent Jones asked Leo about the great scene in “Wolf” where Jordan Belfort invites the FBI agents onto his massive yacht floating in the World Trade Center marina.
“Jordan tries to slightly blackmail him [the FBI agent] in his own way,” Di Caprio said. “We asked how much do we want to push this?…This movie comes from… no matter what anyone thinks of it, ultimately it is a rare film nowadays. I really want more films like this to get made in today’s world. It’s a reflection back to movies of the 70s that I was so influenced by and so moved by…the director was able to put their vision on screen without too much interference. This is the director’s cut. This is the culmination of artists that got together ans aid this is the movie we want to do.”
Thelma Schoonmaker: “The actors were very brave in this movie. I can’t believe some of the things Leo did!” [Ed. note: We’ve tried, but it’s difficult in a G rated column. But maybe you’ve seen the movie.]
DiCaprio: “I always feel like I’m a kid. I’m going to get my foot in the door and run with it. I’ve been making movies for 26years, and I’m almost 40. In the middle of it is this collaboration with Marty. I can’t put into words what I’ve learned from him.”
By the way, Schoonmaker did talk about shooting the key sequence in the film– when DiCaprio as Belfort has to slither across a parking lot into his sports car, high on Quaaludes. Schoonmaker– who I can’t believe was not nominated for an Oscar this year– says Scorsese shot it only as a ‘master shot’– with no closeups– meaning it was just one long tracking shot and very wide. You never see Leo’s face up close or any angles inside the car. It’s just from left to right, as DiCaprio does maybe the best acting of his life.
“He was dead right,” said Schoonmaker. “The humor is there. It’s just great. And Marty knew.”
“American Idol” Crushed in Ratings This Week by Olympics, Sitcom Re-run
Yikes. Last night’s “American Idol” audience barely showed up. The total number of viewers fell below 10 million for the first time anyone’s memory. The rating in the key demo collapsed– to 2.9, from 3.4 on Wednesday and 3.1 last Thursday.
The worst part is that “Idol” was also beaten by a Re-run of “The Big Bang Theory.” So it’s not just the Olympics. “Idol” finished third, not second. And that should worrisome for Fox, which has already cancelled “X Factor” and labeled “Idol” as in decline.
The “Idol” situation is dire, and now we know it’s just because of the Olympics. After a brief perk up in the ratings a few weeks ago, the show is starting to follow a trend downward. It could be that the party is really over. A couple of seasons away might be the answer. But beating a dead horse is not doing anyone any favors.
“Endless Love,” A Great Novel Killed TWICE in One Lifetime by Hollywood
Poor “Endless Love.” Scott Spencer’s 1979 novel was superb. It was about obsession and class. Two years later it was turned into a terrible unwatchable movie by Franco Zeffirelli. Its two redeeeming features were a) Don Murray as the father of the girl, Jade, with whom the main character, David Axelrod, is obsessed and b) the title song, sung by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. It was a huge hit, maybe the biggest the real Motown label ever had.
So that should have been it. “Endless Love” should have been returned to the bookshelves. Scott Spencer is one of our best, most underrated novelists of the last 35 years. His language is rich and his images are powerful. He may not be meant for movie translation. The movie, if it had just died, would have left no memory.
But now, of course, the prospect of killing “Endless Love” a second time was just too tantalizing. What could the producers have said to Spencer besides, “Here’s the check”? Did they promise a great director, a sensational script, a way to redeem the novel from the first movie?
The new “Endless Love” is apparently a bomb. I won’t see it. I can’t see it. It’s too painful. The writers who contribute to RottenTomatoes.com have given it an 18 out of 100. That’s very very bad. The review are terrible. What did Scott Spencer do to deserve this? Alex Pettyfer? And the girl looks like a Barbie doll. Only Bruce Greenwood, playing Hugh, is said to rise to the occasion. I can see it. He’s a great actor. But one of them will not make a whole movie work.
What a sad ending. No redemption. Skip the movie. Buy the book and read it this weekend. It stands up. Take a look at Scott Spencer’s other books. Don’t blame him. But please, no more remakes of this movie. It’s too nuanced for a big studio production.
Oh and one other thing: you knew once the producers decided not to use the song, this was all over. What idiots. They could have had a monster hit with, say, John Legend and Christina Aguilara replacing Lionel and Diana. I can’t imagine what happened.
Panned “Winter’s Tale” with Colin Farrell Spent Over $70 Million in New York Alone
This is a first. Sort of by accident we know in advance some of the costs of a huge blockbuster failure of a movie. “Winter’s Tale,” starring Colin Farrell, opens tomorrow to an 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (That comes out to 37 negative reviews, 3 positive.) It’s just a huge, stunning failure of a big studio film. “Winter’s Tale” is well acted, and it looks great. But it’s impossible to understand, even for someone like yours truly who read Mark Helprin’s wonderful novel thirty years ago.
Now, thanks to a press release from the Motion Picture Association of America, we know a little bit about what “Winter’s Tale” cost to produce. The press release concerns what “Winter’s Tale” spent on shooting in New York– and believe me, we are happy they shot the movie here.
The film is set in 1930s New York–except for when Russell Crowe, dressed in period costume, says: “Shit happens.” That’s when you know this Avika Goldsman-directed-written-produced vehicle is out of whack.
(I did hear that Julian Fellowes considered letting Lord Grantham say that on “Downton Abbey” but changed his mind at last minute. Instead, Robert told Cora she had “the shizzle.”)
Back to the money: According to the MPAA, “Winter’s Tale” key costs were:
–$41,465,577 in total local community expenditures. This includes hotels, car rentals, catering,
hardware, dry cleaning*, local wages rental fees, permit fees, and other expenses
–$26,998,940 in wages paid to local New York residents
Those numbers don’t include all the ‘above-the line’ talent– Will Smith (who I’m sure didn’t do this for free, and should never ever have been put in this film). Goldsman himself as a triple threat, Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly (each Oscar winners), William Hurt, the rest of the cast, producers’ fees, etc. And then there’s the promotional costs, prints, travel and expenses, etc.
There’s also tons of special effects, the entire production design, and a flying horse (they don’t come cheap.)
“Winter’s Tale” looks like a minimum $125 million write off.
This is a “tale” of the big studio dichotomy. Warner Bros. had two gems this year in “Gravity” and “Her.” But they also continue to let bloat like “Winter’s Tale” get through the system. They had it last year with “Jack and the Giant Slayer.” But other studios, obviously, have this too– see “Lone Ranger,” “After Earth,” etc.
*PS I can sympathize with the dry cleaning bill.
Carl Reiner, Dick Cavett on Sid Caesar: “Genius” Performer with “Talent of 10 Men”
Carl Reiner has posted two Tweets about his friend of 60 years, Sid Caesar.
I spoke to Dick Cavett yesterday on the phone in New York. Cavett never worked for Caesar but knew him, and interviewed him on his talk show. Before that, Cavett had worked on The Jerry Lewis Show, and The Tonight Show with Jack Paar.
Carl Reiner:
To my friend and confrere, Sid Caesar, "May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"
— carl reiner (@carlreiner) February 13, 2014
We've lost the greatest, monologist, pantomimic, sketch comedian TV has ever known! Word GENIUS is oft misused but not so here. HAIL CAESAR
— carl reiner (@carlreiner) February 13, 2014
Dick Cavett: “I met Carl in Lindy’s restaurant when it was really Lindy’s. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade came along. Sid was on a float! A few days later I went back and he was sitting there at Lindy’s. I went over, and said something sappy. He raised his hand and shook my hand, and went back to eating…
…I had him on my show even though he was a notorious bad talker. We did two half hours in Atlantic City. He was wonderful. Something about us together worked. At the end of it, he was so happy. He said, What a great interview!…
…I was once in a car with him, Jonathan Winters, Jimmy Durante and Dick Shawn. I was working on The Jerry Lewis Show and we were doing something on “It’s A Mad Mad World”…If we’d only made a video of it, it’s lost to the world…
…He was a genius performer. Enough talent for 10 men. That genius dexterity with language! He certainly inspired a lot of performers…His legacy was fabulous shows we can still watch…”
Mel Brooks and Woody Allen on Sid Caesar: A “Privilege” to Work with Him
Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, of course, each wrote for Sid Caesar. Brooks was part of “Your Show of Shows” and remains entwined in memory with Caesar and Carl Reiner (who at 90 just appeared in “Two and a Half Men”). Woody worked for Caesar in the late 50s on his TV specials with Danny Simon, brother of playwright Neil Simon.
Mel Brooks: “Sid Caesar was a giant—maybe the best comedian who every practiced the trade. And I was privileged to be one of his writers and one of his friends.”
Woody Allen: “He was one of the truly great comedians of my time and one of the finest privileges I’ve had in my entire career was that I was able to work for him.”