Queen Elizabeth looks pretty damn good for 96 years old. She appeared in a video tonight shown in Britain with Paddington Bear. It was much easier than attending a rock concert, which was going on her front yard with Elton John, Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys and others.
Rue Britannia!
For the last 37, actually, 40 plus, years UK music artist Kate Bush, who many have considered brilliant and has a cult following, has remained in obscurity.
Her only hit, back in 1985, was “Running Up That Hill.” And when I say hit, I mean, some people liked it and it was played on FM radio. It didn’t sell more than a few copies.
But now, “Stranger Things” has happened. Bush has received an unexpected gift from the producers of Netflix’s hit series. In episode one of Season 4, the main character, Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, is bullied in school. “Running” starts playing, and plays through to the end, as her theme song.
The result is startling. “Running” has rocketed to the top of every chart. It’s number 1 on iTunes, and the most streamed song on Spotify. On every Spotify chart. The album it comes from, Bush’s “Hounds of Love,” has hit the top 20 as well on all these charts, where it’s battling with Harry Styles and the “Top Gun” soundtrack.
Bush’s fans always knew she was ahead of her time. And now it’s been proven. For the “Stranger Things” music supervisors, who are using music from the early 80s, “Running” was inspired choice. I’ll bet we’ll be seeing Kate Bush on American TV pretty soon– seems a no brainer for Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert.
And you know what? It’s a great song. Bush is a little like the British Patti Smith. She should have been acknowledged 35 years ago. At least she’s getting her due now.
UPDATE SAT EVENING: Variety is saying “Crimes” made $490K over Thursday and Friday. That would mean a $1 million opening weekend. Stay tuned…
SAT MORNING: Surgery is the new sex! Have a few ears added to your face!
Apparently, the movie theater audience does not agree, and is too squeamish to find out watching David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future.”
The reportedly gory “body horror” movie is not selling tickets. Just a cursory look through Fandango shows almost no advance tickets purchased anywhere. I used Miami as a ground zero where there are no tickets sold for tonight so far at any of their theaters.
Neon, the small distributor which had a stroke of luck with “Parasite” and some success with “Titane,” a foreign language horror film of sorts, did not report box office numbers for Thursday or for last night. They may not have any to report even though “Crimes” is in 900 theaters. If they are 900 empty theaters, however, the new surgery might be excising “Crimes” earlier than expected.
Here’s a Hollywood headscratcher.
For some reason, Sony put “Morbius” back in theaters last night. They went up to 1,037 screens from 83. This was after 64 days in release that produced an anemic $73 million.
And the result? They made $82 per theater last night for a grand total of $85,000. Well, half of that went to the theaters, so they really made $42,500.
What happened? You can only ponder that Marvel insisted on it because this was a rare failure for their universe. But still…
And then, to make matters worse, star Jared Leto posted a video mocking the idea of a sequel. He’s thumbing a screenplay for “Morbius 2: More Morbin’.” And underneath plays the music from “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” It’s written by a Dr. Seuss character, Bartholomew Cubbins. Genius.
What time is it? pic.twitter.com/IuWR72WCc9
— JARED LETO (@JaredLeto) June 3, 2022
Things must have gone pretty badly for David Cronenberg’s surgical horror film, “Crimes of the Future” last night. Neon didn’t release numbers for preview showings. A cursory look yesterday afternoon showed few tickets purchased.
“Crimes” has been rushed into theaters from its Cannes premiere. Neon sort of skirted the press, doing their best to avoid too much advance notice because the film is evidently gory and very unpleasant. Cronenberg’s best films, I always thought were “Eastern Promises” and “A History of Violence.” The other ones are for those who have a lot of courage. I can still remember years ago ducking in the theater during “Dead Ringers.”
In Cannes, “Crimes” boasted walk outs in the press screening and premiere. There are already indications of that on social media from last night.
Meantime, I guess Neon sent around a promotional game that parodies “Operation” with their logo on it. Maybe “Crimes” makes for a better board game.
PS Neon has last night’s numbers. Their three other films were reported for a total of less than $10,000.
Watch the trailer but I warn you, it’s not easy. “Surgery is the new sex” is the line of the summer!
Louis CK will not go away. He’s releasing a new indie film called “Fourth of July” on July 1st. The information is on his website. He directed it and co-wrote it. He’s not in it.
Louis was “cancelled” after many accusations of sexual impropriety. At the time, he was releasing an indie film called “I Love You, Daddy.” It was just about the worst movie I’ve ever seen. It also wasn’t released. Some critics still have the DVD and you can probably watch it somewhere, but you can never un-see it. Warning.
That film co-starred Edie Falco, Chloe Grace Moretz and others who are thrilled you’ve never seen it. This one has a cast of unknowns: Joe List, Sarah Tollemache, who are married to each other. List co-wrote the screenplay. Other actors are Paula Plum, Robert Walsh and Robert Kelly.
Right now, “Fourth of July” will play New York’s Beacon Theater on June 30th, Boston’s Shubert Theater on July 1st and Chicago’s The Vic on July 2nd. Louis will be in attendance at those screenings. Other theaters will be added.
Here’s the description: “A recovering alcoholic and jazz pianist in NYC confronts his acerbic family during their annual Fourth of July vacation.” Sounds like fun!
Now that the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial is over, it’s time to get a grip on reality.
Depp’s career was already in the tank long before he and Heard put on their cavalcade of horrors for all the world to see.
The misery of Depp’s resume has nothing to do with Heard. Aside from “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, his list of roles in box office flops was well chronicled here and in other places.
Maybe you’ve forgotten “The Lone Ranger,” a spectacular failure in which he played Tonto. How about “Mortdecai”? Or “Black Mass”? Surely you remember “Transcendence”? ($23 million total). Or “Richard Says Goodbye”? ($325K– not sure it was ever released.)
Even “Alice Through the Looking Glass” was a bust in this country– $77 million, although it did well abroad where English comprehension wasn’t an issue. Then there’s “London Fields,” the movie that brought him together with Heard. When it was finally released after many swipes at re-cutting, the film was seen by no one.
Depp has had four flops just since 2019 including the most recent, “Minimata,” which made $610K abroad, has no domestic box office. The others were worse.
As for the “Pirates” movies, they declined in box office successively over the years. The last one, in 2017, was a big hit internationally but made $172 million here. The foreign crowd is nothing to sneeze at. Depp is a name in the worldwide market in the right project. But here, at least five or more years ago, his star was on the wane.
So let’s not heap all the blame on Amber Heard. Johnny Depp was the architect of his own self-destruction. Even another “Pirates” movie might not resurrect him.
“Hacks” has turned out to be an enormous gem for HBO Max. Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, and the whole cast have managed to synthesize a lot of different gourmet ingredients into a very special meal.
We watched the first six episodes of Season 2 gratefully, digging the whole Deborah Vance on the comeback trail tour bus through the south and west. There were a lot of terrific guest stars, too, including Polly Draper, Laurie Metcalf, and most movingly, Harriet Harris (who I think deserves a guest Emmy nomination).
The show tried to shoehorn in some subplots with other characters but “Hacks” is what they call a two-hander. It’s about Deborah and Ava, Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder. They’re the Lucy and Ethel, Mary and Rhoda, Jerry and Newman whose relationship is so perfectly executed we can’t take our eyes off of them. They could go on and on forever.
But now the final two episodes of Season 2 have arrived, and it seems like they will not go on forever. For whatever reason, “Hacks” ends with an ending. All loose ends are wrapped up satisfyingly. I was a little surprised actually. I’m sure it has to do with not knowing if HBO would ask them back. But still…it’s unclear what they would do now if they did return.
This second and possibly final season of “Hacks” did not compete with “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” last time around because the latter show was off season thanks to the pandemic. This time, they will go head to head at the Emmys in September. Last time, “Hacks” took Best Actress in a Comedy and Best Direction of a Comedy. It lost Best Comedy to “Ted Lasso.”
This time around there will be more competition. Now Rachel Brosnahan’s marvelous performance as “Mrs. Maisel” will be in the mix. But it will be tough going. Jean Smart is off the charts good. Everything about “Hacks” soars. If this is the last season, it will be much missed. I hope there’s a plan for a season three. (I guess Ava could get to run her own sitcom starring Deborah.) If not, “Hacks” will remain something great in TV history.
Big news: tonight “Top Gun: Maverick” will cross the $200 million mark. It opened one week ago tonight. That’s just 7 days. Last night, the sequel to the mid 80s film made $14 million, mid week. There’s no sign of a slowdown. Still waiting for updates on international numbers…
“Downton Abbey: A New Era” is hitting $32 million tonight and could be at $40 million by Sunday. The audience is building slowly. I went back to see it on Sunday afternoon and the place was filled. It wasn’t just senior citizens, either. There were young people, not white, and they told me they’d become fans of the TV series. So “DA” cuts across everything.
Disney announced today that “Doctor Strange 2” will go to DisneyPlus on June 22nd. It will be 45 days and $900 million worldwide when that happens. So everyone’s happy, especially Benedict Cumberbatch, who didn’t have to wait for a great drama and an Oscar to make his career. He’s set for life. But it would be nice if he had those other things one day, too.
Condolences to Cyndi Lauper. Her mother, Catrine, with whom she was very close, has passed away age 91.
Cyndi wrote on social media: “I feel so lucky that I got to play with my mom throughout my life, both as a girl and as a woman. She may have left this world, but not without leaving her mark. Thank you, Mom. I love you.”
Catrine Lauper appeared in Cyndi’s video, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” back in 1984. She also appeared in the videos for “Time After Time” and “Goonies.” In recent years Cyndi reported that her mom was suffering from dementia.
This is a tough one for Cyndi and her family.
My beautiful Mom has passed. She rocked and wrestled with us and was in a lot of my videos. It was an honor to work with her. I feel so lucky that I got to play with my mom throughout my life, both as a girl and as a woman. pic.twitter.com/U5cUygyvhD
— Cyndi Lauper (@cyndilauper) June 1, 2022