Warners Sees the Light (or at least The Bottom Line)

From the LA Times Business Section Tuesday:

Warner to Proceed Straight to Video

The studio is launching a direct-to-DVD business with plans to release 10 to 15 movies a year.
By Claudia Eller, Times Staff WriterMay 30, 2006

Looking for new, less risky ways to boost profit, Warner Bros. is launching a direct-to-DVD business that will release 10 to 15 low-budget movies a year. First up will be a sequel to the studio's 2005 hit "The Dukes of Hazzard," scheduled to go on sale at the end of this year or in early 2007.

Movies made exclusively for DVD typically are done on the cheap without the costly stars and lavish production expenses associated with theatrical films. Adhering to that model, Warner aims to keep each direct-to-DVD movie's production budget to $5 million or less, although some films may cost slightly more. The "Dukes" sequel, for example, won't reunite cast members Jessica Simpson, Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott.


The new venture, a partnership between Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, aims to cash in on what has been a lucrative, relatively inexpensive business for such rivals as Walt Disney Studios and Universal Pictures."We recognize that the made-for-video business is a place we need to put emphasis and devote considerable resources," Warner President Alan Horn said. "Discipline is the key to the ultimate success of the new venture for us."

Still, the direct-to-DVD business is no sure bet. It faces increased competition from boxed sets of popular television shows such as "Lost," "24" and "Desperate Housewives," one of the hottest areas in home video."The made-for-home entertainment business can be very profitable if you select the right projects, control your development and production costs and time your releases to minimize your marketing expenditures and maximize your exposure," said Louis Feola, Universal Pictures' former home video president who oversaw such popular direct-to-video franchises as "The Land Before Time."


Jeff Robinov, Warner's production president, and Kevin Tsujihara, president of the studio's home entertainment group, will oversee the new division, which is expected to be operating within three months. The two are looking to hire an executive to run the day-to-day operations of the unit, which is expected to have 10 staff members, including its own creative, business and marketing personnel.Robinov said the division would produce live-action DVD prequels and sequels to existing Warner Bros. movies such as "Dukes," which grossed $80.3 million domestically but was not the kind of hit that would justify spending the large sums required to make and market a theatrical release.


Still, Robinov said, "That doesn't mean they don't have audience interest and built-in awareness."Robinov added that although profit margins in the direct-to-video business could be thinner than in theatrical releases, such built-in awareness along with creative marketing could mitigate the financial risks. Tsujihara said a "Dukes" sequel allowed Warner to repackage on DVD the original film and episodes of the popular 1980s TV series it was based on.


Warner's new division also will produce and acquire original made-for-DVD movies running the gamut of genres including horror, comedy and action films. Last month, Warner, a unit of media giant Time Warner Inc., announced it would finance three, under-$5-million DVD-only horror films to be directed by Daniel Myrick ("The Blair Witch Project"), producer Tony Krantz ("24") and TV writer John Shiban ("The X-Files"). Until now, Warner has released direct-to-video titles on a scattershot basis, mostly animated family fare from the studio's "Scooby-Doo," "Tom & Jerry" and "Loony Toons" franchises. The studio plans to continue releasing family-oriented DVDs, including films culled from its DC Comics library of characters, among them Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

"We've had an existing slate of four to five of these evergreen titles a year, and they are fairly profitable," Tsujihara said. "We'd like to put together slates that have a mixture of genres."

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Okay so what does this all mean? It means there's more opportunity to make movies above and beyond what they are already doing at Warners. Some of these movies will go to better-known writers who want a gig they can direct as well.

It also means that they are going to produce different genres so your low budget rom-com may have a chance. If it has a (TV) name attached or comes from an established prodco.

Because Tsujihara is involved be assured there will be an internet component to the above.

They are also looking at building up the franchises they already have (DVD sequels) and developing new franchises strictly for DVD release. There's a hint of opportunity that this will include live-action features of DC Comics characters, but possibly not (I'm being wishy-washy, I know). It would be interesting for them to collect some of these fan films (Batman: Dead End, World's Finest) and release them on a disc for the mass market. Same goes for Global Frequency.

Is this their first steps toward synergy? Possibly. We'll know more when they release their first slate of films whether or not the different divisions of the company are going to really work together or if they are going to take the same old stance, "Stay out of my yard!" Either way, it will be interesting to see if outsiders can get into the system over there.

It's Memorial Day...

And I really don't have much planned other than a few moments of quiet reflection on who sacrificed what so that I could be here. I am a big barbeque fan (as my waist size will attest) , but I really need to cut back on some of that stuff (meat, bread) and go for the greens. So, no BBQ this year. I've got a salad with my name on it.

The freeways are rather calm this morning as most everyone is at home having coffee or sleeping in. Only a few hundred thousand on the freeways today. Tonight will be another story. Tonight of course, when the lanes are full, I won't see cars themselves, but simply streaming dots of light flying through the arteries of the city. Like fibre optic cable I would imagine or a pointilist painting come to life.

I'm going through and giving Jeff O'Brien my producer's notes on his latest draft of The Gore Gore Gore-Met. The director, Jonathan Walter and I are very pleased thus far (Psych!). Jeff's been a good little toad and served this mad pulp bastard well. He will be allowed to exist for a little while longer. At least until Herschell gets hold of him then all bets are off.

Quips aside, what's interesting about our collaboration is the fact that we have never all been in the same room together - ever. Jeff's in Vancouver. Jonathan is in Milwaukee. I'm here in LA, and Herschell is travelling the world this summer with his wife. We've spoken on the phone, exchanged emails, pictures and links - but we won't shake each other's hands until we go to set a couple of days prior to filming.

Wow.

The last time I did this sort of thing was when we produced some Blistex commercials for German TV. It's a chore, but the goal is worth it. We get to make a movie. Not just any movie mind you - A Herschell Gordon Lewis movie. Most of you don't know this, but when Herschell quit moviemaking back in the 70's and went into direct marketing (very successfully I might add) he took all of his movie ideas - stories , treatments, ideas scribbled on napkins - and locked them away in a trunk in the attic. When we first started discussing this movie (and another one we're developing) we realized what we had on our hands - HGL movies that haven't been made yet! Ideas that haven't been seen by the public - ever!

Other people are trying to make HGL movies - there's a remake of Wizard of Gore coming up and a sequel/remake of another film of his...

But this will be the first original Herschell Gordon Lewis film seen

in nearly 40 years!

(How did I get off track talking about this film? See what this moviemaking thing does to me? I'll keep you posted on what's happening - as much as I can. )

Take time out today to ask yourself, "Who sacrificed something for me to be here where I am right now in life?" I'm getting to make this film because of a lot of people - my parents, brother, sister-in-law, professors, mentors, drill sergeants, bosses, people who told me I "couldn't do that" - influenced, cajoled, slapped, and sacrificed. Right now there are people out there sacrificing something so you get to exist.

Honor them by doing what you do to the best of your ability and passing it along.

X-Men 3: One Night Stand

So I saw the movie yesterday afternoon at the wonderful Vista Theater in Silverlake. I've written about the Vista before, when I went to see Sin City. This time proved to be an equally theatrical experience.

As I approached the theater from my lunch venue at Pioneer Chicken down the street, I saw the theater marquee and two billboards promoting the movie. Clearly Fox has gone all out to promote this one as the line wrapped around the block could attest. I step in line and a guy ahead of me points to the Marquee and more specifically the image of Famke Janssen as Phoenix with her head tilted slightly upwards and lips pursed.

Guy: Looks like Phoenix is having an orgasm or something.
Boy Genius Inside Me: How the hell would he know what a female orgasm looked like? Oh right, porn. We're gonna have a geek moment here aren't we?
Me: I actually look at her and think of a christ-like figure. Look at her. Right next to her is the Angel, and on the opposite side is Wolverine looking sorta Judas-like.
Boy Genius: Religious subtext? In leather? Okaaaaay....
Guy: Okay, then who's Storm over there on the end?
Me: (reaching) Mary Magdalene?
Guy: Wasn't she a whore?
Boy Genius: Let me answer! Let me answer!
Me: Which one?

So the line moves along rather briskly and I get up to the window ready to pay the usual ten bucks, when all of a sudden:

Ticket booth: That'll be five dollars please.
Me: Excuse me?
Boy Genius: Don't argue! Just pay it.
Ticket booth: Five dollars.
Me: (slaps a fiver down) Done.
Ticket booth: Enjoy the show!
Me: I think I will.

And then I turned and saw the most outrageous piece of movie hucksterism this far east of The Arclight Cinemas - an employee of the theater dressed in a Wolverine costume complete with metal claws. Only this guy is a Latino. I got him to say "Eh, bub," but it ended up sounding like, "Aaaaay, booooob." Some things just don't work.

So I go inside and bypass the concession stand as I don't want to make a concession to a heart attack, and find a seat. Seventh row back on the left aisle. Screen filled my entire view. I was getting excited already. I looked over all the wonderful "Movie-Egyptian" styled decor - again, I expected Boris Karloff or Glenn Strange to come out as The Mummy and scare us all to death and laughter.

So the ad for the "real butter" on the popcorn starts and the crowd - which is filled with kids with "anime-hair" and slightly older, twenty-something Silverlake hipsters, gets excited. The feeling is contagious - this could be good. Great even.

Then, the theater did something really smart - they ran the Superman Returns and Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest trailers back-to-back, then started the movie. Both trailers were really exciting and really got the crowd going. We were primed, ready to enjoy...

And the movie started.

******SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD******


X-Men 3 is a good movie. Not a great movie, but a good movie. It fits well within the realm of the other two pictures and amplifies some of the subplots that have been building throughout the trilogy.

The opening scene where Professor X and Magneto go to see Jean Grey when she's a child is well done and sets the tone for the rest of the movie. This is going to be war and we're looking at a cute redheaded WMD right in front of us.

The next scene in the Danger Room sets this thought alight with a scenario featuring Sentinels and the near future - after a war between humans and mutants. These are the stakes.

But what makes this movie merely a "good" movie and not a "great" one? In my humble opinion this is a movie of scenes which while powerful each and of themselves with great lines and consequences, they don't stitch together well. I so wish someone had the ability to step back and say, "These are our threads, but what is the tapestry we're trying to weave here?"

The moments are well-staged and well-played and for those of you Ratner-haters out there I have to say, "Drink a cup of shutthefuckup," this was a monumental job. Lots of action, lots of emotion, lots of twists. Again, I only wish they had the time to step back and weave these wonderful threads properly.

I'm not disappointed with the movie, I'm just left with too much of a feeling of wanting more. For example:

I would have liked to have seen more of the debate between Xavier and Wolverine and the consequences of mutantcy. You want that father-figure of the Professor to say, "I love her too, and I'll do what's best for her." Especially in light of the whole conflict between Angel and his father.

I would have liked to have seen more between Leech and his Doctor. A bond there.

The bond between Mystique and Magneto was torn apart, and yet it was unsatisfying in the way it was resolved.

Rogue tries to form a bond between her and Bobby - a wonderful direct counterpoint to the tearing apart of everyone elses relationships. Especially between Jean and Scott (who deserved better).

Pyro is worried his bond betweeen him and Magneto will be broken by the arrival of Jean. Quite frankly, Iceman should have kicked his ass far more thoroughly than he did. I would have loved it if he had frozen Pyro's hands off and smashed them.

I would have liked to have seen more of Moira McTaggart and her relationship with Professor X and Magneto. The scene after the credits was interesting but could have been played better.

Phoenix's demise could have been more glorious and horrific.

The whole movie ending on Magneto was a cop out. There needed to be something else there to really set it off.

Now as you can see by the title, I liked the two hours I spent with X3, but I don't want to hang out with it. It was nice, good even. But it wasn't great.
Unless a miracle happens, I won't get the DVD.

I'm just not that into it.

Radar Men From The Moon: Chapter Seven

He Did It Simply And Well

I just found out one of my best friends died today - and he and I never even met. I am speaking of the great comic book and animation artist Alex Toth who passed away today while at his drawing table. A fitting end to a man who left his mark in the world.

Some of you out there are saying, "Alex who?" Fair enough. Alex was an artist who worked at his craft and railed against mediocrity in all its forms. He wasn't center spotlight, but he was the guy who gaveus a lot of style even though we may not be aware of it.

In the 60's Alex drew a lot of comics for DC and Western - most notably Eclipso, Hot Wheels and of course Zorro which was later collected in an edition by Eclipse books. He was a tremendous influence on artists such as Howard Chaykin who further refined the elements of Toth's style for his own work. He was an artists' artist - never flashy with technique, but a sledge hammer when it came to design and composition. He set the bar high not only for his fellow artists but for himself.

When he moved to California, Toth began working in the animation industry and that took over as his main source of income. He was one of the "old men" at Hanna Barbera (over on Cahuenga Blvd.) and designed many of their series. For those of you who still don't know who I'm talking about, let me say these two words to put it all into perspective for you:

Space Ghost

Mad Pulp Bastardry Strikes Again!

In today's Video Business they are reporting that consumers tend to favor shorts over feature length downloads...

Oh, you mean like serials?

From out of the rows he comes...

ready to hack his way through Hollywood.

The SciFi Channel in their infinite wisdom is going to premiere Back -to- Back:

Thursday June 8th, 2006

7pm/ 6 Central

(Now if I could somehow get another paycheck out of it...)

Congratulations go out to everyone in the cast, crew, marketing and sales departments who made these movies happen. Special thanks go out to Jason White who originally came up with "The Scarecrow."

Let me repeat it for those who haven't been listening - DVD Premieres are the New Pulp and you can find them everywhere.

Okay, Here's a "Hint"

Go to this link here:

That's all I can say for now as...oops!

**Edit - for those that don't recognize the name above the title go here.**

I Sooooooo Want To Spill My Guts...

But I can't.

We're not ready yet. We're getting there - putting the pieces together. Making each one fit into a great little pulpy movie package...

Here's what I can tell you:

1. I'm producing.
2. Someone in my sidebar is writing the screenplay.
3. A Freaking Horror Icon wrote the story forty years or so ago.
4. That same Freaking Horror Icon will produce with me.
5. We have a director.
6. We're shooting HD.
7. I so wish I could show you the key art, but that would give it away.
8. It qualifies as an international movie.
9. Its funny and scary.
10. It will be bloody good fun if it doesn't kill me first.

If you know what I'm talking about. Don't spoil it for the rest. They won't have too long to wait before an announcement is made.

Radar Men From The Moon: Chapter Six

The Big Tip Off

Bill Martell will be writing brand new Script Tips all this coming week over at his website. He just got back from Hong Kong and will no doubt regale us with many tales of exotic derring-do. One of those posts will be about Mission: Improbable 3...

That's My Brand (cough, cough)

From ScreenDaily.com --

Paramount brands specialised label as Paramount Vantage
Lesher-led division will incorporate Paramount Classics for foreign language pick-ups and documentaries.

Is it me again or does this new label sound like a cigarette brand?

RJ Reynolds must have bought stock in the company...

I can see it now- "Movies with the smooth menthol flavor."

DVD Premieres Wait For No One

Kristen Havens of My Back Pages has a review of It Waits here.

Interesting, because she gives us her "prerequisites" for a DVD Premiere Movie. Make sure you don't follow these when writing your flick. I haven't seen this one yet, so I'm going to track it down and give you my thoughts.

I can tell you one thing:

I hate the title!


Just so no one forgets:

-- Here's two posts on titles. Here and here.

-- Here's my infamous set of guidelines for making a low budget DVD Premiere movie.

-- and of course, Marketing from the ground up.

.

Okay then, I'm off to The Lab for coffee.

Hey! What Are You Doing...

June 3rd through the 17th? How would you like to write a screenplay?
Really.
No foolin'.

From my mailbox:

Hi Bill,

Sorry to hassle you. Your site is one of my must reads. I find it really informative. I'm taking into account all your advice on writing a D2DVD movie for my next script which I will be writing for the 14 Day Screenplay. If you haven't heard of it before it is a competition in which we all try to write a screenplay in 14 days. It's great for new writers who have been procrastinating for years or are scared of the empty pages. We encourage each other and at the end we have a draft of a movie. The next one runs from the 3rd - 17th of June.

We have a website at http://www.14dayscreenplay.com and if you think your readers may be interested I'd appreciate a mention. I won't hassle you again.

Thanks,

Anthony

Obviously this isn't a hassle as I'm posting your email right here. I'm all for people getting on their ass and writing a script. One thing that has held people back from writing is the idea that writing is some sort of mystic process that the gods confer onto certain mortals.

BullSh*t.

If it takes a contest to get you to sit at the computer and write - then enter a contest. If it takes a contest for you to realize you can write a screenplay at a rate of two hours a day for 14 days - then enter a contest. If it takes a contest for you to realize whether or not you are a writer - then enter the contest. Test your limits. Throw it on the page. Get it out of your system.
You have no more excuses. Make your choice and live with it.

Now excuse me, I have to get back to writing.

A Thought Just Occured...

What if the SciFi Channel - in its ongoing bid to upgrade its image and make its web component a more vital part of its business model - did the following?

-- Licensed shows for its broadband portal like Survivors, Blake's 7, The Tomorrow People, Space: 1999, UFO, The Starlost, etc...

-- Placed advertising with those shows for streaming...

-- But also made them available commercial free for download for a small fee per episode or subscription (but only in the states)

-- Negotiated deals for the DVD rights for some of these shows through their Universal DVD label.

What if they also streamed their Scifi Original movies?

We know they are making original programming for the web - and that has been long overdue and will be a great engine to drive the curious to the site - but since there's all these other portals springing up, wouldn't it make sense for the channel to be the great repository of all things Scifi? An archive that feeds the beast?

Who in Their Right Mind...

Wouldn't want to see a TV series or DVD movie series based on this fun concept? These really put the twist into the idea of a "genre-bender."

All courtesy of Beaucoup Kevin via the Kung Fu Monkey.

You'll Want to Check This Out...

If for nothing else than to see my name in print over at Warren's blog.

Okay, ego aside (grunt! shove!) it's a good article on making what you're doing have value in Hollywood. I was happy to give Warren a few quote-bombs to pepper his prose.

Before Someone Asks...

Why I put up a "Movie House" links area on my blog. It's to give you fun, cool and yes, geeky stuff like this:

Under Renovation

Since the Secret Mountain HQ is under reconstruction, I thought it appropriate to hose off the blog and put on a fresh coat of paint. Then, I got ambitious and decided to do a little repair work here and there - tighten a few loose boards, things like that. Thanks go to Curt for a loan of his tools. I'll get them back to you - I swear!




I'm also moving the furniture around and setting up a better looking pulp writer's pad - home office with library, wetbar and a rec room. Things every pulp writer - male or female - can use.

Bring your own Scotch though.

The management apologizes for the inconvenience, but we know you'll like our better, pulpier look and direction.

Edit: Does anyone know why my links are getting squashed toward the bottom? I have a few more resources to post (Tim Minear scripts, Rob Thomas VM scripts, Brit TV scripts) , but I'm not going to hook them up if the links squeeze together even more. I also have some cool stuff to put into the Movie House link list.

If you have the answer, and the solution, please email me at the email in my profile.

Lee Thomson sent me the right solution and as you can see the links look like their proper size now. I think this computer thing might be catching on...

Radar Men From The Moon: Chapter Five

Internet and Serials and Writing - Oh My!

Everyone here knows of my love for serials. I've related my joy over the format on many a blog in the Scribosphere. It's a unique writing challenge to tell a moving picture story in chapters -- short bursts of content that keep the viewer going and asking, "what's going to happen next?"

(Which reminds me to post the next chapter of Radar Men from the Moon)

Much like a novel, the serial has an overall structure and individual chapters which have their own internal structure. It's like television only it's not - it has a definite, particular story to tell. Television has many stories to tell about particular characters.

Well, now the serial format has come to the internet - in a big way. And with all the discussion we've been having lately about In2TV, WB and the BitTorrent, Generate, Itunes and other 4th Generational Media (Hi John!) it seems appropriate that this new serial is debuting on the net and on DVD. That's why I'm discussing it here.

We are in on the ground floor of an opportunity limited only by our creativity and our bandwidth - both of which can be overcome. We are at the dawn of a new age of media that includes traditional scripting for film along with pages and pages of additional content needed to be created for MySpace pages, wikipedia entries, and other types of interactive entertainment and information we haven't realized yet.

All built around around content. All built around branding. All built around entertainment.

Below is an early press release I recieved which got me (re)thinking about all this before I've had my second cup of coffee.

Iron Sink Media Launches Interactive-Webisodic
Romantic Comedy Series: “Soup of The Day”

Unique Hybrid Series/Movie to Debut Simultaneously on Hottest Websites: MySpace.com, YouTube.com, and on iTunes for Podcast

May, 2006 – Los Angeles – New multi-media production company Iron Sink Media is launching a ground-breaking, web-based, hybrid series/movie “Soup of The Day,” it was announced today by Scott Zakarin, one of the co-founding partners of the company.

The interactive-webisodic romantic comedy “Soup of The Day” will launch in May. The show empowers viewers to become involved with the fictional characters, played by actors from improv troupes such as The Groundlings, in three weekly 5-minute episodes over eight weeks. Through the blogs of each of the characters at MySpace.com, viewers will track the round-the-clock comments on their romantic relationships, as well as the on-air stylings of the sexy host of a new Internet video news program now being broadcast at MissileBlast.com.

At the end of its run, “Soup of The Day” will be re-edited with alternate, unrated scenes into a feature length movie to be released on DVD, with hours of additional bonus features.

(Edit: No TV. No theatrical. Profitable)

Online viewer comments will influence the outcome for handsome 28 year-old photographer Brandon Craig, by helping him navigate his way through every man’s fantasy that is also every man’s worst nightmare: simultaneous, heated monogamous relationships with three spectacular young women.

The problem is the certain explosive reaction from the other two girlfriends when he finally chooses one of them.

Will it be his Monday girlfriend Monique, his beautiful but blunt, powerful and demanding boss who will fire him; his Wednesday girlfriend Wendy, a tough and sexy undercover cop who will kick his butt; or his Friday girlfriend Franki, the good-humored host of MissileBlast.com and passionate lover who is so emotionally fragile that a break-up could spark her to severely injure herself. The ending has yet to be written.

Chipping in to offer unsolicited (and often inappropriate) advice to Brandon are his buddies Todd and Rob. At their favorite restaurant/watering hole -- where the favorite soup of the day is so much easier to manage -- Brandon explains to them exactly how he got into this predicament, seen in the “pre-episode” on May 8.

“Soup of The Day” stars Catherine Reitman (Comedy Central’s “David Spade’s Showbiz Report”) as Monique, Patty Wortham (“Closing Escrow”) as Wendy, Tina Molina (“The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story”) as Franki, Jon Crowley (Happy Madison Productions’ “Gay Robot”) as Brandon, Brian Palermo (Bravo’s “Significant Others”) as Todd and Rob Cesternino (“Survivor”).

“Soup of the Day” is served free at SoupMovie.com and the Web’s most popular video destinations, MySpace.com, YouTube.com, and as a free subscription podcast at iTunes.com.

Unfinished pre-episode footage can be viewed online at the following SoupMovie.com.

Produced by Iron Sink Media partners Paul S. Camuso, Rob Cesternino, Scott Hettrick and
Rich Tackenberg, “Soup of The Day” is directed by Zakarin and the show’s “scenarioists” are Zakarin and Cesternino. The executive producers of “Soup of The Day” are Christopher Berube, Paul E. & Marie Camuso, Mark Furia, Christian Gfatter, and Kathy Gfatter.

An online pioneer, Zakarin was the creator of the first episodic Internet serial in 1995, “The Spot,” and a partner with Tackenberg and Brandon Tartikoff in AOL’s original production studio in the late 1990s called Entertainment Asylum.

Zakarin says, “Technology allows mass audiences to enjoy a new form of programming in multiple formats. You can become involved with the “Soup of The Day” characters on your computer or iPod now -- influencing their story for the DVD movie version coming this summer.”

Zakarin was one of the producers of the award-winning “Comic Book: The Movie” and he and Cesternino were producers with Tackenberg as executive producer on the reality series “Kill Reality” for E! Entertainment Television, which resulted in the feature-length DVD movie “Scorned,” released to retailers in April by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

(Edit: Note the following mandate for the company)

About Iron Sink Media

Founded in 2006, Los Angeles-based Iron Sink Media produces original programming for multiple formats, and is developing distribution of original and third-party content on the Internet and DVD.

-----------------------------------------------

As stated above, Scott Zakarin is one of the guys behind Comic Book: The Movie, and I had the pleasure of writing their presentation at the 2005 DVD Exclusive Awards Show. Scott Hettrick was the producer of that show and the former Editor-in-Chief of DVD Exclusive and Video Business. I wonder if the origins of this business venture started there?

So if there's something you have percolating in your mind (and on the page) and you aren't quite sure how to realize its potential. Take a minute and rethink it in light of the above - a serial that's later edited as a feature with extras. Also factor in the Myspace pages, maybe comic book webpages and wiki metacontent and you begin to build a universe to call your own.

Hmmm....

Anyway, let the DISContent begin. I look forward to hearing your commentary.

A Conversation With Myself

Boy Genius: Television is the shorthand of life.

Me: I can't wait to hear this...

Boy Genius: It's true. Every situation has a corresponding episode of television that solves the problem.

Me: Elaborate please.

Boy Genius: That time your sister caught you in the bathroom, uh...relieving the tension of the day?

Me: I still have nightmares about it. If only she hadn't kept screaming.

Boy Genius: Father Knows Best. 2nd season. Episode 12.

Me: I am not 'Kitten.'

Boy Genius: And the time you took your Dad's car for a drive? Happy Days - "Ralph runs over Fonzie's bike."

[beat]

Me: Damn.

Boy Genius: Exactly. You know TV, you know the secrets of the universe.

Me: Okay, so what grand bit of video gets us out of this mess?

Boy Genius: The very special episode of Blossom?

Piracy - the New Revenue Stream

From Cynopsis:

" Warner Bros. will be the first major studio distributing its films and TV shows over the internet via BitTorrent peer-to-peer technology, for both VOD and/or purchase. The first offerings from Warner Bros. are expected this summer with titles including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and TV shows including The Dukes of Hazzard and Babylon 5. The whole idea here is to move those who tend to download pirated films and shows, to purchasing. And using BitTorrent as the vehicle is also an interesting move as BitTorrent was once one of the favorite sites for links to popular pirated movies."

This is a step in a new direction.

It won't be long now for a film or show to debut via BitTorrent with advertising attached to pay for it along with VOD fees. Then a DVD set to follow with behind-the-scenes essentials making it a unique must-purchase item. They have made pirate technology and methodology "okay".

Hooray for the Doctor

Seems the good Doctor Who is the hometown favorite at this years BAFTA Awards.

You can read about it here.

This Is Why ...

This is a simple little story that I'm going to point people to when they ask me...

"Why should I write a D2DVD script?"

Read the story here.

(Thanks go to Jeff Miller for pointing this out to me)

Why I Hate Tom Cruise

I went to see Mission: Impossible 3 yesterday at the Arclight theater. Paid my $11 bucks and got a great seat. Unfortunately I didn't see the movie inside the world-famous Cinerama Dome, but there's always better movies for that.

Seeing the title of today's post and one would wonder why I hate Tom Cruise (or TomKat or Xenu or whatever he's calling himself these days). The fact is that I don't H-A-T-E the man or anything - I'm merely disappointed with his story sense and choices. Of course I am the mad, pulp bastard so I have to lead with a strong title.

If it isn't already apparent from previous posts let me be perfectly clear: I am a HUGE fan of Mission: Impossible -- from the title itself, to the concept to the execution of the TV series. It is brilliance, and I don't use that word lightly. Bruce Geller, the series creator, came up with an ingenious concept for a show that exploited all of the cliches of the superspy era, and then smashed them to bits.

Story-wise, M:I was a groundbreaker. It is truly a show with no first act or inciting incident to it. The story for the audience begins after the villain has already done his dastardly deed and the IMF team have to go in and save the day. Talk about starting your show at the last possible moment!

Everything the audience needed to know - the villain and the stakes - were set up in the teaser. We knew that every time Jim Phelps played that tape the team were going to take their lives in their hands., and that they had an impossible mission ahead.

In addition, M:I wasn't a show that dealt with huge action setups or overt action by our team - they were better than that. Much better. They were like con men in that they let the villain destroy himself rather than put a bullet in his head. I suppose that's why I like the show Hustle so much - many of the same dynamics are at play in that series.

So the show was never a whodunnit - we knew who the villain was or at least had a round of suspects. No, this show was a howtheygonnadoit always served with a wonderful twist ending showing the villain getting his comeuppance.

The thing was that the show was a puzzle, a game:
Not only between the IMF team and the villain, but more importantly between the writers and the audience. That was the fun of M:I - the cerebral back-and-forth to find out who was smarter.

Another aspect to the TV series that really made it worthwhile was the fact that we knew very little about the characters themselves - what made them tick personally. We knew them through the jobs they performed. This lack of characterization actually deepened the mystery of the characters and made them work. We really didn't want to see them getting up in the morning and brushing their teeth. We wanted to see them doing what they do best. There are those who complain that the cast of M:I were little more than cyphers. I say that was information we didn't need to know - we needed the juice and not the rind. To know more about the characters would have lessened their iconic stature.

What we did learn about character-wise was the villains. We learned their secrets, their habits, their foibles - all in that little briefing section when the IMF team was assembled. The villains were the three dimensional characters, the passionate ones. That's what made them great.

This is what made M:I a thrilling spy television series that was engaging and fresh - intriguing plots with mysterious characters who do fantastic things to keep us safe - wrapped up with a bow of a twist ending.

You'll notice I said television series and not movie series when i said, "engaging and fresh."
(Hear that Mr. Cruise? That's the sound of the other shoe dropping)

******** SPOILERS AHEAD*******

I have to say that the M:I movie series has for the most part eschewed the qualities that made the TV series such a hit and gone in an almost completely opposite direction. In these three movies we set aside complex plot for deeper character and no twist endings.

Mission:Impossible - the Movie

The first movie was an interesting experiment to translate a successful TV concept to the big screen with a mega star in the lead. That's interesting in and of itself because part of the charm of the orignal M:I was the fact that the cast wasn't comprised of superstars. How do superstars fade back into the shadows?

The plot concerns a "mole hunt" a concept and motif borrowed from the John Le Carre' Smiley novels. Ethan Hunt is accused of killing his team to cover up the fact he's a double agent trying to sell a NOC (Non-Official Covert) list of agents to the highest bidder. Long story short, Ethan must track down the real mole and expose him in order to clear his name. Ethan does so by recruiting a new team and stealing a real NOC list as bait to lure out the mole - who turns out to be his mentor and friend Jim Phelps. One helicopter crash into a train later and Ethan clears his name and sets himself up for a sequel.

What's interesting is he fact that with a few tweaks here and there - this movie could have been an almost perfect M:I concept. There are a lot of things to recommend about it - the opening credits sequence for one where we get an idea of what's going to happen and who the players are. Where it fails is by embracing new concepts instead of sticking to the tried and true and amping that up. For example:

1) In the TV M:I we never knew exactly what the characters were thinking - their subtext. No emotional outbursts. No dream sequences. No inner monologue. This kept the suspense going because you never knew what they were thinking or what they were going to do next. In the Movie, we have a whole sequence where Ethan Hunt puts together what happened in his mind!

2) Related to this is the fact that there was no twist ending. Incredible action sequence yes, but no twist.

Imagine how much better this movie would have been if the following took place:

Emanuelle Beart's character goes to the luggage area of the train and confronts Jim Phelps, only to discover it's Ethan. No prior mind sequence where Ethan puts it together. Ethan explains it all and we see it in that flashback.

They get Jim Phelps as the mole. They get the arms dealer, Max trying to buy the list...

But then, as a kicker, we see the entire team who we thought were killed by Jim Phelps, alive and well. It was all a setup to flush out the mole. Ethan volunteered for the assignment because he owed it to Jim Phelps to clear his name or bring him in. Phelps, the chess master, has been checkmated by his protege'.

Jim tries to get away and we go through the whole action sequence again with the helicopter and train. Ethan destroys his mentor. Game over.

Now I realize I'm going out on a limb here and rewriting David Koepp and director Brian DePalma, but I think history (and critics) have proved me right - it did well, but it wasn't Mission:Impossible.

Mission: Impossible - 2

This second movie totally ignored what made M:I great and put Tom Cruise center stage as an action hero in the John Woo tradition. This was a star and director film and could just as easily been made without the M:I monicker.

The less said about this one the better, which leads us to...

Mission: Impossible 3 -

This is a a movie that belends a lot of what director JJ Abrams was doing in Alias with the M:I franchise - often with mixed results.

What's good:

Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a bad guy - he's calm, collected, beefy and bad. There's also a sense of sarcasm about his ruthlessness (I recognize it because it's the same sarcasm I channel) .

The bridge ambush sequence - Abrams outdoes himself here with a well executed set piece that hits a lot of very good action beats.

Keri Russell - awesome. I want to see her in an action movie.

What's bad:

Again, its too personal and delves too much into the characters. The plot is there to serve the characters (read Tom Cruise) instead of a good M:I story where the characters serve the plot. Cruise is good enough to have pulled it off if he wanted to. Obviously, he doesn't.

The direction is okay, with occaisional bouts of brilliance (the bridge). The problem is we've seen all these beats before when Jennifer Garner was doing them (better). What JJ needs to do is an entirely different approach to the characters in order to make this movie different enough from his previous efforts. He doesn't. Example: Tom Cruise struts across the Vatican (insert Sydney Bristow strut here) as does his team mate Maggie Q (in a stunning red dress ala Alias). It's those things scattered throughout the picture that give you the feeling Abrams is playing the same tune on a different (and more expensive) piano.

No twist ending. No plan. Tom Cruise is reacting to everything that the bad guys are doing instead of planning and outthinking every other player in the game. The revelations in this movie are all choreographed far in advance and aren't stunning. They're predictable.

Which is the kiss of death for any M:I story.

What's really bad about this movie is that Ethan and Julie walk off into the sunset together. She knows everything about his IMF work - she's even been to the office! Ugh...

These movies have cool things about them. I've outlined a few here, but overall these movies shouldn't be tied to the M:I franchise...

Because they jettison the core concept of what makes the stories work.

But of course, that's just one mad, pulp bastard's opinion.

Just Do It

Motivation.

Touchy subject amongst us writers (or is that we writers? I get that one confused) as we each have our own methods of getting motivated to write. Some procrastinate to the point where they have no choice but to sit down and write. Some dive right in (hate those bastards). Some of us don't get motivated at all and just sit there and dream about having written or deluding ourselves that we will write -- once we get motivated.

Well guess what?

Scientists and anthropologists and behavioural psychologists have figured out something...

You don't get motivated until you do something. The doing something part comes first, then the motivation part kicks in to get you to the finish line. You don't start feeling good until you get into motion and put effort into it (hmmm...that sounds rather naughty. Cool!) . If you wake up in the morning all ready to go - that's because your brain has been working all night long and is eager to get it on the page.

So just do something will you?

It doesn't have to be perfect or great or whatever word is in vogue with screenplay writers these days. You aren't going to have a final draft spew forth fully formed from your muse (and exactly what part of the anatomy is the muse anyway? If things spew forth from it then we need some tissues). What you are going to have is a raw bit of business that is going to take effort to shape into something worthwhile. But of course, that effort leads to motivation, which leads to....

You get what I'm going for here.

Consider this your writer's kick in the...pants.

Have a good weekend.

Bill Martell On Tour

If you're not already doing so, read Bill Martell's adventures in Europe here at his new blog.

It's called Sex in a Sub and it's funny...

Go to it.

Aeon Flux Redux

AEON FLUX debuted on DVD this week to some pretty good numbers. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of those numbers - at least the ones we can access.

AF in its first week of sales and rentals has accomplished the following:

RENTALS - $6.08M in rentals which is equivalent to 23.9% of the film's theatrical gross of $25.9M. But understand that the bulk of that money goes to the rental stores - Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, etc... IT DOESN'T GO BACK TO THE STUDIO (at least not all of it - they only get a small sliver of it).

The better figure to look at - and the one you can never get data for because the studios guard this stuff closely - are the DVD SALES FIGURES.

AF retails for $29.99. That means that most retail outlets are getting the movie for something like $12.99 (Wal-Mart's probably getting it for less than that).

According to Rentrak, AEON FLUX is:

-- Number one at Best Buy
-- Number one at Blockbuster (sales)
-- Number one at Circuit City
-- Number two at DVD Empire
-- Number two at Tower

You can see these figures and more at Video Business's Market Data tab on their website.

AF will match its theatrical B.O. (how appropriate is that term in this case?) very quickly at this rate. Because this movie was presold in many territories beforehand, the movie will make a profit - at least on the books if not in perception.

We also have to take into account the spill off sales to the animated collection. Some people will want to check out the original cartoons that inspired the movie. In this case, the original rights holders will be the biggest beneficiaries to this - they have two separate DVDs, a comic series and a video game they have licensed out to various companies.

The lesson: If you create and produce something, hold onto as many rights as you can.

Moron Nation

Found on the net and sent to me:


Time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella Awards." The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hotcoffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States. Here are this year's winners:

5th Place (tie): Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $80,000 by a jury of herpeers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was runninginside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandablysurprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler wasMs. Robertson's son .

5th Place (tie): 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps .

5th Place (tie): Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed, to the tune of $500,000. In my opinion this is so outrageous that it should have been 2nd Place!

4th Place: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3rd Place: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster,Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

2ndPlace: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a nightclub in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge . She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

1st Place: This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City,Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motorhome. On her first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs.Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.

Now this comes to $2,544,000 in cash awards to these morons. It doesn't include medical expenses nor additional items like the RV lady.

I have nothing else to say on this matter. I leave it to you.

Edit: Well, I guess I do have something more to say on the matter. The above is false, and I was misled, scammed, punked, whatever....

Snopes has this to say:

Fake or not, a list of outrageous awards bestowed upon those whose actions — nay, misbehaviors — had brought them to grief would fall upon very receptive ears because current feeling is very much against large jury awards for frivolous claims. This e-mail preaches to the choir in that it "confirms" what is already deeply believed.

This is a good lesson in that the lie "The Stella Awards" was wrapped inside the truth - a woman did get burned by McDonald's coffee, did sue and did receive $$$$$.

Hybrids

Over at Denis McGrath's place we've been talking about hybrids. These are shows that are not just one genre, they are an amalgam of several genres.

House is a show that uses elements of the police procedural to get to the root of a problem - namely the disease that afflicts his patient that week. Grey's Anatomy is a hybrid of E/R, and Ally McBeal. Desperate Housewives is a hybrid of comedy and drama. Veronica Mars is a hybrid of the high school drama and the mystery.

For the genre writer (especially the low budget D2DVD kind) the hybrid is a way to inject a tired concept with some Redbull. Sometimes it can be really cool (Battlestar Galactica) , other times it doesn't live up to the potential (Mercy Point).

Part of the process of writing a hybrid movies is to take the cliche' and twist it enough to bring elements of other genres into it. It's making columns of genres and subgenres and playing Chinese food ala carte - take one from column A and another from column B.

They're cops, but one of them is an alien! (Alien Nation)

They're trapped in a Mexican bar and have to fight their way out through...vampires? (From Dusk Til Dawn)

Write down two columns of genres and subgenres and start mixing and matching. Or you can select a bunch of movie titles in a certain genre and try to match them with a totally different genre movie list. You'll never know what can happen. You could come up with...

A police manhunt movie (The Fugitive), but instead of the killer being a one-armed man, he's a werewolf! (My own Wolfsbane)

A zoologist fights to protect the last of a species -- a gargoyle! (Gorillas in the Mist meets Jeepers Creepers)

Try it and see what you come up with. At the very least it's a good exercise at brainstorming. Besides...

You could write the next great vampire comedy, or the next buddy cop romance.

Massaging the Rewrite

I went to the Hollywood Fresh market on Sunday to go out, get some good food and relax as I got a massage. There's a licensed massage therapist there, John, who's been keeping your mad pulp bastard functioning for the past 5 years.

Every time, I sit down in the massage chair and before I know it I'm out like a light. I wake up and my shoulders and upper back actually function properly and I can go about my coming week and wrench them into the sorry, stressful state I arrived in.

One thing that's interesting about massage (and yes, this is going to be a metaphor for rewriting so shut up and listen) is that when you massage one bodypart it has a similar relaxing effect on parallel body parts. If you massage one shoulder, the other shoulder will relax as well. You hit that one spot on your back, you're goingto feel it all the way down to your big toe.

This is a lot like rewriting (See?! Told you I'd get there!).

If you rewrite one aspect of your script it affects other aspects of your script. Change something in Act One it's going to affect Acts Two and Three. Change someone's name it's going to affect how people who read your script see the character. You can Have Charlie Brown stand meekly in the corner at the dance. You can't have Dirk Masterson do the same.

So when you're rewriting, remember that what you do in one place in your story affects the rest.

Above all relax, it's just a rewrite.