SHARKTOPUS ATTACKS!

via Nikki Finke:

Back on January 3rd, I posted this Mogul Tip: Make More Movies With Sharks after the straight-to-video pic Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus finished No. 8 on Yahoo's Top 10 most viewed trailers of 2009. Now the Internet is all atwitter because Karen O'Hara, the director of original movies at Syfy, has announced via Twitter a greenlight for the long gestating Sharktopus!. Legendary director Roger Corman is a natural for the project because he's already given us Supergator, Dinocroc, and Dinoshark. If only Peter Benchley were still alive. Above is graphic artist Matt Leach's rendition of what the creature feature might look like. 

From a development perspective, this is where the story gets interesting. 

Seems O'Hara is tweeting the greenlight announcement AFTER asking her twitter audience what they would like to see in a movie named SHARKTOPUS.

Now we know this sort of thing has happened before with SNAKES ON A PLANE...

But those were re-shoots and editing decisions on a movie that was already shot.  SHARKTOPUS hasn't gone to script yet!

Ms. O'Hara we tip our pulp chapeau to you... not only for getting the pulp movie formula correct (audience response to the concept first, then movie) but also for bringing Mr. Corman and crew to your channel.

(And FYI , I happen to know someone who has a movie that would be perfect for your channel.  The story features rapidly evolving mutant, killer [REDACTED] attacking a group of [REDACTED] at a [REDACTED].

Roger Corman Presents Splatter Streamed for Free from Netflix

Roger Corman Presents Splatter Streamed for Free from Netflix


Incredibly gruesome for a webs series (or am I missing something out there? Send URLs) and features Corey #1, Joe Dante and the Maestro Roger Corman in the latest way to make a movie while generating an audience for it.

Interesting times...

Roger Corman Presents: SPLATTER

Is it a Cable TV premiere or a D2DVD?

No - it's Netflix's first ever web series! (via Tubefilter)

Netflix, which started as a simple “DVD delivery to your home” service and has grown to delivering movies straight to computer and XBox is now about to tackle the world of web content. And they are doing it with a bang. Literally. To Corey Feldman’s head.

Feldman announced yesterday on his blog that not only will he be reprising his role as Edgar Frog in Lost Boys 3: The Thirst…he’s also going to be starring in Netflix’s first ever web series, Splatter. Not only that, he’s teaming up with legendary directors Joe Dante and Roger Corman to do it.

The project itself is still mostly under wraps but Feldman could say a few things about it. “The project is titled Splatter and is being created for Netflix. This will be their first ever live streaming web series. Splatter will be a multi episode web series that will go live on the web on Halloween weekend. My character’s name is Jonny Splatter. That is pretty much all I am allowed to say for now.”

But there is one more small thing more he can show you… “in light of Friday’s Chiller Eyegore awards ceremony, the folks at Netflix were kind enough to launch a teaser site of the new web series as the show began. I will give you the website address so you can catch the first glimpse for yourself…but before I do that I must give you a warning…this is not for little kids. The material is graphic in nature, and parental discretion is strongly advised…this is a pretty shocking 30 second clip you will see. Please make sure you remove small children before reviewing this teaser. OK now that, that has been said, the address is www.netflix.com/splatter … and remember it’s just a little Halloween fun!”

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Okay gang, the takeaway on this is:

1) Netflix thinks there's money in webseries.
2) Netflix has a business model that is very very strong.
3) Roger Corman (a man who doesn't do anything unless he sees the "upside") is doing a web series.

This is good for all of us. Now we have to find out how much they're spending, the structure, etc... the business details.

Are You In Business or Not?

I recently came across an interview with Francis Ford Coppola in Moviemaker magazine and was not surprised at his remarks regarding the "business of movies" which you can see here.

I say I'm not surprised because that was the old way of distributing movies and entertainment. It's a very suspicious business to be in - with a lot of risk and rolls of the dice...

Unless you're smart about it - as he alludes to in his reference to Corman (his former boss).

But he's dead on when he says this - an old school adage that still applies:

"The movie business is not a good business to be in. You can have the money to finance your own movie, the actors can all love you, and if you don't control the distribution, you're dead."

Thankfully, that aspect of the business is changing.

It's About Time! Roger Corman is Getting an Oscar!

From CHUD:

I cannot even believe I am typing these words but:

Roger Corman is getting an Oscar.

The maestro of cheapie genre films is finally being recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a lifetime of work that I guarantee to you is more influential than probably ten other random Oscar winners put together. If you just want to go 'serious,' Corman started the of people like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese (and Joe Dante, Ron Howard, Alan Arkush, Jim Wynorski, Jim Cameron, Gale Ann Hurd, et al - MPB) (both of whom will hopefully be on hand) (and distributed films of Bergman and Fellini - MPB) but if you want to go 'film geek,' Corman is a giant, churning out low budget feature after feature that blazed the imaginations of generations of kids.

Were all of these films 'good?' Hell no. But they were all Corman.
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This has been long overdue...

Roger Corman Kept the Plates Spinning...

As all pulpsters know, you have to have a lot of ideas in the pipeline, ready to be pulled out polished and sent out to fill a market need. You never want to be in a position where you don't have a concept to sell to a producer.

Pulpster: ...and then we find out she's a robot!

Producer: (puffs cigar) Naw! Already have something like that in the pipeline. Ya got anything else, maybe something like [Redacted]?

Pulpster: (looks a notes)... why yes! Yes I do...(launches into pitch)

Well look at all the projects Roger Corman developed in some way, shape or form.

(courtesy Temple of Schlock)

ACAPULCO (1980)
Screenplay by Frances Doel

ALL THE BRIDES CAME BLOODY (1971)
Starring Jerry Talbert and Melissa Miles.

ALTAR OF BLOOD (1971)
Corman's company during the 1970s and early '80s, New World Pictures, was set to release the French horror film MIDI MINUIT (MOON AND MOONLIGHT) as ALTAR OF BLOOD, but that apparently never happened.

AVALANCHE (1974)
Written and directed by George Armitage
"A tale about an avalanche at a ski resort," this project was later assigned to director Corey Allen and uncredited writer Gavin Lambert. The finished movie was released in 1978.

A BULLET FOR EVERY AMERICAN (1974)
Co-produced with Mark Damon Productions
Written by Michael Wakely
Directed by Joe Dante
"To be filmed in Rome"

And note in many ways he had art created before the movie was shot or even before the script was written!

From Sundance to DIY Distribution

Kent Nichols has a nice post today regarding the movie Ballast and its Sundance Best Directing winner Lance Hammer walking away from distribution deals to do-it-himself.

He links to the interview Hammer did for KCRW on his choice to go it alone.

Kent Nichols also discusses Roger Corman's model (somewhat sideways in my estimation) and I think some of the figures he uses are wrong. It all depends on what era you are discussing in the Corman library of pictures.

Check it out.

Movies & Comics, Comics & Movies...

Just growing closer together all the time.

From Newsarama:

Bluewater Productions and Roger Corman are teaming up to excite a new generation of genre fans as the independent comic publisher and legendary genre filmmaker plan to readapt and re-imagine some of Corman's popular work.

Starting in 2009, several of Corman's movies will be "given the Bluewater treatment" under the title "Roger Corman Presents." Some of the first properties being produced include "Death Stalker," "The Barbarian Queen," "Humanoids From The Deep" and a re-franchising of Corman's super heroine "Black Scorpion" which previously found success as two made-for-cable movies on Showtime and a 22 one hour episodes on the Sci Fi Channel.

Corman said: "Comic books have given me so much over the years that it's time I gave something back to the medium."

As Bluewater now is working with both Corman and the Vincent Price estate, it is certain that several of the horror classics based on the Edgar Allen Poe stories will also be produced in comic form in the near future.