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The Movie Blog: Uncut - December 30th 2008
Hey there folks! It’s those lull days between the joyous Christmas and the frantic New Year. Today I do a solo show and talk about:
1) An update on The Anniversary
2) Guy shooting another guy for talking in a movie theater
3) Disney dropping the Narnia franchise
4) The possible delay for Watchmen and why Fox is right
5) The Spirit’s glorious failure
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Hey John,
I’m currently listening to the older podcasts, I found maybe the first year and a half or so on the internet archive, byt theres this huge gap from September 2006 to June 2007. I really like the show and wanted to hear your thoughts on films over the years. The links are all broken here and they dont exist on the archive. If theres anyway I can get these podcasts, please let me know. Keep up the good work and hope you had a good Christmas. Thanks.
Listening to the podcast, I had to laugh at the Dragonball comment. The irony is, with that particular movie, it’s actually the hardcore fans that are saying that the movie is going to suck. To the casual moviegoer, the film will succeed or fail on it’s own merits, but in the Dragonball fanbase, from what I’ve read on forums, it’s already been written off as a mistake.. It looks a little campy to me, I’m not expecting alot from it, but I’ll wait to see it before I make my judgement. With some groups of fans, it’s hard to seperate the fandom from the quality of the film, but as has been shown with Star Wars, you can still be a fan of things without liking everything the franchise churns out.
Happy New Years everyone!
Thanks again for cranking this out John.
Yea I have ppl telling me the same thing when I express my thoughts on a game or movie without seeing or playing the whole thing. They all say the same thing too. “How do you know it sucks if you never played/seen it.” Its annoying and pointless to say that.
I think its intresting that with Watchmen that Fox really didnt push for an injunction till after the trailer was out and after it was gaining some major buzz. I could be wrong about this but I find it intresting that you never heard a peep from Fox till after now. Im wondering if they would have done anything if the movie looked like crap?
IMO we aren’t pointing our fingers in the wrong direction. Zach snyder let it be known from day one 300 was finished that he was developing The Watchmen for WB. fox had how long to say something. They let WB and snyder develop it for how long and layed around with it. That said I think WB holding it up is crap too. Make a FUCKING deal and get the fans the movie.
cool John Feb 2nd is the day before my birthday! glad to hear the good news on The Anniversary
Hey John, you made a common mistake in your podcast at the end and I wanted to object. It was when you talked about people getting defensive about predicting a movie would be bad. You say, “If you say that you never do that, then you’re being a hypocrite, because you have.” The only reason I disagree is because this is a misunderstanding of the meaning of being a hypocrite. If my parent did drugs when they were younger (they did) and now tell me not to do them, that does not make them hypocrites. They learned from their mistakes and are passing their lesson on. Similarly, if someone used to predict the quality of a movie, but does not do so anymore, then they are not a hypocrite to discourage that action. I will concede that they are highly likely to still be passing a predictive judgment, but they way you phrased that further the misunderstanding of the meaning of being a hypocrite, and that misunderstanding bothers me.
Oh, and a second correction. You said that we are passing a prediction on a movie when we choose to go see it in the theatre because we wouldn’t pick a movie we didn’t expect to like, but that too was not true. In this same podcast you gave the example that you thought Punisher would be bad, but you still went. You said you thought The Spirit would be bad, but if not for this ad campaign, you would have still seen it. So clearly the decision to see a movie does not guarantee that you think it will be good. And even for regular slobs, there are often several reasons to see a movie outside of expectations. A significant other may make you go. Mayeb to have free tickets. Peer pressure (as silly as that sounds, it’s true.) My girlfriend really didn’t want to see Transformers, but I invited so many of our friends to go too that she didn’t want to miss out on hanging out with everyone. She ended up loving it just as much as I did, but her prediction had nothing to do with her decision to see the movie.
That’s all on my FYI’s. Thanks for the podcast. I very much enjoyed listening.
-Calviin
Grats on getting the financing for your film John. Good news.
John,
Why did Fox wait until the movie was finished (rather close to the release date) to file this lawsuit. Do they claim that they did not know that the film was being made (because I think we all did) or do they have some financial and or legal reason to wait?
Hey Uberarrett,
As I mentioned in the podcast, Fox did try to talk to WB about it. A lawsuit should be the last thing you resort to…. and from what I’ve been told Fox waited and tried to sort it out with WB until they had no choice but to launch a lawsuit.
wow, i seriously might just riot, since I’ve been waiting for 2 years for Watchmen to come out.
i really wish u guys would do an ironman or hulk dvd commentary
or wanted
U are so right John about your last statement about saying if a movie is good or not..I never thought of it that way!! u so rock!!
John,
Well that certainly does help villanize WB. If you had to guess, what do you think Fox’s goal is? Do you think they want to secure profit sharing before the films release? or do they just want to keep the film from coming out at all?
Hey Uberarrett,
There is no money in it for Fox by just preventing the movie from being released altogether. They want a cut… and WB doesn’t seem to want to give it to them.
This is going to get ugly.
John,
I think that is the point on which you can convince avid Fox haters (like i was) that WB is the real enemy. WB could end this right now and release the movie in march if they just give Fox their deserved cut. All the effort people are putting into a Fox boycott should go toward boycotting WB until they give Fox their rightful cut of the cash and release the film. As if they won’t still make massive profits on the film even if its split up.
i can now see Fox’s point, but i just cannot see it with a Fox logo. I have waited ahwile for the Watchmen, years to see it and they might push it back. I am one of the angry ones, VERY angry. I pointed my finger at fox. Now i can see that Fox isn’t the one’s who have done wrong here.
Also john, i’m not the biggest fan of Fox either
Looking foward to the Behind the Scenes of the making of your movie. I’ve always had a good idea for a movie but I know it will never get nowhere. I have the “Final Draft” script writing program on my labtop, it just sits there everyday, now I might get on there and do something.
Yeah I’m still pretty pissed about WB delaying Harry Potter because it is the first Harry Potter movie that i’ve actualy been looking foward to seeing and then it gets delayed. And it just so happens to get pushed onto the weekend where i have to go to a weding on the oposite site of the US.
But one mroe thing i just have to say that while you are mostly correct about only seeing movies that you like, their are always exeptions like Calvin mentioned. Such as i never see a movei that looks like i won’t like it (even if it won best picture) but i will at least be renting The Rocker when it comes out just to see your little cameo in it. (i hope it’s alot longer and more noticable then in The Incredible Hulk).
and John, bout the quotes in The Spirit ad ( i saw the same ad about 67768686 times) being from one critic, and some quotes not stating the critic, i saw an ad for The Day The Earth Stood Still (which i didn’t mind the movie too much) and in that add they did the same thing as the spirit add. Things like “mind blowing” and “action packed” (which isn’t even true cuz it had no action). But yeah they used the same thing for The Day The Earth Stood Still
Actually John, The Watchmen was a series of comic books that were released on a yearly basis between 1985-1988. Since then they were compiled together as a paper back edition. I think the difference has to do with graphic novels being a one shot story in hard cover format. Peace.
Thanks for the podcast, John. I really did enjoy listening to this one, as you made some very good points on each issue, especially the one regarding The Spirit’s marketing campaign. Also, thanks for the kind wishes. I hope that you have an awesome New Years!
Hey when you were talking about crank2 and your own film what prosumer camera are they or you shooting with? A Canon xl-2 or something? I’m surprised they wouldn’t shoot with at least the new RED camera. Just wondering which camera crank2 is shooting with since i’m about to purchase a new camera to replace my old XL-1s.
Hey Ninja Turtle
They shot Crank 2 on the Canon XH A1 camera:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-XH-A1-High-Definition-Camcorder/dp/B000H7GSG6
They used the RED camera for the movie they just did with Gerard Butler called “Game”, but they needed a much more mobile camera for Crank 2.
Aren’t you over blowing how much Fox owns of Watchmen? The books aren’t HarperCollins or anything like that… They’re DC Comics, owned by Warner Bros. So, that’s clearly WB property… I thought this lawsuit had to do with some Lawrence Gordon, listed as a producer on Zack Snyder’s movie. HE, from everything else I’ve read, had the rights, to make the movie, he IS making the movie. He switched studios. So, this sounds like a big Hollywood grey area. This mess is confusing as it is, you’re right all this hate shit is just plain ignorant, but saying that this is WB’s fault instead of Fox seems just as wrong. A marionette had the rights to make Watchmen, they pick it up and put it in their toybox, should they have double checked every string, of course, in hindsight it’s obvious. We don’t know ANYTHING about what’s going on, or went on behind closed doors with gobs of legal mumbo jumbo, and it really all sounds like typical Variety fodder. The story here is that a typical Hollywood lawsuit is turning into a PR nightmare.
Hey Paul,
You said:
“They’re DC Comics, owned by Warner Bros. So, that’s clearly WB property”
That’s not correct. Fox owned the MOVIE rights to Watchmen for a long time. A judge just ruled that they still own those rights (in whole or in part)
Hi John,
Been reading your blog now for the past couple of weeks and have now found myself reading it every day. I love it. Thanks so much for all you and your team are writing about.
Just listened to your podcast for the first time on the train on my way to work in London and really enjoyed it. Very much looking forward to your movie ‘The Anniversary’.
Do you know how you’re going to release it? Will it be a DVD / YouTube / download and do you have a date when it needs to be completed by?
Happy New Year!!
Hey john just to let you know that i my self is a dragon ball fan and love the manga and the anine greatly but as a fan i acaully am not looking forward to this movie i think this is going to be a bad movie so i am one of the few fans that dont think it will be good lol
im gonna kill you all kinds of dead, just sounds so fuckin retarted