Drag-me-to-hell | SpoutBlog

Sex on the Shelf? Trade Roughage 03/03/08

By Karina Longworth posted 6 months ago

The New Line Fallout continues: Sex and the City: The Movie (we can link to the trailer now! But we can’t embed it! Because the intern responsible for uploading trailers to YouTube has probably already been fired!) and Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay are amongst the upcoming films facing release limbo in the wake of news that 75% of the former standalone studio’s staff is expected to be fired. Variety says Warner Brothers’ consolidation plan in the months ahead is “reminiscent of what happened to Disney’s Miramax arm after the Weinstein brothers departed in 2005,” which doesn’t bode well for the fate of the films: in the fall of 2005, Disney dumped 10 Miramax films in 10 weeks with little fanfare, and even star-propelled projects like Proof and The Libertine couldn’t recover from the insult.
Semi-Pro managed to come in at number one at the box office this weekend with just $15 million. The Other Boleyn Girl debuted on a third of the screens but made over $2k more on each of them, proving that, even in the darkest economic times, there’s always a market for implied lesbianism.
Speaking of implied lesbianism: Ellen Page has dropped out of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell, which will begin shooting two weeks later than expected.
indieWIRE reports that the Tribeca Film Institute and funding organization Renew Media are merging “to create one institution dedicated to innovation in film and media, the enrichment of audiences and the promotion of education, understanding and creativity through the media arts.” The new org will be headed by Renew’s Brian Newman.

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Hollywood, Indies

Trade Roughage 12/20/07

By Karina Longworth posted 8 months ago

Today’s tale of strike woe comes from a meeting of the L.A. City Council’s Housing Community and Economic Development committee, where writers, economists and city officials (and not a single rep from the AMPTP) testified as to the wider implications of the work stoppage. Economists estimate that the strike has already cost the city of Los Angeles $342.7 million, and the tally could rise as high as $2.5 billion before it all ends. Among the sectors hardest hit is the local food industry, which contributes 13% of the city’s tax revenue.
Sam Raimi is expected to direct New Line’s suddenly-in-the-works pair of Hobbit films, but first, he’s going to make an Evil Dead-esque “morality tale”called Drag Me To Hell.
After barely coming to play in 2007, Hollywood studios are looking to promote their 2008 slate in a big way via Super Bowl ads. Among the scheduled highlights: Will Ferrell will appear in character in a co-branded spot, promoting both Budweiser and Ferrell’s upcoming New Line comedy, Semi-Pro. Oddly not mentioned in the Variety story, but relevant: with the writers strike heavily impacting ratings of regular programming, a massive sporting event like the Super Bowl suddenly becomes one of the only opportunities to use TV to reach a mass audience.