The board's server will undergo upgrade maintenance tonight, Nov 5, 2014, beginning approximately around 10 PM ET. Prepare for some possible down time during this process.
Post subject: Re: The Cinematic Motion Picture News Thread
Posted: Thu January 31, 2019 5:21 am
NYUCK NYUCK NYUCK
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 3:35 pm Posts: 32274 Location: Buenos Aires
Serenity stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway are furious with distributor Aviron Pictures after they watched their latest film, Serenity, post the worst opening-weekend numbers of their careers. Now, the movie has a polarizing premise and got bad reviews. But a steamy film anchored by two Oscar-winning stars ought to show up better than an eighth-place finish for its opening weekend, at a paltry $4.4 million.
What’s troubling the stars of the Steven Knight-directed drama, and their CAA reps, is the fact that Aviron agreed to a battle plan that called for them to put up P&A commensurate with a 2500-screen release, and the stars agreed to do a full promotional campaign including a junket and as many late-night and daytime talk shows as would have them.
They believe that they were fed excuses and got a lot of unreturned calls when TV spots didn’t show up and it became clear to them Aviron wasn’t going to support the movie and was essentially dumping it. Sources said they believe maybe only nine spots aired in obscure locales and not in any time slots that would have helped create awareness for the film. And sources said it wasn’t until the night before McConaughey and Hathaway got on a plane for the Los Angeles junket that Aviron execs finally leveled and told them that there would be no P&A spend.
Sources close to the situation said the stars feel they were dealt with in a passive aggressive fashion. Originally told that money would be spent, they were then told funds were delayed because the Black Rock-funded distributor was closing one fund and opening another. As it got closer to crunch time, they suddenly weren’t getting their calls returned by chairman William Sadleir. They finally received the bad news from president David Dinerstein, that no money would be forthcoming and the publicity blitz would have to be enough.
Aviron's comment: "We had the best intentions for Serenity. We were excited for the opportunity to release this uniquely original movie and work with such a stellar cast and talented filmmakers. As much as we love this film and still hope it finds its audience, we tested and retested the film — with audiences and critics alike — and sadly, the data demonstrated that the film was not going to be able to perform at our initial expectations, so we adjusted our budget and marketing tactics accordingly. Regardless of the spend, it’s next to impossible for an adult-skewing drama to overcome a 23% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a D+ CinemaScore. To have spent more would have been irresponsible to our capital partners and wouldn’t have made prudent business sense for an independent distributor. We have enormous respect and admiration for the talent and all the hard work they put into the film and wish the box office results were better."
Post subject: Re: The Cinematic Motion Picture News Thread
Posted: Thu January 31, 2019 5:30 am
An enigma of a man shaped hole in the wall between reality and the soul of the devil.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:13 pm Posts: 39818 Location: 6000 feet beyond man and time.
It feels like a movie where the studio got cold feet and demanded big changes (not that there is anything going on in the movie anyway). I wouldn't be surprised if a certain character was added after the movie what shot.
Post subject: Re: The Cinematic Motion Picture News Thread
Posted: Thu January 31, 2019 10:07 pm
The Master
Joined: Sun May 25, 2014 9:32 pm Posts: 31614 Location: Garbage Dump
bada wrote:
WB has no balls.
Yep.
It’s kind of crazy - Snyder has been making movies exclusively for them since 2007. They seemed to be a great creative pairing. And now, because WB shit the bed with this DC stuff, they apparently want nothing to do with each other. WB is telling Wan not to consult him for Aquaman, and now he’s making a movie for Netflix.
Before all this, I remember talking about how much I liked WB. They almost felt like a megabudget indie studio, greenlighting risky projects from auteur directors. Now I think a lot of that is gone. Sad.
I’m also realizing that, in the wake of this, Netflix has not only given Snyder free reign on a new project, but they did the same for David Ayer after Suicide Squad. Netflix makes a lot of shit but I’m very grateful to them for this.
Is Batman v Superman sorta like the Heaven’s Gate of our era?
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum