Cinematical

After three months on the picket lines, striking writers who create your favorite movies and TV shows may finally be close to a deal with motion picture producers that will allow them to get back to work -- possibly even in time to help the Oscars and the Fall TV schedule. According to today's LA Times, the writers and major studios have been able to put together the outlines of a new contract which included provisions resolving important points governing payments for work that is distributed via the Internet.

This new outline contract, which was arrived at after two weeks of intense negotiations involving key studio players such as News Corp. President Peter Chernin and Disney Chief Exec. Robert A. Iger and is patterned after the recently negotiated director's guild pact, could be presented to the Writer's Guild of America board as early as Friday of this coming week for ratification. Then, if approved, to the membership at-large for a vote soon afterward.

Hopefully, this new agreement will end up being satisfactory to both sides and bring an end to the strike which has paralyzed production not only here in Los Angeles, but around the country as well. As someone with a lot of friends out of work right now, both walking the picket lines and as part of the collateral damage, I'm looking forward to seeing this get resolved.

For the second time in as many years, the Director's Guild of America, which represents not only directors but unit production managers and assistant directors, has said no to the Hollywood studio's policy of for-consideration screeners being mailed to its members for the 60th annual Director's Guild Awards. This decision finally puts to rest the question left form last year when the Guild said it would not allow screeners for the 59th annual awards but might consider them for the 60th -- which take place on January 26th.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, for the 59th Awards, the Guild initially indicated that it would allow screeners to be made available to its members. But then, almost immediately afterward, reversed the decision. At the time, it did allow for the possibility of screeners being sent out to members for this year's awards but now that's obviously not going to happen. "The DGA recognizes that this decision is different from what was stated last year," the Guild said in the article, "However, closer examination of the issue revealed concern among members that films sent out on DVD might have an unfair advantage over films that were not able to be sent out due to limited marketing budgets or other financial considerations."

Ok, I guess those reasons make sense. Still, as a member of the Director's Guild, I always felt it was an unusual policy to not allow screening copies as virtually every other union or guild does allow it. In addition to the reasons stated above, maybe the ban is meant to help stem the tide of pirated DVDs being sold all over the world? Or, perhaps the Guild actually expects its members to go see films under consideration in a movie theater instead of on DVD? Or maybe it's because the DGA just likes to be different? I don't know, but whatever the reason, even if we don't get screeners mailed to us, at least we still get to see screenings of films at DGA HQ, which is nice. So I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

I remember back when I was very young I used to beg my parents to stay up late and watch movies. For some reason back then I was a big fan of "sword and sandal" epics like Cleopatra and The Ten Commandments. Their stories of life and death filled with action, drama, suspense and spectacle really appealed to me. As I grew older I still enjoyed watching these classics occasionally on TV or on DVD -- their splendor somewhat diminished by the passage of time but still a very entertaining way to spend a few hours.

Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, I am going to get a chance to enjoy The Ten Commandments all over again -- in the form of a new 3-D CGI animated feature film from Promenade Pictures and producer Frank Yablans. The new film, which will reportedly be the first in a 12-picture series called "Epic Stories From the Bible," is being animated in both New Zealand and Singapore and features the voices of actors Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould and Christian Slater as Moses. Other projects in the series are expected to be announced shortly and will be part of the series of four to six films a year comprised of a mixture of wide releases and more niche platform titles.

In truth, I'm not sure exactly how I feel about a new version of this classic film. I guess its invertible that films with this kind of popularity will keep getting remade. After all, we did have to suffer through the less-than-stellar ABC mini-series from a few years ago. With any luck, this new film will be far superior to that one. Plus, I do have a soft spot for animation so that's a plus as well. However it all turns out, we'll all get a chance to find out when the film gets released on October 26.

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I actually think that some singers can become decent actors. Usually I prefer my singers to stay singers, my athletes to stay athletes, my directors to be actual film directors and I definitely (in most cases) prefer to leave the acting to the actors. But as I said, there are a few exceptions. Take former N'Sync member Justin Timberlake for example.

Sure, you could dismiss his acting talent simply because he used to be in N'Sync -- and that might be a valid reason to some. However, if you did that you would miss some of the good work he's done in films such as Alpha Dog and Black Snake Moan. Obviously I'm not the only one who thinks Timberlake might have something going for him in the acting department because, according to Variety, he's just added another feature film role to his growing list of credits -- the Mike Myers comedy The Love Guru over at Paramount Pictures.

The film, which also stars Jessica Alba, was written by Myers and Graham Gordy and centers on an American (one that was raised in India by gurus) who returns to the States to start a self-help empire. Hilarity ensues (as it often does) when he gives advice to the wife of a famous Hockey star (Alba), who takes it a bit too far and starts dating one of her husband's rival players (Timberlake). Could be amusing. Myers is usually funny and Timberlake was pretty good on Saturday Night LIve, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. The film, under the direction of Marco Schnabel, begins shooting next month in Toronto.

There is an old saying in Hollywood about how in many cases, overnight success actually took a heck of a lot longer than overnight. Take director Greg Mottola for example. His most recent film, the mega-hit and super-funny Superbad, ended an almost ten-year dry spell for the filmmaker, whose last feature film was The Day Trippers in 1996. During the intervening years, Mottola worked as a director in TV on shows such as Undeclared and Arrested Development, but that next feature directing gig seemed to elude him.

Fortunately, as it sometimes does, fortune smiled on the director in the form of a phone call from Judd Apatow and the offer to direct Superbad -- and that film's success is sure to lead to more work for Mottola. In fact, it already has. According to Variety, Mottola, coming off the impressive opening weekend for Superbad, has already set up his next directing gig -- the romantic comedy Adventureland, which he also wrote.

Adventureland is set in the summer of 1987, and tells the story of a recent college grad who, instead of going on his dream vacation to Europe, is stuck in a minimum-wage job at an amusement park for the summer. Convinced he's not going to have any fun, he instead ends up making new friends, finding love and gaining valuable life experience. Given Mottola's track record, I'm sure the script and the subsequent movie will be much funnier than that sounds. Casting is now underway for the film, which is expected to begin shooting later this year.

If you've ever visited the website for an upcoming film and took a survey or played an interactive game, added a particular film to your list of friends on Myspace or otherwise got information about an upcoming release from a source other than "traditional" methods such as TV spots or billboards, you've been exposed to a technique known as "viral marketing." This technique has evolved and become very sophisticated over the years since its first big success with a little film called The Blair Witch Project -- which basically wrote the book on how to use the Internet as a marketing tool.

Now, with the Internet and other non-traditional outlets so much in the daily lives of potential movie-goers, viral marketing is being used more than ever. Over at Variety, Anne Thompson discusses the current state of viral marketing as practiced by the major studios; how they've used various techniques, puzzles and other gimmicks to entice younger, tech-savvy potential audience members and build awareness for their upcoming films. For example, as Thompson points out in the article, Warner Bros. recently used this kind of marketing at Comic-Con in San Diego to promote their upcoming film The Dark Knight.

Instead of bringing the film's stars and director to the Con, which is what studios normally do, Warners instead staged several events including sky writing above the Con which directed fans to a special phone number where they got further instructions. After that, they were directed to a place where they could get their faces painted like the Joker. The whole point of this marketing, according to the article, was to "unlock an exclusive photo of Heath Ledger as the Joker and a new Dark Knight teaser trailer.

I won't dispute the power of the Internet to influence people and popular culture. However, I personally don't have as much free time as I used to and don't spend a lot of it online solving puzzles, taking quizzes or unlocking exclusive content -- especially for films I'm already planning to see. Sure, it might help engage some fans and give them a way to feel more a part of the action or pass the time until the film comes out. I just don't really need that kind of thing to get me interested in most movies. But I guess that doesn't really matter because this kind of thing is definitely here to stay. What do you guys think? Does this kind of marketing hold any interest or have any influence on you?

Even though we reported a few months ago that New Line Cinema had acquired the rights to Robert E. Howard's famous sword-fighting Cimmerian Conan the Barbarian, it now appears that news was a bit premature. According to Variety, production/distribution company Millennium Films has finally won the rights to the character after New Line could not close the deal -- even after getting the exclusive right to negotiate for the franchise back in June.

According to the article, rights-holder Paradox Entertainment president and chief executive officer Fredrik Malmberg finally chose Millennium Films after extricating the rights from Warner Brothers last spring -- where the franchise had languished for several years under various directors including The Wachowski Brothers and Robert Rodriguez. With New Line unable to come to final terms this week, Malmberg went with Millennium in a seven-figure deal allowing the company to produce a slate of films based on the character.

Malmberg will produce the new films along with Millennium's Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Joe Gatta and George Furla. The company intends to start production on the first of the films by next spring. Reading this news I have to say I'm a bit concerned. As a huge fan of the original Robert E. Howard books and many of the subsequent print and cinematic versions of Conan -- with the notable exception of Red Sonja -- I worry that the cinematic future of this great character is now in the hands of the people responsible for films like Alien Hunter, The Shepherd and Blonde Ambition.

Although, to be fair, Millennium has also turned out some good films too, including, um, well help me out here . . At least, according to the article, they say they intend to be more faithful to the original source material than the series of films featuring His Honor the Governor of California. I hope they stick to that and the films turn out great because the character and the story deserve it. Although, I have to say I'm not particularly optimistic about the chances of that actually happening.

For the record, I'm not a huge fan of the recent crop of "horror" films such as House of a Thousand Corpses, Hostel or Captivity. I prefer my horror with more brains and a little less seemingly senseless over-the-top gore. As Alfred Hitchcock once said: "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." I tend to agree with him. After all, he did make a few pretty good films. That said, I did actually like the first Saw film and found it to be the most clever and intelligent of the franchise so far.

Of course, my opinion didn't stop the Saw franchise from becoming hugely successful, and it shouldn't have. Many people obviously love this kind of film and that's great for them to feel that way. To each his (or her) own. Naturally, as the films were so successful, we were treated to a Saw II, III and the soon-to-be-released Saw IV. Which brings us to today and the fact that, via IESB, you are now able to watch the supposed first five minutes of the new Saw IV right now online.

After watching the footage, however, I don't know for sure if it is, in fact, the first five minutes of the film. What I can tell you for sure is that this is the same footage shown during the Comic-Con presentation given by Lionsgate. At the time, it wasn't identified as the first minutes of the film, but it's definitely the same footage. Given the quality of the video, I would bet that it was probably recorded during the Comic-Con panel even though that is a strict no-no and it was repeatedly announced that anyone caught video taping during the panels would be ejected. I guess maybe someone was able to make a recording after all. Then again, judging by the amount of time it's been up on IESB, perhaps it was "leaked" on purpose.

Like my esteemed colleague Kevin Kelly, I too have had a little time to relax and reflect on my recent Comic-Con International experience. Although I don't have nearly the amount of photos he has, I do have a few thoughts as to what news, events, problems and other things hit home for me during the four and a half glorious days that made up Comic-Con International 2007.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been attending the Comic-Con for many years now. During that time I've watched it grow from an event held in a hotel attended by thousands of hard-core comic book fans eagerly trading comics and excitedly talking about their favorite comic book covers, characters, artists, writers and story arcs to a giant, unwieldy beast seemingly driven not by a love of sequential art but by the Hollywood PR machine.

The event used to be about comic books and the people who make them. Now, it seems to be about movies and TV shows and the people who make them. At least in years past, the majority of movie or TV shows on display at the Con had some loose association with comics. Not this year. For example, I like Russell Crowe and Christian Bale and 3:10 to Yuma looks like an interesting film, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with comics -- except that Bale plays Batman in Batman Begins and the upcoming Batman: The Dark Knight.

Perhaps I'm stating the obvious here, but in case there was ever any doubt Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman are both very beautiful women. In addition, they also have some pretty decent acting chops, particularly in the case of Portman. Although, with the right material and director, Johansson has been very good too. No matter what, in any movie they appear, from Revenge of the Sith to Match Point, their mere presence lights up the screen and in many cases makes some not-so-great movies very watchable.

So imagine my happiness when this new artwork for the movie The Other Boleyn Girl appeared over at Joblo today. Not only is Johansson in the film but Portman as well -- and there's a big picture of them from the film too. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the film. But in case you're not, here's a little info. This pic, based on the huge bestselling novel by Philippa Gregory, concerns the trials and tribulations of Mary Boleyn (played by Johannson), sister to the more famous Anne Boleyn (played by Portman) and her life and affairs with various kings, including François I of France and England's Henry VIII.

There is also a great deal of rivalry between the two sisters, especially when Anne becomes Queen and does all sorts of not-so-nice stuff to her sister. This all leads, as these stories often do, to tragedy. What that tragedy is and for the rest of their story, just go see the movie when it comes out in December. Both the novel and the film offer an interesting premise: the overlooked story of the more interesting sister to one of the most infamous Queens in history. A potentially interesting story indeed. Although, seeing as how both Johansson and Portman are in the film, the story probably isn't really so important.