courtney solomon Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We knew the 'Captivity' party would be controversial, but who knew it could affect the horror flick's rating? According to the FishbowlLA blog on mediabistro.com, the MPAA actually threatened to pull the movie's R-rating because of some exterior decor at a West Hollywood club called Privilege, where the party was being held Tuesday night. Remember those tasteless billboards that already got the movie into trouble with the MPAA? Well, someone thought it was a good idea to drape the same offensive images outside the club. Apparently After Dark Films' Courtney Solomon got a call from the MPAA's Marilyn Gordon; afterward the images were removed and placed around the interior of the party instead. Solomon told FishbowlLA that he expected to hear again from the MPAA in the morning.

You'd think that after all the mess 'Captivity' got into with the MPAA over its billboards, Solomon would have known better. Of course, who would have thought the MPAA had jurisdiction over party decorations, even if they are in public view? I despise everything about the MPAA as well as everything about Captivity (except the actual movie, which I haven't seen), so I can't completely choose a side here. I also don't know how big or how visible the images were from the street. I don't think they included the film's title, so they might not have fit into the category of advertisement, and therefore shouldn't have been a concern for the MPAA. If I had my way, the MPAA and 'Captivity' would just battle it out until they destroyed each other, and then we wouldn't have to hear about either one ever again. Unless the MPAA does something drastic, 'Captivity' is set to open in theaters Friday the 13th.

When I spoke with After Dark Films' Courtney Solomon not long ago, he told me it wasn't fair to label Captivity as a "torture porn" because, quite simply, there's no porn in the movie. While that may be the case, it certainly doesn't mean there can't be porn at the film's premiere party. Solomon recently told The New York Times that he's planning one of the craziest, most politically incorrect premiere party's in history; one that will take place at the West Hollywood club Privilege and feature, among other things, "the three 'most outlandish' SuicideGirls available from the punk porn service." I'm not exactly sure what that means, but apparently the craziest of the SuicideGirls once set a restaurant in Portland, Ore. on fire. According to Solomon, a few lucky fans will get to escort these SuicideGirls to the party under two conditions: "People take the date at their own risk, and everybody on the Internet gets to watch." Yay for us ... I guess.

Okay, so we have the porn, but what about the torture? Fear not my friends, Solomon also promised "individuals in torture gear" who will wonder through the club grabbing people. Classy! Not only that, but some nice friendly cage fighting (featuring a dude named Kimbo Slice) is also on the agenda. Regarding aspects of the extravagant event, which Solomon admits are "probably not legal," he says it's his "personal little tribute" to all the women's groups who are opposing the film. Another interesting note in the article is the fact that Captivity will screen only once prior to its release -- not for critics, mind you, but for women's groups in New York. Following the screening, Solomon wants to "engage in a town-hall-style debate with detractors." A few women's groups, like the National Organization for Women, have already declined the invitation. Apparently, they're not interested in giving the film more free publicity.

We're not exactly sure how you fans can attend said party; the NYT states that most of the folks in attendance will be fans "who can cycle through the club free in groups of 50, along with an expected army of Web-based video bloggers." I envision it to be some sort of warped Torture Porn Haunted House -- and if Cinematical receives an invite, you bet we'll be sending one of our craziest West Coast correspondents to the event. Stay tuned ...

I'm not sure if Joe Carnahan is the right person to take a strong stance against gratuitous violence in movies, but his arguments are valid and he presents them in a way that just makes you laugh. Over on his blog, Carnahan wrote a little rant on the "torture porn" phenomenon, although he made sure to begin said rant by pointing out the reasoning behind two pretty vicious scenes included in his last flick Smokin' Aces. Once that's out of the way, the dude goes off on the use of females in these types of films, saying it's something he finds "personally f*cking revolting." And I certainly agree with Joe, especially when he begins talking about Saw.

As I've said before, I watched and enjoyed the first Saw film (which I consider more of a psychological thriller than a straight-up horror flick). But the films that followed (which include both Hostel flicks) seemed to drift from that element, only to concentrate on (as Carnahan says): "this overblown, carnage level, blood sodden grand guignol aimed at the most base, depraved parts of the human psyche." Carnahan continues his rant: "I see these ads for Captivity and the wallowing in and fetishism of torture and I want to put my fist through something solid. And I don't think there's some political overtones or some Iraq/Abu Gharib allegories at work here. F*ck that, it's about titillation and ticket sales."

Earlier this afternoon I had a chance to speak with Courtney Solomon from After Dark Films. A filmmaker himself (he directed An American Haunting and the 2000 flick Dungeons & Dragons), Courtney is now a partner over at After Dark Films. A company that has a multi-picture deal with Lionsgate; these are the same folks who were also responsible for marketing the upcoming horror flick Captivity. And we all know what happened there. Back in March, a bunch of controversial billboards for Captivity began popping up all over New York and Los Angeles; billboards, mind you, that were not approved by the MPAA. Hence, the MPAA suspended the film's ratings process and slapped After Dark Films with an unprecedented sanction, forcing the company to clear all venues and locations of its ad buys with the MPAA.

Since then, the film's release date has been pushed back twice (it's now set to be released on July 13), and folks like Eli Roth have called them out basically saying that After Dark Films helped ruin the ratings process for other films, like Hostel: Part II, that were trying to go through the process at the exact same time. Following my interview with Roth (in which the director had some pretty harsh things to say about both Captivity and After Dark), I caught up with Solomon who wanted to set the record straight.

Cinematical: Let me read what Eli Roth said to me regarding Captivity and its controversial ad campaign: "Well ... I mean, everyone hates those guys. And word of mouth is that Captivity sucked. Why would I be jealous of that; I don't give a sh*t. I was pissed actually, because it makes it very difficult for the rest of us. They did not go before the MPAA with those posters. It really puts everyone on edge when that happens. And suddenly, who's the next one up? Oh, thanks, it's me. I'm not doing this for attention, I'm doing this to make good movies. And that decapitated head poster was a European poster; that was in 80% of the countries in Europe. It was not a poster that was intended for American audiences." What's your response to that?

Courtney Solomon: First of all, I've heard this over and over again -- [Eli] has spent most of his publicity tour talking about the Captivity posters and dissing us. I was listening to K-Rock one day, and he spent twenty minutes on there just going on about me -- and I've never even met Eli. As far as what he's saying, there are a couple of things that are completely inaccurate. First of all, nobody has seen Captivity because we re-did a third of the movie and we're just finishing it now. We actually just finished the mix on it two days ago. So he hears word around town that the movie is sh*t, but how can he say that when no one has even seen the movie? We just spent a lot of money and a lot of time to make the movie better, because we cared that the movie was good. In fact, it's got a lot more substance than his movie does -- that's number one. That's just a blatant, stupid, wrong statement. That's someone just spouting out from the mouth without even thinking about what they're saying.

There are many directors who I think should be barred from making films, but Courtney Solomon is near the top of the list. He disappointed gamers everywhere with Dungeons & Dragons (some people humorously feel it is worth watching), a movie even he admits is awful, and then tried to redeem himself with the not-much-better An American Haunting. As head of After Dark Films, he has gotten into more than one controversy regarding his advertising practices -- going so far as to be made an example of by the MPAA -- and still hasn't even put out a decent-enough release to make the company worth Lionsgate's trouble. Now the director is looking to annoy us some more by attempting to revolutionize the zombie genre, a plan that he claims is desired by horror fans.

Solomon isn't revealing the title for this proposed movie, which he thankfully won't be directing, but describes it as a "zombie version of Underworld," which sounds bad even if you like Underworld. Worse, though, is his explanation that the zombies in this movie will be fast and emotional, something he says is completely new for the creatures (did he not see the running zombies in the Dawn of the Dead remake or the seemingly conflicted zombies in Land of the Dead?). I'm all for new takes on the genre, but I hope Solomon has more ideas than this. Supposedly the movie will feature a whole new lore for zombies (actually, he calls them part human, part zombie, which is redundant, I think) inspired by conversations had on the web between Solomon's people and real horror geeks, but unless the movie has a good sociological undercurrent -- as the best zombie movies do -- the tweaking of the genre is simply an unnecessary attempt to create something original. But if Solomon truly wants to do something original and to please us movie fans, he needs to make a good movie.

Either someone at After Dark Pictures can't make up their mind, or the marketing machine is in full throttle for the Elisha Cuthbert (24) film Captivity. Bloody-Disgusting has a look at the third poster for the horror flick, along with a detailed set visit and some behind the scenes photos of blood stained baby dolls and mattresses -- don't ask. Roland Joffe directs the horror about two people that are abducted and tortured by the usual "madman with ulterior motives". Bloody-Disgusting also reported that Courtney Solomon (American Haunting) had joined the production and that a new ending and four more "torture scenes" had been added, including what they describe as "a brain bashing scene". The film is shooting the added material in California with sets based on the original Russian locations.

Even though the last poster wasn't exactly being targeted at my demographic -- consisting of Cuthbert in a tank-top pressed against glass, I think it was a much creepier image than what they have come up with for the new one-sheet -- which unfortunately kind of looks like an ad for no-run mascara. So I would not count on this being the final poster for the film, if they have not even finished shooting, who knows how many more ideas they might come up with.

I'll confess right up front the main reason behind my desire to write up this story is I find the entire scenario particularly amusing. I grew up as a gamer of many fields; I was a button masher, a card flopper, and a dice chucker,* and anyone who spent any notable amount of time around this scene prior to 2000 most assuredly remembers the humorously bad attempt made at a Dungeons and Dragons movie five or so years back. The movie was roundly mocked by critics, and many fans of the RPG were even harder on the film than the critics had been.

Well the director of said fiasco is back on the scene working on a new horror flick called An American Haunting; and one of his primary goals with the film is to overcome the terrible memories and reputation he got stuck with after the profound failure of his first film. In a recent talk with Sci Fi Wire, director Courtney Solomon admitted "I wished I could have made a better movie ... I have nothing to defend. They were right, I was wrong. It is what it is. Everybody makes mistakes, and I got on the bicycle and hope to keep on driving." Solomon said he has greater control over this film, and he hopes to he has confidence in his ability to move on from his D&D days. For his sake, I hope he's right; nobody wants to be the next Uwe Boll.

*I still dabble in some of these when I have the time, although currently what little free time I have for gaming seems to be occupied by assembling small plastic boats and declaring myself to be a pirate captain.