tentpole Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Pack Ratner Heads to Paramount
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Casting », Deals », New Releases », Executive shifts », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Box Office », Scripts », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
Love him or hate him, you've got to hand it to Brett Ratner for keeping his career in motion. Variety brings word that the hustling filmmaker plans to take his Rat Entertainment company from New Line, where it first settled in 1996, to a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures. Ratner says the departure of New Line execs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne in February convinced him it was time to move on. At Paramount, Ratner will probably get bigger budgets and executives more receptive to his blockbuster-ready concepts. Stating the obvious, Ratner told Variety he "will not be pitching art films. I want to make major tentpole movies." You don't say?Unless you're Scott Foundas, you probably balk at the idea of more Ratner movies populating the mainstream film scene, but the guy does fit the proper archetype of the classic Hollywood powerhouse. A modern day Sammy Glick, he knows how to make movies that bring out the audiences, whether or not they're any good. But maybe that determination means that, one day, Ratner will make a lot of great movies. His planned Hugh Hefner biopic sounds promising -- or at least, appropriate.
Still, that's a little ways off. Encouraged by his experience with X-Men: The Last Stand, Ratner decided he wanted to work on a new superhero franchise, so he's adapting Valiant Comics' Harbinger. Also in his queue: Beverly Hills Cop 4, The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Boys From Brazil. Do these projects get anyone excited? Anyone at all?
Get 'em While They're Hot -- Tentpole Slots Going Fast
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Drama », Distribution », Newsstand », Movie Marketing », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
I don't envy Hollywood executives because their job must be pretty hard -- especially when they have to think so far into the future. Before that, they sit at their desk, feet up, secure in the knowledge that their release schedule for 2007 is pretty much good-to-go. In fact, they're so happy, they actually consider going home early for once. Of course, that's when the phone rings and its their boss telling them to start getting their releases for 2008 together because apparently those slots are filling up fast. Not fun.Is this a fictional scenario? Unfortunately, no. According to a recent article at Coming Soon, Hollywood Studios are scheduling their tentpole (aka "really important") films farther and farther into the future -- mainly to secure important release dates like Thanksgiving and Christmas and help ensure their films have the best chance for the all-important "big opening weekend." In fact, they're even taking this practice past 2008 and are scheduling projects a far out as November 2009 -- with the Dreamworks animated film How to Train Your Dragon.
I know all of you like to make plans as far in advance as possible. So, to assist you, here are the most recent scheduled tentpole releases and dates from the studios: First, Warner Bros. is targeting May 23, 2008 for the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer and will be dropping the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight on July 18, 2008 (as our own Mark Beall previously reported). Columbia Pictures will release Will Smith's action-drama-comedy Tonight, He Comes on July 2, 2008 and later that month, on July 25, Adam McKay's comedy Step Brothers with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. Columbia has also set December 12, 2008 as the release date for the adaptation of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, the much-anticipated prequel to The Da Vinci Code. Ok, that's it for the moment but stay-tuned to Cinematical for all the latest.
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