Hi everybody!
When I think of THE WIZARD OF OZ, I think about the characters and the story, then I remember the music, but I don't immediately think of it as a musical: I think of it as a great movie with great music.
Film critic Robert Osborne argued that Judy Garland was the most talented performer in the history of movies; that she could dance like a dervish, sing like an angel and act with audacity - that Garland had no discernable weaknesses. Even though I believe that Katherine Hepburn had the greatest range of any actor in the movies; having made great romantic comedies (THE PHILADELPHIA STORY), great screwball comedies (BRINGING UP BABY), great melodrama (ALICE ADAMS), and great historical drama (THE LION IN WINTER), let's face it: Hepburn could not sing well or dance much. So I concede that point to Osborne!
Like everything else in the movies, musicals are an elusive prey. After the massive success of THE SOUND OF MUSIC in 1965, the advent of Rock and Roll made it harder to build a story entirely around the music. Rock and Roll is about acting out, not about introspection. In THE WIZARD OF OZ in 1939, the music is used as a coping device to take in all of the fantastical events happening to a simple girl from Kansas. Compare that to, say, TOMMY in 1975, which is basically one long acid trip about a deaf, dumb and blind kid. Even using the impressive Beatles catalogue in ACROSS THE UNIVERSE in 2007 found the story helplessly trapped in the 1960s with once-vital social issues having long since been resolved.
When I think about FLASHDANCE in 1983, I think about the dancing first and the music second. I remember the ridiculous premise: steelworker by day, exotic dancer by night with dreams of becoming a ballerina. Compare that to the equally ridiculous premise of SAVE THE LAST DANCE in 2006, but there is not one memorable song from that movie. FLASHDANCE made the careers of director Adrian Lyne (9 1/2 WEEKS), screenwriter Joe Esterhaus (BASIC INSTINCT), producer/studio executive Sherry Lansing (FATAL ATTRACTION) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer (THE ROCK). A whole movie making machine of guilty pleasures came out of FLASHDANCE! Even the marketing of the movie was questionable: at the dawn of MTV, they would run music videos from FLASHDANCE with images of leotards and leg warmers instead of lipsynching lotharios; these were basically trailers for the movie, and it worked wonders.
A musical cue can make a movie: the whistling from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY and even from THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, the piano playing from THE STING, the love theme from THE GODFATHER (leave the gun, take the cannoli!), the marching band horns from ROCKY (his entire life was a million to one shot!) even the assaultive strings from the shower scene in PSYCHO (Mother! What have you done?).
However, music isn't everything. Frank Sinatra's best movie by far was THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, which didn't have great music. One of the best musical performers of all time is Dick Van Dyke, whose career on his own show and on DIAGNOSIS: MURDER was not driven by music. Top musical performers like Ben Vereen and Gregory Hines never broke into the mainstream. As for women, after Barbra Streisand, what other musical performere has made it big on the big screen? Madonna? Beyonce? Jennifer Hudson?
John Travolta had a cluster of musical movies (SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, URBAN COWBOY and GREASE) but, other than the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL kids, and, maybe, Mike Myers in the AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY movies, there are no go-to musical performers out there, right now. Maybe Miley Cyrus will succeed where so many others have failed, but even the Disney machine has had a difficult time creating a multi-platform superstar over the last 20 years.
So when I include music in the WONDER WOMAN project it is with the knowledge that it is to enhance the experience, not to be the entire experience. However, to ignore the music would be ridiculous. If ever there was a character who came to us from somewhere over the rainbow, it is WONDER WOMAN!
Talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
Monday, September 14, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Trilogy Vs. Epic!
Hi everybody!
During the Labor Day weekend my intention was to thresh out the WONDER WOMAN screenplays, but then arrived at the conclusion that three movies were necessary to house my notations. This threw the entire process into a fundamental re-thinking and prevented me from simply banging out my notes and pulling together the various narrative threads.
I am not working from a pre-existing narrative such as LORD OF THE RINGS, which is a matter of picking and choosing from a plethora of incidents. Nor am I working from a series of self-contained narratives such as the series of Jason Bourne books by Robert Ludlum.
Speaking of BOURNE, the first Matt Damon film was actually a remake and reimagining of an earlier movie adaptation which found its' success upon the DVD release, not from the initial theatrical release. Having unexpectantly found its' audience, the second BOURNE movie immeasurably benefitted from the addition of Joan Allen to the cast. The third BOURNE movie; allowing for his amnesia to clear; provided an emotional completion to the structural mysteries which had driven the first two movies. The backwards logic of telling the BOURNE stories this way made for an unusually-effective movie trilogy.
There is no way to duplicate or to apply the flashback storytelling of BOURNE to the WONDER WOMAN project. Likewise, how the GODFATHER movies began in the middle of the story in the first movie then bookended the beginning and the end in the second movie is equally impossible. These were not simply editing tricks like those as employed in PULP FICTION; these were production decisions directly resulting from successful initial movies which allowed for staging an unexpected sequel or sequels.
With LORD OF THE RINGS, Peter Jackson had a much-beloved epic to cherry-pick from which more-than-justified its' imposing length of 3 movies. The wealth of unused footage on the DVD releases testifies to this. There is no way WONDER WOMAN can match that level of audience loyalty.
I am more mindful of the success of long-form narratives, which are easier to notate in TV than it is in movies.
For example, the freshman season of Steven Bochco's MURDER ONE is a great example of a missed opportunity. Bochco had made his bones on COLUMBO, so he knew how to wrap up a mystery. Then Bochco had created HILL ST. BLUES, so he knew how to elicit fine performances. Then Bochco had created NYPD BLUE, so he knew his way around the courtroom. By using an entire season of TV to prosecute one high-profile murder case, Bochco audaciously attempted to unravel a murder case of such complication that no audience could have possibly guessed who did the crime; which was essentially turning the delight of COLUMBO on its' head. But TV is about compression; not expansion; so when the murderer was finally revealed on MURDER ONE they were so completely out of left field that it might as well have been committed by the butler. Had MURDER ONE been half its' length it might have worked.
Which brings us to the classic miniseries RICH MAN, POOR MAN. During the production, nobody realized that although Peter Strauss was the crush-ready WASP with feet of clay, it would be rough-hewn Nick Nolte as the n'er-do-well brother with the heart of gold who would capture the audience's heart. So when Nolte perished at the end of the show, it provided an emotional impact that no one had anticipated: it actually elevated it from trashy soap opera to legitimate drama. When the producers belatedly realized that they had just killed off their meal ticket, they tried to hire Nolte back as his own son in the sequel, but Nolte chose to pursue a movie career, instead, which; after a shaky start in THE DEEP; proved to be the better choice.
Which all goes to say that altering the WONDER WOMAN project from a two-parter to a trilogy requires a retrenching of preparation to avoid the innumberable errors that have plagued earlier productions.
The skulls and bones of failed sequels have been the bane of Hollywood since the glorious exception of GODFATHER II, and we would be foolish to charge in with less than three fully-articulated narratives before we commit any resources to the WONDER WOMAN project. Only the blood simple fables of HALLOWEEN, of FRIDAY the 13th, of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, of SAW, of HOSTEL, spawn endless sequels that manage to charm generations of moviegoers.
When we ask moviegoers to spend $10, buy a tub of popcorn and a toot of Coca-Cola, and commit their cubicle-tortured behinds to two hours of sparkling entertainment in a darkened room with a hundred complete strangers, we'd better be built to boogie.
Nobody boogies better than WONDER WOMAN, and we will make sure that the WONDER WOMAN project boogies three separate times without missing an Amazonian beat!
The WONDER WOMAN project ain't beanbag!
Talk to you soon, be good!
Brad
During the Labor Day weekend my intention was to thresh out the WONDER WOMAN screenplays, but then arrived at the conclusion that three movies were necessary to house my notations. This threw the entire process into a fundamental re-thinking and prevented me from simply banging out my notes and pulling together the various narrative threads.
I am not working from a pre-existing narrative such as LORD OF THE RINGS, which is a matter of picking and choosing from a plethora of incidents. Nor am I working from a series of self-contained narratives such as the series of Jason Bourne books by Robert Ludlum.
Speaking of BOURNE, the first Matt Damon film was actually a remake and reimagining of an earlier movie adaptation which found its' success upon the DVD release, not from the initial theatrical release. Having unexpectantly found its' audience, the second BOURNE movie immeasurably benefitted from the addition of Joan Allen to the cast. The third BOURNE movie; allowing for his amnesia to clear; provided an emotional completion to the structural mysteries which had driven the first two movies. The backwards logic of telling the BOURNE stories this way made for an unusually-effective movie trilogy.
There is no way to duplicate or to apply the flashback storytelling of BOURNE to the WONDER WOMAN project. Likewise, how the GODFATHER movies began in the middle of the story in the first movie then bookended the beginning and the end in the second movie is equally impossible. These were not simply editing tricks like those as employed in PULP FICTION; these were production decisions directly resulting from successful initial movies which allowed for staging an unexpected sequel or sequels.
With LORD OF THE RINGS, Peter Jackson had a much-beloved epic to cherry-pick from which more-than-justified its' imposing length of 3 movies. The wealth of unused footage on the DVD releases testifies to this. There is no way WONDER WOMAN can match that level of audience loyalty.
I am more mindful of the success of long-form narratives, which are easier to notate in TV than it is in movies.
For example, the freshman season of Steven Bochco's MURDER ONE is a great example of a missed opportunity. Bochco had made his bones on COLUMBO, so he knew how to wrap up a mystery. Then Bochco had created HILL ST. BLUES, so he knew how to elicit fine performances. Then Bochco had created NYPD BLUE, so he knew his way around the courtroom. By using an entire season of TV to prosecute one high-profile murder case, Bochco audaciously attempted to unravel a murder case of such complication that no audience could have possibly guessed who did the crime; which was essentially turning the delight of COLUMBO on its' head. But TV is about compression; not expansion; so when the murderer was finally revealed on MURDER ONE they were so completely out of left field that it might as well have been committed by the butler. Had MURDER ONE been half its' length it might have worked.
Which brings us to the classic miniseries RICH MAN, POOR MAN. During the production, nobody realized that although Peter Strauss was the crush-ready WASP with feet of clay, it would be rough-hewn Nick Nolte as the n'er-do-well brother with the heart of gold who would capture the audience's heart. So when Nolte perished at the end of the show, it provided an emotional impact that no one had anticipated: it actually elevated it from trashy soap opera to legitimate drama. When the producers belatedly realized that they had just killed off their meal ticket, they tried to hire Nolte back as his own son in the sequel, but Nolte chose to pursue a movie career, instead, which; after a shaky start in THE DEEP; proved to be the better choice.
Which all goes to say that altering the WONDER WOMAN project from a two-parter to a trilogy requires a retrenching of preparation to avoid the innumberable errors that have plagued earlier productions.
The skulls and bones of failed sequels have been the bane of Hollywood since the glorious exception of GODFATHER II, and we would be foolish to charge in with less than three fully-articulated narratives before we commit any resources to the WONDER WOMAN project. Only the blood simple fables of HALLOWEEN, of FRIDAY the 13th, of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, of SAW, of HOSTEL, spawn endless sequels that manage to charm generations of moviegoers.
When we ask moviegoers to spend $10, buy a tub of popcorn and a toot of Coca-Cola, and commit their cubicle-tortured behinds to two hours of sparkling entertainment in a darkened room with a hundred complete strangers, we'd better be built to boogie.
Nobody boogies better than WONDER WOMAN, and we will make sure that the WONDER WOMAN project boogies three separate times without missing an Amazonian beat!
The WONDER WOMAN project ain't beanbag!
Talk to you soon, be good!
Brad
Angels Have No Memory!
Hi everybody!
There is a report that a reboot of BARBARELLA is in the works, and that Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie are interested in this movie.
My goodness!
BARBARELLA was based on a French comic strip, and was clunky as a sci-fi film as well as timid as freshly-scrubbed erotica. Directed by Roger Vadim in 1968 and starring his then-wife Jane Fonda, Vadim was trying to capture lightning in a bottle as he had done with Brigitte Bardot in AND GOD CREATED WOMAN in 1957. But whereas Bardot played an uncomplicated sexual opportunist in a recognizable world, Fonda played a guileless sensualist in a fictional universe. The Bardot film anticipated the sexual revolution of the 1960s while the Fonda film celebrated the sexual utopia proposed by the concurrent Woodstock generation.
BARBARELLA was an unapologetically goofy film even by contemporary standards; let us remember that Antonioni's BLOW OUT came out in 1966 (!) and that 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY came out the same year of 1968.
Let us also remember that in 1969 Fonda starred in THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? and in 1971 won an Oscar for KLUTE, which I consider to be the best modern performance by an American actress.
What BARBARELLA demonstrates was that as intelligent a performer as Fonda could play submissive and blank-eyed as well as Bardot but that this same sexuality could be turned to a more complex purpose in KLUTE, where she invested that nascent sexuality into naked self-protection, a trick that Marilyn Monroe was never able to perfect on screen or in life. Fonda never went back to playing a sex kitten without a clue, instead becoming a performer to be reckoned with.
As a second-generation performer, Fonda had the star quality of her legendary father Henry and the business acumen of her equally-counter-culture brother, Peter (EASY RIDER; which he produced; was the most profitable picture of 1969), becoming the most successful producer of her own films since the heyday of Katherine Hepburn. But where Hepburn was able to sustain her stellar career over 4 decades, Fonda was only able to manage it for a decade as a top performer.
A key component of Hepburn's success was her skills as a comedienne, which Fonda had a deaf ear for. Also, while Hepburn had a successful partership with Spencer Tracy, Fonda never had an acting partner with whom she could repeat screen-time with. Hepburn was able to skillfully foster long term business partnerships, while Fonda had to start from scratch with each new project.
There are additional factors which hobbled Fonda, but the fact remains that a performer like Harrison Ford had parlayed his early success with STAR WARS in 1977 into a hugely successful 3 decade-long string of box office blockbusters that he also enjoyed a producer's profits, from.
All that being said, what tweaks me about BARBARELLA being remade goes beyond that! Angelina Jolie should be past using her sexuality to propel a movie project, while Megan Fox should be calibrating her sexuality into projects that are more of a challenge dramatically. I can't imagine how a BARBARELLA movie would be watchable, let alone profitable.
As a now part-time movie actress, Jolie is no longer able to do (a full-time actors') 3 movies a year to sustain her audience, so for her to squander her (parentally and politically-limited) screen-time on a project as sociologically-backward as BARBARELLA is simply another unnecessary nail in her career coffin.
As a rising star, Fox only has so many chances at the Brass Ring of box office gold, and would be better served improving her comedic skills (ala Kate Hudson, who has erred more on the gossip side than on the box office side) instead of leaning entirely on her looks. Fox should take a hard look at what Anne Hathaway is doing in the trenches, navigating between the fluff of BRIDE WARS and the toughness of RACHEL'S WEDDING. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER did not do anything for Kristy Swanson's career, and playing the vampire in JENNIFER'S BODY is a questionable move; we'll see how much money it makes.
Which, circuitously, brings us back to the WONDER WOMAN project!
WONDER WOMAN has more integrity in her little pinkie than BARBARELLA has in her entire body, and requires a performance equal to that integrity. The fact that BARBARELLA might get a big budget remake before WONDER WOMAN gets her own movie made makes me madder than a hornet's nest!
There's a campaign at DC Comics to start renumbering the WONDER WOMAN comic #45 at the historically-accurate #600. I'm all for that!
If you support my idea for the WONDER WOMAN movie and you have an extra postcard in your pocket, you can always write to: Dan Didio, c/o DC Comics, Inc., 1700 Broadway, New York, NY, 10019 and say PLEASE READ WonderWomanMoviebyBrad@blogspot.com! I need your vote!
Don't do it for me, do it for WONDER WOMAN! Woo, woo!
The last line in BARBARELLA is, "Angels have no memory." For the everlasting and enduring memory of WONDER WOMAN, let us get this WONDER WOMAN movie made! Thank you!
Talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
There is a report that a reboot of BARBARELLA is in the works, and that Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie are interested in this movie.
My goodness!
BARBARELLA was based on a French comic strip, and was clunky as a sci-fi film as well as timid as freshly-scrubbed erotica. Directed by Roger Vadim in 1968 and starring his then-wife Jane Fonda, Vadim was trying to capture lightning in a bottle as he had done with Brigitte Bardot in AND GOD CREATED WOMAN in 1957. But whereas Bardot played an uncomplicated sexual opportunist in a recognizable world, Fonda played a guileless sensualist in a fictional universe. The Bardot film anticipated the sexual revolution of the 1960s while the Fonda film celebrated the sexual utopia proposed by the concurrent Woodstock generation.
BARBARELLA was an unapologetically goofy film even by contemporary standards; let us remember that Antonioni's BLOW OUT came out in 1966 (!) and that 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY came out the same year of 1968.
Let us also remember that in 1969 Fonda starred in THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? and in 1971 won an Oscar for KLUTE, which I consider to be the best modern performance by an American actress.
What BARBARELLA demonstrates was that as intelligent a performer as Fonda could play submissive and blank-eyed as well as Bardot but that this same sexuality could be turned to a more complex purpose in KLUTE, where she invested that nascent sexuality into naked self-protection, a trick that Marilyn Monroe was never able to perfect on screen or in life. Fonda never went back to playing a sex kitten without a clue, instead becoming a performer to be reckoned with.
As a second-generation performer, Fonda had the star quality of her legendary father Henry and the business acumen of her equally-counter-culture brother, Peter (EASY RIDER; which he produced; was the most profitable picture of 1969), becoming the most successful producer of her own films since the heyday of Katherine Hepburn. But where Hepburn was able to sustain her stellar career over 4 decades, Fonda was only able to manage it for a decade as a top performer.
A key component of Hepburn's success was her skills as a comedienne, which Fonda had a deaf ear for. Also, while Hepburn had a successful partership with Spencer Tracy, Fonda never had an acting partner with whom she could repeat screen-time with. Hepburn was able to skillfully foster long term business partnerships, while Fonda had to start from scratch with each new project.
There are additional factors which hobbled Fonda, but the fact remains that a performer like Harrison Ford had parlayed his early success with STAR WARS in 1977 into a hugely successful 3 decade-long string of box office blockbusters that he also enjoyed a producer's profits, from.
All that being said, what tweaks me about BARBARELLA being remade goes beyond that! Angelina Jolie should be past using her sexuality to propel a movie project, while Megan Fox should be calibrating her sexuality into projects that are more of a challenge dramatically. I can't imagine how a BARBARELLA movie would be watchable, let alone profitable.
As a now part-time movie actress, Jolie is no longer able to do (a full-time actors') 3 movies a year to sustain her audience, so for her to squander her (parentally and politically-limited) screen-time on a project as sociologically-backward as BARBARELLA is simply another unnecessary nail in her career coffin.
As a rising star, Fox only has so many chances at the Brass Ring of box office gold, and would be better served improving her comedic skills (ala Kate Hudson, who has erred more on the gossip side than on the box office side) instead of leaning entirely on her looks. Fox should take a hard look at what Anne Hathaway is doing in the trenches, navigating between the fluff of BRIDE WARS and the toughness of RACHEL'S WEDDING. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER did not do anything for Kristy Swanson's career, and playing the vampire in JENNIFER'S BODY is a questionable move; we'll see how much money it makes.
Which, circuitously, brings us back to the WONDER WOMAN project!
WONDER WOMAN has more integrity in her little pinkie than BARBARELLA has in her entire body, and requires a performance equal to that integrity. The fact that BARBARELLA might get a big budget remake before WONDER WOMAN gets her own movie made makes me madder than a hornet's nest!
There's a campaign at DC Comics to start renumbering the WONDER WOMAN comic #45 at the historically-accurate #600. I'm all for that!
If you support my idea for the WONDER WOMAN movie and you have an extra postcard in your pocket, you can always write to: Dan Didio, c/o DC Comics, Inc., 1700 Broadway, New York, NY, 10019 and say PLEASE READ WonderWomanMoviebyBrad@blogspot.com! I need your vote!
Don't do it for me, do it for WONDER WOMAN! Woo, woo!
The last line in BARBARELLA is, "Angels have no memory." For the everlasting and enduring memory of WONDER WOMAN, let us get this WONDER WOMAN movie made! Thank you!
Talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Style and Substance!
Hi everybody!
For film afficianados, we've seen the hundreds of sketches and designs that have gone into the creation of our favorite films. However, it is wrenching to imagine the thousands of drawings that were destroyed during the heyday of film production during the the 1930s and 1940s. The film stock itself is crumbling away as we speak, how much moreso the anonymous papers that served as the blueprint for the finished product?
Still, there are necessary stages to turn an idea for a movie into an actual movie, and the more precise the planning the better the result.
My Style Book for WONDER WOMAN is not only a visual narrative of sections of the movie, but is also a means to better explain how the various elements should LOOK.
I had recently viewed the unaired pilot for GLOBAL FREQUENCY, based on the whipsmart Wildstorm comic by Warren Ellis. The pilot was shot in the style of DARK ANGEL; all punkish dark all the time, but would have been better served being shot like Joss Whedon's ANGEL; mostly natural lighting with occassional dark sections. The color scheme affects the viewing experience, of course. The producer probably thought that the "doom clock" premise suited making GLOBAL FREQUENCY all dark shadows, but in spirit, GLOBAL FREQUENCY is closer to MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE because the good guys always win. Instead, the GLOBAL FREQUENCY pilot emphasized the subversive elements of the comic instead of the heroic elements.
Those in the know about TV production understand that the director of a television series' pilot gets a percentage of the show's profit for the entire run of the series. For example, Ridley Scott filmed the pilot for NUMBERS, which is just now going into syndication. Since Ridley Scott established the visual "Bible" for that series, he gets money for every episode that ever airs on that series, whether he directed them or not. As he is Ridley Scott, he is never going to direct another episode of NUMBERS, this is the guy who directed BLADE RUNNER, for goodness' sake. This is beyond the money he gets as a producer as NUMBERS is a SCOTT FREE production, as well. I'm just saying that being hands-on has its' rewards.
We've gone over how the WONDER WOMAN comic has gone wrong in a number of intractable ways. The WONDER WOMAN movie can easily go just as wrong without proper control on the production level. For example, the movie 300 has a distinctive visual style that drives the audience experience, the visuals practically bury the script and the acting; the images serve as one firecracker after another. That same oppressive visual approach was used on WATCHMEN to much reduced success because the narrative of WATCHMEN required subtleties in script and performance that 300 did not possess or require.
WONDER WOMAN fights crime in lingeree, and the challenge is to not keep hitting that one visual note over and over, again. The bigger challenge is to recognize that WONDER WOMAN is a Champion Fantasy, not a Power Fantasy.
A Power Fantasy; like Superman; is of a character given powers and abilities beyond normal people to make the world safe.
The premise is that the world is dangerous, which is a simple but potent observation.
A Champion Fantasy; which is WONDER WOMAN; is of a character given powers and abilities beyond normal people to make the world better.
The premise is that the world can be improved, which cuts in a more sophisticated way.
WONDER WOMAN's costume is no more provocative than that of a Rockette, and is less exploitation than sublimation.
By providing a WONDER WOMAN style book, we help to keep the emphasis on the Champion elements of our Amazon, which is the only way our movie will reach a wide audience.
Talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
For film afficianados, we've seen the hundreds of sketches and designs that have gone into the creation of our favorite films. However, it is wrenching to imagine the thousands of drawings that were destroyed during the heyday of film production during the the 1930s and 1940s. The film stock itself is crumbling away as we speak, how much moreso the anonymous papers that served as the blueprint for the finished product?
Still, there are necessary stages to turn an idea for a movie into an actual movie, and the more precise the planning the better the result.
My Style Book for WONDER WOMAN is not only a visual narrative of sections of the movie, but is also a means to better explain how the various elements should LOOK.
I had recently viewed the unaired pilot for GLOBAL FREQUENCY, based on the whipsmart Wildstorm comic by Warren Ellis. The pilot was shot in the style of DARK ANGEL; all punkish dark all the time, but would have been better served being shot like Joss Whedon's ANGEL; mostly natural lighting with occassional dark sections. The color scheme affects the viewing experience, of course. The producer probably thought that the "doom clock" premise suited making GLOBAL FREQUENCY all dark shadows, but in spirit, GLOBAL FREQUENCY is closer to MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE because the good guys always win. Instead, the GLOBAL FREQUENCY pilot emphasized the subversive elements of the comic instead of the heroic elements.
Those in the know about TV production understand that the director of a television series' pilot gets a percentage of the show's profit for the entire run of the series. For example, Ridley Scott filmed the pilot for NUMBERS, which is just now going into syndication. Since Ridley Scott established the visual "Bible" for that series, he gets money for every episode that ever airs on that series, whether he directed them or not. As he is Ridley Scott, he is never going to direct another episode of NUMBERS, this is the guy who directed BLADE RUNNER, for goodness' sake. This is beyond the money he gets as a producer as NUMBERS is a SCOTT FREE production, as well. I'm just saying that being hands-on has its' rewards.
We've gone over how the WONDER WOMAN comic has gone wrong in a number of intractable ways. The WONDER WOMAN movie can easily go just as wrong without proper control on the production level. For example, the movie 300 has a distinctive visual style that drives the audience experience, the visuals practically bury the script and the acting; the images serve as one firecracker after another. That same oppressive visual approach was used on WATCHMEN to much reduced success because the narrative of WATCHMEN required subtleties in script and performance that 300 did not possess or require.
WONDER WOMAN fights crime in lingeree, and the challenge is to not keep hitting that one visual note over and over, again. The bigger challenge is to recognize that WONDER WOMAN is a Champion Fantasy, not a Power Fantasy.
A Power Fantasy; like Superman; is of a character given powers and abilities beyond normal people to make the world safe.
The premise is that the world is dangerous, which is a simple but potent observation.
A Champion Fantasy; which is WONDER WOMAN; is of a character given powers and abilities beyond normal people to make the world better.
The premise is that the world can be improved, which cuts in a more sophisticated way.
WONDER WOMAN's costume is no more provocative than that of a Rockette, and is less exploitation than sublimation.
By providing a WONDER WOMAN style book, we help to keep the emphasis on the Champion elements of our Amazon, which is the only way our movie will reach a wide audience.
Talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
Monday, September 7, 2009
Maybe a Trilogy?
Hi everybody!
After having pulled all of the material together and finding a surprising amount that is still viable, this WONDER WOMAN project might end up being a trilogy. Allowing for all of the featured actors to have enough screen time (at least 15 minutes each), allowing for the big action sequences and multiple establishing shots, there's plenty of goodies for three movies.
With the ultimate Alpha Male; Ares; as the antagonist, the opportunities for conflict are too delicious to ignore.
I'm sure the feathers will fall away as we get down to brass tacks, but for now, the eagle is soaring to even greater heights than at first anticipated!
Look to the skies and be good!
Brad
After having pulled all of the material together and finding a surprising amount that is still viable, this WONDER WOMAN project might end up being a trilogy. Allowing for all of the featured actors to have enough screen time (at least 15 minutes each), allowing for the big action sequences and multiple establishing shots, there's plenty of goodies for three movies.
With the ultimate Alpha Male; Ares; as the antagonist, the opportunities for conflict are too delicious to ignore.
I'm sure the feathers will fall away as we get down to brass tacks, but for now, the eagle is soaring to even greater heights than at first anticipated!
Look to the skies and be good!
Brad
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Corrections and Considerations!
Hi everybody!
First, a correction!
Carroll Ballard directed both THE BLACK STALLION and WIND, which I had attributed to Caleb Deschanel.
However, Deschanel was the cinematographer on THE BLACK STALLION, so at least I was in the neighborhood on that one.
Deschanel had nothing whatsoever to do with WIND, but, let me instead direct your attention to THE NATURAL, in which stars Robert Redford, Barbara Hershey, Kim Basinger and Glenn Close (not to mention America's favorite pasttime; baseball) have never looked more splendid
Whew!
Arguably the most distinctive director of all time; Alfred Hitchcock; meticulously prepared full storyboards for all of his movies. In fact, Hitch often said that the actual filming of the movie was a chore; the joy was in the preparation. While the performances he elicited often belied that statement, the fact remains that the wildly-varying degree of quality to be seen in even the most successful of current films can be traced to a lack of preparation: too much is left to chance. As you know, the shower scene in PSYCHO took 7 days to film. Janet Leigh never took another shower after that, but Anthony Perkins was never on set during the filming of that legendary scene. The knife never touched Leigh's body, and the "blood" was chocolate syrup. But, the bottom line is, in black and white or in living color, nobody scared the life out of you better than Hitch!
Preparation can make or break a film. Richard Donner was replaced by Richard Lester on SUPERMAN II. Joe Pesci asked for a $2 million payday for LETHAL WEAPON 4, which Donner refused to pay -- Pesci ended up making the money anyway in overtime pay!
John Badham replaced the original director halfway through the filming of WARGAMES, which explains why the movie's tone shifts from goofy to grim once the helicopter lands. (A shout out to Ally Sheedy!)
Barry Levinson was the 4th major director to be attached to RAIN MAN. Tom Cruise made COCKTAIL while waiting for RAIN MAN to start filming. Is there such a thing as too much preparation? Ask Dustin Hoffman.
My point is, movies need all the help that they can get! I'm not talking about waiting for lightning to strike or noodling around until the pasta turns into paste. But, making a movie is a marathon, not a sprint. If you're not ready once you get started, then it's inevitably gonna show on the big screen. As Shakespeare said, "Readiness is all"!
I don't want WONDER WOMAN to be a happy accident with an exploding budget that breaks the back of Warner Bros. I simply want to make DARK KNIGHT money on a DARKMAN budget. Because an Amazon does not demand that you break the bank in order to show her a good time. However, an Amazon does expect for you to cut the price tag off of your rented tuxedo!
Happy Labor (Sun) Day! Be good!
Brad
First, a correction!
Carroll Ballard directed both THE BLACK STALLION and WIND, which I had attributed to Caleb Deschanel.
However, Deschanel was the cinematographer on THE BLACK STALLION, so at least I was in the neighborhood on that one.
Deschanel had nothing whatsoever to do with WIND, but, let me instead direct your attention to THE NATURAL, in which stars Robert Redford, Barbara Hershey, Kim Basinger and Glenn Close (not to mention America's favorite pasttime; baseball) have never looked more splendid
Whew!
Arguably the most distinctive director of all time; Alfred Hitchcock; meticulously prepared full storyboards for all of his movies. In fact, Hitch often said that the actual filming of the movie was a chore; the joy was in the preparation. While the performances he elicited often belied that statement, the fact remains that the wildly-varying degree of quality to be seen in even the most successful of current films can be traced to a lack of preparation: too much is left to chance. As you know, the shower scene in PSYCHO took 7 days to film. Janet Leigh never took another shower after that, but Anthony Perkins was never on set during the filming of that legendary scene. The knife never touched Leigh's body, and the "blood" was chocolate syrup. But, the bottom line is, in black and white or in living color, nobody scared the life out of you better than Hitch!
Preparation can make or break a film. Richard Donner was replaced by Richard Lester on SUPERMAN II. Joe Pesci asked for a $2 million payday for LETHAL WEAPON 4, which Donner refused to pay -- Pesci ended up making the money anyway in overtime pay!
John Badham replaced the original director halfway through the filming of WARGAMES, which explains why the movie's tone shifts from goofy to grim once the helicopter lands. (A shout out to Ally Sheedy!)
Barry Levinson was the 4th major director to be attached to RAIN MAN. Tom Cruise made COCKTAIL while waiting for RAIN MAN to start filming. Is there such a thing as too much preparation? Ask Dustin Hoffman.
My point is, movies need all the help that they can get! I'm not talking about waiting for lightning to strike or noodling around until the pasta turns into paste. But, making a movie is a marathon, not a sprint. If you're not ready once you get started, then it's inevitably gonna show on the big screen. As Shakespeare said, "Readiness is all"!
I don't want WONDER WOMAN to be a happy accident with an exploding budget that breaks the back of Warner Bros. I simply want to make DARK KNIGHT money on a DARKMAN budget. Because an Amazon does not demand that you break the bank in order to show her a good time. However, an Amazon does expect for you to cut the price tag off of your rented tuxedo!
Happy Labor (Sun) Day! Be good!
Brad
Friday, September 4, 2009
A Little Night Music for Wonder Woman!
Hi everybody!
"The dog ate my blog, but this cat is back and that's the fact, Jack!," Bad S. Brad!
For the Wonder Woman movie, I don't want an overly orchestrated SOUND OF MUSIC vibe or a schmoozy synthesized FLASHDANCE punch; I'm looking for a more communal FIDDLER ON THE ROOF foundation to underscore our epic. Consider these new lyrics to IF I WAS A RICH MAN:
She's a WONDER WOMAN
If you think she's not you're very wrong and you are gonna die
On a plate made up of Humble Pie
Realize and don't deny!
Anyway! :)
For this purpose, I will be seeking the lovely assistance of the runway/classical quartet BOND, who have shown great facility with modern percussion. Remember: BOND=Amazons! Tell a friend!
How should our Wonder Woman movie look? (Other than stunning?)
Let's talk about the grande master of set design: Richard Sylbert! From THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (the brilliant Sinatra version, natch'!) to TEQUILA SUNRISE (not a great movie, but a great restaurant in the movie!) (Mad props to Kurt Russell, by the by!), Sylbert turns artifice into function in the blink of an eye. A Richard Sylbert set fits the cast of a movie like a well-tailored suit. Smokin'!
As for cinematography, Caleb Deschanel made his bones on THE BLACK STALLION, but, today, is probably better known as the dad of Zooey (ELF, 100 DAYS OF SUMMER) and Emily (BONES, SPIDER-MAN 2). Caleb knows how to make moveable objects glisten and sparkle on the big screen. Caleb directed a movie called WIND; with Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey; that was about a series of sailboat races. Despite the legendary expense and difficulty of filming on open water, Caleb makes it all look as easy as rolling off of a log, not like rolling around, say, WATERWORLD.
Making the difficult look easy is the difference between a poseur and a master!
This Labor Day weekend I will be completing the drafts of both WONDER WOMAN movies. Wish me luck, my friends! I'll talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
"The dog ate my blog, but this cat is back and that's the fact, Jack!," Bad S. Brad!
For the Wonder Woman movie, I don't want an overly orchestrated SOUND OF MUSIC vibe or a schmoozy synthesized FLASHDANCE punch; I'm looking for a more communal FIDDLER ON THE ROOF foundation to underscore our epic. Consider these new lyrics to IF I WAS A RICH MAN:
She's a WONDER WOMAN
If you think she's not you're very wrong and you are gonna die
On a plate made up of Humble Pie
Realize and don't deny!
Anyway! :)
For this purpose, I will be seeking the lovely assistance of the runway/classical quartet BOND, who have shown great facility with modern percussion. Remember: BOND=Amazons! Tell a friend!
How should our Wonder Woman movie look? (Other than stunning?)
Let's talk about the grande master of set design: Richard Sylbert! From THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (the brilliant Sinatra version, natch'!) to TEQUILA SUNRISE (not a great movie, but a great restaurant in the movie!) (Mad props to Kurt Russell, by the by!), Sylbert turns artifice into function in the blink of an eye. A Richard Sylbert set fits the cast of a movie like a well-tailored suit. Smokin'!
As for cinematography, Caleb Deschanel made his bones on THE BLACK STALLION, but, today, is probably better known as the dad of Zooey (ELF, 100 DAYS OF SUMMER) and Emily (BONES, SPIDER-MAN 2). Caleb knows how to make moveable objects glisten and sparkle on the big screen. Caleb directed a movie called WIND; with Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey; that was about a series of sailboat races. Despite the legendary expense and difficulty of filming on open water, Caleb makes it all look as easy as rolling off of a log, not like rolling around, say, WATERWORLD.
Making the difficult look easy is the difference between a poseur and a master!
This Labor Day weekend I will be completing the drafts of both WONDER WOMAN movies. Wish me luck, my friends! I'll talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
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