In Hollywood, Nobody Still Knows Anything
Working for a major studio and having friends at other studios, it's hard to ignore the doom and gloom talk that pervades this business when the topic turns to feature films.
"Why would anyone go to the theater when they have HD at home?"
"Movies have to be bigger than home theaters to get them to pay the ticket price."
"It's all about 3D!"
I shake my head and laugh to myself. Am I the only one who's been paying attention to the last 50 years of film history? First television was going to kill the movies. Then it was color television that would be the end of feature films. Then people were going to stop buying tickets because of cable, then the VCR, the laserdisc, the DVD... and now... beware! HD is going to kill the feature the film!
And the only way to save it is big, loud , and, something new, 3D!
Oh, wait, but there's this movie that just opened two weeks ago. A comedy that's already raked in $153 million in the US alone. You don't have to wear glasses and nothing explodes (unless you count the bellows of laughter from the audience).
The Hangover may be the funniest movie I've ever seen and I can tell you that Warner Brothers doesn't need to spend another dime on marketing or advertising if they don't want to, because an extremely high percentage of those 15 million or so people who have already seen it will tell there friends, coworkers, and family, "You must see The Hangover!" Now. Not when it's on HBO or Netflix has it. Now!
So are all those execs at the studios wrong? Can they get away with not spending hundreds of millions of dollars on every theatrical release from now on? Well yes and no. They must spend that kind of dough on production and marketing if they're going to continue to make crap (and even so, crap in 3D is still crap).
The Hangover is ridiculously successful for one reason and one reason only. It's a good movie in every sense of the word. And I'll bet there were plenty of executives, producers, and development people who turned it down or were certain it was destined for failure (and, in case you were wondering those are the people in the theater who are crying whilst everyone else is in hysterics).
The brilliant William Goldman's assertion about show business that "nobody knows anything" is still true to this day. It's both the frustration accompanying trying to work in this business and the hope that, as it always has, anything can happen.
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See Bill Swadley's Profile
I have a blog but most of my writing has nothing to do with entertainment.
http://s10
Thanks for your interest and comments!
-Bill
Hey Bill -
You are totally right about Hollywood. Someone would never believe the ridiculous things that go on there unless they have actually worked with these people. Every area has their own level of madness. For example: the casting people usually treat everyone they don't know like crap unless that person has a well known client. I don't know how they manage to continually switch personalities but they do. I have called with one well known client and been treated great only to call later about another client who isn't well known and been treated like crap. In fairness, the actors are just as bad. If someone is well known, they usually won't audition unless it's tied to an offer. Some well known actors won't even read a script unless there's an offer attached. Others won't audition but will take a meeting with the producer or director and it goes on and on with the Hollywood peaking order. Probably the most confusing thing in Hollywood is the meeting where everyone acts like things have gone great but you never get the follow-up call. Then there's the return call that comes at lunch time so the caller is hoping to leave a message without having to actually speak with you...gets you off of their call list. Is there anywhere else on the planet where they roll calls and someone is always listening in on the call?
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On second thought, let's not go to Hollywood. It is a silly place.
Other than you praising The Hangover like it's the greatest comedy ever made (it ain't), I do like your post very much.
"Nobody knows anything" is one of the greatest phrases in movie history, because it's so true.
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I challenge you to find the word "great" in my piece. (And no film will ever replace Gigli in my heart as the as the greatest comedy ever made.)
Seriously, though, what is the greatest comedy ever made?
The Great Dictator.
I said "like it's the greatest comedy ever made". I never said that you used the word "great". The jist of your post made it sound like you thought The Hangover was the greatest comedy ever made. You did say it may be the funniest movie you've ever seen, so my statement wasn't that far off.
As for the greatest comedy ever made, no one film can ever really called that, but here's a few starters.
1. Duck Soup
2. Animal House
3. Dr. Strangelove
4. Airplane!
5. Modern Times
6. Take your pick of Woody Allen's early films
7. Blazing Saddles
8. Pink Flamingos (seriously, hysterical film, still funny today)
And why degrade this thread by mentioning Martin Brest's Gigli?
I've never seen it for the record. For unintentional laugh riots, nothing tops Plan 9 from Outer Space.
The Party, Dir.Blake Edwards,Lead:Peter Sellers
The Party, Dir.Black Edwards
My opinion is that the only thing that will kill the movies are the studios themselves. The Hangover aside, every other film seems to be a remake lately. Films are packaged with marketing in tow in pre-production and I feel like original concepts are left out in the dust.
Take Tetro for example, fantastic film, original screenplay, brilliant acting, excellent direction, but has anyone in the flyover states even heard of it? Probably not. I know it's not been released there and I'm not sure if it's going to be and if it's true that Coppola had to foot the bill for the whole thing, it definitely leaves this aspiring filmmaker a bit disheartened towards today's studio system.
I agree with your thesis, I just wished you had picked a better movie, unfortunat
in a very long time.
"The Hangover" was very boring, I didn't find one original idea or inspired moment. At times it was very uncomfortable to watch...an
I guess growing up in the days of early Mel Brooks, Woody Allen (for comedy) and Chinatown, Network and Raging Bull means my bar is set too high.
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Comparing any comedy to Chinatown, Network or Raging Bull is too high a bar, but do you remember the most common adjective used by "the old guys who didn't get it" in describing Blazing Saddles, Bananas, Sleeper, Take the Money and Run, Young Frankenstein, etc. when you were young? It was "sophomori
There's an old saying that there are only 12 plots (I think there are only 5, but what do I know?) and I think there are only about 4 comedies, which pretty much means that everything's an SNL sketch.
-Bill
Again,I agree with everything you said...I guess I felt that Blazing Saddles and Bananas changed the rules of the game. "Hangover" isn't really that much off of the beaten path.
Do you have a website? Since you quote the master (William Goldman) I'd be interested in reading your other articles.
If that's really the funniest movie you've ever seen, then I feel pity. And sadly, the poor box-office fate of many excellent films gives lie to the concept that all a movie needs to be ridiculously successful is to be "good in every sense of the word."
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You've seen the movie, right?
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