Even with the success of Michael Bay’s Transformers movie and the buzz about its sequel, Variety reported on Sunday that New Regency has put their Voltron movie into “turnaround” which according to the IMDB’s glossary (Ctrl-F is your friend) means that it’s not likely to be made unless they can snatch up a director and some hot acting talent. However, the trade publication article reads like this is a done deal and that all producers Mark Gordon (10,000 B.C.) and Jordan Wynn have to do is just to pick from its many suitors for the project. Personally speaking, I don’t think this bodes well.
Listen, I loved “Voltron” as a kid, and wanted to drive the blue lion because it was driven by a girl, and there weren’t many kick-ass female characters back then. At least “G.I. Joe” had three of them, you know? But I think one of the reasons why it’s going to be more difficult for this movie to get anywhere is that despite it selling well on DVD, that’s about the limit of its audience. People went to see Transformers because the franchise had more time and more opportunities to gain a foothold in the American pop culture psyche due to the fact that they just kept making the show, and the creators of “Voltron” did not do the same with its property. I need only to point at Speed Racer‘s total worldwide gross of $88,645,114 versus its production cost of $120 million to hammer the nail into the coffin that is my point, and say no more.
UPDATE: The movie blogosphere is buzzing with the news that a little-known director named Max Makowski has signed on to direct the film, but until a real news outlet reports on it, I’m not buying it.
New York Guild Says to SAG Re: Ongoing Stalemate: “Fuggedaboutit”
Also on Sunday, the regional board for New York City’s screen actors told the national union leaders that it needs to seek out more meaningful steps towards a resolution of the contract terms before August 25 or bring in a federal negotiator, as reported by the Hollywood Reporter but mentioned nowhere on the SAG Watchdog site and United Hollywood 2.0 returns a 404 error as of press time. This, and other news coverage found online only serves to highlight what a empathetic divide in the public’s eye there is between these negotiations and the WGA negotiations earlier this year.
The Stupidest Viral Movie Marketing Ploy in the World…Or is It?
It’s only because I was recently caught in a “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” feedback loop that I happened to see the hard-sell trailers for The Rocker, which stars comedic actor Rainn Wilson (“The Office”) as a washed-up never-been who tries to relive his ’80s rock band dreams by co-opting his nephew’s teenage band. The commercial’s voiceover narration proclaims it to be the “hit sleeper of the summer” and yet it’s never popped up on my radar.
Since the movie opens on Wednesday, though, they’re pulling out all the stops to get butts in the theater seats, because six days ago, Wilson said on “Office” co-star Jenna Fischman’s MySpace blog that he had kidnapped her, bound her, placed her in his trunk, and will not let her go until the movie grosses $18.7 million. Since then, he — or the clever people in Fox’s marketing department — have started up their own blog called Free Jenna Now! where he posts shorts video clips of Fischman’s kidnapping experience and has even interviewed Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist Slash (who is credited in that video clip as Maya Angelou).
Part of me wants the movie to tank, just so I can see how they’ll backpedal out of the stunt, and because I am a mean, mean person.