Friday 29 May 2009

Hollywood Babble On & On #294: More Miscellaneous Movie Musings

1. ENOUGH WITH THE REMAKES

Word is out that a Hollywood studio is looking to remake Girls Just Want To Have Fun, a 1980s high school comedy that was otherwise forgotten as anything but a trivia question because it marked some of the first movie work of Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker.

My only question is: Why?

The original film didn't really make any sort of effect other than giving some then unknown actresses a paycheck. Plus, it's title was just a blatant attempt to cash in on the popularity of a Cyndi Lauper song. This remake is already dated before it's been made. If they want a high school comedy, just hire some young writers and directors to make a new one for you. It worked for Superbad.

Don't be so scared of new ideas that you're already scraping way below the bottom of the barrel for material.

And don't get me started on the reports that Fox wants to remake Alien.

It was done right the first time!

2. SPECTOR'S GOING TO PRISON

The inventor of the wall of sound will spend 15 to life staring at a wall of concrete. That's right, Phil Spector was sentenced this week, and it looks more like a life sentence at his age. Of course Lana Clarkson, the poor actress he shot, got the death penalty for something that made sense only in the snakepit of Spector's mind.

Didn't Spector know, that when you're rich and insane, you are supposed to be eccentric, not homicidal.

3. ATTACK OF THE GOLDEN PARATROOPERS

Word is that Jim Wiatt, the exiting CEO of WMA, will be getting $16 million as part of his exit package during the merger with Endeavor to form WME.

Now I don't know the details, but I am assuming that they're going to put some sort of non-compete fee into his final severance package. A non-compete fee is when the new management of a company pay the outgoing management an agreed upon sum to ensure that the outgoing management won't start up their own company and compete with them. Usually they have an expiry date of about five years.

This $16 mil might only be the beginning, and I hope that Wiatt gets WME to include a promise not to prosecute him over a non-compete fee. Newspaper mogul Conrad Black was indicted for taking such a fee for himself when he sold some of his newspapers, which led to his ouster from the company by board members who claimed that they deserved a piece of it. Those same board members then drove the company into ruin within a matter of months, proving that it was right for Black to get the money. (Black was ultimately convicted of "obstruction of justice" for moving boxes of records that he had been asked to move by his accusers, it's currently under appeal)

4. WHO WILL HEAD SAG?

The race for the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild is reportedly between actors Martin Sheen, and James Cromwell.

I personally think that whoever wins, they need someone who won't be blinded by ideology, and remember that they are in a business, and that people's livelihoods are at stake, and not to be sacrificed for a cause.

They also need someone who can end the rifts, both internal, and with the other unions, that have plagued SAG throughout this situation, and get the union in fighting shape.

I wish them luck.

2 comments:

  1. William, if that is your real name, stop spamming me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi,

    We have just added your latest post "Hollywood Babble On & On #294: More Miscellaneous Movie Musings" to our Directory of Science . You can check the inclusion of the post here . We are delighted to invite you to submit all your future posts to the directory and get a huge base of visitors to your website.


    Warm Regards

    Scienz.info Team

    http://www.scienz.info

    ReplyDelete