Day: June 19, 2011

I attended an LAFF “Coffee Talk: Screenwriters” panel at 5 pm today at LA LIVE Regal. The two “stars” (in terms of the number of questions asked by the audience) were Diablo Cody and Dustin Lance Black; Christopher Marcus & Stephen McFeely (The Chronicles of Narnia, Captain America) and Josh Olson (A History of Violence), no offense, were back-up.

(l. to r.) Josh Olson, Dustin Lance Black, Diablo Cody and (I think) Christopher Marcus.

The most exciting bit of information was Cody announcing that her dream writing project, which she hasn’t begun working on (not even in terms of research), would be a biopic of Brian Wilson. The instant she said that, I said “Yes! Great idea!” The story of an obsessive who became a brilliant and transcendent composer-musician for a period of maybe three of four years (’64 to ’67) before he burned himself out and went down the drain…and then came back in a mild, contented way in the ’90s. Somebody asked who would play Wilson, and Cody said, “Good Question.”

I also asked Cody about the screenplay she wrote for Jason Reitman‘s Young Adult, and mentioned that my understanding (not having read the script) is that it’s “somewhat less congenial” than previous Reitman films, and she basically said “Yeah, you’re right.” What she actually said was that “‘congenial’ is actually a pretty good word for what Reitman’s films” — obviously including Cody’s Juno — “have been,” and that Young Adult is “not the kind of film that people might expect from me,” and that Charlize Theron‘s character is a “curmudgeon” and so on. I can’t wait.

A couple of weeks ago I drove out to El Monte and bought a little white Chinese-made scooter for $1500 — brand new, tax and license and registration, all in. It costs $60 bucks to fill up my car and $5 to fill up the scooter tank, and it gets about 100 mpg. And I can get to places much faster on the scooter than I can with the car, and you never have to pay for parking, ever. And it’s a lot of fun. I rode a scooter through Paris three weeks ago and it was heaven.

I’m going to the premiere of Larry Crowne (Universal, 7.1), in which Tom Hanks plays a laid-off 50ish guy who joins an LA Scooter club, etc. I read this morning that a few dozen scooter riders “will accompany Hanks and possibly costar Julia Roberts on an escorted Scooter convoy through the streets of Hollywood en route to the Larry Crowne world premiere on June 27.”

I wrote my Universal p.r. pally about riding along with this swarm so I can shoot video and stills and whatnot.

Reggie Brown is a fairly decent Obama impersonator, but his jokes about Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michelle Bachmann and other righties, delivered last night at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, were deemed overly scathing. And so he was booted…er, escorted off the stage. That’s the right for you — fall into lockstep and “talk the talk” and don’t be any kind of impudent smartass, or you’re gone. Here’s a longer clip.

Boxoffice.com is projecting that The Green Lantern‘s total domestic theatrical gross will top out around $135 million after earning $52,685,000 this weekend. Indiewire‘s Anthony D’Allesandro reports that Green Lantern grosses “fell 22% between Friday and Saturday with another 15% today [i.e., Sunday].”

Warner Bros. will pocket around 90% of the $52 mill and maybe…what, 75% or 80% of the grand total? Even when you factor in overseas revenue, DVD/Bluray and pay/cable, etc., it still looks like a shortfaller considering the $300 million tab ($200 million to actually make the damn thing and, according to WB honcho Alan Horn, $100 million to sell it worldwide). So it’s a loser, a down-the-holer. No sequels, go away, etc.

What factors brought the curtain down upon The Green Lantern? Unfiltered Lens observer Ray DeRoussecites four killers: (1) Comic-book movies need a singular vision, and all Green Lantern really offered was soulless eye candy; (2) 3D is dead — “Nobody wants to pay $14 to $20 a ticket to watch Ryan Reynolds fight CG fart clouds in 3D… nobody“; (3) “Ryan Reynolds is not a movie star…yet”; and (4) “Comic-book movies have hit the end of the road.”

This Jack Torrance Father’s Day card was initially tweeted (I think) by Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich.

My father (who passed in 2008) turned me on to a few films that I admire, respect and still watch every now and then: The Four Feathers, Twelve O’Clock High, High Noon, Hiroshima Mon Amour, The Gunfighter, Gunga Din, Battleground, Sweet Smell of Success. I tried to return the favor occasionally, and he was generally receptive in the ’70 and ’80s and early ’90s. But I gave up on him when he called The Limey a piece of crap. “That’s it,” I told myself. “His taste buds are shot.”

I’ve got an hour’s bike ride and other Sunday morning stuff to accomplish so I don’t know about attending the LA Film Festival’s Coffee Talk with Directors panel, which starts at 11 am (or 44 minutes from now) at Regal Cinema #12. The three panelists will be Phillip Noyce (Salt, Clear and Present Danger, Rabbit-Proof Fence), Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko, The Box) and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less).

I’ll definitely be attending the 5 pm Coffee with Screenwriters panel with Dustin Lance Black (Milk, J. Edgar), Diablo Cody (Young Adult, Juno), Christopher Marcus & Stephen McFeely (The Chronicles of Narnia, Captain America) and Josh Olson (A History of Violence, One Shot).

I’ll also be seeing Lisa Jackson‘s Sex Crimes Unit, a doc, at 7:15 pm, and then Paddy Considine‘s Tyrannosaur at 10 pm.