wired

“I don’t know whether it’s just because I’m me, but I am surprised by what degree it looks familiar,” says Bill Nighy about his performance as the squid-faced Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, in an interview with L.A. Daily News critic Bob Strauss. What’s remarkable is that Nighy’s inflections come through anyway. “It’s spooky, obviously, because it’s a weird experience,” he says. “And it is satisfying to see that the movement, the physical stuff, and the attitudinal decisions that I made at the time survived . They’re in it, they’re there, even though they are delivered by this weirdo.” [Note to readers : MCN’s David Poland linked to Strauss’ article last night so that means he kind of owns it, and if anyone else mentions or riffs on it, they’re infringing on some level and a kind of poacher. HE recognizes that MCN linked to the Strauss piece first, and profusely apologizes for offending Poland’s acute sense of territoriality.]

Superman Returns did $19.3 million yesterday (7.1), which is a very good number…but as Travis Bickle once said, “Thank God for the rain.” It poured on the eastern seaboard yesterday and today it’ll be raining in the midwest and the south, and this obviously bodes well for exhibitors all over. The Devil Wears Prada took in $9 million, Click did $6.8 million, Cars $5.2 million, Nacho Libre $2.1 million…zzzzzz.

Joel Cohen, vp business development for MovieTickets.com, has told Reuters that “we are really off the charts” in comparing Pirates 2 box-office prospects to what the first Pirates made. The story says that “advance ticket sales are already more than 20 times higher” than that of the original. Exhibitor Relations guy Paul Dergarabedian, whose observations have caused my eyelids to droop more than any other spoksperson in any other field, says that “the buzz around the campfire in Hollywood is, ‘Could this be the film to post the biggest opening weekend of all time?” (The phrase is “word around the campfire ,” not “buzz”). The Big Kahuna record holder is Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man, which opened with $114.8 million in ’02. Of course, the Reuters story ignores all considerations about what this sight-unseen enthusiasm for Pirates 2 means in terms of our fast-food culture and the aesthetic sophistication levels that seem to exist among the young. Money, popcorn, abundance…what else matters?

Having made a relatively decent $31 million and change from Paul Greengrass‘s United 93 (i.e., “decent” considering all those thousands of people who said they wouldn’t see it), Universal is donating an extra $250,000 to the United 93 memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I’m assuming that Nicholas Hytner‘s film version of Alan Bennett‘s The History Boys (Fox Searchlight, 11.24), which has the spiritual and thematic ingredients required for Best Picture consideration in spades, will play the Toronto Film Festival.

I still think there’s a speed bump waiting to happen in the subplot about the older teacher fondling some of his students, but the stage version, which won won a passel of Tony awards (including one for Best Play), is so rich and resounding, and it says so many right things in such a commanding way, that it’s hard to imagine the film not being received with great end-of-the-year, award-level acclaim. Unless, of course, Hytner somehow cocks it up.

Otis: I set the first directional vector to 9, the second to 38, and the third one to 117.
Luthor: What about the fourth one?
Otis: Whuh-whuh-whuh…what fourth one?
Luthor: Wait a minute…you set the third one to 117?
Otis: Yes.

Luthor: Otis…Otis! The third one was supposed to set to 11, and the fourth one 7!
Otis: Oh, uh…gee, gee, Mr. Luthor. I wrote the numbers on my arm and…I, I, I guess my arm…oh, golly, I guess it wasn’t long enough.
Luthor: Otis? Would you like to see a long arm? Would you like to see a very, very long arm? Otis? Otis!!!

The Devil Wears Prada did better that expected last night — $9.1 million with a projected $27.8 million by Sunday night. Earlier this week it was being projected to pull in a weekend figure in the low 20s, but tracking began to really accelerate over the last few days, especially (obviously) among women, and not just 20-somethings. Adam Sandler’s Click, a film for the ages, was off 57% from last Friday for a $6,173,000 haul — a 47% dip is being projected for the weekend. Cars did $4 million and Nacho Libre earned $1,741,000.

Superman Returns did $16,727,000 yesterday (Friday, 6.30) — another indication of good but not great business. If this film had serious across-the-board heat yesterday’s tally would have been higher than Wednesday’s (6.28) haul of $18.3 million, which is what Warner Bros. claimed. (The $3 million earned from Tuesday’s late-night shows made a total of $21.3 million.) On a long holiday weekend, it’s axiomatic that Friday-night business on a film that’s really working will overtake the mid-week opening-day total…and this didn’t happen. The three-day weekend projection (factoring in a strong Sunday) is $50.1 million, which will take it to an $82 million total, leaving Monday and Tuesday business to bring in the final $20 million or so (perhaps $25) for a seven-day total of just over $100 million. Next weekend’s business (i.e., up against Pirates 2) will be in the low to mid 20s.

That people are even bringing this topic up and exploring it with a straight face is ridiculous. I’m repeating myself, but remember that 1978 SNL skit about Klaus Kent in Germany? Said it all.

N.Y. Times contributor Stephen Farber on the difficulty of getting Hollywood distributors to wake up to older moviegoers, and the resulting struggles that have occupied the makers of Boynton Beach Club Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and Ladies in Lavender. The best quote is from Richard Zanuck, producer of the hugely suiccessful older-folks flm Driving Miss Daisy. “After the movie succeeded,”Zanuck tells Farber, “one executive told me that Driving Miss Daisy was a ‘nonrecurring phenomenon.’ Millions of people went to the theater to see it. Why is that nonrecurring?”