I just hope that all of the building fires and shattered windows and tear gas pellets that rocked so many cities on Friday night don’t wind up scaring the weak of heart and seekers of order into voting for The Beast a few months hence.

I’m not a marketing genius and certainly no expert in deciding what kind of poster works best in terms of sparking enthusiasm and putting butts in seats. I just know what looks cool and right, and I’m telling you that Rod Lurie‘s The Outpost (Screen Media, 7.2) is much, much better than the just-released poster suggests.

Forgive me but the one-sheet makes it look like a Cannon release from the mid ‘80s. Like some Chuck Norris or Michael Dudikoff film being sold at the AFM or in the Cannes market.

Lurie’s film delivers on a level far above that, trust me.

Outpost costars Scott Eastwood, Orlando Bloom and Caleb Landry Jones are not movie stars and yet the poster is saying “we’ve got three heavy-hitters here, and together for the first time!”

Screen Media needs to create an alternate poster — something classier and artier, maybe some kind of son-of-Saul Bass visual concept. Something that says smarthouse drillbit. I’m sorry but the current poster says “Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus present!”

HE is asking all gifted photoshop artists to whip together a Bass-styled poster. Something that looks like the one-sheet for Exodus or The Man With The Golden Arm…something in that realm.

Julie and Tom announced today that the 2020 Telluride Film Festival is happening fuh sure. A five-day festival instead of the usual four — Thursday, 9.3 to Monday, 9.7. As in “take that Rocky Mountain shit to the bank.” As in “we cool, not afraid, doin’ it.” I’m not in the least bit concerned as Telluride festivalgoers are grade A, refined, well-educated, approvable — wealthy or X-factor or industry folk with months of safe behavior behind them. I expect to see all kinds of stylish face masks.

So if Minneapolis hadn’t exploded three or four days ago over the death of George Floyd, uniformed cop Derek Chauvin might not have been charged with third–degree murder and manslaughter? Do I have that right?

The other three cops will skate, of course. They all heard Floyd’s distress over Chauvin pinning his neck with his knee for eight minutes, and any one of them could have saved Floyd’s life.

But almost every time I look at a recent photo of Ryan Gosling, I’m struck by his (no offense intended) appalling dress sense, and more particularly the color combos. I wouldn’t wear a forest green sport coat with wide-ish lapels over a half-white, half-caramel golf shirt with a knife at my back.

If memory serves Gosling has also been captured in a burgundy tuxedo jacket. Nothing to be done, of course. It’s just that some people have a knack or gift for getting it wrong.

And by the way: another Wolfman flick?

Ben Mankiewicz‘s “The Plot Thickens” podcast series on Peter Bogdanovich is pretty great. I’ve listened to episodes #1, #2 and #3. Chapter two covers Peter and Polly Platt‘s early New York days, driving across the country in a beater, getting started in Los Angeles, making Targets, etc. Chapter three is about The Last Picture Show and the years-long affair with Cybill Shepherd and the breakup of Peter and Polly’s marriage.

Mankiewicz knows Hollywood lore, of course, but episodes are aimed at people who aren’t all that hip. (Excerpt: When Carroll O’Connor is mentioned, Mankiewicz uses a dialogue clip from All In The Family…grating.) But it’s also hugely engaging and amusing, and the backstage stories are wonderful.

“The randomness of life is so strange…”

Marty, meet Svetlana. Svetlana? Marty. You’re both having a difficult time with the plague, and I’ve watched both of your short films about what it’s like to be in stir for weeks while listening to the tick of the grandfather clock.

I have to be honest — I like Svetlana’s lament a tiny bit more. Sad, melancholy, daydreamy. Marty’s is more on the level of “Henry Fonda, I feel your Wrong Man pain” plus a little “how long until we can get moving again?” Oh, and I was horrified that Marty shot himself in vertical portrait mode at the very beginning.

I only know that for one brief shining moment in Mexico (Wednesday morning to Thursday afternoon), Tatyana and I were in a place that felt mostly free of the Covid blahs. We took walks on the beach without masks. At dusk we ate on an outdoor terrace overlooking the Pacific. The briney aroma was wonderful. The water was too cold to swim without a wetsuit, but I splashed around. The usual precautions were taken. Some wore masks, others didn’t. And now we’re back in WeHo.

I wanted to commemorate this poignant moment – more than 100,000 lives lost in the U.S. due to #Covid19. Here’s a 90 second short film that I made in isolation to raise a voice to my feelings. @WHO @CDCgov pic.twitter.com/jIjuWLSWJl

— Svetlana Cvetko (@svetlanadp) May 27, 2020

pic.twitter.com/QNW53VceRV

— Ian Mantgani (@mant_a_tangi) May 28, 2020

Amazon Studios movie exec Ted Hope has left that position for a multi-year first look producing deal with Amazon. The official word is that Hope decided to abandon the prestigious job due to a primal itch to get back into hands-on producing, which he did for years at other outfits.

The general presumption, of course, is that Hope was pushed out by his Amazon superior Jennifer Salke, mainly because his Amazon track record was colored by investments in too many under-performers. Because Ted’s picks were too indie-quirky. Which resulted in Joe and Jane Popcorn saying “Uhm…what?”

Hope joined Amazon five and one-third years ago (i.e., in January 2015) as the head of development, production and acquisitions. In January ’18 he began serving as the co-chief of Amazon movies, reporting to Salke.

2016 was Hope’s finest Amazon year with the release of Kenneth Lonergan‘s Manchester By The Sea (worldwide earnings of nearly $79 million) and Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman. Manchester won two Oscars (Best Original Screenplay + Best Actor for Casey Affleck), and Salesman won for Best Foreign Language Film. But except for Pawel Pawlikowski‘s Cold War (’18), a well-reviewed Oscar contender, it was all downhill after that.

Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here (’17) was and is a first-rate arthouse assassin flick, and Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor prize in Cannes (yay), but Joe and Jane said “naah.” Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot (’17), a recovery-from physical-trauma flick that I mostly liked, also sputtered with the hoi polloi–

Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying (opened in Nov. ’17) didn’t do much review-wise or commercially ($965K worldwide).

In 2018 Hope got all hot and bothered about Mike Leigh‘s Peterloo, which also fizzled with a lousy $152K in North America and $1.9 million worldwide. Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy (’18) was a moderately weak sister with worldwide earnings of $16.5 million. Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria (which broke my heart) opened in late ’18 and ended up with $7.9 million worldwide.

Amazon ran aground big-time in 2019 with four pricey Sundance acquisitions — Late Night, Honey Boy, Brittany Runs A Marathon and The Report — all shortfalling with the meat-and-potatoes public.

Cold War, a 2018 release, lost the foreign-language Oscar to Roma in early ’19, true, but it was a film everyone had to see. It was the most stunningly photographed black-and-white film in a long time, or at least since Pawlikowski’s Ida.

If I was running Amazon instead of Salke, I would’ve said to Hope, “Ted…these films are critically respected and all, but they’re mainly aimed at guys like yourself and your ahead-of-the-curve friends and a certain percentage of the Academy. What about Amazon…you know, releasing at least an occasional film that Average Joes want to see?”

For her You Must Remember This podcast, Karina Longworth has created a ten-episode tribute to legendary producer, production designer and Pretty Baby screenwriter Polly Platt. It’s called “Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman.” I haven’t had a chance yet. I’m thinking of catching the first two episodes on the drive back to Los Angeles later today.

“Dearest Polly Platt,” an HE tribute posted on 7.27.11: