The absurdity of guns in our culture was finally addressed last night by “Saturday Night Live.” After thousands of deaths thanks to crazy public shootings, the show zeroed in on the subject thanks to host Amy Schumer. I loved this video. If Schumer’s fame is going to illuminate this issue, then bravo!
Michael Jackson’s Long Financial Saga with Sony Maybe Coming to An End
The long — and I do mean loooong– financial soap opera involving Sony Music and Michael Jackson may finally be coming to an end.
Michael’s estate and Sony jointly own Sony/ATV Music, which in turn owns the Beatles catalog. Michael and Sony merged their resources in the mid 1990s. From then until his death in 2009, Michael amassed $320 million in loans using his stake in Sony/ATV as collateral.
Now come reports that Sony has pulled the trigger on an amendment in which either side has the right to buy each other out. Sony either wants to buy Michael’s portion and then sell the whole thing, or just Michael’s stake and call it a day.
Coincidentally, the Michael Jackson estate has just suffered a setback in a lawsuit brought by former Neverland kid Wade Robson. A judge has ruled that Robson can go ahead and sue Jackson’s companies for sexual harassment because Robson was an employee. Robson had previously been denied in his efforts to get money from Jackson’s estate.
Some reports suggested that Jackson’s estate could actually buy Sony/ATV’s half of the company, but that seems unlikely and/or impossible. Sony would love to shore up Sony/ATV as a valuable asset and then leverage it for anywhere from one-to-two billion. The Beatles catalog remains a HUGE gem in the crown of all music publishing. Sony could sell the whole thing and make up losses from its movie and electronics divisions.
The Robson part of it is interesting because the judge is saying Michael’s companies can be sued.
As for the publishing side, the Jackson estate suddenly getting rich from a sale to Sony could affect the ongoing IRS claim of over $700 million in back taxes.
Mike Nichols, Beloved and Missed, Finally Getting Memorial Service
Mike Nichols has been gone since last November 20th. Even though friends gathered at Campbell’s funeral parlor (lots of celebs) there’s never been a formal memorial service.
Now I’m told that one is in the works. The word is that Lorne Michaels, Brian Lourd, and Barry Diller are somehow involved, and that the tentative date is November 8th. Location is still undetermined but Lincoln Center or a Broadway theater would seem proper.
Mike was beloved and is still sorely missed. You can imagine what a memorial would be like, with music from the likes of Carly Simon and Steve Martin at least, maybe even Simon and/or Garfunkel. Speakers could range from Elaine May to Candice Bergen, Meryl Streep, and a staggering array of stars. Perhaps even Mike’s widow Diane Sawyer would say a few words.
We’re waiting for more exact word. But here’s hoping this happens. New York, and the world, really miss Mike Nichols. We want to say goodbye properly!
Box Office: “Steve Jobs” a Massive Hit, “Pan” Strikes Out, “Everest” Stutters, “Walk” Skips
Weekend box office: “Steve Jobs” filled every single seat where it played this weekend, and then some. In its four locations, Danny Boyle’s Universal film was an enormous hit with a total of $521,000. You can only guess what will happen when it goes wide. Until we see how “Spotlight,” “Hateful 8,” and a few others do, “Steve Jobs” is the big deal of 2015.
There are lots of studio flops though. Even Universal has one in poor “Everest.” Hugh Jackman’s “Pan” is a strike out with $15 million– that’s one tenth of what it cost. “Black Mass” from Warners may not be strong enough to make any meaningful Oscar stand– except for maybe supporting actor Joel Edgerton. It does look like people are skipping “The Walk” from Sony.
“Sicario” is doing nicely from LionsGate– it’s a nice title. Sounds like an exotic dish. “The Intern” didn’t get great reviews but it’s turning out to be a nice hit for Warner Bros., Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway. And “The Martian” is Fox’s triumph for the season. It’s already up over $100 million with no sign of retreat. Also, “The Martian” will get some awards action soon enough.
Beloved New Film “Brooklyn” with Saoirse Ronan Already Being Turned into TV Series
Irish treasure Saoirse Ronan is getting well-deserved Oscar buzz for her performance as a 1950’s immigrant in “Brooklyn,” which screened the other evening at the New York Film Festival. Ronan, who received an Oscar nomination at the tender age of 13 for “Atonement,” is playing her first Irish character, Ellis, who sets sail for America to look for a better life and finds herself torn between two countries as well as two men.
“Brooklyn” is based on the Colm Toibin novel and adapted by Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity,” “An Education,” “About a Boy”). Irish director John Crowley (“Intermission”) told me on the red carpet at Alice Tully Hall that the film “is a very small story but it has scale” and that Ellis’s journey hopefully suggested “more than the actual size of one woman’s story.” He hoped also it humanized the story of migrants, which gives it a particular modern-day relevancy.
The cast features stand out performances by Julie Walters, in a hilarious turn as the owner of a boarding house for Irish women, and Emory Cohen as Ellis’s American love interest, a plumber who has a thing for Irish women. (Domhnall Glee is her Irish love.)
On the red carpet the director told me about plans to spin off “Brooklyn” into a television show that, “there’s a plan in the pipeline” but it was very early and no names were attached yet for the cast. “We’re trying to get this out in the field first,” Crowley told me, adding that he might get involved as well. “It’s a great idea and everybody is intrigued by it.”
Another real find in “Brooklyn” is Emory Cohen, who has the intensity of a young Marlon Brandon. “He’s like an old fashioned movie star isn’t he?” the director said to me on the red carpet. He saw the young actor in Derek Cianfrance’s film “The Place Beyond the Pines” and called Cianfrance to ask about him. “I found him amazingly powerful but scary. ‘Oh my god! Who’s the kid? He’s just a damaged kid or is that acting?’ And it’s acting,” Crowley said. “It’s a very different style of performance to what he’s doing in ‘Brooklyn’ obviously.”
On the red carpet, Ronan who looked ethereally beautiful and all grown up in a Valentino gown, said about playing Ellis that she had beens looking for the right part to play as her first Irish character. She’d read other scripts over the years but this was the first one that felt like the screenwriter, Nick Hornby, who happens to be English, captured the Irish spirit and heart.
The experience her character went through also resonated with Ronan, who lived in London for a year and a half around the time they were filming “Brooklyn.”
“I was right in that sort of state of homesickness and not quite knowing where I could kind of settle, you know? Cause you know, you float about for a little bit and I was very much in that mindset when we made the film. So everyday it was like you’re staring at yourself in the mirror and it’s like an inch from your face and you can’t look away. It’s a very vulnerable place to be in.”
Ronan has a lovely Irish accent and someone asked if people just wanted to be in her presence just so they could listen to her talk. “Yes. I charge them now. It’s like I’m giving it out for free. I can’t do it anymore.”
Photo c2015 Showbiz411 by Paula Schwartz
Box Office: No Flash in the “Pan” as $150 Mil Movie Bombs, Few Take the “Walk”
It’s not easy out there at the box office. The big misses are BIG. “Pan” is a total dud, costing probably $175 million. Warner Bros. says $150 mil but you know how it is. On Friday night “Pan” made just over $5 million. Hugh Jackman stars as Blackbeard, so “Pan” has made $3.8 million in Australia. But its prospects in the US are slim at best. I don’t know how Joe Wright, who’s made only stodgy literary movies that have attracted small audiences (Atonement, Hanna, Anna Karenina), got to helm a $150 mil action movie. I guess that’s why I don’t run a studio.
Over at Sony, things are not happy. Robert Zemeckis’s “The Walk” has great reviews and no audiences. Why? There’s no buzz and no excitement. Could it be lack of marketing? First of all, the title is terrible. How about “High Wire Act”? The title sounds like someone’s taking, you know, a walk. Very exciting. Second, there was no build up. “The Walk” just appeared.
The general audience wasn’t really prepped sufficiently. Maybe I missed it, but I feel like I wasn’t bombarded with information about Phillippe Petit or Joseph Gordon Levitt. There should have been a great TV commercial campaign with Leon Russell’s “Tightrope” playing in the background. Awards and nominations may revive it.
Ironically, Sony could have had “Steve Jobs,” which had a monster limited opening for Universal last. Fans of the Sony hacked emails will recall the whole back and forth between Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin. Sony’s loss is Universal’s gain, big time, with Oscar and box office the main buzzwords around this film. Sony now has to really pony up on James Bond “Spectre.” And even then the rewards are only partial. One bright light: Sony Pictures Classics will release “Truth,” a great film with a lot of potential. SPC also has the astounding “Son of Saul.” But those movies are the purview of Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, not Tom Rothman. We’ll see what happens.
UPDATE Sam Smith James Bond Theme Falls Off US iTunes Chart After 2 Weeks: Writing on the Wall?
UPDATE “Writing’s on the Wall” and off the charts. The Sam Smith single is gone from the US iTunes top 150 after 16 days. It’s still number 2 in the UK. But something went wrong stateside. The single has almost no radio play at all, too. After Smith’s big hits earlier in the year, it’s surprising that radio hasn’t embraced his newest release. But they haven’t. Meanwhile, I did read Daniel Craig’s interview in Time Out London. Very melodramatic. But also very English and woe-is-me. Misinterpreted. He loves playing James Bond, he’ll be back. Good lord.
PREVIOUSLY It’s two weeks since Sam Smith introduced his James Bond theme song “Writing’s on the Wall” to what seemed like rabid fans.
Alas, the party was brief. The theme song for “Spectre” is now at number 124 on iTunes for the US. And if you by Spotify, no one is streaming the song in the US.
“Writing’s on the Wall” is a modest hit in the UK. It spent one minute at number 1 on their charts, then fell to 8 on UK iTunes.
This is certainly not what happened with Adele’s “Skyfall,” which was a monster hit from Day 1 and eventually won the Academy Award. The Smith song doesn’t seem like an Oscar entry– unless it rebounds after “Spectre” is released November 6th.
Is the writing on the wall for “Spectre”? Something seems to have gone wrong. Not only is the song not a hit, but star Daniel Craig is slagging the whole Bond enterprise in advance interviews. Why is he so unhappy? James Bond has made him richer than he could have imagined, and a household name. It made it possible for him to do Broadway shows in recent years.
Maybe Daniel doesn’t like the song either. No one’s asked him about it yet.
Music meantime PS: I sure hope Drake paid big time for his sample of “Why Can’t We Live Together” by Timmy Thomas (Glades Records). “Hotline Bling” is pretty much based on it. Timmy Thomas, the writer, is very much alive.
John Lennon Would Have Been 75 Years Old Today
Hard to choose a favorite song, but this might be it. Happy Birthday, John. Thanks for everything.
Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard Are Still “Fools for Love” at His Broadway Premiere
Jessica Lange wasn’t photographed but she was in the audience Thursday night and very much in evidence at the after party for the Broadway debut of “Fool for Love.” This is the legendary one act play written by her partner of 18 years (and father of her three children) actor-playwright Sam Shepard. The couple has been apart since 2010. Jessica was low key but very much there to support Sam, who is known almost more for his canon of plays like “True West” and “A Lie of the Mind” than for his heralded acting.
Lange wasn’t the only bold face name for “Fool for Love,” which stars Sam Rockwell, Nina Arianda, Gordon Joseph Weiss and Tom Pelphrey. The show is a hit and each of the actors is terrific. Fans of “Banshee” on Cinemax, and of the beloved CBS soap “Guiding Light” from a decade ago will recognize Pelphrey, who at 33 is ready to become a movie star. (He won two Emmys on “GL” before Procter & Gamble gutted it.) He’s a hard working “overnight sensation.”
Other A listers who made the scene last night included Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde, Richard Kind (sporting a mustache after shooting “Gotham”), and Margaret Colin (joking about not being in the “Independence Day” sequel– “they killed me off, no cameo!”).
A lot of us discussed seeing the original “Fool for Love” back in 1983 with Ed Harris and Kathy Baker, then Bruce Willis (pre-“Moonlighting”) at Circle Rep in the West Village. Those were the halcyon days of off Broadway, when seeing a new Sam Shepard or Lanford Wilson play with an exciting group of actors (like Willis, or Will Patton, etc) was the hot hot hot thing to do. No one had phones, or the internet or any other diversion.
I was thinking of that last night as the lights went down at the Samuel G. Friedman theater. A young man sitting in front of me promptly took out his cell phone and began either taking pictures or recording the show. I whacked him on the shoulder with my Playbill and he put it down. Beware: this is what I have been reduced to when people take out phones in darkened theaters. It’s an illness that’s seeped through even the most sophisticated audiences.
I did talk to Sam Shepard at the after party, as well as Nina Arianda– one of our great young actresses, but not Rockwell, who left almost immediately. This usually indicates bad reviews, but “Fool for Love” is effusively praised today by all the critics– and rightfully so. Manhattan Theater Club’s Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove were smart to bring it on from the Williamstown Theater.
Shephard told me that even though he’s a main character in it, he’s never read Patti Smith’s wonderful memoir called “Just Kids.” However, he has read the new volume, entitled “M Train.” Sam told me has a memoir, not yet finished, that will be published by Knopf one day soon. He’s finishing a new screenplay, too. Sam is featured in the great new Netflix series “Bloodline” and has not one but three big films set for release in 2016.
Photo from LIFE magazine of what real, glamorous, sexy movie stars used to look like.
Attention Australia: Cate Blanchett is Not Moving Away, She’s Just Taking a Year Abroad
Catching up with two time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett last night at the premiere of “Truth” in New York. Cate stars as Mary Mapes, former “60 Minutes” producer who was fired along with Dan Rather back in 2004 after a story about George W. Bush’s time in the Air National Guard backfired.
I asked Cate whether rumors in the Australian press that she was leaving her home in Australia and moving to the U.S. were true.
She laughed. “No they are not. Why would I leave Australia? We’ve devoted our lives to the theater there. But my husband, Andrew, is ending his run. And we thought we’d travel for a year, a year abroad. No one seems to understand this.”
No secret: Cate is one of my favorite people. I’ve known her since she was in “Elizabeth” in 1998. She was denied the Oscar that year but eventually won Supporting Actress in “The Aviator” and Best Actress for “Blue Jasmine.” This year she’s in a quandary. She has lead roles in both “Carol” and “Truth.” Either won would be a winner, I tell her.
“Forget that,” she said. “Did the movie work? How do you feel about it?” she asked. Blanchett produced the film, which was shot mostly in Australia so she could be home with husband Andrew Upton and her kids. She is much more interested in discussing other current movies. She also has high praise for co-star Robert Redford.
“He transforms himself. His whole demeanor,” she says. “There’s one scene where he calls me, and talks about the history of journalism.” She shakes her head. “Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.”
Friday night, “Carol” plays at the New York Film Festival, then Cate goes home to spend a month with her family. She returns in late November to start an Oscar campaign– although it’s not clear which one yet.
As for “Carol,” she is also — as am I– enthralled with cinematographer Ed Lachman. “I keep begging him to make a book of his Polaroids [of the scenes] he’s designed. They are the movies.”