Clint Puts "Gran Torino" on a Trailer

This past summer, Clint "Dirty Harry", "The Man with No Name" Eastwood was in town shooting a little film called "Gran Torino".

Check out the trailer!




As your good pal Corey Hall, Metro Times reviewer and "First Friday Film Forum" co-host, says it looks like "Grumpy Old Men" meets "The Enforcer".
 
"Gran Torino" opens limited on December 18th before going wide in January.

The question is will Warner Brothers remember Detroit and release it here as part of the limited schedule?


 

The Old Picturehouse

     I don't know if you feel as I do, but when I walk into a place like the Fox Theatre or the Detroit Film Theatre, I'm struck with a sense of awe. It's just amazing that these places were made for film. They don't make 'em like that anymore and the multiplex just doesn't have the same character. 

Is Hollywood Ripping You Off?

In the world of tax incentives, there are winners and losers. This week, City of Detroit approved a $135,000,000 tax abatement over 25 years for General Motors to build the Chevy Volt electric car at the Poletown plant. For that, GM says it will hire 550 additional employees.

This is usually how it works: a company (A) wants to make something (B) and asks the government for financial consideration (C)even though everyone knows they have the cash to pay for it itself.

Much is the same with Hollywood.

But, earlier this year, Lansing approved tax incentives to bring left coast lens-men (and women) to town. Since the Michigan Film Incentive Program was approved 60 films have been approved to shoot around the state. And since then, people have been stargazing. Michael Cera in Youth in Revolt, his Juno co-star Ellen Page and Juliette Lewis in the Drew Barrymore helmed Whip It, Clint Eastwood starring/directing Gran Torino, The Butterfly Effect: Revelations (Part 3) and several others. There's also talk of David Fincher using Detroit for interiors in the upcoming Matt Damon film about Elliot Ness and a serial killer called Torso.

Last year, before the incentives were approved, only three films were shot in the state.

So, where are we roughly six months into the incentives?

According to State Representative Andy Meisner (D) of Ferndale, the program is helping more than just film production companies.

State Senator Tom George(R) of Kalamazoo says he backs the incentives program, but its cost is too much. He says Michigan has given away $144,000,000 since April. George has a bill pending in Lansing that would limit the Michigan Film Incentive Program to $100,000,000 a year.

Meanwhile, fellow Republican State Representative Chuck Moss created this video poking fun at the incentive package and the current state of Michigan�s business tax structure.

While both sides talk it out. What do you think?

Give us a call: (313) 577-1019

First Friday Film Forum on Detroit Today
Friday, October 3^rd at 11am
On WDET 101.9FM • Detroit Public Radio

www.detroittoday.org or www.wdetfm.org

“I didn’t know there was a number 2?”

Out and about today I happened upon another film crew taking in the sights around Detroit. At Woodward and Congress, just up from "the fist" and "the spirit" and just south of Campus Martius Park filming was underway in a little diner for the third installment of The Butterfly Effect.

The Butterfly Effect 3? I know what you are thinking, I didn't know there was a number 2? The original Effect premiered in 2004 and is a supernatural thriller starring That 70's Show actor and Demi Moore husband, Ashton Kutcher. It got decent notices. Meanwhile, Butterfly 2 went straight to DVD. That appears to be the fate of this third installment currently going before the lens here in Detroit but there is a bright spot.

The Butterfly Effect 3 will be released as part of the horror/cult fan favorite series 8 Films to Die For in January. That means a limited theatrical release across the US, including Detroit, and then on to DVD.

You might be willing to write it off "straight to video" as trash, but, if you talk to my good friend Jim Olenski at Thomas Video and DVD in Clawson, the 8 Films to Die For series have had a few gory gems over the last several years. Jim recommended Frontier(s) from the 2006 edition of the series the last time I was in the store. So, if you head to Thomas Video, tell Jim that Rob St. Mary sent you.

Now Casting: "Citizen Kwame: the Rise & Fall of the Hip Hop Mayor"

Here's a little thought experiment.

Thanks to Governor Granholm's tax incentives to ramp up movie production in Michigan, it's only a matter of time before someone decides to shoot a film about the rise and fall of Detroit Mayor Kwame Malik Kilpatrick.

This story has everything a filmmaker could ever want!

A family political dynasty. Youthful inspiration & drive. "Sex, lies & text messages". Dogged reporters getting inside information to bring down a political leader. National and international headlines about the indiscretions of the Kilpatrick administration along side rumors of parties, dirty dealing and dead strippers.  

With talk about a Coleman Young biopic, it seems only natural that Kilpatrick's story is ready for the big screen. 

So, here's the challenge. You are the studio head -- think Tom Cruise in "Tropic Thunder" but not as sweaty and hairy.

You have unlimited money and power to get this picture made with anybody you want. So, here's your exercise.

1.) Title this film:

2.) What angle do you take?

For example, would you follow the rise & fall ala "Citizen Kane"?

Would you follow the reporters ala "All the President's Men"?

Or would you take a documentary/man on the street approach?

What is your plot? Where does the film start? Where does it end?

3.) Who should write it, and why?

4.) Who should direct it, and why? 

5.) Who would you cast for the princples involved in your version?

Originality is a plus. Included photos, if you can, of your casting choices.

But Have You Seen The Sweded Version?

So, back in February Michael Gondry's film Be Kind Rewind landed in theaters with a thud. It's total gross in the U.S was around $11 million.

The plot, as I described it in my review was:

"Mike (Mos Def) is the hard-working cashier of a dispossessed video rental shop in Passaic, N.J. Entrusted with watching the store while his boss (Danny Glover) leaves town, Mike struggles to keep his abrasive and paranoid friend Jerry (Jack Black) from driving away the store's few remaining customers. Unfortunately, Jerry becomes magnetized after attempting to sabotage the local power plant and accidentally erases every tape in the shop.

Desperate to keep the business going, the two concoct a plan to re-enact popular films with an old video camera — a process they hilariously call "Sweding." Soon, their custom-made movies are all the rage, pulling in unlikely fans (and cast members) from the surrounding neighborhood. That is, until Hollywood copyright lawyers come calling."

Taken by the wonderfully handmade versions of popular films, I was probably a bit too generous in my review of this scruffy flick. The truth is, as a whole, it really isn't that great.

But as cinematic call-to-arms to get off the couch and do something artistic or creative, I loved it. For a long time now I've felt we've become a nation of spectators rather than a nation of doers --when it comes to entertainment and the arts. Thus the shrinking interest in theater, dance, etc. Television and mass entertainment has taught us to expect perfection and heightened realism rather than homemade authenticity.

What won me over in Be Kind Rewind were the 'sweded' remakes of popular films that Jack Black and Mos Def make. Explained here...

Well, Gondry et. al encouraged audiences to create their own 'sweded' versions of films on the film's website and those efforts have been popping up on YouTube. Many are simply terrific and well-worth seeking out. Below you'll find a couple of my faves.

Enjoy!

TERMINATOR 2

JOHN CARPENTER'S THE THING

The Michigan Film Commission, in order to promote the state's ambitious film incentive package, should hold a 'sweding' contest, challenging local filmmakers to make sweded versions of their favorite films.

What do you think?

What Hollywood celebrities bring to Michigan

So, I'm standing at the Ann Arbor Whole Foods deli counter waiting for my turn to get a sandwich and I hear this voice that sounds awfully familiar. It takes me about 12 seconds to realize it's Juliette Lewis' voice. Weird, I know. After all, her Hollywood star wattage isn't exactly incandescent. But I have this uncanny ability to place cartoon voices as well.

Anyway, she's ordering the quinoa salad or somesuch and out of the corner of my eye I'm watching her and thinking... she was once the hot crazy chick engaged to Brad Pitt. (Before her need to shed Xenu's bad vibes... or whatever Scientologists obsess about). But now, she just looked kinda old.

She was dressed in timeless California I-refuse-to-acknowledge-my-real-age garb (lace up sandals, funky dress) and still had a nice figure ...but there was no mistaking that she was older. This wasn't psychotic Mallory from Natural Born Killers or Nick Nolte's Lolita-esque daughter in Cape Fear or even Ralph Fiennes trashy rocker girlfriend in Strange Days. This was a woman closing in on 40 who wanted to look like she was still in her 20s.

No sin, there. She did it better than most.

Then I decided to look up her age up on IMDB ...and discovered that she's actually 5 years younger than me. And unlike Juliette, I don't have 3 dozen films to keep my youth intact for audiences around the world.

So, now that Michigan's film tax incentives (a good thing) have attracted tinseltown to our fair state, I suspect I'll be going out of my way to dodge the sudden influx of film stars.

While others may feel excited, charmed  or, even, annoyed by their presence, I know I'll only feel old.

Is it because Ben Stiller hates the handicapped?

After two weeks Tropic Thunder has pulled in $55 million. Which is respectable but hardly earth-shattering for a comedy that cost nearly $100 million to make and stars three pretty popular actors.

When you compare it to Stiller's last flick, the craptacular Hearthbreak Kid ($37 million), I have to wonder why this one didn't bring y'all out.

Was it because of the protests from American Association of People with Disabilities about Stiller's insensitivity to the mentally challenged?

Protests actually resulted in a fake website promoting Stiller's character's film called Simple Jack (the tagline was: "Once there was a retard" ) to be pulled down.

Or is it just summer blockbuster fatigue? Maybe an allergy to Jack Black?

A quick glance at Ben Stiller's box office track record shows us some incredible winners:

Night At The Museum = $250,863,268
Meet The Fockers = $279,261,160
Dodgeball = $114,326,736
Starskey & Hutch = $88,237,754
Along Came Polly = $88,097,164
Meet The Parents = $166,244,045

A couple of big losers:

Envy (also with Jack Black) = $13,562,325
Duplex = $9,692,135

And the last flick he helmed and starred in, Zoolander ($45,172,250 domestic), doing nearly as well with one quarter the budget. Remember, that's seven years ago in a thousand less theaters.

So, what gives? Are audiences just plain sick of Ben Stiller?

I have to wonder if it wasn't the seriously bad trailers that were supposed to promote the film. It seemed like Paramount and Dreamworks had no idea how to market the movie. Which is weird since it's a comedy... which should be an easy sell. Set up the story, throw in some choice jokes, spotlight the incredible cast and let the cat out of the bag that Tom Cruise plays a fat, balding pottymouthed Jewish executive who dances to gangsta rap. Presto change-o, instant box office.

Even as the studio botched the trailer, Stiller put out a pretty funny YouTube video  that rivals some of the movie's better jokes.

 Whatever the reason, Tropic Thunder just isn't making the splash I thought it might. Here's my review. I thought it was good enough for a summer comedy. If you decide to see it, get there in time for the opening trailers. they're worth the price of admission alone.

Okay, maybe half the price of admission.

Mystery Meat

Way back in the wintry dawn of the year, attached to a print of the geriatric Rambo sequel, I happened to catch a peek of the trailer for a very intriguing horror picture that essentially screamed “cult classic”.  Actually the footage revealed what looked to be a bloody, visually bombastic, but otherwise conventional hack and slash thriller, but one blessed with the most astoundingly stupid/awesome title in recent memory “Midnight Meat Train”. With a name that unbelievably cool, surely the flick was headed to “Snakes on a Plain” like hype, plus it was based on a Clive Barker story, so it at least had the pedigree to attract the die hard gore heads. Well, several months later and there was nary a peep about the movie in the papers, on the tube or on the web, and good old Rambo has already shambled his way onto DVD shelves. And the local publicity mill was oddly quiet about it, with out even the standard rescheduling, or postponement announcement. So where was the Meat Train? Did it derail before reaching the station?

With a little poking around online I discovered that the Meat train has indeed pulled into town, at least briefly, with absolutely zero fanfare.  The movie snuck under the wire debuting at the Cinemark Warren 16 and the Macomb Mall, two discount theaters, that very rarely host first run features.  Seems this is just a contractually mandated theatrical dump, before “Meat Train” chugs along to store shelves. Current speculation in various corners of the internets, is that the flick’s studio LIONSGATE is moving away from the hard –R gore that put it on the map and towards a more cleaned up, family friendly direction, which is strange since they still have violent fare like Saw V and Punisher: War Journal or their schedule.  

Horror fans might want to spare a few bucks and rush to check it out for kicks, and the very slight chance that co-star Brooke Shields might get filleted on screen.  

http://www.midnightmeattrainthemovie.com/

"Meyers and Hall" is not a law firm!

    In the world of Detroit’s Metro Times, two men standout for their film reviews: Jeff Meyers and Corey Hall.

    When they are not found in dark places – alleys, basements and theaters – these two fountains of film facts are dragged out into the light.

    Cleaned up a bit, Meyers and Hall are placed in front of microphones inside WDET’s main studio in the heart of the Cass Corridor and put through their paces once a month.

We call it “The First Friday Film Forum” on Detroit Today.

    Thanks to the great cooperation of the Metro Times and Detroit Public Radio, your host (news reporter/filmmaker) Rob St. Mary (that’s me)  invites you to spend some time speaking with Jeff and Corey about the latest in film – at the theaters, on DVD and what’s shooting in Michigan.

    Three shows have aired so far and the quality, and entertainment value, continues to grow. It’s like nothing else on the radio in Detroit.

    So, to give you a taste of what the First Friday Film Forum is all about: click here and listen to the podcast. The show starts about an hour in. Check out the conversation/review of “The Dark Knight” . Not everyone is sold on it! Could Batman be an allegory for “the decider”? Does Christian Bale need a throat lozenge?

    Also, here’s a discussion on the place of critics in the world of film. Who needs them? You might!

The DVD picks for this episode are:

    Corey’s pick: “Spaced” – Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, the British blokes who brought you “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” first hit the small screen in the UK with this little comedy about life hunting for an apartment in London and the surreal daydreams that take place between two characters.

    Jeff’s picks: “Rescue Dawn” – Werner Herzog directs Christian Bale (Batman) in the tale of pilot Dieter Dengler who was shot down over Vietnam in 1966, imprisoned by the Viet Cong and eventually escapes. Also, “The Host” – Korean director Joon-ho Bong’s frightening revision of a monster movie set on the Han River in the center of Seoul, South Korea.

    Rob’s pick: “Little Dieter Needs to Fly” – Werner Herzog’s documentary take on the events that became the film “Rescue Dawn”. Dieter Dengler’s moves from being a child in post-war Germany to being held POW in Vietnam and find his home in America.   

    So, after taking a listen… why not join in?

    Write comments here on the b-roll blog, visit WDET’s Detroit Today website and remember – the next First Friday Film Forum is coming up:

First Friday Film Forum on Detroit Today

Friday, September 5^th, 2008 at 11am

Exclusively on WDET 101.9FM – Detroit Public Radio

YOUR CALLS ARE NEEDED!

This Friday morning the First Friday Film Forum is on 101.9 WDET - Detroit Public Radio. Join us, and grill, your host and favorite Metro Times critics!

The First Friday Film Forum on Detroit Today
Friday August 1st at 11:00am
with your host Rob St. Mary and Metro Times critics Jeff Meyers and Corey Hall

"Criticizing the Critics"
Do film critics know more than you?
Do their opinions matter?
What is the difference between a critic, a reviewer and some guy (or gal) with an opinion?

Also, "The Dark Knight" , "Meet Dave" and more.

Join the conversation: (313) 577-0109 or on-line at www.detroittoday.org

Call in and join the discussion.