NEW ‘TERMINATOR’ FILM TO BE R-RATED

That’s the ONLY news on ‘Terminator 5.’ Nothing else is really happening, just a tweet from the woman funding the film.

This might be heresy, but I thought “Terminator 3″ was damn good and could care less about the rating. The story was tight, held my attention, surprised at the end, and contained all kinds of superb action scenes. “Terminator: Salvation,” on the other hand, was utter crap; a third act right out of a Sy-Fy Channel movie.

Worry about the storytelling. Let that process take you to the rating, not the other way around.

MONTY PYTHON MEMBERS SET TO REUNITE FOR SCI-FI COMEDY ‘ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING‘

“Life of Brian,” “Meaning of Life,” and “Holy Grail” are all brilliant, but something happens to these guys as they get older. They lose their comedic edge and just get meaner towards “safe” targets, and an obvious political correctness seeps into their work:

“a group of aliens who endow an earthling with the power to do ‘absolutely anything’ to see what a mess he’ll make of things — which is precisely what happens. There’s also a talking dog named Dennis who seems to understand more about the mayhem that ensues than anyone else does.”

Who knows where this could lead, but let’s hope that self-importance is off limits. As a Christian and Catholic, it’s an honor to get my butt kicked by the boys in the trio of films listed above because the films are clever, not mean-spirited, avoid preaching, and come from a  less fascist time when it was still okay to make fun of everyone.

Because liberals ruin everything, that’s just not the case today.

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AUCTIONS OFF MOVIE MEMORABILIA

I’ve walked through many a studio prop and wardrobe warehouse, which is just as delightful as you would imagine. What’s amazing is how cheap, fake, and worn out everything looks in reality and how perfect it looks on a television or movie screen. Some of this stuff goes back to the Golden Age — suits worn by Cary Grant, gowns worn by Irene Dunne — and yet it might show up on “Law and Order” the following week.

I’ve never understood why the studios don’t track down the history of every dish, chair, hat, and rubber gun, and auction this history off. You would think there would be a market for it, a market for a piece of Hollywood history.

Back in 1989, I came across a shirt John Wayne wore in one of his films. It was for sale at a store in Disney World for only a couple of hundred bucks. That’s still a lot of money, but at the time it was a fortune. I still should’ve bought it, though, and wish I had.

‘LOCKOUT’ TRAILER: GUY PEARCE BREAKS INTO SPACE JAIL

Well, this sounds promising:

Guy Pearce stars in the film as a man wrongly convicted of conspiracy and espionage, who is offered his freedom in exchange for a big task: break into an orbital prison that has been overrun by inmates, in order to rescue the president’s daughter (Maggie Grace). That premise alone has a throwback action movie feel to it (in the best possible way).

This can only go two ways: Awesome or suck.

The good news is that Guy Pearce has finally put a decent amount of weight on. For a while there he looked like someone Sally Struthers might lose sleep over.

NETFLIX: DVD IS  DYING

In a nutshell, Netflix is reporting that streaming subscriptions are up and DVD subscriptions are declining and won’t stop declining. This, after the studios enacted a 28-day wait period and are about to increase that wait to 56 days. But here’s /Film’s bizarre conclusion:

All of this suggests a power shift away from Netflix back towards studios, as Netflix accepts less than favorable DVD deals. And that power shift cements the idea that Netflix doesn’t believe in DVD as a media any longer, with all its priority going towards streaming media and original content.

What!?

Where’s the context? Today the number-one DVD rental retailer is Redbox, an outlet the studios hate as much as Netflix and one that is under the exact same 28 to 56-day wait period as Netflix. Sure, you could say that the power shifts back to the studios if the studios were seeing a bump in DVD sales, but they aren’t. DVD sales have continued to decline since these wait periods were enacted.

The only way you can say the studios have the power again is in the same way a worker has the power to go on strike. But that worker isn’t making a salary and the company is suddenly discovering that worker is more obsolete than they originally thought.

More and more of the customers are deciding that the days of purchasing crappy moves are over and so are the days of paying more than a buck or two to rent a crappy movie.

And how much of this is a political statement; is Middle America hating Hollywood back? I don’t know about you, but every time I Redbox or Stream, it feels like I’m sticking a finger in the eye of Hollywood — and it feels pretty good.

We like Redbox and we love Streaming. In the meantime, the studios are stomping their feet and cutting their own throats under the mistaken belief they hold some kind of leverage with these waiting periods, when they don’t.

As the 2011 data proves, wait periods did not increase DVD sales, did not stop Redbox from becoming the top rental outlet in the country, and did not stop Netflix from rebounding through… STREAMING.

Bottom line: We don’t need your stinkin’ movies, Hollywood. We can wait. In fact, we’re happy to wait. Those aren’t chips in your hands, that’s shit. Your product is shit and you can’t carrot-and-stick us with shit into purchasing shit or renting shit.

Want to see even more throat-cutting? Read on…

WARNERS WON’T ALLOW NETFLIX CUSTOMER TO WAIT-QUEUE UPCOMING RELEASES

Talk about petty:

There’s also a weird wrinkle in the Warner Bros. delay window plan. The LA Times points out today that Netflix uses won’t even be able to add WB movies to their disc queues until a 28-day window is over. That’s a pretty strange thing; as most Netflix users are aware, discs that are not currently available can still be queued via the ‘save’ option, which helps keep user queues current.

Obviously, Warners is under the strange belief that if one of their new titles is in our queue, sitting there until the waiting period is over, we’re more likely to wait during the waiting period — as opposed to running out and buying the title.

This is what you call “flailing.” You can smell the desperation.

Out of sight, out of mind. We’re not going to run out and buy a lousy title because we’re not allowed to queue it up in advance. WE’RE GOING TO FORGET ABOUT IT.

The customers are at Redbox and Netflix and the studios are pitching and promoting their wares elsewhere as though they’re in possession of a high-end specialty product like Bose radio. But it’s not Bose. It’s shit.

Hollywood has spent the last ten years self-destructing with lousy product, a fetish with metrosexuals that killed the movie star, insulting over 60% of their customers, and betraying their country during a time of war. And today the chickens have come home to roost because the industry doesn’t have the product quality or the goodwill necessary to survive this market shift.

You’ve already lost, Hollywood. It’s just a matter of how many more casualties you want to take.

In the meantime, we’ll be at Netflix and Redbox. If you want to stop by, great. If you don’t, nobody cares. Go watch “30 Rock,” you’ll feel better.

Idiots.

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Thank heaven the GOP debates are over for at least a month.

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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINKTACULAR

R.I.P. JOHN LOWRY, RENOWNED RESTORER OF CLASSIC FILMS INCLUDING ‘SNOW WHITE’ AND ‘CITIZEN KANE‘

INTERVIEW WITH OUR OWN ADAM BALDWIN WITH OUR OWN CARL KOZLOWSKI

STEVEN SODERBERGH’S ‘SIDE EFFECTS’ GETS CATHERINE ZETA-JONES BUT LOSES ITS FUNDING

TOP TEN STEVE MARTIN FILMS

‘HANGOVER 3′ STARS NEARING DEALS FOR BIG PAY INCREASES

LISTEN TO SOME OF MICHAEL GIACCHINO’S SCORE FOR ‘JOHN CARTER‘

10 BADASS ADVERSARIES WORTHY OF FIGHTING LIAM NEESON

JOSS WHEDON’S SCREENWRITING HURDLE: DOES ‘THE AVENGERS’ HAVE TOO MANY CHARACTERS?

‘THE ARTIST’ PROVES WE HAVEN’T ALL FALLEN UNDER THE 3D SPELL…

…BLOOPER REEL FOR ‘THE ARTIST’ ONLINE

MEET THE EXPERTS WHO PUT THE SCIENCE IN HOLLYWOOD SCIENCE FICTION

10 SHOWS THAT WOULD BE MUCH BETTER IF THEY KILLED OFF A MAJOR CHARACTER

HOW INDIE MUSIC HYPE CANNIBALIZES ITS YOUNG

WYLD STALLYNS! THE BEST FICTITIOUS MOVIE BANDS

6 MYTHS EVERYONE BELIEVES ABOUT SPACE (THANKS TO THE MOVIES)

6 GREAT TV SERIES TO MARATHON

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COMING SOON TO HOME VIDEO

Meet the Browns: Season 5: The Brown family will have you rolling on the floor with laughter as Lionsgate releases Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns: Season 5 on DVD this spring.  Starring the 2011 NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series, David Mann (Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family) as Mr. Brown – a kind father and friend who tries to keep his family together despite the ongoing craziness – the laugh-out-loud comedy also stars Tamela Mann (Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family), Lamman Rucker (Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?), Denise Boutte (Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?) and Juanita Jennings (Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls).  Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns: Season 5 DVD is complete with 20 episodes across three discs.

Mr. Brown’s “retirement home” started as a complete fluke – a result of a misunderstanding followed by a happy accident in a neighborhood full of lively and unique individuals. While Brown might not be the brightest bulb in the house, he’s managed to create a combination safe haven and circus act under his “Brown Meadows” big top. The new “family” members – young and old – who now call Brown Meadows home hail from all walks of life, but more importantly, they share trials, tribulations and lots of laughter. Meeting the Browns will surely make you a part of this fun family too. –Pricing: DVD – $29.98

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Crew 2 Crew: Break out the dance moves as Lionsgate debuts Crew 2 Crew on DVD, Digital Download and On Demand this April. Inspired by true events, the drama tells the story of one person’s love of hip-hop dance. With the old school vibe of Dirty Dancing, the film stars Jordan Bridges (TV’s “Rizzoli & Isles”) and Brooklyn Sudano (Alone in the Dark II) with Kate Nauta (Transporter 2). The Crew 2 Crew DVD includes an alternate ending and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

Luca (Andres Londono, Kingdoms of Grace), longs for more than his small town can offer him. Inspired by his love of hip-hop dance, he joins a break dancing troupe that allows him to travel the world in pursuit of his passion. But soon Luca struggles to choose between his love of dance, and the love of his family and girlfriend. –Pricing: DVD – $26.98

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CLASSIC PICK FOR SATURDAY,  JANUARY 28

TCM:

12:00 AM:  Soylent Green (1973) —   A future cop uncovers the deadly secret behind a mysterious synthetic food. Dir: Richard O. Fleischer Cast:  Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Leigh Taylor-Young. C-97 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

I’ve read that the last scene The Mighty Edward G. Robinson would ever film was his poignant death scene in “Soylent Green.” The legendary actor was dying in real life, everyone knew he was dying, and it was quite an emotional day’s work. And it’s really Robinson who makes the film work, especially his scenes with Heston that glow with human warmth.

Imagine how much better off today’s film industry would be if they had even a quarter of the star-power that was around in 1973.

The great thing about DVD is that today’s lack of star-power is Hollywood’s problem, not ours. Whenever we want them, they’re just a click away.

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Please send comments, suggestions and tips to jnolte@breitbart.com or Twitter @NolteNC.

And now you know why Hollywood hates capitalism.

Anyway, more desperate and counter-productive behavior from an industry increasingly unable to create a product the customers would like to own:

Warner Bros., which was the first to impose a 28-day embargo on the release of DVDs to Netflix, RedBox, and other cheap rental companies, is likely to double that delay this year, according to published reports on Thursday. The studio, which is believed to have taken a big hit on DVD sales in the third quarter, is expected to announce the new delay at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. Universal and 20th Century Fox, which also impose 28-day embargoes on Netflix and Redbox, are also expected to double that time period.

This will fix nothing. Oh, there might be a small bump for pay-per-view and brick-and-mortar Blockbuster, but the real money is in sales, and not only are we losing our passion and the all-important “impulse” to buy new films, we are also getting used to waiting for a longer period of time to see them. And that’s a huge mistake on Hollywood’s part. Sixty days after the release-hype dies down, the movie is released to two of the biggest outlets on the planet. Moreover, this genius move will only hurt sales. That’s how short-sighted  and desperate it is.

In reality, all, these panicked studios are doing is conditioning us to wait longer to see their product. In the long-term, this is beyond dumb. The best way to convince us to buy their product is to offer a test drive. One of the reasons fewer people are buying DVDs is because fewer people are going to the movies. So the only other way to convince us to buy a movie is to let us get a look at it for a buck on Redbox.

I simply don’t know a whole lot of people willing to buy a $15.99 film they haven’t seen. At least not these days when chances are better than not that once the credits roll you feel more than a little cheated.

If you make better movies, Hollywood, we will want to own them.

Duh.

However, if you insist on making us wait to see your product, we’ll find other ways to entertain ourselves. And we will get used to those other ways, which will make what you do less relevant in our lives.

WOW: WARNER BROS. STOPS GIVING NEW TITLES TO BLOCKBUSTER

Studios are getting desperate:

According to The Financial Times, Warner Bros has stopped supplying discs of its latest releases to Blockbuster after the rental chain refused to agree to a 28-day window between the films going on sale and becoming available for rent, The FT reports.

FT:

The move is the first step taken by Warner Bros to stimulate retail sales and make owning film content more appealing to consumers. It will be followed by efforts to expand similar release “windows” already in place with other movie rental services, such as Netflix and Redbox.

Blockbuster rejected Warners’ window request and instead bought discs of “Horrible Bosses” and “The Green Lantern” on the open market to in turn offer them to customers for rent.

“They felt it was important to continue to offer day and date rental so rather than work with us they went around us,” Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros Home Entertainment, told the paper.

If you’ve ever wondered why Hollywood is so enamored with tyrants like Castro and Chavez, look no further than this. It must be infuriating to have Blockbuster run to Walmart as a workaround to this stupid 28-day moratorium.

5 WAYS NETFLIX CAN STOP THE BLEEDING

This is not only a good list, but what’s most fascinating about it is how it’s focused on the importance of Netflix’s streaming content.

That is the future of home video, and as we see in the post above, the studios are terrified right now and completely unable to deal with or harness the massive shift in consumer behavior.

Related: Gary Oldman Sad About Online Movie Streaming

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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINK-TACULAR

FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW THREE STOOGES *fixed*

THE FIFTY GREATEST CULT MOVIES OF ALL TIME

UNIVERSAL DEVELOPING FILM ADAPTATION OF ROBERT LUDLUM’S ‘THE JANSON DIRECTIVE‘

WHY DO HORROR FILMMAKERS LOSE THEIR EDGE AS THEY AGE?

10 MOST FAR-FETCHED FUTURE DYSTOPIAS

PIXAR’S JOHN LASSETER TO GET A STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME

CAN A SILENT FILM STILL WIN BEST PICTURE?

CINEMATOGRAPHER JOHN SEALE DISCUSSES HIS COLLABORATION WITH DIRECTOR PETER WEIR

CAN A MOVIE BE GOOD IN SPITE OF ITS DIRECTOR?

BRAD BIRD WILL MAKE A SEQUEL TO ‘THE INCREDIBLES’ WHEN HE’S READY

SCREENWRITER JOHN AUGUST: WHO KILLED THE MYSTERY?

UPCOMING ‘STAR TREK’ SEQUEL WON’T BE CALLED ‘STAR TREK 2‘

‘DUMB AND DUMBER’ SEQUEL HIRES WRITERS

BEVERLEY HILLS COP 4 WITHOUT EDDIE MURPHY?

WILL SMITH WISELY WAITS TO SEE ‘INDEPENDENCE DAY 2′ SCRIPT

FAVORITE RETURNING TV SHOWS IN TROUBLE

THE 30 COOLEST FILMS EVER

JOHN LENNON’S ROTTEN TOOTH FOR SALE FOR $16K

EDDIE MURPHY IS DONE WITH FAMILY FILMS?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SERIES FINALE?

“WAHLBURGERS” IS NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS. (AND COULD SOON BE A REALITY SHOW).

HOBBITS REUNITE TO REMINISCE AHEAD OF LORD OF THE RINGS’ 10TH ANNIVERSARY

STEVE BUSCEMI HAS AMASSED QUITE AN IMPRESSIVE DEATH REEL

DAY ONE ON THE ‘DALLAS’ SET WITH LARRY HAGMAN

‘THE LORAX’ TRAILER TEASES A BRIGHT & BUBBLY DR. SEUSS MOVIE

‘MAN OF STEEL’ CLIMAX REVEALED?

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Something remarkable happened last night. On my fifth or sixth attempt to see what all the fuss was about regarding Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Departed‘ (2006), for the first time ever I actually enjoyed it. That doesn’t mean I’ve joined the other camp that rates it as Best Picture-worthy. But at least I no longer hate it. That’s not a small thing.

Please use the comment section to give me the credit I deserve for hanging in there. Maybe tonight I’ll give that dull piece of crap ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ another shot. Or ‘Raging Bull.’

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CLASSIC PICK FOR FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28

TCM:

11:15 PM  Other, The (1972)  — A boy’s evil twin leads him on the path to murder. Dir: Robert Mulligan Cast:  Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, Chris Udvarnoky.  C-100 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Creepy, atmospheric little horror film. The pace is a tad slow in spots but well worth it.

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--Please send tips/suggestions/requests/complaints to jnolte@breitbart.com

Gibson’s career reads like a Shakespearian Tragedy.  After becoming arguably the biggest star in Hollywood he began displaying his hubris, spewing hatred against different ethnic groups, much of it against the Jews (or as he has called them “oven dodgers”). Gibson’s hatred nearly destroyed his career turning him into at best a b-player.  But announced last week, Gibson successfully wrangled funding for a big Hollywood project withy Warner Brothers.  He will be producing and possibly directing and starring in a movie based on Jewish history, the story of Judah Maccabee.

This is not the first time Gibson has tackled Jewish History, just the first time he’s attempted it in film. In 2004, Gibson was interviewed by Peggy Noonan for Readers Digest.  Noonan asked Gibson if he believed the Holocaust happened. He answered by questioning the number of Jews slaughtered by the Nazi’s and seemed to downplay the Holocaust as a Jewish experience. 

“I mean when the war was over they said it was 12 million. Then it was six. Now it’s four. I mean it’s that kind of numbers game. I mean war is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps. Many people lost their lives. In the Ukraine, several million people starved to death between 1932 and 1933. During the last century 20 million people died in the Soviet Union. Okay? It’s horrible.” 

These are just a few of many anti-Jewish acts made by Gibson, the most famous of which occurred during a drunk driving arrest in 2006 when he kept screaming “f***ing Jews” and  later stated that “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world”  

So should Gibson’s Antisemitism prevent him from making a movie about the Maccabees? Well that’s kind of a hypothetical question because it was Gibson who brought the picture to Warner Brothers. It won’t be made without him. But is it the right thing for Warners to do, and once it is made should Jews consider seeing the movie?

Rabbi Marvin Heir, founder and dean of Los Angeles’s Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, voiced his displeasure in statements to The Hollywood Reporter and predicted that Jews should stay home.

“Warner Bros. is making a terrible mistake,” Hier says, adding, “most of the people that are going to come to a film about Judah Maccabee are the Jewish community. Surely they know the Jewish communities are not going to come to this film.”

I am not as sure as Rabbi Hier. As a people, Jews are quick to forgive. Israel considers Palestinian Authority President Abbas a moderate despite the fact that he was one of the people responsible for the Sbarro bombing, American Jews still support Barack Obama despite his anti-Israel policies. In the end, the good Rabbi is likely to be disappointed to learn how many Jews  see the movie.

More than his anti-Semitic history, I am not sure that Gibson has the background to appreciate the real story of the Maccabees. Gibson is a passionate member of the Catholic Traditionalist movement, a minority Catholic sect that rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1964-65 — in particular the abolition of the Latin Mass. Part of the traditional Latin Mass that Gibson so fiercely believes in is about the conversion of the Jews. The prayer reads: “Let us pray also for the Jews, that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ.” It also refers to their “blindness” and prays for them to be “delivered from their darkness.”

This is a direct conflict with the story of the Maccabees who fought against conversion. Only part of the Hanukah story was the Maccabees fight for getting the Greeks out of Israel, and the cleansing and dedication of the Temple. The Maccabees fought a civil war against other Jews. Judah and the boys were fighting Jews who had turned away from their faith by combining it with Greek/Hellenistic practices (or in some cases abandoning the Jewish faith totally).  The resulting assimilation caused a loss of Jewish faith and tradition, and finally laws against practicing Jewish ritual.

Sadly, in many way’s this story about a war against assimilation of the Jewish people has become the most assimilated of Jewish holidays.  Too many treat this holiday as a “Jewish Christmas,” the exact opposite of what the Maccabee story is all about.

The reason I don’t believe Gibson is qualified to produce, direct and possibly star in a movie about Judah Maccabee is not his love or hatred for the Jewish people, but the fact that his view of the Catholic faith argues Jews should be cured so they can accept Christ — and that is the exact opposite of the Maccabee story.

Mel Gibson is entitled to his religious belief, that’s not the issue.  The real question is:  based on his religious beliefs could Mel Gibson do the story of the Maccabees justice? Personally, I do not see how a man who prays that Jews convert can do a movie about a civil war waged to prevent Jews from losing their faith.

DHD:

This subject matter is a decided departure for the filmmaker famous for directing The Passion of the Christ. But in a way the subject matter is in his wheelhouse: Maccabee is a close cousin to William Wallace, leader of the Scottish rebellion against the British in Braveheart, the film that brought Gibson two Oscars: for Best Picture and Best Director. Gibson last directed Apocalypto about the Mayan civilization and a tribesman who escapes human sacrifice and saves his family. While Gibson has experienced tremendous success as a producer and director, his recent star turn in front of the camera in The Beaver was a box office failure even though it received a rousing ovation at this past Cannes Film Festival.

This new deal also marks a major return to filmmaking for Joe Eszterhas, once Hollywood’s highest paid screenwriter for pics like Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge, and Flashdance. His credits also include two films that focused on Jewish themes: the 1987 Betrayed, which starred Debra Winger as an undercover FBI agent probing white supremacists, and 1989’s Music Box, which starred Jessica Lange whose Hungarian immigrant father is accused of engaging in atrocities during World War II. … 

In recent years, Eszterhas stepped away from Hollywood, moved to Cleveland, overcame cancer, and focused on writing books instead of films. Both he and Gibson have had their share of travails, and make an unexpected and intriguing pairing on an unexpected and intriguing subject.

Much more here.

Eszterhas and Gibson are poster boys for tortured artistic souls — which, for whatever reason, is often part of the perfect recipe for great art.

If nothing else, this should be interesting.

On the other hand, Lincoln Heights resident Chris Strompolos spent his teen summers being shot at, dragged under a truck, and chased by a giant boulder. He had his first kiss, fought off Arabs and Indians, and eventually saved the planet from Nazi domination. The best part is, he captured it all on video and for the past five years, people all over the planet have been clamoring to see the footage.

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If his adventures sound familiar, that’s because Strompolos was starring in a remake of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” reenacting the adventures of Indiana Jones. The difference is “Raiders” was directed by the biggest director on the planet, Steven Spielberg, while Strompolos was taking orders from his best friend, Eric Zala, who is only a year older than he is. They were also hindered by the difference in their budgets ($18 million for Spielberg’s, $5000 for the boys’), and having to shoot their entire movie on the fly over seven summers in the backwoods of Mississippi.

On May 14, 2008,  nearly 20 years after they finished production in 1989, Strompolos and Zala reunited with their friend Jayson Lamb, who served as editor/cinematographer and effects whiz on the film, to present the Los Angeles debut of “Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation” on Hollywood’s ultimate big screen at Mann’s Chinese Theatre. The event was a benefit for the Festival of Children Foundation, but it followed five years of whirlwind screenings at film festivals all over the planet and a personal letter raving about the film from Spielberg himself.

And perhaps the most amazing thing of all is, Strompolos and his buddies never even thought anyone outside their small town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi would ever care about what even they saw as rambunctious summer fun.

“My parents didn’t know what was going on. We kept them in the dark. There was one bit where we set Eric on fire, my mom saw it, and we got in trouble and agreed to have adult supervision,” Strompolos recalls in an exclusive PW interview. “We kept our parents separate from it. We made it sound innocent, just saying ‘We’re going off to shoot ‘Raiders!’’ and mom would say ‘OK!’ It wasn’t until the 1989 premiere that my mom saw me go under the truck.”

Strompolos and Zala were two bored movie buffs who were utterly obsessed with the original “Raiders” when they met at ages 10 and 11, respectively. They hit it off immediately and decided to see if they could remake the original film, shot-for-shot. Since “Raiders” had not been released on video yet at the time of their meeting in 1982, a year after the film’s release, they had to track down a copy of the film’s script and rely on their memories in order for Zala to draw more than 600 storyboards for the film’s intricate costumes, sets, and action scenes.

Their slavish devotion to the cause led them to bringing in fellow dreamer Lamb and his Betamax camcorder onto the project. Soon there were plenty of other things that the young trio’s parents were unaware of, such as the fact that they staged the original’s big gunfight in a bar, complete with raging fires and flame-engulfed stuntmen, in Zala’s mom’s basement.

“We did it safely, and Jayson had learned in a magic book from library that if you use rubbing alcohol it lights nice but doesn’t consume,” explains Strompolos, who is now 37. “All the fire sets were built underneath the kitchen of Eric’s mom’s house. We were pretty lucky. We built our own sets from plywood and other kinds of breakaway wood that could smash or burn easily, plus there was lots of cement in the basement that kept it under control.”

Other tricks employed along the way included building the six-foot-tall boulder that chased “Indy” out of two fiberglass halves that were then glued together. As the boulder rolled rapidly after them, cameraman Lamb crouched inside a shopping cart and shot Strompolos as the star’s offscreen hands pushed the cart in a mad dash for safety.

The film had its hometown premiere back in 1989 as it was finished. The boys drifted apart as adulthood set in, with Zala taking the final-edit videotape with him to college at New York University’s prestigious film school and showing it for fun to friends on occasion. But it was one of those friends who got the ball (or in this case, the boulder) rolling for the film’s eventual discovery and cult-classic status.

That unknown friend told another young filmmaker named Eli Roth about the adaptation, and Roth was determined to see it. When Roth met with Spielberg at his Dreamworks studio while preparing the release of his own debut film “Cabin Fever” in 2003, he told the master director about the adaptation and Spielberg insisted on tracking it down to watch. Once he saw it, Spielberg wrote the filmmakers – and later worked out an arrangement allowing them to show it as long as they couldn’t profit from it, such as at festivals and for fundraisers. Soon Vanity Fair magazine commissioned a ten-page story on the history of the adaptation.

And, in a crazy, almost metaphysical loop of fate, Warner Bros. studio bought the rights to the Vanity Fair article and has been developing a film on Strompolos and his friends’ youthful adventures ever since. Someday, if the cards fall right, he’ll have the surreal experience of watching someone else reenact his reenactment of his favorite film.

While he and Zala are still working together as Rolling Boulder Films, putting together a package for their film “Where the River Ends,” Strompolos already has the satisfaction of having achieved the impossible as a youth.

“We estimated we spent $5000 total, we still don’t know, and we found stuff, built stuff, shopped at Salvation Army and Goodwill while Jayson studied library books to see how magicians did effects and Eric plotted how to coordinate birthdays and holiday to get gifts like hats and bullets just in time for our next shots,” says Strompolos. “There was a lot of planning on the stunts, but we just went for it. And it still gets us meetings to this day.”

Fox 411:

The first image of actress Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman in David E. Kelley’s remake of the series has been revealed.

Warner Bros TV released the image from the NBC pilot, which shows Palicki covered up more than Lynda Carter’s costume from the 1970s. Palicki wears a full pant, which appears to be made of latex, under a red corset top. Other changes include the removal of the white stars from the costume, and a pair of blue boots as opposed to the original red and white stripes. 

Kelley, who is the brains behind television hits like “Boston Legal” and “Ally McBeal,” penned the pilot and executive produced it as well.

Read full article here.

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A shiny new Enterprise is luring in a new generation of STAR TREK fans

J.J. Abrams is officially the Lazarus of movie directors as his all-new Star Trek has gone “Boldly Gone Where No Star Trek Movie has Gone Before.” With a cast of relative unknowns, the 42-year-old has resurrected a franchise that had been killed by insular “nerdyness” and timid imagination. The Gene Rodenberry creation didn’t so much bomb as it died slowly over a period of years. First, the 2002 movie Star Trek: Nemesis starring the Next Generation cast disappointed with a meager $43.3M domestic. Then, the final TV series Enterprise, which starred Scott Bakula, was not embraced by core fans or broader audiences and was canceled after four seasons, ending May 13, 2005.

Director J.J. Abrams will definitely "Live long and prosper"

Now riding a staggering 96% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes – that’s 96% of America’s movie critics issuing positive reviews – The Enterprise is riding high again thanks to the creator of TV hits Alias and Lost. Try getting 96% of any group to agree on anything. It’s no small feat. Compare Star Trek’s RT score against the ratings for the last 5 Best Picture winners.

STAR TREK has better reviews than Oscars darling SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORES FOR THE LAST 5 OSCAR WINNERS
2004 – Million Dollar Baby – 91% Fresh
2005 – Crash – 75% Fresh
2006 – The Departed – 92% Fresh
2007 – No Country For Old Men – 94% Fresh
2008 – Slumdog Millionaire – 94% Fresh

The original STAR TREK cast (above) with the next generation of franchise stars

With the ringing endorsement of tough-to-please critics, Star Trek hit warp speed at the box office last night with lightly-promoted preview screenings starting at 7pm. The impeccably-reviewed feature film seized an estimated $7M or so in Thursday night ticket sales. The idea may have been to get some of the hardcore Trekkies and Trekkers out of the way, clearing multiplexes for mainstream movie audiences today, and they have showed up in massive numbers.

William Shatner (left) with Captain Kirk 2.0 Chris Pine

With Chris Pine (Bottle Shock) in the legendary role of Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto (NBC’s Heroes) wearing the pointy ears made famous by Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek has soared to a history-making $26M on its official opening day according to multiple studio execs, double the previous-best opening day for any movie in the franchise. That means in the first 29 hours of general release, the re-imagined sci-fi blockbuster has delivered an estimated $33M.

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT had the previous-best opening day in franchise history

ALL-TIME TOP 5 OPENING DAYS FOR STAR TREK MOVIES
1. Star Trek (2009) – $26M [$33M in its first 29 hours]
2. Star Trek: First Contact (1996) – $13M
3. Star Trek: Generations (1994) – $9.7M
4. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) – $9.5M
5. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) – $7.7M

How will the weekend play out? The Thursday night preview screenings will probably make Star Trek a bit less front-loaded. In fact, I’m guessing that, based on word-of-mouth and its family-friendly PG-13 rating, my sources believe that the movie could get a 5% boost on Saturday to a possible $27.3M, followed by an aggressive Mother’s Day drop of 40% on Sunday. That would mean a 4-day gross of almost $77M or so.

The great news for Paramount and Abrams and Pine and Quinto and the rest of the cast is that Star Trek will almost certainly have the best legs of any of this summer’s major tent-pole movies. Rank-and-file moviegoers are likely to discover Star Trek for the first time in coming weeks or, now that Trek is cool again, it may rekindle interest with core fans who rejected the most recent incarnations.

STAR TREK could have "legs" like BATMAN BEGINS

It will not be a surprise to see Star Trek sail past $200M. After all, 2005’s Batman Begins performed that way. The Christopher Nolan Batman reboot opened on a Wednesday with $15M and had banked $72.9M in 5 days. Based on that movie’s Friday-thru-Sunday of $48.7M, the first Batman movie in 8 years reached its $205M domestic total at a 4.2 multiple (4.2 X $48.7 got Nolan’s original to $205M). Anticipating a 4.2 multiple for Star Trek is probably overreaching, but a 3.4-3.5 multiple is possible. That would propel Abrams and company to well past $200M.

Competing studio execs  tell me that X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) took a big tumble as expected. The Hugh Jackman X-Men spin-off only mustered $9.15M or so on its second Friday, but it will still likely top $27.95M for the weekend, down about 67%. Meanwhile, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros) coaxed about $3M to start the frame, and it will likely be helped by Mother’s Day, grabbing a possible $10M, down a mere 35% from last weekend.

Beyonce continues to sell tickets in OBSESSED

Obsessed, the low budget sizzler from Sony Screen Gems, continues to outperform its low expectations with $2M on Friday, which pushes the Beyonce catfight flick past $50M. The thriller should finish the 3-day with about $6.25M and a spectacular $55.89M by Monday.

The urban-geared comedy Next Day Air (Summit) got off to a disappointing start with just $1.25M (likely #5 for the day), and it will drift down the top ten to #6 for the weekend with a meager $4.1M or so from its thousand or so playdates.

The Zac Efron comedy 17 Again (Warner Bros) will likely spend another weekend in the top five with about $1.15M on Friday and about $4.5M for 3 days. That will give the Efron vehicle a new domestic cume of about $54.26M.

EXCLUSIVE STEVE MASON EARLY FRIDAY ESTIMATES
1. NEW – Star Trek (Paramount) – $26M, $6,755 PTA, $33M
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) – $9.15M, $2,231 PTA, $111.77M cume
3. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros) – $3.05M, $961 PTA, $22.84M
4. Obsessed (Sony) – $2M, $769 PTA, $51.64M cume
5. NEW – Next Day Air (Summit) – $1.25M, $1,098 PTA, $1.25M  cume
6. 17 Again (Warner Bros) – $1.15M, $396 PTA, $50.91M cume
7. The Soloist (Dreamworks/Paramount) – $1M, $478 PTA, $20.89M cume
8. Monsters vs. Aliens (Dreamworks/Paramount) – $847,000, $388 PTA, $184.36M cume
9. Earth (Disney) – $697,000, $389 PTA, $24.29M cume
10. Hannah Montana: The Movie (Disney) – $690,000, $300 PTA, $72.35M cume

EXCLUSIVE STEVE MASON EARLY 3-DAY ESTIMATES
1. NEW – Star Trek (Paramount) – $69.68M, $18,103 PTA, $76.68M
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) – $27.95M, $6,814 PTA, $130.57M cume
3. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros) – $10.06M, $3,170 PTA, $29.86M
4. Obsessed (Sony) – $6.25M, $2,402 PTA, $55.89M cume
5. 17 Again (Warner Bros) – $4.5M, $1,550 PTA, $54.26M cume
6. NEW – Next Day Air (Summit) – $4.1M, $3,603 PTA, $4.1M  cume
7. The Soloist (Dreamworks/Paramount) – $3.6M, $1,722 PTA, $23.49M cume
8. Monsters vs. Aliens (Dreamworks/Paramount) – $3.55M, $1,625 PTA, $187.06M cume
9. Hannah Montana: The Movie (Disney) – $2.62M, $1,140 PTA, $74.29M cume
10. Earth (Disney) – $2.44M, $1,361 PTA, $26.03M cume

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter@LAMase.

William Shatner (left) with Captain Kirk 2.0 Chris Pine

Keep in mind that Paramount never changed its Star Trek marketing to promote the 7pm Thursday start, so the opening night audience was likely heavy on Trekkers or Trekkies (not sure which term is “politically correct” anymore). So this was a “soft” opening and what amounts to a night of word-of-mouth screenings. Keep in mind that Transformers premiered during the summer when kids are more available while Star Trek has made its premiere during the school year.

The reviews are through-the-roof at 96% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and, as a topic, Star Trek is trending at #1 on Twitter. The reviews in the Twitterverse are just as positive.

just got back from seeing Star Trek. I am not typically a fan of sci-fi, but I really liked this movie.

Star Trek was surprisingly good, and even Star Trek newbies like myself could enjoy it.

I saw the new Star Trek last night with my son, who just turned 7. It was great; we both loved it. Next gen of Trekies/SciFi buffs is born.

I’m still pumped up from having seen Star Trek. Looking forward to seeing it tomorrow and Sunday [diff. grps].

still thinkin’ of how f*****’ awesome Star Trek was. now wanting a phaser to set from “stun” to “kill”

Go see star trek immediately. Incredible!

The new Star Trek movie was great when I went in with low expectations. It is what Nemesis was trying to accomplish and succeeded much …

for those of you who were curious. Star Trek rocked my FACE OFF. It was Shamazing! <3 Spok…*droooool*

Star Trek is fresh, funny, exciting and – biggest surprise of all – emotionally engaging.

Now the question is, “How high will The Enterprise fly on its opening day?” Seems like $20M is a lock, but it could be bigger. If the movie does $20M today, the 4-day should be $63M-$65M. $22M or better should send this spectacularly-reviewed blockbuster past $70M. If the day is $25M or better, the number for the opening 4 days could start with an 8.

I’ll be online with my Exclusive Early Friday & 3-Day Estimates as early as humanly possible tonight (Friday).

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter@LAMase.