BREAKING NEWS: Art films don’t make money

I love Nikki Finke. Her throat-slitting commentary on the film industry at her site Deadline Hollywood Daily is a favorite of mine. Just yesterday she broke the story that billionaire Sidney Kimmel is scaling back his producing efforts after a serious of indie films he backed bombed. Titles included Talk To Me, Death At A Funeral, Lars And The Real Girl and The Kite Runner. Heard of them? I hadn’t until now. His latest movie, Charlie Bartlett, goes out in theaters through MGM this weekend and is expected to be dead on arrival.

Video Business’ Marcy Magiera recently wrote a piece in Video Business, which is reproduced on her blog, where she mentions how much contempt there is for genre films in the direct-to-video world.

There currently seem to be two ways of looking at the direct-to-video business. From one—the ‘call them DVD Premieres’ viewpoint—all direct-to-video product has been upgraded to extend major studio franchises. Think Disney animation, Dr. Dolittle and Bring it On Again… and again.

In fact, when Wendy Wilson and Laurence Lerman were reporting the DVD premieres story on page 8, they found many studio execs were anxious to talk about the biz, until they found out it was that genre direct-to-video stuff we wanted to know about, in which case they took a pass.

The word ‘schlock’ may have been used.

Not by us, of course.

This sort of condescending attitude towards the Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme films of the world is common. This is despite the fact that they consistently make money for the companies that produce them. I’ve had many off the record conversations with semi-important people who, despite knowing full well that their bread and butter is in genre films, hate that they have to make these movies. They wish that they could make ‘real’ movies, but don’t and won’t because they know that, as Andrew Stevens used to say, there’s a market for sausage movies.

It’s a real shame people just can’t love the fact that they’re in the film industry, as I’m sure these movies would be a lot better if the people behind them actually cared to watch the final product beyond a bottom line, financial view.

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HIV affects all racial groups in some way, but in the United States it is African Americans that are the hardest hit by the disease. Despite only making up 12 percent of the population, nearly half of HIV patients are black. As the HIV population grows, so does the amount of African Americans that are infected with the disease. To say that it is a serious issue would be downplaying its importance.

Abiding by the old South Park motto “Either everything is funny, or none of it is,” director Kevin Clarke decided to raise awareness of HIV in the black and Hispanic community by making a film where the main character has to deal with the pressure of finding out that he is HIV positive. Making matters worse, he has a pregnant fiance that he has to tell. Flipping Out is a comedy that also features a man addicted to “to crack laced marijuana blunts,” and another man, “a dilusional schizophrenic on house arrest.”

I spoke to Kevin Clarke a few minutes ago and he said the film came about as a result of him losing two family members to AIDS. Both of them did not know that they had the disease until it was far too late. “I wanted to make a comedy of that same concept so people can grab on a little more. I wanted it to be funny at the same time because it’s very important that people know if they have the disease so they can take the medication. I’m trying to educate and be funny at the time.”

The low budget urban comedy is going out through KOCH Entertainment on March 18th. Clarke says that Circuit City and FYE have agreed to stock the film, but it doesn’t look like a Blockbuster deal will happen.

How did I find out about this movie? Well, for some reason the folks at Dread Central, a horror website, were sent the sell sheet to the movie by Kevin Clarke and his company Miami Films. Foywonder then went ahead and forwarded it to me, knowing that I would have something to say about it. The only text in the e-mail sent to Dread was…

Please Forward this one sheet to one of your buyers. Predicted to be the best selling DVD in the USA and UK available for all regions. Click the
one sheet to view trailer.

I’m going to skip the absurdity of that statement and move on to the sell sheet. When I first saw the it I thought that Clarke and Miami Films were self-distributing the film. Why? Well, not only is KOCH not mentioned, but it’s poorly formatted, and they spelled ‘delusional’ with an ‘i’ instead of an ‘e.’

How this is going to turn out is beyond me. I don’t expect it to be good, but that’s not saying much since I’m not the target audience for the film. If the film had been able to get into Blockbuster I could have seen it generating some “any publicity is good publicity” off the idea of an HIV comedy, but I don’t see that happening. Still, if Clarke wants to generate some publicity it would do him good to send some angry “Letters to the editor” in various cities.

You can see the trailer at the Miami Films website.

Sell sheet is below.
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HD-DVD is, for all intents and purposes, dead. The free market has spoken, and it has chosen Blu-Ray to be the DVD format of the future. ‘Future’ being the keyword, as the numbers for Blu-Ray ownership are still very low due a combination of high prices, low availability of titles, and most people simply not giving a damn about watching movies in high definition (myself included).

As of today I’m fairly certain that there hasn’t been a single direct-to-video film released to Blu-Ray (unless a DVD of a fireplace counts). Platinum Disc, a catalog distributor, looks to be ready to not only jump into the Blu-Ray market, but offer their discs at a price 1/2 lower than the Hollywood companies. On April 8th the company will be releasing the TV destruction movies 10.5: Apocalypse and Category 7: Day of Destruction, the TV miniseries Blackbeard, and the two DTV filmsThe Last Sentinel (starring Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson) and Curse of King Tut’s Tomb (starring Casper Van Dien) on Blu-Ray with list prices of $14.99.

There’s no artwork for any of these available yet, but I’ll try to find time to get it tomorrow.

See the similarities?

First Look Home Entertainment is releasing an indie film tomorrow by the name of The Perfect Witness. It was originally titled The Ungodly, but I guess First Look decided that they needed something more generic. Whatever the case, it certainly looks like someone in marketing at First Look has been following the news about Big Screen Entertainment Group’s horror film Babysitter Wanted.

Pretty scummy, eh?

Update February 22nd: To clear something up, Big Screen Entertainment Group did not contract Stockholm to do the artwork. Rather, international distributor Imagination-LLC contracted them. What company eats the cost of the artwork was a question I did not think to ask.

Word I got today is that BSEG and Imagination have known about the artwork snafu since August. Not only that, but two other movies are using that artwork. Allumination is using it for the rated version of the horror film Carver, and Dream Entertainment is using it to promote Darrell Roodt’s Lullaby overseas.

BSEG used the artwork first. The question is whether those in marketing at First Look knew about Babysitter Wanted when they approved the use of stock art in the final DVD campaign. I suspect that they did, and while there was no ’stealing’ of physical property and a lawsuit is not likely to occur, I do believe First Look knew about the film and the artwork. To me, it’s dishonest to proceed as they did if this is true.

Update - February 21st: Man I love this industry. Here is what it looks like from my angle at the moment. About a year ago Big Screen Entertainment Group contracted Los Angeles-based Stockholm Design to come up with some potential designs for their film Babysitter Wanted. Stockholm, who has designed a lot of slick, professional direct-to-video and limited theatrical artwork campaigns, came back to them with several pieces of art. The artwork that Big Screen chose was, at least in my opinion, the best and most marketable of the bunch.

According to a source Big Screen cut a hefty check for the rights to that artwork [edit: look above for correction] under the assumption that such a high price meant that they owned the physical elements of the artwork. According to the person at Stockholm I spoke to they informed Travis Stevens at Imagination-LLC (the company selling the film to distributors) only a month ago that Big Screen did not, in fact, own the image of the woman with the fingers on her face. Stockholm, however, did not make the artwork for The Perfect Witness.

As such, and I never believed this to start, there is likely no copyright violation coming from First Look. Unscrupulous business practices? Maybe. There is little doubt in my mind that First Look’s marketing division is familiar with Babysitter Wanted. They’re not big on horror nowadays, but considering they have a previous relationship with BSEG (they distributed the awful Jenny McCarthy movie Dirty Love) they’ve likely received distribution feelers. If First Look knew that another company was promoting a movie with the same piece of stock artwork yet still went through with the design of a campaign, that’s all together messed up and unfortunate.

I’ve still yet to hear from someone on First Look’s side officially. There was a post from someone who may work at First Look, but their publicist has been out sick.

Update - February 20th: For those interested in the story I’ve gathered some more information. Big Screen Entertainment Group has been using that particular artwork to promote Babysitter Wanted since May of 2007. The film was advertised in Hollywood Reporter and at Cannes, and has been screened with that artwork attached to it at the Sitges, Malaga, Horror Hound, and the Hollywood film festivals.

I haven’t been able to find out any details about when First Look picked up The Ungodly for distribution. The number I have for the director of the picture is no longer in service and a call to Arsenal Pictures (listed as a distributor on IMDb) revealed that they are only the international distributor of the film.

Earlier today someone by the name of ’scalia’s robes’ posted the following comment.

Well, I guess this would be an actual issue if “Babysitter Wanted” even had a street date attached to it. Has the title even been announced? “Perfect Witness” is locked and at retail…so who’s stealing from whom?
Looks like Big Screen Entertainment are the ones caught with their pants down here, not First Look…

“Street date” “Locked and at retail.” Sounds like industry lingo to me. As someone in the industry joked to me in an e-mail, “You are correct about that inside terminology. I barely speak that tongue!” The point of the comment escapes me, as someone who clearly understands the industry should realize that companies produce artwork when they’re trying to sell a film TO a distributor that will put their movie in video stores. Artwork doesn’t just magically appear only when a film has a release date set.

This is purely circumstantial, but here’s something nifty. When someone comments on an article I get an e-mail that lists an IP address. The IP address for ’scalia’s robes,’ when entered into Google, returns a post that links to the First Look’s website.

Big Screen Entertainment Group is now in the process of getting a whole new artwork campaign made. First Look, under their previous management, released their film Dirty Love last year.

I’m awaiting an official response from First Look.

Before the website went down I wrote about a conversation I had with low budget producer David Sterling (Camp Blood series, Gothic Vampires From Hell) about a few of his upcoming releases. At that time he told me Razor Digital Entertainment, a company with a weird name that primarily releases exercise DVDs but has distributed several of Sterling’s films in the past, was going to release three of his films on April 15th. First was The Curse of Lizzie Borden: Prom Night, which I previously reported. It had some fine artwork and was perfectly fit for release at the same time JS Cardone’s Prom Night reimagination was coming out in theaters.

There was no artwork for the other two at the time David and I spoke. I saw on the Razor Digital website that Queen Cobra and Things had artwork posted. David Sterling was referring to Queen Cobra as Snakes on a College Campus during our conversation.

When a deranged college professor meets an over-eager student, terror strikes the science department! Taking advantage of the unsuspecting girl’s enthusiasm, the professor runs experiments of a venomous nature.

Almost immediately, vicious murders take place around campus at a biting pace! Suddenly, the professor’s creature can no longer be controlled and has an appetite of its own.

Revenge against the man who has stolen her humanity is on the menu! How many innocent students will pave the way filling her taste for wrath!

So wait . . . The movie isn’t about snakes on a college campus? It’s about a woman that is turned into a snake? Or a snakegirl? That’s a damn shame. Regardless, how could that artwork entice anyone to rent Queen Cobra? The ‘Queen’ appears to be laying dead and motionless with a tagline “Where science meets slaughter”. So, is science behind the reason for her lifeless form? Who wants to see that? Who wants to rent a horror movie that comes packaged liked the cover of a cheap horror novel?

As for Things, a bloody anthology film that David produced for his first film, I’m not sure if the artwork is better or worse than the original. I’m inclined to say worse, since at least the original made me want to see the film out of a morbid curiosity to see just what sort of movie would have such a wacky box. What’s with the bricks? Why is it ‘Un-Rated’ instead of ‘Unrated’? It’s a very fun film though.

The co-writer of Bone Dry, Jeff O’Brien (Insecticial, Alien Incursion), is a friend of the site so I’ve been looking forward to seeing what is certainly his biggest film yet. It finally arrives on DVD through Allumination FilmWorks next Tuesday, February 26th.

Eddie, a mysterious young man trapped in a desert landscape, is forced to undergo a series of diabolical tests by an armed maniac looking for revenge. This dramatic thriller stars Dee Wallace-Stone (SONS & DAUGHTERS), Lance Henriksen (MILLENNIUM), and Luke Goss (BLADE II) as Eddie.

It’s a damn shame they didn’t wind up using the UK artwork (right) for the US release (left), as it is infinitely better and gives you a much better picture of what the film is about. And what is with putting Dee-Wallace Stone’s name before Lance Henriksen and Luke Goss in the description? I have all the love in the world for Ms. Stone, but no one is renting a movie that features ‘an armed maniac looking for revenge’ because it stars her.

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Wow. It’s a film about a film about a killer animal that didn’t premiere on the SciFi Channel. What is this world coming to?

Black Water is out today through Sony with a behind the scenes featurette and an audio commentary. I’ve heard good things about it, so check it out and leave a comment letting us know what you thought of the film.

The plot is below…

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Just got word that Dolph Lundgren is currently in Bulgaria shooting his latest action flick Direct Contact. It’s being directed by Nu Image head honcho Danny Lerner, who mostly stuck to producing before getting behind the director’s chair of Nu Image films Traitor Hearts, Shark Zone, and Target of Opportunity in the last ten years. He also directed the highly anticipated Shark in Venice.

Making a screenplay sale can be tough, so what better way to get around all the troubles of agents and revisions when you can just put your script for sale on eBay?

Whether or not it will net him a sale is unknown at the moment, but friend of the site Nathyn Masters (who made the indies Fourth Beast: Mark of the Anti-Christ and Wages of Sins) hopes his Christian horror script Turn Me On Deadgirl will make him a few bucks. I’m admittedly a little stumped as to why someone would give a sexually suggestive title to a Christian horror film. Nonetheless, check it out. Masters is selling the rights to his script for 15 years on eBay with an opening bid of $500. Masters says that he hopes to put the profits of this sale into new equipment to aid him in his goal of becoming a better filmmaker. Good luck to him.

$500 is a steal compared to what a couple other writers are trying to get for their scripts. A writer by the name of Gina Quartermaine is trying to sell a supernatural script for $550,000. Yes, $550,000, but at least she offers free shipping.

Director: Christopher Harrison
Writer: Christopher Harrison
Starring: Steve Byers, Danielle Harris, Shawn Roberts, Robbie Amell, Ahmed Dirani

As I start to write this there are only a few minutes left in Christopher Harrison’s Left For Dead, which is currently having its world premiere at Slasherpool’s Insomnifest 2008 online horror film festival. I spent just $4.99 to see this film, and it was well worth the price.

It always amazes me when I see directors completely butcher the slasher film formula. You know, a guy with a cool mask, some teenagers, some sort of plot behind it, and practical special effects that put a heavy emphasis on showing blood. Even though it should be rather simple I usually end up disliking most slasher films made in the past ten years or so due to the influences that the Screams and I Know What You Did Last Summers of the world have had on the genre.

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A week ago I did a plug for Slasherpool’s online film festival Insomnifest 2008. It has been a busy week so I haven’t had the chance to check anything out, but I decided to make some room to watch Left For Dead, a fairly simple looking slasher starring Danielle Harris from the later Halloween movies, tonight.

I originally thought that the price to watch a single movie was going to be $9.99, which sounded like a ripoff to me. To my delight, when I went to pay I was only charged $4.99.

$4.99 people! And the picture looks pretty good too. Go check out the site and watch a movie for crying out loud.

Movie’s not looking too bad either.

I mentioned before the website went kaput a couple weeks ago that I had gone up to North Jersey to record a commentary track with director Brett Piper and popCinema President Michael Raso for the eventual remastered release of Drainiac in HD-DVD format. While the death of HD-DVD means that the film will be getting released in standard format, the company will still be putting out the remastered film at some point in the near future. Those of you who pony up cash to own the DVD will get the chance to read my liner notes for the movie, which I’m just about to finish.

In the interest of full disclosure and journalistic fairness I should point out that while I was not paid to do the commentrary track, I am being paid to write these liner notes. I’m not gong to say how much, but let’s just say that I could dine like a king at McDonalds if I chose to.

Ohh yes. There’s a great man that goes by the nickname ‘Slasherfan’ who has posted some fantastic videos on YouTube recently. One of these videos is a six-minute compilation of scenes from David Prior’s Killer Workout (aka Aerobicide). If I recall correctly it was after this film that David, along with two partners, formed Action International Pictures. The company would go onto distribute over a hundred movies and produce a bunch.

Would you like some cheese with your ‘Safety pin killer has to contend with the muscles of Ted Prior’ wine?

Who doesn’t love Steven Seagal in 2008? And who won’t continue to love him when he’s still making these movies in 2018?

I’ve heard good things about this one. Here’s the synopsis from Sony.

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Continuing on this story.

I spoke to the producer in question and he assures me that the actress was paid in full “by [our] records.” He’s going to get in contact with that actress in the morning and ask her to call me when things are straightened out. If she does get paid I won’t need to post any information.

Word has it that he has been cast as Bryan Fury in the upcoming Tekken movie, which is based on the old Playstation and arcade game.

I can see it. The production is filming in Louisiana with Dwight Little of Anacondas as the director. Hopefully this winds up being succesful, as it’d be nice to see Gary get the push from this movie that Mark Dacascos did not get from Brotherhood of the Wolf and Cradle 2 the Grave.

I put in a call to the Tekken production office for confirmation and I’m awaiting a call back.

Man, it feels like it was just yesterday when NBC debuted the sitcom “Inside Schwartz” in the post-”Friends” slot. That was actually something like six, seven years ago. “Inside Schwartz” wasn’t a terrible show (the name was though), but the demand for ratings that comes with being placed immediately after the hottest sitcom in the United States will end up killing most shows, and that’s exactly what happened.

Breckin Meyer seems content to just takes roles, make the best out of them, and cash his paycheck. Bless him. He’s a funny mofo on “Robot Chicken” when he does voiceover work. Corporate Affairs, however, does not look blessed. The first IMDb review starts off with “Seriously, don’t even download this and watch it for free,” and then goes on to tear down the film. Chances are it’s not as bad as this person describes, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be good for more than gratuitous sex.

Breckin Meyer stars as Ted, a good guy with a loving wife, great kids, and a solid job with a computer software company. But when Ted is promoted to middle management, his new boss introduces him to a life of cutting corners, constant travel, and the illicit pleasures of beautiful prostitutes. What happens when a family man whose MBA stands for ‘Many Brief Affairs’ has to pick up the pieces of a world that’s crashing down around him?

The illicit pleasures of beautiful prostitutes? Many Brief Affairs? Yeah, I don’t expect much.

I don’t tend to report on the adult industry for various reasons, but journalist Luke Ford has written about an intriguing situation that I decided to investigate a little myself.

On Monday Luke reported that due to the WGA strike, Hollywood payroll company Axium had gone out of business in December. As a result, the second paycheck Playboy employees received in December bounced. According to Ford, this left 150 employees without pay, and in the month-and-a-half since, those employees still had not been paid. Earlier today Luke reported that the employee who leaked to him the story was fired. According to Luke Playboy is in violation of California law, which stipulates that bounced checks must be taken care within 30 days.

I contacted Playboy for comment on the story and was told by Matt Kalinowski in Playboy’s publicity department that “Yes, as of this afternoon, everyone with an outstanding balance has been paid.” I forwarded Matt’s e-mail to Luke Ford, who replied that one source reported back to him that they had still not been paid.

Luke tried to get an answer from Playboy, only to be told that, “This is a process.” Yes, it requires a complicated process to give employees the paychecks that they’re entitled to under California law.

I’m going to link you to the stories on Luke’s site, but let me note in big bold letters that Luke Ford’s website contains pornographic material. Don’t click if you’re at work, easily offended, etc. — first story, second story, third story.

Yeah, it’ll make money, but seriously now, STIGMATA 2?

According to Shock Till You Drop the writer’s strike coming to a conclusion will allow writer Sean Hood (who had a part in Halloween: Resurrection, Cube 2, and The Crow: Wicked Prayer) to get started on penning the script for MGM and 360 Pictures.

There is one person in this world who is excited about Stigmata 2, and his last name is probably Hood.

If you enter into a contract with someone that stipulates you will pay them ‘x’ amount in exchange for rendering certain services, please, for crying out loud, PAY THEM.

Lloyd Kaufman and David Sterling don’t pay most of the people who work on their movies, but as far as I know, they tend to tell those people not to expect anything.

Over the past four and a half years of “reporting” on this industry, I’ve heard so many stories of producers bouncing checks, skipping out after the second of three payments, or just flat out never paying anyone. I’ve never reported them because I didn’t want to make any enemies.

I’m tired of it. I don’t want to obtain news from crooks, and I don’t want these people on my podcast. I recently learned that a respected b-movie actress was stiffed on her pay by a veteran producer after she graciously came onto his set for a day. This person has been contacted and told that I’ll be revealing his information tomorrow if I don’t receive some sort of notice that the actress has been paid.

What possesses these people to think that it’s okay to renege on their deals? Because their previous movie didn’t perform as well as they hoped? Because a movie went over-budget? That doesn’t matter. Offer a different deal if you’re worried about that. But don’t just stiff people and hide behind an assistant.

This post brought to you by caffeine and stress.