Hey folks, Harry here with one helluva great report from the entire thing called SHOWEST! I've attended Showest twice in my life and always have wound up enjoying it. It's a helluvalot of fun and you always get a neat look at everything that's going on. If ya love indie films, blockbuster films - this piece has looks at the emerging 3D gargantuan media explosion that's coming, STEALTH, CHUMSCRUBBER, HOUSE OF D, STAR WARS, Lucas, Zemeckis, Cameron, Rodriguez and much much more! Here ya go...
We were leaving Atlanta when the Benadryl started to kick in. Destination: Las Vegas. Event: ShoWest 2005. Problem: Worst sinus infection of my life.
This was the second ShoWest I've been to, the other in 1999. This one blew that one away. And from talking with other folks who go every year, there has never been a year quite like this one. This is going to be a long report, including several reviews of films, highlights of events, and comments on just how sick I was through out this wonderful week.
****
Georgia, Sunday March 13th:
I awake Sunday morning to discover a very irritated, raw throat. Great! Just what I needed as I looked so forward to attending my second ever ShoWest convention. As the day went on I felt worse and worse, developing a throbbing headache, watery eyes and running nose. I pick up my people and we make our way to the Atlanta Airport. The flight is delayed a mere hour and a half and I'm feeling worse and worse, but still excited. We get to Vegas and make our way to Alamo to pick up the freaking rental car that we've already registered for and paid in advance. This is about 2 a.m. Vegas time. We wait and we wait and we wait because apparently Alamo realizes how many cars they've pre-registered that night but they refused to stock the store with enough employees to meet demands. The line was very long with only 4 or so Alamo employees working. We wait in line for over an hour before finally getting our car. We make our way to the Howard Johnson motel. I know, it's Vegas. We should be staying at a swinging, swanky joint. Last time we stayed at the Flamingo Hilton. I would have loved to stay at the Paris or the Bellagio or Bally's or the MGM Grand. But, expenses being what they are, we had to settle for the Howard Johnson. Now, of course the HJ reservation was screwed up as well. Now it's almost 4 a.m. Vegas time, we're very tired and I as I lay down with my throbbing headache to finally get some rest I'm thinking about how my wife and kids back in Georgia are already busy getting ready for school and work to start their Monday just as my Sunday is ending.
****
Las Vegas, Monday March 14th:
"Here's where the fun begins"... that's one of my favorite Han Solo lines and little did I know that later in the week I'd find out that Anakin Skywalker delivers the line in REVENGE OF THE SITH. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We're back to Monday. We wake up, get registered at ShoWest, eat at a swinging, swanky all-you-can-eat buffet and then we do a little gambling. My eye is hurting and watering so bad (the cigarette smoke didn't help - is it a pre-requisite that you have to be a smoker to gamble?) that I have to keep a tissue pressed against my eye. We later hit Ethel M's chocolate factory and I spent way too much money. A few of us sat a brewery, drinking and playing video poker and losing mucho, mucho money. Now there was actual ShoWest events going during this time for International releasing but we weren't interested in participating in any of that. Finally it was time to leave Bally's and head over to the Orleans for a night of viewing Independent films. This is really cool. At this same event 6 years ago I saw COOKIE'S FORTUNE, a film that I really enjoyed a lot. We also saw ONCE UPON A YESTERDAY 6 years ago and it was almost enough to drive me to an early grave because it sucked so bad.
At the independent film screenings this time we saw THE CHUMSCRUBBER and HOUSE OF D. I had fully intended on logging onto IMDB.COM before we headed to Vegas so I could fully research these movies before seeing them since we knew nothing about them. I completely forgot to do the research so we just had to throw darts and pick movies. (the other ones we could have seen were DUST TO GLORY, MY SUMMER OF LOVE, MAD HOT BALLROOM, and LAYER CAKE). How did we decide what to see? Well, since my favorite movie is JAWS and I heard the term chum line in that classic movie, I figured based off of the title that THE CHUMSCRUBBER had to be a movie worth checking out. MY SUMMER OF LOVE sounded somewhat like a chick flick, as did LAYER CAKE. Those were automatically eliminated. MAD HOT BALLROOM sounded like it had something to do with Ballroom dancing so it was automatically eliminated as well. That left two others. I decided we'd see DUST TO GLORY since it was being broadcast digitally. But a member of our party heard a theater employee in the lobby say that David Duchovny was waiting so that got us scratching our head, trying to figure out which auditorium Duchovny was in. After our screening of THE CHUMSCRUBBER, we found out that Duchovny's film was HOUSE OF D. So that decided it.
Review of THE CHUMSCRUBBER:
Directed by Arie Posin and written by Zac Stanford, the film starts off great. A high school kid that is dependent on illegal drugs has run out of drugs. He goes next door to see his friend and score some dope. Much to his dismay, he finds that his friend has hung himself during his mom's party. Our hero walks out of the party, not bothering to tell the mom or any other adults that there's a dead teenager hanging from the ceiling. This is getting good. The story broadens out and we meet other teenagers (a bully, a stooge, a bad girl, a young kid that's being kidnapped but doesn't really know it), we meet the weird mayor of the town who is getting married to a control-freak decorator/designer, we meet various parents. The story has so many plot threads going on that I'm probably going to forget most of them. The thrust of it is that the bully wants the hero to retrieve drugs from the dead kid's house. The hero refuses. The bully gets the bright idea of kidnapping the hero's little brother in order to force the hero to steal the drugs. The bully screws up and kidnaps the mayor's soon-to-be-stepson instead. The hero ultimately decides to steal the drugs in order to save the mayor's soon-to-be-stepson. During the entire kidnapping, the mayor nor his control-freak fiancee even notice that her son is missing. There's a subplot involving the dead guy's mom and the hero's mom. During the hero's journey, his dad (who is a psychologist and writer of a world famous book in which he's exploited his son's troubles to make himself famous) is pushing pills on him. This is all leading up to two major events that are scheduled for the same day: the dead kid's memorial and the mayor's wedding. Which just happens to be taking place on the same cul-de-sac. In my ShoWest handbook, the description of the movie reads as such: A surreal cautionary tale about an alienated youth forced to confront the disconnect between parents and teenagers in suburbia, rendered with a razors edge balance of comedy and drama. Did I mention that there's a subplot involving a video game character with a severed head that's not dead but is a hero of an apocalyptic future?
The acting is fine (in fact, that's the highlight of the movie). It's packed with a lot of stars, including Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, Jamie Bell, Camilla Belle, Rory Culkin, John Heard, Lauren Holly, Allison Janey and Rita Wilson. The direction isn't bad. But the most serious problem with this movie is it's own quirkiness. The description of the movie mentioned the balance between comedy and drama. But I strongly disagree. I think this movie can't make up it's mind if it wants to be a comedy or a drama. As satire it would work with some heavy tweaking here and there. As a drama, it would work with some serious tweaking here and there. But as a marriage of comedy and drama, it just feels like it's forced together. As if George W. Bush was forced to marry Hilary Clinton. Yeah, he's got male parts (we think) and she's got female parts (we think) and they might even fit together, but they are just so different that it doesn't feel right. Personally, I think the overall plot works much better as a drama - with the hero dealing with the suicide of his drug dealing best friend.
So after THE CHUMSCRUBBER, which every one in my party agreed was okay but nothing more than that, we went to see HOUSE OF D. Sure enough, Mr. David Duchovny was there to introduce this film which he wrote and directed himself.
Review of HOUSE OF D:
I can't say enough good things about this movie. I was very surprised at how funny and touching this story was. We start with our hero Tommy (played by Duchovny) in modern-day France. After drawing/painting some pictures he races on a motor cycle through the streets of Paris to see his estranged wife and son. It's his son's 13th birthday but Tommy is so late getting there that his son has already fallen asleep. His wife gives him hell for it. He decides that it's time to tell her the truth about his past - the truth about what happened to him when he was 13. Then we zap back in time to New York City circa 1973. Tommy is this quirky kid with bad hair that goes to catholic school and hangs out with a retarded older guy named Pappass played by Robin Williams. Tommy's dad died the year earlier and his mom, played by Tea Leoni, is having a hard time dealing with it. Tommy begins falling in love with a girl at school. This causes Pappass to get jealous and break the law by stealing a bike. Frank Langella plays the headmaster at the catholic school, who fires Pappass from his job as janitor. Tommy rushes to his friend's aid, claiming that he stole the bike. Pappass gets his job back but things get messed up again and it seems to the headmaster that Tommy manipulated Pappass into stealing the bike for him. Tommy is suspended from school and this sends his mother into a tailspin of taking too many anti-depression drugs. Once his mom is in the hospital they discover that she'll never recover, there's too much brain damage. Tommy makes the decision to pull the plug on her without anyone knowing and he takes off to Paris to start his life all over from the top.
The film is called HOUSE OF D because one of the most important story threads deals with Tommy hanging around outside the Women's Correctional Detention House, where he befriends a character he calls "Lady", played remarkably well by Erykah Badu. Lady gives Tommy advice about love, about dealing with his mom and school, and ultimately, at the most crucial moment of Tommy's 13 year old life, she's the one that forces Tommy to take the path that will lead him to being the man he became.
It's a sweet tale and I must say that the young Tommy, played by Anton Yelchin, is one of the best acting jobs out of a young actor that I've seen in years. Ultimately, the older Tommy's wife tells him that he's got unresolved issues dating back to his 13th summer. She makes him go to New York, where he meets back up with Lady and Pappass and then in the end, his wife and son join him in New York. This is something well worth checking out and now it's time for my confession. I never really watched much of the X-Files. I tried, but it just wasn't for me. I have never been all that impressed with David Duchovny. I was not very impressed with seeing him in person in that auditorium when he introduced his movie. Now that I have seen his masterpiece, I have a whole new level of respect for him. He's a very good story teller. I can't believe how great the humor was. It wasn't mean spirited humor but the type that reminds you of what it was like growing up. Robin Williams did a great job in this film without overacting. He has moments where he shines but he never overpowers Anton Yelchin.
****
Las Vegas, Tuesday March 15th:
Had breakfast at a ShoWest event, got free stuff. Felt like crap. Nose running, sneezing, eyes watering, feverish. Don't know if I can make it through the day.
Had a 10:45 a.m. screening of BEAUTY SHOP. I didn't care anything about seeing this movie but the other people in my party wanted to see it so I went.
Review of BEAUTY SHOP:
You know what, this wasn't bad. In fact, it was a damn funny movie. Gina, played by Queen Latifah, has moved to Atlanta and is working for a flaming jackass (Kevin Bacon). She gets pissed off and quits working for him. She decides to open her own Beauty Shop. Now true, there's not a whole heck of a lot of plot here and I felt like it was pretty obvious where things were headed. But it was a fun movie to watch unfold. Andie MacDowell, Mena Suvari, and Alicia Silverstone are in it to provide some black and white humor. I think this film surprised me because my expectations for it were so low but all-in-all it turned out to be an enjoyable event. Nothing that I really have to see again but when it comes out I'll tell others that it's good for a few laughs. Now, I'm a little embarrassed about what happened to me during this movie but I must tell you now so that you'll understand the proper context for the rest of the week. At one point, I kept sneezing during BEAUTY SHOP. One time I sneezed so hard that I pulled some muscles in my back. In between my shoulder blades was a landmine of lightning strikes. My arms and hands and fingers surged with pain. I could barely move.
Had lunch at a ShoWest event. Got free stuff. Sneezed, coughed, took medicine. It hurt to raise my fork to my mouth.
Went to the trade show. Here's some more truth. I'm not in the movie industry. I'm not a writer (though I'd love to be), I'm not a director, not an actor, not a producer. I'm not an exhibitor, a dealer, etc. In fact, I'm a computer programmer for a major credit card processing company in Georgia. So how the hell am I at this event? My father owns his own company. He installs projection and sound equipment all over the United States (and once in Turkey but that's another story). He's one of the most well-known people in the exhibitor circuit because he's been doing it for about 35 years. So it was through his company that I got my ShoWest tickets. The trade show is great because you get to walk around and get free stuff, like the SAHARA bag I got from the Paramount booth or the THX lanyard I got from the THX booth. While my dad continued working the trade floor and lining up jobs through out the year, the rest of my party enjoyed a little gambling and then went to the 6 p.m. screening of MISS CONGENIALITY 2: ARMED AND FABULOUS. I didn't care too much to see this movie. I thought the first one had two or three funny moments but certainly didn't deserve a sequel. One member of our party was absolutely opposed to seeing it but he went with the rest of us just because.
Review of MISS CONGENIALITY 2: ARMED AND FABULOUS:
Once again, I was surprised by this film. Never in a million years would I have paid money to see this. I only saw the first one because my wife ordered it through Netflix. I have to say that I actually enjoyed the sequel more than the original, mostly because of the addition of Regina King, who plays Sandra Bullock's new partner/bodyguard in the movie. It also helped that most of the film takes place in Las Vegas and it was sort of surreal to be sitting in the Paris (les theaters de arts) and watching a movie where I'm seeing clips of stuff that's right outside the front door.
The plot is paper thin but much like BEAUTY SHOP, you're watching it for the laughs more than anything else. Miss America and William Shatner have been kidnapped and are being held for ransom. Gracie Hart, who is now somewhat of a celebrity FBI agent, and her bodyguard go to Vegas to solve the crime. It has a bit of that BEVERLY HILLS COP vibe going as far as the out-of-town know-it-all cop that comes in and knows better how to solve the crime than the local cops do. The local FBI agents want her escorted out of town. There's a repeating theme of taking Gracie and her entourage to the Las Vegas airport to leave and then finding a way to sneak back out to the city to hunt for the bad guys. It's a funny overall movie and I won't mind my wife renting it through Netflix one day.
Now, I'm looking forward to KUNG FU HUSTLE but I am so sick that I can't hardly move any more. And anytime I cough or sneeze, my back feels like it's on fire. I'm in tears because of the pain. My eyes are swollen and my nose won't stop running. I'm begging for mercy. I have to drop out and go back to the hotel room to dope up on more drugs. I have to miss KUNG FU HUSTLE. I apologize. I feel that I've let you all down. Sorry.
****
Las Vegas, Wednesday March 16th:
Woke up feeling a little better. Can at least move a little. Determined not to miss any more events.
Went to ShoWest and ate at a breakfast. Got free stuff.
Went to see CRASH, knowing almost nothing about the film.
Review of CRASH:
Now I'm debating, going back and forth between which I liked better. HOUSE OF D was sweet and touching. CRASH was well-acted, well-directed, well-structed, well-told. It was a pretty powerful movie. First of all, Brendan Fraser came out to introduce the flick which I thought was a cool touch. This film has a plethora of stars and is about 1 day in the life of a dozen Los Angeles residence. Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, Toni Collete, Sandra Bullock, Ludacris, Tony Danza, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillipe, etc.
I'm terrible with remembering character names so please forgive this. I'm going to use the actor's real name to tell what I remember about this very good film. Matt Dillon is a cop that is frustrated because he can't get proper medical care for his dad. A black woman at the insurance company won't approve his father to see a urology specialist. So Dillon gets mad and he and his partner, Ryan Phillipe, pull over a black couple while on patrol. Dillon gives the black man a bunch of shit and then more or less molests the black woman right in front of his partner and the woman's husband. Phillipe doesn't like this at all but doesn't complain to Dillon, instead requesting from his boss that he be transferred. There's a funny side story about flatulence there. Brendan Fraser is the District Attorney for Los Angeles and his wife is Sandra Bullock. Brendan and Sandra are walking through a white part of town at night when they see two black guys, Ludacris and some other guy, walking toward them. Sandra holds on to Brendan and Ludacris gets all offended by it. He was so funny in this movie. Then he and his partner pull guns out and steal Brendan and Sandra's Lincoln Navigator. Sandra is so furious that she demands the locks on their house be changed. The guy that's changing them is some latino with tattoos. She doesn't like him so she demands that Brendan change the locks again the next day. The latino lock changer goes home and has a tender moment with his daughter, who is afraid of guns. He gives her a "magic" cape that will protect her from bullets. Then he gets paged and has to go fix a lock for some shopkeeper that looks arabic. He tries to explain that he can't fix the lock because the door needs to be fixed. The arab looking shopkeeper gets pissed and they argue. The latino leaves. Ludacris and his partner are riding down the street, arguing about hip hop versus country music, when they run over the Koren dude from tv's hit show LOST, who was about to get in his van. They drop the van off at a chop shop but the guy won't take it because of all the blood on it. Don Cheadle is a cop partnered with Toni Collete and is also banging her lovely nakedness in bed. His mother is giving him a hard time, wanting him to track down his brother, who has a very long criminal record. All of these separate story lines are drawn together eventually through out the day. The film is funny and dramatic (and balances the two much better than THE CHUMSCRUBBER). The film deals with prejudice and race relations, fear and dislike of people who aren't like you or that you're better than. There's one scene that anyone who has a young kid, say 5 or younger, that if you don't get a little teary-eyed during that scene then you're not human. Well, I was teary-eyed through the whole movie. Mostly because of my sinus infection but you get the point.
See CRASH. It's a great movie from Lions Gate Films. Every scene is interesting and it's great how the different story lines for these characters eventually weave in and through and around each other, all in the span of one day. Great writing, great directing.
Now I've been looking very forward to what SONY pictures had in store for us. Leading up to this week all the website said was that there was going to be a SONY feature presentation but we had no clue what. Upon arrival at ShoWest we found out that we would see previews of SONY's production slate plus an extended preview of this summer's STEALTH. Okay, me and my friend Brian were just having a conversation two weeks ago about how intriguing the premise is: A rogue robotically piloted stealth plane is no longer under our control. It's self -aware and is about to cause a nuclear war unless we find a way to stop it.
I was all jacked up and excited to see this movie. Until I realized that it was directed by Rob Cohen. I'm just not a Rob Cohen fan. I think his films like THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS and XXX are style over substance. So we watched STEALTH (or at least the first 54 minutes of it)... Also let me add that I ran into Rob Cohen twice while there but didn't really say anything to him since I don't care for his work all that much.
Review of STEALTH:
Big problems. SONY is bragging about how this is going to be an event film for this summer. And you know what, it probably will have a big opening weekend. And then it will be quickly forgotten. Why? Because it's typical Rob Cohen crap. Look at his other recent films and you'll see a big opening weekend followed by a colossal crash. Same thing here. Cohen told us that he's been working on this movie for 2 1/2 years at SONY. Really? And this is all you could come up with?
The film stars Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel. Two actors that I really like a lot. The trailers for this will tell you that it also stars Jamie Foxx but don't let that fool you. Cohen absolutely wastes Jamie Foxx. After Foxx just won a little statue that I like to call the academy award, I couldn't have been more disappointed by this effort. The actors sleep walk through their parts. Why? Because they're actors. They are secondary to the special effects. The robot pilot? Not a bad idea. But when it starts talking and it has that stupid, typical 60's robot voice... ugh! It was like a sloppy seconds version of HAL from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. I love the idea of a rogue stealth plane with nuclear warheads that has gone off the grid. That has a great "24"-ish vibe to it. In fact, maybe if the makers of 24 had developed STEALTH then we'd have a true blockbuster event film on our hands. As it is, it's more of a ballbuster forgettable film. The humor isn't all that funny. The dialogue is stiff and flat. The story uses one of the most cliche things I could think about - a freak lightning strike - to turn the robot into a villain. Oh please! The robot is supposed to be learning from the real pilots. That in itself is fine. Especially when Josh Lucas disobeys orders and saves the day. Given that, you could have the robot disobey orders because that's what he learned. You don't need to have the lightning strike to explain that.
The movie was far from finished. Temporary soundtrack and all. We only saw the first 54 minutes but I just don't see how they're going to salvage this. My estimate: It will make between 50 to 75 million the first weekend and ultimately make 135 million but no one will remember anything about the movie a year from now. The main problem is that the characters are all 2 dimensional. You just sit there, watching it unfold, seeing the CG camera movements and CG stealth fighters and the loud explosions and you just don't care whether any of the characters live or die. I mean, Jessica Biel is in this movie and as lovely as she is, she could have died 30 minutes into it and I would have been jealous that she got out of the movie before I did.
After STEALTH, SONY put on a very impressive after party that looked something like a European nightclub that you'd see on tv's hit show ALIAS.
Went to bed Wednesday night, feeling sicker and sicker. Ready to go home. Ready to go to the doctor. Just one more day to go. And boy was it going to be a hell of a day...
****
Las Vegas, Thursday March 17:
Woke up, feeling better. In fact, this was the best I had felt since Saturday. Still hurting in between my shoulder blades and in my chest when I coughed. But my nose wasn't running. My eyes weren't watering. This is a good sign.
Holy cow. I can't believe this St. Patty's day. It will be a day long remembered. It has seen the... well, enough of me trying to rip off STAR WARS. Speaking of STAR WARS... man or man, what a day!
We go to the 20th Century Fox luncheon. Before we can get in to the ballroom, we're all jam packed into a staging area waiting to get in. Several Fox executives made their way through the crowd until it finally got to a point that none of them could even get through any more. Two people were working their way in and got stopped right in front of me. After about ten seconds, I realize that I'm wedged up against none other than Rick McCallum, producer of the STAR WARS prequels amongst other things. Wow! I shake hands with him and I more or less have him held captive. He can't go anywhere so I tell him the story of how in 1983 my mom kept me and my brother out of school so we could go see the first showing of RETURN OF THE JEDI. I told him now, all these years later, I'm going to do the same thing with my son. Earlier this year, my 5 year old had open heart surgery. It was a very risky procedure and he had so much work done that it took more than 8 hours for the procedure. He was in CICU for almost two weeks. He deserves to be rewarded with staying out of school the day REVENGE OF THE SITH comes out. When I told Mr.McCallum that I was going to let Grant stay out of school on May 19th to see the first showing, he asked how old Grant was. When I told him Grant is 5, Rick said "I would rethink that if I were you..." implying how violent and scary it is.
Finally when the crowd was about to be released to go inside the ballroom for the luncheon, Rick turned back to me and told me to hunt him down after the presentation and let him know what I thought. Sure... I'll do that. Yeah right. Like I'll ever see or talk to Rick McCallum again.
Holy cow! We go in the ballroom and they've got bleachers set up and about a thousand seats on the floor. There's a huge screen set up with the 20th Century Fox logo being digitally shown. In the far corner I spot a podium. Thinking that a celebrity might get near that podium, me and my party make our way over there. The presentation starts with two Fox executives blabbering. Then all hell breaks loose... red lights start flashing and an alarm starts sounding... then my heart took me places I had only ever dreamed of... John William's beautiful IMPERIAL MARCH music began blaring out... from behind the crowd, storm troopers began marching through the center aisle, toward the front screen... then Darth Vader appeared with two Imperial Officers behind him... Vader marched through the thousands of those of us in attendance... At the front screen, the music stopped. Vader spoke to the crowd, joking how being a greedy Sith lord was similar to being a greedy movie theater owner... it was funny... then Vader introduced the man himself... George freaking Lucas walked across the stage to a standing ovation. He took the podium and spoke some about REVENGE OF THE SITH, saying that it was unlike the other SW films because it's an emotional tear-jerker. Then he showed us the SITH trailer. I've seen it thirty times already so it was nothing surprising to me. It was however special because of the huge screen and knowing that the man himself is standing in the same room with me during this viewing. When the trailer finished, to much applause, Lucas said... "Is that it? I could have sworn I brought more of it with me. In fact, since you are the owns who are going to be showing it I really wanted you all to be the first to see it. So I decided to show you the whole thing."
This brought a massive "oooooh" through the crowd that swelled quickly. Then Lucas said, "But Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are backstage waiting to be introduced and they'll get mad if they have to wait two hours. So here's just the first part."
Then it happened. It freaking happened. He showed us the first 5 to 10 minutes of SITH. It was a dream come true. Oh happy day.
****
Review of STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH (first ten minutes):
Fox logo and Lucasfilm logo and "A long time ago" as normal... then the title and the opening scroll that we've all read. Then the camera pans down and we see a top view of a Star Destroyer. All seems quiet. Then two jedi starfighters fly onto the screen. I was amazed at how long the camera stays with the starfighters. It was unlike anything we've seen in any STAR WARS movie to date. Poetically, we're descending into this movie, foreshadowing Anakin's eventual descent. As the starfighters fly across the hull of the Star Destroyer, the camera then reveals to us that we're above Coruscant and that there's a hell of a battle going on. Much destruction. Many lasers and then we finally close in and see that Anakin and R2 are flying the yellow starfighter. Obi-Wan and R4 are flying the red starfighter. They engage in the battle, getting vulture droids shooting missiles at them. Obi-Wan getting hit with buzz droids that are tearing his ship apart. I realize that I'm also hearing the new John William's music as my ears detected a quote from a bit of music in A NEW HOPE. Anakin says a classic line from the original trilogy... He says, "Here's where the fun begins" and he tries to help knock off the buzz droids from Obi-Wan's fighter. As they close in on General Grevious's ship, with Obi-Wan's fighter not capable of landing properly, Obi-Wan says, "I have a bad feeling about this."
They fly into the hanger and the shot of Obi-Wan landing and leaping out of his fighter is going to blow audiences away. Oddly enough, I will say that the audience reaction was the strongest to how R2 gets out of Anakin's starfighter. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. It's cool the way he springs himself free. After they take their lightsabers and knock out all the battle droids on the landing deck, Anakin says, "I sense Count Dooku"... Obi-Wan says, "I sense a trap"... Anakin says, "What should we do about it?"... Obi-Wan grins and says, "Let's spring the trap..."
The clip ended. As much as we got to see it seemed like it all went by in a blur. I can't believe we got to see as much as we did. The audience cheered wildly for it.
Fox gave by far and away the best presentation of any movie studio at ShoWest this year. Following Lucas were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to highlight MR AND MRS SMITH. Then came Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon to highlight FEVER PITCH, a film that they said initially had the Red Sox losing but because of the Red Sox historic win, caused them to rewrite the ending of the story on the spot, as the footage is not digitally enhanced. All the FEVER PITCH footage of Drew and Jimmy at the games was filmed live, so you're seeing the real World Series games being played. Too cool. I'm a Braves fan but any team not named the Yankees winning the World Series is cool with me. But I digress. Then the main cast members from FANTASTIC FOUR came out, including Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffud, Julian McMahon, and my personal favorite Michael Chiklis (big fan of THE COMMISH and THE SHIELD)... Chiklis said, "It's clobberin' time" when introducing the clip. Then as if that wasn't enough, the climax of the luncheon was to have my favorite director of all time come out and present a preview of his film... Sir Ridley Scott came out and gave a brief speech about how he views Knights as cowboys and then we saw some of KINGDOM OF HEAVEN which looks fantastic.
This was the best event at ShoWest that I have ever been to and that sentiment was echoed by folks that come to it every year. Of course, after the event I did not see McCallum to thank him for the ten minutes of heaven he showed us.
We made our way to the next event, which was a 3D seminar at the Paris. Lucas hosted this with James Cameron. Two more of my favorite directors in the same room. We were shocked to be joined by Robert Rodriguez and Robert Zemekis. I couldn't believe how many of my idol directors were gathered together under one roof.
I can not say enough great things about the 3D presentation. Phenomenal. And they really hammered home how the future (nearer than you think) of cinema is digital and how easy you can have realistic 3D presentations with the new Christie digital projectors. Not only did we see clips from GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS and ALIENS OF THE DEEP, but then they showed us clips from some movies that were filmed conventionally and transferred to 3D. We saw the first ten minutes of STAR WARS: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE. I have see this film more than 200 times in my life. I have never experienced these opening scenes this way. I can't believe how great the 3D effect made everything feel so realistic. I felt like I could reach out and touch R2-D2 as he and Threepio made their way down the hallway, getting shaken back and forth. Background smoke seemed real. Vader emerging through the door and standing amidst the stormtroopers seemed real. We also saw clips rendered in 3D from TITANIC, TOP GUN, THE POLAR EXPRESS, SPY KIDS, etc.
Cameron said something that got a huge audience response. He said one of the big advantages to 3D presentations is that they can't be pirated on the internet. Lucas mentioned that he plans to re-release the STAR WARS movies in a 3D format starting in 2007. Although Peter Jackson was not in attendance, he did film a message for us to watch. Jackson talked passionately about digital cinema and said that he's not making an announcement yet but he is looking forward to seeing hobbits in 3D pretty soon.
Tremendous. If you are a theater owner, get this freaking digital projection now. Now! Now you hear me?
So after having our collectives asses knocked out Thursday afternoon by the great FOX presentation and the impressive 3D seminar, it was time to get ready for the final night of ShoWest, the awards banquet.
Waiting in line for the banquet, Rob Cohen passed right by me again. Big deal. I didn't think he needed to be winning director of the year. Then I'll admit that I was a bit star struck as George Lucas passed right by me. I was closer to him than I thought I would ever be, which was about a foot and half. A little later, Rick McCallum made his way past the line. I leaned out so he would see me. When he did he remembered me and said, "So what'd you think?"... I told him that I loved what we saw but I was still taking my 5 year old to see SITH. After all, a promise is a promise.
Then we went in for the awards banquet. It was cool watching Lucas receive his award. And Mel Gibson receiving the much-deserved award for THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST earning the USA TODAY movie of the year award. We saw Jessica Biel, Rachel McAdams, Hayden Christenson, Drew Barrymore and Brad Bird all receive their awards. I was glad to see Brad Bird get rewarded because I felt that THE INCREDIBLES was the best movie of 2004. During Brad's speech he even did some Edna Mode for us. Great stuff. His passionate acceptance speech about wanting to have that theater experience received a huge ovation from the audience. Sadly, because of our crazy flight schedule, we had to leave prior to Bernie Mac, Matt Damon and Jennifer Aniston receiving their awards.
We of course got to the airport and found out our flight was delayed by two hours so as it turns out we could have stayed for the whole thing.
So, I know this was a long post but that was the week that I survived in Vegas at ShoWest. It was a great event. Thursday was one of the greatest days of my life, meeting McCallum and seeing the first ten minutes of SITH, being in the same room with Lucas, Scott, Cameron and Zemekis. It wasn't as great a day as the day earlier this year when I knew that my son was going to survive his heart surgery and fully recover, but it was a day I'll never forget. Thank you to FOX and all the 3D guys for blowing us away.
Till next year,
Better Jedi
p.s. forgot to mention that I got my picture taken with Penn Gillette, Ioan Gruffud and the ever so lovely Jessica Alba.
