I can’t believe it’s November already. In honor of this day, we are pleased to present to you the very first November installment of The Audio Edition.
Topcis covered in todays installment include my possible underestimating of how much Chicken Little may make at the box office and the fact taht Disney is probably watching the results with great interest since those very results may determine if they feel the need to buy Pixar, MTV having some confusion on if they think music stars should be in movies or not (the correcct answer is no), a new King Kong featurette online, the new Mel Gibson film Apocalypto, a new film based on Star Wars fans called “Fan Boy” and asking the question “What is a horror movie”? All this and a few things more.
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Mel Gibson made a ton of money from The Passion, but not as much as George Lucus or Oprah Winfrey in ’04 and ’05.
check this list out, http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/53/Pay_1.html
click on names to find out much they earned.
Gibson did something that no one does in hollywood, and that is use his own money to make a movie. And, he deserves every single penny made for supporting a movie that wasn’t aiming for the mass audience. He went the road less traveled, took a gamble on a movie that didn’t have huge special fx, vikings, barbarians, or dinosaurs, time travel, space ships or robots or gigantic explosions, and shocked Hollywood by making it the #3 film of the year earning 370 million. POTC does look out of place on that top 10 list, standing there amongst a whole bunch of kids movies like Spider-Man 2, Shrek 2, Incredibles, and Harry Potter. And to me, that’s an incredible feat. Every hollywood actor and director should bow down to Mel Gibson and worship him. Cuz for all the money that these big name actors have, they could practically pay for the production of these movies themselves. I respect Mel Gibson more than I respect even the top earning actors like Tom Hanks or Cruise, Schwarzenegger, Julia Roberts.
Oh, and Doug?
Barbarians and Vikings fighting Dinos would rule. But Jesus doesn’t show up.
Mad Max does.
:)
-DJS
1) The Kevin Costner film was ‘Thirteen Days’, which wasn’t scary in my opinion.
2) About 50 Cent (and for that matter, his pal Slim Shady Emiem) – it is my understanding that these hip hop artists are playing something close to thier persona, like B ball player Shaquille O’Neil did in “Blue Chips”. Know how well the other Shaq films did? Uh-huh.
MTV films also produced “Election” and “Save The Last Dance” a number of years ago. Bad news? They also were behind ‘200 Cigarettes’.
I generally shun away from hip hop rappers in films with two main exceptions. One, of course, is Will Smith, who has not only proven himself, but can be a good actor (“Ali” comes to mind), and the second is LL Cool J who is also watchable, and I’m a big fin, er, fan of ‘Deep Blue Sea’. On a smaller note, Ice-T was great in ‘New Jack City” and he’s a regular on one of the ‘Law & Order’ shows, and the verdict’s still out on Queen Latifah.
But here is the problem with most hip hop rappers in films: it isn’t the fact that they can’t act. It is the fact that they don’t want to change a fanbase perception about them, such as image. Ice Cube is a perfect example of this, and the same goes for DMX and, to a lesser extent, Snoop Dogg. Other hip-hoppers treat the suspense and horror thrillers as a inside joke, and ruin the film or come close to it.
Even I liked the late Tupac in “Juice” and “Above The Rim”…but Tupac usually played the gang banger thug. P Diddy looks good, but who does he usually play? Mob bosses!
Why are these people in movies? Simple. The producers or directors have kids who are into hip hop/gangsta rap. Kid reds the script and suggests something like “Hey, I can see Ja Rule in this part! It’ll be so cool if he were in the film next to Method Man!” Also, some names could be considered that of ‘street value’.
But while these folks promote the films on MTV, with the exception of the 50 Cent film, I can’t recall anything with a rock or rap star in the lead or supporting role (not a cameo) that has been backed by MTV films. MTV wasn’t responsible for “Soul Plane”, they had nothing to with any of Master P’s low budget DTV action flicks, and…they had nothing to do with the first two entertaining “House Party” films which featured Kid N Play.
If musicians/rock or rap stars want to be in movies, they can’t keep playing up to stereotypes, even those stereotypes that they want to enforce. It has always amazed me how in interviews they talk about not wanting to play into stereotypical roles, but they seem to have no problem making thier own movies and play dope smokers and hoodlums.
3) Earlier in the ‘Fanboy’ thread, I assumed ‘Fanboy’ was going to be a doc. Now it sounds like ‘Detroit Rock City’. Ho hum and a bottle of rum.
Sealer out.