Scorsese fans rejoice, Marty's directing DiCaprio in 'The Wolf of Wall Street'

By Sarah Sluis

The spectacular crash of Wall Street's investment banks and the ensuing recession had the drama of a movie plot--but for real. As the banks were bailed out, Hollywood started mining the topic. Wall Street 2 released last year, the Oscar-nominated documentary Inside Job investigated what went wrong, and the Sundance feature Margin Call, which was picked up by Lionsgate, gave a look at a bank in crisis over 24 hours.

Now Martin Scorsese's next project, shooting as early as this summer, appears to be The Wolf of Wall Street. It's not merely an opportunistic decision--the movie was on track to shoot in 2007, but was sidelined after the success of The Departed. Leonardo DiCaprio, who was originally attached to the project, will star. The movie centers on Jordan Belfort, a Wall Streeter who scammed investors during the late 1980s with pump-and-dump and penny stock schemes. He later became a motivational speaker--an epilogue I doubt (but hope) will be included.

What makes this a typical Scorsese project?

One, a flawed hero. No one does this better than Scorsese--from his numerous depictions of mobsters, gangsters, and heads of organized crime, to his vigilante taxi drivers and abusive boxers, Scorsese has a knack for showing people committing pretty vile acts that are still somehow understandable or even likeable to the audience.

Two, excess.

The Reed Business review of the book states that the "main topic is the vast amount of sex, drugs and risky physical behavior Belfort managed to survive." Perfect. In addition to their criminal acts, Scorsese heroes favor nightclubs, drinking/drugs, and having a good time. There's also an element of After Hours in here--the movie will take place in New York City, Scorsese's hometown, and he's great at lending a sense of place to his movies.

Three, DiCaprio.

DiCaprio's so thoroughly escaped the fate that seemed destined by his breakout film, Titanic (that is, becoming a leading man in forgettable romances) that it's hard to imagine him doing much else than character biopics and serious dramas. Like Robert De Niro before him, DiCaprio has become a favored Scorsese lead, starring in Scorsese's past four consecutive feature films: Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and Shutter Island. That's a lot of movies.

Scorsese latest directing effort, Hugo Cabret, will be seen this December, and DiCaprio's currently filming Clint Eastwood's biopic of famed FBI head Hoover in J. Edgar.

Teens offered 'Submarine' or 'Matched'

By Sarah Sluis

What do teens want? Movies like Twilight roll out and break box-office records, but the formula isn't quite as replicable as, say a blue-chip teen sex/coming-of-age comedy. Today, there's two pickups at each end of the spectrum.

Up at the Toronto Film Festival, the Weinstein Co. picked up Submarine, a teen coming-of-age comedy that had me at "[avoids] the obvious moves of Wes Anderson-inspired preciousness that often sink young filmmakers," according to the LA Times Blog, Submarine sounds like it could have been just such a film, containing such pastiche touches as Super 8 footage and "typeface reminiscent of '60s-era Godard films," with a tone that "establishes an oddball mixture of sincerity, self-consciousness and teen-angst moodiness." But, although another blogger called director Richard Ayoade a "Wes Anderson," it appears the movie goes in a somewhat different direction. The protagonist's main goals involve the more standard concerns: losing his virginity and dealing with parental strife, but it seems like it's done in a classy way with an all-ages appeal. I'm putting this on my to-see list in 2011.

On the epic side of the teen movie game, Disney, which has been pursing franchise films and other "big" filmmaking opportunities, signed on to adapt an unreleased novel (planned as a series) called Matched.

The teen film follows a pretty standard dystopian plotline: a world where the government controls the media and teens are permanently "matched" with someone when they turn eighteen. From this broad description, I'm actually reminded of the wonderful children's book The Giver (stuck in development at Warner Bros.!), which similarly featured a controlled environment. In Matched, a young woman is matched with one man but sees another person's face on the computer screen doing the matching for a brief second. As she develops feelings for the man that is not her "match," she starts to doubt the society that put such a system in place. I won't get my hopes up for a film adaptation yet. Disney also acquired a sci-fi romance series Fallen recently, so it will probably develop a few projects and choose one of the best to move forward into production.

So which project wins? While Submarine sounds like a film I want to see, Matched has an original bent. I'm curious if studios will be able to spin off the success of Twilight into a whole new popular genre. These types of fantasies seem like a pit stop in between Disney princesses and romantic comedies, and they could be the answer to the similarly fantasy-fueled superhero movies that appeal to teen boys.

Disney's got a date for 'Prom'

By Sarah Sluis

Yesterday, the blogosphere was circulating with the news that Disney had passed on The Proposal 2, despite the fact that the original movie made over $300 million worldwide while costing just $40 million. The supposed reason? Not enough merchandising.

Today, Disney announced that a project developed under previous production head Oren Aviv has been put back on track. Entitled Prom, the movie would follow around nine teenagers as they prepare for the big event. The ensemble focus makes it seem like a teen version of Valentine's Day, but the studio is hoping the young, high school focus will replicate the success of High School Musical. The financial hook for the movie includes a low, low budget, in the neighborhood of $5-10 million, and a cast of unknowns. As in High School Musical, the studio hopes to launch some new stars. Disney, along with Nickelodeon, is a clearinghouse for young stars that it likes to shepherd into fame. If Disney writes a clause in a contract that calls for a sequel or an option to appear in a subsequent film, it could lock in an actor that becomes a star through his/her appearance in Prom, most likely at a lower rate.

Although a teen romance may not seem like the biggest opportunity for merchandising, Google proved me wrong. The High School Musical franchise has fleece blankets, Barbie knock-offs, life-size photos/standees, logo wristbands, pens, hair products, Christmas stockings, hair ties, calendars, toothbrushes, a "four-piece study kit" (a.k.a. pencil pouch, sharpener, eraser and ruler), umbrellas, board games--a child could have an entire room full of High School Musical merchandise.

The one snag to this film in my mind is a theatrical release. The High School Musical movies were able to build a huge following because they were constantly played on the Disney Channel. Because it was a musical (which this movie will not be), it encouraged repeat viewings as kids interacted with the movie, trying to learn the songs and dances that went along with it. While Disney has incredible access and experience with the teen market, launching a movie without any stars will be challenging--but one that Disney is the most equipped to handle. And with a $5-10 million investment, there's not much to lose.

Ensemble films spread with 'Contagion, ' 'New Year's Eve'

By Sarah Sluis

From romantic comedies to action thrillers, ensemble films cast with prominent Hollywood stars have their own set of benefits and drawbacks. While the costs of the actors can add up, and a huge cast can confuse viewers, it's a fairly risk-averse strategy. Including names that appeal to a variety of demographics can expand the audience and multiply the star pull.

Ensemble romantic comedies have emerged as the latest Hollywood trend. Last year's He's Just Not That Into You spawned Valentine's Day, which releases this Friday, and even before this coming weekend's numbers come in, New Line has planned New Year's Eve, another holiday-themed romantic comedy. Some of the cast may return for the sequel, which would release during the holiday season of 2011. That's a tough time spot, since December releases are usually big-budget blockbusters and critics' choices, not run-of-the-mill romantic comedies. While having a strong ensemble cast can elevate a movie to a more "special" romantic comedy, I think the best strategy would be to include a pair of kids (pre-teens or grade school puppy love) to make the story more family-friendly--like Marley & Me, that dog/marriage movie that did so well during the holiday season of 2008.

In action/thriller ensemble news, director Steven Soderbergh has assembled an impressive cast for his upcoming film Contagion. Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard (both Oscar winners) are in talks to join Matt Damon and Jude Law. Styled like Soderbergh's Traffic, the script contains interlocking stories about a disease threat. Participant Media, which chooses projects that have a social action component like the environment (The Cove, Furry Vengeance) or food politics (Food, Inc.) is in talks to co-finance and produce. The movie would shoot late this year, after Soderbergh's thriller Knockout, now filming, and presumably ahead of other Soderbergh projects like his biopic of Liberace that is (was?) in the works. So that makes, at the very least, two high-profile ensemble movies that will release somewhere in 2011.

You got rights to that? Hollywood taps unlikely sources for movie material

By Sarah Sluis

It used to be that movies were based on original ideas or adapted from a book or play. When a movie drew inspiration from actual events, they were usually concerning historical figures or events known to the general public--Gandhi, true crime, or that thinly veiled portrait of Hearst in Citizen Kane. Moreover, Hollywood didn't have a problem fictionalizing the objects and places in everyday life. People used detergent and ate cereal with made-up brand names. In National Lampoon's Vacation, they went to Walley World, even though everyone knew they were talking about Disneyland.

But times have changed. Nowadays, Hollywood frequently picks up the rights to story fragments, objects, games, action figures, and newspaper articles, and then creates a story around them. Sometimes they are well-known (Monopoly), and other times they are relatively obscure (the pickup of a newspaper article about a family that had architects build puzzles into their house).

The latest such project is the pickup of a WEBSITE. You heard me, a U-R-L. DreamWorks has acquired the rights to website Musunahi (www.musunahi.com/), the Museum of Supernatural History. The studio plans to create a story that will "center on the curator of a covert organization known as the Museum of SuperNatural History who must seek out and protect the world's best-kept secrets."

Why not just bypass acquiring the rights to the website but create a fictional version of the same thing? One answer lies in the proliferation of reality television. People love "based on actual events," and teasing out what's real from what's not in reality shows, a challenge that's increased as the shows have become more and more scripted. Having a connection to the real world in a fictional story can ramp up an audience's level of interest if it's done right. Plus, for a movie about aliens and Loch Ness monsters, blurring the line between reality and fiction makes even more sense.

Then there's the marketing consideration. It will be much easier for DreamWorks to mobilize the Musunahi community if they don't have to convince fans the movie is relevant to them: they will already know that the movie is directly based on the museum's material.

But back to the acquisition of a website. What does it say about our culture that movies now hook us because of their things instead of people? A biography of a glamourous songstress may inspire those who want to be like her, those who want to learn about her, or those fascinated with the time period. An object can have the same effect. In the age of user-generated content, people may be more interested in seeing depictions of objects, things, sites they consume rather than a remote historical or celebrity figure.

Yet another self-help book turned movie: 'Eat, Sleep, Poop'

By Sarah Sluis

Okay, okay, the fictionalization of self-help book He's Just Not That Into You wasn't that bad. And Mean Girls was the best high school comedy to come out in a long time (based on nonfiction tale Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends...). But under no circumstances do I support a fictionalization of a self-help book with the word "poop" in the title. Yes, a well-connected doctor in Beverly Hills wrote a book about parenting babies called Eat, Sleep, Poop, and it's just a matter of time before it turns up in theatres, courtesy of DreamWorks.

Interestingly, this comes on the heels of another pickup, of the decades-old guide What to Expect When You're Expecting, which was acquired by Lionsgate just weeks ago. Are both companies going to develop them at the same time, to beat each other to the market? Or will one of them wait it out and see how the first mommy film does before beginning production? While parents of young children are better known as television watchers than moviegoers (those annoying people who bring their kids to R-rated movies with the hope that "they will fall asleep" notwithstanding), these two acquisitions show an interest in attracting a demographic neglected by Hollywood. Exhibitors have taken advantage of this market for years now by offering special services to young parents: midday showings of films with the sound turned down, lights dimmed, and babies welcomed. If there's a film specifically targeted at parenting, wouldn't young parents find a way to watch it? On a final note, the pickup of all these nesting titles seems tied to the emphasis on the home that has emerged in the recession. Better hope the focus on the home continues well after the recession recedes.

'Spider-Man 4' abandons one web for another

By Sarah Sluis

After preliminary reports that Spider-Man 4 was falling apart, Variety announced today that director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire are exiting the project. The kicker? Columbia Pictures already has another script in place that will relaunch Spider-Man as a teenager, leaving them with little to do but find new cast and crew.

In a world where sequels are often dragged out past their due date, becoming more expensive to make even as interest in the original concept wanes, I was impressed by this business decision. Not only did Columbia walk away from a project that had millions of dollars of sunk development costs, the studio had already hedged their bets by developing a script that wouldn't require their expensive director or star. I suspect that this alternative script might have been used as a bargaining chip to keep the demands of the cast and crew down (or it might have come from plots for Spider-Man 5 or 6, since the screenwriter was tasked with those scripts), but then was recognized as a viable project in its own right. The choice also seemed to be a perfect example of a management style that is now becoming part of business school curricula that emphasizes critical thinking over following through on pre-planned strategies.

The key to management success may be "thinking through

clashing priorities and potential options, rather than hewing to any

pre-planned strategy." A college dean happened upon the success of this approach when he interviewed his son's retiring principal. The principal made effective use of this kind of critical thinking, one the dean supposed had its only natural environment in the occupation of "a hotshot, investment bank-oriented star lawyer."

In the case of Spider-Man, in one corner you have proven talent that is more expensive but can be trusted to bring in a quality project with large returns. The talent is also your problem, because they have a lot of power, which was delaying the project--in the last report before the talent's exit, the project was at a standstill because no one could agree on a villain. In the other corner with the teenage Spider-Man project, you move up a re-launch that probably would have happened anyway, have more control over the project than the talent, and a smaller budget that will be easier to recoup. There's more risk, but you're still dealing with a franchise. That's a lot of high-octane decision-making going on, and Columbia ultimately chose the second option. Though both sides claimed an amicable parting, I can only wish I knew what happened behind closed doors. I'll have to settle for a rewatching of Vince Chase's attempt to land the role of superhero Aquaman in "Entourage," a worthy dramatization of the deal-making process.

'The Blind Side' pays it forward with more do-gooder tales

By Sarah Sluis

One way to measure The Blind Side's success is to keep track of the projects that try to emulate it. Today, two such projects cropped up.

Method #1: Substitute one downbeat character for another. Make sure they actually exist. Instead of an illiterate, homeless teenager, Alcon Entertainment, which produced The Blind Side, decided to follow up with the story of a tail-less dolphin. After losing its appendage in a crab trap, it is taken in by an aquarium and given a prosthetic tail. Lest audiences protest all the misfortunes suffered by the dolphin, this tail-less Flipper actually swims around in a Florida aquarium. The punning title? A Dolphin's Tale. While this treacly story is a nice counterpoint to the morning coffee (the story first appeared on the "Today" show), I'll take The Cove any day.

Method #2: Keep the Christian do-gooder. Keep the football-playing black kid, but multiply him into a team of jailed criminals. "Prison Break" actor Lane Garrison is penning the screenplay One Heart, which is being billed as take-off of The Blind Side. It's the story of a losing football team populated by juvenile offenders attending Texas' Gainesville State School. When they play against private Faith Christian School, the coach enlists community members to cheer for the other team (though they still lose, just not as badly). Whether this project receives financing or not, however, depends on how forgiving people are of Garrison. He just served an eighteen-month prison sentence for driving while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. One of his passengers died and two were injured when he crashed into a tree. In fact, his move from acting to writing (his first) may be more a play to repair his reputation and artistically atone for his misdeeds. Whatever the reason, it's all a sign of The Blind Side's success at the box office. With the film wielding so much influence, I may just have to see it myself.

Kids rule at the major studios

By Sarah Sluis

Alice in Wonderland adds Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway has played a princess before, but for her next project she's graduated to queen, signing
on to play the White Queen in Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.  Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, two of his recurring casting choices, are already in place as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen, respectively.  Eighteen-year-old Mia Wasikowska, who has a role in this winter's Defiance, will play the part of Alice--no doubt her girlish look combined with her over-eighteen status informed the decision, since she won't be restricted by the laws limiting the hours of child actors.  Using a combination of live action and performance capture, Burton's film will likely work off the dark but family-friendly style of his film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I am curious about how Burton will integrate the performance capture.  Will he use it for animal characters like the Cheshire Cat, or will the film have a Roger Rabbit look?

Tom Thumb film in works
Continuing in the vein of children's folk stories, Warner Brothers plans to adapt Tom Thumb, and has attached Enchanted and Tarzan director Kevin Lima to the project.  Under development through the Red Wagon label, the producers hope to spin the story by focusing on the beginnings of Tom Thumb.  They're enlisting Robert Rodat to write the screenplay.  While best known for his screenplay Saving Private Ryan and war follow-up The Patriot, he got his start writing family pictures Fly Away Home and Tall Tale, and will serve as a good choice if the producers want to emphasize the battles and adventures of the thimble-sized hero.  The producers are also undecided about representation of the little man, with live action and CGI both being thrown around as options.

Studios' production slate rich in kid and teen pictures
While Tom Thumb is still in the development phase, Alice in Wonderland will join other a large number of projects going into production now that some of the uncertainty surrounding the renewal of the SAG contracts has blown over.  Variety compiled a list of over forty projects going into production.  A substantial amount target child and teen audiences:

• Ramona, the classic children's book by Beverly Cleary



• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows



• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a Harry Potter knockoff based on a book series about a boy who realizes he is the descendant of a Greek god (directed by Harry Potter alum Chris Columbus)



• Tooth Fairy, which looks to be an Elf-like comedic riff on the coins-for-teeth fairy (if you replace Will Ferrell with stone-faced Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson)



• Diary of a Wimpy Kid, an adaptation of a series of cartoon books



• Mars Needs Moms, another illustrated storybook adaptation



• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a live action adaptation of the anime-styled comic book



• Footloose remake, starring Zac Efron and sure to draw in tweens and teens



• Fame remake, another song-and-dance high school film

One trend in this slate of films is the popularity of graphic or comic novels as a literary source.  With adaptations of action and superhero comics doing so well in the box office, there has been an increased demand to develop books that mine the comic book format, using panels or incorporating illustrations and letters into their stories.  Spielberg, for example, is directing animated Tin Tin, based on the French comic.  The richness and depth of plot in these stories, however, can be as much help as hindrance, as writers must sift through and delete material over the course of the adaptation.  Of all these projects, however, I am most enthusiastic about Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which will be much more about the actors' interpretations of the characters rather than the plot of the original (and rarely read by children anymore) Alice Adventure's in Wonderland.