Back-to-back Spielberg in December 2011

By Sarah Sluis

Steven Spielberg hasn't directed anything for over two years. His last film, in case you can't remember, was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a taut throwback to his earlier work but greeted rather tepidly by critics--and myself. He now has two films coming out: The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, which he's been working on for years, and War Horse, which only started production. Both films, it turns out, will release within five days of each other during December 2011.

Why so close?

-DreamWorks, which only has a financial stake in War Horse, made the decision to move the Disney release. They don't care about Tintin as much. But Spielberg probably does, and they also don't want to upset Sony and Paramount, the distributors of Tintin. The fact that Tintin will release first, followed by War Horse, seems like a concession of sorts. Tintin will be first out of the gate, and that can make a difference at the box office.

-War Horse "felt like a holiday movie," according to DreamWorks executive Stacey Snider. The movie centers on a young WWI soldier trying to find his horse, which is a rather Spielberg-y project; wars, young boys all alone, etc. The material is rather dark, especially if you look at the pictures of the stage production, so it makes sense that the movie will release during the holiday movie season, and not the more popcorn-y summer season. In fact, it makes me wonder if that was the plan all along.

In other news, literary adaptation The Help was moved to the spot vacated by War Horse, August 25th. Plans are to market this as an event film along the lines of Eat Pray Love or Julie & Julia. I enjoyed this novel, which was popular among book clubs. The premise has some similarities to the Fox Searchlight movie The Secret Life of Bees--a movie that opened to $10 million but made $37 million on an $11 million production budget. Both books center on white characters in black worlds in the South. Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard lead the cast, and I have high hopes for the film.

DreamWorks has an impressive slate planned, which includes other films like Real Steel (from Night of the Museum's Shawn Levy). I look forward to seeing the studio step up and turn out more of the "elevated genre" pictures (their wording) they plan on producing.

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.

Teens shed their avatars and take on adventure in 'The Defenders'

By Sarah Sluis

I instantly took to the premise of The Defenders, because it combines a culturally relevant premise with an optimistic, throwback tone. The idea is, take some hard-core gaming teens, the kind who spend their free time playing massive multi-player online role-playing games (abbreviated to MMPORG) and make them part of a real adventure. The question is, will they be able to replicate the bravery and ingenuity of their avatars in real life? This project will allow filmmakers to comment on that fuzzy line between reality and cyberspace, and man vs. machine (or in this case, avatar), while at the same time give a nod to the "get the kids outside!" movement.

The other thing going for this project is the tone. Masi Oka, a star of "Heroes" who has also worked as an ILM effects artist, pitched the project, and his combination of artistic and technical savvy (he's also an avid gamer) gives the project the advantage of providing audiences an insider perspective on gamer culture. The writer on the project, Gary Whittas (upcoming The Book of Eli) is also a big gamer, which will also add credence. Producers Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci, who recently gave us the accessible sci-fi update of Star Trek, plan to keep the adventure fun and light, along the lines of The Goonies, which Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment produced. I doubt anyone will be confused by an over-reliance on gamer jargon.

The project seems a reverse of the popular young adult book Ender's Game, in which talented children were inserted into video games with real-life consequences. Published in 1977, when computers were still a novelty, it's funny how the opposite premise--forcing people into an adventure in the real world, not online--now seems more compelling. Let's not forget the similarities to The Matrix (1999) or upcoming Surrogates, both of which take place in sci-fi worlds where physical avatars roam the streets. The idea of being shortchanged or threatened by our creations is that great Frankenstein concept that keeps on giving. I love that this film plans to avoid that post-apocalyptic future setting, but instead make it about kids who finally have a chance to live up to their brave avatar personas. It's rewarding and feel-good. D.J. Caruso, whose contributions to PG-13 action film Eagle Eye wowed Orci and Kurtzman, is attached as a director. He also has Jack the Giant Killer, a fairy tale update, in the New Line pipeline, and Orci and Kurtzman have a Star Trek sequel in the works, so there's no telling when this project will make it to the big screen.