ShoWest Day One

By Kevin Lally

Welcome Film Journal International's executive editor Kevin Lally to the Screener blog, where he'll be filing daily dispatches from the ShoWest Convention in Las Vegas.

The 34th annual ShoWest Convention launched on Monday, March 10, at the Bally's and Paris Hotels in Las Vegas with its annual International Day�a tradition that's become increasingly relevant since it began a few years ago. As Veronika Kwan Rubinek, the elegant president of distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures International, pointed out, 75% of the top 20 films of 2007 made more money overseas than they did in North America. ShoWest's International Day, which started in a spirit of global inclusiveness, is now an essential part of the schedule�and good reason to come to Vegas a day before the "official" Tuesday opening.

Every year International Day includes a seminar focusing on a different part of the world, and this year's choice, Australia, produced a livelier-than-usual session moderated by witty industry vet Ian Sutherland. There was lots of good-natured joking around between Sony executive Stephen Basil-Jones and 2008 honoree Ross Entwistle, managing director of AHL Entertainment, the parent company of exhibition giant The Greater Union Organisation�each hinting at the tensions that still exist between distribution and exhibition.

Basil-Jones gave a succinct summary of the challenges facing the Australian movie industry, including rampant piracy, a glut of films, escalating release costs, and a shockingly low retention rate (i.e., how long films stay in theatres). Basil-Jones says the land Down Under ranks #57 in retention, just above Kuwait. (The Philippines is #1.)

Australia also has one of the lowest market shares in the world for homegrown films, a mere 4%. Sutherland speculated that Oz audiences may have an ingrained lack of interest in their own films that needs to be conquered. A couple of the panel members expressed hope that the upcoming Nicole Kidman/Hugh Jackman period epic Australia could be a "paradigm-shifting" movie for their beloved continent.

The panel also took a couple of shots at their behemoth rival, the USA. Sutherland noted that a film that works in the U.S. is expected to work in Australia�but so are the films that don't work in the U.S. But he cautioned that you can't always predict what Aussies will like: The comedy Death at a Funeral, which took in a poor $7.8 million in the States, earned a whopping $17 million in Australia.

One final note on this panel: If you happen to run into Stephen Basil-Jones, ask for a copy of his cheeky map "The World According to the United States," which basically sums up Australia in one word: "kangaroos."

"The Industry Speaks Out"

Now's the time to put in a plug for our sister publication The Hollywood Reporter's new publisher Eric Mika, who smoothly moderated a seminar called "The Industry Speaks Out," featuring an impressive lineup of industry heavy-hitters: Andrew Cripps, president of Paramount Pictures International; Mark Zucker, president of Sony Pictures International; Paul Hanneman, co-president of 20th Century Fox International; Anthony Marcoly, president of Walt Disney Motion Pictures International; Warner Bros.' Veronika Kwan-Rubinek; David Kosse, president of Universal Pictures International; Tim Richards, CEO of leading Brit circuit Vue; and Paul Heth, general director of Russia's Rising Star Media.

Andrew Cripps

The discussion covered issues ranging from a potential recession (which some felt works to the advantage of the movie business versus more expensive forms of entertainment) to piracy, digital cinema and 3D. All agreed that Europe still has great potential for growth, in places like Italy, the Baltic countries, the U.K. and Russia. Cripps warned against dividing the world into two parts, domestic and overseas: "All markets have different nuances," he cautioned.

And thanks largely to the Internet, international moviegoers are better informed and more sophisticated than ever before. "You just can't assume they'll only go for action movies," Cripps cautioned.

Trailers, Trailers, Trailers

Despite Cripps' caveat, there was plenty of action in the barrage of trailers screened by Cripps, Zucker and Universal Pictures International's Duncan Clark at the annual International Distribution Marketing Presentations. The emphasis here is on loud and fast, but you can still get early gleanings of the year's potential blockbusters.

Poster image from Hancock

Sony's Zucker, perhaps a little carried away, called Daniel Craig "the best Bond ever," but there's no denying that the new 007 looked fit, agile and stunt-worthy in the behind-the-scenes footage from the curiously titled Quantum of Solace. Will Smith no doubt has yet another Fourth of July blockbuster with his action comedy Hancock, about a most reluctant superhero; the visual effects are both wry and wild. I've never been much of an Adam Sandler fan, but his new film for Sony, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, about an Israeli Mossad agent turned New York hairdresser, actually looks funny. And Pineapple Express, Sony's summer entry from the Judd Apatow comedy factory, will set out to prove whether the stoner comedy lives in 2008. (With Seth Rogen and James Franco starring, at least we know that "Freaks and Geeks" lives on.)

For me, the most intriguing Universal offerings are from two visionary international directors: Guillermo del Toro, following his Pan's Labyrinth Oscar triumph, gets another shot at his underrated Hellboy action-fantasy world, and it looks great; and Russia's Timur Bekmambetov appears to have brought Matrix-like high style to his Angelina Jolie/James McAvoy assassins actioner, Wanted. I'm also eager to see George Clooney and Renee Zellweger in romantic screwball comedy mode in Leatherheads, which Clooney also directed. And God help me, Mamma Mia! looks like fun too.

Paramount's early summer triumvirate of Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda is surefire, and if Mike Myers' Love Guru seems like an Eastern cousin of Austin Powers (complete with gags at the expense of diminutive Verne Troyer), he still scored laughs from the ShoWest crowd.

Paramount's Cripps offered an impressive rundown of the elaborate marketing plans for these films, including a contest for an adventure trip to Morocco tied in with Indiana Jones, which is going out on more than 12,000 prints worldwide and dubbed in 16 languages.

Warner Bros. will be touting its 2008 lineup on Thursday, so Veronika Kwan-Rubinek used her International Day time to promote the studio's active role in foreign productions, in countries like France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and Mexico, with filmmakers like Pedro Almodvar, Guillermo del Toro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It's paid off. These homegrown productions have earned some $700 million since 2004. WB co-production The Orphanage is the highest-grossing native film in Spain ever, and Warner's ventures have produced huge hits in all the above countries. And now, the studio is embarking on its first major local production in India, Chandhini Chowk to China. Their slogan is "Filmmaking Without Borders"�a harbinger of where the international movie world may be heading.