Movie News & Miscellany

It's telling that box office mojo still classes grosses as "domestic" and "abroad". Should probably be "american", at least.
Also, classing such a movie as "foreign language" as sole genre.
American websites still seem to struggle to decide between wanting to be "the" worldwide page for something, or just the American version of. Which just goes to show .co.us, like .co.uk etc, would've made more sense.
Hey, you invent an internet and you can have the urls end in whatever you want. :troll:


Wait... what's that? America is trying to destroy the internet again? Oh... maybe co.us wouldn't be so bad after all.
 
Hey, you invent an internet and you can have the urls end in whatever you want. :troll:
Wait... what's that? America is trying to destroy the internet again? Oh... maybe co.us wouldn't be so bad after all.
Don't forget there's always the .sucks TLD as well.

Hmm...I wonder if america.sucks is already taken?

--Patrick
 
This might not be the right place, but when I looked up some box office information about Batman Vs Superman I noticed one of the highest grossing movies of the year is this movie called The Mermaid which I had literally never heard of. It turns out its a Chinese movie that must have had a very limited release here because only 3 million of its ~550 million dollar gross is from the US. I know people have been talking about China's growing influence on the box office for awhile, but its pretty mindblowing for me to see a movie make so much money with virtually no presence over here. I wonder if this is going to be a growing trend in movies, with maybe some bigger stars working on Chinese films over American ones..
I need to get my hands on a copy of The Mermaid. I love Stephen Chow's comedies and I'm looking forward to this, if only for the police interrogation scene!
EDIT: This part:
 
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Received an email from Fandango:

As of April 1, Fandango acquired Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes in a transaction in which Warner Bros. became a minority owner of Fandango, with NBCUniversal continuing ownership as the majority owner.
So Fandango now owns Rotten Tomatoes, but WB now owns Fandango ...
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Women as horses. Women as cats and dogs. Women as fighter planes. Women as warships. Women as appliances.

Seems like the only thing Japan doesn't like women to be is actual women.
Or of actual childbearing age.

Oh wait, somebody else just said that, didn't they? I'm still catching up here.
 
I was kind of stunned to learn that so many of the films ruined by executive meddling turned out to have the same executive responsible: Tom Rothman, formerly of Fox and currently of Sony.

From Variety, here's a short list of his decision-making:
"...Rothman’s reputation for being cost-effective when he was running Fox’s film arm, where he oversaw both Titanic and Avatar—two of the highest-grossing movies in history, which Rothman reportedly opposed making. He famously, similarly opposed numerous elements of X-Men(such as it having too many X-Men), clashed repeatedly with its franchise’s directors and drove away Bryan Singer, demanded it cut the Sentinels because he doesn’t like giant robots, and, of course, hired Brett Ratner.
Variety credits all this to Rothman’s “hands-on management style,” something that’s also manifested in clashes with directors like I, Robot’s Alex Proyas (whom he’s rumored to have tried driving out of the business altogether), and pushing for PG-13 ratings on movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Alien Vs. Predator, andA Good Day To Die Hard. It also admits Rothman has a reputation for having a “prickly personality and a temper,” in addition to his reputation for mercilessly slashing budgets, demanding family-friendly rewrites, passing on new ideas in favor of strip-mining old properties, and turning seemingly surefire Marvel properties like Daredevil and Fantastic Four into kiddie glop."

So basically, he's responsible for X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, AVP, A Good Day to Die Hard, Daredevil, Fantastic Four (all 3 of them), and opposed Titanic and Avatar. And he's the reason it took more than 10 years to make Deadpool - he HATES the character, and ordered all the changes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, including removing the mouth from The Merc With The Mouth. That is also why Deadpool says "Hi Tom!" during the leaked test footage.

Good job picking this guy up, Sony.
 
Yes, it really does. He loves mining old properties, then violates the shit out of what made them good.
You've taken so many points of seemingly separate disdain and focused them all together against one person. I really appreciate that.

In related news, someone drop seven elephant asses on Tom Rothman's head.
 
Unfortunately, that guy's track record with presiding over companies as they make massive box office hits probably means he's not going anywhere any time soon.

He's a horrible drag on comic-book movies, and he sounds like a nightmare to work for, but he was also apparently a big booster of the indie and foreign film scene as a side of the industry that matters. I just wish he had been more hands-off with comic book movies once he realized he hated them for what they are.
 
I'll bet there is a narrative around Hollywood that you should never put this guy and James Cameron in the same room together.

--Patrick
 
Live.
Die.
Repeat.
Again.

A sequel is in development for Edge of Tomorrow! Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt are both attached to the project. Christopher McQuarrie is set to direct. (HitFix)
 
Live.
Die.
Repeat.
Again.

A sequel is in development for Edge of Tomorrow! Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt are both attached to the project. Christopher McQuarrie is set to direct. (HitFix)
I mean, I really liked EoT, and thought Cruise and Blunt worked really well together, so this doesn't make me upset.
 
Yeah, I really enjoyed the movie, too, I just don't know where they can go with it. It was also a huge improvement over the original Light Novel it was based on, "All You Need Is Kill".
 
I bet there is a narrative around Hollywood that he kept Titanic and Avatar production in line to keep costs down and more on time.
Which is nice and all, but since he was against them being made at all, maybe there should be a narrative about how he should just stick to the money and time part, and not the deciding what gets made part...
 
Which is nice and all, but since he was against them being made at all, maybe there should be a narrative about how he should just stick to the money and time part, and not the deciding what gets made part...
Apparently, that's his style. All or nothing, to our detriment.
 

fade

Staff member
You know, as much as I love superheroes, I am totally okay with filmmakers muting or subduing costume colors. That stuff was for 4-color print processes and Ben-Day dots, and it looks frankly kind of stupid in real life. Even making it looser fitting is okay with me. The skin-tight was also a product of the art. You had to have some way to make a dude look beefy when all you had was ink.
 
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