Alice in Wonderland Controversy Still Going Strong

I think this whole story revolving around Tim Burton's Alice and Wonderland being given a truncated theatrical release in order to get it onto DVD quicker is fascinating, which means I'll post about it every time there is some new revelation which thickens the plot. Consider the plot thickened.

Hollywood Reporter is saying today that that Odeon in the U.K., who are responsible for over 100 theaters have boycotted Alice in Wonderland and will not be playing it in the U.K., Ireland and Italy (it will however play in Spain, Germany, Austria and Portugal, where it is scheduled for the regular 18 week run).

The reason for the boycott is because Odeon is saying that it has put considerable time and money into upgrading its facilities to accommodate 3D films and will therefore give precedence to those that plan on staying for a full run, probably because it is assumed that they will generate more revenue for the theaters.

Poor Alice in Wonderland. Even if the movie is no good, here it is sandwiched between it's distributor who is basically saying "It will make more money on home video so let's get it there as quick as possible," and the exhibitor saying, "We don't need it, we have more important films to show." All this because it was chosen to be the guinea pig in a strange and, what is looking to be, unsuccessful experiment.

Personally, I say good for the theaters. As someone who values the theatrical experience above all else, the idea that studios want to get movies through the exhibition process and straight into consumer hands as fast as possible is disturbing. Back when DVD sales started rising and box office receipts started dwindling, some pundits started saying that exhibition had simply become a preview for the DVD. Disney is bringing this statement one step closer to reality with this move.

I remember the controversy over Steven Soderberg's Bubble some years back which was released to theater, DVD and on-demand all within the span on several weeks. Theaters cried it would be the death of them and they may have been on to something had Bubble not been a small film that applied only to a specific niche market. However, Alice in Wonderland is supposed to be a big tentpole picture. It has a big name director, big stars, and comes from a classic story. To think that a movie like this will find more business on DVD than in theaters implies a sad fate for exhibition. Instead of cutting the theatrical run, why doesn't Disney roll out Alice in the classic mode: open it in select cities, see what the reaction is and then decide how long to play it for? Or else, let it play in 3D for the full 18 weeks while taking it off regular screens after 12 weeks and prepping the DVD. That way it can still play, theaters aren't sore about spending money to play 3D movies for shortened periods and the DVD can be in people's hands in a shorter time, while in the meantime those who still want to see it in 3D can.

The reaction from Odeon though also brings to light another fear I've had in recent years: there's just too many movies being made. George Lucas once said that multiplexes were great ideas because it would offer people the opportunity to see smaller films in big theaters alongside the big event pictures. Although I appreciate his optimism, and in some cases he has been right, in most cases the opposite has happened. Studios are scrambling to make more movies to ensure that every screen is filled with their product. Instead of one or two quality products from each studio, we now get mass amounts of prepackaged garbage every week. prepackaged garbage has always been part of the movie going reality, but there's more of it now than ever as studios try to make as much money with as many films in as short a time as possible. That a theater feels it doesn't need a big film like Alice in Wonderland in order to do good business means that studios, by mass producing movies, are, year after year, lowering the value of their own product, even the blockbusters.

This is unfortunate because it means that it's now easier than ever for good films to get lost in the shuffle. That seemed to have happened to Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant film with Nicholas Cage, which garnered excellent reviews but did next to no business. That's just one example.

So I'm glad the to hear that theaters are taking a stand and telling the studios that if they don't want to play ball, they'll play with someone else. What is unfortunate is that all of this comes at the expense of a film that might be good or bad, I don't know, but deserves just as fair a shot at success as any other. Could Alice in Wonderland fall victim to all this silly deal making? It'll be interesting to see whether studios or exhibitors will be making the next move.

To read my other posts on this matter click here and here.

Costumes Do Not Equal Acting

Nathaniel R over at The Film Experience has inspired me. This morning I came across his post in which he yearned for the days when Johnny Depp actually played characters that resembled humans. This was in reference to his upcoming performance in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Of course I agree with him that Depp, although enjoyable when he goes into full-on costume mode, but, at this point in his career, by taking on these roles on after the other, risks repeating himself in an effort to, I would guess, not repeat himself.

Then I was watching Steven Spielberg's Hook in which Dustin Hoffman plays Captain Hook under the guise of excessive make-up: ironically the performance predates Jack Sparrow by about 12 years. Although I was not surprised to discover just how bad Hook was (it's considered minor Spielberg and justifiably so), I was surprised by how bad Hoffman was.

Then I got to thinking: it seems that stars gravitate towards these roles in an effort to cut lose, do something wild, have fun, and escape themselves by having their persona's devoured by their costumes. Johnny Depp is so solemn and strange in real life that it's no wonder he tends to work with fimmakers like Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam: they let him cut lose and play by his own rules.

However, costumes don't equal acting and sometimes stars seem to forget that. There's a thin line between imitation and performance when it comes to actors being cloaked in disguises to the point where they cease to be recognizable. See, a costume also invites an actor to be lazy. In the case of Hoffman, who is a great actor no doubt and managed to create a brilliant character under a disguise in Tootsie, he spends too much time acting with his fake teeth and his hook, making sure we see how horrible they are at all times, showing how vile a villain he is. However, outside of the hook and the teeth, which always seem to be playing against Hoffman within the frame, there isn't much of a character there and Hoffman approaches playing him like a high school drama student playing dress-up. The whole performance announces itself as performance: "Look at me," Hoffman seems to be saying, "I'm acting." Depp did the same thing as Willy Wonka in Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

One actress who comes to mind who knows who to act outside of make-up, not under it, is Emma Thompson. Look her in Nanny McPhee, not a great movie to be sure, but Thompson does exactly what it takes to bring a costume to life: she builds the character from the ground up. The make-up can speak for itself; it's Thompson who let's us know just what Nanny McPhee as a character is really about.

The examples go on and on of great character actors who seem to be perfect for zany roles (usually as villains) who are overcome by their costumes. Look at Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's Batman (there seems to be a pattern developing here, no?). The Joker is one of the most iconic villains in all of comic book history, but Nicholson does virtually nothing with the character except smirk his way to a huge paycheck. Even when Nicholson is all dolled up in the infamous face paint, he can't escape himself as a persona and the character falls to the wayside.

Heath Ledger on the other hand completely disappears inside the same character in The Dark Knight and in doing so, provides one of the most memorable villains in all of film history. Ledger, like Thompson, builds the character from the inside out. We aren't seeing Heath Ledger acting evil, we are seeing a truly evil villain who, despite being a fictional character, is believable as an individual because he embodies truly human concepts of good and evil within society. Not only is Ledger deviously entertaining, he also manages to embody the character's ideas and philosophies. That's the sign of an actor giving a character everything they've got.

On the other hand, when watching Hoffman in Hook or Depp in Charlie or Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever, or any other innumerable instances of this happening, the joy of acting is sucked out of the performances as we are made physically award of an actor playing dress-up. There's no joy in that. Acting is the art of assessing a character and providing them with exactly what they need. It's about making choices and committing to them to the fullest extent. Performances like the ones mentioned don't make choices, they don't get to know the characters, they don't strive for anything but second rate imitation. That's unfortunate as there are few things more unfortunate than seeing a great actor phoning it in in a role that only they seem destined to play.

James Cameron

James Cameron is a great filmmaker, but he still kind of annoys me. I liked him better back in the 90s where he was proceeded by a reputation as being some sadistic, perfectionist tyrant on set of his movies and wasn't afraid to rip the people around him new ones. I can admire that. I like people who have a vision that is so determined and singular that they aren't afraid to call out the people around them who are hindering them on their journey to creating something great.

However, now that it seems Cameron has cooled down with age (or maybe it's because he got rid of the facial hair), he's still kind of pompous in that goofy Canadian way and tends to come off as the guy who says stupid things in public before thinking them out fully (announcing he needs to pee while accepting best director at the Golden Globes, like come on).

I say this because today Deadline Hollywood has posted four different videos of Cameron (three from MTV and one with Charlie Rose). In the first one, with Rose, his ego is on full display as he says he hopes Avatar wins best picture but he wants Kathryn Bigelow to win best director for The Hurt Locker, not because she deserves it, but because he doesn't need another best director award. I don't know if he is being sincere, is saying this because he knows the Director's Guild award usually determines the Oscar winner and that one went to Bigelow, or if he's just saying, "Ya, our film is the best of the year, but give my poor little ex-wife an honour because she's not as big a star as me."

Then Cameron is asked about any advice he'd give to Marc Webb for directing Spider-Man in 3D which gets Cameron talking about the rebooted Batman movies, which he liked so much better than the first four which he couldn't stomach. Of course, nice guy that he is, says he doesn't want to "throw anyone under the bus" immediately after calling out Tim Burton on being responsible for the first Batman movies. Sorry Jim, I think the Burton Batman movies sucked too, but once you call someone out, you can't take it back. I hope Burton catches this and responds like he did with the whole debate about how he stole the end of Planet of the Apes from Kevin Smith's Chasing Dogma comic book.

Then Cameron talks about how he is done with the Terminator series and has no comment on the plans for a fifth and sixth movie in the series other than he's glad someone else can make some money off it like he did, right before getting into information on an Avatar sequel. This whole Avatar sequel talk bothers me because it seems opinions on it change by the week. First Cameron says that it will probably be a long time before a sequel because he won't make one until he knows he has a great script. Then Rupert Murdoch came out saying that he wants another Avatar movie as soon as possible. Now here Cameron is saying he's been thinking about new projects and Avatar is definitely a strong possibility.

Personally, I could live without another Avatar film. It was a complete, self-sufficient story and I feel to continue it would simply be like the second and third Matrix films. They were good, but at the same time they felt like unneeded continuations of a singular film that still stands on its own without them and apart from them. Also, unlike Cameron's Terminator 2 which was the big sequel to a minor film, Avatar 2 would need to be the ultra-major sequel to a major film. Expectations would probably kill it on arrival.

Something`s Fishy in Wonderland

New Tim Burton films don`t excite me. He`s done some good work but, to be honest, I don`t think the man is a very good filmmaker. He`s an excellent decorator but a second rate storyteller, which means his films always end up feeling like hollow exercises in special effects and set design while the emotional crux of the stories take the back seat.

His approach to macabre subject matter doesn`t much interest me either. I get that he is making films about outsiders cast away from society, but his satiric vision of the everyday life which he juxtaposes his characters against is, in and of itself, so over-the-top that he`s not so much making a statement as making a misguided spectacle.

It should be no surprise then that, whether it`s good or not, I`m not really excited about Burton`s upcoming live-action-with-animation take of Alice in Wonderland which is set for release on March 5th in both 2D and 3D formats.

What does interest me though is that Hollywood Reporter is saying that Disney is planning on taking an experimental approach to releasing the movie. Apparently Disney has been toying with different ideas on how to release movies and now it is time to put one into practice. So the idea is that Disney is approaching exhibitors about shortening Alice`s run from roughly 16 weeks in first run theaters to around 13 or under. The reason for this is because Disney feels the film will be a big hit on DVD and ondemand services, so the quicker they can get it there the better.

What`s unclear at this moment is, if studio`s plan on adopting this method of distribution, how they plan on compensating theaters for shortening the runs of big films like Alice in Wonderland in order to push them onto DVD quicker. For theaters, shortened runs means less actual return from the studio on the film`s actual business and less physical traffic through the theater as people may be encouraged to simply wait for the DVD, which translates into less traffic through the theater`s concession stands, the place where most of an operation`s profits are derived.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has said that truncated runs could be a way to maximize the Disney`s bottom line, but I don`t quite buy it. Is this simply a sign that Disney has lost faith in Burton`s project and doesn`t believe it will perform. I can`t imagine the studio pulling something like this with one of their big projects like a Pixar or Pirates of the Caribbean film. Or is this one last desperate attempt by studios in hard times to keep people going out to the movies before everything except tentpole pictures and arthouse fare go more or less straight to video and ondemand.

It will be interesting to see how Burton, who began his career as an animator at Disney, will respond to his movie being the lab rat in such an experiment.