Paramount's Panhandling

Paramount's turn...They do this to themselves, I didn't plan this at all!

Ok, let's talk film. So Hollywood now is all about the bottom line. I mean it's always been about the bottom line, but at least it was all about the usual formula. Great pitch + Big star + Big name or cheap visual director = big opening weekend. That's the standard formula. Well, now things are shifting again. I mean this is the week that Hollywood has stepped in it. I mean I have never seen this much greed and reality TV style backstabbing since the closed projection room, coke sniffing days of the 80's. Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson laid the ground rules for stabbing in the back in that time. Well, now it's the years post millennium and no one has grown up. Lack of maturity is to be expected when millions of dollars are thrown around.

That's the real danger here to worry about, isn't it? I mean some people out there literally kill for a lot of money and here you have a business that throws around millions for breakfast. I am not inferring that actual crime is involved, but morality in Hollywood is very corrupt. I have proven that this week. Thought, It is a dangerous thing. It really is. It's cut throat and no one really survives in Hollywood unless you get lucky being involved in a large project. That is what this all comes down to. The people playing in Hollywood want to stay playing forever. The reality is that Film, though a popular medium, will always be a true home for the talented ones. But, money talks. And in Hollywood, money or the ones behind the money, have no talent. The really talented ones, are not the rich ones.

The rich people do not have talent. They never will. I don't know why. Well, maybe I do know. I think it has to do with the fact that you have to really lived life to replicate it properly. And if you have struggled in life and felt real pain, with out having the luxury of 2000 shopping trips like Britney can do, you have something to write about.

Hollywood will always be a losing power struggle between the untalented, rich people and the talented not so rich people. Well Louis Feola, let's talk about this guy. He is one of those execs. Oh yeah and if you are reading this and think I am unfair when taling about execs, read the Offical Pixar Blog. They bag on Eisner for a few paragraphs. I am not the only one who is aware of the destruction of Hollywood Execs.. So, Feola has taken over a NEW branch of Paramount now that it's Vantage is practically non existent. This new Branch is called Paramount Famous. They are taking smaller films such as Road Trip and Without a Paddle and making direct to video sequels.

If Execs could be as honest...

This is of course an immediate response to the Lost Boys sequel that is doing well AND the National Lampoon films out there, most of them you never heard of. National Lampoon and oh yeah American Pie Presents have been doing cheap direct to video sequels to make the bottom line. Well two things about this. Maybe more. You know how I lose count. One, it's a small line to cross, so you would think "why Bother?" I mean 3 million to make and maybe they only double that. Sure the studios that do this don't lose money, but its playing the slots and not sitting at the tables. Its so miniscule, it seems shameful. Why? Because Hollywood doesn't bet on talent. They are giving us empty IDEAS again. It's the Mini HIGH CONCEPT version ideas of the 80's. Remember when everything in the 80's was HIGH CONCEPT. We have Back to the Future to thank for that trend.

Now, Paramount wants to jump in and say, hey you like Road Trip? Here is a ridiculous sequel for you to dismiss. You know what this is, it is oh She is MARRIED? Here is her younger, unkempt sister. This is all it is. It's pathetic. It's Hollywood's equivalent of pan handling. Because all they are going to make is chump change anyway. I am not going to lie to you. I have shook Frank Sinatra's hand. No I really have. No joke. In Vegas when I was 18. So I can't lie or rat on my friends. So I am serious when I say that this is Paramount sitting on the side of the road with a sign that says, Like Road Trip? Give a dollar or twenty! Because no direct to video sequel is ever Lightning in a bottle. It never will be. Otherwise it would not be direct to video.

What they also can be doing here to is hoping for LIB. If Road Trip 2 is suddenly the next Animal House, then they can get a wide release and soak up all the glory for making a high grossing film on a toothpick budget. That actually may be the goal here. With these knuckle heads its hard to tell. Well however you put it, it is a bad idea. How do I know? Well here is TWO. Disney tried this a while ago. They released sequels to Lion King and Beauty and the Beast on direct to DVD. It works for the short term. These films don't have any longevity. Years from now the kids who watched Belle's Christmas or whatever will remember Beauty and the Beast and not the aforementioned. That's the way it is. It's a short term fix. You like Lion King? Here is quick fix that cost us ten bucks to make.

American Pie Presents and National Lampoon series gets old fast. I mean what do you remember? Band camp or American Pie one? Vacation with Chevy Chase or Bag Boy? It's not art, it's..I don't know what it is. It's sad. Its panhandling and it's pathetic. It is extra pathetic too because this branch was created as an answer to Paramount Vantage's fall. SO basically so more Cohen Bros films or Paul Thomas Anderson films. Paramount has stopped giving us great film and now is giving is Without a Paddle 2: Direct to Video. Until tomorrow, let's talk film!