Attention all Classic Hollywood heroes! Those of you sporting toned six packs, chiseled jaws, full arsenals of kung fu moves, and powers of invincibility -- step aside. There's a new breed of protagonist in town.
Coming out of the woodwork this fall are main characters refusing to accept their "side kick" designations. They might be fat. They might be gay. They might even be incredibly awkward or (gasp!) unattractive. In short, they will be absolutely relatable, which seems to be the soul requirement for this new brand of silver screen hero.
Smash hit summer blockbuster, Hairspray, promoted a feel-good message of acceptance, setting the perfect stage for what we should expect in the following months.
With titles like Run, Fatboy, Run (Rel Dt 10/26) headlining mainstream cinema, and the equally frank Fat Girls (Rel Dt 10/19) bombarding the indie scene, there's no escaping the humanity.
Though some may scoff at Simon Pegg's little paunch extending over his tiny shorts in the Fatboy trailers, Dennis, the character he portrays, has a great many more flaws under that little belly than the one he's trying to work off.
Will audiences root for a man who left his pregnant fiancé at the alter? Will they support his attempts to win her back? That's left to be seen, but the writers may be onto something by giving Dennis a quirk that is so very sympathetic -- a low body-image.
Pegg is no stranger to playing the unlikely hero. After all, he stormed into the mainstream spotlight in 2004 with the incredibly successful Indie wonder Shaun of the Dead, wherein we learned that even an aimless salesman and a lazy deadbeat can step to the plate when all hell breaks loose.
Indie films have never been adverse to glorifying the anti-hero. Perhaps Pegg is the perfect vessel to bring that standard to the mainstream.
Newcomer Ash Christian's premiere in both directing and starring in Fat Girls, however, has little to do with weight loss. His character, Rodney, calls himself a Fat Girl metaphorically, because he feels his sexual preference sets him inside the same taboo inflicted on his best friend, Sabrina, a girl who is indisputably overweight, think “fat.”
Set in the trying world of high school, audiences will watch Rodney and Sabrina deal with their differences in an environment that encourages them to be cookie-cutter "perfect," a theme most people will easily relate to.
Are the so-called Fat Girls and Fat Boys the role models of the new generation? Heroes that make huge mistakes, can't fit into designer jeans, and even resent their imperfections - yet still manage to be compelling enough to grip the spotlight for a two hour stretch?
Maybe they give us something more to look up to. After all, they're overcoming the odds just as well as those lantern-jawed action heroes, and they don't mind getting dirty in the process.
Heck, they even kind of remind us of ourselves.
Fat Boys and Girls in Theaters This Month
Labels: Exhibition, News
Proposed: Studio Profits from Indie Format
It was, in the words of A.O. Scott, "The Great Box Office Slump of 2005.”
Only two short years ago the doomsayers were predicting the death of modern American cinema. In retrospect, it is easy to see that this wailing and teeth gnashing was premature. However, even after a season of record-breaking box office, the industry has the potential for another downturn.
While blame can be placed on the surge of home theater systems, the DVD boom, and the shortened window between theatrical and home video release, the proverbial straw that could still break an already weakened back remains: the diminishing caliber of films. As more projects are forced into the pipeline, exhibitors could see their audiences -- already distracted by a myriad of entertainment options - become alienated in favor of their non-theater entertainment activities.
Currently, the studio system is still flush with the success of last summer. But this could be a critical juncture in the exhibition industry: 2006 was the first in the previous three years to show an up-tick in ticket sales with an increase of 1.4%.
The theaters stood in the sun when Transformers, with a $147 million budget, easily covered the money with over $315 million and counting. But when will Michael Bay be stranded on his next "Island"? Meanwhile, Judd Apatow is laughing all the way to the (sperm) bank with the $30 million budgeted for Knocked Up while the lower budgeted Superbad, $20 million, is grossing almost $267 million domestically, while costing only a little over a third of Transformers budget.
Where may the studios and exhibitors find safety in the numbers? One direction to look is at the world of independent film. There is a reason studios have created or acquired specialty arms to deal with the development and distribution of what would not typically be considered mainstream fair. Independent film allows filmmakers to focus more on quality without being as concerned with the box office returns. While this is not always successful, when it works it can be very profitable.
No one would have thought a little French documentary about the mating lives of penguins would be successful, but almost $77,500,000 would have March of the Penguins proving that line of thinking flawed. All of this from an $8,000,000 film that launched on only four screens.
In the fiction realm, the $16,000,000 budgeted Sideways went on to collect over $71,000,000 at the domestic box office. While not every film would perform as successfully as My Big Fat Greek Wedding (over $242 million gross on a reported $5 million budget) or The Passion of the Christ ($370 million+ on a reported $30 million budget), it wouldn't take too many like these to make the idea of producing indie-like seem worthwhile.
Movies are a communal experience, one that cannot be equaled by home theaters. If the studios offer exhibitors something worth signing up for -- without having broken the production bank - cinema, with an indie touch, could become a weekly excitement for many families, just as it once was. It’s worth a try.
Labels: Exhibition, News
