Karina on SpoutBlog

Under discussion:

Funny Games  (2007)

I’ve been in a really ominous mood all day. I thought it was just because the sky is grey and I’ve been been listening to this Belong EP, which basically sounds like a prolonged death rattle, but now that I’m reporting the second major story about people losing their jobs in the past couple of hours, I’m starting to feel like it’s not just me. The whole internet feels like the last scene of Madam Butterfly today––death now fills the air.

Anyway: the news. Warner Brothers has shut down its two remaining, dueling indie arms, Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse. Warner’s COO Alan Horn released a statement basically saying that the shell of New Line will handle all low budget fare going forward, and claimed to be “confident that the spirit of independent filmmaking and the opportunity to find and give a voice to new talent will continue to have a presence at Warner Bros.”

So. What about acquisitions? Will Warners be sending one of the ten New Line employees left standing to Cannes next week, or will they just cede that game to the other indie arms and focus on the cheap genre fare that the new New Line is allegedly committed to churning out? What about the WIP and Picturehouse movies already in the can and on the shelf––like Picturehouse’s remake of The Women, or WIP’s anti-climax waiting to happen, Towelhead? Your guesses are as good as mine. I’m just hung up on the fact that Funny Games was the last WIP release. Funny Games killed a studio!

Entertainment Weekly’s cover story is peek at pre-production on W, Oliver Stone’s much-discussed George W. Bush biopic. That’s Josh Brolin above, in makeup for the lead role. In the story, we learn:

• That script that seemed too parodic to be true was apparently at least two drafts away from the shooting script.
• Bush historian Robert Draper on that early script: “[I]t just misses the guy…You come away with an even more hyperbolized caricature of Bush the Cowboy President than is already out there.”
• Dick Cheney had yet to be cast by the time the EW story went to press, but Stone is reportedly considering Paul Giamatti. Which would be AWESOME.
• In the effort to produce this thing quickly and cheaply (the projected release date for this yet-to-be made film has now inched up to October[!]), Stone is taking advantage of Louisiana’s massive tax breaks, presumably using The Bayou State as a stand in for Texas, D.C. and Yale.
• Speaking of that improbable release date: Stone’s producers are said to be “planning to run TV spots opposite McCain’s ads this fall.”
• Stone on W’s jokiness: “This movie can be funnier because Bush is funny. He’s awkward and goofy and makes faces all the time. He’s not your average president. So let’s have some fun with it. What are they going to do? ‘Discredit’ me again?’