Welcome to the second part of my look at the duplicity that is the Hollywood we know and love (or love to hate in some cases).   Yesterday I delved into the mainstream films, such as Transformers, which get little to no recognition by the Academy.  These are movies that represent the very monetary foundation of which Hollywood is built.

Today I’m going to slide the other way and talk about the performance side of Hollywood.  Films with limited budgets, little to no marketing and have to fight tooth-and-nail in some instances for distribution as well as theater screens.  They are the darlings of Hollywood, praised for often dramatic portrayal of characters and deeply emotional stories.  Yet, even with all the attention they receive when nominated for an Oscar, only a select group of viewers end up seeing these films.

In contrast to their mainstream counterparts, performance films have always been the underdog.  It starts from the very point the script is completed all the way to getting onto the screen.  It’s the latter which ultimately proves the most critical because without theaters to show it, what good is a movie?

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It was an interesting show for the Oscars this year.  From the “Kanye” moment to Sean Penn somewhat proudly proclaiming he’s not part of the Academy.  Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role (The Blind Side) the very same year she accepted a Razzie for Worst Actress (All About Steve).  And, of course, the gross upset of Avatar at the hands of The Hurt Locker.  With 41 million viewers, this year’s Oscars had something for everyone but, perhaps more interestingly, it best reflected the two sides of Hollywood which exist today.

How fitting to have two hosts on the one Oscar night that would truly exemplify both faces of Hollywood.  For so long many have seen Hollywood as one massive, filmmaking entity but that really isn’t the case.  Now more than ever there’s a division between what I’m calling (for the purposes of this article) “mainstream” Hollywood and “performance” Hollywood.  The names pretty much say it all.

Films in the mainstream category are all the summer blockbusters, tent pole movies studios rely on to turn a healthy profit year over year (e.g. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Avatar).  In contrast you have the performance pictures, lesser known films with limited release and all too often far less money behind them (e.g. Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, The Hurt Locker).  These are two very different types of films, each vying for the attention of movie goers.

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This was a big week for news, especially of the comic book movie variety. Surprisingly, even with all that coming out we still have even more items worth talking about on the radar. Batman beats Superman…again, a Star Wars character makes a bid for a mascot job, MGM is still looking for money, Brian De Palma may get paranormal and what cities will Michael Bay reign destruction upon next?

Batman trumps Superman on the auction block

Looks like Batman wasn’t content with beating Superman at the box office, he had to do it at an auction as well. The 1939 first appearance of The Dark Knight sold for a whopping $1,075,500. This beats Superman’s first appearance in comics which sold for 1 million. Sorry, Supes…but, hey, you did land an awesome writer for your upcoming reboot.

Blockbuster struggles to remain relevant in the digital age

Video rental store Blockbuster continues an uphill battle to compete against digital alternatives.  The brick-and-mortar business reported a “$435 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $360 million in red ink in the year-ago frame. Revenue dropped 18% to $1.1 billion.” As companies like Netflix and Redbox continue to steal market share some believe Blockbuster has some merit left:

“The drying up of retail competition from the ongoing closures of most Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores; major studios aren’t making their new releases immediately available to Redbox; and Warner Bros. will begin a 28-delay before giving Netflix access to new-release DVDs.”

Personally, I don’t see a rebound at this point and beyond the legit competition Blockbuster still has piracy to content with. Is this the end? We’ll see.

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Warner Bros. has released the second trailer over at MySpace for the upcoming horror remake A Nightmare on Elm Street, which stars Jackie Earle Haley as the iconic Freddie Krueger. And folks, it’s a pretty damn good one.

Not only does this trailer give us a bit more insight into the look and feel of the film, it also provides more than enough horror and terror for three trailer. In short, it makes me even more interested in seeing this movie when it comes out.

The remake, directed by Samuel Bayer, in addition to Haley features Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy, and Thomas Dekker as a group of suburban teens being haunted and killed in their sleep. See, this is why I try never to sleep.

Check out the full trailer after the break. A Nightmare on Elm Street opens April 30, 2010.

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I have made no secret about the fact I think both Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were awful.  The scripts were weak, or practically non-existent in the case of the sequel, and editing so bad it was difficult at times to see what was going. Case in point, director Michael Bay kept the fight scenes moving at rapid pace then would cut to a slow motion shot of Shau Lebouf shouting “Optimus!” or Megan Fox running away. Now, as much as I can appreciate Fox’s particular “assets” moving in slow-mo, it would have been better to slow down the scenes I was really interested in, robots fighting.

Be that as it may, I have defended Bay in the sense he knows how to appeal to the masses and can make a profitable film.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took in approximately $823 million dollars worldwide and that figure is set to grow even larger based on record setting DVD sales:

“Paramount Home Video sold 7.5 million DVD/Blu-ray copies of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” in its first week of release including 1.2 million Blu-ray’s, making it the year’s highest selling HD title. To put that in perspective, “Twilight” was the years biggest selling title and has sold 8 million copies since March 21st.”

If my math is correct that’s about another $150 million in the bank (using an average DVD price of $20). Not a bad week at all to be Paramount or Michael Bay. Bravo, Mr. Bay!

I may not like your take on one of my favorite childhood toys but I can’t argue with your success. You’re like the McDonalds of filmmaking. The food may not necessarily be a healthy choice, but we all keep coming back for more.

I’m not sure if this news should be taken as good or bad, but it seems writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are officially off Transformers 3.  The dynamic duo of writing are probably two of the biggest names in Hollywood scribe circles these days having penned the fist two Transformers movies and this past Summer’s Star Trek reboot.

When asked why they are leaving Orci stated: “The main reason we would move on is because we risk getting stale and comfortable. If you only sing one song for too long, you miss the opportunity to sing news songs. We’ll see.”

With the pairs departure all the writing duties at this point fall to Ehren Kruger along with whatever Michael Bay wants to contribute (more explosions!).  This may not be such a good thing as Kruger is attributed for adding a lot of the comedy to the scripts which I felt did a disservice to the overall tone and pace of the story.

Getting back to my good/bad comment above,  I think it’s both.  It’s bad in the sense if there was anything positive about either movie (of which there was little as far as I can tell) it probably came from these two writers.  It’s bad because without Kurtzman and Orci the third Transformers film can only go downhill from here.  Not that it has far to go to hit rock bottom.

On the flip side, this will certainly free up the pair’s time to work on the sequel to Star Trek and continue producing their hit show Fringe. Even in Kurtzman and Orci’s absence I’m certain the next Transformers installment will go onto make a load of cash which makes it even more surprising the two would make an exit.  That said, I have to respect them for turning down a huge payday in favor of their craft.  My hat is off to you both.

Transformers 3 hits theaters July 1, 2011.

In what was undoubtedly not very surprising news, Michael Bay has confirmed on his website that there will, indeed, be a Transformers 3. Not only that, the film will hit theaters earlier than its rumored release of July 1, 2012 and will, in fact, be coming to a multiplex near you in 2011, a full year earlier. But wait, there’s even more — and this, while not entirely surprising, is a bit unexpected.

Not only will there be a Transformers 3 and it will be coming out a year earlier than expected, Bay also confirmed that franchise star Megan Fox will be in the third film as well. Given the seemingly hostile nature of their recent public spat, it appears Bay at least has decided to live and let live. I’m sure the many millions of dollars the franchise has made had nothing to do with it.

Bay wrote on his website that he met with ILM in San Francisco Thursday morning, followed by a flight to Rhode Island with Kruger to meet with Hasbro about new characters. “Well, it’s official: We have a great ‘Transformers 3′ story,” Bay said on his site. “Today is Day One.” This point is not better illustrated by the countdown clock now running at Bay’s site. As of today, it shows 636 days until Transformers 3 hits theaters. So, start planning accordingly.

Even though Bay has publicly confirmed Fox’s involvement in the third film, the beautiful star herself has not, as yet, commented. In addition, Shia LaBeouf was not mentioned by Bay at all, so there’s no confirmation on if he will be in the third film along with Fox. Although, according to other sources, both Fox and LaBeouf are slated to return, as is Exec. Producer Steven Spielberg and co-writer Ehren Kruger. So, we can probably expect announcements from Fox and LaBeouf’s people soon.

Transformers 3: The Blatant Grab for Cash hits theaters on July 1, 2011.

Back in 2007, Michael Bay accomplished what seemed to be a miracle in the film community: he took a nearly dead property that was built off of a line of action figures, and made it into a highly successful–and one can even say decent–film for both old and new fans. Sadly, with Revenge of the Fallen, Bay and his team try to top themselves with a grandiose successor, and come up pretty short.

The plot follows Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), two years after the events of Transformers. Sam’s now off to college where he and blah blah blah…does any of this matter? Let’s face it, you’re going to see this movie for one reason, and one reason only: to see gigantic robots beat the crap out of each other. I’m happy to say, you get what you come for, but that’s about it. This movie is pretty much identical to it’s predecessor, now with 30% more character development, mass murder, and zany humor. Oh, don’t forget a brand new track by Linkin Park, which sounds exactly like the last track by Linkin Park.

There are some pretty embarrassing moments for a film of this caliber. One of which is the use of racism in the form of CGI robots. The racism isn’t very blatant, as it is overused stereotypes that are meant to be funny, but come out laughable, and not in a good way. Two characters, Mudflap and Skids, stand out above the rest. They are designated as the “urban” Autobots, donning two gold front teeth and illiteracy. There is also a Mexican ice cream truck at the beginning of the film that sets the bar pretty low. And those who say that Jazz in the original cartoon set a precedent for characters like Mudflap and Skids should know that Scatman Crothers, who originally voiced the character, transcends race.

A major downfall for the film, which seems to be a complaint across the board, is the massive 150 minutes of the film’s length. There is definitely a period where the audience, as a whole, glances at their collective watch. Without knowing the true story, I wouldn’t doubt that the film had a much darker first cut and the studio decided to amp it up with things like jive-talking sidekicks and robot balls (yes, there are robot testicles in the film). There’s definitely a dark film in those 2+ hours, and it would be interesting to see that cut someday.

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With July just around the corner, and half of the big summer blockbusters already out in theaters for the year, questions are coming up on what the “next big thing for 2009″ will be. According to a press release by Fandango, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen looks to be the one to put your money on.

The film is currently outpacing this summer’s Star Trek movie and the original Transformers in advance ticket sales on Fandango at the same point in those films’ sales cycles (one week before release date).

“For nearly two years – since the last Transformers opened – this new movie has been one of the most highly-anticipated films among fans on our site,” says Rick Butler, Chief Operating Officer of Fandango. “Tickets for the new Transformers are already selling fast, so moviegoers should plan on buying their tickets in advance, as many showtimes are certain to sell out next week.”

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With all the trailers, pics, videos and whatnot floating around the Internets concerning Michael Bay’s sure to be a monster sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I’m starting to get a bit burned out. Sure, I like seeing footage of robots fighting, stuff blowing up, gun fights, car chases and Megan Fox running around all sweaty and glistening. Let’s face it, who doesn’t?

That said, I always start to get a bit concerned when studios trot out so much stuff before a movie’s release. Its as if they’re trying to beat us over the head and convince us the movie is “super cool” by the sheer amount of info we’re being subjected to. Its not like there isn’t precedent for this either. Look at the recent campaigns for both Terminator: Salvation or Land of the Lost.

You couldn’t turn on a tv, browse the internet or ride a bus without seeing either Christian Bale, a Terminator or Wil Farrell and a damn dinosaur. And sadly, even with all that marketing and the extreme “in your face” nature of it, both movies ended up being not so good — especially in the case of Land of the Lost which, you could make the case, basically bombed.

So what does this all mean for Transformers 2? Who knows. Just take a look at this new clip (after the break) and try not to get too jaded about it. Plus, it features Megan Fox quite a bit, so that couldn’t hurt, right?

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