bronson

ok. here is an example of companies/producers/providers missing the mark in the world of entertainment today.

bronson is a british movie that really works. it's fairly obvious to even the untrained eye where the director's influences come from. but hell, before 'silence of the lambs', demme was widely seen as a goofball director (married to the mob, crazy mama) but that picture really solidified him as an auteur(1). why this movie was released almost FOUR months ago, and i haven't seen a single commercial during any spike tv show is beyond my comprehension. there had better be some brutal legal battle being waged behind the scenes at vertigo because this movie could be HUGE with the 18-35m demo. huge. who cares if it's artsy. the trailer is awesome and people will react to it. ok, here's an idea... offer the movie for $5.99 during the next big ufc event on spike. (yes they get 3 million viewers at times according to neilson which means something closer to 5 million if you ask me). don't include shipping and handling. charge 12 to their visa cards, paypal accounts or itunes accounts. they would clear 12 million in six months, easily. people will pay 6 bucks for something that looks awesome. but you can't go to the festivals and wait for lionsgate to pick up you movie! it'll happen with this one but dammit guys, go make money and go make more movies. we are starving for content. starving.

the distribution models have CHANGED! they have changed.
get with the program or get out of the room. that movie couldn't have cost $6 million. they cut all the right corners and used the stage elements in a brave way but did it cheaply. that's the key. check out this scene. now here is a director that knows what he's making and how to make it better with less money and not more.

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(1) - Auteur theory draws on the work of a group of cinema enthusiasts who wrote for the Cahiers du cinéma and argued that films should reflect a director's personal vision. They championed filmmakers such as Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock and Jean Renoir as absolute 'auteurs' of their films. Although André Bazin, co-founder of the Cahiers, provided a forum for Auteurism to flourish, he himself remained wary of its excesses, as he explained in his article "On the Auteur Theory" (Cahier # 70, 1957).