The Master - Spoiler-Free Thread

[picolas]

someone has probably already found this. i'm guessing it's not a coincidence.. at the very least it's spooky. Teresa Duncan's blog features quotes from "proverbs for paranoids", two of which are

1. "You may never get to touch the Master, but you can tickle his creatures." 237
2. "The innocence of the creatures is in inverse proportion to the immorality of the Master." 241

[Pubrick]

and for those who may not remember or never knew.. Theresa Duncan, along with her partner Jeremy Blake, committed suicide after a long bout of extreme paranoia relating to scientology .

[Kellen]

Forgive me if this sounds stupid.  If paul is having trouble getting money for the film etc., would it be possible for QT to produce or is the $30 whatever million budget too much?

[Stefen]

Robert Rodriguez wouldn't allow it.

[Pubrick]

Forgive me if this sounds stupid.  If paul is having trouble getting money for the film etc., would it be possible for QT to produce or is the $30 whatever million budget too much?

no..

for starters, the budget problems (if there really are any) are always a matter of a few million - not the WHOLE figure. it's not like he doesn't have studios willing to put up SOME money, it's always just a matter of getting it high enough. so QT in this imaginary scenario or any one individual probably wouldn't put the whole amount up front.

second, it's generally bad business to get a friend to finance your entire film. like i said before, IF pta was having financing problems it wasn't because no one in the world wants to give him a single penny, he's not destitute and without connections. financing needs to come from proper channels, that is from businesses that are set up already to finance these kinds of investments, not QT just because he's friends with the guy.

finally, i think this whole thing was obviously nothing more than just an article mentioning something that shoudln't shock anyone -- this kind of budget cobbling happens fairly regularly. my point originally was that it might be well and good for most direcors out there who live from film to film, never knowing for sure where they will get financing for their next one.. but for PTA if he really wants to fulfil his destiny he needs to stop hanging around LA. sooner or later THERE WILL BE BACKLASH, there is just no place for genius in hollywood right now, maybe ever.. unless you want to sell out or make movies with turd equipment and distribution strategies like David Lynch has vowed to.

and besides, Ghostboy is right, pretty sure the moneybags behind the tree of life have already sunk their pennies here. but it is my understanding that they are a new outfit who are trying to get behind some auteurs and choosing brilliant films (best films of all time) to start off with, so we'll see how well they come out of it and if they'll wanna revisit the same money pit later on.

[Kellen]

i see, thanks for answering my question.

[Ordet]

interesting developments. I liked p's points. The production company behind Malick's Tree of Life does seem like a glimmer of hope for massive art films. Generation wise PTA is alongside people like Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson and Spike Jonze filmmakers interested in making personal films. The latest films by Wes and Spike have been family orianted maintaining their style, this has given them better results at the box office. As for the Kubrickality that P mentions I see the two major hairess to that privlage as Malick and PTA. With Malick as of today holding the 1st place due to his career span/age. PTA being closely behind. The estimated budgets for The Thin Red Line and The New World were 40 million and 30 million respectively. I'm not sure what the figure is on Tree of Life but due to the fact that this is his most ambitious project and that he's been cutting it for more that a year my guess is that it will exceed the previous two. EWS budget was 65 million. QT would like to think that he also shares this Kubrickality but he has become a brand, something that is quite evident with IB a 70 million cartoon of self parody. It's QT trying to be QT and failing. Which is funny because I thought with Death Proof QT had gained back his older qualities that had been lost with KB but anyway. The other route for PTA is to make cheaper films a la Jarmusch or even Woody Allen. However part of his style is to work on large canvas or as QT puts it "We indulge on big cinematic set pieces." PTA will be able to continue making films along the 30-40 million range as long as they continue to be critically aclaimed which they will and works with a few known actors. As for The Master it has the potentiality of doing well at the box with the right buzz and momentum around the controversy it can have. As to where the filmmaker decides to reside I don't really see that as being an issue, I could be wrong though. Malick lives in Texas, most of the deals are made in LA and PTA knows the game. I'm sure foreign production companies would be intrested in help finance one of his films like Mr. Lynch with Studiocanal in France. The game is getting harder and harder everyday as P puts it and unless you are QT (Miramax) neither Malick nor PTA have been able to find a studio that will back their projects no matter what like Kubrick (WB). Nevertheless Hollywood is still the only place where you can get away with making a 40 million art film and as Mr. Kubrick used to say: "I'm still fooling them" We hope PTA can fool them for a very long time.
       

[I Love a Magician]

TWBB made more at the box office (worldwide) than fantastic mr. fox and wild things combined

[picolas]

i don't know if that's impressive or not.

[I Love a Magician]

i only bring it up because

The latest films by Wes and Spike have been family orianted maintaining their style, this has given them better results at the box office.

i don't understand the problems with financing when, according to box office mojo, TWBB made $76 million worldwide on a budget of $25 million. that's a $50 million profit!

but i don't know how all this financing and such works so it's probably all beyond me.

[I Love a Magician]

just give the man his money is what i'm sayin

[tpfkabi]

how much of that budget is for actor/director salaries?

will big name actors still work for Paul at a pretty low wage (is what i'm asking more or less)?

i have absolutely no idea about the business side of things.

[Pas]

i only bring it up because

The latest films by Wes and Spike have been family orianted maintaining their style, this has given them better results at the box office.

i don't understand the problems with financing when, according to box office mojo, TWBB made $76 million worldwide on a budget of $25 million. that's a $50 million profit!

but i don't know how all this financing and such works so it's probably all beyond me.

I've read a couple times that in hollywood, rentability is making double your budget. I never understood that logic. I'm confident all these budget and box office numbers are way off reality. When I worked on the banking side of movie finance, when everyone was paid, every promise fulfilled and there was bonus money, it was really something special.

[Fernando]

i don't understand the problems with financing when, according to box office mojo, TWBB made $76 million worldwide on a budget of $25 million. that's a $50 million profit!

but i don't know how all this financing and such works so it's probably all beyond me.

I don't either, but that 50mill profit lacks the money spent on advertisement and the oscar campaign, also the theaters must keep some of that profit, I looked into one site that analyzes film profits and it says that their rough estimates are based on the assumption that 50% of box office receipts were returned to the studio and these don't include ancillary (video, TV etc.) earnings. So, if that assumption is close to the true, CM broke even with its theater profits (im guessing 15mill for advertisement).

$76 total b.o.
-$37 theater profit
-$25 budget
-$15 adv
=($1)

OTOH, on dvd/blu-ray/ppv should have done pretty well.

[I Love a Magician]

fuckin superbowl ad blew all the money