Didn't Wes used to have his own forum here?

I'm trying to clean out my Netflix queue, and I'm using the snowball method where I watch the shortest films first and go in order. So, today I watched Poison, and then The Rat Catcher.

I loved Dahl as a kid. James and the Giant Peach was one of the first books I read. I found it all that there was this a little fanfare around his collection of shorts. It's really cool that Anderson did Yes, and I wonder if he'll ever make a Dahl feature. On to The Swan.

Quote from: HACKANUT on January 04, 2025, 01:37:05 PM

Quote from: Drenk on January 02, 2025, 06:17:56 PMThis is why the secrecy about the title and basic synopsis is pure paranoia. At this budget level, we'll get bombed by infos and trailers months before release day.

I would say there's, at least, a decent amount of value in condensing that info bombing to a tighter timeline. No sense stretching the word of mouth marketing too long. The general public doesn't need to know anything about this movie until the spring. I'm guessing to the average person it'll seem like a fun summer surprise movie that isn't some superhero nonsense and it'll do fine along side the other major movies.

Maybe, but it's all about that first week these days. And those Imax screens, especially, are being sought by other films. These aren't the days where you can let a movie sit out there all summer and just keep creeping upward on hte box office counter. Desperate theaters will punt you the hell out if they can have an extra screen or two for "My Bloody Axe Friend 3." ... You have to knock those first 5 days in theaters out of the park and generate buzz. You must avoid phrases like "underwhelming" "fell short of projections" "underperformed" because there are no do-overs on the first weekend.

Quote from: HACKANUT on January 04, 2025, 01:37:05 PM

Quote from: Drenk on January 02, 2025, 06:17:56 PMThis is why the secrecy about the title and basic synopsis is pure paranoia. At this budget level, we'll get bombed by infos and trailers months before release day.

I would say there's, at least, a decent amount of value in condensing that info bombing to a tighter timeline. No sense stretching the word of mouth marketing too long. The general public doesn't need to know anything about this movie until the spring. I'm guessing to the average person it'll seem like a fun summer surprise movie that isn't some superhero nonsense and it'll do fine along side the other major movies.

Yes, I agree. But he's being deliberately secretive about basic things like a vague synopsis and a title, when nobody cares at that point, this is what I mean. Maybe because The Master leaked. To be fair, there was a vague synopsis for Licorice Pizza and it had no title. This one is probably hard to summarize, even wrongly.

Quote from: Drenk on January 02, 2025, 06:17:56 PMThis is why the secrecy about the title and basic synopsis is pure paranoia. At this budget level, we'll get bombed by infos and trailers months before release day.

I would say there's, at least, a decent amount of value in condensing that info bombing to a tighter timeline. No sense stretching the word of mouth marketing too long. The general public doesn't need to know anything about this movie until the spring. I'm guessing to the average person it'll seem like a fun summer surprise movie that isn't some superhero nonsense and it'll do fine along side the other major movies.

Desus & Mero are very funny guys ~

I was watching The Story of Late Night and saw mention of this show I'd never heard of, and Letterman went on (wow) and told of a story of his beef with Tarantino.  Bizarre.


Dave said that's the only beef story he's had.  Probably joking, but pretty sure Dave's had beefs with Cher and Harvey Pekar, too.  To name two.

This is why the secrecy about the title and basic synopsis is pure paranoia. At this budget level, we'll get bombed by infos and trailers months before release day.

I'd be really surprised if it gets pushed back. The whole point of "summer event film" is that it requires "summer."

But I do agree that at least the early-tease PR machine for this movie needs to launch by mid-February, at the latest. Very few people outside of film nerd-dom are aware this movie exists. It will need at least six months of marinating buzz.

"I need to start figuring out what the f— to say,"

Paul Thomas Anderson

(PS. Watched Phantom Thread in 35mm, for the first time since seeing it at a preview with a live orchestra with Jonny Greenwood and PTA in attendance, and I must say its now my second favourite PTA film, kinda slow after the first third, but an absolute masterpiece thru n thru. I cannot wait for this new one, remember when Miles Davis used to drop and it said "Directions in Music by Miles Davis" on the cover art!?!?! PTA is one of the only new film cats who can truly truly put that shit on his posters. I'd say the current generation of celebrated filmmakers are begging that, but try way too hard and simultaneously not hard enough. Fix up, look sharp, New PTA on the horizon darlings!)

"Directions in Music by PTA" (thats the highest complement I can give to a filmmaker btw, Scorsese damnwell was the previous guy in the drivers seat far as im concerned...) over n out...

"Of course we don't know the title. Or anything else, officially. Letterboxd is calling it "The Battle of Baktan Cross," so maybe that's it. We know that Anderson started shooting in Humboldt County about a year ago and wrapped in El Paso a few months later. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio (sporting a handlebar mustache), Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Alana Haim and Benicio del Toro. It might be loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon's joyous blast of a novel, "Vineland." Or it might not. (In the past, Anderson said it was "just too intimidating" to tackle "Vineland," adding "my brain's not big enough.") Warner Bros. has dubbed the movie an "event film," giving it a summer release date and a reported $115 million budget. Looking to separate fact from fiction, I emailed Anderson who, of course, was of no help. "I need to start figuring out what the f— to say," he replied. True. Summer will be here before we know it."

— Glenn Whipp. LA Times. The 25 movies we're most looking forward to in 2025