Fox News on Pirates...uh oh

[tfc3rid]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75046,00.html

Here comes the bad news already...

[Bob O]

Not a good sign, escpecially when bruckheimer's last big release was Bad Company!!

[raidermatt]

Is three months an extraordinarily long time for a movie to be in production?

[d-r]

Melissa here -

We saw the initial trailer/teaser for it when we went to see Two Towers - although it didn't actually reveal anything it wasn't something you would typically expect from a Disney trailer. Looked pretty intriguing.

Personally I think it will do allright - both DR and I are looking forward to seeing it. Although Johnny Depp is sort of a thing of the past - I mentioned to my neighbor that Legolas (Orlando Bloom) was going to be in Pirates and she flipped - can't wait to see it. If for nothing else - he may pull in the female audience.

Melissa

[Bob O]

I wasnt impressed with the trailer when i saw it last night.
And i dont think Orlando has the name recognition of a Tom Hanks to make a movie into a success if the quality isnt there.

[d-r]

You're not a 20 something year old female either Bob! I was curious after my neighbors reaction about Bloom starring in Pirates and apprently he is along the lines of Heath Ledger now - the internet is flooded with fan pages for these young actors - Tom Hanks may appeal to a more mature movie audience - but for young girls he's not so much of a draw. You would be surprized at Bloom's name recognition with younger females. I'm just saying its a possibility. I haven't seen too many movies lately that were targeted to the 30-40 something year old male audience.

Melissa

[babar]

Just butting in to say.....Johnny Depp a thing of the past?!? What?!? He's done some of his best work the past few years, and has been in some great movies. He's one of the best younger actors out there today.


Okay, sorry.:p

[ddank]

as skeptical as i am about anything disney puts out these days im much more skeptical of any opinion that comes outs of Fox news.

[Another Voice]

Three months isn’t all that unusual for a mega-film like ‘Pirates’ – but having one month of shooting left this close to release is really scary. There’s still a lot of special effects left to be done. ‘Pirates’ is a big sprawling epic with exteriors being filmed in both the Caribbean and Los Angeles and a large second units of ships (and explosions) too. In all likelihood, this will be the most expensive live action movie ever produced by Disney – far surpassing even bloats like ‘Pearl Harbor’ and ‘Gangs of New York’.

One of the many rumors is they are filming scenes with the stars on ships out here near L.A. (in the middle of winter) and trying to match it to second unit being shot out in the bright sunny Caribbean. Needless to say, there’s been a lot of wasted time in California waiting for El Nino-free filming days.

Disney’s thinking is that ‘Pirates’ can be sold on the concept and brand recognition of the ride – it doesn’t need “big” stars to get people into the theater. Why spend $15 million to land someone when you don’t have to. You can spend $5 million and get a star that’s just good enough.

In the case with Orlando Bloom, Disney’s simply lucking out. He’s been in two movies that Disney started than abandoned to other studios (‘Black Hawk Down’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’). But even with the buzz he’s getting from ‘LOTR: The Two Towers’, he’s no where near big enough to base any kind of marketing campaign around. What Disney is trying for is that he’ll become the flavor of the month around the same time that ‘Pirates’ opens and that will generate some additional publicity. It’s the same thing Disney hoped would happen with Josh Hartnett and ‘Pearl Harbor’. I think that Johnny Depp falls into the “cheap and available” category more than “he’s a big draw” category.

Fox News is pretty accurate about this one. In fact all of the Major Media Monoliths are playing nice when it comes to reporting on each other’s projects. All entertainment companies live on the publicity they receive outside of their particular organizations, They don’t want to do anything to upset their chance of getting their actress on the other guy’s morning talk show. The big time negative stuff you see is either a legitimate business story (like problems at AOL TimeWarner) or comes from the company itself (like all the bad press about ‘Treasure Planet’).


P.S. The one who is really getting the buzz from ‘Rings’ is Viggo Mortensen. He could very well become the next mega actor in Hollywood if he wanted it (but no one thinks he does). And the earliest prediction around – Sean Astin will win the Oscar for ‘LOTR: The Return of the King’.

[Bob O]

Ditto's to AV. It was funny while on the tram tour at USH that they made a big point of pointing out that Pirates was being filmed partially at their studios and drove by the set.
As for Orlando while he does a good job on LOTR he is a part of a much bigger story and hasnt shown at all that he can partially care the load on a big action film. Now if you were talking Russell Crowe as a example, that would be different. Mark Hami(Star War)l was very big in his heyday and the girls bought his pictures but that didnt bring him fame or fortune on his followup projects. So time will tell if he will be the star some assume he will be.

[Golter]

Anyone who thinks Depp is a thing of the past has not seen Chocolat. He is marketable and talented.

[RustManFan]

I can't believe that the Fox News piece tries to compare Country Bears to Pirates! The Bears previews looked incredibly stupid. The Pirates concept can't even be in the same category. Country Bears based on a ride? Have these Fox people been to DL or WDW?

I am greatly anticipating Pirates and especially seeing Orlando Bloom in a new role. LOTR was his first and he was amazing! (and my kids are in their 20s, not me!)

[d-r]

All I'm saying is that I wouldn't be shocked if young girls came out for this one - not because any of the actors were that great or the story was so terrific - just because they are young girls. I could be way off, but I could see this being something like what happened with Titanic. Of course by that reasoning Pearl Harbour should also have been a success, but regardless of who was in that one it was sooooo long and beyond Titanics crappy canned love story - at least Pirates seems like it will be an adventure. Just a guess though!

Melissa

[Planogirl]

Originally posted by d-r
Melissa here -
Although Johnny Depp is sort of a thing of the past - I mentioned to my neighbor that Legolas (Orlando Bloom) was going to be in Pirates and she flipped - can't wait to see it. If for nothing else - he may pull in the female audience.

Melissa

Bite your tongue! No one makes a moody British style murder mystery quite like Johnny Depp. And this female who isn't quite over the hill YET ;) will go to see this only because he's in it.

Maybe they're trying to attract women of all ages? :)

[EUROPA]

Before we get all out of hand on the star power and crowd drawing ability of Johnny. Lets see the numbers... This is the last 19 movies.



1 From Hell (2001) $31,598,308
2 The Man Who Cried (2001) $739,583
3 Blow (2001) $52,964,509
4 Chocolat (2000) $71,309,760
5 Before Night Falls (2000) $4,221,817
6 The Ninth Gate (2000) $18,653,000
7 Sleepy Hollow (1999) $101,068,000
8 Astronaut's Wife (1999) $10,654,000
9 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas(1998) $10,562,000
10 Donnie Brasco (1997) $41,954,000
11 Nick of Time (1995) $8,169,000
12 Dead Man (1995) $1,069,000
13 Don Juan DeMarco(1995) $22,200,000
14 Ed Wood (1994) $5,887,000
15 Benny & Joon (1993) $23,202,000
16 Arizona Dream (1993) $106,658
17 What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) $9,170,000
18 Edward Scissorhands (1990) $56,362,000
19 Cry-Baby (1990) $8,266,000

[*123JOANNA123*]

There's a TV comedy in the UK called 'The Office' shown on BBC and one of the stars is currently filming for Pirates of the Carribbean.

Here's an interview- he doesn't say much about it, but thought I'd post anyway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/mackenzie/

[Another Voice]

Gals do not go to movie to oogle guys in the same way that guys go to movies to oogle gals. Women want romance, they want characters like themselves, they want to see the fantasy, they want a story to carry them away. Guys want everything you can pull off and still get a PG-13 rating.

Ultimate proof – young girls in the millions went streaming to the theaters to see Leo in ‘Titanic’. Yet they stayed away in even greater numbers despite from ‘Pearl Harbor’ even though it had “dreamer” stars Ben and Josh. It was the storyline, trite as it was, that appeals to that audience. And even with Leo, none of those same girls went to his next movie, ‘The Beach’ despite all the shirtless Leo ads they piled on.

‘Pirates’ is not going to be a hit based on Orlando Bloom or Johnny Depp. It has nothing to do with how appealing either actor my be; it’s they’re in the wrong movie for the “hunk” marketing to work. The romance in the movie is a perfunctory subplot even less developed than the “romance” in ‘Pearl Harbor’, more time is spent on explosion than dialog, and the plot itself is simply an excuse to move from one shot to another.

The buzz around town is that ‘Pirates’ is already shaping up to the “car wreck” of the summer. As someone said, “it’s too early to tell, but be sure the air bags are in good order before you head to the theater.”

[Planogirl]

I would agree that a sorry plot or one without a good romantic subplot will do this movie in even if a few hunks are in it. I like Johnny Depp but he needs to be in a particular type of role for it to work and I think that Orlando Bloom is likely to be the same way. I just took issue with the statement that Depp couldn't draw, he is really quite choosy with the roles he will take from what I understand.

Well, at least until now. ;)

Pirates the car wreck of the summer? And when is The Alamo supposed to come out again? :(

[TheTexasKid]

Whether this will be a flop or not, only time will tell. But, to contradict the buzz that it will be, that is not what I hear. The buzz I heard, surfing a number of web boards dedicated to upcoming movies, that it is receiving alot of attention as a film that looks interesting, and is one alot of people are interested in seeing.
As for Fox News, I believe they are not the most reliable news source in the world. Indeed, Rupert Murdoch is well known for getting the news sources he owns to run negative stories, when he does not get his way on something. For example, I have heard that when a government agency did not approve his purchase of a television satellite company, one of his newspapers, the New York Post, started running negative stories on Chelsea Clinton.
Again, only time will tell whether this will be a flop or not.

[eeyore0062]

You would be surprized at Bloom's name recognition with younger females

Shoot, my 45 year old sister in law has the hots for him!!!:rolleyes:

[Eyesnur]

Please, Another Voice explain to me comments you made on page one about POC being the most expensive live action pic, eclipsing PH and GofNY when I read just yesterday (via a Reuters report) that the anticipated cost of this film is 70M...Seems like a big discrepancy to me...

[Another Voice]

The level of deception and deceit in Hollywood accounting makes Saddam green with unabashed envy. For a lot of different reasons, there is no “real” final cost of a movie that can be really determined. Mostly it’s a way to avoid paying people who have a share of the “profit” and/or now it’s also a way of quieting shareholders. Whenever you see a movie’s budget “leaked” to a news report there’s probably some angle being worked. The figures I’m hearing are from the Hollywood grapevine (the real one, not websites or chat rooms) and I’ve found it to be fairly accurate.

And I further tend to believe the numbers I’m hearing because of what I see happening. A custom built ship, extensive location shooting in the Caribbean, massive sets all over Southern California, extensive special effects, underwater shooting, a massive crew and Michael Bay near a camera – all of those has always indicate a massive budget.

Given the box office performance of Disney’s recent high-budget films (‘Reign of Fire’, ‘Treasure Planet’, ‘Gangs of New York’) there is no way they would ever publicly acknowledge they’re risking another huge chunk of cash. The “ride movies” already have a poor reputation based on the clunker of ‘The Country Bears’ (yes, it’s unfair but that’s Hollywood). Added is that the ride movies were supposed to be a series of low cost/high return wonder flicks that would dump tons of cash to Eisner’s promised 25% growth this year.

And even in the recent past Disney has been publicly cagey about film budgets. They were given out low numbers for ‘Pearl Harbor’ even while Eisner was calling it “as close to a sure thing as there is in Hollywood”. He found out that it wasn’t but by shaving $40 million off the announced cost he avoided many embarrassing questions. They are much less confident about ‘Pirates’ and so have even more reason to be creative with the budget.

[canda]

The biggest threat to hurt POC is Master and Commander movie coming out first. Adults will already see the this movie and pass POC off as a kids flick. When multiple movies come out, it is the stars that drive the folks to see. Look at the asteriod movies, you had Bruce and Ben versus tea leoni. With MC vs. POC it is Russel Crowe VS depp and bloom. My money would be on Crowe. I am very much looking forward to seeing both movies. Even if they are said to be the worst of the year. I wonder if these sea fairing movies will be better than A&E's
Horatio Hornblower? fox is my favorite network news and they are putting out the M and C, so they do want to get in there digs first.

[wajones1903]

Last big thing bruckheimer did wasn't Bad Company it was that thing he's curently involved in called CSI! Forgive Bad company anyway What did you expect it was a Chris Rock movie(or should I say It was an action movie starring a stand up comic!) Need I say more Brockheimer's givin us some great stuff(as have Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom...albeit few) Bloom hasn't really made a bad choice yet. Trust him. He's seems to be a "genuine actor" that can read a script and know a good part when he sees it. And besides if you don't trust disney, trust Geoffrey Rush... the movie has just few enough good actors to be decent!

[Captain_Nemo]

I crew on some of the San Francisco Bay tall ships and I’d like to add two thoughts to the conversation. First of all, Hollywood has a dreaded fear of “water pictures” based on long experience. They are very difficult and costly to make, and their chances of success at the box office are no better than a picture shot on dry land. Because of the difficulty, they are expected to take longer to shoot so 3 months is not bad.

I can also tell you that, some time back, some reps from the production company were combing through the local tallship sailing talent for people who were able to go work in Mexico and LA for a few months. The rumor was that they had hired a bunch of extras that claimed to have experience, but many had lied and the rest had been referring to your average small slope. No per-diem was being offered at the time so takers were few. :rolleyes:

BTW, personally I don’t think I ever went to see a movie because of the actors. I may have avoided a few for that very reason though.

Captain Nemo