Pair Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman in a movie, and you figure it eventually will reach your neighborhood multiplex. Woody Allen and Sharon Stone in a comedy? Same deal.
Yet neither of those movies — nor the drama co-starring Cameron Diaz, Glenn Close and Calista Flockhart — wound up playing theatrically, at least in Chicago.
“Under Suspicion,” the Hackman/Freeman movie, opened Sept. 22 in New York and Los Angeles, and that’s it. Mind you, it’s no great loss — the movie plays like a USA Network psychological thriller run at half speed — but given that Freeman has had almost a Midas touch with his films, the movie’s virtual non-release is yet another sign of how dicey the theatrical movie business has become.
“It really is very expensive to distribute movies, and the marketplace is very crowded, and if a movie does not seem to be commercially viable, you can spend all of that money and end up awash in red ink,” said Lions Gate Films co-president Mark Urman, whose company gave “Under Suspicion” its limited release. “Names are not enough. You can spend $15-20 million to get a good opening weekend, and that could be a $12 million weekend.”
Earlier this year, Alfonso Arau’s “Picking Up the Pieces,” starring Allen and Stone, went directly to Cinemax after failing to land theatrical distribution. (TV critics ripped it.) MGM/UA included Rodrigo Garcia’s female ensemble drama “Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her” (starring Diaz, et al.) on its spring and summer release schedules before abandoning its plans and letting it air exclusively on Showtime. (It received respectful reviews out of the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals.)
Now USA Films has announced that Australian filmmaker Geoffrey Wright’s “Cherry Falls” — a comedic sex-and-horror film about a serial killer who murders only high-school virgins, setting off a near-orgy — will not open as scheduled in November but instead will appear on the company’s sister cable station, USA Network, on Oct. 20.
No one at USA Films would discuss the move, but the company released a statement:
“USA Films and USA Networks enjoy a unique and mutually beneficial relationship and therefore saw an opportunity to maximize the audience potential for `Cherry Falls’ with an exclusive premiere on USA Network. The target audience for `Cherry Falls’ is a perfect match with the core audience demographic that USA Network has consistently attracted with its original movies and series. We are confident that USA Network will aggressively and successfully promote the film.”
Given the movie’s teen sex and violence content, one might wonder whether the canceled release is a nod to Congress’ complaints about Hollywood, though someone at a rival studio speculated that quality is more likely the issue, given the movie’s less-than-stellar reputation while it’s been hanging around for the past year or so.
(“Cherry Falls” received a so-so review in last week’s Variety, with reviewer Derek Elley complaining that cuts to appease the MPAA and British censors have made the movie seem choppy and defanged.)
“Cable and the video markets need product, and they can actually do a lot better if they have something exclusive to them,” Urman said. “If a film has come out theatrically and has failed, then it is not of particular value as a video, because then it’s just a video of a failed theatrical and it has no real value on cable.”
He added: “The thing that people have to remember is that going straight to cable is not an insult. Filmmakers do make a movie to reach an audience, and you can get many more people enjoying your movie on a premium cable station than in an art house in Manhattan.”
Or on a distributor’s shelf. With the major studios reacting to the bitter climate by trimming their release schedules, more and more projects are gathering cobwebs.
Billy Bob Thornton’s comedy “Daddy and Them,” which he finished before his much-delayed December release, “All the Pretty Horses,” has been part of Miramax’s considerable backlog for almost two years. Paramount had slated the Chris Rock comedy “I Was Made To Love Her” (the Weitz brothers’ followup to “American Pie”) and Julia Stiles musical drama “Save the Last Dance” for summer release; now they’re not due until next year.
And whatever happened to “The Visitors”? Starring Jean Reno and Christina Applegate, this John Hughes-scripted remake of a French comedy was being shot around Chicago over much of the summer of 1999, but it’s still not on anyone’s release schedule. Calls to Hughes’ local office were not returned.
You may have read about USA Films’ “Mad About Mambo,” starring Keri Russell, in the past two summers’ previews; it finally opened only in Atlanta, Seattle and Phoenix in August. Meanwhile, “Lost Souls,” the Winona Ryder devil drama that was previewed at the March 1999 ShoWest convention, comes out Friday.
As for the movie that’s been languishing the longest, New Line’s “Town and Country” takes the crown. This Peter Chesholm-directed, Warren Beatty comedy began filming in June 1998, supposedly wrapped in February 1999 and has endured reshoots and various filmmaker-star squabbles. It finally has a March 16, 2001, release date.
Prairie State Hollywood: Illinois this year is unlikely to match 1999’s record $124 million generated in movie and TV projects filmed in state. Illinois Film Office managing director Ron Ver Kuilen said the 2000 figure is likely to wind up in the $80-90 million range, with the Keanu Reeves-starring “Hardball” the only major movie currently filming around town.
But early 2001 promises an influx of high-profile projects. The Michael Mann-directed Muhammad Ali biopic, starring Will Smith, is scheduled to arrive for three to five weeks of filming in January, Ver Kuilen said. The Farrelly brothers’ comedy “Shallow Hal,” starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black, should begin a 12-week shoot in March. And John Hughes is set to direct his first movie since 1991’s “Curly Sue” beginning in February.
Meanwhile, Ver Kuilen said, his office is eagerly awaiting the verdict on its pitch to play host to Sam Mendes’ follow-up to “American Beauty,” “A Road to Perdition,” a mob story starring Tom Hanks.
Valet over: Ah, remember the good ol’ days when you could spend $15.50 on a movie ticket and someone would park your car for you? Alas, that golden era has passed: Yorktown’s Premium Cinema in Lombard has dumped its valet parking.
“It wasn’t used all that much given the cost of it,” said General Cinema marketing director Brian Callaghan. “Rather than raising the price to cover the cost of the valet, we decided just to cut it.”
Thus Premium moviegoers now must circle the mall parking lot like everyone else, though they still get free popcorn, extra-cushy seats and the opportunity to buy chicken satay.
If General Cinema is looking for a way to enrich the “Premium” experience, here’s a suggestion: Why not book that theater like it’s a special place instead of just throwing in whatever looks to be the biggest release each week?
“The Art of War” and “Autumn in New York” deserve to be in a Premium Cinema like White Castle Sliders are meant to be served on fine china.
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E-mail: mcaro@tribune.com
