storymaps99

I'm with palostick. Like a painting in which construction lines underlie the finished product, I might not have minded all the hamfisted generic action tropes if they'd bothered to erase the construction lines before releasing the film. It looked more like a blueprint than a movie.

predictions on TREK's drop this weekend? 60%? 65%?

it's so quaint that some people here think that the quality of a film has anything to do with it's opening weekend numbers.

The show is called 'Hannibal'.

...what supernatural powers? It's deduction and imagination. Not exactly superpowers in our business.

Those sequences where he becomes the killer and "relives" the murder have a big supernatural vibe to them. And he woke up wandering on a highway in one scene, which really gave it a supernatural vibe. If that's not the case and it's just supposed to be his intuition, sorry but I think it's overproduced nonsense. Not to mention grisly because not only do we see the aftermath with the hacked bodies, but then we get to relive the murders from the POV of the killer! Yuck.

THANK YOU, JIBLINGS! Dan has no idea what he was talking about! But, I heard The Americans is really good so I can't wait to see it.

Rubicon can't hold Carrie Mathison's jock! I mean, seriously, the pilot opens with these guys trying to unravel some kind of secret code found on the front pages of three major newspapers? Firstly, um, get back to your f*&king job because there's terrorists out there, and secondly, huh? If this was answered later in the season, the ponderous scenes and glacial pace made sure I had already checked out.

i can't take your opinions serious, Dan. YOu don't even like Homeland. BAH! lol! jokes...but to each his own. I dig them both. But, I'd take ANYTHING over The Kiling. Yuck

That looked pretty good....

They are very smart to release this before White House Down.

Elliott, I too am baffled that Gerard Butler keeps getting big roles. He was great in 300...and everything else has pretty much sucked/bombed. He's the new Colin Farrell -- keeps getting cast, despite bomb after bomb or even much likeability. He seems like a nice guy, but give us a break already. :-0

I think it has potential. Any show whose foundation is about living a lie is usually compelling. BUT -- those flashback scenes were HORRIBLE. At least make your characters look 20 years younger. ;p

I watched about 7 minutes of it and then realized the pilot was an hour and a half and change long and said, I'm outta here... My patience is that of a chimpanzee on cocaine.

Wanted to like it but gave up on it after half an hour.

The Killing should have just ended last season. I really don't know what the hell they are going to do with it now. Veena Sud really F'ed up a show that had promise.

Based on AMC's track record with hiring new talent for their shows, the replacement will not be a good one. They hired the guy from Falling Skies to do Hell on Wheels season 3. Falling Skies was a mess and whoever was showrunner needed to be fired, not hired for another series. AMC has been making a lot of questionable calls (esp. in regards to the Killing) to the point where their brand is starting to erode. With Breaking Bad gone after this season and Mad Men the season after this (?),...

Mazzara's one of the best guys I have ever worked with or for before in my career and I know that no matter what, he'll land on his feet and march on. The comment above about him being hired because he was cheap and bottom of the barrel is wrong. He helped helm "The Shield" which was an amazing show and has done other incredible shows before and after that. TWD has had a HUGE pile of turnover from the very first season on...this is just par for the course. Remember the gre...

No and No. Very sad to see the bar lowered so much that mediocrity is seen as great.

I absolutely love Happy Endings! It never fails to crack me up.

Happy Endings is one of my fans on TV right now!

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I think he ruins the nice feeling of the ending by tacking on the outtakes of Melissa McCarthy raging and swearing in a not particularly funny way. He can't let go of that comedy sketch mentality.

Just watched it. Yeah, I laughed a few times. Especially at some of the stuff Rudd said. Still a pass, but I did laugh.

It had some laughs, of course, just...not enough. And too much reliance on improv. I took classes at the UCB Theater in NYC years ago, so I've watched a number of people come up and noticed the influence of improv on tv and features and it's getting out of hand, IMHO. I notice now most of the "tags" on the ends of sitcoms are just actors improv'ing and it often pulls me out because it's not natural to the character or the logic of the show. I get the sense that the sho...

I've actually been hearing a lot of good things about this one.

The Variety review overall is positive.

The Variety review overall is positive.

Oceans 11 meets Criss Angel?

Having loved the script, I'm really excited for the film. I loved Prestige as well, but they're two very different beasts.

I'd figure Lowlife would freak out a Prestige fan more than a Louis Leterrier film.

Originally was slated to open Oct. 2013, then pushed to Jan. 2014, and most recently shelved until Feb. 2015.

uni bought it from WB after legendary moved

Oh wow I hadn't seen this trailer...this does not look very good :/

The guild of magicians never reveal their secrets!

You're not a magician. #curb

Oh yeah, I am #curb. Sweet, sweet episode.

Ha, yeah I tweeted that yesterday. It's not fair, but it's funny.

My buddy showed me that on FB. I wrote back "Thanks now I hate the movie."

I love those "Honest Trailers" They crack me up.

Unreal. In the best possible way. I love seeing a show that does't bleed viewers over time but instead continues to increase.

It's also proof that most Network TV blows donkey balls

Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain on FX will hopefully bring another quality entry to the genre and could easily pick up this audience. I just finished the first book in the trilogy and if they put enough money into it, it will be the next The Walking Dead.

I'd like to see Fincher finish the trilogy, too. I liked his Girl better than the foreign one.

Gotta agree, I'd much rather see Fincher move on.

I found the US-adaptation pretty dull but maybe that's just me.

And Take the Money and Run and Bananas are on my list, too.

Love And Death is my favorite of his old comedies - holds up the best I think. Other favorites of mine that get overlooked: Radio Days and Zelig.

Broadway Danny Rose is on Netflix streaming. It's one of his most overlooked and one of my personal favorites.

It's really good but it's a lot to take in. The first ep. of a new season always throws you a bit. Will watch again tonight.

Thanks. Yeah, would love your follow-up take if you have time. But I'll definitely add my 2 cents on Sunday night.

Took a little while to wind itself up to full MAD MEN buzz - but it got there, and everything paid off nicely by the end. Excited to see what comes next.

I think it's the colors, they're too bright and cartoony, even more so than in the comic book. The costume in the Cap America movie was much more realistic and edgy looking which added to the "realism."

I agree the colors look way too bright. However, I guess it depends what type of lighting and filters they're using. Maybe it will look okay when it hits the screen.

Cookiemonster: that's what I'm hoping, too. It looks like felt in person, but on screen hopefully it looks more substantial. Otherwise, I've got my knight costume from third grade to sell to the Arthur and Lancelot folks. ;-)

It's all about comparisons and keeping a straight face when you guess wrong.

The pre-release numbers come from data gathered from focus groups and/or test screenings. Sometimes your focus group is a bunch a people in a room or sometimes they're online or polled over the phone. Who they are reflects what you want to find out -- age, geography, income, whatever.

From the groups you end up with data on movie awareness, how good your advertising was and demographic ...

reaction to the film. You then take all the data, ticket pre-sales and compare it to how similar films opened. Then you guess.

Once the tickets start selling on Friday you get more data and you compare it to past releases to try to figure out Saturday and Sunday.

http://www.otxresearch.com/

https://www.marketcastonline.com/Default.asp

http://www.rentrak.com/section/media/theatrical/index.html

Thanks!

What's Tintin tracking at? Because my instinct is telling me... tick... tick... tick...

A commenter mentioned that "Tranquility Base" was launched by the Tracking Board contest. Is that originally how Brooklyn found it?

Yeah BW was a judge for the contest here I'm pretty sure and plucked the script and got the sale before the contest was even finalized.

i've heard the script has been around for some time though - maybe it was just through the contest in which the interest was really finally piqued

I believe The Dark Knight is in fact two 1 hour and Twenty Minute Movies... there are two mini movies that are all linked together by the common thread/theme of sacrifice. Bruce Wayne/Batman sacrifices his life/company/family/friends for the city. Even Bruce Wayne sacrifices his Lambo to save the guy who was going to turn him in/expose him. The joker was sacrificing his life and money to prove he was the best. Even the prisoners on the boat had to make a choice as to who was going to sacri...

@Ying, that's actually an older version that's since been revised in my book (although the Mayor gaffe might still be in there) but thank you for the notes!

@Mikey, I don't think the sacrifice theme holds up for the Joker, IMHO.

Ugh.

I don't see that it's all that different from Fahrenheit 911.

It's made by a superpac as basically a giant commercial. You know, part of the unlimited campaign contributions of citizen corporations.

"Because I said so."

We're done when I say we're done.

It's okay, I forgive you.

Be grateful that you get an instant queue at all. Here on the Canadian Netflix we don't get it for anything.

Jaco: Nope, not doing it (like it does for every other title). It must be intentional on their part, but I can't imagine why. Maybe once you play it, it will keep it at the top of your queue or something, or maybe there will be a separate tab for it? But I don't see anything like that now.

Worked for me.

Thanks for the link, SciFiGuy, which includes a video embed of the full sequence. For the record, I'm fine with the IDEA of a title sequence like that -- not only is it a trademark of Fincher's style but if a Bond film can do it, why not another? And it's an incredible sequence, technically, and as a stand-alone piece of art -- but I'm still not sold on it adding to the story and establishing the tone of the movie -- when we come out of it, we've got what is essentially a ...

...what is essentially a standard Act One at a normal pace (for lack of a better term). But it's already growing on me, having seen it twice now, I must say. Ultimately, I admire its boldness and it is a part of the film, for better or worse, so should be considered in any future analysis, I suppose.