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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Oscar Hype has started! ARRRRRRRRGGGHHH!
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David Stambaugh
Film God
Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 12-01-2002 07:42 PM
quote:
"The Quiet American -- Miramax sat on this picture for political reasons and is opening it only because the star cried "Censorship".
Charles, Charles, Charles. Always working so hard to find hot-button issues like "politics" and "censorship" in everything. You're kind of like Film-Tech's version of Dale Gribble, seeing conspiracy and political intrigue all around you, when there's usually a much simpler explanation. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Hint: 99.5% of the decision-making process in Hollywood is based on issues of money. Miramax knew they had a good movie but they were nervous about the film because it didn't test well, post-9/11. Martin A. Grove wrote a lengthy piece on "The Quiet American" in an article for Hollywood Reporter:
quote:
At one point, Miramax was going to hold the film's release until next year, which would not have qualified it for the Golden Globe or Oscar consideration... "I think that in the months after 9/11 some aspects of this story, particularly its unnerving images of the carnage of war, hit very raw nerves amongst some of the audience members who were watching the film at previews, particularly in the New York area," Noyce noted. "The film did not preview well. Remember, the particular sense of violation that we all felt in the months after 9/11 and which people in New York and New Jersey were particularly susceptible to. Perhaps there couldn't have been a worse collision of a movie and a real event than 'The Quiet American' and 9/11. I think that justifiably Harvey (Weinstein, co-chairman of Miramax) was skittish and uncertain about when to release the movie. We and Michael, in particular, all urged him to use Toronto (the Toronto International Film Festival in September) as a litmus test, which he did. And now it's going into release."
Now, let the Oscar hype continue! If it puts butts in the seats, it's good for this business and for film lovers.
[ 02-04-2003, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: David Stambaugh ]
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David Stambaugh
Film God
Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 12-02-2002 11:42 AM
In the interest of being "fair and balanced", and on behalf of Charles, I'll provide a rebuttal to my own earlier post. Basically, "The Nation" published an article by Jon Wiener which criticizes Miramax for shelving "The Quiet American" as being an act of politically-motivated "self-censorship". The author claims the film previewed very well on 9/10, but after 9/11 Miramax got cold feet about releasing something that's very critical of past US foreign policy, and which has parallels to today's situation with Iraq.
I still say it's only about the money. If the film's box office potential was hurt by world political events on 9/11, of course Miramax will make a business decision to put the film's release on hold. To say a film was shelved "for polical reasons" without looking at the entire picture is disingenous at best, and suggests that Miramax was pressured by someone, oh say W or Rumsfeld, to quash the film. Which is a bunch of baloney.
The Vietnamese government gives "The Quiet American" its thumbs-up: Here
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David Stambaugh
Film God
Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 03-15-2003 12:22 PM
Miramax on Academy's ![[bs]](graemlins/bs.gif) List over Gangs promotional ad.
Miramax's Oscar Campaign for Scorsese Causes Stir
Fri Mar 14, 8:06 PM ET
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Just when it seemed that heavy-handed Oscar promotional campaigns of recent years were on the wane, Miramax Films has drawn fire for running newspaper ads quoting a revered Hollywood figure as praising "Gangs of New York" and its director, Martin Scorsese (news).
AP Photo
Slideshow: Academy Awards
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Complete List of Oscar
Nominations (AP)
Executives of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites), which presents the Oscars (news - web sites), say Miramax crossed a line by recruiting former Academy president and Oscar-winning director Robert Wise (news) to write a commentary endorsing Scorsese for the best-director award.
Critics of Wise's column, published initially as an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Daily News, said the director breached an unwritten but apparently sacred prohibition against academy members revealing how they were casting their Oscar ballots.
And they say Miramax, the film's distributor, violated the spirit of Oscar- campaigning guidelines designed to maintain the "fairness and dignity" of the voting process.
"It's an outright violation of academy rules," academy president Frank Pierson told the Los Angeles Times in a rare public rebuke over Oscar politicking. "The reaction among our membership has been real dismay, anger and outrage."
Producer-director Barry Levinson (news), an Oscar winner for "Rain Man," told the Times he found the Wise ads "extremely vulgar."
"You look at an ad like that and say, '... Why don't we just give money to people and tell them how to vote?" he said.
After appearing in the Los Angeles Daily News earlier this month, Wise's column was reprinted as an advertisement paid for by Miramax that ran in several other publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and Hollywood trade papers.
ACADEMY MEMBERS MIFFED
Pierson said some academy members were so miffed that they wanted their completed ballots returned so they could strike Scorsese's name. Ballots mailed out to some 5,800 voting academy members are due back by March 18.
Miramax executives countered that ads and opinion pieces from Hollywood luminaries praising the work of peers are commonplace. They said Wise agreed to write a column supporting Scorsese after the industry daily paper Variety published a scathing commentary from screenwriter William Goldman saying "Gangs" was a "mess" and that Scorsese did not deserve an Oscar for it.
Miramax chief operating officer Rick Sands said he found it "ironic" that the studio heard no complaints from academy members about Goldman's piece. "Was that not vulgar?"
But Scorsese, a five-time Oscar nominee who has yet to win, was "horrified" by the ads, said his spokeswoman Lois Smith.
"He's known Robert Wise for many years, so of course he was touched by what Bob wrote about him, but he didn't know it was going to be used for an ad," she told Reuters.
Miramax, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., has a reputation for its spare-no-expense, take-no-prisoners approach to Oscar politicking. The studio co-financed and released "Gangs of New York," which is nominated in 10 Oscar categories, including best picture and best director.
Although some regarded Scorsese as a sentimental favorite in the race for the best directors Oscar, he became more of an underdog after rival nominee Rob Marshall (news) claimed the top honor from the Directors Guild of America for his work on "Chicago."
ADS WITHDRAWN
Wise could not immediately be reached for comment but told the Times he was not aware his column had upset anyone.
Academy spokesman John Pavlik said that in more than 10 years he could not recall any other past or present academy president signing an opinion piece endorsing a particular Oscar nominee. "The academy presidents for years have been the ones sending notices to members saying, 'please don't over-do the campaigning,"' though nothing in the campaign guidelines expressly bars such endorsements, he said.
A Miramax spokesman said the studio withdrew the ads after "a couple of academy members had expressed concern about it," but executives were surprised by the controversy.
"We were completely unaware that this was something academy members found offensive and ... we certainly did not know this practice was a violation of academy rules," Miramax operating chief Sands said in a written statement.
He cited a number of recent ads or published commentaries from Hollywood heavyweights praising the work of others, even during Oscar season. Among them were endorsements last year by Wise praising the 20th Century Fox musical "Moulin Rouge." In addition, Julia Roberts (news) endorsed Denzel Washington (news) and Warren Beatty (news) endorsed Halle Berry (news), Sands said.
Pavlik said the academy's board would likely take up the issue of published Oscar endorsements at its meeting in April.
The flap over the Miramax ads came during an Oscar season in which high- octane politicking that marked previous years appeared to have otherwise have cooled down.
"It did seem a little quieter, like there was less advertising in general, less blaring, screaming types of advertisements ... and then of course this happened," he said.
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