Comics get red-carpet treatment at Spike TV Scream Awards
MOVIES
Comic-book icons mingle with Hollywood A-listers. It's a sign of the times, industry insiders say.
The Oscars present Hollywood as it wishes to be -- refined, glamorous and high-minded -- but on Saturday night at the Greek Theatre, the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards showed the movie industry as it truly is in 2008: obsessed with superheroes, overflowing with fake blood and relentless in its pursuit to sell popcorn to teenagers. And despite a name that sounds like a B-movie convention, the Scream Awards turned out to be so of-the-moment in their target audience that top studio executives, major stars and A-list directors not only attended, they talked backstage about the show as a sign of the times.
"There's a feeling that film and comic books and all these genres that didn't used to get respect are having this truly dynamic moment right now," said Zack Snyder, director of "300" and the upcoming R-rated superhero epic "Watchmen." "Just look around tonight and you get this feeling things are going into interesting places."
The Scream Awards, which will air Tuesday night on the Spike TV cable channel, are hardly a ratings powerhouse, but you wouldn't have known that from the celebrity turnout. Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L. Jackson, Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman appeared to present or receive awards, and two of the most successful filmmakers alive arrived on stage in dramatic fashion -- "Sweeney Todd" director Tim Burton floated in via hot-air balloon like the Wizard into Oz, and "Star Wars" mogul George Lucas entered accompanied by a marching regiment of clone troopers.
Backstage, Lucas, standing not far from black-clad rock star Marilyn Manson and comic-book industry icon Stan Lee, seemed a bit dazed by the strange confluence of pop culture streams. "This," he muttered, "is something."
These are lean times for corporations that routinely gamble more than $100 million on major films. Last week, Paramount, citing financial constraints, pushed back the release of "The Soloist," which was considered to be a strong Oscar contender.
At the same time, studios are scrambling to buy the rights to obscure superheroes, and there are no fewer than two dozen projects based on comic-book characters or video games that are in various stages of production. The reason is simple: This summer, "The Dark Knight," the latest Batman film, racked up $527 million at the box office in the U.S. alone, making it second only to "Titanic" as the highest-grossing film in history.
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