Movie Industry

In a Troy office building where advertising executives once courted Motor City automakers, film production workers discuss which stretch of downtown Detroit would offer the best sense of urban decay. Down the hall, in a warehouse that has been converted to a makeshift studio, dozens of prop builders are fashioning blocks of foam and stacks of plywood to build a set for a rocky mine shaft. For the next 11 weeks, the cast and crew of "Red Dawn," a remake of the 1980s action thriller that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is scheduled to release next year, will be working in Michigan.

For those who like renting movies, Hollywood may soon have a message: Prepare to wait. In an effort to push consumers toward buying more movies, some major film studios are considering a new policy that would block DVDs from being offered for rental until several weeks after going on sale. Under the plan, new DVD releases would be available on a purchase-only basis for a few weeks, after which time companies such as Blockbuster Inc. and Netflix Inc. would be allowed to rent the DVDs to their customers.

Sony Pictures desperately wanted to release the DVD of the Michael Jackson concert movie "This Is It" for the holiday shopping season but backed down after movie theater owners complained that it would be too soon after the film's theatrical premiere. That thwarted the latest attempt by a Hollywood studio to shorten the "window" between when movies appear in theaters and when they come out on DVD as the industry grapples with a downturn in DVD sales, which have traditionally propped up the movie business.

The last time one of Michael Jackson's tours played the continental United States was 1988. So perhaps it's no surprise that "This Is It," Sony Pictures' film made from rehearsal footage for Jackson's planned London concert series, did more than twice as much business internationally in its first five days as it did domestically. "This Is It" opened to a studio-estimated $68.5 million in 108 foreign territories from Wednesday through Sunday and $32.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, where it started late Tuesday.

Award winners for the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival were announced Tuesday evening at the Austin, Texas, fest's closing ceremonies. The prizes were divided into jury awards and audience awards. Judi Krant's "Made in China," about an inventor lost in Shanghai, won the jury award for best narrative feature and also took home the SXSW / Chicken & Egg Emergent Woman Award. Bill Ross' examination of daily life in middle America, "45365," received the documentary feature award with an honorary mention going to "The Way We Get By," Aron Gaudet's look at a group of senior citizens whose lives were changed by greeting U.S. troops at airports.

"Saving Private Ryan" continued to dominate the box office, taking in $23.6 million over the weekend with ticket sales dropping only about 24% from the previous weekend. "I don't think since 'Titanic' has a film captured the imagination of the general public in this way," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, a box-office tracking firm. Debuting in second place was Disney's remake of the family comedy "The Parent Trap," which grossed $11.

While recent attention has focused on our commercial film heritage--thanks to the American Film Institute's controversial 100 best list--a less glamorous effort to preserve films outside the mainstream has quietly gained momentum. These "orphans" are withering away in nonprofit archives without protective ownership. They include silents, newsreels, independents, experimental and ethnic works, as well as commercial titles in the public domain.

As anyone who's lived in this town for more than a few weeks should know, screenwriting isn't a job for the timid or weak-hearted. A large part of the profession involves sitting still for countless hours, charting the perfect character arc while navigating past hackneyed plot twists toward that elusive brass ring--originally. But an equally significant part of the writer's job is deciphering the subtext found in the ubiquitous meetings with producers, studio executives and agents.

Yes, the weather's still hot and the kids are still out of school, but as far as the studios are concerned, summer is over and it's time to start thinking about . . . next summer. With the industry's busiest season winding down, and the holiday releases more or less set, planning for next year is underway--and summer '99 is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

If the adage is true that the ultimate Hollywood art form is the deal, then the maneuvering to get "Spider-Man" to the big screen will never hang in the Louvre. As the biggest superhero character left unfilmed since the blockbuster "Batman" made the genre popular again, "Spider-Man" has been widely touted as moviedom's hottest property.