The P3 Update Magazine Blog

By Iain Blair

Was talking to Jackie Chan the other day about his new movie “The Forbidden Kingdom.” Shot on location in China, it marks the historic first-ever onscreen pairing of martial arts superstars Jackie (RUSH HOUR,) and Jet Li (FEARLESS, ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA), and features the awe-inspiring action choreography of Woo-Ping Yuen (THE MATRIX, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON).  Jackie told me that shooting in China “was easy, as the government really wanted to make this happen.” Directed by Rob Minkoff (STUART LITTLE, THE LION KING and written by John Fusco (YOUNG GUNS, HIDALGO), the story is based on the traditional Chinese legend of the Monkey King and also stars Michael Angarano - “24″, “Will and Grace,” as an American teen who magically is transported back in time to ancient China. There, he’s charged with a monumental task: he must free the fabled warrior the Monkey King, who has been imprisoned by the powerful Jade War Lord. Luckily he’s joined in his quest by wise kung fu master Lu Yan (Jackie) and a band of misfit warriors including Silent Monk (Jet). Pre-production planning in China started before Chinese New Year in January 2007, lasting just four months before the 17-week long principal photography commenced on May 2, 2007. While much of the film was created on the sound stages of Hengdian World Studios, numerous spectacular locations in China were chosen for exterior scenes: the Gobi desert in Dunhuang, the Nine Bends River, the waterfall at Xianju, the greens of the Wuyi Mountains, the Bamboo Camp at Anji and the Plum Blossom Garden at Fangyan. “And now we’re building the biggest studio in the world right now in Beijing,” Jackie told me, “so the Chinese film industry is growing very fast now. Maybe we don’t all the latest technology yet, but we have the space, and the new studio will open later this summer.”

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by James Thompson    

While NAB 2008 total attendance was down, there were a record-breaking number of international attendees. Most of them were not on hand to see Apple or Avid because both companies opted out from exhibiting this year.

Many could have descended on Las Vegas to see actor/producer Tim Robbins, whose keynote address gave him the opportunity to grumble about the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. But I believe most were there to embrace the progression of HD production.

When asked about the move to HD, Dave Walton of JVC had this to say: “This is the year; this is the last year of analog broadcasting.”

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By Iain Blair

Chatting with Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, who gave me some great insights into the current indie film market. Tom’s “very excited” about their new film from two-time Oscar nominee David Mamet,  “Redbelt,” a ju-jitsu drama. “We’ve done several films with him and we proposed this period piece to him, but he wanted to do this mixed martial arts movie. I was like, “Why this?” and he told me to read this piece he’d done for Playboy on the whole culture. That sold us on the whole concept. It’s a huge culture now – bigger than boxing.” The studio ponied up “under $10 million” says Tom, “and he made it look like it cost three times that, and it premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival later this month, so we’re very excited.” The company has several other films they’re “very happy with” on the way, and don’t seem to be at all worried about a possible SAG strike. “To be honest, it won’t affect us – we’re below the radar,” laughs Tom. “Usually strikes are good for us as then we can get people cheap!”

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By Iain Blair

Was chatting with Gerry Casale, founder of the great ‘80s art band Devo – who can forget “Whip It” and the raunchy/funny video the band did? – which Gerry directed for them as usual. “It only cost $15,000 and we’d never get away with what we did in it today,” he told me. “The censors would have a field day – and the budget would be $150,000 now.”  The big irony? “All our songs were in code  -  so “Going Under” was really all about sex, and “Snowball” was about coke addiction and so on – except for “Whip It,” which was totally literal,” he told me. “Everyone immediately assumed it was about S&M and masturbation, because we were this subversive band, so it seemed logical.” Although Devo disbanded in the early ‘90s, they’ve reformed for several mini-tours, “and we’ve been busy in the studio doing tracks for the Rockband video game which uses 3D CG humanoids imitating the band you’re hearing,” he reports. “And we just wrote a new song for a big Dell commercial, “Watch Us Work It,” which got a lot of airtime and got us tons of calls from various producers about doing more tracks, so we’ll see.”

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By Iain Blair

Had dinner with Holly Hunter the other night for a piece I’m doing on “Saving Grace,” her acclaimed TNT series. Hadn’t seen her in years but she’s still one of nicest people in the business and amazingly down-to-earth considering all her accomplishments. She’s been nominated for four Academy Awards - for  “Broadcast News,” “The Firm,” “The Piano” and “Thirteen” – and she won the  Best Actress Oscar for her performance in “The Piano.”  “Saving Grace” has also earned nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and her credits include the Coen brothers’ films “Raising Arizona,” and  “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” with George Clooney and John Turturro and Mike Figgis’ “Time Code.” I asked her how Hollywood’s changed since she started making movies back in the ‘80s, and she told me, “It’s become far more conservative. Indie films were like the Wild West there for a while. There were no rules and people could make whatever they wanted if they kept budgets low. But that’s all changed. I used to make a lot of movies budgeted at $12, 15, 20 million – mid-range movies. But those kind of movies don’t get made now – and if they are, they have to get Julia Roberts. Often if you make a film for just $5 million now, you have to get major stars to do it with you.”

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By Iain Blair

When I talk to DPs they all seem most excited about the new Red One 4K camera – directors too. Clooney and Soderbergh are big fans. One of the first films to be shot on Red One is the –appropriately named – “The Red Canvas,” lensed by hot DP Aaron Platt. He shot it using two Red Ones last fall and told me he was “very impressed” with the images he got and also just how much he could do in the DI. “It’s pretty amazing as you can take a scene and then give it a whole different look and feel in the DI.” For Platt, who was born and raised in the backwoods of northern California and who was obsessed with low budget horror films and early skateboarding videos in high school, “it’s an incredible camera – I just see more and more people using it now.”

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By Iain Blair

Just saw a great new film, “The Life Before Her Eyes,” a beautiful, haunting tale told in flashbacks that is not at all what you think it is. It’s directed by Vadim Perelman whose debut 2003 film “House of Sand and Fog” was Oscar-nominated. This is another intense, dreamlike film, with a great cast, including Uma Thurman as Diana, an art-history teacher living a seemingly idyllic life, but who’s haunted by the terrible events in her past. Evan Rachel Wood plays the young Diana and Susan Sarandon’s Eva Amurri plays her best friend. When the two girls are cornered in a high school bathroom by a deranged student gunman, they have to make the agonizing choice between which girl should live and which should die. Uma Thurman told me that the low budget film was shot on location in Connecticut, “and it has a great look.” The versatile actress, whose credits include “Pulp Fiction,” “The Producers” and “Dangerous Liaisons,” has already completed her next film, the romantic comedy “The Accidental Husband,” which she also produced. Like many actors, Uma has found that developing her own projects is “very satisfying, as finding good roles is always a problem.”

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By Iain Blair

The last time I saw Francis Ford Coppola, he was telling me how “you save money on a production when you’re able to just put up the dough yourself, which is why my next film will be another small personal one.” He also told me that the script for that film, Tetro, had been stolen when a thief broke into his Buenos Aires home last year and stole his laptop. But there was a happy ending. “Luckily I had other copies so we’re going ahead,” he said. And now shooting has started in BA and the small $15 million production, which stars Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, is being done thru’ Coppola’s Zoetrope Argentina operation. He hopes for a release next year.

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By Iain Blair

Two more Hollywood legends left us this past week: Charlton Heston and Richard Widmark, never to be replaced. Widmark  — who was 93 — will always be king of the noir thriller thanks to such classics as Kiss of Death, his debut in ’47 which got him an Oscar nod. I met him briefly in London years ago and he was a true gentleman although he excelled at playing psychos. I also had the opportunity to hang out with Heston years ago when I first came to Hollywood. He invited me over to his Beverly Hills home, which was perched dramatically on a promontory overlooking the city — just the spot for Moses! He was a charming host, although his knees were already giving him trouble — he blamed it on too many stunts and chariot races. Both will be sorely missed as icons of Hollywood’s golden era.

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By Iain Blair

If you love movies you can’t miss this: several famed Hollywood personal memorabilia collections are to be auctioned on April 5 when Heritage Auction Galleries presents the collections of icons & legends Stanley Kramer, Buddy Ebsen and others. One highlight has got to be Stanley Kramer’s stuff. After all, he directed and produced classics such as Judgment at Nuremberg, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and the hilarious It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Got some spare cash? Among the fascinating items to be offered are: Kramer’s Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, as well as signed scripts, documents and personal gifts from Spencer Tracy and John Wayne. And if you’re a Buddy Ebsen fan, key pieces include: Buddy’s personal script for the first episode of The Beverly Hillbillies and his original contract for the pilot; Hollywood costumes, including the tuxedo he wore while dancing with Judy Garland in the “Yours and Mine” number in Broadway Melody of 1938, letters, awards, musical instruments, photographs; even the respirator he used after his near-fatal lung infection on The Wizard of Oz.

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