Monday, August 01, 2005
The Failure of the latest co-financed “$100 million” studio project.
Not surprised that Stealth, featuring Jamie Foxx and Jessica Biel, failed hard. I read that it cost more than $100 million to complete and similar to The Island, suffered from poor marketing and terrible word-of-mouth. Arguably, when moviegoers weren’t attempting to ignore the movie they trashed it on blogs, chat rooms and in e-mails sent to Sony, the studio backing this Rob Cohen effort. Not to mention in reviews by professionals and amateur writers alike. At least The Island (which has since had its B.O. take boosted to $30 million) had Michael Bay’s name going for it. Though that didn’t even come close to doing anything for poor Island, at least filmgoers knew what they were getting, more or less. And if they saw the trailers or the TV spots, they had an even better idea.
Stealth had Rob Cohen as director, a couple of leads who were miscast, and visual effects which were hailed by many esteemed film connoisseurs as “sub-par” and “barely better than average”. But don’t expect Sony to do any quarterbacking when they report their latest earnings to shareholders this quarter--the film was partially financed by German outfits and any number of foreign partners. It has now become fashionable to make American blockbusters with some American greenbacks but many more euros--mostly German, of course.
I guess Sony America wasn’t going to be that shocked either, having planned accordingly for this event by suckering as many foreign partners into this deal as allowed by international law. As a result, German financiers woke up yesterday and began massaging their ass, from having been royally fucked over--again. I also heard that this and many other incidents will result in German tax laws being reviewed for possible retooling by authorities later this year. Stealth will probably be one of the last American films to benefit from the lack of business savvy on the part of the German finance ministers.
And, if the Germans wise up and tell Hollywood to find some other stupid foreigners to deceive, Stealth will probably represent the last time Americans will see more than one tentpole summer film per year. After this, the only projects Hollywood film studios will invest in are sure things.
Still working on Flutemaster article and making mountains of progress with Maya 6.0 and 3D Studio Max 6!
Stealth had Rob Cohen as director, a couple of leads who were miscast, and visual effects which were hailed by many esteemed film connoisseurs as “sub-par” and “barely better than average”. But don’t expect Sony to do any quarterbacking when they report their latest earnings to shareholders this quarter--the film was partially financed by German outfits and any number of foreign partners. It has now become fashionable to make American blockbusters with some American greenbacks but many more euros--mostly German, of course.
I guess Sony America wasn’t going to be that shocked either, having planned accordingly for this event by suckering as many foreign partners into this deal as allowed by international law. As a result, German financiers woke up yesterday and began massaging their ass, from having been royally fucked over--again. I also heard that this and many other incidents will result in German tax laws being reviewed for possible retooling by authorities later this year. Stealth will probably be one of the last American films to benefit from the lack of business savvy on the part of the German finance ministers.
And, if the Germans wise up and tell Hollywood to find some other stupid foreigners to deceive, Stealth will probably represent the last time Americans will see more than one tentpole summer film per year. After this, the only projects Hollywood film studios will invest in are sure things.
Still working on Flutemaster article and making mountains of progress with Maya 6.0 and 3D Studio Max 6!
# posted by E.A. @ 3:30 PM 
