UNIVERSAL HAS A HUGE RELEASE SCHEDULE FOR SUMMER AND FALL BUT KEVIN COSTNER STEALS THE SHOW IN LIONSGATE’S “DRAFT DAY”

What a great second day at CinemaCon 2014. Universal Studios has a huge lineup of diverse film, and Universal has been on a roll, and with the upcoming slate, will continue that roll through this year. And Lionsgate with director Ivan Reitman at the helm brought out a film that established Kevin Costner as one of the best actors of our age, as well as giving us a film set against a sports backdrop that will literally take your breath away.

Universal Distribution President, Nikki Rocco, presented their lineup and the stars to a jam-packed Coliseum Theatre at Caesar’s Palace of industry people and media from throughout the world.

Universal screened Neighbors in its entirety, and footage from Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West; The Purge: Anarchy; Fast & Furious 7, with a great tribute to Paul Walker; the James Brown bio pic – Get on Up; Fifty Shades of Grey; the great sequel, Dumb and Dumber To; the animated Minions, which is a spin-off from the hugely successful Despicable Me; Angelina Jolie directed Unbroken; Luc Besson’s Lucy, which stars Scarlett Johansson.

“Neighbors” stars Seth Rogen and Zac Effron and is a bawdy comedy that had industry insiders roaring and this will be big for Universal, as it is in the model of “Ted” and just as funny, if not funnier.

Seth MacFarlane the creator of “Ted” was up next with his “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” which is a hilarious take off on many of the western dramas of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood, and has a great group of stars carrying it off.

And certainly, everyone was in awe and gave a standing ovation to Angelina Jolie as she presented “Unbroken”, the unbelievable story of Louis Zamperini, who was no ordinary prisoner of war, and who’s exploits in WWII are legendary. This was originally supposed to be a Universal vehicle for Tony Curtis, in 1959, but never got made. Jolie found the script, and the rest, as they say in Hollywood, is legend.

Another treat was the first footage seen from “Fifty Shades of Grey,” and even the execs at Universal hadn’t seen this yet.

Scarlett Johansson stars in Luc Besson’s “Lucy”, a sci-fi action film that keeps you on the edgfe of your seat, and Besson is a master of that format. 

And now, 20 years later we get a sequel that got the audience laughing so loud it had to have been heard up and down the strip – “Dumb and Dumber To” and Jim Carrey is back in a big way in this film as well as Jeff Daniels when Carrey wakes up from a 20 year stay in an institution.

“Get On Up” is directed by Tate Taylor, who directed “The Help,” is the bio of James Brown, and no matter if you know Brown or not, you will be up out of your seat jamming in the aisles on this fantastic look into Brown’s life.

Most people were stunned at “The Purge: Anarchy,” which was a sequel to last year’s big hit, but this one has a great storyline, that for twelve hours, once a year, all crime is legal, including murder.

But again, the story was Costner himself in this film skillfully guided by Reitman's sure directorial hand. He carries this film in every scene, and the dramas and humors that build around him are played like no one else. He is back like you have never seen him before, and he has risen in stature as a real star who is also a great actor, just as Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart.

And the story is so great, with all the action taking place in one day, and the screen gets time of day at different spots to highlight the enormity of the day and build on the intense pressure to find not only  the best player, but players that will sell season tickets and create fan devotion.

The cutbacks and split screens on phone calls was done so well the moviegoer was in on the call.

Great kudos to Costner, the screenwriter, and the director, Reitman, for pulling this off, and it is a huge picture that opens in April. This picture is perfect in what is defined as great, from the opening scene to the credits this is a great film in the long tradition of Hollywood films that engage the moviegoer immediately into the action and the character, and we feel the enormity of the stakes from the first scene.

Thank you, Universal, and thank you very much, Lionsgate.

Lorenzo P. is currently stalking the highways and byways of CinemaCon for OC Screenwriters.   Thanks, Buddy!

Editor

CINEMACON 2014 STARTS WITH A BIG BANG FROM PARAMOUNT
WORLD’S LARGEST CONVENTION OF FILM WORLD PACKS IT OUT IN LAS VEGAS

Hello to OC Screenwriters and our web followers around the country and to all the ships at sea.

Day One at CinemaCon 2014 in Las Vegas, where its been home for more than thirty years, kicked off at Caesar’s Palace, with a preview of the entire week and in addition to the film stars, the largest film convention in the world, with every major studio and producers, directors and stars attending from around the world, soon to be standard technological achievements in everything from cameras used in filming to advanced popcorn poppers was teased to an audience of more than 20,000.

Paramount lit the fireworks that started CinemaCon. The annual convention where theatre owners from all over the world gather in Las Vegas and meet and greet the stars and hear what product will be offered over the next six months from the studios, had Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Will Arnett delighting the huge crowd with story after story of their upcoming films for Paramount to be released by summer.

Paramount presented its product reel of glimpses from summer films that included Transformers: Age of Extinction, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Hercules, and 3D SpongeBob.

Rob Moore, executive vice chairman of Paramount, introduced their upcoming films and welcomed stars to the stage to greet the audience of National Association of Theatre Owners, and Mitch Nuehauser, the CinemaCon managing director dropped down from the ceiling wearing a Ron Burgundy costume from the film.

Dwayne Johnson walked through the crowd and took the stage, and had a few words about his role as Hercules. “Before we started shooting Hercules, I agreed the goal was for me t completely disappear into the character, including hair, makeup, and prosthetic penis.”

"Before we started shooting Hercules, Paramount, MGM and I made a pact," he told the crowd. "The goal was for me to completely disappear into the character -- hair, makeup, prosthetic penis."
Johnson, in the clips of the film screened, battled enormous armies and giant boars, and wore a lion’s head as his battle helmet.
Will Arnett introduced “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, which have come a long way from their earlier relatives of the early 1990’s. The film clips were awesome, as the Turtles are computer graphic created and the whole group were wisecracking and funny as most teens are.

Mark Wahlberg said he took the role in Transformers to work with Michael Bay, and that it wouldn’t let anyone down and would blow us away. And that is exactly what happened when a portion of the film was screened, and this is like no Transformer movie ever seen. Bay has raised the bar a great deal and the creations were beyond imagination. 

In the film, Wahlberg is an inventor who discovers a Transformer, and his daughter becomes a hostage, and Wahlberg has to rescue her. Easy enough? No way. These Transformers go way beyond the determined menace of even the Terminator. This film will be huge.

Special treats today will include studio film previews of the summer, and the latest technological advancements, including laser projection, which will leave digital far behind, and also a special showing of new 4D, yes that’s right, 4D.

And no good convention that celebrates Hollywood would be without cocktail parties, food created by chefs from around the world, and music by well-known recording artists.

You heard it first, right here!

Day Two starts at 8 AM.

Lorenzo Porricelli reporting for OC Screenwriters
CinemaCon - 2014

One of the greatest influences in my life was by a gentleman named Rudi Fehr.  He was not only my mentor, but was my dear friend.  I first met Rudi in my freshman year at California Institute of the Arts, while attending his editing course.  He must’ve seen something in that quiet, frightened and lonely boy I once was because he quickly took me under his wing and we became fast friends.  Rudi had great patience.  He would always listen attentively, never growing impatient with my constant chatter, never taking sides if I was having a disagreement with my parents and was always willing to give sagely advice when necessary.

Rudi is gone now, but there isn’t a day that passes for me without a thought of him, remembering him with a certain amount of magical awe.  I have often spoken about the love and respect I have for Rudi, but I realize the unfortunate fact that nobody really knows about this incredible man.  Therefore, to honor my dear friend I would like to share with my readers, the life of Rudi Fehr.

The life of Rudi Fehr is an incredibly rich story of an immigrant refugee.  He rebuilt his livelihood in the United Statesand has left a cinematic legacy to the classic Hollywoodstudio era. Rudi joined Warner Bros in 1936 as a film editor until attaining producer status in 1952.  In 1954, Rudi was elected to the board of governors of the Academyof Motion Pictures Artsand Sciences.  After retiring from Warner Bros. in 1976, he returned in 1977 to supervise foreign language adaptations of the studio’s films for France, Germany, Italyand Spain.  In 1980 Rudi joined Zoetrope Productions and worked with Frances Ford Coppola.  He returned to the editing bench in 1984 to gain an Oscar nomination for John Huston’s black comedy Prizzi’s Honor.

A native of Berlin, Germany, Rudi was born on July 6, 1911and studied at the Lyceum Alpinum in Switzerland.  “I really intended to be a diplomat,” Rudi once told me of his early years in Berlin, but, because of the Hitler regime and his ethnic background, it was not possible. So he studied music and wanted to be a symphony conductor.

Rudi’s father was a banker on the board of one of the leading German film combines, Tobis-Klangfilm.  He arranged a job for his son to work as an apprentice film editor and within months Rudi was editing his first film, Der Schlemiel (1931).  Rudi worked for the producer Sam Spiegel in Germany, then in Austriaand Englandafter the Nazis came to power.

Upon his arrival to the United Stateslate on night in 1936, Rudi had barely stepped off the ocean liner when he was detained by an immigrations official.  Apparently the immigrations official was concerned that Rudi was trying to smuggle the numerous musical instruments he had brought with him from Germanythrough customs.  Tried as he might to explain to the immigrations official he played all the instruments, the man wouldn’t believe him and insisted that Rudi would play every instrument present.  Rudi warmly recalled, “So I graciously obliged the official by taking up each instrument and serenading him while standing on a New Yorkpier on a beautiful evening.”

He moved on to Warner Bros’ studios at Burbank, California, initially translating German films into English, then becoming an assistant to the editor Warren Low on such notable productions as The Life of Emile Zola (1937), starring Paul Muni, and Jezebel (1938), starring Bette Davis.  My Love Came Back (1940) with Olivia de Havilland was the first feature he edited himself.  While cutting Million Dollar Baby (1941), he met one of its supporting players, Maris Wrixon, who later became his wife.

Of his early work, Rudi said, “I was especially pleased with Watch on the Rhine (1943).  The director had never made a film before and I worked with him day and night to lay out all the shots.”  This was Herman Shumlin, who had directed the hugely successful stage original on Broadway and was fine with the actors (Paul Lukas and Bette Davis) but had no idea of film technique.

Working at Warner Bros, Rudi had little choice in the films he cut. “Each of the major studios produced about 60 pictures annually.  The picture that started shooting was assigned to the editor who had just finished a show,” he explained to our class.  Editors worked in varied genres and had little or no opportunity to impose a style of their own.  In fact, when asked whether there was such a thing as a style that would identify a particular editor, he responded: “In my humble opinion, absolutely not!”

Many of his films were routine, but A Stolen Life (1946) had the visual intricacy of Bette Davis playing the dual role of two sisters, initially on screen at the same time, and Humoresque (1946) presented John Garfield as an outstanding violinist, dubbed by Isaac Stern.  Garfieldhad to be carefully filmed and edited as he couldn’t play a note.  He kept his arms behind his back in close-ups while a member of the studio orchestra perched on each side of him, their hands coming into frame to do the fingering and bowing.  John Huston’s tense crime drama Key Largo(1948), with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, was another plum that landed in Rudi’s lap.

The production chief Jack L. Warner came to place great value on Rudi’s taste and judgment, and in 1952, without asking him first, promoted him to a producer.  But, after handling the mediocre 1953 remake of the musical The Desert Song, Rudi escaped back to the cutting rooms, where he had the great satisfaction of editing two Alfred Hitchcock thrillers in a row.  I Confess (1953) was shot in Quebec, but Rudi remained in Burbankto look at each day’s rushes as they were processed, phoning Hitchcock with his comments.  The footage went off to Canadafor Hitchcock to view, then back to Rudi to start editing.

Despite the director’s reputation for “storyboarding” his films and “cutting in the camera”, Rudi recalled, “I never saw any set-ups he had thought of before.  I never saw anything on paper.  With I Confess, he shot a lot of film because he knew he couldn’t go back to Quebecto retake it.”  The second Hitchcock film, Dial M for Murder (1954), produced much less footage, being shot mostly on one set at Burbank, but Rudi again saw no evidence of preconceived editing by the director.  “He gave me a completely free hand.  He never told me how to do anything.  He looked at the film after I finished my first cut and gave me few changes – never more than five or six.  I got along with him just famously.  It was the most pleasant association I’ve ever had in my career.”  Dial M for Murder was shot in 3-D. Rudi had earlier cut the horror hit House of Wax (1953) in that short-lived process and found that it made no significant difference to his work other than to ensure that the 3-D highlights, like a ping-pong ball leaping out of the screen, were presented to maximum effect.

When Rudi did accept an executive position in 1955, it was as Warners’ head of post-production.  He viewed the rushes of all the films in production each day with Jack Warner and oversaw their editing.  He was also required to accompany the studio chief on the five-minute walk from the cutting room to his office, so that Warner could avoid being collared by people he didn’t want to see by pretending he was too busy discussing an editing crisis. “I never asked for special favors, even though I was alone with him two hours a day while we went over rushes,” Rudi related to me: “Once, my wife convinced me to ask for a two-week vacation; we wanted to go to Arrowhead.  Warner’s answer was, ‘Rudi, when I’m here, you are here.  When I take my vacation, you take your vacation.’  Finally, Warner did take his vacation. I went to his right-hand man and asked for my vacation.  He said, “Are you crazy?  Do you want me to carry the ball for you too?  I need you now more than ever.”  So he said no; and therefore from 1956 to 1963 I didn’t have one day off.”

Rudi became a skilled diplomat and intermediary between executives, producers and directors, trying to get all sides to agree to editing changes.  He specially supervised the foreign-language versions of the Jack Warner production of My Fair Lady (1964) in order to make them as good as the English version.  He remained at the studio 10 years after Jack Warner relinquished power.  He managed to get on with the next generation of innovative filmmakers.

After retiring from Warner Bros in 1976, he joined Francis Ford Coppola at Zoetrope, working on post-production of Apocalypse Now (1979) and as the supervising editor on One from the Heart (1982).  In 1984, when John Huston asked him to edit Prizzi’s Honor, Rudi exclaimed, “But the last time I edited was in 1954!” “Oh, it’ll come back to you,” responded Huston. Rudi went to work. “The toughest problem was to cut 28 minutes out of a two-and-a-half-hour cut.  I thought that Huston was going to do that, but I was told it was my responsibility.”  Working on the picture with his daughter Kaja, he cut it down to an effective 129 minutes.

Rudi’s crowning achievement was in 1983, when he was presented with the Grand Medal of Merit by the President of West Germany.  In 1990 he joined the California Institute of the Arts faculty, worked on foreign-language versions, and chaired the committee for the foreign film Academy Award, and in that year was honored by the Landof Berlin, which presented him with the Medal of Merit.  In March of 1993, Rudi received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Cinema Editors. 

Rudi passed away on April 16, 1999.