TORONTO – After months of rehearsals in a shabby warehouse on the edge of the Don River Valley in Toronto, a lavish stage version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is coming to life in previews at the Princess of Wales Theatre. If Tolkien’s three-part saga about that elusive ring is one of those mammoth, legendary adventures, a quest to end all quests, it has nothing on the task of turning the author’s lengthy, meticulously detailed world into a piece of theater. Yet, here it comes – a three-hour-plus adaptation of Tolkien’s trilogy. Set for a grand opening March 23, the show has a cast of nearly 60 actors and costs upward of $23 million – and counting. By comparison, “The Phantom of the Opera,” which cost a record $8 million when it opened on Broadway in 1988, would have a $12 million price tag today. [More]
Month: March 2006
MGM’s Lion Hopes to Roar Again in Movie Distribution
By Kate Kelly
9 March 2006
The Wall Street Journal
English
(Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
Eighteen months after new owners effectively shuttered MGM’s movie business, the historic studio plans to return aggressively to the distribution business with a slate of a dozen new movies to appear in U.S. theaters this year. The move, which was announced yesterday by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Harry Sloan, will rely on MGM franchises like James Bond, the Pink Panther, and Rocky, as well as new films from producers like Weinstein Co., to fill MGM’s re-opened cinematic pipeline.
MGM’s latest maneuver reflects how the swiftly evolving entertainment industry has forced the company and its owners to rethink a DVD-driven business model that seemed enormously appealing less than two years ago. In the fall of 2004, the investors who bought MGM and its famous roaring lion logo were attracted chiefly to its 4,000-title library, which was viewed as a way to tap into the flourishing DVD market for big profits.
But since the $5 billion deal was struck, DVD and video sales have slackened. In addition, some of MGM’s more aged titles have proved a particularly tough sell, and an industry battle over the format for the next generation of DVDs has threatened to fray the business even further. MGM’s new owners realized that, without new movie product, their ability to maximize value from the big library of older titles would be hampered.
Last fall those developments prompted MGM’s owners — a consortium that includes the Japanese electronics and entertainment concern Sony Corp., the cable giant Comcast Corp., Providence Equity Partners and a handful of other investors — to bring a new CEO on board to help redefine the strategy.
The result: Mr. Sloan’s renewed bet on the distribution business, which the company had essentially abandoned after the release of its last homegrown production, “The Amityville Horror,” last spring.
For now, MGM will stay away from the discipline that helped make it famous — production. Though it will partner with Sony’s Sony Pictures Entertainment to make movies for franchises like Bond and Rocky, there are no plans to hire an in-house production or development staff, said Mr. Sloan. Production tends to be riskier and cost-intensive, and requires additional staff and financing.
“MGM is firing up its theatrical distribution organization with a modern business model that I think is going to be very profitable for our investors,” said Mr. Sloan in an interview. “The old studio model of financing development . . . and determining what the movies would look like on a slate, isn’t what we’re going to be about. The important issue for us is to get into relationships with producers who can deliver.”
To distribute these movies — negotiating deals that place movie content into distribution channels such as theaters or pay television — MGM has kept on board much of the distribution staff it has long employed. The company is also hiring a new marketing team that can help sell product from outside producers who lack the resources to handle the sales themselves.
MGM’s new production partners vary in size. Among them are Weinstein Co., the studio opened last year by Miramax Films co-founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and Bauer Martinez Entertainment, a new production company with movies like “Van Wilder Deux” in the works. A likely third partner, according to two people familiar with the matter, is Lakeshore Entertainment, the independent production shop that made the Academy Award winning drama “Million Dollar Baby.” Representatives for Lakeshore couldn’t be reached.
If all goes according to plan, the distribution arrangements have benefits for both parties. For MGM, it is a chance to pocket a sizable distribution fee of roughly 10% of a movie’s box-office gross in a given territory, according to people familiar with the matter. For some of the producers, it is the ability to farm out potentially cost-intensive processes like marketing their films and arranging to show them in theaters. It also allows the producers to sell their product to deep-pocketed pay-television distributors afterward.
As part of our popular Movie Watch chats, tonight TORn’s IRC gang will be settling in to watch the third of the four Harry Potter films, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” We will conclude this movie series with “Goblet of Fire” on March 25th.
Join us tonight on our IRC server at 5:30 pm EST when we pop our copies of the film into the DVD player. After the usual confusion, at around 5.30pm EST we’ll all press play on our individual players and proceed to cheer and jeer (or discuss and argue, if you like!) the finer points of the film.
We plan to take a break midway through the film, to allow for stretching of fingers and backs. Barliman will be on hand to serve drinks and snacks (and to enforce the house rules).
Date: Saturday March 11
Time: 5.30pm EST
Place: #moviechat on the TORn IRC server.
Time zone conversions
Not sure what time the chat will be where you are? Check this little conversion table out for some help.
America:
5.30pm EST (New York)
4.30pm CST (Chicago)
3.30pm MST (Salt Lake City)
2.30pm PST (Los Angeles)
Europe:
10.30pm GMT (London)
11.30pm CET (Paris)
Asia-Pacific:
6.30am AWST (Sunday) Perth
8.30am AEST (Sunday) Brisbane
9.30am AEDT (Sunday) Sydney
11.30am NZDT (Sunday) Wellington
WHERE?
On TORn’s IRC server, in the #moviechat channel. After joining the server, type /join #moviechat to get there.
If you’ve never been to TORn’s IRC server before, you can join through our java applet and type /join #moviechat once you’re signed in. We recommend you visit our FAQ for some guidelines on using our IRC service. Barliman’s is a place for good conversation about JRR Tolkien’s works. We welcome you to our community and ask that you, and all guests, abide by some simple guidelines.
HOW?
Once everyone is in #moviechat and has their DVD ready to go, the ops will moderate the room and have a countdown to “Play.” I expect that we will be able to give minute-markers throughout the evening for latecomers. A break will be taken midway through — the exact point will be announced in the topic.
* * *
That’s all, folks! See you this weekend!
Meghan, Online Community Manager for The Lord of the Rings Online writes: Last Friday we announced our partnership with Codemasters as our European publisher and distributor. Yesterday, we posted concept art for Trestlebridge, an area the LOTRO team created specifically for the game. This is the first piece we’ve shown by concept artist Todd Rueping, who has been working on concepting the environments in the game. [More]
TORONTO – Few things could be harder than staging the most expensive theatrical production in history. Fewer still could be harder than adapting 1,200 plot- and action-filled pages, each of them worshiped by generations of readers, to a 3-1/2 hour show and setting it to music. But perhaps the hardest part of bringing “The Lord of the Rings” to the stage is having to make major revisions just weeks before opening night. Tell the ruthless, faceless Orcs to put down their swords before giving them the news. Mount stilts, duck the stage lights, and look a three-story-high Treebeard in the eye when you break it to him. Bounce the revisions off Gollum and wait for him to say that he’s of two minds about it. [More]
Kristen, Susannah and Sharon The ‘Letters to PJ’ Organisers write: Susannah and Kristen have recently returned from New Zealand where the completed ‘Letters to PJ’ book was successfully delivered to Peter Jackson through his associates. We encourage you to visit our website, letterstopj.com, for photographs and information about our trip. Get to it- our website shuts down in just a few months. If you have any additional questions or comments regarding the project and our time overseas, please fell free to send us an e-mail. We would love to hear from you! However, it could take us a while to reply- e-mails are flooding in and it’s taking a long time just to thank everybody! Thank you so much for contributing and/or assisting the project. Your support and enthusiasm did not go astray! ‘Letters to PJ’ has been an amazing, unforgettable experience in which you have played an immeasurable part. It has been lovely to meet you all and share stories. We hope that the Lord of the Rings will always be with you, just as the ‘Letters to PJ’ book and its heartfelt message will remain with Peter Jackson and all who made these films.