Film Fund-amentals: Last One Out, Please Turn Off the Lights

 First published January 26, 2012

It’s not exactly a major movement, but it’s starting to look like a winter of discontent in the film industry. It isn’t exactly a loud howl, but a distinct low rumbling noise is roiling through the cinematic valley, and even a tone deaf studio executive might want to cock an ear in the sound’s direction.

First Robert Redford opened the current Sundance Festival with his State of the Union address. OK, Redford’s strong environmental stand is no surprise and he is a person who walks the talk. His line about the Republican debates (“…this mushroom cloud of ego hovering over everybody”) is also a pretty accurate description of Hollywood (wish I had come up with that line first). As for Mitt Romney and the Transformers movies, I don’t know. I haven’t a clue what Mitt Romney watches and I really don’t care. But Redford’s swipe at big-budgeted movies receiving government help via the Pentagon (as is the case with these movies) is as provocative as his suggestion that the US should follow the European model of government assistance to low-budget indies.

With the current political climate here in the States, it ain’t gonna happen. Instead, the main political focus is on the rise and fall (and threatened rise again) of the Stop Online Piracy Act. It’s sort of dead (and kind of not) and Chris Dodd of the MPAA is now busy threatening to hold politicians hostage if they keep opposing the act. So Dodd announces that the Hollywood purse strings are closed to selected politicians preparing to run for re-election (like maybe for president or something), which then provokes a movement calling for an investigation of Dodd for bribery. This did get Dodd to slightly tone down the rhetoric if not the ambition by the time he got to Sundance. Now he is simply referring to opponents of SOPA as a cacophony of hysterical white sound. Sort of like that great line from the old movie Beat the Devil: “Your lips move but you do not make a sound.”

Admittedly, Dodd is almost enough to drive a person out of the movie business. Maybe that is why George Lucas is retiring. He is fed up with the attitude in Hollywood and is tired of the mindless, out-of-control condition of the financially bloated tent pole movies. OK, to be honest my first reaction was that this sounds just a tad like Satan announcing that he is tired of all of the sleazeballs living in Hell. After all, Lucas is one of the original architects of this contemporary Hollywood system. But that is all the more reason to listen to him (and Satan may really be tired of the low-lifes hanging around him).

The negligent Hollywood attitude toward low-budget movie making is all too real, and Lucas’ concern about the ballooning budgets for Hollywood films is dead-on accurate. In fact, it almost sounds as if he has been reading this column (hey George, if you’re reading this, be aware that I can easily be hired). Most likely, he has been talking to his old pal Francis Ford Coppola, who has been saying the same things for the past several years (but I’m cheaper than Francis and I don’t do weird stuff with a horse’s head during business negotiations). Coppola has been looking at a digital, decentralized post-Hollywood future. Some studio executives are hoping that Coppola is just an old crank living in a wine cellar, which may be half true. But he is a crank living in a highly-regarded wine cellar, and he has a spooky habit of being right in these matters.

Lucas is not alone. A growing list of Hollywood stars are also becoming more vocal about the crappy big-budget movies that are being made. OK, movie stars are always a little more difficult to take seriously (especially when one of them is Megan Fox, for crying out loud), and I would personally be inclined to take Lucas’s opinion more seriously (hear that George, I’m sucking up big time).

But some, like George Clooney, are already doing the indie approach and doing it with some reasonably positive results. The vast majority of Clooney’s career has taken place within the low to medium indie zone. (Note to Clooney: I know I’ve been pretty snarky about you in the past, but you’re a forgiving kind of guy, right? OK, last time somebody used that line on me they found out that I wasn’t, but hey, you’re a bigger guy than I am. Right?).

None of this suggests that mainstream Hollywood is about to break its addiction to mammoth productions with runaway budgets. It’s not even clear how well some of these folks will actually stick to their guns. For example, Lucas is very conflicted in his stand and seems to want the freedom to pursue low-budget filmmaking as long as it is underwritten by his deep investment in his own tent pole movies. As for the actors, well, to be honest, only a few of them have so far displayed any decisive focus in this direction. Daniel Craig is willing to mouth off (and gee, is he telling us that Quantum of Solace was a confusing mess? I just thought I was having a stroke or something while watching it), but he appears to be increasingly locked into the $150 million-plus range.

So all of this public rabble-rousing may have little immediate effect. But the near unthinkable has now been placed on the table for public discussion. Likewise, the twin effect of dwindling box office and failed political efforts may be giving some folks in Hollywood a cold chill (how cold will be apparent when they fire Chris Dodd). Contrary to what they think, they may not be too big to fail. Instead, they could be in the process of doing a slo-mo crash into a thick brick wall and they haven’t a clue what is really going on.

Meanwhile, a strange but impressive lineup of folks is sounding ready to bolt out of the room before the roof caves in. Hopefully, they’ll remember a very important rule: last one out the door must turn off the lights.

And George (either one), don’t be hesitant to call me. I’m here for you, guy. OK, I’m really here for your money, but I’ve got some good ideas….