Paramount Pictures and Tina Sinatra gang up on Martin Scorsese
August 24th, 2009 by Scott Marks
It was a tough week for Martin Scorsese.
For months the opening date for “Shutter Island” had been set for October 2, the day after my birthday. There will be no gift from Marty this year. According to Nikki Finke, the release date has now been pushed back to February 19, 2010.
It seems that Paramount is crying poor by claiming they can’t afford the $50 to $60 million it would cost to promote the movie. Ms. Finke writes, “a studio source insists to me it’s got the cash, just not the home video sales: ‘Given where the DVD business is in 2009, our only hope is the economy and the retail business rebounds in 2010 because the hardest hit segment has been movies that play to an older adult audience,’ a studio source tells me.”
Excuse me. What happened to all the “Transformers” dough Paramount raked in earlier this year? The studio has enough ready cash to support new films by Peter Jackson and Jason Reitman but not Martin Scorsese?!?! Ooooooh!
Ms. Finke also says that Leonardo DiCaprio will not be able to do any international press junkets and that the reason they settled on a February 19 release is because that’s the same date Best Picture winner “Silence of the Lambs” opened.
Something’s not right. If the studio felt that the film was an Oscar contender surely they’d want to rush it into theatres in time for the upcoming awards season. Something tells me that Marty could close out the decade with a great movie. (Given His recent output it wouldn’t be hard.) I’m hoping that the film, set in a Boston insane asylum, is so scabrous, so venal that they want to bury it in one of the worst months for moviegoing.
Paramount execs aren’t the only ones giving Scorsese heat. That strega Tina Sinatra is reportedly upset with the way Marty intends to portray her father in His upcoming biopic.
A source tells WENN, “Marty wants it to be hard-hitting and showcase the violent, sexually charged, hard-drinking Frank, but Tina wants to show the softer side of her dad and let the focus be on the music.
“The Sixties were a very swinging time for Frank - he was having sex with a variety of bimbos and cementing his Rat Pack status. It’s a really key time to his mythology. Tina really wants to make sure that a sanitized Frank comes through, and that it’s not overly negative.”
Frank never drank, caroused with mobsters or smacked broads around. And Marty never threw a telephone or called Gregory Peck a “theorem.”
You don’t need these headaches, Marty. Make the Gershwin biopic and let Arthur Hiller “direct” the Sinatra saga. Tell Tina to go home and get her effing shinebox.
Tags: Frank Sinatra, Martin Scorcese, Martin Scorsese, Nikki Finke, Paramount Pictures, SHELTER ISLAND, sinatra biopic, Tina SinatraFiled Under Rants
Spielberg’s Dreakworks signs 7-year deal with Universal Studios
October 14th, 2008 by Scott Marks
Be sure to check out the anti-Spielberg video at the end of this post. I guarantee satisfaction.
The NBC peacock will soon be to contracting a foliar disease. After Paramount’s Bronson Gate hit Steve Spielberg squarely on his backside, it didn’t take a genius to predict where DreamWorks pictures would make its next home.
Nikkie FInke reports NBC/Universal signed an exclusive 7 year deal to distribute up to six DreamWorks movies a year domestically and overseas, except for India, executives for both companies said Monday. In an alliance with Reliance Big Entertainment of India, DreamWorks has lined up $1.5 billion to finance its future film slate. Reliance is handling distribution of DreamWorks films in India.
Stacey Snider, former chairwoman of Universal Pictures, remains DreamWorks chief executive officer, a position she’s held since 2006.
Why didn’t SKG simply sign on with Universal when it began in 1994? Surely Universal should have snatched it up when DreamWorks went on the auction block in 2006. After Hitchcock died (perhaps even before), Steve lived on as the studio’s star directorial attraction. When Universal discovered Steve back in 1968, he became the youngest director ever to be signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio. Spielberg’s production company Amblin has called Universal home since 1981.
The “G” in SKG negotiated the deal but is not joining the new incarnation of DreamWorks.
Here’s the official news release:
WARNING: SLOPPY ASS KISSING AHEAD!
Continue reading Spielberg’s Dreakworks signs 7-year deal with Universal Studios
Tags: bollywood, damon packard, david geffen, DreamWorks, dreamworks skg, dreamworks universal, india, jeffrey katzenberg, Paramount Pictures, reflections of evil, Reliance Big Entertainment, stacey snider, Steven Spielberg, StevenSpielberg, Universal Studios, universal studios tour, VideoFiled Under Gossip, News, Rants
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