Tag Archive for 'Twilight'

It’s been a while — November 2008– since the release of her last film, you know that little film Twilight, the one that made her the highest grossing female director EVER.   It’s taken way too long for her to get back in the saddle.  I personally don’t understand why it has taken this long.  She had a couple of things in the works but they all fell through.   Guy directors always are able to get the next project going.  Lee Daniels, director of Precious has booked Selma, and Guy Ritchie, the director with 22,000 lives is taking advantage of his current good fortune with Sherlock Holmes and booked King Arthur.

But now it looks like Hardwicke has gotten the green light from Warner Brothers for The Girl with the Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried (who will be feted next week as Showest’s breakthrough star.)

The premise for the red riding hood redo came from Leonardo DiCaprio and his production company will produce along with Warner Brothers.

Here’s a description from EW:

[The film] is about a girl who tries to uncover the true identity of the wolf that’s been terrorizing her village for the  two decades. She must also resolve her feelings for her wealthy fiance and the town’s bad boy.

I guess that Warner Brothers has seen the writing on the wall and has moved on from the days not too long ago when they supposedly did not want to see any scripts with female leads.  I’m sure it helped to have Leonardo DiCaprio’s name attached to this one.  According to Screen Daily, the budget is a little over the budget of Twilight which was $37 million so Warners commitment is contained.

Hardwicke will receive the Honorary Director Award from the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto later this month.  Here’s what she said about the award:

“Thank you, Female Eye Film Festival, for honoring me with this award.  It’s such a privilege to be a part of a festival that recognizes what all the women filmmakers around the world have to offer. Looking forward to chilling with my northern sisters!”

Details on the Female Eye festival.

Hardwicke set to shoot Riding Hood in Vancouver (Screen Daily)

After reading Manohla Dargis’ piece in the New York Times and her subsequent interview with Jezebel.com, I felt the need to write the following open letter to the heads of all the feature film studios in the United States.

Dear Sirs (+ the one madam co-chair):

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Ashley, I am one of your customers. One of your 51 percent, to be exact. Ironically, I’m also on the cusp of two age brackets that seem to allude you. Being 28 years old, I’m just edging past your “Twilight” audience and will soon hit your 35+ when-its-a-hit-it-must-be-a-fluke audience. Not only am I one of your customers, but I also happen to be one of you, albeit a very low-level one of you. I feel this puts me in a unique situation, I know your audience because I am your audience; AND, because I’m somewhat of an insider, I’ve struck upon a solution to your problem. A solution that will make you even more money than you’re making now. I’m talking Twilight, The Dark Night, and Mamma Mia kind of money. Believe-it-or-not, it’s not as hard as you think and it’s actually something you know how to do already: make movies. But not just any movies; movies that 51 percent of your audience can relate to and which feature the work of those members of our 51 percent who make their careers in feature film.

Don’t get me wrong, I know you get cross-over audiences. I’m just as likely to see a romantic comedy as I am the next Bourne movie, but I’m even more likely to see a Bourne movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow. I’d probably even go back for seconds if you decided to expand Julia Stiles’ character or give Joan Allen’s more of a back story. Like Bourne, I want to know what taunts them, what makes them tick and what makes them want to find Jason Bourne (because, let’s face it, it’s beyond just their professional duty at this point).

I like stories with style and substance, but I also like action, chase scenes and even my fair share of violence. My favorite movie is “The Silence of the Lambs.” “SOTL” is a great example of how to make a movie that grabs 100 percent of your adult audience: follow the hero’s journey. In this case, the hero just happens to be a 5′ tall heroine and her unlikely leading man is a serial killing cannibal. There’s blood, guts, gore and most importantly, STORY. Both men and women alike invest in these characters because we learn what makes them tick. But women have an extra investment in this particular story (this is the reason why we go back to see it again, recommend it to our friends, buy it, download it, etc.) we see ourselves up on the screen, a lone woman among men in an elevator. Every woman has experienced that moment, just as every woman’s secret desire (like Agent Starling’s) is to save the world.

I also like my romantic comedies to be smart. Don’t get me wrong, I like to see pretty things and pretty people on a screen, but I’m not an idiot either. I’d trade in a beautiful set and a character’s designer wardrobe for a really good story. Make more movies like “When Harry Met Sally.” Those characters had a story and they had great conversations about things we all discuss at dinner parties or over the phone with friends. Many elements of the script came from actual conversations between Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron. And guess what? That movie appealed to men as well. Why? Two reasons: 1) They saw themselves in Billy Crystal: he is the every man and he got the girl; 2) Insight into women. Yes, we sometimes fake orgasms. Now you know.

The “Buddy Movie” (now recoined as the “Bromance” or “A Judd Apatow”) We, the 51 percent of your audience, have only one of these movies to stick a flag in and call our own: “Thelma and Louise.”  This movie was made in 1991. Oh, wait, there was another female buddy movie! In 2002, producer Cathy Konrad put out a hilarious flick (penned by Nancy Pimental) called “The Sweetest Thing.” I was in college. I saw it two times on opening weekend with seven other female friends. It still remains the closest we’ll ever get to “The Hangover” for women. Speaking of which, if  ”The Hangover” was pitched with an entirely female cast, it would never have gotten made. Though I have no doubt there would have been an audience for it — made up of both genders.

The drama (aka “The Oscar movie” or “The Meryl Streep”). In their current state, these movies have a slightly better shot at appealing to me and my fellow 51 percenters because they feature more screen time for women (usually women who can no longer wrinkle their foreheads, but that’s a different letter for another day). The funny thing about these movies is that they’re rarely directed and/or written by women. Though I love men who can write wonderful parts for women (hello, Michael Cunningham), they are not women, and, as such, they will always leave the character with an unexplored territory. It’s one thing for a woman to be mysterious, but another thing to leave 51 percent of us knowing there is so much more to the story that needs to be told. “The Hours” has a great scene which touches upon this, when Clarissa Vaughn talks to her daughter about a moment in her youth:

“I remember one morning getting up at dawn, there was such a sense of possibility. You know, that feeling? And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn’t the beginning. It was happiness. It was the moment. Right then.”

Contained within those lines are two potential movies for two generations of women, “the sense of possibility” movie, reaching audiences from their late teens – 30s, and “the moment looking back” movie, for the 40/50/60 female audience. I want to know what that woman sees as both a 20-something and then as a 50-something woman. Romantic comedies offer shades of these moments as well, though they are even fewer and farther between.

I believe women go to rom coms and dramas because they crave any glimmer of seeing their lives reflected back at them, no matter how fleeting of a moment it may be. We women store up a mosaic of these moments and play them back in our minds when we need them. A “greatest hits” if you will. They are our touchstone, our reminder that we are seen, we are remembered; we do serve a purpose. But wouldn’t it be even better if we didn’t need a highlights reel? If the marquee at our local theaters advertised movies where we saw ourselves and our husbands/boyfriends/friends/girlfriends/teens depicted by someone like us who knows the way we think, the way we see, who gives us not “women’s movies” but movies from our perspective? And, maybe even a woman who gives us male viewpoints just as dramatically or funny as the Michael Manns or Judd Apatows of the world, but from a fresh perspective.

I am one of your 51 percent. And, I am also your colleague. I want to see a reflection of myself on a screen just as much as I want to see my name in the credits. I am a part of both sides of this letter. And, I will keep moving forward both from my seat and on a set, until my voice is heard. Because when it finally is, there will be 51 percent of the world’s population behind it. I hope you start listening.

Ashley Van Buren is a Manhattan-based film production freelancer and writer. She has worked in feature film development & production (with some side trips into television writing) for ten years. Her most recent production job was on the Nancy Meyers movie, “It’s Complicated.”  This piece was originally posted on The Brow.

Just as I was reading the story about how Roman Polanski’s attorney are arguing that his rape case should be thrown out because of a “a remarkable, astonishing record of misconduct” by the judge, I got an email alert to a story reporting that his film Ghost Writer had gotten a US distributor.

Not just any distributor, but Summit who is released New Moon and Twilight and is now loaded thanks to all the money that women and girls have spent on the film over the last couple of weeks.

Do you see my problem?  It’s not like Roman Polanski’s movie are money makers.  His highest grossing movie was Rosemary’s Baby in 1968 with $33 million which New Moon made in less than one day (more like ten minutes.)  His Oscar winning movie The Pianist grossed only $32 million.  So unless Summit believes this is a huge money making venture (which is contrary to his track record) it is unclear what they get by getting into bed with a rapist.

These folks at Summit have at least two more films in the making based on the Twilight saga, and I for one am pissed that a man who is now under house arrest in his Swiss chalet for RAPE can now be seen as benefiting from a movie that had primarily a female audience.

It may be a brilliant movie, but still, what message does it send?

Women are second class citizens in Hollywood and the best way to illustrate it is to look at the money — how it’s earned and how it’s distributed.  Two very different pieces, Actress Salary Report in The Hollywood Reporter and BO of the ’00’s: The Top Grossing Female Helmed Film Women in IndieWire help illustrate the issue.

IndieWire points out that of the 241 films in the last decade that have grossed over $100 million only five! of them are directed by women.  (Two more Shrek and Shark Tale — both animated — had women as co-directors.)

Here are the five:

Twilight directed by Catherine Hardwicke

What Women Want directed by Nancy Meyers

The Proposal directed by Anne Fletcher

Mamma Mia directed by Phyllida Lloyd

Something’s Gotta Give directed by Nancy Meyers

And to add insult to injury: “only 31 films directed or co-directed by women grossed over $20 million.  Over 1,000 films directed by men did the same.”

WTF?  I do like a Nancy Meyers film but please!  I know it’s very complicated to dissect why women directed films don’t perform as well as films by men.  Some of the reasons include subject matter and the fact that men would rather die than see a romantic comedy, and that in 2009 most of the women directed films still fall into the romantic comedy category.

This has got to change.  Everyone knows it’s abysmal and unacceptable yet there are no clear strategies EVER put forward by people with power to improve the situation.

And compounding the issue is the release of the annual salary list of top Hollywood actresses.  We all know that women make less money than men because most of the films that women star in (except for Angelina Jolie) have lower budgets because not too many things blow up which in turn leads to less marketing and advertising which in turn leads to lower grosses and then the outcome is: women’s movies don’t make money so let’s not make any movies that star women.

On the one hand I think that we are going to need many women to blow shit up to get any respect in Hollywood but then look at The Hurt Locker where Kathryn Bigelow blows lots of shit and people up.  It still has not made a lot of money.  So you can’t really win.  Maybe an Oscar nomination will help.  On the other hand I say fuck it.  Let’s just make the movies we want to see and be better about figuring out how to get women to see them.

The list of the top earning actresses is quite predictable and all white.  Most of the women are desperate for a hit.  The general theme to me is that these women need better scripts.  I’m tired of watching the same crappy movies rewritten over and over again.  Give me a Kate Winslet or a Cate Blanchett film any day (and by the way neither of them is on this list.)

The list and my thoughts:

Julia Roberts – took a pay cut for her next film Eat, Pray, Love but is only one hit away from being back on top.

Katherine Heigl – all I know is that she has one more chance to save herself after the misogynistic The Ugly Truth.  (I recently was watching the early episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and she is so good.  She needs to find a movie worthy of her and worthy of us.

Cameron Diaz – she stays on the list because of Shrek, but please she needs a serious hit.

Reese Witherspoon – I kind of miss her.  Where the hell has she been?  Oh yeah, hanging out with Jake.

Jennifer Aniston – I expect to see more boring romantic comedies from her for another 10 years.

Kate Hudson – if anyone needs a career counselor it is Kate Hudson who is still riding on her one hit wonder performance in Almost Famous.

Meryl Streep – hope she’s buying a big truck to haul all the backend dollars she’s getting because they won’t pay her enough up front.

Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side and The Proposal move her back up to the top.  Now no one remembers All About Steve.

Amy Adams – love her but Leap Year looks like a retread of the bad Hilary Swank film PS I Love You.  It’s another January release and you know what that means.  But I have only seen the trailer and it includes the line “I’m not going to die without getting engaged” which always makes me want to run screaming from the theatre

Rachel McAdams – I want her to star in a film DESPERATELY.

As New Moon descends on the world today I asked a couple of colleagues who write and think about film from different cities to answer some questions about the global phenomenon.

The questions I posed are followed by the answers by the different women.  Some of the participants requested anonymity.  The participants are: Jen Yamato, Cinematical/FEARnet Contributor; Candice Frederick, Reel Talk; Erin Donovan, Steady Diet of Film; Shannon Ridler, The Movie Moxie; Karen Gilmore, Reel Artsy; Jessica Barnes, Cinematical; Sasha Stone, managing editor, Awards Daily; MaryAnn Johanson, FlickFilosopher.com and Jenni Miller, Cinematical.

You should add them all to your regular reading.

1- The studio is trying to hold down box office expectations but based on many indicators New Moon could make $100 million dollars this weekend and it has the potential to even break the record for highest weekend gross of the year (the record is now held by Transformers at $109).  Do you think the movie business is taking this film seriously as a potential game changer or is it looked at as a fluke?

JEN YAMATO: I think the power of female ticket buyers has been noticed by Hollywood, thanks to Twilight, but its perceived success still comes from pre-determined factors: namely, the huge worldwide following of Stephenie Meyer’s source novels. And so to replicate the success of the Twilight films, a studio may still think a pre-sold audience is necessary. But if anything, New Moon seems to prove the potency of female audiences’ appetite for romantic stories and hunky male bodies – especially when its actors have tabloid-worthy private lives to devour off-screen. The Twilight phenomenon is not simply a film movement, but a multi-headed entity with tentacles in merchandising, books, music, the currency of celebrity, live events, and beyond. In that regards, it is unusual.

CANDICE FREDERICK: I think it is probably viewed for what it is, a cult phenomenon, like others have been in the past. They’ll harp on this until the next one comes around.

ERIN DONOVAN: Everything is a fluke until someone figures out how to reliably monetize it.

SHANNON RIDLER: I think the movie business did not take Twilight seriously and it’s too soon to say with New Moon as just being released today.  I think it is a potential game changer which proves that women and girls will go to the theatre if there is something they really want to see.  It also has proven that this particular audience can, will and plans to see what they like numerous times in the theatre – which is not something we see often.  I don’t think it’s fair to call it a fluke considering it was a 4 book series and at least a 3 film series, I think it’s fairer to call it a perfect storm of timing to get this content to its audience.  Very likely it will be imitated but I can’t imagine any results being anywhere near as strong as we’ve already seen.

KAREN GILMORE: Summit is taking this film seriously, that’s for sure! And right now don’t you think that every studio is secretly wishing that they had New Moon on their roster? Twilight is a juggernaut whether people chose to embrace it or poke fun at it. Team Edward apparel has taken over Hot Topic and several other stores. If you walk into Target’s entertainment section Twilight merchandise is front and center. Hollywood wants movies that go beyond the movie and the Twilight Saga does that. It’s already a game changer, look at how many vampire (and werewolf) related stories are popping up in film and TV.  Do you think The CW would have been so eager to push Vampire Diaries if not for Twilight’s success? No way!

JESSICA BARNES: I think Hollywood has been taking the teens pretty seriously for some time now, and while there are adult fans of the series, teens are the bread and butter of the franchise. The film reminded studios that women of all ages are still a viable market for box-office returns.

SASHA STONE: I think they have to play it close to the vest or else risk losing the fan base.  If Twilight became as big as Harry Potter in conceptual advertising, it would lose its fake edge.  Since it appeals to goths and outsiders (or wanna be goths and outsiders) it has to hold on to its cred.  It can’t ever to have appeared to have sold out.  All of this is smoke and mirrors as they ride this thing out to its conclusion.  The stories are ultimately vacuous — it’s all about the romance and that is what makes it irresistable but also temporary.

MARYANN JOHANSON: If it does really well, it’ll be considered a fluke. If it flops — which seems unlikely — it will be seen as evidence that movies aimed at girls and women don’t succeed. We cannot win here.

JENNI MILLER: I don’t know much about box office stuff, but I do think that it is both a fluke (after all, MTV passed on the book rights) and a wake-up call for Hollywood that teens and women of all ages can and will blow your BO out of the water. Of course, the cult surrounding it is what makes that possible. Without the books, the hype, the constant press and touring and gossip, this movie wouldn’t have been that big.

2- Do you think the franchise gets enough respect in the Hollywood establishment or the film blogosphere?  If not, why do you think that’s the case?

JEN YAMATO: There is no doubt that the Twilight franchise is dominated by female fans. It doesn’t get a fair shake in the film blogosphere because, simply put, the blogosphere is itself dominated by male voices. To say the appreciation is divided by gender seems reductive, but it’s true; men and non-fans (i.e. those who have not read and loved the books) just don’t connect to the stuff that Twilight fans, mostly female, find potent.  The difference in attitudes in the film blogosphere is one of respect vs. attention; the majority of online writers can’t ignore that Twilight is a phenomenon, one which most importantly, drives traffic from a heretofore untapped online demographic. But respect for Twilight – the books, the films, their fans, and the reasons why fans like Twilight to begin with — is something that is severely lacking at the moment.

That’s partially why it’s so impressive to me that the Twilight phenomenon has borne an entirely new segment of bloggers: Twilight fan sites, created and run by fans themselves. The fan site community has become its own self-contained space, and they’re doing just fine for themselves.

CANDICE FREDERICK: I’m not sure if respect is the right word, but I do think the vampire phenomenon has folks taking notice and have even jumped on the bandwagon with other vampire spinoffs like the show “Vampire Diaries.” People will most likely hop on anything that is selling money for the moment until the next biggest thing comes around.

ERIN DONOVAN: Teenage girls aren’t really the film blogosphere demographic, so it’s not surprising that films catered to them will not be respected by bloggers.

SHANNON RIDLER: I don’t think the franchise gets enough respect in the Hollywood establishment or the film blogosphere. The Hollywood establishment overall seems to report on it as they do most things that are very popular, talk about it while it’s hear and then on to the next thing when it’s gone.  The film blogosphere is a different story there seems to be two streams: The TwiHards who talk about anything and everything to do with the Twilight and other film sites that talk about it just because it’s big news even though they don’t care about the series at all.  I’ve noticed this specifically with horror film websites where Twilight be something their audience is in yet they report on it all the same.  I think when Twilight is reported on but the writers obviously don’t care they just do it to hits on their site.

KAREN GILMORE: Twilight is one of those subjects that quickly became polarized in the blogosphere. Either people love it or hate it and there isn’t much middle ground. Why? Because that’s probably what draws the most hits to a website. Fandoms and over critical gossip/trash sites seem to be beacons on the Internet. They entertain people with their avid devotion or snark.

JESSICA BARNES: No, I don’t think it is all that respected. Partly, because just as a film there were some major problems with the first installment of the franchise, and in spite of Hardwicke’s efforts most of the film was pretty stilted – it was almost as if the plot didn’t show up until half way through. But mainly I think most of the derision comes from my belief that women’s taste isn’t all that respected in pop culture discussions. So-called chick flicks are considered to be low-brow and sentimental at best and at worst, just crappy films. I was stunned to see how Twilight fans were treated at ComiCon with accusations of how they ‘ruining everything’, as if somehow those fans weren’t legitimate followers of a fantasy franchise, they were just boy crazy.

SASHA STONE: I think it is probably snickered about because it is aimed at tweener girls, the least respected group, no doubt.  But money talks so they’ll eventually have to bow down.    No one really giggles when young boys are shelling out their allowance to watch Megan Fox bend over a car because, on some level, Hollywood and the blogosphere is run by and dominated by young men and boys — even older men who run things are secretly young boys underneath it all.

Girls are a whole different animal.  Because less money is spent on entertainment aimed at them, and because they aren’t as reliable in terms of box office, it remains a mystery as to what really draws girls in droves.

MARYANN JOHANSON: Well, it’s absurd, and ridiculous, and offers a terrible role model in Bella, who is passive and whiny and extra super annoying. As movies, these are awful, and don’t deserve any more respect than, say, the oeuvre of Michael Bay. However, if adolescent male sexuality — for boys of all ages! — can be catered to on a regular basis by Hollywood, it must be seen as a measure of progress, if of a depressing sort, that adolescent female sexuality is being catered to, if only in this one franchise.

I would be marginally happier if Hollywood actually acted the way everyone says it acts — it’s a business! it’s all about the money! — if that held true when it came to movies aimed at women, even if they’re awful. *Twilight* made a crapload of money; *New Moon* will make even more. Will that result in more movies like these? I’m guessing not, because “everyone knows” that women don’t go to the movies, and movies aimed at women don’t make money. Even though they clearly do.

JENNI MILLER: It gets no respect in the blogosphere except as a traffic-driver — in the past, I’ve been just as guilty as courting that audience for numbers, even going so far as to email the people who run fansites.  Because they are rabid for info on Twilight, and it WORKS! The movie — I haven’t seen the second — isn’t actually THAT bad, but I think everything around it is what pisses online journos off. It’s for fanGIRLS (of all ages), as someone awesome at Cinematical pointed out — the comic book people (like myself) are just as nerdy and screaming but on the inside! I literally squealed going into the Tim Burton Q&A yesterday. I stayed to shake his hand. People like him are my Twilight. So that is why I think Twilight is easy to make fun of; I’m guilty of it myself. So the people who do pander to that audience to get traffic get no respect, even though it’s for THEIR audience, and they get no respect, no matter what. Which is unfair, because you do have to give your audience what they want.

Continue reading ‘Women Writers Talk New Moon’

The NY Times ran two very different stories about two very different young actresses – Megan Fox and Kristen Stewart – who both appear in huge franchises, Fox in Transformers and Stewart in Twilight.  Both women had cover pieces, Stewart in the Arts & Leisure section and Fox in the Magazine.

Both these women are big tabloid fodder.  Their faces are everywhere but there are a lot of differences between these women and I think it illuminates some of the issues facing young women in the business today.

Stewart started her career as an actress before she became tabloid fare.  She first appeared opposite Jodie Foster in Panic Room when she was 11.  She has been acting ever since.  Most of the films she appeared in before Twilight were smaller, indie pics and she is still making indie films even in the wake of her being in one of the biggest movies of the year.

Fox started her career as a sex symbol wearing those tight short shorts as the pretty girlfriend running from peril in Transformers.  Those big commercial movies (especially ones by Michael Bay) are notoriously horrible to women.  They have very few lines and are just window dressing.  Think of Liv Tyler in Armageddon and Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor and you get my drift.  That’s how she entered our world, that’s how we relate to her. But as Lynn Hirschberg writes in her profile, Fox and her team are trying to create a legitimate career for her beyond Transformers and that includes figuring out how to get girls to like her which is a really, really big problem.

Fox says:

“Girls think I’m a slut, and I’ve been in the same relationship since I was 18. The problem is, if they think you’re attractive, you’re either stupid or a whore or a dumb whore. The instinct among girls is to attack the jugular.”

That is probably true, but it was her and her handlers decision to a) not do another film in between Transformers where she took on a different type of role; and b) to cultivate the image of the sex siren to turn on boys and in turn make girls hate her.  How fun is it for a girl to be on a date with a guy and see her on the big screen. I bet not too much fun.  She didn’t care what girls thought of her before and now after seeing the scathing reception for Jennifer’s Body she has a seriously big problem.  I think the problem goes way beyond her speaking her mind and flaunting her sexuality.  Have we ever thought that maybe she just can’t act?  Just because you are sexy in movies doesn’t mean you should have a long term acting career.  I think its really disingenuous to blame girls and women for her problems when she has when she created them.  Maybe she should try acting authentic and she might endear herself to some people.

Ironically, the opposite is true of Stewart.  Girls like her.   She’s one of them.  Twilight would probably be a big hit even with different actors but she is beyond perfect for Bella and you gotta give Catherine Hardwicke some credit for that.  The tabloids don’t leave her alone either and keep speculating that she is not only dating but is engaged to her co-star Robert Pattinson, but she doesn’t play the game.  She seems quiet and uninterested in that world.  She gets called moody, Fox gets called slutty.

“What really kills me — it really rips me up — is when people think I’m abrasive, inconsiderate or ungrateful because I don’t go outside in a bikini and wave to the paparazzi. Come on!”

I wonder what actually would happen if she posed in a bikini.  Would she lose her good girl image?  Would the public turn on her and treat her like Fox?  Just looking at what these two young women have to go through makes me sad.  Your damned if you do and damned if you don’t.  Stewart is difficult because she doesn’t buy into the tabloidization of women, and  Fox has bought into it too much so she is having a hard time getting free from it even if in real life she is nothing like the persona she has created.

But we’ve seen this all before.  Remember Demi Moore and Meg Ryan?  Demi Moore was vilified for her roles in Indecent Proposal and especially GI Jane.  She could not get a gig after that.  Meg Ryan was the girl next door who we all wanted to be until she actually made the mistake of showing that she was human in her much written about, short, relationship with Russell Crowe.

The bottom line is that we eat women for breakfast, lunch and dinner in this culture.  Let’s all keep that in mind the next time we call someone a slut or petulant or ungrateful.  As women we need to figure out how to be better to each other.

Media Vampires, Beware (NY Times)

The Self-Manufacture of Megan Fox (NY Times)

I spend a lot (too much) time in the twittersphere and the blogopshere and from the people I follow and read (lots of movie, TV and pop culture people and feminists) you’d never think that New Moon is opening next week.  Granted all the movie folks have turned attention to all things awards and Oscar, but just looming on the horizon, a little over a week away, is a huge juggernaut New Moon. This is a franchise like Transformers and Harry Potter yet it does not get the proper respect in movieland.  I’m not talking about the content of the film, I’m talking pure numbers.  Why is New Moon not as respected? Maybe it’s not respected because it is targeted at girls and women?  I’m not surprised at the disdain for all things Twilight.  Think about how Mamma Mia was treated.  The movie has grossed over 600 million worldwide, yet that movie gets no respect.

Let’s think about the potential of New Moon.  According to Paul Dergarabedian who tracks the box office at Hollywood.com, the opening weekend of New Moon will hands down beat the Twilight numbers of $69 million.  What we also might witness is the biggest opening weekend of the year.  According to Dergerabedian, this movie has the potential to beat the Transformers sequel opening weekend numbers.  That movie made $108 million.  That movie also opened when school was out of session in most places at the end of June, and on a Wednesday, and this movie is opening the weekend of the 20th of November when school is still in session and yet it still might beat it out.  Degarabedian says the opening weekend will be “girls kicking the crap out of the boys.”  He says that this is the “holy grail” and that this is to the female audience was “Star Wars was to the guys.”

Let’s just think about that. A franchise fueled by girls and women has the potential of beating the machines for the box office record.   This movie could potentially be “guy proof” meaning they won’t need guys to see it for it to kick some box office butt.  Whereas the other franchises NEED women to make their numbers.

Here are just some other facts that are helping to propel the film to huge heights:

• According to movietickets.com (h/t Thompson on Hollywood) tickets to New Moon are selling at 4 times the rate than Twilight.  There will be several thousand screenings at midnight around the country on November 19.  Many will be sold out.
• According to Fandango.com New Moon has already sold more advance tickets than Twilight and it is the company’s 4th biggest seller, and is tracking to be the #1 best seller ever.
• The trailer for New Moon broke records for viewing and was watched over 18 million times the week ending November 5.  The two previous weeks had 25 million and 21 million.
• 18 million fans voted Twilight into one of the top movie slots (and also Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson for best actress and actor) for the People’s Choice Awards.
• The New Moon soundtrack debuted at number 1 and has been a top 10 seller for 4 weeks.

So folks, the question is are you going to see New Moon and do you love all things Twilight?

We all know that things suck for a woman wanting to direct films in Hollywood, especially a studio film.  So what’s a talented woman director to do while waiting for the gender apartheid to end to make a living?  The answer is anything and everything something that actors learned a long time ago.

I just want to give some serious props to Angela Robinson for her honesty in this Variety piece Female Directors on the Hunt for Work.  I’ve met Robinson and she’s quite impressive.  She’s one of the women who has directed a studio movie — Herbie Fully Loaded before Lindsey Lohan went off the deep end, but it’s been a struggle to get the next film.  But she’s an artist full of tons of ideas.  So she’s being smart and diversifying.  She’s written and directed episodes of the L Word, wrote an comic book, wrote a graphic novel, did a web series, anything and everything to get her work out there.

I don’t feel like you can, as an artist, only make studio movies. What I’m trying to do is so diverse, and I think we all need to work across all the platforms out there now.”

This woman has some serious vision, but she’s not directing films.  Here’s could be one reason why:

“I am a woman, I am black, and I am a lesbian, too, so statistically, I am nonexistent!”

“It is pretty brutal out there right now for women. I was incredibly depressed about the Catherine Hardwicke thing with the second ‘Twilight’ movie. I mean, that would have never happened to a guy,” she says of Chris Weitz, and not Hardwicke, helming “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”

“That was really kind of like Prop. 8 for me, where you were just like, ‘What??’ ” Robinson adds, referring to the recent California ban on same-sex marriage. “And while I feel like it is brutal for women out there, I feel like it is bad all around. The industry has really battened down the hatches and is trying to figure out what’s going forward, with so many different media. It’s a really weird, fearful time, in publishing, in Hollywood, in newspapers, everywhere.”

So Hollywood, here’s a woman who knows about comics and graphic novels and stuff you don’t think women get.  She’s smart and has directed before.  Get it together and frickin give her a job.