Hollywood Blogslap

Okay, so right now it's nothing more than six hours of quite awesome sountrack tunes on a loop, mixed in with some robotic station IDs and movie quotes, but that certainly puts Hollywood Bitchslap Radio ahead of your average morning zoo.

We've got everything from Rushmore to Royal Tenenbaums, Virgin Suicides to Garden State, Boogie Nights to American Beauty and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels...

It was good while it lasted.

The 'no late fees' credo has been popular with the customers, depsite the ever-so-sneaky back-door trap of charging customers' credit cards for the purchase price of any film returned a little too late, but anyone who has walked into a Blockbuster store over the past few weeks has in all likelihood noticed three things:

1. There are no movies on the shelves.

2. On weekends, the place is shoulder-to-shoulder busy.

3. During the early to mid-week, the stores are all but empty.

Of course, in hindsight, all of the above makes perfect sense. After all, if you don't HAVE TO go to a Blockbuster store on a Monday night, why would you? Then again, if it's a rainy weekend and the kids are bored, hey, that'd be a good time to go return those movies you've had for a week and a half.

Remember when the DVD format first came out and the studios weren't really sure if it would catch on? Remember how some embraced the technology, and others kind of dribbled out product without much thought about its possibilities?

Welcome to the new world order. Hot on the heels of Disney claming that they were considering releasing films on DVD and in theaters simultaneously, comes the news that the 40-Year-Old Virgin, a film that was definitely successful in theaters considering its genre, has sold TWO MILLION COPIES on its first day on DVD.

Now, think about that for a second - two million DVDs in one day. Let's imagine that Universal makes only $7 per disc (a conservative estimate when they can sell for $25 or more in some stores), that comes out at a $14m opening day - or 50% more than the box office on the opening day big screen release of Peter Jackson's King Kong!

Is it any wonder that the studios are abandoning the big screen in favor of the take-home option when the payday on a middle of the road movie on disc can be larger than the big screen blockbuster of the season?

The DVD contains bonus features including deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, commentary by the filmmakers and cast, and extra "you know how I know you're gay?" dialogue. There's also an unrated version, which has an extra 17 minutes of the film, specifically shot for the DVD release.

Eat it up, people, but take my word for it - if the studios actually do make DVD releases simultaneous with theatrical releases, successes like the 40-Year-Old Virgin won't happen. Think about it, the reason this film is selling so hugely on DVD is BECAUSE the theatrical release was so well received. People have been waiting for this film to hit DVD, and if you take away that anticipation, you take away the chance for an explosive debut like this.

Enter Laurence Fishburne, who wants to not only star in it, he wants to direct as well, according to Production Weekly. Jinkies!

Hey, I'll give the guy a chance to prove me wrong, but I can't see a seasoned director doing this book justice, let alone an inexperienced actor-turned-director, who will be too busy acting to concentrate on helming the shoot. I predict disaster.

The flick is due to be shot in Dubai and Jordan in 2006. Good luck!

Doco director, Kirby Dick

"This Film is Not Yet Rated" has been rated NC-17 for "some graphic sexual content." An appeal is underway, and you can bet the cameras will be rolling as that appeal is heard.

Kirby, who was nominated for best documentary for his film "Twist of Faith", spent a year investigating what goes on behind the secretive doors of the MPAA, and his decision to include clips from movies that have been rated NC-17 was apparently what led to his own film being kyboshed.

The filmmaker told Reuters, "We encountered what many indie filmmakers encounter [...] There are a great many inequities and inconsistencies in the rating system, in part because it is so secret. The ratings board is reluctant to be specific, which can be maddening."

An NC-17 rating is generally considered to be a kiss of death for a feature film in the US. Films with that rating are effectively (and often contractually) banned from many mall-based cineplexes, they don't end up on the shelves at Blockbuster, and they end up unseen in 75% of US towns.

Irrespective of what rating the film ends up getting, rest assured, this site will lead the charge in telling people to go see the thing anyway, should IFC Films decide to release it with rating intact.