Screenwriter Susannah Grant revisits the 1991 hearings that pitted Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas against law professor Anita Hill, who accused him of sexual harassment; the head of the movie theater owners association says theaters should remain the first venue for film releases; Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner teams up with Miles Kane on a side project.
At CinemaCon, movie theater owners face new competitors for their audiences
Do you go to movie theaters on a regular basis? What keeps you coming back? Or what keeps you away? These are questions people attending CinemaCon in Las Vegas would really like to know.
The convention is an annual event that brings studio execs, distributors and exhibitors together to preview coming attractions and to show off the latest in screening technology. But it’s also an opportunity to discuss the state of the theatrical business.
Theater admissions in the U.S. have been flat in recent years, and efforts by disruptors such as Netflix, Amazon and now The Screening Room have people wondering whether the exhibition model as it exists today is about to change.
The Frame's host, John Horn, caught up with National Association of Theatre Owners chief John Fithian at CinemaCon who — not surprisingly — stressed the value of putting movies in theaters before they’re available in homes.
Interview Highlights:
Why is it important that films open first in theaters instead of in people's homes?
Movies that are made for the big screen should come to the big screen first. It establishes the brand, it establishes word-of-mouth, and then that success story in our cinemas drives the later markets — the electronic sell-through and the DVDs and the other ways movies can be seen.
We think the business model works really well, and there's been suggestions of late of disrupting that business model. We're not against evolution. It's just that the people who want to determine this evolution are the distributors and theater owners, negotiating together about how we should do this, and not third-parties with ideas from the outside.
That third party — it's a little like Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named — is The Screening Room, which is Sean Parker's idea to have a $150 set-top box and a $50 rental fee that would be shared with exhibitors. Movies could be watched at home the same day they're at the theater. Your counterpart at the Motion Picture Association of America, Chris Dodd, said he'd be meeting with some representative of The Screening Room. Do you plan on doing the same? If so, what would you say in that conversation?
First of all, it's not for trade association representatives to decide the business models, right? So Screening Room, or anybody else that has a new third-party business model, really has to talk to the individual studios and theater owners about their ideas. Chris Dodd and I don't determine the models — our members do.
Secondly, I would say that, in order to do something like this, you'd really need a majority of the distributors who have the movies and a majority of the exhibitors who play the movies to agree to the model. Otherwise, it's a non-issue. The whole Screening Room debate is a bit of a distraction — we're having such a great year.
People thought 2015 was a fluke, but now in the first quarter of 2016 we're up almost 13 percent over last year, which was a record-breaking year. The cinema business is growing, it's hot, it's alive and well, and these distractions aren't what I want to talk about right now.
Theoretically, what would you say to a filmmaker, say Steven Spielberg or J.J. Abrams, who've embraced this shortening, or this possible shortening of [exhibition] windows?
It's not theoretical, I've had a conversation with J.J. Abrams. What I said to J.J. was, "Do you really want somebody plopping down $50 and inviting 40 fraternity brothers over to their house to watch 'Star Wars' on opening night? Or do you want them coming out to the big house, to watch your movie on the big screen, with a big sound system?"
[laughs] And what did he say?
Well, he said, "You've gotta adapt, you've gotta change," but I'm like, "Change for what purpose? What is the end goal?" Again, I truly respect J.J. Abrams' filmmaking abilities, but this is a challenge for us.
In the end, the last thing I said to him was, "If you believe in the cinema experience, if you believe in leaving your house and experiencing movies on the big screen, do you want to trust Sean Parker about what's good for that business? Or do you want to trust the studios and the theater owners?"
I want to come back to the box office. You remarked earlier about the growth in domestic and international, and if we focus pretty narrowly on the growth worldwide, there's explosive growth in China. I'd imagine China is accounting for almost all of the global growth in box office. Is that something that you worry about having a limit? What happens if China stops growing?
China is a big deal, no doubt about it. Fifty-two percent growth last year. It's on a trajectory to be the biggest movie market in the world in a year or two. But it's not all about China. The movie art form and the movie business form is becoming diverse and global. In the old days, the three biggest markets for us were the U.S., Europe and Australia, which at the time were overwhelmingly non-diverse communities.
Now the fastest growing markets are all across Asia, and Latin America has been growing for the last 10 years as well. What I'm trying to say here is that diversity in the movie industry is a good thing — it's the right thing to do, but it's also good for business. When we see movies like "Furious 7" with an incredibly diverse cast just crushing box office records all around the world, that's because, when a movie cast looks like the world, the world goes to the movies more often.
Yeah, but "Furious 7" is the exception to the rule. For the second straight year, we didn't have a single actor of color among the 20 acting nominees in the Academy Awards. Do you have serious concerns that, if Hollywood were better able to represent the composition of the nation and the world on-screen, that your theater members would be doing better business?
There weren't nominations for African-Americans in last year's movies, but we sold a lot of tickets to movies with African-Americans in them. "Straight Outta Compton" blew everybody away with how well it did and how long it stayed on our movie screens. "Creed" was gigantic.
I could go on and on with movies featuring African-American women in leading roles or with minorities across the board. It's not that the movie industry isn't reflecting diversity in their movies, it's that the awards shows have to catch up with what's going on in the business.
'Confirmation' screenwriter: only Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill 'know the truth'
When the HBO movie, "Confirmation," debuts on April 16th, it will revive a real life drama that had Americans riveted to their TV sets. No, it's not another retelling of the O.J. Simpson trial, although issues of race and the treatment of women do figure prominently in this case. It's the dramatic retelling of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for the then-federal judge Clarence Thomas.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush chose Thomas to replace legendary justice Thurgood Marshall, who had broken the color barrier on the high court. At first it seemed that Thomas was going to sail through the proceedings. But then a law professor named Anita Hill, who had worked for Thomas years before, came forward with accusations of sexual harassment.
"Confirmation" revisits the debate over what constitutes sexual harassment and whether, as Justice Thomas claimed, the televised Senate judiciary hearings — governed by 14 white male senators — were tantamount to a “high-tech lynching.”
The screenwriter and an executive producer of the film is Susannah Grant ("Erin Brockovich"). She tells The Frame's senior producer Oscar Garza that she and the other collaborators on the movie agreed early on that they would remain neutral about who was telling the truth: "We won't know. You may have your strong positions. You may say I fully believe this person. But you can't know."
To get to the most "credible" version of the story, Grant did extensive research, "I read everything I could get my hands on," she says. And she interviewed many people who were involved: "Anita Hill spoke to me. A number of people who were working on the Judiciary Committee spoke to me ... I spoke to about 40 people."
Grant tells The Frame how she responded to objections made by certain Republican senators who were involved in the hearings, and how she found empathy for both Hill and Thomas, played by Kerry Washington and Wendell Pierce. She also points out that one of President Bush's staffers who is depicted in the movie is Judy Smith. Coincidentally, she was the inspiration for Olivia Pope, the character played by Washington in the ABC drama, "Scandal."
Below are some highlights. To hear the full interview click the play button above.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
Did you ever at some point have to put aside your own feelings about what you thought happened? Or what you believed to be true?
Immediately. A movie like this only works if it's credible, and that credibility depends on having as impartial a view as possible. And I also went into it truly believing that there are only two people who know what happened between Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas. You can guess, or you can say, all the evidence seems to point one way or another, but you can't know. You can't know for sure. And it was important for me as a dramatist to appreciate that early on. And I did.
On Thomas' "high-tech lynching" line.
It changed what people were talking about in the context of it completely. And that was an important line for me to understand as a writer. You know, you look at him sitting there and he was looking at 14 white men — a number of whom were, at that very moment, undergoing ethics investigations for financial improprieties, sexual improprieties, and nothing was going to happen to them.
A couple of months ago it was reported by Politico that two Republican senators who were very much involved in this — Alan Simpson of Wyoming and John Danforth of Missouri — saw an early script. And Simpson called it, "Unfair to everyone but Anita Hill." And John Danforth said it was full of errors and distortions. They had been sent the script? For feedback, for review? What were you looking for there?
Absolutely. Like I said, I want this movie to be as credible as possible. And we sent the script to people we thought would help us with that.
Did you hear from them directly or did they only talk to the press?
We did hear from them directly. And Senator Simpson's initial response was that it was fair, and then he thought a little bit more about it and changed his mind on that. And we looked at every single one of their objections and vetted them independently. And there were cases where they pointed out things that I had gotten wrong. And that was why we sent it to them. So, absolutely, we changed it. But there were things they pointed out that they remember one way, and intense research and serious vetting just does not support their point of view. So those things we did not change.
"Confirmation" debuts on HBO on April 16.
The Last Shadow Puppets want to disorientate their listeners
Somewhere around 100,000 music fans will make the trek to the desert this weekend for the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The event takes place over the next two weekends and the headliners are LCD Soundsystem, Guns ‘n’ Roses and the electronic dance music DJ Calvin Harris.
There are more than 200 bands playing both weekends of the festival and one of them is The Last Shadow Puppets. It’s a collaboration between Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner — who regularly plays sold-out stadium shows — and solo artist Miles Kane. Their second album, titled “Everything You’ve Come to Expect,” was released on April 8.
The Frame’s John Horn spoke with Alex Turner and Miles Kane about their new album, why they like writing abstract lyrics, and how this band has helped them develop as musicians for their other projects.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
The lyrics on the title track, "Everything You've Come To Expect," are surreal and abstract. You both have mentioned in the past that you wanted to write those kinds of lyrics on this album.
TURNER: Well, I think on the first record, it was our first foray into less temporal lyrics. At certain moments on this record I thought it'd make sense to readdress that approach and disorientate the listener.
Is that because the lyrics are not driving the concept of the song? If the lyrics are disorienting, is that intentional that they're not being driven by story?
TURNER: Yeah, the first time we did this thing, it was the first time I remember looking at the lyrics along with the melody and the chords. You still, arguably, sometimes reach more or evoke more interest in feelings when you're not telling a story and someone is not right there with you. You just sort of create an atmosphere.
Everything You've Come To Expect
What is it that you two get out of The Last Shadow Puppets creatively that you don't get on your other bands or solo work?
TURNER: Well, that was the first time I tried to sing like that, write lyrics like that, so it totally changed [my] approach to recording, writing — everything.
What about for you, Miles?
KANE: I agree with Alex. I feel, even on this record, I found different areas in [my] voice that Alex pushed me into, just as an experiment that I tried...
TURNER: Not aggressively...
KANE: [Laughs] ...and where it opened up a new thing for me that I didn't think I could do, really — to sing a bit softer, a bit sexier. It doesn't all have to be venom.
So you guys went your separate ways for eight years. You come back, you grow up, you mature, but when you come back as older people, does it change the kinds of stories you want to tell through your songs?
TURNER: Yeah, perhaps that passage of time that you mentioned gives me a confidence to include more personal songs on there as well.
KANE: But I guess there are those moments that you are talking about, you know, your feelings towards being in love or feeling a bit down or something after a big night. There are those moments that are pretty straightforward in that sense that describe those things.
The Last Shadow Puppets' new album, "Everything You've Come To Expect," is out now. The band plays the two Friday nights at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.