Four successful filmmakers talk about possible solutions for an industry that's been criticized for "widespread exclusion" of women directors; the movie "Tomorrowland" continues the futuristic vision promoted by Walt Disney (pictured at left with scientist Wernher von Braun); Memorial Day is no longer the beginning of summer for the movie business.
'Tomorrowland' and 'Poltergeist': The movies NOT to watch this Memorial Day weekend
It used to be that Hollywood, like the rest of us, believed that summer started around Memorial Day. For decades, that three-day weekend was critical to the movie studios. They would unveil their biggest summer popcorn titles, including huge sequels like "Return of the Jedi," “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” and “Mission: Impossible 2."
Star Wars - Return Of The Jedi Trailer
But then, in 2002, Sony effectively altered the Hollywood calendar when it released the first “Spider-Man” movie on May 3. That Tobey Maguire Spidey went on to gross more than $800 million worldwide.
Ever since, studios unveil more of their biggest blockbusters well before the end of May. This year, Disney opened “Avengers: Age of Ultron” on May 1 and Universal released “Furious 7” April 3 — almost two months earlier than the last “Fast and Furious” movie. So now, Memorial Day is more of an afterthought than a launching pad.
This holiday weekend, two movies, “Tomorrowland” and a remake of “Poltergeist,” will premiere, and neither is wowing critics. Grae Drake, the senior editor at Rotten Tomatoes, talks with the Frame about these two critical duds and how it marks a change in the summer movie season.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
What is the general critical response to the movies coming out this weekend, specifically Disney's "Tomorrowland" and the horror-remake "Poltergeist"?
It's been lukewarm at best for both of these films, because people don't really seem to go to the movies on Memorial Day weekend unless there's a huge tentpole movie. So both of the critical receptions for both of the films are decidedly 'ehhh.'
How will this critical reaction affect "Tomorrowland," which has an estimated budget of $190 million?
I think that the promotional campaign has mostly just confused audiences, and nobody knows who it's for, and they look more towards the critics to see what in the heck it's even about. The answer is, 'I don't know if this one is worth skipping the BBQ.'
Why have critics been complaining about that movie?
It's mostly the script. The film was directed by Brad Bird, who has directed so many wonderful and really heart-wrenching pieces like 'Iron Giant' and then 'The Incredibles,' and then really fun movies like 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol' that work on a popcorn level. So the script that he was using for this film is a little bit muddled at best. You have critics like Josh Spiegel from Movie Mezzanine saying that, so many of the disparate elements of 'Tomorrowland' work that it's kind of heartbreaking to see it saddled with an inconsistent script.
The reviews haven't been any better for the "Poltergeist" remake.
This is one of the most iconic horror movies of all time, as far as the original goes. So when they decided to remake it with Sam Rockwell and Jared Harris, these are great actors, and it's a wonderful idea and concept, but the critics are not in love with it, mostly because it doesn't do anything new for the franchise itself.
Women filmmakers: How Hollywood can change to give women greater opportunity
Gender bias continues to plague film and television. We’re speaking with four women filmmakers who have succeeded where very few women have, because of the industry’s well-documented bias that favors hiring men. In part one of our conversation we discussed specific instances of gender bias the women faced. Now we talk possible solutions.
Our panelists:
- Director Catherine Hardwicke, known for the movies "Twilight" and "Thirteen"
- Director Betty Thomas, who’s also a vice president at the Directors Guild of America
- Writer/director/producer Angela Robinson, who currently writes on "How To Get Away With Murder"
- Cathy Schulman, head of production for STX Entertainment who won an Oscar for producing "Crash," and president of the organization Women In Film
The ACLU's letter asking for a Hollywood investigation
Women In Film recently co-commissioned a study with the Sundance Institute, conducted by USC, that provided vital statistics on gender bias. Among the striking stats: the small number of women hired to direct TV episodes, as well as the minuscule percentage of women directing studio feature films. That data was cited by the American Civil Liberties Union in a recent letter asking that state and federal authorities investigate Hollywood for gender discrimination.
Our panel voiced strong support for the ACLU's letter.
"I'm super excited about it," Hardwicke says, "because even if it just raises the conversation, if it makes people nervous or paranoid and they think they should go hire more women — whatever it takes."
"I really feel that change is going to have to be spurred from the outside," Robinson says. "I don't feel like there's any incentive within Hollywood to change the status quo. I actually feel like there's tons of systems in place to give a lot of lip service, but not actually move the needle."
Schulman expressed more hesitance when it came to whether the ACLU's letter would be effective.
"If you only work outside of the industry into the industry, then you're basically imposing rules, and Hollywood doesn't do very well with rules. That said, I hope it works."
Thomas says she couldn't help but be excited about the ACLU's letter, but wishes they would have contacted the Directors Guild first.
"We would have told them what we do with the industry," Thomas says. "No, things haven't changed greatly, but every showrunner that we have met with, every single one, has increased the number of women in their shows."
Getting the studios to change
Still, the DGA's own study shows that, as a whole, shows failed to make improvements when it comes to hiring directors for episodic TV shows in recent years. In the 2013-14 season, out of more than 220 TV shows with about 3,500 total episodes, only 14 percent of the directors were women.
Thomas is the DGA's only female vice president, but she says the DGA is strongly behind women.
"If you think the leadership of the DGA is against women being employed in television, then that's bulls---! You have bulls--- information, dude!"
She is in on the negotiations every year and argues that progress is being made.
"We go in and say, 'This is what we want,' but these are negotiations, these are bargaining — I mean, we're a union! We go in there and ask for a lot of things that never end up [happening]. We are the only union in the entertainment business that has a diversity contract with the studios."
The DGA pushed for and got that diversity contract three years ago by fighting for it at the negotiation table, Thomas says, after asking for it many times before.
"They sit facing you, and all these lawyers, and they say, 'Well, we're not going to have this in there, we're not going to have that.' And we said, 'Wait, you want this, I know you want this as human beings,' and they do. They admit that they do want it."
Thomas says she's not sure what that diversity contract will mean in the long run, because what's outlined in that contract is just beginning.
"We forced each one of the studios, at least, to have a program that brings women and minorities into their directing program. And I just want to say, that Warner Brothers — when it works, it works because the head of the studio is behind it. Peter Roth. Peter Roth got behind it. He came to the meeting! Nobody else had ever come to the meeting."
She wants other studio heads to come to the table.
"If the other studios — and I mean HBO, which has a minimalist situation, and I mean Sony, who's just started, didn't even want to have a program, and Fox — oh, please. If those people could please see that it can be done, I'd be happy to come to their office and explain to them how to do it."
Shifting the balance of power
Hollywood considers itself a progressive town, but those attitudes can often be left behind when it comes to hiring and firing. Some women have made it into prominent positions of power, including Donna Langley at Universal, Amy Pascal at Sony and, on the panel, Cathy Schulman at STX.
Still, it can be hard for those women to tip the scale and be proactive in hiring other women. Schulman says that making that change is a balance with fitting into the culture.
"I think it's crucial that women who have the opportunity to be in charge, to have the power to make hiring decisions, execute in a positive way for women," Schulman says. "And the easiest way to survive in the power circles of Hollywood is to assimilate to the way that it's always been done. Meaning hire men, and make movies for boys and men."
Schulman says the real challenge is standing up against that.
"Do you have the strength to stand up and distinguish yourself and make choices that are against the norm? So you've achieved one thing, which is you've gotten into this very rarified circle that has few women, but can you actually execute once you're there, in a powerful [way], on behalf of women?"
Women scoring at the box office, in the media
On the bright side, Schulman says that movies by, for and about women are finally starting to win at the box office.
"And not little winning, big winning. Particularly in the [young adult] area, girls are not only going to the box office, they're going multiple, multiple times."
The latest example of a female-driven hit: "Pitch Perfect 2."
"I mean, the idea that 'Pitch Perfect 2' just beat 'Mad Max' to such an extent is kind of a mind boggler."
Schulman says the way the media is interacting with women is changing too.
"The fact that, in Cannes this year, not only are women being interviewed — which I don't even remember happening — but what they're saying is interesting, and what they're being asked is interesting. The conversation is moving in a positive way enough, that if we in power don't take those indications and those signals, and don't start making decisions that further enhance this and drive gender equality into place once and for all, then we're not doing our job."
Amidst this change, some women are afraid of being pigeonholed as women who hire women, and afraid of failing, which can lead to them making cautious decisions.
"I mean, I think women get fired way easier than men do, and I think women are also held to higher standards," Schulman says.
"I would say a director that a male director that has a movie that fails is working within weeks," Thomas says. "A woman director goes to what we call 'movie jail.'"
And Schulman says that, when that happens, they may never work again.
Where there's hope for the future
Hardwicke says she's optimistic about the future of women and film. She says she feels everything could change around quickly, if the will was there.
"Literally in one year, everything could change and we could stop having these conversations and statistics, if every single studio executive and every TV executive would just say, our list has to be 50/50 choices. This would change in the year, and we could just move on and make great projects, and great films."
Future talent
Robinson says the talent is out there.
"For the past couple of years, I've gone to AFI, and I talk to their women directors seminar, and I try to give them an honest assessment of what they will be facing when they go out into the world. And I think it's incumbent on those of us, men and women who are working in the industry, to back young women directors."
Robinson says it's a chicken and the egg problem.
"You need experience in order to be a director, and you can't get experience if nobody will hire you, but then if you have no experience, nobody will still hire you. And so, it's really hard for women to get that first shot. And a lot of people took a chance on me."
Women who want to break in have a big task in front of them, but an achievable one, according to Robinson.
"The women have to work incredibly hard, and know their s---, and be incredible. And I was talking to all these women, and they were super rad, so I know it's coming out of the film schools, and it's coming out of Sundance, and so we need to help in whatever ways we can prepare those women, and get them so that when they get the job, that they can blow people out of the water and keep going."
Fixing the economics
Schulman says the problem of gender bias can be addressed by finding the problem points in how the business works economically.
"First and foremost, agencies and representatives, because the transactions that are happening when executives, producers, etcetera are hiring people, it's generally based on conversations happening with agents, and generally based on agents submitting certain clients, and on lists that they make actually being submitted to the studios and things, and the networks."
It's also a problem that extends to international deals.
"Over 80 percent of movies in Hollywood are made on the basis of the value of foreign sales," Schulman says, "and when we look at that economically, when a movie's going to go on the basis of whether or not a movie can be sold internationally, we have to look at that point of sale. And what's happening there is we have men selling to men."
Schulman says that movies either made by or starring women aren't selling internationally.
"So we have to look at these little points, and we have to start fixing them economically so that we can release the cash flow."
Why Betty Thomas has had it with moms
Thomas agrees that the agencies are a big factor in making change.
"They're big problems. They're blockades instead of doors."
She also says that change can't just come from women in power, due to the increased pressure that's already on them.
" I say, if you're a man, you have a daughter, a mother, or a sister, then you better think seriously about this. And if you're a woman who is a wife, daughter, sister, mother of the men that are in power in this business, get your asses in action, dude. Put pressure on those men. If I can't do it, you can do it, mothers. I've had it with mothers, unless you come out and do something."
Thomas also advocates supporting women in film at the box office to send a message.
"Buy two tickets to every woman's movie. I buy two tickets online, even if I can't make it to the movie; I buy those two tickets on opening weekend, not the second weekend, opening."
Thomas sent us an addendum for how she thinks gender bias can be fixed:
"There is a simple act for the people who hire to improve the lack of women directors in television: There are approximately 110 new directors — no previous directing experience in TV — hired by television shows each year. At this time, the numbers are about 85 percent men and 15 percent women. Just make those numbers 50 percent men, 50 percent women. There. That's one thing that allows an equal playing field for the future."
She wants it to happen now.
"Explain to me why that cannot be done. No really. Explain why that can't happen today. OK, tomorrow — but no later. Then lets apply this to films also."
If you missed part one of our discussion on women in film, be sure to check it out for more from our panel, including stories of how filmmakers behind movies like "Twilight" and "Crash" went on to have trouble finding work immediately after despite those films' success.
Tomorrowland: The tomorrow Walt Disney envisioned, from Disneyland to outer space
This weekend, Disneyland celebrates its 60th anniversary with a 24-hour event in Anaheim alongside the release of "Tomorrowland," the new movie starring George Clooney with roots in Disneyland’s legacy. From the cross-marketing strategy to the focus on futurism, it's a fitting tribute to the mind that gave birth to it all, Walt Disney.
The future was very good to Walter Elias Disney. Disney was what we'd call a "disruptor" today — someone who saw past the paradigm of the moment, aiming for something better. Even after his name became the gold standard for movie animation, Disney's restless futurism kept seeking new worlds to conquer.
Not-so-Tomorrowland
Eventually, he created a world of his own. Marty Sklar helped bring life to that vision as the former president and principal creative executive of Disney Imagineering. In 1955, Sklar was just a 21-year-old student journalist at UCLA who landed a job at Disneyland. He was ringside for the riskiest disruption of Walt Disney's professional life.
"I mean that was a huge leap," says Sklar. "No one knew whether the place was going to be successful. In fact there were a lot of predictions that this was Walt's folly."
The original Disneyland park was divided into four subsections. Tomorrowland, Disney's playground of the future, caused the most headaches.
"It became Yesterdayland almost immediately in a lot of cases," according to Sklar. "In the beginning it had a 'Bathroom of the Future.'"
Championing travel to outer space
Meanwhile, the "Disneyland" TV show launched a regular Tomorrowland segment, with an expensively mounted Disney passion project called "Man in Space."
In March of 1955, two-and-a-half years before the Soviet Union launched the first Sputnik satellite, an estimated 43 million people — over one quarter of the then-entire U.S. population — turned on their TV sets to find Walt Disney holding a model rocketship and stating the case for space.
"He brought in experts," says Sklar. "Willy Lay... Wernher von Braun was probably the most famous."
"Man in Space" was a smash. It instantly became required viewing both at the Pentagon and within the Eisenhower administration, which credited the show with preparing the American taxpayer for the massive commitment of a U.S. space program.
Disney followed up "Man in Space" with similarly well-produced Tomorrowland programs explaining satellite technology and atomic energy, and advocating for missions to the Moon and Mars. In the process, he became the emerging American tech sector's pitchman-in-chief.
Disneyland show on going to Mars
"He became kind of a middleman between industry and the public," Sklar says. "He saw that role as something that was needed in the country, and that he could do because he was so popular with the public."
Walt Disney's last great vision: E.P.C.O.T.
There was also a green side to Disney's futurism, embodied in what turned out to be his last prophetic vision. Epcot is known today as one of the core theme parks comprising Walt Disney World in Florida, but it was initially conceived by Disney as a total reimagining of urban life.
By 1966, Disney was ready to pitch his ambitious urban planning concept. Sklar wrote a film detailing the immensity of the E.P.C.O.T. concept — "Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow."
Walt Disney's presentation for E.P.C.O.T.
In an era where "green space," "environmental impact" and "bike-friendly" have become buzzwords of urban renewal, the E.P.C.O.T. concept film seems shockingly topical. As proposed, it would have been a city of pedestrians and electric cars. But like many visionaries, Disney's eye was on a horizon he wouldn't live to reach.
"We didn't know how sick he was," Sklar says. "We he was going into the hospital. He thought it was an old polo injury — and it turned out to be lung cancer. [The E.P.C.O.T. presentation] was the very, very last thing he ever did on film."
Disney died less than two months after filming his scenes for E.P.C.O.T. Thanks to Sklar's script, Walt Disney left the public stage the way he'd lived on it: on a note of hopeful optimism.