The Press Tour is a necessary evil in the entertainment industry. Hell, it’s a required element of selling any new product in some form. Even at a party, when someone asks what you’re working on, the smart person will proceed with a very natural sounding sell. Luckily, it’s not on live television.
Media trainers will try to get you to remember a million little things about how to “express the ideas of the movie succinctly” in sound bite form, but all of that is incredibly difficult to remember when it’s 6AM, hot lights are in your face that make it impossible to see anything more than four feet in front of you and Matt Lauer is asking you to tell some story about a your film shoot. Luckily, there are only three absolute rules for the press tour.
Rule number one: Always sell whatever poster is hanging behind you. You might also have a hit TV show or a more anticipated movie coming up, but your job today is to sell the poster that’s hanging right now.
Rule number two: “Just say yes.” Get along with your interviewer, and your costar sitting next to you.
Rule number three: For the love of God, be flirty!
That’s it! With those three ideas, even if you don’t have ridiculously awesome answers, you’ll still be doing your job. BUT- playing by the rules does not always make for good television…
And without further ado, here is an example of great TV, featuring two of the stars from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II. Listen to the Gossip Girl, but watch Ugly Betty.
Ouch. And YAY!
Also, Happy Birthday Casey! You're 33!
© MD TOTAL all rights reserved.
Showing posts with label Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Box-Office Round Up : 8.10.2008
Here’s this weekend’s box-office estimates!
1. The Dark Knight $26 million
2. Pineapple Express $22.4 million
3. The Mummy III $16 million
4. Sisterhood/Traveling Pants $10.7 million
5. Step Brothers $8.9 million
Well, well, well… The Dark Knight has done it again and breaking more records along the way! I was sure that given the opening two days, Pineapple Express would easily win the weekend. Though it deserves to be said that with its Wednesday opening, it has already grossed $40.4 million, which gives Sony it’s first hit of the summer! I’m sure many people over at the Sony lot are much less worried about losing their jobs now that this movie is the first one of theirs to make money all summer. Dag. Hang in there guys. Though Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’ gross seems low, it did beat the opening weekend of the first installment of that movie, so congratulations! It’s also interesting that when the first one came out, I had no idea of who these girls were except Alexis Bledel. Now it’s got the main Gossip Girl, Ugly Betty, Rory and Joan of Arcadia! OMFG!
Elegy, the movie starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz (which has a killer trailer, btw) opened with $102,000 on six screens. Not bad - $17,000 a screen for a small movie generally means that the main two nightly shows are sold out! We’ll see how this performs as it gains more screens.
It would just be wrong not to mention, even though The Round Up is not about this. Bernie Mac passed away this weekend at the age of 50 from complications due to pneumonia. Its sadness has a lot to do with it’s complete surprise. I had only heard he was sick on Friday evening and by Saturday morning he was gone. This was one seriously funny man. He had the rare ability to have a serious “angry” edge that was tempered with pure heart, which I think is why America loved him so much. He has quite a body of work, but for my money nothing beats his work in all of the Ocean’s movies. The interrogation scene with him and Matt Damon from Ocean’s 11 is an absolute classic! He left us too soon.
“Nuff Said!”
Also, many people may not know this name, but Bernie Brillstein passed away this week as well. Mr. Brillstein was head of his management company, Brillstein-Grey, which he founded with Brad Grey, who now runs Paramount Pictures. You are well acquainted with the results of his actions and the shows that Brillstein-Grey Television produced. One notable fact (and maybe my favorite) is that early in his career, Mr. Brillstein took interest in a young unknown puppeteer in New York City. Brillstein was his champion, and steered that career from unknown until he died in 1990. That person was Jim Henson. I only got to meet Mr. Brillstein twice, but immediately felt that this person was a class act. He fully understood the realities of this business but never let that interfere with his passion for it. Bernie Brillstein will be missed.
© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.
1. The Dark Knight $26 million
2. Pineapple Express $22.4 million
3. The Mummy III $16 million
4. Sisterhood/Traveling Pants $10.7 million
5. Step Brothers $8.9 million
Well, well, well… The Dark Knight has done it again and breaking more records along the way! I was sure that given the opening two days, Pineapple Express would easily win the weekend. Though it deserves to be said that with its Wednesday opening, it has already grossed $40.4 million, which gives Sony it’s first hit of the summer! I’m sure many people over at the Sony lot are much less worried about losing their jobs now that this movie is the first one of theirs to make money all summer. Dag. Hang in there guys. Though Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’ gross seems low, it did beat the opening weekend of the first installment of that movie, so congratulations! It’s also interesting that when the first one came out, I had no idea of who these girls were except Alexis Bledel. Now it’s got the main Gossip Girl, Ugly Betty, Rory and Joan of Arcadia! OMFG!
Elegy, the movie starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz (which has a killer trailer, btw) opened with $102,000 on six screens. Not bad - $17,000 a screen for a small movie generally means that the main two nightly shows are sold out! We’ll see how this performs as it gains more screens.
It would just be wrong not to mention, even though The Round Up is not about this. Bernie Mac passed away this weekend at the age of 50 from complications due to pneumonia. Its sadness has a lot to do with it’s complete surprise. I had only heard he was sick on Friday evening and by Saturday morning he was gone. This was one seriously funny man. He had the rare ability to have a serious “angry” edge that was tempered with pure heart, which I think is why America loved him so much. He has quite a body of work, but for my money nothing beats his work in all of the Ocean’s movies. The interrogation scene with him and Matt Damon from Ocean’s 11 is an absolute classic! He left us too soon.
“Nuff Said!”
Also, many people may not know this name, but Bernie Brillstein passed away this week as well. Mr. Brillstein was head of his management company, Brillstein-Grey, which he founded with Brad Grey, who now runs Paramount Pictures. You are well acquainted with the results of his actions and the shows that Brillstein-Grey Television produced. One notable fact (and maybe my favorite) is that early in his career, Mr. Brillstein took interest in a young unknown puppeteer in New York City. Brillstein was his champion, and steered that career from unknown until he died in 1990. That person was Jim Henson. I only got to meet Mr. Brillstein twice, but immediately felt that this person was a class act. He fully understood the realities of this business but never let that interfere with his passion for it. Bernie Brillstein will be missed.
© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.
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