My blog post last Friday on Quentin Tarantino, The Weinstein Company and “Inglourious Basterds” seems to have set off a firestorm of controversy.
I’ve never responded to a reader (or readers) before -- heck, in 30-some years with Newsweek, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, I’ve never even read a “letter to the editor.” After all, why should I? What could you, back in Omaha (who got your knowledge of the industry from “Entertainment Tonight”!) know that I, who’s spent 25 years in the film business, don’t?
Rather, I saw my job as nobly trying to explain how the business actually works.
Fool.
It’s kind of like T.J. Simers, the sports columnist for the L.A. Times, who’s usually writing some controversial column -- rather than defend himself, Simers started a monthly column called “These People Live Among You,” in which he simply published the hate mail he got for telling the truth and then letting the writers swing in the wind.
Given the tone of the respondents, I thought the same thing might work for those who reacted to the “Is This a Wrap for Tarantino?” column (below).
1) I really liked the one by “Trey”: “This guy [me] is a real douchbag reviewer.”
I am not nor ever have been nor wish to be a reviewer. Just the facts, ma’am.
2) I also liked the one from “Ma”: “He [me, again] doesn’t count the foreign grosses. What, did the Weinsteins do, just give them away?”
Yes, to Universal.
As for my laughed-at “prediction” that it would drop the typical 50% or so after the first weekend that any action film does, well, it turns out I was right.
As of Monday morning, The Weinsteins were admitting it has dropped 47% to almost the $19 million I predicted (and their numbers are always suspect!) And “Final Destination” beat it by 50%, as I also wrote. So I think I’ll stick to my predictions and, if I were you, “Ma,” I’d avoid Vegas.
(That’s why, if anyone checked the internet before writing you might have learned that the Weinsteins are so broke that they had to dump another movie on top of Quentin’s, Rob Zombie’s “Halloween II.” Which garnered more than $17 million and nearly beat Quentin all by himself. How do you think that makes Quentin feel?)
3) From “Sterling Goldberg”...
Hey, I’m not going to argue with you the genesis of “Basterds” (a 1978 Italian movie remake). I’m just going with what Quentin’s said -- though I have read a multitude of books that say he ripped “Reservoir Dogs” from a Hong Kong movie. You can get them at your library.
You do read? Because you clearly didn’t read my story, which gave Quentin credit for the “Kill Bill” series -- or were you too busy frothing at the mouth to focus?
The sad truth, “Sterling,” is if you just check out Box Office Mojo you’ll see that all Quentin’s movies combined (including “Pulp Fiction”) have averaged only $50 million at the box office.
