This posting is already in the top 50 if you Google "Next Stop Wonderland." It'll be permanently available for anyone who seeks a critique of the movie. Those who weren't thinking of Indians will think of them when they find my writeup.
For my full response, go to Indians in Next Stop Wonderland. For more movie reviews, see The Best Indian Movies.
14 comments:
Writerfella here --
Himmel, a 1998 movie (now roughly ten years old) that made an alltime total box office of $3,395,581, or roughly 1/4 its original budget, somehow is given more effect than it ever really deserved. NOBODY SAW IT! It isn't even given two bones in the in The MovieHound's Book Of Movie Reviews! Take an incalculably obscure film as SERIOUS? It has to be a joke, a canard, a case of "I wish I hadn't seen this film but I wish that you had seen it, so I could justify my out-of-pocket expense..."
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
russ said - "....movie ....that made an alltime total box office of $3,395,581 .... somehow is given more effect than it ever really deserved. NOBODY SAW IT! ....Take an incalculably obscure film as SERIOUS?"
Well, that's $3,395,581 more than "Cenozoic Dawn" or "Anasazi" has made, and I think you have mentioned these and other do-not-exist films far more than Rob has mentioned "Next Stop Wonderland" in this blog.
Writerfella here --
In the time since ANASAZI has been under option by The Kennedy-Marshall Company, writerfella and his co-writer have been paid quarterly amounts now totalling $855,988. CENOZOIC DAWN exists simply as a story treatment, though writerfella has it pencilled in for first-draft screenplay work starting in November. Writers write about what they know; blowhards blow about what they don't know. Show writerfella your Emmy or your Newberry Medal or your Peabody Award or your Palm d'Or, dMarks and writerfella will show you his...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I don't know where you got your budget figure from, Russ. As usual, you were too lame to cite and quote a source. Perhaps you invented it out of thin air along with your Thuringen Man and six-fingered Anasazi.
In any case, here's a posting from Amazon.com that suggests Next Stop Wonderland's actual budget:
http://www.amazon.com/Next-Stop-Wonderland-Hope-Davis/dp/6305240671
Romantic comedies are okay if done right. You know the type that kind of make you feel, eh, just okay; You've Got Mail, Pretty Woman, Sleepless In Seattle. But this flick gives you more for less. Made as an independent film on a $1 million budget, Hope Davis' excellent acting and the perfect script make for some thought-provoking and downright funny moments. While those other RomComs I mentioned have a basic "feel-good" to them, NEXT STOP WONDERLAND has much more. The philosophy, romance, and comedy all build to a very satisfying conclusion and one that will invite discussions about the probabilities of fate versus happenstance.
So Next Stop Wonderland cost $1 million and has earned $3 million so far. I'd take that result if I were a filmmaker. Sounds like it would make a good case study for cinema students: how to turn a 200% profit from a small movie using a well-known star.
Let's see...Rotten Tomatoes gave Next Stop Wonderland a 74% positive rating. IMDB.com gave it a 6.6. of 10. I gave it a 7.5 of 10. So we're all in the same ballpark. If you like "indie" romantic comedies, you'll probably like this one.
So your presumption that I wish I hadn't seen Next Stop Wonderland is wrong. I'd say any movie I rate a 7.5 or higher is worth seeing. If it's 7.0 or lower, you can skip it and be fairly sure you haven't missed anything special.
I also didn't pay anything to see it since I got it through Netflix. I get an unlimited number of movies for the monthly fee, so no individual flick costs me anything. Duh.
Are you just now realizing that Next Stop Wonderland is an obscure 1998 movie? Why didn't you pick up on that when I wrote about it in March? Can you say "s-l-o-w"? I guess it takes you a long time to catch on to things--two months long.
Apparently you missed the part where I said my commentary was in the top 50 postings. Thanks to DVDs, people will be watching Next Stop Wonderland from now until forever. Thanks to Google, they'll be reading my analysis of it, too.
As for blowhards, you're one of the biggest blowhards I know, Russ. As everyone who reads Newspaper Rock knows, your favorite subject is yourself. People know more about you than they do about me...and it's my blog.
In an e-mail you said you don't care about your credits. That's a colossal joke, so it's worth noting here. Your credits are the first and only thing you care about--or so it seems.
Let's reiterate that "your" Emmy was actually a children's Emmy given to the animated Star Trek series based on the episode you co-wrote. I suspect it was more a recognition of your episode's ethnic diversity than its literary merit. Kiddie specialists tend to like shows that embrace multiculturalism.
What it wasn't was an adult Emmy for adult-level writing. As I told you before, a website ranked your episode 19th of 22 and rightly so. If the producers had submitted a better episode, they might still have an Emmy, but you and your co-writer wouldn't.
You got a Peabody for the same mediocre episode of animated Trek--probably for the same reason. But what was the Newberry Medal for? I don't think you've ever said, and a Google search doesn't turn up any relevant hits for "Russell Bates" and "Newberry." Enlighten us.
I'm glad you've earned $850,000 from your unproduced script Anasazi. That doesn't change the fact that it apparently isn't good enough to be made into a movie. So you've conned someone into paying you for a stack of paper with writing on it. Congratulations, I guess.
What's your last script that was made into a movie? Give us the title so we can look up its budget and earnings. When we do, I'm guessing we'll have another good laugh at your expense. If you're not too much of a blowhard, go ahead and prove me wrong.
Writerfella here --
The NEXT STOP WONDERLAND production info is archived at BOXOFFICEMOJO.COM and almost any film's curriculum vitae so can be found. You won't find TRAVIS PICKLE AND THE INDIAN (Rory Calhoun) or ONCE UPON TIME, but almost any other.
writerfella conned no one. The option process in the film industry works one way and one way alone: you see a likely piece of material and realize it could and should be filmed. But it does not fit your plans or directions right at this time. So that no one else may perform it rather than yourself, you option (read: reserve by paid subscription) the rights to buy the rights for months or years at a time. And since Kathleen Kennedy personally chose to option ANASAZI, she might not appreciate being told that someone believes she was conned. Let's see, where's writerfella's Webodex?
And, oh, the WGAw and SAG and IATSE and the Directors Guild won't take lightly being told that some of their members have won a "children's Emmy" rather than the proper term, "non-primetime."
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Writerfella here --
POSTSCRIPTUM -- George Lucas' film property RADIOLAND MURDERS stayed under option at Universal for 19 years before finally being performed. It was not a financial success, but that's the film industry gamble, isn't it? Geez, wonder who it was that George Lucas conned?
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
@writerfella: "the Directors Guild won't take lightly being told that some of their members have won a "children's Emmy" rather than the proper term, "non-primetime."
That proper term sounds more like a euphemism.
As for George Lucas, perhaps you can aspire to be like him, and your films will be as well received as "Howard the Duck".
Writerfella here --
dMarks, check the topic, "Daytime Emmy Awards," and see the official term 'non-primetime' in all its glory. And HOWARD THE DUCK became a cult film that more than has earned back its budget in VHS, videodisc, worldwide syndication, and DVD. Even Spielberg's FANDANGO, DEATH VALLEY, and 1941 (writerfella's fave 'cause that's when he was born) earned their way back through the same means...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I see you have no evidence for your claim that Next Stop Wonderland cost $12-13 million. No surprise there since you probably made the figure up.
You dodged a bunch of other points that you couldn't answer. No surprise there, either.
Whatever your rationalizations, the people who optioned Anasazi didn't think they could make money with it. In other words, it wasn't (and still isn't) worth making.
Is Radioland Murders the record-holder for the longest gap between option and production? In a year or so, I guess Anasazi will own the record for futility. I can hardly wait to "congratulate" you.
Do you think I care what Kathleen Kennedy or the various guilds think? Go ahead and tattle to them if you want to, crybaby. No one controls the language or content of Newspaper Rock except me.
Nice try to obscure the fact that Star Trek won a children's Emmy based on your script, Russ. Whom did you beat out for the kiddie award that year...Captain Kangaroo?
Here are the facts on the Daytime Emmys and "your" Emmy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_Emmy_Award
Daytime Emmys are awarded in the following categories:
* Outstanding Drama Series
* Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show
* Outstanding Morning Programming (debuted in 2007)
* Outstanding Talk Show
* Outstanding Special Class Special
* Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series
* Outstanding Children's Series
* Outstanding Children/Youth/Family Special
* Outstanding Lifestyle Show
* Outstanding Special Class
* Outstanding Children's Animated Program
* Outstanding Special Class Animated Program
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Emmy_Award#Emmy_Awards
Star Trek: The Animated Series is the only Star Trek series to have won a major Emmy Award. It won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Children's Series in 1975.
P.S. Until you tell us what you supposedly won a Newbery Medal for, I'll assume you're fibbing about that, too.
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