Category: Random movie stuff (Page 2 of 3)

I checked out the IRON MAN press junket in Seoul a couple of days ago, which was a pretty amusing event. Last year I missed out on the TRANSFORMERS fun, but CJ Entertainment and Paramount similarly threw another press bash this year. Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. were on a power tour of the world to promote the film — Australia, Korea, Paris, Berlin, New York, LA, and New York again. Kind of neat to see such a big marketing campaign up close.

CJ and Paramount invited about 30 journalists from around Asia for the one and only Asia press event at the Shilla Hotel. And of course there were dozens of local journalists. There were laser lights and b-boy dancers and a whole bunch of bells and whistles. Mssrs. Favreau and Downey Jr. both seemed legitimately surprised by all the hoopla. Kind of annoying, actually, to have 15-minutes of mindless noise and then having less than 20 minutes of Q&A. Only three questions came from the audience, including one from the Korea Times and one from the JoongAng Daily.

(One of whom asked “What do you think of Korea?” and “What do you think of Korean movies?”. I was kind of shocked no one asked if they liked kimchi).

Later in the day, Jon and Rob (because we became that close) had a more sedate Q&A with us foreign reporters, high up in the rooftop lounge of the Shilla Hotel. That was more useful and interesting. Only TV reporters got any one-on-one time with them, but even then, they had barely five minutes. Really fast, in and out.

Fortunately, both Jon and Rob were pretty interesting in their short interviews. Jon seemed especially surprised how much freedom he had to do what he wanted, with little studio interference. I guess one the suits had their advertising campaign mapped out, actors cast, Iron Man armor designed and fights laid out, they had little interest in the talky bits.

It was especially interesting hearing their thoughts because both of them are from a more art-house background, so creating a $180 million action film was an odd change of pace. Rather intriguing to hear their reasoning about why they made the change. Basically, in this day and age, they said, the art-house film isn’t really an art-house film anymore. Even “small”, artsy films are huge exercises in marketing and financing. If you are going to put yourself through that kind of hell, why not do it for a film that lots of people will actually see? Can’t say that I disagree with their logic.

As for the film IRON MAN, I was lucky enough to see that in IMAX earlier in the week. Not sure what kind of embargo there is supposed to be, but you can easily find dozens of reviews all over the Internet already. The story is pretty faithful to the IRON MAN mythology. Downey is great. The armor looks cool (with a tinge of manga to its design). The story is told with some intelligence (at least by the sliding scale that is the superhero movie) and wit. The action itself was perhaps a little underwhelming — not terrible, but not the orgiastic overkill that Michael Bay would do (thankfully).

I guess I should write a little conclusion to my trip to the Hong Kong Filmart, now that I am back, safe and sound.

This year’s Filmart was busier than ever. As usual, not a lot of actual deals going down at the market, but there was plenty of talking and schmoozing. (What usually happens is that people meet at Filmart, make and renew acquaintances, but do most of the deal signing later, like at Cannes). But some people think that Filmart has some momentum behind it and is rapidly turning into the main Asian film market.

Sorry PIFF, but you are losing ground… plus your hotel room venue just does not seem as professional to some exhibitors.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER published dailies at Filmart for the first time (you can download them here). I think we did a decent job of covering the event, all things considered. And, as always, it was fun to see everyone from all over, many of whom you only see once a year at Filmart.

As usual, there were plenty of parties and receptions, although THR kept me too busy to attempt most of them, I’m sad to say. But Hong Kong is Hong Kong, and there is always plenty going on, plenty of old friends to see.

The last night was particularly amusing, as I went drifting around from place to place, bumping into friends and people I only vaguely know. Around 2am or so, I stumbled into some upscale place where a big Hollywood mogul was hanging out, with his sizable entourage. I resisted the temptation to be all fake-friendly, though, and mostly stayed with my decidedly non-mogul friends. But it was a fun, late night.

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Oh, for those of you interested, I have written a little review of Yozoh’s debut album over at the KOREA GIG GUIDE.

I’m off to Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Filmart (March 17-20, but I need to get there early), so I will not have much news to report for the next week or so. If something really interesting happens in Hong Kong, I might try to write it up, but I fear I am going to be too busy to do so.

Anyhow, Hong Kong Filmart is always one of the more interesting events of the year, on the Asian film calendar. HK in the spring and Pusan in the autumn. Plenty of events, parties, stress and fun.

There is a major film festival going on, too, but I never really get out of the market, so I do not know much about it.

This year, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER is publishing dailies at the market for the first time, so quite a crew of us should be there, from Los Angeles and all over. Should be interesting to see what they think of the Filmart and Hong Kong.

So, TRANSFORMERS is one of the big action movies this summer, and Korea is getting it first. Which is rather unusual and cool. Japan has gotten the honors several times over the years (most recently with SPIDER-MAN 3). But Korea is, after all, a sort of home for THE TRANSFORMERS, since the animation on the 1980s TV show and movie was done here — at both Sunbow Productions and Akom Pictures. I had quite the little nerd-out a few years ago when I went to the Akom office, just south of Seoul, and met Nelson Shin (who also animates much of THE SIMPSONS and did the MY LITTLE PONY movie).

The press screening was this morning, and I believe it was the first screening of the film in the world. Press from all over Asia has been flown in to see the film and interview Michael Bay and the lead actress. There will be some kind of big press conference later this evening, but I must miss it. I am told there will be some kind of big Bumblebee robot there, which could be some quality geeky fun.

Unfortunately, Paramount wants an embargo on stories about the film until June 29 (when the trades publish their reviews). But I think it is safe to say that the film is quite good. And the robots are even cooler than what you have seen in the movie trailers.