For Your Consideration

The year-end awards drive has dropped into gear with pitch posters. I like these.

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Alan Arkin Gets The Line(s) Of The Year

At about the 1:20 mark in the latest featurette for 'Argo' Alan Arkin delivers a line. Okay, so what. Movies are filled with lines. But, this isn't just a line of dialogue, it's a one-liner and we don't get those anymore.



"It means Argo fuck yourself."

Yeah, that's a line. Nothing but. That could be, language aside, from a black and white 50s or 60s flick delivered by a sharp-eyed square-jawed cigarette smoking guy in a crumpled suit and a tired fedora. We don't have those anymore, either.

Lines are forbidden in screenwriting these days. Cheeky, easy, convenient, lazy. They're red flags for audiences. They indicate characters that are paper thin, and mean there's likely no subtext or theme worth a damn, and are a sign the movie is a by-the-numbers exercise designed simply to relieve you of some cash.  And, so, they don't make it into scripts (even for movies that meet the above criteria) and, if they do, they're cut or re-written before production starts.

(ADDED A WHILE AFTER POSTING: The assumption is the above doesn't apply to 'Argo'. Not from the looks of it, anyway).

I love this zinger from Arkin. Captures a lot of what's going on. The old-school approach of Arkin's character Lester Siegel -- a composite of various real Hollywood producers -- who has no qualms when it comes to speaking his mind. You also get a sense of the pressure Siegel is under, and the line provides a good chuckle, much needed.

Arkin gets another line. At 1:30, he says "(In the Army) we did suicide missions that had better odds than this."

Drives the point home and it's a pure one-liner. Only thing missing is the snare drum sting.

Here's my favorite. At :28 (in the featurette below) Siegel proclaims, totally full of himself, "If I'm doing a fake movie it's going to be a fake hit."

Nice. Well written by Chris Terrio, nicely directed by Ben Affleck, and probably couldn't have been delivered by another actor. Arkin scores.

Cue the drummer.























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"Argo Fuck Yourself"

Alan Arkin... I'd watch anything with him. I should get all his movies and watch one after another.

'Argo' is looking so good. Smart but not intellectual. Sweeping but not full of itself. Exciting but not cheesy. Suspenseful and actually suspenseful.

Nobody's talking about Affleck's 'comeback' anymore.





















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If It Wasn't A True Story, If It Didn't Really Actually Happen, It Would Be Stupifyingly Offensive

As is, though, it's pretty compelling.





















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Particularly Good Spot

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So, This Robot Walks Into A Bar, And...Stop Me If You've Heard This One

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Another New Poster for 'Argo'

More conventional than the first poster, which rolled out yesterday.

I like the 'live TV coverage' look. Smart. People don't want to see 'history' they want to see something that happened and was covered on TV. The Hollywood sign is a nice touch. Sells it. Good graphic.

Opens October 12 against 'Seven Psychopaths' and 'Taken 2' in its 2nd week. 'Argo' could take the top spot.

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70s-Vibe ' Poster for 'Argo'

Film grain look, and, well, 35mm film strip complete with sprocket holes. Nice color scheme -- the blue-tinted black and white highlighted by the red strip (also B&W) has just the right level of contrast and is a good blend of hot mixed with cool.

The thing that sets this poster apart is its generic-ness. Its design doesn't stand out, and I'm thinking this might be on purpose. There's such a pointed run-of-the-mill 70s feel it's just so, and carefully so. As if the poster is trying to be 'nothing special', not that noticeable, regular and not worthy of special commentary or consideration, which would be thematic, yes?

I like the tagline which is both a tad hokey (but in a good way) and serious: The movie was fake. The mission was real.

A nice first outing.

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Poster for 'Argo' very Star Wars-ish

On the wall between Goodman and Arkin -- certainly bears a resemblance to the original 'Star Wars' poster. That would make a nice addition to the collection. I'm sure that's the only one.

via ToH




















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Wow, Dig Those Ties

Ben Affleck and Bryan Cranston and their 70s ties in Argo. Holy moly, look at those collars and lapels. You could land a 747 on one of those. Eek, those haircuts! That's what humans looked like back then? Glad I wasn't around. (Okay, I was around. I admit it).

If you don't know the story, it's a good read.

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International Trailer for Ben Affleck's 'Argo'

Identical to the one that rolled out 5/8 until the very end where it's missing an exchange of dialogue and a couple other snippets. Result is more subdued which is the reverse of the usual -- international trailers tend to be edgier.

If you don't know the story, it's pretty amazing what happened. Here's some background.

Lands 10/12



















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The 'Argo' Story -- Freakier Than Fiction

After seeing the excellent trailer for Ben Affleck's upcoming 'Argo' I casually looked for more info. I think I was looking for stills that might be floating around the web. The first thing I happened on was the poster above.

It's the production announcement poster the CIA put together. Not bad, kinda B, but okay. What's striking is how fast you get deep into things. This from the Wired article "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran" (on which the movie is based) regarding Studio Six (named in the poster):

• The new production company outfitted its office with phone lines, typewriters, film posters and canisters, and a sign on the door: studio six productions, named for the six Americans awaiting rescue.

Really... You can't make that stuff up. This flick will be filled with stuff like that, moments like that.

And, who is Robert Sidell (and associates)? Again from Wired:

• To build his cover, Mendez put $10,000 into his briefcase and flew to Los Angeles. He called his friend John Chambers, the veteran makeup artist who had won a 1969 Academy Award for Planet of the Apes and also happened to be one of Mendez’s longtime CIA collaborators. Chambers brought in a special effects colleague, Bob Sidell. They all met in mid-January and Mendez briefed the pair on the situation and his scheme. Chambers and Sidell thought about the hostages they were seeing each night on television and quickly declared they were in.  

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• In just four days, Mendez, Chambers, and Sidell created a fake Hollywood production company. They designed business cards and concocted identities for the six members of the location-scouting party, including all their former credits. The production company’s offices would be set up in a suite at Sunset Gower Studios on what was formerly the Columbia lot, in a space vacated by Michael Douglas after he finished The China Syndrome.

You know what that reads like -- lousy plotting conjured up by a hack writer. But, that's what happened. That's what they did.

A cool looking book just released (coincidental timing?) in March 2012 is called 'The CIA in Hollywood', written by Tricia Jenkins. Here's a clip about Studio Six's production of 'Argo':

• The fake production company was so convincing that it had acquired twenty-eight scripts from screenwriters during the time it was open, including submissions from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

No way. That's too too. I think I'll set up a production company...what the hell.

Above is Antonio Mendez (played by Ben Affleck in 'Argo') with President Jimmy Carter, from the CIA website about the movie. How often does a president have that expression, look at someone that way?

Here's a clip written by Mendez:

• Jerome and I then set about picking a name for our movie. We needed something catchy from Eastern culture or mythology. After several tries, we hit on it! During our 10-year association, he had proven to be a great story and joke teller. He once told a group of us a profane "knock-knock" joke, with the word "Argo" in the punch line. 

• This word became an in-house disguise-team recognition signal and battle cry. We used it to break the tension that often built up when we were working long hours under difficult circumstances preparing for an important operation. Jerome remembered this. He also recalled that the name stemmed from mythology. He looked up the definition of Argo and confirmed it as the name of the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed to rescue the Golden Fleece from the many-headed dragon holding it captive in the sacred garden. Perfect! This precisely described the situation in Iran. 

• I quickly designed an "Argo" logo, which we used for full-page ads in the trades. The ads proclaimed that "Studio Six Productions Presents 'Argo'... A cosmic conflagration ... story by Teresa Harris." (Teresa Harris was the alias we selected for our story consultant; it would be used by one of the six awaiting our arrival in Tehran.)

An amazing story. Can't wait to see the movie.























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Trailer for Ben Affleck's 'Argo'

Wow. Qualifies as a 'break out' role/movie for Affleck.

This rocks.



















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