This does not occur a lot anymore, however there was a time when studios would spend a substantial amount of cash on a status image within the hopes that the movie’s A-list pedigree would repay in Oscars and field workplace glory. These films weren’t made to be blockbusters (although they may attain such industrial heights every now and then); they have been supposed to be revered library titles that mirrored favorably on the impeccable style of the executives who greenlit them. Deliver collectively prime expertise for a venture with a buzzy screenplay, and also you have been properly forward of the sport.
These films do not all the time pan out. For every “The Silence of the Lambs” or “The English Affected person,” you could possibly wind up with a non-starter like “Havana” or “Midnight within the Backyard of Good and Evil.” In these instances, the studio is aware of it is missed the mark and takes it on the chin for every week or so till everybody forgets the film exists. Generally, nonetheless, the advertising fails the movie. The folks in control of placing the image on moviegoers’ radar both do not perceive the fabric or hedge their bets and promote a film the filmmaker hasn’t made. And when a studio is uncertain of a movie’s awards/industrial potential, it typically releases it on the improper time on too few screens, hoping towards hope that it will be a word-of-mouth hit.
I do not know that Curtis Hanson’s “Marvel Boys” was ever going to be successful or an awards season juggernaut, but it surely’s arduous to think about how Paramount may’ve extra totally botched its launch. The splendidly shaggy comedy based mostly on Michael Chabon’s 1995 novel boasted a stellar forged that included Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, and Robert Downey Jr. Paramount knew it had one thing on its arms, so it gave the movie two theatrical rollouts.
Paramount wronged Curtis Hanson’s Marvel Boys twice
Paramount first launched “Marvel Boys” on February 25, 2000. It stars Douglas as Grady Tripp, a stoner novelist who toils below the crushing success of his first ebook. He now teaches a inventive writing course at an unnamed, prestigious Pennsylvania college, the place he finds himself confounded by his star pupil, James Leer (Maguire). Tripp has additionally difficult his place on the faculty by sleeping with the chancellor’s spouse (McDormand), who’s found she’s pregnant along with his baby. In the meantime, his second novel, which his agent Terry Crabtree (Downey) is continually hounding him about, has breached 2,500 pages and is nowhere near being completed.
“Marvel Boys” is a hangout film. It feints at being a street film early on, but it surely stays near house. Written by the good Steve Kloves (“The Fabulous Baker Boys”) earlier than we misplaced him to the “Harry Potter” franchise, it has a shambling narrative rhythm that provides it a Nineteen Seventies New Hollywood really feel. It was critically acclaimed, but it surely wound up being dumped to theaters (grossing $33.4 million on the field workplace towards a $55 million price range) and by no means caught on with audiences or awards voters.
Paramount was inspired to re-release the film in November of 2000, but it surely was a half-hearted, 12-screen gesture. It ought to’ve debuted “Marvel Boys” on the 2000 Cannes Movie Competition, the place Hanson’s crime masterpiece “L.A. Confidential” obtained rapturous opinions. The studio did this movie soiled on a number of ranges, which is why it’s, at finest, a cult curiosity at this time. I believe it is probably the greatest films of the 2000s, and I extremely advocate that you simply throw it on tonight.
