Wednesday, July 12, 2006

what Burger King wants to feed movie fans - a blogger who eats it - plus grindhouse

I read this article in the LA Times this morning and I'll just paste the whole thing. It's short.

A Whopper Gets Star Billing?

Product placement apparently isn't cutting it in the movie business anymore. Not satisfied, say, with a mere passing shot of a mega-star munching a Whopper, Burger King is developing a film whose main character lives above one of its burger franchises, according to a story in this week's Advertising Age, a trade magazine.

No, it's not a horror film. And it's also not going to be what would seem the natural sequel to 2004's nutty teenage comedy "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." Instead, Burger King, along with ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which is overseeing the script, envision a "character-driven" story along the lines of "Garden State" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," according to Advertising Age.

ADVERTISEMENTA spokeswoman for Burger King declined to comment, while officials at Crispin Porter & Bogusky did not return phone calls. Both firms are based in Miami.

If you all think I'm a dumb blogger, how about
this guy who wants to see it?

What surprises me even more than the very fact that an advertising agency is producing a feature film is the fact that I actually have a desire to see it! Here’s how I see it. First, I find the Burger King spots quite entertaining and fresh. Couple that with the curiosity of how a group of agency CD’s would handle a feature film (‘cause face it, we CD’s all want to direct a feature film) and you’ve got a recipe for flame-broiled cinema.

Here’s an idea for the DVD release. The viewer should have the ability within the DVD-ROM portion to edit the film however they want so that they can “Have It Your Way™.”

Is Burger King paying this guy? Probably yes, in fries.

not operating at full capacity: My internet is slow, perhaps because of spyware, perhaps not because my roommates computer is slow too. My cell phone in not working 50% of the time. My digital still camera is broken - sand in the shutter - and this is the unfortunate because my new policy is going to be that I bring a camera everywhere to capture the Hollywood action. This morning on my walk to Amoeba, passing the El Capitain, where they are showing the new Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I encounter a protester's large sandwich board propped up on the sidewalk that made me stop dead in my tracks laughing. In fact, the person behind me walked into me. The protesters were all getting ready for a media frenzy with press kits and what not, so I did not see any action, and I'll admit that I don't understand the protest because the sign was completely in Spanish, but the image on it completely blew my mind. It was Mickey doing the sieg heil in a nazi uniform complete with swastika armband, hitler mustache, and hitler haircut. I really should know Spanish, but I don't, what I could grasp from the text was that this was something about Disney being racist. I don't think it was a sweatshop labor thing.

grindhouse this month and next New Beverly Cinema - 7165 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles: July 18th, two Italian movies. Doctor Butcher M.D. and Joe D'amato's Grim Reaper. Hopefully this is not cut like my Grim Reaper tape, which is just not the same with out the fetus eating scene, the movies most famous moment. A couple months ago when Gates of Hell screened, there were groans of disgust when a bit of the drill killing was cut short. August 15th, Mausoleum and Lamberto Bava's Demons, my favorite film of the 80's.

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Why am I hiding this girl's identity. Well she was a friend of mine, a frequent visitor to the apartment, and a photographer herself, but very camera shy. It seems my old roommates got a kick out of this cause there are just tons and tons of photos of her hiding in some old folder on this computer. I blame one kid, who we referred to as "Kyle" in previous Hollywood Memories for most of them, but in his defense, the collection of photos amounts to an interesting body of work.

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Hollywood Memories is really about pictures of stuff, not snapshots of my friends, so it is blurred out as I'm sure she would like it to be.

4 comments:

platyjoe said...

Pixar could do Nazi Mickey vs. Night of the Living Dead. Pixellated intestines.

Buy a new camera, dude.

Anonymous said...

Remember "Mac and Me?"

Anonymous said...

the online film 'lovely by surprise' is a client driven short film series that is not that bad. in fact, the ideas in it are really good.

the hire is a bmw short film series that is not that bad. in fact... some of it is really good.

granted... its not artistically pure. but just cause something is commercial does not make in inherantly wretched.

honestly... these films are desirable to me when compared with various viral methods being used now.

Anonymous said...

Or, plain interest in how someone could possibly meld cinema and advertising into a seamless vehicle could also be a reason for wanting to see the Burger King movie.

Fries are pretty delicious though.