FAME: They're going to live forever! |
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Fall is in the air; in my little Southern California corner of the world, so are ash and smoke from the recent wild fires. This time, we'll glance at three flicks set to rock the autumnal box-office, the recession notwithstanding.
FAME (September 25): The original (1980) rocked both the box-office and the music pop charts, its story following multiple wannabe stars at New York's High School of Performing Arts. Later, FAME became a hit television series, featuring some of the players from the motion picture.
FAME, 2009-style, features an updated version of Irene Cara's chart-topping title song: ("Fame! I'm gonna live forever....") and a 21st-Century crop of youthful performers (dancers, singers, actors and artists), from all walks of life, over four years at New York City's High School of Performing Arts.
The teachers are the names and faces we already know – those who have already achieved real world FAME: Debbie Allen, Charles S. Dutton, Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally, the phenomenal Bebe Neuwirth.
Female Match-Flickers: check out students wannabes 
FAME: They're going to learn how to fly - High! |
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Marco (Asher Book) and Bad Boy Malik (Collins Penne). Dudes: eyeball Jenny (Kay Panabaker) and Alice (Kherington Payne).
By Sunday, September 27, we'll know if FAME history repeats itself.
THIS IS IT! (October 30): There were so many entertainment celebrity passings this summer, some nicknamed the season, the Summer of Death. No celebrity passing took us more by surprise, or garnered more media coverage, than the June 25 death of the self-proclaimed King of Pop, Michael Jackson, finally laid to rest last week. As Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley could tell you, if they were alive, "The death of a living legend is big business!"
Business doesn't get any bigger than THIS IS IT! Sony paid an unprecedented $60 million for the rights to 80-hours of rehearsal footage of Michael Jackson's not-meant-to-be THIS IS IT! tour.
On Friday, October 30, the resulting flick will open worldwide in High Def, Surround-Sound, and with some sequences in 3D. Insiders say Sony's $60 million expenditure is all about the DVD sales, and not the theatrical release. After 
IT IS a Halloween Weekend, King of Pop Thriller! |
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all, how many Match-Flickers will pay $10-15. to see rehearsal footage that they can own on DVD within months?
The DVD notwithstanding, look for THIS IS IT to rock the Halloween Weekend Box-Office, a thriller as well as a rocker.
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON: (November 20) Is there a Match-Flicker alive who doesn't expect the second installment in the TWILIGHT SAGA to shake things up at the box-office big-time? Perhaps the most highly anticipated motion picture of 2009, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON is poised to take a bigger bite out of the box-office than its record-setting progenitor.
In NEW MOON, Bella delves deeper into the supernatural and her inter-species romance with Edward Cullen.
After Edward leaves her, La Bella cultivates a new kind of relationship with her childhood companion, Jacob Black, played by Taylor Lautner, the wolf with movie star looks and a freshly-pumped physique.
The popularity of this late fall release may well eclipse anything the Christmas Box-Office has to offer.
For one thing, Vampires have never been hotter, 
TWILIGHT actors sculpt muscled physiques for NEW MOON. |
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largely due to the original TWILIGHT and HBO'S phenomenal TRUE BLOOD. And then, there's the cast: Kristen Stewart returns as Bella and Robert Pattinson, fresh from his critically-acclaimed homosexual turn in LITTLE ASHES, once again plays the irridescent, irresistible Edward Cullen. The big surprise is Taylor Lautner, as the Wolfen Jacob Black. He packed on 32 pounds of muscle to play the transformed character. The actor claimed that the hardest part of his real-life transformation was " always shoving food down my throat. I had to be eating every two hours."
We're certain the regime paid dividends, both on-screen, and in the actor's personal life.
FAME, THIS IS IT and THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON will rock the fall box-office, then roll as top DVD top-sellers of 2010!
BOX-OFFICE SUMMER OF 2009 - THE FINAL WORD: The Recession be damned! The season's numbers are now known. The box-office summer of 2009 was a chart-busting $4.3 billion, besting both last summer's $4.13 billion tally, as well as the all-time high box-office summer of 2007's $4.16 billion.
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Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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If you have a comment, question, or suggestion, you can send a message to Christopher Stone by clicking here.
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