Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/10/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 10/18/01 6:09 PM, Feliciano di Giorgio at feli@d2.com wrote: > Hmmm, the camera business sounds exactly like Hollywood. > "Titanic made 2 gazillion dollars, but we can't pay you, > because unfortunatly we have yet to see a penny from it." > > feli > > >> Nikon just built a copy of their old S4, which was one the cheapest models >> available from them in the fifties, with a 50/1.4. They still had the old >> tooling so there was very little in the way of development costs. It sells >> for $6000US and Nikon says they are LOSING MONEY ON EVERY ONE! exactly 'we lose money on every one but make it up because of the volume' I am in awe of Hollywood accounting. Almost no films ever go into profit, yet everyone gets incredibly rich. Except me. Yet. The best account of Hollywood accounting is in William Goldman's ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE. The best account of Hollywood accounting gone bad in is in Steven Bach's toe-curling FINAL CUT, about the making of HEAVEN'S GATE But the best account of the end results of Hollywood accounting are in Charles Flemings simply unbelievable HIGH CONCEPT about Hollywood mogul Don Simpson, who died on the toilet of an overdose of, well, everything. Speaking of Don Simpson, his erstwhile producing partner Jerry Bruckheimer has an, ahem, 'fan' site. This is odd because (a) producers don't have any fans and (b) even if they did, Jerry Bruckheimer still wouldn't have any. Okay that's unfair, but it read well. The fan site is at http://www.bruckheimer.com and is worth checking out just to gawp at the astonishing degree to which Hollywood feeds the ego, and leaves it hungry. Boldly announcing JB as 'the greatest film-maker ever!' (move over Scorsese, Spielberg...) it purports to be a fan site but kind of gives the game away by referring to JB throughout as 'Mr Bruckheimer' (movie moguls insist their inferiors call them Mr). My absolute favourite bit is on one of the interview pages where Jerry sits down with a journalist to give a full and frank account of himself. You kind of know it's all going to wrong when it begins like this: Andrew Park: Which film of yours would you say is the most perfect so far? - -- John Brownlow http://www.pinkheadedbug.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html