Duckburg Gazette

Usually this weekend signifies the end of summer for just about every industry.  This is the time when families tend to take the final vacation with everyone like camping or going to Disneyland.  It is also when students return to school the next day for almost everyone from pre-school to college.  Some did start earlier but have what they call soft-starts where they spend half-days to get to know the school and teachers, especially helpful for those new students in the area or the ones coming up from the previous grade level.  Now, I hope with it, the heat will end as well!!

Weekly Update:

Had a pretty busy week again but I would say the highlight was Friday.  Started off pretty busy in the morning as I went to Nickelodeon Studios in Burbank.  As I was leaving, who was coming in?

*Paul Reubens - Pee Wee Herman himself!  He was a really GREAT guy and chatted with him for about 15 minutes.

Then later that night I went to a premiere of some sort but honestly, a real premiere is not on a Friday night let alone a holiday weekend!  It was for this film called "Supercapitalist" and honestly it just wasn't that good, definitely the independent of independents if that is even possible.  Probably should have gone straight to DVD.  I won't get those almost 2 hours back.  The film looked good visually but the main character's acting was very sub-par and overall story, seen it, it was called "Wall Street."  It also had a lot of slow moments which would almost put me to sleep.

At the movies:

Interesting week at the box office considering it was a 4-day weekend as we close out the summer of 2012.  In at #1 is the new horror film of The Possession with a decent 17.7 million.  New at #2 and opened on a Wednesday is the crime-drama of Lawless which opened to a 6-day cume of 11.8 mil.  Holding ground at #3 is "The Expendables 2" with another 8.8 mil.  Steady hold at #4 is "The Bourne Legacy" earning an extra 7.3 mil as it closes in on the 100 mil cume mark.  Rounding off the top 5 is "ParaNorman" with another 6.6 mil as we see its summer come to an end.

New movies that did not make the top 5:

Just one this week as the kids film Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure scores a hefty .7 mil (700,000) for its debut, enough to take the #25 spot!  This is a really bad number giving it a per screen average of only $207 which in this industry, anything below $6,000 for a major wide-release is beyond poor.  I almost worked on this film but I knew after I saw it, whoever released it was going to take a major loss of epic proportions and so they did.  Right now it is being reported as the worst film opening of all time.

Quote of the week:

"I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends ... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them." - Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

Other News:

Another sad week in Hollywood in both music and entertainment.  Legendary songwriter Hal David passed away at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to complications from a stroke.  David is remembered for his works in the both film and TV for the tremendous impactful music he wrote.  Some of his best works probably include "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" which is used in so many films but was originally written for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" back in 1969.  He also won the Oscar for that very song for Best Music, Original Song.  David also contributed music to "Forrest Gump," "Goodfellas" and "Fargo."  He also wrote the lyrics to the song "What's New Pussycat" for the 1965 film of the same name.  His music has been borrowed and used in many TV productions including various Academy Award telecasts, "The Simpsons," "The Ed Sullivan Show" and many more.  He has also teamed up with some notable musicians as well such as Burt Bacharach, Julio Iglesias, Willie Nelson, Henry Mancini and John Barry.  David was a musical legend for so many decades.  Hal David was 91.

Facts & Tips:

Miami installed the first ATM for rollerbladers.

"Yes. It's in your blood - it's in the blood of ALL Frankensteins. It reaches the soul when words are useless. Your grandfather used to play it to the creature HE vas making."- Cloris Leachman as Frau Bluecher in "Young Frankenstein."