Director's Cut
Last uploaded: Tuesday, March 24, 1998

"Titanic" cleans up at the Oscars

...well, except if you're in one of the actor categories. While I was rooting for the picture in most of its nominations, I was still hoping L.A. Confidential would be the dark horse and nab Best Picture. I'm glad Helgeland and Hanson got Best Screenplay Adaptation, and for the most part, the awards played themselves out in the way I was hoping they would.

But what's really been nagging at the back of my mind these past few weeks as we built up to last night's main event was just how commanding this darn picture has been. Ok -- so you can see the ending coming a mile away (the ship sinks at the end, so there -- it's spoiled for you now if you haven't seen it yet) -- but let me take a moment to analyse just what kind of juggernaut Titanic should be to Hollywood. First, and as hard as it is, just ignore all the press about how much it costs. What're we left with that's irregular? Well, for starters, it was listed as a romance all through its development. That's right: not an action-adventure, not a drama -- a romance. It's the kiss of death for most studios hoping for a blockbuster (one occasionally sneaks through like 1990's Ghost, but I can't recall if it was labeled as a fantasy or romance...anyway, I digress.)

Second, the running time. Two hours and seventy four minutes, if you listen to what the studio told you. Two hours plus starts biting into the profit margins of theater owners; you can't show as many films a day as you can with a ninety-minute flick. Of course, tell that to the theater owners that've been clocking in record box office.

Third, demographics. If you're listening to the pulse of the media like I do, a lot is being made of young teenage girls and women being the repeat visitors to Titanic. It's almost the flip side of the summer of 1977, when hordes of young adolescent males were supposedly the ones seeing Star Wars over and over again. But, according to the modern day blockbuster equation, you're supposed to sandwich in as much 'guy stuff' as humanly possible between opening and end credits to get a chance at $100+ million in receipts.

Any of these three thumb rules are relevant enough to sink any picture in development at studios. But when you get to be a director of the clout Cameron was when he envisioned the picture you get a bit of leeway at the start. The rules get bent because you're the guy who made $200 mil domestic with T2, so ok, we're with you on this one. Next thing Fox knows, the budget is past $120 million and rising; I bet a lot of Fox and Paramount suits started comparing themselves to the real Titanic's passengers in steerage.

Now that the film has been the #1 in box office for three months, shattered both the world's and domestic ranking as the top moneymaker of all time and swept the majority of its Oscar nominations, what should Titanic mean to Hollywood??

Cameron and Titanic have shattered the myth surrounding what type of film can and cannot be profitable. It should finally prove that pictures need not conform to the all-important 'male, 18-25' demographic group to earn truckloads of money. It proves young and old audiences will sit for three hours or longer if there's a story to command their attention. And it also proves that any genre of film can achieve widespread public (read: box office) appeal and media attention, and not just action-adventure 'events'.

In short, the very best thing that Titanic could do for us all (spectator and professional alike) is blow apart the gates of conformity within the studio filmmaking system. Nothing is safe anymore; anything could be revolutionary and a blockbuster. I propose that, just like Lucas did with Star Wars back in the late seventies, Cameron may have inadvertently re-defined the borders (or blown them away, for that matter) for future commercial, mainstream pictures. When a $200 million dollar period romance achieves this level of success, nothing is the same again. We just haven't been able to see the playuing field just yet because of the dust thrown up by the demolition still floating around.

Hey, and all this from the fella who delivered not only one of the best action films every made but also a salute to motherhood in Aliens! Ya gotta love the guy, I tell ya.

Uh, Mr. Twentieth Century Fox? Just what is "Gargantuan"??

I've been told that what you're looking at are four conceptual designs for a creature in a project called Gargantuan. I had never heard of this thing until Sunday when 'Dumbdog' told me to look in a secret place. Of course, the creatures bear a striking look to another large, upright reptillian creature, namely Godzilla. 'Dumbdog' asked Centropolis Films, the production company behind Godzilla if this indeed came from them, and was told it's from a Fox project called 'Gargantuan'. Some of the Godzilla rumors might have come from this project, but like I said, I haven't heard a peep about this thing until this week.

A quick email off to Centropolis and Godzilla's producer, Dean Devlin, confirmed that these are from Gargantuan. It looks like this one's tying into the thunder surrounding the May launch of 'zilla. So, what is it? A TV movie or feature (I'm betting the former.) Any interested takers?

Patrick Sauriol
Creator, Chief Content Writer & Director
Coming Attractions

Got some neato items from the shoot? Parking passes, photos from the set? Poster images, or the latest hot script making the rounds?
Or maybe you walked off the set with an extra tucked under your arm, perhaps?
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Enter the world of Technopolis!
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To order, call 1-888-22-COMIC, or just yell really really loud into the air. We'll get back to ya.

For more info check out the Technopolis website.

Coming Attractions

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