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February
9Message From Development Hell

I don’t know if Jerry Bruckheimer’s film, “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” will be a hit or not, but it’s clearly a reminder of one reality: It takes too long for a project to wend its way from development to release. When Bruckheimer hatched his idea eight years ago, the idea was a slam dunk. In today’s economic climate, however, some filmgoers may spurn a story about a woman on a spending spree.

Not that long ago, it was possible to make a deal for a project and steer it into production within a year or less. Al Ruddy and I once pushed a movie from one-liner to start date within four months. It was called “The Longest Yard” and it made a lot of money.

Here’s the trouble with the 10-year development cycles that studios nurture today: Ideas lose relevance. Filmmakers lose their enthusiasm. Writers forget why they took the job to begin with.

“Shopaholic” may still work today. But it probably had an even better shot eight years ago.

Posted at 5:51PM in |

Comments

Great observation. Ideas seem to change faster than we do.

Posted by: mkaven | 2/16/2009 5:52:05 PM

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Peter Bart's Column

Sacha Baron Cohen: The man and the masks
Johnny Carson also shielded himself beneath a public persona
Wherever your attention wandered these past two weeks, it was all but impossible to avoid the posturing of Admiral General Aladeen -- i.e., Sacha Baron Cohen, in full regalia. There he was at Royal Festival Hall in his orange Lamborghini, wielding a golden pistol, and on Jon Stewart's show, accompanied by his virgin bodyguards (yes, even Stewart acceded to Sacha's demand to be interviewed as his movie character).
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