Five things on Friday #249

Things of note for the week ending Sunday, February 11th, 2018.

So y’know, SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

TO THE THINGS

Last week, during the Superb Owl, there was a ton of new movie trailers (as well as one great ad - for TIDE) one of those trailers was for a film called ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’.

What happened next is old news now. The trailer dropped and, minutes after the big game finished, the film was available to watch on Netflix.

‘AMAZING!’ screamed some.
‘IT’S A REVELATION IN MOVIE MARKETING!!’ screamed others.

But then, when the dust settled, it appeared that with very little spend from Paramount (at best, they went 50/50 on the movie’s ad spot with Netflix) they managed to get millions of people excited about a very bad second-rate movie.

That’s the interesting part to me. I get that JJ Abrams’ ‘thing’ is mystery and surprise (hell, he even did a TED talk on it) so I get that this could be seen as just another JJ marketing move. But I don’t think so. Paramount has not had a HUGE hit at the box office in years. Last year, it’s best-performing movie was TRANSFORMERS (episode 17, Primes of the round table or something) – and that barely scraped the top 20.

Taking that into account, and also looking at the recent news about a similar ‘straight-to-Netflix’ deal re: the forthcoming sci-fi movie, ANNIHILATION, it looks a little like Paramount is playing it super safe. It’s one big hit this year is probably going to be MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT.

Outside of that? Who knows. It’s a shame. Some of the best MARVEL films started out at Paramount. I hope this isn’t the beginning of the end for them. I also hope that this isn’t the start of a trend where ‘straight to video’ movies just get sold as ‘straight to Netflix’ – that is not a good luck for any/all involved.

My friend Molly Flatt has a book out.

I am awfully proud of her.

And the book is pretty damn good (so far) too.

I’m fortunate enough to have been sent a proof copy. You can pre-order yours now (out in May).

Do so.

Terence Eden has seen them.

This is 2018.

You can read the whole letter to its shareholders here. Interestingly, aside from kinda waving vaguely at the President of the USA, I can’t really see anything here that screams ‘We know exactly what we’re doing!’

I’m being unfair.

I’m pleased for Twitter. Truly. 12yrs to get this far. And it is indispensable. I just hope this isn’t a blip. Time will tell.

More here.

I’ve never stolen anything from self-checkout (although when I was a kid, I stole my fair share of sweets from the pick’n’mix at Woolworths (WE ALL DID IT)) but apparently, this is a THING. With its own nomenclature and everything.

The Atlantic has more.

Only the essentials. 

• Uma Thurman’s interview with the NYT dropped hours after I published last week’s edition. I’m hoping you’ve all read and/or seen it by now. If not, fix that.
• I considered linking to the Quentin Tarantino piece that came after this one but no, f*** him.
• Related – Jill Messick, caught up with all of this, took her own life last week. This is all so awful.
• Steve Wynn has FINALLY stepped down.
• CP + B fires its CCO. Doesn’t say why…
• Droga 5 loses its ECD in a similar way.

They shoulda told us about da bonus…

• Ahh, this Trump/Morgan interview dissection was the best (probably a bit old now but still worth a reshare/watch).
• Smart person, colleague, and brain behind ‘GET OUT THERE’, Marie Mauer is appearing at the Future of TV debate on Wednesday. You should go.
• Drones killing it at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
• Electrolemon’s LANDO rap is HYPE.
• The Earth ain’t flat, yo! The ancient Greeks proved it!
• Is Facebook throttling underground culture?
• The search for Jackie Wallace.
• Beyond the slave trade – the cadaver trade.
• The Death of Clothing.
• The brilliant Gemma Milne has a newsletter. Try it.