"Prom Night" eyes box office crown
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Either "Prom" or "King" could rule the domestic box office this weekend.
Fox Searchlight's cop drama "Street Kings" and Sony's horror film "Prom Night" have the most playdates among the three wide openers as well as the most identifiable target audiences.
Miramax's comedy "Smart People" -- unspooling in about half as many locations -- will try to capture the date-night set but appears unlikely to climb out of the single-digit millions during the frame.
"Prom" and "Kings" will both shoot for the teen millions, but the R-rated "Kings" is more restricted in its potential audience reach than the PG-13 "Prom."
A remake of the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis starrer about a vengeful killer, "Prom" will play best with younger moviegoers and horror fans.
If things go smoothly, "Prom" should open north of "Kings," but much depends on whether famously fickle youthful moviegoers decide that they are back in the mood for the recently slack horror genre. That's difficult to gauge from tracking data, as teens tend to make last-minute movie choices.
"It's been tough for some of the (recent horror) pictures that have preceded us," Sony distribution president Rory Bruer said. "But we feel good about the picture. Prom night is a common sort of experience, and our marketing materials seem to be resonating with moviegoers."
Sony has ruled the box office for the past two weekends with its young-skewing gambling drama "21."
Teen girls tend to be the best draw for horror films. So it could prove a complementary market coupling with "Kings," which is tracking best among younger males in prerelease data.
Keanu Reeves plays a Los Angeles cop faced with havoc in his life and career in "Kings," whose ensemble cast includes Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie and Chris Evans. The film is based on an original screenplay by crime novelist James Ellroy, whose literary yarns have been spun into noir films including "L.A. Confidential" (1997) and "The Black Dahlia" (2006).
Starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and Ellen Page, the R-rated "Smart People" is a genre hybrid -- playing as part romantic comedy and part family drama. Perhaps because of that neither-fish-nor-fowl dilemma, prerelease tracking data has been inauspicious. It marks the feature debut of commercials director Noam Murro.
A free singer in Paris
NEW YORK - Worn down a bit by work, singer Tift Merritt poured herself a glass of wine one night, sat at the computer and typed "Paris," "apartment" and "piano" into an Internet search engine.
She quickly found some possibilities, and set out on what she figured would be a two-week vacation.
Instead, it turned into an adventure of more than three months that refreshed her personally and professionally. The results can be heard on her new disc, "Another Country," made up of songs written on a piano in a Paris apartment.
Merritt, a North Carolina native who now lives in New York, was nominated four years ago for a best country album Grammy Award. But she's been in a common trap since then, her music considered not quite country enough for country radio stations and too country-flavored for pop music stations. Her new disc leans more toward the pop singer-songwriter territory.
Merritt had briefly thought of quitting after being discouraged by a year on the road prior to her Paris trip.
"It really takes the sap out of you," she told The Associated Press. "You're kind of giving yourself to people you don't know really well, and then you return to your life and it isn't there anymore."
She had spent time in France as a student; now, in her 30s, she remembered enough of the language to get by. Being in a society where everyone speaks a different language can be disorienting — and electric.
"You have to look at people differently," she said. "You have to look longer. You have to really make an effort to communicate and figure out what's going on and you see the sort of elemental things that happen to us every day that most of the time we just walk past."
It was a relief not to take things for granted. "There's something simple and direct that runs through this record because of that," she said.
At the start, the piano was there for fun and companionship — not for work. That changed.
"I was really surprised that I was writing," she said, "because I was really at a point where I didn't have anything to say at all. I needed to catch up on sleep and eat more vegetables. When I wrote `Another Country,' that was my best attempt at capturing that feeling of being like a stranger in the world."
You'd assume the title has dual meanings — references to both her trip and her uneasy relationship with the country music establishment.
Instead, a third becomes obvious, about getting lost in the world of another person. "Love is another country," Merritt sings, "and I want to go."
After her first trip to Paris ended, she went back two or three times to wrap up her writing. She even wrote a song in French that she debuted at a concert there.
Merritt is tired of being told by people that her music isn't easy to categorize. Maybe it will be harder on her career, but she said she's not going to play that game anymore. She made "Another Country" to be direct — one person talking to another.
The music business' continuing collapse may work in her favor.
"There is so much wisdom in customizing your career to what you like, what you want to do," she said. "It's really an exciting time, and it's certainly much better than the `my way or the highway' type of situation."
Ferguson tops O'Brien for first time
NEW YORK - Recently sworn-in U.S. citizen Craig Ferguson is being embraced by his new countrymen: The late-night comic hit a ratings milestone last week with his first victory over NBC's Conan O'Brien.
The CBS "Late Late Show" averaged more viewers than O'Brien's "Late Night" (1.88 million to 1.77 million) for the first week during which they each competed with all-original shows since Ferguson started in January 2005.
It caps a slow and steady climb for Ferguson and raises a red flag for future "Tonight" show host O'Brien, although NBC says it is still happy with O'Brien's audience.
"He's getting looser and looser all the time and for the last few months it's clear that he's having such a good time that you can't resist it as a viewer," said veteran late-night hand Peter Lassally, Ferguson's executive producer.
Ferguson, a Scotsman, passed an American citizenship test and was formally sworn in on Feb. 1. He'll be host of the annual White House correspondents' dinner in Washington later this month, a high-profile gig for a comic.
Although Ferguson had slowly become more competitive with O'Brien in the ratings, the writers strike was crucial to the surge, said producer Michael Naidus.
"It was a tough thing but for us it just let us play with the show in a looser way," Naidus said. "We threw out everything and now just have our writers doing a comedy show."
The strike also put a brighter spotlight on late-night programming and Ferguson benefited from the attention, with correspondents from newspapers and magazines writing flattering stories about him, Naidus said.
NBC acknowledged Ferguson's victory but noted O'Brien — the designated successor to Jay Leno when Leno steps down next year — still led among viewers aged 18-49, the youthful demographic the network bases its advertising sales on. Among the younger half of that demographic, O'Brien gets more viewers than David Letterman, NBC said.
NBC also noted that CBS got a boost by having all-original shows at the 10 p.m. hour last week, possibly increasing its audience in late-night, while NBC was still in reruns.
'Corner Gas' calling it quits
TORONTO - After six years of pumping gas, pouring coffee and pontificating about life and love, the "Corner Gas" gang is packing it in.
The hit CTV comedy, one of the most successful Canadian sitcoms ever made, is coming to an end after the upcoming sixth season, the show's star and creator, Brent Butt, said Thursday.
The final 19-episode season, about the hijinks at a small-town gas station in the fictional town of Dog River, Sask., begins shooting next month in Saskatchewan, with the series' finale airing some time in the spring of 2009.
"It's a very difficult decision, but the right decision, and one I felt I had to make," Butt said in a news release.
"When I told CTV about my decision, they made it clear that they were keen to do more seasons. They didn't want it to end yet. But for the good of the show, I wanted to exit gracefully, on top of our game, when we're at our prime - because that's how I want viewers to remember 'Corner Gas': at its very best."
"Corner Gas" has been a ratings winner for CTV for years and has won numerous Gemini awards. It also airs in syndication in countries around the world, including Australia and the United States, where it outperforms shows like "Heroes" and "Prison Break" on the cable channel Superstation WGN.
CTV's Susanne Boyce lauded the show.
"This is not goodbye, it's see you later," she said. "Brent and his team have accomplished something that has never been achieved before. They said it couldn't be done, but 'Corner Gas' did it anyway. The series has paved the way for other Canadian productions by proving that if you make great TV, Canadians will watch."
"Corner Gas," which also stars Eric Peterson, is shot entirely in Saskatchewan and will end its run on its 107th episode.
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'Corner Gas' chronology
June 2003 Production begins on Season 1 of "Corner Gas."
Jan. 22, 2004 - More than a million viewers tune into the series premiere.
Oct. 4, 2004 - "Corner Gas" is nominated for an International Emmy Award.
Oct. 5, 2004 - More than 1.5 million viewers tune into Season 2 premiere.
Oct. 1, 2005 - Finland becomes the first of 26 countries around the world to purchase the show for broadcast outside of Canada.
Oct. 31, 2005 - Prime Minister Paul Martin makes cameo appearance on "Corner Gas," attracting a record audience of 2.2 million viewers. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson, Darryl Sittler and Ben Mulroney, among many other notable Canadians, also make appearances in later episodes.
Nov. 19, 2005 - "Corner Gas" wins two Gemini Awards.
Dec. 12, 2005 - "Merry Gasmas," a "Corner Gas" holiday special, attracts record-setting audience of 2.43 million viewers.
Nov. 4, 2006 - "Tales from Dog River: The Complete Corner Gas Guide" is released and becomes a bestselling book across Canada.
Nov. 4, 2006 - "Corner Gas" wins its second Gemini Award for best comedy series.
Nov. 24, 2006 - "Corner Gas" secures U.S. broadcast deal with Superstation WGN.
Sept. 17, 2007 - "Corner Gas" premieres on Superstation WGN in the U.S.
Oct. 28, 2007 - "Corner Gas" takes home three Gemini Awards including its third for best comedy series.
April 10, 2008 - Brent Butt announces that "Corner Gas" will end at the conclusion of Season 6 in 2009.
Source: Prairie Pants Productions.