Starring, Texas!

Becoming a filmmaker for Amazon isn't as easy as it first seems; read that fineprint

Amazon Studios is taking a new approach to movie making.
The producer of Bottle Rocket is one of the judges.

Amazon.com wants to make movies. Maybe even your movie. The giant online retailer of everything from books to electronics to groceries has launched a filmmaking machine called Amazon Studios and they’re looking for the next blockbuster.

Could it come from Texas talent? There’s certainly plenty here.

Screenwriters and filmmakers worldwide can submit their work through Amazon Studios’ website and compete for a chance to “make money, get discovered and get their movie made.” A total of $2.7 million in awards will be divvied up over the first year.

There’s more.

Amazon Studios has a “first-look deal” with Warner Bros. Pictures, which will consider Amazon’s top award winners for major motion pictures. Should Warner Bros. pass on a project (maybe they’ve already got three rescued-Chilean-coal-miner films in development) all is not lost. Amazon is free to shop the project to other Hollywood studios.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Unlike other film and script competitions, Amazon Studios is using “crowd sourcing” to develop their projects. In fact, they define their company as a “crowd-sourced motion picture development service.”

A screenwriter myself, I know this is part of the process with all scripts that are bought or optioned (notes come from suits at every level, even the bottom) — but not in a public forum like Amazon’s.

If you’re a reader of comments posted on articles and blogs, then you know there are some real wackos out there. Some of them will be reviewing and commenting on the projects. Anyone who embarks on this adventure might need a thick skin.

That said, this is a fresh take on creating movies, using a collaborative, brainstorming, team approach — an exercise that could be a lot of fun and definitely a learning experience.

It’s also likely to get very popular, very fast. Only four days into the launch, there were 796 projects posted.

The script awards competition goes like this: First, a screenwriter submits a script. They may also pitch their idea in a short video to get people pumped about reviewing it. Then the rest of the world can download it, make comments and suggestions, or rewrite it entirely.

The original writer can take the suggestions, or not, and submit rewrites, or not. Amazon believes this unique process “gives artists and film fans around the world the chance to create and evaluate potential movies.”

Filmmakers, on the other hand, submit a full length “test movie” — a video that gets the story across and engages the audience. No matter how “primitive” the test movie is (it’s an appetizer after all, to whet the appetite of judges for the whole enchilada) Amazon still expects good actors, good sound and good music to help it sell.

Test movies, Amazon believes, will be a means to introduce the public to the earliest, formative stages of the movie development process. It’s intended to guide a film’s development with their feedback and assess its potential. There are five test movie samples provided to help filmmakers get started.

Winning scripts and films will be chosen based on commercial viability (will they set the box office on fire?). They will be judged by a panel of industry people, including Jack Epps Jr., producer of such films as Top Gun and Dick Tracy; Mark Gill, former head of Miramax; Mike Werb, screenwriter of The Mask and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider; and Michael Taylor, producer of Bottle Rocket (shot in Texas and co-written by Houstonians Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson) and The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper.

This explanation of Amazon Studios’ process is oversimplified, but after reading their 20-page Development Agreement (a binding contract) and also the six-page Account Agreement (another binding contract) plus six pages of General Contest Rules and finally nine pages of Frequently Asked Questions hopefully you, dear reader, now know whether or not to proceed.

If this new style competition is your cup of tea, then grab one (or a stiff drink) and settle in for a few hours of serious reading. There are a whole lot of rules and legal stuff to consider before you get to be a movie mogul.

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Holidays Are Here

Ben Stiller delivers lighthearted fun in new Hulu movie Nutcrackers

Photo courtesy of Nutcracker Productions LLC/Hulu

Ben Stiller, Atlas Janson, Homer Janson, and Ulysses Janson in Nutcrackers.

A holiday-themed comedy seems like just what the doctor ordered right now, and the new Hulu film Nutcrackers steps up with a little mayhem, heartfelt sentiment, and a nod to traditions. But it doesn't add up to a memorable experience.

The film stars Ben Stiller as Mike, a high-powered Chicago architect with little time for anybody but himself whose sister and brother-in-law are recently deceased. He is supposedly there to place his four nephews — Justice (Homer Janson), Simon (Arlo Janson), Steve (Ulysses Janson), and Samuel (Atlas Janson) — into foster care. But social worker Gretchen (Linda Cardellini) informs Mike that the foster family has fallen through, and he needs to act as guardian until she can find someone else.

Whether they’re still reeling from their parents’ deaths or are just wild in general, the kids prove to be more than a handful for Mike, who always has one eye on the door, hoping to get back to his own life as soon as possible. But the longer he’s forced to stay, the more the kids grow on him, especially when he learns that at least two of them were students at their mom’s dance studio, giving him an idea to stage a version of a certain holiday classic.

Directed by David Gordon Green and written by Leland Douglas, the film would seem to have all the elements that make a holiday film memorable, but the vibe is off right from the start. First of all, the audience is thrown right into the mix along with Mike, with barely any introduction to the main characters. As their backstories are mostly missing, it’s difficult to feel anything — good or bad — about Mike or the kids, and so they just kind of co-exist for the first act of the film.

Green and Douglas can also never decide what kind of people they want the kids to be. The film starts with a scene of them sneaking into an amusement park and causing havoc, and subsequent scenes make it seem like they’re supposed to be hellions. But when the filmmakers start going back-and-forth between them wrecking things and being responsible, down-to-earth kids, the plot thread gets confusing and less interesting.

It’s also perplexing why they would cast Stiller, who’s been known to play straight-laced characters who go off the rails on many occasions, and then not let him do what he does best. Even when confronted with some of the kids’ worst behavior, Mike keeps his reactions in check, which may be good for a real-life uncle, but makes for a less-than-entertaining holiday family film.

Stiller still lives up to his star-billing at times, but the arc of his character is not that inspiring, even when a slight romance starts to bloom between Mike and Gretchen. The Janson brothers, who are making their collective film debut, are fun at times, but their lack of experience shows in their unpolished performances. Cardellini is a nice presence, but she’s not given enough to do to make a big impact.

Nutcrackers is an inoffensive movie in that it’s not so terrible that there’s no way to actually finish it. But there’s little in its story, characters, or attempt to be a holiday movie that can be recommended as a fun family watch, so it’s likely to fade away into streamer oblivion.

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Nutcrackers is now streaming on Hulu.

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