Variety recently named my movie-producer brother, Nicholas Tabarrok, one of 10 Producers to Watch. Starting tomorrow he will be guest blogging for a week here at Marginal Revolution. Nicholas's firm, Darius Films, has produced a lot of good indie movies including Weirdsville, Cooper's Camera (starring Daily Show veterans Jason Jones and Samantha Bee) and one of my favorites The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico which features Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and many other country stars. His latest is Defendor, one of the few films to sell this year at the Toronto film festival and starring Woody Harrelson, Kat Dennings and Sandra Oh. No blockbusters or Academy Awards yet but Nick's track record of bringing investors, stars, directors and actors together–all of whom are utterly crazy in their own way– to make movies on-budget and on-time is truly amazing.
I'm not sure what he will be blogging this week but if you have questions or ideas to suggest feel free to put them in the comments.
you mean ‘guest’, not ‘guess’, right?
1) Outside of California and New York, North Carolina (a state now more populous than New Jersey) is said to boast (one of) the country’s largest collection of studios, sound stages, and production personnel on the ground; yet, North Carolina has precious few production companies of its own, instead bringing in business from production companies in California and New York or from abroad. What long-term remedy can be applied to correct this?
2) Part of the continuing problem with “Hollywood films” is the ongoing problem with “the Hollywood aesthetic”–that the only kinds of films to make, and the only way to make them, is to ape the practices of Hollywood. Yet in a comparatively virgin environment like North Carolina’s (I live in South Carolina, but just barely), an aesthetic more akin to that espoused by superlative filmmaker Robert Bresson would seem to hold as much if not greater appeal (reliance on non-professional “actors”, non-reliance on music to interpret film action for the audience, to cite but two elements). Can indie films make a leap by discarding and disowning Hollywood production values?
The evolution of the movie business as declining DVD sales pressure 50% of film profits. How will studios react? The near term solution seems to be make fewer movies, more sequels and retreads, and pray. But moviegoers will tire of spiderman 19 and remakes of remakes. What is the longer term answer?
Does Nicholas agree that antitrust ruined the movies by killing the “studio system”? Has Toronto’s “comparative advantage” with regard to Hollywood significantly diminished in recent years? And since your family background is Iranian, were your folks Muslims or of a religious minority?
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