[Finnegan]

The commercial success or failure of Antin's film, Burlesque, to be released next week, seems to have large implications for Antin's career, including whether Antin might ever be in a position to develop further any of the plot devices and themes in Young Americans -- or even remake YA for the big screen. So here's the latest news about it:

'Burlesque' went through bumps and grinds to make it to the big screen Writer-director Steven Antin got backing of his partner, Clint Culpepper, the president of Screen Gems. But it wasn't smooth sailing. By Ben Fritz and Amy Kaufman Los Angeles Times, November 13, 2010 Steven Antin isn't the first filmmaker to get his big break from a romantic partner. But "Burlesque," a PG-13 musical opening Thanksgiving weekend, is ... one of the riskiest and most unusual projects to come out of Hollywood this year. Antin wrote and directed the $55-million movie ... at the urging of Clint Culpepper, the president of Screen Gems and Antin's partner of 20 years. ... Following a difficult production filled with on-set conflicts and a new ending shot at the last minute, it's unclear whether "Burlesque" will strike box office cabaret gold a la "Chicago" or will become a laughingstock ... "There's an incredible amount of pressure on me that this movie performs well," said Antin, 52 ... He acknowledges that many will see "Burlesque" as a movie that got made only because a studio executive did a favor for his boyfriend. ... Culpepper was on set regularly, a rarity for an executive of his rank. But his presence wasn't always a calming one. People familiar with the matter ... said he frequently clashed with Antin over budgetary and creative issues, with arguments sometimes turning into screaming matches. ... "Burlesque" will face fierce competition when it debuts in less than two weeks ... Opening weekend box office and subsequent word-of-mouth could make or break ... Antin's hopes of directing more films. ...

The Drama Behind the Dazzle: The Making of 'Burlesque' The inside story of the on-set fighting that marked the Screen Gems production. by Kim Masters The Hollywood Reporter, November 11, 2010 The spectacular fights and serious clashes behind-the-scenes of the production of Burlesque were not between the famous divas starring in the film. The real sparks were between the two men behind the movie, director Steven Antin ... and Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper. The two are a longtime couple who collaborated professionally for the first time on Burlesque. ... A source on the project says that the close relationship between the two led to some "jaw-dropping" clashes on the highly-charged set. In the midst of one argument, Culpepper poured an iced tea over Antin's head, forcing the director to recoil backwards into a rack of clothes. ... Despite it all, the movie, which is the most expensive in Screen Gems history, scored record highs for Sony with a test audience in Arizona last month. ...

Why Sony? Because Screen Gems is a subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group -- the same corporate structure that made, and owns the rights to, Young Americans. That, too, has implications.

[Finnegan]

Burlesque Interview - Steven Antin - Trailer Addict
About five short clips separated by pauses of several seconds.

First time I've ever seen Antin talking on film or video (talking, not acting).

[Finnegan]

Antin is now giving press interviews to promote Burlesque, much like those he gave to promote Young Americans during the week before its first episode was aired in July 2000.

One such interview, published at Collider.com on November 22, was given to Christina Radish -- a professional photographer who does interviews as a sideline, and who published an exclusive and illuminating interview with Katherine Moennig on Fanforum's "Rawley Academy" board in 2000!

Antin's interview with Radish confirms three things already evident, but helpful in understanding Young Americans:

-- (1) There are no "accidents" in Steve Antin's dramas. Details are meticulously planned, and Antin personally dominates that planning:

There was a specific way I wanted the floorboards to be laid. I wanted the sides to be herringbone. I wanted the floor of the club to be a railroad in another direction, and then I wanted the stage floorboards to go in another direction. We talked about all of the colors and glosses on the walls, the aging on the walls, the curtains in the club, the lightbulbs, the chandeliers, all of the different backdrops and textures, how big the thrust stage was going to be and what the detail around that was going to look like. We went through endless amounts of research. Even the tables and chairs in the club, the trim around the tables, the sheen on the tables and every single lamp on the tables was discussed. There was an incredible amount of detail.

-- (2) Antin feels torn between desire to make commercially viable products and a desire to make art films for eggheads:

I want to tell beautiful stories. I know I want to tell stories that appeal to a large audience. I want to make movies that appeal to mass culture, for now. At a certain point, I’m sure I’ll go off somewhere and make my little wonderful, beautiful art film, but right now, I want to make big movies that appeal to a lot of people. That’s satisfying to me.

-- (3) Antin says that, from an early age, when he was a young actor, he wanted to become a director. Applied to YA: Krudski-as-character not only relives, in a better way, the youth of Krudksi-as-narrator, he also looks forward to becoming Krudski-as-narrator, something almost explicit only in YA's final narrative voice-over. YA may express both the regret of a former child actor turned writer that did not spend more of his youth learning to write rather than acting, and the conviction that even a mis-spent youth offers lessons which, if rightly revisted, can be turned to good service.

My favorite line in this interview is Antin's remark:

Everything that I’ve done in my life has become a dictionary of information and has helped inform what I do next.

Does that sound familiar?

CAROLINE: So tell me how did you learn so much poetry? WILL: The universe is a dictionary of information. -- Young Americans, episode 4

"Dictionary of information," in that generic sense, is an uncommon, idiomatic phrase. Yet Antin is not credited with writing episode 4 of YA ... or with countless other details of set and script that he seem likely to have been chosen by him ...

[s e r e n i t y]

There was a specific way I wanted the floorboards to be laid. I wanted the sides to be herringbone. I wanted the floor of the club to be a railroad in another direction, and then I wanted the stage floorboards to go in another direction. We talked about all of the colors and glosses on the walls, the aging on the walls, the curtains in the club, the lightbulbs, the chandeliers, all of the different backdrops and textures, how big the thrust stage was going to be and what the detail around that was going to look like. We went through endless amounts of research. Even the tables and chairs in the club, the trim around the tables, the sheen on the tables and every single lamp on the tables was discussed. There was an incredible amount of detail.

Oh wow, that is just fascinating to know the attention to detail is extraordinary, I wonder if other directors do this as much as he does as well or do they mostly leave things to the set designer?

and him using an almost direct quote from YA is amazing, I can imagine you were veyr excited to read that Finnegan its certainly nice to see it as a fan

[Finnegan]

Originally Posted by broken|smile (View Post) Oh wow, ... [Antin's] attention to detail is extraordinary. I wonder if other directors do this as much as he does as well or do they mostly leave things to the set designer?

Seeing Antin's office walls plastered with storyboards and reference material ... led [Cher] to call him "the most prepared director I've even seen." -- Susan Wloszczyna, "'Burlesque' director Steve Antin proves most persuasive," USA Today, July 2, 2010 (posted, with link, earlier on this thread)

Antin has been involved in everything from casting to makeup and hair. -- Cesar G. Soriano, "WB teens turn preppie," USA Today, July 2000

I suspect, Sheida, that how involved directors are in set design may vary greatly from director to director. Nevertheless, Antin's attention to detail plainly is extraordinary -- and not just in sets but also in costumes. See my recent post, on this board's "YA bloopers" thread, about YA's use of Oxford University's crest in the Rawley Crew logo.

Antin seems compelled to try to turn any film he makes into an art film, full of beauty and meaning. He's torn between art and commercial success; he admits this in the interview cited two posts back, indicating that in Burlesque he has tried to subordinate his artistic compulsion to the requirements of commercial success. In Young Americans he failed to do that; instead, he suffused a drama aired on a network for teenagers with meaning that few teens could understand, and that no one could understand on first viewing.

[s e r e n i t y]

It certainly is extraordinary and it takes a great director to be able to be involved in everything, I worked on the set of a sorta artsy iranian movie where everyone was annoyed by how much the director wanted to be involved in everything and his attention to detail but even he let the set design to the set design team so to actually think everything out takes a lot of talent and a huge amount of genius

[wolkenfuehlen]

I'll have to check out the Antin interview as soon as I get the chance. I don't think I've ever seen him on video, be it as an actor or a director.

Yet Antin is not credited with writing episode 4 of YA ... or with countless other details of set and script that he seem likely to have been chosen by him ...

I think it's common for the showrunners to go over the scripts and change some stuff around, or ask the writers to put a certain phrase or scene in. At least that's how Whedon does it.

As Sheida said, his attention to detail is really extraordinary! I guess the amount of influence shows how important this project actually is to him. He's put so much work into every little aspect of this movie, I really hope it does well!

[Finnegan]

Although some reviews praise, and some pan, Burlesque, there is remarkable critical consensus: the musical numbers are strong, the plot and character development are weak. Critics to whom the latter are important pan the film. Its defenders point out that it reverts to the form of 1930s - 1960s film musicals, in which plot and character development were almost rarely more than window-dressing for the musical numbers.

This is not Cabaret, a dance with the horror of civilisation's decay into barbarism. The contrast between the two genre-titled musicals is underscored by the lyrics of Burlesque's first song: “It’s not the end of days — it’s just the bump and grind.” The plot is simple and predictable: a small-town-girl-makes-good-in-big-city story, with strong singing talent and lots of female flesh. But the public seems to be buying it -- just as they did five to eight decades ago:

'Burlesque' has become a box office surprise by James Sanford The Screening Room, Wednesday, December 8,2010 It’s not particularly shocking to see “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” and Disney’s “Tangled” slugging it out for the dominant position atop the box office rankings. But what’s in the No. 3 position is something of a surprise: It’s “Burlesque,” the Cher and Christina Aguilera musical that has been scalded by most critics and embraced by many audiences, taking in $30 million in its first two weeks. That’s more than some industry sages were expecting “Burlesque” to make in its entire run. ... But “Burlesque” writer and director Steve Antin has concocted a film that somehow works, at least as far as ticket-buyers are concerned. “Burlesque” doesn’t set out to wow anyone with its originality; instead, it cobbles together a glittery collage of bits and pieces of other movies ... Antin shows us his game plan right off the bat ... The number Hough and Bell are performing is clearly a tribute to Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell’s version of “Diamonds” in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” When Aguilera takes over, Antin stages the song so that it looks like an homage to Nicole Kidman’s performance of it in “Moulin Rouge.” On top of that, the whole idea of the wannabe star who projects herself into the spotlight is a not-so-subtle reference to the opening of the 2002 film version of “Chicago,” in which Renee Zellweger’s Roxie Hart imagines herself taking the place of Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones) midway through “All That Jazz.” If you want to keep track of the rest of the references strewn throughout “Burlesque,” you’d better get yourself a scorecard. Antin has seen a lot of movies, and he expects his audience has as well. Intriguingly, “Burlesque” doesn’t rip off images and ideas as much as it appropriates them. Antin knows many viewers will immediately identify his sources and he doesn’t make any apologies: If you get it, you get it, and if you don’t, hopefully you’ll go along for the ride.

Sound familiar? Apparently Burlesque, like YA, is revival theatre -- not revival of Shakespeare, Greek mythology, and fairy tales, but in part of the until-recently-nearly-dead film musical genre. And with Burlesque as with Young Americans, if one doesn't recall the relevant cultural history, one will miss a lot. But Antin has also indicated that he's trying to revive the tradition of Victorian burlesque as social satire. What it is that's being "burlesqued" is something that no review I've read has addressed. I think I'll go see ..

Beyond Burlesque ... Antin's next venture will be to make a film musical about a high school marching band for Disney. Apparently he wrote it, and will also direct it. It was already greenlighted by Disney two years ago, but Antin put it on hold to make Burlesque. Antin refers to it by the name of Mash-Up.

[wolkenfuehlen]

Yay for Burlesque doing so well I still don't particularly get it, but that's okay. Speaking of, I was so surprised when I saw it was nominated for a Golden Globe! Congrats to Antin, what an achievement.

Beyond Burlesque ... Antin's next venture will be to make a film musical about a high school marching band for Disney. Apparently he wrote it, and will also direct it. It was already greenlighted by Disney two years ago, but Antin put it on hold to make Burlesque. Antin refers to it by the name of Mash-Up.

Sounds ... good? Who knows, maybe Antin will be the genius behind the next big Disney franchise?

[s e r e n i t y]

oh my goddd, i was so excited to see he'd been nominated, its insane, i had no idea the movie was doing well, i dont know how much of a chance it had of winning but im keeping my fingers crossed hes also nominated for original song this is gonna be awesome, i think ian might be there, im hoping matt will be there cause the good wifes nominated, this is awesome

[wolkenfuehlen]

I honestly didn't expect the movie to be nominated, because critics don't really seem to love it? But if you look at the competition in that category, it's hardly the only movie that's nominated that's not loved by critics *coughs* The Tourist *coughs* Let's cross our fingers for him

i think ian might be there, im hoping matt will be there cause the good wifes nominated, this is awesome

I hadn't even thought of that!

[s e r e n i t y]

So is Alice in Wonderland and Reds an action movie so I think we know who the sure winner in that category is, ... the other movie whose name I cant even remember the kids are alright? something like that, anyways, yeah the comedy/musical category nominees werent well recieved by critics or the box office to be honest, its all very weird

but on the bright side, we might get some sorta reunion pictures so

[wolkenfuehlen]

Yeah, looking at the nominees, The Kids Are All Right (which I really wanna see!) seems to be a sure winner....but who knows, maybe we'll be surprised at the outcome? I guess there just weren't a lot of critically acclaimed and successful comedies/musicals this last year...or were there?

[s e r e n i t y]

I dont think there were many no shame really, good category, I havent really heard great things about The Kids are Alright, but it has Mark Ruffalo so Im game to watch it

[wolkenfuehlen]

I saw about 20 minutes of The Goonies today, but sadly I didn't see Steve in it. At least I didn't recognize him, and I just read through his character's description on wikipedia, and I can't remember a character like that either It looked fun though! Maybe I'll watch it completely some day.