Brokeback Mountain

[huntergrayson]

Yes because being "that dumb dude in the National Lampoon Vacation movies" apparently means being a "household name with...2 billion dollars worth of box office." Uhm, how much of that 2 billion dollar box office had to do with people thinking "Oh, Randy Quaid is in this? Let's go!" His entire argument is the stupidest thing ever -- that he was mislead into thinking this was an art film instead of the surefire blockbuster hit that Ang & Co. planned it to be and was paid an indie salary. So was everyone else, the fact that it ended up being a box office success was completely unexpected.

[slashgirl]

One more for the RandyQuaidHateTrain. His lawsuit is bullshit. Since RQ's been a successful actor for several decades, he should know something about contract negotiations by now. The way I see it, since the producers of BBM didn't seem to expect it to become the box-office smash/pop culture phenom it is, they shouldn't have to pay for RQ's mistake, literally or figuratively.

Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway, the actual stars of BBM, OTOH, were in it much longer than RQ was and, since its budget was $14 million dollars, got paid much less than what RQ's suing for, but they're not filing bogus lawsuits. As far as I'm concerned, calling RQ a greedy asshat's an insult to greedy asshats everywhere.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't buy the movie from Wal-Mart anyways, since they censor all their movies and CDs.

Randy? B*tch, please. You were Cousin Eddy. Get over yourself.

[Benni]

COUSIN EDDY! That is who he is. I couldn't figure out what else he had been in. ROFL.

[Deleted]

Yep. I will forever remember him in a bathrobe, black socks, one of those hunting caps with the ear flaps holding a beer and emptying a chemical toilet into a storm drain and yelling, "SHITTER'S FULL!"

[lallybroch]

The New York Times examines the merits of Randy Quaid's lawsuit (free registration required):

To be sure, Mr. Quaid's role in the Oscar-winning film was tiny, and few would attribute the success of "Brokeback" to the handful of minutes he spends on screen.

But the disparity between actors' fees and the film's promotional budget points toward what may be an endemic problem for the specialty divisions: even actors whose contracts provide for profit participation in successful films may find there is no profit left in which to participate, while the studios still collect rich distribution fees.

The lawsuit notes that the entire cast of actors was paid $521,000 in total for their work on the film. One entertainment lawyer says there's still the possibility that Brokeback won't technically make a profit, despite earning more than $160 million worldwide in theaters so far.

I went to Wal-Mart today and there was a poster at the front entrance for Brokeback Mountain, with one for The Chronicles of Narnia on the other side. I doubt it was intentional, but the thought that it was amuses me.

[Benni]

Last night at the Hockey Awards Banquet I learned that the only people who got a copy of Brokeback Mountain from our small town video store were there at 10:00 am when they opened Tuesday morning.

[Hamatron]

Yeah, it's pretty amusing to watch the DVD extras-- he's featured quite prominently rattling on about how great Ang is and how supportive the work environment is. O-kay. His part summed up in three sentences:

1. Dude hires two ranch hands
2. Dude looks through binoculars and squints
3. Dude tells Jack Twist he won't rehire him

Linda Cardellini had more to work with...

[mrpancake]

Randy Quaid really tied the movie together, though. [/big lebowski]

[Deleted]

I finally watched this over the weekend, after being meaning to see it since day one. Tells you how busy I am with school eh? Anyway, I thought it was really good. Maybe not quite as amazing as the hype, but it's pretty impossible for anything to live up to that much excitement. A good job was done by all the actors though, and that Randy Quaid sure deserves more money for his hugely important role (right....).

The coolest thing for me was that my cousin's kid is in the movie! When Ennis and Alma's kids are really young, my second cousin is the older one (Alma Jr.). I think my mom mentioned it but I totally forgot.