I don’t think it’s an accident that this issue is more music and movie oriented than normal.  There is something in the air.  Some of us may be hearing the horns of Ragnarok, others of us may be hearing a futuristic synchronicity of beautiful sound and machinery.  While others of us may appreciate more simplicity, more romance, more nature, more authenticity.  What we do know is that the entire landscape of entertainment is changing. 

     I was in Burbank, California the other day.  It was raining hard as I was running towards my car, on a cell phone call with Dr. Hwang’s assistant, Randy.  I told him to assemble the content as soon as he could, then I hung up right when I got to my car.  The rain started coming down in sheets, but I stood there, stunned.  Why?

     In front of me was an empty building where the Burbank Bar & Grille once stood.  A legendary haunt in Burbank, Hollywood and Los Angeles lore, I just shook my head and let the rain shower me, resigned to the fact that this was permanent.

     In my time in Los Angeles, I have seen Chasen’s close.  I have seen Trader Vic’s demolished.  I have seen the Cocoanut Grove and the Ambassador Hotel demolished (though I have some amazing black & white photos.  Nobody broke into that place more than me).  I have even seen my personal favorite, the Roxbury Nightclub on Sunset Boulevard, turned into a taco shop.  But this one hit me a little harder.  I thought of one particular night at the Burbank Bar & Grille many moons ago...

     This would have been precious months after 9-11 when the world and popular culture were still processing the impact of that event, as was I.  The restaurant was packed with actors, actresses, the filmmakers and crew of the first film I had written, “Where’s Angelo?” 

 

I was sitting at a table with one of the producers, a childhood friend.  We were celebrating the film being accepted into competition at the Hollywood Film Festival and the upcoming Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

     After copious amounts of food and booze, my friend asked me what I was doing next.  I told him I thought I had cracked “Outcast”, a screenplay we were developing together.  Now, this producer is also an editor.  In my time, people didn’t wear as many hats as they do now.  Let me say this, editors spend day after day, week after week, month after month looking at the best and worst footage imaginable.  They are exposed to so much around the cultural bellwether because they work on TV, film, documentaries and music videos.  Their profession is centered all around timing, whether it be a scene or a sequence of scenes.  They see things many times before they are ever distributed.

     My friend looked at me and said “You know what is interesting about comic books?  The hero and the arch-villain are always good friends, like you and me.”  I nodded my head. I had not thought of comic books in many years, then he said “You know what is also interesting about comic books, Alex?  The kids.  They always know who the arch-villain is going to be.  Do you remember what they used to call you...?”

     I felt like I had been punched in the gut.  I stood up. He said “Alex Schrader calculator born in an incubator... or was it Alex Schrader calculator built like a Terminator.” 

     I couldn’t believe he said this, I motioned towards the bar and said I was going to get a drink, then he finished it off by saying “Kids... they never lie.”

     Reflecting on that evening all these years later, and being more clear-eyed about it, my friend was simply trying to tell me (in his own strange way) that comic books are coming down the road and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.

     Weeks after that dinner Spiderman opened to theatres across the country and around the world.  It was a monster hit, unleashing a tsunami of comic book films that has lasted close to two-and-a-half decades. 

While most of the filmmakers in that restaurant were hoping to be the next Quentin Tarantino, the world was shifting under their feet...

     And it is shifting again...

Right at this very moment.  You know it and I know it.  What worked before is no longer working.  KPop Demon Hunters worked, and it had good music.  People are afraid of AI.  They believe it will lessen the quality of entertainment.  People believe that Netflix purchasing Warner Brothers will be the end of the theatrical business.  Time will tell if all these things do come to pass.  But if I recall, it was always a filmmaker who changed the business.

     Orson Welles with Citizen Kane (1941)...

     Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda with Easy Rider (1969)...

     Quentin Tarantino with Pulp Fiction (1994)...

     In South Korea they are having a film and music explosion.  Who will be the filmmaker that takes Hollywood by the hand into the new era?  Time will tell.