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Nonetheless, true to the nature of this story, this movie’s path was still an uphill climb. The ambitious expedition that Fuller proposed with this movie found itself seriously truncated by Warner Bros. Studios, the distribution outlet to whom he—according to legend—presented his four-and-a-half hour finished product...
...direct Phantom in 1990, with the stage show's original stars Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, who was then married to Lloyd Webber. When they divorced, the film fell apart, and despite rumors casting various stars in the main roles - Antonio Banderas, John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Keira Knightly - Warner Bros., which held the screen rights, dithered. Meanwhile, the producers of the stage show, who were overseeing its 22-country rollout, worried about killing theater trade if the film was bad. When Lloyd Webber's Evita barely turned a profit in 1996, Phantom seemed doomed...
...Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group bought back the rights from Warner Bros., raised the $80 million budget itself, and brought back Schumacher. By then, more than 70 million people had seen the show, which had grossed more than $2.4 billion and ranked as the world's highest-earning piece of live entertainment. "If half of the people who've seen the show see the film," says executive producer Austin Shaw, "it will gross $350 million. And what about the 2.9 billion people who haven't seen it?" Such confidence might explain the decision not to cast big names...
This week saw the coinciding arrival of two promo compilations of distinctly different bents. One was a Warner Bros. compilation of popular songs from their back catalog remixed by current artists called What is Hip?; the other was a three-CD package called DFA Compilation #2, containing remixed tracks from the New York’s independent DFA label. One of these two label-oriented discs held remixes of such “classics” as Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and Devo?...
Consultants, investment bankers and press conference--calling executives like to call them "transforming transactions." Shareholders usually come to think of them as blunders of epic proportions. They are the multibillion-dollar megamergers, like AT&T's purchase of cable powerhouse TCI or AOL's marriage with Time Warner (the parent company of this magazine), that are borne on the winds of "synergy" and often find their roots in the weaknesses of the parties' core operations. The reality is that while small, incremental deals can be a key to success, very few megadeals ever deliver on their much hyped promise...