UK cinema in best year since 1971
The British box office is heading for its best year in almost five decades as cinemas continue to defy the stay-at-home lure of Netflix. When the final ticket stubs are counted it is expected that British cinemagoers will have attended 176m times this year, a number not seen since 1971 when the hits included Diamonds are Forever, French Connection, Dirty Harry, and Fiddler on the Roof. There is no Christmas Star Wars blockbuster to turbo-charge the box office in 2018 but film experts believe the 1971 mark will be bettered thanks to a slate of December releases featuring the return of Mary Poppins, Aquaman, the Transformers spin-off Bumblebee and an animated Spiderman.
“It will take something really unexpected, something pretty incredible, not to get to there now,” said Phil Clapp, the chief executive of the UK Cinema Association. “It looks like being record admissions, and box office, for modern times.” According to Clapp, in four of the last five years December admissions have been 16m or more. Given cinema admission numbers broke the 160m mark at the end of November, that should be enough to hit or break 176m. Across the Atlantic, the US box office is also on for a record year and could even hit the $12bn mark for the first time.
UK attendance is expected to be up by about 6m on 2017. The rise is being attributed to factors including a much more diverse film slate ranging from musicals and superhero films to animated family fare.
Martel approached for Black Widow
Argentinian auteur Lucrecia Martel has revealed she was approached by Marvel to direct the forthcoming Black Widow film starring Scarlett Johansson, in what would have been a directorial choice remarkable even by Marvel’s idiosyncratic standards. In comments reported by the Pioneer, Martel, director of Zama, La Ciénaga and The Headless Woman, told an audience at the Mumbai film festival that she “received an email from Marvel for a meeting ... because they were looking for directors for Black Widow.” She added that she had to sign a non-disclosure agreement about her meeting, but that “Marvel and other such production houses are trying to involve more female filmmakers”.
However, Martel’s distinct lack of enthusiasm for Marvel’s output may have scuppered her chances. She added: “The first thing I asked them was maybe if they could change the special effects because there’s so many laser lights ... I find them horrible. Also the soundtrack of Marvel films is quite horrendous. Maybe we disagree on this, but it’s really hard to watch a Marvel film. It’s painful to the ears to watch Marvel films.”
In the event, Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome, Lore) was announced as Black Widow’s director in July. Martel said that despite their attempts to recruit women directors, Marvel still mistrusted them in certain aspects of production.
Star Wars lightsaber pulled from auction
A lightsaber described as having been used by Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars film has been withdrawn from sale by a Californian auction house after fans raised concerns about its authenticity. The item was due to be sold by Profiles in History in Los Angeles on Thursday with an estimated sale price of up to $200,000 (£160,000).
It was described as having been one of five lightsabers designed by Roger Christian, the Oscar-winning Star Wars set decorator, and used by Mark Hamill in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope. Christian had supplied a letter of authenticity to accompany the sale.
“In light of conflicting information regarding the origin of Roger Christian’s lightsaber, Profiles in History has decided to withdraw the piece from this auction until Mr Christian can clear up the inconsistencies that have been brought to our attention,” the chief executive of the auction house, Joe Maddalena, said. Christian did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fans of the sci-fi franchise had questioned whether the lightsaber was a replica or prototype.