*All the Boys Love Mandy Lane*
This Indie film is less independent than its filmmakers thought.
A popular festival horror film experiences the twists and turns formerly reserved for major motion picture distribution
Written by Jacob Forman, an art department researcher on two dramatic shorts which screened in 2004 and directed by first-timer, Jonathan Levine, “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” is both Forman’s and Levine’s big break-out feature length movie.
As Los Angeles Times writer, John Horn tells us, it was all the buzz at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, a little horror movie that could, went into all out bidding wars. Starring new-comer Amber Heard as the title character, plays a hot new addition to a Texas high school. So much so, she is invited by a group of popular kids to an isolated ranch for a weekend of fun. As it turns out for all in tow, the weekend evolves from fun to terror, Texas style.
The Blair Witch Project
The “Indie” as we first knew it has evolved since “The Blair Witch Project” (1999), oozed it’s way into the major motion picture market. Wikipedia.org defines the Independent film, as: “An independent film, or indie film, is usually a low-budget film that is produced by a small movie studio. Additionally, the term is used to describe less commercially-driven art films which differ markedly from the norms of plot-driven, mainstream classical Hollywood cinema. These films are often produced by subsidiaries of larger studios, such as Sony Pictures Classics, as long as less than half of its budget comes from a major movie studio. In 2005, about 15% of the U.S. domestic box office revenue was from independent studios.[1] Independent films are often distinguishable by their content or style. The writer or director's original authorial intent or personal creative vision is usually maintained in the final film.
The independent film scene's development in the 1990s and 2000s has been stimulated by a range of factors, including the development of affordable high-definition digital video cameras that can rival 35 mm film quality and easy-to-use computer editing software and the increasing visibility of independent film festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival.”
So, is the Indie film still one’s unique vision, and not a Major Motion Picture Studio’s? Yet, Harvey Weinstein bargained for the rights for the movie, “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” after it’s screening at the festival. By dawn he owned the United States rights for $3.5 million dollars. Weinstein outbid MTV Films and Focus Features. He has teamed with a German-backed distribution company and hopes to bring the movie to 1,200 screens nationwide. The release date has yet to be announced to date.
Why does this Indie horror film no longer seem like an Indie horror film? Wes Craven brought us “Nightmare on Elm Street” for $1,800,000.00. True that was in 1984, however, “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” feels like a 21st century proto-type of the concept of “independent.”
The unfortunate outcome off all this haggering has caused the film’s makers to hit only to be told they’re off. First-timers getting what sounds like the “old treatment.”
With any luck, negotiations like this one will stimulate more filmmakers and not hinder what keeps our Indies true to less-commercially-driven, art films, free to differ from the “norms” of plot-driven mainstream Hollywood. Rather, filmmakers from all walks of life may have to prepare to understand more about Hollywood structured negotiations. A heavy burden when one is already combating the “difference from the norm,” yet it appears the “norm” has found “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane,” and it’s not Texas-style at all.
