Pacific Renaissance - the Environmentally Friendly Company

[august]

Well, here's the scoop on Ren Pics. Presumably for legal reasons (payroll, insurance, income tax, etc.) they had to have a corporate identity in NZ, which was called Pacific Renaissance. 100% of their costumes, props, etc. have been sold off. 100% of their production crew (camera operators, costume girls...errr guys like Nigel, etc.) have moved on to other ventures. I bet somewhere there is still like an accountant or something wrapping up business stuff, but the casting people etc. are gone. Hmmm... I wonder what became of their big compound, where that town square we see in like every other ep was.

Now the real US Ren Pics still has offices in Hollywood. Presumably that's where Rob, Sam et al. have offices. There has to be a small permanent staff, just to handle stuff like royalty payments, licensing agreements, etc. I'm sure Sam doesn't get involved with the nuances of the Ash action figure, or how many times TBS is going to rerun "Darkman 2." But surely someone does! *Some* of what we consider "TPTB" may still work with them. Eric Gruendeman for example, and/or Melissa Blake.

But - I think we have to view Ren Pics as something comparable to Oprah Winfrey's film production company, or David Letterman's "World Wide Pants" company that both produces "Late Night" but also produces a couple of sitcoms in primetime. Or "Castle Rock Entertainment," which presumably Rob Reiner is a part owner of, and presumably Stephen King as well. Or Planet Hollywood, that Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Willis all owned a piece of. In other words, it exists on paper, and probably has its own staff, but the main guys are not in the office every day.

Sam is busy doing "Spider-Man" and nothing else for the next 5 months. And we just *know* there will be a sequel to that, so he probably is minimally involved with his production comapny at this point. And Rob? Probably taking it easy, and reviewing projects that people have "pitched" to him. And probably ghost-managing Lucy's career. And getting ready to be a daddy *again*. And *maybe* working on whatever this secret project with Bruce may be.

 

[bummer]

Secret project w/ Bruce???? OK, haven't heard about that yet...fill me in....

 

[Azn Dragoon]

Same here!!

 

[august]

Silly girls - you need to keep up! I posted this over at TX and Xenite back in November! :rolly2:

What do we think Sam, Rob and the boys will do next, now that a) "Spidey" is finished shooting, b) XWP etc. are done, and c) Bruce's book tour just finished?

Here are some intriguing quotes:

From a news group/discussion list, from a fan who saw Rob Tapert’s appearance at the Hollywood Theatre for the Halloween showing of “The Evil Dead†:

"Rob did let on that he was able to say that in the near future, there was to be a collaborative project involving he, Sam, and Bruce, with Bruce starring . Whether or not it was to be a sequel to Evil Dead, he couldn't say."

Rob, quoted in "The Evil Dead Companion" in 2000:

“I think for Sam, Bruce and I, our best film experiences have been working together ... and I think we’ll all work together again some time.â€

Bruce, in his autobiography:

“For me it (Pacific Renaissance) was the most creative atmosphere I have ever worked in. The directors, writing staff, and the actors all share a genuine desire to make a good show, and the producers, much to their credit, gave us the support and leeway to do it....Frankly I can never be far enough away from Hollywood. ... NZ represented a place where we could be free from studio interference, politics, parties, and misguided ambition.... I had grown weary of chasing that elusive Fame Train and was far more interested in revisiting those childhood summers of Super-8 films, when it wasn’t about money or status. I wasn’t working on Herc and Xena to advance my career – I was doing it for fun."

From Josh Becker's website:

"As to what script I'll shoot next, having just gotten to Oregon I'm immediately thinking about mine and Bruce's story, "Warpath," which is a western....Now I have to write a good script that Bruce would want to be in and help out with. I've got the treatment written and about 15 pages of the script, which I was noodling with yesterday. It's certainly a perfect location up here."

And: "Oh, and as to why would I see 'Pearl Harbor?' Of all the people in the world, Sam Raimi called me and asked me to go with him to the opening day matinee. Sam just wrapped 'Spiderman' and was eager to see a film again. Anyway, he liked 'PH' better than me."

And while I can't find the link, I do recall some interviews with Sam last year over the ruckus about slight changes to the Spider-Man mythos (like the web shooters) and his responses were basically that the director has to be true to his vision and do what he feels works best. Somehow, I suspect that while he will enjoy the fame and the $$ that accompany this A-List film, all the studio politics will frustrate him to some extent.

In fact, seems to me that the guys who always hated "the system" have all reached career heights/plateaus on their own, and are feeling a bit nostalgic about working together again. My prediction is that as they have in the past, their next project will be smaller, more independent, and removed from pressures/opinions of the studios, the press, the fans - something that they themselves enjoy doing and feel good about.

 

[bummer]

Damn, August! By the time we get finished, we've forgotten what we read in the first few paragraphs! Give us a break, here!! :flash: