Rosario Dawson

Su Teatro gets running start toward new home

After 26 years of rabble-rousing and protest - onstage and off - it almost seemed too easy. Here were dozens of El Centro Su Teatro supporters gathered before Monday's Denver City Council meeting. And steeled for a fight, if needed. But before you could say "roll call," the council gave fast first approval to a $1.53 million low-interest loan that will allow the company to purchase its new home at 215 S. Santa Fe Drive. The unanimous approval came so quickly, without dialogue or dissent, "It was a little bit of a letdown," joked veteran actor Yolanda Ortega-Ericksen. Well, as much as $1.53 million can be considered a letdown - which is to say, it can't. Suffice to say everyone from the nation's third-oldest Chicano theater company was giddy. Yet there was something odd about the whole thing. "Can you believe it? Ortega-Ericksen said with a laugh. "We're going through procedure!" Artistic director Anthony J. Garcia said it wasn't as easy as it looked. Months of work went into his bid for a community development loan from the Denver Office of Economic Development. But he said the council's full support shows what the company has come to mean to the city. "I don't feel like Don Quixote at all anymore," said Garcia. "This is not only a natural progression for us, but for this city. What this says is that we have really become an indispensable part of the fabric of this city." Garcia singled out Mayor John Hickenlooper as "incredibly supportive" for decades. "Now that he's the mayor, he is kind of required to stay on the sideline," Garcia said, "but when he cheers from the sideline, it's a louder cheer than anyone else's." Final loan approval is expected Monday. First payment isn't due until the facility opens in 2009. Now, Su Teatro only has to launch a $3.5 million capital campaign to build the facility.

Here's what happened to last year's Sundance fest movies

Here's how a sampling of last year's Sundance premieres fared (Many are now available at your local video/DVD store):

• "Little Miss Sunshine." This was the rare Sundance comedy loved equally in and away from the mountain air. After its rousing premiere, Fox Searchlight paid a reported $10.5 million for it (a Sundance record), and it has gone on to gross close to $60 million in North America while racking up so many end-of-the-year kudos that it's a probable Oscar best picture nominee.

• "An Inconvenient Truth." The Al Gore global warming movie, picked up by Paramount Vantage (nee Classics), became the year's most popular documentary ($23.8 million gross) as well as the most honored and talked-about.

• "The Illusionist." This Edward Norton-starring magician movie was pooh-poohed at its Sundance premiere, and its primary financier, Bob Yari, wound up releasing it under his own banner. Nice move: It became one of the year's sleepers, grossing close to $40 million.

• "Wordplay." This crossword puzzle documentary was warmly received at the festival and beyond, drumming up a decent $3 million for IFC Films.

• "Half Nelson." Respected by festivalgoers though ignored by the awards jury, this drama about a crack-addicted schoolteacher grossed a modest $2.7 million for ThinkFilm. But Ryan Gosling's performance has received much end-of-the-year recognition and could be Oscar nominated.

• "Quinceanera." The festival jury and audience gave top honors to this ensemble drama about the mostly Mexican-American and gay residents of a changing Los Angeles neighborhood. Back in the real world, reviewers liked it while art-house audiences nudged the box office up to $1.7 million.

• "God Grew Tired of Us." Winning the top jury and audience documentary awards was this emotionally potent depiction of Sudanese "lost boys" who wind up in the U.S. It opens, finally, Friday.

• "The Science of Sleep." Director Michel Gondry's dreamlike follow-up to "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" never broke out, grossing $4.7 million after Warner Independent paid a reported $6 million to $7 million for the rights to English-speaking territories.

• "Sherrybaby." This drama about a recovering drug addict mother made a measly $199,000 but did earn Maggie Gyllenhaal a Golden Globe best-actress nomination.

• "A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints." Despite mostly positive reviews, a couple of Sundance awards and a cast topped by Robert Downey Jr. and Rosario Dawson, this New York mean-streets drama barely cracked $500,000 at the box office.

• "Right at Your Door." This much-hyped, post-9/11, dirty-bombs-in-L.A. thriller didn't kill 'em at Sundance but nonetheless reportedly fetched almost $3 million from Lionsgate. The distributor has yet to give it a U.S. opening date despite releasing it in the U.K. last September.GO!

And You Thought Comics Were Just For Kids

OK -- I ADMIT IT. I read them. I have since I was a kid. I can't help it. There is something about the colors, the stories, the art. You don't know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about: comic books. From the big screen to the little screen to the paper screen, this genre of periodicals -- once considered a medium for the weird, the nerdy, the uncool -- has become mainstream. But where are the advertisers? And I don't mean the ones chasing 12- to 16-year-olds. I am talking about the brands chasing those of us who were the weird, the nerdy, the uncool 20 years ago. Well, a few have caught on -- but honestly, not enough. Consider the following:

--The U.S. comic book business (publishing only) was approximately $550 million in 2005. -- Marvel Entertainment publishes approximately 70 different comic book titles per month, primarily distributed to consumers through three main channels -- direct market retailers, mass-market retailers, and through subscription. Revenue is also derived from the sale of advertising within the core comic book product of approximately ten pages -- specifically, three glossy cover pages (the inside front cover and both the inside and outside back cover), and seven interior non-glossy pages. (And did I mention that gross profit margins in the business are in the mid-50% range?). --Virgin Comics retains an 86% male, 14% female readership, with a median age of 23 and age concentration from 16 to 29, with a median household income of $50.69k. Some of the brands that have used comics to deliver their brand message include Dannon, Coke Classic, L'Oreal, and Nautica (not to mention the usual suspects Nokia, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, etc.). --John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Rosario Dawson, Dave Stewart -- just a handful of the celebrities who have taken to using this form as a way to create new vehicles for more traditional media channels. The purpose of most publishers is to license titles for new distribution platforms, like movies. And if you think that these movies are just for "fans," well, let the box office speak for itself: Marvel Entertainment alone, through titles such as "Blade," "Spider-Man," "X-Men," "Elektra," "Fantastic Four," "The Hulk" and "Daredevil" generated over $4 billion in eight years over 14 films. And you don't build an audience like that without a base -- a base that is simply, the comic book reader. Now, I don't mean to generalize or oversimplify, but this is truly an untapped market. From ad-sponsored digital versions for the PC and wireless handsets to merchandising to new or celebrity-based Web-based-only titles -- this is truly a market that is experiencing a renaissance. And lest we forget, I am not talking about the U.S. market alone here. I am talking about worldwide audience potential that translates into worldwide branding opportunities for multi-national advertisers. Just imagine the possibilities. Think I have been reading too many manga books? Perhaps. But any comic genre that commands $5.6 billion worldwide has my attention. Does it have yours? You tell me.

A columnist takes a look back at memorable chats

I don't have a single favorite. The stars I liked best were the ones who didn't act like stars. They were always the most secure, most talented, most likable, and had the most interesting stuff to say. So, in no particular order, here are some behind-the-scenes looks at some of my favorite celebrities. CLINT EASTWOOD stands out because when I arrived at his hotel room to talk about 1997's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," he had a toddler running around screaming, his wife came out to say hello, Clint swigged a Heineken out of the neck, shook my hand and said, "Hey, man, thanks for doing this. Wanna beer?" I declined, and then we sat down and just shot the breeze with a tape recorder going. He talked about life, spaghetti Westerns, getting older, kids, women, movies and music, and about a "man knowing his limits." And, instead of some frantic PR person bum-rushing you out, Eastwood says, "Sure you don't want that beer? Good and cold." TOM HANKS answered the door to his trailer on W. 43rd Street on the set of "You've Got Mail" wearing a soiled undershirt and eating Chinese food out of a carton. "I hope you're hungry," he said. As we ate Chinese, Hanks talked for half an hour about his HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon," and you knew that those astronauts were what he considered stars. He talked about how he'd never forget living right down the block in the early '70s in a roach-and-rodent-infested apartment, waiting tables, scrounging for work. Then he found stardom on "Bosom Buddies" and blew it, because "I wasn't prepared for luck." Lighting struck twice when he was the ninth choice for, as he says, "a mermaid movie called 'Splash' being directed by Opie." But this time he was prepared for luck, and chose his scripts carefully -- and never forgot what it was to struggle.

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