It Only Costs $200,000 to License Tusk
 

[From Los Angeles Times article on Kevin Smith] by By Mark Olsen September 6, 2014

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...905-story.html

Toronto Film Festival: Kevin Smith returns with 'Tusk': 'I was done and out'

At a key moment in the film, the pounding drums and marching band horns of Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” kick in. (Honestly, try to say the title and not wind up with the song in your head.) Smith said he wrote the script while listening to the song, but had resigned himself to the fact that it might be too hard to license.

As it turned out, it was “not difficult, just expensive,” as Smith noted that at around $200,000 to use, the song “Tusk” was more than what effects wizard Robert Kurtzman had for making the actual "Tusk" walrus suit.

And so now following “Tusk,” Kevin Smith is busier than ever, writing his own rules, and giddily reenergized as an artist, storyteller and filmmaker.

$200,000 is peanuts compared to what Budweiser paid to license "Landslide"...Hopefully they made good use of the song...

The pricing for the use of a song in a commercial that will be played thousands of times is not comparable to what it is to use it in a movie. Similarly, the pricing to use the same song in a play would be different as well.

Michele

Wasn't it Kevin Smith who used Landslide for one of his projects? I remember my friend telling me about DVD commentary, where Stevie is thanked for making the song available to them for a price they could afford.

Yes, he used "Landslide" in 'Jersey Girl.' :)

I wonder how much would it cost to license "Tusk" for a high school marching band.

I have to say there must be atlease some schools in the world using "Tusk " and maybe other FM tunes in their music depts.

The schools must get the music with a discount rate I guess.

I'm not that far from the local high school.I hear them practice and they sound great.They sometimes march be my house.I would love to hear them play "Tusk"

I cant even imagine what it cost for Coven using FM /Stevie tunes even with Stevie there.

The one I haven't seen. :rolleyes: I don't care to, either. I will see Tusk, though. I wish he'd just make Clerks 3, but Weinstein said no. :shrug: I'm cool with that. It started independently, and it makes sense to end the trilogy independently.

Unfortunately, Clerks 3 seems to be a ways off. He's filming that movie with Johnny Depp and their two daughters at the moment, then he's making Anti-Claus (a film about Krampus of all subjects), then a film titled Moose-Jaws, then Clerks. However, Clerks 3 will apparently unite together just about all of his podcasting family to which I listen to them regularly so that makes me intrigued.

It is funny how Smith brings up the Mac now and then. I seem to remember maybe a year ago now, on Hollywood Babble-On they had a person write in who was in the audience and they were or were with a girl named Rhiannon and Smith asked if she was named after the song and muttered "Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night..." and was then bummed when the girl replied she wasn't named after the song. lol

Ha, I knew you'd show up! You're always the only other one talking Kevin Smith with me lol :D have you seen them live? I've been three times, Smodcast/J&SB Get Old twice, and the Get Old/Super Groovy Cartoon Movie (did you see that? I was not impressed :()

Aren't they filming something called Yoga Hosers too? Or am I wrong? Johnny Depp in what, now? I don't listen to Smodcast anymore, maybe I should pick it back up?

I've flown out with my girlfriend once to see Hollywood Babble-On while they were still at Jon Lovitz' comedy club and I saw J&SB Get Old when they came here to Durham. Both were great times.

Yoga Hosers, if my understanding is correct, is the second film in a trilogy of films taking place in Canada; Tusk, Yoga Hosers and Moose-Jaws. Johnny Depp is playing a detective type character in Yoga Hosers and I think his character also appears in a smaller role (or atleast it hasnt really been discussed much) in Tusk as a character named Guy LaPointe. He might end up in Moose-Jaws as well. His daughter, Lily-Rose, is going to be one of the two leading ladies in Yoga Hosers alongside Kevin's daughter Harley.

You really should pick it back up, Smodcast especially is pretty much re-energized since Kevin's back in full work mode. I really can't wait for Anti-Claus though, if Tusk is half as good as I'm hearing, I really want to see another Kevin Smith horror flick. It's supposed to be an anthology with different Smodco people directing each segment.

[Excerpt from a review of Kevin Smith's movie]

AV Club, By Mike D'Angelo Sep 18, 2014

http://www.avclub.com/review/kevin-s...ivalent-209286

Once Wallace is bleating piteously (his tongue having been cut out) in Howard’s secret home aquarium, however, the movie has nowhere to go. Its only real goal was to inspire disbelief that it was actually made, and that merely required Long to get into the walrus suit for a few minutes. (A climactic walrus battle set to Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” is so patently stupid that viewers can practically hear Smith and Mosier cracking themselves up in the background.) To kill time, huge chunks of Tusk’s second half are devoted to the efforts of Wallace’s co-host (Haley Joel Osment) and girlfriend (Génesis Rodriguez) to track him down; they’re joined by a wacky private detective played incognito by a major movie star, who turns in the most tedious performance of his entire 27-year career. Smith has improved significantly as a director in recent years—his early technical ineptitude has at long last been supplanted by competence—but he remains all too willing to indulge any dopey idea that crosses his path. This one is for his enabling followers only.

From a Kevin Smith Interview by James Kim, Southern California Public Radio

http://www.scpr.org/programs/the-fra...vie-he-s-ever/

How Fleetwood Mac and weed helped his writing:


"I put on Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk' over and over on repeat and would just sit there and blaze while I wrote. And you know, I blaze in the way that I used to smoke cigarettes. So, I'll light it and put it in an ashtray, let it burn and stuff. So it fills the room like incense if you will. But, yeah, for a movie like 'Tusk,' I guess you gotta be pretty stoned to make the guy-who-makes-a-guy-into-a-walrus movie. And I'm kinda glad I did. It's weird. People are calling it the best movie I've ever made and I was like, 'Well, this is the only one I made stoned.' So I'm like, 'Guess what I'm doing, kids!'"

Saw it, loved it. It's weird, it's out there, it's disturbing, it sticks with you. Great use of the tune, too. I can see why a lot of people are probably going to trash this but it's up there with indie film making. You take an idea, any idea, and just run with it and tell the best story you can. It's great.