Almost Always Day of the Dead for Hollywood

Is everyone seeing dead people in Hollywood these days? Following the blockbuster success of “The Sixth Sense,” supernatural themes and out-of-body experiences are popping up everywhere on the big screen. In “Final Destination,” a New Line release opening Friday with Seann William Scott, members of a high school French class are all buckled into their seats as a plane bound for Paris is preparing for takeoff. Suddenly, one of the students senses imminent doom, panics and insists that everyone get off. In the melee that ensues, seven students are forced to disembark. When the plane blows up in midair, the student comes to believe that he and the others somehow cheated death--but then, one by one, the Grim Reaper comes calling again and the students must band together to change the course of destiny. “Final Destination” is just one of the fantasy thrillers Hollywood is serving up this year in hopes of sending chills down the spines of moviegoers. Others include “The Ninth Gate,” a supernatural thriller that opened last weekend about a rare-book sleuth searching for copies of a 17th century book that is reputed to hold the key to conjuring Satan; “Waking the Dead,” a drama opening this month about a congressional candidate who questions his sanity after seeing the love of his life, presumed dead, suddenly reappear; “Frequency,” another upcoming drama about a young man who discovers that his ham radio set can reach 30 years into the past; and the yet-to-be-released “Lost Souls,” a supernatural thriller about a woman embroiled in a satanic conspiracy. “It all comes back to people’s need to somehow connect with spirituality or the unknown,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. “ ‘The Sixth Sense’ is a grand example of that in recent memory. Movie audiences are always interested in otherworldly plots or films that combine fantasy with aspects of drama, thriller or, sometimes, horror.”

Animated ‘God’ Continues to Fan Controversy

It has one of the longest titles of any prime-time show this season, but the list of NBC stations that will air the premiere of the network’s animated comedy “God, the Devil and Bob” in its time slot at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday seems to be getting shorter by the day. At least nine NBC affiliates in Idaho, Utah, Mississippi, Indiana and Louisiana have refused to air the series, which features a God who resembles the late Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia and has the voice of James Garner. Some station officials have said the show, which was seen by about 14 million people in a preview Thursday, is in poor taste; others said they were offended by some of the religious references. The controversy has upset and bewildered Matthew Carlson, the show’s creator and executive producer. “I’m really disappointed,” Carlson said. “I was expecting some controversy, but not prior censorship. I guess that people feel that the whole idea of God in a situation comedy is offensive. But I think we’re in the tradition of Bill Cosby’s ‘Noah’ routine or George Burns in the ‘Oh, God!’ movies.” Carlson had tried to avoid offending viewers by recruiting a rabbi and a priest as consultants. “Our own sensitivity to the whole issue of religion has been pretty responsible,” he maintained. “Our main goal is to entertain. We’re not trying to define God for anyone. We’re just commenting on the relationship between God and man.” “God, the Devil and Bob,” which is produced by Carsey-Werner Productions, concerns Bob (the voice of French Stewart), a Detroit auto worker who is at the center of a tug of war between God and the Devil (the voice of Alan Cummings). In addition to the nine NBC stations, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations has voiced concerns about the series, calling it a “tasteless and trivial” portrayal of God. NBC says it hopes the stations that have dropped “God, the Devil and Bob” will “in time, come to see how entertaining it is.”

Looking for the Next Music Chart Topper

Will the music industry ever attain Nirvana again? It’s no secret that alternative rock has been in the doldrums in recent years as rap, teen pop, Latin sounds and electronica have stepped to center stage, but watch this week for hundreds of industry true believers to gather in Austin, Texas, in search of the ailing genre’s next big thing. The South by Southwest 2000 Music & Media Conference is not devoted to alt rock (indeed, among scores of performers this year are ‘60s rock hero Roger McGuinn and veteran country singer Ray Price), but the annual convention that draws 6,000 record company, radio, retail and journalism types has always been a showcase for indie rock up-and-comers to find their way to the next level. Is the next Kurt Cobain tucked away somewhere in the list of the conference’s 400-plus acts, the lion’s share of them falling into rock categories? “That’s a long-shot bet, really,” says Bill Bentley, a longtime executive at Reprise Records and a conference panelist this year. “I think the conference is well-attended because, honestly, people love to go to Austin and the scene. . . . It’s a weird time in music right now. A lot of people are waiting to see the next development, the next big thing. I don’t think a lot of people think it’s going to be alt rock right now. Still, there’s the hope that there will be that one band there. Nobody’s going down to find the new Backstreet Boys; they won’t be there.”

--Compiled by Times Staff Writers