Joseph Lederer

Teacher's pet: (Clockwise from bottom left) On the set of "Shaggy Dog" are director Brian Robbins with Park Slope actress Zena Grey and actor Mark Forbes.

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While Hollywood studios lament over diminished box-office receipts due to changing viewing patterns, Brooklyn-born filmmaker and TV producer Brian Robbins says he worries that technology, piracy and new DVD release strategies are going to translate into even fewer people watching movies on the big-screen.

The Marine Park native and father of two says he understands that the high costs of tickets and snack-bar trips scare off some moviegoers, particularly ones with families, who think they can watch a flick more cheaply and conveniently if they wait a couple of months for it to come out on DVD - or buy a bootlegged copy on the street even sooner.

But Robbins also argues that there is no way to duplicate the experience of watching a comedy with an audience of strangers and sharing their laughter or viewing an action-adventure flick and enjoying the spectacular special effects on an enormous screen.

"I truly fear that the whole digital world that we’re living in right now in our business, the movie business, could really become like the record business and kill it," "The Shaggy Dog" director and former "Head of the Class" hunk - remember Eric? - told reporters in Manhattan recently.

Asked if Robbins would want to buy a theater chain now, he confesses, "No," but adds: "You can’t deny that seeing a movie - especially one like ’The Incredibles’ - on the big screen, that experience is undeniable. I don’t care how big your plasma screen is or how many speakers you have at home. It’s not the same."

In discussing the industry-wide controversy over the proposed "day and date" practice of simultaneously releasing a movie in theaters and on DVD, the 42-year-old filmmaker admits he is "torn."

"Let’s say, I went to see ’Madagascar’ with my boys," Robbins said of last year’s animated blockbuster, featuring the voices of Chris Rock and Ben Stiller.

"If I could go to the movie and buy the DVD on the way out, I would buy it," he explained. "But I wouldn’t go back. I probably wouldn’t go back and see it again, because we had the DVD. But a movie like ’Madagascar,’ we went to see three times in the movie theater and bought the DVD once already, and then it will probably get scratched, and I’ll end up owning eight copies of it. So, I would buy it ’day and date,’ but I’m going to buy it anyway when it comes out, but it would stop me from seeing it again and again. It wouldn’t stop me from going to a movie the first time."

The executive producer of "Smallville," "One Tree Hill," "What I Like About You," "The Amanda Show," "The Nick Cannon Show" and "Kenan and Kel" warns that the illegal recording and distribution of movies is the biggest problem the film industry faces today.

"It scares me," confided Robbins. "The technology really feels like we have to be really careful. It’s all about piracy. It’s not about how many DVDs will you sell versus how many tickets will you sell. It’s all about how people are going to steal it. Once they start stealing movies on a big level, once the compression gets really quick and easy, once it gets over the Internet and downloaded fast, the movie industry is in big trouble."

Pointing to the music industry and how it had to change to meet the listening and buying habits of its consumers, Robbins notes there is no comparison between the number of songs that get legally downloaded from the Internet now and the quantity of albums record companies used to sell.

’Dog’ days

One film that benefits from being seen in a theater with lots of other laughing people is "The Shaggy Dog," Robbins’s new family comedy about an overworked deputy district-attorney (Tim Allen), who turns into a friendly, bearded collie.

It’s not all bad news, though. From his new canine point of view, the DA sees how he has been neglecting his wife (Kristin Davis) and two teen-age children (Spencer Breslin and Park Slope’s Zena Grey).

A man who started out making TV shows and movies for young people long before he had kids of his own, Robbins says his work takes on new meaning now that his family can watch and enjoy them.

"Now that I have two young boys and my life revolves around the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon and looking for a movie to see every single weekend, it’s fun to be able to make a movie that your kids can own and the school community that you are involved with can own," said the Los Angeles resident.

The director of "Varsity Blues," "Hardball" and "The Perfect Score" says he sees "The Shaggy Dog" as an important project because Disney movies tend to last and even his grandchildren might some day enjoy it.

"It’s a classic title," Robbins said. "It’s really an honor for me to be involved in something like this that could actually have a long, long life."

Robbins says he liked the challenge of layering the story with humor that would appeal to both kids and their parents. One suggestion he ruled out early on was having Allen’s dog character really talking. Instead, the dog barks and only the audience hears what Allen is thinking and saying.

"I thought this movie had a classic idea like a ’Liar, Liar,’ or a ’Mrs Doubtfire,’" Robbins said. "I wanted to make, as much as it’s a kids’ movie, I felt it’s a family movie. It’s a generational movie, and I feel like a talking-animal movie would become something else, would become a little more juvenile."

Teaming up with Eddie

Next up for Robbins is directing Bushwick native Eddie Murphy in "Norbit," a live-action "Shrek-like" fairy tale, which starts out in an orphanage where Murphy’s character is a child who’s heart-broken when the sweet girl he loves is adopted.

"And he grows up, and he’s always getting picked on, but he sees the glass as half-full," Robbins revealed. "He’s sort of like Forrest Gump. And one day on the playground, this girl comes and rescues him and she’s this big, mean girl. They become boyfriend and girlfriend, and they go to high school together and they end up getting married and she just grows into this mean, nasty, abusive woman to Norbit. And then Kate, the girl from the orphanage, comes back to town, and [Norbit] realizes that was the girl of his dreams and that’s who he should have been with.

"The hook is Eddie plays both parts: Norbit and [the evil wife]."

For Robbins, working with his fellow Brooklynite on a big movie like "Norbit" is a dream come true.

"I have been such a fan of Eddie’s for so long," he said. "I was a kid in Brooklyn watching ’Saturday Night Live’ before I was involved even in any of this, and I saw this guy who was amazing and I memorized every line from every sketch. So, the opportunity to do a script that I think is as good as ’Norbit’ and then to direct Eddie is an opportunity I can’t pass up."

Although he’s concerned about the movie industry’s future, Brian Robbins seems to be just as positive as Norbit about his upcoming projects.

"The Shaggy Dog" opens in Brooklyn March 10.

©2006 Community Newspaper Group