ROUND ROBBINS

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.