EU To Give Teeniest Tiniest Protection To Those Accused Of Illegally Downloading Media "Some members of the European Parliament felt nobody should lose their connection until after they had been prosecuted in a court for illegally downloading content. The new rules take the form of an amendment to a much wider revision of all Europe's telecoms regulations."

BBC 11/05/09

email this story | Posted 11/06/09@07:32AM

Disney Moves To Give Mickey Mouse A Little 'Tude "For decades, the Walt Disney Company has largely kept Mickey Mouse frozen under glass, fearful that even the tiniest tinkering might tarnish the brand. … Now, however, concerned that Mickey has become more of a corporate symbol than a beloved character for recent generations of young people, Disney is taking the risky step of re-imagining him for the future."

New York Times 11/05/09

email this story | Posted 11/05/09@10:12PM

First-Run Films In Your Living Room? Hollywood Says Yes. In a move that "sets up an immediate conflict" with film exhibitors, "[t]he Motion Picture Assn. of America is seeking government approval of technology that would allow Hollywood studios to deliver firstrun movies directly into American households on their televisions, perhaps even while a film is still in theaters."

Variety 11/04/09

email this story | Posted 11/05/09@05:03AM

The Berkeley-fication Of Sesame Street Alessandra Stanley: "Forty years on, this is your mother's Sesame Street, only better dressed and gentrified: … The famous set, brownstones and garbage bins, has lost the messy graffiti and gritty smudges of city life over the years. Now there are green spaces, tofu and yoga."

New York Times 11/08/09

email this story | Posted 11/04/09@10:05PM

Station 100 Miles South May Fill St. Louis' Classical Void With St. Louis poised to lose its sole classical station, officials at Southeast Missouri State University "say that with a power increase and antenna upgrade at a repeater station in Farmington, the goal is to get classical music to the St. Louis region."

fox4kc.com (Kansas City, Mo.) (AP) 11/04/09

email this story | Posted 11/04/09@05:59AM

Matrix Producer Plans Biopic Of Prophet Muhammad Barrie Osborne is planning a $150 million production, funded by a holding company in Qatar, that "will educate people about the true meaning of Islam." The scholar "Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi [will] oversee all aspects of the shoot. In accordance with Islamic law, the prophet will not actually be depicted on screen."

The Guardian (UK) 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@10:28PM

Late-Night TV's Not Just For White Guys Anymore "Fox on Saturday launches a weekly showcase for African-American comic Wanda Sykes. Next week" on TBS, "George Lopez becomes the first Latino to host a nightly late-night comedy series on a major network.... And last month saw the arrival of 'The Mo'Nique Show' on BET. Is this the Obamafication of the late-night wars?"

The Wrap 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@08:30AM

French Cinemas To Close In Protest Of Release Schedule "Regulated by the government, Gaul's release window schedule ensures that theater exhibitors, DVD distribbers and TV channels each have their own window of exclusivity." Exhibitors say their new, smaller window "will cause the downfall of cinema attendance in France and the 'degrading of theater owners' economic conditions.'"

Variety 11/03/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@08:20AM

Who's On First? Um, This Is It, Isn't It? "An imagined conversation in a movie theatre last night..."

The New Yorker 10/29/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@07:06AM

Disney Returns To Hand-Drawn Animation "Disney in 2003 announced that it was abandoning traditional animation in favor of computer-generated imagery, after a string of hand-drawn flops," but it "didn't exactly strike pay dirt with its new all-computers, all-the-time approach." Now the cofounders of Pixar are overseeing Disney's return to the technique.

Wall Street Journal 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@05:24AM

Why DVRs Have Helped, Not Harmed, TV Revenues Turns out TV viewers, DVR owners included, want to lounge, not expend precious energy skipping commercials. "Against almost every expectation, nearly half of all people watching delayed shows are still slouching on their couches watching messages about movies, cars and beer."

The New York Times 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/02/09@08:02PM

Arab Films Find New Audiences But Not Funding "Film festivals have sprung up in the Gulf Arab region in recent years with events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The latest, Robert De Niro's Doha Tribeca, just ended a four-day run in Qatar's capital. But despite the heightened exposure, Arab filmmakers say the focus is still on Hollywood and European films with little attention -- or funding -- given to homegrown films."

Yahoo! (Reuters) 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/02/09@07:59AM

US TV Ratings Stabilize After Years Of Decline "Ratings are up 2 percent after falling for several seasons. I'm not suggesting the suits break open 11,000 bottles of champagne, but there is plenty of cause to pop a can of ginger ale. Freshman shows have reinvigorated a medium that once seemed headed the way of the typewriter, or Amy Winehouse's career."

The Star Tribune (Mpls) 10/31/09

email this story | Posted 11/02/09@01:07AM

Comcast Close To Buying NBC "After a series of meetings last week, the two companies reached a tentative agreement on Friday over the main points of a deal, these people said. Comcast would own about 51 percent of NBC Universal, contributing several billions of dollars in cash and its own stable of cable networks to the new venture."

The New York Times 11/01/09

email this story | Posted 11/02/09@12:51AM

When Culture Was On TV "For years PBS has been trimming back its high-culture programming, partly because it doesn't do well in the ratings and partly, I suspect, because such lofty fare has lost favor with the intellectual elite. The notion of devoting a 13-hour TV series to the glories of Western art would now be thought comical--or contemptible--by those well-placed eggheads who regard the West as the source of all evil in the postmodern world. Among such enlightened folk, "Civilisation" is regarded as an embarrassing relic, painfully slow-moving and politically retrogressive."

Wall Street Journal 10/31/09

email this story | Posted 11/01/09@08:30AM

The Scariest Movie Ever Made According to totalscifionline.com, it's The Shining. Stanley Kubrick's film "scared off fierce competition from Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby and British cult classic The Wicker Man."

The Independent (UK) 10/28/09

email this story | Posted 10/29/09@10:19PM

Google Search Could Be A Game Changer For Online Music Google's new music search feature, unveiled Wednesday, "was applauded by the music industry, which ... is hoping the search feature will direct users to legitimate digital music outlets and in turn help them compete with free but often unauthorized sources of music." It may also aid iTunes' competitors.

Los Angeles Times 10/29/09

email this story | Posted 10/29/09@07:02AM

The Art-House Cinema Returns To Boston Tomorrow "the Stuart Street Playhouse reopens as a movie theater and Boston gets its first art house cinema in years." But, at least to start, it will not be a first-run house; it will open with movies that "have been playing in local theaters since last month."

Boston Globe 10/29/09

email this story | Posted 10/29/09@05:08AM

Demme Plans Animated Feature Of Eggers's Katrina Chronicle "A film version of a book about a man's true-life experiences in post-Katrina New Orleans would seem sufficiently pregnant with artistic possibility. Still, Jonathan Demme plans to take his adaptation of Zeitoun, the best-selling Dave Eggers work, one step further by making it as an animated feature."

New York Times 10/28/09

email this story | Posted 10/28/09@09:48PM

Another Popular Unlawful Activity: Copying Library CDs "Angela Washelesky, a partner at Reed Smith who heads that law firm's trademark practice in its Chicago office, called ripping library CDs 'total and complete copyright infringement. The fine for that kind of thing is $250,000 per copyrighted work. It is amazing to me that people do not know this.'"

Chicago Tribune 10/28/09

email this story | Posted 10/28/09@07:02AM

UK Sets A Date To Cut Off Illegal File-Sharers "The Business Secretary, speaking at the digital creative industries conference c&binet, said that if the amount of illegal file-sharing taking place in the UK hadn't dropped by 70 per cent a year on from April 2010 measures to cut off file-sharers' connections would come into place from July 2011."

NME 10/28/09

email this story | Posted 10/28/09@06:58AM

Latest Google Option: A Music Search "The new service will be featured within a standard Google search. Just enter the name of the band or musician, then things like bios, videos and images pop up. Google itself is not selling the music."

NPR 10/28/09

email this story | Posted 10/28/09@05:35AM

Memo To Hulu: Make Us Pay Chadwick Matlin: "If Hulu's overlords force it to charge users, it will be the ultimate vote of confidence for the site. … Hulu has gotten to this point only because of how successful its free-content model was in the first place."

The Big Money 10/26/09

email this story | Posted 10/27/09@10:12PM

Studying (And Studying And Studying) Sesame Street "Leafing through the literature is like letting the Cookie Monster loose in a Mrs. Fields franchise: You delve in excitedly before realizing there's more here than any single creature can digest."

Miller-McCune 10/27/09

email this story | Posted 10/27/09@09:52PM

Off-Screen Odds Have Narrowed For Women In Indie Film "While prospects for women in the independent film world are rosier than for studio films, the number of females employed in key behind-the-scenes roles in both low- and high-budget movies remains piddling. In fact, [a new] study showed, the number of female directors and cinematographers actually has declined over the past decade."

The Wrap 10/26/09

email this story | Posted 10/27/09@05:59AM

Indian Movies A Growing Niche For U.S. Cinemas "As the Indian film industry has mushroomed -- surpassing Hollywood as the most prolific producer of movies -- distributors of Bollywood and regional Indian films have been eager to broaden their global appeal, especially in the U.S., which accounts for as much as 70% of their movies' foreign box office."

Los Angeles Times 10/26/09

email this story | Posted 10/27/09@05:24AM

Tax Breaks Lure Films, Sometimes With Altered Scripts Tax incentives offered by some countries and various states in the U.S. "have become critical for many independent producers, who have found it increasingly difficult to raise film financing through the usual channels." Some are eager enough for the savings to change the script to fit the new locale.

Wall Street Journal 10/27/09

email this story | Posted 10/26/09@06:34PM

Hollywood Studios Shed Management "During the good years, right into 2008, Hollywood did what any fat and happy industry would do: It piled up managers, larding the ranks with two and even three people in jobs that had previously been done by one." Now come the management cuts. "The cuts have been part of Hollywood's general effort to reduce production as revenue, particularly from DVD sales, falls."

The New York Times 10/25/09

email this story | Posted 10/26/09@08:47AM

Weekend's Top Movie Takes In $22 Million, Cost $15,000 "Paranormal Activity," an independently produced thriller picked up by Paramount's DreamWorks unit, cost only about $10,000 to produce and has been marketed with a combination of conventional advertising and cheap Web-based tactics.

The New York Times 10/26/09

email this story | Posted 10/26/09@08:32AM

Studios Struggle To Figure Out Post-DVD Era "While DVD and Blu-ray will remain a huge profit center for years to come, studio executives are finally confronting an uncomfortable reality: little silver discs -- for reasons of convenience, price and consumer burnout -- may never recover their sales power. To grow, studios need to figure out digital distribution."

The New York Times 10/26/09

email this story | Posted 10/26/09@08:28AM

American Film Institute Runs Into Trouble "AFI's last televised Top 100 show lost more than $1 million, and the cable ratings for its Life Achievement Award are plunging. An ambitious, encyclopedic AFI directory of American movies still has four decades of films to catalog, and government support for the project has dried up. Unlike many other leading film festivals, AFI Fest, now in its 23rd year, is not interested in an onslaught of glitzy, star-filled premieres."

Los Angeles Times 10/25/09

email this story | Posted 10/25/09@11:46AM

European Union Cracks Down On Flile-Sharers "The European Parliament has given the green light for member states to cut persistent file-sharers off from the net. It has dropped an amendment to its Telcoms Package which would have made it hard for countries to cut off pirates without court authority."

BBC 10/25/09

email this story | Posted 10/25/09@11:37AM

Why Movies About Strong Women Are MIA Strong women, for now anyway, are out. Two years ago, when the Jodie Foster vigilante thriller "The Brave One" failed at the box office, industry blogger Nikki Finke reported that a Warner Brothers production executive announced to staffers that the studio would no longer produce movies featuring female leads.

Washington Post 10/25/09

email this story | Posted 10/25/09@09:11AM

To Boost DVD Sales, Hollywood May Delay Rental Dates "Under the plan, new DVD releases would be available on a purchase-only basis for a few weeks, after which time companies such as Blockbuster Inc. and Netflix Inc. would be allowed to rent the DVDs to their customers."

Los Angeles Times 10/23/09

email this story | Posted 10/23/09@07:02AM

Tribeca In Qatar: Middle Eastern Film Fest Tests Boundaries Films in the lineup of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival "may not seem outré to Western filmgoers, but they represent something of a cultural revolution for the region, where government censors citing cultural sensibilities cut sex scenes from the big screen, and multiplexes offer a steady diet of apolitical animated and action flicks."

Wall Street Journal 10/23/09

email this story | Posted 10/23/09@05:21AM

The Hollywood Treatment For 2008's Georgia-Russia War Director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger) is in Tbilisi shooting a script about last year's brief and nasty battle over South Ossetia. Andy Garcia is playing president Mikheil Saakashvili, whose government is enthusiastically supporting (and possibly funding) the project.

AP 10/21/09

email this story | Posted 10/22/09@10:02PM

'Why I'll Never Watch Another Lars Von Trier Movie' Dana Stevens: "Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark were powerful, unsettling, transformative movie experiences, even if their endings came uncomfortably close to making the case for virgin sacrifice. … [But] after the infantile bludgeoning that is Antichrist, I feel no need to keep accompanying von Trier's career at all."

Slate 10/22/09

email this story | Posted 10/22/09@09:43PM

New California Law Protects Child Actors "For years, parents have complained to the L.A. city attorney's office and the Better Business Bureau about the unscrupulous practices of talent listing services and acting schools that charge exorbitant upfront fees -- sometimes as high as $9,000 -- on the promise of finding acting jobs for their children on popular TV shows."

Los Angeles Times 10/21/09

email this story | Posted 10/22/09@05:38AM

Film About Nehru-Mountbatten Affair Shelved Following India's Objections Indian Summer, about the relationship between India's first prime minister and the wife of the last viceroy, was to have starred Cate Blanchett, Hugh Grant and Irrfan Khan. Universal Pictures says its concerns are over the film's $40M budget; the director says that the Indian government demanded the removal of the protagonists' love scenes

The Times (UK) 10/22/09

email this story | Posted 10/21/09@10:18PM

Greek Directors Threaten Boycott Of Country's Top Film Fest "A group of 140 directors, producers and writers said they would not show their films at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in November unless the government took action to improve funding for the industry. The dispute could deprive the festival, now in its 50th year, of 23 films - the bulk of Greek cinema's output over the last 12 months."

The Independent (UK) 10/21/09

email this story | Posted 10/21/09@09:57PM