Much Ado About God "The advent of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ has brought with it a controversy that seems, at least at first glance, familiar, even ritualistic. Once again a filmmaker has brought his interpretation of Scripture to the screen and once again, before most audiences have had a chance to see the picture, there are expressions of outrage, accusations of bigotry and bad taste, and an outpouring of contentious publicity." But this time, the pious are standing with the Hollywood elite, and the protesters are those who view the film's pro-Christian message as narrow-minded at best, and anti-Semitic at worst. We've come a long way from the era when religious blockbusters were at the core of Hollywood's popular appeal. The New York Times 01/30/04

Inside Job Taking a page from the music industry's playbook, Warner Bros. film studio is suing several people in believes have been distributing pirated versions of its films online. One of the individuals on the receiving end of the studio's wrath is a Hollywood actor whom the studio says passed the 'screeners' he was sent to an electrician in Illinois, who then began distributing them online. "The lawsuit also lists 10 unnamed defendants as part of the alleged plot to distribute digital copies of the movies on the Internet." Wired 01/29/04

Pixar Severing Ties With Disney Computer animation studio Pixar has broken off talks with the Walt Disney Corporation for a new distribution deal. Since 1995, when the fledgling company released Toy Story, Pixar has generated $2.5 billion in revenue, at a time when Disney's overall hold on the animation market has been slipping. Pixar's latest film, Finding Nemo, has generated $500 million in global ticket sales, and was nominated this week for four Academy Awards. The New York Times 01/30/04

Trying To Make TV Suck Just A Little Less With traditional network television continuing to hemorrhage viewers, and cable networks splintering the market more with every passing day, the landscape of American television is on the verge of revolutionary change. Among the options being looked at by the over-the-air nets are flexible schedules, eliminating reruns (unless they can be strategically used to draw new viewers,) and maybe - just maybe - the eventual elimination of the absurd and indefensible "sweeps" periods. Hartford Courant 01/29/04

Because, As We All Know, The F-Word Causes Cancer The U.S. Congress is strongly urging American broadcasters to take the initiative in scaling back the amount of sexual innuendo and coarse language on the nation's TV screens. The FCC may be on the verge of issuing stricter rules regarding on-air obscenity, and more than two dozen congressmen are sponsoring legislation to increase the maximum fine for obscenity violations tenfold. The renewed push to clean up TV comes in the wake of a flap over the FCC's decision not to punish NBC for allowing a curse word uttered by a rock star to air during a live awards show broadcast. Backstage 01/28/04

BBC In Crisis Greg Dyke, the director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation, has stepped down in the wake of a damning report by a UK judge involving the death of a BBC source who had accused the Blair government of "sexing up" a dossier on the threat posed by Iraq. The suicide of Dr. David Kelly, who anonymously provided information to a BBC reporter before being revealed by another media outlet, led to six weeks of hearings before Lord Hutton, who also cleared the Blair government of all wrongdoing in his report. BBC 01/29/04

• Down But Not Out Greg Dyke was "a fantastically popular director general," and that may have been part of his undoing at the BBC. But despite the humiliation of being accused of shoddy journalism by Lord Hutton, the BBC is circling the wagons, and firing back at Prime Minister Tony Blair and his supporters. One former BBC staffer has publically accused the government of "trying to grind an independent broadcaster into the ground. The staff are determined that it won't happen." The Guardian (UK) 01/29/04

"Fake Critic" Trial Will Proceed Sony will have to answer to charges that it invented a movie critic and attached quotes from non-existent reviews to several of its films. The studio admitted to having concocted the critic known as David Manning, but had argued that free speech laws shielded it from prosecution for the deception. The California Court of Appeals disagreed, declaring Manning's quotes to be commercial speech, which the Supreme Court has said does not enjoy full First Amendment protection. Los Angeles Times (Bloomberg) 01/29/04

Is Oscar Getting Hip? "Tuesday’s Academy Award nominations were filled with surprises, featuring more ethnic minorities in top categories than ever before, nods to comic performances as well as dramatic, the first best director nomination for an American woman and a plethora of nominations for small films. Oscar is apparently loosening up." Detroit News 01/29/04

Thinking Ahead "The red carpet has yet to be unrolled for the Academy Awards next month, but studio executives are already thinking about next year. Taking cues from the Oscar nominations announced on Tuesday, the studios say they expect big changes in how they will market movies in the years to come. Most notably, the studios will be looking to tie their Oscar campaigns to the release of a DVD," a tactic which appears to have helped last summer's blockbuster, Seabiscuit, garner seven nominations for this year's ceremony. The New York Times 01/28/04

Scheduling Is Overrated "When Academy Awards officials announced in 2002 that the current Oscar season would be shortened by a month when the ceremony was shifted from late March to Feb. 29, there were concerns that smaller films, dependent on slow-building word of mouth, would suffer." But yesterday's Oscar announcement of this year's nominations should allay many of those fears, as art house favorites like Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation led the pack, with big-budget, big-studio fare like Cold Mountain and The Last Samurai failing to garner the expected slew of nominations. Boston Globe 01/28/04

Would Carrot Top Qualify As Ironic? The long-standing lament of the British expatriate living in America is that Americans simply do not understand or appreciate irony in their humor. But with the decidedly ironic Britcom, The Office, having just walked away with two Golden Globe awards, is America finally starting to get the joke? The truth, says Jonathan Duffy, is that American comedy is full of irony, and has been for some time. What has taken Americans so long to catch on to British humor is not the ironic content, but the lack of traditional setups and punch lines. BBC 01/27/04

Oscar Nominees Announced "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the final chapter in Peter Jackson's majestic fantasy trilogy, led the Academy Awards race Tuesday with 11 nominations, including best picture and director. The Napoleonic era naval adventure Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was right behind with 10 nominations, among them best picture and director. Bill Murray, Diane Keaton, Sean Penn and Charlize Theron were among the leading acting nominees. Other best-picture nominees for the 76th annual Oscars included Lost in Translation, about two lonely Americans in Tokyo; the brooding murder thriller Mystic River; and the horse-racing drama Seabiscuit." Los Angeles Times (AP) 01/27/04

• New Schedule, Same Old Oscar Stress "This was supposed to be a kinder, gentler Oscar season. After last spring’s awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a shortened season, moving up nominations from February to January... and shifting the awards show itself from March to February. The idea was to take a bite out of the uber-aggressive campaigning that studios big and small launch in the never-ending quest for a golden statuette or two. It may have seemed like a swell plan, but competition is as fierce as ever, especially with all the added studio intensity – pandemonium, panic, twisted nerves – about adapting to the new schedule." Dallas Morning News 01/27/04

Stranger Than Fiction Documentaries have increasingly been gaining traction in the film world, and this year's Sundance Festival was no exception. From a horrifying first-person look at what happens to the human body when it is fed nothing but food from McDonald's, to an intimate look at "a roiling skirmish between Latin immigrants and the Long Island natives who've lived in a small town for generations," the documentary made a serious mark in Park City. "The scope and depth of this year's documentaries made the fiction features seem all the smaller and more navel-gazing." Boston Globe 01/27/04

Fight the Power A consortium of 2,000 independent record labels is lodging a complaint with the European Union in an effort to block the pending merger of super-labels Sony and BMG. According to the group, the merged company would control fully 25% of the global music market, and would be able to crush its competition, particularly small, independent labels. BBC 01/26/04

Feeling Used By The Hollywood Machine As trendy, glamorous American cities go, Seattle ranks pretty far up the list. And during the 1980s and '90s, when Seattle's star was rising, Hollywood couldn't get enough of the place, filming movie after movie in its picturesque urban settings. But these days, the filmmakers' dash for the Canadian border has left Seattle bereft of new productions, and forced to watch in disbelief as movies set in the city are filmed in Vancouver and other foreign cities. City officials are trying desperately to lure Hollywood back to town with financial incentives and other deals, but so far, nothing is working. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 01/26/04

Is CD Armageddon Nigh? The final sign that CDs had supplanted cassettes, record albums, and 8-tracks as the dominant recording media may have come when services began popping up, offering to convert your old vinyl collection to disc for a fee. So what does it say about CDs that there are now companies eager to convert your thousands of shiny discs into MP3 files? Wired 01/26/04

Hobbits And Cubicle Drones Win Big At The Globes The Golden Globe Awards were as unpredictable as ever last night, with the critically acclaimed Cold Mountain getting all but shut out despite leading the field in nominations, and the final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy taking home four awards, including best dramatic film and best director for Peter Jackson. On the television side of the slate, the satirical BBC sitcom The Office, which airs only on a little-known cable network in the U.S., was the surprise winner of best comedy, and also garnered an acting award for the show's creator and star, Ricky Gervais. CNN 01/26/04

Why The Golden Globes Are A Bad Joke The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is hardly what one would call a collection of great film reviewers. In fact, "the association has repeatedly rejected applications from prominent foreign publications while accepting freelancers for small publications in Bangladesh and South Korea. Members need write only four articles a year to maintain active membership." Nonetheless, HFPA members are lavished with attention and gifts by the Hollywood elite throughout the year, and are treated as if they were movie stars themselves, despite repeated reports of boorish and bizarre behavior. And all this because the Golden Globes, presented by the HFPA, get good television ratings. Chicago Tribune (NYTNS) 01/24/04

Sci-Fi, Rock 'n Roll, and Big Macs Rule the Sundance Roost Primer, a decidedly low-budget sci-fi thriller, has won the top dramatic prize at the Sundance Festival. The film, directed by Shane Carruth with a miniscule budget of $7000, is about two men who invent a time machine. The award for best documentary went to Dig!, which follows the frontmen of two cult bands embroiled in a bitter rivalry. "Morgan Spurlock, who spent 30 days eating only food from McDonald's and then chronicled its impact on his body in Super Size Me, earned the directing award for his efforts." BBC 01/25/04

• The Semantics of Indie Film In the last fifteen years, independent film has become big business, thanks in large part to Robert Redford's Sundance Festival, and to Harvey Weinstein's Miramax Studios. Still, current conventional wisdom holds that, far from elevating indie film to new heights, Sundance and Miramax have in fact dragged much of the indie scene down to Hollywood's shallow level. But has "independent film" really changed as a genre, or is it merely that we have broadened our definition of the term to such an absurd degree as to encompass directors and films which are in no way independent of Hollywood's movie machine? New York Times Magazine 01/25/04

The World's Most Inexplicable Awards Show The Golden Globe Awards will be handed out Sunday night, and you can be sure that the organizers will do their usual bit of proclaiming the ceremony to be the precursor to (and predicter of) the Oscars. But in reality, the Globes are handed out by a collection of fawning entertainment "reporters" from random countries who care more about sucking up to studio chiefs than honoring serious film. As Hollywood honors go, the Golden Globes should be closer in prestige to the People's Choice Awards than to the Academy Awards. So why does everyone continue to buy into the hype? Because the Golden Globes people are smart enough to put together an entertaining show, that's why. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/23/04

Writers' Guild Nominees Announced "Five movies about culture clashes and strangers in strange lands collected nominations on Thursday for best original movie script from the Writers Guild of America. Among the contenders for best original screenplay were Bend It Like Beckham, about the daughter of a traditionalist Indian Sikh family in Britain who dreams of playing soccer; Lost in Translation, with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as lonely Americans in a Tokyo hotel; and Dirty Pretty Things, about a Nigerian immigrant who uncovers grim dealings in the underbelly of London. The other nominees were The Station Agent, about a dwarf who makes friends despite trying to isolate himself, and In America, the director Jim Sheridan's semiautobiographical tale of an Irish family struggling to survive in New York." The New York Times (AP) 01/23/04

Is French Film In Denial? French filmmakers seem to have an obsession with the French Resistance which is all out of proportion to the effect the movement actually had against the invading Germans during World War II. Worse yet, France's film industry seems decidedly unwilling to confront the ugly truth about the country's collaboration with the Nazis. It's not that movies portraying the truth of the situation don't get made - they simply don't get screened with much frequency. The Guardian (UK) 01/23/04

Taking The Fight To The Dorm Rooms. In Norway. Several U.S. film studios and the Motion Picture Association of America have taken their anti-piracy crusade to Nordic lands, informing officials at Oslo University that Hollywood expects the school to bar certain specific students from its IT program as a result of the MPAA's suspicion that the students have been illegally trading copyrighted films online. The university has suspended the students' internet privileges temporarily, but Norwegian privacy advocates are incensed at the tactics. Aftenposten (Oslo) 01/21/04

Staring Down The Ratings Board Bernardo Bertolucci's new film, The Dreamers, premiered at Sundance this week, sporting an eye-catching NC-17 rating. It's the first film in years to carry the adults-only rating, normally considered a death sentence by studios, and Bertolucci is eager to take on the MPAA for the criteria it uses to assign ratings to films released in the U.S. No movie has ever been rated NC-17 for violent content, no matter how gory, but certain sexual content makes the rating automatic. Bertolucci's view: "an orgasm is better than a bomb." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/22/04

532 More File-Traders Sued "The Recording Industry Association of America is suing 532 more individuals it says are illegally sharing copyright music over peer-to-peer networks, the group announced Wednesday. It's the largest group of copyright-infringement lawsuits that the music trade group has filed since it began its crackdown on file traders in September. The latest batch of traders targeted by the RIAA are accused of distributing, on average, 858 music files. Currently the RIAA doesn't know exactly who these people are, so it must use a 'John Doe' process to obtain the names of those it says are illegally sharing music. Defendants are identified by their IP addresses." Wired 01/21/04

• Draconian Or Not, Lawsuits Work Privacy advocates and computer users may not be wild about the music industry's decision to combat illegal file-sharing by suing individual downloaders, but don't expect the tactic to go away anytime soon. The fact is, the well-publicized lawsuits are doing more to stem the tide of piracy than anything else the industry has tried, and a global crackdown on the websites that facilitate the downloads may be next on the agenda. BBC 01/22/04

Sunday Morning's Top-Rated Show (Quietly) What's the attraction of the arts/newsmagazine CBS Sunday Morning, which is celebrating 25 years on the air? “Sunday Morning” viewers, Osgood says, defy conventional wisdom. They do not watch with a clicker in their hand. They sit or lie in front of the TV for much of the show's 90 minutes. It is the highest-rated Sunday morning program, easily outdistancing “Meet the Press” with more than 4 1/2 million viewers a week. They tune in for stories that are not told anywhere else on TV." Akron Beacon Journal (KCS) 01/21/04

Blighted Reality (And It's Getting Worse) "In the weeks ahead, channel surfers will find it virtually impossible to avoid aspiring pop stars, scheming careerists, thrill seekers, lovelorn geeks and all-star survivors. Why is this happening? The long answer might involve a florid excursion into the cyclical nature of television. A commentary on why pop culture is inherently disposable. Or how "reality" shows generate buzz and ratings by creating an artificial sense of urgency. But let's start with the short answer: TV execs are big, fat liars." Toronto Star 01/21/04

All About The FX "Once upon a time - say, back in the 1970s - the visual trickery employed by filmmakers was meant to look real. In many of today's movies, however, the effects are meant to look cool. The difference is huge." CBC 01/21/04

State Of TV, State Of Fear "Imagine how fear drives people in the TV business to figure out what the hell has gone wrong when ratings are down, demographics are down and viewership in the broadcast world is, yes, down. It makes them say that 'these declines are unacceptable and obviously we haven't given the people what they really want and a dramatic restructuring of the industry is at hand' and blah de blah de blah. But here's the plain truth: Nobody knows what to do." San Francisco Chronicle 01/21/04

Satellite Radio Threatens The Traditional Variety "Satellite radio has finally evolved from an expensive fantasy into another booming category of entertainment for the digital decade, alongside DVD and MP3 players. Traditional radio broadcasters, which lobbied the FCC against issuing licenses to the companies in the '90s, are growing increasingly alarmed by their popularity and plans for expansion." Newsweek 01/20/04

A Man, His Computer, And A Movie Editing Program "Tarnation may be the first feature-length film edited entirely on iMovie, and it cost $218.32 in videotape and materials. Despite its low budget, the film has already earned a high profile. Both John Cameron Mitchell, the actor and director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and independent film maverick Gus Van Sant have signed on as executive producers." Wired 01/20/04

Anne of Green Gables Suit Thrown Out A judge has thrown out a $55 million libel lawsuit against heirs of "Anne of Green Gables" author Lucy Maud Montgomery. The complainant, who produced two very successful TV series based on "Anne," sued over charges the heirs made that they had not been properly paid royalties for the TV shows. Toronto Star 01/20/04

Report: Pope Keeps Thumbs Horizontal Over Gibson Movie The Vatican officially denies reports that the Pope endorses Mel Gibson's new movie. However, "one prominent Roman Catholic official close to the Vatican, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he had reason to believe that the pope probably did make the remark about the film. 'But I think there's some bad feeling at the Vatican that the comment was used the way it was. It's all a little soap-operatic'." The New York Times 01/19/04

The CBC's Hippest Project "Don't be alarmed if you hadn't previously heard of CBC Radio 3. Most CBC executives themselves don't even understand the on-line revolution happening right under their noses. CBC Radio 3 is more than just music. 'We're trying to develop new forms of storytelling and develop a web presence that incorporates audio, video and text. No media company in North America is doing anything like this'." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/19/04

Fox Exec: Traditional TV Sked Dead The traditional network TV season is dead, says a Fox entertainment exec. Instead, seasons will begin and end when they do. “The economic model that created this business has lasted too long. We’ve seen cable companies make inroads while we hid our heads in the sand. We need to change our business. We need to respond to our consumers and viewers.” Detroit News (AP) 01/18/04

Coming To A Blurb Near You: "I Loved It!" - Pope John-Paul "In what is surely the most bizarre commercial endorsement since Eleanor Roosevelt did an ad for Good Luck Margarine in 1959, the ailing pontiff has been recruited, however unwittingly, to help hawk "The Passion of the Christ," as Mel Gibson's film about Jesus's final 12 hours is now titled. While Eleanor Roosevelt endorsed a margarine for charity, John Paul's free plug is being exploited by the Gibson camp to aid the movie star's effort to recoup the $25 million he personally sank into a biblical drama filmed in those crowd-pleasing tongues of Latin and Aramaic." The New York Times 01/18/04

Foreign Investors Eye Bollywood Foreign investors are putting money into Bollywood films. The Indian film industry is the most prolific in the world, turning out 1000 movies a year. "The cost of producing and marketing the average Indian film ranges from $2 million to $4 million, a fraction of the average cost of a Hollywood film that ranges from $70 million to $80 million, industry observers say." The Times of India 01/18/04

BBC Digital Gaining Viewers The BBC has been blasted for the ratings some of its new digital channels have attracted (or not attracted). But finally there seem to be some shows that people want to watch. And besides, writes Torin Douglas, complaints or compliments - what really counts is that they're talking about you. BBC 01/18/04

TV Ratings Down...What To Do? If American TV execs are panicking about their ratings being down, they're not showing it to critics. "This TV season, viewership for NBC is down 9 per cent, for CBS it's down 3 per cent, ABC is down 5 per cent and Fox isn't down at all, but it isn't growing either. In fact Fox can thank a handful of avidly watched baseball games for its holding-steady starts. You'd think this might cause a touch of panic at NBC, for instance, but devil the bit of it." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/16/04

From Granola To Cell Phone - The Evolving Sundance It's been 20 years since Robert Redford took over the Sundance Film Festical. Since then, the festival has "morphed from the "granola Sundance" of the 1980s into the "cell-phone Sundance" of the 1990s and now, as the shoestring cinéastes of the early days, true anti-studio aesthetes like Jim Jarmusch, Victor Nuñez and Allison Anders, were shoved aside by Hollywood heavies looking for the Next Big Thing among talented newcomers." Toronto Star 01/16/04

Local NPR Member Stations Still Need Help Yes, National Public Radio just got a gift of $200 million. But "the truth is that the Kroc gift will have no effect on the financial needs or the fundraising efforts of NPR's 750 member stations. Instead of receiving financial support from NPR, these stations have to pay for NPR programming." And the gift might even have a negative impact as donors assume public radio is now awash in cash. Christian Science Monitor 01/16/04

Shining The Light On Sundance's Dark Side The Sundance Film Festival was famously conceived to showcase independent film, and encourage aspiring young directors. But it's been so successful that it's now difficult to separate the world of the indies from mainstream Hollywood. A new book drives home that point by looking at the history of the festival, as well as at supposedly "independent" studio Miramax, which was actually sold to Disney more than a decade ago. Of course, "Sundance wouldn't be Sundance without people grousing about celebrities, all while running from movies to parties featuring those same celebrities," so it's possible that the whole debate is missing the point. Chicago Tribune 01/15/04

Watch Your F*#@ing Adjectives! It's been decades since comedian George Carlin first gained fame with an unprintable routine he called "Seven Words You Can't Say On The Radio." So broadcasters and consumers nationwide were stunned recently, when the FCC announced that U.S. broadcast standards had not been violated during a live awards show broadcast on NBC, when the singer Bono used the word "fucking." The word was allowable, said the FCC's board of governors, because Bono had used it as an emphatic adjective, rather than as a verb meant to describe a sexual act. That's a bit too far into the realm of semantics for FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who is now pushing for a flat ban of the word. Baltimore Sun (AP) 01/15/04

The Online Film (R)Evolution "In the late 1990s, a half-dozen online film companies - each promising to revolutionize movie viewing - were among the noisiest participants at the Sundance Film Festival. A few years later, the revolution has stalled. Most online film channels have disappeared (Steven Spielberg's Pop, AntEye, Digital Entertainment Net, Scour and Pseudo), with some changing direction (Eveo is now a purveyor of rich media). The two leaders, AtomFilms and IFilm, have settled into relatively mellow maturity. But online film festivals, an offshoot of the commercial film channel, are stepping up to fill the void." Wired 01/15/04

Down Year For Film Critics Awards This was a terrible year for the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, writes Rex Reed. "An award from the New York Film Critics Circle used to be the most powerful and prestigious of all the prizes in the overcrowded traffic jam of back-patting cinematic supermarket giveaway shows. People who thumbed their noses at the Academy Awards were always proud to accept a NYFCC award, and always said so onstage and in print. This is no longer true. Hasn’t been since the year the NYFCC named Cameron Diaz the best actress of the year. This year, more than one person present was overheard comparing this once-august event to an awards-show spoof on Saturday Night Live." New York Observer 01/14/04

Surely Vermeer Movie Is A Parody? The new movie about Vermeer is more of a mockumentary than a documentary. "The Vermeer film's pedestrian seriousness and fustian reverence are their own eventual parody: I found myself giggling in the intervals when I wasn't fidgeting. Biopics like this are the cinema's equivalent of putting a blue plaque on a wall. "Vermeer slept here". So may many moviegoers. Nothing wrong with serious style of course, except when married to a stupefying triviality of content. As an exploration of art's pains and processes, Girl with a Pearl Earring has all the profundity of a Mills and Boon novel." Financial Times 01/14/04

Taking On NC-17 The conventional thinking in Hollywood says that you can't release a movie with an NC-17 rating if you want anyone to see it. And it's true that many theaters won't show NC-17 movies, and many publications won't carry ads for them. But Fox Searchlight Pictures is testing the theory with a major release making its debut at the Sundance Festival. Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers features full frontal male nudity and a steamy sex scene featuring a brother and sister, will be released in February, with the controversial rating still attached, and the studio is convinced that Americans won't be scared away by the 'adults-only' label. New York Post 01/14/04

Is Sundance Too Big? Robert Redford's little independent film festival isn't remotely little anymore, and with the major Hollywood studios clamoring for ever more inclusion, "the question of whether Sundance has become too big and too co-opted seems ever more on point... And yet. There are more foreign films on hand this year than ever before, and despite premieres of such mainstream studio fare as The Butterfly Effect" - featuring Ashton Kutcher playing hopscotch with his past - Sundance continues to be mostly about the singular vision of the lone filmmaker." Boston Globe 01/14/04

Monkey See, Monkey Do With the campaign by the American recording industry to eradicate online music piracy through lawsuits against the pirates having a demonstrable chilling effect on sites which enable illegal file-trading, the British Phonographic Industry is saying it will soon begin a similar campaign of its own. As industry-backed download sites such as Apple's iTunes begin to gain market share, the record companies have more interest than ever before in wiping out the myriad no-pay alternatives, or at least steering the bulk of music consumers away from them. BBC 01/14/04

PBS Funding Up, But Still No 'Masterpiece' Sponsor Corporate sponsorship for PBS is up, but no underwriter has yet been found for Masterpiece Theatre, despite much looking. "I have no answer on why we haven't been able to attract an underwriter to replace Exxon Mobil, expect for the obvious answer it's a pretty high price tag. We are all concerned and unhappy about it," she said, vowing the series will continue for the next two years no matter what." Backstage 01/13/04

Celeb Journalism In All Its Sorry State The Conan O'Brien Show banning the National Post in Canada from access to a visit to the show's set in Toronto is a sign of how celebrity journalism is compromised. "Banning the Post, or even threatening a ban, from something that the taxpayers are funding merely gives it more ammunition. It's unprofessional and out of line. It's bad publicity. And it's undemocratic." Toronto Star 01/13/04

• Previously: O'Brien Show Freezes Out National Post The Conan O'Brien show is going to Toronto for a week. The city lured the late night talk show north in an attempt to promote the city after the SARS scare last summer killed the tourist industry. The government is giving the O'Brien show $1 million for coming, and some Canadian critics are unhappy that public money is being used to subsidize the show. And - after printing stories critical of the deal, the National Post was told by O'Brien producers they would be frozen out of interviews or access while the show was in town. National Post (Canada) 01/12/04

Sing-along With Dorothy And Toto People are lining up to pay $26.50 to see the sing-along Wizard of Oz on the big screen. "Oh, sure. You get a little goodie bag at the door — bubbles and a magic wand for when Glinda the Good Witch appears and a kazoo and noisemaker for … well, we're not really sure for what. There's a comedian/singer/emcee who oversees a parade of those audience members who come in costume. And then there's the film itself — a digitally remastered version equipped with lyric subtitles, just on the off chance that you blank out on the words to 'Ding-Dong the Witch is Dead.' But, as Dorothy herself might say, why oh why would someone pay three times the going rate of a movie just for the pleasure of singing along?" St. Paul Pioneer-Press 01/13/04

Videocassette Rentals Down 30 Percent In 2003 "VHS rentals plunged by 29.8 per cent last year, according to Oregon-based Rentrak, but nearly making up for the drop were rentals of DVDs, which were up by 52.1 per cent." Toronto Star 01/12/04

O'Brien Show Freezes Out National Post The Conan O'Brien show is going to Toronto for a week. The city lured the late night talk show north in an attempt to promote the city after the SARS scare last summer killed the tourist industry. The government is giving the O'Brien show $1 million for coming, and some Canadian critics are unhappy that public money is being used to subsidize the show. And - after printing stories critical of the deal, the National Post was told by O'Brien producers they would be frozen out of interviews or access while the show was in town. National Post (Canada) 01/12/04

Movies Of The Future - Living For The Niche "While 2003 was a year marked by the further consolidation of power by a handful of mega-media companies, the audience is not without some power to fight against them. The more we reject embarrassing big-ticket stunts like "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Coupling," the riskier it becomes to produce bloated would-be crowd-pleasers chasing after a theoretically homogeneous crowd. Vanity — and perhaps the possibility of found money — might even drive the media giants to bolster their output of more diversified, less costly and perhaps better products that speak to our various niches." The New York Times 01/11/04

Disney To Close Animation Studio Disney is expected to close its animation studios in Orlando this week, cutting loose 260 workers. "Under pressure to reduce overhead and consolidate production, Disney already has shuttered animation studios in Paris and Tokyo. In all, the studio has cut more than 700 jobs in recent years -- including 50 animators in Orlando last year -- and trimmed animators' salaries as much as 50 percent. The most recent cuts would leave Disney's animation division with a core staff of 600 to 700." Orlando Sentinel 01/10/04

Small Screen Clutter TV screens have become cluttered with information. "Multiple screens have moved quickly into the arts and entertainment. Film and television screens crammed with text and images are everywhere from the Museum of Modern Art to "Access Hollywood." Once we were couch potatoes, but we are all active viewers now, flipping the remote through channels, flipping our eyes around the screen. Even deciding to ignore the crawl requires an active choice." The New York Times 01/09/04

The Death Of The Blockbuster? The costs of making big blockbuster movies is getting unsustainable. "Typically, the music will be almost incessant and costs several million dollars. The norm for a blockbuster is $US100 million and going up every year. The studios can no longer afford them but must go on making them. More and more they swallow their pride and split costs with a rival studio. Massive German tax shelter money has kept them afloat for the past several years, but is running out." The Age (Melbourne) 01/09/04

A New Generation Of Black Directors Still Struggles It's easier now to get films made because of digital technology and falling costs for production. But "African-American directors still find it difficult to get financing for independent black films that don't feature, say, Will Smith picking a gunfight on a freeway during rush hour. Obtaining theatrical distribution is an even greater challenge." Christian Science Monitor 01/09/04

How Indy Films Got Sold Out A new book about Miramax studios and Harvey Weinstein chronicles the commercialization of independent film. The book "shows how Mr. Weinstein led greedy studio execs down a path paved with profits, promising and doling out Oscars with the help of megabucks publicity campaigns—and in the process, independent films became as commercialized as studio films." New York Observer 01/07/04

The Little Film That Couldn't The strange saga of Atom Egoyan's controversial film, Ararat, continues apace in Turkey. "Turkish newspapers were reporting yesterday that the Istanbul-based distributor of [the film] is in contact with associates of a right-wing nationalist group that forced the distributor this week to postpone Ararat's screening in Turkey." Officially, the Turkish government is still allowing the film to be screened, but plans for its debut were scrapped this week in the wake of violent threats from the nationalists. Egoyan considered traveling to Turkey himself, to make the case for his film, but has scrapped the idea as "foolish." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/08/04

• Previously: Turkish Ararat Screening Off "The Canadian writer-director of a controversial film about Turkey's historical genocide says he's surprised a country that seemed so committed to starting a dialogue about its painful past has postponed screening the film amid fears of attacks. Atom Egoyan, whose award-winning film Ararat was scheduled to begin showing in Turkey on January 16, said he's still waiting to hear more details from the Turkish film distributor about why its screening was scuttled... The Armenian National Committee of Canada said the film distributor, Istanbul-based Belge Films, pulled the film's release after receiving threats from Ulku Ocaklari, a group with ties to the Grey Wolves, a nationalist paramilitary group, as well as the Turkish military and intelligence units." Toronto Star 01/07/04

The CDs That Could Save The Industry A new CD technology which creates a fuller, more ambient sound for the listener is being hailed as the technology that could reverse the slide in international record sales. Super-Audio CDs (SACD) have two different layers of music embedded in them: one for "normal" CD players, and one for players equipped with the special digital capabilities that unleash layers of music previously unheard of in digital media. For audiophiles, its the best development in recording technology since the vinyl record. For the rest of the world, even the "normal" CD layer is a vast improvement over the current standard. Financial Times 01/06/04

The Death Of Aussie TV Dramas? Australian-made TV dramas have been failing at an alarming rate. "So what went wrong? Have viewers stopped watching Australian drama? Or weren’t any of these series good enough? Has reality TV altered the landscape to such an extent that people no longer have an appetite for scripted drama? And, if so, is it just a cyclical thing, or is it the shape of the future?" The Age (Melbourne) 01/08/04

Movie Piracy - An Ego Trip Some groups of digital movie pirates aren't in it for the money. "Insiders and piracy experts say the groups are motivated mainly by ego. Instead of cash, the online underground is powered by bartering — admission to these elite circles is granted only to those with something valuable to offer, such as computer parts or a pre-release copy of a DVD." Los Angeles Times 01/07/04

The iPod Of Movies? "Archos's device, which costs about $500 to $900 depending on the model, ignores an anticopying code found on a majority of prerecorded DVDs. That means consumers can plug the Archos device into a DVD player and transfer a movie to it. Users also can transfer recorded TV programs and digital music files to the Archos device. The Archos uses a video compression standard called MPEG-4 to cram as many as 320 hours of video at near-DVD quality onto its hard drive, the company says -- the equivalent of 160 two-hour movies." CNN 01/07/04

Turkish Ararat Screening Off "The Canadian writer-director of a controversial film about Turkey's historical genocide says he's surprised a country that seemed so committed to starting a dialogue about its painful past has postponed screening the film amid fears of attacks. Atom Egoyan, whose award-winning film Ararat was scheduled to begin showing in Turkey on January 16, said he's still waiting to hear more details from the Turkish film distributor about why its screening was scuttled... The Armenian National Committee of Canada said the film distributor, Istanbul-based Belge Films, pulled the film's release after receiving threats from Ulku Ocaklari, a group with ties to the Grey Wolves, a nationalist paramilitary group, as well as the Turkish military and intelligence units." Toronto Star 01/07/04

Can't We All Just Get Along? Apparently Not. "With the courts making it harder for the music industry to battle online piracy through lawsuits, you might think that the major record labels would be ready to cut deals with the leading file-sharing networks, transforming them from hotbeds of illegality into revenue-generating partners. Think again. Despite a recent survey that reported the percentage of Americans who download music online has been sliced in half, the gulf between the labels and the companies behind Kazaa, Blubster and other file-sharing networks seems as wide -- and impossible to bridge -- as ever. Not only are significant business and legal hurdles in the way, but there's also an ocean of bad blood between the two sides." Chicago Tribune 01/07/04

Coming Soon: Digital Rush Limbaugh! In what is being touted as the biggest technological advance in the radio industry since the FM band made its debut, stations around the U.S. are preparing to begin broadcasting digital signals in addition to their standard analog transmissions. The new technology will allow radio stations to broadcast CD-quality sound, include text with the music, and even to broadcast more than one program on the same frequency. Consumers will need a digital receiver to pick up the new transmissions, and currently, only one station (in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,) has begun digital broadcasting, but industry observers are expecting digital to become the new standard within the next decade. Wired 01/06/04

Theatre Hit Producers Will Be Made Back Into Film The Broadway hit The Producers is adapted from a 60s movie. Now the stage update is being adapted further...as another movie. The movie will star Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, the thea production's original stars. The New York Times 01/07/04

Writer's Guild President Resigns The head of the Writer's Guild of America has resigned after a 13-hour meeting with the union's board of directors. "The upheaval at the union comes on the eve of critical negotiations with Hollywood studios and television networks over a new three-year contract on conditions for entertainment industry writers. The current contract expires in May." The New York Times 01/07/04

Threats Deter Turks From "Ararat" "Terrorist-style threats in Turkey are preventing people there from seeing Atom Egoyan's Ararat and learning the truth about the country's violent past, the Armenian National Committee of Canada says." Toronto Star 01/06/04

What Defines A Blockbuster? More than 25 movies grossed more than $100 million at the box office in 2003. A hundred mil is the traditional mark for declaring a film a blockbuster. But some of these "blockbusters" didn't even recoup their production costs. "Many analysts and even studio executives say that it's time to redefine the term "blockbuster" — or throw it out. Some argue that the label should be reserved for movies that take in $200 million because that remains rarefied air: Six movies topped that mark in 2003." USAToday 01/06/04

Is IMAX Dying? "Although Imax has reigned supreme as the biggest, clearest, most spectacular cinema format available, it is in danger of going the way of the dinosaurs. Like the prehistoric reptiles its movies so often feature, Imax's size is its chief asset and its chief liability." The Guardian (UK) 01/06/03

Hollywood's Down Year Hollywood didn't have as good a year as it had hoped for in 2003. "When adjusted for inflation, admissions appear to be down as much as 4 percent this year for 2003, and domestic box office revenue is down for the first time in more than a decade. The domestic box office gross for 2003 is expected to be about $8.9 billion, compared with last year's 2002's record-breaking $9.3 billion." Chicago Tribune 01/05/04

Hollywood Finds A Home In The UK "This year looks set to be a bumper year for foreign film production in the UK. According to the Film Council, investment over the previous 12 months has topped £900m, beating the previous annus mirabilis of 2000. But a boom time for British-based film-making does not necessarily mean a boom time for British film. Many homegrown productions, forced out by the new arrivals, have begun migrating to cheaper locations in eastern Europe. Last year was the first time that the number of international co-productions shot in the UK (43) edged ahead of pureblood British movies (just 42). There are two reasons for this Hollywood influx." The Guardian (UK) 01/04/04

Here Comes Oscar Season (Let The Weirdness Begin) "It's an annual rite to comment on the increasing weirdness of the Academy Awards, which have seen a lot of upsets in recent years. Neither the Golden Globes nor the Director's Guild are the reliable Oscar bellwethers of old. But this year seems even stranger than usual." Toronto Star 01/04/04

Details, Details, Details... "There is a species of movie buff so invested in the cinematic illusion that they actually care when a clock in one shot that reads 3:15 is preceded by a shot in which the same clock reads 3:20. A subset of this subculture is made up of another time-obsessed group, anachronism spotters. "Far from Heaven," they are quick to point out, may take place in 1958, but the Tupperware Julianne Moore uses in it wasn't made until four years later..." Boston Globe 01/04/04

Those Cursed Stars Most publications top off movie reviews with a star rating. "Every reviewer I know hates the fiendish things, for the same reasons readers, editors, and publicists like them. Star ratings boil down critical analysis - the careful weighing of pro and con, the appreciation for the nuances of camerawork and performance, the baited hook of scorn - into a snap judgment that can be instantly grokked by a harried parent or slapped across a two-page ad spread. Gripe though critics may, unless we're one of the dainty pashas at The New York Times or The New Yorker, the stars - or some system of dingbats like them - are a fact of the workplace, like spam or carpal tunnel." Boston Globe 01/04/04

The 24-Hour Movie In October, 24 teams competed in a contest to "write, cast, shoot, score, and edit an entire movie" in a day. The prize? $10,000... Wired 12/03

Critics At The Movies (In Their Dreams!) Ever wonder how the movie critics see movies? In luxury and comfort, right? "A tuxedo-clad greeter checks your coat, offers a hot towel, and escorts you to your enormous, plush red seat. Beautiful women in flowing gowns roam the aisles, offering Belgian-chocolate covered popcorn, warm spiced apple cider with top-shelf rum, foie gras hot dogs, and an assortment of light meals flown in from L.A.'s The Ivy--all for free. There is a cigar bar in the back, just under the projector, where single malt scotch flows like the ocean in 'Waterworld.' A direct line to Harvey Weinstein is always open and celebrities wander in and out, happy to answer any questions reviewers may have." Not! Chicago Tribune 01/02/04

Cut! Print! NEXT! It's a game, but it's a cinematic challenge, as well: New York City Midnight Moviemaking Madness, held last October, challenges competing teams to "write, cast, shoot, score, and edit an entire movie" in 24 hours. With deadlines like that, you might think that nothing of real artistic quality could emerge from all the scrambling, and, as a matter of fact, you'd be right. Wired 01/04

Hollywood Gets Tough On Piracy The movie industry, taking a cue from the success of the music industry's hardline efforts to curb illegal copying and distribution, is lobbying for tougher laws against videotaping of films inside of movie theaters. "Offenders caught during the latest crackdown in Ohio could face six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The penalty in Michigan, by contrast, is up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine." BBC 01/02/04