Another MishMash
IT'S JUST THAT KIND OF WEEK, AND I THINK WE SHOULD ALL ACCEPT IT.
TRULY RANDOM:
Christmas films
A long-time favourite of Tinseltown, the season of goodwill has been immortalisedEDITOR'S NOTE: YEP, FROM A BRIT PAPER. in various forms - from the sweet (Holiday Inn) to the downright nasty (A Nightmare Before Christmas).
Tackle our ten questions of Christmas and discover if you're top of the tree or an ignorant turkey
http://film.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,5952,413580,00.html
EDITOR'S NOTE: SAD CONFESSION TIME. I ONLY GOT 6 OUT OF 10. (I PLEAD JUDIASM?)
MoMA exhibition celebrates 20 years of art from Pixar
NEW YORK -- For once, kids might be dragging their parents to the museum instead of the other way around.
A new exhibition showcases some very recognizable images for anyone who has sat in a movie theater over the past decade -- Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Nemo's dad Marlin -- all creations of artists at Pixar Animation Studios.
But anyone visiting the show at the Museum of Modern Art who thinks it's going to be all about digital monitors and computer-generated images, think again.
"Pixar: 20 Years of Animation" is filled with paintings, drawings, sculptures -- all the traditional tools of animation.
"We wanted to make sure that people understood that computer animation wasn't created by pushing a button," said Steven Higgins, the main curator of the show. "The preparation work is done with traditional pencil and paper just like animation has always been done."
The show opened Wednesday at the museum and runs through Feb. 6EDITOR'S NOTE: SOUNDS PRETTY NIFTY!
TELEVISION STUFF:
EDITOR'S NOTE: ODDBOB, ODDBOB!!! LOOKIE LOOKIE! YOUR FAVORITE SHOW MIGHT NOT BE QUITE DEAD YET.Showtime may book 'Arrested'
Will the pay TV environs of Showtime be a friendlier place for the Emmy-winning comedy "Arrested Development"?
Word around town this week is that Showtime is in talks with "Arrested" producers 20th Century Fox TV and Imagine TV about picking up the comedy from creator/executive producer Mitch Hurwitz.
Sources stressed that the talks are still exploratory and that it would be a big financial commitment on Showtime's part to pick up the show in its current form with a large ensemble cast that includes Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Portia de Rossi, Jessica Walter and Will Arnett. EDITOR'S NOTE: SOUNDS LIKE A NEGOTIATION STATEMENT FOR LOWER SALARIES, HUH?
"Arrested" was an instant hit with critics following its debut on Fox in late 2003, but the show never could pull in much of a crowd during its run on Fox Broadcasting Co., even after it won the Emmy for best comedy series in 2004. Last month, Fox threw in the towel, cutting its episode order for "Arrested's" third season from its initial 22-episode ticket to.
Reps for Showtime, 20th and Imagine declined comment late Tuesday
Networks Try Telenovelas: Cheap Summer Entertainment?
A media critique by Wayne Friedman, Thursday, December 15, 2005
WHAT WITH THE STANDARD FLUX of sitcoms, procedural crime dramas, reality shows, and medical shows, prime-time genres have been pretty stale over the last few years.
Now ABC and CBS, as well as a bunch of other producers, are looking to break out a bit in the summer--their experimentation time--by producing English-language versions of Spanish-language style "telenovelas," focused mainly on love and betrayal. EDITOR'S NOTE: OH GOODY. NOW ENGLISH-LANGUAGE TV CAN LOWER THAT LAST LITTLE BIT DOWN TO THE TAWDRY AND RIDICULOUS LEVEL OF SPANISH-LANGUAGE TV. (NOT THAT IT'S A STEEP DROP, BUT IT'S NICE TO KNOW WE WON'T HAVE TO PUT UP THAT FIGHT ANY MORE).
ABC and CBS are looking at telenovelas as short-term programming efforts--perfect for the summer. These limited series could run perhaps twice, or up to five times, a week, and resolve all plots after two or three months of summertime airing.
Running English language telenovelas will also have the side benefit of attracting growing U.S. bilingual Latin-American viewers already familiar with the format.
And, yes, there is an economic reason behind all of this--programming costs to produce these efforts would be lower than standard scripted fare. EDITOR'S NOTE: YEAH. THEY SAVE MONEY ON WRITERS SINCE IT'S MOSTLY SEX SCENES AND SOAP OPERA BABBLING. (I FORESEE THE NEXT 'REALITY' SHOW.....WRITE A TELENOVELA). PLUS THEY SAVE A LOT ON COSTUMING, SINCE THE NUBILE BODIES ARE ONLY SEMI-CLOTHED. Still, networks should be cheered in coming up with another prime-time category--and making good their efforts to bulk up their schedules with more scripted programming.
Lower economic costs could perhaps be even a bit lower now that Jonathan Prince and Madison Road Entertainment are linked to some prospective telenovela projects. Madison Road is the branded entertainment agency that has integrated projects into a number of shows--including "The Apprentice," and "America's Next Top Model."
Both networks have said that product integration could be part of these summer series. EDITOR'S NOTE: WELL OF COURSE THEY WILL! SO THEY SAVE ON PROPS AND SETS TOO, SINCE THOSE WILL BE PROVIDED BY PAYING ADVERTISERS. SIGH....All this is consistent with summertime fare such as reality and game shows, which typically throw many products into shows.
The subject matter of telenovelas seems too simple: love and betrayal, on a closed-end series. Existing Spanish-language telenovelas also seem to be pared down versus standard primetime programming--these dramas are produced on video, not film, and there are few costly exterior location scenes. EDITOR'S NOTE: NOT TO MENTION, NOT MUCH ACTING. (HAMMING, YES. ACTING...NOT SO MUCH).
This would then work well with viewers in the summer--who have shown they are too busy with other stuff to get really involved with new ongoing series. EDITOR'S NOTE: AND DURING THE REST OF THE YEAR THE VIEWING PUBLIC HAS SHOWN ITSELF TO BE DEEP?As is evident from the popularity of reality shows in previous summers such as "Big Brother" and "Dancing With the Stars," summertime viewers like stripped-down entertainment that'll end quickly. EDITOR'S NOTE: IS IT VIEWERS THAT WANT THAT, OR PENNY-PINCHING NETWORK PROGRAMMERS?
BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE....
Twentieth TV to Roll Out Desire
In 2006, Twentieth Television will introduce Desire, a new one-hour strip franchise of multiple English-language telenovelas formatted from Latin America.
A minimum of three telenovelas per year (65 episodes each) will be reproduced for U.S. distribution under the Desire banner.
Included will be Table for Three from Columbia's Carolco, and Cuban program Fashion House from Miami's XYSTUS.
Each Desire miniseries will be stripped Monday through Friday over a span of 13 weeks. Desire has been cleared on the Fox owned-and-operated television stations group, representing almost 45 percent of the country.
"The telenovela is one of television's most enthralling genres, with a stellar track record in securing a passionate and loyal audience," said Bob Cook, president and COO of Twentieth Television. "We feel the U.S. market for English-language telenovelas presents a unique opportunity to develop and produce quality content that attracts viewers and allows us to establish a foothold in this exciting and emerging genre."EDITOR'S NOTE: DOES ANYONE ELSE'S BRAIN GO NUMB AND SORT OF FREEZE-UP WHEN ONE OF THE PR HACKS (OR CEOS) STARTS BABBLING? OR IS THAT JUST ME?
MOVIE STUFF:
THE DA VINCI CODE Trailer Premieres
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/da_vinci_code/
POSEIDON Trailer
Apple.com is now offering the trailer for Warner Bros.' POSEIDON. The film opens in theaters on May 12th, 2006.
From the official site:
"When a rogue wave EDITOR'S NOTE: DONCHA HATE IT WHEN WAVES GO ALL NAUGHTY AND BAD LIKE THAT?! capsizes a luxury cruise ship in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, a small group of survivors find themselves unlikely allies in a battle for their lives. Preferring to test the odds alone, career gambler John Dylan (Josh Lucas) ignores captain’s orders (Andre Braugher) to wait below for possible rescue and sets out to find his own way to safety. What begins as a solo mission soon draws others as Dylan is followed by a desperate father (Kurt Russell) searching for his daughter (Emmy Rossum) and her fiancé (Mike Vogel), a young couple who hours before couldn’t summon the courage to tell him they were engaged and now face much graver challenges. Along the way they are joined by a single mother (Jacinda Barrett) and her wise-beyond-his-years son (Jimmy Bennett), an anxious stowaway (Mia Maestro) and a despondent fellow passenger (Richard Dreyfuss) who boarded the ship not sure he wanted to live but now knows he doesn’t want to die. Determined to fight their way to the surface, the group sets off through the disorienting maze of twisted steel in the upside-down wreckage. As the unstable vessel rapidly fills with water each must draw on skills and strengths they didn’t even know they possessed, fighting against time for their own survival and for each other." EDITOR'S NOTE: HERE'S A GUESS...THE KID LIVES. THE CAPTAIN DIES? JUST GUESSING......
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/poseidon/
EDITOR’S NOTE: I HATE MYSELF A BIT, BUT THIS TRAILER LOOKS PRETTY GOOD. (THE MOVIE MIGHT NOT BE, BUT THE TRAILER LOOKS VERY EXCITING. AND THOSE CREEPY SCREAMS IN THE BACKGROUND AT THE END…..EEK).
MIAMI VICE TEASER TRAILER
http://www.miamivicemovie.com/main.html
EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS ONE, ON THE OTHER HAND, LOOKS TRULY HORRID.
Christensen, Haas, Ribisi join 'Eden'
Lukas Haas, Giovanni Ribisi and Erika Christensen have signed on to topline indie "The Gardener of Eden" for Appian Way.
Penned by Adam "Tex" Davis, the dark comedy centers on a young man who accidentally saves a girl from a neighborhood assault and then decides his calling in life is to become a modern-day hero. Kevin Connolly will make his directorial debut.
Appian Way in association with IEG Virtual Studios is producing the film with the 7th Floor. Appian Way's Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Simpson are producing along with 7th Floor's Allen Bain. Graham King and Benjamin Waisbren of IEG Virtual Studios and Jesse Scolaro and Darren Goldberg of the 7th Floor are executive producing.
Fox Sends Jackman FED X
Twentieth Century Fox has bought the script FED X for Hugh Jackman to star in.
Written by Dario Scardapane, the story centers on a green FBI agent sent to Miami to retrieve a criminal for prosecution. During the return trip, the fed and the thug each learn there's more to the other than expected. EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR, DOESN'T IT? "CINDERELLA LIBERTY", MAYBE? (NOT THAT IT MATTERS....HUGH JACKMAN. I'M THERE).
Hugh Jackman and John Palermo will produce FED X via their Seed Productions banner.
Sony Bumps GHOST
Sony has moved the release date of GHOST RIDER, starring Nicolas Cage, to February 16, 2007. Originally, it was supposed to be released on July 14, 2006. EDITOR'S NOTE: WELL THERE GOES MY PLANNING CALENDAR ALL TO HECK! (SNICKER)
The new date still allows some space between RIDER and SPIDER-MAN 3, which will be released three months later in May. In addition, RIDER no longer has to open so close to SUPERMAN RETURNS, which opens on June 30, 2006.
The biggest headache is for Marvel Studios, who must change their plans for ancillary tie-in deals.
A FEW ITEMS FROM DA BIZ:
Top exhibitors roll out blueprint for d-cinema
By Nicole Sperling
In a move that constitutes the largest exhibitor commitment yet to digital cinema, Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Entertainment Inc. and Cinemark USA have partnered to work on the development of a digital cinema business plan.
National CineMedia, the joint venture owned by the three companies that was founded to create a national digital preshow advertising network, will manage the process under the guidance of NCM chairman and CEO Kurt Hall.
The plan will be open to all industry exhibitors as well as NCM's founding partners with the goal of driving down digital cinema costs from the sheer size of NCM's network of theaters.
"NCM's primary objective is to work with manufacturers to reduce the cost of digital cinema equipment through volume purchasing for NCM partners' 13,000 screens and other participating exhibitor screens," Hall said. "NCM will also seek to develop an efficient financing structure for the purchase of the digital cinema equipment that will be open to all capital sources and that will provide a transparent, cost-effective arrangement for exhibitors, distribution partners, capital providers and all other key constituents."Hall added, "Once the financing model and equipment volume pricing has been established, our founding partners and other exhibitors who participate will have ultimate responsibility for deployment of digital cinema systems."
The business plan, while not fully developed, is expected to be based on a virtual print fee model, under which the studios bear the brunt of the costs for each digital print in theaters. The plan is similar to those being proposed by other financing vehicles hoping to roll out digital cinema, such as AccessIT's subsidiary Christie/AIX and Technicolor Digital Cinema.
Hall said NCM's plan is an "open-book financing plan," whereby all parties can see how the contributed funds are being allocated.
AccessIT and Technicolor have signed content deals with the majority of the studios.
When asked whether the NCM effort would bypass those being put forth by AccessIT and Technicolor, Hall said that he would be happy to talk to either of the parties regarding financing but has not. In-depth talks with the studios also have not taken place.
"The studios have done a great job with digital cinema through (the Digital Cinema Initiative). Now with this approach, the exhibitors are coming to the table. It's a natural point for this to happen given all the work distribution has done," AMC chairman and CEO Peter Brown said.
"This could be a win-win plan for the exhibitor members of NCM and the studios," Regal Cinemas CEO Mike Campbell said. "It could potentially give us some additional efficiencies in regards to the purchase of digital equipment and could give the studios additional cost savings. The studios have already committed to paying virtual print fees to the digital cinema initiatives already announced. We believe we can present something to the studios that's even more efficient if we can aggregate the NCM screens."
It is not clear how the studios will respond to such a plan, but theater owners are optimistic that a common goal should allow them to work with the studios. Said Cinemark vp marketing and communications Terrell Falk: "We all want the same thing -- high-quality presentation on our screens at a reasonable cost with few technical issues. If we work together, we can come up with a positive end result."
Hall's company has spent the past three years operating a national Digital Content Network that deploys digital preshows and other live and prerecorded digital content. The company, first owned by Regal, partnered with AMC in March to form National CineMedia; Cinemark joined in July.
Once deployment of the DCN is complete, its network will comprise 11,000 digitally equipped screens nationwide.The network is not DCI-compliant at this time, but Hall said that it has the capability to become so by plugging into higher-end equipment.EDITOR'S NOTE: SO. SLOWLY SLOWLY SLOWLY. AND ONLY ABOUT 6 YEARS AFTER UNCLE GEORGE TRIED TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. THE MOVIE WORLD IS FINALLY ALMOST COMING INTO THE DIGITAL AGE. (WHICH MEANS THAT UNCLE G IS PROBABLY ALREADY ONTO PUSHING FOR SOME STEP BEYOND MERE DIGITAL, I BET?)
SAG election, leadership challenged
Three current and former New York-based SAG leaders have challenged the results of the fall election on grounds that their political rivals allegedly used an illegally obtained e-mail list to contact members in violation of guild and Department of Labor rules. EDITOR'S NOTE: THESE CREATIVE UNIONS JUST CAN'T PLAY NICE, HUH? IT'S LIKE THE "ON THE WATERFRONT" BUT WITH A LOT MORE COSMETIC SURGERY.
The challenge, filed with the DOL last week by SAG national vp Paul Christie, New York vp Sam Freed and former New York president Eileen Henry, also claims that the newly elected leadership, including SAG president Alan Rosenberg, is using its power to impede an investigation into this matter. EDITOR'S NOTE: AWWW...SWEET LITTLE ALAN? SAY IT AIN'T SO!
"At issue is not only the taint of the recent election but the future threat to the democratic process within the union if the current leadership is permitted to retain the advantage of confidential member information for political use," according to the election challenge. SAG officials said Friday that they had not yet reviewed the challenge.
AND LASTLY.....SHOPPING....FOR LATER:
SUPERMAN THROUGH THE AGES Action Figure Gift Set
An image and information for the SUPERMAN THROUGH THE AGES Action Figure Gift Set has been released by DC Direct. The set consists of four different 6" scale versions of Superman, including the Jim Lee Superman, John Byrne Superman, First Appearance Superman and Robot Superman.
Each figure features a new head and cape, multiple points of articulation and a display base. This set is packaged in a 4 color window box with a full-size 48-page comic book compiling material from ACTION COMICS #1, SUPERMAN (Second Series) #7, and AMAZING WORLD OF SUPERMAN.
The set will go on sale August 16, 2006. EDITOR'S NOTE: I JUST ABOUT CAN'T HARDLY WAIT.
posted by QOTD (the Queen of the Dweebs) at 5:00 PM
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