Category: media

“While the triumph of “Slumdog Millionaire,” which captured eight Oscars and has taken in nearly $250 million globally so far, has given Hindi cinema a new cachet, the Hollywood studios have been enamored of the market for a decade. But even as talent and money cross borders, the studios are finding out that negotiating the distance between Burbank and Bollywood is trickier than expected.”

“As film industries in China, Russia, Japan and India have grown exponentially, particularly when it comes to homegrown fare, United States studios have taken the phrase “Think globally, act locally” to heart. Nearly every studio has set up an international operation for producing and distributing original movies made in local languages.”

“The Vatican had called for a boycott of The Da Vinci Code — based on a bestselling book by Dan Brown — back in the spring of 2006. That call may have had the opposite effect, with the film grossing about $760 million US worldwide.”

“In total, the BBC intends to make savings of £1.9bn over five years. However, the extra money for the BBC’s suite of websites was less than the £52.7m increase managers had requested.”

“Hollywood pushed 3-D in the 1950s and again in the 1970s and 1980s, but those efforts left moviegoers with little more than a headache. While the 3-D technology on display in films like “Monsters vs. Aliens” is more sophisticated, it remains to be seen whether people will still be drawn to it after its novelty has worn off. Many theater owners say they wonder if it makes sense to raise ticket prices more in a downturn. And the technology, which relies on actually going into theaters, may have little effect on home-video sales.”

“The Cannes film festival will enter an uncharted new dimension in May when it pulls back the curtain on Up, an animated 3-D feature from the Disney Pixar studios. Produced by John Lasseter, the film will be the first animation to open the event in its 62-year history.”

“When we go online, each of us is our own editor, our own gatekeeper. We select the kind of news and opinions that we care most about. … The danger is that this self-selected ‘news’ acts as a narcotic, lulling us into a self-confident stupor through which we will perceive in blacks and whites a world that typically unfolds in grays.”

“Confronted with a growing budget deficit, the Writers Guild of America, West plans to cut about 20 positions by the end of the month. The guild, which has about 185 employees, notified worker representatives last week that layoffs, which could begin this week, were needed to plug a budget hole of more than $2 million, said two people familiar with the matter. The union, which has 8,000 members, has annual operating expenses of about $25 million. “

At least half of the new hourlong pilots ordered by the Big Four networks and the CW will be shot outside California, despite that state’s recently passed tax-incentive program. “But that program is seen by many in the TV biz as too little too late, and with too many strings attached. … Producers of gameshows, talkshows, news programs, reality skeins, docus and porn need not apply; those types of productions are not eligible for the credit.”