Category: media

Not so long ago, the People’s Republic had pretty much the staid, rigid, risk-averse media sector one would expect in a Communist nation. That conservatism, like the rest of country, is changing. The news media isn’t exactly free by Western standards, and there are taboo topics, but investigative journalism provides some of the most popular shows on television.

“So if piracy is such a dire threat to the movie business, as the Motion Picture Assn. of America is so-o-o-o-o-o-o fond of saying, how could “Taken” have had the world’s healthiest theatrical run in America, if pirated copies were clearly readily available virtually anywhere in the world?”

“The Beatles will live anew in videogame glory beginning in September with the release of an exclusive Rock Band title that lets people pretend to be the legendary Fab Four.”

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus “is struggling to find a buyer, despite the huge amount of publicity surrounding its big-name cast, and its links to Ledger. […] The film, directed by former Monty Python star Terry Gilliam, tells the story of a travelling circus magician who makes a series of pacts with the devil.”

“After leading the charge to put Emmy screeners online, Showtime will show off its wares to TV Academy voters this year on both the iPhone and the iPodTouch. Emmy voters with the Apple mobile devices will be able to screen full episodes of Showtime series including ‘Dexter,’ ‘Weeds’ and ‘United States of Tara’ simply by entering a passcode.” The channel says the tiny screens won’t compromise the experience.

June Thomas: “Pledge drive is last-nerve-frayingly exasperating – but it’s also sheer genius. One recent weekend, I fast-forwarded through the actual programming and listened only to the sales patter… What I found was a band of ace pitchmen who know their audience better than we know ourselves.”

“Independent filmmakers were mourning the cancellation Monday of the sixth annual Canadian Film Fest, a privately funded, grassroots event that had to be shelved after its cash-strapped sponsors were forced to bail.”

“[D]ozens of film and television workers gathered on Monday to ask politicians to expand the incentive program offered to their industry in the past few years, not scale it back as planned. The program, which offers studios tax credits from the city and state for up to 35 percent of the production costs — 30 percent from the state and 5 percent from the city — has been so successful that the state has already paid out the $690 million that was to last through 2013.”

“Children who spend hours in front of the television are at greater risk of developing asthma than those who are more active, a study has found. Youngsters who watched more than two hours of TV a day were twice as likely to get the respiratory condition as children who watched less, according to research by British scientists. … The finding builds on recent work that points to a link between asthma and low levels of physical activity.”

“The makers of a new Australian film about guns and gangs in Sydney’s west are devastated that it has been pulled from Greater Union cinema screens on the grounds that some members of the audience turned violent.”