Category: media

Trevor Nunn’s celebrated Royal Shakespeare Company staging of King Lear has been taped for public television. But the director and the network decided to only “suggest” McKellen’s nudity in the storm scene. “If it’s a distraction of that sort, it’s not worth the candle,” says the actor.

“Millions of consumers by year’s end should be able to watch free, over-the-air television on cellphones, PDAs and other portable digital devices as the result of initiatives that will be unveiled today by some of the nation’s largest TV station owners and electronics manufacturers.”

“While US and Canadian movie-goers spent $US9.78billion ($13.7 billion) on tickets last year, Hollywood revenue from the rest of the world eclipsed that figure, jumping to a record $US9.9 billion. That represents a 4percent increase over 2007 and means in the past two years foreign box office receipts have grown by a healthy 15percent. The result is that Hollywood is now forced to consider what the rest of the world wants to see.”

“For me, commercial means we are going to find an audience for our films. That people are going to want to pay to see our movies. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.”

A New Jersey foundation has created a series of 12 short soap opera episodes, shot and edited for mobile phones, aimed at encouraging condom use among young women who wouldn’t pay attention to pamphlets.

“Hyundai Motor Co. will use music by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a Super Bowl XLIII television commercial that consumers can re-edit online, Billboard has learned.”

“A decade ago, Congress decided it was time to address what a House report called ‘a very specific sexual fetish.’ There are people, it turns out, who take pleasure from watching videos of small animals being crushed. … So, in 1999, Congress made it a crime to sell ‘crush videos’ and almost all other depictions of unlawful cruelty to animals.” A Supreme Court case raises the question of whether the law violates the First Amendment.

“The Blu-ray format is in jeopardy simply because the advent of downloadable HD movies is so close. Streaming video from the Internet and other means of direct digital delivery are going to put optical formats out of business entirely over the next few years.”

Movie studios have “so thoroughly destroyed the credibility of blurb ads by using junket critics… and nonprofessionals that when it comes time to attract attention for more serious films, they can’t simply stick a few blurbs at the top of the page from real critics and expect potential moviegoers to notice the difference.”

“It’s the most surprising best-picture choice of the National Society of Film Critics since Babe in 1995! This year’s selection of Waltz With Bashir marks the first time that the society has ever picked an animated film or a documentary.” Tom O’Neil looks at the balloting.