“In the past four decades there have been seven recession years in this country, and the box office has climbed strongly in five of those years.”
Category: media
Tokyo FilmFest Goes Green In A Big Way
“The Tokyo International Film Festival opened on Saturday with an environmental theme as filmmakers from around the world greeted Japanese movie fans on a ceremonial “green carpet”… All films are screened with electricity generated by wind energy.”
Bollywood Takes On the Credit Crisis
Characters in the new film EMI (for Equated Monthly Installments) “include a DJ who defaults on more than a dozen credit cards to impress his girlfriends, a man who takes a loan to send his son abroad to study and a socialite who charges her indulgences to her credit cards.”
Do Stewart and Colbert Have a New Cohort?
In Living Color and Saturday Night Live alumnus David Alan Grier plays a not-ready-for-prime-time anchorman – plus other characters, including Maya Angelou – in Comedy Central’s parody show Chocolate News.
BBC-TV to Move Production Out of London
The BBC Trust is implementing plans to move half of its television production out of the capital by 2016, with major drama and news programs being shifted to Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Bristol, Birmingham and other cities.
Italy Opens Vast Film and Video Archive
“Italian state broadcaster RAI and the national film archive body Istituto Luce said Thursday that they will join forces to create one of the world’s largest film libraries.”
To This We’ve Come: TV Guide Sold for $1
“How much is TV Guide magazine worth in a morphing media business and molten credit markets? Try $1. […] The cover price, by way of comparison, is $2.99.”
Paramount Cutting Back
“Paramount Pictures said it would cut the size of its future release schedule to about 20 films a year, including as many as four to be supplied annually by DreamWorks Animation and Marvel Studios. The announcement came after recent news that executives of Paramount’s DreamWorks unit would leave to form a new company.”
Former Network Exec Shakes Up Public TV Flagship
Neal Shapiro, the new CEO of New York’s WNET, has launched a three-hour Sunday arts show, revamped Saturday night movie programming, and begun an original evening broadcast of international news. Is he bringing in energy and innovation, or rushing ahead without regard for consequences?
Half a Century of Stealing Our Time
“Fifty years ago this week, video games – as we know them today – were born” at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. The first kid ever to play one helps tell the story of how “Tennis for Two” came to be.