Category: media

Brace yourself. The first big time Hollywood biopic of America’s deeply unpopular current president will come from… Oliver Stone. “Stone has called the film ‘satire’, ‘magic realism biography’, but also ‘a fair, true portrait of the man’.” You’ll forgive the Republicans if they’re not exactly looking forward to this premiere.

“The fight scene as it usually turns up in today’s action spectacles–smeared, destabilized, fixated on chaos at the expense of clarity and precision–reflects the changing syntax, the all-around acceleration, of movies in general and Hollywood blockbusters in particular. The current vogue for chopped-up fights also raises the question: Are these hyperedited brawls any more successful than their more straightforward predecessors?”

Discounting the old saw that the moment a newspaper writes an article about something being cool, it is no longer cool, it does seem as if vinyl records are making a serious comeback among young music fans. “Big-box stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, online suppliers like MusicDirect and Needle Doctor, and even the pop-culture retailer Urban Outfitters stock turntables, many with built-in USB ports.”

“The epic Batman saga grossed $75.6 million in its second weekend in theaters, pushing its domestic total to $314,245,000. That surpasses the record set in 2006 by ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,’ which took 16 days to make $300 million.”

“Jurisdiction and fair compensation for new media is a “core principle” of the guild, according to the resolution, approved by a 68-0 margin. The nature and timing of the board resolution — establishing new media as a bargaining priority despite the fact that the talks have broken down — also sends that signal that it is unlikely that the studios’ final offer will be brought before SAG’s membership anytime soon.”

“As cult movies attract a new audience who download more obscure films from the internet, so the marketing machine of the major studios is being called into question.”

Stars get millions for their films. Tens of millions, even. So how much do the studios earn for every dollar they invest in a star salary? A list…

Despite strike threats and recession woes, Hollywood is actually feeling pretty good about itself. And last week’s record numbers triggered by “Dark Knight” reinforced this sense of well being.

“The approval was a major blow for the land-based radio industry, which lobbied hard against the buyout. It was also opposed by consumer groups, various members of Congress and state attorneys general, all of whom argued a satellite radio merger would hurt consumers and was not in the public interest.”