Category: media

The Western is hot again in Hollywood, and there may be more to that fact than the cyclical nature of the movie business. Some of the new breed are the same as the old breed – simple stories stripped of the complications of modern life so as to tell pure tales of the human condition. But other new Westerns are seemingly using the form “as an allegory to comment on the existential anxieties facing America today.”

So, there’s this movie. You might have seen the trailer – there’s a party, somebody named Rob, and then the Statue of Liberty’s head comes flying down the street while hysterical New Yorkers scream and run for cover. It’s called… actually, it’s not called anything yet, and it doesn’t star anyone you’re likely to have heard of, and they’re all sworn to secrecy about the content of the movie. So why are so many people talking about it?

Hollywood may be a favorite target of many conservative Christians, but that hasn’t stopped the movie industry from openly soliciting the support of pastors and preachers across the country for certain films. You might expect this type of targeted marketing for, say, The Passion of the Christ, but honestly, what are religious folk doing endorsing Nacho Libre and Spider-Man?

So Disney’s decided to ban smoking in all its future films? Good idea, says Mark Caro, but honestly, why stop there? What about a ban on hotshot action stars firing their guns while pointlessly holding them sideways? Or a ban on any pratfall involving a pool? Or a ban on, say, Lindsay Lohan?

Time was when Canadians could look at the fall lineups of American TV networks and smugly note that a shockingly high percentage of the actors and actresses involved were born north of the border. “Every year, there are at least a dozen names on that list – this one no exception, with another 15 additions. But there’s a surprising new element to this year’s tally: a sudden proliferation of British actors with flawlessly faked accents usurping our traditional role as faux-Americans.”

In a few short years, the annual convention known as ComicCon has gone from an obscure (if popular) gathering point for sci-fi nerds to one of Hollywood’s most important annual events. In fact, ComicCon veterans have well noted “an expanding international presence, a growing tendency of movie news to drown out that of the comics industry and an increasing social frenzy.”

It’s finally happened. “Tomorrow at noon, CBS, the august home of the Masters and March Madness, will become the first broadcast network in the United States to cover a video game tournament as a sporting event.” Does this mark the first step in the full embrace of the gaming subculture by the larger culture?

“Fifteen years ago, it was called video art. Today, most people call it digital media, but they’d be hard pressed to describe the difference. Whatever you want to call it, the lines that separate film, video, and those files on your hard drive have been erased, and a new era of filmmaking has begun. Or maybe it’s just a new way of talking about it.”

California’s movie and TV industries have been trying for years to get state tax credits for filing in California. Last week it looked like they might have succeeded. “Just over half of the $140 million would provide nonrefundable film and TV tax credits — $70 million for film production and $5 million for commercials. But even that tax-credit provision — modest compared to the incentives offered in New York, Louisiana, and other states — caused controversy in the deeply partisan California State Senate.”

America’s TV stations are switching from analog to digital. “Lawmakers and advocacy groups have become increasingly concerned that the government isn’t doing enough to educate the approximately 20% of U.S. households that receive only over-the-air TV. Under federal law, stations must turn off their analog signals Feb. 18, 2009.”