Category: media

ART OF THE CON

Michael Douglas has signed on for “Art Con of the Century,” a movie based on an investigative article written last year about John Drewe, “a charismatic con who in 1986 found painter-songwriter John Myatt, who had a knack for producing copies of paintings by master artists that regularly fooled art experts. Drewe paid Myatt to crank out purported originals that were sold all over the world for large sums, a nine-year escapade that put 200 forgeries into circulation.” – Variety 06/29/00

CBC GOES INTERACTIVE

The Canadian Broadcasting Company launched its interactive web service yesterday. “The hybrid service is being inaugurated with the launch of 120seconds.com a storytelling site that will feature a wide range of bite-sized programming, submitted by young freelancers and ordinary Canadians. Items may be presented in a variety of formats – audio, streaming video, still photos, text or animation, or any combination of these.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada) 06/28/00

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Twenty-five years ago Robert Altman’s “Nashville” was going to change the world of movies. “Here was an artist putting the machinery of popular culture to work for the sake of art, yet entering into the spirit of popular culture and partaking of its energy too. That was the dream: the power of popular art combined with the complexity of fine art, high and low not at war, and not blurred indistinguishably into each other, but embracing.” What happened? “Jaws” captured the audiences, and the rest is history. – Salon 06/27/00 

TRUE NORTH

A new survey shows that more than a third of the 161 films shot in North America in 1999 were filmed in Canada. Productions in search of lower costs were “blamed” for the exodus of work from Hollywood. – CBC 06/26/00

TOUGH ALL OVER

“The Hindi film industry, churning out the largest number of films in the world, has steadily been witnessing a decrease in box-office hits as film producers grapple with varying problems ranging from exorbitant cost factors, casting the perfect star pair to competing with the local cable operators.” – Times of India 06/26/00

THE PICTURES DO LIE

Can history be told objectively on film? “My point here is that all makers of filmed history, when they come to the point when they must decide which image to choose, where to cut a sequence, or what to lay down on the music track, are not so much in search of objectivity, as they are engaged in the act of cobbling an evocatively credible yarn. The license they take is the same as the poet’s in the act of choosing or inventing or reworking a trope or a rhyme scheme — that is to say, “poetic license.” – Culturefront 06/00

AFTER ALL THAT FUSS —

— about rating TV shows for violence and content, new studies show that parents aren’t using the ratings. “Two in five parents have a V-chip or other form of technology to block out objectionable programming, one study found, and half of those with the devices use them. But the researchers found that awareness of the age and content ratings put on shows, such as TV-G (suitable for all ages), to be used in conjunction with the V-chips, has dropped from 70% in 1997 to just 50% this year. Furthermore, nine out of 10 parents couldn’t accurately identify the age ratings for a sample of shows their children watched.” – Los Angeles Times 06/26/00

TROUBLE IN MIDDLE EARTH

Tolkien fans are upset about the way Hollywood is going about making the movie version of “Lord of the Rings.” ” Literary fans who follow Tolkien’s words with almost trollish devotion are angry that minor female roles have been expanded to provide a love interest. There are even fears that Liv Tyler, who co-starred opposite Bruce Willis in the space action adventure Armageddon, will turn the role of Lady Arwen into a warrior princess.” – Toronto Star 06/26/00

YOU, THE VOYEUR

Are you the type of person who watches a show like “Survivor”? Of course not. “You are not…the sort of person who would watch Survivor. It’s not just the larvae-eating contest (which ex-Survivor B.B. Andersen, 64, helpfully describes as “like having a booger in your mouth”). It’s the gladiatorial concept: stranding 16 people on a tropical island to scrabble for food and shelter, all for the delectation of sluggards licking Cheetos dust off their fingers in their air-conditioned living rooms.” – Time 06/26/00