Category: media

With no single title or star generating advance buzz, acquisition execs at Cannes seem to have little to get excited about so far. “The 2000 Cannes Film Market looks a lot like this year’s Sundance: There’s little in the way of white-hot films, but plenty of unknown quantities…it’s more about finding the next generation of filmmakers.” – Variety 05/08/00

iFilm.com launched last week as the first online film portal to showcase every short and feature-length film available for viewing over the internet. – Variety 05/08/00

Last week’s contretemps over ABC’s access to cable systems figures to be only the beginning. “Many people argue that the trend of modern technology is away from closed systems to more open models.” But those who control cable access know they control the key to the wired future and they want to hang on to it for as long as possible. – Dallas Morning News 05/08/00 

Last week’s ABC/Time-Warner dust-up is the face of naked greed. “This is what the entertainment world has become, yet another mine from which global corporations can squeeze huge profits. And huge is the key, which we’ll get to in a moment.” – Sacramento Bee 05/08/00

A new type of streaming movie will debut at Cannes next week. The technology allows viewers to pan the camera angles of scenes to see the perspective they want. “The 360-degree concept explodes everything you’ve ever learned about movie-making and calls for new rules, new grammar, and most excitingly, a new kind of storytelling.” – Wired 05/08/00

Independent producers are under pressure to let TV networks own more of their productions. But what will that mean for what is produced? “It’s not about the money. We all get paid well. It’s about the fact that a show you own is your viewpoint, your vision. All that is dissipated when you’re a hired hand. You can have the most brilliant people in the world running networks, but it’s almost a scientific impossibility for bureaucracies to be inventive and edgy. They cannot. It’s their nature.” – New York Times 05/07/00 

Stephen Spielberg has decided on his next project. That one act reverberates around the movie world. “It’s a kind of Six Degrees of Spielberg effect: He makes a single move, which sets off a flurry of activity at four studios across town, which sets off more flurries throughout the industry – ripples from a single stone cast in the movie pond by, as producer Mark Johnson calls him, ‘an 800-pound gorilla.’ – Chicago Sun-Times 05/07/00

So it’s your first time in Cannes for the “The Festival.” You’re understandably nervous and want some guidance. Herewith some assistance with the details… – National Post (Canada) 05/06/00

Just why do so many movies seem to be so anti-intellectual?  “Apart from the extreme theory that many movies are made by, and designed for, the brain dead, there is considerable evidence that the American film industry has long had a problem conceptualizing intelligence and prefers, instead, to glorify stupidity.” – Ottawa Citizen (CP) 05/05/00

It’s still a year away from being released. But the buzz is building. “In the war of the film trailer promos distributed as premieres over the internet, the promo for the upcoming (2001) release of the first episode in the epochal live action version of JRR Tolkien’s immortal novel ‘The Lord of the Rings’ did almost double the traffic of the similar trailer release for ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.'” – Daily Mail and Guardian (South Africa) 05/04/00