“Like someone who can’t help but overindulge on too many Oreo cookies, Stephen Colbert had more material than he needed for his first episode as host of CBS’s The Late Show on Tuesday. After a taping that ran about two hours, the show was cut down to about 70 minutes for air. Though some of that extra material has been released as bonus content on the web, here’s some of what you didn’t see on Mr. Colbert’s debut broadcast.”
Category: media
Drama Will Be ‘Backbone’ Of BBC’s Services, Says Director-General
Tony Hall: “We know how much drama on the BBC means to our audiences. Drama is something this country excels at – it’s recognised globally. I want British drama to be the backbone of a more distinctive approach to all our services, capturing the public’s imagination with world-class work for a global stage.”
How Technology Has Disrupted The Voice-Over Business
“The ability to create a home studio has put voice-over work within reach of more than just professional actors, opening up the industry to anyone who thinks they can make money off their vocal cords. And it’s led to the proliferation of websites and apps such as Voices.com, Voicebunny.com and Voice123.com that can find actors work.”
Where Wim Wenders Went Wrong
Richard Brody: “[His] career is marked by a break that occurred between 1975 and 1977, between the films Kings of the Road and The American Friend. … In that shift, Wenders went from being one of the most intrepid and riginal directors of the time to being himself an art-house signifier.”
Fifty Shades Of Fake Blood: In The Aisles At One Of Hollywood’s Largest Prop Houses
“Inside a 110,000-square-foot warehouse in northeast Los Angeles, Gregg Bilson Jr. is showing me his blood. There’s drinkable blood, chunky blood, dried blood, and flowing blood, all sitting in tidy rows on a display shelf. Puddles and pools of blood – resin blood – of varying sizes are affixed to a nearby wall.”
Jurassic World Easily Sails Past $1 Billion Box Office, Joining An Elite Club
“Also this weekend, Universal jumped the $6 billion mark in global box office receipts for the year, by far the biggest showing in history for a Hollywood studio. That includes $2.16 billion domestically and $3.89 billion internationally. Last month, Universal surpassed the industry record set by Fox in 2015 with $5.53 billion.”
Why Don’t Canadians Want To See Canadian Movies?
“With few exceptions, anglo-Canadians do not go to the theatre to see movies made by their countrymen. The market share of English-language Canadian films at the domestic box office consistently hovers in the 1-per-cent to 1.5-per-cent range of total ticket sales. Last year, it hit 2 per cent. That translated to a total box-office take for all domestic English-language films of $16.3-million – or roughly what the critically panned Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot earned.”
Hollywood And China Are In Love (But It’s Pretty Star-Crossed)
“Some investors are more interested in appearing to be in business with Hollywood than in putting serious money into deals, these people say — to boost their stock prices or profiles. (American studios also like to be seen to be doing deals in China.)”
GLAAD Gives Up Its Annual Report Card Of LGBT Characters On TV
“The [Network Responsibility Index] has reflected tremendous change over the last decade – and has helped to convince networks of the validity and value of LGBT-inclusive programming. So why is GLAAD leaving it in the past?”
Arabic ‘Sesame Street’ Returns For First Time Since Gulf War
“On Friday, a new production of Iftah Ya Simsim, the Arabic cousin of Sesame Street that ended in 1990, will have its premiere on nine channels across the Gulf Cooperation Council countries of the Persian Gulf.”