Category: media

“CBS took the unprecedented step of adding a disclaimer to ‘Big Brother’ ahead of Sunday’s episode, which featured yet another racism-tinged encounter among its cast.”

“What everyone seems to agree on, at a moment of accelerating media metabolisms and diminishing record sales, is that a new reality is inevitable.”

“Owners 21st Century Fox Inc., Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal decided Friday to cancel the sale. Instead, they said, they will invest $750 million in Hulu so it can better compete against Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and other Internet streaming services.”

“I come to what may be my most controversial recommendation, certainly for me: never again watch the films you cherished in your youth, for youth lends a wonder and tolerance that age erodes and disdains.”

“Everyone knows that you can’t copyright a title (except in Germany) … which is why the dispute between the Weinstein Company and Warner Bros. over the title of the forthcoming film The Butler (scheduled for release on August 16th) is so surprising.”

“Normally, every FX shot looks like a cool shot. You go out the window, the character’s drinking some wine. You go out the window, you go around the block, into the next tower, out of the tower, into an airplane passing by, and you’re in the lap of a passenger in first class. And all you’re telling them is ‘cool shot, is that real?'”

“High-profile crowdfunded projects are now hawking paid parts–speaking roles to anyone who can donate a sizable chunk of the thousands necessary to help finance the film. Supporters of crowdsourcing defend the practice, arguing it’s another tool to help independent filmmakers get their projects financed.”

Alessandra Stanley: “Television was all but forbidden when I was growing up. It’s not that my parents had high standards or academic expectations. They were of a time when adults set limits just because they could. … That period of deprivation cemented a lifelong passion for television as acute as the diabetic’s craving for chocolate, the smoker’s need for a puff.”

“Chinese participation in western productions comes at a cost. Behind the financing money on offer, there are conditions. And those conditions stray beyond the narrow confines of the film industry into politics.”

Andrew O’Hehir: “One could also understand big, stupid, money-losing pictures as a feature of Hollywood’s production system, rather than a bug. … The movie industry, at least at that level, operates on the same delusional principles as the military budget or Wall Street executive salaries, where bigness, waste and needless expenditure in all directions become markers of significance and ambition.”