Category: media

“The new owners said the surviving shops would reopen under the Blockbuster brand, licensed from U.S. satellite TV company Dish Network, which owns the American operation.”

“These changes in perspective mirror shifting public attitudes toward migrants in the United States. Foremost is the gathering awareness that migration is a global phenomenon, as old as humanity, in which people from countries both rich and poor, north and south, play their parts.”

“On Fox, Arrested Development would set up a joke in one episode and pay it off three weeks later; on Net­flix the joke would pay off in an hour and a half. When ­people say Arrested Development was ahead of its time–something the show’s staff is as likely to say as its fanboys are–they’re really saying that it was ahead of Net­flix.”

“There have always been epics – Star Wars perhaps being the most famous – that create a mass fan movement. But why certain shows resonate more than others is not an exact science.”

“Journalists and technical staff at the BBC have agreed to stage strike action on Thursday, March 28, walking out for 12 hours in a dispute over changes at the corporation. … The unions claim problems of workload and harassment have led to conditions they liken to a ‘modern-day BBC sweatshop’.”

“The Emma Thompson period drama Effie, about one of the Victorian era’s most infamous love triangles, is now cleared for release after winning a second copyright case in New York against a US playwright who claimed it was based on his work.”

“Jude Law has become the latest big name to quit troubled production Jane Got a Gun, which has already had its director and another star exit the project. The film made headlines earlier this week when Scottish director Lynne Ramsay did not arrive on the Santa Fe set for the first day of shooting. … Michael Fassbender was the first to pull out, citing scheduling conflicts.”

“Robert Lantos, along with filmmakers David Cronenberg and Paul Gross, are proposing an all-Canadian film TV channel for mandatory carriage. Do Canadians want to watch Canadian films?”

“In a move designed to protest staff and program cuts in Walker Art Center’s film and video division, the department’s three interns resigned Wednesday afternoon … accusing the museum’s management of ‘general disrespect towards a longstanding, talented, and loyal staff’ and ‘callous negligence’ that ‘was felt with particular sting in the Film/Video department’.”

“This unusual movie is in the feel-good style of a Doris Day-Rock Hudson picture, only in this case ‘Rock’ is a circus acrobat, swooning at the sight of ‘Doris’ hauling coal and mixing cement. To Westerners, this is bound to sound like a cheesy product of the Hermit Kingdom’s propaganda machine. But North Koreans have never seen a film like this.”