Category: media

“While the low success rate has scared off a few video game execs, some are trying to change the game, so to speak, by wresting some creative control of their lucrative properties back from the studios.”

“Pinball is a genuine subculture. Lawn tennis or duckpin bowling might be more obscure, but not much. Once a popular attraction at arcades and bars across the United States, pinball went into a death spiral in the early 1980s, done in by video games, and it has struggled ever since.”

Now a would-be Hollywood blockbuster “has to be understood and enjoyed not just by audiences in Los Angeles and London, but in Lanzhou too. This year, China has become the world’s second largest movie market. And by the end of the decade it will be number one.”

“This is the second year that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has opted for a variable number of best pic contenders, with anywhere from five to 10 possibilities.”

“It’s remarkable that with the digital switchover complete, 41% of UK households owning HDTVs and Britons leading the world in accessing TV content over the internet, more than 13,000 households still watch their favourite programmes on a black-and-white telly.”

“Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley’s acclaimed family memoir, was awarded Canada’s richest film prize on Tuesday evening at the Toronto Film Critics Association 16th annual awards gala.” This year’s cash award, previously $15,000, was increased by the sponsor, telecom firm Rogers, to $100,000.

“It was only a matter of time before Hollywood, where antidepressants are common as after-dinner mints, turned them into a high-stakes movie thriller.”

“Oscar bloggers, whose take can be saltier and more vociferous than established print organs — no institutional necessity to pretend you didn’t like the movie to preserve access! — have also been eating the Hollywood trades’ lunch, as the old papers no longer have exclusive claim on lucrative “For Your Consideration” ads.”

“Authorial intent is always a tricky thing to wrangle with, but it seems this obscure title might be the first videogame about the struggle against uselessness and old age.”

“As its triumph in Asia suggests, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi navigates cultural boundaries between east and west with ease.”