Category: media

Maybe the recovery’s in full swing (maybe), but television shows are just now catching up with the recession – not because they’re contrary, but because scripted shows take time to develop.

“Attempts to merge the two major US acting unions – the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists – have been referred to the California courts. Ballots have been sent out to members to vote on the proposal. However, in a complaint filed against SAG and several of its officers, more than 60 actors have sought to prevent the ballots being counted.”

“The BBC has unveiled plans to make its content available on a download-to-own basis. … BBC director general Mark Thompson said Project Barcelona would allow members of the public to purchase a ‘digital copy of a programme to own and keep’. He added that there would be a ‘modest charge’ for doing so.”

Movie posters: Art, or just a somewhat random obsession for one of their biggest collectors? Dwight Cleveland has every poster of every Academy Award-winner ever, plus quite a few thousand more – and he’d like to get them to an archive. But it’s not going to be cheap.

“Plummer won a 1997 Tony Award for his turn as John Barrymore in the Broadway play written by William Luce. … [The] high-definition movie capturing Plummer’s performance with multiple cameras was done over seven days on location and on the stage during a limited [2011] run at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto.”

“The DNA of the alternative press is now baked into the mainstream: journalistic gene therapy. The least that critics can do is come up with a new name.”

Asghar Farhadi, director of A Separation, says that, while he may currently be making a film in France, “I love my country and I will not change it for anywhere in the world.”

“The event for Asghar Farhadi, whose movie, A Separation, won the Oscar for best foreign film last month, was abruptly scrapped after authorities denied permission, according to the semiofficial Ilna news agency.”

In a study, people pick shows that sound more violent on paper – but enjoy watching those shows much more when most of the gore ends up on the cutting room floor.

Why did John Carter flop when it had all kinds of internal and external support? That’s pretty easy to answer: Blame George Lucas.