Category: media

“The controversial short film Visions of Ecstasy has been given an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Certification (BBFC), after being denied one for 23 years and becoming the only film banned in Britain for ‘blasphemous libel’.”

“Oscar-nominated crime thriller The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo will not be shown in India after director David Fincher refused to cut scenes depicting rape and sexual intercourse.”

“Videogames have long been assailed for their violent themes and gruesome imagery. But a small slice of players has embraced a new strategy: not killing. They are imparting real-world morals on their virtual-world characters and completing entire games on a ‘pacifist run” – the term for beating a blood-and-guts adventure without drawing any blood.”

“Lilyhammer” is the first of five original series Netflix is developing as exclusive content for its 23.5 million streaming subscribers. The company, based in Los Gatos, Calif., is betting its future on streaming original content after losing nearly 2.8 million DVD-by-mail subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2011.

“Can a faltering film industry sustain a company that insists on making ambitious, Oscar-caliber, studio-size films — but without the deep pockets of a Viacom, which owns Paramount Pictures, or a News Corporation, the parent of 20th Century Fox?”

“(Independent movies) used to be made to say something, to make us question our culture, to wake us up. But I don’t see that anymore,” says Parker, star of such indie faves as television’s Parks and Rec and many a Christopher Guest movie.

Both SAG and AFTRA boards voted overwhelmingly to merge the two entertainment groups into one. Now the merger idea goes before the memberships, which together are comprised of about 175,000 actors, extras, stunt performers, singers, dancers, broadcast journalists and talk show hosts.

“When a secretary’s typo changed the James Bond project Tomorrow Never Lies into Tomorrow Never Dies, I’d say she deserved a raise. And is there any question that the horror film originally called Hunter improved its box-office prospects when producers renamed it Predator?”

Amazon sure wants to – and it’s poised to take over the streaming world, eventually. But Netflix, Hulu and Apple may have a few tricks up their sleeves.

“Many celebrated stars of earlier days are off the screen. And it breaks my heart to say their names. … Unless you are film aficionados or watch Turner Classic Movies, these names are meaningless to those who could be my grandchildren.”