“The New Coke experiment lasted less than three months. Qwikster did not even make it make it out of the bottle. In a swift reversal, Netflix said Monday that it had decided to keep its DVD-by-mail and online streaming services together under one name and one Web site, abandoning the breakup it had announced three weeks earlier.”
Category: media
Hollywood Thinks Moving To The Cloud Will Help (Them)
“The studios are making a push to jump-start movie sales by attracting consumers to the cloud. The new digital lockers keep purchased copies of films on remote servers for viewing any time on various devices, a move to make movie ownership more appealing.”
Australia’s Video Game Industry Hopes To Get Cut Of Cultural Funding
The current government’s outline of a new arts proposal includes in its definition of “creative industries” electronic games and fashion alongside more traditional art forms. Says the country’s arts minister, “The games industry is in effect the next iteration of the film industry, because it embraces interaction.”
The Economist‘s Six No-Nos For Movie Actors
Rule One: “Appearing in a pastiche of one of your earlier films is never a wise move. Not only is it disrespectful to that film, it’s also an acknowledgement that you aren’t known for much else. It turns you from an actor to a punchline.”
George Baker, 80, Better Known As Chief Inspector Wexford
Americans know him best as Chief Inspector Wexford from the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, but the actor also appeared in I, Claudius and in countless other stage and screen roles.
Do Oppressive Regimes Lead To Great Art? Exiled Iranian Filmmaker Says Maybe
Amir Naderi, who left Iran 24 years ago and hasn’t been back, thinks Iranian film gets a boost from political oppression: “I believe my country has one of the best cinema [industries] in the world. But I know for art, any dictatorship, any censorship, it allows you to do something new.”
Thank You For Dystopian Futures, H.G. Wells (And Orson Welles)
Why are so many movies (books, T.V. shows, etc.) about a scary machine-driven future? We have H.G. Wells (and Orson Welles) to thank, or castigate.
Expensive Movies That Get Stuck In Hollywood Purgatory
“There are many reasons why completed films get shelved, but the most important is the studios’ fear of failure.”
A Movie Museum At LA County Museum Of Art?
“Looking at what LACMA stands to gain and lose, the balance sheet reads a bit differently.”
BBC Cuts Will Have Little Impact On Viewers – This Time
The network’s Director General, Mark Thompson, “has found a hefty £700m in annual savings by 2016/17 to ensure that the licence fee is held flat, but he has done it in such a way that there will be little impact on viewers. … [But] the BBC boss believes, convincingly, little more can be achieved behind the scenes.”