Category: media

“Nikita Mikhalkov, Russia’s most famous and well-connected film director, has drawn unexpected critical fire for his epic new war movie, The Exodus: Burnt by the Sun 2.” The box office take has been disappointing as well.

“In addition to top talent insisting on private jets (do you really think [Russell] Crowe flies commercial?), travel costs include 24/7 drivers (at hundreds of Euros an hour), budget-busting hotel rooms (on top of exorbitant daily tariffs, most local hotels insist on 10-day minimum bookings…) and a retinue of hair and makeup artists, many of whom aren’t based in Europe.”

“South American politicians [have] reacted angrily to plans for Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s latest project, an adrenaline-filled exposé of life in the notorious triple border region between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.”

“Despite the economic downturn that has left many states with staggering deficits, the across-the-country rollback in state tax incentives that some anticipated has yet to occur. Although some states have reduced or even suspended their programs, others, such as Florida, have greatly expanded their programs.”

“Two seasons of their New York sitcom have made stars of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie,” not that the New Zealanders let on in their stage show. “‘If you need to go,’ the bearded, slight McKenzie says lightly near the end of their two-hour set, ‘if you’ve got something else on, just shoot off.'”

The “Glee” character who uses a wheelchair ought to be played by an actor with a disability, some actors argue — and so should plenty of other TV roles, like “the lawyer, the best friend, with the wheelchair never once being mentioned.” Enough with the “triumph over adversity” story lines, they say.

“A plan — floated earlier this year by the executive committee of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ music branch — to replace the award with one for original documentary scores, has been rejected by the branch membership.”

“Today onions are the only commodity for which futures trading is banned,” and “no one is silly enough to ask a member of Congress to simply outlaw futures trading in a certain type of contract — no one, that is, except Hollywood film producers. … But if the new provision makes its way into law, the biggest losers will be the very film producers who lobbied for it.”

“Will the new 3-D, like sound in the late 1920s and ’30s, color and widescreen a generation later, or computer-generated imagery over the past decade, fundamentally alter the way movies are made and experienced? Or will it be more like the old 3-D: an intriguing but ultimately limited gimmick?”

“Italy’s culture minister will boycott the upcoming Cannes Film Festival to protest an Italian documentary that criticizes Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s relief efforts for survivors of the L’Aquila earthquake in central Italy last year.”