Category: media

On Showtime, “it is the emphasis on middle-age women that has allowed the network to tap into a much-ignored talent pool. ‘We’ve found a formula that works for us. It certainly took us a long time,’ says Matthew Blank, longtime chairman and chief executive of Showtime Networks Inc.”

“The scientific consensus warns of a clear and present danger. A few dissenting voices – dubbed ‘deniers’ by one frustrated researcher – insist the threat is overstated. The media tends to frame the issue in inconclusive terms, leaving the public confused and somewhat skeptical.”

“Paramount Pictures is telling theaters that if they don’t show the upcoming DreamWorks-produced [‘How to Train Your Dragon’] on a 3-D screen, then it will withhold from the theater a 2-D version of the movie to play instead, according to four theater industry executives, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.” Disney and Warner Bros. are also pressuring cinemas.

“American studios, producers and filmmakers are pursuing remakes of several prominent foreign titles — including ‘Let the Right One In,’ ‘Tell No One’ and ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ — even as most domestic distributors steer clear of everything with subtitles.”

“From what a USC Norman Lear Center study has concluded — Los Angeles television news stations manage just 22 seconds of local government coverage for every half hour on the air — broadcasters follow FCC rules like L.A. drivers follow stop signs: as helpful reminders for anyone who doesn’t happen to be in a big hurry.”

The archetypal news report for the archetypal 24-hour news network.

“[T]he Federation of European Film Directors, the European Film Academy, the Asia-Pacific Screen Awards, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Human Rights Watch” have all “asked the Iranian government to either release or charge [Jafar] Panahi and [Mahmoud] Rasoulof.”

Glenn Kenny: “And now let me quote Vladimir Nabokov, as is my wont: ‘Sex as an institution, sex as a general notion, sex as a problem, sex as a platitude–all this is something I find too tedious for words.’ Now, just substitute ‘the future of film criticism’ for ‘sex’ in the above and you’ll have pretty much summed up my attitude. Why? Because I know it’s over. … And I’m fine with that.”

“Delivering his remarks at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas, [Michael] Lynton cited skyrocketing childhood obesity rates before noting, ‘adding healthier options to your existing menu is the right thing to do for our industry, for audiences and for our country.'”

“Today, the peanut gallery, digitally enabled by social media, is casting real-time shadows onto the screen of popular culture. Television, historically an extremely passive way of consuming media, could become something else, a hybrid form of professionally produced content and crowd-sourced comments.”