Category: media

“We liked the story and that dialogue was hilarious — doesn’t that mean the movie was well written? And that actress we love — she’s good in everything. The director didn’t design the costumes. She didn’t operate the camera for that unbelievably cool tracking shot. She didn’t write that lush musical score or invent the sound effects that nearly rattled our teeth out of their gums.”

James Cameron had to change the entire movie industry before he could make Avatar…

So how do so many actors just happen to be able to carry a tune?

“Morocco’s film trade embodies many of the contradictions facing this modernizing Muslim nation. Here, camera-friendly vistas conceal endemic poverty; the stability loved by studios issues from a king who brooks little dissent; and one of the Arab world’s more tolerant, peaceful countries has embraced an industry that dwells consistently on the region’s violence.”

“Paramount, which released the sequel to “Transformers” over the summer, also had a surprise success this past fall with the low-budget “Paranormal Activity,” which cost just $15,000 to make and has grossed more than $100 million at the domestic box office, and became the most profitable movie in the studio’s modern-day history.”

Hollywood actresses are covering themselves in glory this year, and so-called “women’s pictures” are proving good box office. However, writes Manohla Dargis, “[of] the almost 600 new movies that will be reviewed in The New York Times by the end of 2009, about 60 were directed by women, or 10 percent. … I bet you never heard about, much less saw, most of them.”

“Fresh off its stunning Paranormal Activity success – a $15,000 thriller that has grossed more than $107 million in its domestic release with little paid advertising – Paramount Pictures is set to launch a new production business for movies budgeted at less than $100,000.”

In an announcement, the co-creators of the HBO folk music/comedy series said: “We’ve noticed the less we say about the future of the show, the more people want to talk about it, so in an effort to reverse this trend we are today announcing that we won’t be returning for a 3rd season.”

“With the support of a $10-million economic development grant from the state, developers are about to break ground on a major production studio just outside of Santa Fe, the state’s capital. The $25-million project” is the latest enticement from a state that’s already doing well at luring films and television shows.

“Whether it’s ‘The Real Housewives of New Jersey’ or ‘Jersey Shore,’ the fictional mob reality of ‘The Sopranos’ or the real-folks rock of Bruce Springsteen, if you want real reality, not silly poseurs sneaking into the White House, there’s no better place to find it than New Jersey.”