It’s difficult to predict what stars or what movies will live long after they’re made. But David Ansen takes a ruthless look at today’s A-List stars – “Who, in the end, promises to leave the most lasting legacy? When I toted up my speculative lists, the answer came as a surprise. He hadn’t even come to mind when I started playing this game. Nor does he comfortably fit into any of the standard categories, being the most unconventional of romantic leads, uncategorizable as either boy or man, and enough of a chameleon to morph from the most wigged-out roles in indie movies to the most mainstream Hollywood action fodder.”
Tag: 07.11.05
The Story Reading Machine
Tired of reading to your kid? Now there’s a website that will do it for you. “One More Story is a new online library where children can choose a book – complete with narration, highlighted text, and the book’s original illustrations – and listen as they read along on the computer.”
Hollywood – At War Over The Next DVD
Big movie studios are so far unable to agree on which of two new DVD formats will be the standard. “Hollywood has been unable to throw its weight behind one format, and because the rival discs are largely incompatible, the studios have been unable to persuade the manufacturers to reach a compromise or to get one side to withdraw. Compounding matters, many Hollywood executives have staked their reputations – both corporate and personal – on one technology or the other, making it politically difficult for them to switch sides.”
Google Libray? Time To Ask Questions…
There are plenty of big questions to ask about Google’s library digitization project, writes Christopher Allen Waldrop. There’s the privacy issue for one. “The fight’s just beginning and no one can say how long it will go on or how it will end. Google’s partners need to get their common sense back and take this opportunity to start asking the hard questions about what the Google Library Project means for libraries, their patrons, and the future. It’s the one area where the problem is not too much information but too little.”
The New Home Movies (It’s A Very Big Show)
“Today’s cash-rich, time-poor masters of the universe have found a new and creative way to preserve their family history. Welcome to the age of the professionally produced family movie, where budgets almost rival broadcast TV productions. Well-heeled City bankers, consultants and the like are spending as much as £40,000 on having experienced TV crews shoot biographical documentaries about their own family, for private viewing. These productions – some 200 a year are being made by the leading company in the field – are put together with all the skill, resources and production values of proper documentary television.”
Pianist Alexei Sultanov, 35
The controversial Van Cliburn Competition winner had suffered a series of strokes over the past decade. “He was always one of a kind, always unique. He was always at the center of attention, always fiery, brilliant. People loved him or hated him, but more people loved him. Whatever one thought of Sultanov’s playing, there are many worse epitaphs than that.”
The Olympic Architecture Left Behind (It matters)
“A successful Olympics is measured not just by the gold medal tallies, the firework displays that accompany the opening ceremonies or the receipts from the television rights and the sponsorship money, but most conspicuously by what it leaves behind. With its soaring roof rising out of the Yoyogi park, Kenzo Tange’s Olympic pool for the Tokyo Games is still a landmark 40 years after it was built. It served to mark Japan’s coming of age as a modern state after post-war reconstruction. And Frei Otto’s stadium in Munich – despite the horror of the assassination of the Israeli athletes at 1972 Olympics – is a magical structure. Its elegant tent-like roofs are so popular that there was an outcry when there was a move to demolish it. But in the case of Montreal, and now sadly Athens too, the Olympic legacy is mainly seen in the form of debt.”
Media Honchos Meet To Ponder Future
Heads of large media companies meet for a weekend conference to plot the future. “How traditional media interact with Internet powers like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN network is one of the most compelling strategic questions facing the media giants. For the first time, media companies recognize their power, and not just their financial power but also their ability to move huge amounts of advertising time and people. The media guys need to find ways either to partner with them or compete against them.”
Your Odds Of making It As A Writer
What are the odds of making it as a successful writer? “1 in 380. Or, if you tweak the numbers to allow for a range of error, 1 in 200 to 1 in 500. You’ve gotta admit those aren’t exactly encouraging. Would a pharmacist go to school if the odds were less than 1 in 100 they would get a job when they get out? Writers have it worse than Division 1 college football players vying for slots in the pros, and “way worse than (the odds) Miss America contestants face. And they get to flaunt cleavage.”
A Year of Shakespeare
The Royal Shakespeare Company reveals details of its ambitious plans to produce the entire stage works of Shakeseare in a single season. “The year-long festival will see every word ever written by the playwright performed in Stratford-upon-Avon from April 2006. The Complete Works will embrace film, new writing and contemporary music as well as a comprehensive survey of theatre artists currently interpreting Shakespeare worldwide. It will be the first time all 37 plays, sonnets and long poems have been presented at the same event.”