Thursday May 31
ACTORS UNION SAGGING: While negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood producers seem well on the way to settlement on a new contract, peace within SAG ranks is remote. The union is torn between rival factions. Inside.com 05/31/01
SCREEN GAME: Movies released in America over the Memorial Day weekend took in more than $186 million. So business is good – except if you run a movie theatre. Because of overbuilding in the past few years, “we’ve estimated one-third of North American theaters or roughly 13,000 screens need to come off-line. The bankruptcy process is going to allow that to be expedited, but it does take time.” Washington Post 05/30/01
EVER WANTED A MUPPET OF YOUR OWN? “Two years ago, EM.TV paid $680 million for the characters. But the German company’s stock has collapsed in recent weeks, and its assets have been going on the block. The Germans already sold several Muppets characters to Sesame Street Television for $180 million.” But Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog are still available, if you’re interested. New York Post 05/31/01
RING DELAYS: More delays for The Lord of the Rings movies. Sir Ian McKellen, who plays the wizard Gandalf, says “he was called back to New Zealand for additional filming, and that almost all of the film’s dialogue has been re-recorded because the original sound studio was not sound-proof.” BBC 05/31/01
Wednesday May 30
WE’RE SHOCKED – THERE’S PAYOLA GOING ON? Federal agencies are investigating, and now a newspaper report details it: Radio stations are taking money to play recordings. But wait, says one promoter, you don’t understand: “The support I get from labels has no effect whatsoever on the musical decisions of the program directors at my stations. [Besides], I didn’t invent this thing. It’s standard operating procedure in the promotion business.” Los Angeles Times 05/29/01
THIS YEAR’S MARKETING GIMMICK? “Bonus” content packaged with DVD releases. Listen to the actors talk, the director, see bloopers, find out how the movie was made… But the trend is getting ridiculous – one director spews on for 105 minutes – and about a movie that was a box office dud… New York Post 05/30/01
Tuesday May 29
WHAT BECOMES A SUCCESSFUL RADIO CHANNEL? Passion, that’s what. The UK’s Radio 3 reinvents, and passion is the key ingredient. “In an age of informational overload – hundreds of CDs released each week and millions of websites – we need presenters as filters and editors we can trust.” The Telegraph (UK) 05/29/01
GRABBING CREDIT: “Outside of money, no topic generates more discussion in Hollywood than credit: whose names appear up there on the screen, how big and in what order. It was among the chief flash points in the recently concluded contract talks between writers and the major studios and networks. One result of those negotiations was that the writers, directors and others agreed to form a group to hash out all sorts of credit issues.” The New York Times 05/29/01 (one-time registration required for access)
STILL A RECORD: Hollywood reports that Pearl Habor took in $75 million over the Memorial Day weekend, making it the highest-grossing non-sequel for its first weekend. Los Angeles Times 05/29/01
- BOMBING THE TRUTH: “Even viewed through that gaping and forgiving lens, the new breed of histortainment – pictures like last summer’s The Patriot and now Pearl Harbor – invites just one appropriate response: jaw-dropping incredulity. The Pearl Harbor filmmakers claim they’ve been historically accurate, but they’ve done The Patriot one better: They’ve rendered accuracy beside the point.” Salon 05/28/01
Monday May 28
SO IS $80 MILLION A ‘FAILURE’? It was brave talk – predicting that Pearl Harbor might top $100 million at the box office on its opening weekend. Won’t happen though. Now Disney says “it was mathematically impossible for the film to gross $100 million over four days, as some people had been predicting.” CNN.com 05/27/01
FIRST TIME AT THE TOP: Film directors talk about their first-ever time in charge of a big production. “In our society every artist is an agonist; but the agon is harder for the artist who depends on others and on considerable money for the fulfillment of his work – outstandingly, the playwright, the composer, the architect, the film-maker.” The New Republic 05/25/01
Sunday May 27
BEETHOVEN, ABRIDGED: Classical music broadcasters worldwide continue to trim the scope and length of the works they present, as aficionados scream and purists sigh in resignation. Even Canada’s revered CBC Radio Two has resigned itself to playing single movements during drive time, to the disgust of even its own announcers. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/26/01
LOOKING FOR THE ‘P’ IN PUBLIC RADIO: “Public radio, once the province of obscure college FM stations and grown to cultural prominence on the back of the National Public Radio network… remains for many a salutary oasis of non-hit parade music and intelligent talk in the mostly conglomerate-controlled wasteland that is radio in general.” But is it even remotely public any more? Los Angeles Times 05/27/01
Friday May 25
WHO’LL SAY IT’S BAD? Movies are arguably the most influential artform of our age. Yet, complains Roger Ebert, “there is essentially no film criticism on national American television, except for our show, the critics on the morning programmes and on CNN. These are about the only places on American television where you might hear that a movie is bad. The other national shows essentially focus on chat, gossip, premiere sound bites, who’s in rehab, who’s getting divorced.” The Times (UK) 05/25/01
STOP-ACTION AT A PRICE: TiVo has been awarded a patent on the technology for its personal video recording device (PVRD), which allows viewers to pause live TV. Wall Street and potential advertisers Lexus and Miller Brewing are happy. Privacy advocates are not – it seems TiVo keeps track of what you watch, and reports that information back to corporate headquarters. Inside.com 05/25/01
YOU WANT ME TO FLY WHAT CLASS? In the current Hollywood negotiations, the actors’ unions want more money. The producers, apparently trying to avoid a strike, say they’re not asking for any major rollbacks. However, they would like to pay less for bit actors, and make performers fly business class instead of first class. Inside.com O5/25/01
Thursday May 24
ACTORS WANT – SURPRISE! – MORE MONEY: The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists represent about 130,000 actors. Here is some of what they want from Hollywood producers. Bigger residuals from Fox. A bigger share of foreign residuals. A pay boost for guest performers on TV shows. Inside.com 05/23/01
STEREOTYPE? WHAT STEREOTYPE? It arrived with bad press – complaints that it stereotyped Italians. And the sound track had to be dubbed, losing its New Jersey charm. So Italian TV hid The Sopranos away, at midnight on Wednesdays. Result? Big ratings anyway, and a new prime Saturday slot. New York Post 05/24/01
Wednesday May 23
BLACK & WHITE TV: “Although African-Americans have been a presence on television since its birth, their presence hasn’t always been a positive or representative one. Why? The answer varies depending upon whom you ask and what statistics you look at. Mostly, though, the question leads to the conclusion that TV is still considered a business that takes place in a vacuum rather than a cultural force with significant social side effects.” Salon 05/22/01
YANKEE STAY HOME: Producers who find Canada to be a cheap and attractive alternative to making their films in the U.S. are about to run smack into the Screen Actors’ Guild. SAG says that, as part of the negotiations to avoid a summer strike, it intends to curb the growth of so-called “runaway productions.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/23/01
Tuesday May 22
THE CASTRO SURVIVES: Even as single-screen cinemas are shutting down around the country, victims of the multiplex culture, San Francisco’s historic Castro Theatre is getting a new lease on life. The longtime owners of the movie palace will be taking over the theatre’s operations this summer, and are promising extensive refurbishing, and a renewed commitment to the community. San Francisco Chronicle 05/22/01
Monday May 21
CANNES WINNER: An Italian movie The Son’s Room, a “stirring account of a happy family shattered by the death of a teenage son,” won the Cannes Film Festival top prize Sunday evening. Los Angeles Times 05/20/01
RAINING BOMBS? As film critics converge on Hawaii for the $5 million party to open the $135 million movie Pearl Harbor, word from the advance screenings isn’t good. And some wonder about the appropriateness of the lavish event. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/21/01
HOORAY FOR WELLYWOOD? Okay, so they’ve filmed the $525 million Lord of the Rings movies in New Zealand. But the country has gone a bit punch-drunk with the Hobbit. “Wellington’s mayor wants to cash in on the anticipated international hobbit craze by selling the country’s capital city as Middle Earth. He plans to create a theme-park attraction in the city where visitors can descend into the kingdom of elves, orcs and trolls long after the three films have descended to video-rental status.” The Age (Melbourne) 05/21/01
THE TROUBLE WITH KIDS’ MOVIES: What’s with these lousy new kids’ movies? “These loud extravaganzas pummel children for attention, stunning them into a sugar-rush buzz that keeps them from realizing they’re getting less for their movie buck than they deserve. Like heart. Like soul. Like a good story.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 05/20/01
Sunday May 20
CANNES WINNER: An Italian movie The Son’s Room, a “stirring account of a happy family shattered by the death of a teenage son,” won the Cannes Film Festival top prize Sunday evening. Ottawa Citizen (AP) 05/20/01
Friday May 18
A DRY WELL? Is this a particularly bad year for movies? “The early months of any year are usually lean, but this was extraordinary. It’s probably a good thing Hollywood was preoccupied by the looming (now averted) writer’s strike; otherwise they might have had to face the fact that the industry seems in the grip of a creative crisis.” MSNBC (Newsweek) 05/18/01
FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT: It is increasingly difficult for independent filmmakers to find screens to show their work. The big studios monopolize the multiplexes, and Roger Ebert says that indies are losing the will to fight on: “I’ve been emceeing this panel for 10 years or so, and never sensed such sadness on the part of directors who have made good films and now find it difficult to get them to North American audiences.” National Post (Canada) 05/18/01
RIVETTE WOWS CANNES: “Finally, the Aha! film of the 54th Cannes film festival. As in, ‘Aha! — we have finally seen a great film.’ The work in question is Va savoir! (Who Knows!) by veteran filmmaker Jacques Rivette, who helped launch the French New Wave 40 years ago.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/18/01
MUGGLE MUSIC: The “Harry Potter” movie due out this fall will, of course, be huge. So who better to provide the score than the man who made Darth Vader, Indiana Jones, and Superman inseperable from their respective music cues? Boston Globe 05/18/01
WE’VE COME A LONG WAY… Despite the continued complaints about the Hollywood’s “celluloid closet,” gays and lesbians are being courted by filmmakers like never before. In fact, many see the gay audience as a huge moviegoing demographic which has the potential to make a hit out of a small, scrappy film. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/18/01
Thursday May 17
THE WHOLE STORY: Technology continues to improve the sophistication of special effects. But even the effects artists say: “When the technology drives the project, it doesn’t work out very well. It’s ideas that drive the technique.” Wired 05/16/01
HOW TO SELL HIGH-BROW: Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge is all the rage at Cannes. But will the rest of the moviegoing world buy it? “[H]ow do you sell a movie set in the decadent underworld of late 19th-century Paris, complete with wacky physical comedy and tear-jerking melodrama, set to a contemporary sound track that includes unrecognizable reworkings of songs by Madonna, Cole Porter and Nirvana?” New York Post 05/17/01
Wednesday May 16
STEVEN SPIELBERG, NO. BRUCE WILLIS, MAYBE: For the first time in more than ten years, French film giant Jean-Luc Godard has an entry in the Cannes Festival. But as usual, Goddard himself is the bigger story: He doesn’t like Steven Spielberg. Doesn’t like American films. Doesn’t much like America. Still, he’d go see a Bruce Willis movie, adding “and I can’t tell you why.” Maybe it’s the special effects – technical aspects of film are a hot topic at the festival this year. The tech and computer folks seem agreed on one point: “When the technology drives the project, it doesn’t work out very well. It’s ideas that drive the technique.” Right. Los Angeles Times & Wired 05/16/01
SALON ISN’T THERE YET: Salon magazine losses are down, but so are revenues. So is readership (slightly). The on-line magazine projected break-even this summer – now it says that won’t happen until the end of the year. Inside.com 05/15/01
Tuesday May 15
NEW GOLDEN AGE FOR FILM? “It used to be said that imported films didn’t play many cities; today they don’t play many states. And yet there is hope. If you look at the movies themselves and not simply at the box office, American films are in an emerging golden age. It is possible to see inventive and even important new work every week of the year – if you live in a city with good cinemas, or have a cable system that offers Bravo, Sundance or the Independent Film Channel.” The Guardian (UK) 05/15/01
THE NEXT STAR WARS? The Lord of the Rings is the most expensive movie project ever made, costing $270 million. Of course there are those just waiting for it to fail, waiting for it to be the biggest flop in history. But the trailer is out, and the Rings website has 400 million hits on the Web site so far; and a record 1.7-million downloads of the trailer in the first weekend. Now the industry is talking Star Wars-big. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/15/01
HOLLYWOOD ACTORS’ STRIKE SEEMS UNLIKELY: “Although strike tensions have been deflated by the tentative settlement with writers actors nonetheless say they are determined to press for more money in several areas, with a focus on middle-income performers they believe are falling behind financially.” Los Angeles Times 05/14/01
EVEN IN FRANCE, THEY’RE SPEAKING ENGLISH: “At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, more than ever, English is the international language. That isn’t just a ploy to crack the American market…. It’s a play for markets including Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, France, Hong Kong, India and South Africa, where English is spoken by most educated filmgoers.” Chicago Sun-Times 05/14/01
WIN A LITTLE MORE, LIVE A LITTLE LONGER: “Oscar winners live nearly four years longer than either actors who were never nominated or those who were nominated and did not win. ‘Once you get the Oscar, it gives you an inner sense of peace and accomplishment that can last for your entire life, and that alters the way your body copes with stress on a day-to-day basis’.” Nando Times (AP) 05/14/01
Monday May 14
THE FIRST WEEK OF CANNES: An animated movie from Dreamworks that’s knocking the socks off everyone, a little Francis Ford Coppola retread, a gruesome French movie about people eating other people when they’re supposed to be kissing them… it’s just business as usual at the first week of Cannes. The Telegraph (UK) 05/14/01
- REDEMPTION NOW: The most notorious American film of the 1970s, the subject of mounting gossip and ridicule during its production and a painfully intimate documentary by wife Eleanor (Hearts of Darkness) years afterward, Apocalypse Now has been reborn at Cannes.” Chicago Tribune 05/14/01
THE MULTIMEDIA FUTURE: “Three new online projects hint at how a combination of audio, video and interactivity might inspire future audiences. One project lets users create music videos on a Web site. Another turns a music video into a computer game. A third illuminates a work of classical music with pictures, sound and text.” The New York Times 05/14/01 (one-time registration required for access)
Sunday May 13
SO AMERICA DOESN’T TOTALLY SUCK: America is, of course, the world’s foremost purveyor of lowbrow culture, from the WWF to John Tesh to whatever it is that Rosie O’Donnell does. So it may come as a surprise to Americans to learn that a nation as culturally advanced as Canada might envy us a part of our vast artistic wasteland. But they do: Canada, you see, does not have NPR. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/12/01
Friday May 11
AGAINST ALL ODDS: It’s hard enough to make a movie and get it noticed when you live in a bustling film town like L.A. or Toronto. But let’s say you live somewhere north of the Arctic circle in Canada, deep in Inuit territory, and you’d like the Cannes Film Festival to screen your creation. You’d better have a ten-year plan… Ottawa Citizen 05/11/01
BUT CAN JULIA ROBERTS SING? The upside of being the hotshot du jour at Cannes is that everyone will listen to anything you have to say, and they’ll do it with a straight face. Director Baz Luhrmann is taking full advantage, declaring that the movie musical is about to make a comeback. San Jose Mercury News (AP) 05/11/01
HOLDING OUT HOPE: The head of the Screen Actors Guild isn’t giving up on a strike-free summer just yet, but tough issues remain unresolved. “One of SAG’s chief concerns going into the talks is the plight of the so-called ‘middle-class’ actor — working actors who in recent years have fallen on hard times due to a phenomena known as ‘salary compression.'” Inside.com 05/10/01
Thursday May 10
THE CANNES CAN: Anticipation is running high at the world’s most prestigious film festival, even among old cynics like Roger Ebert. “Last year’s festival was generally thought to be below par. This year’s is anticipated with intense excitement by the moviegoers gathering on the French Riviera. Of course, until we see the movies we won’t know for sure, but on the basis of track records, preview screenings and buzz, important films are about to be seen.” National Post (Canada) 05/10/01
- GOTTA TALK ABOUT SOMETHING: Of course, no film festival would be complete without a good dose of controversy, gossip-mongering, and over-exposure. This time around, the focus of the Cannes grapevine is Nicole Kidman, who stars in the opening night extravaganza, “Moulin Rouge,” directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann. Ottawa Citizen 05/10/01
GUILD TO VOTE ON CONTRACT: “The heads of the Hollywood writers union agreed Tuesday to forward a tentative contract settlement to the guild’s nearly 11,000 members to vote on by June 4. The guild requires a simple majority of votes to certify the three-year pact, which negotiators recommended on Friday after a series of marathon bargaining sessions.” Nando Times (AP) 05/10/01
Wednesday May 9
CANNES DO: The Cannes Film Festival opens, this year with a distinctly arty non-Hollywood tone.”The official selection includes 22 films in competition and 24 in the non-competitive section, Un Certain Regard, which is, this year, a roll-call of unfamiliar names.” Sydney Morning Herald 05/09/01
- CELEBRATING THE BACK END: It’s been only in the past four years that the Cannes festival has paid much attention to the technology which makes movies possible. But with direct satellite feeds to theaters, computer animation, and digital cameras – among others – ready to revolutionize the industry, the technology is hard to ignore. Wired 05/09/01
A NEW DIRECTION: In movies, the director is everything. Not so TV, where, in the early days, directors were hired “more for their ability to handle the newfangled equipment than for creativity. Interesting directors did venture into live television but… speed generally was valued over artistry.” Now, things are changing, dramatically. Washington Times 05/09/01
A CARFUL OF FLOWERS WILL DO THAT FOR YOU: Ismail Merchant is the salesman half of the Merchant-Ivory team, which has made such movies as Room With A View and Remains of the Day. As a boy, he once went to a movie with an actress: “We arrived at the theater surrounded by people. And they were throwing marigolds on us. And we were submerged in flowers – actually submerged. I said, ‘My God, if you’re making a movie, you’re submerged in flowers!'” He’s been hooked ever since. Nando Times 05/08/01
Tuesday May 8
COMING SOON, SMART AND SMARTER? It used to be that independent filmmakers could trade on the business of being smart, edgy and challenging. “But ‘too smart’, like ‘arty’, has entered the film industry lexicon as a pejorative description,” and the indies have started acting like the more conservative commercially-motivated studios. But the new cult-hit smart thriller Memento is finding an audience, and making money – so…. Los Angeles Times 05/07/01
HOW DO YOU MARKET AN ADULT FILM? “There’s no good rating for a serious movie about adult issues,” filmmakers complain. Most theaters won’t show it, and papers won’t advertise it. One answer is to edit enough controversial scenes to get an R rating. Another – which is gaining popularity among filmmakers – is to skip the ratings board and release a film with no rating at all. Rocky Mountain News 05/07/01
Monday May 7
THE ARTE OF TV: America has no similar TV channel devoted to culture. But Arte, the German-French culture channel, turned 10 last week. It has risen from its initial underdog status to become a luminous figure on Europe’s media landscape and now – having survived labor pains and sundry attacks on its young life – it is at another crossroads.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/06/01
THE CRUCIAL MOVIE INGREDIENT: Why are there no great New Zealand movies? “One thing everyone does agree on is that our scripts suck. In the past 20 years our actors, technicians and deal-makers have all improved radically, whereas our scripts have, at best, marked time. At worst, they have regressed.” New Zealand Herald 05/07/01
NOW IT’S THE ACTORS’ TURN: Hollywood’s writers may have settled their contract, averting a stike. But 135,000 actors represented by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have their contract with production companies expire at midnight on June 30, and talks have yet to begin. The New York Times 05/07/01 (one-time registration required for access)
- DEFINING THE INTERNET: One of the more complex issues facing SAG and AFTRA in their fight with Hollywood moguls is whether to insist on extra compensation if their work is to be distributed online. The Internet is a whole new media ballgame, and no one wants to be left behind in setting a payment precedent. Nando Times (AP) 05/06/01
Sunday May 6
WRITERS SETTLE: Hollywood producers and writers settle on a new contract, averting a much anticipated strike. “The agreement was valued by the Writers Guild of America and the industry’s Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers at about $41 million over three years, less than the nearly $100 million writers had hoped for.” Los Angeles Times 05/05/01
- RELIEF ALL AROUND: “Though they had yet to learn the details of the agreement, many members of the Writers Guild of America said they were thrilled, certain that even a minimal gain was better than a strike.” Los Angeles Times 05/05/01
- ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO… So now all the big shots in Hollywood can breathe a big sigh of relief, thank the money gods for their benevolence, and down a refreshing glass of wheat grass juice in celebration. And then it’s right back to the bargaining table: the actors union will see you now. BBC 05/06/01
VIRTUAL SUPERSTARS: Ever since movie technology started to become truly impressive, producers have used it primarily to distract viewers from either the lack of a coherent plot line or the inability of certain leading actors to, well, act. But a new wave of computer-animated films aims to use technology to create frighteningly accurate virtual facsimiles of the famous actors behind the characters’ voices. Boston Globe 05/06/01
Friday May 4
REINVENTING PUBLIC TV: American public broadcaster PBS is trying to reinvent itself. It’s essential – the network is facing increased combination from all sorts of specialty channels, and its core audience has shrunk. The changes, though, are controversial. Christian Science Monitor 05/04/01
ANOTHER WEEK IN LA: “AOL Time Warner boss Gerald Levin last year earned stock options worth $153 million, $53 million more than the entire Writers’ Guild membership is seeking over the next three years. The studio heads – none of whom earned less than $60 million last year – seem happy to endure strikes that the LA mayor’s office estimates will cost the Los Angeles economy $6 billion. And while the majors are counselling fiscal austerity, Disney is spending $5 million (a tax- deductible expense) on its Pearl Harbor premiere – to be held on a specially-converted aircraft carrier – just as it announces 4,000 layoffs, the kind of fuck-you, scorched-earth management of which Walt would heartily approve.” The Guardian (UK) 05/04/01
THE DOWNSIDE OF FILMING IN CANADA (FOR CANADIANS): The Hollywood writers strike won’t have much impact on production in Canada. But some Canadian producers are hoping for a bit of a break. “Because of government tax credits and the favourable currency exchange rate, it’s cheap to film here if you are Disney, Fox or Warner Bros., but for local producers it’s become one of the most expensive places in the world to shoot.” National Post (Canada) 05/04/01
Thursday May 3
BUY AUSSIE? Australia ponders dropping its Australian-content laws for the Australian Broadcasting Company. The quotas currently stipulate a minimum amount of Australian-produced content must be shown. Sydney Morning Herald 05/03/01
NEGOTIATING IN PUBLIC: The Writers Guild and Hollywood producers are now into the second day of negotiating past the negotiating deadline, trying to agree on a contract to keep the vast US movie machine running smoothly. Maybe one reason they can’t wrap it up is that they spend so much time leaking details and denying leaks… Inside.com 05/03/01
Wednesday May 2
HOLLYWOOD TALKS CONTINUE PAST DEADLINE: The deadline for negotiations between Hollywood writers and producers was midnight, but the two sides kept on talking. They adjourned early this morning, and will resume later in the day, apparently indicating some progress has been made. However, “writers still haven’t bridged a $100 million gap in salary demands, according to sources close to negotiations.” CNN 05/02/01
WISHFUL DREAMING? With Hollywood maybe about to go on strike, and despite considerable grumbling about the quality of product the industry has recently put out, some movie execs are ultra-hyping the summer season: “This will be the biggest summer in history, no doubt. I can identify at least 10 movies off the top of my head that will gross over US$100-million.” National Post (AP) 05/02/01
Tuesday May 1
ONE LAST CHANCE: Hoping to avert an expected strike by the entertainment industry’s writers, studio representatives and Writer’s Guild negotiators went back to the bargaining table yesterday. No one is particularly optimistic. Boston Herald (AP) 05/01/01
TV’s RACIAL GAP STILL A CANYON: A new study of the racial makeup of television’s prime time programming reveals that integration is still beyond the grasp of the major networks. The lack of multiracial casts is particularly noticeable in the first hour of prime time, which is supposed to be the “family hour.” Los Angeles Times 05/01/01