A fire at the warehouse housing millions of pounds worth of Charles Saatchi’s art has destroyed much of it. “Modern art classics including Tracey Emin’s tent and Hell, by Jake and Dinos Chapman, may have perished in the blaze. Monday’s fire swept a London warehouse of leading art storers Momart. ‘Charles is absolutely devastated. We are waiting for Momart to give us final confirmation’.”
Tag: 05.25.04
Welcome To The “Golden Trailers”
“Trailers in 17 categories ranging from “Best Action” to “Best Romance” to “Trashiest” to “Most Original” will compete for prizes in an irreverent ceremony that recognizes a familiar, yet obscure, corner of Hollywood: movie previews.”
Still No Deal To Distribute Moore Film
“Tense relations between Disney and Miramax are complicating a deal to find a distributor for Michael Moore’s anti-Bush documentary movie “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which is still without American representation two days after winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival.”
A Bad Night For Levine And The Met
James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra finish up their Carnegie season on a down note. Why? “It’s futile to speculate on whether any of this reflects the effects of recent public discussion of long-standing concerns about unexplained tremors in Mr. Levine’s left arm and leg and whether tension was created in the orchestra by its members’ willingness to voice their doubts in The New York Times in an article on May 1. The only effect one can state with certainty is the huge outpouring of love and support from the audience every time Mr. Levine conducts. The only reason to raise the issue is that one wants to find a reason for the poor quality beyond simple fatigue at the end of a long season.”
Getting Inside Your Reading
A new interactive reading device expands the experience of reading. “You can get God’s eye view if you want, or you can go in and be part of the scene. You can flip a switch and transition into an immersive VR experience. You can fly inside and see what it feels like to be a blood corpuscle going through the heart.”
Hadid In The Real World
Zaha Hadid “is the world’s foremost woman architect. Yet, until a recent explosion in work, she had built little. This is an award more for influence than for physical impact on the world. Hadid’s extraordinary designs have been instantly recognisable and seemingly omnipresent for more than two decades, well before she had realised any significant structures.”
Shrek 2 A Record Breaker
Shrek 2 took in $105 million its opening weekend. “The opening for “Shrek 2” broke or flirted with breaking a number of box-office records. The film’s weekend gross was second all-time only to “Spider-Man,” which earned $114.8 million in a single weekend in 2002. On Saturday “Shrek 2” broke the record for single-day ticket sales with $44.8 million. And if the preliminary numbers hold, the movie is expected to break the mark for biggest five-day opening, surpassing “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” which brought in $124.1 during its first five days in theaters last December.”
The Decline Of the Sit-com
The situation comedy is in decline. “Amid the hoopla of last week’s presentations to advertisers of the broadcast networks’ prime-time lineups for the fall, it became strikingly clear that the network situation comedy was in as bad a state as it has been in more than 20 years.”
A $46 Million Flop?
The movie Troy took in $46 million in its opening weekend. But that about qualifies it as a flop. “Industry statistics show that box office receipts typically fall 40 per cent between a movie’s first and second weekends. That means that unless interest in Troy picks up substantially over the next few weeks, the movie — which reportedly cost $185-million to produce, before marketing costs — will be a money-loser. Which is why studios dedicate millions of dollars to promote movies months in advance to get as many people as possible into cinemas during that first weekend.”
David’s New Look
“The overall effect is of a glowing colossus restored to something close to its Renaissance splendour. Visitors to Florence should not expect a dramatic transformation, such as that wrought on Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome in the 1990s; but, because of the greater uniformity of colour, it is easier than before to appreciate the statue’s exquisite detail – the vein that stands out ever so slightly on David’s upper right arm, for example.”