Hype for the launch of the much anticipated next installment of Harry Potter is cranking up. “Bookshops have been equipped with 16-day “count-down clocks”, modelled on the Weasleys’ clock in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in the lead-up to the worldwide launch on 16 July. The main event will be a reading by JK Rowling at Edinburgh Castle, to be broadcast on ITV1. It is understood there are plans to project an image of Rowling on to the castle rock.”
Tag: 07.03.05
Rewrite! Mr. DeNiro Doesn’t Like His Line!
You’re a big star and you don’t like the line you’ve been asked to say in a movie. What do you do? Call in your own “personal writer”. More and more stars are working with their own writers on the set. “While these kind of personal writers may be well-known inside Hollywood, they often toil in public obscurity. Don’t shed any tears, though. Even without screen credit, top rewrite artists can bank more than $250,000 a week for script revisions and frequently can stay on a movie for months at a time.”
How The Internet Is Democratizing Art
“Entertainment conglomerates and arts-grant bureaucrats still hold the strings to attractively fat purses. But their power is being tempered by the reach of the Internet and the resourcefulness of creative minds paired with cheap, versatile tools.”
Hooked On The Advance Sale
Broadway’s “The Odd Couple” has already sold $18 million in advance sale. That leaves few tickets available when they go on sale this week to the general public. “The type of advance sale that “The Odd Couple” offered through American Express is increasingly popular among producers, guaranteeing money in the bank long before the reviews come in. It also cuts down on costs, reducing the need to advertise after the show opens.”
West End’s TV Stars Leave Town Empty
It’s been fashionable for American movie and TV stars to try their hand at theatre in London’s West End. But “their performances refute the seemingly self-evident principle that human flesh generates more heat than celluloid. These actors are all playing the sorts of irresistible sexual enchanters from whom a wink is as good as a kiss.” But what works on screen doesn’t necessarily translate to the stage.
Coming To A TV Near You – 3D
Next generation TV sets promise some serious geek bling – and 3D. “Ordinary TV sets deliver 500 lines of resolution. Most high-definition screens reach 1,050. The HD3D hits 1,280 lines and counting – which means better picture quality than that of any TV available today, all in a convincing impression of the third dimension. And here’s the seriously trippy part about the new screen, which Deep Light plans to introduce at next winter’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: multiple “blades” of video enable one screen to show different programs to different viewers, at the same time.”
At The Opera – The English Debate
A debate rages at the English National Opera about whether using supertitles is necessary for operas sung in English. Anthony Tommasini appreciates the arguments on both side: “In my passions and my ideals, I side with the purists about the threat titles represent to opera in English. Having this crutch is bound to undermine the heritage slowly but steadily: audiences will look to the screens rather than pay attention to the singers; singers, knowing that audiences are relying on the projected texts, will cut corners on diction so that they can linger on a luscious sustained tone. Yet the pragmatist in me understands the frustrations of sitting through an opera in English when you cannot make out the words. Nothing induces passivity, even hostility, to opera more than that.”
Paris’ New Dance Festival
Paris has a “new three-week festival, Les Étés de la Danse de Paris (Paris Dance Summers), which will be inaugurated with three world premieres on Tuesday by the San Francisco Ballet. Despite an intense interest in the art form, the city has lacked a summer dance festival since 2001, when it withdrew its underwriting. The Paris Opera Ballet shuts before Bastille Day and nothing in dance happens after that for both tourists and the Paris public.”
Cheap DVD Sales Booming
“While overall DVD sales are robust – last year retailers sold $15.5 billion in discs – the low-end market is positively booming. Recently, 19 of the 50 top sellers on the Nielsen VideoScan national sales charts were budget DVD’s.” How budget? There are plenty on offer from 99 cents to $1.99.
Where Art And Biology Meet
“Called bioart or wetware by some of its practitioners, the field is growing rapidly in the United States and Europe, and it is producing bizarre and sometimes disturbing work that seems sprung right from the pages of Philip K. Dick or Koji Suzuki, except that the science involved is not fiction. In many ways bioart represents a logical next step in contemporary art, which has eagerly embraced new approaches and nontraditional materials: video and computers beginning in the 1960’s and 70’s, digital technology and the Internet in the 90’s. But bioart can credibly claim to have made a more revolutionary break with tradition.”