“Sony has told in-house producers and the movie community that it will largely hold off on buying new scripts and other source material, such as books, to turn into movies until its new fiscal year begins in April. It also won’t be paying writers to start work on many projects recently set up at the studio.”
Tag: 10.09.09
Royal Opera House Initiates Major Education Effort
Popular TV shows have “helped spark renewed interest in even what would have once been considered the too highbrow subjects of opera and ballet in schools. As a result, the Royal Opera House is mounting a major new education programme which will include setting up projects in both arts in more than 120 primary and secondary schools this autumn.”
British Columbia Publishing Suffers ‘Massive’ Funding Cuts
“The Arts and Culture branch of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts has cut all provincial funding from the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia (ABPBC), BC BookWorld newspaper and the B.C. Association of Magazine Publishers (BCAMP).”
Waterstone’s Blocks Staff’s Access To The Bookseller
“Waterstone’s has prevented its staff from accessing book trade magazine The Bookseller’s website after it ran a negative story about the book chain’s new distribution system.”
Calatrava Counsels Patience On His Dormant Chicago Spire
“When Santiago Calatrava was in town last week for a lecture titled ‘Beyond the Spire,’ I figured he was ready to stick an R.I.P. sign on his plan for the Chicago Spire, the famously unbuilt condo tower that would have twisted 2,000 feet into the sky at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive. Wrong.”
Gormley’s Plinth: Popular, Yes, But Under False Pretenses
“Quite why so many people would want to believe and disseminate dishonest views of an artwork, I don’t know; but the cultural rhetoric around it seems to be so captivating that everyone wants to join the party, even if it means ignoring the blindingly obvious truth.”
Andrew Lloyd Webber Unveils His Phantom Sequel
“The action is set ten years after that in The Phantom of the Opera, has new music but features the same lead characters and takes place in Coney Island, the wonder-filled early 20th-century playground where New Yorkers gawped at freakshows and broke limbs on terrifying early rollercoasters.”
WWII Vet Returns Rare Books He Looted From Germany
“German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth said the 16th century volumes date to the dawn of the Protestant Reformation when Germany was the book publishing center of the world. The first book has been traced to a museum in Paderborn, Germany…. The second has been traced to a library in Bonn.”
Dublin Fest Puts Edinburgh’s Shortcomings In Sharp Relief
The Dublin Theatre Festival is “the longest-established theatre festival in Europe – but it still feels like a cheeky and energetic teenager alongside the Edinburgh international festival, which sometimes feels like a very grand old dowager, always rouged and dressed in her Sunday best.”
Dudamel’s Disney Debut: How’d He Do?
“[F]or all the publicity about the new 28-year-old Venezuelan music director and the freshness he brings to a supposedly staid classical music, the most extraordinary aspect of the program itself was just how much it represented business as usual for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. … No musical lollipops were on offer Thursday.”