“Sony has a long — and, until recently, successful — history of making big bets on and indulging the creative visions of top filmmakers and actors like Jim Carrey. That strategy has yielded blockbusters. But over much of the past year, Sony’s strategy has stopped working. Outside of ‘Hitch,’ the studio hasn’t seen one of its films gross more than $100 million in domestic theaters since October 2004’s The Grudge.”
Tag: 11.14.05
Mary Poppins Coming To Broadway
“The show, which will continue its record-breaking run at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End, is based on the PL Travers series of books, and the 1964 film. In London, it was recently nominated for three Evening Standard Awards, for best musical, best director and best design. The musical will begin performances at Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre on October 14, 2006, with an opening date of November 16.”
Baryshnikov’s New Center Of Gravity
The new Baryshnikov Arts Center opens. “More than anything, Mikhail Baryshnikov intends the center as a meeting place. ‘I wanted to bring people together in an informal way. So many collaborations in the theatre, it’s just some producer thinks, Well, this guy had a nomination for Emmy, so, O.K., let’s have him. But it doesn’t have to be well-known choreographer. Could be fair chance given to a young person. I think better collaborative juices grow when people meet on free turf. You’re a poet; I’m a filmmaker. You’re a choreographer; I’m a playwright. People see each other’s work and exchange telephone numbers, and that’s how it starts’.”
Demystifying The Grand Tour
“Brian Sewell’s new series for TV Five, is a travelogue in which he examines ‘the dark underbelly’ of the supposedly educational journeys that were undertaken in the 18th century by young Englishmen from wealthy families. Sewell emits a winsome sigh. ‘The Grand Tour is mostly portrayed as young aristocrats who went off and came back with fine paintings. I wanted to indicate that they caught chicken pox, mumps and venereal disease. No one could distinguish between syphilis and gonorrhoea. There was no treatment’.”
That Song/Album/Movie You Just Bought? (What Do You Own?)
“Not many music lovers have warmed to the idea that they don’t retain all the rights to the music they buy. The crux of the debate is this: When you buy a song, an album, or a movie, are you buying the content only in the form it comes in? If you purchase a song from Apple’s iTunes store, should you be able to play it on any hardware you want? Not according to Apple, which bundles each download with a “digital rights management” scheme called FairPlay.”
Hollywood’s Big Box-Office Year (Despite What You’ve Read)
We’ve been reading that movie box office has been down this year. That’s not quite true. “From January 2005 to September 2005, the movies of the six Hollywood studios earned $4.7 billion compared to $4.5 billion in the same period in 2004. Their share of the American box office rose from 68 percent in 2004 to 75 percent in 2005. The big losers were independent studios who specialize in more adult movies, such as Lions Gate and Newmarket Films, and the so-called “studioless” studios, DreamWorks and MGM, which suffered 40 percent box-office declines.”
Boycott Sony
Corporate bad behavior over copyright protection has escalated, reaching something of a nadir when Sony rendered home computers vulnerable to hackers with its new-generation anti-piracy measures. “This kind of behavior can never be tolerated. It may be unrealistic to think many will heed this call, but someone’s got to say it: Boycott Sony. Boycott them until they come clean and recall all the infected CDs. Boycott them until they distribute a removal program. Boycott them until they promise never do anything like this again.”
Handicapping This Year’s national Book Awards
A look at the field and likely outcome.
Boston MFA Begins $500 Million Expansion Project
Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts breaks ground on a $500 million expansion. “The building project, designed by British architecture firm Foster and Partners of London, will expand the size of the museum by 149,000 square feet, or roughly two-and-a-half football fields. New galleries, a central covered glass-and-steel courtyard with a cafe and a new wing dedicated to art of the Americas highlight the expansion project.”
Note-By-Note Scelsi
“Giacinto Scelsi would have been a hundred this year. Given his mystica propensities, it might be better to say that he is a hundred, although he was observed to have died in 1988. Live performances of this composer’s works remain rare; Michael Tilson Thomas, in San Francisco, is the only American conductor who programs them. It is far easier to get to know the music on recordings, by way of the Accord, CPO, Kairos, and Mode labels. Scelsi’s methods were strange, but he had a command of narrative which no ghostwriter could have provided.”