Movie City News Archive for March, 2019

How many times

Just got an email notifying me that, after two months of weekly reviews, I'm not allowed to cover films on a regular basis for Miami New Times. This decision was made in connection with Voice Media Group's decision to kill their Film/TV coverage, which we sidestepped for a bit. pic.twitter.com/wRjZ2mbg4U — Juan Less Bell to…

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Deadwood

"It’d be a pity not to recognize what’s at stake." #Deadwood: The Movie premieres May 31. pic.twitter.com/IQpwOmDOwL — HBO (@HBO) March 21, 2019

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Bill & Ted

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“Meet Todd Looby, Executive Director Of BendFilm And Dad Extraordinaire”

“Meet Todd Looby, Executive Director Of BendFilm And Dad Extraordinaire”

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Reading Eagle

The Reading Eagle Company in PA, with 236 full-time employees, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, plans to keep publishing its newspaper as it seeks a buyer (@readingeagle)https://t.co/juMtCAxOxuhttps://t.co/W2vUSmJqeH — Mediagazer (@mediagazer) March 20, 2019

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Queen Video T.O. No Mo

This sucks. https://t.co/1zo4XNXXOI — Norm Wilner (@normwilner) March 20, 2019

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Disney Flicks Fox

“Wall Street and other experts have lauded the strategic benefits for Disney, but also highlighted the cost of launching a streaming service later this year, which will be a drag on earnings.” “I wish I could tell you that the hardest part is behind us; that closing the deal was the finish line, rather than…

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Qt trailer

i broke down the ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD trailer to highlight all of the real-life figures it depicts. from the obvious to the not-so-immediately-obvious (mama cass!) to some pure speculation. https://t.co/2DKlKi4mEq — lindsey romain (@lindseyromain) March 20, 2019

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Clippy

Too soon https://t.co/h2Ylm4ldhv — Jonathan King (@MrJonathanKing) March 20, 2019

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WKW

Wong Kar-wai announced his new film BLOSSOMS as a part of trilogy with In The Mood For Love and 2046. He said he has prepared the script for last 4 years and he’s ready to shoot in the end of this year or beginning of next year #WKWisback pic.twitter.com/d73Cueo39a — Hang Lu (@hanglutvd) March 19,…

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“Disney is scheduled to take possession of 21st Century Fox at 1202am ET. Assets include: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Family, and Fox Animation; Fox’s television creative units, Twentieth Century Fox Television, FX Productions, and Fox21; FX Networks; National Geographic Partners; Fox Networks Group International; Star India; and Fox’s interests in Hulu, Tata Sky, and Endemol Shine Group.”

“Disney is scheduled to take possession of 21st Century Fox at 1202am ET. Assets include: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Family, and Fox Animation; Fox’s television creative units, Twentieth Century Fox Television, FX Productions, and Fox21; FX Networks; National Geographic Partners; Fox Networks Group International; Star India; and Fox’s interests…

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A Veteran Designer On The Psychology of Movie Poster Design

A Veteran Designer On The Psychology of Movie Poster Design

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Korean Film Distribs Downsize

“The overseas market is not an option any more, it’s a necessity. While the number of releases and general production costs of Korean films constantly rises, the box office volume is at a standstill. Getting to a break-even point will become more difficult in future.” Korean Film Distribs Downsize

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Analyst on today’s inception date of Fox Inc. “That is a positive. As much I hate Fox News, they are lucky to be overly reliant on it.”

Analyst on today’s inception date of Fox Inc.; “That is a positive. As much I hate Fox News, they are lucky to be overly reliant on it.” 

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Poster QT

Why isn't QT, the biggest movie fetishist I know, using a 1969 style campaign? This is what movie posters looked like in 1969. That Pitt/DiCaprio teaser looks like it was made before they were signed, like you'd see it on a flyer for Cannes presales. "Credits not contractual." pic.twitter.com/5ptzzjh1Tj — DrewMcWeeny (@DrewMcWeeny) March 19, 2019

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Reviews

What if everyone wrote a review about everything and then published that review everywhere? Suddenly published opinion would seem, well—not so valuable. — Aaron Belz (@aaronbelz) March 19, 2019

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Alamo

SCOOP: @alamodrafthouse will launch its movie-ticket subscription service Alamo Season Pass by the end of the year. It will be unlimited for $20 a month https://t.co/s97y6yWDfi pic.twitter.com/qrn0CkHxGf — Jason Guerrasio (@JasonGuerrasio) March 19, 2019

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Commentary

Let me tell you all something about @BarryJenkins and Sean Baker (@Lilfilm.) These two go out of their way to be open, answer questions, reach out to people AND constantly support other artists and filmmakers. It is an absolutely beautiful thing. Follow them and be inspired. https://t.co/ImElsflOuX — Jessie Maltin (@jessiemaltin) March 18, 2019

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JCB

John Carl Buechler created the most terrifying, brutal interpretation of Jason Voorhees and countless horrific ghouls, but I’d always love his spooky little ghoulies the most. Every creature he sculpted was filled with such life. He was a gift to all of us. Rest In Peace, man. pic.twitter.com/ELug4ZIt9v — Ted Geoghegan (@tedgeoghegan) March 18, 2019

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Norman Hollyn

It is with profound sadness we announce the passing of ACE Member and beloved colleague Norman Hollyn, ACE. There are truly not enough words to pay tribute one of the most wonderful and talented humans we’ve had the honor to know. pic.twitter.com/9GVYK9aO8U — AmericanCinemaEditor (@ACEFilmEditors) March 18, 2019

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Movie City News

“I don’t think it’s cruel to say this, because John himself would undoubtedly have turned it into a gleeful anecdote: When he had the stroke that killed him, he was at a local dinner theater. Hell of a review.”

“I am inclined to aver that every activity needs its critics, from narcissists bloviating in Washington to exhibitors of knee holes in their blue jeans by way of following a fad. So, too, tennis players and others wearing their caps backward. There is, to be sure, only fairly innocuous folly in puncturing pants or reversing caps, but for political or artistic or religious twisting of thought or harboring holes in the head there is rather less excuse. I have always inveighed against the bleary journalism practiced by newspaper reviewers, as opposed to the real criticism performed by, well, critics.”

“I often felt a twinge of grief at the idea that John Simon had devoted his life to a method of work that could only make him increasingly unhappy. Here was a man, elegant, articulate, and vastly knowledgeable, fluent in at least half a dozen languages, whose gifts of mind gave nothing back to the arts he wrote about except a few unkind remarks that made fun of someone’s performance, ethnicity, physical attributes, or, with a pun, on his target’s name. (“If this is Norman Wisdom, I’ll take Saxon folly.”) Other theatre critics keep such darts in their rucksacks for occasional use; John lived by them.”

“One person’s critic is another person’s crackpot. That they are not united in their opinions is ascribable to the Latin saying: quot homines, tot sententiae. I myself prefer being considered a creep, but that is what you get for having what Vladimir Nabokov called ‘Strong Opinions.’ It is odd that in a country so wallowing in negativity, starting with mass shootings and climaxing with Trump, such an unimportant matter as theater criticism should generate so much hostility. The only target patently more important is lead in the drinking water.”

Review: Little Women (no spoilers)

The DVD Wrapup: Cold War, Betty Blue, Official Secrets, Demons, Olivia, American Dreamer, Land of Yik Yak

20 Weeks To Oscar: Cinema, Trump, and Oscar

E. Scott Weinberg On Youthful Fangoria Encounters

Rome Bookstore Closes

With a Grauniad-Alleged $300 Million Budget, Could The Yet-Unseen But Surely Weird Cats Pass A Billion Dollars at The Box Office?

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon