The movie studio business model is poised for its biggest shift in years as Hollywood turns to Internet delivery as the only way to boost home entertainment revenues. Meanwhile, consumers won’t pay enough money for streaming (which caused the Netflix to implode in recent weeks) and DVDs are going bye-bye. LA Times article here.
Bellflower
Flamethrowers, Mad Max, and a kick ass car named “Medusa.” Whatever it takes to mend a broken heart. This movie was awesome, was very impressed – it’s a love/revenge story inspired by Fight Club and Mad Max, totally genius. With all due respect to George Miller, BELLFLOWER director, Even Glodell, should direct the long-rumoured “Mad Max 4.”
BELLFLOWER website.
The film features Dunst and Alexander Skarsgard as a couple that gets married just as a catastrophic, world-ending meteor named Melancholia is headed to earth. Beautifully shot and uncommonly meditative, the film brings out the performance of her career, and could put Dunst on Oscar shortlists. The film hits US theaters on November 11th – my birthday! Check out the trailer – looks interesting.
Melancholia (Trier)
Slacker 2011
Richard Linklater’s SLACKER inspired a generation of American filmmakers by exploring the subculture of Austin, Texas in a loose narrative with a tapestry of quirky characters. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of that iconic movie, 24 of Austin’s top filmmakers banded together to update SLACKER with their own perspectives on the city. SLACKER 2011 is a stream-of-consciousness chronicle of a day in Austin, presenting the city-dwellers, dragworms, proto-hipsters and locations that give the city its modern identity. The film showcases a transformed town next to things that never change. SLACKER 2011 is an homage to twenty years of independent filmmaking, presenting the city’s changing face and showcasing some of its most exciting talent. Read all about it here.
Theater
Here’s a website that chronicles the history of movie theaters. I remember the Drexel Theater in Columbus, Ohio, which was probably one of the first “art house” theaters I ever attended. I saw so many great indie films in the 80s at that place. This was an era when “art films” were simply not shown in the big box corporate chains. Heck, the word “indie” really wasn’t even used that much – it was all “art house” fare – and it just wasn’t mass cool to see these kinds of off-beat films. Then Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee and Richard Linklater came and blew the roof off and “indie” became cool.
Read the NY Times article.
Matthew Modine is taking his personal diary – pictures, notes, etc. – from his time shooting Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” and turning them into a kick-ass interactive iPad app. Read about here on Kickstarter. I helped Kickstart this project – “Full Metal Jackets” is one of the greatest psycho-dramatic depictions of the horrors of war ever, it belongs alongside “The Shining” as Kubrick’s finest work. I can’t wait to see Modine’s pictures and other cool stuff from the shoot. – Monte
