MIRAMAX TO LAUNCH FACEBOOK STREAMING VENTURE
While Miramax already has a deal with Netflix, this is still a fascinating move on the studio’s part. Warners, Universal and Paramount have already moved onto Facebook, as well.
On a less horrifying scale, Netflix is legally doing to the film and television business what Napster did to the music biz. Napster created an entire generation (and the most important generation to music-sellers) who got used to getting their music for free. The industry has never recovered and likely never will. What Netflix (and Redbox) have done is gotten us used to paying next to nothing for our home entertainment. Higher-priced outlets like Hollywood Video went out of business and Blockbuster Video’s been forced to offer similar pricing in a last chance effort to save itself from a fire sale.
Studios would love to use a social media monster like Facebook to go directly to the public and marginalize the Netflix’s of the world, but I just don’t think it’s going to work. They might pick up a few pay-per-view hits along the way, but will it make up for the cost of advertising and the start up — not to mention the effort? I doubt it.
Hollywood can keep trying, but if I were a betting man I’d bet that the Netflix genie is out of the bottle and that in five years you either deal with the Streaming Devil or find yourself on the sidelines.
PIXAR ANNOUNCES TWO NEW NON-SEQUEL FILMS
This is wonderful news.
It’s crucial for the Pixar brand that they continue to create “original” stories. Sequels and spin-offs and prequels are fine. We all understand the need to make money and if the result is an unqualified masterpiece like “Toy Story 3,” no one’s going to complain … much.
But ORIGINAL stories, characters, and worlds is what made Pixar Pixar, and what makes the animation studio such a unique gem in a sea of creative Hollywood laziness. The temptation to create a sure-fire, billion dollar grosser because of a built-in brand with a number after its title is a temptation no mortal can turn away from. But in-between all of that, if Pixar wants to maintain its reputation and build on its first-rate legacy, they must keep the original content coming.
ONLY $490 FOR ALL 20 SEASONS OF “LAW AND ORDER.”
I can’t speak for the last ten seasons, I gave up after that, but the first four — The Michael Moriarty Years — represent some of the best dramatic television ever produced. Before Mr. Moriarty joined Big Hollywood, I wrote something of a tribute to the actor and to the extraordinarily complicated and fascinating character he portrayed and helped to create. Well, maybe it was more of a eulogy. What made “Law and Order” so uniquely brilliant in a sea of mostly left-leaning procedurals, died one October night in 1994. Thankfully, we have DVD to remember and cherish those first four seasons by — which, I can assure you, never get old or lose their dramatic impact.
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QUICK HITS
MORE DRAMA AROUND JERRY LEWIS AND MDA
“SEX AND THE CITY 3” MIGHT HAVE A LIFE
ANOTHER “TOY STORY” SHORT WILL APPEAR IN FRONT OF “THE MUPPETS”
“THE DARK KNIGHT RISES” COMPLETES PITTSBURGH FILMING
DISMAL WEEKEND: WHY “CONAN,” “FRIGHT NIGHT,” AND “SPY KIDS 4” FLOPPED.
INTERESTING NAME FOR A BAND PLAYING ON 9/11
REMINDER: PHIL HARTMAN WAS AWESOME
“THELMA AND LOUISE” IS TWENTY YEARS-OLD?
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CLASSIC PICK FOR TUESDAY, AUGUST 23
TCM:
12:00 AM EST: Casablanca (1942) — An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up. Dir: Michael Curtiz Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid. BW-103 mins, TV-PG, CC.
You don’t need me to list the countless reasons why one of the best films ever made is a must-see. What is interesting, though, is to watch it with an eye towards the arc of Bogart’s character. Rick goes from a self-involved, self-pitying, selfish, above-it-all jerk to a selfless believer in a cause larger than himself — and that cause is liberty.
How many films reverse that arc today — where, thanks to their supposed naïve stupidity and provincialism, the protagonist is a believer in something (family, country…) other than his or her own happiness and self-fulfillment until, of course, the story shows him or her “the light”? How often have we gone from the “the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world” to “I need to liberate myself in order to fulfill myself?”
Yeah, we’ve come a long way, baby.
–Please send tips/suggestions/requests to jnolte@breitbart.com