Starz Looks For A Premium Streaming Service To Replace Netflix
If memory serves, Netflix offered Starz $300 million. Who is big enough in the streaming world to afford a better deal? Hulu, I guess. According to the story, though, Starz wants to find a provider who charges their customers more than Netflix does:
Albrecht said that “we didn’t believe it was appropriate to have our products included in a low-cost service.” Do they really expect lots of consumers to pay high prices in this weak economy — especially with the anemic numbers cable and satellite companies are posting for premium channels? At Starz the 3Q sub figure was up vs last year’s 3Q but down slightly from this year’s 2Q. “We haven’t seen weak demand,” Maffei says. “This has been a question of marketing and focus” by the cable and satellite companies that promote the channels to subscribers. That contrasts with recent comments from some operators including Time Warner Cable and Dish Network who said that many consumers cancelled premium channels either to save money in a weak economy or to use the cash for online services such as Netflix or Hulu Plus.
These people are living in a fantasy world where it’s still the go-go ’90s, the economy is booming, DVD is new and a vast improvement over what came before (the same can’t be said for Blu-ray), the studios and indies are still making a lot of great films, and Hollywood hasn’t yet alienated over half their audience with a flood of insulting comments and anti-American product.
Memo to Hollywood: make better movies, stop insulting half your customers, and fix the economy by voting Republican. Grow up or face even more decline.
1000 Extras Needed for ‘Iron Man 3‘
Not too far from my home. That doesn’t mean I want you dropping by, though.
The most fascinating place in the world is a film set. Things move absurdly slow, but to see what goes into making the magic is absolutely fascinating. It’s also a genuine opportunity for those of you who would like to get in the industry to make contacts and learn your way around a set. That’s an invaluable experience in any quest to breach the studio wall.
‘J. Edgar’ Might Be In Trouble
This is not me breaking my life-long rule to never make box office predictions, but there’s no getting around the fact that director Clint Eastwood’s film is caught up in the very controversy both he and the studio were hoping to play down. Everyone — conservative and liberal — is talking about how “gay” “J. Edgar” is. And I don’t mean gay as in “electric cars are gay,” I mean gay as in it’s a gay love story with more text than subtext.
From our own Christian Toto’s review:
Instead, “J. Edgar” is like a Merchant/Ivory romance, one told with furtive glances, the occasional caress and the knowledge that love isn’t enough to beat back societal expectations.
Historians who might have otherwise welcomed a serious look at the F.B.I. director’s life are crying foul:
True, the movie did not have any “open” homosexual scenes; yet the innuendos were so suggestive it left little doubt what the filmmakers were trying to convey.
For the former agents, the point is to get the facts correct. They do not deny that Tolson and Hoover had dinner together most nights, traveled to and from work together, and went on vacations with each other. However, they point out that after dinner, they were dropped off at separate houses. The are not denying that the two men had affection and respect for each other, but the facts do not support the conclusion that they were homosexual. Deke Deloach, a deputy director who knew Hoover well and worked closely with him for thirty years, told American Thinker that he talked to Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio at length about Hoover. He commented that he told both, “I traveled with him, we were in each other’s homes for dinner, and I saw him more than I wanted to. There was never any indication of homosexuality. He would never do anything that would do disfavor to the FBI or himself.” In that same light, all interviewed vehemently denied the accusation that Hoover was a crossdresser. As with the inference of homosexuality, the movie took extreme artistic license.
This all goes right back to the Brett Ratner controversy. I’m not accusing Eastwood of caving on this issue, but the fact is that had he wanted to make this film in a historically accurate way, there is no way he could’ve done so without his Oscar chances being torpedoed and him personally being decried as a homophobe.
Artistic freedom is dead in Hollywood.
Repressive “tolerance” is the new mandate.
Furthermore, a 43% rating at Rotten Tomatoes sends a message that no one’s satisfied with this attempt to please everyone.
Looking back at ‘Toy Soldiers’ (1991)
This really is an under-rated action gem. My favorite scene is when the kid wearing the hippy dippy, peace-sign t-shirt gets machine gunned.
The only bummer is that my DVD isn’t in widescreen. But overall “Toy Soldiers” is a tense, well-paced, and effective thriller about a ritzy boarding school for the sons of the wealthy that’s taken over by ruthless terrorists. The spoiled kids all have to grow up and fight back, and the stakes are quite real. Once that first kid, is killed you know anything can happen.
Heavy D Dead At 44, Tributes Pour In
This probably isn’t the best time to ask who Heavy D is.
CBS rebooting ‘The Rifleman’ with ‘Harry Potter’ director Chris Columbus
The original series hasn’t aged a day. CBS should save their money and rerun it.
The reason Westerns fail today is because Hollywood doesn’t make “Westerns” anymore. Every once in a while something special like the recent remake of “True Grit” will come along, but a true Western isn’t just set in the Old West. A true Western is about manhood, individualism, the necessity of violence, and leaving people be… set in the Old West. Each of these values is anathema to Hollywood today and that problem is reflected in the legions of Western offerings that fail. The genre isn’t dead; Hollywood killed it by their own unwillingness to embrace the qualities that made the genre so popular in the first place.
The original “Rifleman” embodied all of those qualities. You had a decent but very deadly man (Chuck Connors) raising a son all on his own and wanting to set a good example for him in a hostile world. More often than not, setting that example came down to knowing when it was time to screw up your courage and shoot those who required shooting.
What makes a Western a Western is the very opposite of political correctness. Television has become a little bolder in its storytelling than the sinkhole of PC films have become, but it’s still difficult for me to imagine anyone recapturing this lightning.
‘Human Centipede’ Sequel Fails To Pull In U.K. Horror Fans
The first one made a total of $253,000 … worldwide.
What kind of idiot thinks a sequel to a movie that made no money will make money? Did we learn nothing from “Eddie and the Cruisers 2”?
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SCOTTD’S EPIC LINK-TACULAR
LIONSGATE LOST $24.6 MILLION LAST QUARTER
‘LOST’ WRITER BRIAN K. VAUGHAN HIRED TO PEN ‘UNDER THE DOME’ TV ADAPTATION
A MINUTE WITH: MICKEY ROURKE TALKING ‘IMMORTALS’
SCOTT FRANK TO WRITE AND DIRECT ADAPTATION OF BRITISH MINISERIES ‘UNFORGIVEN‘
CONTENTS OF MICHAEL JACKSON’S HOME FOR SALE
‘PLAYBOY’ CONFIRMS LOHAN WILL BE IN MAGAZINE NEXT MONTH
SET PHOTOS FROM ‘EXPENDABLES 2‘
ANOTHER DOUBLE DOSE OF STEPHEN KING HEADED TO THE SCREEN
WARNER BROS. TO CHOP UP MOVIES INTO EASILY-SEARCHED CLIPS
21 DREADFULLY PHONED IN PERFORMANCES
NEW ‘ROBOCOP’ WILL BE AN ORIGIN STORY
HARLAN ELLISON WINS ‘IN TIME’ LAWSUIT
MORE FOOTAGE FROM ‘THE DARK KNIGHT RISES’
INTERVIEW WITH VETERAN STUNTMAN VIC ARMSTRONG
FOX: ‘TERRA NOVA’ NOW A TOSS UP TO BE CANCELED OR RENEWED
IS FANTASY A GENRE OF CHRISTIANITY?
COOL INFOGRAPHIC: MICHAEL BAY’S EXPLOSIONS
‘THE MUPPETS’ OPENING DANCE NUMBER DARES YOU NOT TO SMILE
THE BEST FAN FILMS OF ALL TIME
MEET THE NEXT CROP OF FOUND FOOTAGE MOVIES
ARE ALL MOVIE POSTERS THE SAME?
3-ALARM FIRE REPORTED AT GEORGE LUCAS’ SKYWALKER RANCH
WHY THE UNDEFEATED 1972 MIAMI DOLPHINS DESERVE A MOVIE
THE ‘AKIRA’ REMAKE: ADVICE FROM A FANBOY
A LOOK AT THE SET DESIGN OF ‘THE SHINING‘
THE SUDDEN DEATH (AND PROMISING AFTERLIFE) OF FILM
THE 20 MOST MISQUOTED MOVIE LINES
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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING
A terrific double feature…
The African Queen (1951): On Blu-ray, this is a beautiful movie experience. Two middle-aged movie stars stuck on a small boat fall in love, and yet it’s pure magic. It’s also VERY patriotic, or as critics would call it today, “jingoistic and simple-minded.”
The making-of documentary that comes with the disc is almost as good.
Boss (2011): Kelsey Grammer plays the same character for 20 years, and yet he’s such a talented actor that you immediately forget all about Frasier Crane within seconds of his first close-up on this very promising new Starz drama. I’ve only seen the premiere episode, but something tells me that those of us jonesing for something to help us get over the cancellation of “The Wire” might have finally found it. Superb performances, complicated characters, subtle but shocking reveals, and a script with the kind of page-turning, addictive depth that reminds you of a great novel. Those were all hallmarks of the brilliant “Wire,” as was the grim reality of the urban American political machine.
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CLASSIC PICK FOR THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10
5:30 PM EST: Mr. Skeffington (1944) — A flighty beauty marries a stockbroker for convenience and almost ruins both their lives. Dir: Vincent Sherman Cast: Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel. BW-146 mins, TV-G, CC.
One of the great all-time melodramas. The climax is unforgettable. An amazing love story starring two immortals.
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