NETFLIX SERIES ‘LILYHAMMER’ STREAMS FEBRUARY 6

Here’s part of the press release:

“Lilyhammer,” a gripping fish-out-of-water story set in Norway and starring “The Sopranos” mainstay and E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt, is a new Original Series premiering on Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) to watch instantly on February 6, 2012 in the USA, Canada and Latin America.

“Lilyhammer,” follows New York mobster Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano as he enters the federal witness protection program after ratting on his boss. A sports fan, Frank wants to make his new life in Lillehammer, the Norwegian town that hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics – or as he calls it “Lilyhammer.” Frank has visions of a paradise of “clean air, fresh white snow and gorgeous broads” far away from the temptations of the Big Apple and from mob hit men. Reality, of course, turns out to be spectacularly different.

All eight first season episodes of “Lilyhammer” will be available on February 6 so Netflix members can enjoy the series by streaming over the Internet to connected TVs, tablets, game consoles, computers and mobile phones.

Netflix’ smartest move was not doling the first season’s episodes out one by one. Instead, if we like it, we get to feast on it.

I’m convinced this is the future of television and that nothing will ever be the same again.

Watch the “Lilyhammer” trailer here.

‘THE VANISHING PENULTIMATE MOMENT IN FILM’

Longish but worth it:

The Incredibles’ director Brad Bird and producer John Walker discuss how “movies don’t have people sneaking around anymore. I want some sneaking around in my movie! People are in such a rush to get the action sequences going fast that they forget there’s pleasure to be had in the sneaking around part, taking a look at where you are. So I have a few sneaking around sequences in here, and I don’t think they’re a waste of time” (Scene 9). Whether one artist refers to it as “the penultimate moment” or another calls it “sneaking around” is irrelevant; they are both discussing the same thing. The penultimate moment can be one of the most rewarding experiences for a cinema audience, and there are three elements – contrast, counterpoint, and time investment – that go into its creation. Unfortunately, the penultimate moment and its components are becoming a lost art in today’s world of instant gratification.

More and more actions films make the audience feel as though they’re watching someone else play a video game. This is part of the reason.

‘DRAGON TATTOO’ SEQUEL MOVING FORWARD

What a mess:

Costing around $90m to make, the film has currently taken $60m at the US box office, and only around $12m elsewhere on the planet. And that’s led to suggestions that Sony may abandon its plans to press ahead with the full Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy.

However, it looks like the firm might just be playing the long game. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, a Sony representative insisted that that the film “continues to do strong business and nothing has changed with respect to development of the next book”.

The budget Sony allocates to part two will tell us a lot about the studio’s faith in the trilogy. Sony might also consider filming 2 and 3 together to save costs or simply combine the stories. Part three, at least in the original film trilogy, is mostly set in a courtroom and is also the least exciting of the three. If part two does worse than the first, Sony will be in a real bind when it comes time to produce the final chapter.

NOBODY CARES: HOW ’30 ROCK’ WILL TACKLE KIM JONG IL’S DEATH

If you want to know how rigged the game is as to how the entertainment is able to artificially create a cultural phenomenon where none exists, below is, by season, the ranking and average number of viewers for NBC’s “30 Rock,” which returns this month for what will surely be a sixth failed season.

The Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin sitcom isn’t a cable television show; it’s a broadcast television show. And even though it pulls in only a few more viewers than “Pawn Stars” and sits at 106 in the rankings, the media and the hype would have you believe it’s the “Seinfeld” of the new millennium.

What a racket.

MARTIN SCORSESE ‘CONSIDERING THE POSSIBILITY’ OF 3D FOR FRANK SINATRA BIOPIC

You have got to be kidding me.

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979) — One of my persona; favorite under-appreciated films (Robert Osbourne’s too) and one still not, for some inexplicable reason, available on DVD. My personal copy is a DVD recording from a 1999 VHS recording. So you can imagine how lousy the picture looks, especially on a high-def television.

It was only after I suffered through that print last night that someone pointed out the film is currently available on Netflix Streaming. So, if you like quiet little dramas with smart characters, an excellent sense of time and place, and an intelligent resolution, be sure to check it out.

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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINKTACULAR

PARAMOUNT PICTURES CONFIRMS ‘PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4’

FOCUS FEATURES TO DISTRIBUTE ‘JUAN OF THE DEAD‘

R.I.P. SINGER KAYE STEVENS, PERFORMED WITH THE RAT PACK

R.I.P. SWORDMASTER BOB ANDERSON, WORKED ON ‘STAR WARS’ AND ‘LORD OF THE RINGS‘

12 NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR 2012 MOVIEGOERS

‘THE DARK KNIGHT RISES’: BANE’S DIALOGUE PROBLEMS SORTED OUT?

WHY HOLLYWOOD’S TREATMENT OF ORSON WELLES SHOULDN’T BE A SURPRISE

THE 52 MOST ANTICIPATED MOVIES OF 2012

THE SOUND AND MUSIC OF ‘MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE’ AND ‘WAR HORSE‘

79 YEAR-OLD ROBERT VAUGHN MAKING BIG SCREEN RETURN

10 LESSONS LEARNED FROM UNEMPLOYED MOVIE CHARACTERS

MTV’S ‘PUNK’D’ REVAMP DEBUTS MARCH 19

5 CHARACTERS WHO MISSED THE MORAL OF THEIR OWN MOVIE

TEN YEARS LATER, GRISHAM’S ‘THE FIRM’ IS BACK ON THE CASE

EVOLUTION OF PINK FLOYD ALBUM COVERS: 1967 – 1994

PATRICK SWAYZE’S WIDOW WRITES MEMOIR, ‘WORTH FIGHTING FOR’

9 WRITERS CARRYING THE TORCH FOR MEN’S FICTION

20 FACTS ABOUT ‘JAWS‘

‘ONE LIFE TO LIVE’ HAS BUT 9 EPISODES LEFT STARTING TODAY

A LOOK BACK AT MOVIES AND TV SHOWS ABOUT VENTRILOQUISTS

PETER JACKSON TALKS ‘THE HOBBIT’: FAIRY TALE TONE, DWARVES, & DEL TORO

OUT OF PRINT ‘BLADE RUNNER’ SKETCHBOOK AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE

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CLASSIC PICK FOR WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4

TCM:

10:00 PM EST: National Velvet (1944) — A British farm girl fights to train a difficult horse for the Grand National Steeplechase. Dir: Clarence Brown Cast: Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Elizabeth Taylor. C-124 mins, TV-G, CC.

Excellent classic film for adults and kids alike.

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