Smalltalk with James Robertson

If the movie industry thinks that putting a bigger wait in front of Netflix and Redbox will bring back DVD sales, they are deeply, deeply confused:

A new deal between Time Warner’s movie studio and Netflix, Redbox and Blockbuster will double the “window” for new releases. That means the services will now have to wait 56 days after the discs first go on sale to offer them to their customers, instead of 28 days.

For the most part, movies aren't like music - most of us won't watch most movies more than once. Which means that Netflix or Redbox are the optimum choice. A bought DVD is expensive, takes up space, and is only watched once anyway.

The entire industry desperately needs a clue...

Via Roger Ebert, Walter Murch says yes:

The biggest problem with 3D, though, is the "convergence/focus" issue. A couple of the other issues -- darkness and "smallness" -- are at least theoretically solvable. But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen -- say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what.

...

We can do this. 3D films would not work if we couldn't. But it is like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, difficult. So the "CPU" of our perceptual brain has to work extra hard, which is why after 20 minutes or so many people get headaches. They are doing something that 600 million years of evolution never prepared them for. This is a deep problem, which no amount of technical tweaking can fix.

Read the whole thing, which has a lot of detail I left out. Bottom line - it sounds like 3D is an expensive gimmick that most people simply can't adapt to, through no fault of their own...

Technorati Tags: 3d

It's only fitting that Peter Jackson is doing this:

“We’ve known this was coming for awhile now, but according to The New York Times it’s just become official: Peter Jackson will return to Middle Earth to direct The Hobbit. Honestly, it’s a move that makes the most sense. Let him finish what he started. Jackson’s deal is now finalized, as is the deal for Warner Bros., New Line and MGM to all help finance the two-part film, which some have suggested could cost upwards of $500 million for both.”

Hat tip Rob Fahrni.

Technorati Tags: hobbit, lotr

It looks like the "direct to DVD" space died, which is what has stopped the planned Stargate movies from happening:

The only thing that is blocking the SG-1 movie or the Atlantis movie, the only thing, is the fact that the direct-to-DVD market has gone away. We were very fortunate with Ark of Truth and Continuum to be among the last very successful direct-to-DVD releases before it all stopped happening. The market has changed, and it's still changing, and it's not what it was. And, of course, there have been very big changes at MGM that kind of added to that.

Well, what about "direct to NetFlix and iTunes" as an idea then? It's basically the same space, just updated to modern delivery methods.

Technorati Tags: dvd, stargate, scifi

I haven't been out to see a movie in awhile - a bunch of us went out for drinks and a movie this evening, and we saw Kick Ass. Great film - some of the action sequences play like Matrix, if you can imagine a costumed 11 year old girl doing the fighting.

The beginning is a bit slow, but once it starts rolling, it really rolls. Highly recommended.

Now I'm going to have to really ponder every TV and Movie scene I see - wondering just how much is real.

Spotted in Slashdot

Roland Emmerich, the writer/director/producer behind Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012 is planning to adapt Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. The plans include using technology developed for Avatar including 3D and motion capture technology. When asked about using this technology Emmerich responded: 'It has to be done all CG because I would not know how to shoot this thing in real.'

Umm, excuse me? Has Emmerich actually read the "Foundation" books? There's a ton of dialogue, and the action sequences mostly involve scenes no more complex than the ones in "Star Wars", and mostly way less complex. What on earth is there in this series of books that requires more than a trivial amount of CG, much less "all CG"?

I think they need to find a guy who's read - and actually understood - the books. Clearly, Emmerich isn't that guy.

Technorati Tags: Foundation

SpiderMan is getting the reboot treatment instead of a 4th flick:

Mike Fleming and Nikki Finke have just confirmed that Sony Pictures decided today to reboot the Spider-Man franchise after franchise director Sam Raimi pulled out of Spider-Man 4 because he felt he couldn't make its summer release date and keep the film's creative integrity. This means that Raimi and the cast including star Tobey Maguire are out. There will be no Spider-Man 4. Instead, Mike Fleming is told, the studio will focus on a Summer 2012 reboot from a script by Jamie Vanderbilt with a new director and a new cast.

Of course, "Batman" has been rebooted a nearly infinite number of times now, so I shouldn't be surprised :)

Technorati Tags: spiderman

Spotted in SCI FI Wire:

Looks like Guillermo del Toro's Hobbit movies are moving ahead as planned: Production Weekly now reports that they will begin a 14-month production schedule in June.

That's good news - there's been a lot of talk about issues with this production, and I'm really looking forward to it...

Technorati Tags: LOTR