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Verisign to Distribute Family-Friendly Ficks?

By Chris Thilk (Subscribe to Chris Thilk's posts), Posted Dec 21st 2006 11:01AM
Filed under: Distribution, Family Films, Movie News, Cinematical
What the heck is Verisign, a company that specializes in internet commerce security solutions, doing announcing they're going to be distributing movies online next year? I'm not sure, but a beta version of the system will go live as soon as January 8. The distribution platform, a product run by AxiomTV, will only serve up family-friendly movies and TV shows and will actively block any pornography, violence or foul language. Subscribers will need a simple hardware set and some wires in order to get the movies delivered to their TV.

I'm not sure what the motive here is. Verisign seems like an odd player to get into the movie distribution game, especially with a system that's sure to resurrect the "You're destroying the director's vision" debate. That was the central problem with other services that rented "cleaned up" DVDs and such -- and those services have already had a tough go ... Read

Tourism Board Helps You Find Illinois Movie Locations

By Chris Thilk (Subscribe to Chris Thilk's posts), Posted Aug 10th 2006 7:08PM
Filed under: Lists, Cinematical
The Illinois Bureau of Tourism has created a cool online listing of movies that have been shot, at least in part, within the Land of Lincoln and helps you find the locations featured in the films. For instance, are you curious about the bar where George Clooney goes to find Matt Damon in Ocean's Eleven? Scroll down on the the "Chicago" page and you'll see Damon was sitting at Emmit's Irish Pub on north Milwaukee Ave. Check out the "Central" list and you'll find out the interior of the Illinois capital building was used as a double for the U.S. Capital when shooting scenes for Legally Blonde 2. The lists also serve as a sort of de facto filmography for director John Hughes, who has used locations throughout the state for a number of his movies. Read

DRM kills CinemaNow-burned DVDs

By Chris Thilk (Subscribe to Chris Thilk's posts), Posted Aug 3rd 2006 12:35PM
Filed under: Distribution, Home Entertainment, Features, Movie News, Cinematical
Movie download service CinemaNow has been signing deals left and right to make movies from Warner Bros., Disney and others available for purchase. Recently the site/service made headlines when it enabled customers to burn DVDs from the movies they purchased. BoingBoing, though, passes on word that the DRM the movies are embedded with is causing the DVDs to be almost completely unplayable. Apparently the DRM uses a land-to-pit ratio called the Digital Sum Value that is freaking out and causing completely unfixable errors. The problem is that this DSV is so random that when you introduce variables such as DVD burners, software, blank DVDs and ultimately players, the ratio is so fouled up as to be completely uninterpretable. So if you were all excited about this program and planning to try it out, take care, especially since CinemaNow has a strict one-copy-only restriction on burning. Read

Do These Movie Tickets Make My Butt Look Fat?

By Chris Thilk (Subscribe to Chris Thilk's posts), Posted Jul 10th 2006 5:06PM
Filed under: Exhibition, Movie Marketing, Movie News, Cinematical
Retail outlet American Eagle has teamed up with AMC Theaters to provide the store's customers with some free movie tickets. All you have to do is come in and try on some of American Eagle's new lines of back-to-school denim jeans. All in all the retail chain will hand out one million (said with my pinky finger raised up to the corner of my lip) free movie tickets to AMC Theaters beginning tomorrow, July 11. You can also go online to the American Eagle website and enter a contest to win a lifetime supply of AE jeans and AMC theater tickets. Read

Hulk Sequel Not so Much a Sequel

By Chris Thilk (Subscribe to Chris Thilk's posts), Posted Jun 10th 2006 12:05PM
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Universal, RumorMonger, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Cinematical
(My apologies to Mark Beall for stepping on his geek toes with this one.)

Whether or not there will be a sequel to the not-as-bad-as-some-people-think Hulk, directed by Ang Lee, has been a topic of discussion since about five minutes after the movie came out. Star Eric Bana has seemingly gone back and forth on it, sometimes denying any participation and sometimes saying things were on track.

Now Avi Arad, recently parted from Marvel Comics but still involved in the films as a producer, has spoken about the potential for another Hulk-errific flick. Arad says that plans are still for a second movie to be made. The catch is that this won't be a sequel to the 2003 film but a do-over. The first movie wasn't, according to Arad, enough of a comic-book movie, a situation they intend to rectify this time around. Now that Marvel has its own production house they aren't subject to the studio whims that, I guess, compromised the first film. And they can do this movie on their own, and not through Universal, by calling it a new movie and not a sequel. That's because Universal likely has the sequel rights.

Now Superman is about to get a reboot, but that's coming 19 years after the last Christopher Reeve movie. Batman Begins had a smaller window but it was still almost a decade after Joel Schumacher ran the series into the ground and then torched the remains while clubbing baby seals. But three years seems like an awfully short period of time for a complete Mulligan. I actually think the Ang Lee Hulk had more problems that likely resulted from some power trying to make his drama more like a comic book. For Arad to come out and say that while he liked the first movie it wasn't quite comic-booky enough just seems like he's trying to find a rationale to reclaim the franchise for his own profit and not that of Universal. Read

The Break-Up Reshot to Give Jen a Happy Ending

By Chris Thilk (Subscribe to Chris Thilk's posts), Posted Apr 11th 2006 2:31PM
Filed under: Comedy, New Releases, Universal, Celebrities and Controversy, Movie News, New Releases, Cinematical

Break-up poster jennifer anistonAccording to the New York Post's Page Six (I can't believe I just typed that sentence), the upcoming Jennifer Aniston/Vince Vaughn romantic comedy The Break-Up has been given (NOTE: The Page Six link is now behind a paid archive.  Here's a link to Hollyood Elsewhere discussing this) a new ending thanks to extensive reshooting. The new ending will not show the two characters finally breaking up but rather have them making up and getting back together. Test audiences apparently "hated" the way the movie originally ended and so Universal ordered reshoots that sent the cast back to Chicago for a period of time at substantial cost. The rationale of the test audiences who disliked the ending seems to be that Aniston, who has gone through very public personal issues, deserved a happy ending and to keep her guy.

So the audience is transferring something that is happening to a star in her personal life to her on-screen character. Thank you so much, celebrity gossip magazines. The movie as it was planned and originally shot seemed to be interesting and funny, with a great cast and what appeared to be a fairly intelligent storyline. But now it's been remade into yet another romantic comedy that doesn't try to do anything orginal and plays to the lowest common denominator. Argh.

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Cinematical Oscar Predictions: The Bartender from The Shining

By Chris Thilk (Subscribe to Chris Thilk's posts), Posted Feb 22nd 2006 8:01AM
Filed under: Cinematical



To bring in a little extra cash this winter I decided to take a gig maintaining the scenic Overlook Hotel while it's closed for the winter. Since there are very few people around here (now) to talk movies with, I thought I'd see what Lloyd, the bartender in the Gold Room, had to say about this year's Oscar ballot.

Me: Good evening, Lloyd.

Lloyd: How are you, Mr. Thilk. What can I get for you tonight?

Me: Hair of the dog that bit me, my good man.

Lloyd: Bourbon on the rocks it is.

 

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