Well, this is wrong on so many levels, it's kind of hard to keep count.

This gentleman has recreated various scenes (including some of those scenes) from Brokeback Mountain using Legos. He's even included little captions to fully capture the moments. I don't even want to know how the mind works that thinks, "Hmmm. I've got about 18 hours to spare. Let's make Lego scenes of gay cowboys."

I think this, at least, is a version of the movie that people of all political persuasions and social levels can come together on. I mean, what doesn't look harmless and funny when you see it done with Legos?

[Via BoingBoing]

Read

The Justice Department has told theater chain AMC that it must upgrade wheelchair-accessible seating in 1,200 auditoriums. Just to make sure no one thought they were kidding they've also slapped AMC with a $300,000 fine. $200,000 of that must go to patrons who lodged complaints. The screens in question have auditorium-style seating, which often pushes spots for wheelchairs toward the bottom of the house and closer to the screen. That results in the wheelchair occupants having to crain their necks a bit to see the movie, something that's uncomfortable even for viewers in the regular seats. To accomodate that ramps will have to be built so wheelchairs can be to the back of the theater. All new theaters being built by AMC in the next five years must comply with guidelines set out as part of the penalty. Read

Jeffrey Wells raises an interesting point regarding the upcoming Steven Spielberg drama Munich. He points to the current issue of Time Magazine that features a cover story, Q&A  and review spotlighting the director and his latest movie, all by Time columnist and critic Richard Schickel. In the introduction to the Q&A, it's noted that Schickel and Spielberg worked together on a documentary called Shooting War. So how, Wells asks, is Schickel not guilty of a major conflict of interest here? How are we supposed to assign any sort of journalistic credibility to his interview or critical merit to his review when he's collaborated with the subject? I think that's a good question for the entire entertainment media industry to be asking themselves. When you get that comfy in bed with the subject you're covering in a business relationship there comes a time when you begin to lose what journalistic high-ground you might have had. Read

Many of you may be familiar with the idea of a wiki. It's an open-source, community-driven and produced encyclopedia-like site that draws on the knowledge of the general public. The most prevelent example is the Wikipedia, a site which not only has become a go-to starting point for information seekers but has also evolved into a great source for news.

Well there is now a wiki-powered resource for all things Star Wars. The Wookieepedia (an excellent name) is your all-inclusive site for everything you might need to know. All aspects of the Star Wars universe are covered, from the movies, the novels and even the Marvel Comics series. One of the great things about wikis is their power to connect events, and in the case of Star Wars that's a great thing to have at your hands. An event from a recent book might have been related to something that happened in a comic book years ago. The events might not connect to you, but someone here has it covered.

Read

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire helped two of the largest online movie ticket services set new sales records this past weekend. MovieTickets.com sold $10 million worth of tickets for the latest adventure of the boy wizard and his pals, with last Friday - opening day - setting a new one day record for the number of tickets sold.  Fandango, meanwhile, sold $12 million worth. Both sites compare the number of Potter tickets sold to the number sold for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Goblet of Fire blew past Sith on MovieTickets.com but comes in second on Fandango.

Is this the year where online ticket buying finally reaches its tipping point in terms of mass adoption? Combined, the two services accounted for 20% of the movies U.S. income this weekend. That's got to be indicative of more momentum being gained by the idea of buying tickets online.

Since I've been wondering lately about the eventual fates of the Harry Potter stars, I thought this was as good a time as any to get back in the Tracking the HSX groove.   

First off, though, lets look at the stock for the new movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Shares today, the Monday before opening, are up just over a point to $254.81 on midday volume of over nine million traded. That's a new high since the movie became available in November of 2001.

Read

There's always been a lot of controversy over what content pushes a movie over the line from a PG-13 to an R. A single three-second sequence or a couple of words can be all that differentiate the two. Crossing that line can cost a studio a bunch of money since it's harder (though far from impossible) for the early teenagers that are so prized by studios to get in. But what about the difference between a PG and a PG-13?

As films which appeal to the whole family are increasingly profitable and popular there may be a sort of "ratings creep" happening in the MPAA's decision making. That's at least the opinion reached after Harvard and UCLA conducted surveys over the last two years. It appears that movies which are kid-themed such as The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe might get a PG for sequences that might earn a PG-13 in a movie aimed squarely at adults. The MPAA sticks to the story that most parents are satisfied with the ratings system but there's little (reasonable) doubt that it feels pressure from studios to assign ratings to blockbuster releases that will help box-office returns when at all possible.