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Moviefone's Response to the TechCrunch Post

By Patricia Chui (Subscribe to Patricia Chui's posts), Posted Mar 15th 2011 7:16PM
Filed under: Hot Topic
TechCrunchBy now you may have read the recent post in TechCrunch regarding that site's SXSW coverage of the film 'Source Code.' A representative from Moviefone, who set up the interview with Summit Entertainment, received some feedback from the studio and passed it along to TechCrunch (our sister site here at AOL). That email has now caused something of a Internet kerfuffle.

Here is the email -- reprinted in the post -- that was sent to the TechCrunch writer.

Hey Alexia,

Hope you're having a good time at SxSW and that it's not been too crazy busy for you!

First wanted to thank you for covering Source Code/attending the party, etc. But also wanted to raise a concern that Summit had about the piece that ran. They felt it was a little snarky and wondered if any of the snark can be toned down? I wasn't able to view the video interviews but I think their issue is just with some of the text. Let me know if you're able to take another look at it and make any edits. I know of course that TechCrunch has its own voice and editorial standards, so if you have good reasons not to change anything that's fine, I just need to get back to Summit with some sort of information. Let me know.

Thanks!

TechCrunch's issue with Moviefone is that by sending this email, we, in their words, "asked us to change our post. It's not just sad, it's wrong."

I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify a few things.

1) The person who wrote that email was not acting in an editorial capacity. That person's job is to act as an intermediary between the studios and editorial -- not to dictate content, nor to weigh in on the content of Moviefone or any other AOL site. In fact, the presence of a person with that role is just one means we have of ensuring editorial integrity on Moviefone.

2) This is important: We never told TechCrunch to change the post in any way. A publicist at Summit reached out asking if we could convey the studio's feedback to TechCrunch. We did so. If the editors had responded that they declined to edit the post -- which, naturally, is entirely their call -- we simply would have conveyed that information back to Summit.

The reality of our situation is that, as a movies site, we work with movie studios every day, and it is in our best interests to stay on good terms with them. Staying on good terms with studios means that we will relay information if asked. It does not mean that we would ever force a writer or an editor to edit their work for the sake of a studio -- or anyone else.

We take editorial integrity seriously at Moviefone, and it's painful to be depicted as a pawn of the studios when that is emphatically not the case. You may think it unseemly for a studio to request changes in an article; that's certainly your right. But the accusation of pandering on our part or crossing an editorial line is, to my mind, completely unfair, and I would hope that a reasonable reader would be able to recognize the situation for what it is -- overblown and unwarranted.

Patricia Chui
Editor-in-Chief, Moviefone

Alan Rickman's Greatest Insults, from Hans Gruber to Severus Snape

By Patricia Chui (Subscribe to Patricia Chui's posts), Posted Feb 25th 2011 10:40PM
Filed under: Video, 'Fone Finds
Alan Rickman as Professor SnapeVeteran actor Alan Rickman's birthday was Feb. 21 -- he turned 65, which means he now qualifies for that coveted senior citizen discount.

But no matter how many films he's been in, Rickman will always be one thing to us: evil. Purely, deliciously evil. Not the actor himself, of course, but the villains he's played, from Hans Gruber in 'Die Hard' to Severus Snape in the 'Harry Potter' movies to the sheriff of Nottingham in 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.'

No one can hurl an insult, curl a lip, or shoot a withering stare like Alan Rickman. And therefore, it is with great admiration (and not a little fear) that we have assembled the man's greatest moments in insultitude. Call off Christmas!

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Oscar the Grouch Makes His Oscar Predictions (Video)

By Patricia Chui (Subscribe to Patricia Chui's posts), Posted Feb 23rd 2011 11:15AM
Filed under: Video, Oscar News
The Oscars are coming up on Feb. 27 -- and though we have our own Oscar predictions about who will win, we thought it only appropriate to seek the opinion of the second most famous Oscar of all, Oscar the Grouch. (Oscar Wilde was, sadly, unavailable.)

Oscar's Oscar predictions go from the conventional (Colin Filth!) to the surprising (trash-talkin' Christian Bale). Check out all the dirt after the jump.
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'Pirates of the Caribbean 4' Trailer: Mermaids, Zombies and Blackbeard

By Patricia Chui (Subscribe to Patricia Chui's posts), Posted Feb 6th 2011 8:44PM
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Summer Movies, Coming Soon

What will a 'Pirates' movie without Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom look like? Is Captain Jack (the inestimable Johnny Depp) still crazy after all these years? We got some answers with the 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' trailer, which aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLV.

Watch the trailer after the jump.
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'Winter's Bone': More on the Movie and Stars Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes

By Patricia Chui (Subscribe to Patricia Chui's posts), Posted Jan 25th 2011 11:39AM
Filed under: Hot Topic, Oscar News

When the 2011 Oscar nominations were announced this morning, the fact that 'Winter's Bone' was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Actor (John Hawkes) and Best Adapted Screenplay piqued some curiosity among moviegoers, if only because Debra Granik's indie about a teenager searching for her father in the drug-infested culture of the Ozarks isn't as well-known as many of the other nominees.

Yet 'Winter's Bone' received a huge amount of critical acclaim when it was released last June. It received a 94-percent-fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating, and we here at Moviefone ranked it fourth on our 50 Best Movies of 2010 list, describing the film as follows:

The story of Ree, a teenager trying to track down her wayward father among a network of similarly wayward (and criminal) relatives, seems like the kind of indie that gets acclaim at festivals and is quickly forgotten. But 'Winter's Bone' is a far better, far weightier film than that. Filmed on location in the Ozarks, the film evokes not just a place and a way of life but a fierce sense of loyalty, desperation and pride. John Hawkes as Ree's uncle is explosive with menace and pain -- and Jennifer Lawrence as the headstrong Ree, who comes of age in ways most people will never (thank God) have to undergo, is a revelation, giving us what is certainly one of the best performances and strongest female characters of the year.
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