Good news for Netflix, bad news for Kurosawa: Variety in 60 Seconds

by Karina Longworth Oct 20th 2005 // 3:05PM

Filed under: Classics, Foreign Language, Horror, Deals, Sony, Universal, Warner Brothers, Tech Stuff, Variety in 60 Seconds, The Weinstein Co., Weinstein Brothers, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie

  • Sorry, haters - Netflix is still booming. With third quarter earnings suggesting they've already moved a considerable distance ahead of Blockbuster, the 'Flix is moving to shut down any and all competition. But don't hold your breath for downloadable movies just yet – Reed Hastings says he's holding off on pushing that sector until there's more available content.
  • The Weinsteins have hired Michael Cole, a former exec at MTV and Miramax, to be their new LA-based co-president of production. Cole used to acquire films for Harvey whilst at Miramax; he's responsible for bringing in both Swingers and one of my favorite little 90s indie films, Next Stop Wonderland. Here's the potential bad news: he's reportedly planning on spearheading a remake of The Seven Samurai, featuring "an ensemble cast of international and domestic stars."
  • Speaking of remakes, Breck Eisner has signed on to direct Unversal's second go-round of The Creature of the Black Lagoon. "What I really want to do," says the son-of-Michael, "Is update an iconic image from the '50s and bring in more of the sci-fi sensibility of Alien or John Carpenter's The Thing."
  • After pledging allegiance to Toshiba's HD DVD format, Warner Brothers has decided to back Sony's Blu-Ray as well. The people who gossip about this sort of thing are predicting that if Sony releases a kickass version of Blu-Ray around the time it unveils the Playstation 3, then Warners and other studios will likely abandon Toshiba altogether.
 

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