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 ...

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.

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.

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.

(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.

According 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.

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.

 

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]

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.

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.