In what has to be the most ironic post he's ever written, Mark Cuban put a piece up today on his own blog explaining his decision to ban bloggers from the Dallas Mavericks locker room. Now, Cinematical isn't a sports blog, it's a movie blog, but Cuban, of couse, also owns HDNet and Magnolia, companies we work regularly with, and so naturally I found some of the things he's had to say about his decision a bit ... disconcerting.

According to a story on the Dallas Morning News (which should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, since they currently employ Tim MacMahon, the only blogger banned from the Mavs' locker room thus far), Cuban responded to questions from a reporter about the ban by saying "What I do care about is being fair to all bloggers," and that there's "not enough room in the locker room, nor enough media passes to fairly accommodate everyone." The DMN seems to think Cuban's decision was intended as retribution against MacMahon for writing a piece criticial of Mav's coach Avery Johnson. Cuban says it's not.

In January, we brought you word of Brian De Palma's newest film, the Iraq war drama called Redacted. Coming from the term used to describe text that has been edited with black bars, the drama details the Al-Mahmudiyah Incident -- where soldiers murdered a young Iraqi girl's parents and younger sister before gang-raping and murdering her as well. The film is currently surfing the film fest circuit, and our Ryan Stewart reviewed it at TIFF. Now the film is being redacted itself.

At the end of his film, the director included disturbing images that were never published by the press, which he had found online. Mark Cuban and Magnolia want them removed. During a recent press conference at the New York Film Festival, IFC captured an argument between De Palma and Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles over the dispute. When De Palma starts to discuss the removal of the images, and his fight to keep them, Bowles jumped in from the back row to argue with him over them, before the film's producer, Jason Kliot, also came on stage to give his two cents. De Palma, meanwhile looks like he can't wait to get out of there and explode.

Ex-Cinematical head and current Spout blogger Karina Longworth contacted Mark Cuban about the argument, and he says: "The film is going to be 'redacted' before we release it. He is using images that have not been cleared... he can absorb 100 percent of the risk and release the film as he sees fit. If he chooses not to, then we will release the movie without the images." But it's not only business, Cuban also swears he won't include them so that family members could accidentally stumble upon the disturbing pictures and see a murdered loved one. I see where he's coming from, but in that case, why would you give De Palma the money to do whatever he wants? It's not like the guy is all about cinnamon hearts and puppies -- this is just like Casualties of War.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, IFC Films is going to release two new star-driven movies in theaters and On Demand on the same day. The films will be released by First Take, the "day-and-date" division of IFC. Previous attempts at day-and-date films have been extremely controversial with theater owners, who often refuse to book the movies, claiming, perhaps rightfully so, "Why would anyone leave the house and come to our theater if they can get the movie in the comfort of their own home?" Currently, Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban's Landmark Theaters are one of the few chains who will book day-and-date films, and even have their own day-and-date program, Sneak Preview. I'll stop saying day-and-date, I promise. You can read genius Cinematical writer Patrick Walsh's report on Steven Soderbergh's adventures with the distribution practice here, and Ryan's interview with Cuban right here.

What are the two new films? The crime drama Savage Grace, directed by Tom Kalin (his first feature-length film since 1992's Leopold and Loeb story Swoon) stars Julianne Moore and Hugh Dancy. Grace tells the "true story of socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland's 1972 murder," and was a $5 million production. Finishing the Game, a Bruce Lee mockumentary, was directed by Justin Lin (the very cool Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast and the Furious 2: Tokyo Drift). Game features cameos by James Franco and...uh...MC Hammer (how'd they get Hammer to sign on? Offer him a hot meal?), and "imagines the recasting of Lee's final role in Game of Death before filming was completed." You can read Scott's generally positive Sundance review of Death here. Grace will premiere in theaters and on IFC next year; Death next month.

While most movie theater chains have been more interested in wooing audiences with material amenities like concession variety or a "Guest Response System," Landmark Theatres has been working on delivering the best picture quality to its customers. This week the art-house chain opens its latest theater in Los Angeles' Westside Pavillion, and the cinema is noteworthy because it is offering the city its first (public) taste of 4K digital projection. Landmark already has 4K projectors, specifically Sony's SXRD, in locations around the country, despite the fact that most content is only digitally available with 2K resolution.

While I'm no expert on digital projection, here is what I understand about the difference between 2K and 4K resolution (aided by Jette's post about digital restoration): 2K is the current standard for both digital cameras and digital projectors. The amount of (picture) information offered by 2K is less than the amount of information offered by film and film prints. 4K offers twice as much information as 2K and it more sufficiently represents the quality of film. While 4K cameras are currently available, most digital features are shot with 2K cameras and most features shot on film are digitally scanned using 2K scanners. So why is it so important for Landmark to have overqualified projectors?

Landmark is co-owned and co-run by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban, the duo that also operates HDNet (and HDNet Films and HDNet Movies). Through HDNet, Wagner/Cuban is currently producing 4K content, which they will be able to distribute to their 4K projectors, as well as to non-theatrical 4K media (like Blu-Ray, HD DVD and HD television, presumably). Cuban also points out that they are simply preparing for when 4K content becomes more common. For now, though, Landmark patrons will only be able to appreciate 4K resolution in the form of pre-show materials provided by Sony. If Wagner and Cuban are smart (which they certainly are), they will also hit up Warner Bros. for newly restored 4K versions of Blade Runner, Cool Hand Luke and Bonnie and Clyde to screen as part of their midnight movies selection.

There aren't a whole lot of WWI veterans left (I think there's less than a handful of Americans), which is a shame with Memorial Day coming up since many people aren't familiar with the significance of that Great War. It certainly hasn't helped that Hollywood -- the history textbook writer for many young Americans -- hasn't been interested in the first World War as a subject for a long time. The studios used to produce great WWI films like Wings, All Quiet on the Western Front and Sergeant York. Then WWII came along and became the more popular war, with its definite villain, Adolph Hitler. Meanwhile the best WWI movie we've gotten in awhile (from the U.S., anyway) is the terribly cartoon-like Flyboys, which actually had to be made independently.

There's hope on the horizon, though, as a new WWI epic is being written by Christopher McQuarrie. The screenwriter of The Usual Suspects and the upcoming WWII movie Valkyrie, McQuarrie is interested in making a film that not only depicts the Great War, but also explains it. His script, titled No Man's Land (not to be confused with the German WWI film Niemandsland or the recent foreign Oscar-winner No Man's Land) focuses on the stories of three soldiers who stand in to illustrate the reasons for their nation's involvement in the war. One is an American who fights first for the French Legion and then for the U.S.; one is a Brit who is wrongly accused of being a coward; and the third is a German trench dweller.

When Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's production company -- 2929 Entertainment -- simultaneously released Steven Soderbergh's Bubble theatrically, on DVD, and on pay TV, the movie business went into an uproar. "They're killing the cinema!" people cried. To silence those haters, Cuban and Wager are now working on making going to the movies the kind of experience that will get butts off of couches nationwide. They plan to put millions of dollars into a theater model that will look more like your living room, complete with VIP chairs, sofas, and beanbags (could be cool). They want to have independent, foreign, and blockbuster films all at the same multiplex, like the Arclight in LA (cheers to that). They want to bring in higher-end food and drink, and are introducing a higher-priced ticket (is that possible?) which will include concessions and let the audiences serve themselves with something called the "Wall of Popcorn." Cuban and Wagner are unveiling their new concepts at three theaters in their Landmark chain -- locations in Baltimore, Denver, and at the Westside Pavilion in Los Angeles.

"Landmark's goal is to be the ultimate night out for grownups. Today's customer has different expectations than the customer of 10 and 20 years ago, and we need to recognize that and respond to it," says Cuban. "In our new Denver theater, we completely removed the concession stands. The original design had the traditional concession stand taking up prime real estate and dominating the look and feel of the theater. We decided that we would rather use that space for amenities, retail sales (movies, books, indie cinema related items), and 'interstitial' type entertainment that complements our 'datenight for grownups' concept in a lounge-like environment. Basically it became a place where you could go on a date, have a drink, food and be entertained before and after seeing a movie." Since theater-owners already hate Cuban after his day-and-date releasing plan, chances are that news of these theaters will not be greeted with open arms. I've got to say I'm all for it. Going to the theater is far too expensive to be as unpleasant as it so often is - why not experiment with the formula?

About a week ago, I went to see a screening of Diggers, which is an ensemble dramedy opening in late April, starring Paul Rudd, Lauren Ambrose and a few other notable names. It's a passable assemblage of talent with a few laughs and a few interesting moments, but I didn't give it much more thought than any of the dozens of other movies I've seen recently. Over the weekend, however, much to my surprise, someone pointed me to a listing on Amazon for the film's DVD, which is dropping in stores in early May! I had completely forgotten that Diggers was a film from Mark Cuban's company, and considering that most day-day style releases have thus far chosen to beat people over the head with their day-dateness, I guess this new strategy of not drawing attention to the day-dateness is a more successful one, since people like me never gave a second's thought to the film's near-simultaneous theatrical-DVD release when watching or evaluating the film.

I'm still a little ambivalent over the whole day-date issue, although I know that companies like Cuban's are out to make legitimate, quality films and not the kind of dreck that we usually associate with 'straight to DVD.' Still, if I were just a movie-goer instead of someone reviewing films for a living, I think my inherent laziness might have made me miss the theatrical release and just wait for the DVD, and I know a lot of other people would make that choice as well. And I do believe it's a sad thing in general that we have that choice, since nothing can come close to replicating the experience of actually going to a movie theater. I will have to give this issue some more weighty thought as I search through my Easter basket for any missed bubble gum.

By the time the U.S. stops fighting in Iraq, there will be so many films about the war and its aftermath that you will be able to watch one a day for the rest of your life. At some point we will even stop posting the announcements of directors who will be making a film about Iraq and instead write about the directors who won't be. But for now, here's more details on one of those who is planning one. As Monika reported earlier this month, Brian De Palma is set to write and direct an Iraq-based film titled Redacted. Now it turns out that it will be an HD feature for Mark Cuban's and Todd Wagner's HDNet Films.

I'll admit that I've never cared for De Palma's films, and I'm just about done with the subject matter, but the format of the film intrigues me. Variety reports that Redacted will be a montage of stories, and in addition to being about different soldiers, it will also be about different forms of media coverage. I also expect it will have an immediate feel to it, as it will be shot and released fairly quickly in the HDNet day-and-date distribution model. This will be great for De Palma, whose films tend not to age well.

There is a plan to open Redacted wider and more commercially than previous HDNet releases, but considering many theater owners still aren't into the idea of day-and-date, the plan probably won't include a lot of areas of the country. And though I don't understand why, De Palma has a large following, and there is going to be a lot of people disappointed that they won't get to see the director's latest on a big screen.

Those crazy dreamers at 2929 Entertainment sure like messing with the status quo, don't they? As if simultaneously releasing films in theaters, on DVD and on cable at the same time wasn't enough -- now, they're messing around with the way films are marketed too, at least according to a recent piece in The Hollywood Reporter. Not content with the way things work in any part of the filmmaking system, 2929 is offering incentives to ticket buyers such as film scores, deleted scenes, online production stills and online production notes to encourage viewers to buy tickets to its day-and-date release The Architect on movietickets.com.

"This is the first of 10 or more (promotions) in the next 12 months that will include this type of value add," said Mark Cuban, co-owner of 2929, in the article. "We will continue to look for additional digital products we can offer as a reward for those who watch the movie in a theater." At the movietickets.com site, ticket buyers can download the music from the film as MP3 files and look at production stills, while the deleted scenes will be included on the film's DVD -- coming out, you guessed it, the same day as the film's theatrical release.

The Architect, directed by first-timer Matt Tauber and scripted by Tauber and David Greig, concerns two Chicago families, one led by a wealthy architect and his wife (played by Anthony LaPaglia and Isabella Rossellini) and another led by a poor mother (played by Viola Davis) who asks LaPaglia to tear down the housing project he created because its dangerous. To be honest though, I'm not sure I really agree with the day-and-date release strategy at all. I kinda like going to the theater to see a movie and then catching it again on DVD a few months later. Having time in between is a good thing. It lets you re-discover the film when you watch it on DVD -- which adds to the enjoyment of it the second time around (at least for me).

That said, Mark Cuban is no dummy. And I have to admit this is a pretty innovative way to promote a movie. So, if he's trying to make this kind of thing work, he might be on to something. In the end, the success or failure of this venture will depend on what it usually depends on: money. If this film makes money, you can bet on seeing more films released and marketed this way. If not, well, you probably won't.

So, anyone in favor of this kind of film release or is it a bad idea?

Here at Cinematical, when it comes to film festivals, we just aren't so much about the parties. We get invites to a lot of festival social happenings, but honestly, after 12 hours or so of screenings (counting the time it takes to get from one venue to another) in a given day, plus the time it takes to write a coherent review, most nights we do well to drool over a pizza slice or Thai takeout while hunched over our keyboards. Besides, parties require actually dressing up and looking presentable, and we here at Cinematical are a bunch of lazy slobs who like to work in our pajamas. Nonetheless, we did manage to suck it up and engage our introverted selves in a little of the Toronto Film Festival nightlife. We co-hosted a little TIFF bowling party with our friends from Movie City News, hung out at Mark Cuban's HDNet bash and the Netflix party for John Waters' This Filthy World, and even spent an night carousing until the wee hours at a pub with the Rotten Tomatoes gang. Here are some pics from our wild social life at TIFF. When you see for yourselves what dorky film geeks we really are, you'll understand why we usually stay locked in our hotel rooms with our laptops.

Hey, we can't all be party animals like Sammy (above), the tiara-wearing black sheep from the Black Sheep red carpet.

As a cinema veteran, I am always on the look out for blogs written by theater employees, former or current, as well as vocal moviegoers. Though I'm now a full year away from the theater business, I am still interested in it. I also haven't gotten sick of popcorn, yet (I never will). Unfortunately, I haven't been having much luck with my search for cinema blogs (if you have one, let us know), but there is always the chance that Mark Cuban, co-owner of the Landmark chain, among other businesses, will discuss the theater industry on his own blog. Last week he went all out:

• On July 23, Cuban unleashed "The Movie Business Challenge", which asked his readers to give ideas on how to market either the movies released by his distribution company (Magnolia Pictures) or those showing at Landmark -- he didn't specify -- and also boost movie-going. He ended up with over 900 responses, in comment and email form, many of which are fun to read, though most of the contributors don't seem to know anything about the business or about Cuban. So last Friday, he posted a response to the response, in which he discusses the need for an image makeover on the theatrical end, and pleads with the MPAA to spend money on this makeover rather than wasting money on anti-piracy tactics. He also mentions some of his own ideas for Landmark, such as the lame-sounding "Rock and Roll Theater". Check it out to see why Cuban is thinking of actually letting people talk MORE during the films at his theaters.

Though they won't even announced the nominees for their competitive awards until October, the folks at IFP (a group, for the non-independent film freaks among, you dedicated to "serving the independent film community as a source for networking and support while promoting film as a vital and influential public art form") have announced that they will honor Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner of 2929 Entertainment at their annual Gotham Awards this fall. According to IFP exec director Michelle Byrd, the pair are being recognized for their consistent willingness to think outside the box when it comes to film production and distribution. Though their day-and-date release strategy has received significant opposition from theater owners, it's starting to be adopted by other distributors, and seems to have been embraced, at least to a degree, by the viewing public. Said Byrd of the pair, "They are visionaries who have introduced exciting and new distribution models, and who continue to showcase tremendous diversity in the films they produce, release and exhibit." So yeah, she thinks they're pretty cool.

Though the awards ceremony doesn't take place until late November, does anyone really think Cuban will have cooled off enough by then NOT to talk about the NBA refs? I'm saying he's got to at least slip in a David Stern reference.

According to director Alex Steyermark, day-and-date releasing (or something close to it) is totally cool -- "just not for his film." Steyermark, whose One Last Thing ... is being theatrically released by Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures on May 5, is concerned that his film's television and DVD debuts (on May 19 and 23, respectively) will come too soon for necessary interest in the project to build. Despite the fact that he knew from day one that a day-and-date release was possible, Steyermark spent a lot of time last week complaining to The Hollywood Reporter about the situation, and (in a hilarious way, of course) described it as "day-and-date rape."

One Last Thing ... is Steyermark's second directorial effort (his first, Prey for Rock and Roll, starred Gina Gershon and Lori Petty), and tells the story of "a terminally ill teen who makes a provocative final wish." Starring Will & Grace's Michael Angarano as the kid and Cynthia Nixon as his mom (Gershon and Ethan Hawke also appear, among others), the film played at Toronto last fall where it received mixed reviews, but it has a great rating on the IMDb. Steyermark's bellyaching aside, his film is expect to hit screens in about 25 different markets on May 5.

Despite the fact that over 70 million homes receive his HDNet channel, Mark Cuban is still not making any money on his HD dream. Part of the problem (I'm not going to get into how many/few homes have HD TVs and receivers) is that some major cable companies -- including Comcast -- still refuse to carry either HDNet or its sister channel, HDNet Movies. In fact, a couple of years ago, Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner collectively created an HD channel of their own called INHD, which they conceived as "a Cuban-killer." (He's still here. As is HDNet.)

Because of Cuban's feud with Comcast, as Karina mentioned in her column, there were rumblings that his Landmark Theaters, the biggest independent chain in the country, might refuse to show films that were part of distributor IFC Films' day/date release deal with Comcast. No official, public statements were made, however, so things continued as normal, and Caveh Zahedi's I Am a Sex Addict (part of the day/date deal) was scheduled to open at a Landmark theater in Berkeley on Friday, April 7. Then, yesterday, Zahedi heard from IFC that the film had been pulled by the theater because of Cuban's beef with Comcast. Not surprisingly, Zahedi was upset, and (quite reasonably, it would seem) blamed Cuban for the affair. According to Cuban's comment on the above post (scroll down the page a little, and you'll find it), however, IFC knew the film would not be screened at any Landmark theaters and schedule it anyway. Hmm.

No matter who's to blame, the fact is that a little indie film is caught up in something much, much bigger than it is. Can you even imagine how frustrating this must be for the filmmakers who, after IFC's deal with Comcast, were thrilled at the prospect of (relatively) wide distribution for the babies, only to run into this roadblock? Man alive, what a nightmare.

Despite the insistence of theater owners that the multi-platform "super release" of Bubble was a complete disaster, 2929 is trying again with another niche film. Magnolia Pictures (a company that is under the 2929 umbrella) will release Herbie Hancock: Possibilities in theaters (just NY and LA) on April 14 and have it out on DVD four days later; the movie will air on Mark Cuban's HDNet TV channel on April 23. The film is a documentary that both explores Hancock's past and offers a detailed look at the recording of his most recent album on which folks like Sting, Annie Lennox, and Christina Aguilera appear.

While this film and its release schedule seems likely to affect only a tiny group of people (who, admittedly, will be incredibly happy), the small audience isn't a problem for 2929. According to Magnolia's VP of home entertainment Randy Wells, despite Bubble's "failure" at the box office, the total take from the theatrical and DVD sales, combined with PPV income, was about $5 million. Though that number is small compared to the profits pulled in by major studio releases, it's a huge success when one considers that the movie only cost about $1.5 million to make. Additionally, Wells maintains that releasing films on DVD and PPV or cable while they're still in theaters dramatically reduces advertising costs because the various releases can "draft" off of one another's hype.