Lionsgate’s statement to the AP: “We want to capitalize on the revolution in social media by letting audiences and critics define this film concurrently. In today’s socially connected marketplace, we all have the ability to share feedback instantly around the world. In keeping with this spirit, Lionsgate and the filmmakers want to give the opportunity to moviegoing audiences and critics alike to see `Killers’ simultaneously, and share their thoughts in the medium of their choosing. We felt that this sense of immediacy could be a real asset in the marketing of `Killers.’”
There are a dozen ways to slice this apple. It can be spun as an avoidance of what they assume will be horrible reviews. It can be seen as a serious attempt to use Twitter – however foolish – and Kutcher’s followers in particular (if they all came, a $30m – $40m opening) as the uber-marketing tool… in addition to a LOT of TV time. (I would be surprised if this film is not Lionsgates’ biggest TV ad buy ever.)
There is even the potential story that the studio doesn’t want the company’s Q4 and Year End statement call, occurring a day after the premiere and two days before opening, interrupted by a bunch of negativity about the potential of this movie due to media slams… especially while they are battling Carl Icahn and his contention that the studio is mismanaged, which this, their most expensive film ever, could easily represent. (For the record, every other quarter tends to have their conference call on the second week of the month, but Q4 for LGF has consistently been week one for a few years.)
In the middle is the reality that marketing beats everything else, Kutcher and Heigl both have loyal fans who are more likely to show up if they aren’t fighting a wave of negativity, and Robert Luketic, who is one of our best and most successful comedy directors, is a target for critics.
Raising the stakes a bit is Kutcher’s Twitter statement that he will “pirate” the first 10 minutes of the film from the premiere on June 1.
For me, this is the most problematic thing about all this so far. Of course, this is a standard marketing move these days… releasing 6 minutes or 10 minutes of the film. There is no indication that it works, but it is done at least a half-dozen times a year. And it is a kind of slap in the face of film critics.
That said, simulating piracy is an embarrassment to the industry and if I were running another studio, I would be outraged at this kind of positioning. Ashton Kutcher telling his loving, impressionable audience that piracy is not only okay, but cool. Not cool.
What do you think?

This looks pretty much like the $3500 Panasonic AG-HMC150 we shoot DP/30 with… evolved into a two lens camera. Same set-up, times 2, for taping to SDHC cards. Same tape time available.
And at a $21,000 price point, frankly, if there was a 3D version of HDNet or some such cable outlet coming, looking for 3D product, DP/30 would be going 3D as soon as this camera landed. It’s cheaper than most of the rigs that were bought 5 years ago for high-end crews that are still being lugged around by cameramen until they can be replaced by equipment that costs a quarter as much (or less) for equal (or better) quality. The cost of the camera could, if it generated revenue with a unique opportunity, cover itself without any great payday in 6 months or less.
On the other hand… is 3D TV really going to happen?
DirecTV just changed their software to make it available on their set-top boxes… but in a household with every TV now HD and every box an HD DVR, all bought in the last couple of years, I can’t receive the World Cup matches in 3D without buying a new TV… at a higher price point… for very limited programming opportunities… without really being sure that it will enhance my viewing experience by much.
Still, there is a kid-in-a-candy-store feel to it, no?

At first, this was interesting to me because I did not know the history of the bra… and an event to celebrate its 100th anniversary seemed like interesting kitsch.
But as you read the release, you see that there is a rather creepy new way for women to disfigure themselves being announced along with this celebration… using leftover skin from mastopexy, a surgical procedure usually used to tighten breasts after breast feeding, to create a surgically-created skin bra.
Funny world.
=============

WHAT- Former Fashion Institute of Technology professor Lori Thomas and Bra extrodinaress and author of The Bra Book, Jen

AMC Entertainment(R) Elects Not To Exercise Lease Extension for AMC the Grand 24 in Dallas
Kansas City, Mo. (May 27, 2010) – AMC Entertainment Inc. (AMC), one of the world’s largest theatrical exhibition and entertainment companies, announces today that its wholly owned subsidiary, American Multi-Cinema, Inc., will not exercise its option to extend the lease for AMC The Grand 24, currently held by EPT Down REIT II Inc., a subsidiary of Entertainment Properties Trust (EPT).
This marks the end of an era, as AMC The Grand 24 was the first megaplex – a theatre with 14 auditoriums or more and stadium seating – ever built in the United States in 1995.
“It’s disappointing that we have not come to terms on a historical, and to us, a somewhat sentimental property,” said Gerry Lopez, AMC’s chief executive officer and president. “But in our opinion, the proposal advanced by EPT is simply untenable. We continue to negotiate with EPT on several other properties and will see where those discussions take us.”
The EPT lease contains a notice deadline of May 31, 2010 to exercise its renewal option. Because AMC elected not to exercise its option to renew the lease, it will now expire on Nov. 30, 2010. AMC will vacate the premises and remove its equipment prior to this date.
“Throughout the past 15 years at AMC The Grand 24, we made history and developed many friends in the community” said Mark McDonald, AMC’s executive vice president of global development. “We will miss them.”
About AMC Entertainment Inc.
Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., AMC Entertainment Inc. is one of the world’s largest theatrical exhibition and entertainment companies. With a history of industry leadership and innovation dating back to 1920, the company today serves hundreds of millions of guests annually through interests in 380 theatres with 5,325 screens in five countries. www.amctheatres.com
Cautionary Statement for Purposes of the “Safe Harbor” Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
Statements in this release that are not historical facts or information are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “estimate,” “project,” “forecast,” “plan,” “believe,” “may,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “planned,” “potential,” “can,” “expectation” and similar expressions, or the negative of those expressions, may identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on management’s reasonable current assumptions and expectations. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievement of AMC to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, and there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from management’s expectations.

mp3 of the conversation

Someone sent me a rather insane screed by this guy, John Nolte, who tries to keep right-wing hope alive at “Big Hollywood,” Andrew Breitbart’s silly site. (“Want to hear why the #2 box office film this week is going to get your daughter raped by Commies? Click Here!”)
It’s not really easy to pile the Old Media LA Times and EW, gossip sheet Movieline, and self-acknowledged left wing site, The Huffington Post into one conspiracy. But this guy tries really hard.
You see… there is a conspiracy against conservatives… and you need to know!!!
One guy, Jonathan Kahn, is a victim of Patrick Goldstein because Goldstein has the temerity to point out that he has never had a film career to speak of. But it turns out that this guy does have a relationship in the record business, as noted in the Wall Street Journal…
“One person stunned to hear of Mr. Kahn

I never expected to meet Art Linkletter, much less send him some very large checks.
But I did.
This was about 20 years ago now. I was running a company that middle-manned celebrities into ads and appearances. A guy named Curry Walls, who has eliminated the job from his bio, was running the company before I got there and did the deal to put Art Linkletter in Contour Chairs, which were sold in 30 and 60 second spots, just before the infomercial craze started up. Art got a piece of each chair sold and we got a piece of his piece. There were multiple 6-figure checks each year.
Linkletter was already well into his 70s – which seemed much older back then – and was pretty much retired. But he was sharp and very precise in every encounter over those couple of years. He never seemed to be chasing his former fame. He just WAS.
He and Robert Vaughn and Lee Majors and Fran Tarkenton kept that business open and me in silly suits and sports cars that I didn’t really belong in at that age. But I remember him fondly… respectfully.
And I liked watching him on TV as a little kid too.

The analogy isn’t really Pirates of the Caribbean… it’s the The Mummy series.
PoP is better directed than any of the Mummy movies. It’s less well cast. It’s terribly written. And it seems to be paying respect to the gameplay of the video game to an obnoxious extent at times. But if you enjoyed the Mummy experience, you’re not likely to be sorry that you went to the theater to see this thing.
To really enjoy it, you have to be looking for a retro experience and show some serous generosity of spirit. For instance, all the British accents on these “Persians” and arabs of other stripes… not to mention the darkening make-up. Now, I went with this. If you can’t, you won’t make it past the first 5 minutes.
My sense is that Mike Newell decided to make an old-school Brit desert epic… there are no Caucasian characters to complain about the “wogs.” But it’s so overt – Gemma Arterton’s Arab princess has such a clipped accent, she could be playing the young Judi Dench giving an elocution class – that it can’t be anything but intentional.
Literally the only major character who actually is his own ethnicity is The Black Guy… played by a guy who is actually Black, Steve Toussaint. (Of course, he too is a Brit pretending to be ethnic.) But not a brown guy in sight… nowhere within an under-5. Lead “Hassanisan?” G

Classic…
Someone’s assistant tried to sell what she claimed to be insider information to hedge funds, saying that Disney was selling ABC. The cost of this info. $15k.
Problem is… she and her boyfriend sold the info to the FBI.
Oops.
Disney says… in full: “The Walt Disney Company has been fully cooperating with this investigation.
The reference in the complaint to conversations regarding the ABC Network were and are false.”
And so it goes.
The idea of Disney further divesting itself of businesses it built up under Michael Eisner is intriguing, I must say. And the network business is sinking… though there is no reason for it to sink altogether… and the fantasy of a VOD world is 90% of the current pricing away from reality, though it appears to be Uncle Bob’s vision of the future.
Shelf it for now.

After not landing gossip queen Nikki Finke, The Hollywood Reporter followed in Nikki’s boss’s footsteps – Bonnie Fuller is already the dominant force at Mail.com, according to insiders – and hired Fuller’s wake runner, Janice Min.
We can all gnash our teeth over it, but it makes perfect sense. Huffington Post has been forced to resort to running soft-core porn to keep their numbers up… and are still losing money. Deadline is not a money maker. The Wrap needed more money after a year in business. So how do you revive a dead trade? Make George Christy your editor-in-chief.
I must admit… if I was consulted on the future of THR, this would have been a big part of my suggestion too. Jason Binn it up. Be running photos of Hollywood partying every single day. If you might be in it, you’ll want to look. If you aren’t in it for sure, you’ll probably want to know who was.
Who’s your top columnist, if you can get her? Sharon Swart. Find a way to get Bill Higgins to give you 5 years. Hire Patrick Goldstein away from LAT, since what he is best for now is his relationships, which have led to goopy insights as an analyst, but can offer lunchtime grist for the mill for a tabloid trade that actually cares what sides Brian Grazer had with his meal.
It doesn’t need to become like the real tabloids… pregnancies and break-ups and who wore what best. Play to the constituency and you can make a mint. Without worrying about journalistic issues, THR should be replacing Carlos de Abreau’s buy-a-table-win-an-award scam by the fall. The Key Art Awards can become a celebrity event… it’s already got better sketch comedy than The Oscars.
This move screams to me, “We know what The Trades always were… but now, we have to lower the price to get audience back into lavishing us with unwarranted advertising.”
Be the whore.
Live the whore.
Love the whore.
It’s not journalism. It’s not pretty. But it is the best way to keep a dead idea alive.
And in the meanwhile, they can tip their hat to Nikki and Sharon for taking over the old model, which is just as corrupt, but expends endless energy trying to pretend it’s not. Good luck with that, ladies.
Great idea… Sir MIx-A-Lot as the celebrity spokesman of the paper! Home run!
ADD, 3:25p – Janice Min talks to NYT…
In an interview, Ms. Min said she wanted to revive coverage of a tumultuous industry.