Ty Burr Moves House From The Globe To Substack
July 25, 2021
"A subsidiary of South Korean entertainment company HYBE in April acquired Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings for $1.05 billion. Seoul-based CJ Entertainment and Merchandising invested in studio Skydance last year, as part of a $275 million strategic funding round with other investors."
South Korea Wants A Hollywood Footprint: JTBC Studios Acquires Majority Stake In Content Arm Of CAA
| July 25, 2021
The Staff And Board of The Canyon Cinema Foundation Address SFMOMA On Planned Elimination of Film Program
"SFMOMA’s recent decision to eliminate its Film Program (among other vital, inclusive, and community-focused programs) is a stunning disavowal of its own history. Moreso, it is a shocking divestment from SFMOMA’s stated commitment to “exhibiting film as an essential medium of modern and contemporary art” and to fostering a vibrant film culture in San Francisco. Following the renovation of its state-of-the-art Phyllis Wattis Theater in 2016, SFMOMA has demonstrated the ability, and financial willingness, to present film at the highest quality. Combining excellent film curation and world-class projection, SFMOMA has become a flagship of cinema exhibition in the Bay Area, which makes the decision to cut its Film Program especially puzzling. It is disappointing and disheartening to learn that a museum that claims to be a center for “the most innovative and challenging art of its time,” now holds the medium of film and the projected moving image in such low regard..." [More here]
July 24, 2021
NATO Mighty Angry At Disney Black Widow Rollout
| July 19, 2021
How Many Billions Would You Pay For A24?
| July 13, 2021
Erika Dilday, Exec Director of American Documentary: "I don’t see this as a Ken Burns problem. I see this as a blind spot that has gone throughout leadership, which I think is changing now. Sylvia Bugg, PBS chief programming executive and general manager, general audience programming, and PBS president and chief executive officer Paula Kerger, who had a conversation with the Beyond Inclusion team are really looking to change this. I do agree that in the past, probably the right people were not in the room to make the right decisions. But this is far more nuanced than just numbers. It’s far more nuanced than making sure that you have this many people of color, BIPOC people, Latino or Hispanic people, women or gender non-identifying people making films. It’s about content and impact and really digging in and saying, ‘How do we make this landscape reflective of our country, the world and people with different perspectives and points of view?’ I don’t want to just count numbers. I really don’t. I want us to dig deeper. I want us to try harder. We owe a debt to our audiences to bring them content that stretches them, that enriches them and that sometimes will make them a little uncomfortable. But that takes the trust that they put in us to deliver information and ideas that they might not normally get in their arm chairs, and bring them something that really does reflect what’s going on in this country that’s informed by voices that maybe they would never hear."
July 10, 2021
Apple Could Pay A Billion For Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine
| July 10, 2021
"The HFPA’s shenanigans are well-trod ground. The impetus was the lawsuit this Norwegian journalist, Kjersti Flaa, filed accusing the HFPA as operating as a sort of cartel and institutionalizing a culture of corruption. I got an email from my editor last August asking me to look into it. I remember he said, “this could lead somewhere, or nowhere at all.” Our feeling at the beginning was: Was there anything new to say about the HFPA? But as we went on, we found a lot that had not been reported before."
"There was also a lot of pent-up frustration with the organization within the industry. People had reached a boiling point. Also, we got a hold of a lot of financial documents that backed up a lot of the rumors, accusations, and claims about the group. Within the HFPA, there is a well-known code of silence. Although they’re journalists, they don’t talk to the press about how they actually operate — or even who is in the group. They operate in their own shadowy little corner and don’t interface with other journalists covering Hollywood.Within the industry, there was a sense of “we know what the deal is, but we don’t want to talk about it.” The ecosystem that empowered this group doesn’t reflect well on a lot of people. So getting people to talk on the record was incredibly challenging. Now that the information is out there, the taboo has lifted a little bit, and people are talking more openly."
Behind The L. A. Times Reporting That Brought Down The Golden Globes
July 7, 2021
| July 6, 2021
RICHARD DONNER WAS 91
July 5, 2021
“The most challenging — but thrilling — part of filming in New York, both pre- and post-pandemic, is that you really have no idea what will happen at any given time, or who will be very pissed off that you’re shooting on their block,” jokes the star of Comedy Central/HBO Max’s “Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens,” reports Gregg Goldstein. "Without a doubt, NYC production has been on a rollercoaster ride. It was at an all-time high just before the pandemic, generating more than $60 billion in direct economic activity and $3 billion in tax revenue for the city. Yet the number of productions shooting on the ground in May 2019 — 306 — dropped to zero a year later, making last month’s count of 179 projects a promising turnaround."
| July 1, 2021
Academy Invites 395 Prospective Members
July 1, 2021
Uncle David’s House Of Box Office: Reboot
| August 2, 2021
A Year Later… Movie Content Scoreboard
| July 7, 2021
What Did Pandemic Box Office Actually Look Like
| June 4, 2021
"A subsidiary of South Korean entertainment company HYBE in April acquired Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings for $1.05 billion. Seoul-based CJ Entertainment and Merchandising invested in studio Skydance last year, as part of a $275 million strategic funding round with other investors."
South Korea Wants A Hollywood Footprint: JTBC Studios Acquires Majority Stake In Content Arm Of CAA
| July 25, 2021
The Staff And Board of The Canyon Cinema Foundation Address SFMOMA On Planned Elimination of Film Program
"SFMOMA’s recent decision to eliminate its Film Program (among other vital, inclusive, and community-focused programs) is a stunning disavowal of its own history. Moreso, it is a shocking divestment from SFMOMA’s stated commitment to “exhibiting film as an essential medium of modern and contemporary art” and to fostering a vibrant film culture in San Francisco. Following the renovation of its state-of-the-art Phyllis Wattis Theater in 2016, SFMOMA has demonstrated the ability, and financial willingness, to present film at the highest quality. Combining excellent film curation and world-class projection, SFMOMA has become a flagship of cinema exhibition in the Bay Area, which makes the decision to cut its Film Program especially puzzling. It is disappointing and disheartening to learn that a museum that claims to be a center for “the most innovative and challenging art of its time,” now holds the medium of film and the projected moving image in such low regard..." [More here]
July 24, 2021
DP/30: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, The Trial of the Chicago 7
| February 15, 2021
DP/30 Audio: Bombshell, Jay Roach
| December 13, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Jonathan Majors
| December 4, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Mustang, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
| December 4, 2019