“Batman, TDK” includes six scenes that were created in Imax as a way to lure audiences to more profitable Imax cinemas to enjoy the effect. To date, it has produced $60+ million from those screens, and several Directors have seized on this fact as consummate proof how essential it is that they get to play with this shiny, new toy.

According to Variety, Transformers 2 will include three scenes shot in Imax. Iron Man 2 will also include some Imax scenes, and several pictures in pre-production are now being considered for similar treatment.

No-one would argue that DVD’s have shredded a movie’s Box Office potential and studios need a way to get people back into theaters to watch the films there instead. It’s more profitable. But Imax isn’t it.

Audiences don’t stay home because the format is wrong. They stay home because they’re tired of intellectually vapid, comic-inspired, derivative sequels. Imax is 70mm and produces resolution you could shave with. But crud in 70mm is still crud. Make an original, intelligent movie with a strong script, a believable premise and a well-chosen cast and the audience won’t care if it’s in Super-8! Choose any other path and the fault is your own.

Transformers 2 is booked for a simultaneous debut on regular and Imax screens on June 26. Let’s see who has the mental acuity to learn this small lesson in time.

Imax photo by: Laffy4k
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This article from the New York Times relates the joyous news that, while all its previous seasons were shot in LA, the new season of Ugly Betty was actually filmed in New York City.

As a result of New York Governor David Patterson’s plan to give Film and TV productions a 30% tax break if they shoot in the State, Betty and another eighteen prime-time shows are now filming there, pouring over $500-million of new revenue into the State in the first five months alone.

And if this was Las Vegas, you could bet that whole bundle would have vanished to Canada without these new rules.

The radiant Metropolis is now on course to enjoy almost $2-billion of entirely home-grown revenue in just the first year of the plan. Dozens of firms, from hotels to cab companies will reach the financial stability they’ve been chasing for years and hundreds of Actors will get jobs, incomes and a chance for advancement they’d have otherwise lost to their Canadian brethren – All because of Governor Patterson’s inspired idea.

And if that doesn’t leave you debating an indulgence in roof-top recital, you’re probably made out of stone.

The Governor and his team should take a well-deserved bow. And every one of his peers in D.C. should take notes.

Times Square photo by Ken Thomas

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Sorry…Just kidding – They’re going to remake Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

The 1988 original, helmed by Frank Oz, is one of the most forgettable films to ever stimulate the human synapses. And now they want to do it again. And this probably won’t be the last time. No-one has signed on to have their careers blighted by this travesty yet, but A-list talent is [claimed] to be reviewing the project with interest.

And it doesn’t end there: MGM also have remakes of Red Dawn, Robocop, Fame and Poltergeist in development. Robocop I can almost understand – The original is a kitschy classic, but it was hollow. They made a good idea…badly. It might actually do better in remake. And Poltergeist has been re-made as every shlock-horror flick of the last twenty years, so that’s a moot point. Red Dawn was a good movie, but without Patrick it’s doomed to be a messy pastiche of its former self. Not a good idea.

But my favorite item from MGM’s public confession of creative inadequacy is Fame. Released on May 16th, 1980 it was a box office juggernaut and won two Oscars. So at 28 years old it was made years before any of the audience MGM hope to sell it to this time, so they’ll think it’s a new idea. Add the two Oscars and it doesn’t take a mental giant to see the appeal.

But the funniest part is the subject matter. Set at NYC’s High School for the Performing Arts, it [at least, the original of it] contains more action and movement in one scene than a 2008 teenager has experienced in their entire cosseted, Wii-thrashing lives.

MGM are clearly thinking it was huge in 1980, so it can be huge again now. Wrong! 1980 was a different world – Wii’s didn’t exist, PS3’s didn’t exist. Cellphones were the size of dictionaries, and computers were large, clunky boxes in the corners of science labs, and could only be touched by odd little men with white lab coats and terminal acne. A 2003 teen would call it the stone age. And looking back, I’d agree. But that’s just the point: Make a movie about ‘The NYC Academy of Txt Msgng’ and you’d have lines round the block! But show today’s teens a movie where intelligent people who are not on medication indulge voluntarily in frantic activity that leaves every inch of their bodies hosed in sweat, and they’ll think it’s a cult. Or some kind of torture.

They move their fingers to type, or their thumbs to talk. Show them more exertion than that and the only thing they’ll move is their butts…Towards another movie! I can only wish MGM well with their forthcoming flop…And feel deeply relieved it’s not my money at stake.

MGM Cat photo by: 00ucci
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Last night, after a premiere for the new season of “Fringe”, Fox treated us to a seven-minute trailer for their utterly inexcusable remake of, ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still.’ And the clip makes it painfully clear that the creative ‘minds’ responsible for this reprehensible re-hash have no comprehension of, nor probably any exposure to the peerless classic they were employed to defile.

In the 1951 version, Klaatu’s sole purpose was to counsel the world and avert its destruction. All that has gone. Every trace of the elegant understatement and contemporary nuances of the original has been excised and replaced with the formulaic cocktail of ludicrous action scenes and endless explosions that Hollywood believes are a guaranteed hook for the acne-encrusted, iPod-packing twelve-year olds whose minuscule segment of the audience demographic is so often its unwavering focus.

This is, without question the single worst idea the studios have contrived since their last shameless display of creative vacuity. What’s next, Lindsey Lohan in ‘Sound of Music 2′ ? Or can we expect to suffer the brain-chilling spectacle of Jessica Simpson in ruby slippers, with Ryan Seacrest as the Scarecrow? [Yes, I know - not exactly a role that would 'stretch' him creatively.]

The movie industry has been a vital organ in this glorious nation’s culture for over eighty years. It employs thousands of people and generates billions in revenue – Even at a time when the country is flirting with economic collapse. But audiences are shrinking. With the economy in turmoil, more people are opting to stay home and use Netflix and similar options. Others are downloading and viewing online or on PS3’s. The audience and their options are changing, and the only sure way for the Hollywood ’system’ to survive and prosper in this evolving landscape is to make new and original movies that will attract and enrapture a new theatre audience, instead of expecting them to endure and delight in an unending litany of sequels and remakes that show no comprehension of the original’s story or meaning.

Like Klatu, this movie teaches us unpalatable lessons: 1) The sole reason for its existence is to exploit [and desecrate] a classic,…and 2) This will not, by any means be the last time that is done.

Okay, waking up now in 3….2….1……..actor, blog, blogging, carpet, celebrity, DVD, entertainment, fame, film, health, Hollywood, income, media, money, movie, series, soap, television, video

It’s a highly enjoyable and well crafted movie, but let’s be honest; A major reason why Warners has already enjoyed a $900+ million Box Office haul is due to the public’s desire to see Heath Ledger’s mesmeric swansong as The Joker.

Now they want a re-run so they can earn even more.

January is the peak of voting season for the Academy Awards, so the Knight would then become a contender. And should the Producers be blessed with a little golden guy the attendant caché would not exactly hurt DVD sales. It already has the second-highest gross in history ["Titanic" earned $1.84 billion for Fox in '98,] and WB’s intent is clearly to use subtle exploitation of Heath’s premature loss to drive the movie past the mystical $1-Billion mark [I suspect some of Warner's execs were promised a rather nice bonus if that can be arranged.]

There’s a snag, though. Dark Knight is due to hit DVD in December, which would decimate the returns from a theatre release. The only way to avoid the damage would be to defer the disk until after the holidays. And that’s a bitter pill; Do you stall the DVD and miss the biggest cash-cow of the year, or release the disk and cash-in on the frenzy, then just hope for the best at the theatres?

The decision, along with the guilt for its cause are thankfully not part of my burden, and for that I’m boundlessly glad.

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