Film Web Blog

Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Tech Stuff, Home Entertainment

Forget all those retailers and studios abandoning HD DVD. Here’s the biggest domino to fall: Toshiba, which was surely the biggest and most important exclusive supporter from the beginning, releasing the first commercially available HD DVD player back in 2006. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Japanese company is expected to discontinue production of HD DVD products, including players and other devices related to the format. Apparently, however, they will continue selling existing equipment and have only ceased development and manufacture of new HD DVD products. There has been no formal announcement, though, from Toshiba. The trade quotes a vp of marketing for Toshiba America as saying the company still believes HD DVD to be technologically the best high-def format (over Blu-Ray) for customers. The decision, if in fact true, comes on the heels of, and is surely an effect of, last month’s news that Warner Bros. and then (maybe) Paramount were going Blu-ray exclusive and recent announcements from Netflix, Best Buy, Blockbuster and Wal-Mart that they would each stop renting and/or selling HD DVD discs (or in Best Buy’s case, stop selling HD DVD players yet continue selling the discs, but push/recommend Blu-Ray as the favored format) within the year.

The Hollywood Reporter details some of the more recent HD DVD history, including Toshiba’s desperate moves to stay in the game after Warner’s abandonment. The company significantly cut the cost of their players, but still Blu-ray was the champion in the market. Additionally, new Blu-ray movie titles are constantly out-selling new HD DVD movie titles. The trade mentions that Toshiba’s “last ditch effort” was a TV commercial that ran during the Super Bowl and which cost the company $2.7 million. Now all eyes are on the few HD DVD supporters that are left: Microsoft; Universal; DreamWorks and Paramount. How long before they all admit defeat? Within the week?

Anyway, despite the impending death of HD DVD, this may be best time to get yourself an HD DVD player. Sure, it will be obsolete soon, but if you can find a good enough deal, it will be worth it. There are almost 400 movies available on HD DVD in the U.S., and all those disc are reportedly really cheap now, too. So, buy the player and some of your favorite movies and watch them. You can still go Blu-ray now or in the future, as well. But don’t think of HD DVD as simply the new Beta. Supposedly it’s actually a really great format, despite its lack of favor.

Tags: Blu-ray, cinematical, HD DVD, HdDvd, toshiba

Source: Toshiba to Dump HD DVD?

…with the exhaustive annual nominations that the Film Experience doles out each January and February. This year took me a bit longer than usual for whatever reason. Oops. I do this huge collection partly for you but I also do it for me. I like to catalogue… and I like to think of it as a scrapbook of memories from each film year. And of course I hope that people are using them for rental ideas after the fact.

The nominations are the fun part for me. The medals are even more excruciating and there isn’t one year past that I don’t wish I could go back and change things –I’ll announce them Thursday I guess. But each year is a time capsule for how I felt right then. And here is the time capsule, complete, for how I feel now.

Page 1 Picture, Director Screenplays
Page 2 Acting, Lead and Supporting
Page 3 Technicals (cinematography, etcetera
Page 4 Technicals (original score, etcetera) and here ends my “Oscar ballot” if you will…
the extras
Page 5 Line Readings, Cameos, Ensembles, etcetera
Page 6 Divas, Villains, Heroes
Page 7 Musical Moments, Action Sequences
Page 8 Openings, Endings, Credits, and the statistics…
Page 9 Mash-ups and Readers Polls (this page still in progress -voting ends at midnight on Thursday 02/21)

Source: I’m Finished

Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Casting, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Remakes and Sequels

He’s resurrected Rocky. He brought back Rambo. And now Sylvester Stallone might be continuing the trend by reprising his role as rock climber Gabe Walker for another Cliffhanger film. Remember that one? Stallone plays a rock climber who accidentally drops his best friend’s gal off a mountain, then returns to stop John Lithgow from stealing a bunch of money? It’s a pretty good film — and anytime you have Lithgow play the villain, you won’t go wrong. According to PR Insider, “Sony executives are in negotiations with Stallone to revive the character for The Dam.”

Uh oh, does that mean there will be lots of water involved this time? Stallone first played the character back in 1993, and the film did pretty well at the box office (I believe it came in at somewhere in the $85 million range). One imagines Stallone will be the only one returning for The Dam, and his Gabe Walker character will be up against a new enemy. Here’s my question: How many characters is Stallone going to revive before enough is enough? It’s an odd trend; one that’s making him money, sure, but Gabe Walker is no John Rambo or Rocky Balboa. What do you think about another Cliffhanger flick? Good idea, or should Sly stick with something a tad more original his next time out?

Source: Sly Stallone Set for Another ‘Cliffhanger’ Flick

Directed by John Patrick Shanley (Joe Vs. the Volcano / writer of Moonstruck)
Starring Streep, Hoffman, Adams and Davis
Based on the stage play of the same name (a veritable magnet for trophies and acclaim) written by Shanley, which tells the “parable” of a nun in 1964 who confronts a priest who she believes in sexually molesting a young black boy
Brought to you by Miramax
Expected Release Date December 5th, 2008

Nathaniel: I’m going to let Gabriel, our resident theater guru kick us off here. Tell the kiddies why they ought to be excited about Doubt and how many prizes (a year before the Oscar noms have been tallied) that it’s already picked up.

Gabriel: I live but to serve you, Nathaniel. Doubt already has Tony, Pulitzer, Drama League, Drama Desk, OBIE, New York Critics Circle and Outer Critics Circle awards stacked on its shelf; it is arguably the most heralded new American play of the last five years. (August: Osage County might change all of that this season, but that’s a completely different article, isn’t it?) It proved remarkably successful on the road in 2006, where plays usually falter (as opposed to musicals).

But that’s the not the important part of the story, is it? What makes Doubt, the play, so special is its gripping battle between rumor and truth, good and evil, sex and religion. Although it is set in 1964, it strikes many people as a morality tale for our gossip-inflected times. It is suspenseful and powerful, but wholly accessible…very few people will see it without finding something to relate to.

The movie, which is written and directed by Oscar winner John Patrick Shanley (Moonstruck), also has the 2008 Dream Cast: Meryl Streep as the severe Sister Aloysius, Philip Seymour Hoffman as the conflicted Father Flynn, Amy Adams as the acolyte Sister James, and Tony winner Viola Davis as Mrs. Muller. These were the only characters in the play, but more have been added in the screenplay, including the central role of Jimmy. Who DOESN’T want to see Streep and Hoffman go toe-to-toe? The mind reels at the actor nirvana this film could attain…

Glenn: I had never heard much about Doubt apart from the general stuff from people like Nathaniel - American plays don’t tend to get Australian productions and as far as I know this one never did - but you know what movie title went ringin’ through my mind while reading Gabriel’s exciting description? Atonement –a movie about moral guilt and the power of rumour? Does Keira show up in a sultry green habit citing rapid-fire British clipped dialogue?

Apart from the obvious, I’m incredibly excited to be able to see Viola Davis is an actual featured role again. Nat has already discussed this ad nauseam, but why isn’t she a bigger film star yet? Why isn’t she being offered vaguely racist roles on primetime soap operas? Hmmm…

Viola Davis, left (Far From Heaven, Solaris) will play the mother of the allegedly abused child. Amy Adams, right (Enchanted, Junebug) the acolyte nun

Joe: It was a shrewd move on the film’s part to cast Meryl Streep in the lead — the one actress who could get me to shut up about how much I’d want to see Cherry Jones reprise her role from the Broadway production (which I never got to see). I won’t pretend like I’m not worried about the words “Philip Seymour Hoffman” and “theatrical adaptation” in the same sentence — I’ve been liking him much better in recent years, but when he goes over-the-top theatrical, he loses me. Also, in terms of managing expectations, if you’re looking for the Atonement-style early frontrunner which gets punished for being seen as such, it’s either this or Revolutionary Road. I don’t know how you go about combatting that perception, but someone’s going to have to try.

Gabriel: Joe’s absolutely right…for film buffs who may not know Cherry Jones (M. Night Shyamalan films, the upcoming female president on 24), she’s the queen of serious Broadway, one of the most talented (and may I add, nicest to have a drink with) actresses alive today. No one but Streep could take the part from her in a way I’d feel comfortable.

And to quiet your fears about “theatrical adaptation” somewhat, Joe…the major criticism the play had when it was on Broadway, if any, was that is seemed too cinematic. I thought it reminded me of an HBO telefilm (which is where, honestly, I thought the adaptation would end up, like Angels in America). So the piece kind of naturally lends itself to this kind of styling. One hopes.

Nathaniel: Curious. I wasn’t quite as excited as the rest of the planet when this hit Broadway but I do think it’s a corker of a play. Yet I didn’t feel like it was cinematic. It’s the type of talky intense thing (all one set) that benefits from the stage and how you have to dive into the ideas of the story because there’s no escape from it… It definitely builds as you see the power rising (Streep subbing for the altogether magnificent Cherry Jones –can they give her at least a nun cameo? Oh the humanity) and the parallel stakes rising for this other life (Hoffman)

I hope the movie, which I know will try to “open it up” doesn’t go to naturalistic. The play benefits from how little we see of the central mystery and how much it stays only in our heads. I fear that the movies being an indexical artform rather than representational one might topple this particular cart. But whether it can ride the transfer smoothly or awkwardly, I can’t wait to see it.

MaryAnn: I’m hugely curious to see how this gets adapted to film. (I also dread and simultaneously anticipate Frost/Nixon ) I haven’t seen the play but I have read it, and it doesn’t seem very cinematic to me.

On the plus side, Hollywood seems to have discovered the Bronx: this is one of several movies that are filming or have been shot in my neck of the woods recently. I’m looking forward to that, at least.

Oh, but Atonement this ain’t…

previous
#7 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / #8 Revolutionary Road / #9 The Dark Knight / #10 Sex & The City: The Movie / #11 The Lovely Bones / #12 Wall-E / #13 Stop-Loss / #14 The Women / #15 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince / Introduction / Orphans
*

Source: We Can’t Wait #6 Doubt

I was just about to go drown myself in Pabst and orange juice when a tipster sent me an email with the words “Hunter, What Do You Think?” and a link to the following vid. I can’t believe what I just watched. It appears to be a clip from Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, and while the visual effects for the Wild Thing’s face are off, as is the voice work (think Showbiz Pizza: The Movie), this would go along with the reasons we’ve heard for the film being pushed back to 2009. As for the child actor playing the character of Max in the clip, is this the same young actor, Max Records (real name), that we’ve seen in the official still from the film? It’s hard to say, but my gang of Gchatters from coast to coast, including Peter, say it doesn’t look like him. I agree.

So, is the clip a fake? And if so, who would make such a precise fake, clearly as an inside joke, as there is little doubt that most of this was shot on film? A friend in New York says he heard last night that The Kid America Club, a ragtag group of New York hipster party animals who utilize similar wild thing-ish costumes and have considerable resources, may be behind this. What the hell? I don’t buy it, but if it’s fake, those maniacal hipsters are prime suspects as they knowingly operate in the same concentric circles as Jonze (and purportedly had talks with Showtime for their own show a few years ago).

The clip has a voyeuristic, sun-spotted quality and there is an inherent weirdness present that would go along with what sneak preview audiences have reported. The first few seconds even contain music that sounds like it’s taken from Beck’s Odelay, another Jonze bud. I am at once bothered by how unfinished this is and totally digging it. Throw some Karen O on the creative pyre, and I’m beginning to think that Jonze and Dave Eggers, who wrote the screenplay, may have quite a bit of deranged magic in store for us, much to Hollywood’s chagrin. And after There Will Be Blood, this is the only children’s movie suitable for Paul Dano.

But if this clip is ersatz: Greatest Hipster Prank of All Time!