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We Have Been De-googled!
10 hours ago
Dear Readers,
As many of our longtime readers are aware, Studio Briefing is the longest-running entertainment-industry news publication on the Web. Launched as a fax-only subscription service in 1992, we went online the following year as part of News Corp’s Delphi Internet Services Corp. , and we have existed as a paid subscription service and a syndicated online news service ever since.
With many of our client websites battered by the current economy and some of them biting the dust, we were encouraged by a few industry warhorses to launch a unique blog that would link the items in our daily digest directly to the source material and give readers the opportunity to discuss them. We unveiled the blog last April, augmenting our items with a few images and YouTube videos, and were gratified by the response -- with many new readers registering their thanks for our no-frills presentation that provided a fast-reading overview of the issues and events affecting “the biz” in a compelling style.
To draw revenue from the blog, we initially included ads from Google Adsense, and to help attract attention to it, we purchased ads ourselves from Google AdWords that appeared on related entertainment-industry websites. But a few months after we launched we received a boilerplate notification from Google that StudioBriefing.net had been "disabled" because it did not comply with Google policies. The notice was vague, failing to specify which policies we had violated. We have been trying to obtain an explanation ever since, without luck.
Not only did Google delete the Adsense advertisements appearing on the blog, but it diverted its spider from the site as well. As a result, StudioBriefing.net ceased being cited in Google search results. Then, a few weeks ago, we received word that Google had also halted running our Adword advertisements “due to one or more serious violations of our advertising policies related to Landing Page and Site Quality.” Whatever that means. Moreover, it added, “We are unable to accept advertising from you in the future. Please note that future accounts you open will also be disabled.”
We have repeatedly asked Google to explain its decision and to provide guidance on how to bring StudioBriefing.net into compliance with its policies. Our messages have either been ignored or we have received copies of their original boilerplate notifications.
We are in no position to battle Google on this. And without StudioBriefing.net being included in Google search results we cannot draw sufficient readers to remain viable. We are therefore left with no alternative but to shut down.
We thank you for checking us out during the past months, and please check back here on occasion. We’re still hoping that a White Knight might ride to our rescue.
P.S. And if you’re interested in an email subscription (the edition includes no ads and subscribers get it first), we’ll make a special rate available to readers of this blog. Simply drop us a line, and we’ll provide details. We’d also like to hear your suggestions.
(We have re-posted this message on our TV page.) »
“New Moon” Nears $200 Million In One Week
27 November 2009 3:19 PM, PST
The Twilight Saga: New Moon continued to pile up weekend-like ticket sales on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday, it raked in $10.5 million; on Tuesday, $11.3 million, and on Wednesday -- even with many theaters featuring new films -- it added another $14.3 million. By the time Thanksgiving dawned, it had already earned $179 million -- in just six days. Of the Wednesday openers, Warner Bros.' Ninja Warriors proved to be the biggest money-maker, although its $3.3-million take was unimpressive. It edged out the John Travolta/Robin Williams/Seth Green comedy Old Dogs, which looked mighty shaggy with $3.1 million. And Wes Anderson's animated The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which went into wide release after two weeks in a handful of theaters, took in a far-from-fantastic $1.1 million. »
Star Of Movie Barred From Seeing It
27 November 2009 3:06 PM, PST
Fifteen-year-old actor Aaron Wolff, who has a leading role in the Coen Brothers' latest film A Serious Man, was turned away from a Boston-area theater Tuesday night when he brought some of his friends to see it, the Boston Globe reported on Thursday. After a ticket seller had told him that she could not sell tickets to an R-rated movie to a 15-year-old and his friends, Wolff phoned his mother, who arrived at the theater and attempted to buy tickets for the young group. However, she reportedly was told that while she could buy a ticket for her son, she could not buy them for the other teens. The mother, Judy Kogan, told the Globe that she was surprised by the theater's strict enforcement. "All of these kids' parents knew where they were going," she said. »
Movie Reviews: “The Road”
27 November 2009 2:54 PM, PST
First came the apocalypse with 2012. Now comes the post-apocalypse with The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen, which arrives in theaters in limited release this weekend. It is enthralling several critics. A.O. Scott in the New York Times says that the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it movies have a similar theme. "These two films -- the cheesy action blockbuster and the earnest, literary Oscar aspirant -- converge on a serious, anxious question. In the wake of a planetary catastrophe, how will humanity survive? Not the species itself, but rather the repertory of behaviors and impulses that we like to think separate us from other animals." His verdict: "The Road is engrossing and at times impressive, a pretty good movie that is disappointing to the extent that it could have been great. Is this the way the world ends? With polite applause?" Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News writes that it "earns every minute that it rattles inside your head." Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer writes similarly: "I cannot think of another film this year that has stayed with me, its images of dread and fear - and yes, perhaps hope -- kicking around like such a terrible dream." Claudia Puig in USA Today calls it "stirring and life-affirming." Kyle Smith in the New York Post has just the opposite reaction, however. "File The Road under apocalypse porn," he writes. "Unlike Wall-e and Children of Men, though, this one offers no hope of renewal, no exit from the hell it so persuasively depicts." Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times shares that opinion, writing that The Road "turns out to be good at shocking and upsetting us, but it lacks the compensating emotional heft that would make absorbing those shocks worth our while." And Lisa Kennedy puts it more succinctly in the Denver Post, writing that the movie "has brutality but not benevolence." »
New Moon Set To Rise Again
26 November 2009 12:52 PM, PST
Box office fortune tellers, who were bitten badly last week when The Twilight Saga: New Moon drew near-record crowds and nearly double the revenue of many of their forecasts, are sticking their necks out again and predicting that it will take a steep dive over the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Many of them are taking their cue from the original Twilight movie, which dropped 62 percent in its second weekend a year ago. But, as the Los Angeles Times, which optimistically predicted last week that New Moon would earn $90 million in its official U.S. debut (it wound up with $142.8 million), noted, after New Moon "blew away expectations ... few in Hollywood feel comfortable making predictions on how it will perform going forward. It's quite possible that the movie could beat industry predictions once again." »
Movie Reviews: “Old Dogs”
26 November 2009 12:45 PM, PST
Old Dogs is a "turkey," writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, getting into the holiday spirit. So does Ty Burr in the Boston Globe and a host of online reviewers, including one who compared it with "rancid leftovers ... a toxic turkey." Several critics note that the film had originally been set for release last April but was postponed due to the death of Bernie Mac, who has a small role in it. "I can think of another way that they might have respected his memory," writes Ebert, and Burr adds: "If they had any respect for audiences, they might never have released it at all." Stephen Holden in the New York Times has to reach for a deplorable description of the movie. Calling it "a ramshackle mess doesn't begin to evoke the confusion and sloppy continuity of a movie whose disconnected parts sometimes appear to have been randomly assembled from a cutting-room scrap heap," he remarks. Kyle Smith in the New York Post doesn't even attempt to put too fine a point on it and courts a rebuke from PETA. "Old Dogs does to the screen what old dogs do to the carpet," he gibes. "It's unfortunate that only the latter can be taken out and shot." John Anderson in the Washington Post refers to it as a "comedic atrocity." As for the performances of stars John Travolta and Robin Williams, Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News comments: "Travolta, who delivers an impressively enthusiastic performance, seems to have no idea that he's stuck in one of the year's worst movies. The perpetually pained expression on Williams' face, however, suggests he knows otherwise." And Michael Phillips suggests in the Chicago Tribune that the two ought to have starred in a film called Bumps on Logs. "Truly, I would rather watch John Travolta and Robin Williams sitting on a tree trunk, doing nothing, than endure their best efforts to energize this ol' hound." »
Movie Reviews: “Me And Orson Welles”
26 November 2009 12:40 PM, PST
Me and Orson Welles was intended in part to showcase the acting chops of teen idol Zac Efron -- and also to bring his considerable following into the movie theater -- many of whom, no doubt, have never heard of Orson Welles. But not a few reviewers suggest that the Richard Linklater movie would have been far more enjoyable if it had focused on Welles and not the teenage character who inadvertently becomes a part of Welles's famed Mercury Theater ensemble at about the time the 22-year-old enfant terible of the theater was staging Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (in which he also appeared as Brutus). As Welles in real life upstaged every other actor in his presence, so, too does Christian McKay, the virtually unknown British actor who portrays him in this movie, many of the critics suggest. McKay, writes A.O. Scott in the New York Times, portrays Welles with "superhuman confidence. His evident relish in the dimensions of this role is a crucial part of the performance. It's so much fun to play Orson Welles because it must have been at least as much fun to be Orson Welles." Likewise Claudia Puig in USA Today writes: "McKay's performance is a revelation. He nails Welles' imperiousness, charm and vocal cadences, and even bears a strong resemblance to the iconic actor/director. He is thoroughly convincing as Welles and electrifies the screen when he's on it." Indeed, that may be both the strength and weakness of the movie, Betsy Sharkey implies in the Los Angeles Times. "McKay's command of the subject is so Welles-ian that when he's in a scene everyone else fades a little," she observes. In fact, some critics are suggesting that McKay might very well end up winning the best-actor award at next year's Oscars, something that always eluded the real-life Welles. (He shared a screenplay Oscar for Citizen Kane.) Welles, writes Mary Pols in Time magazine, "is brilliantly embodied by Christian McKay in one of those, hey-who's-that? performances that tends to draw Oscar talk, even if the film itself isn't much more than an extremely pleasant lark." »
Movie Reviews: “Red Cliff”
26 November 2009 12:34 PM, PST
Opening in limited release is John Woo's epic Red Cliff, the most expensive Chinese film ever made and featuring -- literally -- a cast of thousands. The American release runs 2 1/2 hours, about half the length of the movie when it was originally released in China earlier this year (not including an intermission). Critics appear impressed with the grandeur of the production; less so with its script. As Amy Biancolli writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: "The movie doesn't handle nuance too well, and the dialogue spins pretty frequently into unmitigated corniness. But anyone who enjoys stylized hyper-violence should be enthralled by this long, sweeping, murderously vivid dramatization of ancient Chinese warfare, circa A.D. 208." Indeed, Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal comments, "The immensity encompasses such variety, subtlety and intimacy that you may find yourself yearning for more." The critics also bestow high praise on the actors, in particular Tony Leung; several of them use the term "impressive" to describe his performance. But Mike Hale in the New York Times seems less than overwhelmed by the movie's epic scale. "Red Cliff, while handsome and intelligent and perfectly easy to sit through," he writes, "never really approaches the visceral tug of Mr. Woo's Hong Kong hits." Undoubtedly, the entire five-hour original will be available on DVD in the months ahead, but John Anderson in the Washington Post comments. "There should be a law against seeing this thing anywhere but in a theater. It's a big ol' movie, the way Lawrence of Arabia was a big ol' movie." »
Movie Reviews: The Princess And The Frog
26 November 2009 12:29 PM, PST
Disney is opening The Princess and the Frog in two theaters in New York and Los Angeles for a two-week special engagement before its national roll-out. In the apparent belief that audiences may feel short-changed by the lack of computer animation -- it's drawn by hand -- and 3D, the studio is compensating with a lot of marketing pizzazz, including games and other activities being presented next to the the theater. In Los Angeles, it's actually being screened on the Disney lot, the first time in memory that a studio has opened its gates to the public as part of a theatrical run. It's all totally unnecessary, most of the critics seem to agree. The movie stands beautifully on its own, returning Disney to its glory days. "What a relief to watch an animated movie without 3-D glasses!" writes Claudia Puig in USA Today, "And what a pleasure, after a season of bland computer-generated tales, to be swept up in the visual magic of The Princess and the Frog." Likewise, Betsy Sharkey writes in the Los Angeles Times: "After being bombarded by so much computer-generated, motion-captured high-and-higher jinks, the film feels fresh -- a discovery, or a rediscovery, depending on your age." "Enchanted!" exclaims Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. "The Disney magic -- not to be confused with the delights of its Pixar subsidiary -- is finally back, after a decade in the animated wilderness." Most of the reviews make only passing reference to the fact that the movie features the first black princess in Disney history. But Manohla Dargis in the New York Times faults the movie for doing so itself. After all, the princess spends much of her on-screen time as a frog. "It's not easy being green, the heroine of The Princess and the Frog discovers," Dargis writes. "But to judge from how this polished, hand-drawn movie addresses, or rather strenuously avoids, race, it is a lot more difficult to be black, particularly in a Disney animated feature." But perhaps the basic problem with the film, Joe Neumaier suggests in the New York Daily News, is that this princess is "achingly one-dimensional." »
Movie Reviews: “Ninja Assassin”
26 November 2009 12:24 PM, PST
Ninja Assassin, starring Korean pop star Rain, is getting the predictably lousy reviews such films ordinarily elicit. "No one expects much from a film like this, except R-rated bloodletting with some excitement to it," Michael Phillips remarks in the Chicago Tribune, noting that the "target audience" has "already spent weeks vivisecting bad guys on one gaming system or another, most of them without turning into sadistic killers in real life." As usual, Kyle Smith in the New York Post offers the most cutting put-down: "Not to brag, but who is this Ninja Assassin fellow compared to me? He: gets sliced to the bone by whirling blades, is blasted unconscious by stun guns and does handstands on a bed of nails. I: sat through Old Dogs." [The critics themselves are eliciting reviews of their reviews on their newspapers' own blogs. One writer posted this message on the Post's movie blog: "I haven't seen this yet, but all I can say to all these 'big time critics' out there is...Are You All Retarded. The Critics in the New York Post, La Times and all these other big name places must really hate action, gore and martial arts; because I'm all for it. I'm so anxious to see this thing that I'm tearing the hair off my head in antisipation (sic)."] »
Analyst Flexes Fist At Netflix
25 November 2009 3:33 PM, PST
Although there has been a steady flow of positive news for online DVD renter Netflix, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter is forecasting trouble ahead. One month after Netflix reported a remarkable 48-percent vault in third-quarter profits, Pachter warned that it likely will face formidable demands from the major studios for a greater cut of Netflix's revenue. Pachter lowered his rating for the company from Neutral to Underperform "as we believe that Netflix shares are trading above full value," he wrote in a message to clients. "We believe that the stock's current price reflects investor expectations for growth well above what can be reasonably expected," he said. Although he suggested that shares in the company were likely to continue to rise in the short term as Netflix announces new partnerships for its streaming service and additional subscribers as a result, the studios are likely to seek higher payments. "We do not expect the studios' thirst for a greater share of revenues to subside, and expect to see Netflix's cost of goods sold to rise as its [average revenue per user] declines, leading to lower gross profit." Meanwhile, technology columnist Larry Magid is predicting the day when movies on discs are replaced by streaming technology. "I have a Blu-ray [disc player] that I don't use often because I watch most of my movies online," he wrote in a column published today (Wednesday). In fact, he acknowledged, he recently downgraded his Netflix service to the $8.99 level because he no longer had any use for the $16.99 service that allowed him to keep three movies at a time. »
Spielberg Completes “Tintin” Filming
25 November 2009 3:30 PM, PST
The actual filming of Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn has been completed, and it now goes to motion-capture technicians and artists who will spend the next two years finishing it, Peter Jackson, who is producing it, said in London on Tuesday. The film stars Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) as Tintin. In an interview with the BBC, Jackson said, "Tintin is great. It's made. The movie is cut together and now [we] are turning it into a fully-rendered film. So the movie, to some degree, exists in a very rough state." The film, he revealed, will be released in 3D in late 2011. Jackson, who directed the 2D Lord of the Rings films, indicated that he has mixed feelings about the 3D technology. "The only thing I get annoyed about is the image being a little dull. It does feel like you're looking at the movie with sunglasses on. But literally, that could just be about getting brighter bulbs in the projectors." »
Shatner Did Have Role In “Star Trek” Movie, Script Reveals
25 November 2009 3:27 PM, PST
Appearing to settle the question of whether director Jj Abrams wanted William Shatner to appear in last year's Star Trek movie, the website TrekMovie.com on Tuesday claimed that two "alternate" scenes in which Shatner would have appeared as Captain Kirk were written for the movie. It posted one of them, which it said it had received "from one of our trusted sources and it has been verified to be the scene written for Shatner (but never shown to Shatner)." Kirk would have appeared as a hologram recording made before his death and retained in a pendant worn by the older Spock, who presents it to his younger self near the end of the film. It's a birthday message in which Kirk reminisces about his younger years with Spock. "Wasn't it only yesterday we stepped onto the Enterprise as boys?" he says at one point. However, the website questioned whether Shatner would have agreed to film the scene. "He had stated he 'does not do cameos' and the above scene appears to fall into the cameo category," it observed. »
Julie Andrews To Sing Again
25 November 2009 3:19 PM, PST
In a startling announcement, Julie Andrews and concert promoters Aeg Europe said today (Wednesday) that Julie Andrews will perform in her first concert appearance in 30 years at London's 02 Arena on May 8. Andrews had reportedly suffered permanent damage to her vocal cords during throat surgery in 1997 and had been left without the ability to sing. While she has continued to appear in movies as an actress in such films as The Princess Diaries and the voice of Queen Lillian in the Shrek movies, she has not had a singing role in films since 1982's Victor/Victoria. She did not immediately disclose how she had regained her singing capability. She said in a statement, "To perform once again in my homeland on the London stage will be a wonderful moment -- it is where it all began for me." »
Movie Academy To Recreate Silent Era
25 November 2009 2:45 PM, PST
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group that hands out the annual Oscar awards, plans to present a program next week aimed at recreating the moviegoing experience of the silent era 100 years ago -- long before the advent of "Hollywood" films. On Monday, the Academy is presenting "A Century Ago: The Films of 1909 -- The Stars Are Born," followed on Tuesday by "A Century Ago: The First Films of Mary Pickford." The films will be accompanied live by Michael Mortilla and projected by Joe Rinauldo, using a hand-cranked 1909 Nicholas Power Co. Model 6 Cameragraph. Like the cameramen who filmed the movies, Rinauldo will attempt to achieve the silent film speed of 16 frames per second (the rate was increased to 24 frames with the advent of sound). "It was an art of pride," Rinauldo told today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times. "The frame rate is kind of a tricky thing." »
“Moon” Shines Brighter
24 November 2009 3:08 PM, PST
Everyone was wrong. That's the only conclusion one can draw from the actual box-office figures for The Twilight Saga: New Moon when compared not only with weekend forecasts but also with official estimates released on Sunday. Sunday's figures were based on actual results for Friday and Saturday and an educated guess as to how much the movie would earn on Sunday. In the end it turned out that Sunday's business exceeded Summit Entertainment's guesstimate by a whopping $2.1 million. In the end, the movie actually earned $142.8 million for the three days -- the most any film has ever made outside of summer and behind last year's The Dark Knight (with $158 million) and 2007's Spider-Man 3 ($151 million) on the all-time list. Before it opened on Friday, box-office fortune tellers had predicted it would earn $80-100 million, and those predicting it would cross the $100-million mark were dismissed as moon-blinded know-nothings. But while the domestic estimates seemed to have been conservatively lowballed, the international ones seemed downright off-base. Summit said late Monday that the film actually earned $132.1 million -- or $14 million more than the Sunday projection. That brought the worldwide total to $274.9 million. Today's (Tuesday) Los Angeles Times explained the discrepancy by observing that, unlike the major studios, Summit does not have its own foreign distribution operation but instead relies on a number of smaller distributors who take their time reporting ticket sales. Indeed, some of them have yet to disclose weekend totals in some markets. »
Fox Chief Calls For “Three Strikes” Law In U.S.
24 November 2009 3:03 PM, PST
Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman Jim Gianopulos has urged the U.S. to pass a law similar to France's "three strikes" rule that would allow a judge to order Internet service providers to disconnect users who download copyrighted material. The British government has also signaled that it is ready to pass a three-strikes law as well. Gianopulos told a news conference in Athens Monday: "If we [the U.S.] can do that, it would be a big victory against piracy." In a separate interview with Reuters, Gianopulos also attempted to knock down reports that the James Cameron 3D epic Avatar will wind up costing $500 million, including production and marketing costs. "That's a ridiculous number," Gianopulos told the wire service. "It has actually no relationship to the actual cost of the movie." He declined to disclose how much the actual budget for the movie was, saying only that "the movie was quite expensive" but that it was "money well spent." »
“2012” Most Pirated Movie
24 November 2009 2:51 PM, PST
The popularity of pirated movies on BitTorrent sites often seems at odds with their theatrical popularity. While -- as was to be expected -- 2012 was the most-downloaded movie on BitTorrent last week, according to the website TorrentFreak, the second-most-downloaded movie was Gamer, which flopped at the box office in September, taking in only $11.2 million in its opening and $20.5 million during its entire domestic run. Coming in third was the Judd Apatow film Funny People, which also flopped in theaters last August. It was the top downloaded movie on BitTorrent last week. »
Thai Film Voted Best Of Decade
24 November 2009 2:46 PM, PST
Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century, was selected as the best film of the decade in a poll conducted by the Toronto International Film Festival. Of some 60 film curators, historians and programmers polled by the festival, Syndromes received 53 votes. Coming in second was Chinese director Jia Zhangke's Platform, which received 49 votes by the panel. Jia also nabbed third place, with 48 votes going to his Still Life, which won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival in 2006. French filmmaker Claire Denis's Beau Travail took fourth place with 46 votes. And Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love rounded out the top five with 43 votes. »
Epix To Offer Free Indiana Jones Movies Over Thanksgiving
24 November 2009 2:27 PM, PST
Epix, the recently launched pay-tv channel and online streaming site, is offering its own version of the Indy 500 over the Thanksgiving weekend. It said that it will offer 500 minutes of Indiana Jones movies, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. They will be followed by Iron Man and The Hunt for Red October. Epix says that it will offer the movies free to consumers who register for online access at http://www.EpixHD.com/invite. »
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