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Entertaining RSS FeedsRussia - Global Independents 2008: Central Partnership -- In the decade or so since Moscow's Central Partnership was founded by Armenian-born architect Rouben Dishdishyan and his cousins, the company has carved out a solid niche as Russia's leading indie distributor and producer. ...Feed Source: feeds.feedburner.com Bollywood distribs - Global Independents 2008: Bollywood distribs
... France - Global Independents 2008: Pathe -- In a medal competition for European B.O. distributor perf this year, France's Pathe Distribution would surely take gold, Usain Bolt-style.
... Mexico - Global Independents 2008: Gussi Films -- By maintaining a careful balancing act between bigger-budget and indie films, Gussi topper Altamirano has guided this decades-old regional distributor to consistent success, typically outgunning perennial No. 2, Televisa's film distrib Videocine.
... Spain - Global Independents 2008: Tripictures -- Boosted by big Euro co-production "Asterix at the Olympic Games" ($8.6 million) and "Sex and the City" ($8.3 million), boutique Tripictures took the title of Spain's highest-grossing indie distributor.
... Italy - Global Independents 2008: Medusa -- Italy's Medusa is a production/distribution/exhibition powerhouse that gives "vertical integration" special meaning, since it's also the sister company of Italo Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset web.
... Germany - Global Independents 2008: Constantin Film
... U.K. - Global Independents 2008: Entertainment Film Distributors -- Anyone who thinks Entertainment Film Distributors will struggle to remain the U.K.'s top indie distributor after the end of its New Line deal should consider this: Over the past decade, Entertainment, owned and run by brothers Nigel and Trevor Green, would have been the indie No. 1 even without its New Line movies.
... Japan - Global Independents 2008: Toho -- Toho, like its signature character Godzilla, tromps the local competition. And no one has yet figured out a way to drive off of its top B.O. perch (nine of the 10 biggest domestic B.O. hits in 2007), let alone into the ocean.
... Australia - Global Independents 2008: Hoyts -- Hoyts Distribution weighs in as Australia's top indie in '08 despite a change of corporate owners late last year. An affiliate of Australia's second-largest theater circuit Hoyts Cinemas, the distrib was offloaded at a loss to buyout firm Pacific Equity Partners.
... Not So Quiet on the Set (My Life in Movies During Hollywood's Macho Era) - Book Reviews: A showbiz memoir masquerading as a sociological treatise, "Not So Quiet on the Set" makes much of Robert Relyea's alliance with Steve McQueen. Too much, in fact. Relyea's five-year partnership with McQueen may have been his closest brush with celebrity, but it was far from his first or last interaction with a larger-than-life showbiz character.
... I'll Have What She's Having: Behind the Scenes of the Great Romantic Comedies - Book Reviews: Variety's Boston correspondent Daniel M. Kimmel tells the story behind romantic comedies ranging from "The Philadelphia Story" to "There's Something About Mary." The overview begins with Ernst Lubitsch's largely forgotten 1932 pre-Code tale, "Trouble in Paradise," before moving on to more familiar territory with pics such as "It Happened One Night" and "My Man Godfrey."
... You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story - Book Reviews: This handsome coffee table book is a tie-in to the five-hour PBS docu that Richard Schickel wrote and produced to celebrate the studio's 85th anni. Here, he shares the writing honors with George Perry, providing essays on the studio's history from its 1923 beginnings through various changes in corporate ownership.
... Palin's rise adds twist to celeb claims - Weekly Smoke and Mirrors: VP candidate becomes overnight sensation -- The McCain campaign has spent months painting Barack Obama as a "celebrity" -- out of touch with regular Americans and the country's needs. But in less than a week, John McCain's newly anointed running mate went from virtual unknown to overnight, um, celebrity.
... BET to unveil Hadjii's 'Somebodies' - Weekly Smoke and Mirrors: Network finally enters scripted series business -- After years of being criticized for not programming enough quality fare, BET is finally getting into the scripted series business. The African-American-geared cabler is set this week to debut "Somebodies," the first scripted series in its history.
... Perils of predictions - Book Reviews: Showbiz power players are nothing if not opinionated, but their predictions about the future don't always hold up. From the new book "Inventing the Movies," here's a look at some particularly misguided comments about new technologies.
... Inventing the Movies - Book Reviews: Scott Kirsner, a Variety contributor, has written a tome chronicling how Hollywood has battled every major technological innovation that has come along. Naysayers didn't believed sound, and color film would take off and to this day are dickering over who will pay for 3-D theater conversions.
... Will Oz give thanks for Bond or Baz? - Weekly Smoke and Mirrors: 'Quantum of Solace,' 'Australia' claim same date -- Bond or Baz? Come Nov. 26, Aussies face a tough choice: whether to see "Quantum of Solace" or native son Baz Luhrmann's epic "Australia."
... The Sky Crawlers (Sukai kurora) - Film Reviews: The creeping lassitude evident in cult toonster Mamoru Oshii's "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" reaches its apex in "The Sky Crawlers," which lands on the screen with a soft thud and stays there for two hours.
... In Paraguay - Film Reviews: "In Paraguay" feels atypically passive -- a homemovie whose shape and substance are devoid of the helmer's familiar wry commentary.
... Vegas: Based on a True Story - Film Reviews: Iranian expatriate cineaste Amir Naderi returns to the desert in "Vegas: Based on a True Story," as a destructive force rips through a family in precarious remission from full-blown addiction.
... Give it a rest, Rupe! - Peter Bart: Media should help inform, not propagandize -- Now that they've endured one and a half party conventions, it's left to the voters to assimilate unfamiliar personalities and even a few abstract ideas. The Democrats' mantra is "change" and the Republicans' is "reform," but it's not really clear what either side means.
... Empty Nest (El nido vacio) - Film Reviews: As bereft of interesting ideas as its slightly dyspeptic playwright subject, Daniel Burman's "Empty Nest" flails to comprehend a married couple whose children have left home.
... Digital shift: pennies from hell - Brian Lowry: Olympics show growing trend of shrinking dollars -- While still basking in Beijing Olympics gold, NBC Sports is already contemplating the proper mix for web and TV content during the next Games -- reluctant to risk trading "analog dollars for digital pennies," as chairman Dick Ebersol told the New York Times.
... Penny Arcade exposes geek culture - Weekly Music and Technology: Thousands watch Holkins, Krahulik 'Rock' out -- Around 9 p.m. on Aug. 30 thousands of fans screamed and snapped photos as the stars of a weekend-long extravaganza took the stage to play. But these weren't musicians and they weren't playing instruments.
... Japan firms set sites on Internet - Technology News: Local YouTube facing copywright problems -- More and more Japanese viewers are tuning out TV for YouTube, the fourth-most popular website in Japan little more than a year after its official launch in June 2007, in cooperation with six local partners, including satellite platform Sky PerfecTV.
... Fox's not-so-hot summer at the movies - Weekly Film: Studio looks to rebound from forgettable season -- For Twentieth Century Fox, 2008 was the summer of its discontent.
... Celeb-wrangler rides 'yes' express - Weekly: Lori Levine never says 'no' to stars' requests -- Celebs can be real animals. After all, you often need to "wrangle" them, just like you do obstreperous horses.
... Spain's Voz Audiovisual builds buzz - Weekly International: 'Missing,' 'Padre Casares' both popular -- Based not in media centers Madrid or Barcelona but in Galicia's biggest seaport, La Coruna, Voz Audiovisual might not seem like a Spanish TV giant.
... Fringe - TV Reviews: Being derivative isn't necessarily a condemnation in television, but given the auspices and hype, "Fringe" disappoints -- mixing a bit of "The X-Files" here and a dollop of "Alias" there, flecks of deeply embedded conspiracies and imperiled humanity.
... Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Film Reviews: People with high blood pressure need romantic comedies, too, and their cardiologists will be very grateful for "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist," a scrubbed-up, somnambulistic night tour of teen-hipster Manhattan. This is the kind of sparsely plotted comedy that depends on compelling characters, but it stars two young actors defined by ironic detachment. Michael Cera and Kat Dennings may bring some young behinds to theater seats, but the number will be finite, as the pic's energy level is too low for breakout B.O.
... Treeless Mountain - Film Reviews: Two resilient little sisters bear up as best they can when their desperate mom dumps them with relatives in So Yong Kim?s "Treeless Mountain," which finds the "In Between Days" filmmaker shifting milieus (from Toronto to her native South Korea) and slightly, though not starkly, altering her methods for this slightly autobiographical tale.
... Republican National Convention: John McCain - TV Reviews: For one night, anyway, a little of that rock star aura that McCain has ridiculed would have helped.
... The Magic Hour (Za Majikku Awa) - Film Reviews: The kind of slavish homage to cinema itself that's not quite as charming as it thinks but charms nonetheless.
... The House of Adam - Film Reviews: With minimal regard for acting, production values or the fundamentals of screenwriting, self-distributed romantic thriller addresses a ripped-from-the-headlines hate crime with such earnestness, writer-director-producer Jorge Ameer must have thought he was the first to tackle the subject of gay-bashing onscreen.
... Peaceful Times - Film Festival Reviews: Director Neele Vollmar's second feature, "Peaceful Times," is a 1960s-set family dramedy that doesn't quite have the stuff to make a dent at arthouses abroad.
... Paper Soldier (Bumazhny soldat) - Film Reviews: The Soviet Union's race to put the first man in space supplies a backdrop to the talky, symbol-laden period drama "Paper Soldier," from Russian helmer Alexey German Jr. ("The Last Train," "Garpastum).
... The El Escorial Conspiracy (La conjura de El Escorial) - Film Reviews: A good-looking big-budgeter about intrigue and betrayal in 16th-century Spain, the project is holed by a shaky script that pushes its cardboard characters through often far-fetched situations.
... Pachamama (El regalo de la Pachamama) - Film Reviews: More than any discernible narrative arc, it's the "ruta de la sal" (salt route) wending through remote Andean habitations that shapes "Pachamama."
... Weltstadt - Film Reviews: Bored, frustrated small-town youth again boil over into senseless violence in "Weltstadt."
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