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Neal Stephenson on the larger lessons of Star Wars. “Nothing is more seductive than to think that we, like the Jedi, could be masters of the most advanced technologies while living simple lives: to have a geek standard of living and spend our copious leisure time vegging out.”
Finding a rough model for how films fare at the box office. “They assume that revenue relies on three major factors: the size of the possible audience, the initial desire of audience members to see the film (which is often dictated by the amount spent on marketing and publicity), and audience response to the film.”
The friendship and rivalry of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Interview with Errol Morris. He says he’s going to be doing some more commercials for Apple.
Drawing Restraint 9 is the first collaboration by super-couple Matthew Barney and Bjork.
On the art of the movie trailer. “There are few more cynical forms of art, or of advertising. Trailers are full of deception. Because what they want you to do is to see the movie they want you to see, not the movie that it is.”
Rolling Stone interview with George Lucas from 1977.
Nancy Cartwright says The Simpsons movie is now in production. Will one of the entertainment industry’s biggest pieces of vaporware actually get shipped?
65,000 photocopies of 300 different films made into a 14-minute short. Quite clever.
Jason Scott on why he decided to license his straight-to-DVD documentary under a Creative Commons license. “It was in some ways a tough decision, because you want to ‘protect’ yourself, but then you realize you’re not really ‘protecting’ anything; all you’re doing is being a paranoid twitch-bag. And once you realize this, then it becomes a little easier.”
The Blurb Racket is a weekly roundup of movie blurbs put back into context. “…Travolta is as smooth as ever…” is actually “…although Travolta is as smooth as ever, the picture is a bust, a grimly unfunny comedy with no connection to reality, and worst of all, running on and on for two dismal hours”.
If you’re going to see Revenge of the Sith again, look for these easter eggs. Both the Millennium Falcon and George Lucas have cameo appearances.
Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock has a book out about fast food.
“A sampling of what prominent film critics wrote in their reviews of the earlier ‘Star Wars’ films”.
The blog for Me and You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July’s acclaimed new movie. The most recent entries are about the film’s win at Cannes.
Mr. Sun goes to Revenge of the Sith with his youngling. “Why didn’t Obi-Wan finish off Anakin? That weakness of the mind cost millions of lives. Put down the coffee, Master Kenobi — coffee is for closers.”
The public choice economics of Star Wars: A Straussian reading. “The core point is that the Jedi are not to be trusted”.
The top 100 movie voices. Peter Sellers should really be higher on the list.
Movies that have been considered the greatest ever.
Why we shouldn’t pay that much attention to the box office gross. “Ticket sales from theaters provided 100 percent of the studios’ revenues in 1948; in 2003, they accounted for less than 20 percent.” And he doesn’t even mention inflation…Gone With the Wind is still the highest grossing film in history when you adjust for inflation.
Anthony Lane slams Revenge of the Sith in the New Yorker this week. “The general opinion of ‘Revenge of the Sith’ seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, ‘The Phantom Menace’ and ‘Attack of the Clones’. True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion.” Ouch.
The NY Times is keeping a Cannes Film Festival weblog.
Trailer for Rize, David LaChapelle’s film about krump dancing.
There’s a rumor that Blockbuster may stop offering online rentals. The folks at Netflix must be beside themselves with glee.
Microsoft is sponsoring a short film contest called Thought Thieves about intellectual property theft. And the entry form states: “I will formally license on terms acceptable to Microsoft, all intellectual property rights in my film and agree to waive all moral rights in relation to my film if requested to do so”. Heh.
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