Hollywood Blog

Digital Projection In The Works

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The movie industry has gone a long way since the first moving pictures came out. Today, we see movies in full color and digital surround sound. We can even choose movie theaters with Lazy Boy seats. Add to that the best popcorn – and other munchies – and we can have the best movie experience ever. Or is it really the best?

We all know that despite the bounds and leaps that movies have made over the decades, the basic thing is that they still use celluloid film. This fact gives way to physical limitations. After a lot of runs and reruns, the film can get scratched and the quality of the movie can suffer.

All this can be done away with, however, if movies were digitally projected. This is what some groups are aiming for. The Baltimore Sun has this story:

An agreement last week by a consortium of five Hollywood studios to funnel more than $1 billion into making digital projection available to 20,000 U.S. theater screens should lead to better and more consistent picture quality, industry leaders say, and enable theaters to widen their programming by projecting concerts and other live events. In addition, bringing digital capacity to so many more theater screens will increase the number able to show 3-D films, which many industry analysts see as the next big thing in motion-picture technology.

We already know the potential that digitalization offers. From the DVD to Blu-Ray, we have seen all the changes. Who is to say that similar technology cannot be applied to the wide screen?

Originally posted on October 11, 2008 @ 4:20 am

Hollywood Appreciates Art

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Is Hollywood synonymous to art? I know a lot of people who would say that there are a lot of mainstream Hollywood movies which would not classify as art. Then again, these people are purists and they have a whole different way of classifying art anyway. But did you know that Hollywood movies actually show a lot of art? This may or may not have been done on purpose but the fact remains – you can get a glimpse of a lot of artwork in Hollywood movies.

AFP reports:

Mr Bean wrecking a Whistler or Julia Roberts expounding on a Pollock: in much the way James Bond films help cocktail connoisseurs improve their drinks skills, Hollywood in the past half century has provided key insights into US art.

So says a rare exhibition on film and art outside Paris in Giverny, the leafy sprawling home of Impressionist giant Claude Monet.

“For Europeans, cinema is the quintessential US art form,” said Sophie Levy, chief curator of the Musee d’Art Americain.

“But we were surprised to see how many Hollywood films actually featured US artworks, specially those made in the last 20 years.”

So there – the experts have said it. Movies made in the last 2 decades are rife with various art work. One question remains, though, are these art work real? I do not have the answer right now – need more research on this. Maybe one of you would have the info?

Originally posted on August 25, 2008 @ 11:00 am

Wachowski Brothers

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Having recently seen Speed Racer I now feel the need to write about two of my favorite writers/ producers/ directors. The Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, has a pretty good list of films both as writers and producers. Although they only have relatively few films between them (15 as writers, 9 as producers, and 8 as directors) you’ll be surprised at the number of awards they have earned, although I’d say that if you saw any of their films you shouldn’t be surprised at all. In fact so far they’ve already been nominated 9 times for various awards and won 6 out of the 5 nominations.

Films and video games done by the Wachowski Brothers include:

Speed Racer (2008) – writers, producers, and directors
V for Vendetta (2005) – writers, producers
The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005 – video game) – writers, directors
The Matrix Online (2005 – video game) – writers, directors
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) – writers, executive producers, and directors
Enter the Matrix (2003 – video game) – writers, directors
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) – writers, executive producers, and directors
The Animatrix (2003) – segment writers; producers
The Matrix (1999) – writers, producers, and directors
Bound (1996) – writers, executive producers, and directors
Assassins (1995) – writers

They are also producers of a film currently filming – Ninja Assassin.

The mark of the Wachowski brothers are one-of-a-kind surreal films that somehow feel familiar and believable. From machines taking over the world to race car drivers winning a fixed race the recurring theme is changing the world despite impossible odds. Hmmm. Sounds corny? Somehow the Wachowski brothers put it together to make it far from corny. Cool beans its another Wachowski film in the making!

Originally posted on May 12, 2008 @ 11:55 pm

Astroboy latest in Hollywood popculture nostalgia

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astroboy2.jpg

First they brought comic book heroes like the Fantastic Four, Spiderman and X-men. Then it was Transformers.

Clearly, Hollywood was tapping into the childhood icons of the thirty-something movie goers, and the latest “epic” is Astro Boy, a computer animated feature from Imagi Studios.

But to hook in the young viewers, the studio brought in Highmore, who has appeared in Spiderwick Chronicles, The Golden COmpass, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Originally posted on March 7, 2008 @ 1:25 am

Forbidden Box Office News

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Last week’s box office closed with the Forbidden Kingdom earning the top spot at $7.55 million. I still haven’t seen the movie though I look forward to seeing Jackie Chan and Jet Li together in a blockbuster movie. Being a huge fan of both action stars I sure wouldn’t miss this one.
Forbidden Kingdom poster

Garnering the number two spot was Forgetting Sarah Marshall ($5.92 million). Tagged as the ultimate romantic disaster movie I wasn’t really planning on seeing the movie but after seeing the high rating it got on IMDB I just might see it.

Other movies to make it to the top ten are Prom Night ($3.45 m), 88 Minutes ($2.33 m), 21 ($1.8 m), Nim’s Island ($1,5 m), Street Kings ($1.3 m), Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed ($1.2 m), Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, and Leather (tied at $925k).

So far I have only seen 88 Minutes and Street Kings. Although Street Kings was more fast-paced I preferred 88 Minutes a lot more. Street Kings lacked depth and had some really cheesy lines plus you can guess the bad guy very early on. 88 Minutes on the other hand had some slow moments in the beginning but the twist was pretty good and threw me off from my original suspect a few times. Truthfully though I had no real big basis for my original suspect to be the killer other than the person is a pretty big actor/actress (not telling so I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it yet!) and so thought that the person would have a big role.

So I guess that’s it for last week’s box office. Got lots of movies to watch this week so I can tell you all about them on my next box office recap.

Originally posted on April 20, 2008 @ 11:13 am