Movies

Wizard People, Dear Reader

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Oh, cool!

…in a makeshift screening room in a Brooklyn warehouse, more than 75 filmgoers paid $7 each to watch the first film in the series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Sort of.
On the screen “The Sorcerer’s Stone” played as it was released by Warner Brothers. But the original soundtrack, dialogue and all, was turned down and replaced by an alternate version created by a 27-year-old comic book artist from Austin, Tex., named Brad Neely.

There is some chance that this type of creative endeavor will run smack up against some kind of copyright defense mounted by the MPAA folks. Blocking creativity based on existing works is clearly the goal of the folks who want forever copyrights. And as Paul Goyette says:

It would indeed be a shame. Creating and making as much as watching and listening? This could be the perfect remedy for our passive, bloated, consumption-driven culture.

I think this possibility frightens the content folks. Why if folks sitting at home are watching content created by other folks hanging out at home and serving it from home or their friendly hosting company what happens to the revenue streams of the cable companies, the moviemakers, the recording industry, etc. Massive disintermediation becomes a real possibility.
Which, I think, would be a great thing for everyone except the legacy industries. Creative destruction at its best!
Read the New York Times article.
Oh yea, on my cable connection the download of Wizard People, Dear Reader is currently taking less then 30 minutes!

Shrek 2

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First: do not leave when the ending credits start! Wait until they start again.
The movie is fun. Plenty of chuckles. Just the thing if you would like to spend a couple hours just hangin’ out and not dealing with life’s serious issues…unless you want to get in to that layer of the movie.
Parents: it is PG rated. I chuckled at the sexual humor and innuendo, Rabelasian flatulence, typical pratfalls and didn’t chuckle much at the violence.
At the showing I attended with Mrs. Modulator the audience was probably 1/4 sub-teen with the rest being junior/senior high school types and adults. There were plenty of times I could just imagine the accompanying parents cringing at the thought of junior later asking about one scene or another.

ROTK: Extended Edition

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Will it be ready for XMAS? Of course, why el$e is Jackson working on it now:

“I’m going to work on an extended DVD version, though I don’t think all of that will make it in, because the pacing would be really weird,” Jackson told the magazine. “But there’s some good stuff that’s not in the book.”

I don’t know as I want much good stuff that was not in the book. As much as I loved the movie I am still smarting over the missing Scouring of the Shire.

Theatrical or DVD LOTR

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Nate contemplates the possibility that Peter Jackson is insane.
Really, how could Jackson possibly think the theatrical versions of the LOTR trilogy is better than the extended versions? Well, they are his creations and each had its purpose.
I have had time to watch only the first disk of the extended Two Towers and if this is exemplary of the rest it is a huge improvement on a movie that I already thought was very, very good!
But, of course, this says nothing regarding Jackson’s sanity just that if the studio had allowed it he could have delivered an even greater movie to the theaters.
And, based on how easy it was to sit through RoTK I don’t think length would have bothered most viewers. In fact I was pleasantly surprised at how many folks stayed through the credits (though a few stood to watch them).