Authors — Scott Macaulay

PITCHING SHOOT ‘EM UP

The guys over at Ain’t It Cool News have been creaming over Michael Davis’s Shoot ‘Em Up, an action pic set up at New Line starring Clive Owen. First the site’s Moriaty posted an interview with Davis in which the writer/director traces the interesting and circuitous route he took to being the town’s new go-to action guy. (Jeffrey Welles has also written about Davis in a fascinating career study that explains how a 44-year-old direct-to-video guy came to helm a big-budget A-list actioner.) And today, Moriaty links to the Latino Review which has a detailed script review and, most importantly, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 20, 2005
JOHN VANCO, FILM PROGRAMMER, OCCASIONAL CONTRACTOR

On the opening weekend of the IFC’s new IFC Center (which a friend reported was packed out for the opening of Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know), the folks at Gothamist have posted an interview with our friend John Vanco, the chief programmer for the theater. Vanco talks a lot about film and outlines an exciting vision for the theater, and he also reveals a past life as a carpenter when asked about the theater’s construction delays: “My background as a carpenter is an awfully obscure fact and fading memory — that was a long time ago. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 18, 2005
LUNCH HOUR SPACE OPERA

The rap on us movie business people here in New York is that we’re out of touch with the pulse of the industry, the daily insanity of life on the Left Coast. After seeing this pic, I fear that this criticism is correct. I honestly don’t know what to make of this story on Defamer which concerns the town’s biggest agency and one of my favorite writers. Finding it hard to believe that CAA has borrowed a promotional tactic from the IFP’s Independent Feature Film Market circa 1996, I ask anyone out there in L.A. to confirm Defamer‘s claim that […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 6, 2005
CHIP SHOTS, PART TWO

As predicted yesterday in numerous publications and as recounted below, Apple Computer today announced that it will be moving from IBM’s Power PC chip to the Intel Pentium chip, currently used in Windows computers. Yesterday I linked to Wired‘s Cult of Mac blog which stated that while speed may have been an issue, one of the other main reasons behind the switch was Apple’s desire to use Intel’s new Digital Rights Management protection that’s embedded in the new Pentium chip, a technology that will allow Apple to pitch the major movie studios with an ITunes-like digital movie store. At the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 6, 2005
CHIP SHOTS

If you’ve gone anywhere near your computer this weekend you’ll have noticed all the stories about Apple’s supposed plan to shift from IBM Power PC chips to Intel chips in its Macintosh computers. A Wall Street Journal story earlier in the week claiming that this shift might be in the offing caused Apple’s stock to pop 6%, but most followers of Jobs and company doubted the report. Now, however, with the official announcement less than 24 hours away, it’s being reported as near fact. For Mac fans, it’s a big deal, as the architecture of the new chip will require […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 5, 2005
THE BROKEN WINDOW THEORY PART TWO

Below we linked to a Hollywood Reporter article about the momentum in the industry towards collapsing the traditional theatrical/home video/pay television windows that have governed when new motion pictures are released to the public. Today on his blog, Mark Cuban, whose 2929 Productions and HDNet films are at the forefront of this experimental distribution, has a cogent explanation of his strategy. Make sure to read the postings from readers below his blog as well. Hollywood may not like it, but it’s clear that he is on to something. From the piece: “Why not price a DVD or the PPV at […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 5, 2005
THE BROKEN WINDOW THEORY

Anne Thompson’s column this week in the Hollywood Reporter is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of specialty film distribution. She interviews folks like IFC’s Jonathan Sehring and Picturehouse’s Dennis O’Connor about what she says is the inevitable collapse of the theatrical/home video/pay cable distribution window system. IFC’s Sehring, whose IFC Center opens this week in New York, is particularly forthright: “While he has no plans to ‘expand beyond one facility,’ says Sehring, he sees other changes ahead. ‘We’re going to alter our business plans over the next six to eight months. We feel strongly about video-on-demand as […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 4, 2005
JUNE 13 — ANOTHER DAY ON EARTH

The release of a new vocal album of songs by Brian Eno — his first such solo “non-ambient” recording since 1977’s Before and After Science (I’m not including albums that mixed songs with instrumental pieces like 1997’s Nerve Net) — would be significant enough to post about on this film blog even if Eno wasn’t an artist whose work has been massively influential to filmmakers. But from the glam rock art songs of his that appeared on the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack to instrumental pieces that have played significant roles in films like 28 Days Later and Heat to his video […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 3, 2005
JULY IN JUNE

Realizing that it’s been over two weeks since we’ve posted anything here about Miranda July, whose new blog for her film Me and You and Everyone We Know contains pictures of her receiving the Camera d’Or at Cannes from the once-in-a-lifetime pairing of Abbas Kiorastami and Milla Jovovich, I took notice of an email from Cloverfield Press. July’s new book, The Boy from Lam Kien, is now available from Cloverfield, the small press started by film producer and Sundance Lab programmer Matthew Greenfield and writer Laurence Dumortier. The book is described as “a strange and lovely story about an agoraphobe’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 2, 2005
VAUGHN LEAVES X-MEN 3

Though I was never a big fan of the comic books, for me, the X-Men films were some of the best of recent big-budget superhero movies. Director Bryan Singer kept the focus on the characters and their relationships while also engaging in the de rigeur FX spectacle. X-Men 3 has been underway and after a prolonged search Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn was hired to helm the film. However, Moriarty over at Ain’t It Cool News has the scoop that Vaughn is no longer on the picture due to his having to deal with personal issues. The film is still […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 31, 2005

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