In this morning’s roundup of movie news ‘n’ notes from around the web, a book publisher thinks the ultimate celebrity couple has TV shows running scared.
Here’s a new conspiracy theory: Andrew Morton’s unauthorized Angelina Jolie biography is due out this weekend, but most entertainment shows have “maintained virtual silence” on the book – because, St. Martin’s Press tells Andrew Wallenstein, “Extra” and “Access” and “E.T.” and the rest are afraid of losing access to Jolie and Brad Pitt. “The Brangelina PR machine,” says the publisher’s PR director, is intimidating the shows into keeping quiet. But the “machine” and the shows declined comment, choosing to stay silent about the silence. (The Hollywood Reporter) (Photo by Getty Images)
Are Foley artists, the movie sound effects whizzes who can create realistic effects with the unlikeliest of materials (cornflakes, celery, cellophane … ) an endangered species soon to go the way of the film critic and the music business? So suggests Kevin Rawlinson, who says that a new computer program threatens to replace traditional, old-fashioned sound effects by “building” them in a three-dimensional computer space. Automation is on its way, he suggests – though he adds, “Foley artists, while not resistant to change, believe that computer simulation can never completely replace the raw passion a human can bring to a soundtrack.” That’s a line, I’m afraid, on which we’ve heard quite a few variations over the past couple of decades. (New Zealand Herald)
Inspired by the attention currently being paid to Edith Piaf’s “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” because of its prominent use in “Inception,” Alison Nastasi comes up with a list of seven songs “given a new lease on life” after appearing in a film. The list includes “My Sharona” from “Reality Bites,” “Unchained Melody” from “Ghost,” “Stuck in the Middle with You” from “Reservoir Dogs” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” from “Wayne’s World.” I think the first reader comment contains a better idea: songs you never want to hear in a movie again. The reader only suggests three – “Bad to the Bone,” “Spirit in the Sky” and “I Feel Good” – but the possibilities are endless … (Cinematical)
Ryan Gilbey says that geeks have a stranglehold on movies, and it might be killing cinema. By geeks, he seems to mean avid, wired fans “mutating from supporters of escapist cinema into some kind of hybrid of cannibals and paymasters.” Apparently, their fervor to find out everything about a film (and then post it on the internet) has taken the element of surprise out of moviegoing, which might be a really horrible thing … except that maybe it’s not, and maybe the passion of the geeks is exactly what the movies need. When you’re reporting from Geek Central (i.e., Comic-Con), it’s apparently hard to fully embrace that pessimistic premise. (The Guardian)
If you’ve grown nostalgic for those distant days of Comic-Con last week, Anne Thompson has a photo gallery to take you back. She shoots one Oscar nominee (Anna Kendrick), a few studio execs, a comic icon (Bill Plympton) nd a whole lotta funny people in costumes, including Spongebob, various Star Warriors, Alex from “Clockwork Orange,” and five Power Rangers, who apparently haven’t dropped into pop-culture limbo quite yet. It’ll either make you want to go, or it’ll reaffirm your vow to never set foot near the place. (Thompson on Hollywood)
