“‘I don’t believe piracy can be easily beaten; fighting fire with fire by releasing movies on DVD at the same time as cinemas is probably where the industry is heading in the next few years,’ said Mr. Jackson”. The NY Times discusses King Kong and the current industry effort against movie piracy.
Month: August 2005
Gold Stryker.
Will Al Swearingen meet his match in Hannibal Lecter? Proving once again that quality character actors love them some Sioux country, Brian Cox joins Deadwood Season Three as “Jack Langrishe, an eccentric producer and theater owner who strives to introduce a modicum of culture to the mean streets of the South Dakota town.” (He’s likely the earlier rumored openly gay character in love with a male ingenue — Garret Dillahunt, perhaps?) (Also posted at Quiddity.) In other HBO news, memo to myself: The Wire Season 3 hits On Demand on Sept. 12, meaning I should probably pick up the service sometime before then.
When the Levee Breaks.
Obviously, the big story right now is the tremendous and nightmarish devastation wrought by Katrina upon the Gulf, particularly in Louisiana and Mississippi. The first reports suggested that the Big Easy had dodged the bullet when Katrina zigged to the right at the last moment, but the broken levees and rising floodwaters have obliterated that silver lining (which was likely little consolation anyway to the people of Biloxi and Gulfport, who felt Katrina’s full wrath.) Now, the news out of N’Orleans, one of America’s most unique and historic cities, sounds worse with each passing hour. My thoughts are with the people of New Orleans and the region (and their most esteemed bloggers) as they try to pick up the pieces after this continuing catastrophe.
To the Five Boroughs.
Hey y’all. After a good deal of traveling (and side-stepping around Katrina), I’m back in Chesapeake, VA, and have broken Berkeley out of the canine correctional facility he was residing at during our Maui sojourn. Later in the week (and just like Tom Thumb’s Blues), I’ll be heading back up to NYC to begin Year 5 at Hogwarts, or Columbia, as it were.(I’ll post Hawaii pics at Flickr once I return to Gotham.)
Narn!
A number of new Chronicles of Narnia images materialize online, including several of Tilda Swinton’s White Witch, James McAvoy’s Mr. Tumnus, and Jim Broadbent’s Professor.
WWJK?
“It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war … and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.” 700 Club guru and former GOP presidential candidate Pat Robertson calls for the head of Venuezela’s Hugo Chavez. (Venezuela is obviously livid, and the Dubya administration, for their part, quickly disavowed the idea.)My, isn’t he just the model of Christian forbearance? Some words of wisdom, Pat: Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. (Matthew 26:52)
For whom the beep tolls.
La coupe de feu.
The Leaky Cauldron procures the international trailer for HP and the Goblet of Fire (Scroll down.) With the exception of that truly terrible falling sequence near the end there, this looks like it could be as entertaining as Azkhaban.
The Imperial March.
In a bid to spend a few hours out of the unrelenting Maui sunshine this past weekend, we exchanged Aloha for Antarctica and caught the well-received March of the Penguins. Brimming with impressive footage of the Emperor Penguins’ arduous yearly breeding cycle in the world’s most inhospitable place, and presided over by an avuncular Morgan Freeman, March definitely makes for a pleasant and diverting moviegoing experience, and seemed a great movie to take the kids to. Yet, as appealing as it is, March seems somewhat misplaced on the big screen, given that — ultimately — it’s not all that different from what you can catch on the Discovery Channel most times of the day…but given the particularly lousy crop of late-summer movie fare at the moment, perhaps there’s something to be said for quality nature docs writ large. Regardless, big-screen or small-screen, March of the Penguins is worth viewing, if only to appreciate anew how strange, delicate, unforgiving, and surprising our world can be (and to discover that there’s much more to penguins than Opus and Oswald Cobblepot.)
Construction Time Again.
As big-time progressive donors get to institution-building, the Dems try to work out a coherent strategy on the Roberts confirmation hearings and the war in Iraq. Right now I think Russ Feingold’s strategy — taking the heat off Roberts to focus on matters in Baghdad — is probably the right one, although the party should also try to keep the public eye trained on the misdeeds of Mssrs DeLay, Rove, etc. There should be no wriggling off the hook this time for these well-placed GOP criminals.