Studio film

Netflix sold out it's new releases with Warner Bros to get more catalog titles. They're delaying new releases by 28 days.

Carl DiOrio writes:

Warner Bros. and Netflix on Wednesday unveiled a dramatic pact that will delay the studio's new-release discs reaching Netflix's 11 million online rental subscribers for 28 days.

Netflix agreed to the deal because it will boost the number of Warners catalog titles that Netflix will be allowed to offer while providing the delayed rental titles on less expensive terms. New-release rentals account for an estimated 30% of shipments by Netflix, whose customers skew toward catalog product.

Still, Blockbuster and other disc-rental operations will gain a competitive advantage among those wanting to rent new-release DVDs and Blu-ray Discs on the same day they hit stores. Eventually, the deal could have broad ripple effects within the home entertainment industry, but for now, the 28-day policy applies only to Netflix.

We were going to say something pithy here, but we feel we've done our job with that headline.

This Matt Bateman fellow isn't the first person to make the case, but his breakdown is likely the first one to go viral.

Larger image here.

Kim Peek, the mentally disabled savant who inspired the Oscar-winning film "Rain Man," died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 58.

Peek was a mega-savant with the ability to recall 98 percent of everything he read, saw or heard. Peek's remarkable mental abilities left such an impression on screenwriter Barry Morrow that he was inspired to write the movie "Rain Man." The film, while fiction, significantly raised public awareness of Autism, Savant syndrome, and mental disabilities.

The film was beneficial for the deeply introverted Peek as well, helping him learn new social skills. From the Times Online:

It was not until he met Dustin Hoffman, when the Hollywood star was researching his role in "Rain Man", that he could look into another person's face. He was 37 at the time.

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Your FBLA editors are ladies, we love the movies, and we especially love NY Times film critic Manohla Dargis for taking Hollywood to task over sexism in the movie industry. She struck first last week with an article in the NYT, and yesterday in an interview with Jezebel's Irin Carmon. A few of our favorite outtakes from the conversation:

"In the trade press, women audiences are considered a niche. How is that even possible? We're 51 percent of the audience."

"Let's acknowledge that the Oscars are bullshit and we hate them. But they are important commercially... I've learned to never underestimate the academy's bad taste. Crash as best picture? What the fuck."

"There's a reason that women go to movies like Mamma Mia. It's a terrible movie... but women are starved for representation of themselves. I go back to Spike Lee and She's Gotta Have It. I remember going to see it at the Quad in New York, surrounded by a black audience. People are starved for representations of themselves."

The full interview is here.

Zombies have clearly jumped the shark, but Jane Austen, Natalie Portman, and a huge Hollywood budget will surely make them hip again. Portman has signed on to star in and produce the film adaptation of 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,' the bestselling book by Seth Grahame-Smith and poor Jane Austen, who never saw any of it coming. From Variety.com:

Described as an expanded version of the Austen classic, the book tells the timeless story of a woman's quest for love and independence amid the outbreak of a deadly virus that turns the undead into vicious killers.

Portman will play feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet, who is distracted from her quest to eradicate the zombie menace by the arrival of the arrogant Mr. Darcy. Darko just released "The Box," "World's Greatest Dad" and "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell."

Total chick flick.

Here's a staple of Hollywood lore from Newslite:

Would-be director Federico Alvarez, who runs a post-production visual effects house in Uruguay, filmed 'Panic Attack' with a budget of just $500 in his free time.

The five minute clip - which he then uploaded to YouTube - shows an invasion of Montevideo by giant robots and had special effects which could rival many big budget movies.

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Sociological Images has posted a disturbing trailer for The Killer Inside Me, a new film starring Casey Affleck, which we've included after the jump. Be forewarned - it depicts sexual violence. Less than a minute into the trailer you'll see Jessica Alba's character being sexually assaulted and humiliated by a sociopathic sheriff. Horrifying, yes, but sexual assault happens. What doesn't happen is what the movie depicts next - Alba's character suddenly starts to enjoy the assault, and she begins a relationship with the assailant.

It isn't the first time that Hollywood has depicted a woman who falls for the man who attacks her. The rape scene in Watchmen was especially violent, and yet the victim eventually has consensual sex - and conceives a child - with her rapist. It begs the question: Who believes in these absurd scenarios? And should Hollywood be perpetuating the myth that women enjoy being assaulted and raped?

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Variety is reporting that Gus Van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis will be working together to write the film about the suicides of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake:

PalmStar Entertainment, Celluloid Dreams and K5 Film have acquired screen rights to "The Golden Suicides," a Vanity Fair article written by Nancy Jo Sales.

Van Sant, who helmed "Milk" and is prepping the Columbia Pictures drama "Restless," is involved only as writer at this point.

(snip)

Duncan and Blake formed a popular couple on the downtown New York and Venice, Calif., art scenes. She was one of the first videogame designers for girls, and his "digital paintings" -- kaleidoscopic images shown on plasma screens -- established him as a rising star on the circuit.

The couple descended into a paranoid spiral when the artists developed a consuming belief that government and religious organizations were conspiring against them. She killed herself in 2007. Blake found her body on the floor of their bedroom, and walked into the Atlantic Ocean a week later, ending his life.

Photograph by Yo! Venice

The Spike Jonze film 'Where the Wild Things Are' hit theaters today, and boy are we excited. And nervous. We've been waiting for this film like it's senior prom, desperately wanting it to be perfect, knowing sheer heartache is just a broken heel away-

The LA Times was less than impressed with the flick, but we're not letting that get to us cause our favorite critics had better things to say:

John Powers for Vogue:

Far from being some sort of debacle, Where the Wild Things Are is such a magical piece of filmmaking I'm tempted to curse it (at least commercially) by calling it Art.

Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal:

"Where the Wild Things Are" honors the book in every imaginable way, and in ways no one could have imagined until Spike Jonze and his collaborators came along.

Manohla Dargis of the New York Times:

[I]t startles and charms and delights largely because Mr. Jonze's filmmaking exceeds anything he's done in either of his inventive previous features, "Being John Malkovich" (1999) and "Adaptation" (2002). With "Where the Wild Things Are" he has made a work of art that stands up to its source and, in some instances, surpasses it.

RWWAAAAR!!!