Slashdot Mirror

With the advent of so many video game movies
Mario
Street Fighter
Mortal Combat
Doom!?!

When are we going to see a pac man movie?

With the advent of so many video game movies
Mario
Street Fighter
Mortal Combat
Doom!?!

When are we going to see a pac man movie?

With the advent of so many video game movies
Mario
Street Fighter
Mortal Combat
Doom!?!

When are we going to see a pac man movie?

...before 9/11/2001, none of us thought for a minute that something like that could happen here...

We were trained by a century of domestic peace and foreign wars to believe that our oceans and good character would protect us...

Besides the the sarcasm he probably intended?

Here are some various and recent articles on (not) making money in Hollywood. They're not all related to (lack) of profit, but all at mention in different ways where all the money comes from and where it goes.

First three by Leonard Klady, who writes for moviecitynews.com:

Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics... (the average cost to produce and market a major Hollywood studio picture is $98 million)
Profits of Doom ... (this one goes gets around to showing how a blockbuster movie might never break even)
In Praise of Popcorn...

Then three from Slate, all written by Edward Jay Epstein:

Concessions Are for Girlie Men: Arnold Schwarzenegger's absurdly advantageous contract for Terminator 3 (a brand new article on a movie released in 2003)
How Did Michael Eisner Make Disney Profitable? Not with cartoons. (

"In 1984, when Eisner took command, the "Mouse House" produced only one animated picture every three to five years. Its entire film library had only 158 features, and its single cable channel, the Disney Channel, lost money. In addition, Disney had virtually no income from sales of videos. To keep afloat, the company depended on its amusement parks and its Mickey Mouse licensing. Yet even with these assets Disney had a tax-free cash flow of just $100 million. Its share price, reflecting this precarious financial position, was $1.33 (adjusted for splits).
In 2005, Disney was one of the richest companies in America. Its enterprise value--Wall street's favored measure of an entertainment company--had increased 32-fold since 1984 and stood at $69 billion."

)
How To Finance a Hollywood Blockbuster. Start with a German tax shelter; How NOT To Make Any Money On A Hollywood Blockbuster, a comment on the article written by David Poland, editor of moviecitynews.com, who finds it interesting but is not impressed by its accuracy.

And can a slashdot posting be complete without porn?

How much money did perhaps the most famous porn movie of all time, Deep Throat (1972), gross? The documentary Inside Deep Throat (2005) claims that it that it is the most profitable picture ever made, and that it has grossed $600 million.
Michael Hiltzik of The Los Angeles Times disputes this, using the technical term "baloney". This set off a number of responses back and forth between Hiltzik and Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato who wrote, co-produced and directed the documentary.

Initial Hiltzik column: 'Deep Throat' Numbers Just Don't Add Up
Bailey and Barbato: More Numbers for 'Deep Throat', a somewhat longer version of their response: 'Throat' Gets Cut, Directors Perform Surgery
Hiltzik then asked them to answer twelve questions, which resulted in this column:
Hiltzik: Bad 'Deep Throat' Revenue Number

Besides the the sarcasm he probably intended?

Here are some various and recent articles on (not) making money in Hollywood. They're not all related to (lack) of profit, but all at mention in different ways where all the money comes from and where it goes.

First three by Leonard Klady, who writes for moviecitynews.com:

Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics... (the average cost to produce and market a major Hollywood studio picture is $98 million)
Profits of Doom ... (this one goes gets around to showing how a blockbuster movie might never break even)
In Praise of Popcorn...

Then three from Slate, all written by Edward Jay Epstein:

Concessions Are for Girlie Men: Arnold Schwarzenegger's absurdly advantageous contract for Terminator 3 (a brand new article on a movie released in 2003)
How Did Michael Eisner Make Disney Profitable? Not with cartoons. (

"In 1984, when Eisner took command, the "Mouse House" produced only one animated picture every three to five years. Its entire film library had only 158 features, and its single cable channel, the Disney Channel, lost money. In addition, Disney had virtually no income from sales of videos. To keep afloat, the company depended on its amusement parks and its Mickey Mouse licensing. Yet even with these assets Disney had a tax-free cash flow of just $100 million. Its share price, reflecting this precarious financial position, was $1.33 (adjusted for splits).
In 2005, Disney was one of the richest companies in America. Its enterprise value--Wall street's favored measure of an entertainment company--had increased 32-fold since 1984 and stood at $69 billion."

)
How To Finance a Hollywood Blockbuster. Start with a German tax shelter; How NOT To Make Any Money On A Hollywood Blockbuster, a comment on the article written by David Poland, editor of moviecitynews.com, who finds it interesting but is not impressed by its accuracy.

And can a slashdot posting be complete without porn?

How much money did perhaps the most famous porn movie of all time, Deep Throat (1972), gross? The documentary Inside Deep Throat (2005) claims that it that it is the most profitable picture ever made, and that it has grossed $600 million.
Michael Hiltzik of The Los Angeles Times disputes this, using the technical term "baloney". This set off a number of responses back and forth between Hiltzik and Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato who wrote, co-produced and directed the documentary.

Initial Hiltzik column: 'Deep Throat' Numbers Just Don't Add Up
Bailey and Barbato: More Numbers for 'Deep Throat', a somewhat longer version of their response: 'Throat' Gets Cut, Directors Perform Surgery
Hiltzik then asked them to answer twelve questions, which resulted in this column:
Hiltzik: Bad 'Deep Throat' Revenue Number

Also in that genre is a '70s tokusatsu (Japanese live-action) show called Kaiketsu Zubat. No, it has nothing to do with Pokemon--Kaiketsu Zubat is an awesome superhero show from 1977 set in a "modern western"-type setting. It takes place in modern Japan, but the characters dress and act as if it were a western. It's not really sci-fi, but it does combine a western motif with a modern setting.

There's a site dedicated to Kaiketsu Zubat, and it has an entry on the IMDB. Oh, and I'll also add that my favourite actor of all time (Hiroshi Miyauchi) plays the main character.

My ID's have always had unfortunate encounters with magnets. The barcodes have inexplicably had incidents also. I try to protect the integrity of the ID's, but something always happens.

The only bad thing about it is when purchasing alcohol or going to a 21+ establishement.

Some will not accept my ID because it can't be read (and recorded) by their scanning devices. With the National ID card, I fear that with accidents that prevent it from being read, especially over a distance of meters, I'll stick out like a sore thumb and someday end up like that guy in They Live.

Shotgun militia! John Titor! Red team go!

"This will piss people off. Not just /.ers, but anyone with a mild taste for freedom.

All in my opinion:

Oh come now. Anytime there's something the public may be concerned over, say like a mark of the beast card or whatever, all they(tm) need to do is make a movie about the particular issue-of-the-month, mini-series, have a celeb laugh about it or adopt it, or repeat it on TV until the public are sick of hearing about it.

To borrow a quote from the movie They Live: "We could be pets, we could be food, but all we really are is livestock."

Besides, do you think most people are really awake to begin with? Plenty of drones worshipping so-and-so celeb, keeping track of the popular people and how they compare to them, playing their little games, etc. no time to think! It reminds me of a quote I read somewhere on a forum: Make people think they're thinking and they'll love you. Make people actually think and they'll hate you... something like that.

Moo! That's the sound of the collective hive mind. All in my opinion.

More than that. There was even a movie made about it that was quite generous to his own point of view, and arguably even villified the editor who kicked him out for being unethical.

Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush. That was a good one.

I also got a good chuckle out of the Inspector Dan Rather Mystery

Book: Hard News : The Scandals at The New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media, by Seth Mnookin
Beyond the obvious fraud commited by Jayson Blair, Mnookin delves into what was wrong in the NYT newsroom and managerial organization that allowed Blair to get away with it. In short: an imperious Howell Raines alienated his subordinate editors and the communications process broken down, allowing a "charismatic crook" to slip past the checks and balances that normally would catch him.

Movie: Shattered Glass, starring *cough* Hayden Christensen
At the New Republic, Stephen Glass was able to subvert their fact checking process -- starting with occasionally making up quotes, he ended up fabricating entire stories out of whole cloth. The Forbes Digital investigation that finally brought him down will likely be interesting to readers here ...

I'm purposely not reading the comments on this thread, because the naivety exhibited will certainly make my head spin, and I need to get back to work. In short, just like the typical Slashdot reader knows a hell of a lot more about the subtleties of IT than a journalist, the journalism professional knows a hell of a lot more about the subtleties of journalism ethics than 99% of Slashdot readers.

And above all, spend a little time reading "hard" journalism once in while (even online versions of the old media, like NYT, WP, etc.) and get a feel for what rigorous journalism looks like. Blogs have their own set of problems that you may be blind to if you never read "real" reporting ...

History repeats itself. I can't remember if the movie was based on a true story or not but I believe it was.

Shattered Glass

wow, i didn't think the mods where THAT dense, let me spell it out for you:
Shattered Glass (2003)
Plot Outline: The true story of a young journalist who fell from grace when it was found he had fabricated over half of his articles.

Grandparent is completely ON-topic

You don't pay for air.

I guess Quaid pushed the button after all!

You need to lock yourself in your parents basement and watch a WHOLE lot more TV if you didn't get the reference I was making.

So by "originally screened in the cinemas" what do you mean? There were several different "original" theatrical versions of New Hope and Empire. (IMBD doesn't have any alternate versions listed for ROTJ's theartrical versions but there are probably some alternate shots, different takes on dialog, etc that have espaced IMBD's attention.) I do realize that Lucas changed a whole lot when he put out the special editions, but it's not like he hasn't been changing things all along. In fact, it is very common for movies in general to change bits here and there both while they are in theaters and when they are realeased on video. It is very unlikely that even if an "original" version of the trilogy were released, it would be the same versions you saw as a child. However, it would be nice if someone actually used the abilities of the DVD format to put out a definitive version where you could branch off scenes depending on what version you would like to see.

So by "originally screened in the cinemas" what do you mean? There were several different "original" theatrical versions of New Hope and Empire. (IMBD doesn't have any alternate versions listed for ROTJ's theartrical versions but there are probably some alternate shots, different takes on dialog, etc that have espaced IMBD's attention.) I do realize that Lucas changed a whole lot when he put out the special editions, but it's not like he hasn't been changing things all along. In fact, it is very common for movies in general to change bits here and there both while they are in theaters and when they are realeased on video. It is very unlikely that even if an "original" version of the trilogy were released, it would be the same versions you saw as a child. However, it would be nice if someone actually used the abilities of the DVD format to put out a definitive version where you could branch off scenes depending on what version you would like to see.

Lucas is credited with the story for Empire, but the script was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan: IMDB. Jedi was officially written by Lucas and Kasdan: IMDB, and Lucas, Kasdan and Lawrence Kaufman are credited with Raiders: IMDB, while the other two (now three) Indiana Jones movies have Lucas credited for story, characters and as a producer.

Lucas is credited with the story for Empire, but the script was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan: IMDB. Jedi was officially written by Lucas and Kasdan: IMDB, and Lucas, Kasdan and Lawrence Kaufman are credited with Raiders: IMDB, while the other two (now three) Indiana Jones movies have Lucas credited for story, characters and as a producer.

Lucas is credited with the story for Empire, but the script was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan: IMDB. Jedi was officially written by Lucas and Kasdan: IMDB, and Lucas, Kasdan and Lawrence Kaufman are credited with Raiders: IMDB, while the other two (now three) Indiana Jones movies have Lucas credited for story, characters and as a producer.

bladerunner

it's part of the monologue Deckard used while looking through an old photo. He managed to catch a glimpse of some snakeskin in a rendered part of a mirror image, which wasn't actually in the original photo.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/

Dude Empire Strikes Back was the best of the original Trilogy. Now who directed that again?

Irvin Kershner What's your point?

Empire Strikes Back was the best of the original Trilogy. Now who directed that again?

Ditto.

I skipped the fifth in the theaters and finally saw it a week or saw ago on DVD (borrowed from an avid fan).

If the reviews were as lousy as the second film, then I would have passed and worked instead on getting my wife to see Kung Fu Hustle, which has gotten rather good reviews (including from the head of my M.A. School :) ) and looks to be incredibly enjoyable, poking fun at all the classic martial arts story cliches.

The kid just might be psychic. Kids often are. Perhaps autistic kids are more in touch with that stuff than normal kids. I predicted some scary shit when was a kid, according to my parents.

Neither kids nor adults have psychic abilities. If you think you can prove otherwise, feel free to embarass yourself by trying to claim the Million Dollar Prize either for yourself or the neighborhood kid or anyone else with purported psychic abilities.

The ability to predict when a particular public service commercial is going to occur can be explained simply by pattern recognition. There is no need to resort to paranormal bullshit. Scheduling of TV commercials, whether done manually or by hand, is subject to a variety of constraints and conventions that will impose patterns. Public service commercials, for example, are often shorter than standard commercials so they may be grouped with other non-standard length commercials. A 15 second public service announcement is likely to be combined with another 15 second announcement or an odd length paid advertisement. And they might even be spliced on the same video tape to reduce the work queueing them up. And they are likely to be concentrated during less popular (with advertisers) shows. Since they are filler material, they may be more likely to come last. Scheduling algorithms may put a particular ad last if it is a lower priority (not paid, already had most of its allocated airings, has fewer restrictions on what shows it can be placed on, etc). An ad with a slightly lower priority could be fairly consistently aired right after an ad with a slightly higher priority. Public service ads may be shown in round-robin fashion which can lead to one ad being shown after another ad each time. In fact, ads of equal priority may, intentionally or otherwise, tend to be shown in a round robin sequence to prevent them from being shown back to back, getting too annoying, or simply because putting the most recently seen commercial at the bottom of the deck minimizes the chances of you being left at the end of the month showing the same commercial 15 times almost back to back because the others used up their quotas. Patterns may exist beyond just the sequence of consequtive ads during one gap. During the airing of an episode of the show, first you are likely to see the national ads, then the paid local advertisments that have reserved a particular time during a particular episode of a particular show. Next ones that have reserved a non-specific time withing a particular show. Next, one would expect to see low budget local remnant ads that have paid for a up to a certain number of showings but have little or no constraints on when they air. The lowest budget ads are likely to come last. Then the public service advertisements. So if the last filler commercial in the previous commercial break was for Honest Al's No-credit used cars (and Al negotiated the lowest rate for his remainder ads), then the filler at the end of the next time slot is likely to be a public service ad.

10% of people with Autism are autistic savants who exhibit unusual skills. And an obsession with routine is very common among people with autism. I.E. patterns are very important to an autistic. Consider the following quotes from the movie Rain Main

• "Maple syrup is supposed to be on the table before the pancakes"
• "Gotta get my boxer shorts at K-Mart." (and not just any k-mart, either. Has to be the one at 400 oak street)."
• "You said read the telephone book last night. Dibbs Sally. 461-0192. "
• "We have pepperoni pizza for dinner Monday nights. "
• "'Course I got Jeopardy! at five o'clock. I watch Jeopardy!"
• "82, 82, 82." (rapidly counting 246 dropped toothpicks).
• "Uh oh, fifteen minutes to Judge Wapner. " (this is the time of day on certain days he normally watches Judge Wapner - if he can't watch it, he

The quality of iTMS Movies (Score:5, Funny) can soon be rated with the number of available movies of Steven Seagal.

Hey! Under Seige wasn't that bad of a flick. Yeah everything else he made is crap, but give the guy some credit!

Not a movie?
Really?

Thanks for correcting me, now I have my facts right.
Oh, btw, have you ever heard of a certain Michael Crichton? Apparently, he had something to do with The Andromeda Strain (the book, not the non-existing movie, obviously) and that Jurassic Park that you mention.

Don't worry about your cred. It's safe here. Of course I say this as I'm posting anonymously so as not to ruin my geek cred.

A much lower level geek introduced me to Red Dwarf a while back. He kept on talking about it saying that it would be "right up my alley" but I didn't listen to him because of his low geek status. After all, he dragged me to see The Faster and The Furiouser. Then again, people can be surprising.

Do yourself a favor and check out at least the first two seasons. It's a great Sci-Fi Comedy that can best be described as a precursor to Farscape only with less cohesive plot and more general wackyness. Then again, what else would you expect from a British sitcom. Those Brits are smegging light years ahead of us in sitcom technology.

Don't worry about your cred. It's safe here. Of course I say this as I'm posting anonymously so as not to ruin my geek cred.

A much lower level geek introduced me to Red Dwarf a while back. He kept on talking about it saying that it would be "right up my alley" but I didn't listen to him because of his low geek status. After all, he dragged me to see The Faster and The Furiouser. Then again, people can be surprising.

Do yourself a favor and check out at least the first two seasons. It's a great Sci-Fi Comedy that can best be described as a precursor to Farscape only with less cohesive plot and more general wackyness. Then again, what else would you expect from a British sitcom. Those Brits are smegging light years ahead of us in sitcom technology.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Steven Spielberg also suffers from Aspeger Syndrome.

KITT had two very hot "doctors" dedicated to keeping him well and in shape. Remember Bonnie and April?

I don't believe in aliens coming down in spaceships... But this is another story give you Weinermobile nightmares!

Is that like The Hudsucker Proxy?

It came as no surprise that we could not infect the car, but the Prius performed in the test even better than expected.

We're all doomed!

This technology would be decent if it addresses the aforementioned problems, but isn't much of an improvement if it looks blotchy (what is this called, banding?) where colors are similar hue.

Better watch out for negative hurricanes that instantly freeze people solid.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268380/

is more appropriate... ;-)

Paul B.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/

A chilling account.

As it were.

Too bad the Cygnus wasn't there to watch!

The ages of the kids as actors should not be that big an issue to filming because the main characters rotate somewhat through the series as Aslan indicates that certain of them will not be coming back again. Here are the main characters in each of the books:

Lion Witch Wardrobe
-Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy

Prince Caspian
-Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy

Voyage of the Dawn Treader
-Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace Scrubb(cousin)

Silver Chair
-Eustace, Jill Pole

Last Battle
-Eustace, Jill

Those are the stories in the main chronology. There are two flashback books--Magician's nephew and Horse and His Boy. Magician's nephew takes place way before any of the others, so the characters(Digory and Polly) do not have to be represented as children again.

For Horse and His Boy, it does have Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy in it as minor characters as it takes place in a time period contained within Lion Witch and the Wardrobe. In the IMDB listing for the LWW, they have already indicated that they have separate adult actors playing the four main characters during that time period where they have ruled in Narnia for years and years before returning home through the wardrobe.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/

hehum

iron maiden

'nuff said

It's poisonous. They made a movie about it.

Key Largo
It's nicely relevant to the current political climate in the US as well.

If you ever get the chance, see The Cocoanuts, starring the Marx brothers. Its backdrop is the great Florida land boom/swindle of the 1920s, which attracted con men and crooks from across the nation. Now their great-grandchildren are spamming us.

I really looked forward to reading the Chronicles to my own children one day. I guess I'll still be able to, but they'll probably see the movie somewhere first and the magic will be gone from the words.

I remember that movie. My Dad and I used to mock it when it was on tv.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064177/