Savage Popcorn

Coffee Shorts is a new spin-off from the always reliable Coffee Films and the remarkably talented people at Crestfallen Productions. The aim is to bring the best short short films to a wider audience through a simple and non-exclusive distribution agreement.

They are planning to take the best of short film making and promote it on several Coffee Shorts branded channels so that we, the audience, can enjoy the best of independent short films.

The site officially launches in March, but there is already some stuff up there so go check it out, bookmark the site, and enjoy.

According to the IMDB page, Fanboys is the story of a group of Star Wars fans who travel to George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch to steal an early copy of The Phantom Menace for their dying friend. I have to admit that this isn’t a film that appeals to me at all – we have some kid dying of cancer and a bunch of friends that think the best thing they can do for him is get hold of an early copy of The Phantom Menace. The film sounds like a badly thought through nostalgia-fest made for those few people so wrapped up in everything Lucas that they aren’t going to recognise any criticism of this ill-conceived prequel.

However, as Cinematical (via) reports, the approach of the Weinstein Company to the film is nothing short of bizarre.

The “dying of cancer” storyline was completely dumped, and, instead, the fanboys are now trying to sneak a copy of Phantom Menace simply because they’re fans and want to see it.

Admittedly, I think that having a protagonist whose dying of cancer is a horrendously bad idea in a film such as this but “trying to sneak a copy of Phantom Menace simply because they’re fans” is just sad. But there’s more.

Kyle Newman, the original director, has been replaced by Steven Brill, who brought us such treats as Little Nicky and Without a Paddle. Brill has reshot and recut the film and the story is now being described as “disjointed, nonsensical and lacking any heart.” No surprises there, then.

Here’s where it gets bizarre. Both the Newman and the Brill versions were screened for test audiences - and the new version only tested two points higher than the old version. But it is alleged that the Weinsteins were so desperate to justify forking out an extra $2 million on reshooting the film that they included plants in the audience in order to skew the test screening numbers in favour of the Brill version. And they only managed a two point improvement.

The rights and wrongs of test screenings is a whole separate discussion – my own view is that their appropriateness depends on the film – but to try to fix the results beggars belief. Either have a test screening or don’t. Dictate the film to your director or let him make the film he wants to make. Or compromise. But for the producers of the film to impose their ideas and then seek to mislead themselves in order to justify their actions makes you wonder who they are trying to fool.

There was a time (about fifteen years ago) when the Weinstein brothers were finding, producing and promoting some fantastic films. Those days are long gone and increasingly unlikely to return.

According to the AP (via), the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien is suing New Line Cinema, claiming that the film studio hasn’t paid it a penny from the estimated $6 billion the Lord of the Rings films have grossed worldwide.

The suit, filed Monday, claims New Line was required to pay 7.5 percent of gross receipts to Tolkien’s estate and other plaintiffs, who contend they only received an upfront payment of $62,500 for the three movies before production began.

The writer’s estate, a British charity dubbed The Tolkien Trust, and original “Lord of the Rings” publisher HarperCollins filed the lawsuit against New Line Cinema in Los Angeles Superior Court. If successful, it could block the long-awaited prequel to the films.

Robert Pini, a spokesman for Time Warner Inc.’s New Line, declined to comment.

The plaintiffs are seeking $150 million in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and a court order giving the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit.

If I remember rightly, non-payment of owed money was also the reason Peter Jackson fell out with New Line in 2005.

If you’ve been been following the High Definition DVD War as vaguely as I have, and didn’t buy a HD-DVD player, you may enjoy this piece of YouTubery.

Found at the Interplanetary blog.

The Register thinks so.

We don’t need new laws, we just need new business models.

- James Graham on the increasingly irrational state of the intellectual property industry.

Updated

The register has a rather relevant story explaining how Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling became a commercial property, centuries after the images fell into the public domain.

It appears that whoever was responsible for marketing The Simpsons Movie in the UK was a bit of a Pink Floyd fan.

Via Filmstalker

DRM is bad for society because it attempts to monitor what we do and how we live our digital lives. It is asking us to give up control of something which gives us some degree of democracy, freedom and the ability to communicate with a large group of people.

- Peter Brown of the Free Software Foundation on the news that Western Digital has blocked its customers from sharing media files that are stored on networked drives.

Another one from the What Were They Smoking files.

Filmstalker has picked up the news that Thomas Schuehly has bought the remake rights to to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and is partnering with Mario Kassar on an updated version of the 1927 silent science fiction classic. Schuehly and Kassar are currently in negotiations with a number of directors and a final decision expected in the next few months.

The animated Casablanca can’t be far away now.

Writer Mark Gunn is on the negotiating committee for the WGA and talks to Filmnut about the strike, the issues and what you can do.

Click here to check it out.