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Your Industry News Listing From Screenhub
Welcome to the News Bulletin for Friday 29 January, 2010 from Screen Hub, the regular digest of news articles for New Zealand screen professionals.
Aucklanders are heading away for a long weekend, taking advantage of the continuing and very pleasant summer weather which seems to have bypassed Wellington. We will still be here on Monday as usual.
On Wednesday evening, the DOCNZ Documentary Edge launch was held 23 floors up at the Quadrant Hotel. When they said Penthouse, I thought they were going to slip me a magazine in a plain cover - not induce high anxiety. An hour and no earthquakes or tremors later, we were all enlightened as to the rationale behind the bold new branding, including a quotation from Dante, as well as getting a sneaky peak at some of the highlights of the upcoming festival.
Back on terra firma, Luke Reid – who gave a very fine demo of his photo-realistic computer graphics software Areo at last year's Animfx – is on the verge of big things.
What made Milwaukee famous might not have been its film festival, but it will provide Miller time for Untouchable Girls which will screen down the road in Madison at the Wisconsin International Film Festival in mid-April.
Gadget porn news. Apple announces the iPad will ship in April, after finally realising that old buggers have some difficulty with "content-rich media" on tiny screens. Basically it's a very big iPhone but without the phone, as you'd look a bit of a plonker holding something that big to your ear. Twenty years ago pressing a phone the size of a brick to one ear, a finger in the other, and gyrating like a top outside SPQR searching for coverage while bellowing 'Say that again' was a sign that you were very, very important and probably worked in the film or TV industry. Even if you did look like a plonker.
Actor Martin Henderson goes for third time lucky at ABC in the US. Previously he featured in network pilots Mr & Mrs Smith and Inside the Box, neither of which turned into long-term rent-paying jobs. Now he'll try his hand at Off the Map (a title that's just tempting fate if it all turns to custard). He will play a doctor, so his time at Shortland Street should serve him in good stead.
Author JD Salinger has died, aged 91. A recluse for much of his life, his output was limited. He was best known for Catcher in the Rye, first published in 1951, which sold over 65 million copies and was repeatedly banned and censored by US schools.
Also dead today is Miramax, which had considerably more output and was set up by the Weinstein brothers, who could not remotely be considered reclusive. Despite allegedly trying to persuade Peter Jackson that the Lord of the Rings trilogy was too long and would benefit from being made as two films, not three, the brothers had a reputation for making astute decisions and critically and financially successful films.
The Jaquie Brown Diaries has sold to the US in what the sales agency describes as 'a landmark deal' to LGBT channel Logo.
Soemthing for the (long) weekend. Today is the 6th anniversary of Janet Frame's death, and the launch of NZ On Screen's collection. Enjoy.
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FEATURE NEWS ARTICLES
NZ Shorts and Docos: making waves in the US
Screen Hub
The Six Dollar Fifty Man has won the top prize- the Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking- at Sundance in Utah. Last Paradise won Best Environmental Film at X-Dance. The Sun Came Out heads for Santa Barbara and Untouchable Girls returns to the US to delight cheesemakers of Madison at the Wisconsin Festival.
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The Jaquie Brown Diaries: misunderstanding casts comedienne as lesbian icon in-waiting
Screen Hub
MTV has acquired format rights to Young Gifted and Brown series The Jaquie Brown Diaries for Logo, its Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Tranny channel, after a communication error led the Americans to believe they were buying a LGB show, not a YGB one. The award-winning comedy will now make its way into 37 million US homes, many of them exquisitely decorated.
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NZ Box Office: up 8.6% in 2009
Screen Hub
The good news, for distributors at least, was that the 2009 box office was up year on year – Another Record-Breaking Year! The less good news was that under a more sober analysis, there wasn't necessarily a lot to get excited about.
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NEWS ARTICLES
Film Business
Avatar: is it mean to be honest?
Autotelic
Obscure website run by dangerous detectives unearths the first draft of Avatar, before Cameron's staff summoned their special company hypnotist.
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Being In Heaven: some kind of cinematic Hell
SMH
Sandra Hall trashes this feature from Australian self-help guru, Michael Domeyko Rowland, more elegantly than we can manage. "Apart from his mouth, only his eyebrows move, punctuating his directions on achieving enlightenment with crescent-shaped exclamation marks of wonderment at the universe's capacity for bliss..."
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BFI and UK Film Council: mashup outlined
The Guardian
As the two British orgs run their merger, perhaps they could seek some advice from the management of the Australian Antarctic Division. But it's a cold winter and maybe the ice has already entered their hearts.
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Biggest Loser: contestant charged
Perth Now
Re-editing ensued after contestant was arrested in Queensland on child pornography charges.
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Box Office: Avatar to ruin dollar singlehandedly?
Screen Hub
Australian producers rue the current price of the dollar, but Avatar is plundering the market so viciously it could cause a dive in the economy all by itself.
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Boy: Growing up slowly
Wall Street Journal
Taika Waititi on trying to build a career, slowly.
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Cane Toads: adored at Sundance, giving heart to Mr Lewis
Screen Hub
"We reached out to Dolby ... which arranged for two beautiful brand-new projectors, a technical expert who took a day and a half to install them, and 1,500 pairs of 3-D glasses." And now, the review love is flowing.
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DOCNZ is dead: long live Documentary Edge
Screen Hub
The Documentary New Zealand Trust, organiser of the last 4 DOCNZ festivals and accompanying Summits, threw out the old and ushered in its new branding at its vertigo-inspiring launch in the Quadrant penthouse on Wednesday evening.
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Emily Barclay: don't notice the tatts
SMH
Much more than her physical self, Emily Barclay continues to be talented and scarey.
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Fury Road: disturbing the calm of more actors
Collider
The cast grows. Fans pant. Engines throb. Crew sign contracts...
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John Hillcoat: tall man passes by with fearsome tread
Nouse
"All his films have taken place in his native Australia, but he has yet to turn his attention to England, where he has now lived for over 20 years." To the relief of the tourist boards of many countries.
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Mt Tambourine: iconic location for sale on Gold Coast
Gold Coast
Will the Queensland government buy it? Some cunning consortium of grips who know the value of the thing to harrassed location managers?
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New Zealand Weekly Box Office to 27 January, 2010
Screen Hub
You probably don't need telling that Avatar became the biggest thing ever earlier this week, and is still taking well over a million a week. But it appears, rather like the Titanic: unsinkable.
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Nikki Finke: Defamer gets out claws
Defamer
The Deadlineista tries for some trademarking, and Gawker cries hypocrite, in a link we found on Movie City News.
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RIP: Miramax
The Wrap
31 years on, the company founded by the Weinstein brothers, which brought us such joys as Kill Bill, Good Will Hunting and Shakespeare in Love, has been terminated by current owners Disney.
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Sundance Sales: clues to a malaise
MCN Blogs
Has everyone gone to Berlin?
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The Road: It's an extraordinary and overwhelming film.
SMH
Paul Byrne sinks to his knees and hopes not to get eaten, in front of a film which has left him gutted. But in a good way.
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Filmmaking
Big Mamma's Boy: moving towards pre
By Anne Richey
Screen Hub
Matteo Bruno, executive producer of the upcoming Alkinos Tsilimidos feature Blind Company and the award winning Corroboree is soon to begin pre-production on his latest flick.
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Internet & Mobile
Maori Television: online successes
Screen Hub
The number of visits to Maori Television's (MTS) bilingual website has trebled in the last year with overseas viewers are driving much of the growth. Visits from within New Zealand have nearly doubled since March last year, when a revamp of the site boosted the amount of live and on-demand programming.
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Tech & Animation
Luke Reid: pixel-perfect in Dunedin
Stuff
Luke Reid's photo-realistic computer graphics software, Areo, readies itself to become another international Kiwi success story.
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Sidhe: shattering revelations
Gamasutra
Mario Wynands talks about the development of Shatter, nominated for the Best Sound award at the Independent Game Festival in March.
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Television Business
Michael Carrington: from Ten to Turner, via enormous power at CBeebies
C21
Michael Carrington, who started at Network Ten, has been the chief content officer for CBeebies. Described as a veteran, his photograph suggests he has weirdly failed to age. Some trick he learnt at Ten?
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My Kitchen Rules: and yours has never been used because you are always at work
Herald Sun
Is it churlish to think that the publicity stills suggest you will never get a gig on this show if you are ugly?
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NZ News: by the numbers Monday 25 January, 2010
Screen Hub
Campbell Live came back, reported the power cuts and claimed victory over Close Up in both the 18-49 and 25-54 demographics. Since Close Up easily more than doubled Campbell Live's total audience, presumably retirement villages were spared Monday evening's Auckland power cuts.
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NZ News: by the numbers Thursday 28 January, 2010
Screen Hub
On Wednesday ASB Business' number was the equivalent of one member of the AGB Nielsen panel accidentally hitting the wrong button on the remote while the coffee brewed. On Thursday, the viewer took time to pour the milk as well. The marathon finale of Survivor delivered a boost to Nightline, but not a sufficient one for it to challenge Tonight.
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NZ News: by the numbers Tuesday 26 January, 2010
Screen Hub
There's a familiar pattern settling in again although, for reasons unknown, ASB Business has had its best two days this year on the only two days NZI Business has been back on air. Breakfast's change of presenter doesn't appear to be hurting much at the moment.
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NZ News: by the numbers Wednesday 27 January, 2010
Screen Hub
TV3 viewers had better things to do, with all programmes except Nightline losing numbers. After ASB Business had its best two days this year on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday's number was the equivalent of one member of the AGB Nielsen panel accidentally hitting the wrong button on the remote while the coffee brewed.
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Ovation: hanging on through change
By David Tiley
Screen Hub
It is fair to say that Gerry Travers, managing director of Foxtel Channel Ovation, is not going gently into the approaching good night. And he has plans for the future.
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Poh's Kitchen: forty eps on ABC1
The Age
How many food shows can one small nation absorb? Or one city - this one is an in-house ABC production in Adelaide, replacing The Cook and the Chef. Sadly, the publicity completely forgets that it is made by producers and directors and writers and crews.
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SBS: gives Foxtel arts gloss, but not through the normal channels
The Australian
Does anyone remember Ovation? SBS will be on a scavenger hunt for resources to support commissioned programming on its new Foxtel offering, to be run through SBS Commercial.
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STVDIO: SBS now in 'build this channel in eight weeks' mode
By David Tiley
Screen Hub
SBS first went public with its new Foxtel arts offering at the end of November 2009. What has changed since then?
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Television Content
Toby the Wonderdog: RIP
Screen Hub
Toby the Wonderdog, star of Harry's Practice, has died at the age of fourteen.
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