the Disney-Fox merger and film/TV production/exhibition hegemony in general

Ouch. I had no idea they were so bad (or that they were even owned by Disney, before this article) - a shame because I like a lot of their output.

Disney doesn’t own them in whole: 20th Century Fox bought a piece of them in 2017, and Disney inherited that in 2019.

Amusingly enough, Boom! had the licence for Disney comics c. 2009-2010, but it was pulled after repeated contract violations, including sending stories to print without getting them approved by Disney.

great news!

Amazon is weeks into negotiations on a deal to acquire MGM for about $9 billion, industry sources tell Variety.

Chatter that Amazon (and other tech giants) have been sniffing around MGM has circulated for some time. But sources indicated that Amazon’s interest in acquiring the studio has taken on a new tenor beyond the usual rumor mill. The deal is said to be being orchestrated by Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Amazon Studios and Prime Video, directly with MGM board chairman Kevin Ulrich, whose Anchorage Capital is a major MGM shareholder.

https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/amazon-mgm-acquisition-talks-9-billion-1234975168/

https://nitratediva.wordpress.com/2021/05/16/dave-kehr-fox-film-interview/?fbclid=IwAR1XOJwqx0_LtfpfuOAtsWOz0TXS3hY5UGPvN6I8WBRGGCr_C9pQPi04lUM

THIS is why I was afraid that Disney would put the surviving pre-1935 Fox films into the vault next to Song of the South, never to be heard from again. Some of these titles, when I saw them at AFI or Capitolfest, are as jaw-dropping as this interview claims.

Does anyone here have access to MoMA's Virtual Cinema? I hesitate to spend $110 a year for a plethora of artist documentaries that lack the entertainment value of paint drying, in order to access two or three Fox pre-Code films.

$110 a year isn't THAT bad compared to other services, but on top of everything else I'm paying for...

Exactly--I already pay $90 a year for the Criterion Channel, plus whatever ungodly sum per month for cable in order to get TCM.

https://harpers.org/archive/2021/06/stages-of-grief-what-the-pandemic-has-done-to-the-arts/

"We need an art movement like the one we have for food, a movement for responsible consumption."

Okay, but how about transparency and responsibility in art distribution? If I buy a theater ticket/book/concert ticket, how much of what I am paying goes to the creator, how much to venue/production overheads, and how much into corporate coffers?

Amazon Buys MGM

https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/amazon-buys-mgm-studio-behind-james-bond-for-8-45-billion-1234980526/

Does this seem like an actually wise move, or just something Amazon did to prevent Apple or someone else from doing it first?

Didn’t something come out last year that Bezos pushed into expanding Amazon Video because he wanted to meet actresses?

The pre-1980 MGM movies are owned by WB, right?

Up to the Mid-'80s, iirc.

MGM's catalogue is MGM films after that, United Artists, Orion, AIP, and Cannon (with exceptions in each library).

Didn’t something come out last year that Bezos pushed into expanding Amazon Video because he wanted to meet actresses?

🧐 pic.twitter.com/47KH1dxMN8

— cww (@cww_0) May 26, 2021

lol

Jeff Bezos on MGM Acquisition: Amazon Will ‘Reimagine’ Studio Franchises ‘for the 21st Century’

Amazon founder, chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos said the ecommerce giant’s $8.45 billion bid for MGM was driven by a desire to obtain the storied studio’s intellectual property — and create new offshoots based on that.

...

He continued, “The acquisition’s thesis here is really very simple: MGM has a vast, deep catalog of much-loved intellectual property. With the talented people at MGM and Amazon Studios, we can reimagine and develop that IP for the 21s century… People who love stories are going to be the big beneficiaries.”

In his remarks, Bezos cited MGM films and franchises including “James Bond,” “Thelma and Louise,” “Raging Bull,” “Robocop” and “Tomb Raider,” ...

Story #1: People who love stories are going to be the big beneficiaries.

Can't wait for the gritty & gory Moneypenny origin series.

Can't wait to find out what Thelma and Louise are up to on the 30th anniversary of their big weekend

thelma's a a sexy labradoodle
louise is her spaniel sidekick
together they're making furry...... FUNNY

Hope they're able to remake the Robocop remake ASAP.

Can't wait for the gritty & gory Moneypenny origin series

Actually, his name is Pennyworth.

Crossover and spinoff in 3...2...1...

Moneypenny already rebooted as a badass spy in the comics btw
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/james-bond-moneypenny-1/4000-617814/

Moneypenny vs. Pennyworth crossover event.

IN... Le Cheque Exchange

Ouch. I had no idea they were so bad (or that they were even owned by Disney, before this article) - a shame because I like a lot of their output.

Boom are now campaigning for Disney to pay freelancers properly

http://fleen.com/2021/05/25/the-irony-it-is-delicious/

This passion

Here's the new logo for Warner Bros. Discovery, per a press release that just went out. pic.twitter.com/3mbgFUvQb5

— Alex Weprin (@alexweprin) June 1, 2021

BROS.

I bet the Discovery name gets chucked in a few years, just like with AOL.

That is a goddamned horrible logo. Fitting, I suppose.

pic.twitter.com/G80fZ9gamy

— masonReloaded 🐛 (@masonreloaded) June 1, 2021

lol

Yeah, it looks like the intro screen to a mid-'90s educational CD-ROM.

where dreams are made of

where wings take dream

Yesterday I learned only 25 spec scripts sold in 2020.

25.

— Kristi Dick (@FickleProd) June 6, 2021

No, Hollywood Isn’t “Out Of Ideas”

Disney's IP-recycling 'Cruella' has Twitter critics hot under the collar. They don't need to be.

feels like readers should be told that the person who wrote this article is a staff writer on a disney plus comic book adaptation https://t.co/pB5prnzCMy

— bradley babendir (@therealbradbabs) June 8, 2021

lol @ one of the raves being “they spent a lot of money on licensing songs”

— rachel (@rachelmillman) June 9, 2021

Fair. Cruella is good though

There is literally no way this is possible.

It is!

That article, though, is bad

Is Bustle one of those new platforms where creatives generate content in exchange for NFTs or something?

At any rate, here in the future, the epithet 'sellout' is only employed ironically to refer to those who fail to maximize their synergistic potential. So I have to assume she will also be dropping a single on Hollywood Records about how The Last Skywalker is the only good SW movie (from the upcoming album Pro-flicts of Interest).

And yes, I did mean The Last Skywalker, goddammit (only sellouts admit when they make a mistake).

If Smith pops in and tells me Cruella is necessary or worthwhile, and that she's been paid, I'll check it out.

Bustle is a Content Platform with actual writers but it is let's say very amenable to being pitched ideas directly from corporate PR departments

Sad part is we all fell for the clickbait by even talking about it

The only winning move is not to post

this is true, but let's not overlook the Pattinson space brag part of this saga.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E3ZCSWNXoAEGu4u?format=png&name=small

High Life’s US distributor:

y/n? pic.twitter.com/WTDCaSGgb1

— A24 (@A24) June 8, 2021

Clearly I'm not entirely unsympathetic to her overarching POV, the difference being that I'm very open about the fact that I'm posting this from the yacht I was able to buy as Disney's brand management coordinator for property acquisitions and enhancements. #princesslieutenantripley

Hong Kong has just issued new amendments to its film censorship rules that effectively impose Beijing’s strict censorship standards there overnight, in the name of the National Security Law. They take effect today.

HK censors are to ban the screening of “any film content that is objectively & reasonably capable of being perceived as endorsing, supporting, promoting, glorifying, encouraging or inciting” acts endangering national security.

Also a ban on screenings of content interpretable as “incitement to secession, subversion or collusion w foreign countries, advocating terrorism," etc etc.