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

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.

I hate this timeline almost as much as I hate myself.

Fortunately this year's Capitolfest (if it's not canceled for public health reasons) will feature certain pre-1935 Fox films. (Crossing my fingers that it doesn't get cancelled.)

Thread about it

Huge: 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.

— Rebecca Davis (@rebeccaludavis) June 11, 2021

Seen some speculating that HK film reissues might be affected too

So I read the same thread twice today and didn't remember it? I blame vaccine tiredness

While I enjoy Disney/Marvel greatly... They lately sent me copyright strikes on redbubble, for my FACE. Saying it infringed their trademark?!
I'm not wearing a licenced costume. It's my FACE. Like I'm really flattered they say I look like Loki, but...wtf?!@dailydot of interest? pic.twitter.com/fJv4PsxTAF

— 🦇 𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉 𝕬𝖒𝖆𝖑𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖓 🦇 (@LordAmalthean) June 21, 2021

tbf (and I brought up Disney's wild overreach on redbubble on another thread y'day) that dude has severely photoshopped his face to look like Tom Hiddleston, and apparently deleted an account called DollarStoreLoki or s/t weeks ago to start this new "who me?" campaign

Extremely lokilike behabiour

Also why wouldn't you go with the handle lowkeyloki or something

lokilike lookalike

we found the lowliest variant

For those of you who are curious about how antitrust works, this is the textbook definition of Robert Bork's consumer welfare standard. pic.twitter.com/JEQZi6DSKW

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) June 30, 2021

OTOH this is going to be the first Simpsons episode I voluntarily watch in a decade.

I guess they're forgetting about all those Family Guy as Star Wars TV movies Fox put out.

https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2009/12/familyguy_somethingsomethin.jpg

is that simpsons thing real? holy fuck.

https://i.imgur.com/PuqtXQV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PuqtXQV.jpg

fucking hell, the joke is that there's no joke i suppose

the whole business of dressing up characters from one chunk of intellectual property as characters from another chunk of intellectual property is so painfully hollow and meaningless. like even as fanservice - okay, ralph's the Hulk and Milhouse is Hawkeye and Lisa's teacher is Gamora. would it really make any difference if Comic Book Guy was the Hulk and Hans Moleman was Hawkeye and Lisa was Gamora? it's like a Colorforms Dress-Up Set; anything can be combined with anything, but what statement results? what's the commentary, what's the "joke"?

bet you’re fun at halloween

tbf, moleman is moleman so they got that right i guess.

the whole business of dressing up characters from one chunk of intellectual property as characters from another chunk of intellectual property is so painfully hollow and meaningless

Would you say it's a New Jersey?

peter-griffin-dressed-as-darth-vader-saying-do-not-want.gif

ok i'll give you Moleman/Moleman

but as for Halloween, what do the two things have to do with each other? these aren't people coming up with costumes, and nobody in the image even looks like they're having fun being in the costumes.

they surely could've thought a bit about connecting the archetypes rather than going Black character=Black character. Explain another reason beyond melanin why Doc Hibbard is Falcon.

Explain why any of this is happening at all. You can't. No one can.

I mean yes, $$$, but otherwise why

Yep. At the risk of being booted off of WB's A-List (emails promoting the corporation'$ late$t product)...a week or so ago I got an email inviting suggestions for WB's 2023 centennial. (My idea was lavish restoration of one or more of their surviving 1923 films, and if that does happen...I might as well have requested a 4K Director's Cut of The Devils.)

One idea the survey floated was crossovers of Animaniacs with assorted other WB properties (Friends was the only IP that stuck in my mind). And the forthcoming Space Jam sequel is already crossover city--I saw King Kong in one ad, and paying just a little more attention would probably have revealed other familiar figures.

twas synergy killed the beast

DC could have cut that post after the first sentence. If you’re doing a Simpsons Halloween episode set piece you can have some sort of meaningful joke (The Shining parody was a total lay-up, really) but there’s… nothing here

I didn’t hate the pre-canceled Family Guy (what was it, two seasons?) necessarily, but the premise to me was “The Simpsons is coasting and we’re going to show how parody is broken now by making it lazy and spiteful” and then they revived it without changing the format and making it an even lazier take on the same crap.

So much of this crap I just sit here wondering who it’s for, and then wonder if my sad take that people just want to feel happy they recognize a cultural reference that every single person watching will get is a sales point for the producers, audience, someone

The crossover stuff is def money-driven and "synergistic" but I do think many fans genuinely love it. Probably why it gets done so much. I loved the Simpsons/Critic crossover as a kid even though Matt Groening spoke out against it

that seems so lazy and low-stakes in retrospect! it also seemed like a weird tonal crossover at the time, but today it’d be just.. this week’s episode

I don't think my brain, or the brains of many fans now, are doing much beyond "I like A, I like B, A + B = !!!". it's primal

the Simpsons already had its own comic book universe in radioactive man and fallout boy etc. this just seems like that but without the trademark avoidance dance

In fairness, the Loki thing is 4:30 minutes long, and the 'plot' finishes after 2:30 - the credits has a bunch more colorforms - Comic Book Guy is Thanos! The other Simpsons are Guardians of the Galaxy! It would be fine on Tumblr.

“The Cinemateca Brasileira houses and protects the entire memory of Brazilian Cinema in its archives, from the first documentaries shot in the early 20th century to the Cinema Novo masterpieces. In its 45,000 titles, the Cinemateca holds a register of our national identity in construction, of our culture being redefined through time.”

https://core-cms.bfi.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/responsive/public/1440/0/0/2020-08/cinemateca-brasileira-masters-vault-2020.jpg

“Until recently, the Cinemateca Brasileira was considered a center of excellence for film restoration, thanks to its personnel and technical capabilities.”

Brazil’s film archive is facing wipeout, 4 August 2020

Cinemateca Brasileira, the largest audiovisual institution in South America, under threat by Bolsonaro government
The government has fired all 41 technical staff, who safeguard an important collection of more than 250,000 works

Gabriella Angeleti, 27th August 2020 23:34 BST

The imminent tragedy that so many have been trying to prevent by speaking out on the dangerous precariousness of the Brazilian Cinematheque is now a reality — BRAZILIAN CINEMATHEQUE IS ON FIRE as reported by the local media #SOScinematecabrasileira #cinematecaisburning pic.twitter.com/IMhnH1IlaZ

— Ela Bittencourt (@Ela_Bittencourt) July 29, 2021

Just this past Sat (7/24) the fired workers of #SOSCinematecaBrasileira were protesting on Avenida Paulista, São Paulo’s main avenue, to alert everyone about the dangers facing Cinemateca — another call that went unheeded pic.twitter.com/YVcQy1YMUN

— Ela Bittencourt (@Ela_Bittencourt) July 30, 2021

Firemen told @GloboNews that one of the Cinemateca Brasileira warehouse rooms that caught fire was storing films from the 1920s pic.twitter.com/LVBEwoCuOE

— Ela Bittencourt (@Ela_Bittencourt) July 30, 2021

Remember the time when the gov. sent federal police to FORCE THE WORKERS OUT of the Cinemateca and to take over and lock it up https://t.co/BZI9b4hbI4 pic.twitter.com/XpG0AvKQfJ

— Ela Bittencourt (@Ela_Bittencourt) July 30, 2021

They were there for months without receiving pay, taking care of the archives https://t.co/uGBFN0oRuU pic.twitter.com/Q2L5LOA1uP

— Ela Bittencourt (@Ela_Bittencourt) July 30, 2021

good lord

fuck

Statement from the workers regarding last night's fire at the Cinemateca Brasileira (pdf)

SF Museum Of Modern Art has axed their film program, 86 years after beginning and five years after renovating their theatre, due to decreased attendance in the last year.

Damn.

Huh! I wonder why people stopped going to movies last year? There must be a reason. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Torrenting as pure responsibility