Temeraire meets Peter Jackson
I’ve mentioned the Temeraire books before — now news hits that Peter Jackson has optioned them. Here’s hoping something comes of it.
Watching
Stuff about TV or movies.
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New Orleans, still
I just watched the last quarter of Spike Lee’s documentary on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
What I want to see in these upcoming elections is a politician who goes to New Orleans and refuses to campaign, and instead puts their money where their mouth is and gets things fixed. Say, for example, a presidential candidate who instead of hanging out in Iowa tells us the country, “as a matter of principle, I’m staying right here until everyone who needs a FEMA trailer has one, and I’ll be on the phone personally to make sure they get one.”
I’d like to think that the voting public would reward such a person.
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Some musings on ephemeral pop
The August 18th issue of Entertainment Weekly has a fun little gimmick: six covers, one for each of the James Bond actors, going back in time. It provides an interesting window into the changing pop cultural preoccupations.
In 1995, with Pierce Brosnan on the cover, we see an article on “What’s Hot (And Not) on Laserdisc.” To which today’s response is “what’s laserdisc?” We see a pre-Shakespeare in Love Gwyneth Paltrow insisting that “I’m more than a head in a box.” And the cover article asks, “Do we still need 007 in a post-Cold-War world?” The Brosnan Bond movies of course answered that question; the 1995-era sense that history had ended was turned on its ear in not too many more years.
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HD/Blu-Ray
It’s funny, the industry seems so sanguine about the whole high-def DVD format war. This article here, for example, says,
But all sides agree: as high-definition TVs become more popular, consumers will want HD content that will make the investment worthwhile. As screen sizes increase, so does the need for better resolution.
The problem is, I don’t know anyone who wants the new DVD format. HD content, sure — on broadcast channels. But DVDs are already pretty nice.
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New reality show
Given the new Sci-Fi Channel TV show Who Wants To Be A Superhero?, I think that some sort of bar has finally been crossed.
I hereby propose the “who wants to be an MMO developer” reality TV show. Watch hilarious auditions as people try to code a base object class or get an angry customer to stop flaming on a message board! Observe the challenges as the contestants propose themes, build maps, and run holiday events in a special themed episode! Watch them struggle as they are forced to adapt unsuitable licenses! Vote for which worlds stay alive and which ones go away, as contestants get “written off.” All leading towards the big prize of a a viable commercially running world with the potential for cross-media exploitation!
Oh wait, this is what we already have.