Box Office Weekly #081 (MP3 - 14.1 MB - 20.5 min)
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In todays show: a jewel-encrusted skull sells for much more than your average skull… what’s better than dogs playing poker? Dogs fighting piracy… and in this week’s commentary; I try to decide if the South Park guys are smart or stupid. All this and [...]

In this article we’re going to discover why “The Brady Bunch” owes so much to Godzilla.
I had the pleasure of watching a Netflix DVD loaned to me by Chris, my business partner: Matango (1963). It was known in the US as “Attack of the Mushroom People.” It scared the living crap out me when [...]

I’ve been following an email thread among some friends about the just-announced remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). The one that’s going to shoot in Canada and features Keanu Reeves. That one. Let’s say giddy anticipation was not the primary emotion on display among the thread’s participants:
Some things are so wrong, they’re [...]

SOUTH PARK just signed on for another three years. The Hollywood Reporter detailed the particulars: 14 episodes per year, for which Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s production company will get $75 million. You will find it amusing to break that down and see how much they make for an episode that they essentially throw together [...]

Amy Winehouse is all over the usual news outlets. She blew off her American tour because of exhaustion. She collapsed following three days of hard partying. She was recently photographed with her husband of three months covered with blood and scratches. She either did time or is doing time in rehab.
Much gossip, much chatter, much [...]

Box Office Weekly #080 (MP3 - 17.4 MB - 25.5 min)
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In todays show: The Emmy people struggle to determine how many producers are really producers… Reality show gets reality check… and in this week’s commentary; Skot tells you how to watch a movie. All this and America relives its awkward teen years, today on [...]

You know how you go to Starbucks to hang out, and they’re always playing this cool retro music which happens to be on sale right there, so you stop by the barista again on the way out and say, “You know, I think I like that Pink Martini CD. Ring it up,” and you walk [...]

My old movie theatre in San Francisco had a grand re-opening today. The Vogue on Sacramento street, which was built in 1910 (not 1919 as previously reported), just four years after the Great Earthquake and Fire. It was originally a Biograph theatre, a source of visual news for the neighborhood.
The place is certainly venerable: I [...]

Michael Bay, the director responsible for TRANSFORMERS, PEARL HARBOR, ARMAGEDDON, BAD BOYS and an unfortunate cameo in MYSTERY MEN, almost destroyed Paramount Pictures today. Okay, perhaps I’m exaggerating. You’ll never get that kind of behavior from the BBC:
Director Michael Bay briefly threatened to pull out of a sequel to Transformers after Paramount Pictures dropped the [...]

A few weeks ago I posted an article asking studio heads to consider L. Frank Baum’s Oz books as a new fantasy-film project on the lines of Lord of the Rings.
Lo and behold, I found this in today’s Variety: Film impresario, comic-book artist and super-duper fan Todd McFarlane and Warner Bros. are indeed going [...]