Los Angeles was, in 1879, a city of about 11,000 people. The roads were dirt, the buildings were wood. But there were oranges there, and later on they found a way to harvest and market people’s fantasies, and the city grew from this:

to this.

This is the story told in Historic Photos of Los Angeles, a [...]

Readers of this blog will notice an essential difference between Daniel’s writing style and mine. I’m not talking about the profound ones: It is self-evident that Daniel is a quick-witted, cynical Hollywood insider, and I’m the droll, semi-academic media observer with a thing for animated chicks. No- I’m talking about title showings.
According to the style [...]

Martian Child is slated to come out November 2 in the US. It’s a comedy-drama which tells the story of a sci-fi novelist and widower (John Cusack) who adopts a child (Bobby Coleman) who believes he is from Mars. Soon into the film, the love interest appears in the lovely form of Amanda Peet. Oddly, [...]

A 25th anniversary special cut of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner premiered at the New York Film Festival this weekend. It will run in theatres in New York and LA afterward. This latest version is called Blade Runner: The Final Cut. This name signals either of two things: This is indeed Mr. Scott’s final and definitive [...]

(An open letter to American Film Producers)
Dear Powerful, Connected American Film Producers (you know who you are!):
I was reflecting on the Henry Darger article and it got me thinking about L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. I read them all– My family inherited my great-grandmother’s original hardbounds, and they were the first full-sized books I ever [...]

This is gonna be a “big idea” article, hopefully the first of several. By the end, this one will connect Outsider Art, Star Trek-style fandom, The Wizard of Oz and documentary filmmaking. Fun, huh?
In the Realms of the Unreal is a 2004 documentary by filmmaker Jessica Yu. It’s subject is “Outsider Artist” Henry Darger (1892-1973). [...]

Curmudgeons of the world, unite and laugh: POPWORLD PULP magazine, a tie-in publication with a British music TV show, has hit the newsstands only to have them hit back. If you liked the first issue cherish it, because there won’t be a second.
According to vengeful Channel 4 rival, the BBC:
The first issue of the music [...]

Apropos of the show - I read story about Edward Norton being cast as Bruce Banner in the upcoming INCREDIBLE HULK sequel, replacing Eric Bana. So what’s Bana up to then? He’s going to be playing the lead in THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, based on the popular novel about a Chicago librarian whose weird genetic [...]

The great thing about showbiz is no matter how much money is involved and how important the property is, it always comes down to the egos of a couple of people. Whether it’s two former business partners releasing competing Lambada movies on the same day, or the Rolling Stones holding back a TV special for [...]

Showbiz is a tremendous gamble, and the big studios are specialists at bet-hedging. From an emphasis on proven names, sequels and remakes to diversification into other businesses, the media giants do what they can to keep the bottom line from sinking below your view.
And sometimes, that same strategy guarantees it won’t soar either:
Just when Sony [...]