 
|
 |
|
Movie City News says that Focus Features was the first distributor to get free screeners into eager Hollywood hands this morning, using FedEx to deliver copies of Lost In Translation, 21 Grams and Sylvia. A federal judge slapped an injunction against the screener ban yesterday. Roger Simon predicts that Academy voters will reward Miramax for Harvey Weinstein's testimony in the case.
Meanwhile, actually going to an L.A. movie house just got better. The Los Angeles Business Journal says the Times is discontinuing those more-than-a-bit embarrassing "movie magic" ads that have run for years before the preview trailers. The current ad promoting a special effects house has run for so many months that even the featured company wants it to stop: "We don’t want people to start hissing at the screen." (updated 5:20 p.m.)
As an extremely frequent moviegoer, I have to say that's very good news. It's also a good argument for getting rid of those new antipiracy ads -- already I want to pirate something just to put those obnoxious spokespeople out of a job.
I never understood why the Times needs to advertise anyway, since it's not like you can miss its existence.
Posted by: LYT at December 7, 2003 06:09 PM
of LA Observed
I've been hissing at the screen since they started, and sometimes I get a pretty good group to go along.
Posted by: John Shannon at December 6, 2003 06:12 PM