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"...how utterly old fashioned the idea of picketing is..."

well not really--it's the best way for passersby to notice/draw attention to industrial action..it really isn't used to deter scabs anymore (unlike the old days) as much anyway.

While this goes on, BEOWULF is getting Best Picture ink:

Stephen Schaefer of the BOSTON HERALD:

[I]Seeing is believing with Robert Zemeckis’ mighty, monumental “Beowulf,” which opens Nov. 16. This extravagant adaptation of the epic poem about a cursed kingdom invents a 6th century A.D. Denmark that is so richly detailed, romantic and engrossing it’s like seeing the Prince Valiant comic strip brought to blazing, 3-D life, a childhood fantasy realized in such a complete way you’re stupefied with delight. Using the motion capture technique that “Lord of the Flies” managed to create the lisping monster Gollum and that Zemeckis employed on the saccharine “Polar Express,” “Beowulf” is nothing less than an immersion into a world that is somehow familiar – they live in a harsh climate like Boston, they drink mead, get drunk and pass out, they have a wife and a mistress – and totally strange with its demons that morph into flying dragons, sea monsters that can be slain by blond Beowulf, a hero for all times. The fight scenes are startling, not the least because like “Eastern Empires” Beowulf is nude as he takes on Grendel in mano a mano to-the-death combat. The homoeroticism, a friend said, outdoes Gerald Butler’s “300” by “500.” Ray Winstone may look nothing like this sleek god-like warrior but he sounds perfect. The cast includes a brilliantly underplayed aging king by Anthony Hopkins, a Bette Davis-style villain in John Malkovich and Angelina Jolie’s siren, a shape-changing seriously seductive sylph who gets a laugh in her six-inch heels. Big Oscar Question: Is this in the running for Best Picture or Best Animated Feature? [/I]

http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/

We all can't wait until you finally see it.

Ian Spamclair needs a hobby.

I imagine people seeing Beowulf in regular cinemas will not be as keen as those who see it in Imax. The animation (if you call it that) looks quite crude in the trailers when seen on a big screen.

A more general comment on the strike. First, I'm one of those crazy people who thinks the whole idea of intellectual property is absurd. The strongest argument for IP is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, where we see the utilitarian argument. Intellectual property is basically created in order to give people an incentive to produce and create.

The problem I have with the corporations is that they have always belittled the writers, the people who are the true content creators. Directors and actors interpret a writer's creative vision, but they get more prestige and power by virtue of the fact that ANYONE thinks they can write. It's just a matter of putting words down on a page, right? Everyone does it; I'm doing it now. Not everyone has a strong jaw-line, a smoking-hot figure, or goes to film school to learn about lenses and lighting. Naturally we have to reward the beautiful people (George Clooney gained weight, Nicole Kidman put on a prosthetic nose!), and we have to cower in fear at the technical expertise of those directors. But we'll find any possible way to give writers the shaft.

The studios are up in arms over Internet piracy, losing a chunk of profits on the highly lucrative, low marginal cost production of DVDs. Yet, at the same time they want to block out the people responsible for creating that product in the first place.

I don't think it's because we're writers that the AMPTP is not caving to our demands. They know all the Guilds are going to get the same rate, so no matter who went first, the AMPTP is going to try to get the rate as low as possible.

When the AMPTP ends up making a deal on Internet residuals with the DGA, it won't be because they respect what directors do more. It'll be because they can get the DGA negotiators to the number they want.

Had we reopened the 2004 Sideletter back in January or so, we probably could've gotten to that number ourselves and not gone on strike over Internet residuals.

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