American movie studios have retrofitted thousands of movie theaters across the country to make them fit for 3-D movies viewing. And in times like this, with a crop year that hasn’t been this mediocre in a long time, it’s clear that justifying the costs of these conversions come before any attempt at making good movies. And sometimes, you can tell all this just from watching a trailer.

When I recently watched

Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, the talented team behind the highly successful Hurt Locker and now working on a film about the hunt for Bin Laden, are being taken to task by Rep. Peter King (R-NY).

The New York congressman wondered whether the filmmakers’ had cooperation from government agencies and special access to classified information. In other words, did the team receive special

Do you remember the documentary Protagonist (Jessica Yu, 2007) about [...]

The Locarno Film Festival closed yesterday; here’s the comment from our colleague Eric J. Lyman at The Hollywood Reporter:

“Abrir Puertas y Ventanas (Back to Stay), the story of two sisters struggling with the death of the grandmother who raised them, won two major prizes at the Locarno Film Festival including the storied Golden Leopard honor, while Din Dragoste cu Cele Mai Bune Intentii (Best Intention) was given another two awards and Japanese film Tokyo Koen was given Locarno’s first-ever special jury prize

The news is that I saw Melancholia here in Paris where it came out on Wednesday (since France’s Wednesday is our Friday). I understand that Melancholia will come out in the U.S. at the end of September and hope to land an interview with someone from the film. My review will appear in these columns on the day of the release.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has chosen Brett Ratner (he previously directed X-Men and Horrible Bosses) to produce the next Oscars telecast, which will take place on February 26th. It’s an interesting move, that shows the Academy is fighting to reverse the tide, ie., their poor ratings. Last year's audience share was a whopping 10% lower than 2010.

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) announced today that The [...]