• Turner Classic Movies has hired Elvis Mitchell to host a new interview series called TCM: Under the Influence. Lou Lumenick reports, via Movie City News.
• In an interview with Stream, Wholphin’s Brent Hoff gives props to the programmers of some of our favorite film festivals: SXSW, Cinevegas and True/False. Of the latter’s Paul Sturtz and David Wilson, he says, “Their selections are incredible. They are people with such heart, and they look at everything through the prism of who they are as people and what moves them. And I think that’s why they put on such beautiful films. And believe me, everyone says it, everyone that goes universally agrees that these guys nail it like nobody else, and few people know about it. I guarantee it will become a much bigger deal. I’m outing them. I’m sure I’ve just ruined the town.” Via BigScreenLittleScreen.
• Above: a talk at Drexel University, wherein Arin Crumley talks about rethinking cinematic content for web episode distribution.

• Above, a memo from United Hollywood: the WGA strike is about Maggie Gyllenhaal and two other pretty girls getting drunk and having threesomes.
• While I was at Sundance, the next James Bond film got a stupid title. Dirty Harry says it doesn’t matter: “As long as Bond kills for kicks, bags babes for laughs, and makes the world safe for democracy, Wal-Mart, and Exxon, I really don’t care.”
• In other news I missed, Mark Romanek is apparently no longer directing a Wolfman remake. Jeff Wells blames the strike.
• Four Eyed Monster Arin Crumley had his coat, passport, video recorder, wallet and bike stolen at “one of the best parties I’ve been to in a long time.” It’s got him thinking about socialism, colonialism and “balance,” all of which is encapsulated in the video after the jump. If you stole his stuff, he’ll give you a hug and a handshake if you give it back.

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CinematicalIndie has a lengthy interview with Arin Crumley of Four Eyed Monsters fame, and in an unusual twist, Arin has made a video of his side of the conversation, which Cinematical’s Erik Davis has posted alongside a partial transcription.

Arin and Erik cover a lot of ground–an explanation of how Arin and Susan racked up so much debt, the pros and cons of putting your feature film up on YouTube, the dynamic between Arin and Susan’s business relationship and thier personal relationship–but I was particularly interested in this segment, where Arin talks about the potential role for social networking sites in the distribution/exhibition process. (I swear, I’m not excerpting this just because Arin has a lot of nice things to say about Spout):

If you look at Spout and the way their site works … one of the ways I use is I kind of organize the films I plan to see…Netflix is no good because that’s just if the film is available on DVD, and some are not available yet. So what I do on Spout, there’s a button next to every film, you search that film, you find it, you hit the button that says I want to see this film. So if you project ahead to either their site, or other sites, or who knows who might build this tool…but the concept of being able to store and publicly share your interest in movies–and if you can also be publicly sharing your location, which of course changes from time to time–there could be an intelligent system that knows what people want to see. And because of digital projection, you could really be showing anything on a screen, you’re not limited to what film prints were mailed to you…theoretically, you should be able to have a theatrical jukebox, where anything can be shown there. It’s just a matter of, “Well, what do people want to see?”

Transcribing from YouTube is no fun, and the whole interview is really worth ingesting, so just watch it yourself (or, as Arin suggests, listen while you work–it is, after all, about 49 minutes longer than your average YouTube clip). And if for whatever reason you still haven’t signed up for Spout, go here, start a free account, and Arin and Susan will be able to subtract one more dollar from their mountain of debt.