New York gentrification moves faster than video format extinction. Kim’s Video on Avenue A shut down while I was in grad school at NYU, and that made it hard enough to find VHS copies of older films that hadn’t yet been released on DVD (and hasn’t that space gone through like three cheesy bars since Kim’s lost their lease? Please advise.) Later, I ended up buying a bunch of those tapes (including Fassbinder’s Gods of the Plague and Herzog’s Where the Green Ants Dream) at Mondo Kim’s on Saint Marks. Now, that Kim’s location is getting ready to move, and they’re unloading their library of 55,000 video rentals in the process.

A couple of local eye witnesses have sent in reports of a flyer that’s being passed out at the store (Ray Pride has posted a scan), advertising Mr. Kim’s search for “institutions, schools, businesses or individuals who can accomodate Kim’s full line of film collection.” Apparently, they want to keep the collection intact; in fact, the stated mandates for parties interested in acquiring it are an ability to devote “3,000 square feet of space, committment to give access to Kim’s members (charging minimum membership fee), and maintaining the collection.” Takers can click above for contact info.

• Department of Bad Ideas In The Name of Box Office Equivalency, Part 1: Apparently inspired by the success of Indiana Jones and It Really Didn’t Make THAT Much Money, Paramount is hiring Brett Ratner to direct Eddie Murphy in a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie. It was Murphy’s idea, and there’s currently no script.
• Department of Bad Ideas In The Name of Box Office Equivalency, Part 2: Apparently emboldened by the success of Transformers, Michael Bay is working on another film based on a toy: Ouija. Yes, that board with the alphabet on it that allows slumber partying fifth graders to talk to the dead.
• Department of Things We Can’t Complain About: In honor of their 85th anniversary, Warner Brothers is dipping into their catalog of 6,800 films to push forth a ton of new DVDs and reissues, including “sets of superhero films, musicals and Westerns, including three editions of the MGM’s How the West Was Won, all slotted for third-quarter release, followed in the fourth quarter by horror and holiday collections, including an ultimate collector’s edition of A Christmas Story.”

• Blogs are buzzing, but the fact that Michael Moore is making a sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11 is old news –– the film is referenced in this NY Times story from April of last year. The new news in this story from Variety’s Cannes section is that the film will be distributed internationally by Overture and Paramount Vantage––NOT The Weinstein Company, which handled the relatively disappointing release of Sicko. The same companies will rep the doc for international sale at Cannes.
• The Playlist has details on Miranda July’s in-the-works second feature, Things We Don’t Understand and Definitely Are Not Going To Talk About.
• The title of this post at Tisch Film Review is worded a bit confusingly, but it’s basically a list of ten great films that are not available on DVD. The Last Movie, The Mother and the Whore, etc.

Apple has reportedly struck a deal with several major studios to release downloads of their films on the same date the titles are released on DVD, and I can’t tell whether or not Jeff Wells is being facetious when he says that this plan will “obviously…really hurt DVD retail, which will in turn diminish the sense of community we all get from going to DVD stores and poking around the aisles and talking with the checkout guys.”

This is not a facetious question, I actually want to know: Is that an experience that anyone has had recently? Assuming you don’t live in New York and frequent Kim’s? It’s been my understanding that for awhile now, most people get DVDs from a) Netflix; B) a chain store like Best Buy, Virgin or Borders; or C) any number of online retail sites. So the idea that this could damage an existing sense of DVD store community seems wrongheaded, because that hasn’t that “community” already long ceased to exist?

As for the idea that this will hurt DVD sales considerably, the Apple downloads will carry Apple DRM, meaning they’ll only be playable on iPods, Mac computers, and AppleTVs. There are an awful lot of home theater junkies who will refuse to watch movies on computer screens, and I’m just not convinced that most of those guys own AppleTVs. I am the only person I know who owns an AppleTV.

So Wells had to be joking, right? To quote Chris Matthews, as Wells himself has been known to do: “Ha!”

UPDATE, 10/18 8AM: Hudgens’ rep told Access Hollywood that her client still has a job; Disney says they’re “still negotiating” with the entire HSM cast.

Because this is a blog generally devoted to movies, and not to the naked exploits of barely-legal, barely-famous starlets, we’ve stayed out of Vanessa Hudgens topless photo non-scandal. But OK! is running a story that I just can’t not comment on, because if nothing else, it seems like a soon-to-be classic example of what old media companies are doing wrong when it comes to the web.

A bit of background for the uninitiated: Hudgens starred in two High School Musical movies for the Disney Channel, along fellow tween heartthrobs Ashley Tisdale and (Hudgens’ real-life boyfriend) Zac Efron. Both movies were such enormous successes on cable, iTunes and DVD that Disney decided to bring the entire cast back for a third film, this time aimed at a theatrical release. Then, in September, relatively tame images of a naked Hudgens, allegedly meant for a boyfriend’s eyes only, were leaked to the internet. Now, OK! is reporting that, over a month after issuing what seemed like a non-judgmental statement in regards to Hudgens’ internet nakedness, “Disney has made up its mind about what to do next and that the 18-year-old actress will not be asked to board the boat for the third HSM film.”

If this is true, then I think Disney is making a big mistake, for three reasons. Details after the jump.

…Read more

***David Geffen and Steven Spielberg, apparently unhappy with the role Dreamworks has played within the Viacom empire since Paramount’s late-2005 acquisition of the vanity label, are threatening to walk away from their contracts with the mega studio. According to a fascinating piece on the subject by former Paramount employee Peter Bart, Geffen and Spielberg may be able to jump ship with the Dreamworks name in tow, but they’d likely have to leave their staff, existing deals and film negatives behind.

***Netflix is lowering the price of their two most popular subscription plans by $1 each, in an attempt to beat out Blockbuster once and for all. It’s the second price slash from Netflix this year, and it could cost the company millions of dollars.

***Disney has found a director for their remake of the kiddie classic Escape to Witch Mountain. Also, if you were wondering what happened to Ike Eisenmann, in 2002 he wrote, directed and starred in a Witch Mountain/Blair Witch spoof called — wait for it — The Blair Witch Mountain.

Paul and Kevin navigate the gauntlet of trying to watch movies at home. Stu Vanairsdale, The Reeler, reviews a lost gem from 1976, the newly restored and released film, Killer of Sheep. Kevin drops his two-cents on Will Ferrell’s Blades of Glory.

Download FilmCouch #14 or subscribe in the iTunes store (search for “filmcouch” or click here to launch iTunes) and a new free episode will download every Friday.

We spent our last morning in Portland wandering around the “largest independent new and used book store in the world,” Powell’s. I’ve been before, but it never ceases to amaze me. Three rambling floors of books covering an entire city block. Probably my favorite thing about the store, besides the ability to browse shelves upon shelves of books on even the most obscure topics, is the unorthodox practice Powell’s is famous for: shelving new and used books side-by-side. It’s so brilliant (and they’ve been doing it this way since 1979).

But what I was thinking about after this book-lovers orgy (while eating brunch at the very delicious Genie’s) is how Powell’s is such an anomaly in the word of on-line versus off-line retailers and independents versus big chains. Powell’s has a very successful dot com (started before Amazon, incidentally) but I want to set that aside for a moment and just look at the Burnside Street store. We’ve been conditioned to go on line if we want inventory and selection, and go to a real-life store if we want an “experience” within a community. Powell’s manages to do both at once (and I’m still trying to get my head around how the Long Tail theory fits into all of this). It’s so successful, even amidst the chains, because of its huge selection, knowledgeable and friendly staffers ready to share everything they know, and plenty of in-store events that make you feel a part of a crazy-book-lovin’ community. You leave with your books, and a story to tell–an experience.

Are there any parallels in the world of film and DVDs? A way to get the films you really want–to not be limited–yet to have an experience within a community? What’s the ideal model for theaters or DVD rental stores? Can an “experience” be created for on line consumers? (Obviously Spout thinks so…)

There are some stories I never tire of. Stories told through books, stage or film that I go back to over and over. Now that I’m performing in the stage version of The Wizard of Oz for 26 performances, I’ve been thinking about why I don’t seem to mind this particular repetition. In fact, the repetition started as a kid. Every year, I remember waiting, checking the TV Guide sometime late November to get the night right. Then, the whole family would gather to see Dorothy go off to the magical land of Oz where trees talk, lions are cuddly, and it’s easy to accidentally kill witches.

You know what’s going to happen, of course. You know the Wicked Witch of the West will blast up from the earth before the Munchkins finish singing “Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead.” You know Dorothy and her walking buddies see the wizard and he sends them off to get the witch’s broomstick. Heck, you know the Wizard isn’t even a wizard at all. Everybody knows this.

So I’m wondering why … why do I care? Why do I watch this movie again and again? Why am I re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire a third time before seeing the movie?

With DVDs and the Internet, there’s no waiting, no checking TV Guide, no anticipation. I could watch a new film every night. That’s 365 films a year. If I dedicated the next decade of my life to this, I’d have seen 3,650 films and just scratched the surface of what Netflix and Amazon offer.

Here’s my problem: I’m confused.

I never know what to watch now. There are just too many options. My friends recommend films, but if I don’t write them down, I can’t remember them. I’m a busy woman. I don’t make the time to watch films that aren’t fun or thoughtful. Sometimes I fall asleep. Sometimes I get bored. When I do make it to a rental store, I wander around, picking up DVD cases, looking at the photos, reading the back. Will I regret this? Will I embarrass myself? Will I get scared? I hate being scared. So I go home, put in The Wizard of Oz, and spend time with what I love.

When I see the Spout website taking shape here, I get excited for me, not just because Paul will introduce me to Wong Kar-Wai. You see, I like a good solid happy endings. I like to know characters may be a little messed up, but they’re on the right track. I like things that are cute and funny. Basically, I like movies that most people are talking about when they say, I just want to see a movie tonight. I just need a helping hand in finding that movie.