Net-neutrality | SpoutBlog

The Return of the Musical. Trade Roughage 10/28/08

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

In yet another sign that 2008 is the new 1928, Hollywood, impressed by the massive first-weekend success of High School Musical 3, is rushing a number of music-based projects into production. Paramount is bumping their Zac Efron-starring, Kenny Ortega-directed remake of Footloose up the calendar; Nick and Norah director Peter Sollett has been asked to punch up the script before a spring shoot. Meanwhile, Fox is setting up their own big-screen musical around a passel of Disney Channel stars: this time, it’s the Jonas Brothers, and the project is the first film in a hoped-for franchise based on the “Walter the Farting Dog” books. Yes, there are apparently childrens books about farting dogs. Maybe it’s not The Great Depression 2 — maybe it’s Idiocracy 0.5.
Perhaps surprisingly, Dan Glickman says that although “there’s no fundamental difference between Obama or McCain on intellectual property issues,” an Obama administration might be slightly more favorable for the MPAA’s fight against piracy, as Obama be expected to connect to “newer, younger White House staffers and appointees about the value and importance of IP.” But the studios’ lobbying board would clash sharply with a Democrat administration over net neutrality, which Obama strongly supports, and Glickman … doesn’t.
DETAILS Magazine has invited their readers to submit film pitches. In partnership with Larry Meistrich of Shooting Gallery and Film Movement, the mag will seek a winning idea targeted at “intelligent, modern, metropolitan men,” they’ll then actually produce.

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Hollywood

Lloyd Kaufman: “I’m Not LOLing Now.” Clip of the Day.

By Karina Longworth posted 2 years ago

I got a press release this afternoon informing me that Lloyd Kaufman, the co-founder and public face of Troma Entertainment, has been elected to a two-year term as Chairman of the Independent Film and Television Alliance, “the global trade association of the independent motion picture and television programming industry.” In the release, the genius behind Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead and The Toxic Avenger clearly outlines his leadership agenda:

The independent community today faces rampant media consolidation and challenges to copyrights in the digital universe, and I will work closely with the IFTA Board of Directors, member companies and IFTA’s executives to give our fellow independents more control and opportunities in both the U.S. and abroad. New technology will continue to be our new frontier.

Kaufman is a fierce supporter of net neutrality. Earlier this summer, he responded to Hillary Clinton’s Sopranos spoof video with his own made-for-YouTube rant against the candidate, which I’ve embedded above. In the clip, Kaufman compares the current state of the web to the home video industry “before Blockbuster came and bought up all the mom and pop shops.” He warns that if Clinton is elected president, she’ll aim to appease her friends in Hollywood and will eventually “screw up the internet.” “We’re all going to be p0wned!” Kaufman cries.

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