Michael Tully does alittle bit of everything. He’s a musician. Journo/blogger/critic. Oh, and he’s directed a pair of acclaimed films, the down and out on drugs in Jacksonville narrative Cocaine Angel and the David Berman rock doc Silver Jew, which will be released on DVD next week by Drag City. Michael is currently the editor of the indie film criticism blog Hammer to Nail, creator of indiewire’s Boredom and Its Boredest blog and occasional contributor to Spout and Filmmaker Magazine. Here’s his take on why The Wire is our young century’s greatest artwork, what’s so special about Max Richter and just how tough it is to get the rights to Richard Yates stories. …Read more

• In yet another sign that the digital revolution will be good for smut and violence, the largest theater chain in the States, Regal Entertainment Group, has announced that they’ll allow “red band” trailers, featuring uncensored glimpses of R-rated films, to screen in front of films already designated for adult audiences. Regal’s senior VP of marketing says digital projection will allow the chain to exercise greater control in tailoring pre-show content to specific films, thus reducing the risk that a trailer meant for Hostel 7 will play in front of Horton Hears a Who.
• Speaking of: the Jim Carrey-voiced Horton made $45 million at the box office this weekend, while both Snow Angels and Paranoid Park continued to do well in limited release.
• Scott Rudin and Miramax have acquired the rights to Richard Price’s recently released, heavily-buzzed novel Lush Life, a noir set in the new-money Lower East Side. Price, a writer for The Wire, will write the adaptation himself; he previously scripted Rudin’s remake of Shaft.
• Jeon Soo-il’s With a Girl of Black Soil won the top prize at the Deauville Film Festival over the weekend.