Assemblog: September 20, 2013

Under The Skin

New this week on Popshifter: Tim says goodbye to D.O.A. and hello to the new Robocop trailer; Jemiah calls Kenny Feinstein’s Loveless: Hurts To Love a masterpiece; Melissa has mixed feelings about Ha Ha Tonka’s Lessons; Jeff approaches bridges and A chords in a new installment of Waxing Nostalgic; and I find The Exquisite Corpse Game remarkable.

If you want Netflix to pick up your favorite TV show, just pirate it. Okay, not really, but apparently Netflix tracks which shows are most pirated and then uses that to choose its content. CEO Reed Hastings claims “BitTorrent usage in Canada dropped 50% following the streaming service’s launch in the country.” I guess I should start BitTorrenting the hell out of everything that’s not currently on Netflix Canada.

In terms of movie piracy, Scott Beggs has a thought-provoking piece on Film School Rejects that exposes the inadequacy of comparing it to auto theft and gets bonus points for using the term “streets ahead.”

According to the filmmakers behind Man From Earth, piracy actually has helped their movie. I’d love to see an in-depth analysis that would compare stories like this with those from industry folks who lost money due to piracy, particularly on indie films.

Target is going to compete with Netflix when it launches its own streaming service, Target Ticket. However, analysts don’t think it will pose much of a threat since Amazon is still their biggest competitor.

There’s going to be a Tom of Finland biopic. Let that sink in. For those who have somehow never heard of Tom of Finland, I suggest you not Google Image Search the term at work, unless you work at VICE.

Remember hearing about that HBO series True Detective that stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson? It wasn’t a beautiful, crazy dream and it now has a real trailer.

Indiewire points out that the show covers the 17 years that the pair look for a Louisiana serial killer, which pushes two buttons for me:1) It focuses on Louisiana NOT just New Orleans and 2) It reminds me of the extended timeline in The Black Dahlia (the book, not the movie).

One of the more divisive films premiering at TIFF this year was Under The Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson and based on the Michel Faber novel. It’s about an alien on earth who seduces and kills people while she travels through Scotland. I love this teaser trailer and I love the idea of this movie, especially as it gives Johansson an opportunity to do something different than what is expected of her.

A24 has US distribution rights, but no word on a release date or if it will screen in other countries. I’m pretty sad that I missed this one at TIFF.

—Less Lee Moore, Managing Editor