Assemblog: October 4, 2013

Locke

New this week on Popshifter: Jeff is terrified of V/H/S/2, besotted with Sunset Graves’ Variant, and a little embarrassed about “Torn Between Two Lovers”; Paul provides a fascinating treatise linking Blade Runner to The Weeknd and Janelle Monáe; Melissa might be in love with both Blitzen Trapper’s VII and The Wood Brothers’ The Muse albums; Chelsea thinks Just Desserts, the new Waitresses retrospective, is quite tasty; and I thrill to White Lies at Toronto’s Opera House, and recommend new music from Blouse and Terry Malts.

I dislike ass-kissing celebrity profiles and interviews as much as I dislike the ones which try and analyze the personal relationships of celebrities that the writer does not know personally. Although Pajiba is frequently guilty of the latter (please stop talking about Katy Perry’s divorce from Russell Brand), they are also quite good at the former. Their recent profile of Joseph Gordon-Levitt is rather well-done.

Indiewire discusses some key points from a recent Variety article that examines the lack of women as key players in Hollywood. Specifically there are some revealing quotes from director Catherine Hardwicke: despite the first Twilight film grossing over $400 million, she was forced to take a pay cut to direct Red Riding Hood.

There’s quite a bit of intriguing news regarding content distribution, and much of it from Indiewire, whose “Five Tech Stories” column is always on point.

First, Turner Broadcasting System has signed an agreement with Verizon to deliver content from Turner to FiOS TV customers across multiple platforms. (FiOS is Verizon’s bundle of Internet, TV, and telephone services.) This will include on-demand and live streaming of all major Turner networks (Indiewire).

DirecTV is also partnering with A24 to acquire films. In case you’re wondering why this is news, consider that A24 recently acquired distribution rights to Enemy (with Jake Glyllenhall) and Under The Skin (with Scarlett Johansson), both of which played at TIFF this year, along with the buzzed about Tom Hardy film Locke. As the Indiewire piece notes, “The deal is a sign of the increasing importance of VOD for indie titles.”

Netflix has thrown down the gauntlet to HBO, echoing the sentiments of many film and TV fans: “Offer a subscription.” Over the Internet, that is. This is interesting advice from Netflix CFO David Wells, considering that, according to the article on Indiewire, the streaming service has almost 30 million US subscribers, while HBO has 28 million.

The Hairpin has a link to SnagFilms, a free, online streaming service with curated content. The site notes:

Our potent curatorial cocktail has 3 strong ingredients: our kick-ass editorial team + your friends’ always interesting taste in movies + our very own recommendation engine, a sophisticated interface that intuitively tracks your preferences . . . but not in a creepy way.

Finally, in news that will surprise no one, Fox has urged the 2nd Court of Appeals to review its ruling from earlier this year regarding unpaid internships.

—Less Lee Moore, Managing Editor