Articles

AMPAS Rejects Dark Knight Score
(from Studio Briefing)
"an uproar has now followed the decision of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's decision to disqualify the score of The Dark Knight because credited composers James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer were unable to establish that they were directly responsible for more than 70% of the music... The two had listed three others as composers on the official cue sheet... in order to qualify them for royalties. The Academy's music committee reportedly spent hours debating the issue, with several members arguing unsuccessfully that the score merited nomination notwithstanding the cue-sheet issue."

Quantum of Solace US Opening Day Haul Estimated At $27 Million by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
"The numbers are yet to be confirmed, but it’s clear that 007 convincingly beat off competition from Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa ($8.1 million) and Role Models ($3.76 million). At $27 million, Quantum of Solace would have the 26th highest US opening day ever. The only 2008 release to top this opening would be The Dark Knight [obviously]... $27 million would place it above other 2008 big-hitters Sex And The City and Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. It would also place it above [frequent film of comparison] The Bourne Ultimatum." The last Bond film, Casino Royale, had an opening day of $14.7 million -- nearly half QoS's. It leaves the new release "on track to a weekend haul of approximately $70 million" -- the franchise's opening weekend record is held by Die Another Day at $47.1 million.

The Showdown: Wall-E Vs. Batman
(from Studio Briefing)
"While many industry observers are predicting that The Dark Knight on DVD will become the year's biggest video hit, a few others suggest that Disney/Pixar's Wall-E [sic] should not be overlooked. They point out that animated features have a long history of dominance in home-video sales and that Wall-e [sic] is one of the few that holds as much appeal for adults as it does for children. Meanwhile, websites that focus on high-definition fare have unanimously endorsed the Blu-ray version of Wall-e as the HD gold standard."

The thick Sharpe's Peril and why Jonathan Ross and Brand should stay by AA Gill
(from Times Online)
Belated commentary on the Ross/Brand/Sachs thing (I'm not even going to bother linking back to it any more), but, as regular readers know, I love this position on it -- especially as it has added Piers Morgan-slating, which is always welcome. Also, eventually, Gill gets round to his point -- slating the latest Sharpe. He's mostly wrong about that though.

"We will take some more risks and shake things up a little bit more." by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
The great thing about fansites is that they often summarise interviews and articles from other sites, so you just get what's new or interesting instead of having to trawl through all the same old publicity fluff. Here, the best bits are comments from producer Barbara Broccoli: "In Casino Royale, the book, there was no Moneypenny or Q so that is why they are not in that story. And, in this follow-up, there didn’t seem to be a reason or a place for them. That doesn’t mean that they won’t appear later on. We made a decision to strip everything away. Some things will come back, some things won’t. Some things will come back in a different way. We will take some more risks and shake things up a little bit more and hope audiences are with us." Sensible, I think.
Also: "Hopefully at the end of Quantum of Solace, we have this ‘whole’ character [for Bond]. And now we can do what we want. I think in some way, he will go after the organisation [Quantum]. So in that sense, it may become a trilogy, but we haven’t really structured it that way." Super. And what else will be back? "I don’t want [Judi Dench] to leave. She keeps threatening to leave but I will not let her!" Good girl. Anything further? Gadgets, apparently! "The trouble is, everyone has gadgets. We will need to come up with a few that have not been invented by the Sony Corp!" Good luck!