The 8th Daily Movie News episode went online earlier today, with info on:

• Marky Mark Wahlberg in Max Payne
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• Ridley Scott’s A Brave New World
• David Cronenberg and Denzel Washington
• Guillermo Del Toro on The Hobbit
• James Caan and Luke Wilson
• Twilight
• And Forest Whitaker as Louis Armstrong

Sorry for the awful delay today.

Rik

The chat with Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro about the new ‘The Hobbit’ movies took place today — or yesterday depending on where you live. And some minor facts came out of it. Peter Jackson mainly spoke about his role in making the movie, but there were some other interesting tidbits too.

About a possible Blu-ray set of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies, Peter Jackson said, “We are working on a blu ray [sic] version of the LOTR trilogy with Warner Bros at the moment, not sure when it is due for release. It certainly won’t be this year.”

Guillermo also confirmed the (likely) involvement of Howard Shore for the movies’ score. “Yes- absolutely, Shore is the VOICE of these films and we will absolutely be invited back. Peter and Fran have talked to him a couple of times already and Ive [sic] exchanged emails about the subject. He will return.” Interesting, since Peter Jackson replaced Shore at the last moment for his ‘King Kong.’

Continue reading ‘The Hobbit’ chat: Jackson’s involvement

No, stars aren’t wearing headsets on the red carpet (yet), but Skype (http://www.skype.com) is making an interesting move in this direction. The company is using its video conferencing program to connect the Cannes Film Festival to the stars who sadly couldn’t be there. American Pavilion will be using Skype in their ‘In Conversation’ and ‘Industry In Focus’ series, in which filmmakers have daily discussions about different aspects of the film industry. They can practically give an interview from the set they’re currently filming on.

Director James Cameron will be one of the people using Skype for the interviews at Cannes. I reckon he’s busy enough with post-production on ‘Avatar’ as it is, so I assume this is why he opted for a little video call. Or he’s just lazy, but I wouldn’t dare to call a man with the highest grossing movie of all time (’Titanic’) lazy. By using Skype, he will be able to talk to the audience on a big screen at Cannes, which I imagine would be just as impressive as the real thing.

It’s good to see the film industry embracing the internet. Not only are they creating ways to get legal content out there, but they’re also connecting to their audience in a new way. Like Guillermo del Toro’s internet chat session about ‘The Hobbit’ next weekend. Or all the movie production blogs in recent years. It seems like moderated video chats with the big stars are just around the corner. Instead of traveling all over the world to promote their movie, they could just take a couple of video calls. Where do I sign up?