Even with cold weather, guaranteed snowfall and the temptation to blow $10.00 to see Roland Emmerich destroy the world, audiences still flocked to this year’s Starz Denver Film Festival, and with a line-up of films this great, who could blame them? This is still the best way for movie buffs to get a fix of films they’ve never heard of before but will be raving about for months. You also get a chance to be up close with some excellent filmmakers on the rise and actors and actresses like Rachel Leigh Cook, J.K. Simmons, Hal Holbrook and the fest’s Achievement Award winner, Ed Harris. It also gives film fest junkies a chance to see an acclaimed Oscar hopeful, like Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, which was this year’s SDFF opener.

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Now that we’re a couple days out from the Ink/Piracy story, I’ve had some time to think about the implications and possible applications file sharing could have on an independant and its efforts to gain exposure.  The point of this piece is to start a discussion about Bit Torrent’s use in marketing.

First of all, here’s a brief recap of what’s been going on with Ink, confirmed with director Jamin Winans.  These are hard facts.  The Winans’ sales of their film have been rising noticably.  Amazon.com is sold out and is currently quoting a 1-2 week wait before shipping the DVD.  Sales at the official Ink site have gone up.  Both Blockbuster and Netflix have doubled their orders to keep up with demand for rentals.  What is unclear with these instances is how much impact the file sharing phenomena has contributed to this.  Jamin thinks that all this would have eventually happened, but the piracy probably stepped up how quickly everything came about.

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Updated:  See the IMDB screenshot at the end of the article. 

It’s been a longstanding debate online.  Does internet piracy help or hurt a movie?  On one side, you have filmmakers and studios talking about how internet movie piracy is killing box office and dvd sales/profits.  On the other side, you have the pirates trying to justify the practice by saying that the advance word can help a movie and actually increase sales.  The problem is that there is very little data to support the pirates’ stance…until now.

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This week, we laid our great friend to rest.  To say that Josh will be missed is the understatement of a lifetime.  We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers sent our way, as well as all the e-mails.  I’m gathering them all up and will be forwarding them to Josh’s family.  The overriding theme of every e-mail is that everybody considered Josh a friend whether they had met him or not.  I just wanted to take the opportunity to let you know that we feel the same way about our listeners and readers.  We love getting feedback and not because it serves as an ego boost.  We love having the interaction with you and the chance to get to know you some as well.

Feel free to still send e-mails if you want to podcast at screengeeks dot com, or you can leave a voicemail at (719) 553-5664.  I’ll make sure everything gets routed on to the family.

Josh will be missed, not because he was an integral part of the show.  He will be missed because of the kind of man he was, the best kind.

I’ve embedded the audio I posted over the weekend in case anybody hasn’t heard it yet.

 

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Leave it to remake news to get me to finally write an article.  Friend of the site, Andrew over at gmanreviews, posted a story that Steven Spielberg has lost his fool mind and decided to remake the 1950 Jimmy Stewart classic, Harvey.  I was all set to turn in early, and then this news absolutely set me off.  I decided to turn my geek rampage into an article.  Seriously, I’m about to go Tim Bisley about Spielberg.  I’ll explain after the break.

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It’s no secret that everyone here at ScreenGeeks absolutely adores the Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In.  We even devoted an episode to this gem of a film.  I was absolutely psyched to see it at WalMart for $15 on DVD.  I haven’t picked it up yet, and it looks like that’s a good thing.

Icons Of Fright just recently posted that the subtitles for the US DVD release of Let the Right One In are significantly different from what was seen in the theatrical cut.  Specifically, the subtitles are dumbed down to the point that humor and depth was lost so people with a low IQ can keep up with the film.  Seeing some of the changes, it’s entirely appropriate that many around the web are calling these “Twilight subtitles”.  The move has been dumbed down just for people who actually thought that Twilight was an insightful movie and a unique take on the vampire genre.  Essentially, the theatrical cut is Robert De Niro in Awakenings when the chemicals work, and the DVD cut is De Niro in his catatonic state.

Yesterday, Bill Hunt over at The Digital Bits did a little more digging and found out more news that is equally satisfying and frustrating.  DVD distributor Magnet had heard the film geek outcry and will be releasing the DVD with the theatrical subtitles intact.  You’ll be able to tell as on the back of the case, the subtitles will be labeled “English (Theatrical)”.

I’m sure that those who bought the crappy version are wondering how to go about exchanging for the version that should have been release in the first place.  Well, this is where the frustrating part comes into play.  To quote Magnet in the Digital Bits column, “There are no exchanges”.  Yeah, thanks for nothing, tools.  Essentially, Magnet has screwed over the people who wanted to support this movie from the beginning to show that there’s an audience for this kind of intelligent film in the US.  They’re saying that you need to buy it again.  Oh, and the subtitle issue is on the BluRay version, too.

Seeing the niche films that Magnet releases, this just doesn’t make sense.  Why in the world would you ever want to enrage your customer base?  At this point, I really think that people who bought the original release should wait until a good rip is made available with the correct subtitles at various BitTorrent sites, and just download it that way.  Those of you who purchased this dvd in good faith that this would be what was released are being milked.  There’s no reason to give these jokers another dime of your money.

Should you have purchased the dvd and want to share your displeasure with this situation, you can e-mail them at dvd@magpictures.com.

It’s with great sadness that I write this, a brief mention that Natasha Richardson, a wonderful actress of film and and stage, the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and wife of Liam Neeson, died on Wednesday. As a stage actress, her work was astonishing, and she arguably received the most acclaim from her work on the London and New York theater scene. As a film actress, she is probably and sadly best known to American audiences as Ralph Fiennes’ annoying fiance in Main in Manhattan and the love interest in the remake of The Parent Trap. If you really want to see why she was such a remarkable actress, look at her playing the title role in Paul Schrader’s Patty Hearst, in which she embodied a complex and widely unloved public figure. Or, watch her in The Handmaid’s Tale, an equally controversial film that, like Patty Hearst, received mixed reviews from critics but her performances in both films were widely and deservedly praised. Finally, in the thriller The Comfort of Strangers, also by director Schrader, cast opposite Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren and Rupert Everett, Richardson is outstanding once again in one of the creepiest and most underrated cinematic mind games of the ’90’s. She is survived by her husband, Liam and their two children, Micheal and Daniel Neeson. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

This one has been brewing in my mind for a couple days now.  WarGames is one of my favorite movies from the 80’s.  I remember my folks taking me to see it and how much my dad loved it and still loves it.  Well, /Film is reporting that Leonardo DiCaprio wants to remake WarGames.  I know this is going to be a shock, but here’s an internet guy about to say that it’s going to suck.  What might be different is my reasoning as to why it’s going to suck and how it can’t possibly work today.  I’ll explain after the jump.  *WARNING:  GEEKY EXPLANATION AHEAD*

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Throughout this Awards season I’ve heard constant negative comments on the internet about Sean Penn. Whenever he seems to win an award for his performance in Milk, many seem to call him a humorless douchebag who only makes movies to win awards and preach his political messages. And I’m frankly tired of this.

First off, whether you like his personality or not, Sean Penn is undeniably one of the most talented actors of his generation. From his performances in Dead Man Walking, Mystic River or even Fast Times at Ridgemont High. You simply cannot look past his talent. And guess what? He’s winning awards for his acting, not his personality. Next off, sure he’s a prick, but so are the majority of actors. Sure, you may be rooting for Mickey Rourke. But he’s done worse things than anybody in Hollywood. And while Penn can seem like a bit of a blowhard, he definitely knows what he’s talking about. He’s not just bashing the right to be anti-establishment. Take for example his recent appearance on Charlie Rose. Watch what he has to say about Proposition 8 and it’s hard not to be moved.

And my final point, you find him humorless? Go see him in the best movie of 2008 and then me that he can’t be a likable, warm presence. Or even just watch his acceptance speech at last night’s SAG Awards. The guy made a freakin’ dick joke. So please, think before you whine.

Yup, I just used big words to express just how mad I am about the Oscar nominations.  I figured elocution would be more constuctive than unleashing the stream of obscenities that ran through my mind when watching/reading the nominations (/Film has a good comprehensive list up).  It strikes me just how much the Golden Globes got right when you see just how much the Academy got wrong.  My list of complaints can be read after the jump.

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