(The view up the street from the train station in Sheffield, UK as I made my way to the hotel early Wednesday afternoon. After flying to Manchester via Rekjavik, I took the train into town just in time to settle in before picking up my badge and guide for the annual Sheffield Doc/Fest. It’s my first time in Sheffield, which already strikes me as a nice college town. Gotta get moving, despite the foggy jet lag, because there’s work to be done.)
A documentary I’ve been following for over a year now, is Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas’ American: The Bill Hicks Story. The film screens at the Sheffield Doc/Fest this weekend, and I’m excited to scope it out. Bill Hicks, like Outlaw Country music, is one of those things that Brits and Texans have in common. Hicks, who died of pancreatic cancer in 1994, was an underground sensation in the comedy clubs of central Texas. He was smart, abrasive, political, and hysterical. Bill Hicks was the original Lewis Black or David Cross, and he was more than just an inspiration to Denis Leary (who is believed to have stolen chunks of Hicks material for his own No Cure For Cancer album). Hicks was a popular guest on David Letterman’s NBC show, and made the usual TV rounds, but his real success came in the UK. You mention Bill Hicks’ name in America, maybe 1 out of every 10 people know who you’re talking about. In the UK, it’s more like 7/10. In honor of Hicks, and the latest episode of Mad Men, here is one of his popular (and relatively less offensive) subjects: the JFK assassination…
Kinda surprising that this song isn’t part of the rock-heavy Twilight: New Moon soundtrack. Was it rejected? Whatever that reason, Australian retro-rockers Wolfmother have returned with some new members but the same welcomed snarl:
Oscar-winning writer/director Roger (Killing Zoe, Pulp Fiction) Avary has been a dominant online presence before it was fashionable. He had what was arguably one of the first well-known film blogs, a journal of what he was doing while working on various projects. He embraced Twitter while dealing with a personal crisis early this year, usually updating it with what seemed to be excerpts from screenplays. While he directed Killing Zoe, and subsequent projects, he is primarily known as a screenwriter. Avary’s career has been an unusual one, seemingly because it blossomed because of his friendship with Pulp Fiction collaborator Quentin Tarantino. There’s a long fabled history of the two working on each other’s projects, inspiring one another, and later fracturing their friendship. After the Pulp Fiction Oscar win in 1995, Avary became a successful script doctor in Hollywood and soon began work on writing and directing passion projects, most notably the underrated Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, The Rules of Attraction (2002).
His career has been interrupted with a conviction of vehicular manslaughter after a January 2008 car accident in which a passenger in his car was killed. In September 2009, Avary was sentenced to a year in jail and five years probation. How does someone like Roger Avary, who is known for his violent and dark screenplays, handle prison? Well, supposedly, one outlet has become Twitter. His official Web site links to @Avary as his Twitter account. The screenplay excerpts stopped on September 26, with the words “Fade In.” After that, there have been three consecutive Tweets seemingly from within prison. They are, as follows:
The loudspeaker in each cell blurts out commands (“Number 34 report to Control!”) and is able to listen in on inmate conversations.
1:22 PM Oct 31st from Twitterrific
The channels on the Rec Room television cannot be changed, and it’s inexplicably always tuned to Fox.
2:19 PM Oct 30th from web
The building is an imposing example of the Brutalist architectural movement. The windows are designed so as to not let too much light in.
3:06 PM Oct 29th from web
Is this really coming directly from Avary himself? From prison? Is this common?
There is no Netflix in the UK, at least not yet. However, there is LOVEFiLM, which serves a similar purpose. It’s a subscription DVD service, which has begun a streaming option, and the adoption rate overseas has been very similar to the way Netflix has impacted the U.S. BusinessWeek and The Independenttake a look at what’s happened for LOVEFiLM, and where it may be headed:
The company has been pushing its digital streaming service for films and TV shows, launched in May, as the country faces more postal strikes. It currently offers 2,200 titles and 10 per cent of customers with access to the service have used it. The growth has come as rival services such as the BBC iPlayer have raised awareness of online viewing, although [CEO Simon] Calver warns that viewers will come to expect digital programming for free.
Mr. Calver argues that the DVD is nowhere near the end of its shelf life, saying: “There is no substitute for the choice and convenience of DVDs; it makes up the vast majority of our revenues.” He believes the situation is unlikely to change over the next decade, despite Lovefilm spending much of time developing its digital business. “In the next 10 years there is going to be a hybrid economy that exists which is both digital and physical,” he explains. “When the tipping point comes, where it is 50 per cent digital, nobody knows.”
The company wants to bring digital streaming into every UK living room, and is in talks with “a number of consumer electronics companies” to develop a Lovefilm interface for television. Mr. Calver said: “Lovefilm is not about rental, it’s about providing home entertainment,” he says. “We are expanding our digital offering and, by the first half of next year, we will be appearing on the TV set.”
And, much like Netflix in America, you can only use LOVEFiLM is you’re living in its native UK.
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