Thompson on Hollywood

The Creators Project Heads to San Francisco; Lineup Features Yeah Yeah Yeahs, James Murphy

News

From March 17-18, San Francisco is playing host to VICE and Intel's The Creators Project, the arts and tech festival now in its third year. The initiative, which is dedicated to supporting creativity, lands in creativity-hub San Francisco for the first time.

By Sophia Savage
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March 6, 2012 1:59 PM
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Netflix, Under Fire, Ditches Plans to Split Company, Kills Qwikster

"Consumers value the simplicity Netflix has always offered and we respect that," said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings as he backed off plans to split the company in two. “There is a difference between moving quickly — which Netflix has done very well for years — and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case.”

By Anne Thompson
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October 10, 2011 12:52 PM
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Apple's Tim Cook Unveils iPhone 4S, Fails To Live Up to Steve Jobs

Yesterday at the "Let's Talk iPhone" conference, Apple changed things up. Rather than announcing the iPhone 5, they announced a phone that looks no different than their current model, and only distinguishes the new product with an S added after iPhone 4. However, while the iPhone 4S appears to be no different, its capabilities are innumerable (Apple numbered them at over 200).

By Maggie Lange
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October 5, 2011 4:32 AM
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IMDb Launches Free Trivia iPhone and iPod Touch App

If you are the largest movie website in the world, what do you do when you want to broaden your already huge readership? If you're the mighty Internet Movie Database (110 million unique visitors per month, 2 million video views a day), you take your popular mobile apps one step farther and devise a free entertainment trivia game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. (It's playable on an iPad, but in a small window.) So IMDb chief Col Needham has given movie geeks everywhere (remember Trivial Pursuits Silver Screen Edition?) something to play with while they're waiting in line. (No wonder he was advising me to switch from my BlackBerry to an iPhone at Cannes.)

By Anne Thompson
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September 27, 2011 6:59 AM
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Netflix Splits Its DVD and Streaming Business, Hastings Says 'I Messed Up'

Reed Hastings has posted a letter at his Netflix blog (below, the comments are fascinating) admitting that "I messed up," and explaining why he initially separated Netflix's DVD and streaming businesses. Basically, one is the past, which threatens to drag down his company's stock price, and the other is the future, and should continue to thrive and grow. You can tell where Hastings thinks Netflix's future lies because that's the business that's getting the Netflix name. The company that is going to dwindle and die gets called Qwikster. The red envelope will be the same and will add video offerings, but the logo will change. (Here's Techcrunch.)

By Anne Thompson
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September 19, 2011 4:35 AM
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Tech Watch: Is Twitter a Media Company or a Social Network? Google Buys Zagat

While the social network that prides itself on instant updates was always guarded about updating its numbers, Twitter now claims 100 million active users--tweeting, following, and reading content on the network. Tech Crunch (whose own AOL future post-Michael Arrington is in some turmoil) reported that Twitter is looking to increase the presence of "promoted tweets."

By Maggie Lange
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September 9, 2011 5:32 AM
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Foursquare to Offer In-App Movie Tickets Via Movietickets.com

Pretty soon our smart phones are going to be smarter than we are. Movietickets.com announced today that it is joining with location-based social networking site foursquare for the debut of foursquare's new events feature. Foursquare allows users to check in at specific locations and venues for points and badges--and annoy their Twitter followers with announcements of their mayoral appointments.

By Jacob Combs
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August 18, 2011 8:41 AM
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Academy Announces Technology Interns

The Academy announced today that its Science and Technology Council had selected as its 2011 interns five students who will have the opportunity to participate in 10-12 week internships providing the opportunity to experience advanced movie-making technology.

By Jacob Combs
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August 5, 2011 6:36 AM
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Rotten Tomatoes Founder Launches Movies with Butter

Four years after leaving Rotten Tomatoes, founder Senh Duong is launching yet another movie site called MoviesWithButter.com. (He also founded newspaper rack site Wopular.) The website allows movie enthusiasts to track the latest developments of upcoming movies by title, director, actor or development stage.

By Anne Thompson
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July 29, 2011 12:00 PM
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Academy Presents 30th Anniversary Digital Screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark June 17 (UPDATE)

It's hard to believe that I sat in a screening room at Paramount's New York headquarters 30 years ago to watch Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Needless to say, it blew my head off. I made my first trip to the west coast to interview producer George Lucas at his Lucasfilm headquarters in Marin, California, for Film Comment Magazine (the archives don't go back that far, alas). The Lawrence Kasdan/George Lucas/Steven Spielberg original turned into a blockbuster and spawned a franchise. The concept of remaking a 40s adventure serial was novel; so was producing an action-packed period romantic comedy (with 6,000 live reptiles). And Harrison Ford nailed Indiana Jones, needless to say.