Texting and Movies Don't Mix

Apparently industry insiders from Sony, Regal, & IMAX were debating the merit of allowing texting inside movie theaters at a theater conference (CinemaCon) recently.

“…Wait, WHAT?” 

Yep, these insiders are under the belief that if you make the experience of going to a theater WORSE for the average paying customer that it will increase ticket sales.  This is one of the most profoundly dumb ideas that I have ever heard.  If this is the industry’s think-tank inteligencia and “go-to” people then theater owners should start looking for other work as soon as possible. 

This morning I read this article by Jen Yamato from Movieline: http://movieline.com/2012/04/25/are-we-actually-going-to-let-industry-heads-advocate-texting-in-theaters/?_r=true. 

I threw it out to Facebook before I left for work and I started to watch the responses roll in.  The overwhelming 900-pound question on the wall post is, “Why?”  The only answer is that they hope to attract a younger audience.  My fear is that they will only attract self-absorbed, ignoramuses who are only & absolutely concerned with themselves and have no care for anyone else in the movie house.  It’s a greenlight for idiots.       

Here is an article from Ain’t It Cool News’s, Billy Donnelly (aka – Billy the Kid) entitled, “A Movie Theater is No Place for Texting!!” which you can read for yourself here: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/55279.

One of the only dissenting voices came from the Alamo Drafthouse, a legendary small theater chain that understands the concept of story delivery and has a STRICK no texting policy.

God Bless the Alamo Drafthouse.

I’m a movie geek.  I love the concept of going to the theater for the communal joy of a shared spectacle but if this were to come to pass any and all of my reasons for going to the theater would be gone.  To the point, there would be absolutely NO REASON for any of the paying public to ever go to the movies again.  No reason, whatsoever.  It smells of desperation.  The theaters must hold onto the very few remaining reasons why the public would want to patronize their facilities.  If they do not or cannot then they have outlived their purpose.

How’s that for your bottom line?

One more point about those devices that the industry insiders want people to start using in theaters for texting – each of those devices that you are encouraging people to use have digital video recorders. 

Yeah, these people are true masterminds. 

Whiplash Spotted

Rumors in casting from all over the internet the last few months have, ultimately, proven true. AICN had the link that took me to USA Today’s site. Mickey Rourke is going to be Tony Stark’s nemesis in Iron Man II. Check this for your reading pleasure: http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-06-09-ironman2-rourke_N.htm.

This is one movie geek who can’t wait to see the fireworks.

This Mystery Man’s Kung-Fu is Good

Gentle Reader, submitted for your approval: http://mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/. If you have an interest in film and in writing for them then you owe it to yourself to visit this blog, soak in what you read there and check out his Writer’s Resources section. There is a wealth of information to be found here.

I read about his blog while checking out Ain’t It Cool News a few weeks back. Harry had posted something about a long conversation between three filmmakers (Kasdan, Lucas & Spielberg) and how “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was birthed. It is a great read, which can be found here: http://mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/2009/03/raiders-story-conference.html.

I post the Mystery Man’s blog because I think that you just might find something that you read there helpful for YOUR Script Frenzy (http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/). There are some nice little resources out on the net and this blog is a gold mine for anyone who wants to learn the craft of writing for the movies.

April is just 4 days away. 30 Days, 100 Pages, Are YOU in? I am and I wouldn’t mind some company.

The Force is Strong with This One

Earlier in the month I stumbled upon a contest being run by Ain’t It Cool News. It was a writing competition where movie geeks would re-write the duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi from the end of the movie, “Revenge of the Sith”, and submit it in script format by Labor Day. Here’re the gory details: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37975.

“…So you win a statue?”

Yes. It’s actually a Diorama of Obi-Wan and Anakin dueling from “Revenge of the Sith” produced by Sideshow Collectables. But what’s even better is that you get to write a scene from Star Wars that someone (Quint) judged to be better than George Lucas’s final draft. Now there are some geek bragging rights for ya.

Well tonight, with Mother Hen’s assistance, I just e-mailed my PDF file to Quint. I will spare you the chore of reading the entry. Rest assured if you are not a Star Wars geek, you just wouldn’t want to read it anyway. Quint (one of the reviewers from AICN) is going to have a lot of reading ahead of him these next few weeks.

Oh well, it was fun and, for the most part, it keeps me off of the streets.

I’ll let you know what happens.