In this morning’s roundup of movie news ‘n’ notes from around the web, two festivals kick off, and the company with the highest batting average in Hollywood goes for sequels.
With “Toy Story 3” out on Friday, Claudia Eller and Dawn Chmielewski consider the fact that Pixar, which had made only one sequel in its first nine films, is now releasing three in two years: “TS3,” then follow-ups to “Cars” and “Monsters, Inc.” The move, they say, proves that Pixar – the clear gold standard for quality not just in animation, but in filmmaking in general – “is [no] longer immune from the economic laws of the entertainment marketplace.” The implication is that parent company Disney is behind the move, though nobody from Pixar actually says that – or anything else, for that matter. (Los Angeles Times)
Leonard Klady looks at the L.A. Film Festival, and essentially echoes Mick Jagger: you can’t always get what you want, but LAFF “is giving the city the festival it needs.” He’s divided on the wisdom of moving the fest downtown, calls the lineup “pretty impressive,” and seems to think that the event is getting close to its goal of assembling a “world class film festival.” But getting all the way there, he thinks, is really, really hard. (Movie City News)
Several thousand miles east of downtown L.A., another film festival kicked off this week. Peter Knegt reports on the Edinburgh International Film Festival, whose opening night attraction was Sylvain Chomet’s animated Jacques Tati homage, “The Illusionist.” Edinburgh’s artistic director, Hannah McGill, says the fest is trying “to focus more on discovery and new filmmakers.” She also says she thinks people “are getting burned out on celebrity culture.” I think she’s talking about people in Scotland, because I don’t see much evidence of that in these parts. (indieWIRE)
“The Cove” may have found another way to be seen in the country where it was shot after its Japanese distributor cancelled screenings because of possible protests. Jenni Miller reports that the film will be available for free on the Nico Nico Douga video-sharing website, at least to the first 2,000 viewers. Details are sketchy, but it does appear that the Oscar-winning documentary will have a little more exposure in a country where certain interests have worked very hard to suppress it. (Cinematical)
Stop the presses: The summer movies aren’t going to get any Oscar nominations! So says Gregg Kilday, who surveys the landscape as we near the halfway point of 2010 and decides that “Robin Hood,” “Iron Man 2,” “Sex and the City 2” and “The A-Team” won’t be Oscar contenders. In equally surprising news, “Jersey Shore” will not win any Emmys this year. (The Hollywood Reporter)
