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Posts published in “Entertainment Talk”

Just cut it

An NBC Universal memo that Zucker sent yesterday told the NBC employees that $500 million out of the budget is going to get cut next year.
Interestingly, NBC Uni’s profit grew by 10% this year.
CBS is also making cuts in its staff it seems.

Most of the NBC $500 million slash will be cuts in “staffing costs” (read job loss), although expect diminution in “promotional expenses” and other entertainment spending, ergo less money in the long run for TV production.

Is the economical crisis forcing “idea number 5” on the networks?

Television being primarily a business, Writers and other artists have their art dictated by their means, especially in the TV business.
Less money might mean more down-to-Earth/dialoguey shows…

In other media:
Fortunately for my depressive readers, I won’t be talking about this week’s B.O.
Max Payne numero uno and Chihuahua still on the loose.
CANNOT COMPUTE.

Crazy whorish money

Did you click because of the title?

Unfortunately for you, there ain’t no hos here dog.

But rest assured that this week, the madness never ends.
And that’s 2 crazies this week if you’re keeping tabs.

Let’s continue.

Remember that Argonaut Version 9.0 I was talking about yesterday?
Well the guys over at WB are making their own kind of Greek mythology adaptation.

Remember Troy?
I hope you don’t.

Yesterday was announced that Brad Pitt was going to star in another Homer adaptation, directed by George Miller (Mad Max).
This will be an all new take on Homer’s The Odyssey.
And by new, I mean futuristic.
Literally.
They are planning to take the story far into S-F territory.
God no.

Halfway around the world, Canal Plus is going to do, after their “Brit Week” earlier this year, an “American Week”.
And guess when.
The first week of November (election anyone?).
The week will be full of docs around the U.S., including one on H-Wood, with Antoine de Caunnes’ “Allez a LA!”, among others.
Also during the week will be showings of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
Not to mention that C+ inked a deal earlier this week with… Dan Rather.
Yes.

Is C+ pimping itself out to get deals?

Meanwhile, I have news for you, Mad Men speccer.
Rest assured that your smooth spec is staying alive for a while. A third season is already optioned by AMC.
Although talks are still taking place between Lionsgate and Weiner…
Money money money.

Oh, and Sarah Palin is indeed guesting this Saturday on SNL.
Sad.

But hey, it’s the week-end.
Hooray!

Mad MIP

Mad Men is for drama what The Office is for comedy: the show everyone is speccing right now.
I’m probably the only one out there not really interested in speccing a Mad Men but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the show itself, far from it.
Actually I found out a couple of articles that could interest people currently “researching” so to speak around the ad business.
One of them is an interview conducted by Wired with Benjamin Palmer, who is the co-founder and CEO of an award-winning interactive marketing agency (The Barbarian Group). In this interview, Palmer discusses “the show’s realism and relevance to the advertising industry today”.

Wired.com: Things aren’t going so well with Betty. Is Don Draper’s life bound to fall apart?
Palmer: The failure for him is when the nobility of commerce goes away. Back then, it was noble to own things. When you saved up enough to get a car, it meant something. It was part of the machine of American progress.
Wired.com: So he’s doomed to fail?
Palmer: Yup. His kind will go away. He’s going to become extinct. His brand of person doesn’t exist anymore.

It could be an interesting idea to deal with Draper and Sterling Cooper with a more “contemporary” look at things, but what do I know.

Anyway, other interesting articles I found around Mad Men were mainly article written by “real” ad men, like those two. Pretty interesting stuff if you ask me.

Also, don’t forget that Monday begins over in Cannes the annual MIPCOM and MIPTV, which is the place of business regarding trends in television and new media (especially this year where we have YouTube and Tudou people over there).
For the people who don’t know what the hell just is this MIPthingy, Wikipedia says it all:

It is essentially a content event for co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing entertainment content. It provides the people involved in the TV, film, digital and audiovisual content, production and distribution industry a market conference and networking forum to discover future trends and trade content rights on a global level.

The Hollywood Reporter usually has good reports of what happens there if you’re interested, which you should be if you intend to work in the industry.