Screen

Des Partridge, the longtime cinema critic for The Courier-Mail, supports the cause to Save the Regent. Here's some audio of him telling 4KQ's breakfast team of Laurel, Gary and Mark how this last-of-a-kind venue will be lost barring a last-minute change of heart by the State Government.
Update: I had my say on the Regent in this segment with Spencer Howson. It's towards the end after the usual (hopefully) entertaining fluff.

A cinema-going friend writes:

I just bought tickets on line for Gold Class and had to fork out $1 each for the glasses (or I could bring my own). What am I going to do - bring some cardboard ones I have lying around the house or put some green and red cellophane together?

I suppose it will only be a matter of time before we all do have our own 3D cinema glasses. Until the fad wears off (again), of course.
PS: Live theatre is always in 3D - and you don't need special glasses.

After an interview with Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies and Founder and Curator of The Cinema Archives at Wesleyan University, the Daily Beast's Jacob Bernstein has come up with a list of 10 ways to win an Academy Award. They include:
+ Speak with a funny accent;
+ Play a famous person;
+ Get fat/ go ugly (by, for example, donning a plastic nose);
+ Play the piano;
+ Die ("either beautifully or horribly".)
Oh, and with the notable exception of Jimmy Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy, singing and dancing won't win you a gong.
More here.

January 14 will see the Australian premiere of Bran Nue Dae, the movie. The Brisbane opening of the stage musical on which it is based remains one of my favourite nights in the theatre, and if the film - starring Rocky McKenzie, Jessica Mauboy, Ernie Dingo and Geoffrey Rush -- goes any way towards recapturing that magic, it will be brilliant. Here's the trailer.

The Making of the Avatar Bootleg. The title doesn't quite say it all.

A film from a board game? Yes, apparently Alien and Gladiator director Ridley Scott is preparing to add Monopoly to his CV. The LA Times notes that it's not so crazy. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was, after all, inspired by a theme-park ride. One character in the movie will be the top-hatted little capitalist known as Rich Uncle Pennybags or Mr Monopoly. I hope his recent nemesis, The Simpsons' Monty Burns, will also make an appearance.

Psssst. Fancy attending a "Generic Wizard Night"? Well, get in contact with Ms Marmite Lover at the Underground Restaurant, a "pop-up" establishment in a West London home, where the menu was originally inspired by the Harry Potter books and films. Diners were to have ventured down Diagon Alley (the side of the house) to enjoy dandelion wine, pumpkin soup and mint humbugs. But Ms Lover received a letter from Warner Bros telling her how delighted they were that she loved Harry Potter but to hold such a themed event would be an infringement of copyright. Thus the name change. More here.

Congratulations to the winners of the Deadly Awards for indigenous Australians, including singer Jessica Mauboy, actors Leah Purcell and Luke Carroll, and musicians Gurrumul Yunupingu and the Saltwater Band. There's more here.

I use them on this site, but I often scratch my head about the placement of Google ads. I was searching imdb.com today for Laurence Olivier, and the sponsored link was:

"I haven't seen it myself, nor shall I ..." So writes Christopher Hart in this Daily Mail story about the British decsion to allow screenings of the Lars von Trier film Antichrist. Despite this, and after calling himself a "broad-minded arts critic", Hart goes on to demolish a film he's only read about and call for it to be banned outright rather than given an 18 rating. Well, I'm sorry Christopher, just reading about it isn't good enough. Before you can have a valid opinion, you're going to have to actually see it - especially since it's your job to do so.
Update: On reflection, if only I'd known about this scam when I was reviewing plays, films and TV shows years ago ... It would have made life a lot of easier (but I probably wouldn't have been able to sleep at night).
Update: Mail Watch demolishes Hart's story here.

Is another great Queensland brand about to disappear? Birch Carroll and Coyle cinemas now have signage calling themselves "Event Cinemas". What's going on?

I was surprised to see that the fourth most popular entertainment story on news.com.au today concerns film star Patrick Swayze saying goodbye to his family "as his cancer spreads". The story is dated November 28, 2008 - more than seven months ago - and, as far as I know, Swayze is still with us. I hope he lives to see the story get older and older and older. But why is it that this item remains in the top 10? Presumably, Google keeps delivering readers who think it is current news.