In December 2009, Bennett Miller was hired to direct the film,[15] with the casting of Jonah Hill, who was replacing Martin as DePodesta, announced in March 2010.[16] Upon his request as he felt the script no longer accurately depicted him, DePodesta's name was removed, with Hill now playing the role of Peter Brand.[17] Aaron Sorkin was brought on to provide a rewrite of the screenplay. Pascal had specifically sought out Sorkin's involvement, in addition to Pitt joining as a producer, and bringing producer Scott Rudin on board as executive producer. Sorkin agreed on the condition Zaillian gave his blessing. Sorkin and Zaillian eventually worked on different drafts of the script independently of one another.[18][19] Miller took three weeks to agree to do the film, and stated he wasn't interested in making a traditional sports film, seeking instead to make it "subversive to the genre. It's not really a conventional sports movie. It puts all that stuff on its head".[20] Cinematographer Adam Kimmel was initially set to work on the film, but due to his April 2010 arrest for sexual assault, was replaced by Wally Pfister.[21][22] In May, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Wright entered negotiations to join the cast, with Hoffman portraying Howe, and Wright as Beane's ex-wife.[23] Chris Pratt, Stephen Bishop and Kathryn Morris were added to the cast in July, though Morris's scenes were cut.[24][25] Pratt described how he initially was told in his first audition for the role of Hatteberg that he was "too fat". He took three months to work out and shed 30 pounds, which led to him winning the role.[26] Bishop, portraying Justice in the film, had grown up idolizing the player, and played baseball for the advanced A affiliate team of the Atlanta Braves at the time Justice was on their roster.[27]
Yesterday, Apple announced that shortly they will start selling HD quality movies for download from the iTunes store. While it sounds like a great idea, the business model is completely flawed and clearly the movie studios are living in a bubble. As I have mentioned in the past, how on earth can the studios continue to charge more for a digital download than a physical DVD?
Unfair: The Movie 720p
With digital downloads, studios don't have to pay to produce the DVD or any of the packaging. The bandwidth cost to download a two hour movie costs pennies and online promotion of digital content is a lot less expensive than other forms of marketing. Yet even with all those savings, the studios charge more for digital downloads. While one could say this is an iTunes issue, it's not. Looking at CinemaNow or any of the other online movie services and you'll see that digital movies cost between $3-$5 more than buying the actual DVD.
A bit of an unpopular selection here. But this movie did good work as a reboot because it's actually a new film. It didn't try to compete with the same elements that made Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies great (Raimi did only make two Spider-Man movies, right?). I also like it coming out in the same summer as the two most anticipated super hero movies of all time. While we get to watch Batman fight to shape the world to his ideals, we get to see Spider-Man's ideals being shaped by how he fights his world. Peter Parker's a kid who's acting like an ignorant, self-centered jerk for most of the film. That's a good point for a first movie about a character who becomes the moral conscience of the Marvel universe. "Put the mask on. It will make you strong." It's a successful foundation.
Yep, a third super hero movie. I think we all knew that The Joker would have the last laugh, and he did. This might have been the worst of the Nolan trilogy, but that's like getting a bronze medal when Usain Bolt's in the race. Not bad. Was it long? Like a John Galt monologue. Was there anything missing? Yes, most notably a Rocky Balboa-esque training scene before the second Batman vs. Bane clash. (I'm sure it was tough for Nolan to leave that out.) But the movie tied up the loose ends. Nolan and Bale weren't going to do this forever. It was satisfactory, and when expectations are this high, that's a pretty good blockbuster.
There are not many bankable actors in Hollywood, the kind of guys that you can trust to not star in a crappy movie. Somehow Mark Wahlberg has snuck into this safety zone of managed expectations. Am I buying a Will Smith or a Leonardo DiCaprio level of entertainment? No. Am I going to feel like I wasted my money? No. Wahlberg is like the Domino's Pizza of movie actors. Without much competition, Ted became the best comedy of the summer. Who knew?
I think one can make a case for Tom Cruise being the greatest movie star of my lifetime, which is different than saying greats actor. He brings it every single time. Too bad he's the only one who brought it in this flop. It reminds me of when Kobe Bryant's best teammates were Smush Parker and Brian Cook. I think hating Tom Cruise enough to watch him suffer through a bad movie might be the only reason to see Rock of Ages.
Based on my experience with the Surface with Windows RT tablet, I have no doubt that the hardware will be excellent. With a weight of two pounds and a thickness of just over half an inch, the Pro tablet is a bit heavier and thicker than the RT tablet, but still light and slim by Windows tablet standards. The display measures the same 10.6 inches diagonally, but has full 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution compared to the 1366 x 768 pixel of the RT tablet. That's the difference between 1080p and 720p in HDTV speak. There's a USB 3.0 port and a mini DisplayPort jack. Under the hood sits a 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 processor as opposed to the nVidia Tegra 3 ARM chip in the RT model. And both RAM and storage are twice of what the RT tablet has. All that certainly makes for an attractive tablet.
First, I find the live tiles annoying. I find all the constant moving on the screen distracting, and in corporate environments it's certainly a constant distraction, with people getting sidetracked into consuming information. Let me make the decision what I want to do next, rather than have a screen full of tiles vying for my attention like a wall of alive pictures in a Harry Potter movie. 2ff7e9595c
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