Movie Industry

The plot of the new "South Park" movie seems torn from today's headlines: Young kids sneak into an R-rated movie and become so entranced by the four-letter words they hear on screen that they can't stop using them. Their parents and eventually the government are so outraged that they take drastic action--everything from implanting a V-chip in a child to declaring war.

Orders are orders Re "Marine who criticized Obama to be discharged," April 26 When I entered basic training, my drill instructor opened the proceedings with the ever-famous words, "Your soul may belong to God, but your [expletive] belongs to me!" I was quickly taught that officers were to be saluted and that orders were to be obeyed. We knew that by taking our oath, we had given up certain rights, including my right to tell my sergeant where I thought his order should be deposited, much less an order from the commander in chief.

THIS is a tale of two scripts, one that sold for a ton of money, one that remains twisting in the wind. Both are beautifully written, but in Hollywood, while scripts are prized for great writing, they must also give a studio chief enough ammunition to comfortably answer the question: If I spend $100 million on this, will I be bankrolling a big hit, not a colossal failure?

BEIJING — The second annual Beijing International Film Festival opens Monday amid a film industry boom in China. Box-office revenue totaled more than $2 billion for the first time in 2011. And in the quarter just ended China overtook Japan to become the largest foreign market for American films, thanks in part to continued movie theater expansion. The number of screens doubled in five years to 10,700 at the end of last year. That number is expected to rise to 13,000 by the end of 2012, according to the Motion Picture Assn.

This city in the foothills of the Rockies has scenery more diverse than most Hollywood back lots: A 19th century castle, a Spanish colonial plaza and miles of prairie and mountains. That landscape -- along with New Mexico's generous film incentives -- has lured more than a dozen movie productions here in the last decade. The filming has brought in a surge of money, but it has also brought tension.

All the holiday cheer in the world couldn't dispel the sense of gloom, and occasional doom, that filled Hollywood after a woeful year of flops ("The Island," "Stealth"), disappointments ("Cinderella Man," "Hustle & Flow") and confusion (Why can't A-list actresses open movies anymore?). Almost everywhere you looked, uncertainty reigned. Attendance and box-office receipts were down more than 5%. Disney's movie studio recorded a quarterly loss of $313 million.

Last week, news of Jared Paul Stern's Page Six payola scandal rippled through New York's media circles with all the force of an 800-pound bomb. The story has all the stranger-than-fiction twists you could ask for: media figures accused of Mafia-like strong-arm tactics, boldfaced names in compromising positions -- and at its core is a terrific Los Angeles story, hinging on a Southland billionaire and with tantalizing implications about the entertainment industry's backroom dealings.

Karen Higgins Construction coordinator Credits: Currently working on the comedy "Brothers Solomon"; just wrapped "Nancy Drew." Other films include "Anger Management," "50 First Dates" and "Good Night, and Good Luck." Job description: "The short definition is that I am head of the construction department, and the construction department is basically responsible for building the sets for a film or for TV or for commercials -- I do primarily film.

The price of making a movie soared dramatically last year, with the average major studio production costing nearly $59 million, a 23% increase from 2001, the Motion Picture Assn. of America announced Tuesday. It was the biggest percentage increase since 1997 and a little more than double the $29 million of 10 years ago.

The crescent moon of the railway track divides the slum, a metal slash in the tumble of rusted tin roofs, stinking channels of sewage and narrow paths where children play with toys made of scraps of wire and rubbish. A band of youths hangs about on the track, perhaps slum hoods and their girls. Closer, you make out the boy among them. He looks tense, surrounded. Closer still: He wipes his hands over his face, as if washing off anxiety. One of the bigger youths totes a grubby supermarket bag. Gently, as if lifting out a loaded gun, Victor Onuoch produces a video camera.

This year's Oscar nominees for cinematography present a particularly varied cross-section of contemporary filmmaking at a time when the very infrastructure of how movies are made and seen is in transition. Consider: 35-millimeter film prints are being phased out in favor of digital projection. Consumer still cameras can be used to shoot high-definition digital video. Video on demand is becoming a popular viewing option. Even the venerable Eastman Kodak, which produces the film stock on which many movies are made, recently filed for bankruptcy protection.

Two leaders, divided Re "Bibi and Barack," Opinion, Jan. 2 Aaron David Miller omits one factor in his analysis: that President Obama's one-sided pressure on Israel has only hardened Palestinian positions. Settlements have never been the core issue of the conflict. If there were none, the Palestinian leadership would quickly find a new pretext for confrontation. The bottom line remains Arab refusal to accept a permanent Jewish homeland behind any boundaries. Nowhere is the Palestinians' refusal to compromise clearer than on the refugee issue.

Americans bought 50 million fewer movie tickets in 2011 than the year before, continuing a downward slide for Hollywood that began in 2003. The anemic ticket sales — the lowest total in 16 years — more than offset yet another increase in average ticket prices, causing box-office revenue to fall for the second consecutive year. The numbers have some industry watchers wringing their hands, but they're not a portent of doom for the film industry. They're just a sign that movie fans have adapted to new technologies faster than the studios have.

As the fall season's first wave of film awards and nominations roll in, the Oscar picture continues to be a murky mass of contenders and question marks. On Tuesday, "The Artist," a black-and-white silent film from the French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius, picked up momentum with top prizes from the New York Film Critics Circle and five nominations for the Los Angeles-based Spirit Awards, which honor independent movies. The accolades established "The Artist," a Weinstein Co. release about a silent film star who fades with the advent of the talkies, as the closest thing to a front-runner in this chaotic season.

Lions Gate Entertainment and Summit Entertainment are back in merger talks that would combine two of Hollywood's largest independent studios, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations who are not authorized to speak publicly. Should a deal be consummated, it would bring together one of the movie industry's most successful young adult franchises, Summit's "Twilight," with one of the most highly anticipated new series, "The Hunger Games," from Lions Gate. The two companies, headquartered around the block from each other in Santa Monica, have held on-and-off merger talks since late 2008 but were unable to resolve key issues of price and management control.

Classical composers don't generally attract hordes of screaming fans. But when Eric Whitacre appears at a convention, concert hall or college campus, groupies have been known to line up around the block hours in advance for the chance to meet the man with the flowing locks. With his latest album, "Light & Gold," debuting at No. 1 on the classical charts on both sides of the Atlantic, an enormous global following and a modeling contract to his name, Whitacre is arguably the first bona fide rock star to have emerged from the decidedly unglamorous field of contemporary choral music.

Remember those old rock concert posters you hung on your bedroom wall after yanking them off a telephone pole? If you can still find one--maybe under a dusty pile in the garage--you may have unearthed a gem that could help pay for your child's college education. Vintage concert and record company promotional posters are now fetching big bucks from collectors, who reportedly are paying upward of $10,000 for the rarest items.

Tears were welling up in Julie Garfield's eyes and her voice was wavering as she introduced the moving new Turner Classic Movies documentary about her legendary father, John Garfield, at a screening last week at Warner Bros.' studio. It was fitting that "The John Garfield Story" had its West Coast premiere at the Burbank studio because Garfield was one of Warner's biggest stars during the late 1930s and the '40s. Garfield was also one of cinema's most influential actors.

Two of the brains behind the sights and sounds of the new film "Super 8" — writer-director J.J. Abrams and composer Michael Giacchino — will discuss the movie industry and their work together. The two have previously collaborated on such films as "Mission: Impossible III" and "Star Trek" and such TV shows as "Lost" and "Fringe. " Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 3 p.m. Sun. Free. (310) 443-7000. http://www.hammer.ucla.edu

A bit of the old Jack Valenti pizazz is back at Hollywood's outpost in the nation's capital, thanks to a new silver-haired frontman. More than six years after the legendary lobbyist stepped down, the Motion Picture Assn. of America is reviving his tried-and-true methods of tapping entertainment industry glitz to help the major movie studios make their case to Washington's power brokers. The strategy was on display the night before the recent White House Correspondents Assn.