Why does the Hollywood Reporter say this as though it’s a bad thing…?

Sticking to its simplistic, patriotic origins, where a muscular red, white and blue GI slugging Adolf Hitler in the jaw is all that’s required, Captain America trafficks in red-blooded heroes, dastardly villains, classy dames and war-weary military officers.

With the MSM , patriotism is always “simplistic” and/or “jingoistic.” You never read reviews that say, “simplistically angsty” or “simplistically brooding” or “simplistically dark.”

Yesterday in the comments, someone quoted someone who said something the effect of “angst is much easier to write than nobility.” And this is very, very true. The same is true with sincerity over irony and inspirational over nihilism.

This approach to patriotism is all a lie, a ploy from the Left to turn what really is simplistic and lazy (nihilism, angst, irreverence, irony) into “art,” when just the opposite is true. What the Left despises about themes that lift the human spirit is that they’re more often than not, conservative themes — themes of self-sacrifice, selflessness, fidelity, manhood, bravery, and nobility. Whereas darker, simpler themes or a complete lack of theme, appeals to the all-about-me, chaotic narcissism that so defines the Left.  

Mock everything + respect nothing = A Leftist

It’s just a fact that not coming off as corny when you want to inspire and appeal to the better nature of the human spirit through sincerity, is extremely difficult and requires real skill in the departments of writing, acting and directing. All this angsty brooding, however, requires little skill and no courage of any kind to attempt.

The same goes for patriotism. You can certainly overdo love of country in a way that makes your audience cringe. But to pull it off in a way that inspires and works takes no small amount of talent. On the other hand, irreverence towards the flag  requires no skill whatsoever.

As an actor or writer, which do you think would be most difficult to pull off successfully: A moment where your character throws out a mocking salute towards the American flag or a moment where your character stops and salutes the flag with complete sincerity.

There’s no doubt in my mind which one of those moments is the most “simplistic.”

I’m hearing good things from people I trust about “Captain America.” More to come on this…

Watch the trailer:

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The one-hour drama is called Courage, New Hampshire, and it premiers Sunday at a movie theater in Monrovia, Calif. Co-hosting the red carpet activities are Saturday Night Live alumna Victoria Jackson and radio personality Tony Katz, both of whom regularly speak at Tea Party rallies.

Courage has the pacing and feel of a soap opera, though its set in Colonial America. While its creators are making it as a TV show, there’s no distribution partner, so it’s going straight to DVD after the premiere. The company, Colony Bay, is also trying to strike deals with conservative online TV outlets, like Glenn Beck’s GBTV and Kelsey Grammer’s Right Network, and are seeking a television VOD partner.

Colony Bay was founded by James Patrick Riley and Jonathan Wilson, who started in Hollywood as an assistant in ICM’s motion picture literary department and became director of development for Peter Hyams, working on films like End of Days with Arnold Schwarzenegger. They met when Wilson was forming the Pasadena chapter of Tea Partiers and he recruited Riley, an experienced Patrick Henry impersonator, to perform at an event.

Tickets for the June 26th premier are already sold out; however you can pre-order the DVD to fund the growing conservative militia in Hollywood.

In clips that will hit the Internet to promote a new book, producers including “Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman and “House” creator David Shore say Hollywood discriminates against and belittles conservatives.

Some of TV’s top executives from the past four decades may have gotten more than they bargained for when they agreed to be interviewed for a politically charged book that was released Tuesday, because video of their controversial remarks will soon be hitting the Internet.

The book makes the case that TV industry executives, writers and producers use their clout to advance a liberal political agenda. The author bases his thesis on, among other things, 39 taped interviews that he’ll roll out piecemeal during the next three weeks.

The Hollywood Reporter obtained several of the not-yet-released clips, embedded below. Each contains a snippet of an interview, usually some historical footage of the TV shows the interviewee was responsible for and, naturally, a plea to purchase the book, “Primetime Propaganda” by Ben Shapiro and published by Broad Side, an imprint of HarperCollins.

In one video, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman says that when she cast Candace Gingrich-Jones, half-sister of Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as the minister of a lesbian wedding, “There was a bit of ‘fuck you’ in it to the right wing.”

Kauffman also acknowledges she “put together a staff of mostly liberal people,” which is another major point of Shapiro’s book: that conservatives aren’t welcome in Hollywood.

Maybe that’s because they’re “idiots” and have “medieval minds.” At least that’s what Soap and Golden Girls creator Susan Harris thinks of TV’s conservative critics.

Must-read piece here.

Despite its “awful” marketing plan, as one distribution exec calls it, the movie earned a $5,640 per-theater average opening: “Things have turned for us,” producer Harmon Kaslow tells THR.

The power of Ayn Rand devotees have impressed some Hollywood distribution executives, who took note of the hefty $5,640 per-theater average scored by Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 during its opening weekend.

‘Atlas Shrugged’: First Movie to Target the Tea Party Atlas Shrugged Review”Shocking,” one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing considering its “awful” marketing plan.

Awful or not, business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro to expand from 299 theaters to 425 this weekend and to 1,000 by the end of the month, they told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.

The two said they fielded 500 inquiries from theater bookers Monday but didn’t have enough film prints to fill orders.

“Things have turned for us,” Kaslow said. “When we started, exhibitors were not embracing the film like we thought they would. Now, we can pretty much go into as many theaters as we want. It’s just a matter of logistics.”

Kaslow has turned to Deluxe to crank out more prints because “initially we didn’t order more than we needed, so we’re behind the 8-ball.”

Kaslow and Aglialoro stood by their marketing campaign, which relied heavily on using the Internet to drum up support among members of the Tea Party, Libertarians and other Rand enthusiasts.

Read the full article here.

Hollywood Reporter:

Narrowing the theatrical window, four Hollywood studios and DirecTV will launch a pricey premium VOD service at the end of April, followed swiftly by Comcast and VUDU. Consumers will be able to see a movie 60 days after its release in theaters.

The move is sure to irk exhibitors, and comes just as studios and theater owners are in Las Vegas for CinemaCon.

Warner Bros., Fox, Sony and Universal are all on board, according to insiders. The movies will be available for 48 hours for $29.99. The first titles to be offered are likely Sony’s Just Go With It, Fox’s Cedar Rapids and Warner Bros.’ Unknown.

Fox Searchlight titles will be offered 60 days from the date that they go wide.

More here.

As it stands now, the price of purchasing a digital copy of a film from, say, Amazon (that you have to store on your own hard-drive), is practically the same price as a new hard copy, double the price if you’re willing to wait a month to purchase the previously-viewed hard copy and triple the price of waiting  six months to purchase it out of a bin at Walmart. With Obama determined to tank the economy, people are thinking these kinds of purchase-points through today. There’s also the sad fact that movies themselves just aren’t as good as they once were. Regardless, Hollywood finally appears to have figured out that this digital business model isn’t attracting enough customers and is now developing an idea that sounds somewhat promising. See if you agree.

They call it UltraViolet, and a number of heavy-hitters, including Netflix and Microsoft, are teaming up to bring it to fruition this year (what a time we live in):

[S]tudios are also terrified of the trend toward renting streaming media rather than purchasing it. Consumers wonder why they should buy digital movies for what they’d pay for a physical DVD that is loaded with extras. To sweeten the digital deal, Sony has introduced some enhancements: a search function that uses facial recognition and speech-to-text software; Clip & Share, allowing viewers to share clips on Facebook and Twitter; and an interactive music playlist that links to movie scenes and the iTunes Store.

“We are trying to take advantage of the digital platform to provide an enhanced experience,” says Rich Berger, SPHE senior vp digital. “We think this makes it more collectible.”

Beyond sale-enhancement experiments, what the studios are looking toward is UltraViolet, a service launching this year. You buy a movie digitally, and it is stored in a locker that resides in the so-called “cloud.” It could replace DVDs as thoroughly as music downloads have replaced CDs.

UV is being built by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, a consortium of more than 60 leading companies. DECE’s members include most major studios, LG, Samsung, Microsoft, Best Buy and even Netflix.

UV’s key is in making the purchase and storage of digital media as easy as buying a DVD and throwing it on a shelf — no complicated rules and access to your library wherever there’s an Internet connection. Down the road studios should even be able to blast updated digital extras to movies that are stored in the cloud so they can make the claim that the cloud doesn’t diminish the value of your collection, it enhances it.

One challenge for UV: Disney and Apple’s iTunes have not signed on. But if UV can persuade movie lovers to purchase some of their favorite films digitally rather than merely rent them, studios can worry a lot less about a DVD industry that has been shrinking for four consecutive years.

Other than saving shelf space, I’m not entirely sure of what the advantages are to purchasing a digital copy unless it’s a whole lot cheaper. I like the hard copies and I don’t think I’m alone. There’s something about gazing at that wall of treasures that’s immensely satisfying. The comparison to iTunes or digital music in general isn’t a perfect one, either. One of the reasons digital music downloads are so appealing is that you can buy one song at a time as opposed to paying for an entire album, which is usually packed with cuts you’ll never listen to. There’s also the convenience of being able to take your music collection with you on a device smaller than a credit card. We don’t watch movies the same way we listen to music. At least not yet.

Essentially, if you want to boil it all down to a Hollywood logline, UltraViolet sounds a lot like iTunes but with film and television episodes. The stakes with UltraViolet are enormous, as well. Unless Hollywood can figure out a way to get us to buy movies again their entire business model is going to have to change. Movies very rarely achieve profitability at the box office. DVD sales have been what takes them over the top and the industry has operated for years as though this is just a given. We’re already seeing the consequences of that no longer being a given in the form of fewer films being released and a 7 month summer season packed with sequels, remakes, and franchises. But everyone know the public is growing weary of films directed only at teenage boys (who are no longer predictable ticket-buyers, either) and then what does Hollywood do?

I suggest you read the whole article, though. What I focused on is actually an afterthought to look at how Netflix is increasingly under fire — in a good capitalist way — now that others are jumping onto the streaming bandwagon. The Big Question is no longer Is streaming is the future?, the question is whether or not people will be willing to subscribe to multiple streaming services. Like HBO, Showtime and Starz operate now, if we as consumers want access to everything streaming online, it appears as though we’re going to have to pay more than one provider.

Let me close by making a political point: Look at the marvel of electronic and digital technology today; look at what happens when government gets out of the what and lets the innovator’s innovate and the competition compete. Not only has the product improved exponentially in my lifetime (I remember when my family bought our first color TV), it’s also so affordable that almost everyone has a hi-def television with surround-sound and a Netflix subscription.

Imagine if this innovation and competition was allowed to be unleashed in public education and health care. There’s no reason to be believe the results wouldn’t be similar and yet we keep pushing those vital and necessary services in the exact opposite direction.

The irony of this, of course, is that the situation is now reversed. The only thing today’s Hollywood Left learned from the original blacklist was how to blacklist better. They leave no fingerprints today. There’s nothing official, there’s no list, so there’s no way for anyone to get caught. At the very least, The Hollywood Ten understood what had happened to them. There was a list, they were on it, and so they could work around it with the use of pseudonyms until the storm passed. Today’s Hollywood Blacklisters are shrewder and much more insidious. Their blacklist is an unspoken social one. There’s nothing official to tell you why the phone stops ringing.

The worst part is that those on this awful list aren’t even looked at as victims (not that they want to be). As we’ve documented ad nauseum, the entertainment media is a willing participant in the blacklisting of those who don’t conform to their political beliefs. Anyone who dares mention that it might not be the best career move to take the other side of a Global Warming debate in a production meeting or by the craft services table, is immediately pounced upon as a talentless, hasbeen, paranoid whiner by no less than Patrick Goldstein at the L.A. Times, among others.

A best, a news media that is normally desperate to root out and report on all forms of discrimination, wilfully ignores testimony after testimony coming from those who claim a new blacklist has formed in Hollywood. At worst, the same media plays whack-a-mole on behalf of their Hollywood Masters by making whistleblowers pay a price for daring to speak out. They’re met with ridicule, derision, and calculated, pre-written hoots of disbelief. Except….

Over the weekend, there was a notable exception. Writing for the Hollywood Reporter, Paul Bond let two respected, veterans — Clint Howard and Morgan Brittany– have their unflitered say:

It ain’t easy being a Republican in Hollywood, even if your brother is an A-list director and producer. That’s what actor Clint Howard told attendees at a California GOP convention over the weekend.

Howard, an actor since 1961 and the younger brother of filmmaker Ron Howard, said that while he is comfortable speaking publicly about his conservatism, his advice to Republicans looking to break into the industry is to keep their political opinions to themselves, even though Hollywood liberals seldom do.

About five years ago “I came out of the closet. In Hollywood. I certainly understand that’s dangerous,” he said.

“If the entertainment industry should turn on me, I’d say, ‘well fine.’ But for young conservatives, you may hear me speak out but let me tell you: Be careful,” he said.

Howard was joined by Morgan Brittany, one of the stars of the 1980s nighttime soap opera Dallas. The pair have more than 100 years of acting experience between them (Brittany’s first job was as a child in the late 1950s), and they’ve noted a leftward slide in the industry and an intolerance for political dissent over the decades.

“I’d go out on location with the Dallas crew,” she told members of the California Congress of Republicans in Valencia on Saturday. “Everybody in the van was bashing (President Reagan). I never said anything because I thought I’d lose my job. And I probably would have lost my job. I got to a point later on, after Dallas was over and I had my two children, that I said, ‘enough is enough. I’m not going to be silent any longer’,” she said.

“If I’m silent then I’m enabling these people and I’m letting them win. They need to know that we’re out there. That we’re strong and that we have ideas and solutions.

The reaction to her newfound political courage back then wasn’t pretty.

“Oh man, the flack I took from the people, the agencies — ‘oh, you can’t say that. You can’t do that. Casting people might see you. And directors!’”

You’re going to want to read the whole thing, especially the part about how warm and cuddly Ed Asner isn’t.

Kudos to Bond and THR for telling the story, but most especially to Howard and Brittany for speaking out. Hardcore Hollywood Leftists will never change but good-hearted liberals need to hear these stories and Hollywood conservatives need to know they’re not alone. This reign of ideological totalitarianism in Hollywood is and will come to an end. More and more, you have the likes of Clint Howard and Morgan Brittany exposing what’s happening and setting the example that the answer is to fight this intolerance, not to roll over and wait for reparations.

Let the Left play the victim. As Paul Haggis showed us, that’s what they do best, even when they hold all the cards.

P.S. My challenge to those in the media who pride themselves as moral crusaders against prejudice and injustice still stands. For those of you more interested in actual reporting as opposed to protecting the Leftist narrative, take it away.

Liam Neeson, who voices Aslan, the resurrected lion in the upcoming film. The actor told the Telegraph in London that his character doesn’t necessarily represent Christ. That might be news to Lewis, though, who wrote the opposite before he died in 1963.

Gaia, is that you…?

“Aslan symbolizes a Christlike figure, but he also symbolizes for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries,” Neeson said.

The comment got some passionate bloggers working overtime to rebut Neeson’s analysis by using Lewis’ own words.

“The whole Narnian story is about Christ,” Lewis once wrote. He said he “pictured him becoming a lion” because it’s the king of beasts and because Christ is called “The Lion of Judah” in the Bible.

Aslan, wrote Lewis, “is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question: ‘What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia?’”

Money quote a-coming:

But Dawn Treader producer Mark Johnson agrees with the, shall we say, more inclusive analysis from [Liam] Neeson, telling The Hollywood Reporter that “resurrection exists in so many different religions in one form or another, so it’s hardly exclusively Christian.”

“We don’t want to favor one group over another … whether these books are Christian, I don’t know,” Johnson added.

And so there you go…

And to think we almost got duped into spending money on what we thought was a Christian film this weekend.

[I]f you look at the list of broadcast shows that are Republican favorites, it closely mirrors the Nielsen top 10 list, whereas Democrats tend to gravitate toward titles likely to have narrower audiences.

To Hollywood, the data suggest a potentially disquieting idea: The TV industry is populated by liberals, but big-league success may require pleasing conservatives. …

“Historically, the shows that have done better are populist, mainstream and give us confidence in our public institutions,” TV historian Tim Brooks says. “For a while in the 1960s and early 1970s, shows started representing social rebellion, but broadcast quickly reverted to Happy Days.”

What has changed is the explosion on cable that has allowed networks to appeal to more specific viewpoints, from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart to Fox News’ Glenn Beck. Moreover, if you’re a liberal viewer in a major city (which typically correlates with higher education) and you have such titles as Mad Men and Dexter to watch each week, are you going to also be interested in seeing a paint-by-numbers crime procedural on broadcast or a laugh-track-boosted sitcom? On the scripted side, at least, the explosion of complex dramas on cable may have ceded some of the broadcast ground to what one might label Republican tastes.

Funny how it’s the left who screams the loudest about the loss of the old network monopolies that gave concentrated power to a very few, and yet they seem to be the ones benefiting most from the choices created by an ever-growing cable landscape.  Another takeaway:

John Fetto, senior marketing manager at Experian Simmons [says], “Looking at the Democrats side, I don’t mean to make light of it, but they seem to like shows about damaged people. Those are the kind of shows Republicans just stay away from.”

Before the left dislocates something patting themselves on the back over how complicated and interesting their television choices are, both “Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami” and “90210″ place in their top five with the relentlessly sleazy (last I saw) “Law & Order: SVU” not far behind.

Really, Lefties? Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami?

If anything, we righties seem to just want to escape … as long as that escapism doesn’t involve someone who spells “Chloe” with a “k.” 

The most disturbing news for the intolerant left is probably that The Learning Channel appears to be taking this reality seriously and ”Sarah Palin’s Alaska” is just the start of a line up of new shows aimed at the “Heartland.” More programming is coming and if they happen to be successful…

Oh no, one channel in 250 aimed at Red Staters! Quick, destroy it! Would anyone be surprised? After all, we have one news network out of ten and look at how unhinged that makes them.

So, what have we learned today?

We’ve learned Republicans like winners. The shows might be considered fluffy, but they’re generally programs that make people feel good. If you’re a broadcast network executive weighing whether to buy a show, you might ask your uncle who voted twice for George W. Bush if he likes the idea. We’ve learned Democrats are, depending on your perspective, discriminating viewers who prefer highly original, well-written series or are cynics who enjoy watching jerks.

Fair enough. But I think it’s also safe to say that the right-wing popularity of programs like “Modern Family,” “Desperate Housewives,” and “Two and a Half Man” pretty much puts to rest the lie that we’re a bunch of prudes looking only for reaffirmation of our own worldview. Here’s a clip from the third most popular Republican show.

Not sure where I would land on this list. Over the past fifteen years the only television I’ve watched has been “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” (the greatest television I’ve ever seen), “Lost,” and “24.” When I do watch television these days it’s most any true crime documentary I can find, ranging from forensics to prison escapes and then there’s my beloved my DVD collections of “Married With Children, “Seinfeld,” “Sanford and Son,” “Rockford Files,” “Honeymooners,” and the original “Twilight Zone” and “Outer Limits” — shows I can return to again and again after only a couple of years in-between.

If it’s any consolation, I know I’m missing a lot of great TV, but free time isn’t a premium in my life and so the tried and true are my comfort food — oh, and movies. Lots and lots of movies.

Do I sound cynical? Yes. But so does the film’s synopsis (click on the names of those involved for more information).

Hollywood Reporter:

Meryl Streep is in talks to reteam with her “Mamma Mia!” director for “Thatcher,” a biopic of the former British prime minister.’

Jim Broadbent would play Margaret Thatcher’s husband, Denis, for the British production.

The film, to be directed by Phyllida Lloyd, is set in 1982 and tracks Thatcher as she tries to save her career in the 17 days preceding the 1982 Falklands War. The 2 1/2-month war was a turning point for the prime minister, who, after the victory, saw her approval ratings double and went on to win a second term.

Producer Damien Jones (“Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”) came up with the story with screenwriter Brian Fillis.

Hrm. Thatcher tries to save her re-election chances in the days just prior to a … war.

Thatcher is as hated by the British Left as George W. Bush is by the American Left. Maybe even more so. And it’s Thatcher’s second term the Left most resents. That’s when she privatized and sold to private companies a number of large state-run utilities and successfully went after and weakened the once all-powerful British trade unions. 

And then there’s her close friendship with President and Mrs. Reagan.

Would it surprise anyone if in an effort to undermine the legacy of our Iron Lady a film was produced to plant a seed of doubt over the legitimacy of the second term that still infuriates Thatcher’s critics? Or… maybe I’m being unfair, maybe the filmmakers will be truthful and respectful. Because that’s never-ever happened before, which can only mean it will sometime, right?

Keep in mind, though, that Meryl Streep’s track record when it comes to portraying conservative women is gawdawful and resulted in two of her worst performances. She was embarrassingly one-dimensional and hammy in both  “The Manchurian Candidate” and ”Rendition.”

It’s just a fact that Hollywoodists can find humanity in most anyone — terrorists, child molesters, drug dealers, serial killers — but when it comes to we conservatives and those we love they just can’t summon any dimension warmer than ice… Because that’s how they see us.

Conservatives have no reason whatsoever to be optimistic about this project.