Now Playing: November 6, 2009

It's Friday again and that means there's a whole new crop of movies on which you can dump your money. You've no doubt worked hard this week tilling the fields and weaning your young and you wish to take in a film that won't leave you mourning the loss of funds you could've spent on booze. Choosing what film to see without any information is a bit like a round of "Press Your Luck," except landing on a Whammy won't leave you feeling insulted, robbed of your dignity, or wishing for physical harm to come about on another human being. Bad movies can do that to you. Here at Zoom In Online, we're your friends and we want to prove it by providing you with as much information as we can before you attempt to wade through a potential cinematic mine field. Consider us your cinematic D.A.R.E., except funnier and without all the poor results.

Sundance Festival Travels Cross-Country

No longer will you have to travel to Park City, Utah just to be a part of Sundance. A new event has been created by the Sundance Institute called Sundance Film Festival U.S.A. that will enable Sundance filmmakers to come to you - well, at least eight of them, all of whom will travel to eight separate cities on January 28 during the festival's awards weekend.

IK Multimedia Announces the “Mobile Groove Video Contest” on YouTube

Upload your original music/video by December 15, 2009, and win your share of over $6000 worth of DJ gear and prizes.

IK Multimedia is proud to announce the “Mobile Groove Video Contest” on YouTube, powered by GrooveMaker, FourTrack, MixMeister Scratch, DopplerPad and InstantDrummer apps for iPhone/iTouch! Post your iPhone/iPod Music Video* on YouTube by December 15th, 2009 and you may win cool DJ gear and your share of over $6000 worth in prizes!

Experimenting With Bad Decisions

Okay, so by now it's no secret that Paranormal Activity was the surprise horror hit of 2009. The suspense, the subtlety, the painfully drawn-out episodic nature of it all. But while audiences were blissfully soaking in each second of their Paranormal experience, little did they know that a wide-eyed, wily producer was watching them the entire time.

'The Wire' Will Be Tapped For Class at Harvard

Avon Barksdale, Detective Jimmy McNulty and everyone's favorite dope fiend, Bubbles will soon be moving from the poverty-stricken streets of inner-city Baltimore to the affluent, ivy-covered walls of Harvard University.  No, HBO hasn't announced plans for a spin-off of The Wire set in Cambridge, Massachusetts (though how awesome would it be to see students of our country's top 1% awkwardly fumble through interactions with Omar Little and his sawed-off or be propositioned for tall tees at the Bubbles push cart market?).  Instead, the arguably best television show in history will soon be taught as a class at Harvard University according to the school's student newspaper, The Crimson.

DVDS to Buy This Week: 11/3/09

We here at Zoom In Online realize that you probably spend so much time perusing our site that you may occasionally look up from your web browsing and notice that multiple days have passed. We appreciate that. While we can't make up for your lost days of work or missing your spouse's/friend's/relative's/child's birthday, we can update you on what you're missing in the outside world - what DVDs are being released, for instance. Check Zoom In Online every Tuesday to keep tabs on all the DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week.

'Ouija' Gets Lost Writers

It seems as though Michael Bay and his steadfast production team, Platinum Dunes, just aren't giving up on the Ouija. After partnering with Hasbro last year in a deal to adapt the popular board game into a supernatural action-thriller film, skeptics immediately doubted the film's potential by referencing a couple of indisputable truths: the recent board game-into-movie fad has proven unsuccessful  thus far, not to mention an action-adventure film based on a similar premise--Jumanji, anyone?--has already been done. (Okay, so this one will have CG ghosts instead of rabid jungle creatures but from an altrusitic standpoint, aren't they all the same)?

Footloose Gets an Unlikely New Director

One really has to wonder why this project was even conceived in the first place. There should be a rule for cheesy, dated classics like Footloose that says a remake of any kind is merely out of question, that introducing the 21st century to Ren and his hip-swinging, pelvic-thrusting, laughable one-liner ways would be ludicrous. But no, Paramount Pictures seems to think we need to "hear it for the boy" one more time (too many).

Tricks and Treats From Zoom In Online

"Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange?  Come with us and you will see, this our town of Halloween."

Now Playing: October 30, 2009

It's Friday again and that means there's a whole new crop of movies on which you can dump your money. You've no doubt worked hard this week tilling the fields and weaning your young and you wish to take in a film that won't leave you mourning the loss of funds you could've spent on booze. Choosing what film to see without any information is a bit like a round of "Press Your Luck," except landing on a Whammy won't leave you feeling insulted, robbed of your dignity, or wishing for physical harm to come about on another human being. Bad movies can do that to you. Here at Zoom In Online, we're your friends and we want to prove it by providing you with as much information as we can before you attempt to wade through a potential cinematic mine field. Consider us your cinematic D.A.R.E., except funnier and without all the poor results.

Is Independent Film Dead or Undead?

In case you haven't heard, things are not all sunshine and rainbows in Hollywood.  This year's economic recession has hit the film industry just as hard, if not harder, than every other industry despite another record-breaking summer box office.  Recent high-profile shakeups at Disney and Universal have made headlines and shocked industry insiders, but the even bigger story is the ominous uncertainty of what will become of the independent film model.  In the past year, we've seen the shutting down of Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse, both owned by Warner Bros., the absorption of Paramount Vantage into its parent company, Paramount Pictures, as well as a major slimming down of staff at Miramax Films and persistent rumors of a financial collapse of The Weinstein Company.  It seems to be a bleak time for independent film.  Or is it?  Maybe it's a live and well - in one for or another.

'This Is It' Grosses $2.2 Million and Counting

When asked at a press conference in the London O2 arena whether his upcoming tour was just another among many more to come or a final farewell to the American public, Michael Jackson uttered the words, “this is it.”

Now Michael’s words stand for much more than just a final curtain call, but as one of the last statements the pop sensation would ever make. In homage to the star, Columbia Picture acquired the rights from AEG Entertainment to all the footage chronicling Jackson’s rehearsal process for roughly $60 million, turning it into a concert film entitled This Is It.

DVDS to Buy This Week: 10/27/09

We here at Zoom In Online realize that you probably spend so much time perusing our site that you may occasionally look up from your web browsing and notice that multiple days have passed. We appreciate that. While we can't make up for your lost days of work or missing your spouse's/friend's/relative's/child's birthday, we can update you on what you're missing in the outside world - what DVDs are being released, for instance. Check Zoom In Online every Tuesday to keep tabs on all the DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week.

Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day Opening Friday

Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is coming to theaters this Friday, reminding fans and critics of the controversy surrounding the apparently egomaniacal director, Troy Duffy.

The Return of the Little Prince

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is embarking on a new project to adapt the widely popular book, The Little Prince, into a CGI-animated TV series.

Author Antoine de Saint-Exupery first wrote the international favorite back in 1943, chronicling the adventures of a little boy exploring the rest of the universe outside his tiny asteroid planet, B612.

Now Playing: October 23, 2009

It's Friday again and that means there's a whole new crop of movies on which you can dump your money.  You've no doubt worked hard this week tilling the fields and weaning your young and you wish to take in a film that won't leave you mourning the loss of funds you could've spent on booze.  Choosing what film to see without any information is a bit like a round of "Press Your Luck," except landing on a Whammy won't leave you feeling insulted, robbed of your dignity, or wishing for physical harm to come about on another human being.  Bad movies can do that to you.  Here at Zoom In Online, we're your friends and we want to prove it by providing you with as much information as we can before you attempt to wade through a potential cinematic mine field.  Consider us your cinematic D.A.R.E., except funnier and without all the poor results.

Vampire Diaries Given Another 9 Episodes

Vampires, vampires, vampires. It seems they do in fact exist and, according to the ratings, it looks like they're here to stay. 

The CW (formerly known as the network that just 'Can't Win') has a new hit. Their show, Vampire Diaries, topped the charts in September sucking in 4.8 million viewers as CW's most-watched series premiere to date. Note: 3.1 million of those were women ages 18-34. 

It's a good thing too because with Melrose Place losing viewers by the minute, 90210 being a way worse carbon copy of the original and Gossip Girl not counting (okay fine, it counts), CW execs can finally relax for awhile.

Win A Grass Valley Production Kit!

Hey there filmmakers! Want to show off your chops and compete for a chance to win some great gear?

Grass Valley, the go-to company for broadcast and production equipment, is hosting a contest for an opportunity to win a free filmmaking kit.  All you have to do is create a commercial no longer than 60 seconds for EDIUS, Grass Valley's nonlinear editing program. The grand-prize winner will receive:

-HP ProBook Laptop Loaded with EDIUS Nonlinear Editing Software

-Panasonic HDC-HS250K Videocamera

-LaCie d2 Quadra External Drive (1 TB)

TMNT To Fight In CG

Cowabunga! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming! 

By 2012, you'll be able to relive the era of your favorite heroes in a half shell in CG-animated form. Nickelodeon recently bought the rights to the popular TV show, which made its syndicated series debut in 1987. 

Gotham Independent Film Awards Nominees

Yesterday morning, New York Times critic, A.O. Scott, read off the 19th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards nominees via live webcast for the first time ever.

One of the big winners (nomination-wise) was Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, which scored noms for Best Feature, Best Ensemble Performance and Breakthrough Actor for Jeremy RennerThe Hurt Locker was the major pickup at last year's Toronto Film Festival where the declining economic state of the independent film industry put a virtual freeze on film buying.