The boss of Village Roadshow Graham Burke last night conceded that the film production and distribution company’s decision to hold back the Australian release of The Lego Movie had been “one hell of a mistake” and pledged to move its release dates up to coincide with overseas releases in the US. Burke made the declaration as part of a panel convened by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to debate issues around copyright in the wake of the release of the government’s Discussion Paper, which saw the content creators, internet service providers (ISPs) and consumer groups struggle to find common ground. “On the twin issue of availability, we made one hell of a mistake with Lego (Movie),” Village Roadshow’s co-chairman Burke, told the forum. “It was an Australian film, we financed it together with Warner Brothers and it was made here in Kings Cross, in Australia, and because it was so important we held it for a holiday period. It was a disaster. “It caused it to be pirated very widely.
As a consequence – no more – our policy going forward is that all our movies will be released within the time and date of the United States.” Burke signalled that other cinema players would such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Universal would also follow suit, but added the industry wanted legislative action to combat piracy. “Movies will come out at the same time but the other important element in this is that there has to be a theatrical window so the business model can work and movies can get made,” he said. Fellow panellist, CEO of Foxtel Richard Freudenstein, who last week dropped the entry price of the pay-TV service as the company seeks to compete with a new tide of online entrants, echoed Burke’s remarks: “People like us to have a role to play in making sure our content is accessible and available.” However, Freudenstein also urged the industry and government to act against piracy through shutting down access to pirated content sites, arguing it was an existential threat.
“There is a simple way with pirate sites and that is to shut them down,” said the Foxtel boss. “The content owners have to go to a court – so there is judicial oversight, get an order and ask the ISPs to shut down sites. That will be effective, it has been seen to be effective overseas, another site might open up and then you shut that down. This will stop a lot of it. “If we sit and wait and don’t introduce some scheme in Australia soon then there won’t be an industry. The business model for creating expensive movies and expensive TV is much more complex than has been described. If there aren’t models that can make that work and we are relying on advertiser supported content on YouTube to support the content industry then it is going to be a very very very different type of content.” “Different type of TV shows, different types of movies that we have in the future. We are going to have a lot more cats on skateboards and a lot less Game of Thrones.”
This view was not shared by consumer group Choice, which spent much of yesterday duelling with Foxtel over the price of content,which argued more still needed to be done on price and availability of content. “We have obviously seen the prices of some forms of content drop in the last few years and we have welcomed that, but there is still an enormous price gap,” said Alan Kirkland CEO of Choice. “It is about price and also availability and that’s arguably where the industry has done better. Until we grapple with price and availability then we are not going to be grapple with these (wider) problems.” Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull, who moderated the panel, pushed both Telstra and iiNet on what sort of regulatory solution they believed should be made. Telstra executive director, Jane Van Beelen told the forum the telco would support infringement notices being sent to consumers, but was concerned about judicial oversight. “We would want there to be some expedited process with access to a court where those who allege infringement can put their case and people would have the opportunity to defend themselves,” said Van Beelen.
While iiNet boss David Buckingham was more intransigent on both infringement notices and also whether the ISPs should bear the cost of a scheme. “We want to see the problem resolved” said David Buckingham, CEO of iiNet. “We have a huge responsibility in that issue ourselves and we recognise that. Where we differ is how we do it and all the research I have read points to notice schemes not working. “I am looking for an effective and efficient outcome that solves the problem. “There are many many countries where these schemes don’t work. Why should we contribute to a scheme that we think is ineffective?” Additional Shipping Charges Link LEGO® Education STEM Conferences with Chris Rogers Internationally recognised education expert Chris Rogers returns to Australia in March 2017 to work with teachers interested using LEGO materials to support learning in STEM subjects. LEGO® Education Teacher Award 2017 The LEGO Education Teacher Award recognises innovative classroom teachers who have an interesting story to tell.
LEGO Education will provide assistance for the recipient to present their work at the LEGO Education Symposium 2017 in Billund, Denmark. WATCH THE LATEST VIDEO ON LEGO® DIMENSIONS™ SEE WHAT’S COMING NEXTThere’s just something about Batman that gets audiences excited. Whether he’s in comic-book form, a playful 1960s TV character, or the focus of a brooding feature-length blockbuster, the Dark Knight is a character we just can’t get enough of — even in Lego form. That was evident when one of the highlights from the 2014 “The Lego Movie” was the appearance of the Lego Batman, a self-centered hero who did everything on his own terms and was voiced perfectly by Will Arnett. He was so popular, in fact, that once the movie came out it was obvious Warner Bros. should make a spin-off movie dedicated to Batman. Tasked with pulling that off was Chris McKay. Known within the animation world for directing episodes of the Adult Swim show “Robot Chicken,” as well as working on the visual effects and editing side of the show’s “Star Wars” movies, McKay was also the editor and codirector on Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s “The Lego Movie.”
McKay was even in charge of the movie’s animation and rendering when Lord and Miller had to go and direct “22 Jump Street.” Warner Bros. was very bullish on getting another Lego movie out the door following the success of “The Lego Movie,” and McKay worked closely with Lord and Miller in developing “The Lego Movie” sequel and a Batman spin-off. However, when the trio went in and pitched their ideas for both projects at the studio in the early summer of 2014, it was evident the release plan needed to be tweaked. The ambitious “Lego Movie” sequel with its big musical numbers needed more time. That led to the idea for the Batman movie to be released first. But it needed a director. “At one point Chris and Phil were going to direct ‘The Lego Bagman Movie,’” McKay recently told Business Insider, but they were about to embark on making the young Han Solo “Star Wars” movie. “Everyone turned and looked at me and I said, ‘Are you guys asking me to direct “The Lego Batman Movie”?
I have a Catwoman tattoo, so, yeah, I’m in.’” McKay dove right into storyboarding and developing a script with screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith in August of 2014, as the February 2017 release date loomed large. “As far as turning around a feature animated movie with all these moving parts, two and a half years is a very, very short amount of time,” McKay said. But he was familiar with tight deadlines. Back in his “Robot Chicken” days, his team worked at a breakneck speed to pull off 12-minute episodes every week, often only having six days for the animation portion of production. However, there were other things McKay needed to factor in to make a Lego movie. McKay said he always had to be mindful that the movie is for young kids (very different in tone than the adult-focused comedy on “Robot Chicken”), but there also had to be elements sprinkled in for the adults to laugh at, as well as for the “Batman” super-fans. Then there was the challenge of connecting every live-action Batman movie (and TV show).
“This premise where Batman has been around for 78 years in Gotham City and all the timelines are all in our movie in some way, I was constantly monitoring that it was all working,” McKay said. In the movie, we follow Batman on his latest crime-fighting adventure, but things become more complex when he suddenly is responsible with raising a boy he adopted and his greatest nemesis, the Joker, turns himself in. McKay compared directing “The Lego Batman Movie” to how directors like Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg operate as producers, overseeing everything and making sure the department heads are on task. “There’s no ‘We edited something today and it’s in animation tomorrow and then in lighting and it’s done.’ I was constantly running around trying to figure out how to use all the teams to their potential at the same time.” And as this all went on, jokes for the movie were constantly being added or tweaked, causing Arnett to be on call with his Batman voice at all times.
“Will was literally shooting a movie in Wales and I would call him up and get him to go into someplace private on set where he’s shooting so he could record new lines,” McKay said. This was vital when he needed Arnett to give him a few lines for the rap Batman does at the end of the movie. “It was like 10 at night in Wales and he had just got off a day of shooting outside and it had been raining all day and he went and put a coat over his head with a microphone and did some of the rap.” But all that work looks to have paid off. Currently with a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, “The Lego Batman Movie” is getting Arnett’s Batman compared to some of the best who ever put on the cape and mask. And with the great supporting cast — including Michael Cera as Robin, Rosario Dawson as Batgirl, Zach Galifianakis as the Joker, Channing Tatum as Superman, Jonah Hill as Green Lantern, Adam Devine as The Flash, and Conan O’Brien as The Riddler — McKay hopes all this talent can be utilized in a bigger capacity in future movies.