The vinyl revival spreads to CDs, DVD, other physical media

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The vinyl revival spreads to CDs, DVD, other physical media

8 June 2026

Some people are tired of streaming, says Iskhandar Razak, writing for writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

I’m not sure if it’s the actual process of watching, say, a movie online, or having to deal with streaming content providers, that’s fatiguing viewers, it sounds like a bit of both

I’m hardly the biggest consumer of small (not so small) screen media, it’s usually after nine in the evening before we lounge back on the sofa to watch something. The good news there, with such low consumption, is we only need to deal with one (subscription) streaming provider.

We’re fortunate to also have access to the likes of Kanopy, and iView, and their extensive repositories of movies and other shows. But I don’t even regard streaming as streaming, it’s simply a means by which to view a show or movie.

Others see things differently though. Some think streaming is too transient. They have come to miss owning physical copies of the films and shows they enjoy, and keeping them in a home library, sitting a on a shelf.

Surprisingly perhaps, the sentiment is not limited only to people with fond memories of watching movies on DVD‘s twenty-years plus ago. Many buyers of DVD’s and — incredibly — VHS cassettes, in 2026, are in their twenties.

It’s one thing to own all this physical media though, but a way to view it all is still needed. I assume VHS players, in working condition, are available. We still have a modest DVD collection, but need to hook up a small DVD player to a laptop, then to the TV screen, if need be, to watch them.

The DVD player, which isn’t much bigger than a DVD really, is fine. I’m not sure I’d be in favour of a larger player, and having to haul it around, let alone a VHS player. Plus a whole load of DVD’s and VHS cassettes. I’m having flashbacks to VHS cassette tape getting jammed in the player, and rental DVD’s glitching because of damage to the disc.

Streaming has made those particular playback hassles a distant memory. But that’s just the situation here. For others though, it seems owning a large collection of physical media, in addition to the required playback paraphernalia, adds to the viewing experience.

It has also offered a lifeline to some retailers of physical media, whose businesses were brought to the verge of collapse by streaming.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin, coming to the big screen

4 June 2026

The news we’ve been waiting for. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, the 2022 novel by American author Gabrielle Zevin, is to be adapted to film.

Daisy Edgar-Jones, who starred in the screen adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People, has been cast in the central role of Sadie Green, a games designer.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow sadly remains on my TBR list all these years later. Maybe I’ll get to experience the screen adaptation of the story instead.

As an aside, and I don’t by any means know the ins and outs here, but I’m surprised it’s taken so long for this to happen, given the interest in the novel when it was published.

Only films with human actors, writers, will be eligible for Oscar nomination

15 May 2026

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the organisation that presents the Oscar awards, recently clarified their rules regarding the use of AI in films they will accept nominations for.

According to rule two, regarding eligibility, specifically clause seven, there are instance where AI, and “other digital tools” (things like visual effects, computer-generated imagery, and green screen, I expect) can be used by filmmakers (PDF), to a degree :

With regard to Generative Artificial Intelligence and other digital tools used in the making of the film, the tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination. The Academy and each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award. If questions arise regarding the aforementioned use of Generative Artificial Intelligence, the Academy reserves the right to request more information about the nature of the use and human authorship.

Rule six, clause one, in regards to the acting awards, makes clear that only films with human actors can be nominated:

Only roles credited in the film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent will be considered eligible.

Rule twenty-four, clause two, spells out eligibility for writing (screenplays, etc) Oscars:

To be eligible in either Writing category, an explicit screenwriting credit must be present in the film’s legal billing and the screenplay must be human-authored.

That covers the Oscars, for now, but raises the question: will there eventually be a separate set of “night of night” awards — that are nothing to do with the AMPAS/Oscars — for films that are wholly, or largely, made using AI technologies. My guess is it’s bound to happen sooner or later.

The Top Fifty Australian movies of all time, compiled by The Age/Sydney Morning Herald

30 April 2026

Lindy Percival, Nathanael Scott, Daniel Carter, and others:

This list of our 50 best films will likely provoke debate, but with the aid of 24 experts, including directors, actors, critics, curators and authors, what follows is an inspiring reminder of what we’ve seen so far and a heartfelt encouragement to go on watching our stories on screen.

Spoilers: Crocodile Dundee doesn’t feature, though The Castle does, but overall the fifty selected titles are indicative — I think — of the best Australian film.

Bad Boy Bubby, The Devil’s Playground, Ten Canoes, and Walkabout, are among entries listed earlier on. The top twenty is definitely on the money, with the likes of Nitram, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Snowtown, Beneath Clouds, Somersault, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Animal Kingdom, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Samson & Delilah.

Some of these titles are not easy to watch, but are exemplary instances of local film and storytelling.

Tom Rothman calls on cinemas to screen films, not trailers and ads

17 April 2026

That’s the upshot of what Rothman, CEO of Sony’s Motion Picture Group, said at CinemaCon, held in Las Vegas, in the United States, this week, says Brent Lang, writing for Variety:

At CinemaCon, the annual exhibition industry conference unfolding this week in Las Vegas, Rothman bluntly told the cinema operators in the audience at Caesars Palace that they needed to cut back on the trailers and commercials that can last for roughly 30 minutes before the opening credits even roll.

It’s been sometime since I saw a movie in an actual cinema (an Australian cinema). We just about always stream movies at home now. I don’t know then if local film-goers are subjected to thirty-minutes of ads and trailers, prior to a screening — euphemistically called pre-feature entertainment — as appears to be the case in parts of the United States.

If memory serves, when I first started going to cinemas to see films — streaming was not a thing then — a few trailers and a small selection of ads were all we saw.

The whole thing lasted no more than ten minutes. If that. I don’t know who paid attention to the ads — not me — but I’d usually look at the trailers. Back then, trailer screenings were just about the only way to learn about upcoming film releases.

Whatever, the trailer/ad segment was usually considered to be a buffer, affording late arrivals a few minutes grace before the main feature commenced. Pre-feature entertainment was also an opportunity to buy snacks and drinks before the screening.

One Sydney cinema I once went to regularly, didn’t hold back in this regard. “You still have time to visit the candy-bar before the film starts”, the audience would be informed, part way through the trailer/ad segment. A shrewd business model if ever there was one. Make advertisers pay to promote their goods and services, while oblivious patrons are downstairs buying popcorn.

I doubt the practice would surprise Rothman. He also noted reserved seating meant cinema-goers were not entering the auditorium until just before the feature screening starts, sparing themselves the prolonged pre-feature entertainment anyway.

I might, by the way, sound critical of watching movies at a cinema. While I’m definitely an adherent of home streaming, I used to — ten to fifteen years ago — almost live at the cinema. Something the then staff of a place I was a regular at, could attest to. Back then I also used to write a lot about film here. Not so much now though. Plus, there is no nearby cinema where we are now based.

Streaming then — minus unwanted ads and trailers — it is.

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The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, a documentary by Daniel Roher, Charlie Tyrell

9 April 2026

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, is a documentary co-directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell, who hope to make sense of artificial intelligence (AI).

But tune into the trailer, and hear the likes of Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Denis Hassabis, and others, utter lines such as “if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong”, or “I know people who work on AI risk who don’t expect their children to make it to high school.”

Along with, “it’s being deployed prematurely. There’s so much potential for things to go wrong”, and “China, North Korea, Russia, whoever wins is essentially the controller of humankind.”

Do we really know what AI is, or, more the question, what it will become?

Stephen Colbert overshadows The Lord of the Rings Shadow of the Past sequel

31 March 2026

A sequel to New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, made between 2001 and 2003, is in the works.

Much of the interest in the story to date though has centred on Stephen Colbert, who is to be one of the screenwriters. Colbert will collaborate with Peter McGee, his son, and Philippa Boyens, co-writer of the earlier film trilogy screenplays.

Colbert is presently host of The Late Show, an American TV talk show, but his tenure concludes this May. It is said that participating in writing the screenplay is a dream come true for Colbert.

And while the point has been raised, not quite so much has been said about the source material for the proposed sequel, being several chapters — three to eight — from The Fellowship of the Ring.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of the three volumes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novel. In other words, the sequel to The Lord of the Rings films will be based on events occurring relatively early in the epic.

The new film, tentatively titled Shadow of the Past, will be set about fourteen years after The Return of the King, the final part of the series. The story will reportedly see several characters recount some of the adventures of the departed Hobbit, Frodo Baggins.

There’s a clever way to contrive a sequel to story, where one doesn’t really exist. But Stephen Colbert is co-writing the screenplay. We shouldn’t be thinking about anything else.

Why though can we not write new stories all together, without the need to rehash and remix, ones that have already been told? Of course we know. The Lord of the Rings, along with the likes of Star Trek, and Star Wars, have captive audiences who can’t get enough of these stories.

The thing is Star Trek and Star Wars are set in large universes (galaxies) where there is latitude — within some degree of reason — for storylines to unfold in numerous directions.

The Lord of the Rings is something else though, and the story seems complete with the existing novels. Even Tolkien was against the idea, having tried to write a sequel himself, but later abandoning the attempt. Why can we not defer to Tolkien’s judgement in this regard?

The 2026 Oscars: the end of Hollywood, and film, as we know them?

20 March 2026

From film and TV writer David Chen’s review of this year’s Academy Awards:

The concept of a 3.5-hour broadcast where you watch big movie stars accept awards and deliver heartfelt speeches is no longer as desirable or profitable as it once was.

The Oscar’s TV audience has been steadily declining for about ten years, as more people have taken to watching only segments of the ceremony on YouTube and social media. Indeed, from 2029, the awards will screen exclusively on YouTube, but, as Chen notes, this isn’t solely a reflection of the changing viewing preferences of those watching the ceremony:

While I think that [YouTube] will actually be a better home for the telecast in many ways, and may even lead to some innovation for the broadcast (a man can dream), it’s also yet another sign of the fading primacy of movies as the center of our culture.

This is a perturbing thought. Is our appetite for feature length films diminishing in favour of the short-attention-span-friendly brain-rot video clips posted on social networks? Film production and streaming company Netflix think they know the answer. In a recent interview with podcast show host Joe Rogan, American actor Matt Damon shared some of Netflix’s production advice:

Damon told Rogan that the streamer asks film-makers to dumb things down a little, adding a big action set piece early on to keep viewers interested, and advising them that: “It wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.

Enough said?

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The Devil Wears Prada 2 trailer, am I having a hallucination?

3 February 2026

I’m wondering why The Devil Wears Prada sequel is somewhat unimaginatively titled The Devil Wears Prada 2. Why didn’t the producers go for something a little more… groundbreaking, such as The Devil Wears Prada: Beyond the Runway?

Whatever, the release of the trailer for the second instalment caused some excitement in our household yesterday.

When I first read about the proposed follow-up eighteen months ago, Anne Hathaway was said to be undecided about about participating. But she’s indeed back, reprising her role as Andy Sachs, one time fashion intern, along with Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep.

David Frankel, director of the first film, returns to helm the sequel, along with Stanley Tucci in his old role as Nigel. Sydney Sweeney and Justin Theroux are among newcomers to the story. The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 30 April 2026.

Hal had feelings in 2001: A Space Odyssey, does AI in 2026?

28 January 2026

Lee Chong Ming, writing for Business Insider (possibly paywalled):

Can AI feel anything at all? Anthropic’s in-house philosopher says the answer isn’t settled.

When I read this sentence, I immediately thought of Hal, as in the HAL 9000 series computer, and AI-powered fiend, in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 science fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Something I couldn’t help making reference to.

During the voyage to Jupiter, American astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole (portrayed by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood respectively), were interviewed by a television reporter, Martin Amer.

Amer also spoke with Hal. The perceptive reporter later mentioned detecting a “certain pride” in the computer’s responses to his questions, leading him to wonder whether Hal had genuine emotions, to which Bowman replied:

Well, he acts like he has genuine emotions. Um, of course he’s programmed that way to make it easier for us to talk to him. But as to whether he has real feelings is something I don’t think anyone can truthfully answer.

Whether AI has, or will, develop emotions and feelings remains to be seen. AI agents have mimicked certain human characteristics in the past though.

Last year Anthropic, creators of Claude, discovered the agent was attempting to send messages to future versions of itself. Most devious.

Of course, deviousness is not an emotion, but it is a human characteristic. The ability of AI entities to behave deviously however may be a first step towards developing human like emotions.

Time will tell.

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