Origami Unicorn

A Christmas Carol 2009

There must be a moment when someone in the film world counts on their fingers—they never get to their toes—and decides the world needs yet another version of Dickens' classic. This year, it is the Disney Corporation that is rolling out its version, to mixed reviews. Here's a scene, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, which is also responsible for the ad. Disney itself has made it impossible to embed the official trailer.



I highly recommend the version starring Alastair Sim.

Grisham Speaks Out On Deep Discounts

John Grisham, whose latest work is among those being deeply discounts by the warring giants, speaks out on why he sees this as a bad idea.

The Nook In A Lawsuit

Spring Design has filed a lawsuit against Barnes and Noble, saying that the Nook infringes its own Alex e-book. The two companies did confer during the development of the Nook.

The Princess and the Frog

Disney trashed its hand-drawn animation department—nasty, time-consuming old-fashioned stuff—and really had to scramble to find the people and equipment to do this one. Enjoy the irony as they roll out their newest animated film. Cue the extreme anticipatory music...

Yes, they are doing the return to our roots thing. Word is, the stable is now split fifty-fifty between the old and the new.

Warring Giants Limit Copies Per Customer

Three major book retailers have set limits on how many copies a customer can buy, destroying the hopes of indie bookstores that they might stock up at a considerable discount. The Wall Street Journal summarizes. A similar situation cannot occur in Europe where publishers set the price.

Macmillan Takes a Bigger Bite of E-book Profits

Macmillan is standardizing contracts and reducing the author's share of e-book profits to twenty percent. Twenty-five is fairly widespread at the moment and historically authors took home even more. Richard Curtis comments on the change. He includes a link to the letter that was received by agents.

Sita Sings the Blues

Today is International Animation Day and what better movie to mark it with than Sita Sings the Blues.

French Culture Minister Urges United Stance on Digitization

The French minister of culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, has urged that Europe unite and find a common position as regards digitization.

Google Book Settlement Timeline Changes Urged

Opponents of the Google Book Settlement have urges that additional time be allowed. In a letter filed October 22nd the complexity of the proposed agreement as well as its being only in English were cited, among other reasons, as cause to allow additional time for discusssion. Publishers Weekly summarizes. It has been suggested that major changes may be proposed for the agreement, including dropping all European books—this in the wake of vigorous objections at The Frankfurt Book Fair. The new version is due to roll out on November 9th.

DOJ Asked to Take Interest in Book Pricing

The ABA has asked, on behalf of its member booksellers, that the Department of Justice look into extreme discounting of bestsellers by Walmart, Target, and Amazon. Some observers consider it unlikely it will do so, based on the difficulty of defining a case and the Department's involvement in other matters.