"There were two major developments in cinema during the 20th century. The first came in the Twenties when silent movies became talkies. The second came in the following decade, when we went from black-and-white to color. Now, 70 years on, we're in the third great revolution: the new generation of 3D." That's Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, explaining why the release tomorrow of the company's Monsters vs. Aliens is such an historic occasion that you must bow down before him. ""I honestly believe that," says Katzenberg. "I really don't think this is an exaggeration." (If he'd just said that he didn't think he was exaggerating and left out the "really", there'd still be room for us to doubt.) But those of us with long memories--memories that stretch back as far as, say, last month, when Coraline was released, or even those senile few old enough to remember Beowulf, practically a whole year and a half ago--have been down this road of hype before. Why is this 3D revolution different from all previous 3D revolutions, going back to the bygone days of 1953's House of Wax? Let's wind Jeffrey up again and see what comes out:

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At the 3-D screening of Monsters vs. Aliens I attended, there was a collective gasp from the children in the audience when the first image seemingly launched off the screen at us, and a cynical, “It took five people to write that?” from an adult behind me when the end credits finally rolled.  My own opinion fell somewhere between those two reactions.

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The studio system is long dead, but for over 30 years, David Geffen has been proving that the old-time movie mogul is still a going concern.  One of the richest men in Hollywood history, Geffen is a true multimedia tycoon who's made money in film and music hand over fist and whose personal worth is estimated at close to $6 billion.  Indisputably one of the biggest power players in the industry, he's had a huge impact on almost every studio you can name:  Universal, Paramount, Disney, and the DreamWorks studio he founded with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.  But, having hit 65 -- the age at which most people look forward to a respectable retirement -- is Geffen ready to walk away from it all?

Just weeks after engineering a break from Paramount -- which had recently purchased DreamWorks for over a billion and a half dollars -- Geffen continued to wheel and deal like a mogul of old.  He formed a new company with Spielberg and Stacey Snider, backed by money from one of the biggest players in the emergent Bollywood system, and then -- shockingly -- seemed to indicate that he was backing off from production, and perhaps leaving the entertainment industry altogether.  According to an article in the New York Times, even Spielberg is stunned at the possibility:  "I cannot imagine not having David in my professional life.  If that's true, I'm going to have to figure out what to do about it." 

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Maybe “end of civilization” is overstating the case a tad, but surely no good can come of the news that MTV is producing a remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’ve ever been part of the Rocky Horror cult. I went to one midnight show in Harvard Square more than 20 years ago, and that was enough for me. It was fun once, but I never felt the urge to return every week to chant “Lips!” and throw toilet paper. Still, I admire the fact that Rocky Horror developed its cult following the old fashioned way, as one of the last genuine “midnight movies.” It was comforting to know it was out there, even if I never intended to return. Now it’s just another item for the pop culture recycle bin, as Variety reports that Britain’s satellite channel Sky Movies will co-finance the remake. “Under the deal, the remake of the 1975 cult classic will premiere exclusively in the U.K. on Sky Movies before becoming available on VOD services Sky Player and Sky Anytime.” No cast has been named, although rumors have Marilyn Manson in the running for Dr. Frank N. Furter. Tim Curry wept.

Elsewhere in the recycle bin, we find sequels to both Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda in the works.

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Some good news, finally, for Tom Cruise: his cameo in Tropic Thunder brought down the house at an industry screening of the summer comedy. It's a time-honored show business tradition for stars who have encountered image problems to get back in their fans' good graces by showing that they have a sense of humor about themselves, though it doesn't always work, as Sylvester Stallone found out with Stop! or My Mom Will Shoot. Cruise's deep-inside turn, in which he dons a fat suit to play "a bald, hairy-chested, foulmouthed, dirty-dancing movie mogul of the kind who is only too happy to throw an actor to the wolves when his popularity cools" apparently works like gangbusters, especially among those who recognize it as a bitch slap at Sumner Redstone, the Paramount executive who cut his studio's ties to Cruise after speculation began building in Hollywood that the star's increasing reputation as a geek show on wheels might be killing his box office appeal.

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