Trade Round-Up: David Lynch To Confuse Audiences Without Help Of Studio Distribution
As breathlessly reported by every news outlet on Earth yesterday, Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion. Meanwhile, CBS makes a deal to split the ad revenue from "daily, short form content" they'll provide to YouTube, and to divide up any money they might make by selling ads around material posted by users that violates their copyrights. Fun! [Variety]
· David Lynch will self-distribute his latest film, Inland Empire, which promises to be even more incomprehensible than Lost Highway. [THR]
The still-iffy Studio 60 rebounds 12% from last week's disappointing numbers, despite the show's baffling insistence that a preachy monologue about America dropping Hot Pockets along with bombs was even remotely funny enough for a writer to bother stealing. [Variety]
Not wanting Wal-Mart to hog all the retail chain exortion fun, Target writes a letter to the studios hinting that they might not support their DVDs if cheaply priced movie downloads cut too deeply into their home video business. [THR]
Terrence Howard joins Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man as the hero's confidante/rival who probably won't get his own armored set of Underoos until a sequel. [Variety]