Donald Clarke

• Box Office Figures Sequels
• October 30, 2012, 22:35

Now, here’s something we didn’t know we needed. Surprising most industry watchers, Disney has confirmed that it has acquired Lucasfilm. After forking out over $4 billion for George Lucas’s production company, Das Maus Haus now owns the rights to the …

• Uncategorized
• October 29, 2012, 21:02

Well, sadly she doesn’t. She died last spring. But news reaches us that the great Dame is still raking in the dollars. In one of its more morbid mercenary activities, Forbes magazine has unleashed its latest list of the most …

• Oscars
• October 25, 2012, 00:59

November is looming. Hooray. It’s time to bore everybody senseless with an absurdly early attempt to predict the nominations for the 2013 Oscars. I say “absurdly early”, but, such is the way of these things, we can usually take a …

• Trailerspotting
• October 23, 2012, 18:59

One can generally find some reason for unusual trends in Hollywood. True, the notoriously unresponsive business is normally reacting to something that happened years previously. Recall, for instance, how the 1960s didn’t happen in Hollywood until 1971 or so. I …

• Film Festivals
• October 21, 2012, 21:27

Ben Affleck’s Argo has just screened at the BFI London Film Festival to much deserved acclaim. Speaking with the benefit of hindsight, we can now claim that we saw Ben’s renaissance coming for years. Following the success of Good Will …

• Film Festivals
• October 14, 2012, 22:07

It’s that time of the year. The BFI London Film Festival is looming and, as ever, it features the heaviest concentration of cinematic talent to gather anywhere in Britain or Ireland over the year. It’s an odd event. Almost everything …

• Rock 'n' pop.
• October 7, 2012, 20:24

Everything was great in the olden days. You would go down to the local record shop — called something like POPalong Cassidy’s — purchase a great big LP, take it home and savour the sounds while flicking through the lovely …

• Politics
• October 3, 2012, 23:35

You know what bugs me about American elections? Huh? Huh? Well, not much really. Obviously, the whole thing is a farce. It is so difficult to effect real change that it doesn’t much matter who wins. Think about it. Obama …

• Oscars
• October 1, 2012, 22:07

Oscar, Oscar, Oscar. It’s the Oscariest night of the year! Well, it will be in a few months. For once, we have to offer unqualified praise to the show’s organisers. After the fiasco that was Anne Hathaway and James Franco in …