This is almost too funny. I am all for anti-piracy measures, but that desire only goes so far. This latest round of measures is a bit much, but it does make for great comedy.
Apparently, as reported at www.IMDB.com, at the premiere of War of the Worlds at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York Steven Spielberg was stopped at the entrance and forced to turn over his cell phone. The security guards were taking all cell phones and hand bags from the patrons entering the theater. After the film ended, lines formed that took well upwards of a half an hour to retrieve the checked belongings.
You can't make this stuff up. Who would have thought that a films director, Steven Spielberg no less, would be forced to turn over his belongings at his own film? What's next?
These guys are taking wide swipes and hitting nothing but air when trying to combat piracy. I don't really have any solutions to the problem, but there has to be something better than taking away cell phones.
Article comments
1 - Tan The Man
Fun stuff. I wonder if Steven through a hissy-fit? Or gave him a - do you know who i am? - sort of look.
2 - Chris Beaumont
I sure would have! You ain't taking my phone!
What have we come to if they are afraid of bootlegging via cell?
3 - KC
Hmmmm, I wonder if they know some of us have a habit of calling people still waiting in line and telling them not to bother the movie isn't worth it? We'll just have to go back to the old method of standing at the door and giving a thumbs down if they start doing that everywhere.
4 - Victor Plenty
In the future there will be no bad reviews. All moviegoers, once the film ends, will undergo a process to erase all memory of it from their minds. (But it will subliminally enhance paid product placements, and of course preserve with crystal clarity everyone's memories from the half-hour of advertising before the film starts.)
People will go to the cinema, not to see a movie, but just so they can tell all their friends they went to a movie.
Once people grow accustomed to that, the stage will be set for the final perfection of the whole system, which will enable Hollywood to cut out the cumbersome and expensive step of actually making any movies.
Then there will never be any piracy. Nothing to record on your cell phone camera, nothing to download from the Internet, no details to leak out on the key grip's blog.
We're almost there already, people! I'm telling you, it's just around the corner.
5 - gonzo marx
so, Victor..you are saying it is part of the vast plot to turn us into constantly consuming meatbeasts with eyes?
mebbe we turned the corner somewhere?
i propose a hunting season, automatic weapons allowed, on marketers and salespeople...the other six months a year we can hunt Lobbyists with no Limit on the catch
i can Dream, can't i?
Excelsior!
Excelsior!
6 - Victor Plenty
Conspiracy? Nobody in Hollywood is that smart. Nah, I'm talking about the inevitable outcome of the ongoing Hegelian dialectic playing itself out through the entertainment industry.
Following the pattern firmly established by its history, Hollywood will continue charging more and more money for less and less content. If current trends continue, sooner or later the amount of content being provided to the average moviegoer must reach zero.
Already we are being conditioned to let technicians reprogram our brains, through films such as Total Recall and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but nobody is planning this. Erasing people's memories is a technology that will arise from the irresistible forces of historical necessity.
It's just a matter of time now.
Of course, I'm only kidding.
Mostly.
7 - Grammar Cop
"film's"
8 - Nikki
This happened to us at a screening in Atlanta. We left. The "privilege" of seeing a film early is somewhat tarnished by the assumption that I will try to pirate the movie with my grocery store receipts.
9 - producer
When your job is taken from you because of film piracy, I will laugh.
10 - Chris Beaumont
Huh?