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This Week in Lumps
#60 [19/08 - 25/08]

· So, I’m sure you’ve all been reaching for the Kleenex, and weeping onto other people’s shoulders ever since the announcement that the next Harry Potter film, ’Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ has been delayed until next Summer. The official reason, or excuse, is that Warner Bros big-wigs would rather it be a summer-blockbuster than a winter one, but many are suggesting that due to the amazing success of The Dark Knight already this summer, they didn’t want 2009 to be completely overshadowed, and by pushing the latter back a year, have “balanced the books”, so to speak.

So, before you tie one shirt arm around the light fitting and kick away the chair, let me remind you that 2008 still have plenty of life left in it, film wise. Yes, we’ve lost a few films this year that could have made 2008 truly wonderful; we lost Harry Potter, The Time Travellers Wife, Star Trek, Angels & Demons and The Lovely Bones, but remember that these delays always happen. If you’re still getting cold sweats after that reassurance, fret not, I have a backup plan. Here’s 10 that we still have to look forward to:

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Brad Pitt stars in the most eagerly anticipated film of the 2nd half of 2008 – he stars as Benjamin Button, born into old age and who becomes progressively younger as time goes on, made even more strange when he falls in love with Cate Blanchett. Inspired by the short story by F Scott Fitzgerald, and adopted by Oscar winning screenwriter Eric Roth.
2. RocknRolla – Another typical Guy Ritchie flick starring Gerard butler, Tom Wilkinson and Thandie Newton. The trailer is really addictive, and I’ve been enjoying it prior to the last handful of films I’ve gone to see in the cinema.
3. Burn after Reading – proving the point that Pitt certainly knows good films to attach himself to, Burn After Reading reunites him with Tilda Swanson (who is also appearing in The Curious Case…), alongside John Malkovich, George Clooney and Frances McDormand. The film revolves around Malkovich losing his CIA-related memoirs, which ends up in the hands of Pitt, who decides to blackmail him. The first film from the Coen brothers since last years epic ‘No Country for Old Men’.
4. Australia – Baz Luhrmann returns after a 7 year absence with Australia, an epic looking period drama, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The film tells the story of an English Aristocrat who becomes romantically intertwined with a cattle farmer, shortly before the 1942 bombing of Darwen.
5. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People – Simon Pegg joins with Gillian Anderson, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges and Megan Fox in a story developed from the memoirs of a failed editor in the US magazine market. Mixed reviews from the trailer on this one, but I’m still a big fan of Pegg so I shall wait and see.
6. Quantum of Solace – The 22nd James Bond, featuring Daniel Craig, Judy Dench, et al, is the Bond film “one hour after” Casino Royales conclusion, when Mr. White is shot and captured by Bond at Lake Como.
7. Soul Men – Starring Samuel L Jackson and the late, great Bernie Mac as two soul singers who haven’t spoken to each other in 20 years, but reluctantly agree to travel across the country together to a reunion concert to honor their recently deceased lead singer. Also stars the also deceased Issac Hayes.
8. Valkyrie – Brian Singers next big film, following on from Superman Returns, sees Tom Cruise star alongside Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy and a handful of other famous names, in a film about Col Claus von Stauffenberg, the July 20 Plot, and Operation Valkyrie.
9. Body of Lies – Based on the 2007 book of the same title, Leo Di Caprio stars as a CIA operative who is sent to Jordan to find a high level terrorist. The trailer paints it as a gritty, hard hitting piece of cinema, and it will be Ridley Scotts first film since last years superb American Gangster.
10. Yes Man – Along similar lines as Liar Liar, this Jim Carrey effort now focuses on him embracing the power of the word ‘Yes’, after spending an awful lot of his time saying No. Totally and utterly “borrowed” from the book written by (King) Danny Wallace. Cue inevitable and obvious hilarity, if you like that kind of thing. Those who don’t may want to go anyway and ogle over the gorgeous Zooey Deschanel.

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· According to OFCOM statistics released last week, TV time with the family is slowly drawing to a close. Strangely enough, it has nothing to do with poor selection of programming on offer, but more about our ability to multitask, and finding unique, modern ways of managing our time.

Some clippings from the Telegraph and Guardian articles on this describe the figures that OFCOM released:

“Almost 90 per cent of people aged 25 to 34 say they have dabbled with some other form of media while watching TV or using the internet. Almost half say they have listened to the radio or watched TV while online.”

“Three quarters of 20- to 34-year-olds regularly use their mobile when in front of the TV, while more than a third of 25- to 44-year-olds often check the internet at the same time as watching a programme.”

It’s being dubbed ‘media stacking’ by the regulators; a completely different perspective of watching television from days gone by. Whereas before families were more than comfortable in setting down on the sofa and watching Saturday night television as a group, before heading off to bed, now a similar family with 2.4 children will find themselves browsing, texting and phoning, watching, listening and playing all within an evening.

Understandably, advertising companies are starting to get worried. If you add these stats with the growing popularity of set-top boxes with the ability to record, it seems that if you’re not out of the room boiling the kettle, or fast-forwarding through the ads, then you’e not actually paying attention in the first place.

As much as the advert agencies are worried, the opposite reaction has come from the broadcasters themselves. It’s becoming more and more frequent of a television show to advertise it’s website at its conclusion, with the hope that viewers enjoyed the show so much they can hop online and interact, or see clips they weren’t privy to before. Lets not forget the interactivity that the mobile phone also brings to the forefront, reality TV shows will almost beg you to ring and text in to vote for something, and nearly all prime-time shows on a weekly basis will have some kind of phone/text competition. If you find yourself not noticing this, try watching one of these shows, and count how many email, or phone numbers you see throughout the duration compared to the amount of postal addresses or PO BOX numbers.

The main aim for these stats being released wasn’t to make everyone aware of how busy we all are when we get home in the evening, but in fact to make us a little greener – By failing to switch off flatscreen televisions, set-top boxes, and internet networks, we’re using so much wasted electricity that it’s equal to an annual output of a medium to large power station, enough power to brew 80 billion cups of tea.

I think it’ll take that amount of caffeine to keep us alert during all of these activities, you never know, if you don’t you just might miss something on the tele.

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That was the last 2 weeks in lumps, a week in which: Twitter dropped SMS support for the UK, only for it to be picked up by ‘tweetSMS’, copy and paste will eventually make it to the iPhone, Peter Kay is coming back to our screens, as is Rab C Nesbitt, guessing the movie from the letters on the poster is so frustratingly tough, brotherhood is a wonderful thing,

Fingers crossed that this post actually gets to see the light of day after the last one vanished from existence… A wee reminder here that if you fancy a bit of online stalkering you can add me as a pal on Facebook, or last.fm, follow my tweets on Twitter, or send an email to me at andy[at]thelump[dot]net. Use any of the above methods if you’re interested in joining me in writing a weekly article on this site, I’ve had a few of you declare an interest previously, and if you’re still up for it, then let me know!

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