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stumbling onto clues about Chan’s fate. Some are easy, others are ridicu- lously hard (messages embedded in the source code for web pages, pass- words to secure pages that need to be discov- ered, clues that require a knowledge of deep sci- ence to puzzle out).
But all are designed to take you deeper and deeper into this strange and occasionally slightly scary world. The first time a Flash message appears warning you off the trail is genuinely shocking.
Where it’s all leading no-one really knows. Is there a prize at the end of it? When will it all stop? AI’s already opened in America, but the webworld shows no sign of going away. In fact, it continues changing to keep pace with the speed at which users crack its puzzles.
It’s spawned a huge number of chat pages (www.cloudmakers.org is possibly the best for anyone trying to find out the current state of play), a fairly large number of column inches and some intense industry interest, but no one’s really sure how cost-effective a marketing strategy it’s been. AI broke records for previews in Japan, but only managed a respectable $29 million opening weekend in the US. Hardly earth-shattering stuff.
Then again, only Warner Bros and DreamWorks know how much the whole thing cost in the first place.
With rumours spreading that Warners are so pleased with the way things went that they’re now consider- ing focusing less on traditional market- ing and more on this kind of “viral mar- keting”, perhaps this is a glimpse of the future in more ways than one... ■
15
CHINE
HORNE AT THE HELM
Radio Times, BAFTA’s sponsorship partner for the Television Awards, has a new editor. He’s Nigel Horne, 50, who recently returned to the UK from Toronto, where he was Editorial Director of Magazines for Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe And Mail.
A former Features Editor of the Sunday Times and past winner of the British Society of Magazine Editors ‘Editor of the Year Award’ (for the Daily Telegraph’s Saturday magazine), Horne said: “With the dazzling variety of programming and the exciting advances in technology, there couldn’t be a better time to be involved in the broadcasting world.”
Nicholas Brett, deputy managing director of BBC Magazines, says: “Nigel is a terrific big-hitting editor with a great track record. His award-winning Telegraph Magazine of the early 90’s was an industry classic. He has a bulging contacts book and is held in high regard and affection by those in it.”
Radio Times, first published in 1923 and currently attracting a reader- ship of over 3.5million, has sponsored the British Academy Television Awards for the past three years and has recent- ly signed a new deal taking its sponsor- ship through to 2004. ■
PAINT IT BLACK
The bfm International Film Festival, the only annual interna-
tional celebration of black
world cinema in the UK, runs
from September 7-18.
Organised by executive director Menelik Shabazz and festival producer Charles Thompson, it is a 12 day feast
Photos opposite page l-r: Scenes from AI: Artificial Intelligence and X-Men
of screenings, panels, seminars, parties and networking drawing together estab- lished filmmakers, popular film stars, writers, directors, industry executives, emerging artists and new audiences from the UK and around the world.
The principal venues are the Soho Curzon Cinema, Rio Cinema (Dalston), Tricycle Cinema (Kilburn), Lux Cinema (Hoxton) and Soho Theatre.
Other events will be hosted at vari- ous venues including BAFTA which, on September 11, will stage a Lifetime Achievement Award to Harry Belafonte as well an award to an Afro-Caribbean veteran of the UK film/TV industry.
In only two years, the bfm IFF has screened over 120 international and UK features, documentary, short and anima- tion film titles from over 15 countries.
It’s held 10 UK premieres, three European premieres and two world pre- mieres as well as retrospectives of the work of Sidney Poitier and Horace Ové, the ‘Godfather’ of black British cinema.
Among this year’s invited guests are actors Billy Dee Williams, Larenz Tate, Eamonn Walker, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Alfre Woodard. ■
www.bfmfestival.com
BBFC MOOTS PG-12
Plans to test an advisory ‘12’ rat- ing, effectively a ‘PG-12’, are set out in the latest annual report of the British Board Of Film Classification.
According to BBFC President Andreas Whittam Smith: “The UK differs from most of Western Europe and North American in retaining a mandatory ‘12’ rating.
“Either side of 12 years, the maturi- ty of children varies widely and parents rather than the BBFC are the best judges
of the degree to which a partic- ular child is sufficiently robust to see material rated one step beyond U and PG.
“The ‘12’ certificate excludes material likely to be harmful to children. However parents need to have enough
Photo this page:
Nigel Horne, the Editor of Radio Times
information about the content of films classified at ‘12’ to judge whether they are suitable for children.
“We believe the means should be ‘consumer advice’ such as the Board already prepares for publication in the packaging of videos. This information could be incorporated in film advertis- ing, in newspaper and magazine listings and by way of leaflets or notices in cin- ema lobbies.
“As well as testing the reaction of parents to the ‘PG-12’ concept we will also be asking whether they would prefer the requirement for an adult to accompa- ny the child, or whether it should be open to unaccompanied children.
“We will carry out extensive research and consultation before mak- ing any decisions, and in the end it will be public opinion which will have the decisive say.” ■
LOADSA MONEY
According to the BBC’s latest Review of the Year, the licence fee brought an income of almost £2.4 billion.
“That,” it purred, “reflected an increase in the licence fee to strength- en our programmes and enter the digi- tal age, and a reduction in evasion.
“We reduced evasion by 0.2%, which adds up to £4.6m, the equivalent of three high-quality dramas,” the review suggested, optimistically. ■
BIG BROTHERS
So who are the most influential fig- ures in the British media? According to a recent poll under- taken by the MediaGuardian, the Top 10 is as follows, from the top: Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates, Greg Dyke, Steve Case (of AOL Time Warner), Sir Martin Sorrell (advertising group WPP), Charles Allen (Granada), Tony Ball (BskyB), Paul Dacre (Associated Newspapers), Gordon Brown and screenwriter/producer Richard Curtis. Down at 26 is the list’s first woman, Marjorie Scardino, chief execu- tive of Pearson; Harry Potter author JK Rowling, creeps in at 98. ■
News Digest
HORNE AT THE HELM