Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected Oliver Stone's request to make a film about him. In a statement, a media advisor to Ahmadinejad said, "It is right that [Stone] is considered part of the opposition in the U.S., but opposition in the U.S. is a part of the Great Satan." For his part, Stone took advantage of the rejection to send a dig to a different president: "I have been called a lot of things, but never a great Satan. I wish the Iranian people well and only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours."
The New York Civil Liberties Union is protesting a proposed change to local film permit regulations, which would require a permit for two or more people who plan on shooting with a handheld camera for more than thirty minutes. According to the NYCLU, the new regulations, which may go into effect by the end of the summer, "makes no sense, violates the First Amendment right to photograph in public places and opens the door to selective and discriminatory enforcement."
You and I may be suffering from sequel overload, but franchises are having the intended effect overseas. International box office is up 13% so far this year, and one-third of that increase can be attributed to trilogies.
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