Pricing is one of the most interesting and yet misunderstood components of digital distribution.

I don’t mean pricing in terms of end-user costs, although that’s a fascinating discussion in its own right. I mean pricing in terms of the value of content interactions that an intellectual property owner should look to extract when selling their content.

In other words, if I’m a content owner, I want to license my show at a variable price which will maximize the value of each interaction that said show will generate. How do I do that in the current state of the digital world? (more…)

A few pics from Comic-Con. Then I’m going cold turkey.

Our Xbox Original Content panel filled the conference hall, drawing an overcapacity crowd of 800 fans. Admittedly, I was nervous as to the reaction we’d get when we showed the trailers. There might not be a more discriminating mob than a packed Comic-Con crowd. When you’re partnering with the Imperial Microsoft and half of your audience is dressed as Jedi Knights with the intergalactic obligation to uphold the standards and practices of the Rebellion, you don’t know what to expect. Much to my relief, the crowd embraced the shows and the filmmakers. It was a great event. (more…)

Humanzee, James Gunn’s new Xbox show about the trials and tribulations of growing up in American as a half-human, half-chimpanzee teenager, just got a write-up on the official website of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Bratislava has been a favorite backdrop for number of recent Hollywood productions, but as the article laments, for the most part the depictions have been of a “dangerous and scary place.” Eli Roth’s horror flicks, Hostel 1 and Hostel 2, both featured the Eastern European city in a less than flattering light, as did Eurotrip.

When asked why he chose Bratislava for Humanzee’s country of origin, Gunn, a noted aficionado of Slovak culture (witness his brief stint on the professional polka dance circuit prior to a devastating ankle injury that diverted him into filmmaking), replied: (more…)

Today, Safran Digital went public with the details of our partnership with Xbox. In particular, we’ve announced the directors for our slate of original web video pilots, which launch this fall to coincide with Xbox’s user-interface redesign.

The directors involved include James Wan (Saw, Death Sentence), David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy), James Gunn (Slither), Lucky McKee (May), Andrew Douglas (The Amityville Horror) and Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th).

I’m extremely proud of the filmmakers and their camps, the deal we’ve put together and what I believe it represents for the future of digital content economics. (more…)

I just got a call from a source whose friend shares her OBGYN with Jessica Simpson. She said in no uncertain terms that Jessica was in the office right before her last week and that there’s confirmation that she’s pregnant. Update: She had a sonogram, but no word yet on boy or girl.

Yes. You heard it here first. Jessica Simpson is pregnant.

The natural assumption is that Tony Romo, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, is the dad.

While I’m happy for the couple and Ms. Simpson in particular, and I can’t wait to indulge in the melange of tabloid coverage, my immediate concern for my fantasy football team. I’m screwed. (more…)

If you’re involved with coordinating a promotion at next week’s San Diego Comic-Con, or you’ve ever been married, you know what it’s like to be on deadline at the nexus of a perfect storm of interwoven, critical dependencies that bear heavily upon your future state of happiness.

I’ve been married three times and been to Comic-Con once I’ve been to Comic-Con three times and married once, but it dawned on me today that putting together an event for the granddaddy of all entertainment conventions is analogous to the scheduling nightmare that is wedding planning. (more…)

It’s so simple, I can’t believe it. It’s so stupid, it just might work. No doubt special agents are reading this post right now and planning an operation to apprehend the world’s most wanted fugitive.

To find Osama Bin Laden, all you have to do is check the domain registration for www.osamabinladen.com. You can use any registration lookup tool. I happen to prefer coolwhois.com.

You’ll see that the registrar of record is a guy named Jilani Hussein of Karachi, Pakistan. Sure. Jilani, Nice to meet you. My name is Art Vandelay.

How stupid can you be? He even gave his real address!

Don’t believe me? Click here.

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Remember the caveman days of dial-up internet connections?

Remember how the world changed with the rise of affordable, high-speed broadband connections and with it, the always-on utility of the enlightened web we know today?

Tomorrow’s iPhone 3G launch will prove to be the biggest step forward in the advancement of digital distribution since the leap from dial-up to broadband. (more…)

Not only does this witty animation do a good job of summarizing the current social network zeitgeist, but the live action shots at the end were filmed in Silver Lake, right down the street from my house!