From the article:

Alan Horn, Warner's president and chief operating officer, cited two reasons for the move. "We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent-pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment," Horn said in a statement. "Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers' strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films--changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move Half-Blood Prince to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent-pole release for mid-summer."

Jeff Robinov, president of Warner's motion picture group, added in a statement that the move will not affect production of any future Potter films. (The seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be adapted as two movies.)

Sucks about the Harry Potter pushback.

Tropic Thunder was very, very, very funny.

And it was good to watch with an audience. Especially for that Samuel L. Jackson-in-Deep Blue Sea moment when there's just this sort of quiet throughout the theatre when everyone's sort of taking in what just happened and then, after processing, comes the raucous laughter.

It's not your typical comedy, I'll give it that.

Interview with Whit Stillman: [link]

Meep!!!! Metropolitan is on Hulu.com!!!! I fucking adore that movie. I know what I'm doing tomorrow (4-day workweek and all that; Fridays are my day off, and other than a doctor appt., I have nothing urgent lined up). Mmmmm, Chris Eigeman.

Yes, please.

Mmmmm, Chris Eigeman.

Really? I went to college with him. He acted in my one act play.

Remember those Watchmen posters people were drooling over before?

Compare them to the original panels.

Really? I went to college with him. He acted in my one act play.

Holy shit! He reminds me, a LOT (mostly in his Whit Stillman roles, but also Kicking and Screaming, and that sitcom), of one of my closest friends, both in looks (the first time I met him, I was racking my brain who he reminded me of until I remembered CE) and his onscreen personality (he's a Republican, but at this point he's so disgusted with the party and the current adminstration he's an Obama man this year). Any reminiscences on what he was like?

Any reminiscences on what he was like?

I didn't know him real well. He was close friends with my friend Lars. I sent the one-act to Lars who was doing summer theater in Williamstown with Chris, and they did it for scene-study.

Tonight was a double feature: Videodrome and They Live.

Videodrome was...very strange and full of WTF. But I really liked the special effects. Except now I'm scared of my television.

They Live ended up being a pretty appropriate companion piece, although it was half-boring, much like Escape from New York. And that fight went on way too long, holy crap.