Linked List: October 4, 2020

Sunday, 4 October 2020

‘Bob Gibson Keeps His Distance’ 

Roger Angell’s 1980 profile of Bob Gibson for The New Yorker is as great a piece of writing about a great athlete as you’ll ever read. Like all truly great writing about sports, it’s not about the game at all.

Mega-Chain Cineworld Closing Regal Movie Theaters Following ‘No Time to Die’ Delay 

The Hollywood Reporter:

Following the delay of more Hollywood tentpoles — including James Bond film No Time to Die — mega-movie theater chain Cineworld, the second largest exhibitor globally after AMC, is planning to temporarily close or keep shut all of its locations in the U.K. and the U.S., The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. […]

Disney and Pixar’s Soul is likewise expected to scrub its Thanksgiving 2020 release, leaving exhibitors without major fall tentpoles following the delay of No Time to Die, Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow. Without fresh titles on the marquee, it will be tough to win over already-wary consumers.

This framing is backwards and broken. The cause of movie theaters’ problems isn’t the lack of tentpole movies in the cinema. The cause is the goddamn pandemic that remains out of control. Almost no one would go to a movie theater amidst this, and no one should. You can’t successfully release a blockbuster theatrically in a pandemic, and you can’t have movie theaters without blockbusters. Ergo theaters need to remain closed. Jiminy.