Director's Cut
Last uploaded: Thursday, March 5, 1998

I'm back.

With my deadlines now successfully completed (just did an article about H.R. Giger, one about the different versions of Alien Resurrection and the movie department for the May ish of SFI) and a wedding photographer finally decided upon for the big day this September, I've just finished writing a honkin' big update to the site. New pictures, pages and scoops galore are online so go check 'em out. Thanks for hanging in there, and those scoopers who continue to hang in there while I get the rest of the info up and onto the site. This place kicks ass when it gets sent truckloads of info and right now that's certainly the case.

But I've got some bad news to report.

I've received some disturbing emails from some of you since Monday telling me there's a new site that seems to have been heavily influenced by Coming Attractions, its layout is almost a mirror-copy of CA. I'm talking about a place called Cinescape Online, specifically their movie section.

You can take a peek yourself, but essentially these guys are reporting the same stuff I'm doing, which is fine. CA was the first and since then Ain't It Cool, Dark Horizons and The Buzzstation have come along. Each site reports the news in their own way and usually gets different stuff than I do, since there's a lot of projects out there. But it looks like Cinescape Online is going about it in a different fashion: their movie site reports the details of a show in sections like CA, starting at the top with the facts and ending with the rumors. On top of that, their layout looks similar (a white background against black text...hmm...) and they even have a list of movies you can click on -- except it's on the left-hand side of the screen instead of the right-hand like CA. One or two areas where we're similar, ok, maybe it's just chance. But when I get a few dozen emails from CA readers asking me if I've sold the site to Cinescape Online because it looks so similar, and then I check it out and see it is similiar...

And it's not like Cinescape doesn't know about CA. I mean, when I first contacted them back in December regarding some information listed in their movie department in their print magazine (they're a publishing company) that was similar to some erroneous info on CA, I asked them where it came from. They denied that it may have originated from my site (even though part of the department plainly stated information and rumors were from the 'Internet', and my site was the only one to have some of this material). Then a couple of weeks later, they offered me a job. I thought about it and realized I wanted to spend the little time I have left over working on my new screenplay (and besides, the guys at Wizard and Sci Fi Invasion asked me first.) They made a very tempting offer, and were all nice people to talk to over the phone with, but my calling is with the movies. It's my first love.

A few weeks pass by and then we were approached about the notion of hosting banners advertising their site. That's fine. Like I said, I think having multiple sites for news info is great -- we all benefit, and selling ad space on CA would help us out with the cost of running the server, purchasing the scanner and so on. But now I don't particularly feel like running a banner for them.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That may be true, but morally it just ain't so. Regardless, I wanted to address this matter before I receive anymore emails asking me if I've sold CA or moved to another site. CA is right here, end of story. You can make a New Coke formula but it just won't be the same, right?

I hope I can continue posting the latest movie info on here because of my readership. Since I started this crazy thing three years ago next month, I've been fortunate enough to talk to and meet hundreds of people in the business as well as chat and write to thousands upon thousands of readers. This site has been covered and picked as the best by People, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Us, Entertainment Tonight and the many others because of the material it receives. You people make that happen by visiting here and reading CA, and when you can send me a scoop or a hello email we all benefit. I love this place. Why else would I spend so much time being devoted to it on top of having a full-time job, a fiancee and my writing if I didn't?

But ultimately it's up to you who you choose to send your nugget of information to. Sure I hope it'll be CA -- I'm biased. But I also like the notion of this little digital movie-gossip fraternity I helped create, and I dig being surprised about a new development just as much as you, whether it's in my Inbox or Dark Horizons. But I don't like feeling like I was ripped off, or the thought my programming friends who spent weekend after weekend helping to write and design the look of CA were just slapped across the face. I doubt you'd like being treated like that either.

If you want to see what the hubbub is about, click on Cinescape Online's Movie Department.

If you want to tell Cinescape what you think, their email address is mvpmailer@aol.com.

If you want to mail me what you think about all of this, sent it to central@corona.bc.ca. If I get time (in-between the late updates and catching up on movies) I'll try posting some of the letters for all of us to see.

Hey! Do you live in Minneapolis??

The wrap party for Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan is set to happen this Sunday, March 8th at a place called 'The Fine Line Music Cafe'. Check to see if it's happenin, and if so, well...if you happen to be in the area, let me know what the cast and crew were up to!

Jon Lovitz might be coming back as "The Critic"?

Man, I hope so. I'm talking about the Fox animated series from a few years back, remember? Someone anonymous told me they had a meeting at Gracie Films, the production company for the series. The assistant to the producer told the scooper that there exists the possibility the series may get resurrected as a feature. But will it be live action or animated?

Those William Shatner jokes were hilarious!

Saban's making a new Addams Family film

Filming right now in the L.A. area is the third Addams Family picture, 'cept this time Tim Curry is playing Gomez and Daryl Hannah (!) is Morticia. Got tipped off to this one from a nice scooper, but I'm trying to get some more info about the project before I draft up a page. Any takers out there? [Thanks to my man 'The Operative' and the anonymous tipsters for the scoop.]

Patrick Sauriol
Creator, Chief Content Writer & Director
Coming Attractions

Got some neato items from the shoot? Parking passes, photos from the set? Poster images, or the latest hot script making the rounds?
Or maybe you walked off the set with an extra tucked under your arm, perhaps?
That's why we're here.

Send them to our NEW mailing address:

Coming Attractions
7971 Burnfield Crescent
Burnaby, B.C., CANADA
V5E 2B8

FAX: (604) 517-4405

We'll do our best to get 'em on the page. (Just remember to poke air holes in the parcel if it's alive -- thanks.)


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Issue #2 OUT NOW!
To order, call 1-888-22-COMIC, or just yell really really loud into the air. We'll get back to ya.

For more info check out the Technopolis website.

Coming Attractions

Previous Issues of Director's Cut:

December 15, 1998
December 4, 1998
November 15, 1998
October 28, 1998
October 15, 1998
October 8, 1998
October 6, 1998
October 2, 1998
September 28, 1998
September 24, 1998
September 16, 1998
August 30, 1998
August 27, 1998
August 19, 1998
August 17, 1998
August 12, 1998
August 1, 1998
July 15, 1998
July 7, 1998
June 23, 1998
June 19, 1998
June 17, 1998
June 10, 1998
May 27, 1998
May 17, 1998
May 10, 1998
May 8, 1998
May 4, 1998
April 22, 1998
April 21, 1998
April 8, 1998
April 5, 1998
April 3, 1998
April 1, 1998
March 30, 1998
March 24, 1998
March 18, 1998
March 13, 1998
March 10, 1998
March 8, 1998
March 5, 1998
March 1, 1998
February 24, 1998
February 22, 1998
February 18, 1998
February 14, 1998
February 12, 1998
February 11, 1998
February 7, 1998
February 4, 1998
January 10, 1998
December 30, 1997
December 24, 1997
December 20, 1997
December 17, 1997
December 15, 1997
December 12, 1997
December 10, 1997
December 8, 1997
December 4, 1997
December 3, 1997
December 1, 1997
November 28, 1997