Amazon buys MGM, now itching for actual updates to the content vault

So many of us have envisioned this day, or at least where things are now surely headed for MGM's legendary library!

Once worked in Studio Business Affairs at MGM in the 90s, you may recall.

Then prepandemic had the pleasure of pitching 10 Block, my social and mobile streaming platform solution to MGM, Madhu and the studio's distribution leadership, and together envisioning the impact of connecting today's global audiences -- where and when and how they are watching -- with MGM's vaulted riches.

Still itching to see actual forward-looking viewing conventions applied to older content. Personally, want annotations, episodes, interactivity.

Can you imagine, for instance, viewing MGM’s library of Old Hollywood classics and Bond blockbusters broken down into short modern length episodes you can chat with your friends about, and discovering what to watch through reviews and what your network is liking? That looks like this?

A woman can dream!

Our advisor Craig Kornblau advises Google Ventures on the future of film in a streaming world

It's been wonderful for the past year and a half having Craig Kornblau advise our entertainment tech startup 10 BLOCK  — and Google Ventures’ GV — on the intersection of the entertainment industry and the tech world. "The reason I decided to work with early-stage and growth companies is, having lived in big corporate America and big entertainment companies, it's really hard to find massive innovation in large companies. I think real innovation is going to come from small companies," he says in this interview about the future of film in a streaming world.

Speaking on a panel at Digital Hollywood's Creativity Festival

Will you be at Digital Hollywood's Creativity Festival next week in Los Angeles? As 10 Block’s cofounder I will be speaking on a panel at the Women's Summit about content -- from film/TV, internet video and influencer campaigns to games -- Wednesday at 12:30.

Another life, another networked world!

This came in the mail today. It's from the major faculty of my liberal arts college, an event for my professor of Bronze Age Archaeology, Jim Wright. He was a great teacher, as I recall!

Also, it's a reminder of the solidity of liberal arts education. This classically-based education was meant to turn out a person who was "virtuous and ethical, knowledgeable in many fields and highly articulate." It doesn't matter what you do with it, you're equipped as a well-rounded individual.

Today's email and its particular Bronze Age lens on power and place is so far from where I am right this minute, and yet I am back in class in an instant, to when civilizations around the Aegean first established a far-ranging trade network and all together moved out of the Stone Age.

Then I'm back again, to today, back to looking at the future of stories for millennial audiences as a business, tech, and entertainment issue. That's a focus of mine right now and based here in California's own power centers of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Hope all my Bryn Mawr archaeology peers have a fun symposium! 

TBT, adapting a novel for the screen

Remembering the screen adaptation I did of an action comedy novel by Jennifer Lawler...

The main characters in this enduring ensemble story are star-crossed lovers who also happen to be mercenaries — and 17th century English scholars. Think the good-humored violence of RED with a younger group.

The Mercenary's Tale, screen adaptation of the novel Not Quite a Hero. We spent two years (1990-2) adapting the story to the screen format.

Here's what a 379 page 20 year old manuscript looks like. After I read the funny, classic love story for the first time in 1987/88 I couldn't forget it...

Always looking for an illustrator to convert the script into a graphic novel for iPad, btw.

We rewrite the screenplay every now and again. It's renamed COY MISTRESS. And Jennifer found a place for those Greek sailors she loves so much!

Learn more about Jennifer Lawler.