I know everyone is still talking about the Dark Knight, but like the Editor in Chief of Variety - I keep thinking about Wall-E. I saw the film again this weekend (and have only seen the Dark Knight once) and was even more amazed. And even though (as you’ll see below) Wall-E seems to be more for adults than children, both times I saw the movie, the children in the audience were captivated. I don’t know whether they got the message, but they seemed to get something - and they kept quiet - which is no small feat.

But back to the film’s adult audience, Peter Bart (EIC Variety) makes a good point:

The success of WALL-E in fact reminds me of the theory about animation enunciated by Matt Groening, who created a little show called The Simpsons.

“Good animation is written for adults, not for children,” Groening stated in the summer issue of Written By, the magazine of the Writers Guild. The secret of our success is that the show was written for a smart audience.

Now if only more films were created with thoughts of making them for a smart audience…

Go after the jump for some clips of “The Bright Knight” as Bart calls him

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Filmanthropy can be one of a number of things - helping those less fortunate to make films, helping in the preservation of the films and screening classic films for others. While this makes me realize that I am a filmanthropist in more ways than one, Variety has a great little report on some bigger named filmanthropists and their ventures.

My favorite filmanthropist on their list? Martin Scorsese:

Sometime in the late 1980s, Martin Scorsese learned that more than 75% of silent films had either deteriorated or disappeared completely. “It was even more disturbing to realize that 50% of all films made in America before 1950, sound and silent, were gone.”

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Some post-writers strike sentiments lingered as Hollywood celebrated the 80th Annual Academy Awards last night. Variety reports that many like NBC prexy Jeff Zucker, acknowledged the celebratory feel caused by the Oscars happening and the strike ending saying “I think everybody was ready for a party, and to enjoy the chance to come and to have a grand time.”

Others still had left-over thoughts from the recent strike events such as best actor nominee George Clooney who repeated his strong wish that the Screen Actors Guild help the rank and file in his union stay employed by starting talks as soon as possible. “There’s no resolution yet,” he said. “We’re talking to all parties. We’re hoping to avoid a strike.”

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