Via Peter Merholz, I watched the opening main titles of the movie Thank You For Smoking. I’m interested in seeing the movie, and it’s still fascinating to me that there are studios and individuals who focus on making titles. The morbid thriller Seven is famous for its titles, among other things. Scroll through this essay and watch for yourself, about halfway down. (Two minutes and nine seconds, as a downloadable Real Media file.)
Back to Thank You For Smoking…watching the titles, which are amusing with their visual references that are almost tangible even to this non-smoker (advertising works), I recognized some names beyond the obvious actors. The executive producers for Thank You For Smoking include Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Max Levchin, and Mark Woolway. I don’t recognize the last name, but the other three hit the jackpot with PayPal via the sale to eBay, so I’m guessing Woolway was part of that team, too.
I know Mark Cuban and his Broadcast.com partner Todd Wagner are deep into movie financing, and other parts of the film infrastructure. Who else has taken their money from the internet and fueled cinema? And who is finding it profitable, not simply an ego trip?
I don’t begrudge these folks their efforts…it’s just strange to have a sense of the cross-pollination at work.