Wes Craven, director of such screamers as “Scream,” offers a blurb on the Screenwriter 2000 software box raving about the $270 Internet-enabled movie scriptwriting program. Cadaver carver Craven sees a bicoastal dream come true for movie writer wannabes collaborating over the Internet to pump out six-figure scripts–without quitting their day jobs.
Two writers located anywhere on the planet with Web browsers type dialogue and staging directions that appear on each other’s screens. Best of all, the software includes a spoken-text module that speaks each character’s lines aloud for both collaborators.
All those who squirmed through Drew Barrymore’s numb-tongued dialogue in “Scream” can only hope Craven tries this software as well as giving it blurbs.
LOOSE ZIPS
CAN SINK CHIPS
Zipiddy do dah, zipiddy day, WinZip 8.0 is on its way. Check it out at www.
winzip.com; it’s great news to millions of America Online victims whose photos arrive via e-mail in unreadable MIME formats.
WinZip 8.0 is great news as well to intermediate and advanced computer users who will find creating compressed archives and working with them a cakewalk in cyberspace.
Perhaps the best of all the new features are viewers that let you see all the pictures and text in newly arrived zips without stopping to extract.
SECOND-RATE CITY
THEBESTOFCHICAGO.COM
Few would disagree that Fluky’s at 6821 N. Western Ave. gave us the original Chicago hot dog back in 1929 when the joint was a pushcart on Maxwell Street. But Fluky’s now brings us a Web site that might have some problems in the Truth in Advertising department.
To wit: www.thebestofchicago
.com really isn’t the bestofchicago at all. But this scheme by the management at Fluky’s just may be the most expensive ploy ever to offer to the overprivileged everywhere cheap foods with a Chicago cachet.
Hoping to cash in on nostalgia among former Chicagoans transplanted elsewhere, the site offers to overnight very expensive versions of Fluky’s dogs ($14); Bishop’s Chili ($33.50 for 2 quarts) and Home Run Inn pizza ($49.95 for two). Home Run Inn pizza? They never heard of Uno’s? Due? Carreno’s? The best of Chicago indeed.
DINOSAUR DOWNLOADS
WORLD WIDE WALT?
The audiences can’t tell the difference as The Walt Disney Co.’s hot new lizard pic, “Dinosaur,” flashes across the screen on at least one Chicago screen this week, but they’re watching filmless movie magic.
Testing Digital Light Processing technology, Disney hopes the computer projector scheme will save billions in distribution costs by allowing theaters to download films, store them on hard drives and even save them for later reruns. And that’s a wrap.
