John Fithian Does Not Get It: Spielberg is a Purist

I am calling you out John. I wasn't going to post on this but after seeing my friends over at Cinematical post on it I decided to cave in. Variety caught it all in this post.

John Fithian, President of NATO (no not the treaty org) gave a keynote speech to NAB 2008 and in it, he landed these nuggets:

"You've all heard Jeffrey Katzenberg as one of the great priests of digital cinema. He and Jim Cameron have (done) more to push digital cinema than anyone else in the industry. But his partner Steven Spielberg is not convinced."

"If we haven't convinced Steven Spielberg yet, we're not quite done."

Now John. If you would kindly drop me a note so that we can speak I would like to review this with you. My main point is: "Tintin". Read about it and discover who is behind it. Yes, it is a digital 3D effort.

I can tell you why Spielberg did not want a digital release for Indy 4 and that is simply because the original three are all on film. He wanted continuity - he is a purist and I respect him for that. In fact, I am quite proud that he has not given into re-releasing his Indy franchise in digital.

But to say Spielberg is on the fence - that's nuts. Seriously.