On the surface, Silicon Valley and Hollywood have a lot in common. They both trade in creativity, depend on attracting eyeballs and worship out-of-nowhere success.

But that's where the similarities end, says Nick Bilton, author of Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal. "They are only a few hundred miles apart but light-years in terms of culture," he says.

Hollywood may still have the "cool factor that can dazzle tech geeks," says an observer who has straddled both worlds, but "the dividing line comes down to money. The numbers are just so much bigger in the tech world. People in Hollywood can't help but look on with some admiration" at such deals as Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp.

LIST: Silicon Beach Power 25

One of the biggest contrasts is communication style: Hollywood never likes to say no, while "in tech, you are expected to give direct, even critical feedback and be brutally honest," says Sibyl Goldman, Facebook's head of entertainment partnerships."That's how products are improved and features evolve to become awesome."

The Valley is seen as being driven by innovation, while Hollywood has a rep for being hidebound. Still, not all stereotypes ring true, observes Rich Raddon, co-CEO of Venice, Calif.-based online video venture Zefr: "Entertainment is relationship-driven. Tech is data-driven. When we first showcased YouTube fan uploads, studios quickly embraced it. Hollywood doesn't get credit for innovation like San Francisco does, but it can occur in L.A. as long as it's not disruptive to the core business model."

Other key differences between the cultures follow.

SEE ALSO: ‘Silicon Valley’ Had To Make An Insane Number Of Burger King Runs To Shoot This Brilliant Scene

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Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg make it look easy.

The first movie they wrote together, “Superbad,” grossed $169 million and entered the pantheon of high school comedies. The first movie they directed, “This is the End,” playfully riffed on the summer of the apocalypse and scored $126 million in the process.

“Neighbors,” their latest movie, was this summer's first breakout comedy, and may spawn the first sequel of their career (more on that later).

Yet their approach to producing is born out of failure and frustration. Flummoxed in the past by studios, ratings boards and other producers, they demand the complete creative control only success (and a tiny budget) can provide.

“Our overarching philosophy is to find out the most money they will give us and go away,” James Weaver, their producing partner at Point Grey Pictures, said Saturday during a panel at the Produced By Conference.

Also read: The Maturation of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg: Smoking Meat and Producing Sausages

Rogen and Goldberg began their career in the protective bubble of Judd Apatow, whom Rogen glommed onto after his stint on Apatow's TV show “Undeclared.”

“I just decided I would be around all the time, and I entrenched myself in Judd's office,” Rogen said. Apatow earned the right to do whatever he wanted after producing “Anchorman,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Talladega Nights” — all three of which were hits.

Also read: Raunchy Comedy ‘Neighbors’ Set to Catapult Director Nick Stoller Into Hollywood's Elite Club

He then produced eight films in a two-year span, writing three and directing one, “Knocked Up.” Rogen and Goldberg executive produced three of those — “Superbad,” “Knocked Up” and “Pineapple Express,” and Apatow was so busy that Goldberg was left as the primary producer on “Pineapple Express.”

“I did not have the skill to do that yet,” Goldberg said. “I didn't realize the bubble we were in. … We just thought that's how movies were; they give you $20 million and they let you do your thing.”

Also read: Judd Apatow and Lena Dunham Get Mad at Me For Asking Why She's Naked So Much on ‘Girls’

The next movie they wrote together, “The Green Hornet,” is the one major failure of their career. Based on a character from an old radio show, the movie cost more than most of their previous collaborations combined.

“That was a massive budget, runaway freight train of franchise creation,” Weaver said. “We watched how that challenges the creative process.”

Weaver was Rogen's assistant when they made that movie, as he had been on Apatow's “Funny People.” He began his life in Los Angeles as a manager of a discount clothing store before landing on the desk of agent David Kramer.

His experience in the agency world prepared him for his current role alongside Rogen and Goldberg: dealing with executives, publicists and agents — the exact people Rogen and Goldberg hope to avoid.

“We didn't want to play the game, and that probably made people really frustrated with us,” Rogen said. “It made us seem immature. We were already young, so that didn't help.”

Also read: Resolution Becomes First Hollywood Agency to Take Chinese Investment

Weaver would call the agents and studios back, paying lip service to the dealmakers.

“Seth and I both dressed like homeless potheads,” Goldberg said. “Having someone whose shirt was not wrinkled…

“We had a shirt tucked-in guy all of a sudden,” Rogen interjected, to much laughter.

Though Rogen and Goldberg found someone who could manage the delicate egos of agents and studio executives, Weaver's primary goal was to exclude them from the creative process.

“Our brand of hard-R comedy does not go well with a lot of studio influence,” Goldberg said.

Again, “The Green Hornet” was instructive. It is hard for a studio to risk offending people when the movie costs $120 million. Rogen, Goldberg and Weaver have made four movies since “The Green Hornet,” and not one cost more than $40 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

The success of “50/50,” “This is the End” and “Neighbors” have awarded Rogen and Goldberg the freedom they desire — the freedom to flout the MPAA's ratings system.

“The ratings system is so stupid,” Rogen said. “Why enter a system that's archaic and stupid?” Armed with an R-rating, “you can do pretty much anything you want, except penetration.”

So how will they next offend people? They just directed “The Interview,” a comedy set in North Korea starring Rogen and Franco, and they are in production on “Sausage Party,” an animated comedy about literal sausages.

“People ask us, ‘Do you dudes just get baked on a couch and come up with ideas?” Goldberg said. “With that one, yes.”

Here are some other takeaways from the session:

A ‘Neighbors’ Sequel Could Happen. Goldberg said he, Rogen and Weaver were having “a lot of meetings” about a potential sequel to “Neighbors.” While they would love to make one, “comedies tend to have shitty sequels.” Apatow has never made a sequel, though “This Is 40” spun off from “Knocked Up.” And “Neighbors” director Nick Stoller made “Get Him to the Greek,” a spin-off of his own “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

McLovin Was Never Supposed to be in “Superbad.” Christopher Mintz-Plasse‘s  iconic alias in “Superbad” was a placeholder joke. As they tested it, it became clear that the audiences loved it. “We didn't think McLovin was that funny,” Rogen said. Goldberg still doesn't.

They Won't Be Making a Drama Any Time Soon. Goldberg said they have plans to make more dramatic material, but they are in “no rush to go there.” He and Rogen spend a lot of time on movie sets, and comedy makes that process enjoyable. “It makes me respect people who make '12 Years a Slave,'” Goldberg said. “I couldn't functionally handle that.”

SEE ALSO: Seth Rogen And Judd Apatow Slam Film Critic Who Linked Their Movies TO UCSB Shooting

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Every year, voices proclaim that movies are dying, and every year another filmmaker answers this with a new idea or innovation that can change our cinematic landscape.

And sometimes, they're just bonkers. It sounds very much like you could classify Francis Ford Coppola's statements as just that: are you ready for "live cinema"? 

Speaking at the Producer's Guild Produced By conference, via Deadline, Coppola spoke of same-time worldwide streaming being granted to movies as they shoot. Coppola explains: 

"Movies no longer have to be set in stone and can be composed and interpreted for different audiences that come to see it. Film has always been a recorded medium... You can do anything and you can do it live."

Coppola claims that these live cinema remixes could be "30% pre-recorded," to distinguish itself from theater. Some might recall that Coppola tried a similar technique with Twixt , his last movie, touring the film and "remixing" scenes differently for each audience, along with musical accompaniment. The man is 72, and while Spielberg and Lucas claim the industry is "dead" because they can't get funding for their latest movies, here's Francis Ford Coppola bravely, bizarrely experimenting in a way that changes what we know about filmed entertainment. 

Could this catch on? Who knows? Coppola is currently working on an untitled film about an Italian-American family from the '30's to the '60's, though he volunteers himself as potentially taking this strategy on himself. It does seem pretty complex for Coppola in his later years, as Twixt was already deemed a disappointment by some. Shuttled straight to DVD in America, the film showcases a restless filmmaker interested in playing with the art form more than actually telling a story. It may have been more adventurous stylistically than Coppola's previous two films, Youth Without Youth and Tetro, but it was not more enjoyable or interesting. 

Live cinema does intrigue, however, because the focus would be placed back on story and characters, and no longer on special effects or cheap gimmicks. Coppola's idea might not gain traction, but it's worth a shot so that it can live and die by its own merits. We can be inspired to try even more radical concepts. Ultimately it's about true independent filmmaking, an ideal the Godfather director strives to emulate. 

"If not for independent filmmakers, all we would have would be these big industrial films. The cinema is too important to allow industry high finance to stop it. Cinema is too big to be defeated."

Truth to power, Francis. 

SEE ALSO: Here's Why A Smart, Big-Budget Movie With Two Hot Stars Bombed

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"Jurassic Park" is one of the most successful movies ever made, generating more than $1 billion at the box office — but it's also one of the most groundbreaking.

The Steven Spielberg film is credited with ushering in the era of computer generated effects in film. While other movies like 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" and 1982's "Tron" also used computer graphics, "Jurassic Park" was the first to really utilize the technology.

For the movie's 21st anniversary this year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences released a great featurette breaking down how the dinosaurs that take over Jurassic Park weren't always CGI.

Since the technology was only used in a few films to date, Spielberg preferred using practical effects instead, including lifelike puppets and animatronics.

Spielberg also used stop-motion photography to bring the prehistoric creatures to life. 

He had a stop-motion test created for the T-Rex truck scene ...

... as well as the Velociraptor kitchen scene in the film.

In order to make the dinosaurs look as real as possible, Spielberg went to buddy George Lucas' visual effects company Industrial, Light, and Magic (ILM) to ask if they could add in "motion blur," which helps make the shot look more fluid.

The computer artists at ILM had something else in mind, though. They started secretly building a digital test shot of a T-Rex skeleton walking.

The test blew the film's producers away, and after that movie effects were never the same.

"It was immediately very clear that we're going to get realistic movement to these dinosaurs that was going to be far advanced from what we were doing with stop motion," producer Kathleen Kennedy said in the video. 

While the featurette notes "Jurassic Park" opened up an over-reliance on CGI technology for future films, the 1993 classic doesn't have much CGI at all.

There are only about 15 minutes of dinosaur effects and nine of those minutes are practical effects which look so great you could be fooled into thinking they're CGI. 

Take a look below and see if you can tell the difference.

Check out the Academy's full featurette below: 

SEE ALSO: THEN & NOW: The Cast Of 'Jurassic Park'

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Next year's lineup of Hollywood movies, which is expected to shatter box-office records, would have the heads of entertainment licensing executives bobbling … if bobble-head dolls were hot these days.

The smiling, bouncing little statues are still out there, but it's a whole new world when it comes to the licensing of characters and celebrities from current TV shows and movies.

Apps, computers games, fragrances and clothing lines are driving an increasing percentage of the retail sales from entertainment-based properties. In fact movie and TV-related merchandise hit $51.4 billion in 2013, according to industry figures released Monday. Royalties from those sales climbed to $2.66 billion.

Also read: CAA Rolls Fashion Clients Into Licensing Group; Founder Mitch Grossbach to Exit (Exclusive)

“There's still a tendency to think of licensing as toys and tchotchkes,” said Marty Brochstein, senior vice president of the Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association. The group is gathering in Las Vegas for Licensing Expo 2014, which DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg will kick off with a keynote speech Tuesday.

“The fact is, companies have become much, much more sophisticated in terms of understanding consumer and fashion trends, and smarter about tying in to them,” Brochstein said.

Also read: CBS and Hulu Strike Licensing Deal for ‘Ghost Whisperer,’ ‘Everybody Loves Raymond,’ Others

Youngsters are a critical market for the licensing industry, and they're the demo group that has evolved the most, according to Brochstein.

“Kids are getting older younger. They are far more entrenched in technology at earlier ages, and more likely to be doing things with apps, computers games and such,” he said.

Disney, for example, last week unveiled the “Star Wars Scene Maker,” an app that will let kids (and maybe a dad or two) create their own minute-long movie featuring the images and voices of the iconic characters.

Along with “Star Wars,” there will be new “Avengers,” “Jurassic Park and “Hunger Games” movies landing in 2015. That's a lot of franchise firepower for the licensing biz.

Also read: New Comedy Central Unit to Focus on Merchandise, Video, Downloads, Touring

“The good thing is that these franchises come with a built-in fan base and have a track record of satisfying those consumers with well-made movies,” Brochstein said. “The challenge is to be more creative in terms of the merchandise you offer.”

TV and celebrities as well as movies make up the entertainment licensing sector, which is that industry's largest and provided 42 percent of the $116 billion that it generated overall in retail sales in 2013. Corporate and brand names, fashion lines from celebrities such as Jennifer Lopezand sports are the next biggest sectors.

Fire and Blood beer, tied in with TV's “Game of Thrones” by Cooperstown, N.Y.-based artisan brewery Ommegang, is an example of the sort of creativity today's evolved and more crowded market demands, Brochstein said.

“It works because it seems organic to the story line of the show and they executed it well,” Brochstein said.

SEE ALSO: Daft Punk Made These Fantastic Retro Posters To Sell Merchandise

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A big Hollywood blockbuster often requires a lot of cash.

While it doesn't always take a big production budget to make a break-out hit, the most successful movies are often the costliest.

We turned to IMDB and Box Office Mojo to gather the 30 priciest films ever made, and consulted the consumer price index to adjust for inflation.  

We've also included the original reported and estimated budgets for comparison. A few franchises make the list twice.

While none of this year's movies are among the most expensive, many of the most successful films ever made cost more than $200 million.

29. [TIE]: "The Lone Ranger": $218 million

Original estimated budget: $215 million
Worldwide gross: $260.5 million
Worldwide adjusted gross: $264.2 million

*(All budget estimates have been adjusted for inflation.)

29. [TIE] "Oz the Great and Powerful" (2013): $218 million

Original estimated budget: $215 million
Worldwide gross: $493.3 million
Worldwide adjusted gross: $500.3 million

(All budget estimates have been adjusted for inflation.)

28. "Troy" (2004): $218.9 million

Original estimated budget: $175 million
Worldwide gross: $497.4 million
Worldwide adjusted gross: $622 million

(All budget estimates have been adjusted for inflation.)

This summer's box office is running 10.8 percent behind last year's as we near the midway point.

That's not a shock. Last summer was the biggest in history, with $4.8 billion in domestic grosses. And while this year has its share of strong sequels, there's been nothing comparable to “Iron Man 3,” which topped $1 billion worldwide, or “Despicable Me 2,” which did nearly the same.

That said, there have been some major success stories.

Click here to see the takeaways »

Fox's Marvel mutant mashup “X-Men: Days of Future Past” was the first summer movie to hit $200 million domestically and is still going, and the studio scored a counter-programming coup with teen drama “The Fault in Our Stars,” which has taken in $85 million — on a $12 million budget.

Also read: ‘X-Men’ Kicks Off Fox's Stellar Summer

Sony has bounced back from its very tough summer 2013 with “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and “22 Jump Street.” And it has “Think Like a Man Too,” horror thriller “Deliver Us From Evil” and the Cameron Diaz comedy “Sex Tape” — all potential No. 1 movies — yet to come.

Disney gave up the May summer kick-off slot it's had for the past couple of years to Sony and Spidey, but scored with Angelina Jolie‘s fairy tale update, “Maleficent.”

Last year at this time, Warner Bros. had three of summer's top ten movies in “Man of Steel,” “The Great Gatsby” and “The Hangover Part III,” with “The Conjuring” and “We're the Millers” on the way.  But this year, other than its Legendary Pictures co-production “Godzilla,” it has been tough sledding.

Also read: The Most and Least Liked Summer Movie Actors – Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel, Morgan Freeman, Channing Tatum

Tom Cruise‘s “Edge of Tomorrow” has been a domestic disappointment, Adam Sandler‘s comedy “Blended” missed and the Clint Eastwood-directed musical “Jersey Boys” isn't going to be breaking any records. “Jupiter Ascending,” the sci-fi epic from Andy and Lana Wachowski, has been pushed to February 2015.

Universal connected with one R-rated comedy, “Neighbors,” but Seth MacFarlane's “A Million Ways to Die in the West” was a misfire. The studio has five openings set for July and August.

Paramount and Lionsgate sat out the first half of summer, but the former is about to make a major splash with “Transformers: Age of Extinction” on June 27.

Also read: The Most and Least Liked Summer Movie Actresses – Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie, Mila Kunis, Shailene Woodley

There's still more than two months left of summer left, so things will change. But here's what we've learned so far.

Marvel Means a Massive Box Office

The season's two highest-grossing movies so far are Fox's “X-Men: Days of Future Past” ($208 million domestically, $770 million worldwide) and Sony's “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” ( $199 million, $702 million worldwide) and both are based on the comic book giant's superheroes. Also, Disney's “Guardians of the Galaxy" is looking very strong ahead of its Aug. 1 debut.

Ignore Women at Your Own Peril

Predominantly female audiences have driven two movies — “Maleficent” and “The Fault in Our Stars” — to No. 1 openings in the middle of superhero season. And strong turnouts by women had a lot to do with the breakout first weekends of R-rated comedies “Neighbors” and “22 Jump Street.” Melissa McCarthy's comedy “Tammy,” which debuts on July 2, should continue the trend.

Release Dates Have Been Key

This summer has seen seven different movies open at No. 1 and no film has held the top spot for more than a week. You could say that's an indication that none of this season's tentpoles have been strong enough to dominate, and that's true. But give credit to the studios, who have done a great job of picking their opening dates and timing their marketing campaigns.

Light Chaser Animation Studios, a Beijing-based developer of animated films, raised $20 million in a Series B investment round led by GGV Capital and Chengwei Capital while working on its first 3D feature.

Other investors in the round include Hillhouse Capital and IDG, which provided Light Chaser’s Series A funding. China Renaissance was the financial advisor for the investment.

“Light Chaser is still an early stage venture. We much appreciate the attention and support from all of our friends,” Gary Wang, the founder of Light Chaser, said in a June 20 statement on the funding. “We aim to create highest quality works that are truly original and would fuse both art and technology.”

Wang previously founded Tudou.com, which is the Chinese version of Youtube. Tudou launched in 2005 and within two years had more than 55 million video views per day. In March 2013, Wang founded Light Chaser to create animated films that show Chinese culture and already it has attracted talent from around the world. The company is working on its first 3D animated feature film called Little Door Spirits, which it intends to complete by July 2015 with a $12 million budget.

The Chinese Pixar

Sha Ye, managing director at Chengwei Capital, read Little Door Spirits’ script and saw the full story reel and said, “the film tells a novel and interesting story. You will laugh and you will be touched. I will definitely bring my kids to see this film in cinema. Light Chaser’s second film project has also been started. It’s a different style from the first one, and yet equally enthralling. We are really looking forward to them.”

Light Chaser’s first short film is called “Little Yeyos,” which means “Little Night Wanderers.” It is a three and a half minute video of several winged children fighting over a pin that reflects light.

“The movie market in China is booming, and certainly there is a very significant growth space for Chinese animated feature films,” Jixun Foo, managing partner at GGV Capital, said in the statement. “We are impressed by the vision and execution capability of Light Chaser. Within a very short period of time, they have built up an excellent team and a world-class animation production pipeline. It’s very exciting that Light Chaser’s animation and CG capabilities are already at a level close to Hollywood.”

SEE ALSO: Pixar's Next Movie 'Inside Out' Is About The Inner-Workings Of The Brain

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Gary Oldman might not be the only actor fed up with the new look of Hollywood, but suddenly he's the most vocal.

In a surprisingly frank Playboy interview, the “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” star eviscerates a film industry that has made him millions while also coming across as strangely supportive of ostracized celebrities like Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin.

1. On Hollywood's sensitivity toward racism:
“At the Oscars, if you didn't vote for '12 Years a Slave’ you were a racist.”

2. On the political correctness police:
“I just think political correctness is crap. That's what I think about it. I think it's like, take a f---ing joke. Get over it. I heard about a science teacher who was teaching that God made the earth and God made everything and that if you believe anything else you're stupid. A Buddhist kid in the class got very upset about this, so the parents went in and are suing the school! The school is changing its curriculum! I thought, All right, go to the school and complain about it and then that's the end of it. But they're going to sue! No one can take a joke anymore.”

3. On Bill Maher and Jon Stewart's free pass:
“Well, if I called Nancy Pelosi a c--t–and I'll go one better, a f---ing useless c--t–I can't really say that. But Bill Maher and Jon Stewart can, and nobody's going to stop them from working because of it. Bill Maher could call someone a f-- and get away with it. He said to Seth MacFarlane this year, ‘I thought you were going to do the Oscars again. Instead they got a lesbian.’ He can say something like that. Is that more or less offensive than Alec Baldwin saying to someone in the street, ‘You f--'? I don't get it.”

4. On empathizing with Mel Gibson:
“I don't know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we've all said those things. We're all f---ing hypocrites. That's what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word n----r or that f---ing Jew? I'm being brutally honest here. It's the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy. Or maybe I should strike that and say ‘the N word’ and ‘the F word,’ though there are two F words now.”

5. On his political leanings:
“I would say that I'm probably a libertarian if I had to put myself in any category. But you don't come out and talk about these things, for obvious reasons.”

6. On legalizing marijuana:
“It's silly to me. I'm not for it. Drugs were never my bag. I mean, I tried it once and it wasn't for me, though, unlike Bill Clinton, I did inhale. To me, the problem is driving. People in Colorado are driving high and getting DUIs. That's what I worry about. Listen, if you want to do cocaine, heroin, smoke marijuana, that's fine by me. It's just that I worry about kids behind the wheel of a car more than anything.”

7. On his insecurities as an actor:
“At first I passed on ['Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'], but then I couldn't stop thinking about it. Once I signed on, I thought, F--k me! I can't do this. I can't pull this off. Everybody's going to see what a fake I am. This is the moment I get found out. Who does he think he is? He thinks he's Alec Guinness.”

8. On the death of colleague Philip Seymour Hoffman:
“On the outside someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman appeared to be happy professionally. He had kids; he was working with interesting people. But one never really knows. What eventually happens is you put the drink or the drug before everything else. There's no argument about how good he was, but who knows what was going on inside? I don't mean this disrespectfully, but maybe he looked in the mirror and always saw that very pale sort of fat kid. It's a real tragedy for his family.”

9. On the importance of winning Oscars and Golden Globes:
“What people don't realize is that you need to work at being a celebrity. I'm not talking about movies. I mean the other side of it. You have to campaign. It's a whole other part of your career, and I wish I could have navigated it a bit better. I may have an Oscar now, had I… I know it certainly doesn't mean anything to win a Golden Globe, that's for sure.”

SEE ALSO: New 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' Trailer Will Make You Jump

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In an unusual move, Nancy Meyers has cast her former assistant in a key role in The Intern, the Anne Hathaway-Robert De Niro workplace comedy she is directing for Warner Bros.

The movie began shooting Monday in New York, and the script sees De Niro playing a 70-year-old widower who discovers that retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Wanting to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site run by Hathaway’s character. 

The movie has a small cadre of actors playing interns — Pitch Perfect’s Adam DeVine is one — but one role proved elusive. After a series of readings and tests failed to turn up suitable candidates (one actor is said to have met with Meyers more than 10 times, according to sources), Meyers turned to her former assistant Jason Orley to fill the part.

Orley worked for Meyers when the writer-director made her 2009 film It’s Complicated. After that stint, he also worked as an assistant to Modern Family director Jason Winer. This will be his first acting role, but it wasn't a slam dunk. Orley put himself on tape and ended up meeting with the notoriously picky Meyers five times before landing the gig.

But it doesn’t look like in-front-of-the-camera work is the end goal for the 25-year-old, who is repped by UTA and Mosaic. The L.A.-based Orley also just had his script Big Time Adolescence optioned by financier StarStream Entertainment (Lee Daniels’ The Butler), which will fully finance the project. The script is a comedy about a 16-year-old who slowly gets corrupted by his older sister's ex-boyfriend.

The Intern is being produced by Meyers with Scott Rudin and Suzanne Farwell.

SEE ALSO: Sting: My Children Won't Inherit My Wealth

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Today, the research division at FilmL.A., a not-for-profit film office specializing in coordinating permits for on-location shooting in Los Angeles, released a new report detailing L.A.'s struggle to hold onto TV projects.

The study states that the “2013/2014 development cycle saw New York (with 24 drama projects retained) dethrone Los Angeles (with 19 drama projects retained) to become North America’s most attractive location for one-hour TV pilot production.”

Basically, L.A. is losing more and more pilots to other cities.

“Overall, Los Angeles retained only 90 projects (19 one-hour dramas and 71 half-hour comedies) out of 203 tracked during the ‘13/’14 development cycle, yielding a 44 percent pilot production share. Last year, L.A.’s pilot production share was 52 percent, and six years earlier, a commanding 82 percent.”

FilmL.A. President Paul Audley stated that “Losing television pilots – and then series – to other North American competitors leads to the destruction of steady, well-paying California jobs.”  In total, there were 91 drama pilots produced outside of Los Angeles, which is a record number. 

The report, which is fascinating and definitely worth a read, also mentions that more shows skipped traditional pilot testing and went “straight-to-series” in this development cycle than ever before, partially thanks to new, untraditional release models put forth by Netflix and other online streaming services. 

By the end of the year, Netflix will have a total of eleven original series and seven more are already in development to be released in 2015.

Netflix’s popular series “House of Cards” is filmed in Maryland, while “Orange is The New Black” and the upcoming Marvel “Daredevil” series are shot in New York, and according to the report, “The lost opportunity to the California economy from just these three Netflix series approaches $475 million.”

Check out the full report>

SEE ALSO: 5 Foreign Film Gems To Check Out On Netflix

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Last month the animated movie “Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return” became one of the biggest computer graphic box office flops of all time, and was yanked from most theaters almost immediately.

Last weekend, it made just $36,408.

But according to an investigation by TheWrap, the movie's producers and fundraisers fared far better than the film's investors, who may have collectively lost up to $100 million, while the producers and fundraisers earned tens of millions of dollars, according to SEC filings.

Alpine Productions, which produced the film, told investors that the film could have massive returns, according to one of those investors, court documents and investment documents obtained by TheWrap. Instead, it grossed $8.8 million worldwide on what the producers told investors was a $70 million production budget.

“Legends of Oz” is based on a book by Roger S. Baum, a descendant of original “Wizard of Oz” author L. Frank Baum, and features a cast of voice actors led by A-list names like Lea Michele, Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer and Hugh Dancy. Directed by animation veterans Dan St. Pierre and Will Finn, and produced by DreamWorks Animation vet Bonne Radford, the movie seems like a conventional Hollywood effort.

Yet an investigation of how the movie was made reveals a far more compelling back story focused on two brothers who have often run into legal troubles. No fewer than six states issued “cease and desist” letters to companies connected to Ryan and Roland Carroll in an attempt to shut down its fundraising for the film in each state.

California fined the Carrolls and Alpine Pictures $100,000 in 2011 and required the company to refund investors $589,000, according to state documents.

“Their business model is based on raising money and taking a percentage. They never show anything to anybody,” an insider who worked on the production said, speaking of Ryan and Roland Carroll, now operating respectively as the president and CEO of Summertime Entertainment. “Money just shifts around and they write things up. They line their pockets, they think they're businessmen.”

But in an interview with TheWrap Ryan Carroll said: “I'm not responsible for bringing investors aboard, and I never was. It's an independently made movie that was privately financed with a great deal of effort and a project that I'm very proud of.”

When the Carrolls began raising money for the film in 2006, they were running a company called Alpine Productions, which had previously made several low budget films. The brothers already had a history of questionable fundraising activities dating back to at least 1993, when the state of Oregon sent them a cease and desist letter that accused the Carrolls of selling unregistered securities while operating a company called Carroll Media, Inc. Their next decade was littered with cease and desist orders and fines, in states such as California, Wisconsin, Utah, Michigan, andIllinois.

One of their earlier films, “Lord Protector,” was investigated by the SEC in 1997 for allegedly misrepresenting the budget in order to pay actors the SAG minimum.

The brothers initially sought $20 million to produce an animated sequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” Ryan Carroll told TheWrap. Operating under the name Dorothy of Oz, LLC. with a man named Neil Kaufman serving as the managing partner, they sold stock for $1 a share, requiring a minimum $20,000 investment.

Originally, the film was intended to be a straight-to-DVD movie, but Ryan Carroll told TheWrap that the company decided that their best chance to compete with other animated films was to release it in theaters across the country.

Ryan Carroll said fundraising is “not really what I do. I option the books and I oversaw the production. It wasn't my responsibility to put the funding together, that's a separate entity. We're a production company. There's an LLC [Limited Liability Company] which is Emerald City of Oz, and that was their responsibility to put the funding together, but that wasn't what I worked on.”

Also read: The Most and Least Liked Summer Movie Actresses – Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie, Mila Kunis, Shailene Woodley

However, multiple investment documents and state cease and desist orders link the Carrolls to companies fund-raising for the film.

Neil Kaufman, the managing member of Dorothy of Oz LLC, is listed as an executive producer at Summertime Entertainment, Carroll's company, on his own LinkedIn page. In court documentsfrom California, Kaufman was listed as a salesperson for Alpine in addition to his role at Dorothy of Oz LLC. In addition, Dorothy of Oz LLC headquarters were at the same address of the former headquarters of Summertime (then Alpine) in Burbank. Emerald City of Oz LLC succeeded Dorothy as the main fundraising vehicle, according to the production insider.

Though they claimed to only sell stock to accredited investors, some shares in the Dorothy of Oz LLC were sold to investors who did not satisfy these requirements through cold call solicitation, according to government records from multiple states issuing cease and desist orders. Under exceptions to the typical regulations applicable to fundraising, individuals with liquid assets above a defined threshold and with experience in investing in expensive and risky ventures may be solicited as investors in what are known as private placements.

Also read: The Most and Least Liked Summer Movie Actors – Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel, Morgan Freeman, Channing Tatum

In 2010 the fundraisers began pitching under the name Emerald City of Oz LLC, which was registered in Delaware.

Florida businessman Greg Centineo, who had owned a coffee shop and previously worked in real estate, became heavily involved in fundraising for “Legends of Oz” in 2007. According to the insider involved with the production and a source with knowledge of the fundraising, Centineo began throwing fundraising parties to solicit investors. According to multiple sources, many of these investors were unaccredited.

In an interview with TheWrap, Centineo denied that his investors were unaccredited.

At the parties and other presentations, a PowerPoint was shown to potential investors, which TheWrap has obtained.

In the presentation, they projected anywhere from $720 million to $2.04 billion gross revenue on film content alone (theatrical, home video and cable), and for the franchise, which included merchandising and sequels, to have a return on investment from 324 percent on the low end to a high of 1,180 percent.

Only in a small margin at the bottom of the final page of the presentation's projection section was there any acknowledgment of the riskiness of the venture, and the individuals close to the project told TheWrap that many investors had little grasp of the risk that they were taking, statements backed by court documents.

See photos: 27 Summer Movie Actors Ranked by Popularity (Photos)

According to the cease and desist from Washington State, “at least one Washington investor received profit projections forecasting a minimum return on investment of 162 percent,” and “also received materials featuring the covers of DVDs of highly successful animated films such as ‘Toy Story,’ ‘Finding Nemo,’ and ‘The Incredibles.'”

This story is repeated in many other court orders and legal filings, including in the states ofTexas, Alabama, and California, where Alpine was found to be violating a 2009 cease and desist in 2011. The state filings note that the securities were unregistered, as were the salespeople.

Centineo, however, says that he was very clear with the people he was pitching that they could lose their entire investments, and that projections were based on a formula that he declined to specify.

See photos: 23 Summer Movie Actresses Ranked by Popularity (Photos)

Potential investors were encouraged to send money via personal check, wire transfer, or even investing through their 401K and retirement plans, according to the Washington legal documents.

Others, including those that Centineo signed up, came through referrals.

Despite the Carroll's denial of “Oz” fundraising, the brothers are also operators of the First National Information Network, an investor lead and phone solicitation company that maintained an office at 3500 West Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank, the same place where Dorothy of Oz LLC was once located.

Also read: Hollywood Dumps Diversity (Again): White Men Directed 90 Percent of This Year's Summer Movies

That number was cited as the one calling potential investors.

Based on SEC filings, the fundraisers ultimately raised $103 million from solicitations and road show presentations for the proposed franchise by two companies, Dorothy of Oz, LLC and Emerald City of Oz LLC.

See video: Pink Sings ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ in ‘Wizard of Oz’ Tribute

SEC filings show that a “management fee” of $5.28 million (22 percent on $33 million raised) was taken by the managers of Dorothy of Oz, LLC; another SEC filing shows Emerald City of Oz, LLC nearly at its goal of $77 million, with $17 million (22 percent) already being taken for the company in those management fees. Of that 22 percent taken from both Dorothy and Emerald City, 15 percent went to commissions for people who found and sold to investors; one percent went to the managing partner; and the rest was taken for LLC expenses.

In addition, another 20 percent in production fees was claimed from each LLC by company executives on top of the 22 percent, which Ryan Carroll said was used “to keep the lights on.”

The movie opened May 9, playing in 2,658 theaters. Its distributor, Clarius Entertainment, projected that it would make somewhere in the low teen millions that opening weekend; instead, it earned roundly negative reviews — it sits at 16 percent on Rotten Tomatoes right now — and set the all-time record for worst opening weekend for a wide-release animated movie, making just $3.7 million.

In the weeks since, the film has taken in just $8.8 million worldwide, and played in only 52 American theaters last weekend.

Going forward, Carroll says that they will continue to pursue the virtual world and various phone apps — releasing one every two months starting in September, he promised — and plan to try to turn the “Legends of Oz” franchise into a television series.

Despite the dismal box office, Carroll continued to sell the virtues of his project.

“It may be a longer, more difficult road, and we still have a lot of challenges in front of us,” he said, “but nothing is lost.”

Michael Rich and Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: Inside The Weird, Sad Family Feud Over Walt Disney's $400 Million Fortune

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The GoPro camera has revolutionized the way that people capture the world around them.

The ultralight and portable device provides an easy way to record amazing, high-definition images, and has become the standard for many video producers as a cheap alternative to buying or renting expensive camera equipment. 

The company IPO'd this week, and its stocks were exploding the next day. 

The reason the company is so successful, of course, is because of the awesome footage that its cameras capture.

In honor of the World Cup, here's a video of Davis Paul playing office soccer with his buddies.

Video by Davis Paul

This is what it looks like plummeting to Earth as the first human to reach supersonic speed. From Felix Baumgartner's point of view:

Video by redbull

You can achieve some pretty amazing effects for cheap.

Video by jeremiahjw

Check out how to create the "'Matrix' effect"

It's nice to have supportive parents, especially in the movie business.

FedEx CEO Fred Smith came to town this week to meet with Warner Bros. marketing chief Sue Kroll to discuss the studio's fall release of Alcon Entertainment and Black Label Media's “The Good Lie,” a Reese Witherspoon drama about the Lost Boys of Sudan.

He got on the phone with TheWrap to discuss the project, calling it a fantastic movie.

“The big issue will be the marketing, because it's an esoteric subject,” he said. “It's an adult movie, not ‘The Avengers.'”

The entrepreneur and his daughter, producer Molly Smith, have a personal interest in the movie's subject matter; they helped Lost Boy Joseph Atem after he arrived in the United States.

“One of our daughters met Joseph at church, and he only had the shirt on his back. We try to help a lot of young kids so we helped him go to college, and now he's a PhD. So yes, it's personal in that respect,” said Fred Smith, in an exclusive interview with TheWrap on Tuesday.

Molly Smith financed and produced the $17 million movie through her Black Label banner, which will also pick up the film's marketing and distribution costs using the company's film fund. Fred Smith said his daughter raised the funds from outside investors along with his equity investment.

The movie has become an all-in-the-family affair. Smith said Alcon, the financing company in which he is a primary investor, will receive a distribution fee for assigning “The Good Lie” one of its release slots via the company's distribution deal with Warner Bros., which will put  the film out on Oct. 3.

Molly Smith used to have a first-look deal at Alcon through Belle Pictures before she elected to start Black Label with Trent and Thad Luckinbill, though she remains a board member at Alcon.

Alcon has sought to minimize its involvement in the wake of up to $30 million in losses from the disappointing performance of Johnny Depp‘s big-budget sci fi movie, “Transcendence.” “That was not a good one, that's for sure,” Fred Smith lamented to TheWrap.

Black Label Media came aboard to finance and produce “The Good Lie” in 2012 after years of inactivity. Margaret Nagle developed the script in the Imagine Writer's Lab, and Imagine co-chiefs Brian Grazer and Ron Howard produced the movie.

“Some people think there are similarities to ‘The Blind Side’ but I think it's very different. I'll be shocked if it's not very well-received,” Smith boasted. Molly Smith did not respond to requests for comment.

“The Good Lie” is expected to premiere on the fall festival circuit at either Venice or Toronto. The film has been described as a “sweet” crowd-pleaser, the first third of which is set in the Sudan before the action moves to America. A studio insider told TheWrap that executives do not expect “The Good Lie” to be a major awards contender.

The Lost Boys of Sudan is a group of tens of thousands of young men who were displaced by the second Sudanese Civil War during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The war was resolved by a cease-fire that granted South Sudan autonomy and scheduled a referendum for its independence, which has since occurred.

Philippe Falardeau (“Monsieur Lazhar”) directed the movie, which follows four boys who fled Sudan as violence tore the country apart. After spending years in a refugee camp, they were selected to come to the U.S. and got a new lease on life with a brash American woman (Witherspoon).

Lucas Shaw contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: 'Tammy' Reviews: Melissa McCarthy's Latest Movie 'Is Just Not Funny'

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Jones, 27, was a camera assistant working on the Gregg Allman biopic on railroad tracks in Georgia's Wayne County when she  was struck and killed by a train.  Other crew members were injured but survived.

Also read: Gregg Allman, ‘Midnight Rider’ Producers Slapped With New Lawsuit

Involuntary Manslaughter carries a potential sentence of ten years in prison under Georgia law, while Criminal Trespass is a misdemeanor with a potential sentence of twelve months.

Miller and Savin own the production company behind the film, Unclaimed Freight. Sedrish was the film's executive producer. Production on “Midnight Cowboy” halted after the accident, and star William Hurt has since exited the project.

Also read: Gregg Allman, ‘Midnight Rider’ Producers Hit With Wrongful Death Lawsuit by Sarah Jones Family

The criminal charges are the latest in a string of legal trouble for the defendants. Jones family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the producers, as well as Allman, in May, and makeup artist Antonyia Vera filed a personal injury lawsuit last month.

The crash occurred when the production placed a hospital bed on a railroad trestle bridge while filming in Georgia. They expected only two trains to pass by during the filming, but a third freighter train came across the bridge at “60 miles an hour” and struck Jones. Debris from the hospital bed was responsible for  injuring the others as they attempted to escape the oncoming train.

The Wayne County Sheriff's Office had been investigating the incident since February, and Detective Joe Gardner presented the case to the Grand Jury on Wednesday.  

Also read: ‘Midnight Rider’ Production Shutting Down in Wake of Fatal Train Accident

“The District Attorney's Office would like to thank Sheriff John Carter and his officers for their investigation,” a statement from Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie L. Johnson read. “Because this is a pending case, this office cannot comment any further at this time.”

SEE ALSO: Lead Actor William Hurt Exits Allman Brothers Biopic After Crew Member's Death

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A feeble July 4 weekend has left the domestic box office down by nearly 20 percent from last season, but the sky isn't falling in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, most of the studios are doing just fine this summer.

No one likes to make less money, and this season's overall grosses are at $2.3 billion so far, down 19.3 percent from $2.8 billion over the same stretch last year, according to Rentrak. But there's not a lot of teeth gnashing and no one is panicking, and it's not a matter of ”what, me worry?”

The short story is that while no film has matched the $400 million success of “Iron Man 3,” there have been far more hits than misses. There also hasn't been a mega-budget bomb — last summer there were four – and some of the high-profile movies that have under-performed domestically will wind up in the black thanks to overseas returns.

Also read: ‘Transformers’ Tramples ‘Tammy’ as Holiday Box Office Tanks

Remember that last summer was the biggest in history with $4.8 billion in grosses, so it was always going to be a tough act to follow and the industry knew that. It was clear that this summer's biggest sequels were going to be hard-pressed to match the grosses of Tony Stark and his pals, “Man of Steel,” “Monsters University” and “Fast & Furious 6.”

There was one animated films with major potential –”How to Train Your Dragon 2” — instead of two in “Despicable Me 2” and “Monsters U.” And the summer's prospects took a major hit when Universal was forced to push “Fast & Furious 7” in the wake of Paul Walker‘s death.

“X-Men: Days of Future Past” ($227 million), “Maleficent” ($213 million) and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” ($200 million) are the summer's biggest movies to date, and “Godzilla” ($197 million) and “Transformers: Age of Extinction” ($174 million and counting) are close. But their grosses don't compare with last year's leaders at the half-way point: “Iron Man 3” ($406 million), “Man of Steel” ($267 million), “Fast & Furious 6” ($235 million), “Star Trek Into Darkness ($222 million) and “Monsters University” ($210 million).

Fox is having a terrific summer that stands to get better this week when “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” opens. It scored big-time with the teen drama “The Fault In Our Stars.” But while that film's $12 million budget makes its $112 million total all the more impressive, it doesn't raise the roof in terms of the overall box office.

With the success of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and “22 Jump Street,” Sony is a much better place than it was last summer when “After Earth” and “White House Down” were two of the season's biggest disappointments. The domestic total for Spidey was the lowest in franchise history and half of the “Iron Man 3” haul, but it has grossed more than $500 million overseas, second-best in the series.

Disney may not have “Iron Man 3” this summer, but “Maleficent” has been very strong, especially overseas, and it has Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy” coming on Aug. 1. Paramount has Michael Bay's morphing robots epic “Age of Extinction,” which will take a run at $1 billion in grosses worldwide, driven by its success overseas and especially in China. Universal has largely sat the summer out, but “Neighbors” was a pleasant surprise.

Also read: 5 Takeaways and 5 Questions From the Sputtering Mid-Summer Box Office

Warner Bros. has had a tougher time of it, with Adam Sandler‘s “Blended” and Clint Eastwood‘s “Jersey Boys” struggling, but things are hardly bleak.

Melissa McCarthy's R-rated “Tammy” may not have matched the opening grosses of her earlier hits “Identity Thief” or “The Heat,” but its budget didn't, either. The $20 million R-rated comedy will be profitable by the weekend and could still hit $80 million — or four times its budget, so financially it will be a win. Even the studio's pricey Tom Cruise sci-fi epic “Edge of Tomorrow” has chugged to $90 million domestically, and brought in $250 million from overseas. That may not put it in the black, but it's not a disaster.

“I think that the studios know better than anyone that this business is cyclical,” BoxOffice.com vice-president and senior analyst Phil Contrino told TheWrap. “I'm sure they are assuaging any panic with daydreams about how massive summer 2015 is going to be.”

The summer of 2015 is already jammed with Marvel's “The Avengers: Age of Ultron,” (May 15), “Jurassic World” (June 12), “The Terminator” reboot (July 1), “Despicable Me” spinoff “Minions” (July 10), The “Man of Steel” sequel (July 17) and a movie adaptation of the hugely popular video game, “Assassin's Creed” (Aug. 7).  As “Captain America: Winter Soldier” did this year,  ”Fast & Furious 7” will provide a preseason spark when it rolls out on April 3.

SEE ALSO: 'Transformers' Destroys 'Tammy' At The Box Office

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Few filmmakers have left behind a body of work quite like Steven Soderbergh. The skilled storyteller and Oscar winner bowed out last year after his last theatrically-released film, Side Effects, instead opting to dabble in television, artwork, and occasional side endeavors. Prolific to the very end, Soderbergh hasn't been linked to any directorial projects in almost two years right now – normal for other filmmakers, but not for him. We really aren't going to get any more Steven Soderbergh-directed movies for a long time, and for a very basic reason. 

In an excellent, probing interview with Esquire, Steven Soderbergh elaborates on why he backed away from movies. Promoting the new television series The Knick starring Clive Owen, Soderbergh simply, and tragically, credits the fact that filmmaking was no longer any "fun." 

"The bottom line when people talk about all the reasons, you know the biggest reason? It stopped being fun. It just stopped being fun. It really wasn't. That's a big deal to me. It may sound like 'Why do you have to have fun to go to work?' I don't know. I like to be in a good mood. The ratio of bulls--- to the fun part of doing the work was really starting to get out of whack."

Soderbergh was never the sort of anti-establishment rebel who scoffed at big studio pleasures. After all, this is the guy who made three lively Ocean's Eleven movies to refill his commercial cred. But it's impossible to hear that quote and not think of the muted responses to his later work. Ocean's Eleven ended and he disappeared into the wilderness to make the two-part Che epic Guerrilla and The Argentine, but neither critics nor the general audiences got behind the dry, academic films that nonetheless were titanic cinematic achievements. Soderbergh was very open about feeling that he had lost the plot with those films, but they're still highly fascinating documents of a frustrating moment in global politics, featuring a stellar performance by Benicio Del Toro. 

Soderbergh was also facing the ghettoization of independent film. Now alternate revenue streams could guarantee that a niche product can be profitable. But such specialization meant that it would reach its core audience, but not connect with newer fans that represented the future of cinema. Soderbergh attempted to connect with those fans with a deal to make off-the-radar digital films for VOD release, but a six-film agreement with HDNet only resulted in Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience, the latter of which at least stands to gain a second life from an upcoming TV adaptation. Soderbergh's issue was that indie films were expanding their reach, but not as exponentially as big studio entertainment, most of which is dedicated to the younger audiences he had no interest in courting. Even when he tried to play ball, studios were not receptive to his visions for properties like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. favoring younger, hipper pitches. 

Not to worry: The Knick looks great, and the talkative Soderbergh hasn't completely vanished from the film world, giving snappy interviews like this. Make sure to read the whole thing.

SEE ALSO: Channing Tatum Instagrams His Inspiration While Writing 'Magic Mike 2'

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The skeptics and cynics have it all wrong; the movie business will be just fine.

Christopher Nolan, one of the most successful directors in modern moviedom, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the future of movies in which he rejects widespread pessimism about the future of film.

Movie studios, producers and theater owners will have to work for it, demonstrably improving the experience of going to a movie theater. Bigger theaters, expensive projection and new directors will usher in a new era of film.

Also read: Universal Chief Jeff Shell: Jeffrey Katzenberg Is Wrong About Future of the Movie Biz

“The public will lay down their money to those studios, theaters and filmmakers who value the theatrical experience and create a new distinction from home entertainment that will enthrall — just as movies fought back with widescreen and multitrack sound when television first nipped at its heels,” Nolan wrote.

Too many people are devaluing film, Nolan said, viewing it as just another kind of content, “jargon that pretends to elevate the creative, but actually trivializes differences of form.”

People who are not creative often use content to describe the work of creative people. YouTube, Netflix and Hulu host content. Filmmakers produce movies and TV shows.

Also read: ‘Transcendence’ Director Wally Pfister on ‘Frustrating’ Technology and What Chris Nolan Taught Him

While people can watch content on any device, in any location, the future of movies rests in delineating the theatrical experience from your home theater and your mobile phone.

Bigger, grander movie theaters and with more expensive projection systems will bring exclusivity back to the theater. Nolan rejected recent efforts as “cost-cutting exercises disguised as digital ‘upgrades’ or gimmickry aimed at justifying variable ticket pricing.” Substantive changes to the moviegoing experience require real innovation.

Nolan is also banking on fresh filmmaking voices that will help propel the industry forward. He referenced filmmakers such as Lars von Trier and Quentin Tarantino, who injected new life into the cinema during the early 1990s.

“It's unthinkable that extraordinary new work won't emerge from such an open structure,” Nolan wrote. “That's the part I can't wait for.”

SEE ALSO: Taylor Swift Wrote An Op-Ed In The Wall Street Journal, And It's Filled With Fascinating Insights

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When some actors and directors promote an adaptation or remake they’ll pretend they’ve always been fans of the original movie or the comic. You can generally tell when they’re lying, trying to pander to fans. Thankfully, real die-hard fans often get to be a part of properties that actually mean something to them. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director, Matt Reeves, is one of those people.

Like most kids growing up in the ’80s, the New York-born filmmaker gravitated toward E.T., Close Encounters, and Star Wars. For Reeves, though, those films never held a candle to Planet of the Apes. “That was my obsession. That was my Star Wars,” he tells us over the phone, counting the hours until the film opens this Friday.

When it comes to the Apes franchise the original film and, the strangest of the series, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, are his favorites — Reeves is still shaken by the image of the mutated humans removing their faces in the latter film. He also has a deep fondness for the television series which only lasted, to his surprise, three months back in 1974.

“I thought for sure it was on for years because it took up so much of my childhood. I had dolls, the records, and these comic books. I was so obsessed with that world.”

Beyond playing with dolls, he made short films inspired by Apes. When most kids were playing cops and robbers, there was little Matt, playing an Ape in his own 8mm film. “I had a best friend named Mark Sanderson,” Reeves shares. “We’d call each other on the phone and say, ‘Let’s go play apes!’ We would act out Planet of the Apes. I made a Super 8 movie with the title ‘Galactic Battles‘.”

Quite the title for a film starring aliens wearing ape masks. That Super 8 film likely doesn’t match the production value of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but it’s an experience Reeves remembers fondly, even though his camera was stolen and he never had the chance to complete his unfinished masterpiece.

It wasn’t the last movie he tried to make as a child. In the 1970s a public access channel in Los Angeles aired short films made by young aspiring filmmakers. One night Reeves discovered the channel when he caught a Super 8 horror movie made by a 13-year-old. He jumped at the chance of having one of his own shorts aired.

The man who ran the show, Gerard Ravel, not only loved Reeves’ film, but he also introduced him to J.J. Abrams (future screenwriter behind Forever Young and Regarding Henry), and they’ve remained pals ever since.

Neither of them are making their films for a public access channel these days. Abrams rebooted Star Trek and is now taking a crack at Star Wars, while Reeves has signed up to make two Planet of the Apes films starting with Dawn. The experience has put the Super 8 and ape mask back into his hands.

“It’s weird how much the same it feels, but of course it’s different,” Reeves says. “The pressure of doing a big movie is thrilling, but it’s also terrifying. I always resisted doing a tent-pole movie, because I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find my way in.” Reeves has turned down some high-profile projects for that very reason. If his heart ain’t in it, he won’t be on set yelling action.

His first feature film, 1996′s The Pallbearer, was deeply personal. Reeves, like the late 20-something main character of the film, was living with his mother, struggling to find his way and was deeply affected by the death of a high school friend. Naturally, all of that experience led to writing and filming what could be called a romantic comedy set at a funeral. After his directorial debut Reeves worked in television, not returning to feature films until 2000 with The Yards –a dramatic genre flick he co-wrote with one of his best friends and its director, James Gray. The old-fashioned drama was a box office disappointment, but it remains Gray’s best work.

Although the two personal films Reeves worked on didn’t blow critics and audiences away, when he made his found footage monster movie, Cloverfield, he stuck to his guns. “In my experience of making it, it was about my anxiety of being at the center of events that were larger than us, and being stuck in that terror,” he says. “I learned you could make a film like that personal.” The same goes for his remake of Let the Right One In. A potential rehash and cheap money grab was transformed by Reeves into an exploration of the isolation he felt as a child. Like Let Me In‘s young and disturbed protagonist, Reeves was also a child of divorce who suffered at the hands of bullies.

In the case of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, his connection to the material went beyond his fandom and into his family life as well. “When I rewatched Rise of the Planet of the Apes I had that revelation of seeing my son in Andy’s performance, and that gave it a personal impulse that was important for the rest of the film,” he explains. “That’s one of the reasons why family was so important to me in the story. It was important for me that Caesar have a newborn son, and to see the preciousness to protect that child. That’s even true on the human side, imagining what it’d be like to lose members of your human family.”

While I speak to Reeves, he’s still pinching himself over the fact he made a $150m potential blockbuster all about family. When we discuss the heavier side of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – an Akira Kurosawa-influenced set piece, the brutal violence, and the quiet character moments – he can’t help himself from laughing at what he was able to get away with. After Fox approved his pitch, he had to ask, “What’s the catch?” A quickly approaching release date was their answer. Reeves delivered the sequel on time, while also making a movie on his own terms.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a movie made by a true fan, sticking to the moral complexity of the series and its penchant for dark realities. Imagine if someone told 13-year-old Matt Reeves he’d get to make The Planet of the Apes he would want to see. The kid who once “really dug apes on horses” is now filming those apes on horses. His unfinished childhood fan film has jumped out of a long-lost Super 8 camera and onto an IMAX screen.

SEE ALSO: New 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' Trailer Will Make You Jump

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The creators of web series about a foul-mouthed teddy bear with a penchant for drinking, smoking and prostitutes has filed a copyright infringement suit against Seth MacFarlane, Universal Pictures and the producers of Ted, the 2012 film about a foul-mouthed teddy bear with a penchant for drinking, smoking and prostitutes. 

Bengal Mangle Productions claims that Ted “is an unlawful copy” of its own animated teddy, who was featured in two different web series, Charlie The Abusive Teddy and Acting School Academy. The suit (read it here), filed today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, states that those web series aired in 2009 and 2010 on You Tube, FunnyOrDie.com and other streaming websites.

“Both Charlie and Ted reside in a substantially similar environment, including that both Charlie and Ted spend a significant amount of time sitting on a living room couch with a beer and/or cigarette in hand,” the suit claims. “Charlie and Ted each have a substantially similar persona, verbal tone, verbal delivery, dialogue, and attitude.”

The suit states that in the Charlie web series, the talking teddy is seen “describing what he wants to do to a prostitute; talking about not wanting to go to rehab; yelling at Amy for making him peas; telling his mother he has spread catnip on his testicles; suggesting he and his father go to the strip club together, and pistol whipping someone to get his point across,” while in Acting School Academy he is seen “telling Amy to get an abortion.” The suit claims that these scenes are “substantially similar to ones in Ted in which Ted is seen “showing a woman all the lewd acts he wants to perform with her; using violence to get his point across to John; talking to Nora Jones about their sexual history, and making fat jokes even when his life is in danger.”

According to the suit, “both Charlie and Ted maintain an active social media presence, including individual Twitter and Facebook accounts, with similar postings.” A chart contained in the suit illustrates the many alleged similarities between Charlie and Ted’s online postings:

Charlie 2009 Twitter post: “What the f--- is Twitter?”

Ted 2012 Twitter post: “Hello, Twitter. Kindly go f--- yourself.”

Charlie 2009 Twitter post: “I like Fox News. They’ve made s--- talking an art form.”

Ted 2012 Twitter post: “I like Game of Thrones for tits and blood and Fox News for laughs.”

Charlie 2009 Twitter post: “I don’t like cocaine. I just like the smell of it.”

Ted 2012 Twitter post: “Just acid, and coke, and Ex, and DMT. That’s where I draw the lines.”

Charlie 2009 Twitter post: “Oh I know. I’ve punched Yogi right in the balls. That’s what he gets for being so tall and an a--hole.”

Ted 2012 Twitter post: “Yogi better stop talkin’ trash or I’m gonna release my pic of him goin’ bam-bam in Boo-boo’s butt butt.”

Charlie 2009 Twitter post: “My best ideas are like my best s--ts, they flow out of me on the toilet after a cup of coffee.”

Ted 2012 Twitter post: “I take my music like my dumps: seated.”

Charlie 2009 Twitter post: “Winnie the Pooh is all image. That guy is a deadbeat and an addict. His love of honey wasn’t acting.”

Ted 2012 Twitter post: “Winnie the Pooh is incontinent, and thus so called.”

The suit claims that the defendants, including Media Rights Capital II, “copied Charlie to create the Ted character without plaintiff’s authorization, which constitutes infringement of plaintiff’s copyright in the Charlie character.”

Universal declined comment. A call to MacFarlane’s agent was not returned, nor was a call to Media Rights Capital II.

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