At the Movies Cancelled, Then Announced for a Relaunch Within One Week - The UpStream

Earlier this week, the long-running show At the Movies was cancelled due to a number of reasons. In this day in age, we know that any twelve year-old with a laptop can become movie critic with the power of the Internet, and nobody reads reviews in the newspaper or on TV anymore. And although Roger Ebert had no problem accepting that the Internet exists, medical conditions caused him to leave the show in 2006 to be replaced by several different hosts. The good news is that Ebert seems like he's back on his feet and ready to give it another go - at least on the production side - because on his blog the other day he confirmed that he and his wife are collaborating to create a new movie review show. Even better is that he states it will have a strong presence online.

We will go full-tilt New Media: Television, net streaming, cell phone apps, Facebook, Twitter, iPad, the whole enchilada. The disintegration of the old model creates an opening for us.

Awesome! It's great when people of the last generation embrace the future and do what they can to not only stay competitive, but to make their presence felt in this new media outlet. Ebert plans to not just talk about all the ways you can watch movies, but also review every kind of film imaginable - from blockbuster to independent projects. It also seems like he doesn't care too much about wanting to be the first or the exclusive guy as he said that it didn't matter to him anymore and that it's time to "smarten up."

Of course, Ebert won't host the show but he does wish to show up from time to time, using computer assistance to speak. Hosts have already been selected, and he does plan on bringing back the "thumbs up, thumbs down" to the show. Last but not least, it's going to be called Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies. This should be great!