Oliver Stone Doesn't Much Care for the Internet
We headed out to an event last night for Terra.com, a Web portal of news, sports, entertainment and social media tools geared toward the Hispanic market in the U.S. The company gathered some high profile guests including Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, “Extra” host Mario Lopez, former New York Knick Earl “The Pearl” Monroe and film director Oliver Stone at the New Museum of Contemporary art in Manhattan.
Terra.com is launching new products and working with new Web partners as they continue to expand in the U.S. And they thought by bringing in Stone, he might be able to discuss how films are experienced on the Web.
Stone wasn’t having it.
For 13 minutes, founder and CEO Fernando Madeira did his best to keep Stone on track about the brave new world of the Internet and the great new things the World Wide Web can provide.
Describing the difference between what he does and what “these kids” with Flipcams and too much time on their hands are doing, Stone said, “I saw one where the two kids come over and and one of them strangles the other, and they call that a fucking movie?”
As for the traditional media, Stone has no patience for it either. “I don’t read The New York Times, never did, I read through it. You read the front page and you know that’s their take. That’s what they’re trying to sell you.”
And on TV news: “It’s a shame what America did with Television…Not only did it become for profit, but the news became for profit. It’s a joke,” said Stone. “Anything made for money is bad and rotten.”
“I don’t get anything out of the news. I think television is an evil drain.”
Stone, in New York shooting Wall Street II, talked about how he is renting an apartment equipped with a plasma TV. “It’s disgusting. Every movie from 1940, 1930, I see it and it’s in HD and it looks like it was shot backstage by ‘Entertainment Tonight.'”
Later, Lopez, 27 years younger than Stone, said, “With all due respect, I think he does represent another generation. And speaking for mine, not only do I love the Internet, I think it’s such an important tool in the entertainment community.”
Stone, who was speaking to a roomful of Internet entrepreneurs, concluded with one request: “Leave the grit in.”
The Terra event included pitches from the directors of sales and programming about the new projects and partnerships, including sports deals with the NBA, MLB, the IOC and FIFA. Terra.com has 70 million unique visitors worldwide, including 4 million in the U.S. In August, Terra.com had grown its unique visitors 126% year-over-year.
