While watching The Devil’s Tomb on Netflix, I picked up my Canon Rebel to see what I could see if I tried to make a photo of someone else’s moving photos. Cinematography by Thomas L. Callaway. Recognize the actor?

“Thanks to a deft faux trailer edited together by Jaron Pitts — using footage from Avatar, Resident Evil, and The Island — Warner Bros. hired the writer of Shutter Island to adapt this little-seen Serbian animated scifi thriller.”

“We seem to be living in a new crazy world where, in some cases, well-cut mashup trailers can unlock the magic Hollywood money vault.”

A new Academy Award: Most Twisted Brainscape.

Everything fracturing, Paramount Pictures included. “Dubbed Insurge Pictures, the unit has one million dollars fueling its films. 10 movies are on tap in the first year at a budget of just $100,000 each.”

Good storytelling decision not to include this heavy-handed, simplistically metaphorical scene in the film. It’s very clear George Clooney wears a spacesuit. We don’t need to be hammered in the face with the idea.

Reminds me of playing Infocom’s Zork as a kid. What we really need is a virtual horror environment responding as if real and broadcast into theaters.

Howdy, Mr. Nicolas Cage. How's the coffee in New Orleans?

Close-up crops after the jump.

Negotiating his next role?

Seven figures are better than six.

There are two reasons I recommend watching this:

1. For 98% of the film, it truly has the feel of a documentary, which enhances the drama and sadness of the story. The 2% refers to a few lines of dialogue that seemed forced, overly wrought and self-conciously attempting to inform the viewer about the significance of the scene being viewed and the feelings of the characters.
2. It captures the daily, deadly disasters that arise out of people trying to survive and make decisions in the confusion, fear, misunderstandings and stresses of a war zone.

It was one of those movies that made me want to make movies.

Even with the potential competition from Lionsgate and Pacifica Ventures, Jacobs, co-owner of Rio Grande Studios, is considering an expansion that could include 200 acres and five new sound stages at one of five possible sites in New Mexico.

“The state,” he said, “is big enough to have a couple of studios for work.”

No date is set to launch the project, but Jacobs vowed “we will do this.”

Jacobs says his confidence is based on two factors:

The state’s film production incentives – primarily a 25 percent tax rebate and no-interest loans up to $15 million – that are generating a lot of interest from moviemakers.

His own connections, made during 25 years of working in Hollywood as a photojournalist.

“I have all my contacts and that includes most of the studio heads, executives and producers,” he said. “I’m not going to fight Culver (a California studio owned by Pacifica Ventures) or Lionsgate for work when I have my own contacts, my own stable, so to speak. If they do it, fine.”

Meanwhile, there seems to be plenty of movement on the movie industry front.

Although a Lionsgate official said the company has not yet finalized any deal to build a studio in New Mexico, company brass and the state are engaged in an “advanced discussion,” said Peter Wilkes, head of investor relations for the company.

No officials contacted with Pacifica Ventures or Forest City Covington NM LLC – the company managing the sprawling Mesa del Sol – would comment on the possibility of a new studio being built at the development south of the Albuquerque International Sunport.

However, documents submitted to the city Planning Department request approval of a permit for the construction of a “motion picture studio” on 28 acres within Mesa del Sol. The documents were submitted by a local company on behalf of another company tied to Pacifica Ventures.

Forest City also recently announced a Thursday news conference about a “coming attraction” at Mesa del Sol, but the conference was canceled due to concerns about the weather.

The Pacifica Ventures Web site describes an “eight-stage facility planned for construction at Mesa del Sol” that would provide film, TV and post-production services.

Rio Grande Studios will not be moving into Mesa del Sol, Jacobs said. The company, located in northwest Albuquerque, has worked on TV shows, commercials and one independent film.

State Investment Council spokesman Charlie Wollman could not say how much the state might invest in a new Lionsgate studio because negotiations were ongoing.

Lionsgate is leasing space in Rio Rancho for production of its “Wildfire” TV series. The Investment Council recently approved another $15 million investment for the third season of the series, described as “doing well” by Wollman.

“Wildfire” had received three separate loans – of $4.1 million, $15 million and $15 million – prior to the latest loan. The $4.1 million has been paid back.