Paramount becomes the first major studio to stop releasing movies on film
In what is a sad day for cineastes, but a glorious day for cellulose molecules, Paramount has become the first major film studio to say it will no longer distribute film prints—thus ceasing the practice of dousing cellulose in nitric acid, just to put Will Smith’s face on it, that People for the Ethical Treatment of Chemical Compounds find so barbaric. The “end of film” has been predicted for a long time now, with harbingers from Kodak saying it would stop producing cellulose acetate this summer, to the release of the first Police Academy movie without Steve Guttenberg. But this abandoning of the format by a studio as large as Paramount is the biggest indicator yet that, despite some never-say-die enthusiasts like J.J. Abrams, film may soon be phased out completely.