Forty Years After They Were First Funny, IFC Honors Monty Python Oct 14, 200911:34 PDT

Wednesday, October 14, 2009.

40 years after they began redefining comedy, sketch troupe Monty Python is the focus of a new six hour documentary on IFC. Nominees for the 2009 American Music Awards are announced, with Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson leading the nods, and a $15,000 horror film is rewriting the rules for box office success. This is your Daily Surf Report, using the best videos on the web to keep you abreast of the day’s top stories.

Jackson Receives 5 AMA Noms, Swift Tops List With 6

Nominees for the 2009 American Music Awards were announced, and 19 year old country singer Taylor Swift leads the pack with six nominations. Swift has been on a roll lately in the awards department, starting with her MTV Video Music Awards win where her acceptance speech was famously interrupted by Kanye West.

Michael Jackson received five nominations, despite not having released an album during the consideration period. Jackson is nominated for Artist of the Year, among other categories.

Hip hop megastar Eminem is nominated four times.

The American Music Awards are determined by online fan voting, and winners will be announced in a televised ceremony on ABC Nov. 22.

In this video Paula Abdul, who along with Snoop Dogg and Adam Lambert announced the nominees, explains why Jackson deserves his nominations:

IFC Hosting Python-athon

British comedy troupe Monty Python is the subject of Monty Python: Almost the Truth (the Lawyer’s Cut), a six hour documentary premiering on the Independent Film Channel next weekend. IFC is going all out, airing not only the original doc but also all four seasons of the Python’s Flying Circus series and several of their films, including Monty Python And The Holy Grail and Life of Brian.

Begun in England in the 60’s by members Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and American animator Terry Gilliam, Monty Python’s particular brand of silly comedy became an international sensation that has lasted for forty years.

IFC’s Python coverage begins October 23rd at 9pm. While you’re waiting, you can check out the trailer below:

Paramount Scores Gem With Paranormal Activity

Despite playing in only 150 theaters nationwide last weekend, the supernatural thriller Paranormal Activity earned an astounding $44,000 per theater, good enough to land it in the weekend’s top top five. Movie goers lucky enough to have the film playing near them waited in long lines to catch a glimpse of what is becoming a phenomenon.

What separates Paranormal Activity from last weekend’s box office winner Couple’s Retreat, which stars Vince Vaughn, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell, and Jon Favreau in a very Hollywood-style comedy, is money, and lots of it. Mainstream movies are made for tens of millions of dollars, and tens of millions more are spent on advertising and promotion.

Paranormal Activity, in contrast, stars no one recognizable and was reportedly filmed for around $15,000 (less than the cost of one day’s production on most studio films) and its advertising campaign has been predominantly low cost initiatives on sites like Facebook and Twitter. The word of mouth campaign is working, however, and amid comparisons to another low budget blockbuster (The Blair Witch Project), Paranormal Activity has already earned almost $10 million and it’s reach is only growing. Starting this weekend, the film will be moving to far more theaters nationwide, giving millions more the opportunity to see what all the buzz is about. Check out the trailer below, and then check your local listings: thanks to a tremendously successful word of mouth campaign, this “little movie that could” is likely playing in a theater near you on Friday.

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