Screenshot of Ain't It Cool News.

Ain't It Cool News is a website founded and run by Harry Knowles dedicated to rumors and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films and television projects, with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, horror and action genres. It combines gossip from anonymous and unverified sources as well as news and reviews. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 468 pixelsFull resolution (1007 × 589 pixel, file size: 116 KB, MIME type: image/png) This is a screenshot of a copyrighted web page, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by owner of the website. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 468 pixelsFull resolution (1007 × 589 pixel, file size: 116 KB, MIME type: image/png) This is a screenshot of a copyrighted web page, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by owner of the website. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... Harry Knowles with Cole and Bobby of atthemovies. ... This article is about motion pictures. ...

AICN Staff

• Harry Knowles - "head geek"
• Jay Knowles - "father geek"
• Drew "Moriarty" McWeeny - "West Coast editor"
• H.T. Strong "Hercules The Strong" - "editor of all things televised"
• Eric "Quint" Vespe - "contributing editor/interviewer"
• Steve "Capone" Prokopy - "Mid-West/Chicago Editor"
• Sarah "Midol Girl" Schwartz - "contributing reviewer"
• Scott Green - "Editor/Reporter for Manga & Anime"

Harry Knowles with Cole and Bobby of atthemovies. ... Drew McWeeny, also known by his pseudonym Moriarty, is a film critic, screenwriter, and the west coast editor of the Aint It Cool News website. ...

History

The site was among the first of its kind, and quickly built a reputation for breaking news^{[citation needed]}. It attracted a large number of anonymous Hollywood "insiders" who would submit reports on topics the studios tried to keep secret. The success of the site made it powerful enough to begin possibly affecting box office figures via "net buzz."

The site was launched in 1996 , and its name is attributed to John Travolta's habitual line in Broken Arrow. Harry began surfing the Internet while recovering from a debilitating accident in 1994. He spent a lot of time in newsgroups exchanging gossip and rumors about upcoming films, eventually creating his own Web site as part of his Internet hobby. A principal offering was Harry's colorful movie reviews, but the primary distinction from other sites was the (ostensible) insider news articles. P.A.s, people in the industry, secretaries and other behind-the-scenes folk would submit news such as casting decisions, scripts and release dates, though Knowles himself has admitted that in the beginning, some of the articles from these alleged "spies" were his own work generated from scouring the newsgroups. John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor, dancer, and singer. ... Broken Arrow is a 1996 American action film directed by John Woo and starring John Travolta and Christian Slater. ... A newsgroup is a repository, usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users at different locations. ...

Over the next few years the site expanded by adding associate contributors, most of whom would go by pseudonyms. A television section (dubbed 'coaxial') was added. Discussion boards were added. Practically from the start, it was supported by banner advertising. In 1998 the site was updated from the home-made style that Harry had first envisioned to an organized professional look. Discussion boards were added to every page. This "talkback" feature allows readers to critique every review and article offered. A pseudonym (Greek: , pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons legal name. ... A typical Internet forum discussion, with common elements such as quotes and spoiler brackets A page from a forum showcasing emoticons and Internet slang An Internet forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user generated content. ...

The Web site garnered national attention in 1997 with the release of Batman and Robin. Harry posted several negative reviews from preview screenings. When the film performed poorly at the box office, studio executives complained that it had been sabotaged by the leaks to the Internet. From there it exploded. National magazines such as People and Newsweek called for interviews. The correct title of this article is Batman & Robin (1997 film). ... The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ...

The site was parodied in the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back when the lead characters look at the "Movie Poop Shoot" site. That site was created at MoviePoopShoot.com as part of the film's publicity, and existed as a similar site for some time. However, after the release of Clerks II, the site has been shut down. A site has since been put back up at that URL, run by QuickStop Entertainment, a company probably best known for running the semi-official site for the TV series Scrubs. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) is a film written by, directed and starring Kevin Smith, the fifth to be set in his View Askewniverse, a growing collection of characters and settings that developed out of his cult favorite Clerks. ... Clerks II is the sequel to Kevin Smiths 1994 movie Clerks, and his sixth feature film to be set in the View Askewniverse. ... This article is about the US sitcom. ...

A pilot for a TV series based on the site was shot in 2001 and submitted to Comedy Central.

Several other sites offer very similar services, with a code of ethics meaning that they each credit one another's scoops. These sites include CHUD, JoBlo.com, Film ick, Dark Horizons, Slice of SciFi, the Big Movie Review and Cinematical Chud is a term referring to urban homeless people, especially those who dwell in the tunnels, sewers and subway corridors beneath New York City. ... JoBlo. ... Dark Horizons is a science fiction centric website owned and written by Garth Franklin of Sydney, Australia. ... Slice of SciFi is a podcast and website and part of the Farpoint Media family that looks into the world of science fiction, fantasy and horror. ...

Controversy

The site has been criticized for its low standards in regards to attempting to independently distinguish legitimate rumors from wild speculation or hearsay. Hearsay may refer to: Hearsay in English Law and Hearsay in United States law, a legal principle concerning the admission of evidence through repetition of out-of-court statements HearSay, a British pop group Category: ...

In 2002, Knowles was shown an early cut of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones by Lucasfilm’s licensing head, Howard Roffman with the hope of regaining online fans lost to The Lord of the Rings and Matrix movies. Lucasfilm reacted by shaking down employees and treating the incident as a leak, however no one was ever charged with a crime. Film poster for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) is the fifth Star Wars science fiction movie released and the second part of the prequel trilogy which began with Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. ...

In 2003, site contributor "Hercules" speculated that a few pages of a spec script by Richard O'Sullivan might or might not be an excerpt from the fifth-season opener of the now-cancelled Joss Whedon series Angel. Though Ain't It Cool only summarized the pages' contents, other Internet sites receiving the pages posted them in their entirety. O'Sullivan has denied any knowledge of how the pages got to Ain't It Cool or the other sites. A screenplay or script is a blueprint for producing a motion picture. ... Joss Hill Whedon (born Joseph Hill Whedon[3] on June 23, 1964 in New York) is an Academy Award-nominated American writer, director, executive producer, and creator of the well-known television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. ... For the South Korean TV series of the same name, see Angel (2007 TV series). ...

In 2004, a prank website successfully started a wild, made-up rumor about actor John Rhys-Davies (about an appearance in Star Wars Episode III) through Ain't it Cool News, which ended up becoming widely repeated in the mainstream media despite being a complete fabrication. [1] Such episodes have led to criticisms that the site has an overall negative influence on entertainment journalism. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... John Rhys-Davies (born May 5, 1944) is an English actor best known for his supporting roles as the charismatic Arab excavator Sallah in the Indiana Jones films, and the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (in which he also voiced the towering Ent, Treebeard). ... Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is the third episode of the Star Wars film series (but the sixth film to be produced), to be released on Thursday, May 19, 2005. ...

In early May of 2007, the details of the season finale of Lost were posted from a blog and disclosed in a talkback for the show, and very soon after the article and talkback were removed. Angry fans of the show began "hijacking" other talkbacks of the site to discuss Lost, bringing some very negative reaction from the administrators of AICN. Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st Century. ... List of Lost episodes Through the Looking Glass is the 22nd episode of the third season – 69th episode overall – of the American Broadcasting Company television series Lost. ... “LOST” redirects here. ...

Chat Room

AICN also has its own chatroom where geeks and film buffs can "have at it" in a free-form, unstructured manner. Screenshot of Aint It Cool News. ... A geek is a person who is fascinated, perhaps obsessively, by technology and imagination. ... The name Buffs can mean:- Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), a British army unit Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes Buffs Company, a Rifle Company of The Queens Own Rifles of Canada that parades out of Dalton Armoury in Scarborough. ...

Occasionally, filmmakers such as Matthew Vaughn, Michael J Bassett, Patrick Read Johnson or Anghus Houvouras stop in to chat with the geeks. Andy Milonakis also popped in regularly for a while, prior to the debut of his MTV show.
Matthew Vaughn (born 7 March 1971) is a film producer (Layer Cake, Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels among others), director (Layer Cake) and husband of Claudia Schiffer, whom he married in 2002. ... Michael J. Bassett is a British-born screenwriter and director. ... 5-25-77 is an upcoming 2007 film written and directed by Patrick Read Johnson. ... Andy Milonakis Andrew Michael Milonakis (born January 30, 1976, in Katonah, New York) is an American comedian who plays the role of a pre-pubescent boy on his television show, The Andy Milonakis Show. ...

External links

• aintitcool.com
• "A Question of Ethics". Editorial from another movie website Coming Attractions critical of Ain't It Cool News' policies.
• Film Threat's expose of Ain't It Cool News' policies.
• An early review of the site