Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2015 September 12

= September 12 =

Old sci fi novel about a vet for humanoid aliens
I'm looking for the title of an old sci fi novel (1950s-60s, I think) about a veterinarian who gets hired by a man with a privately owned planet to take care of his livestock. The livestock turns out to be sapient aliens that are almost exactly human, leading to problems for the vet because he specifically went into veterinary medicine because he was squeamish about performing surgery on humans. I can't remember much more about it, I know I read it on Project Gutenberg years ago. This ring a bell with anyone? Horselover Frost (talk &middot; edits) 04:06, 12 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Was it Robert Heinlein's The Star Beast? There isn't anything about veternarians in it, but it is about a sentient pet.  -- Jayron 32 04:17, 12 September 2015 (UTC)
 * A sapient pet on Earth who's not so much humanoid as dinosauroid, but apart from that ... —Tamfang (talk) 19:16, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

Bandy and floorball
In the article on bandy it is said to be the predecessor of floorball, but nothing is said about this in the article on floorball. Sometimes, the origin of a sport is not so clear, but maybe someone could shed a light on this? Snowsuit Wearer (talk&#124;contribs) 13:39, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

Movie release dates
Why are some new Hollywood movies released in Europe and other parts of the world well before they are released in the USA? For example, Knight of Cups is already out in Germany and Austria, and will be released in other "territories" well before it first gets aired in the US in March 2016. See schedule of release dates here. Is it an anti-piracy strategy? Because if so, I can't see how having the film released at different times helps to defeat the pirates - if anything, I would say it plays into their hands. Thanks. --Viennese Waltz 18:28, 12 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Generally speaking, some of the reasons why a film would stagger releases between different countries is listed on the Limited release article. It is sometimes used to gauge the appeal of film, which either keeps marketing costs low until the film's performance has been established, or it enables them to quickly cut their losses if it bombs. Another reason is that they may want to delay a release in a certain country so they do not have face stiff competition with other films that may open at the same time (such as during the summer blockbuster season when studios want to release all their big budget productions). Specifically in this interview with the founders of Broad Green Pictures, the US distributor of Knight of Cups, they do seem to express a concern about how the film got a mixed response when it opened in Berlin, and that they want to avoid the so-called "Oscar season" period, when most studios release their more critically acclaimed films so they get more recent news coverage when the Academy Award nominations are being considered. Zzyzx11 (talk) 20:20, 12 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Purely anecdotal evidence, but I remember seeing a documentary about film distribution in the UK. A high-placed executive was saying that in the US, more people go to the cinemas in the summer, because they are air conditioned and you can get out of the heat. In the UK, it's rarely that hot and there's often no air conditioning either, so people find other uses for the light summer evenings, but do go in the winter when it's dark and miserable outside. So if the Hollywood studios are pushing a film which the British distributors think will flop, they say "we did our best, we ran it in the middle of summer and nobody came". Alansplodge (talk) 01:00, 13 September 2015 (UTC)