Monday Links: New Movie Review Aggregator, Mark Cuban @ D7, New Distribution Venture, and the Ransom Model of Fundraising

- The NY Times ran a story on Saturday about a new site aggregating movie reviews, started by David A. Gross, a former marketing exec at 20th Century Fox. It's called Movie Review Intelligence. I found it pretty useful...

- There are a bunch of great videos from the Wall Street Journal's D7 conference earlier this month, including interviews with NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, the founders of Twitter, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, and Mark Cuban. (There's also a video interview and several performances by Jill Sobule, one of the stars of Fans, Friends & Followers.) Definitely worth checking out...

- The Times writes today about a new distribution venture for movies with budgets up to $10 million, called DF Indie Studios. Behind the launch are Mary Dickinson and Charlene Fisher.

From the Times' piece:

Ms. Dickinson and Ms. Fisher — the D and the F in DF Studios — think independent productions are ripe for reinvention. “There is going to be a dearth of quality product in the marketplace because financing has dried up for so many people, and that means we can move into that open spot,” Ms. Dickinson said.

The two would not discuss the company’s financing and had no film projects to announce. They are still seeking investors.

“We are happily on the way with our financing, which will allow us to start making films in the fall,” said Ms. Fisher, whose background is in entertainment business development and restructuring. Ms. Dickinson’s experience includes reorganizing an extreme sports film company, Teton Gravity Research

- Ross Payton is a designer of role-playing games who also hosts the video podcast Raillery. He read Fans, Friend & Followers, and wrote in to share the story of his success in raising money via the "ransom" model. More about that here.