Ah, Hollywood. All dreams of stardom, directors brandishing megaphones and some third thing from The Artist. Back in those early days Hollywood (née Land), and the industry, felt like an almost mystical entity, the studio backlots places where magic was worked. Really it was a bunch of people guessing their way through business with some ridiculous rules; actors used to be tied to one studio, with an outside appearance coming with a hefty fee and using "Jesus" as an expletive got your film banned. Thank f**k that's in the past. It may feel like the movie industry is now quite easy to understand; Sony keep making Spider-Man movies not because Peter Parker's story needs to be told, but because if they don't the rights to the character will return to creator Marvel; a film wins an Oscar less off quality and more off how it's pushed; Nicholas Cage stars in bad films because of tax issues. But really some of the most fundamental beliefs you harbour about the movie industry are plain wrong. These stem from an idealised version of the movies that the industry and its press are keen to propagate. Today we're going to bust open ten such beliefs in a hope to enlighten you of what's really going on out there.
