Five Minutes with Edward Jay Epstein

Your most recent book, The Big Picture, suggests that theatrical releases of films are now something more like a means to ensure long-term intellectual property returns for the studios. And people like Steven Soderbergh have begun releasing new movies simultaneously in theatres, on DVD and TV. Are you pessimistic that such moves signal the end of cinema as we know it or optimistic that the growing financial clout of DVDs mean films that otherwise might not have been made will get the green light?

DVDs are merely a more convenient form of the 1970s video format. The real change took place in 1950 with the advent of color TV, and will accelerate with high-definition large-screen TV. The change is, in four words: theatre to home entertainment. Theatres will not end, they will be like opera, a niche. The release of movies first at home is called TV.

You point out that while movie stars might fantasise publicly about doing their own stunts, insurance realities mean they can't. What finding about the film industry most surprised you?

The willingness of studios to trade off predictable profits for prestige in doing a large portion of their films. The fact that Hollywood is the land of institutionalised deception, and visual fakery, is the least surprising aspect to me.

You spend considerable space on your site debunking commonly held but unsupported theories, such as that the 9/11 terrorists all had box-cutters. Given the seeming readiness of officialdom to spin, mislead or possibly tell untruths, do you have any concern that the intelligent sceptic might be drawn into dubious conspiracy theories such as those that swirl around 9/11?

My point is not that the hijackers did not have certain weapons, but that the government knows much less about the plot than it pretends. Pretence of omniscience is a form of social control.

Given the production of near-perfect man-made gems (for example), do you consider it likely that the power and price structure of the diamond industry will change?

Diamonds are, next to TV, the least rare commodity in most households in America and Europe. The structure of the industry depends on maintaining a myth of rarity - and De Beers has brilliantly done that to date. I see no reason why it will not continue its leadership in perpetuating this myth.

Could you please give us a 'high-concept' one-line summary of your coming book on the 9/11 Commission?

No. I never conceptualise a book, even for publishers, before I finish my research.

Which book would you most readily recommend to NZBC readers?

If you mean my books, I would recommend Agency of Fear [the story of the founding of the DEA]. If you mean another non-fiction author, the most important book I've read in the last 20 years is Henry Kissinger's Diplomacy.