Scott Kirsner spent three years immersed in the movie industry
in order to write a book called “Inventing the Movies:
Hollywood’s Epic Battle Between Innovation and the Status Quo,
from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs.”  He talked with directors
like Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron, editors,
cinematographers, studio chiefs, producers, tech companies that
sell technology into Hollywood and even actors with an interest
in new technology like Morgan Freeman.  He discovered that
Hollywood serves as a great case study for how any long-
established, successful and self-satisfied industry responds to
new technologies and new ideas.  Even when a new idea seems to
have obvious merit and even when its inventor can make a strong
case for it, 95 percent of the people involved in the industry
fight the new idea with all their energy for as long as they
possibly can until they realize it has the potential to grow
their business in surprising ways.   Here are several movies —
all of which you’ve likely seen — each with an