This is unrelated to todays news, but I heard that the makers of Clonus: The Parts Horror are sueing the makers of The Island. So I guess Mr. Bay really didn't know about it before making another multi-million Michael Bay flop. All the MST3K fans out there knew. We saw Mike and the 'bots skewer Clonus years ago. "Get It!?!?" :)
re: foreground/background focus.
It seems as though the American tendency to focus only on what's right in front of them and ignore the rest of the picture carries though their brains as well! :-D
Well, from a cultural evolutionary standpoint, assuming your observation is more or less fair you'd have to think that that kind of focus confers certain advantages, at least in the context Americans grow up in. (And, by certain measures, the USA has been a pretty big success over the last few centuries, though of course it was uncommonly lucky resource- and geography-wise.)