Hollywood
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More rumors about iTunes movie rentals
CNN Money has more fuel for the fire on the iTunes movie rental rumors popping up lately. They say Apple is in talks to get the rentals up and running with major Hollywood studios.Supposedly the movies would be watchable on the iPod or iPhone, but could not be copied, and would not actually be purchased. You'd have a 30 day access period to the movie for $2.99, but CNN doesn't say whether that means you get to watch it once during the 30 days, or if it's yours for as many times as you want it during the period. The low price says just one viewing to me (since iTunes movie purchases are at least $9.99, if not more), but you never know.Of course, the big question is: would you do it? If incorporated with the iTunes WiFi store, I think it could be huge-- be somewhere bored on your iPhone, click a few buttons, and be watching The Incredibles within minutes. But as usual, it all depends on what the studios want-- if the whole process is burdened with DRM, and I get error messages when I try to re-sync with iTunes, they can keep their rentals. I'll just make a note to put it in my Blockbuster queue.[via Ars]
Hollywood experiments with Painkiller
Have you heard this one before: Guy Walks Into a Bar acquires Painkiller...? No, it's not a joke. Well, sorta ... it's Hollywood.Production company Guy Walks Into a Bar has purchased the feature film rights to DreamCatcher Interactive's 2004 throwback FPS Painkiller. Most celebrated for its multiplayer (becoming an official CPL tour game in 2005), Painkiller pairs well with Hollwood's penchant for whimsical adaptation -- the game is lite on plot. Guy Walks head Jon Berg was actually inspired to pursue the franchise after catching a 60 Minutes segment about competitive gaming. Does Berg envision a flick based on frag matches? How the film will ultimately manage Painkiller's disparate environments and thin storyline is up to Ben McCaw, who has been hired by Guy Walks to script the adaptation. McCaw's credits include "Gideon's Vault," a finalist in the Austin Film Festival screenwriting competition, and "Class of the Living Dead." While early news has the film looking like a DOOM'd project, perhaps the forthcoming game sequel Painkiller: Overdose will stir interest.
Blu-ray backers launch promotional website
A website that should likely be dubbed "Hollywood in Blu-ray" rather than "Hollywood in Hi-Def" has recently emerged, and while it claims to be a more reputable site than those "other promotional portals," we aren't buying it. The site -- which is purportedly backed by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment -- includes the latest happenings in the BD universe as well as plenty of fluff to get you drooling over its silky smooth image quality. Notably, the site tends to address the desires of both early adopters and those just now taking interest in the format, and the running list of upcoming Blu-ray titles is indeed a nice extra. So go on, tag the read link to see what it's all about, but don't say we didn't warn you when you're overcome with Blu.[Via VideoBusiness]
Breakfast Topic: Casting the WoW movie
I have to admit, this one caught me by surprise, but with the continuing fashion of adding "murloc" into every possible movie title available (this is especially funny with James Bond films, IMO -- "The Murloc who Loved Me", "Live and Let Murloc" but I digress...) I suppose it was the next progression of silly things to overhear in /guildchat, or in the /trade channel late at night.As rumors of the WoW movie travel around, people are talking about who would be the perfect casting choices for the various characters that they might present if they're touching upon the lore in World of Warcraft. As you can see from the image above, one of the people I heard suggested was Reese Witherspoon, cast as the powerful but somehwat naive Jaina Proudmoore. I've heard a lot of other interesting choices, but rather than bogging down this post with the ones I overheard, I figured I'd toss this one out and see what you all thought. If they do a live-action film based on the Warcraft universe, who would you pick for the roles, and why? For that matter, what race and class do you think some of your favorite stars would be if they were cast -- but just as non-lore characters? (And a bonus cookie* if you can name -- and justify -- which star would make the best murloc!)*cookie available in .jpg format only. The real one will be eaten in your honor, if that helps any.
An elegant announcement for a more civilized age
This is yet another confirmation of what every gamer has been waiting for since the first time we saw the Wii controller. At the Hollywood & Games Summit, panel moderator N'Gai Croal asked LucasArts president Jim Ward about the possibility of a Wii lightsaber game. Ward's response was very encouraging. "We're all over that, and internally we have already played a lightsaber game on the Wii. It's a lot of fun, and we'll get there." He went on to say that "some stuff" would be out this fall. Start practicing your blind Force-guided waggling now.[Via NeoGAF]
Hollywood eyes the iPhone
iPhone fever, have you caught it yet? It would seem that Hollywood has. The iPhone has set the cellphone market on fire (even though almost no one has used it yet) and Hollywood has taken notice. They are now scrambling to work out deals with a variety of companies to serve content to the iPhone (and other cellphones as well) according to the New York Times.The movie industry has largely ignored the mobile phone market mostly because historically the only phones that would offer a pleasant viewing experience (i.e. sport a large screen) have been limited to phones targeted to the corporate market. Apple has the consumer in mind, and that is an audience that Hollywood knows, and wants to sell things to.Even if the iPhone fails (which is a pretty big if, but possible) it will have lasting ramifications on the cellphone industry. People will expect more, and there are some companies out there that seem to finally be getting that.
Rumor: Hollywood Video computer hints at budget Bonk
This picture of a Hollywood Video listing teases us with the delightful possibility of a new Bonk game on the Wii, at a $14.99 price point. It's highly doubtful that it would just be a retail release of the $6 Virtual Console game, so this could potentially be something new! Or at least something new to us. Some possibilities: It's a Wii port of the Gamecube remake, which was never released in the US, and is apparently quite good. It's something that certain Wii Fanboy bloggers have been pining for over the last few years. It's a console release of the Bonk's Return cell phone game. It's an original game! For $15 somehow! It's a trick! Get an axe. We wouldn't mind any of the three possibilities that result in a game being released. We love Bonk and would be thrilled with a new Bonk release, much like a pithecanthropus computerurus would be thrilled by delicious meat popping out of a giant squashed flower.
Is this the Palm Gandolf?
You know how much we love an ugly Photoshop job around here, and this grainy, pixelated image of a rumored Palm "Gandolf" certainly brings the ugly. We have no idea where this pic came from or if it's real, but if it is, it'll represent a pretty big design departure for Palm -- it actually looks pretty HTC-ish to us. The source says this EV-DO unit is actually the much-rumored "Hollywood," and will debut on Sprint for under $200, but we'll believe it when we see it.
Halo-wood Party: The Devil Wears Combat Boots
The Master Chief is a busy cyborg. Between saving humanity from The Flood, fighting Brutes, blowing up Halos, being pampered by Microsoft, penning his memoirs and having coffee with Cortana, he just didn't have time to learn the names of the celebrities who attended his Hollywood party last night. Can you help him?Below is a gallery of all the folks that showed up to get down with the Master Chief. Keep a count of the people you can name from this list and help the Master Chief. Require some assistance? We're not much help. Aisha Tyler (former Talk Soup hostess, lover of our "friend" Ross, deceased friend of Ghost Whisperer) is the goddess in the white dress, but you'll have to figure out the rest on your own. Napoleon Dynamite is in there along with The Human Torch. Some of these people should really have name tags.%Gallery-3177%
Xbox Live: Hollywood's new "Let's do lunch"?
It used to be that a producer couldn't sit down at a hip Hollywood bistro without some aspiring waiter thrusting a screenplay in his hands. Nowadays, the unsolicited pitches may be coming through an Xbox Live headset instead.Variety has an interesting piece on the rise of Xbox Live matches as networking opportunities for the young Hollywood elite. The author is part of a regular group of Hollywood insiders that gathers every Thursday night for Gears of War and Fight Night matches. The players say that Xbox Live provide a casual, fun way to make a lasting connection with a colleague. "I can't tell you how many times I have come out of a meeting, and while we're validating parking, we swap gamertags" said studio executive Jeff Katz. "But only if it was a good meeting and I want to talk to the person again."Not only that, but the untamed wilds of Xbox Live can provide some good cultural research for screenwriters. Troy writer David Benioff says the profanity-filled chat channels during his online matches provide "an easy way to research the slang that today's 14-year-olds use when they curse." Thus proving that even the chocolate milk kid can serve an important social purpose.[Via DigitalMediaWire]
Michael Bay eager to put his 'world-class images' into games
Director Michael Bay is preparing to transform Digital Domain, his Hollywood special-effects house, into a full-scale, game-churning production studio, reports Los Angeles Times. Bay (Bad Boys, Armageddon) will channel the convergence between film and games through his very own first-person shooter, perhaps taking a cue from fellow cross-over director Steven Spielberg. Bay's project will be followed by as many as four additional games over the next two years, as Digital Domain's new owner, Florida investment group Wyndcrest Holdings, begins to pump nearly $100 million into the studio; in part, to purchase the equipment and bring on the talent necessary to compete in the games industry -- including chairs, hundreds of ergonomic chairs. Look for Digital Domain to also acquire several game firms later this year.As foreshadowed by the studio's "Mad World" Gears of War TV spot, Digital Domain won't be using game engines for just games. Also on the agenda will be a series of teen-targeted animated features, which will utilize machinima er, a "new" cost-effective animation method. Does Hollywood actually have anything to offer the games industry? Or are Bay & co. just hopping over the fence 'cause the grass smells greener? "I make world-class images," says Bay. "Why not put those images into a game?"
Hollywood wants PSP to compete with iPod
In a recent CNET article, Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey explains Sony's lost opportunity to capture the media download market. Due to their fixation on UMD, Sony has let Apple hold a near-monopoly on digital downloads. "The thing is, Sony could have been all this. The Sony PSP is one of the best portable entertainment media devices that anyone has come up with in years. It has a relatively big screen, plays video beautifully, has good storage and audio. It could have been the first big mobile carrier for TV shows and movies."Even now, Sony continues to stand by UMD, instead of offering a true video download service for the handheld. Sony seems content with their position: their attempts in Japan have been lackluster at best, and PSP's video playback remains crippled due to incomprehensible video restrictions. "You got a company here that's pushing its own approach on every level, and as a result nobody is using its memory stick or video format," McQuivey said. "So you don't have the same robust market that you could have had if you said, 'We're going to open this up. You can put your Windows Media files on here. You can put your QuickTime files on here.'"All hope is not lost, however. A Hollywood executive spoke anonymously to CNET, noting that many Hollywood executives are "pulling for the PSP to emerge as a competitor to the iPod." Many executives are afraid that Apple will maintain a monopoly over movies as it has had over music. Competition is good for the consumer, and the companies making the content. A PSP video download service makes so much sense, but it won't happen until Sony stops making lame excuses. "But Sony has been so dysfunctional and clueless when it comes to the Internet," said the executive. "We keep hoping they pull themselves together ... with the PSP video, we're hoping they create a forward-thinking strategy and stick to it."
Get a cheap Wiimote at Gamecrazy, maybe
Some bargain hunters at CAG have sniffed out a pretty cool deal on Wiimotes for US gamers: apparently, when Hollywood Video stores put Wii Play out for rent, they didn't feel the need to offer the included Wiimotes for rental. So they shipped them over to their game-retail satellite, Gamecrazy (and by "shipped" we mean "walked across the room"). Gamecrazy, in turn, is selling these brand-new, out-of-the-package Wiimotes for $29.99.Don't get your hopes up too much: the number of Wiimotes in stock at any store depends on how many rental copies of Wii Play were received by the attached Hollywood Video store ... and on how many CAGs live in your town. [Via Siliconera]
300 producer opens game startup, eyes 300 license ... loses eye
Remember when film critics said that the blockbuster spears-and-Spartans flick, 300, was "like a video game"? Though they didn't mean it as a compliment, that hasn't stopped investors from contributing "significantly more" than $150 million into a new video game startup being, uh, started up in part by Thomas Tull, the executive producer of 300! The company, called Brash Entertainment, isn't really interested in doing anything brash. Nope, they figure some licensed games is just what the market needs right now and where better to start than ... 300? Sprinkled in with dreams of being one of the "biggest game studios in the country" are sage words of advice like, "The safest, most lucrative way to sell a video game is in tandem with some kind of movie that is already heavily marketed." Brash plans on creating 60 to 100 games in the next five years, including another game to capitalize on the box-office success 300 has enjoyed (the PSP game ain't cutting it, we guess). We certainly hope they don't show up in our industry with wide-eyed dreams of telling new and unique stories! Co-starter-upper Bert Ellis calms us, cooing, "They'll all be brands you'll know." Phew!
NASCAR themed Track Vac runs circles around dirt
If pimping out your Roomba to sing, dance, or flash doesn't really interest you, or you'd simply feel more comfortable still holding the reins of your trusty vacuum cleaner, Track Vac's NASCAR-inspired vacuum is just the thing. Officially licensed and laced with decals, this RF-controlled device burns out around your hardwoods and carpet to suck up dirt, dust, and small chunks of gravel, and even makes "authentic" start-up and power drain sounds to give you that familiar Sunday afternoon thrill. Sporting five vacuums patterns and a wireless remote to steer it around, the racer even includes its own "Pit Row" when a recharge is in order. Additionally, you can switch the tidying functions off and crank things up in Race mode, which is certainly a surefire way to convince your kids to clean up quickly if they want to frolic. The NASCAR Track Vac is available now for reliving Talladega Nights every time your floor gets a bit trashed for $279.95.[Via CNET]
Clint Eastwood edges closer to shooting in HD
Sure, we'd expect a legend like Clint Eastwood to stick to his theoretical guns when it comes to manhandling the cameras on the sets of Flags of our Fathers and the forthcoming Iwo Jima, but when HD camcorders almost win out against the tried and true 35mm film approach, we can't help but take notice. Eastwood admits that he, alongside a bevy of experts, ran a series of tests between scenes shot in HD versus film, and while he couldn't quite "reach the black levels" nor "control the atmosphere" as well as he wanted with HD cams, even he admits they came awfully close. He claimed the biggest dig against current HD rigs was their size, citing a need for ultra-fine HD capturing machinery that's uber-small as well before he could shoot an entire film with it. Still, he was able to utilize a series of Sony HVR-Z1U HDV cameras inside "prop 50-caliber machine-gun ammunition cases" after ruling out Panasonic's HVX-200 due to a lack of FireStore availability, and eventually blended a good bit of that content into the feature film. Mr. Eastwood admitted that HD wasn't quite where he needed it to be just yet, but felt very hopeful about its future in the motion picture industry, and if we had to guess, we'd say it won't be too much longer before HD technology will be "making his day."[Via DVGuru]
RIAA petitions to lower artist royalties, weakens piracy arguments
Sure, the RIAA hasn't exactly been on the good side of the general public since, oh, this century began, but it sure isn't doing itself any favors with this latest hint of persuasion. While the agency has fought grandmothers, children, and cash-strapped citizens quite vigorously to "ensure artists are getting due payment," it has seemingly opened up a chink in its own armor by pleading with judges to "lower artist royalties." While we fully understand the need to keep pirates at bay, leading us on to believe that the RIAA was actually acting in the (gasp) artist's best interest was dodgy to say the least, as its currently petitioning the panel of federal government Copyright Royalty Judges to "lower the rates paid to publishers and songwriters for the use of lyrics and melodies in applications like cellphone ringtones and other digital recordings." The RIAA's executive VP and General Counsel Steven Marks even went so far as to proclaim his hopes that rates would be reevaluated so "record companies can continue to create the sound recordings that drive revenues for music publishers." We're surely not ones to judge a man's character (nor an album by its jacket), but it doesn't seem that the dear ole musicians are really the ones atop the RIAA's list of concerns, now does it?[Thanks, Nimro]
Apple, Hollywood go toe-to-toe on movie downloads
Not surprisingly, Apple is facing heat from Hollywood companies that want to sell their movies on iTunes, but don't want to play by all of Apple's rules. The big issue is whether or not Apple will restrict the number of devices that can play a film bought from iTunes; Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros. are rightfully concerned with rampant digital piracy and how iTunes might help inadvertently contribute to that. Of course, Hollywood could go the Wal-Mart or Amazon Unbox route if Apple won't back down, but then those studios would miss out on some of that big Apple halo action. Still, if Disney and the soon-to-be-added Lions Gate are already at the iTunes party, it seems unlikely that the rest of Hollywood could stay away much longer. [Via Apple Insider]
MS/Bungie say good riddance to Fox
Bungie opens their weekly update by posting Microsoft's official response to Universal/Fox's decision to drop the Halo movie following a failed attempt at an 11th hour shakedown:"We are disappointed that Universal and Fox wanted to significantly renegotiate the financial points of the deal. But the Halo franchise is hugely popular and our goal remains the same - to find a partner that shares our passion and will creatively collaborate with us to best represent the story and spirit of the Halo franchise. Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and the rest of the creative team are dedicated to ensuring the Halo movie becomes a reality. We are already in discussions with potential partners who recognize the value of the Halo brand and its appeal to consumers worldwide."The Bungie team themselves remain highly optimistic that a less stingy and more creatively aware financial partner will be found in short order. Yes, when the Hollywood bean counters who practically ruined the Fantastic Four and X-men 3 back out of your movie deal, it's a good thing.
TI chipset boon for couch potatoes
As manufacturers gear up to ship second- and third-generation handsets with mobile TV support, it seems the lines between phones, televisions, and the TiVo in your family room will be doing a bit of blurring. Texas Instruments is demoing new functionality in its DTV1000 "Hollywood" (no, not that Hollywood) digital TV chipset this week that, when paired up with their OMAP2430 core, offers users DVR and picture-in-picture functionality -- both features usually reserved for more traditional tee vees. Also notable is that TI's solution requires far less buffer memory to get DVR working than other solutions, resulting (hopefully) in cheaper handsets. The software and hardware are available immediately to manufacturers for integration, setting the stage for retail devices some time in 2007; with any luck, that'll line up nicely for US entrants in the DVB game to get rolling.
