BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Dreamworks calls off merger talks: "Dreamworks calls off merger talks
Steven Spielberg had reportedly been ambivalent about the deal
US studio Dreamworks has called off talks to sell its live-action arm to NBC Universal for around $1bn (�566m).
'When they tried to change the price we decided not to go forward,' co-founder David Geffen said on Tuesday.
The deal would have given Universal control over the studio's live-action features, as well as rights to its library of around 60 films.
But the deal would not have included Dreamworks Animation, which became a public company last year.
Universal has a strong relationship with Steven Spielberg, another of Dreamworks' co-founders.
Autonomy
The director is currently shooting Munich - a fact-based drama about the kidnap and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games - for the studio.
However, according to the Screen Daily website, Universal was reluctant to offer him the same kind of film-making autonomy he enjoys at his own company.
Dreamworks distributes its live-action films on DVD and internationally through Universal.
However, with a merger no longer likely, it may now seek another distribution partner. "
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Friday, September 23, 2005
Burton's latest offering is no 'Nightmare'
Burton's latest offering is no 'Nightmare' - The Daily Orange - Splice: "Corpse Bride
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Watson
Directed By: Tim Burton
2.5 out of 5 stars
Before going to 'Corpse Bride,' you have to remind yourself not to make any comparisons to 'Nightmare Before Christmas,' as they are two different movies. And when, in the first five minutes of the film, you find it impossible not to compare the two, remember not to judge too harshly.
The similarities are blatant right from the start. Besides the fact that both films are done entirely in claymation, they both contain the same eerie-yet-lovable feeling that director Tim Burton is so good at producing. In any other genre of movie, the living dead would be grotesque and repulsive. Yet when they're made of clay, you can't help but feel warm fuzzies for creatures like the maggot who lives in the Corpse Bride's brain and pops out of her eye when he wants to speak.
The story is the tale of Victor Van Dort, who is being married off by his fish peddler parents in the hopes of moving up in society by their daughter-to-be Victoria Everglot's connections. Her parents are only allowing this downgrade in society because they are way in the poorhouse. On the day of the wedding rehearsal, Victor loses his nerve and runs to the forest to collect his thoughts. There he practices his vows and very accidentally marries a corpse who comes back from the dead to claim her hubby, much to the dismay of everyone with a pulse.
Since it's Burton's second time with the technique, the movie is much more professionally and cinematically done than 'Nightmare.' But somehow, the fact that it's better made takes away from the overall production"
The music isn't nearly as wonderful as one is accustomed to with the work of Danny Elfman. While I personally have the entire "Nightmare" soundtrack on my computer, there was not a single song worth downloading this time around. The tunes actually seem if they were rejects from Elfman's past scores. None of them are too catchy, many are too repetitive and the rhymes often seemed forced and, actually, annoying to listen to.
Yet, the movie wasn't all bad. Beyond anything, "Corpse Bride" is visually stunning. There is a vast and clear difference between the world of the living and the dead, down to the smallest details. While the former is bleak and gray, much like the characters themselves, the latter is vibrant and full of life; quit the feat as it's the world of the deceased.
And the casting was exquisite. In his fifth production with Burton, Johnny Depp provides a wonderful voice for the timid Victor, Emily Watson for the optimistically love-struck Victoria and Helena Bonham Carter for the dark but alluring Corpse Bride. The movie also features the great vocal talents of Christopher Lee, Albert Finney, Tracey Ulman and Deep Roy (of Oompa Loompa fame).
So don't expect another "Nightmare," or any of the characters from it to be showing up, because they aren't there and you'll just end up disappointed. Instead, take this movie what for what it is: a cute film to go see when there's nothing else, but really, not a matter of life and death.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Murdoch looking to conquer internet - Breaking News - Business - Breaking News
Murdoch looking to conquer internet
Global media baron Rupert Murdoch is steaming ahead with plans to dominate the internet, telling investors to expect his strategy for conquest to be unveiled within weeks.
The chairman and chief executive of News Corp told a US investors conference that the internet was still his number one priority and its revenue potential was enormous.
Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said Mr Murdoch expected News Corp's internet revenue to grow from $US100 million ($A131.39 million) this fiscal year to between $US500 million ($A656.94 million) and $US1 billion ($A1.31 billion) in five years.
The 74-year-old empire builder has recently held two internal News Corp internet summits and plans to release News Corp's strategy for entering internet search and voice markets soon.
"Mr Murdoch said it could be a matter of weeks for News Corp to decide whether to acquire or license/partner for search and voice over internet protocol (VOIP) capabilities," Ms Reif Cohen said in a research note.
"Also undetermined at this time is whether News Corp will pursue a portal strategy versus focus on each internet asset individually; although Mr Murdoch stated he does not feel that a portal necessarily helps internet expansion."
Mr Murdoch told investors in August that News Corp was on an aggressive hunt for internet assets.
He said the media conglomerate would spend up to $US2 billion ($A2.63 billion) to become a major player in the industry "very quickly".
News Corp began its internet onslaught in July - snapping up the US owner of myspace.com, Intermix Media, for $US580 million ($A762.05 million) and launching a bid for Australian online property website realestate.com.au.
But realestate.com.au says the $A2 per share offer is too low and has urged shareholders to reject the bid.
In August, News Corp bought Scout Media, the parent company of the number one US independent online sports network, and Scout Publishing, producer of 47 of the most widely read sports magazines in the US.
Earlier this month News Corp paid $US650 million ($A854.03 million) for internet games company IGN entertainment.
Global media baron Rupert Murdoch is steaming ahead with plans to dominate the internet, telling investors to expect his strategy for conquest to be unveiled within weeks.
The chairman and chief executive of News Corp told a US investors conference that the internet was still his number one priority and its revenue potential was enormous.
Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said Mr Murdoch expected News Corp's internet revenue to grow from $US100 million ($A131.39 million) this fiscal year to between $US500 million ($A656.94 million) and $US1 billion ($A1.31 billion) in five years.
The 74-year-old empire builder has recently held two internal News Corp internet summits and plans to release News Corp's strategy for entering internet search and voice markets soon.
"Mr Murdoch said it could be a matter of weeks for News Corp to decide whether to acquire or license/partner for search and voice over internet protocol (VOIP) capabilities," Ms Reif Cohen said in a research note.
"Also undetermined at this time is whether News Corp will pursue a portal strategy versus focus on each internet asset individually; although Mr Murdoch stated he does not feel that a portal necessarily helps internet expansion."
Mr Murdoch told investors in August that News Corp was on an aggressive hunt for internet assets.
He said the media conglomerate would spend up to $US2 billion ($A2.63 billion) to become a major player in the industry "very quickly".
News Corp began its internet onslaught in July - snapping up the US owner of myspace.com, Intermix Media, for $US580 million ($A762.05 million) and launching a bid for Australian online property website realestate.com.au.
But realestate.com.au says the $A2 per share offer is too low and has urged shareholders to reject the bid.
In August, News Corp bought Scout Media, the parent company of the number one US independent online sports network, and Scout Publishing, producer of 47 of the most widely read sports magazines in the US.
Earlier this month News Corp paid $US650 million ($A854.03 million) for internet games company IGN entertainment.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
CBS News | Wild About Prince Harry | September 16, 2005�14:00:04
CBS News | Wild About Prince Harry | September 16, 2005�14:00:04: "Wild About Prince Harry"
For his 21st birthday, Britain’s Prince Harry received a £2.5 million inheritance — about $4.5 million — from his late great-grandmother, the Queen Mother. His grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, had a coin minted in his honor, and delegated powers for him to act on her behalf as a Counsellor of State. His father, Prince Charles, reportedly gave him a polo pony and, if accounts in the British press can be trusted, he received an expensive new wristwatch from his 19-year-old girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.
In return, the "spare heir," third in line to the British throne, bestowed a gift of his own upon his family and the monarchy that’s priceless: a bit of good publicity.
In a gaffe-free encounter with the British press, Harry painted a self-portrait of a young royal determined to shoulder his responsibilities without surrendering his soul; and he depicted a family almost blissfully tranquil and harmonious — even if just for the moment. His is, after all, not just any family — it’s the Windsor family, whose travails played out in the public arena can easily rival prime-time TV for romance, melodrama or comedy.
Just last January he’d shown up at a costume party wearing a Nazi uniform complete with a swastika. A photo of the uniformed young prince, splashed on Britain’s front pages, became a royal embarrassment and sparked a national outrage. He’d already developed a reputation for falling out of nightclubs and fighting with photographers, and the “party prince,” who’d been caught smoking dope and too often acted like one, was alternately vilified or pitied by the country’s columnists and editorial writers.
There must have been some suspense-filled breath-holding by Palace spin-doctors when Harry was escorted to three interviews with British radio, television and newspapers on the eve of his birthday. Encounters of this sort are carefully stage-managed, but in the end the actor’s on his own, without a script or director. Yet Prince (“just call me Harry”) Harry seems to have done just fine.
He apologised for the Nazi uniform (“a very stupid thing to do and I’ve learned my lesson”), but explained he’d like to be seen as both a “party prince” and a “caring prince.” “I am both of them," he said. “If that’s a problem with anyone, then I’m very sorry. What does everyone expect me, to be just the caring person and not to have a cigarette, not to have a beer?”
To be sure, there was some confusion in some of what he said. Does he really hope to spend 35 or 40 years in the military and also dedicate his professional life to caring for orphans in Africa?
And there may have been some naïve bravura in his claim that he’d not be slogging through military training at Sandhurst if he didn’t see himself dodging bullets on a front line someday. (“I would not drag my sorry ass through Sandhurst … if they had said I could not be in the front line.”)
But his words were refreshingly colloquial; so much so that some e-mails to the BBC were even praising him as a “bloke.”
And it’s hard to imagine how he could have done a better job on behalf of his father and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who are expected to make their first official overseas tour to the United States this autumn.
Asked about their marriage, and her new official role in the Windsor family, Harry said Camilla is a “wonderful woman and she’s made our father very, very happy … William and I love her to bits.” And with what seemed a keen sense that pens were poised to exploit any ambiguity in his words he added, “She’s not the wicked step-mother. I’ll say that right now.”
The Daily Express summed up Harry’s performance by saying he’s done “what no amount of professional public relations work has achieved.” He’s turned Camilla “into a sympathetic figure.”
For his 21st birthday, Britain’s Prince Harry received a £2.5 million inheritance — about $4.5 million — from his late great-grandmother, the Queen Mother. His grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, had a coin minted in his honor, and delegated powers for him to act on her behalf as a Counsellor of State. His father, Prince Charles, reportedly gave him a polo pony and, if accounts in the British press can be trusted, he received an expensive new wristwatch from his 19-year-old girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.
In return, the "spare heir," third in line to the British throne, bestowed a gift of his own upon his family and the monarchy that’s priceless: a bit of good publicity.
In a gaffe-free encounter with the British press, Harry painted a self-portrait of a young royal determined to shoulder his responsibilities without surrendering his soul; and he depicted a family almost blissfully tranquil and harmonious — even if just for the moment. His is, after all, not just any family — it’s the Windsor family, whose travails played out in the public arena can easily rival prime-time TV for romance, melodrama or comedy.
Just last January he’d shown up at a costume party wearing a Nazi uniform complete with a swastika. A photo of the uniformed young prince, splashed on Britain’s front pages, became a royal embarrassment and sparked a national outrage. He’d already developed a reputation for falling out of nightclubs and fighting with photographers, and the “party prince,” who’d been caught smoking dope and too often acted like one, was alternately vilified or pitied by the country’s columnists and editorial writers.
There must have been some suspense-filled breath-holding by Palace spin-doctors when Harry was escorted to three interviews with British radio, television and newspapers on the eve of his birthday. Encounters of this sort are carefully stage-managed, but in the end the actor’s on his own, without a script or director. Yet Prince (“just call me Harry”) Harry seems to have done just fine.
He apologised for the Nazi uniform (“a very stupid thing to do and I’ve learned my lesson”), but explained he’d like to be seen as both a “party prince” and a “caring prince.” “I am both of them," he said. “If that’s a problem with anyone, then I’m very sorry. What does everyone expect me, to be just the caring person and not to have a cigarette, not to have a beer?”
To be sure, there was some confusion in some of what he said. Does he really hope to spend 35 or 40 years in the military and also dedicate his professional life to caring for orphans in Africa?
And there may have been some naïve bravura in his claim that he’d not be slogging through military training at Sandhurst if he didn’t see himself dodging bullets on a front line someday. (“I would not drag my sorry ass through Sandhurst … if they had said I could not be in the front line.”)
But his words were refreshingly colloquial; so much so that some e-mails to the BBC were even praising him as a “bloke.”
And it’s hard to imagine how he could have done a better job on behalf of his father and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who are expected to make their first official overseas tour to the United States this autumn.
Asked about their marriage, and her new official role in the Windsor family, Harry said Camilla is a “wonderful woman and she’s made our father very, very happy … William and I love her to bits.” And with what seemed a keen sense that pens were poised to exploit any ambiguity in his words he added, “She’s not the wicked step-mother. I’ll say that right now.”
The Daily Express summed up Harry’s performance by saying he’s done “what no amount of professional public relations work has achieved.” He’s turned Camilla “into a sympathetic figure.”
Friday, September 16, 2005
Premio Palinsesto Italia
Premio Palinsesto Italia
Contenuti e souluzioni innovative per l'editoria multimediale e multipiattaforma.
Contenuti e souluzioni innovative per l'editoria multimediale e multipiattaforma.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
"Yahoo blends Web e-mail with speed of desktop"
Technology | Reuters.co.ca: "Yahoo blends Web e-mail with speed of desktop"
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. said it is upgrading Yahoo Mail, the most popular Web e-mail program, to make it run more efficiently than other Web-based systems and nearly as fast as desktop e-mail.
The new version of Yahoo Mail works in a browser, just as existing versions of the program do, but Yahoo has developed ways to short-circuit the multi-second delays that typically delay any action taken in Web-based e-mail programs.
It replaces the need to repeatedly refresh a browser to open e-mail, move it into folders or take other actions that require the user to wait for the browser to redraw the page.
Instead, it works similarly to desktop computer e-mail clients, with features such as drag-and-drop organization of e-mails into folders and a message preview window that displays selected messages nearly instantaneously.
"The process of going through the inbox is much, much faster," said Ethan Diamond, product manager for Yahoo Mail and a co-founder of Outpost, the company which supplied the underlying technology used in the Yahoo Mail upgrade.
Yahoo acquired Outpost in July 2004.
Analysts said Yahoo appears to have a sizable head start over other major consumer e-mail providers such as Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail, Time Warner Inc.'s America Online and Google Inc.'s Gmail in speeding up the experience of managing Web-based e-mail.
GREATER LOYALTY
"This is a fairly significant step ahead for Yahoo," said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research.
Yahoo Mail contains keystroke shortcuts that reduce use of a mouse pointer, faster searching through e-mail and an auto-complete feature for addressing e-mails to frequent correspondents. Yahoo Mail remains free and ad-supported.
Users of Microsoft Outlook, the desktop e-mail program that is the most popular way for office-workers to manage their e-mail, will recognize many similarities between Yahoo Mail and the Web-based version of Outlook.
Golvin said Yahoo is looking to keep existing customers happy more than winning new Yahoo Mail users. "This is more about cementing greater loyalty of customers that might have been casting their eye at (rival) Gmail," he said. Continued ...
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. said it is upgrading Yahoo Mail, the most popular Web e-mail program, to make it run more efficiently than other Web-based systems and nearly as fast as desktop e-mail.
The new version of Yahoo Mail works in a browser, just as existing versions of the program do, but Yahoo has developed ways to short-circuit the multi-second delays that typically delay any action taken in Web-based e-mail programs.
It replaces the need to repeatedly refresh a browser to open e-mail, move it into folders or take other actions that require the user to wait for the browser to redraw the page.
Instead, it works similarly to desktop computer e-mail clients, with features such as drag-and-drop organization of e-mails into folders and a message preview window that displays selected messages nearly instantaneously.
"The process of going through the inbox is much, much faster," said Ethan Diamond, product manager for Yahoo Mail and a co-founder of Outpost, the company which supplied the underlying technology used in the Yahoo Mail upgrade.
Yahoo acquired Outpost in July 2004.
Analysts said Yahoo appears to have a sizable head start over other major consumer e-mail providers such as Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail, Time Warner Inc.'s America Online and Google Inc.'s Gmail in speeding up the experience of managing Web-based e-mail.
GREATER LOYALTY
"This is a fairly significant step ahead for Yahoo," said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research.
Yahoo Mail contains keystroke shortcuts that reduce use of a mouse pointer, faster searching through e-mail and an auto-complete feature for addressing e-mails to frequent correspondents. Yahoo Mail remains free and ad-supported.
Users of Microsoft Outlook, the desktop e-mail program that is the most popular way for office-workers to manage their e-mail, will recognize many similarities between Yahoo Mail and the Web-based version of Outlook.
Golvin said Yahoo is looking to keep existing customers happy more than winning new Yahoo Mail users. "This is more about cementing greater loyalty of customers that might have been casting their eye at (rival) Gmail," he said. Continued ...
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Superman Returns (2006)
Superman Returns (2006)
Following a mysterious absence of several years, the Man of Steel comes back to Earth in the epic action-adventure Superman Returns, a soaring new chapter in the saga of one of the world's most beloved superheroes. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life. Or has she? Superman's bittersweet return challenges him to bridge the distance between them while finding a place in a society that has learned to survive without him. In an attempt to protect the world he loves from cataclysmic destruction, Superman embarks on an epic journey of redemption that takes him from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space.
Following a mysterious absence of several years, the Man of Steel comes back to Earth in the epic action-adventure Superman Returns, a soaring new chapter in the saga of one of the world's most beloved superheroes. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life. Or has she? Superman's bittersweet return challenges him to bridge the distance between them while finding a place in a society that has learned to survive without him. In an attempt to protect the world he loves from cataclysmic destruction, Superman embarks on an epic journey of redemption that takes him from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space.
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