"Don't stop believing." That was "Sopranos" creator David Chase's farewell to fans Sunday night.
That, and five seconds of black as a probable hitman entered the men's room in the diner where Tony, Carmela, Meadow and A.J. ate what seemed to be their last meal. It was an idea borrowed from "The Godfather," of course, the famous scene in which Michael emerges from a bathroom with a gun to kill the police captain.
Some critics and a lot of fans apparently didn't like the ending. I only read this after watching the episode upon returning home from the Tony Awards. I'm a little surprised. The final episode of covered a lot of territory and wrapped up basically the loose ends of the show.
Did we need to see a blood bath in the diner? I don't think so. If you don't know what happened next, then it probably doesn't matter anyway.
But step back for a minute. The prior episode was supposed to have been the ending, and in it we saw the Dr. Melfi plot resolved. So that was done. In this episode, we saw Tony finally confront Uncle Junior. Resolved.
There was talk of the film business, just as there had been in the pilot. And if you didn't get that, then there was a black-and-white clip of the "The Twilight Zone" in which television pilots were discussed, as well as the value of writers.
I have no doubt that more clues can be dug up with a deeper look at the episode. A.J. and his girlfriend were listening to someone sing Bob Dylan's anti-war treatise "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" right before the SUV blew up. A.J. also quoted again from William Butler Yeats (calling him "Yeets").
Almost more interestingly, Tony visited A.J.'s therapist and started telling the story of his mother again as if he had never seen Dr. Melfi. Wasn't this the whole point Chase made with the research dug up by Melfi's friends? Here was Tony, using the story of his life once more clearly to gain sympathy. It's a loop; it's never going to end.
And still, Chase throws in the tour bus going through Little Italy with the guide explaining the demise of the area. The FBI agent following Tony also turns out be just like him, cheating on his wife with a female agent in a motel. When the agent hears that Phil Leotardo is dead, he exclaims gleefully, "We're going to win this one!" Preposterously, he's on Tony's side.
I think this may be Chase's way of showing how strange it is that the audience is with Tony, too. We have forgotten that he is a remorseless killer.
Is this the end? Yes. I doubt a "real" ending will appear on DVD, and a movie seems unlikely.
Did Paulie sell Tony out? Again, unlikely.
Was there closure? Phil Leotardo's brutal double death should be enough. He was crushed to death after being shot, bada bing.
That there was no scene of Tony acknowledging the death was indeed a mistake. But the ending, in black, seems appropriate. You know what happens next. I think David Chase knew it all along, from the beginning.
Tony Awards: Highs and Weird Lows
The 61st annual Tony Awards were a mixed bag from where I sat in Radio City Music Hall Sunday night and that was on the every edge of the orchestra section near where the seat fillers line up.
Some of the show was very entertaining, but a lot of it didn't make sense.
First off, the "Legally Blonde" controversy. The show was not nominated for best musical, but CBS wanted a number from it anyway. Star Laura Bell Bundy was immediately put to work in TV commercials for the Tony show.
But then producers of the four nominated shows complained, and the "Legally Blonde" number was cut. Bundy, who was nominated, wasn't even asked to be a presenter. And still, numbers from two shows from last season were got a chance: song from "The Color Purple" featuring Fantasia, and a whole segment that involved the stars of "Jersey Boys." Huh?
There was no host for the show, which made things a little confusing. The explanation is that the show "moves better" without one, but it also moves arbitrarily. The second of the three hours was particularly enervating, but that may be because producers and CBS knew most people were watching "The Sopranos."
Coincidentally, the "Jersey Boys" number kicked in at exactly 10:05, just as the other show ended. It was an almost seamless segue.
There were also not a lot of stars for the show. By the time of the after party, there was no sign of people like Ethan Hawke, Zach Braff or Billy Crudup. Ann Heche made a brief appearance; Fantasia was nowhere to be found. Many shows have their own parties following the Tony dinner at Rockefeller Center.
Only "Talk Radio" star Liev Schreiber and pregnant girlfriend Naomi Watts stuck around for a bit, as did "LoveMusic" star Donna Murphy, who carried her own plate of food. Others who fended for themselves included new Tony winner Jennifer Ehle and presenter Marcia Gay Harden, who couldn't find a seat near the buffet.
"Just sit anywhere," someone told her. "You're an Oscar winner."
And so she did.
Frank Langella of "Frost Nixon" gave the best speech of the night, but my favorite was Julie White, who won best actress for "The Little Dog Laughed." Her hilarious speech sounded as if it was going to conclude, incredulously, "I even beat Vanessa Redgrave!"
"I know," she said, when I mentioned this to her later. "Can you believe it?"
She crossed her eyes. A 46-year-old vet, she has no other awards and has toiled as a character actress for years. She was Grace's best friend in "Grace Under Fire," and has a recurring role on "Law & Order: SVU." This fall, she appears in the "Caveman" TV series on ABC. But that may all change now.
The little dog may not be the only one to get the last laugh.
source : http://www.foxnews.com
Monday, June 11, 2007
People in the News: Foot-in-mouth disease does Dr. Burke in
Dr. Preston Burke looks like a goner for good, now that creator Shonda Rhimes has given Isaiah Washington the boot from "Grey's Anatomy." The addictive med-sci soap set in Seattle recently wrapped its third season with an ending that left Washington's fate dangling.
Now we know his character has flat-lined, at least when it comes to employment at Seattle Grace.
Washington, who played the fiancé of Sandra Oh's Dr. Cristina Yang on the show, left Yang at the altar and cleared his possessions from their pad, leaving Oh sobbing hysterically.
ABC Television made it official that Washington will not rejoin the cast when they come back from hiatus. Washington's reaction to the rejection was something his character might have said upon being dissed for the role of chief of surgery: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."
He shouldn't sound so surprised; his ailment with ABC has been chronic this past season, with reports of an anti-gay slur against castmate T.R. Knight during an altercation with Dr. McDreamy, aka Patrick Dempsey, last fall. And then Washington put his foot in his mouth again backstage during January's Golden Globe Awards. He repeated his slur while trying to defend himself (bad, bad move), prompting another co-star, Katherine Heigl, to blast him in defense of her buddy (and on-screen love), Knight.
Unlike his skillful surgeon on the show, Washington flubbed and flopped through rehab, apologies and public service announcements trying to get back in the network's good graces. It looked as if the prognosis was good -- until the finale.
source : http://seattlepi.nwsource.com
Now we know his character has flat-lined, at least when it comes to employment at Seattle Grace.
Washington, who played the fiancé of Sandra Oh's Dr. Cristina Yang on the show, left Yang at the altar and cleared his possessions from their pad, leaving Oh sobbing hysterically.
ABC Television made it official that Washington will not rejoin the cast when they come back from hiatus. Washington's reaction to the rejection was something his character might have said upon being dissed for the role of chief of surgery: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."
He shouldn't sound so surprised; his ailment with ABC has been chronic this past season, with reports of an anti-gay slur against castmate T.R. Knight during an altercation with Dr. McDreamy, aka Patrick Dempsey, last fall. And then Washington put his foot in his mouth again backstage during January's Golden Globe Awards. He repeated his slur while trying to defend himself (bad, bad move), prompting another co-star, Katherine Heigl, to blast him in defense of her buddy (and on-screen love), Knight.
Unlike his skillful surgeon on the show, Washington flubbed and flopped through rehab, apologies and public service announcements trying to get back in the network's good graces. It looked as if the prognosis was good -- until the finale.
source : http://seattlepi.nwsource.com
'Spring' livens up an otherwise dignified night at the Tonys
outhful cheers for "Spring Awakening" rang out from the back of the Radio City Musical Hall on Sunday night, even before Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s fresh, sexy and musically revolutionary new Broadway show blew a gale through the 61st annual Tony Awards. The edgy production won a dominant eight Tonys at the ceremony, including the coveted best musical Tony.
"It’s all about the hopes we feel as parents, and the wounds we feel as children," said an emotional Sater, picking up a Tony and summing up his show. Those hopes are surely realized. And any wounds are likely to run with golden blood.
"Spring Awakening" — a contemporary, conceptual, rock-music take on Frank Wedekind’s 1893 play about the painful price paid by 19th Century kids when parents fail to teach them about the perils of adolescent sexual expression — once seemed like a high-risk project that needed a comically large number of producers to raise the funds. But after a stellar (and shrewdly edited) prime-time performance on the Tonys, which captured some of the show’s excitement, "Spring Awakening" now will surely morph into a major hit that could update the dominant sound of the Broadway musical for good.
But when the show's crowd of producers stood up to take the stage at the end of the Tonys, it looked like someone had shouted "Fire!" inside Radio City.
In recent years, awards have been widely dispersed. This year, though, there was little drama, with David Hyde Pierce’s victory as best actor in a musical for his work in "Curtains," qualifying as the biggest surprise. As widely predicted, "Spring Awakening" dominated the musical awards, although, also as expected, Christine Ebersole’s astonishing two-pronged turn as Edith Bouvier Beale and "Little Edie" Beale in "Grey Gardens" took the Tony for best performance by a leading actress in a musical.
On the play side, other new works mostly were unable to compete with the huge canvas and company of star actors enjoyed by Tom Stoppard’s "The Coast of Utopia," which garnered seven Tony Awards, including a best director nod for Jack O’Brien. Eloquent in acceptance, Frank Langella won the best actor in a play Tony for playing Richard M. Nixon in "Frost/Nixon."
This year’s presenter-less Tony broadcast was efficiently produced and dignified, but mostly as predictable as the appearance of Bernadette Peters. Precious little drama or spontaneity was in evidence. As is typical at the perennial insecure Tonys, much energy was expended reminding the viewing audience that many of their favorite TV and movie stars also work in theater. And this year’s theme — which had the likes of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck reciting (or mangling) the tagline "There’s a little bit of Broadway in everyone" — was a reminder that the Tonys spend as much time pushing the Broadway brand as celebrating great work.
At least musical fans had Raul Esparza, whose nuanced-but-empowered rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s "Being Alive" from the Tony-winning "Company" was the performance highlight of the night, even though it was not enough to win him a Tony. TV viewers also had a thrilling taste of Ebersole’s remarkable performance.
Even though it was last year’s show, "Jersey Boys" got big play on the broadcast (far more, for example, than the current hit "Legally Blonde," which was confined to a B-roll segment). That will likely help ticket sales for "Jersey Boys’" upcoming Chicago run. And since the Alliance Theatre of Atlanta won the Tony for excellence in regional theater, that was enough of an excuse for replacement-cast member Fantasia to snag a prime, TV-friendly slot singing a number from "The Color Purple," which started in Atlanta.
In an uncharacteristic bit of irony, the American Theater Wing’s annual self-promotion segment was livened up by a "Phantom of the Opera"-style chandelier crashing down on the stiff dignitaries, whose speeches then were read instead by actors John Mahoney (of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company) and Jane Krakowski. On TV, it appeared that Mahoney’s conclusionary bit of mild profanity had awakened a CBS censor asleep at the switch (or already tuned to HBO), but one couldn’t be sure. Later in the night, "Spring Awakening" got away with a whole lot more.
source : http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com
"It’s all about the hopes we feel as parents, and the wounds we feel as children," said an emotional Sater, picking up a Tony and summing up his show. Those hopes are surely realized. And any wounds are likely to run with golden blood.
"Spring Awakening" — a contemporary, conceptual, rock-music take on Frank Wedekind’s 1893 play about the painful price paid by 19th Century kids when parents fail to teach them about the perils of adolescent sexual expression — once seemed like a high-risk project that needed a comically large number of producers to raise the funds. But after a stellar (and shrewdly edited) prime-time performance on the Tonys, which captured some of the show’s excitement, "Spring Awakening" now will surely morph into a major hit that could update the dominant sound of the Broadway musical for good.
But when the show's crowd of producers stood up to take the stage at the end of the Tonys, it looked like someone had shouted "Fire!" inside Radio City.
In recent years, awards have been widely dispersed. This year, though, there was little drama, with David Hyde Pierce’s victory as best actor in a musical for his work in "Curtains," qualifying as the biggest surprise. As widely predicted, "Spring Awakening" dominated the musical awards, although, also as expected, Christine Ebersole’s astonishing two-pronged turn as Edith Bouvier Beale and "Little Edie" Beale in "Grey Gardens" took the Tony for best performance by a leading actress in a musical.
On the play side, other new works mostly were unable to compete with the huge canvas and company of star actors enjoyed by Tom Stoppard’s "The Coast of Utopia," which garnered seven Tony Awards, including a best director nod for Jack O’Brien. Eloquent in acceptance, Frank Langella won the best actor in a play Tony for playing Richard M. Nixon in "Frost/Nixon."
This year’s presenter-less Tony broadcast was efficiently produced and dignified, but mostly as predictable as the appearance of Bernadette Peters. Precious little drama or spontaneity was in evidence. As is typical at the perennial insecure Tonys, much energy was expended reminding the viewing audience that many of their favorite TV and movie stars also work in theater. And this year’s theme — which had the likes of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck reciting (or mangling) the tagline "There’s a little bit of Broadway in everyone" — was a reminder that the Tonys spend as much time pushing the Broadway brand as celebrating great work.
At least musical fans had Raul Esparza, whose nuanced-but-empowered rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s "Being Alive" from the Tony-winning "Company" was the performance highlight of the night, even though it was not enough to win him a Tony. TV viewers also had a thrilling taste of Ebersole’s remarkable performance.
Even though it was last year’s show, "Jersey Boys" got big play on the broadcast (far more, for example, than the current hit "Legally Blonde," which was confined to a B-roll segment). That will likely help ticket sales for "Jersey Boys’" upcoming Chicago run. And since the Alliance Theatre of Atlanta won the Tony for excellence in regional theater, that was enough of an excuse for replacement-cast member Fantasia to snag a prime, TV-friendly slot singing a number from "The Color Purple," which started in Atlanta.
In an uncharacteristic bit of irony, the American Theater Wing’s annual self-promotion segment was livened up by a "Phantom of the Opera"-style chandelier crashing down on the stiff dignitaries, whose speeches then were read instead by actors John Mahoney (of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company) and Jane Krakowski. On TV, it appeared that Mahoney’s conclusionary bit of mild profanity had awakened a CBS censor asleep at the switch (or already tuned to HBO), but one couldn’t be sure. Later in the night, "Spring Awakening" got away with a whole lot more.
source : http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com
Rexam deal wraps up US market
Rexam, the world's largest can maker, has bought the plastic packaging business of Owens-Illinois in the US for $1.83bn.
The company wants to tap into the rapidly growing market for packaging medicines. The US market, currently worth $4bn (£2.03bn), is growing by 7% a year as the population ages and people become more health-conscious.
The acquisition will make Rexam the leading plastic packaging manufacturer in the American healthcare market. It also catapults the British company into the number one spot in the US for plastic closures, which are used for fizzy drinks, water and food.
Chief executive Leslie Van de Walle said: "The acquisition of O-I Plastics will transform our plastic packaging business and is consistent with our strategy to expand our positions in growth markets."
More than 90% of O-I Plastics' sales and profits are generated in the US.
Rexam shares dropped by more than 3% to 495p this morning. The company plans to fund the deal with the placing of 58.35m new shares, equivalent to 10% of its existing share capital, as well as a bond issue and the proceeds of the recent sale of its glass business.
Nick Spoliar at Bridgewell described the deal as a "bold move for Rexam and shows their ambitions to be a global player in rigid plastics as they are in cans".
source : http://business.guardian.co.uk
The company wants to tap into the rapidly growing market for packaging medicines. The US market, currently worth $4bn (£2.03bn), is growing by 7% a year as the population ages and people become more health-conscious.
The acquisition will make Rexam the leading plastic packaging manufacturer in the American healthcare market. It also catapults the British company into the number one spot in the US for plastic closures, which are used for fizzy drinks, water and food.
Chief executive Leslie Van de Walle said: "The acquisition of O-I Plastics will transform our plastic packaging business and is consistent with our strategy to expand our positions in growth markets."
More than 90% of O-I Plastics' sales and profits are generated in the US.
Rexam shares dropped by more than 3% to 495p this morning. The company plans to fund the deal with the placing of 58.35m new shares, equivalent to 10% of its existing share capital, as well as a bond issue and the proceeds of the recent sale of its glass business.
Nick Spoliar at Bridgewell described the deal as a "bold move for Rexam and shows their ambitions to be a global player in rigid plastics as they are in cans".
source : http://business.guardian.co.uk
Queens of the Stone Age
Not that Josh Homme is looking down his nose at anyone specific on Era Vulgaris. If anything, the gargantuan frontman for Queens of the Stone Age is just holding up a mirror to our culture. And like a mirror, his lyrics reflect what he sees -- a sick, sad, stupid, sleazy society in which bitterness is fashionable, selling out is a career goal and fake is the new reality.
If that's the downside of Homme's current reality, here's the up: Unlike our world, the singer-guitarist's songcraft and sound are becoming increasingly sophisticated. This fifth full-length from the California desert-rat stoner-rocker and his latest loose-knit band of Queens blatantly flirts with funkier grooves, trippier psychedelics and noisier textures -- without sacrificing the muscular aggression and laser-focused intensity that are his signature. It might not have an instant classic like R's Feel Good Hit of the Summer. But with 11 bump-and-grind rockers shoehorned into 47 lean, mean minutes, it packs more than enough heat -- and more than enough of Homme's disturbingly soulful falsetto vocals -- to make it the hit of your summer.
Which is to say: Even for Homme and QOTSA, it's uncommonly good.
Here's the dirt:
Turning on the Screw 5:20
The Gregorian choir and horror synths hint at human sacrifice. But the lockstep groove, polyrhythmic guitar funk and wah-wah freakout solo are the real killers on this cut -- which fittingly winds up, around and back on itself like a snake coiling its prey.
Sick, Sick, Sick 3:34
"Young, dumb, don't see a problem," the lyrics brag. Neither do we, thanks to the blistering blast of noise-punk discord and the pumping industrial beat that go with. Listen for Julian from The Strokes on backing vocals.
I'm Designer 4:04
Fuzzy stabbing guitars duel on either side of the mix. A nimble bass bounces up the middle. Josh sneers at a generation for sale -- then softens a bit for the woolly chorus and bridge.
In the Hollow 3:32
Plinky tones, sighing slide guitars and Homme's dreamy vocals swirl above a punchy midtempo gait and another strong bassline. Dedicated fans may recall this from Homme's 5:15ers project.
Misfit Love 5:39
The band sets an ominous mood with 90 seconds of thumpy tom-toms and nagging, scritchy guitars. When Homme's vocals arrive fashionably late -- and announce, "I'm so goddamn sick, baby, it's a sin" -- the party really gets started. Hope you brought protection.
Battery Acid 4:06
Like some ancient machine coming to life, this noisy behemoth lurches forward to the sound of a sawtooth guitar, a relentlessly hammering drum pattern and a clanging bell -- only to shift into a jangly Beatle-pop bridge.
Make it Wit Chu 4:50
Fire up the lava lamp and burn the incense, baby. Homme plays mack daddy on a seductive soul-pop groover decorated with bluesy guitar and piano. Another recycled cut, this has appeared on a Desert Sessions disc and last year's live set.
3's & 7's 3:34
The lyrics are about bluffing poker faces. But the choppy guitars, offbeat alt-rock and Beefhearty slide licks add up to a winning hand -- in an Urge Overkill-circa-Saturation kinda way.
Suture up Your Future 4:37
With its walking bassline, ringing electric piano and slashing guitar accents, this shadowy slow-burner is as close as the disc gets to a full-on power ballad.
River in the Road 3:19
Sometime Queen Mark Lanegan drops in to lend vocals to this clattery, spindly robo-rocker. The siren wailing deep in the background had us turning down the stereo and looking for the fire.
Run, Pig, Run 4:48
Grinding 16-note power chords. A bashing, primal beat. Massive reverb, noisy tones and proggy arpeggios. So aggressive it could almost be speed metal -- but for Homme's woozy moaning.
source : www.edmontonsun.com
If that's the downside of Homme's current reality, here's the up: Unlike our world, the singer-guitarist's songcraft and sound are becoming increasingly sophisticated. This fifth full-length from the California desert-rat stoner-rocker and his latest loose-knit band of Queens blatantly flirts with funkier grooves, trippier psychedelics and noisier textures -- without sacrificing the muscular aggression and laser-focused intensity that are his signature. It might not have an instant classic like R's Feel Good Hit of the Summer. But with 11 bump-and-grind rockers shoehorned into 47 lean, mean minutes, it packs more than enough heat -- and more than enough of Homme's disturbingly soulful falsetto vocals -- to make it the hit of your summer.
Which is to say: Even for Homme and QOTSA, it's uncommonly good.
Here's the dirt:
Turning on the Screw 5:20
The Gregorian choir and horror synths hint at human sacrifice. But the lockstep groove, polyrhythmic guitar funk and wah-wah freakout solo are the real killers on this cut -- which fittingly winds up, around and back on itself like a snake coiling its prey.
Sick, Sick, Sick 3:34
"Young, dumb, don't see a problem," the lyrics brag. Neither do we, thanks to the blistering blast of noise-punk discord and the pumping industrial beat that go with. Listen for Julian from The Strokes on backing vocals.
I'm Designer 4:04
Fuzzy stabbing guitars duel on either side of the mix. A nimble bass bounces up the middle. Josh sneers at a generation for sale -- then softens a bit for the woolly chorus and bridge.
In the Hollow 3:32
Plinky tones, sighing slide guitars and Homme's dreamy vocals swirl above a punchy midtempo gait and another strong bassline. Dedicated fans may recall this from Homme's 5:15ers project.
Misfit Love 5:39
The band sets an ominous mood with 90 seconds of thumpy tom-toms and nagging, scritchy guitars. When Homme's vocals arrive fashionably late -- and announce, "I'm so goddamn sick, baby, it's a sin" -- the party really gets started. Hope you brought protection.
Battery Acid 4:06
Like some ancient machine coming to life, this noisy behemoth lurches forward to the sound of a sawtooth guitar, a relentlessly hammering drum pattern and a clanging bell -- only to shift into a jangly Beatle-pop bridge.
Make it Wit Chu 4:50
Fire up the lava lamp and burn the incense, baby. Homme plays mack daddy on a seductive soul-pop groover decorated with bluesy guitar and piano. Another recycled cut, this has appeared on a Desert Sessions disc and last year's live set.
3's & 7's 3:34
The lyrics are about bluffing poker faces. But the choppy guitars, offbeat alt-rock and Beefhearty slide licks add up to a winning hand -- in an Urge Overkill-circa-Saturation kinda way.
Suture up Your Future 4:37
With its walking bassline, ringing electric piano and slashing guitar accents, this shadowy slow-burner is as close as the disc gets to a full-on power ballad.
River in the Road 3:19
Sometime Queen Mark Lanegan drops in to lend vocals to this clattery, spindly robo-rocker. The siren wailing deep in the background had us turning down the stereo and looking for the fire.
Run, Pig, Run 4:48
Grinding 16-note power chords. A bashing, primal beat. Massive reverb, noisy tones and proggy arpeggios. So aggressive it could almost be speed metal -- but for Homme's woozy moaning.
source : www.edmontonsun.com
New in Town, Talking Funny
THE blessing of being a comedian from New Zealand is that your accent will make anything you say sound a little bit funny to American ears, whether you intend it or not. The curse is that your naturally laid-back attitude and innate stoicism will cause some people — say, television executives — to doubt your commitment to your art, and others to question your career choice altogether.
“People are always surprised to hear that I’m a comedian,” said Jemaine Clement, a shaggy, low-key New Zealander with ample sideburns and a pair of Elvis Costello glasses, who is one-half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords. “Like, people will say: ‘But you’re not funny. You don’t even talk.’ ”
Over a recent lunch at a Thai restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Mr. Clement and his performing partner, Bret McKenzie, affirmed that they were perhaps not the best representatives of how their countrymen really behave.
“Jemaine and I are both particularly understated,” said Mr. McKenzie, 30, a shaggier, lower-key Wellington native with a beard. “When we’re hanging out with other New Zealanders, we’re still two of the quieter ones.”
Mr. Clement, 33, who grew up near Wellington in the town of Masterton, said: “Sometimes people think we aren’t interested in things when we are. It’s just that we don’t express it. There’s a very different energy level between the average New Zealander and the average American.”
That hasn’t discouraged HBO from giving Mr. McKenzie and Mr. Clement their own half-hour comedy series. Titled “Flight of the Conchords” and making its debut on June 17, the show follows the adventures of two New Zealanders named Bret and Jemaine, recently relocated to downtown New York, who play in a band called Flight of the Conchords, endure mundane indignities, compete over women and sometimes break into song.
If the autobiographical premise itself seems vaguely modest and unambitious — especially in an era when scripted television comedy has become more precious than petroleum — that’s sort of the point of the show.
“Whatever this aspires to do, it does, and I know I’m making absolutely no sense,” said Stu Smiley, an executive producer on “Flight of the Conchords” and an industry veteran whose development and production credits range from “Kids in the Hall” to “Everybody Loves Raymond.” “It doesn’t feel like it aspires to be anything, and that’s what makes it so funny and so honest.”
Beneath their relaxed demeanors, Mr. Clement and Mr. McKenzie are both motivated, determined performers. In the mid-1990s, while they were still students at Victoria University of Wellington, they were already touring New Zealand and Australia with a five-member comedy act called “So You’re a Man.” At a time when their island nation was still largely served by just three television channels, and homegrown production was scarce, they found their comedic influences in offbeat British and American imports like “Blackadder” and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.”
But when they set their sights on goals beyond the Southern Hemisphere, the two were discouraged in their pursuits. “It’s tall-poppy syndrome,” said Taika Waititi, a film director who performed with Mr. Clement and Mr. McKenzie in “So You’re a Man.” “If there’s a poppy taller than all the others, the other poppies want to cut it down. You experience that quite a lot in New Zealand, and it affects our art. That’s why our movies are so dark, and there’s always people dying in them.”
After rotating through comedy troupes with names like the Humourbeasts, Mr. McKenzie and Mr. Clement began performing under the name Flight of the Conchords, playing slyly satirical songs (often about their affections for the opposite sex) on acoustic guitars and bantering awkwardly between numbers. And though they ironically billed themselves as a folk duo, their music paid more obvious homage to the eclectic funk and rock artists they had grown up listening to, including James Brown, Prince, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.
“It was always going to be a strange band,” said Mr. McKenzie, who originally envisioned an act resembling experimental musicians like Beck and Ween. “It might have been a very different story if we ended up playing rock venues. We just ended up playing comedy clubs.”
In 2002 the Conchords played their first Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and they returned there twice more to increasing interest from the American and British comedy industries. “After three years,” Mr. McKenzie said, “we achieved what would normally take people four years.” (Mr. Clement added triumphantly, “We bypassed a year.”)
Though they were approached by American networks, including NBC and Fox, no one offered them a series (perhaps because they were too naïve about the television industry to know how much was at stake in these meetings). But after performing at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in 2005, the Conchords came to the attention of HBO, which was looking to develop more low-cost comedy pilots around relatively unknown talents, in the vein of such limber 1990s series as “Tenacious D” and “Mr. Show With Bob and David.”
source :www.nytimes.com
“People are always surprised to hear that I’m a comedian,” said Jemaine Clement, a shaggy, low-key New Zealander with ample sideburns and a pair of Elvis Costello glasses, who is one-half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords. “Like, people will say: ‘But you’re not funny. You don’t even talk.’ ”
Over a recent lunch at a Thai restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Mr. Clement and his performing partner, Bret McKenzie, affirmed that they were perhaps not the best representatives of how their countrymen really behave.
“Jemaine and I are both particularly understated,” said Mr. McKenzie, 30, a shaggier, lower-key Wellington native with a beard. “When we’re hanging out with other New Zealanders, we’re still two of the quieter ones.”
Mr. Clement, 33, who grew up near Wellington in the town of Masterton, said: “Sometimes people think we aren’t interested in things when we are. It’s just that we don’t express it. There’s a very different energy level between the average New Zealander and the average American.”
That hasn’t discouraged HBO from giving Mr. McKenzie and Mr. Clement their own half-hour comedy series. Titled “Flight of the Conchords” and making its debut on June 17, the show follows the adventures of two New Zealanders named Bret and Jemaine, recently relocated to downtown New York, who play in a band called Flight of the Conchords, endure mundane indignities, compete over women and sometimes break into song.
If the autobiographical premise itself seems vaguely modest and unambitious — especially in an era when scripted television comedy has become more precious than petroleum — that’s sort of the point of the show.
“Whatever this aspires to do, it does, and I know I’m making absolutely no sense,” said Stu Smiley, an executive producer on “Flight of the Conchords” and an industry veteran whose development and production credits range from “Kids in the Hall” to “Everybody Loves Raymond.” “It doesn’t feel like it aspires to be anything, and that’s what makes it so funny and so honest.”
Beneath their relaxed demeanors, Mr. Clement and Mr. McKenzie are both motivated, determined performers. In the mid-1990s, while they were still students at Victoria University of Wellington, they were already touring New Zealand and Australia with a five-member comedy act called “So You’re a Man.” At a time when their island nation was still largely served by just three television channels, and homegrown production was scarce, they found their comedic influences in offbeat British and American imports like “Blackadder” and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.”
But when they set their sights on goals beyond the Southern Hemisphere, the two were discouraged in their pursuits. “It’s tall-poppy syndrome,” said Taika Waititi, a film director who performed with Mr. Clement and Mr. McKenzie in “So You’re a Man.” “If there’s a poppy taller than all the others, the other poppies want to cut it down. You experience that quite a lot in New Zealand, and it affects our art. That’s why our movies are so dark, and there’s always people dying in them.”
After rotating through comedy troupes with names like the Humourbeasts, Mr. McKenzie and Mr. Clement began performing under the name Flight of the Conchords, playing slyly satirical songs (often about their affections for the opposite sex) on acoustic guitars and bantering awkwardly between numbers. And though they ironically billed themselves as a folk duo, their music paid more obvious homage to the eclectic funk and rock artists they had grown up listening to, including James Brown, Prince, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.
“It was always going to be a strange band,” said Mr. McKenzie, who originally envisioned an act resembling experimental musicians like Beck and Ween. “It might have been a very different story if we ended up playing rock venues. We just ended up playing comedy clubs.”
In 2002 the Conchords played their first Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and they returned there twice more to increasing interest from the American and British comedy industries. “After three years,” Mr. McKenzie said, “we achieved what would normally take people four years.” (Mr. Clement added triumphantly, “We bypassed a year.”)
Though they were approached by American networks, including NBC and Fox, no one offered them a series (perhaps because they were too naïve about the television industry to know how much was at stake in these meetings). But after performing at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in 2005, the Conchords came to the attention of HBO, which was looking to develop more low-cost comedy pilots around relatively unknown talents, in the vein of such limber 1990s series as “Tenacious D” and “Mr. Show With Bob and David.”
source :www.nytimes.com
Strands May Be Delicate, but They’re All Connected
In Michael Ondaatje’s “Divisadero” an illuminating exchange takes place between Lucien Segura, who will go on to become a famously mysterious French writer, and Marie-Neige, the young bride of a brutal older man. Lucien and Marie-Neige have been “like two flammable matches side by side in a tinderbox.” But their attraction, like many of the undercurrents in this turbulent, wandering novel, is one of many strong passions that can only indirectly be expressed.
Lucien has just been partially blinded by glass shards. Glass shards are among the recurring motifs here, and blindness exists among Mr. Ondaatje’s characters in many metaphorical forms. And so, since he and Marie-Neige love the same Dumas stories and happen to be living in Gascony, the homeland of Dumas’s D’Artagnan, she begins reading “The Three Musketeers” to Lucien aloud. When he Marie-Neige a question about the book’s first chapter, she is confused: Should she go back and read it again? “No, just go on,” Lucien tells her. “Not knowing something essential makes you more involved.”
“Divisadero” is a dramatic illustration of how Mr. Ondaatje follows that same precept. It is a book that improves on second reading because it is so willfully elliptical at first. Among the essential things the reader cannot know, for instance, is what bearing the first half of the book has on the second, since they seem to be almost totally unrelated. Yet it turns out that there are many parallels, echoes, resonances, impulses, chirps (the book is ever-attentive to symbolic import of bird life) and creative curlicues that will present themselves to the patient admirer of Mr. Ondaatje’s work.
Speaking of patient: This author’s best books, of which “The English Patient” is the most prominent, all rely on such methods to a certain degree. Mr. Ondaatje does not write in mundanely linear ways, nor does he see events as isolated instances. There are always webs of memory, slips of time and divisions in experience to break the spell of an ordinary world. But “Divisadero,” with a title that denotes distance, division and a street in San Francisco, is a more stubbornly eclectic Ondaatje book than most.
In what follows, numbers indicate elements of the book that will repeat themselves. The novel begins in California, in a rural paradise (1), among family members whose relations are more acts of will than accidents of birth (2). (Numbered elements of the book are those that will repeat themselves.) Claire and Anna were born at the same hospital and have been raised as twins, although they had different mothers. Their father is a tough, overbearing man (3), which is made monstrously clear after Anna develops a passionate, unstoppable attraction (4) to Coop, the family’s young hired man. Coop has also been made part of this family, but that counts for nothing when the girls’ father catches him with Anna. A violent attack involving a shard of glass (5) destroys this family’s life forever.
This explosion, Anna thinks later, was “in retrospect something very small, something that might occur within just a square inch or two of a Breughel, but it set fire to the rest of my life.” It made Anna leave the farm and permanently lose touch with Coop and Claire. Claire spends much of her time on horseback (6), while Coop goes to Nevada and creates a whole new life as a gambler. “Divisadero” has a highly literary sensibility (7), to the point where Coop is tricked into slipping up at a card game by talk of Tolstoy.
Distant war (8) ominously colors the periphery of the story. Coop’s gambling career is at its peak when the first gulf war begins, although it barely registers in the casinos of Nevada. “For the three thousand gamblers inhaling piped-in oxygen at the Horseshoe, the war is already a video game, taking place on a fictional planet,” Mr. Ondaatje writes. Wars from medieval times to World War II rumble ominously from the fringes of the narrative.
Coop’s dealings with cards and women eventually destroy him, but not before he has re-encountered Claire, stirred her old memories and deeply hurt her by confusing her with Anna. All of this has been intercut with other facets of the story, to the point where it might be expected to continue. But then it disappears. And we are with Anna in France, where she finds meaning in her own life by plumbing the history of Lucien, now a famous dead literary figure. If this is arguably the most noxious conceit overworked in today’s fiction, trust Mr. Ondaatje at least to express it exquisitely. Taking up residence in Lucien’s house, Anna tells herself: “The manoir had once been the writer’s home, and she found herself in some modest contrapuntal dance with him.” Modest? Hardly. It is contrapuntal in the extreme.
Since Mr. Ondaatje writes with such grace, he brings a haunting, sensual delicacy to this latter part of “Divisadero.” Events between Anna and Raphael, who is more or less Lucien’s adopted son and has a fine, rustic way of keeping fragrant herbs in his pocket in case a loaf of bread comes along, wind up highly attuned to what happened between Lucien and Marie-Neige in the same setting. The water tower (9) that Coop once repaired morphs into a belfry repaired by Marie-Neige’s husband. The Sanskrit concept of gotraskhalana which has to do with calling a loved one by the wrong name, is everywhere within these goings on, and those who are not linked to the lives of others are linked to many different versions of themselves. Anna looks at birds (10) and knows that her secretive nature has created a flock of Annas within herself.
A more accurate synopsis of “Divisadero” would include the many loose ends and secondary developments that create an initial opacity. This underbrush is so dense that it takes work to cut through it and Mr. Ondaatje’s overview. But he is a writer of intense acuity. His eminence is well earned. This book is initially difficult, but the more you give “Divisadero,” the more it gives in return.
source : www.nytimes.com
Lucien has just been partially blinded by glass shards. Glass shards are among the recurring motifs here, and blindness exists among Mr. Ondaatje’s characters in many metaphorical forms. And so, since he and Marie-Neige love the same Dumas stories and happen to be living in Gascony, the homeland of Dumas’s D’Artagnan, she begins reading “The Three Musketeers” to Lucien aloud. When he Marie-Neige a question about the book’s first chapter, she is confused: Should she go back and read it again? “No, just go on,” Lucien tells her. “Not knowing something essential makes you more involved.”
“Divisadero” is a dramatic illustration of how Mr. Ondaatje follows that same precept. It is a book that improves on second reading because it is so willfully elliptical at first. Among the essential things the reader cannot know, for instance, is what bearing the first half of the book has on the second, since they seem to be almost totally unrelated. Yet it turns out that there are many parallels, echoes, resonances, impulses, chirps (the book is ever-attentive to symbolic import of bird life) and creative curlicues that will present themselves to the patient admirer of Mr. Ondaatje’s work.
Speaking of patient: This author’s best books, of which “The English Patient” is the most prominent, all rely on such methods to a certain degree. Mr. Ondaatje does not write in mundanely linear ways, nor does he see events as isolated instances. There are always webs of memory, slips of time and divisions in experience to break the spell of an ordinary world. But “Divisadero,” with a title that denotes distance, division and a street in San Francisco, is a more stubbornly eclectic Ondaatje book than most.
In what follows, numbers indicate elements of the book that will repeat themselves. The novel begins in California, in a rural paradise (1), among family members whose relations are more acts of will than accidents of birth (2). (Numbered elements of the book are those that will repeat themselves.) Claire and Anna were born at the same hospital and have been raised as twins, although they had different mothers. Their father is a tough, overbearing man (3), which is made monstrously clear after Anna develops a passionate, unstoppable attraction (4) to Coop, the family’s young hired man. Coop has also been made part of this family, but that counts for nothing when the girls’ father catches him with Anna. A violent attack involving a shard of glass (5) destroys this family’s life forever.
This explosion, Anna thinks later, was “in retrospect something very small, something that might occur within just a square inch or two of a Breughel, but it set fire to the rest of my life.” It made Anna leave the farm and permanently lose touch with Coop and Claire. Claire spends much of her time on horseback (6), while Coop goes to Nevada and creates a whole new life as a gambler. “Divisadero” has a highly literary sensibility (7), to the point where Coop is tricked into slipping up at a card game by talk of Tolstoy.
Distant war (8) ominously colors the periphery of the story. Coop’s gambling career is at its peak when the first gulf war begins, although it barely registers in the casinos of Nevada. “For the three thousand gamblers inhaling piped-in oxygen at the Horseshoe, the war is already a video game, taking place on a fictional planet,” Mr. Ondaatje writes. Wars from medieval times to World War II rumble ominously from the fringes of the narrative.
Coop’s dealings with cards and women eventually destroy him, but not before he has re-encountered Claire, stirred her old memories and deeply hurt her by confusing her with Anna. All of this has been intercut with other facets of the story, to the point where it might be expected to continue. But then it disappears. And we are with Anna in France, where she finds meaning in her own life by plumbing the history of Lucien, now a famous dead literary figure. If this is arguably the most noxious conceit overworked in today’s fiction, trust Mr. Ondaatje at least to express it exquisitely. Taking up residence in Lucien’s house, Anna tells herself: “The manoir had once been the writer’s home, and she found herself in some modest contrapuntal dance with him.” Modest? Hardly. It is contrapuntal in the extreme.
Since Mr. Ondaatje writes with such grace, he brings a haunting, sensual delicacy to this latter part of “Divisadero.” Events between Anna and Raphael, who is more or less Lucien’s adopted son and has a fine, rustic way of keeping fragrant herbs in his pocket in case a loaf of bread comes along, wind up highly attuned to what happened between Lucien and Marie-Neige in the same setting. The water tower (9) that Coop once repaired morphs into a belfry repaired by Marie-Neige’s husband. The Sanskrit concept of gotraskhalana which has to do with calling a loved one by the wrong name, is everywhere within these goings on, and those who are not linked to the lives of others are linked to many different versions of themselves. Anna looks at birds (10) and knows that her secretive nature has created a flock of Annas within herself.
A more accurate synopsis of “Divisadero” would include the many loose ends and secondary developments that create an initial opacity. This underbrush is so dense that it takes work to cut through it and Mr. Ondaatje’s overview. But he is a writer of intense acuity. His eminence is well earned. This book is initially difficult, but the more you give “Divisadero,” the more it gives in return.
source : www.nytimes.com
Watching the detective
The first thing you notice about Emma Roberts is her chic designer clothes -- today she has on a suit and five-inch black patent-leather stilettos. You were expecting maybe the demure early '60s outfits -- complete with knee socks and penny loafers -- that she sports as the star of the new movie "Nancy Drew"?
The film, which opens Friday, has a contemporary setting. In writer/director Andrew Fleming's fondly satiric vision, it's just Nancy who's amusingly out of sync. When a promising business deal lures her widowed lawyer dad, Carson Drew (Tate Donovan, late of "The O.C."), away from staid River Heights to the fleshpots of Los Angeles, Nancy tags along -- providently renting a mansion with a built-in mystery.
Just as mysterious, to her, are the mores of her trendy new schoolmates. "OMG IM SITING NEXT TO MARTHA STWART!" an appalled peer (Daniella Monet) instant-messages after observing the transplanted teen's retro manners.
Another thing you might notice about Roberts is that she seems to share the tissue-thin reactivity -- a useful trait for a film actor -- of her very famous aunt Julia. The suggestion that her depiction of Drew is "wonkier" than the all-too-perfect (pretty and popular!) heroine of the 1930s book series that inspired the film elicits, for just a microsecond, a cool, mildly affronted look.
Yet there's a definite disjunction. It's difficult to reconcile this poised, polished 16-year-old sylph -- who's midway along a 10-city tour that includes reading initiatives at local libraries -- with the rambunctious character you see on screen. Nancy is whip-smart (not to mention well-prepared), but also somewhat socially awkward, with a headlong way of speaking that gives her a slight, frothy lisp and a geeky air of excessive enthusiasm.
Message Board TALK: Are you a Nancy Drew fan? Will you see the movie?
That must be why they call it acting.
Roberts caught the acting bug as a 5-year-old tagging along on her aunt's many shoots (one of her earliest memories of hanging out on set was the thrill of running wild in a Vegas hotel that hadn't yet opened). Her mother, Kelly Cunningham -- former girlfriend of the actor Eric Roberts, Emma's father -- initially kept her out of the business to shield her childhood, but let her start auditioning at age 9. Roberts snagged the very first part she tried out for, playing Johnny Depp's daughter in the 2001 Ted Demme film "Blow." Next came principal roles in "Grand Champion" and "Spymate," and a long run -- three seasons to date -- as star of the Nickelodeon series "Unfabulous," which has won her a slew of awards. By the time Roberts hit her teens, she was a certified star.
Which might explain her subdued, businesslike manner. She's unfailingly polite but tame and self-contained: hated the guitar lessons her mother urged on her (though ultimately they proved helpful for "Unfabulous," in which her character, Addie Singer, uses music to pour out her soul). Reading-wise, loves Jodi Picoult and "The Gossip Girls" series. Part of her mission in touring the country is to promote two favorite causes: Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) and Get Caught Reading.
source: /www.boston.com
The film, which opens Friday, has a contemporary setting. In writer/director Andrew Fleming's fondly satiric vision, it's just Nancy who's amusingly out of sync. When a promising business deal lures her widowed lawyer dad, Carson Drew (Tate Donovan, late of "The O.C."), away from staid River Heights to the fleshpots of Los Angeles, Nancy tags along -- providently renting a mansion with a built-in mystery.
Just as mysterious, to her, are the mores of her trendy new schoolmates. "OMG IM SITING NEXT TO MARTHA STWART!" an appalled peer (Daniella Monet) instant-messages after observing the transplanted teen's retro manners.
Another thing you might notice about Roberts is that she seems to share the tissue-thin reactivity -- a useful trait for a film actor -- of her very famous aunt Julia. The suggestion that her depiction of Drew is "wonkier" than the all-too-perfect (pretty and popular!) heroine of the 1930s book series that inspired the film elicits, for just a microsecond, a cool, mildly affronted look.
Yet there's a definite disjunction. It's difficult to reconcile this poised, polished 16-year-old sylph -- who's midway along a 10-city tour that includes reading initiatives at local libraries -- with the rambunctious character you see on screen. Nancy is whip-smart (not to mention well-prepared), but also somewhat socially awkward, with a headlong way of speaking that gives her a slight, frothy lisp and a geeky air of excessive enthusiasm.
Message Board TALK: Are you a Nancy Drew fan? Will you see the movie?
That must be why they call it acting.
Roberts caught the acting bug as a 5-year-old tagging along on her aunt's many shoots (one of her earliest memories of hanging out on set was the thrill of running wild in a Vegas hotel that hadn't yet opened). Her mother, Kelly Cunningham -- former girlfriend of the actor Eric Roberts, Emma's father -- initially kept her out of the business to shield her childhood, but let her start auditioning at age 9. Roberts snagged the very first part she tried out for, playing Johnny Depp's daughter in the 2001 Ted Demme film "Blow." Next came principal roles in "Grand Champion" and "Spymate," and a long run -- three seasons to date -- as star of the Nickelodeon series "Unfabulous," which has won her a slew of awards. By the time Roberts hit her teens, she was a certified star.
Which might explain her subdued, businesslike manner. She's unfailingly polite but tame and self-contained: hated the guitar lessons her mother urged on her (though ultimately they proved helpful for "Unfabulous," in which her character, Addie Singer, uses music to pour out her soul). Reading-wise, loves Jodi Picoult and "The Gossip Girls" series. Part of her mission in touring the country is to promote two favorite causes: Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) and Get Caught Reading.
source: /www.boston.com
Ocean's Thirteen' Hits $37 Million Box-Office Jackpot
Ocean's Thirteen' Hits $37 Million Box-Office Jackpot
'Surf's Up,' 'Hostel: Part II' don't come close to Clooney and company's haul.
By Shawn Adler
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The Top Five
#1 "Ocean's Thirteen" ($37 million)
#2 "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" ($21.3 million)
#3 "Knocked Up" ($20 million)
#4 "Surf's Up" ($18 million)
#5 "Shrek the Third" ($15.8 million)
True gamblers know that winning isn't the hardest thing to do at a casino — anyone can get lucky once or twice — but try winning consistently. Those lush fountains? The gold-plated faucets? Miniature recreations of Venice, Paris and New York? Las Vegas wasn't built, and white tigers are not fed, with gamblers who regularly break the bank.
But whatever else George Clooney and the rest of his "Ocean's Thirteen" crew can be accused of, lack of consistency isn't among them. With $37 million, "Ocean's Thirteen" not only won the weekend (as the previous two films in the series both did), but won the weekend with striking constancy. Its $37 million haul was series' lowest, but not by much, falling right in line with the first film's $38.1 million opening and the second's $39.2 million bow. Maybe it didn't break $100 million like the three May threequels, but a consistent bet is a smart bet. These guys look like the smartest cats in Sin City.
Sinful is the only word to describe the chilly reception given to the animated "Surf's Up," a "Spinal Tap" for the Spongebob set, which disappointed with a fourth place finish. Perhaps it was because the mockumentary style flew over the heads of most children — who, after watching "Finding Nemo" for the 8 billionth time, don't likely pop in "Waiting for Guffman" — or because penguins finally have reached a critical mass, but the flick's $18 million opening, while respectable, fell on the very low end of animated debuts.
From "Surf's Up" to "Time's Up?" — could the weak opening for "Hostel: Part II," which came in sixth place with $8.8 million, signal the end of the torture-flick-as-horror endemic we've endured since "Saw"? The film is far from a failure, of course, particularly since the Splat Pack sequel only cost $10 million to make. But would it be speaking out of turn to say we hope if spells the end of Eli Roth's commitment to the genre? We think he's a super-talented director and can't wait to see what he can do with "Cell" and "Trailer Trash."
Among holdovers, "Pirates" continued to swirl the maelstrom, dropping 52 percent to land in second with $21.3 million. Its three-week total of $253 million continues to lag well behind "Dead Man's Chest." Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up," meanwhile, held on strong, coming in third with $20 million.
How'd We Do?
For the first time in a long time, this past weekend left our experts scratching their heads (and not just over how many zillions of dollars "Spider-Man the Third: At World's End" would make), enough that our participants didn't even agree on which movie would come out on top (see "Will George Clooney And Brad Pitt Mutilate Eli Roth This Weekend?"). But while he was the only one to choose "Ocean's Thirteen" as the winner, we'd be remiss if we didn't also point out that our very own Josh Horowitz's overall predictions ("Pirates" will sink; "Knocked Up" will stay strong) were darn accurate as well. What are the odds that Larry or our celebrities catch Josh before the year is out? They'd have better luck with the prop bets at a craps table.
Prognosticator (Weeks Won)
Josh Horowitz, MTV Movies editor (17)
Larry Carroll, MTV News writer (9)
Celebrity guests (6)
In Perspective
Who's the biggest star in "Ocean's Thirteen?" It's not George "The Perfect Storm" and "Batman and Robin" Clooney, or Brad "Troy" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" Pitt, but series third wheel Matt Damon, who not only has the highest cumulative gross of the three, but the highest opening weekend as well ("The Bourne Supremacy"). Not including the "Ocean's" flicks, here are Matt Damon's five most lucrative films:
#1 "Saving Private Ryan" ($216.5 million)
#2 "The Bourne Supremacy" ($176.2 million)
#3 "Good Will Hunting" ($138.4 million)
#4 "The Departed" ($132.4 million)
#5 "The Bourne Identity" ($121.7 million)
Next Week
Hell hath no fury like ... a storm cloud? We'll find out next week with the release of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," which will see the Richards clan battle Galactus, devourer of planets. The Silver Surfer's great and all, but we're waiting for part three, which will no doubt center on Beau Garrett as Frankie Raye, hottest girl on the planet in more ways than one. (She becomes the fiery Nova.) Also opening next week is "Nancy Drew" starring Emma Roberts.
Check out everything we've got on "Ocean's Thirteen,", "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Knocked Up".
Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.
Want trailers? Visit the Trailer Park for the newest, scariest and funniest coming attractions anywhere.
source : www.mtv.com
'Surf's Up,' 'Hostel: Part II' don't come close to Clooney and company's haul.
By Shawn Adler
* Del.icio.us
* Digg
* Newsvine
* Send
* You Tell Us
The Top Five
#1 "Ocean's Thirteen" ($37 million)
#2 "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" ($21.3 million)
#3 "Knocked Up" ($20 million)
#4 "Surf's Up" ($18 million)
#5 "Shrek the Third" ($15.8 million)
True gamblers know that winning isn't the hardest thing to do at a casino — anyone can get lucky once or twice — but try winning consistently. Those lush fountains? The gold-plated faucets? Miniature recreations of Venice, Paris and New York? Las Vegas wasn't built, and white tigers are not fed, with gamblers who regularly break the bank.
But whatever else George Clooney and the rest of his "Ocean's Thirteen" crew can be accused of, lack of consistency isn't among them. With $37 million, "Ocean's Thirteen" not only won the weekend (as the previous two films in the series both did), but won the weekend with striking constancy. Its $37 million haul was series' lowest, but not by much, falling right in line with the first film's $38.1 million opening and the second's $39.2 million bow. Maybe it didn't break $100 million like the three May threequels, but a consistent bet is a smart bet. These guys look like the smartest cats in Sin City.
Sinful is the only word to describe the chilly reception given to the animated "Surf's Up," a "Spinal Tap" for the Spongebob set, which disappointed with a fourth place finish. Perhaps it was because the mockumentary style flew over the heads of most children — who, after watching "Finding Nemo" for the 8 billionth time, don't likely pop in "Waiting for Guffman" — or because penguins finally have reached a critical mass, but the flick's $18 million opening, while respectable, fell on the very low end of animated debuts.
From "Surf's Up" to "Time's Up?" — could the weak opening for "Hostel: Part II," which came in sixth place with $8.8 million, signal the end of the torture-flick-as-horror endemic we've endured since "Saw"? The film is far from a failure, of course, particularly since the Splat Pack sequel only cost $10 million to make. But would it be speaking out of turn to say we hope if spells the end of Eli Roth's commitment to the genre? We think he's a super-talented director and can't wait to see what he can do with "Cell" and "Trailer Trash."
Among holdovers, "Pirates" continued to swirl the maelstrom, dropping 52 percent to land in second with $21.3 million. Its three-week total of $253 million continues to lag well behind "Dead Man's Chest." Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up," meanwhile, held on strong, coming in third with $20 million.
How'd We Do?
For the first time in a long time, this past weekend left our experts scratching their heads (and not just over how many zillions of dollars "Spider-Man the Third: At World's End" would make), enough that our participants didn't even agree on which movie would come out on top (see "Will George Clooney And Brad Pitt Mutilate Eli Roth This Weekend?"). But while he was the only one to choose "Ocean's Thirteen" as the winner, we'd be remiss if we didn't also point out that our very own Josh Horowitz's overall predictions ("Pirates" will sink; "Knocked Up" will stay strong) were darn accurate as well. What are the odds that Larry or our celebrities catch Josh before the year is out? They'd have better luck with the prop bets at a craps table.
Prognosticator (Weeks Won)
Josh Horowitz, MTV Movies editor (17)
Larry Carroll, MTV News writer (9)
Celebrity guests (6)
In Perspective
Who's the biggest star in "Ocean's Thirteen?" It's not George "The Perfect Storm" and "Batman and Robin" Clooney, or Brad "Troy" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" Pitt, but series third wheel Matt Damon, who not only has the highest cumulative gross of the three, but the highest opening weekend as well ("The Bourne Supremacy"). Not including the "Ocean's" flicks, here are Matt Damon's five most lucrative films:
#1 "Saving Private Ryan" ($216.5 million)
#2 "The Bourne Supremacy" ($176.2 million)
#3 "Good Will Hunting" ($138.4 million)
#4 "The Departed" ($132.4 million)
#5 "The Bourne Identity" ($121.7 million)
Next Week
Hell hath no fury like ... a storm cloud? We'll find out next week with the release of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," which will see the Richards clan battle Galactus, devourer of planets. The Silver Surfer's great and all, but we're waiting for part three, which will no doubt center on Beau Garrett as Frankie Raye, hottest girl on the planet in more ways than one. (She becomes the fiery Nova.) Also opening next week is "Nancy Drew" starring Emma Roberts.
Check out everything we've got on "Ocean's Thirteen,", "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Knocked Up".
Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.
Want trailers? Visit the Trailer Park for the newest, scariest and funniest coming attractions anywhere.
source : www.mtv.com
No love for 'Big Love'
Bill Paxton and Jeanne Tripplehorn are enormously appealing actors, which is why I gave "Big Love," which they star in as a couple that heads a polygamous family, a chance during its first season.
But I'm done giving this series, which returns 8 p.m. Monday on HBO, the benefit of the doubt. "Big Love" is a waste of time, and an excruciating waste of these actors' talents.
It's not just that some of the characters on the show, particularly Chloe Sevigny as the priggish, petulant second wife, Nicki, and Ginnifer Goodwin as the naive, puppylike third wife, Margene, haven't deepened much and aren't interesting enough to spend time with. It's just that sanctimonious people with persecution complexes make for terrible drama.
Smug condescension isn't the only problem. "Big Love" goes through the motions of progressing its plot without actually doing so very often. There is a lot of smoke and noise about indictments from the state and lots of whispered conversations about fights with the Juniper Creek sect and so forth, but during the first five episodes of the season, very little actually happens.
The fact is, being around these people is exhausting. Almost nothing about this series inspires actual pleasure, with the exception of Paxton and Tripplehorn, who infuse their characters with warmth despite the intrinsic rigidity and humorlessness of the show.
source : metromix.chicagotribune.com
But I'm done giving this series, which returns 8 p.m. Monday on HBO, the benefit of the doubt. "Big Love" is a waste of time, and an excruciating waste of these actors' talents.
It's not just that some of the characters on the show, particularly Chloe Sevigny as the priggish, petulant second wife, Nicki, and Ginnifer Goodwin as the naive, puppylike third wife, Margene, haven't deepened much and aren't interesting enough to spend time with. It's just that sanctimonious people with persecution complexes make for terrible drama.
Smug condescension isn't the only problem. "Big Love" goes through the motions of progressing its plot without actually doing so very often. There is a lot of smoke and noise about indictments from the state and lots of whispered conversations about fights with the Juniper Creek sect and so forth, but during the first five episodes of the season, very little actually happens.
The fact is, being around these people is exhausting. Almost nothing about this series inspires actual pleasure, with the exception of Paxton and Tripplehorn, who infuse their characters with warmth despite the intrinsic rigidity and humorlessness of the show.
source : metromix.chicagotribune.com
Tension bad, torture good in 'Hostel 2'
What level of violence does it take to get an NC-17 rating these days? A newborn baby getting eaten by a pack of jackals? A faucet-cam view of some guy's arm shoved in a garbage disposal? Ninety minutes of people's heads exploding, and a bunch of monkeys finger painting with their brains?
All that would seem like an "Elmo's World" episode compared with several of the gorier scenes in "Hostel: Part II," a movie from a filmmaker who clearly lives with darker thoughts than the rest of us. Without giving away any major plot points, three different species appear to dine on human flesh in this film -- and that's just an appetizer for the carnage to come. One scene of full-frontal depravity is so graphic, that one has to wonder if the Motion Picture Association of America ratings board saw a completely different movie before it awarded this one an R rating.
Whether the above is a good or bad thing is up for individuals to decide. Personally, I welcome the renaissance of exploitation movies, even if it means critics have to start placing all of our warnings at the top of the review. This movie contains nudity, gore and drug use -- often in the same scene ...
Now that we've established that "Hostel: Part II" is basically torture porn, the question remains: Is it good torture porn? The sequel is definitely better than the average splatter flick but gets penalized for similarities to the first "Hostel" and an overall lack of tension. Writer-director Eli Roth proves once again that he's a very effective horror filmmaker, but it's probably time for him to move on to something new.
"Hostel: Part II" is a true sequel, beginning with a quick sequence that wraps up a few loose ends from the first movie. After that we meet Beth, Whitney and Lorna, three students who end up on a train to Slovakia, where the torture factory introduced in the first movie is still in business. Beth (Lauren German) is the sensible friend, Whitney (Bijou Phillips) is the skank and Lorna (Heather Matarazzo) is the dork. All of them are pretty much screwed.
Without the element of surprise this time, Roth fills in the blanks from the first film, showing rich guys (and a couple of women) across the globe bidding on the rights to slowly kill the three victims. He closely profiles a couple of the psychos -- including "Desperate Housewives" creep Roger Bart -- and their journey from eating breakfast with their families to dismembering strangers in a chamber of horrors.
The additions to "Hostel II" have mixed results. While the details surrounding the killers are frequently interesting, humanizing the homicidal maniacs only serves to dampen the horror, as we learned in "Saw III." Ax murderers are always scarier when something is left to the imagination (unless you're Rob Zombie, whose "The Devil's Rejects" is the modern exception to the rule).
The victims are lured in almost the exact same manner as the guys in "Hostel," causing the first part of the movie to drag. But the lopsided pace of the film is part of what makes it original, and Roth is a good enough writer to keep the slow parts from becoming too boring. Even if you hate the rest of the movie, you've got to like how the killers get coaster-shaped pagers like the ones chain restaurants use to let them know when their victims are ready.
At first, the blast of gore in the final third of the movie looks as if it will be repetitive as well, but "Hostel II" throws in a few entertaining twists. Making up for some lapses of realism in the plot are the completely believable makeup effects, which look as authentic as they do in your worst nightmares.
The movie is almost totally devoid of suspense, which is one of the marks of a true exploitation film. Why waste time with a bunch of false scares and tension, when you can go straight to the pain and suffering?
-- Advisory: Let's try this alphabetically (spoilers ahead): This movie contains adult language, decapitations, drug use, eviscerations, gore, involuntary castration, massive head wounds, massive leg wounds, massive torso wounds, more gore, nudity, sexual content, severe beat-downs, torture and other assorted violence.
source : /www.sfgate.com
All that would seem like an "Elmo's World" episode compared with several of the gorier scenes in "Hostel: Part II," a movie from a filmmaker who clearly lives with darker thoughts than the rest of us. Without giving away any major plot points, three different species appear to dine on human flesh in this film -- and that's just an appetizer for the carnage to come. One scene of full-frontal depravity is so graphic, that one has to wonder if the Motion Picture Association of America ratings board saw a completely different movie before it awarded this one an R rating.
Whether the above is a good or bad thing is up for individuals to decide. Personally, I welcome the renaissance of exploitation movies, even if it means critics have to start placing all of our warnings at the top of the review. This movie contains nudity, gore and drug use -- often in the same scene ...
Now that we've established that "Hostel: Part II" is basically torture porn, the question remains: Is it good torture porn? The sequel is definitely better than the average splatter flick but gets penalized for similarities to the first "Hostel" and an overall lack of tension. Writer-director Eli Roth proves once again that he's a very effective horror filmmaker, but it's probably time for him to move on to something new.
"Hostel: Part II" is a true sequel, beginning with a quick sequence that wraps up a few loose ends from the first movie. After that we meet Beth, Whitney and Lorna, three students who end up on a train to Slovakia, where the torture factory introduced in the first movie is still in business. Beth (Lauren German) is the sensible friend, Whitney (Bijou Phillips) is the skank and Lorna (Heather Matarazzo) is the dork. All of them are pretty much screwed.
Without the element of surprise this time, Roth fills in the blanks from the first film, showing rich guys (and a couple of women) across the globe bidding on the rights to slowly kill the three victims. He closely profiles a couple of the psychos -- including "Desperate Housewives" creep Roger Bart -- and their journey from eating breakfast with their families to dismembering strangers in a chamber of horrors.
The additions to "Hostel II" have mixed results. While the details surrounding the killers are frequently interesting, humanizing the homicidal maniacs only serves to dampen the horror, as we learned in "Saw III." Ax murderers are always scarier when something is left to the imagination (unless you're Rob Zombie, whose "The Devil's Rejects" is the modern exception to the rule).
The victims are lured in almost the exact same manner as the guys in "Hostel," causing the first part of the movie to drag. But the lopsided pace of the film is part of what makes it original, and Roth is a good enough writer to keep the slow parts from becoming too boring. Even if you hate the rest of the movie, you've got to like how the killers get coaster-shaped pagers like the ones chain restaurants use to let them know when their victims are ready.
At first, the blast of gore in the final third of the movie looks as if it will be repetitive as well, but "Hostel II" throws in a few entertaining twists. Making up for some lapses of realism in the plot are the completely believable makeup effects, which look as authentic as they do in your worst nightmares.
The movie is almost totally devoid of suspense, which is one of the marks of a true exploitation film. Why waste time with a bunch of false scares and tension, when you can go straight to the pain and suffering?
-- Advisory: Let's try this alphabetically (spoilers ahead): This movie contains adult language, decapitations, drug use, eviscerations, gore, involuntary castration, massive head wounds, massive leg wounds, massive torso wounds, more gore, nudity, sexual content, severe beat-downs, torture and other assorted violence.
source : /www.sfgate.com
Exclusive: FF2 Director Tim Story!
You gotta give major props to director Tim Story, not only for chasing after his dream gig, a movie based on Marvel's Greatest Comic characters the Fantastic Four, knowing that he'd have to face angry comic fans if he got it wrong, but then also quickly bouncing back to make the sequel armed with the knowledge of what worked and what didn't in that movie.
Story has experience with high profile movies, having directed Ice Cube's Barbershop, but this weekend, all eyes are on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, his follow-up to the 2005 blockbuster, to see if it will follow Spider-Man 2 and X2 as Marvel-based sequels that were better than the original movies.
Superhero Hype! caught up with Story as he finished up post-production on the movie, before heading to London for the movie junket, and we had a chance to have an extensive talk with him, as he mentioned a few times being a reader of this very site! (Another reason to give him major props.)
Superhero Hype!: A lot of people are excited about this movie on ComingSoon.net and Superhero Hype!
Tim Story: Cool, man. Those are the two I spend a lot of time checking out people's comments on. It's one of the ones I check all the time just to see what everybody's talking about, and that's how I keep informed on what people are saying besides on my MySpace.
SHH!: Not sure if you saw but "Rise of the Silver Surfer" was #1 on our June poll, which is pretty impressive considering the competition.
Story: Oh, really? Wow, that's great.
SHH!: The Silver Surfer is what's getting everyone excited about this movie. I don't know if you've been to New York recently, but there's images of him everywhere. They don't even need to put the title of the movie on there, and everyone knows what it is.
Story: I haven't been [there] and I hate that, 'cause I haven't been able to see anything. I'll take your word for it, but it sounds great.
SHH!: I assume after the first movie did well, they immediately decided to do the sequel, so at what point was it decided to bring in the Surfer? Was he the only choice for this movie?
Story: Yeah, for the most part. The fun part of doing a sequel is to talk about, "Okay, who do you bring to the universe next?" Sure, we talked about Puppet Master, we talked about Mole Man and Silver Surfer. Other than Dr. Doom, he's the most famous villain, though he later becomes their ally. In the beginning, he and Galactus are the greatest story after Dr. Doom. It seemed pretty fitting, but it took a second, because Fox was planning to do another film on the Silver Surfer, and to get everybody to agree to put that on the backburner to introduce him into this film, it took a little bit of talking. At the end of the day, everybody agreed that it was the only way to go.
SHH!: I didn't realize Fox already had the Surfer. I know that with Venom, there was this issue of another studio owning the movie rights.
Story: That's the same thing that happened with us with Namor. Universal has the Sub-Mariner, and of course, there's a big story in the Fan Four with Namor, and unfortunately, we won't be able to use that character, because Universal does have it and are planning a movie to it. Every now and then, you get lucky because the other properties, because they were splitting them up so much, we really lucked out that the Silver Surfer was still at Fox. It was like one of those "Thank God it happened!"
SHH!: You had to spend a bit of time in the first movie working out the FX for the Fantastic Four, but now you have the Silver Surfer, who is basically all FX, especially with those new powers you've added. Can you talk about creating and modifying the character for the movie?
Story: What was interesting was that when it came to the visual look of him, it was pretty simple. We threw a couple things against the wall, and at the end of the day, the design was perfect when they first did it forty years ago and it held up. We just said, "You know what? Let's just stick with the classic look." That was a pretty easy one. The next part of it, which I guess was a little bit harder, was dealing with his powers. In the comic book, they don't always specifically deal with what he can do. With the cosmic blast they show a lot in the comic books, that was pretty straight forward. He sends this blast, and it's what happens on the other side of it that we had to figure out. How strong is it? What kind of damage does it do? So that was actually fun. When we went back and read the definition of what is really described as his powers, he can pretty much change elements of any matter to whatever he so desires. In thinking about that, it really became interesting. Okay, how can you play with that? And that's when the whole idea of him going through his board and going through buses and building, that's where it became fun. Because you say, "Wait a second. If he can change matter, then technically, he can walk through walls", and then that just became the fun part of coming up with powers. We really did just take to the source material, but then asked ourselves the question, "If he can do that, then what does that mean?" If I can change matter into anything I feel then if I want to go through something, I can literally change it into water while I walk through it and then let it go back to what it was. We had a lot of fun of just figuring out what he can do. Of course, the flight of the board, it was just so fun, because when WETA started animating him, they had some surfers over there that would just take classic moves and throw 'em in there, and it was really cool to make that happen.
SHH!: Did you work on WETA on the first movie, too?
Story: No, this is my first time working with WETA and we knew that we had to go after one of the big boys because we were doing a total CGI character, and who's had better success with CGI characters than WETA? With Gollum and King Kong, their characters looks so real to life and once we figured out what it was going to look like and how reflective he was going to be, it got so easy after that, because they just started cranking out shots faster than you can imagine. Anything you thought about, they would do it, and you'd go "Wow, that's cool" and you'd even go a step further. It just got really fun after they figured out exactly what he was going to look like and how he was going to move.
SHH!: And you got Doug Jones, who's done a lot of these types of characters, then combined that with the voice of Laurence Fishburne. Can you talk about how you came up with that combination and working with those two guys?
Story: Well, with Doug, it was just great to figure out how he was going to move. Aside from dealing with an animator who's halfway around the world and try to figure it out, we just decided to get one of the guys that is best at character movement and have him help us design the moves, have him help us think about how this guy would lean over, bend down and fly. All these ideas, instead of trying to just put them down on paper, we decided to grab all the comic book art that we could on the Silver Surfer, then we started having Doug do those movements. Once we started getting into motion capture and started to grab some of his movements, we'd use them to animate the CGI character. It made a shorthand, because you're no longer saying, "Hey, move that finger" and then they don't move it far enough. Here, you're actually able to talk to a person and Doug was invaluable in creating [him], you couldn't have done it without him. It made it human and it made it real. Then of course, with Laurence Fishburne, it just created the cycle in terms of "What's he going to sound like?" We got what he was going to look and move like, we got what his powers are, we got all that stuff, but then it came down to one last idea which is what he was going to sound like. We'd been waiting to hear the Surfer on film and here he is, and what better voice than Laurence Fishburne? He was my first choice and luckily, he said yes, and it's on celluloid for life now.
SHH!: We've heard the story about how you directed "Taxi" to get in with Fox to be able to direct the first "Fantastic Four." Having that under your belt, with the second movie, were you given it a bit more free reign in terms of getting more involved with the plot and the script and everything else?
Story: Yeah, all of that. I was on the project from its inception, so I got a chance to talk about the story from frame 1 and that's always great, when you're able to be on a movie from the beginning, because you just know the history of the project and you know where you've been and what worked, so it was fun to create the story with the writer. In terms of giving me freedom, what it did, being on the first one of course, there was a lot more freedom, but that freedom came in the way of me having the experience to deal with visual FX, to deal with action, to go after more things, and to be able to direct this vast amount of people and to get your vision across. In the beginning, with the first one, I was learning as I went, so it was really hard to figure out... you kind of knew what you wanted, but it was hard to orchestrate it, so this time around, I knew the areas where we could improve and most importantly, I knew the areas where we wanted to replicate what we did before which worked. It was a pretty good combination of just experience and people around you having a little bit more confidence in what you can do and finding ways to have them follow you a little bit better. Everything you said was really true about what happened with this second film.
SHH!: Did you read any of the reviews of the first movie? A lot of critics were very harsh, though obviously, the movie did well, so there must be people out there who liked it. Did reviews or comments made online have any effect on how you proceeded with the sequel or did you already know what you wanted to do?
Story: I had my own thoughts, but at the same time, some things were obvious. I knew everybody, including myself, wanted more action in the movie. I would go online myself--your site being one of the big sources of that kind of material--and just read what people were saying, because what I started to find as I dug deeper... in the beginning, I must admit, it was just an ocean of negativity, and I'm okay with someone saying "I didn't like this, I didn't like that" but you also were looking for constructive criticism. You were looking for "Okay, what is it you thought you were missing?" as opposed to just "I didn't like this, I didn't like that." So I would go online and read these things and at the end of the day, I knew what I was going to do, but it helped to hear people who were just wanting more. When you hear that from somebody, it kind of excites you, because you go, "Oh, okay, you wanted that." The obvious thing was we wanted Doom to be more of a badass, and with the first film, it didn't set-up for Doom to be completely what he was supposed to be, because it was starting from an origin kind of thing. We had to get him to Dr. Doom, and now that we got him there, it was real simple for us to make it happen. I gotta admit, it was rather cool to go back and look at the internet and use it as information, but at the end of the day, I kind of knew what I wanted to improve on and what I wanted to do with the next film. It wasn't brain surgery for me. It was just go for it, once the second movie comes, it allows you to start from Frame 1 and make it happen.
SHH!: That's the big problem with any comic book movie, because you have to introduce the characters assuming that you have more than just regular comic book readers in the audience. I remember Bryan Singer's "X2" was far better than the original because he had already established the characters, and I think it's still one of the best comic book movies. I assume that some time has passed since the last movie, as we now see that Sue and Reed are getting married.
Story: Yeah, you figure almost the same amount of time since the last movie came out. Basically, we figured it was about a year and a half, maybe two years, and here we are picking them up at present day.
SHH!: Has a lot changed in their world since the last movie and do we assume they've already faced a lot of bad guys at this point?
Story: Yeah, we wanted to say that these guys have already stopped a lot of bank robbers, and basically, what's fun about the Fan Four, which I always loved about the comic books, is they're not just superheroes. They're more adventurers and more explorers than anything, so we say that they've been doing it and will continue to do their superhero job, but then there's also this thing of them becoming entrepreneurs. They've started to sell their likeness and have made a lot of money from being the Fantastic Four, so they've been able to revamp the Baxter Building. There's that and there's just them being comfortable in their skin to the point where they can go out in public and people say "Hi" to them and they're like celebrities. There's all of that we wanted to bring to the next film, because that's what was such a big part of Fantastic Four in the comics is that they're the only superheroes who actually own their copyrights and make money from it and why not?
SHH!: What's your favorite run of the Fantastic Four comic books? There's obviously the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby run which are considered classics, but anything since then?
Story: Really, that first run of the Kirby and Lee, the first couple dozen issues, they're just so cool. I mean, the Mole Man and Dr. Doom and later with the introduction of the Surfer and Galactus and Black Panther. That Kirby run was just really good. Also, John Byrne, his run was really good, too, gave us a lot of classic stuff, and then I must admit, I liked the Marvel Knights version. I mean, there's a lot of different versions that I really really liked. I've said it often before that I did like the Ultimate Fantastic Four, I liked a lot of the tone even though they changed the origin. It was really fun in the beginning, and how they dealt with the Negative Zone afterwards. There's so much that I drew from.
SHH!: We see that they switch powers in the trailer, so was that something inspired by the recent Mark Waid story?
Story: Actually, we pulled it out a year and a half ago, and I didn't even know it was in the comic books. We always dealt with the issues of Ben going back and forth, but I didn't even know it was in a recent version of the comic book. I've been away from the comics a bit in making the movie.
SHH!: It's definitely different, and it seems you're using it both for a bit of humor but also to show off some cool effects ideas.
Story: This whole switching of powers really goes somewhere later on in the film, and I can't wait for people to see how we use it later on. It's not just us having fun. It really serves a dramatic purpose, and I can't wait for people to see that in the movie.
SHH!: I hate to ask this, mainly since I like being surprised when I see the movie, but what's the deal with Galactus? Do we see him in the movie or not?
Story: You're going to see Galactus in the movie. It's coming and I can't wait for people to check it out. I will say that there is a bit of a set-up for possibly a run at a Silver Surfer franchise, and it is a little bit of a tee-up, but I can't wait for people to see what we've done with it. I think it's pretty awesome, and we do leave something for the audience to contemplate when it comes to a new Silver Surfer movie. You'll have a lot more answers to find.
SHH!: Do you get into the Silver Surfer origin story about Norin Radd and all that stuff?
Story: We do touch upon some of the information as far as the origin and where he's from, but of course, we don't dive into it in-depth, and that's what's going to be great about having a Silver Surfer movie, because now, you get to find out what this guy is all about. Since he's been introduced in our film, it's going to be awesome, just to figure it out and see it.
SHH!: I'm a big fan of Kerry Washington, to the point of having more than a little crush on her, so will we see more of her relationship with Ben in the movie?
Story: Definitely. She becomes like the fifth member. We see a lot of the Fantastic Four world with the Fantasticar, and Kerry Washington having more time onscreen with her boyfriend and the Fantastic Four. We even put her in trouble a little bit.
SHH!: Can you talk about how the movie got a PG rating?
Story: Yeah, here's what's interesting. Our cut of the film, when Fox told us that we may be able to get a PG rating, we changed nothing in the movie. We didn't change anything to get the PG, and it was great, because it's not as if we sacrificed anything to get a PG, it was just that "Hey, we can get a PG-rating and why not?" I would love for young kids to be able to go into this movie and check it out, because it's fun and it's such a multi-generational film that I would hate to exclude anybody. It was more of a coincidence than anything, it just worked out for the best.
SHH!: You've just finished this movie after spending four years in this world, so where's your head at in terms of doing another one or directing the Silver Surfer spin-off? Are you doing something else now?
Story: I'm looking to do something else right now. I've been inside of this world for close to four years now and I just want to branch out and do something else and then hopefully, there is a #3 and if I'm invited back, we'll make a run for it. Right now, I just want to go somewhere else. I'm still growing as a filmmaker. I wanna try other things. I can't wait to get to some other stuff.
SHH!: Do you have anything else lined-up yet?
Story: No, I'm just kinda circling stuff. I'm producing a film with a first-time director by the name of David Talbert, which is a small movie at Screen Gems with Ice Cube. It's just a comedy (called "First Sunday"), but there's some other stuff that we are talking about. There's the idea of doing a film based on the... what's that? You know what? I can't let that out yet, but as soon as it's official, there's a big surprise. (Note: There sure was! Five hours after this conversation, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter announced that Story was attached to make a film based on the Vertigo Comic "The Losers," and our own self-professed reader wouldn't even let us know about it a few hours early? C'mon, Tim!)
SHH!: With your background in comedy, would you go back to directing something smaller after doing a big budget action-effects movie like the FF?
Story: Absolutely. I'm constantly looking just to do a small movie. At some point, I will get back to doing those intimate movies that may be kind of fun, and take me back to my independent days. I can't wait to do it. I don't know what it is yet and I haven't found it, but I'm definitely open. Doing big movies like this is great, there's nothing like it, but you also want to stretch your legs with doing small pieces.
SHH!: Do you think you'd get back into writing?
Story: You know what? That would be fun, but I don't know if I have the patience for it. I have so much respect for writers because I don't know how you lock yourself in a room and do that. It's really difficult, but I don't foresee myself doing too much writing, but I love the writing process and that always is fun to me.
source : www.superherohype.com
Story has experience with high profile movies, having directed Ice Cube's Barbershop, but this weekend, all eyes are on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, his follow-up to the 2005 blockbuster, to see if it will follow Spider-Man 2 and X2 as Marvel-based sequels that were better than the original movies.
Superhero Hype! caught up with Story as he finished up post-production on the movie, before heading to London for the movie junket, and we had a chance to have an extensive talk with him, as he mentioned a few times being a reader of this very site! (Another reason to give him major props.)
Superhero Hype!: A lot of people are excited about this movie on ComingSoon.net and Superhero Hype!
Tim Story: Cool, man. Those are the two I spend a lot of time checking out people's comments on. It's one of the ones I check all the time just to see what everybody's talking about, and that's how I keep informed on what people are saying besides on my MySpace.
SHH!: Not sure if you saw but "Rise of the Silver Surfer" was #1 on our June poll, which is pretty impressive considering the competition.
Story: Oh, really? Wow, that's great.
SHH!: The Silver Surfer is what's getting everyone excited about this movie. I don't know if you've been to New York recently, but there's images of him everywhere. They don't even need to put the title of the movie on there, and everyone knows what it is.
Story: I haven't been [there] and I hate that, 'cause I haven't been able to see anything. I'll take your word for it, but it sounds great.
SHH!: I assume after the first movie did well, they immediately decided to do the sequel, so at what point was it decided to bring in the Surfer? Was he the only choice for this movie?
Story: Yeah, for the most part. The fun part of doing a sequel is to talk about, "Okay, who do you bring to the universe next?" Sure, we talked about Puppet Master, we talked about Mole Man and Silver Surfer. Other than Dr. Doom, he's the most famous villain, though he later becomes their ally. In the beginning, he and Galactus are the greatest story after Dr. Doom. It seemed pretty fitting, but it took a second, because Fox was planning to do another film on the Silver Surfer, and to get everybody to agree to put that on the backburner to introduce him into this film, it took a little bit of talking. At the end of the day, everybody agreed that it was the only way to go.
SHH!: I didn't realize Fox already had the Surfer. I know that with Venom, there was this issue of another studio owning the movie rights.
Story: That's the same thing that happened with us with Namor. Universal has the Sub-Mariner, and of course, there's a big story in the Fan Four with Namor, and unfortunately, we won't be able to use that character, because Universal does have it and are planning a movie to it. Every now and then, you get lucky because the other properties, because they were splitting them up so much, we really lucked out that the Silver Surfer was still at Fox. It was like one of those "Thank God it happened!"
SHH!: You had to spend a bit of time in the first movie working out the FX for the Fantastic Four, but now you have the Silver Surfer, who is basically all FX, especially with those new powers you've added. Can you talk about creating and modifying the character for the movie?
Story: What was interesting was that when it came to the visual look of him, it was pretty simple. We threw a couple things against the wall, and at the end of the day, the design was perfect when they first did it forty years ago and it held up. We just said, "You know what? Let's just stick with the classic look." That was a pretty easy one. The next part of it, which I guess was a little bit harder, was dealing with his powers. In the comic book, they don't always specifically deal with what he can do. With the cosmic blast they show a lot in the comic books, that was pretty straight forward. He sends this blast, and it's what happens on the other side of it that we had to figure out. How strong is it? What kind of damage does it do? So that was actually fun. When we went back and read the definition of what is really described as his powers, he can pretty much change elements of any matter to whatever he so desires. In thinking about that, it really became interesting. Okay, how can you play with that? And that's when the whole idea of him going through his board and going through buses and building, that's where it became fun. Because you say, "Wait a second. If he can change matter, then technically, he can walk through walls", and then that just became the fun part of coming up with powers. We really did just take to the source material, but then asked ourselves the question, "If he can do that, then what does that mean?" If I can change matter into anything I feel then if I want to go through something, I can literally change it into water while I walk through it and then let it go back to what it was. We had a lot of fun of just figuring out what he can do. Of course, the flight of the board, it was just so fun, because when WETA started animating him, they had some surfers over there that would just take classic moves and throw 'em in there, and it was really cool to make that happen.
SHH!: Did you work on WETA on the first movie, too?
Story: No, this is my first time working with WETA and we knew that we had to go after one of the big boys because we were doing a total CGI character, and who's had better success with CGI characters than WETA? With Gollum and King Kong, their characters looks so real to life and once we figured out what it was going to look like and how reflective he was going to be, it got so easy after that, because they just started cranking out shots faster than you can imagine. Anything you thought about, they would do it, and you'd go "Wow, that's cool" and you'd even go a step further. It just got really fun after they figured out exactly what he was going to look like and how he was going to move.
SHH!: And you got Doug Jones, who's done a lot of these types of characters, then combined that with the voice of Laurence Fishburne. Can you talk about how you came up with that combination and working with those two guys?
Story: Well, with Doug, it was just great to figure out how he was going to move. Aside from dealing with an animator who's halfway around the world and try to figure it out, we just decided to get one of the guys that is best at character movement and have him help us design the moves, have him help us think about how this guy would lean over, bend down and fly. All these ideas, instead of trying to just put them down on paper, we decided to grab all the comic book art that we could on the Silver Surfer, then we started having Doug do those movements. Once we started getting into motion capture and started to grab some of his movements, we'd use them to animate the CGI character. It made a shorthand, because you're no longer saying, "Hey, move that finger" and then they don't move it far enough. Here, you're actually able to talk to a person and Doug was invaluable in creating [him], you couldn't have done it without him. It made it human and it made it real. Then of course, with Laurence Fishburne, it just created the cycle in terms of "What's he going to sound like?" We got what he was going to look and move like, we got what his powers are, we got all that stuff, but then it came down to one last idea which is what he was going to sound like. We'd been waiting to hear the Surfer on film and here he is, and what better voice than Laurence Fishburne? He was my first choice and luckily, he said yes, and it's on celluloid for life now.
SHH!: We've heard the story about how you directed "Taxi" to get in with Fox to be able to direct the first "Fantastic Four." Having that under your belt, with the second movie, were you given it a bit more free reign in terms of getting more involved with the plot and the script and everything else?
Story: Yeah, all of that. I was on the project from its inception, so I got a chance to talk about the story from frame 1 and that's always great, when you're able to be on a movie from the beginning, because you just know the history of the project and you know where you've been and what worked, so it was fun to create the story with the writer. In terms of giving me freedom, what it did, being on the first one of course, there was a lot more freedom, but that freedom came in the way of me having the experience to deal with visual FX, to deal with action, to go after more things, and to be able to direct this vast amount of people and to get your vision across. In the beginning, with the first one, I was learning as I went, so it was really hard to figure out... you kind of knew what you wanted, but it was hard to orchestrate it, so this time around, I knew the areas where we could improve and most importantly, I knew the areas where we wanted to replicate what we did before which worked. It was a pretty good combination of just experience and people around you having a little bit more confidence in what you can do and finding ways to have them follow you a little bit better. Everything you said was really true about what happened with this second film.
SHH!: Did you read any of the reviews of the first movie? A lot of critics were very harsh, though obviously, the movie did well, so there must be people out there who liked it. Did reviews or comments made online have any effect on how you proceeded with the sequel or did you already know what you wanted to do?
Story: I had my own thoughts, but at the same time, some things were obvious. I knew everybody, including myself, wanted more action in the movie. I would go online myself--your site being one of the big sources of that kind of material--and just read what people were saying, because what I started to find as I dug deeper... in the beginning, I must admit, it was just an ocean of negativity, and I'm okay with someone saying "I didn't like this, I didn't like that" but you also were looking for constructive criticism. You were looking for "Okay, what is it you thought you were missing?" as opposed to just "I didn't like this, I didn't like that." So I would go online and read these things and at the end of the day, I knew what I was going to do, but it helped to hear people who were just wanting more. When you hear that from somebody, it kind of excites you, because you go, "Oh, okay, you wanted that." The obvious thing was we wanted Doom to be more of a badass, and with the first film, it didn't set-up for Doom to be completely what he was supposed to be, because it was starting from an origin kind of thing. We had to get him to Dr. Doom, and now that we got him there, it was real simple for us to make it happen. I gotta admit, it was rather cool to go back and look at the internet and use it as information, but at the end of the day, I kind of knew what I wanted to improve on and what I wanted to do with the next film. It wasn't brain surgery for me. It was just go for it, once the second movie comes, it allows you to start from Frame 1 and make it happen.
SHH!: That's the big problem with any comic book movie, because you have to introduce the characters assuming that you have more than just regular comic book readers in the audience. I remember Bryan Singer's "X2" was far better than the original because he had already established the characters, and I think it's still one of the best comic book movies. I assume that some time has passed since the last movie, as we now see that Sue and Reed are getting married.
Story: Yeah, you figure almost the same amount of time since the last movie came out. Basically, we figured it was about a year and a half, maybe two years, and here we are picking them up at present day.
SHH!: Has a lot changed in their world since the last movie and do we assume they've already faced a lot of bad guys at this point?
Story: Yeah, we wanted to say that these guys have already stopped a lot of bank robbers, and basically, what's fun about the Fan Four, which I always loved about the comic books, is they're not just superheroes. They're more adventurers and more explorers than anything, so we say that they've been doing it and will continue to do their superhero job, but then there's also this thing of them becoming entrepreneurs. They've started to sell their likeness and have made a lot of money from being the Fantastic Four, so they've been able to revamp the Baxter Building. There's that and there's just them being comfortable in their skin to the point where they can go out in public and people say "Hi" to them and they're like celebrities. There's all of that we wanted to bring to the next film, because that's what was such a big part of Fantastic Four in the comics is that they're the only superheroes who actually own their copyrights and make money from it and why not?
SHH!: What's your favorite run of the Fantastic Four comic books? There's obviously the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby run which are considered classics, but anything since then?
Story: Really, that first run of the Kirby and Lee, the first couple dozen issues, they're just so cool. I mean, the Mole Man and Dr. Doom and later with the introduction of the Surfer and Galactus and Black Panther. That Kirby run was just really good. Also, John Byrne, his run was really good, too, gave us a lot of classic stuff, and then I must admit, I liked the Marvel Knights version. I mean, there's a lot of different versions that I really really liked. I've said it often before that I did like the Ultimate Fantastic Four, I liked a lot of the tone even though they changed the origin. It was really fun in the beginning, and how they dealt with the Negative Zone afterwards. There's so much that I drew from.
SHH!: We see that they switch powers in the trailer, so was that something inspired by the recent Mark Waid story?
Story: Actually, we pulled it out a year and a half ago, and I didn't even know it was in the comic books. We always dealt with the issues of Ben going back and forth, but I didn't even know it was in a recent version of the comic book. I've been away from the comics a bit in making the movie.
SHH!: It's definitely different, and it seems you're using it both for a bit of humor but also to show off some cool effects ideas.
Story: This whole switching of powers really goes somewhere later on in the film, and I can't wait for people to see how we use it later on. It's not just us having fun. It really serves a dramatic purpose, and I can't wait for people to see that in the movie.
SHH!: I hate to ask this, mainly since I like being surprised when I see the movie, but what's the deal with Galactus? Do we see him in the movie or not?
Story: You're going to see Galactus in the movie. It's coming and I can't wait for people to check it out. I will say that there is a bit of a set-up for possibly a run at a Silver Surfer franchise, and it is a little bit of a tee-up, but I can't wait for people to see what we've done with it. I think it's pretty awesome, and we do leave something for the audience to contemplate when it comes to a new Silver Surfer movie. You'll have a lot more answers to find.
SHH!: Do you get into the Silver Surfer origin story about Norin Radd and all that stuff?
Story: We do touch upon some of the information as far as the origin and where he's from, but of course, we don't dive into it in-depth, and that's what's going to be great about having a Silver Surfer movie, because now, you get to find out what this guy is all about. Since he's been introduced in our film, it's going to be awesome, just to figure it out and see it.
SHH!: I'm a big fan of Kerry Washington, to the point of having more than a little crush on her, so will we see more of her relationship with Ben in the movie?
Story: Definitely. She becomes like the fifth member. We see a lot of the Fantastic Four world with the Fantasticar, and Kerry Washington having more time onscreen with her boyfriend and the Fantastic Four. We even put her in trouble a little bit.
SHH!: Can you talk about how the movie got a PG rating?
Story: Yeah, here's what's interesting. Our cut of the film, when Fox told us that we may be able to get a PG rating, we changed nothing in the movie. We didn't change anything to get the PG, and it was great, because it's not as if we sacrificed anything to get a PG, it was just that "Hey, we can get a PG-rating and why not?" I would love for young kids to be able to go into this movie and check it out, because it's fun and it's such a multi-generational film that I would hate to exclude anybody. It was more of a coincidence than anything, it just worked out for the best.
SHH!: You've just finished this movie after spending four years in this world, so where's your head at in terms of doing another one or directing the Silver Surfer spin-off? Are you doing something else now?
Story: I'm looking to do something else right now. I've been inside of this world for close to four years now and I just want to branch out and do something else and then hopefully, there is a #3 and if I'm invited back, we'll make a run for it. Right now, I just want to go somewhere else. I'm still growing as a filmmaker. I wanna try other things. I can't wait to get to some other stuff.
SHH!: Do you have anything else lined-up yet?
Story: No, I'm just kinda circling stuff. I'm producing a film with a first-time director by the name of David Talbert, which is a small movie at Screen Gems with Ice Cube. It's just a comedy (called "First Sunday"), but there's some other stuff that we are talking about. There's the idea of doing a film based on the... what's that? You know what? I can't let that out yet, but as soon as it's official, there's a big surprise. (Note: There sure was! Five hours after this conversation, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter announced that Story was attached to make a film based on the Vertigo Comic "The Losers," and our own self-professed reader wouldn't even let us know about it a few hours early? C'mon, Tim!)
SHH!: With your background in comedy, would you go back to directing something smaller after doing a big budget action-effects movie like the FF?
Story: Absolutely. I'm constantly looking just to do a small movie. At some point, I will get back to doing those intimate movies that may be kind of fun, and take me back to my independent days. I can't wait to do it. I don't know what it is yet and I haven't found it, but I'm definitely open. Doing big movies like this is great, there's nothing like it, but you also want to stretch your legs with doing small pieces.
SHH!: Do you think you'd get back into writing?
Story: You know what? That would be fun, but I don't know if I have the patience for it. I have so much respect for writers because I don't know how you lock yourself in a room and do that. It's really difficult, but I don't foresee myself doing too much writing, but I love the writing process and that always is fun to me.
source : www.superherohype.com
Not With a Bang or a Whimper
It's a tribute to the passionate discussion about The Sopranos that has gone on in this space over the past year that the minute the credits concluded for the last time ever, in reverberating silence, following a heart-stopping picture blackout that probably generated a million panicked phone calls to cable providers across the country (''Noooooo! I'm missing the mass rubout of the entire Soprano family!''), I thought of you. Yes, you, you who loved every ballsy contrarian move the series took as well as you who were impatient and critical, you who thrilled to whackings as well as you who thrilled to everything that happened in the psychic abyss that signified the opposite of whackings.
I admit I had gotten myself so anxious between last Sunday and this that I almost — almost — expected to witness Tony's actual end-of-the-road death, in bloody color. And yet I also knew that The Sopranos wouldn't end that way — it just couldn't, not if David Chase remained true to his vision of psychic mess handed down from generation to generation. Really, did you expect otherwise? Toying with many of the big-bang endings predicted (and wished for) by plenty of opinionated viewers in a final episode he wrote and directed himself, Chase (1) didn't turn Tony over to the witness-protection program; (2) didn't expose Paulie as a turncoat who would sell out his boss; (3) didn't let AJ kill himself, or Meadow distinguish herself, or Dr. Melfi take T back as a patient, or the Russian mobster come back out of the Jersey Pine Barrens. Hell, Chase didn't even let Silvio live or die — just left him there in a dreamless coma so very different from Tony's, hooked to a breathing tube while his wife clipped his toenails and Little Miss Sunshine (family, redefined!) played on the hospital TV screen.
Nevertheless, Chase had a grand time in his almost playful home stretch, offering a clue-strewn valedictory episode and a beautifully unresolved stopping point — not so much a conclusion as a curtain coming down, with the suggestion that in this thing of theirs, these people will continue to go about their business, even if we're not around to see them doing so. Beginning with the classic overhead view of Tony gathering his wits on his back in a bed — a POV that has, over the years, been associated with dreaming, with a coma, with waking in bed with his wife, or with finishing off a rendezvous with some woman or other not his wife — the episode, called ''Made in America,'' rewarded our shared deep knowledge of the show over the years. Agent Harris — who told Tony, ''You're overreaching,'' when T asked for help in finding Phil — turned out to have not only a wife at home who heats up his dinner but also an illicit hotel-room life of his own. A visit to Tony's sister Janice, the moderately grieving widow, recapped the vista from John Sacrimoni's McMansion where T and Johnny Sack once did business (and where Tony, spotting FBI agents emerging from the woods, bolted in the snow).
This time, it was snowing, too, and Phil's hapless tool of a captain, Butchie, walked down a street in Little Italy that's just a tinselly remnant of the neighborhood's former ethnic grandeur. The new shrink AJ went to crossed her legs in a disorienting variation of Dr. Melfi's famous Basic Instinct pose, yet — smiling and immune to Tony's litany — she didn't rise to the bait as he talked about ''this whole therapy thing'' and how there was ''little love in the house'' of his youth.
As it was in the beginning, world without end: AJ moved into the space left open by his late would-be movie-mogul cousin, Christopher; Meadow, now engaged to Patrick Parisi, morphed into a vaguely more legitimate but still self-deluded version of her willfully ignorant mother; and Paulie still read baroque, dumb-ass signs and wonders into everyday occurrences, whether he was meeting up with a baleful cat or confessing to a miraculous vision of the Virgin Mary at the Bada Bing. Nothing's the same — their world has shrunk, family has died — but nothing's different, either, even if Phil, a vision in a velour tracksuit, was finally dispatched with a macabre flourish, done in first by a bullet and then by his own SUV, rolling over his body while two infant grandkids gurgled in the back seat. (As the man said on the episode of The Twilight Zone flickering on a TV in Tony's safe house, the television world is always looking for writers who can deliver talent and quality....)
In one crucial theme-enforcing scene and the end of the end, Tony finally went to visit Uncle Junior in June's shabby prison hospital. The old man was wizened and seriously addled, a lost, nattering guy in a wheelchair, apparently minus his upper dentures. The same monster who once pumped a bullet into his nephew's gut now didn't recognize the man he shot, nor did he remember the name or face of that same nephew now standing in front of him, invoking the memory of Junior's late brother, Johnny Boy. ''This thing of ours,'' said Tony, ''you two ran north Jersey.'' ''We did?'' replied the former power broker. ''That's nice.'' So much for dynasty.
In my favorite, crucial theme-enforcing scene, meanwhile, pathos played no part in my pleasure, and neither did playful misdirection — you know, the cutting to various strangers in that final diner scene who could have been hitmen waiting to strike. No, what I'm thinking of is the food line at the reception following Bobby's funeral, a sleek shot that panned right to left sweeping over the faces of so many we've known over the years, and loved, all of them ready to chow down. There they all were, in their frequently used funeral clothes, chatting and tasting as the living do. And there it was, a huge pan of baked ziti.
What? No more f---in' ziti? How are we gonna live? Was this the ending you hoped for? And if not — whaddaya gonna do?
source : www.ew.com
I admit I had gotten myself so anxious between last Sunday and this that I almost — almost — expected to witness Tony's actual end-of-the-road death, in bloody color. And yet I also knew that The Sopranos wouldn't end that way — it just couldn't, not if David Chase remained true to his vision of psychic mess handed down from generation to generation. Really, did you expect otherwise? Toying with many of the big-bang endings predicted (and wished for) by plenty of opinionated viewers in a final episode he wrote and directed himself, Chase (1) didn't turn Tony over to the witness-protection program; (2) didn't expose Paulie as a turncoat who would sell out his boss; (3) didn't let AJ kill himself, or Meadow distinguish herself, or Dr. Melfi take T back as a patient, or the Russian mobster come back out of the Jersey Pine Barrens. Hell, Chase didn't even let Silvio live or die — just left him there in a dreamless coma so very different from Tony's, hooked to a breathing tube while his wife clipped his toenails and Little Miss Sunshine (family, redefined!) played on the hospital TV screen.
Nevertheless, Chase had a grand time in his almost playful home stretch, offering a clue-strewn valedictory episode and a beautifully unresolved stopping point — not so much a conclusion as a curtain coming down, with the suggestion that in this thing of theirs, these people will continue to go about their business, even if we're not around to see them doing so. Beginning with the classic overhead view of Tony gathering his wits on his back in a bed — a POV that has, over the years, been associated with dreaming, with a coma, with waking in bed with his wife, or with finishing off a rendezvous with some woman or other not his wife — the episode, called ''Made in America,'' rewarded our shared deep knowledge of the show over the years. Agent Harris — who told Tony, ''You're overreaching,'' when T asked for help in finding Phil — turned out to have not only a wife at home who heats up his dinner but also an illicit hotel-room life of his own. A visit to Tony's sister Janice, the moderately grieving widow, recapped the vista from John Sacrimoni's McMansion where T and Johnny Sack once did business (and where Tony, spotting FBI agents emerging from the woods, bolted in the snow).
This time, it was snowing, too, and Phil's hapless tool of a captain, Butchie, walked down a street in Little Italy that's just a tinselly remnant of the neighborhood's former ethnic grandeur. The new shrink AJ went to crossed her legs in a disorienting variation of Dr. Melfi's famous Basic Instinct pose, yet — smiling and immune to Tony's litany — she didn't rise to the bait as he talked about ''this whole therapy thing'' and how there was ''little love in the house'' of his youth.
As it was in the beginning, world without end: AJ moved into the space left open by his late would-be movie-mogul cousin, Christopher; Meadow, now engaged to Patrick Parisi, morphed into a vaguely more legitimate but still self-deluded version of her willfully ignorant mother; and Paulie still read baroque, dumb-ass signs and wonders into everyday occurrences, whether he was meeting up with a baleful cat or confessing to a miraculous vision of the Virgin Mary at the Bada Bing. Nothing's the same — their world has shrunk, family has died — but nothing's different, either, even if Phil, a vision in a velour tracksuit, was finally dispatched with a macabre flourish, done in first by a bullet and then by his own SUV, rolling over his body while two infant grandkids gurgled in the back seat. (As the man said on the episode of The Twilight Zone flickering on a TV in Tony's safe house, the television world is always looking for writers who can deliver talent and quality....)
In one crucial theme-enforcing scene and the end of the end, Tony finally went to visit Uncle Junior in June's shabby prison hospital. The old man was wizened and seriously addled, a lost, nattering guy in a wheelchair, apparently minus his upper dentures. The same monster who once pumped a bullet into his nephew's gut now didn't recognize the man he shot, nor did he remember the name or face of that same nephew now standing in front of him, invoking the memory of Junior's late brother, Johnny Boy. ''This thing of ours,'' said Tony, ''you two ran north Jersey.'' ''We did?'' replied the former power broker. ''That's nice.'' So much for dynasty.
In my favorite, crucial theme-enforcing scene, meanwhile, pathos played no part in my pleasure, and neither did playful misdirection — you know, the cutting to various strangers in that final diner scene who could have been hitmen waiting to strike. No, what I'm thinking of is the food line at the reception following Bobby's funeral, a sleek shot that panned right to left sweeping over the faces of so many we've known over the years, and loved, all of them ready to chow down. There they all were, in their frequently used funeral clothes, chatting and tasting as the living do. And there it was, a huge pan of baked ziti.
What? No more f---in' ziti? How are we gonna live? Was this the ending you hoped for? And if not — whaddaya gonna do?
source : www.ew.com
Disney to sign Bollywood animation pact: WSJ
Walt Disney Co. is set to announce a joint venture with India's Yash Raj Films to make animated films voiced by Indian movie stars, the Wall Street Journal said in its online edition on Monday.
n Mumbai, a spokeswoman for Yash Raj declined comment on the specifics of the report, but said a press conference was scheduled for Tuesday and that it concerned Disney.
The report said the venture will make at least one animated film per year.
A spokeswoman for Disney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Disney is looking for a bigger share of India's rapidly growing media and entertainment market.
Last year it bought Hungama, a Hindi-language childrens' entertainment channel from UTV Software Communications Ltd. and also took a 14.9 percent stake in the broadcaster.
(Additional reporting by Rina Chandran and Jasudha Kirpalani in MUMBAI)
source : news.yahoo.com
n Mumbai, a spokeswoman for Yash Raj declined comment on the specifics of the report, but said a press conference was scheduled for Tuesday and that it concerned Disney.
The report said the venture will make at least one animated film per year.
A spokeswoman for Disney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Disney is looking for a bigger share of India's rapidly growing media and entertainment market.
Last year it bought Hungama, a Hindi-language childrens' entertainment channel from UTV Software Communications Ltd. and also took a 14.9 percent stake in the broadcaster.
(Additional reporting by Rina Chandran and Jasudha Kirpalani in MUMBAI)
source : news.yahoo.com
Family visit Paris in prison
Paris Hilton was visited in prison by her sister and ex-boyfriend after going back behind bars under the judge's orders.
The heiress was sent to prison last week but, after serving only three full days, was told by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on Thursday that she could serve the remainder of her sentence at home, wearing a tag.
The decision angered Supreme Court Judge Michael Sauer who had specified, as he sentenced Hilton, that she would not be able to serve her 45-day sentence at home.
He called her back to court on Friday and sent a sobbing and screaming Hilton back to jail.
Her sister Nicky Hilton and ex-boyfriend Stavros Niarchos visited the Twin Towers detention centre on Sunday.
She is reported to be struggling to sleep due to the noise and bright lights and has only eaten cereal and bread since she arrived there on Friday.
Hilton announced that she will not be appealing against her return to prison and instead vowed to serve her time although it was "by far the hardest thing I have ever done".
source: www.itv.com
The heiress was sent to prison last week but, after serving only three full days, was told by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on Thursday that she could serve the remainder of her sentence at home, wearing a tag.
The decision angered Supreme Court Judge Michael Sauer who had specified, as he sentenced Hilton, that she would not be able to serve her 45-day sentence at home.
He called her back to court on Friday and sent a sobbing and screaming Hilton back to jail.
Her sister Nicky Hilton and ex-boyfriend Stavros Niarchos visited the Twin Towers detention centre on Sunday.
She is reported to be struggling to sleep due to the noise and bright lights and has only eaten cereal and bread since she arrived there on Friday.
Hilton announced that she will not be appealing against her return to prison and instead vowed to serve her time although it was "by far the hardest thing I have ever done".
source: www.itv.com
Songwriter serves up ice-cream truck alternative
Ears weary of "Pop Goes the Weasel" and the Mister Softee theme during these hot summer months now have an alternative: Michael Hearst's album "Songs for Ice Cream Trucks."
The Brooklyn-based songwriter set out to change the musical landscape for mobile frozen treat purveyors with new tunes -- and ringtones -- like "Ice Cream Yo!" and "Where Do Ice Cream Trucks Go in the Winter?"
Independent ice cream vendors across the country are already taking notice. Before it hits stores Tuesday (June 12), the Bar None album has been available for purchase through Hearst's Web site songsforicecreamtrucks.com and iTunes.
"I had no hard and fast rules as to how to make an ice cream truck song," said Hearst, who also plays in indie duo One Ring Zero. "They had just better make people want to buy ice cream." And Hearst's 13 tracks -- short, whimsical tunes that use melodica, organ, theremin, guitar, keyboards and a children's choir -- appear to be doing just that.
"Having something other than a nursery rhyme makes grown-ups not mind approaching the truck as much," said John Thibodeau, owner of single-truck operation Thibby's Ice Cream in Green Bay, Wis.
"You can't blast low-end music coming from a horn speaker, so the music has to have a certain tone. Michael nailed these great mid- and high-level sounds. Lots of people ask me about it, where I got it," said Matt Allen, popularly known as the Ice Cream Man, who gives out free ice cream at major music festivals across the country. Other vendors -- from a startup in Southern Pines, North Carolina, to a small fleet in Portland, Oregon -- are catching on as well.
Reuters/Billboard
source : news.yahoo.com
The Brooklyn-based songwriter set out to change the musical landscape for mobile frozen treat purveyors with new tunes -- and ringtones -- like "Ice Cream Yo!" and "Where Do Ice Cream Trucks Go in the Winter?"
Independent ice cream vendors across the country are already taking notice. Before it hits stores Tuesday (June 12), the Bar None album has been available for purchase through Hearst's Web site songsforicecreamtrucks.com and iTunes.
"I had no hard and fast rules as to how to make an ice cream truck song," said Hearst, who also plays in indie duo One Ring Zero. "They had just better make people want to buy ice cream." And Hearst's 13 tracks -- short, whimsical tunes that use melodica, organ, theremin, guitar, keyboards and a children's choir -- appear to be doing just that.
"Having something other than a nursery rhyme makes grown-ups not mind approaching the truck as much," said John Thibodeau, owner of single-truck operation Thibby's Ice Cream in Green Bay, Wis.
"You can't blast low-end music coming from a horn speaker, so the music has to have a certain tone. Michael nailed these great mid- and high-level sounds. Lots of people ask me about it, where I got it," said Matt Allen, popularly known as the Ice Cream Man, who gives out free ice cream at major music festivals across the country. Other vendors -- from a startup in Southern Pines, North Carolina, to a small fleet in Portland, Oregon -- are catching on as well.
Reuters/Billboard
source : news.yahoo.com
Yahoo offering celebrity "Access"
Yahoo is launching a celebrity-oriented Web portal in a partnership with TV gossip show "Access Hollywood."
The site, to be known as omg! -- Internet shorthand for "oh my God" -- is expected to be announced Monday. It is being eyed as a competitor to Time Warner's fast-growing TMZ.com, which dishes dirt nearly 24/7.
The omg site represents the first significant content collaboration with Hollywood to come out of Yahoo in quite some time. After Yahoo appointed former ABC programming chief Lloyd Braun as head of Yahoo Media Group in 2004, the company was supposed to get aggressive in the entertainment space. But after several false starts, Braun was tossed out in December, and Yahoo has made only modest additions to its programming mix since.
"Access" also is expected to beef up its own Web site, http://www.AccessHollywood.com, in the fall, adding a social networking component among other changes.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
source: news.yahoo.com
The site, to be known as omg! -- Internet shorthand for "oh my God" -- is expected to be announced Monday. It is being eyed as a competitor to Time Warner's fast-growing TMZ.com, which dishes dirt nearly 24/7.
The omg site represents the first significant content collaboration with Hollywood to come out of Yahoo in quite some time. After Yahoo appointed former ABC programming chief Lloyd Braun as head of Yahoo Media Group in 2004, the company was supposed to get aggressive in the entertainment space. But after several false starts, Braun was tossed out in December, and Yahoo has made only modest additions to its programming mix since.
"Access" also is expected to beef up its own Web site, http://www.AccessHollywood.com, in the fall, adding a social networking component among other changes.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
source: news.yahoo.com
Stoppard, "Spring Awakening" sweep Tonys
Russian revolutionaries and rebellious teenagers were the big hits at the
Tony Awards on Sunday when Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of the Utopia" and the rock musical "Spring Awakening" took home the top honors.
Stoppard's epic trilogy won seven of the awards given for Broadway productions and performances, including best play and director, and "Spring Awakening" dominated the musical categories, taking home eight prizes including best musical and direction of a musical.
"The Coast of Utopia's" crop of seven awards was a new record for a play, breaking the record of six set by Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" in 1949 and matched last year by Alan Bennett's "The History Boys."
"They're both plays that I admire very much," Stoppard told reporters backstage. "What didn't they get?"
The British playwright's eight-hour trilogy about 19th century Russian intellectual revolutionaries was first produced in London in 2002. Stoppard said a Russian version was in rehearsals in Moscow and there was talk of a French version.
"Coast of Utopia" cast members
Billy Crudup and
Jennifer Ehle won acting awards for their supporting roles and the show also won for scenery, costumes and lighting.
While Stoppard's play came to Broadway amid huge expectations 40 years after his first show in New York, "Spring Awakening" was created off-Broadway against the odds.
It tackles taboo subjects such as teenage sex, homosexuality, abortion and masturbation, and has a cast of little-known actors ranging in age from 16 to 24.
"When we couldn't get anybody to look our way for four years, imagine how gratifying this is," writer and lyricist Steven Sater told reporters backstage.
TABOOS TRIUMPH
The musical was adapted from Frank Wedekind's 1891 German play about teenage sexual angst, and features rock music, graphic language, partial nudity and a tragic ending -- a far cry from feel-good shows such as "Mary Poppins," this year's Disney offering, which won just one award, for scenery.
Composer
Duncan Sheik said the success of "Spring Awakening" was a sign of the times.
"(With) what's happening politically, people were ready for something that dealt with real issues and had teeth and was about turning the tide away from hypocrisy and foolishness," Sheik said. His co-writer Sater said they started working on it at the time of the 1999 Columbine school shooting in Colorado.
Frank Langella won the Tony for best leading actor in a play for his role as
Richard Nixon in "Frost/Nixon," a dramatization of David Frost's 1977 television interviews with the disgraced president.
Julie White, who played a pushy celebrity agent in "The Little Dog Laughed," won best actress in a play, beating big names
Vanessa Redgrave and
Angela Lansbury.
"I never imagined I would be on a list like this unless it was for dinner reservations," White said in her speech to the start-studded crowd at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
"Grey Gardens," a critical hit about two reclusive, eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had 10 nominations but won just three awards -- acting awards for star Christine Ebersole and supporting actress Mary Louise Wilson, and best costumes in a musical.
The Tony for best actor in a musical went to
David Hyde Pierce, best known for his role as Niles in the long-running television sitcom "Frasier." He played a singing detective in the musical "Curtains."
Perhaps the most poignant moment was for the cast of "Journey's End," which won the Tony for best revival of a play, hours after its last performance on Sunday. The show drew rave reviews for its portrait of men of war, but failed to attract a large enough audience to continue its run.
source : news.yahoo.com
Tony Awards on Sunday when Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of the Utopia" and the rock musical "Spring Awakening" took home the top honors.
Stoppard's epic trilogy won seven of the awards given for Broadway productions and performances, including best play and director, and "Spring Awakening" dominated the musical categories, taking home eight prizes including best musical and direction of a musical.
"The Coast of Utopia's" crop of seven awards was a new record for a play, breaking the record of six set by Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" in 1949 and matched last year by Alan Bennett's "The History Boys."
"They're both plays that I admire very much," Stoppard told reporters backstage. "What didn't they get?"
The British playwright's eight-hour trilogy about 19th century Russian intellectual revolutionaries was first produced in London in 2002. Stoppard said a Russian version was in rehearsals in Moscow and there was talk of a French version.
"Coast of Utopia" cast members
Billy Crudup and
Jennifer Ehle won acting awards for their supporting roles and the show also won for scenery, costumes and lighting.
While Stoppard's play came to Broadway amid huge expectations 40 years after his first show in New York, "Spring Awakening" was created off-Broadway against the odds.
It tackles taboo subjects such as teenage sex, homosexuality, abortion and masturbation, and has a cast of little-known actors ranging in age from 16 to 24.
"When we couldn't get anybody to look our way for four years, imagine how gratifying this is," writer and lyricist Steven Sater told reporters backstage.
TABOOS TRIUMPH
The musical was adapted from Frank Wedekind's 1891 German play about teenage sexual angst, and features rock music, graphic language, partial nudity and a tragic ending -- a far cry from feel-good shows such as "Mary Poppins," this year's Disney offering, which won just one award, for scenery.
Composer
Duncan Sheik said the success of "Spring Awakening" was a sign of the times.
"(With) what's happening politically, people were ready for something that dealt with real issues and had teeth and was about turning the tide away from hypocrisy and foolishness," Sheik said. His co-writer Sater said they started working on it at the time of the 1999 Columbine school shooting in Colorado.
Frank Langella won the Tony for best leading actor in a play for his role as
Richard Nixon in "Frost/Nixon," a dramatization of David Frost's 1977 television interviews with the disgraced president.
Julie White, who played a pushy celebrity agent in "The Little Dog Laughed," won best actress in a play, beating big names
Vanessa Redgrave and
Angela Lansbury.
"I never imagined I would be on a list like this unless it was for dinner reservations," White said in her speech to the start-studded crowd at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
"Grey Gardens," a critical hit about two reclusive, eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had 10 nominations but won just three awards -- acting awards for star Christine Ebersole and supporting actress Mary Louise Wilson, and best costumes in a musical.
The Tony for best actor in a musical went to
David Hyde Pierce, best known for his role as Niles in the long-running television sitcom "Frasier." He played a singing detective in the musical "Curtains."
Perhaps the most poignant moment was for the cast of "Journey's End," which won the Tony for best revival of a play, hours after its last performance on Sunday. The show drew rave reviews for its portrait of men of war, but failed to attract a large enough audience to continue its run.
source : news.yahoo.com
When the Boss Is Lower Than a Snake's Belly
DEAR MARGO: I have been working for a company for about two months, and I really liked my boss at first. My boss is one of my boyfriend's best friends, so I had no trouble trusting him to begin with. Recently, though, he has been putting me in situations that are uncomfortable. For example, he had a job training with just him and me, even though three other people needed to get the same training. (He trained the rest of them together.) He keeps trying to put me in situations where I am alone with him, and he is extremely friendly. When my boyfriend is around, though, he doesn't even look at me or talk to me.
Recently I heard of different incidents where he started doing this to other women at work and then propositioned them and touched them inappropriately. (He is married.) I don't know whether I should quit my job, because I need the money, or if I should stick it out.
I almost want him to try something with me so I can get him fired and so his wife would find out he is a creep, because she deserves better. Could you give me some advice?
--- CREEPED OUT
DEAR CREEP: Guess what? This lech is not such a great chum of your boyfriend's. Between your experiences and what you've heard, it is quite clear that sexual harassment is what's going on.
I would not even consider quitting, but I would stop this sleazebucket in his tracks one of two ways. You could tell him that you are quite aware of what's going on, and if it doesn't stop, you might have to inform someone. Let him guess whether you have his wife or his boss in mind. Or you might consider telling your boyfriend.
And the idea that when you are all together socially he ignores you just frosts me. What a drip.
--- MARGO, DISGUSTEDLY
Troubled by a Neatnik
DEAR MARGO: I have been married for almost 20 years and have three children. My husband has a history of obsessive-compulsive behavior that I've managed to cope with until recently.
He organizes the freezer weekly, pulls weeds daily, has the house perfect when I get home from work -- complete with dimmed lights and lit, scented candles, etc.
I have told him that this is a disorder that can be managed with counseling and medication. He has attended counseling in the past and has no desire to return. My problem is that I cannot mentally handle this behavior anymore.
I have a number of stress-related illnesses (high blood pressure, gastric ulcer, generalized anxiety disorder, occasional shingles, etc.), and I am only 41! Overall, he is a good man, great dad, successful businessman and tries to be a good Christian.
Is this lack of tolerance on my part a legitimate issue? I frequently remind him that Felix of "The Odd Couple" was the antagonist, charming but annoying.
--- MRS. FELIX UNGER (GOING UNDER)
DEAR MRS.: I do not wish to belittle OCD or your difficulty with it, but I do not exactly see where the problem is. Given what you write, there is something else bothering you besides your organized freezer, weed-free lawn and perfect house. If I were in your shoes, I would teach this man to cook and do laundry and consider myself reeeally lucky.
Because he has gone to counseling and has no desire to return, I think it's your turn. Some of your health issues have an emotional component, and I would hazard a guess that your unhappiness does not stem from what your husband is doing, but from some underlying trouble in the relationship.
It is time for an overhaul, and with good guidance I hope you can return to being the other half of a happy "odd couple."
source: //news.yahoo.com
Recently I heard of different incidents where he started doing this to other women at work and then propositioned them and touched them inappropriately. (He is married.) I don't know whether I should quit my job, because I need the money, or if I should stick it out.
I almost want him to try something with me so I can get him fired and so his wife would find out he is a creep, because she deserves better. Could you give me some advice?
--- CREEPED OUT
DEAR CREEP: Guess what? This lech is not such a great chum of your boyfriend's. Between your experiences and what you've heard, it is quite clear that sexual harassment is what's going on.
I would not even consider quitting, but I would stop this sleazebucket in his tracks one of two ways. You could tell him that you are quite aware of what's going on, and if it doesn't stop, you might have to inform someone. Let him guess whether you have his wife or his boss in mind. Or you might consider telling your boyfriend.
And the idea that when you are all together socially he ignores you just frosts me. What a drip.
--- MARGO, DISGUSTEDLY
Troubled by a Neatnik
DEAR MARGO: I have been married for almost 20 years and have three children. My husband has a history of obsessive-compulsive behavior that I've managed to cope with until recently.
He organizes the freezer weekly, pulls weeds daily, has the house perfect when I get home from work -- complete with dimmed lights and lit, scented candles, etc.
I have told him that this is a disorder that can be managed with counseling and medication. He has attended counseling in the past and has no desire to return. My problem is that I cannot mentally handle this behavior anymore.
I have a number of stress-related illnesses (high blood pressure, gastric ulcer, generalized anxiety disorder, occasional shingles, etc.), and I am only 41! Overall, he is a good man, great dad, successful businessman and tries to be a good Christian.
Is this lack of tolerance on my part a legitimate issue? I frequently remind him that Felix of "The Odd Couple" was the antagonist, charming but annoying.
--- MRS. FELIX UNGER (GOING UNDER)
DEAR MRS.: I do not wish to belittle OCD or your difficulty with it, but I do not exactly see where the problem is. Given what you write, there is something else bothering you besides your organized freezer, weed-free lawn and perfect house. If I were in your shoes, I would teach this man to cook and do laundry and consider myself reeeally lucky.
Because he has gone to counseling and has no desire to return, I think it's your turn. Some of your health issues have an emotional component, and I would hazard a guess that your unhappiness does not stem from what your husband is doing, but from some underlying trouble in the relationship.
It is time for an overhaul, and with good guidance I hope you can return to being the other half of a happy "odd couple."
source: //news.yahoo.com
Melodeo puts artist-friendly twist on mobile music
Music fans have been slow to buy music on their mobile phones. So several companies have responded with services that let users access from their phones music that is stored on their computers.
t's called placeshifting -- a term used for the practice of accessing content stored on one device from another via the Internet.
At first blush, placeshifting seems a threat to the mobile music model, as customers who stream their music from their computers are not buying the tracks via existing a la carte services from the likes of Sprint and Verizon Wireless.
But placeshifting has advantages that sideloading -- the practice of transferring music files to a phone directly, as one would to an MP3 player -- does not. Users can sideload only as many songs as the phone can store, and neither carriers nor labels can charge for the practice. Placeshifting is a streaming technology, meaning there are no storage capacity concerns, and usage can be tracked and monetized.
The latest entry into the placeshifting market is Melodeo, which is offering a rather unique take on the trend with its new NuTsie service, which allows iTunes users to stream their music to any Internet-enabled mobile phone. In its beta phase, the free service is available only from the NuTsie Web site.
Unlike other placeshifting services that access music files on users' computers directly, Melodeo in this case is operating more like an Internet radio station. Users export their iTunes music library information to the NuTsie site online, which then matches it against Melodeo's database of licensed music.
The company then randomly streams these songs directly from Melodeo's servers, meaning the user's computer need not be on for the service to work. The random playlist is a requirement of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act for such streaming services, which sets rules for how often songs by the same artist can be played in a given time frame and so on.
In doing so, Melodeo will pay royalties on each song streamed via the service, in accordance with webcaster royalty rates.
"If your iTunes library is full of music you copied from friends or you illegally downloaded and nobody got paid for it, this is going to monetize it," says Dave Dederer, Melodeo vice president of music content and former member of the band Presidents of the United States of America. "(Artists) get paid for it every time you listen to it."
source : /news.yahoo.com
t's called placeshifting -- a term used for the practice of accessing content stored on one device from another via the Internet.
At first blush, placeshifting seems a threat to the mobile music model, as customers who stream their music from their computers are not buying the tracks via existing a la carte services from the likes of Sprint and Verizon Wireless.
But placeshifting has advantages that sideloading -- the practice of transferring music files to a phone directly, as one would to an MP3 player -- does not. Users can sideload only as many songs as the phone can store, and neither carriers nor labels can charge for the practice. Placeshifting is a streaming technology, meaning there are no storage capacity concerns, and usage can be tracked and monetized.
The latest entry into the placeshifting market is Melodeo, which is offering a rather unique take on the trend with its new NuTsie service, which allows iTunes users to stream their music to any Internet-enabled mobile phone. In its beta phase, the free service is available only from the NuTsie Web site.
Unlike other placeshifting services that access music files on users' computers directly, Melodeo in this case is operating more like an Internet radio station. Users export their iTunes music library information to the NuTsie site online, which then matches it against Melodeo's database of licensed music.
The company then randomly streams these songs directly from Melodeo's servers, meaning the user's computer need not be on for the service to work. The random playlist is a requirement of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act for such streaming services, which sets rules for how often songs by the same artist can be played in a given time frame and so on.
In doing so, Melodeo will pay royalties on each song streamed via the service, in accordance with webcaster royalty rates.
"If your iTunes library is full of music you copied from friends or you illegally downloaded and nobody got paid for it, this is going to monetize it," says Dave Dederer, Melodeo vice president of music content and former member of the band Presidents of the United States of America. "(Artists) get paid for it every time you listen to it."
source : /news.yahoo.com
Elizabeth Banks gets evil for "Sisters" horror
Spider-Man 3" co-star
Elizabeth Banks will play a cruel stepmother in the horror remake "A Tale of Two Sisters."
Based on the Kim Jee-Woon's 2003 Korean horror film of the same name, the DreamWorks project revolves around two sisters who return home to their father after spending time in a mental institution. Their recovery is hindered by their obsessive stepmother and an interfering ghost.
Brothers Thomas and Charles Guard will direct the film, scheduled to begin shooting in July in Shreveport, La.
Banks next will appear in Universal Pictures' "Definitely, Maybe" and 20th Century Fox's "Starship Dave," opposite
Eddie Murphy.
source :news.yahoo.com
Elizabeth Banks will play a cruel stepmother in the horror remake "A Tale of Two Sisters."
Based on the Kim Jee-Woon's 2003 Korean horror film of the same name, the DreamWorks project revolves around two sisters who return home to their father after spending time in a mental institution. Their recovery is hindered by their obsessive stepmother and an interfering ghost.
Brothers Thomas and Charles Guard will direct the film, scheduled to begin shooting in July in Shreveport, La.
Banks next will appear in Universal Pictures' "Definitely, Maybe" and 20th Century Fox's "Starship Dave," opposite
Eddie Murphy.
source :news.yahoo.com
Bill Murray adds spark to kid film "Ember"
Bill Murray has signed on to star in "City of Ember," a family movie from the director of the animated horror "Monster House."
Murray will play the larger-than-life mayor of Ember, a city that flourished for generations in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once-powerful generator is failing, and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Two teenagers must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence and help the citizens escape before the lights go out forever.
Newcomer Saoirse Ronan will play one of the teenagers, and Toby Jones ("Infamous") will portray Barton Snode, the mayor of Ember's right-hand man.
Gil Kenan will direct the project from an adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau's book this summer in Belfast. The project is set up at Walden Media, the firm behind such adaptations as "Bridge to Terabithia" and "Holes." 20th Century Fox will release "Ember" domestically in October 2008. Kenan made his feature directing debut last year with "Monster House," which was executive produced by
Robert Zemeckis and
Steven Spielberg.
Murray's recent credits include "Broken Flowers" and "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
source: news.yahoo.com
Murray will play the larger-than-life mayor of Ember, a city that flourished for generations in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once-powerful generator is failing, and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Two teenagers must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence and help the citizens escape before the lights go out forever.
Newcomer Saoirse Ronan will play one of the teenagers, and Toby Jones ("Infamous") will portray Barton Snode, the mayor of Ember's right-hand man.
Gil Kenan will direct the project from an adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau's book this summer in Belfast. The project is set up at Walden Media, the firm behind such adaptations as "Bridge to Terabithia" and "Holes." 20th Century Fox will release "Ember" domestically in October 2008. Kenan made his feature directing debut last year with "Monster House," which was executive produced by
Robert Zemeckis and
Steven Spielberg.
Murray's recent credits include "Broken Flowers" and "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
source: news.yahoo.com
The Rodent Not Taken
The other day, my wife and I were sitting outside on the patio when our twin 11-year-old daughters came out and asked, with serious looks on their faces, if they could talk to us. They had a proposal, they said, and wanted us to listen to the idea fully before we said "no." I sighed and nodded, knowing that anything that has to be introduced that way is probably not something we're going to agree to.
They wanted hamsters. It made perfect sense. They could keep them in their rooms and take care of them, and besides, all their older brothers had hamsters at some point or another, and they had never had a pet, and it really wasn't fair, and if we loved them, we'd…
The rest of the spiel ran roughly in the same direction, practicality with just a touch of guilt for seasoning, and I sat looking patient and paternal, waiting until they were completely finished before I would say, with just a little bit of satisfaction, "No!"
I actually have a list, entitled "Talking Kids out of Hamsters," prepared for this situation and was ready to roll it out. I've been working on it for years. (You are welcome to use this list on your own kids in a pet crisis.)
We can't get them hamsters because:
1. Hamsters are messy and kick their cedar bedding out of their cages and onto the floor, where it gets stuck to other things and ends up on your clothes and in your sheets. That's not the problem, of course, as everybody likes the smell of cedar. (Don't you?) The problem is that hamsters poop on the cedar shavings before they kick them out of their cage, so when you have cedar shavings stuck to your pillow, you're actually sleeping with hamster poop on your head.
2. Hamsters, while very cute, are wild animals with razor-sharp fangs and think nothing of biting little kids' fingers off. I grew up with a kid who lost a pinky. (This, of course, is a slight exaggeration. He just had a little slice mark on his hand.)
3. Hamsters have ticks. The ticks will jump off the hamster and bite you, and you will — slowly, but surely — die, wasting away on the couch while watching "SpongeBob." (This may or may not be true, but I know my daughters are scared of ticks, so this will probably be very effective.)
4. Remember when you're promising to clean up after them that hamsters store food in their cheeks for days, where it gets soggy and smelly. Then they spit it out in the corner of the cage. It's the only thing worse than poopy cedar shavings.
5. Hamsters are OK by themselves, but if you put two of them together, they will fight to the death. (Be careful. This one works well with daughters, who aren't interested in pets that kill, but will probably make boys even more eager to get hamsters.)
6. Hamsters spend all day sleeping and all night running on a wheel and trying to get out of the cage. If they're successful, it's your job to find them before they starve to death or meet up with the family dog.
7. You won't clean up the cage yourself. You will leave it for me to do, and frankly, at this stage in my life, I don't have any interest in handling poopy cedar shavings or spit-out food.
8. Hamsters die. Then you have to bury them out back, and everyone cries and feels sad, and then the family dog comes trotting up to the house a day later covered in dirt with a dead hamster in his mouth.
As my daughters finished up their very persuasive presentation, I was all ready to unload my list on them (To be fair, I'd only get halfway through it before they stomped off to their rooms.) when my wife interrupted.
"You want hamsters?" my wife asked. "You really want hamsters? Let's go get hamsters!"
The girls both erupted in cheers, and my wife motioned for me to get up out of my chair. I stayed put.
"Come on," my wife said. "You can tell them all about your little list on the way to the pet store."
source : news.yahoo.com
They wanted hamsters. It made perfect sense. They could keep them in their rooms and take care of them, and besides, all their older brothers had hamsters at some point or another, and they had never had a pet, and it really wasn't fair, and if we loved them, we'd…
The rest of the spiel ran roughly in the same direction, practicality with just a touch of guilt for seasoning, and I sat looking patient and paternal, waiting until they were completely finished before I would say, with just a little bit of satisfaction, "No!"
I actually have a list, entitled "Talking Kids out of Hamsters," prepared for this situation and was ready to roll it out. I've been working on it for years. (You are welcome to use this list on your own kids in a pet crisis.)
We can't get them hamsters because:
1. Hamsters are messy and kick their cedar bedding out of their cages and onto the floor, where it gets stuck to other things and ends up on your clothes and in your sheets. That's not the problem, of course, as everybody likes the smell of cedar. (Don't you?) The problem is that hamsters poop on the cedar shavings before they kick them out of their cage, so when you have cedar shavings stuck to your pillow, you're actually sleeping with hamster poop on your head.
2. Hamsters, while very cute, are wild animals with razor-sharp fangs and think nothing of biting little kids' fingers off. I grew up with a kid who lost a pinky. (This, of course, is a slight exaggeration. He just had a little slice mark on his hand.)
3. Hamsters have ticks. The ticks will jump off the hamster and bite you, and you will — slowly, but surely — die, wasting away on the couch while watching "SpongeBob." (This may or may not be true, but I know my daughters are scared of ticks, so this will probably be very effective.)
4. Remember when you're promising to clean up after them that hamsters store food in their cheeks for days, where it gets soggy and smelly. Then they spit it out in the corner of the cage. It's the only thing worse than poopy cedar shavings.
5. Hamsters are OK by themselves, but if you put two of them together, they will fight to the death. (Be careful. This one works well with daughters, who aren't interested in pets that kill, but will probably make boys even more eager to get hamsters.)
6. Hamsters spend all day sleeping and all night running on a wheel and trying to get out of the cage. If they're successful, it's your job to find them before they starve to death or meet up with the family dog.
7. You won't clean up the cage yourself. You will leave it for me to do, and frankly, at this stage in my life, I don't have any interest in handling poopy cedar shavings or spit-out food.
8. Hamsters die. Then you have to bury them out back, and everyone cries and feels sad, and then the family dog comes trotting up to the house a day later covered in dirt with a dead hamster in his mouth.
As my daughters finished up their very persuasive presentation, I was all ready to unload my list on them (To be fair, I'd only get halfway through it before they stomped off to their rooms.) when my wife interrupted.
"You want hamsters?" my wife asked. "You really want hamsters? Let's go get hamsters!"
The girls both erupted in cheers, and my wife motioned for me to get up out of my chair. I stayed put.
"Come on," my wife said. "You can tell them all about your little list on the way to the pet store."
source : news.yahoo.com
"Sopranos" ends in crescendo
Whaddya gonna do? After building tension for six seasons over 8-1/2 years, "The Sopranos," one of America's most critically acclaimed television shows, ended on Sunday with nothing more than a black screen. And there was no clear answer to the big question -- would mob boss Tony Soprano sleep with the fishes?
Instead the mobster, who suffers the same worries as the rest of us, even if he gets relief from the occasional murder, finished the show munching onion rings in a New Jersey diner surrounded by a smiling wife and two content kids.
Sure a guy looking like a hit man had entered the restroom behind Tony and might be expected to come back out and kill the entire family, but then the screen went black for about five seconds and that was that. Some fans were disappointed.
"David Chase (the show's creator and writer ) should have put some bite into it. He left us hanging," said Johnny Salami, 43, of Rutherford, New Jersey.
"Maybe if you're from Oklahoma or California you don't care, but if you're from New Jersey, you want some closure."
Salami was in Lodi, New Jersey, at the Satin Dolls go-go lounge -- which since 1999 has doubled as the show's notorious, mob-run strip joint, the Bada Bing. About 200 fans gathered there to watch the final episode.
The strippers wore G-strings with the legend "Bada Bing." And out of respect, they stopped dancing for the show.
"This show is just short of being a caricature of Northern New Jersey, but we all love it," said patron Eileen Schley, 36. "I don't know now what I'm going to do on Sunday nights."
The series from Time Warner cable channel HBO has been around since 1999 -- longer than the Bush administration -- and broke new ground for television: portraying a thoroughly evil hero who corrupts everyone he comes into contact with while appearing perfectly ordinary to his neighbors.
STOPPING DEAD
James Gandolfini's performance as Tony Soprano has been hailed as a tour de force, as has the acting of other cast members. Despite the evil, brutality and violence that have become hallmarks of the weekly show, much of the channel's audience has formed a bond of affection for the Sopranos.
The penultimate show had left Tony's pompadoured henchman, Silvio Dante, barely breathing and full of holes; his brother-in-law Bobby dead and Soprano huddled in a darkened bedroom, clutching a machine-gun -- like a frightened child holding a teddy bear.
Even his long-conflicted therapist has dumped him and he is in all-out war with his New York gang rival Phil Leotardo.
But in the end, it was Leotardo who got snuffed out -- shot while waving farewell to his baby grandchildren, and then his head run over by an SUV for emphasis.
But for many fans, it wasn't enough and they just couldn't get past that black screen ending.
"Of all the things that could have happened, the worst thing that could have happened is it just end it like that; just stopping dead," said Tripp Reynolds, who watched at his home in Montclair. "But maybe it was inevitable given all the plot lines that were going."
The show won almost uniform critical praise. The New Yorker likened Chase's writing and character development to Charles Dickens, John Updike and Philip Roth and has called the show "the richest achievement in the history of television."
The final episode was peppered with classic one-liners from Tony. When Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri turns down an offer from Soprano to run a crew, Tony says, "I'm a little miffled." He tells a shrink, "My mother was a borderline personality." And when he hears his own son is learning Arabic, he says, "Come on, shish kebab! What else do you need to know?"
And the comedy which has come hand in hand with the violence since the beginning was in evidence too.
"One time, at the Bing ... I saw the Virgin Mary," Gualtieri confides in Tony.
"Why didn't you say anything," Tony replies. "F--- strippers, we coulda had a shrine, sold holy water in gallon jugs, coulda made millions."
source : news.yahoo.com
Instead the mobster, who suffers the same worries as the rest of us, even if he gets relief from the occasional murder, finished the show munching onion rings in a New Jersey diner surrounded by a smiling wife and two content kids.
Sure a guy looking like a hit man had entered the restroom behind Tony and might be expected to come back out and kill the entire family, but then the screen went black for about five seconds and that was that. Some fans were disappointed.
"David Chase (the show's creator and writer ) should have put some bite into it. He left us hanging," said Johnny Salami, 43, of Rutherford, New Jersey.
"Maybe if you're from Oklahoma or California you don't care, but if you're from New Jersey, you want some closure."
Salami was in Lodi, New Jersey, at the Satin Dolls go-go lounge -- which since 1999 has doubled as the show's notorious, mob-run strip joint, the Bada Bing. About 200 fans gathered there to watch the final episode.
The strippers wore G-strings with the legend "Bada Bing." And out of respect, they stopped dancing for the show.
"This show is just short of being a caricature of Northern New Jersey, but we all love it," said patron Eileen Schley, 36. "I don't know now what I'm going to do on Sunday nights."
The series from Time Warner cable channel HBO has been around since 1999 -- longer than the Bush administration -- and broke new ground for television: portraying a thoroughly evil hero who corrupts everyone he comes into contact with while appearing perfectly ordinary to his neighbors.
STOPPING DEAD
James Gandolfini's performance as Tony Soprano has been hailed as a tour de force, as has the acting of other cast members. Despite the evil, brutality and violence that have become hallmarks of the weekly show, much of the channel's audience has formed a bond of affection for the Sopranos.
The penultimate show had left Tony's pompadoured henchman, Silvio Dante, barely breathing and full of holes; his brother-in-law Bobby dead and Soprano huddled in a darkened bedroom, clutching a machine-gun -- like a frightened child holding a teddy bear.
Even his long-conflicted therapist has dumped him and he is in all-out war with his New York gang rival Phil Leotardo.
But in the end, it was Leotardo who got snuffed out -- shot while waving farewell to his baby grandchildren, and then his head run over by an SUV for emphasis.
But for many fans, it wasn't enough and they just couldn't get past that black screen ending.
"Of all the things that could have happened, the worst thing that could have happened is it just end it like that; just stopping dead," said Tripp Reynolds, who watched at his home in Montclair. "But maybe it was inevitable given all the plot lines that were going."
The show won almost uniform critical praise. The New Yorker likened Chase's writing and character development to Charles Dickens, John Updike and Philip Roth and has called the show "the richest achievement in the history of television."
The final episode was peppered with classic one-liners from Tony. When Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri turns down an offer from Soprano to run a crew, Tony says, "I'm a little miffled." He tells a shrink, "My mother was a borderline personality." And when he hears his own son is learning Arabic, he says, "Come on, shish kebab! What else do you need to know?"
And the comedy which has come hand in hand with the violence since the beginning was in evidence too.
"One time, at the Bing ... I saw the Virgin Mary," Gualtieri confides in Tony.
"Why didn't you say anything," Tony replies. "F--- strippers, we coulda had a shrine, sold holy water in gallon jugs, coulda made millions."
source : news.yahoo.com
Rihanna tops British single and album charts
Rihanna held on to the top spot in the British singles charts released Sunday, and claimed the top position in the album rankings as well.
The 19-year-old's single "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z, was followed by Mutya Buena's debut single "Real Girl," one spot behind Rihanna for a second week running.
Calvin Harris's "The Girls" was third, with "Cupid's Chokehold" by Gym Class Heroes and "Beautiful Liar", a duet by Beyonce and Shakira, rounding out the top five.
The Zimmers, a group of 40 elderly rockers with a combined age of more than 3,000 years, fell six places to 32 with their charity cover of The Who's rock anthem "My Generation".
The oldest band member is 100-year-old Buster Martin, who still works as a plumber in London and is believed to be the oldest employee in Britain.
Contrasting the relative lack of movement at the top of the singles charts, the top three places in the album charts all took their positions for the first time.
Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad" topped the ranking, followed by Biffy Clyro's "Puzzle" and Twang's "Love It When I Feel Like This".
source : news.yahoo.com
The 19-year-old's single "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z, was followed by Mutya Buena's debut single "Real Girl," one spot behind Rihanna for a second week running.
Calvin Harris's "The Girls" was third, with "Cupid's Chokehold" by Gym Class Heroes and "Beautiful Liar", a duet by Beyonce and Shakira, rounding out the top five.
The Zimmers, a group of 40 elderly rockers with a combined age of more than 3,000 years, fell six places to 32 with their charity cover of The Who's rock anthem "My Generation".
The oldest band member is 100-year-old Buster Martin, who still works as a plumber in London and is believed to be the oldest employee in Britain.
Contrasting the relative lack of movement at the top of the singles charts, the top three places in the album charts all took their positions for the first time.
Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad" topped the ranking, followed by Biffy Clyro's "Puzzle" and Twang's "Love It When I Feel Like This".
source : news.yahoo.com
"Fantastic" director eyes another comic book story
Director Tim Story, whose "Fantastic Four" sequel opens in theaters Friday, has signed a deal to shoot another comic book-based movie, the DC Comics adventure "The Losers."
The Warner Bros. project follows a highly trained and eclectic Special Ops team that is set up, betrayed and left for dead. Its members go on a quest to find who sold them out and why, righting wrongs they encounter along the way.
The tales of "Losers" ran in the pages of DC Comics' "G.I. Combat" and "Our Fighting Forces" in the 1970s and revolved around the adventures of a misfit group of U.S. troops during World War II. The concept was relaunched about five years as a gritty modern action-espionage adventure.
Story, who did the first "Fantastic Four" movie in 2005, had been looking to move out of the fantasy and comic book realm when "Losers" came along.
"I told my agents I didn't want to do another comic book," Story said. "I had been in the world of fantasy and I wanted to do something very edgy, a realist action movie. I wanted to find something like a 'Bourne Identity' or 'Black Hawk Down."'
He was sent "Losers" and fell for it right away.
"I was like, this is great -- and then I found out it was a comic book," he said, laughing. When he read the comic, he found it to be "incredible."
Story said "Losers" probably will be his next movie, with casting beginning immediately. "We are going full steam ahead."
Story's credits also include "Taxi" and "Barbershop." "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" will be released by Fox on Friday.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
source : news.yahoo.com
The Warner Bros. project follows a highly trained and eclectic Special Ops team that is set up, betrayed and left for dead. Its members go on a quest to find who sold them out and why, righting wrongs they encounter along the way.
The tales of "Losers" ran in the pages of DC Comics' "G.I. Combat" and "Our Fighting Forces" in the 1970s and revolved around the adventures of a misfit group of U.S. troops during World War II. The concept was relaunched about five years as a gritty modern action-espionage adventure.
Story, who did the first "Fantastic Four" movie in 2005, had been looking to move out of the fantasy and comic book realm when "Losers" came along.
"I told my agents I didn't want to do another comic book," Story said. "I had been in the world of fantasy and I wanted to do something very edgy, a realist action movie. I wanted to find something like a 'Bourne Identity' or 'Black Hawk Down."'
He was sent "Losers" and fell for it right away.
"I was like, this is great -- and then I found out it was a comic book," he said, laughing. When he read the comic, he found it to be "incredible."
Story said "Losers" probably will be his next movie, with casting beginning immediately. "We are going full steam ahead."
Story's credits also include "Taxi" and "Barbershop." "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" will be released by Fox on Friday.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
source : news.yahoo.com
Bush Names Wolfowitz President of al-Qaeda
n a bold move to undermine the international terror network,
President George W. Bush today named former deputy defense secretary and
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz to be the new president of al Qaeda.
Mr. Wolfowitz, who has no experience running an international terror organization, struck many Washington insiders as an unlikely choice for the al-Qaeda job.
But in a White House ceremony introducing his nominee for the top terror post,
President Bush indicated that Mr. Wolfowitz's role in planning the war in
Iraq and bringing scandal to the World Bank showed that he was "just the man" to bring chaos and disorder to al-Qaeda.
"I've seen Paul Wolfowitz in action," said Mr. Bush, a beaming Mr. Wolfowitz at his side. "If anyone can mess up al Qaeda, it's this guy."
Several key details in the president's plan still need to be worked out, such as how exactly Mr. Wolfowitz will infiltrate al Qaeda and rise to the top position in its ranks.
"Al Qaeda closely screens all of its top officers," said Hassan El-Medfaii, head of the terror network's human resources department. "It's not like the Defense Department or the World Bank."
Even if he ascends to its top post, it remains to be seen whether Mr. Wolfowitz will be happy at al Qaeda, according to Professor Davis Logsdon, chairman of the Wolfowitz Studies Department at the University of Minnesota.
"Al Qaeda is not like the World Bank," Professor Logsdon said. "For one thing, it's much harder to meet girls there."
Elsewhere, former Creed lead singer
Scott Stapp was released from jail, raising fears that he might start recording again.
Award-winning humorist, television personality and film actor Andy Borowitz is author of the new book "The Republican Playbook," to be published October 2007. To find out more about Andy Borowitz and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at
source: news.yahoo.com
President George W. Bush today named former deputy defense secretary and
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz to be the new president of al Qaeda.
Mr. Wolfowitz, who has no experience running an international terror organization, struck many Washington insiders as an unlikely choice for the al-Qaeda job.
But in a White House ceremony introducing his nominee for the top terror post,
President Bush indicated that Mr. Wolfowitz's role in planning the war in
Iraq and bringing scandal to the World Bank showed that he was "just the man" to bring chaos and disorder to al-Qaeda.
"I've seen Paul Wolfowitz in action," said Mr. Bush, a beaming Mr. Wolfowitz at his side. "If anyone can mess up al Qaeda, it's this guy."
Several key details in the president's plan still need to be worked out, such as how exactly Mr. Wolfowitz will infiltrate al Qaeda and rise to the top position in its ranks.
"Al Qaeda closely screens all of its top officers," said Hassan El-Medfaii, head of the terror network's human resources department. "It's not like the Defense Department or the World Bank."
Even if he ascends to its top post, it remains to be seen whether Mr. Wolfowitz will be happy at al Qaeda, according to Professor Davis Logsdon, chairman of the Wolfowitz Studies Department at the University of Minnesota.
"Al Qaeda is not like the World Bank," Professor Logsdon said. "For one thing, it's much harder to meet girls there."
Elsewhere, former Creed lead singer
Scott Stapp was released from jail, raising fears that he might start recording again.
Award-winning humorist, television personality and film actor Andy Borowitz is author of the new book "The Republican Playbook," to be published October 2007. To find out more about Andy Borowitz and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at
source: news.yahoo.com
Tom Ford's Expanding Universe
Rio de Janeiro - Anyone who thought that Tom Ford had plans to develop a niche brand had better think again.
Eight weeks after throwing open the doors of his Madison Avenue flagship, the designer has revealed plans to turn his fledgling company into a major global label.
In a key move, his label, Tom Ford International, will open four more directly operated stores open over the next three years in Milan, London, Los Angeles, and Hawaii. But his long-term goal is far more ambitious - a network of 100 freestanding retail stores within the next decade.
"We have now laid the foundation necessary to become a true global luxury brand and to allow us the platform needed to reach and service our customers worldwide," Ford, President and CEO of his own house, said in a release.
Ford also revealed several agreements with key franchise partners that, beginning in spring 2008, will launch his brand in key cities in Europe, South America, Asia, and the Middle East.
The Texan-born, but peripatetic designer has also inked a deal to create a limited distribution Tom Ford Menswear collection with select luxury retail partners in the US and Europe, also targeted to begin in Spring 2008.
His game plan also includes a restricted list of shop in shops with luxury retail partners. This April, he opened his 845 Madison Avenue store to showcase his signature Tom Ford menswear and accessory collection.
Among the cities targeted to host franchise flagship stores are Moscow, Zurich, St. Moritz, Hong Kong, Beijing, Kuwait, Dubai, and Qatar.
Next spring will also see the launch of retail spaces in Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus in the US, Harrods in London, Daslu in Sao Paolo, and multiple shop in shops in Tokyo and Osaka.
"Our franchise and retail partners are the best in the business and with them we are confident that we will build a strong global presence and stand for excellence in a world of decreasing standards," Ford added.
Ford plans to follow that up in 2009 with an additional 12 stores, including a directly operated flagship store in London, a franchise flagship store in Shanghai and a second store in Beijing.
Directly operated stores will open in Los Angeles and Hawaii in 2010, along with 15 franchise stores scheduled in Asia, amongst which a flagship store in Tokyo.
During the next decade Ford has targeted "a minimum of 87" franchise Tom Ford stores throughout Asia in partnership with The Lane Crawford Joyce Group, in places like Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Macau, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia.
"We have partnered with the finest companies internationally including The Lane Crawford Joyce Group, Villa Moda, Trois Pommes, UAE Trading, Mercury, Harrods, Daslu and Neiman Marcus Group giving us the necessary competitive advantage as we expand our menswear business globally. With a clearly defined distribution plan in place and a discerning eye on quality, service and design we are poised to establish the first true luxury brand of the 21st century," stressed Chairman Domenico De Sole, Ford's long-time business partner.
Ford launched his brand in 2005 with a licensing deal with Estée Lauder creating Tom Ford Beauty. It produced a fragrance and beauty collection that debuted in November 2006 with his first women's fragrance, Tom Ford Black Orchid.
This April, the designer launched a collection of 12 luxury unisex fragrances called Tom Ford Private Blend. Now a men's cologne is set to debut in September.
Ford has also deals with Marcolin to produce and distribute optical frames and sunglasses and with Zegna Group to produce and distribute luxury menswear, accessories and footwear.
Ford's company is privately held with practically all the stock owned by himself and De Sole.
source : news.yahoo.com
Eight weeks after throwing open the doors of his Madison Avenue flagship, the designer has revealed plans to turn his fledgling company into a major global label.
In a key move, his label, Tom Ford International, will open four more directly operated stores open over the next three years in Milan, London, Los Angeles, and Hawaii. But his long-term goal is far more ambitious - a network of 100 freestanding retail stores within the next decade.
"We have now laid the foundation necessary to become a true global luxury brand and to allow us the platform needed to reach and service our customers worldwide," Ford, President and CEO of his own house, said in a release.
Ford also revealed several agreements with key franchise partners that, beginning in spring 2008, will launch his brand in key cities in Europe, South America, Asia, and the Middle East.
The Texan-born, but peripatetic designer has also inked a deal to create a limited distribution Tom Ford Menswear collection with select luxury retail partners in the US and Europe, also targeted to begin in Spring 2008.
His game plan also includes a restricted list of shop in shops with luxury retail partners. This April, he opened his 845 Madison Avenue store to showcase his signature Tom Ford menswear and accessory collection.
Among the cities targeted to host franchise flagship stores are Moscow, Zurich, St. Moritz, Hong Kong, Beijing, Kuwait, Dubai, and Qatar.
Next spring will also see the launch of retail spaces in Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus in the US, Harrods in London, Daslu in Sao Paolo, and multiple shop in shops in Tokyo and Osaka.
"Our franchise and retail partners are the best in the business and with them we are confident that we will build a strong global presence and stand for excellence in a world of decreasing standards," Ford added.
Ford plans to follow that up in 2009 with an additional 12 stores, including a directly operated flagship store in London, a franchise flagship store in Shanghai and a second store in Beijing.
Directly operated stores will open in Los Angeles and Hawaii in 2010, along with 15 franchise stores scheduled in Asia, amongst which a flagship store in Tokyo.
During the next decade Ford has targeted "a minimum of 87" franchise Tom Ford stores throughout Asia in partnership with The Lane Crawford Joyce Group, in places like Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Macau, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia.
"We have partnered with the finest companies internationally including The Lane Crawford Joyce Group, Villa Moda, Trois Pommes, UAE Trading, Mercury, Harrods, Daslu and Neiman Marcus Group giving us the necessary competitive advantage as we expand our menswear business globally. With a clearly defined distribution plan in place and a discerning eye on quality, service and design we are poised to establish the first true luxury brand of the 21st century," stressed Chairman Domenico De Sole, Ford's long-time business partner.
Ford launched his brand in 2005 with a licensing deal with Estée Lauder creating Tom Ford Beauty. It produced a fragrance and beauty collection that debuted in November 2006 with his first women's fragrance, Tom Ford Black Orchid.
This April, the designer launched a collection of 12 luxury unisex fragrances called Tom Ford Private Blend. Now a men's cologne is set to debut in September.
Ford has also deals with Marcolin to produce and distribute optical frames and sunglasses and with Zegna Group to produce and distribute luxury menswear, accessories and footwear.
Ford's company is privately held with practically all the stock owned by himself and De Sole.
source : news.yahoo.com
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