Archive for Entertainment
02.13.07
Posted in Entertainment, Movies at 10:31 pm by stark
The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King, is one of my favorite stories of all time, and so far has never been adapted to the screen, small or large . Rumor has it though, it might not stay that way for long. JJ Abrams, creator of the television series Alias and Lost and director of last summer’s Mission Impossible 3, is lined up to direct an adaptation of the beloved King series. Currently, Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, is mum on the subject, so no details on whether the plan is for a television miniseries or feature film version.
The Dark Tower series is a set of 7 books set in a world many years after this one. It’s main character, a gunslinger named Roland, is on a mission to find a Dark Tower which may hold the key to our very universe. The story puts the Lord of the Rings to shame in pure epic size (seven 500+ page novels), so it would take a very big effort to do it justice. In my opinion, the material for the film is too violent, gritty, and dark for a television miniseries on ABC (maybe HBO would work) so hopefully they are seriously considering a feature film version. Here’s hoping Abrams can do the story justice and create a picture that is true to the feel of the books themselves. One things for sure, it won’t be an easy task.
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02.12.07
Posted in Entertainment, Movies at 10:11 am by stark
An Ottawa, Canada based company, XYG RBG, has developed a new technology that allows for eight seconds of video to be converted into a 3D hologram movie poster. They demonstrated this technology, recently, by generating a custom made Terminator 2 movie poster, and presenting it as a gift to directory James Cameron. While holographic movies are nothing new, 8 full seconds of motion far surpasses the current standard of 1-2 seconds maximum. This is an interesting leap forward in technology, and at least until we have paper thin LCD screens is most likely the closest we’re going to get to full motion poster video.
Take a look at some of these example posters produced by the company.
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02.11.07
Posted in Technology, Entertainment, Movies, Television at 4:11 pm by stark
Last week we discussed Walmart’s foray into the movie download race with the launch of their brand new service. Immediately, there were many complaints that the site would not work with any browser other than Internet Explorer. This was strange, to say the least, considering the massive size of Walmart and the fact that nowadays cross compatibility is a necessity not just a luxury. This was almost universally chalked up to an over site or poor programming. However, now it appears it may be intentional. Many users are now reporting that Walmart has completely turned off the new application to FireFox, Safari, and any other user on a browser they don’t like. This seems like a pretty poor decision for a company who is already late to the game and faces very stiff competition. I can already see Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes smiling from ear to ear…
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02.10.07
Posted in Entertainment, Movies, Comedy at 11:28 pm by stark
In a recent interview at the Media Summit in New York City, Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch announced that Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor who played Borat in last years hit comedy, will do a sequel with 20th Century Fox.
From the interview:
“He will do a sequel. He will first do something else … then he wants to come back and do a ‘Borat 2.’”
Unfortunately, this whole situation does not appear to be as solid as Murdoch would make it seem. Cohen is currently doing “something else”, specifically another film about one of his other Ali G Show characters, Bruno, but has had nothing more then casual discussions about doing a follow up Borat film. Never fear though, you can almost guarantee DVD sales of “Borat: Cultural Learning’s of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” will be phenomenal and with that much green , we’ll definitely see a sequel. How long we’ll have to wait though? That’s still up in the air…
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02.09.07
Posted in Entertainment, World News at 2:11 am by bobbyjoe
Former Playboy Playmate and Guess jeans model Anna Nicole Smith died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel in Florida. “She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.”
Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said a private nurse called 911 after finding Smith unresponsive in her sixth-floor room at the hotel, which is on an Indian reservation. He said Smith’s bodyguard administered CPR, but she was declared dead at a hospital. Later Thursday, two sheriff’s deputies carried out at least eight brown paper bags sealed with red evidence tape from Smith’s hotel room.
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Posted in Entertainment, Offbeat at 1:11 am by stark
Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, seems to be putting his name on everything these days. In fact, just recently he made a bet with the mayor of the city of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada which resulted in the declaration of March 20th, being Stephen Colbert Day. The latest rumors, however, are of a much sweeter variety. It appears the folks at Ben and Jerry’s are working on a new, top secret flavor of ice cream named Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream. While the flavor is not yet on grocery store shelves, photos have been leaked showing the new packaging and a glimpse of the Red, White, and Blue swirled ice cream (would you expect anything else?). While there has yet to be any official confirmation, there does appear to be a hint of truthiness to the issue…Only time will tell.
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02.07.07
Posted in Technology, Entertainment, Movies at 2:13 pm by stark
Hot on the tail of Walmart’s entry into the movie download business, Amazon.com and TiVo Inc. have announced a partnership to do the same. Their solution is slightly different though, in that the movies themselves will be beamed directly to your TV (assuming you have TiVo). This new service will be known as Amazon Unbox on TiVo and will begin offering a test service as early as Wednesday to existing TiVo customers with the full service debuting later in the year. While a great idea in principle, it is unclear how successful this project will be considering TiVo is primarily available to only US customers (it’s available here in Canada only if I import it and follow “special” instructions). Competition is never bad though, so here’s hoping one of these services rises to the top before customers become too frustrated. 
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02.06.07
Posted in Technology, Apple, Entertainment, Music at 7:16 pm by stark
Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, Inc. and never one to back down from a challenge, has written an open letter to the music industry on issues of Digital Rights Management (DRM). While Apple’s current model for distributing music is a DRM solution written in house, known as FairPlay, in the letter, Jobs goes into detail of how this was mostly a solution to ease the minds of worried record labels at the time and ultimately may not be the best solution for the future.
In fact, Job’s goes on to offer several solutions, but one of which is the idea of distributing DRM free music (similar to what is done with iTunes competitors such as Emusic and Amie Street). He explains that only 3% of music in use today is DRM’d music and that the remaining 97% comes from both downloading (illegal and from DRM free resources) and from legal CD purchases that are later ripped to digital music players.
I know many of us out there despise DRM music and a lot of times it is an obstacle that is not worth having to overcome with an HMV just down the block. I personally stopped using iTunes Music Store as soon as I bought a new music player, that was not an ipod, and none of my songs could easily transfer over. Hopefully those behind the recording industry will begin to see the light and soon enough, DRM may be a thing of the past.
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The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King, is one of my favorite stories of all time, and so far has never been adapted to the screen, small or large . Rumor has it though, it might not stay that way for long. JJ Abrams, creator of the television series Alias and Lost and director of last summer’s Mission Impossible 3, is lined up to direct an adaptation of the beloved King series. Currently, Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, is mum on the subject, so no details on whether the plan is for a television miniseries or feature film version. 
