Here’s the latest teaser trailer for Anchorman 2! It’s similar to the first, but pretty funny. The film is shooting now for a late 2013 release. I love the first one, so I hope this is great.

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This hack feels the need for speed, so make sure you have the right media

By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)

If you’re looking to adapt the new Magic Lantern RAW hack on your Canon DSLR to see what all the hullabaloo is about, you may have some sticker shock when you order the 1000x compact flash cards which are required to keep up with the data flow writing to it.  Here’s a quick rundown of what cards are best and why smaller may actually be faster.

I gotta give the hat tip to DJ over at DSLR FilmNoob for this list, because he’s done a lot of the heavy lifting.  On his list, notes that while Lexar Compact Flash cards are the most popular with the hacking set, they are also the most expensive, weighing in at $600 for 128GB, which yields about 15 minutes of footage before needing to swap out.  DJ also sas that while Lexar cards are very popular, they also enjoy a love/hate relationship with users. “Even though these cards usually come highly recommended,” writes DJ, “they are also the cards I see the most complaints about in forums.  Everything from failing after only a few uses to ultra slow write speeds. I’m not sure why complaints are so high on Lexar cards but I suspect people who shell out that much cash get pretty vocal when a card like this fails.”

DJ also says that he’s noted that while 12 8GB cards give you 15 minutes in footage, he’s found by personal experience that the 64 GB card actually writes faster, even though you’ll have to swap it out twice as much.  “(64 GB cards) still gives you around 7 minute threshold of recording time in RAW mode, saves you some money, and from the reports I’ve seen, actually gives you faster write speeds than the 128 GB models,” DJ notes.

So what are the options in the 1000x class?  Here’s a list that DJ has tested and taken a look at:

1. Lexar 64GB card ($299).  DJ says that while you may have to deal with some failures, the added benefit of the Lexar brand is that they offer a lifetime warranty and will replace the card quite easily.  That’s a nice amount of insurance should a card fail, but makes you realize you’re need to have a few backups, which makes the price double or even triple.

2.  Delkin Devices 64GB ($239).  DJ says that one thing he likes about the Delkin brand is that they’re pretty accurate on their write times, which are 80 MB/s, barely fast enough to take advantage of shooting RAW continuously.

3. Transcend 64GB ($200).  Transcend boasts a 120MB/S write speed, but DJ is quick to point out that is under ideal conditions, and one should take it with a grain of salt.  But it’s surely coming in over the 80 bmps threshold and he’s enjoyed steady and consistent performance with this brand, and with its lifetime warranty, it’s definitely worth having, especially when it saves in the pocketbook.

There are a few others that DJ takes a look at, and sadly, Sandisk isn’t in the mix because they haven’t introduced a card that fast as of yet.  Then again, their Extreme Pro 600x line does write at 100mbps.  But the benchmark for Magic Lantern is 1000x.  So for now, it has to stay that way.  One thing that is important when dealing with this much data is that it may be a good idea to invest in a USB 3 card and card reader so as to maximize file transfer speeds to your computer.  Otherwise, you’re left waiting to offload the card.  And when you have the need for speed, there no point is relying on slower links in the chain.

Got any card suggestions?  Leave em in the comments below.

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By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)

Last week, Zach Braff (SCRUBS) turned heads online by raising over $2.5 million on Kickstarter for his next indie feature. The news came from Cannes that Worldview Entertainment will provide funding for WISH I WAS HERE with a budget of less than $10 million. So, the big question is, what will happen to the Kickstarter money? Is it even needed anymore? Also, at the bottom of the article, look for theFunny Or Die video spoofing Braff’s Kickstarter.

What Braff has managed to do is secure gap financing to get the film moving at full speed while they secure foreign sales deals while at Cannes. But he also told the Los Angeles Times last week that he wouldn’t be looking for traditional methods of financing in order to start production, even if it meant he had to finance the balance of the budget ($5 mill) himself. “I think that would be in bad taste for all the people who are backing this” he replied. “It wouldn’t be in the spirit of the thing.”

And yet, he’s doing just that with the tried and true method of gap financing with loans until he can get foreign sales all tied up. I guess old Hollywood habits die hard. And that the new budget figure may be twice as much as he said it would cost, can only mean he’s benefited a lot from the hype and headlines brought about by using Kickstarter and fans to get seed money for the project. I don’t think that Braff intended to use his fans’ wallets in such a fashion to get a bit of marketing hype that Hollywood could notice, but it certainly has paid off that way.

And it seems that while the fans take all the risk, traditional Hollywood can sit back and come in with their money to bring the project across the finish line.  And Hollywood gets all the profits (I know, there’s never a profit, silly me) while all the fans get are chotchkies … er … rewards for supporting the project to get it born.  And for many fans, that’s enough.   But if Braff has a loan secured to get the funding he needs, does he really need that $2.5 million anymore?

The producer in me says yes, because foreign presales is by no means a lock.  But having that gap funding in place sure does make it easier. And even Braff took to his Kickstarter update blog to say that his Kickstarter funders are still a vital part of the campaign.  “What happened today is that a financial company agreed to fill in the gap between what Kickstarter backers have funded and what I have put in,” wrote Braff, “and what the movie will actually cost. Shooting could not happen without this.”

Braff goes on to correct the record and say that the budget is $5 million like it always was and he has no idea where the $10 million figure came from. “I have no idea where a 10 million dollar number came from but it is wrong and a lie.” But he also puts forth the theory that some want to see this unique collaboration fail. I wouldn’t go that far. I mean, I can understand why Braff had to set the record straight.

Sites like FilmSchool Rejects have put forth the notion that since the Braff’s Kickstarter campaign is still ongoing, those who pledged to Wish I Was Here can choose to cancel their pledge and give it to another project.  That’s a bold thing to suggest and could perhaps scuttle his deal if any momentum to pull pledges is achieved.

And he’s right that both Kickstarter money and foreign pre-sales take time before the checks come. “When you pre-sell foreign distribution, you don’t get that money for some time,” reminds Braff.  And he’s right, of course.  We all know that.  But it’s also the same for Kickstarter.  You don’t get the money immediately after the campaign ends.  Not by a long shot.  I know several friends who have had successful Kickstarter campaigns and have had to wait up to three months for the money to come in.

And even then, up to 25% of the pledges can be tossed out because of charge denials and reversals.  Then you toss in Kickstarter’s cut, Paypal’s cut, and suddenly, that $2.6 million isn’t as much as the headlines suggest it is.  So the Gap financing is the best way to move forward.

I bet he just wishes he never suggested that he’d avoid the old method of Hollywood finance.  Oh well, lesson learned.  The point is that Kickstarter is still a great way to get funds you couldn’t get any other way.  I don’t fault Braff for using his clout with fans to get the ball rolling any more than I would fault any other Kickstarter campaigners.  If it gets you noticed by those with the purse strings,  I say more power to you.

Here’s the Funny or Die video:

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By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)

If you’ve been following the exciting developments of Magic Lantern unlocking RAW on the Canon DSLR platform, you’re probably just itchin’ to give it a try.  But is it too early?  How do you get and download the code?  And how do you process the data once you have it?  These are questions that some on the net are starting to answer.  But some are saying that while exciting, it is by no means ready for prime time and even when it is, it may not be worth relying on.

Neumann Films has created an overview of how to get the that opens up RAW and offers tips on how to process the data to get the proper DNG based workflow.   Part of the keys to getting RAW recording is to first format your 1000x compact flash card properly in order to make it bootable once you install the Magic Lantern software onto it.  EOSHD suggests using a nifty utility called EOS Card to do this if you’re rockin’ a PC rig.  For OS X users, it’s best to run Mountain Lion and to format the card using MacBoot’s Download macbook.class / macboot.command utilty. Either platform will also need a utility called RAW2DNG in order to process your files once you’ve recorded them. You can get the PC version here, while Raw2DNG (the Mac version) is here

Once you have your card formatted and bootable, you need to know where to get the latest Alpha build of the software (note, I keep saying Alpha, but because I want there to be no illusions that this hack is mature enough to be considered ready for prime time).  Nightly Magic Lantern builds can be found here. You then unzip it the build and copy it onto your compact flash card.

After you have installed the Magic Lantern update, you can then reboot the camera and select firmware update from the camera menu in order to load the ML Firmware hack. Note – this does NOT overwrite your camera’s original firmware. It just bypasses it and loads ML from your card. To go back to normal, replace the ML card with a normal CF card, reboot, and you’re good to go.  To access the ML menu, you simply press the “delete” key on your camera.  Then you can dial into the menu settings to select the resolution and bit recording rate.  Once you select it, hit the start command in the menu and the camera begins recording, which is rather ungainly, but at this point, that’s the way it is. To stop recording, you press the Playback button.  Now you can move the RAW files to your computer to prepare them for editing.  This is where you use Raw2DNG to convert.  And it’s as simple as dragging and dropping into the Raw2DNG window.  The other option is to run Raw2DNG.exe from the folder that contains your fles in the command line along with name of the file itself.  Then you can import into After Effects and begin your workflow (you’ll need AEs Raw plugin as well).

Now understand that this workflow is subject to change.  It’s outdated almost hourly as they continue to mine the capability of the RAW buffer.  And Raw2DNG is also in its early stages.  But as we stated, this is pretty early in the game so as time goes on and Magic Lantern matures this hack, it’ll not only open up more options for cameras, but certainly users will be able to have more options for processing it as the writers of Raw2DNG fine tune it.  So be flexible in how this will change.

Now, some aren’t as impressed with this new RAW revolution, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t consider their thoughts.   Nate Weber over at Wide Open camera has penned a missive on why he really doesn’t care about RAW on the Canon platform. His argument is that while Magic Lantern does bring an impressive array of features to the Canon platform (that should already be there, mind you), his beef is that the video quality is still not up to snuff.   “I don’t think it really made it a good enough tool to still bring onto sets though,” writes Weber.  “It’s stable for a hack but it voids your warranty and didn’t raise the quality of the video enough to validate its inherent risk.” Sure, but let’s remember that the whole idea behind Magic Lantern is that you can hack your camera in a nondestructive fashion, and return to the original configuration at any time. No harm, no foul.  If you’re a warranty worrier like Weber (say that three times fast), then don’t use a camera still under warranty.

Weber goes on to say that using hacked cameras while there are proficient RAW options out there shows what he calls an “inherent lack of professionalism.”  Oh please.  Frankly, I think he has a better argument on the reliability side of the issue.  “CF cards are being capped out with the data rate on raw and dropped frames or corruption is far more likely to happen as a result of offloading the buffer. Just unnecessary risks all around.”  That I can understand.  But last time I was on site, nobody was checking my menus to see if I had the right firmware installed.   And at the end of the day, Weber even admits that he just plain doesn’t like RAW and the extra workflow it brings.  OK, fine, fair enough.  You don’t have to use it.   And who in their right mind would try it on a paid gig right now anyway?  But experimentation, even hacked experimentation, brings forth innovation.  And I, for one, encourage it.

The post Using Magic Lantern RAW on Your Canon – Is It Worth It? appeared first on Doddle.

The box-office bounty – roughly $700 million from abroad and $300 million domestically – is a major triumph for Disney, which bet big on comic book superheroes when it bought Marvel Studios for $4 billion in 2009. And its decision to bring aboard a Chinese partner for “Iron Man 3″ and focus the Disney marketing machine on the booming foreign market looks pretty good right now, too.

“To an extent, It’s a sign of the times,” Disney’s head of distribution Dave Hollis told TheWrap Thursday, referring to the huge recent growth of the international market. “But we had a great movie that was embraced all around the world as the summer’s first blockbuster. We had that incredible May Day, the word of mouth was terrific and we’re still seeing the effects of that.”

Disney made China the cornerstone of the international campaign, despite its protectionist policies and tough censors. The studio partnered with that country’s DMG Entertainment on the film, shooting extra footage for a special edition featuring Chinese actress Fan BingBing that was released in that country.

The plan worked – in a big way. “Iron Man 3″ scored the biggest opening day ever and has taken in more than $102 million in China, making it by far the movie’s most lucrative foreign market.

The next biggest were Korea ($56 million), the U.K. ($49 million), Mexico ($43 million), Russia ($39 million), Brazil ($38 million), France ($36 million) and Australia ($33 million).

Only 15 other movies have hit the $1 billion plateau. Disney and Marvel’s superhero sequel did it in 24 days, not as quickly as their blockbuster “The Avengers,” which managed the feat in 19 days of release last year.

“Iron Man 3,” which stars Robert Downey Jr. as billionaire Tony Stark, wrote itself into the box-office record books. Its $175 million U.S. debut was the second-largest ever, behind only “The Avengers.”

To get to the No. 16 slot on the all-time list, “Iron Man 3′ passed “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” ($963 million), “Jurassic Park” ($967 million) and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” ($975 million).

“Iron Man 3″ is the sixth Disney film to reach $1 billion globally. Besides “The Avengers,” the others are “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Toy Story 3,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Alice in Wonderland.” No other studio has more than two.

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After 50 years the James Bond franchise arguably reached its zenith with the last installment Skyfall (2012).

Unfortunately, despite that film grossing over $1 billion, director Sam Mendes declined the opportunity to helm the sequel.

But it seems producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have put that disappointment behind them, and are launching an audacious bid to secure the services of Christopher Nolan.

The Daily Mail have revealed that The Dark Knight filmmaker is in talks over helming Bond 24. The director is known to be life long fan of the franchise, which is based on Ian Fleming’s book series.

Nolan’s rebooted Batman trilogy grossed studio Warner Bros. around $2.5 billion worldwide. Those eye-popping figures, coupled with Nolan’s nationality, make him the perfect choice to follow Oscar winner Mendes.

Nolan’s next project is science fiction spectacular Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, which is scheduled for release in November 2014.

And, even if Nolan’s busy schedule does not allow him to direct the next James Bond film, there is a strong possibility that Broccoli and Wilson could secure him for Bond 25.

The Bond series has been transformed since Casino Royale (2006), which was directed by Martin Campbell (Goldeneye), and starred Daniel Craig as the iconic secret agent.

Actor Craig has signed on for a further two films, which means the producers have one less head ache to worry about.

Now that Mendes has further propelled the franchise both critically and commercially, the expectation surrounding the series has never been greater.

There is still no news on a release date for James Bond 24. Stay tuned for more developments.

Source: The Daily Mail

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At the Cannes film festival to promote his upcoming film “Skiptrace”, the Hong Kong actor said at 59 he could no longer do his own stunts as it took so long to recover from any injury.

“I am not a superhero,” Chan, in a white polo-necked shirt and Chinese-style jacket, told Reuters on Friday in an interview at a beachfront restaurant on the French Riviera.

“I really want to be like an Asian Robert de Niro who can do all kinds of things – comedy, drama, heavy roles,” he said, adding that he would love the chance to play a villain.

Chan, who has starred in more than 150 films in a career spanning more than 40 years, last year said he would retire from big action movies after “Chinese Zodiac 2012″, released in December.

It was quite an announcement from an actor who made his name flying across the big screen in hand-to-hand combat and car chases in films like “Rush Hour” and “Police Story”.

“I am not young any more … and I don’t want to break my ankle or my arm again,” he said, adding that he currently needed a shoulder operation.

His next film is an action movie, “New Police Story 2013″, the sixth in the franchise, that had its first public screening last month at a film festival in Beijing where Chan now lives, and will hit theatres later this year.

“Skiptrace” is an action comedy in which he joins forces with rising Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, known from “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. The film is due to start shooting in September for release next year.

The story follows a Hong Kong detective who forms an unlikely partnership with an American gambler as they try to track down Hong Kong’s most notorious criminal and embark on a wild journey across China.

Chan said he had wanted to write “Skiptrace”, a road movie through China, for about 20 years but it was only now that the time was right to make the film as China was now more accessible and well equipped for the film industry.

But he admitted it was another action movie.

“Every action star always wants to say they (will stop) but at the end they have to do it again. Like (Sylvester) Stallone. He never stops. Like me, I will never stop,” said Chan.

“But an action star’s life is so short. I want to let audiences knows that I am an actor who can fight. I am not an action star who can act.”

Chan was one of a crowd of Chinese actors and directors at Cannes for the world’s largest film festival where the main competition of 20 films includes “Tian Zhu Ding” (“A Touch of Sin”) by director Jia Zhangke. The film received mixed reviews.

A new film by Chinese filmmaker Johnnie To called “Blind Detective” will be screened at a midnight showing on May 19.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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The manager of the $12.9 billion hedge fund Third Point Ventures is smart, strategic and – according to an individual close to the hedge fund manager – he’s not necessarily interested in entertainment per se.

He may, however, be interested in content.

“Hollywood is a small piece of business,” said this individual, noting that Third Point owns about 5.3 percent of Yahoo and made its money this year trading Greek debt. “Dan hired Marissa Mayer to run Yahoo. If he was trying to transform Yahoo, having a traditional media company with a deep content library might be interesting to own.”

In other words, could Loeb be looking to marry Sony’s content with Yahoo? Crazier things have happened.

Loeb is known not only as an activist shareholder in the mold of Carl Icahn, but as an extremely savvy one. Sony’s entertainment assets may be undervalued at the moment, and Loeb may merely see that as an investment opportunity. (My sources say that Loeb’s investment in Variety LLC is small, well under half of the company.)

He also clearly relishes the limelight.

The hedge fund manager has been making interesting moves of late, with a very public letter to Sony this week urging the Japanese giant to spin off its entertainment properties.

But Wall Street insiders pooh-poohed a report on Wednesday that Loeb was buying up shares in MGM on the private market at a $50/share price – a level that had shot up 78% over what it was just a month ago.

Said one veteran investor in the entertainment space: “I don’t believe he paid $50; that’s way too high. You wouldn’t have to pay that to buy shares in the market. That would value the company at close to $4 billion. It wouldn’t make any sense.”

MGM shares were trading at $49.00 on the private market on Wednesday, up 10%, possibly on the news that Loeb was supposedly buying them.

Loeb built Third Point Ventures with lots of bluster behind him, his scathing rebukes of corporate leaders at companies like Agribrands and Star Gas bring him notoriety. Ben McGrath described him this way in the New Yorker: “Loeb’s favored device is the scolding letter, formally addressed, publicly released, and ruthlessly frank in its assessments of managerial competence. He writes the boards and CEOs of companies that his fund has invested in, complaining, in effect, that they are not making him and his clients enough money.”

Loeb spent years quietly amassing wealth as a value investor, placing bets on less than scintillating companies people tended to overlook. That is, until Yahoo.

Loeb built a six percent stake in the company and waged a campaign to focus the company on media and advertising. He used his firm’s stake and his own dynamism to unseat CEO Scott Thompson in a scandal known as “Resumegate” and land on the board along with two others of his choosing.

Whatever he wants with Hollywood – big or small – it’s likely to get interesting.

(Brent Lang and Lucas Shaw contributed to this report)

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Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while a representative for Malone had no comment.

Short and Malone are expected to join Joaquin Phoenix, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro and Reese Witherspoon in the soft-boiled crime film, which follows a pot-smoking private detective named Doc Sportello (Phoenix) as he investigates a missing persons case that may have larger implications.

Malone will play a former drug addict who asks Sportello for help, while Short’s small role is being kept under wraps.

Warner Bros. is financing and distributing the comedic film, which Anderson is producing through his Ghoulardi Film Co. along with JoAnne Sellar and Daniel Lupi.

While it has been years since Short was last seen on the big screen, he did voice key characters in Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie” and DreamWorks Animation’s “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted,” and he’s also set to star in the Public Theater’s one-night-only performance of “The Pirates of Penzance” in Central Park. He’s repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

Malone will soon be seen playing Johanna Mason in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and she recently co-starred alongside Bill Paxton in the “Hatfields & McCoys” miniseries. She’s repped by the Gersh Agency and attorney Robert S. Wallerstein.

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Based on the e-book by Andy Weir, “The Martian” follows an astronaut who becomes stranded on Mars and must figure out how to survive long enough to return to Earth.

The project has been described as a cross between “Apollo 13″ and “Cast Away,” and insiders say it is quite different from Alfonso Cuaron’s upcoming drama “Gravity,” which finds Sandra Bullock stranded in space.

Simon Kinberg is producing “The Martian” through his Genre Films banner along with Aditya Sood. Fox exec Steve Asbell is overseeing the project for the studio.

“The Cabin in the Woods” was a low-budget horror movie that has earned high praise from genre fans. The Lionsgate film grossed $66 million worldwide.

Goddard is one of Hollywood’s most sought-after screenwriters, having written “Cloverfield” for Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrams, as well as “Robopocalypse” for Steven Spielberg. He also had a hand in writing this summer’s tentpole “World War Z,” which stars Brad Pitt.

Repped by UTA, Goddard started his career as a writer on such seminal series as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” “Alias” and “Lost.”

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With its new service, announced at its annual developers’ conference in San Francisco, Google has adopted the streaming music business model ahead of rival Apple Inc, which pioneered online music purchases with iTunes.

Google’s “All Access” service lets users customize song selections from 22 genres, ranging from Jazz to Indie music, stream individual playlists, or listen to a curated, radio-like stream that can be tweaked. It will be launched for U.S. users first, before being rolled out to several other countries.

At the conference, Google also unveiled improvements to other services, including new mapping features and a voice-activated search. The focus was on giving more options to users of mobile devices using its Android operating system.

Google’s shares jumped more than 3 percent while Pandora Media Inc shares were down more than 1 percent on Wednesday afternoon.

The entry of the world’s largest Internet company amps up the competition in the nascent market for subscription-based, streaming music. Amazon.com Inc and Apple are among the Silicon Valley powerhouses sounding out top recording industry executives, according to sources with knowledge of talks.

Pandora is spending freely and racking up losses to expand globally. Even social media stalwarts Facebook and Twitter are jumping onto the streaming-music bandwagon.

All these companies see a viable music streaming and subscription service as crucial to growing their presence in an exploding mobile environment. For Google and Apple, it is critical in ensuring users remain loyal to their mobile products.

Music has been integral to the mobile experience since the early days of iTunes, which upended the old models with its 99-cent-per-song buying approach.

Now, as smartphones and tablets supplant PCs and virtual storage replaces songs on devices, mobile players from handset makers to social networks realize they must stake out a place or risk ceding control of one of the largest components of mobile device usage.

At $9.99 a month, Google’s service is costlier than the $3.99 required for Pandora, but on par with Spotify.

Google executives said their new service takes the work out of managing massive music libraries, noting the streaming model can be endlessly customized. The company will also have a hand in music selection, acting as a curator of personalized content.

It was unclear how large the library will be for streaming. The Verge, a tech blog, reported on Tuesday that Google had signed deals with Universal Music and Sony Entertainment Group, two of the world’s largest record labels.

“You don’t dismiss Apple, you don’t dismiss anyone. But that is not the point,” said Rich Tullo, an analyst at Albert Fried & Co. “Pandora is the market share leader in the space and their platform is so disruptive — it’s very hard to disrupt them. When you have 70 million people use it – they are the disruptors.”

TWEAKS BIG AND SMALL

A procession of Google executives described and showed off a litany of new features and software updates at the annual “I/O” developers’ conference, from picture touch-ups on Google+ and re-designed Maps that spot when a user is walking or driving, to Star Trek-like voice-activated search that understands a users’ sentences and figures out what he or she is looking for.

“We haven’t seen this rate of change in computing for a long time — probably not since the birth of personal computing,” said CEO Larry Page, who began his address reflecting upon a significant moment in his life, when his father got him into a robotic science fair.

“We’re really only at 1 percent of what’s possible,” he said.

Google’s popular mapping service, a mainstay of Android devices, features tighter integration with reviews off Zagat, the popular dining-reviews brand that Google bought last year. It also sports more pictures from inside important buildings, sourced from user-uploaded photos. It can now even display the earth realistically as viewed from outer space, something Page said he personally requested.

Shares in Yelp Inc, which like Zagat is built off users’ personal reviews, slid 3.8 percent to $29.80 in the afternoon.

Many of Wednesday’s updates are designed to enable Google’s products to work better on Android and other mobile platforms, and help its crucial community of developers craft the applications that are the mobile operating system’s lifeblood.

Executives said Wednesday that some 900 million smartphones and tablets running Google Android software had been activated since the platform’s inception in 2010.

(Editing by David Gregorio and Bernadette Baum)

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World No. 1 recorded music company Universal is selling Parlophone, whose artists include Coldplay and Daft Punk, to fulfil a promise to the European Commission for clearing its $1.9 billion buy of EMI’s recorded music business.

The EU antitrust authority said it did not see any competition issues from the Warner deal. Warner is owned by privately held Access Industries Inc.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek)

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The provocative director, expelled from the Cannes film festival in 2011 for joking that he sympathised with Hitler, cast Charlotte Gainsbourg as the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac of the title, alongside rising Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf.

Uma Thurman and Willem Dafoe also appear in a movie which, if the pre-release buildup is to be believed, could match Von Trier’s ultra-violent “Antichrist” for shocking audiences.

“December is a good month. Besides, what’s more Christmassy than a film like this?” joked production company Zentropa’s CEO Peter Aalbaek Jensen in a statement.

He added that Von Trier, 57, had just begun editing the second part of what will be a double bill, and promised impressive visual effects.

The film will premiere in Copenhagen in early December with a red carpet gala, and reach cinemas on December 25.

There had been intense speculation that the picture would be ready for this year’s Cannes, where director Thierry Fremaux told Reuters Von Trier would be welcomed back in the future despite his ignominious exit two years ago.

It was the first such expulsion from the world’s top film festival in 64 years, and an apology from the director, once a darling in Cannes and winner of the Palme d’Or award in 2000 for “Dancer in the Dark”, proved too late.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; editing by Mike Collett-White)

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Friday’s Funny Feature is Star Wars-centric… While promoting the new Star Trek Into Darkness on Jimmy Kimmel Live, JJ Abrams takes audience suggestions about Star Wars: Episode VII. Similar to the bit Jimmy did with Harrison Ford taking audience members’ questions, though completely opposite (they weren’t allowed to ask anything related to Star Wars). Enjoy!

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Emmy-winning mockumentary “The Office,” adapted from Ricky Gervais’ British series of the same name, saw a documentary crew filming the daily lives of employees at the Dunder Mifflin paper company, led for several years by hapless boss Michael Scott, played by Carell.

On Thursday’s 75-minute finale, set six months after the fictional documentary was released, the colleagues all reunite for the marriage of Machiavellian office manager Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and accountant Angela Martin (Angela Kingsley).

Carell entered the episode as a surprise guest at the wedding, uttering one of Michael Scott’s best-known phrases – “That’s what she said.”

Later as he considered the romances that had formed at the workplace, Carell’s character told the camera, “It’s like all my children grew up and they married each other.”

Over nine seasons, audiences have been treated to numerous office fights, friendships and romances on the NBC sitcom. One of the most compelling storylines was the growing romance of Jim and Pam, played by John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer, as audiences watched them transition from friendship to marriage and parenthood.

For fans of the show, the season finale saw most of the long-standing cast members get their happy ending.

Stanley finally retires, Erin finds her birth parents, Andy capitalizes on becoming an unwilling viral video star, Kelly and Ryan run off into the sunset (albeit abandoning a baby in the process) and Jim and Pam decide to move to Austin, Texas.

The final scenes featured a montage of key moments, including Jim and Pam’s romance and the numerous friendships that developed over the years.

“I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you’ve actually left them,” Andy Bernard, played by Ed Helms, said wistfully.

The cast also reflected on the documentary that captured nine years of their lives at the company, which Jim described as “this stupid, wonderful, boring, amazing job.”

“Imagine going back and watching a tape of your life. You can see yourself change … watch yourself fall in love, become a husband, a father. You guys gave that to me,” Jim said to the cameras.

LAUNCHING STARS, FALLING AUDIENCES

“The Office,” which first aired in 2005, began with a relatively unknown cast, led by Carell, whose breakout film “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” came out the same year.

The show made stars of many of its cast members, leading to high-profile movie roles, and its producers said last year that the outside success of “The Office” actors played a role in the decision to wind it down.

Carell left the show in season seven to focus on his rising film career, which has included roles in “Crazy, Stupid, Love” and “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.”

Helms also made the move to the big screen with roles in “The Hangover” franchise, and Krasinski starred in the recent film “The Promised Land” with Matt Damon.

Mindy Kaling, who plays office mean girl Kelly Kapoor, landed her own Fox sitcom “The Mindy Project,” while Craig Robinson, who plays warehouse manager Darryl, scored film roles in “Pineapple Express” and upcoming “This Is the End.”

After Carell’s exit in 2011, audiences began to turn away from “The Office” and viewership fell to about 4 million last year per episode from a high of about 8 million in 2008.

The show’s culmination comes on the heels of another NBC comedy, “30 Rock,” bowing out after seven seasons in February.

Prior to the finale, an hourlong retrospective of the show featured cast members and producers talking about the impact of “The Office” on their careers and why fans were drawn to it.

“This is a perfect time for the show to come to a close,” Wilson said. “There’s a finality to it and a sadness to it.”

Wilson had sought to create a spin-off show led by his character Dwight, but it was not picked up for broadcast.

The unlikely star of the show has been the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which prior to the show was known for coal mining but not anymore.

As the series drew to a close, tens of thousands of people gathered in Scranton earlier this month to give a rousing send-off to the sitcom that changed the image of the city forever.

“Thank you, Scranton,” Carell told the crowd. “This all is because of you.”

NBC is a unit of Comcast Corp.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Film format still offers retro vibe

By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)

Remember last year during CineGear when we interviewed Rhonda Vigeant of Pro8mm about what could possibly be the future of this 60s era format?  In that discussion Rhonda said that 8mm is a very popular format in television, citing over 1,000 projects that they worked on last year.  From her point of view, 8mm is far from dead.  In fact, it’s thriving.  And according to a recent report, she may be on to something.  8mm is thriving and it may be due to an unlikely byproduct …. Instagram.

“I’d like to break the huge myth that Super8 never went away.  In fact, from TV shows to music videos to features, we work on 1,000 projects a year just in Hollywood”. – Rhonda Vigeant, Pro8mm

The report comes Red Shark News, which says that the popularity of such apps as Instagram has given users a taste of that degraded, retro film look which you often find with 8mm movie film.  Users are taking images with their smartphones and then using apps like Instagram to alter the outcome in a retro, distressed fashion.  As Phil Rhodes writes – “The popularity of retro-styled web imaging services like Instagram is another instance of what I suspect may be the same trend, and goes some way toward confirming the suspicion that distressed images are now just as fashionable as distressed jeans.”

So, making distressed images based on an inferious format is now an artistic choice, giving it a feel or vibe that tells part of the story.   I confess that one of my favorite apps is the Super8 app put out by Paramount Digital Entertainment.  Based on the 2011 summer movie of the same name directed by JJ Abrams, the app emulates the look of Super 8mm film, even giving it a variety of lenses that turn.  Users can then do a virtual development and it looks like you’re projecting it straight from that old reel to reel projector – minus the broken sprockets and jammed film loops.  You even get the occasional jump in frame.  It’s very retro and cool.

But we’re not really talking about emulating Super 8, we’re talking about actually shooting with the film, and then sending it off to be developed and scanned.  This is the one thing that I most certainly do NOT miss, making a short film with 8mm film and then waiting a week to ten days to see if it came out right, only to find out there was a light leak of blown focus by the cameraman, so you gotta redo the whole thing.  This is where having digital cameras is very beneficial.  But the nice thing about digital is that it’s non destructive, if done right.  I can make it look like a retro 60s 8mm look and still have the same vibe.   Witness the director of the Academy Award winning documentary “Searching for Sugarman,” who ran out of money filming the movie and finished it on his iPhone, distressing the image to match his 8mm/16mm documentary look.

But filmmakers sometimes like the gritty earthy feel of going retro from the outset.  And the cool things is that groups like Pro 8mm have taken processing and scanning of the 8mm film and reduced the time to a few hours.  “We have a 2K Scanner with full sync to sync color correction that we transfer to 1080p pro res,” Vigeant told me last year, “and we give them their footage back on a hard drive along with their processed film, because film is still the only reliable archive medium.”

So, Super 8mm film is alive and well, and it’s being used quite often in our industry.  Would you use it to get that look, or would you just fix things in post?

Read more about the reemergence of Super 8mm here.

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Glover, 23, defeated country singer Kree Harrison in the popular vote with her powerful voice in what judges deemed a close contest to take the title on season 12 of the Fox network show.

“You are officially our American idol,” host Ryan Seacrest said as the crowd of more than 7,000 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles cheered.

With tears streaming down her face after hearing her name, Glover seemed lost for words. “Oh, my God,” she said. “Three years.”

The third time was lucky for Glover, who appeared in two earlier seasons of the show, and finally won the crown by making songs like “Somewhere” from the musical “West Side Story,” and the jazz tune “You’ve Changed” all her own.

“Three years, persistence, determination and a lot of talent. You deserve it,” said Seacrest.

He announced Glover as the winner at the end of Thursday’s two-hour show, which featured performances by judges Keith Urban and Mariah Carey, as well as Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Lopez, rapper Pitbull and South Korea’s Psy, who sang his new single “Gentleman.”

Glover, the first woman to be crowned “Idol” since Jordin Sparks six years ago, won a record deal, which could help propel her to the stardom enjoyed by other women “Idol” winners such as Grammy Award winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

TOO CLOSE TO CALL

There was no doubt about the impressive talent of either Glover or Harrison, with Carey describing them as “magnificent” and the winner too close to call on Wednesday’s performance finale.

But Glover seemed to have the edge over 22-year-old Harrison going into the two-part finale. General Sentiment, a social and news media analytics company, predicted she would take home the crown based on the social media buzz about her.

Data from the company showed mentions of Glover across the Internet, news media, Twitter and social media, were comparable to 2011 winner Scotty McCreery in the two-week buildup to the finale shows. Harrison’s volume trended lower than all the other finalists from the past two years.

Harrison, who hails from Texas and lost both of her parents in accidents, showed her versatility on the show and won a standing ovation on Wednesday with her take on Patty Griffin’s “Up to the Mountain,” which judge Randy Jackson described as a “winning performance.”

But Glover seemed to seal the deal with her moving rendition of “I Who Have Nothing,” which closed the show and brought the judges to their feet.

“What came across from you is – superstar,” judge Nicki Minaj said.

Fans agreed, and in text, phone and online votes after the performance finale on Wednesday showed their support for Glover over Harrison.

Glover closed Thursday’s finale show with “I Am Beautiful,” her new single.

“Idol,” once the most watched television show with 30 million viewers, has seen a decline in numbers during the past two seasons, overall and in the young adult audience, which is so coveted by advertisers.

Jackson, the only original judge since the show’s start in 2002 who announced he will be leaving the show, bid farewell on Thursday after a tribute. US Weekly magazine reported Minaj would also not be returning.

Fox had no comment about Minaj, or media reports about a complete revamp of the highly paid judging panel.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney in New York; Editing by Bill Trott and Philip Barbara)

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Meyers, 39, will take the reins from Jimmy Fallon on “Late Night” in a programming shuffle at NBC. Fallon will succeed Jay Leno as host of the earlier “Tonight Show.”

Meyer’s announcement comes ahead of the “SNL” Saturday season finale, which is expected to be the final show for several longtime cast members.

“I’m nowhere near emotionally ready for Saturday to be my last show,” Meyers said on NBC’s “Today” show. “I am going to go back to ‘SNL’ in the fall and do the first half of the” television season.

Comedian Bill Hader said earlier this week he will leave “Saturday Night Live” after this season. The show has served as a career springboard for several former cast members including Will Ferrell, Chevy Chase and Tina Fey.

Longtime cast members Fred Armisen and Jason Sudeikis are also expected to leave the show, though representatives at NBC would not comment on cast departures.

Meyers has been an ‘SNL’ cast member since 2001 and host of its “Weekend Update” news segment since 2006.

NBC is owned by Comcast Corp.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Philip Barbara)

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Google Inc announced on Thursday a half-dozen apps specially designed to work on its Glass devices. News network CNN, fashion magazine Elle, as well as online apps Tumblr and Evernote were among the half-dozen new apps for Glass unveiled during Google’s annual developer conference in San Francisco.

Google Glass is a stamp-sized electronic screen mounted on the left side of a pair of eyeglass frames which can record video, access email and messages and retrieve information from the Web.

Google began distributing the devices last month to a limited number of developers, but it has yet to specify when a version will be available for consumers or at what price.

The futuristic-looking devices have been a common sight at the Google conference this week, with many of the attendees and staffers wearing Glass. But Google executives gave Glass short shrift during the more than three-hour keynote talks on Wednesday, barely mentioning Glass among the litany of new products and services discussed on stage.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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The disappointing results lend weight to Michael Dell’s effort. The man who started Dell from a college dorm room wants to take the world’s No.3 PC maker private for $24.4 billion, arguing its transformation into a provider of enterprise computing services is best done away from market scrutiny.

Reflecting that shift in focus, Dell reported on Thursday that revenue from enterprise solutions, services and software jumped 12 percent to $5.5 billion, while overall revenue slipped 2 percent. Its “end-user computing division,” linked to PC sales, slid 9 percent.

To augment its enterprise business and go head-to-head with more established players like International Business Machines Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell is investing heavily on research and sales to retain customers.

Margins on a GAAP basis slid to 19.5 percent from 21.3 percent a year earlier, as total operating expenses climbed 12 percent.

“We made progress in building our enterprise solutions capabilities in the first quarter,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said. “We have taken actions to improve our competitive position in key areas of the business, especially in end-user computing, and it has affected profitability.”

Icahn and major stakeholder Southeastern Asset Management, however, dismiss Michael Dell’s go-private deal as too cheap for a company trying to become a major provider of enterprise computing. They are proposing new leadership and additional cash or stock for shareholders.

Net income fell to $130 million from $635 million a year earlier. Excluding certain items, income was down 51 percent to $372 million, or 21 cents a share, from $761 million, or 43 cents a share, a year earlier.

That lagged by far the 35 cents Wall Street had expected.

Revenue in its fiscal first quarter ended May 3 fell to $14.1 billion, higher than the average analyst estimate of $13.5 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said it could not provide a financial outlook because it was in the midst of Michael Dell’s go-private deal.

Shares in Dell stayed flat in after-hours trade, at $13.44, after closing at $13.43 on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Richard Chang)

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J.J. Abrams’ space epic sequel opened nationwide Thursday in 3,762 theaters and is expected to knock “Iron Man 3″ out of the top spot at the box office this weekend. It could take in more than $100 million over its extended debut weekend, analysts say.

Expectations surged after Paramount announced sellouts for Wednesday night’s shows in New York, L.A., San Francisco and other major markets and moved the wide release date up a day, from Friday to Thursday.

“Star Trek Into Darkness” accounted for 71 percent of online ticket broker Fandango’s sales earlier this week, and rival Movietickets.com reported more than 300 sellouts. The reviews have been very strong; it has an 87 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Paramount and director Abrams successfully re-launched the franchise in 2009 with “Star Trek,” which brought in more than $255 million domestically. “Star Trek Into Darkness” is expected to do even better for producers Paramount, Skydance Pictures and Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, especially overseas. The production budget was $190 million and there’s been a major marketing push behind the film.

Chris Pine returns to “Star Trek Into Darkness” as Capt. Kirk, and is rejoined by Zach Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Lt. Uhura), Karl Urban (Bones), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov) and Simon Pegg (Scotty). British actor Benedict Cumberbatch comes aboard as the baddie Khan. Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, along with Damon Lindelof, wrote the screenplay.

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The latest Pacific Rim trailer is out, and it fleshes out the story more and even more action. Some of it we’ve seen with the first trailer and the con footage. I’m really excited for this film!

The post The New Pacific Rim Trailer Reveals More Story, Action appeared first on Doddle.

Ewan McGregor has confirmed that he is interested in appearing in Danny Boyle’s proposed Trainspotting sequel, Porno.

While speaking at a reunion screening of the original 1996 classic, the Star Wars actor revealed that the prospect of returning to the character of Mark Renton would be an “extraordinary experience”.

He said: “It’s funny – Irvine Welsh’s novel, Porno, is set 10 years after Trainspotting, but I wasn’t ready to do it then, for lots of reasons.

“But now there’s talk of it happening in a few years’ time, and I’m totally up for it. I’d be so chuffed to be back on set with everybody.”

Oscar winning director Boyle has for many years spoken of his desire to make the follow-up. However, the biggest stumbling block was his relationship with McGregor, which deteriorated after the actor was passed over for the lead role in The Beach (2000).

But, now Boyle has re-ignited talk of Porno, revealing last month to UK talk show host Jonathan Ross, that he and McGregor have reconciled.

He said: “You learn and we’ve apologized. We made this film called The Beach, and we gave Ewan the impression we were going to cast him in it, and we didn’t cast him in it, we cast another actor, a wonderful actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, who was a lovely guy, they’re both wonderful.

“You think you’re moving up, it’s the illusion that you think you’re moving up, therefore you’re going to need a bigger star to sell the movie. You learn to stick with your roots.”

The proposed release date for the sequel would be 2016, which would mark the 20th anniversary of Trainspotting. Based on Irvine Welsh’s classic novel, the story centred upon a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The rest of the cast including Johnny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle and Ewen Bremner would be expected to reprise their roles as Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud respectively.

It not yet clear whether Kelly McDonald (Boardwalk Empire) would return to the role of Diane, who only features briefly in the follow-up book.

Stay tuned for more news on Danny Boyle’s Porno.

Sources: Timeout, Digital Spy

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Vin Diesel and filmmaker David Twohy’s faith in the character of Richard B. Riddick shows no bounds.

After the pair’s bloated sequel to the surprise 2000 hit Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), crash landed at the box office, a third, more modest part to the science fiction saga will be released later this year.

In Riddick, Diesel once again reprises the role of the dangerous anti-hero, where he battles mercenaries and alien monsters in a bid to save himself, and his home planet. Here is the trailer:

In the film, the infamous Riddick has been left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that appears to be lifeless. Soon, however, he finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he’s encountered. The only way off is for Riddick to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty.

The first ship to arrive carries a new breed of merc, more lethal and violent, while the second is captained by a man whose pursuit of Riddick is more personal. With time running out and a storm on the horizon that no one could survive, his hunters won’t leave the planet without Riddick’s head as their trophy.

Riddick is clearly a return to the saga’s more indie routes, resembling the film that sparked the franchise, Pitch Black (2000). That movie, which Twohy wrote and directed, became a cult hit spawning the follow-up, Chronicles, which barely broke even on its $105 million budget.

Now, after being forced to make the third film independently, Twohy and star Diesel have scaled back to a $38 million budget. But, while the financial compromise has obvious drawbacks, it has allowed the duo to deliver a R-rated space drama without the threat of studio interference.

Importantly, the series does have a healthy cult following, due in large part to the successful video game The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004) and its sequel The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (2009). These are perhaps the most success movie-video game tie-ins ever.

Since the failure of the last film, actor Diesel has recovered well, forging a highly lucrative career as an action hero. Indeed, the Fast and the Furious star’s career is not dependent on the critical and commercial outcome of this latest Riddick project.

Karl Urban has returned to reprise his role as Vaako from the last film. The rest of the cast includes Jordi Molla, Matt Nable, Katee Sackhoff, Bokeem Woodbine, Dave Bautista, Conrad Pla, Raoul Trujillo, Nolan Funk and Keri Hilson.

Riddick, which is once again written and directed by David Twohy, will be released in the US and the UK on September 6th.

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The film will be a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Finnish game-maker Rovio, and follows the game’s foray into television with an animated weekly series that began in March this year.

“Sony impressed us with their great attitude, determination, and professionalism. They convinced us that we have found the right partners and team to help us market and distribute our first motion picture,” Rovio Entertainment CEO Mikael Hed said in a statement.

The animated 3D film version will be made by the Sony Pictures Animation unit, which has a roster including recent films “The Smurfs” and “Hotel Transylvania.”

“Every studio in town would love to add ‘Angry Birds’ to their slate. There are few titles out there that bring this kind of excitement, brand awareness and built-in audience to the table,” Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Amy Pascal, co-chairman of the unit, said in a statement.

Producers David Maisel, the executive producer of “Iron Man,” and John Cohen, the producer of “Despicable Me,” are both on board for the project, which is yet to announce a director or cast.

The “Angry Birds” video game, where players use a slingshot to launch birds at green ‘bad piggies’ in an attempt to rescue their eggs back, launched in 2009 and has become the top paid application of all time with more than 1.7 billion downloads.

The weekly “Angry Birds Toons” animated series was launched through the app and select video-on-demand providers and TV networks around the world, with 150 million views within the first six weeks.

Sony Pictures Entertainment is a unit of Sony Corp.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Eric Kelsey and Paul Simao)

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