"Cage Fighting" Slugs its Way on to Prime-time TV

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CBS is bringing mixed martial arts, the bone-crunching combat sport popularly known as "cage fighting," to prime-time television this spring, the U.S. network said on Thursday.

Branded as barbaric by critics in the 1990s for its lack of rules, mixed martial arts, or MMA, has evolved into a more mainstream sport that bars biting, eye-gouging, head-butting and strikes to the groin.

But fierce punching, kicking, karate, judo and wrestling moves -- with no protective gear -- are still very much a part of the sport.

One of its biggest stars, the bald, bearded Kimbo Slice, has become a YouTube.com sensation for video clips showing him punching his adversaries into submission within 30 seconds. The sport remains unsanctioned in more than a dozen states.

Beginning in April or May, CBS plans to broadcast four MMA events each year as two-hour live specials airing on Saturday nights, a time period once reserved for such family fare as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Bob Newhart" and "The Carol Burnett Show."

Saturday nights have become a virtual dead zone for broadcast networks generally due to drastically changing viewer habits. CBS now devotes much of its Saturday prime-time lineup to movies, the news magazine "48 Hours Mystery" and reruns of its hit crime dramas.

But CBS executives are seizing on the growing popularity of mixed martial arts, especially among the young men most prized by TV advertisers, as an opportunity to build a lucrative franchise where none exists.

"It is a sport that has a very strong fan base and attracts a terrific audience," CBS Entertainment executive Kelly Kahl told Reuters. "We're putting it on Saturday nights, a night that has been underserved by all the networks for quite some time. So it's low risk and a potentially large reward."

CBS is bringing MMA fights to commercial network TV for the first time through a deal with ProElite Inc., one of the sport's leading promoters, which has produced mixed martial arts for the sibling cable channel Showtime since last year.

ProElite matches, and those of its larger competitor, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, also are big draws on pay-per-view television, and tickets to live events are often priced at more than $500 per seat.

Kahl said CBS would broadcast its MMA matches as they are already presented on Showtime, with no special rules or alterations to tone down the level of violence.

"It is a sport, and it has violent elements. So does football, so does hockey," Kahl said. "If an injury does happen, we'll try to treat it as tactfully and tastefully as we can. But it's not something we're going to hype."

Douglas DeLuca, the CEO of ProElite, said most critics of MMA "have never watched the sport and certainly don't understand it."

"This is a sport of highly trained, highly talented ... world-class athletes," he said. "It is a chess match when these guys get in there and fight, when you understand exactly what they're doing. It's like a beautiful dance."

He also said the CBS events would not be limited to MMA's male stars. Some of the fights will feature the sport's female stars. One of them, Gina Carano, currently appears as Crush on the NBC reality hit "American Gladiators."

"Cleveland" on map as "Family Guy" spin-off

Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:15am EST
By Kimberly Nordyke and Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Family Guy's" henpecked husband Cleveland Brown might be getting his own show.
The Fox network and the show's producer, 20th Century Fox TV, are developing a spin-off from their hit animated series centered on Peter Griffin's bathtub-accident-prone neighbor, sources said.

The project, tentatively titled "Cleveland," is being written by "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry -- a writer/producer who voices Cleveland -- and Rich Appel, an executive producer on MacFarlane's other Fox cartoon, "American Dad."

Cleveland, who plays off black stereotypes, is the most levelheaded among Griffin's trio of friends. He's also pushed around by his wife.

Once canceled by Fox, "Family Guy" triumphantly returned on the network in 2005. It is Fox's top-rated comedy and has grown into a $1 billion franchise with red-hot DVD and merchandise sales.

Fox executives have made it a priority to find another hit animated comedy to complement their Sunday comedy lineup. They have several cartoons in the works, including an animated version of the 2003 short-lived live-action comedy "The Pitts." In addition to "Cleveland," Fox is also developing a spin-off of the drama series "Prison Break," set at a female prison.

Death at a Funeral

The only really funny thing about this movie is watching Alan Tudyk (Firefly) unknowingly trip on a hallucinogenic drug. That's worth the rental.

Jacket: "As the mourners and guests at a British country manor struggle valiantly to "keep a stiff upper lip," a dignified ceremony devolves into a hilarious, no-holds-barred debacle of misplaced cadavers, indecent exposure, and shocking family secrets. "

Scorsese Admits Mental Patients to "Island"

By Carly Mayberry
Tue Feb 26, 8:09 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Emily Mortimer and Jackie Earle Haley will play mental patients in the mystery drama "Shutter Island," Martin Scorsese's latest collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Max von Sydow has also joined the cast of the Paramount Vantage project, which begins production next week.

DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo play two U.S. marshals who travel to a Massachusetts island to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane. Chaos ensues as they encounter a web of deceit, a hurricane and a deadly inmate riot that leaves them trapped on the island. Von Sydow will play one of the hospital's physicians.

Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams and Patricia Clarkson also star in the film, which was adapted by Laeta Kalogridis from "Mystic River" author Dennis Lehane's 2004 novel.

Von Sydow recently appeared in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," and Mortimer in "Lars and the Real Girl." Haley received an Oscar nomination last year for his supporting role as a sex offender in "Little Children."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Michael Clayton

Jacket: Attorney Michael Clayton is a "fixer," the go-to guy when his powerful New York law firm wants a mess swept under the rug. But now he's handed a crisis even he may not be able to fix. The firm's top litigator in a $3-billion case has gone from advocate to whistleblower. And the more Michael tries to undo the damage, the more he's up against forces that put corporate survival over human life - including Michael's."

"Akira" Gets New Life with DiCaprio

This one better be handled with kid gloves. Don't screw up a classic!

Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:17am EST

By Borys Kit
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The anime classic "Akira" is getting the live-action big screen treatment courtesy of Leonardo DiCaprio and a first-time feature filmmaker.

"Akira" originated in 1988 as a manga and then as an animated film co-written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. The story was set in a neon-lit postapocalyptic "New Tokyo" in 2019 where a teen biker gang member is subjected to a government experiment that unleashes his latent powers. The gang's leader must find a way to stop the ensuing swathe of destruction.

With its mature themes and cutting-edge animation, "Akira" was a milestone movie in anime and mainstream animation circles, leading the way for anime to make inroads into Western pop culture in the 1990s.

The new story, which DiCaprio will produce for Warner Bros., ideally would be a two-part epic, with the first movie coming out next summer. The action will move to "New Manhattan," a city rebuilt by Japanese money.

It will mark the feature directorial debut of commercials veteran Ruairi Robinson, who sold the studio on his vision. The Irish native, who was nominated for a best animated short Oscar in 2001 for the sci-fi comedy "Fifty Percent Grey," also wrote and directed a sci-fi short titled "The Silent City."

WHAT I KNOW NOW: Letters to My Younger Self

I received this incredible, little book as a Christmas gift from a relative. At first I thought it's be kind of hokey, but then I kept reading and could not put it down. All the famous contributors give you a candid snapshot of their lives and insight into how they are able to pull it all together. That constant worry we all have.

Homemakers.com: "Ellyn Spragins was only 32 when she lost her mother in a plane crash. Now, it's during difficult times that she feels her mother's loss most keenly -- and yearns to know how her mother navigated through such troubles in her own life. This yearning inspired Spragins to ask famous and successful women to reflect on their own lives, and to write, first a magazine article and then, a book collecting these women's thoughts."

Random House: If you could send a letter back through time to your younger self, what would the letter say? In this moving collection, forty-one famous women write letters to the women they once were, filled with advice and insights they wish they had had when they were younger.

Today show correspondent Ann Curry writes to herself as a rookie reporter in her first job, telling herself not to change so much to fit in, urging her young self, “It is time to be bold about who you really are.” Country music superstar Lee Ann Womack reflects on the stressed-out year spent recording her first album and encourages her younger self to enjoy the moment, not just the end result. And Maya Angelou, leaving home at seventeen with a newborn baby in her arms, assures herself she will succeed on her own, even if she does return home every now and then.

These remarkable women are joined by Madeleine Albright, Queen Noor of Jordan, Cokie Roberts, Naomi Wolf, Eileen Fisher, Jane Kaczmarek, Olympia Dukakis, Macy Gray, and many others. Their letters contain rare glimpses into the personal lives of extraordinary women and powerful wisdom that readers will treasure.

Wisdom from What I Know Now

“Don’t let anybody raise you. You’ve been raised.” —Maya Angelou

“Try more things. Cross more lines.” —Breena Clarke

“Learn how to celebrate.” —Olympia Dukakis

“You don’t have to be afraid of living alone.” —Eileen Fisher

“Please yourself first . . . everything else follows.” —Macy Gray

“Don’t be so quick to dismiss another human being.” —Barbara Boxer

“Work should not be work.” —Mary Matalin

“You can leave the work world—and come back on your own terms.” —Cokie Roberts

“Laundry will wait very patiently.” —Nora Roberts

“Your hair matters far, far less than you think” —Lisa Scottoline

“Speak the truth but ride a fast horse.” —Kitty Kelley

“What these letters offer . . . is hope—hope that those who read them will understand that there is a future where the road not taken is no longer regretted, and, in the end, the choices we make, make us who we are.” —Boston Globe

Wilson to begin work on 'Marley & Me'

Wed Feb 20, 12:35 AM ET

LOS ANGELES - Owen Wilson is going back to work for the first time since his reported suicide attempt last summer.

Wilson, 39, and co-star Jennifer Aniston begin shooting March 10 on 20th Century Fox's "Marley & Me," the studio said. It tells the tale of a couple who adopt a dog to give parenthood a trial run, then find the mischievous pooch more than they bargained for.

After he was hospitalized last August, Wilson dropped out of this summer's comedy "Tropic Thunder," which already had been in production. He was replaced by Matthew McConaughey.
Due out Christmas Day, "Marley & Me" is directed by David Frankel and based on the book by John Grogan. Alan Arkin co-stars.

Director Fincher falls prey to "Black" disease

Wed Feb 20, 11:17 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Zodiac" David Fincher is attached to shoot "Black Hole," a horror romance about a group of high school students whose lives are drastically altered when they come in contact with a sexually transmitted disease called the "teen plague" or "the bug."

"Beowulf" writers Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman are adapting the Charlie Burns graphic novel for Paramount/MTV Films.

Fincher just wrapped "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," which Paramount is scheduled to release at the end of the year. He also has "Torso," "The Devil in the White City" and "The Killer" in development at the studio.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Celebrating the Semicolon

Check out this funky article. Click post title for link to full article.

Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location

New York Times
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: February 18, 2008

It was nearly hidden on a New York City Transit public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train.

“Please put it in a trash can,” riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency’s marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, “that’s good news for everyone.”

Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants. In literature and journalism, not to mention in advertising, the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism.

Americans, in particular, prefer shorter sentences without, as style books advise, that distinct division between statements that are closely related but require a separation more prolonged than a conjunction and more emphatic than a comma.

“When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life,” Kurt Vonnegut once said. “Old age is more like a semicolon.”

... But, whatever one’s personal feelings about semicolons, some people don’t use them because they never learned how.

In fact, when Mr. Neches was informed by a supervisor that a reporter was inquiring about who was responsible for the semicolon, he was concerned.

“I thought at first somebody was complaining,” he said.

... New York City Transit’s unintended agenda notwithstanding, e-mail messages and text-messaging may jeopardize the last vestiges of semicolons. They still live on, though, in emoticons, those graphic emblems of our grins, grimaces and other facial expressions.

The semicolon, befittingly, symbolizes a wink.

Black Eyed Peas Singer Joins "Wolverine" Cast

Hmm, looks interesting. I'll have to unarchive my old comics.

Reuters
Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:00am EST

By Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am will make his feature acting debut in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the "X-Men" spinoff starring Hugh Jackman.

Danny Huston, Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins also have joined the Fox project, and Ryan Reynolds is making a cameo. Gavin Hood ("Tsotsi") is directing.

"Wolverine," set 17 years before the "X-Men" movies, traces the origins of the popular mutant superhero.

Will.i.am, whose real name is William Adams, will play Wraith, a mutant with the power to turn himself translucent.

Huston, who most recently appeared in "30 Days of Night," is playing Stryker, the military general who subjected Wolverine to the experiment that laced his bones with an unbreakable metal called adamantium. Brian Cox played the character in "X2: X-Men United."

Kitsch, one of the stars of NBC's "Friday Night Lights," is playing Gambit, a Cajun thief whose powers include the manipulation of kinetic energy, which allows him to use card-throwing to deadly effect.

Collins ("The Number 23") will play as Kayla Silverfox, Wolverine's lover and a member of Team X, a superpowered covert ops team.

Reynolds, onscreen in "Definitely, Maybe," will appear as Deadpool, a wisecracking mercenary.

Liev Schreiber already has been cast as Victor Creed, a mutant with bestial superpowers who also is known as Sabretooth.

Production began this month in New Zealand before moving to Australia. A New Orleans shoot also is on the docket. Fox is releasing the film everywhere May 1, 2009.

New Fitness Game for the Wii

Nintendo rolls out Wii fitness game product

Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:33am EST
Reuters.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Games maker Nintendo Co Ltd on Wednesday said it will launch a new physical fitness game product called Wii Fit for U.S. shipping in May.

The Wii Fit, which will debut on May 19, will come with a weight-and-motion sensing device called the Wii Balance Board, the company said in a statement.

Nintendo is also planning to launch a new online service in the U.S. in May called WiiWare that will allow game publishers to distribute new titles over the Internet directly to users, instead of on discs.

Early WiiWare games will come from developers such as Square Enix, famous for the role-playing game franchise "Final Fantasy."

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke and Franklin Paul, editing by Will Waterman and Gerald E. McCormick)

In the Valley of Elah

Sometimes finding the truth is easier than facing it.

Jacket: "Mike Deerfield returns to the U.S. after his tour in Iraq and abruptly goes missing. His father Hank (Tommy Lee Jones), a spit-and-polish ex-MP from the Vietnam era, goes looking for him. What he finds goes to the heart of American combat experiences in the Iraq conflict.



[This is] a probing and powerful look at a nation and the young soldiers it sends into battle. Hank's quest lays bare a tangled web of cover-up, murder, mystery and profound revelation about the personal costs of war."



Wikipedia: "Although the story has been fictionalized and the names and location have been changed, the plot hews very closely to the story of Richard Davis, an Iraq War veteran murdered upon his return home in 2003. Richard Davis's father Lanny Davis, a former military police officer who mounted his own investigation into the crime like the Jones character, commented, "It's a strong movie and a good movie. And it's going to make a lot of people think." [1]


A non-fiction book about the actual murder case, by author Cilla McCain, titled Murder in Baker Company: The Forgotten Soldier is slated for publication. A documentary based on McCain's research is also scheduled to begin production in January 2008 and will be funded in part by director Paul Haggis.[2]"

Note: The Valley of Elah is where David fights the giant, Goliath, a story Hank tells the son of Charlize Theron's character.

You don't have to agree with this war, but you do have to watch this film. The Academy Award-winning cast give a convincing and thought provoking performance. This is one of the best films dealing with the aftermath of war.

The last scene is very indicative of our current state of affairs.

I'll be watching this one a few times.

Gone Baby Gone

Everyone wants the truth . . . until they find it.

IMDb: "When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detective freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons - they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live. As the case progresses, Kenzie and Gennaro face drug dealers, gangs and pedophiles. When they finally solve the case, they are faced with a moral dilemma that tears them apart."

Wikipedia: "Gone Baby Gone is a critically acclaimed crime drama adapted and directed by Ben Affleck. The movie is set in Boston, and based on the novel of the same title by Dennis Lehane. It stars Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan, as Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, two private investigators hunting for an abducted four-year-old girl in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. Amy Ryan has been nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her performance in the film."

This was surprisingly very good. I've got to check out the book on which it is based. Amy Ryan gives gritty portrayal of a junkie-mom disconnected from everything around her, save her next fix. She does such a great job you want to hate her for her negligence.

The Jane Austen Book Club

You don't have to know the books to be in the club.

IMDb: "Six Californians start a club to discuss the works of Jane Austen, only to find their relationships -- both old and new -- begin to resemble 21st century versions of her novels."

Eh, I was on a Jane Austen kick this week. The girl is timeless! I had to watch this one a couple of times.

No Reservations

Life isn't always made to order.

Don't watch this film hungry! You'll salivate. It's a cutesy film that doesn't exactly make you hunger for a fuller life, but is an enjoyable Sunday afternoon kind of film.

Wikipedia: "A remake of the German film Mostly Martha (Ger. title Bella Martha, directed by Nettelbeck), the American version stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart as a pair of chefs, and Abigail Breslin.

Kate Armstrong (Zeta-Jones) is a master chef in New York City who lives her life as busily outside of the kitchen as she does inside. After her sister dies in an accident she becomes the guardian of her niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin). Their relationship has ups and downs; for example, only after being told by her therapist Kate understands that children like simple food such as fishsticks and macaroni more than the sophisticated food like she prepares in her job. Also she once forgets to pick her up after school.

Kate deals with a new sous-chef Nick Palmer (Eckhart) in the kitchen. Despite the differences between Kate and Nick, they find chemistry with each other. Also he gets along well with Zoe. Kate is compelled to change her approach to life differently from the way she approaches work so she can develop stronger relationships with Zoe and Nick.^[3]"

Across the Universe

All you need is love.

This is so good you have to buy it! I loved it! Julie Taymor brings all her powerful theatrical skill to the big screen again. And you can't help but sing along to all your favorite Beatles songs.

Wikipedia: "Across the Universe is a 2007 musical film directed by Julie Taymor and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. The script is based on an original story credited to Taymor, Clement and La Frenais that incorporates 34 compositions written by members of The Beatles.

Footnote: "Across the Universe" is a song by The Beatles that first appeared on a charity release in December 1969, and later, in modified form, on their final album, Let It Be. The song features John Lennon singing lead, who was also the primary composer (though, as with all Beatles songs written by either composer, the song is credited to Lennon/McCartney).

IMDb: "A dock worker Jude travels to America in the 1960s to find his estranged father. There he falls in love with sheltered American teenager Lucy. When her brother Max is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, they become involved in peace activism. The film title and main characters are named after various songs by The Beatles"

No Country for Old Men

THIS IS MY FAVORITE FILM OF THE PAST YEAR!! I think I kept saying "What the f&$k!" throughout the whole thing.

King of California

You've got to believe in treasure to find it.

Yahoo: "At the age of sixteen, Miranda has already had to live with her share of disappointments. Abandoned by her mother, she's dropped out of school and has been supporting herself as an employee at McDonald's while her father Charlie resides in a mental institution. When Charlie is released and sent back to their home, Miranda finds the relatively peaceful existence she's built for herself completely disrupted. Charlie has become obsessed with the notion that the long-lost treasure of Spanish explorer Father Juan Florismarte Garces is buried somewhere near their suburban California housing unit. Armed with a metal detector and a stack of treasure-hunting books, Charlie soon finds reason to believe that the gold resides underneath the local Costco, and encourages Miranda to get a job there so that they can plan a way to excavate after hours. "

This film was so-so. It dragged, seldom was funny, but intrigued me just enough to watch til the very end to see what they find.

I Am Legend

READ THE BOOK FIRST! Although this is a well-enough Hollywood production, I preferred the original story. FYI, I was down on Park Avenue when they were shooting the scene where Smith shoots the mannequin (for being out of place) and eventually gets trapped by the dark seekers. Maybe the upcoming DVD will have some cool bonus features. We can only hope.

Wikipedia: "I Am Legend is a 2007 post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It is the third feature film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend, following 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man.[1]

Smith plays virologist Robert Neville, who thinks he may be Earth's only surviving human not affected by a vicious man-made virus. He works to create a cure while living in a city inhabited by mutant victims of the airborn virus.

Warner Bros. Pictures began developing I Am Legend in 1994, and various actors and directors were attached to the project, though production was delayed due to budgetary concerns related to the script. Production began in 2006 in New York City, filming mainly on location in the city, including a $5 million scene at the Brooklyn Bridge, the most expensive scene ever filmed in the city at the time. "

Family Guy: Blue Harvest

This was too funny. A gang of us were able to get a sneak peek of this at the "Family Guy: Live" performance.

Wikipedia: "Blue Harvest" is the first episode of the sixth season of the FOX series Family Guy, which originally aired on September 23, 2007.

The episode is a retelling of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, recasting the show's characters into Star Wars roles.[1] For this purpose, and for the first time in the history of Family Guy, this episode runs an hour long with commercials (47 minutes for the DVD version). It was also made to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise. The name "Blue Harvest" is a reference to the title of the film ruse used to ensure secrecy and disguise the actual 1981 - 1983 production of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

This episode drew 10.7 million viewers on its first showing, and earned the highest Nielsen rating of any Family Guy episode since the show returned to air in 2005, making it the second most-watched episode in the series behind "North by North Quahog" which garnered 11.9 million.[2].[3]"

The Orphanage (El Orfanato)

This film could have been so much scarier, except maybe for Lissette who watched most of it from under her coat. It reminded me a lot of The Others, but I hate when I figure out most of the film in the beginning. Although there was one gory car accident scene that actually had a row of us cracking up. You know you've seen a lot of scary films when stuff like that is hilarious.

Wikipedia: "The Orphanage (Spanish title: El Orfanato) is a 2007 Spanish horror film. It stars Belén Rueda as Laura, a woman who returns to the orphanage where she stayed for a period as a child. She purchases the house, with plans to turn it into a home for disabled children. Everything seems to be going well for Laura, her husband Carlos (Cayo) and their son Simón (Príncep). However, the parents soon realize their son has an imaginary friend and horror begins to unfold."

Tolkien Estate Sues New Line Cinema

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES - The estate of "Lord of the Rings" creator J.R.R. Tolkien is suing the film studio that released the trilogy based on his books, claiming the company failed to pay a cut of gross profits for the blockbuster films.

The writer's estate, a British charity dubbed The Tolkien Trust, and original "Lord of the Rings" publisher HarperCollins filed the lawsuit against New Line Cinema on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The lawsuit claims New Line was required to pay 7.5 percent of gross receipts from the films to Tolkien's estate and the other plaintiffs. A call to a spokesman for New Line, a unit of Time Warner Inc., was not immediately returned.

The films — 2001's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 2002's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," and 2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" — have reaped nearly $6 billion combined worldwide, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs seek more than $150 million in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and a court order giving the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including "The Hobbit."

Such an order would scuttle plans New Line has in the works to make a two-film prequel based on "The Hobbit."

"Rings" trilogy director Peter Jackson has already signed on to serve as executive producer on the project, which is tentatively slated to begin production next year, with releases planned for 2010 and 2011.

"The Tolkien trustees do not file lawsuits lightly, and have tried unsuccessfully to resolve their claims out of court," Steven Maier, an attorney for the Tolkien estate based in Britain, said in a statement. "New Line has not paid the plaintiffs even one penny of its contractual share of gross receipts despite the billions of dollars of gross revenue generated by these wildly successful motion pictures."

Maier also claims the film studio has blocked the Tolkien estate and the other plaintiffs from auditing the receipts of the last two films.

HarperCollins Will Post Free e-Books

New York Times
By MOTOKO RICH
Published: February 11, 2008

In an attempt to increase book sales, HarperCollins Publishers will begin offering free electronic editions of some of its books on its Web site, including a novel by Paulo Coelho and a cookbook by the Food Network star Robert Irvine.

The idea is to give readers the opportunity to sample the books online in the same way that prospective buyers can flip through books in a bookstore.

Starting Monday, readers who log on to www.harpercollins.com will be able to see the entire contents of “The Witch of Portobello” by Mr. Coelho; “Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes and Making the Impossible Easy” by Mr. Irvine; “I Dream in Blue: Life, Death and the New York Giants” by Roger Director; “The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President: Who the Candidates Are, Where They Come from and How You Can Choose” by Mark Halperin; and “Warriors: Into the Wild” the first volume in a children’s series by Erin Hunter.

HarperCollins also plans to upload a different title by Mr. Coelho each month for the rest of the year.

Brian Murray, president of HarperCollins, said that the free electronic editions would be available only for one month, and readers would not be able to download them to laptops or to an electronic reader like Kindle from Amazon.com. The print function will also be disabled, but readers will be able to link to retailers like Amazon.com to buy copies of the books.

Reached by telephone in Paris, Mr. Coelho said: “I believe that generosity pays off.” On his own blog, he gives readers links to pirated editions uploaded by readers in numerous languages. “I believe that they are not going to go beyond 20 or 30 pages” when reading on the Internet, he said.

Neil Gaiman, the fantasy novelist, short story and comics writer, is asking readers of his blog to vote on the title they would most like to give as a gift. An electronic scan of the winning title will be offered free on the HarperCollins site later this month. Mr. Gaiman said the online effort was not so different from what has been going on for generations.

“I didn’t grow up buying every book I read,” said the English born Mr. Gaiman, 47. “I read books at libraries, I read books at friend’s houses, I read books that I found on people’s window sills.” Eventually, he said, he bought his own books and he believes other readers will, too.

HarperCollins will also begin offering 20 percent of some books two weeks before the hardcover editions go on sale. Starting Tuesday, readers can see the first fifth of “The Perfect Wife” by Victoria Alexander; “Deep Dish” by Mary Kay Andrews; and “Friend of the Devil” by Peter Robinson, all books that go on sale later this month.

Roy Scheider, of 'Jaws' Fame, Dies at 75

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 11, 2008

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Roy Scheider, a one-time boxer whose broken nose and pugnacious acting style made him a star in ''The French Connection'' and who later uttered one of cinematic history's most memorable lines in ''Jaws,'' has died. He was 75.

Scheider died Sunday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock, hospital spokesman David Robinson said.

The hospital did not release a cause of death, but Scheider had been treated for multiple myeloma at the hospital's Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy for the past two years.

Scheider earned two Academy Award nominations -- a best-supporting nod for 1971's ''The French Connection'' in which he played the police partner of Oscar winner Gene Hackman, and a best-actor nomination for 1979's ''All That Jazz,'' the semi-autobiographical Bob Fosse film.

But he was perhaps best known for his role as a small-town police chief in Steven Spielberg's 1975 film ''Jaws,'' about a killer shark terrorizing beachgoers -- as well as millions of moviegoers.

In 2005, one of Scheider's most famous lines in the movie -- ''You're gonna need a bigger boat'' -- was voted No. 35 on the American Film Institute's list of best quotes from U.S. movies.

Widely hailed as the film that launched the era of the Hollywood blockbuster, ''Jaws'' was the first movie to earn $100 million at the box office.

Click title for full article

Other resources: http://royscheider.net/

Arctic Tale

Riding the coattails of "March of the Penguins", Arctic Tale is not as emotionally engrossing as the former film, but the kids will enjoy it.

Wikipedia: "Arctic Tale is a 2007 documentary film about the life cycle of a walrus and her calf, and a polar bear and her cubs, in a similar vein to the 2005 hit production March of the Penguins. It was directed by Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson and is narrated by Queen Latifah. The animal characters named in the movie, "Nanu" the female polar bear and "Seela" the female walrus, are based on composites of animals in their species, as noted at the end of the film."

nip/tuck: Season 1

My cousin Lissette let me borrow the first season and now I am officially addicted.

Wikipedia: "The show follows the lives of two Los Angeles (formerly Miami) plastic surgeons, Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon).

In its debut season, Nip/Tuck was the highest-rated new series on American basic cable, and the highest rated basic cable series of all time for the 18-49 and 25-54 age demographics."

The Hunting Party

How can they find the world's most wanted war criminal when the C.I.A. can't? [by actually looking]

I actually learned a few things in a film I really didn't like. If anything it made me research the atrocities that took place during the Bosnian war and read the Esquire article from which the film is loosely based.

IMDb: "A young journalist, a seasoned cameraman and a discredited war correspondent embark on an unauthorized mission to find the no. 1 war criminal in Bosnia; they find themselves in serious jeopardy when they are mistaken as a CIA hit squad and their target decides to come after them."

The Game Plan

Joe Kingman had the perfect game plan to win the championship... but first, he has to tackle one little problem.

The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) is the self-absorbed star quarterback of the Boston Rebels (Patriots substitute!) who unexpectedly finds out he's a dad. But it's his cuter than cute daughter, played by Madison Pettis, that steals the entire movie.

Great World of Sound

Jacket: "Martin is an uncomplicated guy who responds to an ad in the paper for a company called Great World of Sound. Joining the crew, Martin partners up with larger than life Clarence, and the two hit the road to discover and sign new musical talent. As the veneer falls away from GWS, the two have to reconcile the excitement with the reality of the job. Have they become scam artists, or are they victims of the scam?"

The question of who is being had in this film is known by the audience up front, but we still go through the paces with unsuspecting Martin and Clarence as they do their best to find talent among the talentless. I definitely had my share of chuckles while watching this and am glad I rented it. It's worth checking out.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

This is a film that will be watched for ages. Casey Affleck gives a memorable performance as Robert Ford, who obsessively studied the James gang since childhood and upon joining them hoped he'd get his come-uppance. Robert grows resentful of Jesse James (after his man-crush is destroyed) and eventually turns against him.

Wikipedia: "Brian Tallerico of UGO gave the film an "A" and said it is "the best western since Unforgiven." Tallerico also said "Stunning visuals, award-worthy performances, and a script that takes incredibly rewarding risks, Jesse James is a masterpiece and one of the best films of the year."[17] Kurt Loder of MTV said "If I were inclined to wheel out clichés like 'Oscar-worthy', I'd certainly wheel them out in support of this movie, on several counts."[18] Richard Roeper on the television show Ebert & Roeper said "If you love classic and stylish mood Westerns such as McCabe and Mrs. Miller and The Long Riders, this is your film."[19] The Star-Ledger film critic Stephen Whitty gave the film 4 stars and called it an "epic film that's part literary treatise, part mournful ballad, and completely a portrait of our world, as seen in a distant mirror." Whitty also said that the film is "far superior" and "truer to its own world" than 3:10 to Yuma.[20] Josh Rosenblatt of The Austin Chronicle gave the film 31⁄2 stars and said the film "grabs on to many of the classic tropes of the Western—the meandering passage of time, the imposing landscapes, the abiding loneliness, the casual violence—and sets about mapping their furthest edges."[21]

Film critic Emanuel Levy gave the film an "A" and wrote "Alongside with Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men, which is a Western in disguise, or rather a modern Western, Assassination of Jesse James is the second masterpiece of the season." Levy also wrote, "Like Bonnie & Clyde, Dominik's seminal Western is a brilliant, poetic saga of America's legendary criminal as well as meditative deconstruction of our culture's most persistent issues: link of crime and fame, myths of heroism and obsession with celebrity."

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was identified by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures as one of the top ten films of 2007. The board also awarded actor Casey Affleck as Best Supporting actor in the film.[30] The San Francisco Film Critics Circle named The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford as the Best Picture of 2007. The circle also awarded actor Casey Affleck as best supporting actor for the film. Casey Affleck was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for the 65th Golden Globe Awards.[31]

The film received two Academy Award nominations for the 80th Academy Awards. Casey Affleck was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Roger Deakins was nominated for Best Cinematography"

ESPN to Offer Sports Events on the Web Free to Some

New York Times
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: February 4, 2008

ESPN, the dominant channel for sports programming, will announce this week that Web users on college campuses and military bases — anyone in the .edu or .mil domain — will be able to access live programming on its Web site, ESPN360, without charge.

Opening ESPN360’s doors to college students and members of the military will more than double its base of possible users, potentially driving traffic to a site that has recorded only 500,000 viewing hours since it started focusing on live sporting events last September.

Cable companies pay nearly $3 a subscriber to broadcast ESPN on television. But its Web site, which provides live coverage of more than 2,500 sporting events a year, is accessible only to the 20 million subscribers to Internet service providers that have reached agreements with ESPN.

... ESPN, which is 80 percent owned by the Walt Disney Company and 20 percent by Hearst Corporation, has frustrated some fans by putting an electronic wall around some sporting events. Users cannot subscribe to the service separately; they receive it through their Internet service provider or not at all.

AT&T, Verizon, RCN and Charter are among those that offer it. On Friday ESPN signed an agreement with Insight, a Midwestern cable operator, which will make the platform available to 700,000 subscribers next week.

But several major cable operators, Comcast and Time Warner Cable among them, have not signed on.

The notion of paying a subscriber fee for content is relatively new to the mainstream Internet, and fairly uncomfortable.

Some telephone and cable companies have considered charging content providers for priority access, raising concerns about so-called network neutrality, a tenet that rejects discrimination in the transmission of online information. ESPN is practicing the reverse, charging the carriers to give users access to a Web site.

Eric Rabe, a vice president for communications for Verizon, said ESPN360 could attract users.

“You can’t underestimate the value of live, streaming sports in attracting customers who are extremely loyal and who will also want television and mobile phone services from Verizon,” he said.

John Zehr, the network’s senior vice president for digital media production, said the ESPN360 platform allowed the broadcaster to expand beyond its six cable channels.

In September, ESPN360 moved from mostly taped to mostly live programming. There is no shortage of programming; “24 hours a day, there is some sporting event being played around the globe,” Mr. Zehr said.

Last month, the service showed more than 450 hours of Australian Open tennis as well as 225 college basketball games, cricket matches, international soccer matches and the Winter X Games. Mr. Zehr said the Australian Open coverage was especially popular.

“While our linear network can only bring you one court at a time, you can be watching six different courts within the application,” he said.

Death Sentence

Whoa, Kevin Bacon is a modern-day Charles Bronson! I was surprised by how much I liked this film. Unlike others, I found it very engaging from the peak of the film to the end. It's very rental-worthy.

Wikipedia: "Death Sentence is a 2007 film loosely based on the 1975 novel by Brian Garfield. The film is directed by Saw director James Wan, and stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a man who becomes a vengeful vigilante killer after his son is murdered by a gang as an initiation ritual.

Author Brian Garfield, who wrote the novel the film is loosely based on, stated on his official website that the film is exciting and thought-provoking and said he feels the shooting script is excellent. Garfield said, "While I could have done with a bit less blood-and-thunder, I think it's a stunningly good movie. In the details of its story it's quite different from the novel, but it's a movie, not a novel. In its cinematic way it connects with its audience and it makes the same point the book makes, and those are the things that count."