Month: April 2010

Categories
Rumours

Let Emilio take over!!

Charlie Sheen wants to bow out of sitcom
LOS ANGELES ñ Charlie Sheen is looking at a future without “Two and a Half Men.”
According to a person close to the actor, Sheen has told friends that he wants to leave the hit CBS comedy in which he’s starred for seven years.
The person spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because Sheen had made the remarks in private and had not intended them to be discussed publicly.
CBS had no comment, spokesman Phil Gonzales said Thursday. An after-hours call to Sheen’s representatives was not immediately returned.
“Two and a Half Men,” which also stars Jon Cryer, is the top-rated comedy on TV and a key part of CBS’ Monday night lineup. Last year, CBS gave the show a three-year renewal, through the 2011-12 season, but Sheen’s contract is up at the end of the current season.
Sheen, 44, has tired of the demands of a weekly show and wants to focus on movies, the person close to him said. Sheen is in the upcoming film “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” a sequel to the 1987 “Wall Street” in which he starred.
Sheen’s desire to exit the sitcom was reported by People magazine online Thursday.
The actor is grappling with legal problems arising from a fight with his wife in Aspen, Colo., last December. He is charged with assault, criminal mischief and menacing, which carries a possible sentence of one to three years in prison.
Sheen pleaded not guilty in Colorado’s Pitkin County District Court last month and faces a jury trial in July.
He entered a rehab facility for undisclosed treatment in February, temporarily forcing “Two and a Half Men” to halt production.
CBS and series producer Warner Bros. Television issued a statement of support when Sheen sought treatment and wished him well.

Categories
Muppets

Happy Easter!!!

Categories
DVD & Blu-ray

I will be watching it this weekend, and I am excited!!!!

Robert Redford has mixed feelings about Blu-ray
Robert Redford is pleased that The Natural will finally look the best it ever has on home video. The new Blu-ray Disc (out Tuesday, Sony, PG, $25) makes Caleb Deschanel’s cinematography and Randy Newman’s score ó both earned Oscar nominations for the 1984 film ó look and sound immaculate.
Yet Redford throws a curve when asked about the other trimmings on the disc, such as the new MovieIQ+sync feature that displays facts on screen or on your iPhone as the film plays and the behind-the-scenes extras carried over from the 2007 DVD. “I’m just a purist. I know it is fascinating to people, but I never ascribed that you should have a documentary about the making of a film,” he said this week in a phone conversation from an editing bay in Napa Valley, Calif.
“Films were meant to be a kind of magic that transports you somewhere else because you can imagine on your own and not have everything spelled out about this trick and this explosion. I would be just fine with none of that.”
For many, The Natural remains one of the best sports films of all time. But upon its release, some critics faulted the script’s changes to the Bernard Malamud novel. Instead of the failure that met the aged rookie ballplayer Roy Hobbs in the book, the film finishes off his mythological journey with a ninth-inning blast of glory.
Along with director Barry Levinson, Redford “agreed that to really follow Malamud’s book right to the very end was a massive downer. I loved the book, but the redemption was the issue.”
A pitcher at the University of Colorado, Redford, now 73, says that “at one time, I wanted to be a pro ballplayer. So it was very much in my DNA, and I always wanted to make a film about baseball.”
Beyond the spread of Blu-ray Disc, other technological advances are drastically changing filmmaking, he says. At this year’s Sundance Festival, eight films were simultaneously distributed digitally to theaters in eight U.S. cities. “There was a tremendous response,” says Redford, whose Sundance Institute has sponsored the festival since 1985.
The U2 3D concert film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Festival. “That was very effective and very powerful,” Redford says. “Avatar is very effective and very powerful because you can be absorbed in the imagery. I think (3-D) will work for larger, major films that are more blockbuster in shape and the IMAX films. I’m not so sure about the smaller independent films or television.”
In general, he says, “I think technology is driving things to the point where it is beginning to dictate the spirit of something. … But I think a good story well told will always be the name of the game.”
And Redford still has some stories of his own he’s working on. He plans to finish editing The Conspirator over
the next month. The independent film, which Redford directed and produced, follows the trial of Mary Surratt (Robin Wright Penn), who was implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln.
Another project has a baseball tie-in: “Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson is one project I have got in development. I would like to play (legendary baseball executive) Branch Rickey,” who signed Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Categories
Television

Tina Fey will rock…the others…we’ll see, but unlikely!!

Fey, Phillippe, Sidibe are `SNL’ hosts for April
NEW YORK ñ Tina Fey, Ryan Phillippe and Gabourey Sidibe will be taking turns as “Saturday Night Live” hosts this month.
NBC said Thursday that Fey, former “SNL” cast member and head writer, is hosting the April 10 show and will be joined by pop star Justin Bieber.
Phillippe is set to host the April 17 show with Ke$ha as the musical guest. On April 24, “Precious” star and Oscar nominee Sidibe will take on hosting duties and the band MGMT is to perform.
Fey, the star and creator of NBC’s “30 Rock,” is making her second appearance as host, while Phillippe and Sidibe are first-timers.
Phillippe is in the upcoming film “MacGruber,” an adaptation of the “SNL” sketch about a hapless special-ops man, played by Will Forte.

Categories
Van Halen

So, work faster Eddie!!!

Van Halen ‘too slow’ for Hagar
Rocker Sammy Hagar would only consider a return to Van Halen if band leader Eddie Van Halen agreed to work faster.
The singer is disappointed the reformed Van Halen haven’t returned to the studio with original frontman David Lee Roth – and he claims any new material will be a long time coming if his experiences with guitarist Van Halen are anything to go by.
The Chickenfoot star tells the San Gabriel Valley Tribune newspaper he’s amazed the band hasn’t released a new studio album in 17 years and recalls his last studio experience with the group was not fun.
Hagar reveals that he recorded new songs with Van Halen for the band’s Best of Both Worlds compilation – slowly.
He explains, “We tried to make a record, but, y’know, it just was taking so long we only got three songs done, and not ’cause of me, I’ll tell ya straight up. If anyone ever says anything like that I was the problem on that record, they’re crazy. I had my stuff totally together.
“I went in, I knocked my stuff out, and then Eddie would take months to do a guitar solo or something. It was just way too drawn out. I can’t work like that.”

Categories
Movies

I have no interest in seeing any of these films!! NONE!!

“Clash of the Titans” set to win box office battle
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) ñ Easter weekend will be sweetened with yet another 3D release, as “Clash of the Titans” aims to exploit the format’s surging popularity.
The remake of the 1981 cult classic, starring “Avatar” hero Sam Worthington, is on track to march north of $60 million through Sunday — about half its production budget.
The Warner Bros. release opens Wednesday evening in about 3,000 2D and 3D theaters. Starting on Friday, it will play in roughly 3,700 theaters, with about half showing the action fantasy on at least one 3D screen and the others playing it in 2D only.
That represents about 17% fewer 3D venues than DreamWorks Animation’s reigning champ “How to Train Your Dragon,” which opened last weekend in 2,178 3D theaters and 4,055 locations overall. But it seems enough to validate a decision by Warners just a couple months ago to convert “Titans” to 3D.
“Dragon,” meanwhile, will boast roughly the same number of 3D venues this weekend as the previous frame, when it bowed with a relatively disappointing $43.7 million.
Some had predicted that with the March 5 debut of Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland,” the industry’s still-limited base of 3D cinemas would prevent “Dragon” or “Titans” — or both — from scraping together enough extra-dimensional distribution. As it turns out, the latter two pictures have come out relatively unscathed, and “Alice” has shed hundreds of extra-dimensional playdates.
On Friday, Lionsgate will release Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married Too?” Tracking shows Perry’s first sequel should fetch upward of $25 million, or roughly midrange if measured against previous Perry openings. “Why Did I Get Married?” bowed with $21.4 million in 2007 and finished with $55.2 million in the U.S. and Canada, and the prolific filmmaker’s most recent outing, “I Can Do Bad All By Myself,” opened to $23.4 million in September, en route to $51.7 million overall domestically.
Disney gets a two-day jump on the frame with a Wednesday bow for its Miley Cyrus starrer “The Last Song.” The romantic drama should reach the teen millions for its first five days.
Easter weekend generally is a solid box office session, with Good Friday strengthened by kids and some adults having the day off. But this weekend will be compared with a non-Easter frame from last year, a $155 million session topped by the $71 million launch of “Fast & Furious.”

Categories
Stuff

It is a fun date, to be sure!!

British media revel in April Fools’ tradition
LONDON ñ In today’s headlines: flavored newsprint, high-tech ferrets and the revelation that Britain’s greatest writer was ó quelle horreur! ó half French.
The stories Thursday weren’t true, it was just the British media carrying on its proud tradition of April Fools’ Day spoofs ó the unofficial April 1 competition to dupe the naive and unsuspecting.
This year, The Sun reported it has developed the world’s first flavored newspaper page and invited readers to lick a square of newsprint “to reveal a hidden taste.” Just below the spot to be licked was the fine-print warning: “May contain nuts.”
The Daily Telegraph said an Internet service provider plans to use tunneling ferrets to deliver broadband services to remote areas, and BBC radio’s “Today” program ran an item claiming new research in Stratford-upon-Avon had revealed that William Shakespeare’s mother was French.
After noon ó the traditional cutoff time for April Fools’ pranks ó Paul Edmondson of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford revealed the story was a joke in honor of the day the French call “Poisson d’Avril,” or April Fish.
The Daily Mail, meanwhile, claimed staff at car-breakdown service the Automobile Association are to be fitted with jet packs to fly over traffic jams and reach stranded motorists.
The Daily Mirror ran a picture of Queen Elizabeth apparently taking a a flight with the budget airline easyJet, while The Independent reported that nuclear scientists want to turn London’s Circle Line subway into a particle accelerator similar to the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. It said there were safety concerns about “a mini-black hole being created at Westminster (home to Britain’s Parliament) when the two proton beams collide.”
Some say April Fools’ Day started with the creation of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century, which changed the starting date of the new year from April 1 to Jan. 1. But associations between April 1 and tomfoolery stretches back to the Middle Ages, and some say the day’s origins lie in ancient Indian and Roman festivals that celebrated foolishness and misrule.
The British media prides itself on a long tradition of elaborate hoaxes. In 1957, the BBC news program “Panorama” aired a story about the unusually strong spaghetti harvest that year in southern Switzerland. Straight-faced and convincing, it is now considered a classic April Fools’ hoax.
Several spoofs on Thursday targeted Britain’s next national election, which must be held by June 3.
The Guardian reported the Labour Party plans to tackle rumors that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has anger-management issues with a campaign slogan “Vote Labour. Or else.”
It said strategists plan posters based on classic films “casting Brown as The Gordfather, the Terminator or Mr. Brown from ‘Reservoir Dogs.'”
The age of the Internet has created new opportunities for fun. Google’s British home page on Thursday offered a new service, Google Animal Translate, promising to let you know exactly what your pet is thinking.
Advertisers get in on the act, too. A BMW ad invites British drivers to “show your true colors this election” with special hood ornaments in red, blue and yellow ó the colors of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.
“In the event of a hung Parliament, we’ll replace your badge for free,” it said.

Categories
Music

There definitely are parallels!!

Musician remixes anti-war hit “19” for Afghanistan
LONDON (Reuters) ñ British musician Paul Hardcastle is releasing an updated version of his international anti-war hit “19” 25 years on, but this time his focus is on the Afghan conflict rather than Vietnam.
The 1985 hit topped charts in 13 countries when it was released, appealing to audiences with its dance beat, catchy tune, anti-war message and accompanying video featuring harrowing footage of U.S. troops fighting in Vietnam.
It was inspired by a documentary Hardcastle saw which stated that the average age of a combat soldier in Vietnam was 19, compared with 26 in World War Two — figures which are disputed by some.
On April 19, the musician is releasing a re-mixed version and new video which cuts film of British troops serving in Afghanistan with the older footage in the original.
“I was always going to do a 25th anniversary edition,” Hardcastle said in an interview to promote the single.
“Seeing what is happening now, and my son’s friend is actually one of the people that died in Afghanistan … I thought maybe I should feature what’s happening now as well, so that was the main reason of doing it I guess,” he added.
Georgie Sparks, his son’s friend, was 19 years old when he was killed in 2008.
While Hardcastle supports troops in the field, he criticized the government for failing to equip them as well as they would like, said they were paid too little and took issue with sending men and women into battle at such an early age.
“I think being out there and not even knowing who you’re fighting — is that a family over there or is it someone who is about to blow themselves up? — I don’t think that’s fair on a 19-year-old kid. I think it’s too young.
“At 21, you can’t even have a (alcoholic) drink in America, yet you can go into some battlezone when you’re 19 or 18. How does that work?”
JOB SQUEEZE
Hardcastle acknowledged that the British army was voluntary, but believed many young people were forced into joining the armed forces due to economic pressures.
“I know a few people that want to go into the army, and why do they want to go into the army? Because they can’t get jobs.”
The musician, who spends most of his time working on smooth jazz, or instrumental “chill out music,” saw parallels between the Vietnam and Afghan conflicts.
“There are parallels and that’s what it shows you on the video — you see two shots, one from 35 years ago and one from now and it almost looks like the same piece of footage.
“It was all history repeating itself, as I say on the record. After seeing how long this Afghan thing is going to drag on, and it’s going to drag on for a long tine, it could become another Vietnam, and that will be a big problem.”
Hardcastle said his aim was to raise awareness and ensure that the British people did not forget that soldiers were fighting and dying in Afghanistan.
“The fact that the families of the people that have died out there are saying to me ‘Thanks for keeping our sons’ names alive’, that’s one of the things that spurs me on.”

Categories
People

May he rest in peace!!

Veteran ‘Wire,’ ‘ER’ screenwriter David Mills dies
NEW ORLEANS ñ David Mills, a veteran television writer who worked on the award-winning series “ER” and “The Wire,” died after collapsing on the set of his latest production. He was 48.
Mills died Tuesday night in New Orleans, said HBO spokesman Diego Aldana. Doctors at Tulane Medical Center said he suffered a brain aneurism, according to a statement Wednesday from Mills’ latest production, “Treme.”
Mills was on the set of the new HBO series as it filmed a scene at Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter when he was stricken and rushed to the hospital where he died without regaining consciousness, the statement said.
“He was an enormous talent,” said David Simon, a co-executive producer with Mills who first met the award-winning writer in the newsroom of their college newspaper. “He loved words and he loved an argument but not in any angry or mean-spirited way. He loved to argue ideas. He delighted in it, and he was confident that something smarter and deeper always came from a good argument.”
Mills was living in New Orleans while working as a writer and executive producer of the drama set during post-Katrina and slated to premiere on April 11.
Wendell Pierce, who played Detective William “Bunk” Moreland on “The Wire,” and plays a musician in “Treme,” said Mills collapsed on the set Tuesday.
“He was carrying on a conversation and just fell over,” Pierce said. “They called the medics, but there was nothing to be done.”
“Treme” is named after the Creole neighborhood known for its rich musical history.
“I’m so sorry he won’t be able to see the launch of the show he cared so much about,” Pierce said.
HBO said in a statement that the network is “deeply saddened by the sudden loss of our dear friend and colleague.”
“He was a gracious and humble man, and will be sorely missed by those who knew and loved him, as well as those who were aware of his immense talent. David has left us too soon but his brilliant work will live on.”
“Treme” cast and crew members held a memorial for Mills on the set Wednesday morning, Pierce said.
“He was very quiet and introverted, but spoke volumes when he wrote,” Pierce said of Mills. “He challenged us as actors and he challenged Americans when it came to matters of race. He was one of the more talented people working in TV. He made it much more than just empty entertainment.”
Mills began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post, before turning to screenwriting. Besides “ER” and “The Wire,” he worked on the HBO drama “The Corner,” “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “NYPD Blue” and was executive producer and writer of the short-lived NBC miniseries “Kingpin,” about a Mexican drug cartel.
Mills started his television writing career with Simon, a longtime friend and “Wire” creator, in 1994. The pair wrote an episode of “Homicide” that year, for which they won a Writers Guild of America award. Mills won Emmys for co-writing and executive producing the miniseries “The Corner” and an Edgar in 2007 for “The Wire.”

Categories
Business

Their glory days are long since passed!!

Music group EMI in dire straits
LONDON ñ Struggling music group EMI faces being taken over by its bankers after failing to clinch a deal to sell the North American distribution rights for its artists to Universal Music Group or Sony Music.
EMI, which has the Beatles, Coldplay, Lily Allen and Pink Floyd on its books, had hoped to raise around 200 million pounds ($304 million) by offering its rivals a five-year licensing contract.
A source close to both sets of talks, who requested anonymity because the discussions were private, said Thursday that they fell apart after a failure to agree on price. EMI declined to comment.
The collapse of talks leaves EMI battling to raise 120 million pounds by mid-June to meet its commitments on loans from U.S. bank Citigroup.
If funds can’t be raised from investors and the loan goes into default, Citigroup could seize EMI and cause it to be sold or broken up.
EMI has been struggling to stay afloat since it was bought by private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners for 4.2 billion pounds on the eve of the credit crunch in 2007, saddling the company with debt.
Several big-name acts, including Radiohead and the Rolling Stones, quit the label amid the cutbacks and restructuring that followed.
Terra Firma, led by British financier Guy Hands, still owes some 3 billion pounds to Citigroup because of the deal and relations between the two have soured.
Hands is suing Citigroup in New York, alleging that the bank falsely claimed there were other bidders for EMI, encouraging the private equity firm to raise its own offer. Citigroup has denied the allegations.
EMI has fared worse than the three other major labels ó Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group ó amid the decline of CD sales and the rise of digital music downloading.
Analysts have blamed Hands’ relative inexperience in the music business for exacerbating the company’s decline.
EMI earlier this year put its iconic Abbey Road studios up for sale after reporting a pretax loss of 1.7 billion for the year to March 31, 2009.
However, it shelved those plans after a public outcry led to the site being put on a protected list by English Heritage and said it would instead seek an investor to help rejuvenate the loss-making studios.
Adding to the company’s woes, Pink Floyd successfully sued the company for selling individual tracks digitally and Chief Executive Elio Leoni-Sceti quit the group last month after just 18 months in the job.
Like Hands, Leoni-Sceti, who joined the company from consumer products group Reckitt Benckiser, had found his music industry experience questioned.
Charles Allen, the former chief executive of broadcaster ITV PLC, who was EMI’s non-executive chairman, filled the vacancy by taking over as executive chairman.