Super Friends
Get ready for a superhero summit (of sorts) on Smallville's season finale. On the 90-minute May 18 episode, the young Superman (Tom Welling) will spare a few minutes for a visitor from Gotham City. That is, the episode will include an eight-minute sneak peek of Batman Begins, in which Christian Bale plays the Caped Crusader. For Batfans, it'll be the first extended glimpse of the long-awaited film, which opens June 17.
The Batvisit comes during a season finale that the WB says is already ''packed with murder, betrayal and an unforgettable graduation day for all.'' ''Superman and Batman have always been inextricably linked to each other, so it seems fitting that a show chronicling the Man of Steel's youth give you the first look at the birth of the Dark Knight,'' said Smallville executive producer Al Gough in a statement. David Janollari, the WB's president of entertainment, said, ''This is a great night for fans of the two most popular superheroes in the history of American Pop Culture.''
Gee, you'd think they were talking about convening a Middle East peace summit. Actually, getting Superman and Batman together has been tricky, even though both heroes spring from the pages of DC Comics (which, like the WB, Batman Begins distributor Warner Bros., and EW.com, is a Time Warner outlet). A few years ago, that corporate synergy was supposed to yield a Superman vs. Batman movie, but that plan was scrapped in favor of separate movies, with Bryan Singer currently directing newcomer Brandon Routh in the next Superman film. So this promotional event is about as close to sharing a screen as the two characters are likely to get.
Yoda Coda: 'Star Wars' Theme To Hit Charts
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)- Apparently somebody at SonyBMG thinks that John Williams' theme for the new "Star Wars" movie has a good beat and you can dance to it. "Battle of the Heroes" will hit record stores through much of the world on Tuesday, May 23, selling as a single.
The theme refers to the lightsaber battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) that makes up one of the climaxes in the elaborately named "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith," which will hit theaters on May 19. Because the "Sith" soundtrack will be in US record stores on May 3, it's unclear if "Heroes" will drop as a single in domestic record stores.
As was the case with the original "Star Wars" theme 28 years ago, "Battle of the Heroes" features John Williams conducting the London Symphony orchestra. The single will be released a limited edition numbered CD format.
No word on whether the possible success of "Heroes" might lead to a single release for Bill Murray's classic 1977 "Saturday Night Live" rendition of Williams' "Star Wars" theme, which featured the immortal lyrics "Awww Star Wars/ Nothing but Star Wars/ Give me those Star Wars/ Don't let them end."
New Springsteen album to test market for CD/DVD hybrid
NEW YORK (AFP) - Fan fever over the release of a new Bruce Springsteen album next week is matched by recording industry interest in how sales may be affected by its US launch in the new DualDisc format.
"Devils and Dust," the Boss's 19th album, will only be available in the United States in the fledgling CD/DVD hybrid, which represents the first major change in retail music packaging since the compact disc was introduced more than two decades ago.
The format pairs a standard CD on one side with a DVD on the flip side, which offers video and a surround-sound mix of the album for home theaters.
The video on "Devils and Dust" shows Springsteen performing his new songs and discussing the making of the album.
The release date is April 26, with Springsteen kicking off a US and 10-country European tour the night before with a concert in Detroit. The singer will tour as a solo acoustic act, without the backing of his E-Street Band.
The album is a pared-down collection of country- and folk-influenced rock songs, which Springsteen told Rolling Stone magazine was in some ways a sequel to 1995's "The Ghost of Tom Joad," which inspired his first solo tour.
"I wrote a lot of this music after those shows, when I'd go back to my hotel room," he told the music magazine. "I still had my voice, because I hadn't sung over a rock band all night. I'd go home and make up my stories."
The album's title track was written at the start of the Iraq War and gives a soldier's point of view on the conflict.
Springsteen was on the road last year as part of the Vote for Change Tour, which urged voters not to re-elect President George W. Bush.
Although the effort failed, Springsteen said he had no regrets about his first public foray into the world of partisan politics.
"It was an experience that I'm glad I put myself into," he told Rolling Stone. "There was a lot of idealism out there -- I took a lot of that with me."
"Devils and Dust" is not the first DualDisc to hit the market, but Springsteen's stature means its performance will be watched closely to see if the new technology has a viable future.
The four major record labels, EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner, announced in August last year the formation of a consortium to launch the new audio-video hybrid in the US market.
The first album to debut on DualDisc, "Still Not Getting Any" from the pop-punk band Simple Plan, has already gone platinum.
And since the beginning of this year, two major albums -- "O" from Omarion and "Rebirth" from Jennifer Lopez -- have been released in both CD and DualDisc formats.
Sony BMG, which produced both albums, said DualDisc purchases accounted for around 30 percent of total sales for both.
The Springsteen album, another Sony BMG offering, is different in being available exclusively in the new format, with no traditional CD pressings.
The DualDisc generally retails at one dollar more than a CD, and the music industry is hoping it will help recoup the slice of the retail market lost to piracy and illegal file-sharing.
"It's harder to file-share DVD content and it's virtually impossible for anyone to burn a DualDisc at home," said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business for Sony BMG.
"We think all this will lure people back to the stores, because it's a product you can't really get in pirated fashion," Hesse said.
Critics, such as the California-based Independent Musicians Against Forced Music Industry Change, complain that the DualDisc is just another industry attempt to push consumers into repurchasing the albums they already have on CD.
"It is all about money," the non-profit group said in a statement.
Hesse, however, pointed out that unlike the introduction of the CD, which required consumers to replace their music hardware, the DualDisc could be played on existing CD and DVD players.
"It's really a new product, rather than a new format," Hesse said, adding that plans were afoot to roll out the DualDisc in European markets.
Music labels tell appeal court Kazaa users can't hide behind anonymity of Web
TORONTO (CP) - The fight to curb file-swapping by music fans moved to the Federal Court of Appeal on Wednesday with record labels arguing song pirates can't hide behind the veil of their Internet service providers.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association is seeking the identities of 29 Jane and John Does, who are currently only known by pseudonyms like Geekboy and Jordana.
The group wants the court to force Internet providers, including Shaw, Bell and Rogers, to hand over alleged infringers' real names based on an IP address that made hundreds of music files available on peer-to-peer networks Kazaa and IMesh.
A ruling in favour of the music industry could mean the beginning of U.S.-style downloading lawsuits in Canada.
The first of two days in front of a three-judge panel had lawyers for the music industry debating the fine points of privacy and disclosure law.
Harry Radomski, a lawyer for the association, said evidence presented during the original hearing showed someone at each of the 29 IP addresses moved a large number of songs into shared directories to "make them available to an unbelievable number of people."
At issue is whether the surfers are entitled to keep their anonymity using existing privacy laws. Internet companies must keep their customer files sealed unless ordered otherwise by a court.
Radomski also argued that when consumers sign up with an ISP they sign contracts "agreeing not to receive or transmit copyrighted material."
When contracts are broken, consumers no longer expect to be protected by privacy laws, he told the court.
Four Internet service providers are arguing against revealing the identities.
"Our participation in this appeal is to ensure that the rights of our customers are respected and that any order that's issued is granted on the basis of a solid case," said Jay Thomson, the lawyer representing Telus.
Quebec's Videotron has backed the record industry.
The case generated plenty of buzz last year after the lower court judge dismissed the motion to reveal the names, saying the record industry didn't have enough evidence proving they were doing anything illegal.
The ruling stated that placing a song in a shared directory wasn't a strong enough action to constitute copyright infringement.
That meant using peer-to-peer networks to nab music for free wasn't illegal in the eyes of the court, despite the music industry shouting otherwise.
A major spike in the amount of music piracy followed last year's ruling, admitted Graham Henderson, president of CRIA, outside court during a break Wednesday.
While he's risking another spike should CRIA lose this appeal, Henderson says establishing clarity in the law is more important.
"We have to try to get clear laws so that Canadians know what's right and what's wrong," he said, adding that an estimated 134 million songs are illegally acquired each month in Canada compared to one million paid ones via online stores like ITunes.
Last year's ruling prompted Prime Minister Paul Martin to take note of the issue and push forward copyright reform, added Henderson.
The bill - which would add a "making available" clause to the current rules - is working its way through government although a June election would kill it from the queue.
That makes winning this appeal all the more vital, says Henderson.
"We can't necessarily stand around and wait for that bill to become law because it's already taken us seven years to come this far," he said. "If the government calls a snap election it would set us back by several months."
The case is being watched closely by the film and television sectors who claim people are illegally accessing their products using newer and faster peer-to-peer services like BitTorrent.
Representatives from the film industry asked to speak at this appeal but were denied because the group hadn't been part of the original case.
A ruling is expected later in the summer.