Nelly Furtado Cuts Loose

Timbaland, Pharrell, Scott Storch lend beats to Canadian crooner's latest

"The first day we were jamming, the speaker actually caught fire -- seriously," says Canadian songbird Nelly Furtado, who jetted down to Miami to record Loose, the follow-up to 2003's Folklore, with hip-hop hitmaker Timbaland.
Timbo, who ended up producing more than half of the record's fourteen tracks, is just one of several stars Furtado recruited for the disc (due this spring), a group that also includes Pharrell Williams, Scott Storch and Shakira producer Lester Mendez, who worked on the Spanish-language reggaeton-style "No Hay Igual."

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin stopped by the studio in August when he was in town for MTV's Video Music Awards to add vocals to "All Good Things Come to an End." "He loves Timbaland, and Timbaland loves Coldplay," says Furtado. "It was like a match made in heaven. The two of them just looked like two kids in a candy store."

The potential first single is "Promiscuous Girl," a club track with a Timbaland beat and Furtado flipping rhymes about celebrating your inner slut. "This phase in my life is all about feel," says Furtado, describing the song's sexy, slow-jam vibe. "I'm more in touch with my emotions and my body, so the music is really dance-oriented."

Furtado, who isn't currently in a relationship, attributes this newfound body-consciousness to her daughter, Nevis, who was born in 2003: "I think when you first become a mother, you reclaim your body a little bit."

Peter Gabriel Plugs In

New studio effort will deal with "birth and death, with sex in the middle"

Peter Gabriel tends to take a long time between projects. His last release, 2002's Up, took nearly a decade to record. "A mere lightning flash for a snail," quips Gabriel. With a wide array of projects in the works nowadays -- from a live DVD and documentary to the new studio album, I/O -- Gabriel seems to be picking up that pace.

First up is the second DVD to document his 2002-2003 Growing Up World Tour.

This new release features an entirely different track listing than the first, 2003's Growing Up Live, including rarities such as "San Jacinto" and the new track "Burn You Up, Burn You Down." The set also features the documentary Still Growing Up Unwrapped, filmed by his daughter Anna, about Gabriel's life on the road with his two daughters and then-newborn son Isaac. "It took a few weeks for him to get used to having a camera in his face all the time," Anna says of shooting some twenty-eight hours of footage of her father. "It was a very easygoing tour -- I wanted more drama!"

Also in the works is a new album called I/O, which stands for input/output. "At the moment, I'm trying to write principally about birth and death, with the sex in the middle," Gabriel says. He has been working steadily over the last few months on the new songs with a minimal crew, including longtime engineer Richard Chappel and percussionist Ged Lynch. This time around he's chosen to produce the sessions himself. "My mental process is so slow," he says, "that it's not really fair to take that time out of anyone else's life."

Among the 150 tracks Gabriel has in various stages of gestation is a reworking of the 1986 B side "Curtains," which he decided to revisit after the song received thousands of votes on an online poll to determine his last tour's set list. "I had pretty much forgotten about it," he explains. "So I pulled it out, found stuff I liked and did it again."

In a break from tradition, Gabriel is contemplating taking the new songs on the road before laying down their final versions. "What I've always wanted to do is finish the songs, get them arranged for the band, tour for a month or so, then record them," he says. "That would give me a different type of immediacy -- because sometimes when I work and work on stuff, people feel that it loses some of its flair."

His next tour may be a significantly more stripped-down affair than prior ones: "I would like to try maybe just me and a percussionist, or a percussionist and bass. It's good sometimes to let go of your crutches."

King Kong Back Online

If you want to see how good he looks visit Universal's official King Kong website without delay and enjoy!

Titanic: Special Collector's Edition

Paramount Home Entertainment has included three hidden features on the Special Collector’s Edition of James Cameron’s blockbuster epic 'Titanic.'

Insert disc 3 from the DVD set and from the Main Menu access the 'Marketing' section. On the following sub-menu, highlight the entry 'Fox TV Special: Titanic – Breaking New Ground' and then press the 'Down' arrow key on your remote control. This will highlight the life preserver on the right side of the screen.

Press the 'Enter' key and you will see the skit from the 1998 MTV Movie Awards with Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, and James Cameron.

Next, go to the 'Deleted Scenes' section and select the 'chapter' menu entry. On the following screen, highlight 'Chapter 29,' the extended Carpathia sequence, and then press the 'Down' arrow key on your remote. This will highlight the couple at the bottom of the screen. Press 'Enter,' and you will see the Saturday Night Live 'Titanic' skit featuring Bill Paxton.

Finally, go to the 'Special Features' section and select 'Still Galleries.' On that section’s sub-menu, highlight 'Production Artwork.' This will take you to the box on the right side of the screen. Highlight 'View Entire Gallery' and then press the 'Up' arrow key on your remote control to highlight the arrow in the middle of the screen. Press 'enter' now and you will see the short animated film 'Titanic in 30 Seconds with Bunnies.'

Ever hopeful, Universal returns 'Cinderella Man' to theatres

Universal Pictures is taking another stab at promoting its film Cinderella Man in theatres.

The film was a disappointment at the box office when it was released in June. A money-back promotion failed to attract audiences. Now after showcasing the film abroad, the studio is taking the unusual action of re-releasing Cinderella Man in North America, hoping to grab some attention as Hollywood prepares for its awards season.

The movie will re-open in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto on Nov. 18, less than three weeks before its scheduled to be released on DVD, and during the period when films are considered for awards such as the Oscars and the Golden Globes.

The Ron Howard film, about the dramatic comeback of a down-on-his-luck boxer, is based on the life of U.S. boxer Jim Braddock. It was first released in early June, in what some called a "counter-programming" move during the summer blockbuster season.

Though many deemed the film another typically sentimental film from Howard, some critics praised the performances of Russell Crowe, who played Braddock, and Paul Giamatti, who portrayed fight manager Joe Gould.

The film did poorly at North American box offices and, less than a month after it opened, theatre chain AMC introduced a U.S.-only promotional campaign hoping to boost interest. In newspaper ads and on its website, AMC offered viewers a full refund of the price of their movie tickets if they watched and disliked the film.

Amazon to serve up books by the page

Book buyers will soon be able to buy books by the page in a new service from Amazon.com.

The Amazon Pages service will let customers buy portions of a book online, as little as a single page.

The cost for most books would be a few cents a page, though it might be higher for more specialized works.

Amazon's announcement came on the day that Google Inc. began creating online links for entire contents of books that are in the public domain.

Google is involved in a copyright battle with writers and publishers over how much material can be scanned and indexed from major libraries.

Amazon also plans to offer a second program, Amazon Upgrade, with access to the full text of traditional works.

Under Amazon Upgrade, anybody purchasing a paper book could also look at the entire text online, at any time, for a "small" additional charge.

Both services are expected to begin next year.

"We see this as a win-win-win situation: good for readers, good for publishers and good for authors," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said Thursday.

Because it plans to show only snippets from copyrighted books, Google argues its scanning project constitutes "fair use" of the material.

Amazon had statements of support from some publishers and an expression of confidence from the U.S. authors' guild.

The Amazon programs are the way copyright is supposed to work," the guild's executive director, Paul Aiken, said Thursday. "You provide access to readers and some compensation flows back to rights holders. It seems like a positive development."

'Born' DVDs Capture Exuberant E Street Band

When Bruce Springsteen handed over a wealth of unlabeled concert film footage from a 1975 show at London's Hammersmith Odeon to editor Thom Zimny in 2004, neither party knew for sure what was inside. But after a year of painstaking restoration, the full show will be seen for the first time on Columbia's 30th anniversary edition of Springsteen's classic album "Born To Run," due Nov. 15.

"Slowly but surely, we pieced it together song by song," Zimny said of the footage last night (Nov. 2) during a screening in New York. Zimny spent months synching up silent film from a four-camera shoot with the 24-track audiotapes from the concert, the E Street Band's first on English soil.

"This was a young band that just finished a new album," Zimny said. "The energy comes across in the film. 'Born To Run' is not an anthem yet -- it's in the middle of the set." Indeed, dressed in colorful suits and hats, Springsteen and company are beyond exuberant on stage, storming through favorites like "Rosalita," "It's Hard To Be a Saint in the City" and "She's the One."

Although footage from several other notable shows during this era (including a stint at New York's Bottom Line) has circulated in bootleg form for years, Zimny says the Hammersmith film "is the best representation of 1975" that exists. The DVD also includes three songs from a 1973 show in Los Angeles, the original film of which was in such bad shape that it required frame-by-frame retouching in Photoshop.

Described by Springsteen as an album intended to capture the feeling of "one endless summer night," "Born To Run" also features a revealing documentary about its genesis, including newly shot footage of Springsteen explaining the songs at the piano interspersed with recollections from current and former E Street Band members.

"The whole score is made up of outtakes and demos," Zimny said. "Even the DVD menus have outtakes of them talking in the studio."

Present-day Springsteen is shown listening in wonder to the basic instrumental track that was recorded of "Born To Run," as well as other aborted versions of the song that included a string section and multi-tracked backing vocals.

Noting that the band spent six months hemming and hawing over a final take of the tune, guitarist Steven Van Zandt observes with a laugh, "A song should take three hours, not six months!"

In related news, having already been bumped once due to after-effects from Hurricane Wilma, Springsteen's planned Sunrise, Fla., concert has been moved to Nov. 19 in Hollywood, Fla. The show was originally scheduled for tonight (Nov. 3) at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, then postponed to Sunday, but that plan has been scotched by the city, citing public safety concerns.

Tickets can be exchanged for the newly scheduled show at the point of purchase beginning tomorrow and through 3 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 8). All remaining tickets will go on sale Tuesday at 5 p.m. through Ticketmaster and the venue box office.

Beach Boys Feud Feud Feud

So much for good vibrations.

Beach Boys member Mike Love has filed a lawsuit against former band mate Brian Wilson over Smile--the famously unfinished Beach Boys opus that Wilson completed and released on his own last year to much acclaim, and at Love's expense.

The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, alleges that the promotional blitz by Wilson "shamelessly misappropriated Mike Love's songs, likeness, and the Beach Boys trademark, as well as the Smile album itself," per court papers obtained by City News Service.

Wilson, the Beach Boys' principal songwriter and general mastermind, scrapped Smile at the height of the seminal surf band's popularity in 1967, a few weeks before the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The lost sessions became the stuff of music legend; based on the surviving songs and snippets, some music aficionados argued Smile would have rivaled Sgt. Pepper's in the pop pantheon. Per rock history, it was Love who fought against the release of Smile because it differed dramatically from the Beach Boys' standard surf sound.

Love, who cowrote and sang lead on many early Beach Boys classics, alleges that the publicity campaign for Wilson's solo Smile negatively affected sales of Beach Boys albums. Particularly aggrieving Love was Wilson's decision to give away more than 2.6 million copies of a Beach Boys' compilation disc in an edition of Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper.

Love's suit seeks damages amounting to "millions of dollars in illicit profits," claiming the campaign diluted the Beach Boys' brand name, and addition $1 million-plus for international advertising "designed to correct the effects of its unfair competition and infringing uses." Other defendants include the Mail on Sunday and Sanctuary Records Group.

Reps for Wilson and Love could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Smile, which features the classic "Good Vibrations," was among the most critically hailed albums of 2004. It also earned Wilson his first competitive Grammy.

Love, who cofounded the band with cousins Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, and friend Al Jardine, is the only member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame quintet to continue using the Beach Boys moniker.

As Brian Wilson, the most talented and reclusive of the bunch, managed to overcome decades-long depression and launched a successful solo career, both his brothers have died. Dennis Wilson drowned in 1983, while Carl Wilson succumbed to cancer in 1998.

The three surviving members--Love, Wilson and Jardine--each own a share of the Beach Boys corporation, Brother Records. However, due to legal wrangling through the years, Love is the only member allowed to use Beach Boys name for touring purposes.

Wouldn't it be nice if they all just got along? Jardine tried touring under the name "Beach Boys Family and Friends" with Brian Wilson's daughters Wendy and Carnie, but an appeals court barred him from doing so.

Despite the infighting, the Beach Boys are in synch on one legal matter.

Brother Records notified London auctioneer CooperOwen last week that 28 memorabilia items about to be put up for bid, including original sheet music by Brian Wilson and Love, were actually stolen, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

No suspect has been publicly named in the theft of the mementos, but Brother Records says it will file a civil suit on behalf of the Beach Boys against CooperOwen and the individual seller of the memorabilia, as well as anyone who purchases the items.

DVDs Now a Bigger Revenue Draw Than Theaters

A study of British DVD buyers has concluded that they have more than offset the decline in box-office ticket sales. In the case of some low-budget comedies, horror films, well-reviewed dramas, and foreign films, the study observed, DVD sales exceed box-office earnings. The study, conducted for the London Times by the Populus poll, also concluded that consumers who buy DVDs generally do not attend movie theaters, are older than filmgoers, and are likely to be female. In addition, the study suggested that these consumers have generally concluded that studio executives have given up trying to cater to adult tastes and that the DVD market, despite the enormous revenue that it currently generates, does not influence the types of films currently being made

Box office banking on 'Chicken' coup

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Hollywood is looking desperately for its next box office hero, and all eyes this weekend are on "Chicken Little," Walt Disney Studios' first homegrown computer-animated film.

Universal Pictures also will be out in full force with the R-rated war picture "Jarhead," from Oscar-winning "American Beauty" director Sam Mendes.

"Chicken Little," which has been marketed to the hilt, should top $30 million, while "Jarhead" is expected to open in the $16 million-$18 million range. Last weekend's champion was the gruesome thriller "Saw II," with a better-than-expected bow of $31.7 million in its first three days.

Featuring the voices of Zach Braff, Garry Marshall, Don Knotts, Amy Sedaris and others, "Chicken Little" is expected to have broad appeal, attracting families craving another animated film after getting a taste last month of DreamWorks' "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

The movie, from director Mark Dindal ("The Emperor's New Groove"), applies a new twist to the "sky is falling" story when a real piece of sky lands on a chicken with an already tarnished reputation.

Disney is under pressure to perform strongly with the movie, given its difficult relationship with Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the supplier of such hits as the "Toy Story" franchise and "The Incredibles." It also will bow in select engagements as a new 3-D technological experience advertised as offering moviegoers something different.

"Jarhead," set during the first Gulf War, might benefit from its timeliness as the current conflict in Iraq comes under increasing scrutiny. The film attempts to humanize the experience of a young Marine sent to the Middle East. Based on Anthony Swofford's memoir, "Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles," the movie has been preceded by a slick ad campaign and talk about performances from a cast featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx and Peter Sarsgaard.

"Jarhead" is skewing male, but women also are interested in the story of a trained sniper (Gyllenhaal) who is sent to Saudi Arabia. Filled with testosterone, "Jarhead" is a rare war film in that it features no combat.

In limited release, Strand Releasing will open "The Dying Gaul," from writer-director Craig Lucas ("The Secret Lives of Dentists"). The R-rated film starring Patricia Clarkson, Sarsgaard and Campbell Scott centers on a grieving screenwriter (Sarsgaard) who is offered millions for his script on the condition that his personal story inspired by his lover who died of AIDS be changed to feature a female character. Having bowed at this year's Sundance Film Festival, the intense "Gaul" will open in 11 theaters.

ThinkFilm will release "I Love Your Work" on two screens in Los Angeles. The R-rated film from director Adam Goldberg centers on a movie star ( Giovanni Ribisi) who, finding his life falling apart, begins stalking a young film student who reminds him of what life was like before he became famous.