September 2, 2011
Court signs off on Comcast takeover of NBCULOS ANGELES (AP) – A federal court has approved the government’s conditions placed on Comcast’s takeover of NBCUniversal.
In an order Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., tacked on a two-year oversight period that aims to protect competitors who want to distribute NBCUniversal video content online.
He ordered the government and Comcast to report annually on online video competitors who attempt to arbitrate disputes either through the Federal Communications Commission or an arbitration process set up as part of the takeover.
Comcast took 51 percent control of NBCUniversal in January after paying General Electric Co. $6.2 billion and contributing channels worth $7.25 billion to the new entity.
Among other conditions, the Justice Department and the FCC forced Comcast to relinquish decision-making power related to its minority stake in online video service Hulu.
‘Call of Duty’ convention kicks off in Los AngelesDerrik J. Lang, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – “Call of Duty” is coming to life.
Fans of the shoot-’em-up franchise are converging Friday on the sprawling 12-acre compound where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose for the inaugural “Call of Duty XP” convention, a two-day event celebrating the Activision Blizzard Inc. military shooter with game previews, real-world recreations of “Call of Duty” levels and a performance by Kanye West.
“It’s really in response to the strength of the ‘Call of Duty’ franchise and the passion of our fans,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, which organized the event. “We have fans who play our game every day – more than they go on Facebook – and enough fans in multiplayer every day to fill the 80 largest sports stadiums in the world.”
Hirshberg expects 7,000 attendees at the sold-out event, which will serve as the unveiling for the multiplayer mode of the upcoming “Modern Warfare 3.” Tickets cost $150 and include a special edition of “Modern Warfare 3.” Proceeds will go to the Call of Duty Endowment, a nonprofit organization that Activision founded to assist military veterans.
Besides previewing “Modern Warfare 3” and the “Elite” online service, attendees will have the chance to zip around in a Jeep, spar on two paintball courses modeled after “Modern Warfare 2” levels, grab grub from an eatery resembling the game’s fictitious Burger Town fast food chain, and meet some of the franchise’s various developers and voice actors.
For the past four years, the immersive “Call of Duty” franchise has enjoyed unprecedented success. The latest title, “Black Ops,” has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide since its launch last November, and more than 7 million people play online every day. The upcoming globe-trotting “Modern Warfare 3” edition is scheduled for release Nov. 8.
‘DWTS’ producer: Give Chaz Bono a chance to dance
LOS ANGELES (AP) – “Dancing With the Stars” executive producer Conrad Green says despite controversy over the casting of its first transgender contestant, “Dancing” remains a family show and viewers should check out the new season before passing judgment.
Chaz Bono, who was born female but underwent surgery to become a man, is among the cast of 12 celebrities set to appear on the ABC hit when it premieres later this month.
Some “Dancing” fans and conservative media groups have criticized his inclusion on the program. Online group OneMillionMoms.com says the casting of Bono and openly gay contestant Carson Kressley “is completely unacceptable and Christians should not watch the show, no excuses!”
Meanwhile, Cher and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have defended Bono, the network and “Dancing” producers for casting him.
Director Madonna identifies with Wallis Simpson
By Colleen Barry
VENICE, Italy (AP) – Madonna says the success of the Oscar-winning “The King’s Speech” gives audiences a point of reference for her new film, “W.E.”
Madonna’s sophomore directorial effort tells the story of Wallis Simpson, the two-time American divorcee for whom Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated his throne in 1936. It makes its world premiere out of competition Thursday at the Venice Film Festival.
Madonna says the two films examine the same historic period from distinct points of view. She also told a news conference that she identifies with Simpson, because fame often reduces celebrities “to a soundbite.”
Madonna said she received support for the project from both her two director ex-husbands, Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie.Council amends ruling on Dire Straits’ song
TORONTO (AP) – Canada’s broadcast standards council Wednesday amended an earlier ruling that deemed Dire Straits’ 1985 hit “Money for Nothing” unfit for radio, saying that while the homophobic slur used in the song is inappropriate, it must be taken in context.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission had asked for a review of the song after the standards council ruled in January that the British band’s song was unfit for radio because its lyrics include three instances of the offensive anti-gay slur “faggot”. The council had responded to a complaint from a radio listener.
The January ruling created a public backlash, especially since the song first was released on the band’s best-selling “Brothers in Arms” album and had been widely sold and listened to in Canada in the two-and-a-half decades since its release.
The council released its review decision Wednesday, saying the majority of the council’s panel felt the song used the word satirically and not in a hateful manner.
“The (council) wishes to make perfectly clear to those persons who have commended the CBSC for its ‘brave’ position regarding the disapproval of the hateful and painful term that it is not abandoning that position,” states the decision, released Wednesday.
“It is only saying that there may be circumstances in which even words designating unacceptably negative portrayal may be acceptable because of their contextual usage.”
On Jan. 12 the council responded to a listener in St. John’s, Newfoundland, who was offended by the song’s lyrics. Its regional Atlantic panel ruled that the song contravened the human rights clauses of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code.
The song’s writer, Mark Knopfler, has long maintained that he was writing from the perspective of a “bonehead” whom he observed in a hardware store watching MTV, reacting with disgust to the fledgling network’s flamboyant rock stars.
The council had not taken such context into account when making its original decision, the organization’s national chair Ron Cohen said Wednesday.
“This background information was drawn out of the public and provided to us and (we said): ‘Ah-a! Had the Atlantic panel had this information in the first place, it may well have come to a different conclusion.'”
A handful of Canadian radio stations defied the original ruling by putting the original version of the tune on repeat.
DreamWorks Selects MARI to Enhance In-House PipelineLONDON — Leading visual effects software developer, The Foundry said that CG feature animation studio, DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Nasdaq: DWA) has purchased a site license of MARI to enhance its in-house pipe-line. The studio has already begun utilizing MARI on upcoming productions.
MARI allows artists to concentrate on painting detailed, multi-layered textures directly onto 3D models in a fluid and natural way. MARI was originally conceived because no existing commercial product could handle the complex, highly detailed development work required for 3D painting.
49th Annual ICG Publicists Awards SetLOS ANGELES – The International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) 49th Annual Publicists Awards Luncheon will be held Friday, February 24, 2012 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, said ICG president Steven Poster and Henri Bollinger, awards committee chairman. The awards, which traditionally take place the week leading up to the Academy Awards®, will be presented in the following categories: Motion Picture Showman of the Year, Television Showman of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, Maxwell Weinberg Publicist Award for a Television Campaign and separately for a Movie Campaign, Les Mason Award for Career Achievement in Publicity, Excellence in Unit Still Photography and the Bob Yeager Award for Community Service.
Past honorees include Sylvester Stallone, James Cameron, John Lasseter, Garry Newman, Dana Walden, Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, Judd Apatow, Jim Gianopolus, Alfred Hitchcock, Alan Horn, Michael Lynton, Amy Pascal, Barry Meyer, Lew Wasserman, Tom Rothman, Jack Warner, Les Moonves, Jerry Bruckheimer, Peter Roth, Fred Silverman, Grant Tinker, Norman Lear, David Kelley, Steven Bochco, Aaron Spelling and Bob Hope. More than 1,000 industry leaders are expected to attend the awards luncheon.
Aronofsky praises ‘exciting’ Venice lineupBy Colleen Barry
VENICE, Italy (AP) – Darren Aronofsky knows the joy of winning the Venice film festival’s top prize – and this year it will be his job to help award it.
The director heads the jury at the 68th Venice Film Festival, which opened Wednesday. He said he doesn’t remember ever seeing such an “exciting” lineup.
Nearly half of the competitors are high-powered English-language films, a sign of of Venice’s growing prestige.
Aronofsky says Venice had been both beautiful and cruel to him. “Black Swan” opened last year’s festival, and he won the Golden Lion in 2008 for “The Wrestler.” ”The Fountain” was less warmly received in 2006.
Twenty-three films are vying for the Golden Lion, to be awarded Sept. 10. Aronofsky says he’ll be looking for the films that affect him most “emotionally and intelectually.”
MoviePass trying unlimited ticket offer againBy Ryan Nakashima, Business Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Startup discounter MoviePass Inc.’s test run to offer unlimited movie tickets for a fixed monthly fee was aborted in July amid a dust-up with theater chains. Now, it’s back in line with a new plan that it believes will work even without the explicit consent of cinema owners.
MoviePass said Tuesday that it will launch an invitation-only test of its new system next month in partnership with Hollywood Movie Money, a company that provides promotional movie tickets to customers and reimburses theaters when they are redeemed.
They say that such vouchers are regularly used by a wide variety of companies, from The Walt Disney Co. to Proctor & Gamble Co., and don’t require theaters to know who is paying for them.
“We are the traveler’s checks of movie tickets,” said Ron Randolph-Wall, the chief executive of Quantum Rewards, the operator of Nevada-based Hollywood Movie Money. “Our business is only about settlement.”
Hollywood Movie Money is offering to pay theater owners the full price of a regular ticket when MoviePass customers take in their print-at-home vouchers.
In exchange, MoviePass plans to charge customers a fixed fee every month or year. The fee, which has yet to be determined, will depend on how much tickets cost in different markets.
In July, MoviePass abandoned a trial run in San Francisco after 19,000 people tried to sign up in one day.
AMC Theatres, the nation’s second largest chain with more than 5,100 screens in the U.S. and Canada, said at the time that it had not been consulted on the program and would not participate.
Part of the problem was that it was unclear if frequent AMC patrons would have MoviePass purchases count toward their rewards program.
A person familiar with the situation said Tuesday that MoviePass had not made any new attempt to contact cinema owners. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
Even if the test does get under way as planned in September, it’s unclear if customers will buy in.
The aborted offering in July would have had customers pay $50 a month for unlimited movie tickets.
The catch is that only one ticket is issued per customer at a time. With movie tickets running between $11 and $13 in the Bay Area, moviegoers would have to trek to theaters at least once every weekend – or four times a month – to make the deal worthwhile. They’d have to go more often to realize any savings.
Director Sofia Coppola weds in southern ItalyNicole Winfield
ROME (AP) – Filmmaker Sofia Coppola went back to her roots for her wedding Saturday, marrying rocker Thomas Mars in the remote, southern Italian town where her great-grandfather was born.
Coppola’s famous filmmaker father, Francis Ford Coppola, escorted the 40-year-old Sofia down the aisle to a waiting Mars, lead singer of the French band Phoenix and the father of their two young daughters.
The early evening ceremony took place in the garden of the palazzo that the elder Coppola renovated in the historic center of Bernalda, a city near the Gulf of Taranto in Italy’s Basilicata region, according to Mayor Leonardo Chiruzzi who performed the ceremony.
Its her second marriage; she divorced fellow filmmaker Spike Jonze in 2003.
Producer ordered to pay $3M in harassment suitLOS ANGELES (AP) – A Los Angeles jury has ordered film producer Jon Peters to pay his former assistant more than $3 million after finding she was subjected to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
The jury on Friday awarded Shelly Morita $822,000 in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages.
City News Service reports that Peters’ attorneys plan to appeal the verdict.
Morita sued Peters five years ago, alleging he fondled her at his Malibu home and climbed into bed with her in an Australian hotel during the 2005 filming of “Superman Returns.” She claimed that she couldn’t find work in Hollywood after suing Peters because of his pull in the industry.
Peters produced several acclaimed films, including “A Star Is Born,” ”Flashdance,” ”The Color Purple,” ”Batman” and “Rain Man.”
