Oscars Open visual-effects prize to 5 nominees
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The visual-effects category has gotten an upgrade at the next Academy Awards ceremony.
The board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences increased the number of nominees to five, up from three, at the 83rd awards show next Feb. 27.
The switch brings more awards attention to visual effects, which play a bigger role in Hollywood blockbusters as digital-animation technology continues to advance.
Since 1996, the visual-effects category has featured only three nominees, including last year’s winner, the science-fiction blockbuster “Avatar.”
The academy also announced Thursday some changes to the feature-animation category, including shortening the minimum running-time for animated contenders to greater than 40 minutes. That’s down from the previous minimum of 70 minutes.
The change brings the animation rules in line with the minimum running times in other feature-film categories.
The n ew rules include language to clarify what constitutes an animated film, stating that “motion capture by itself is not an animation technique.”
Motion-capture records performances by live actors wearing special suits covered with sensor dots that are read by digital cameras. The technology was used as the foundation for alien characters in “Avatar,” the great ape in “King Kong” and the Gollum character in “The Lord of the Rings” films.
Fincher’s ‘Social Network’ to open NY Film Fest
NEW YORK (AP) – David Fincher’s “The Social Network” will be the opening night film at the New York Film Festival.
Fincher’s eagerly anticipated movie about Facebook and its young co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, will kick off the festival on Sept. 24 at Alice Tully Hall. The film is written by Aaron Sorkin and stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg.
Richard Pena, the selection committee chair and program director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said “The Social Network” is the rare film that “powerfully captures the spirit of its time.”
The 48th annual New York Film Festival runs from Sept. 24 through Oct. 10.
‘Avatar’ relaunches in theaters with extra footage
LOS ANGELES (AP) – James Cameron is sending audiences on an extended tour of “Avatar” as his blockbuster returns to theaters next month with eight minutes of extra footage.
Distributor 20th Century Fox announced Thursday that Cameron’s special edition of “Avatar” will debut exclusively in digital 3-D and IMAX 3-D theaters on Aug. 27.
Cameron said the added footage will include new creatures and action scenes set on the distant moon of Pandora, where his sci-fi spectacle plays out among greedy humans and the noble blue-skinned warriors who live there.
“Audiences repeatedly told me they wanted more of Pandora and wished they could have stayed there longer,” Cameron said.
With the new footage, the special edition of “Avatar” will run just 10 minutes shy of three hours.
The studio has not finalized how widely the film will play but expects it to run in a few hundred theaters domestically.
The biggest modern blockbuster, “Avatar ” has rung up $2.7 billion in box-office revenue worldwide.
Bigelow, Moore Join Board That Oversees OscarsLOS ANGELES (AP) — Academy Award-winning directors Kathryn Bigelow and Michael Moore have been elected to the board of governors that oversees the Oscars.
The academy announced Wednesday that Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”) and Moore (“Bowling for Columbine”) were among 15 new or returning members elected to three-year terms on the board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Joining Bigelow and Moore among first-time board members was Oscar-winning film editor Anne Coates (“Lawrence of Arabia”).
Actor Ed Begley Jr. also was among those elected, returning to the board after a hiatus.
Bigelow’s “Hurt Locker” won best picture and director at the Oscars last March. Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” won the documentary Oscar for 2002.
Murder charge recommended in Comic writer’s deathZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. (AP) — Police in central Florida are accusing a man of killing his roommate, who was a comic book author and writer for the 1980s cartoon series “Thundercats.”
Zephyrhills police recommended a first-degree murder charge Wednesday for James William Davis, who was being held on unrelated charges.
Police say they began to suspect Davis after learning he bought two bottles of bleach in May, just before one of Stephen Perry’s limbs was found in a Tampa motel’s trash bin.
Perry wrote for numerous comics, including “Timespirits,” and also scripted the “Silverhawks” cartoon.
In a May interview, Davis told the St. Petersburg Times he had no role in Perry’s death and last saw him at a flea market researching material for a new comic book.
Don Johnson Wins Verdict in ‘Nash Bridges’ CaseLOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury has awarded Don Johnson $23.2 million in profits from the TV series “Nash Bridges” and issued rulings that may mean even more money for the actor.
The jury award came after a two-week trial during which Johnson claimed he was owed millions in profits from the show, which aired for six seasons on CBS.
Johnson attended the entire trial and personally thanked jurors after the verdict was read Wednesday.
He sued three entertainment companies — Rysher Entertainment, 2929 Entertainment and Qualia Capital — in February 2009.
“We’re disappointed in the verdict and we’ll appeal,” said Rysher’s attorney, Bart H. Williams. “We respect the jury’s decision and we think there are a lot of pretty significant appellate issues.”
Qualia Capital had no immediate comment on the verdict.
An attorney for 2929 Entertainment, which was founded by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment.
Rysher Entertainment contended during the trial that the show lost money overall and that was why Johnson hadn’t been paid. Much of the show was shot in San Francisco, which contributed to high costs, the company claimed.
Jurors confirmed that Johnson’s contract for “Nash Bridges” included a provision that made him a 50 percent owner in the show’s copyright. That determination could mean more money for the 60-year-old actor in the coming years.
“It was my idea, and I owned the rights in the first place,” Johnson said in a statement. “From the beginning, I have asked only that Rysher honor our contract, and I am so pleased that the jury agreed with me.”
The attorney who crafted Johnson’s agreement for “Nash Bridges” testified that the copyright ownership stake was a one-of-a-kind deal.
Attorney Mark Holscher, who represented Johnson, said the case about more than just money for the actor, who rose to fame on the TV series “Miami Vice.”
“Not just on a financial level, but on a personal level, it was vindication that he was getting credit for his ideas,” Holscher said.
Jury Says Disney Owes ‘Millionaire’ Makers $269.2MSue Manning
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal jury on Wednesday awarded $269.2 million in damages to the creators of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” because they didn’t get their fair share of profits from the popular Walt Disney Co. television game show.
The jury of five women and four men returned a unanimous verdict agreeing with a British TV production company, the London-based Celador International, which accused Walt Disney of using creative accounting to hide profits.
“We believe this verdict is fundamentally wrong and will aggressively seek to have it reversed,” Disney said in a statement. Disney attorneys did not return calls for additional comment.
Lead Celador attorney Roman Silberfeld said the verdict form given to jurors was 18 pages long and included 40 or 50 questions, and “every one came out in Celador’s favor, 9-0 on every question.”
The jury awarded $260 million in license fees and $9.2 million for merchandising claims, which were made based on $70 million in sales of a home edition of the game show.
Celador had asked for a minimum of $202 million and a maximum of $395 million, Silberfeld said.
“At a time when (Disney-owned) ABC was ranked last among the networks and desperately needed a hit, it entered into an agreement with Celador to put ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ on the air and share the profits of success — if there was success — with Celador 50-50. Every witness testified that was the deal,” Silberfeld said.
During four weeks of testimony, Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger took the stand and e-mails from former Disney boss Michael Eisner about his enthusiasm for the show were admitted into evidence.
The show, which was first hosted by Regis Philbin, became very successful for ABC in 1999 and 2000, ranking in the top 10 shows across the country at least four times that season, Silberfeld said.
It put the network in first place, allowing them to charge more in ad revenues, he said, but “ABC and a series of affiliated companies entered into a series of agreements that were solely intended to show ‘Millionaire’ never showed a profit.”
“If you look at an accounting statement today, after 10 years on the air, it says it has lost money every year and is $75 million in the red,” the attorney said.
Silberfeld said he expected post-trial maneuvers and that an appeal would take a couple of years.
Broadcast Viewership Hits Record LowDavid Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans avoided television in historic levels over the past week.
CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox together had the smallest number of prime-time viewers last week in two decades of record-keeping, the Nielsen Co. said. Given the dominance of the big broadcasters before then, you’d probably have to go back to the early days of television to find such a collective shrug.
The first week of July tends to be among the slowest weeks of the year in television, anyway, with families more engaged in barbecues and fireworks. The problem was magnified this year because July Fourth came on Sunday, largely knocking out one of a typical week’s biggest viewing nights.
Together, the four networks averaged 18.9 million viewers last week, Nielsen said. During the season, “American Idol” alone usually gets a bigger audience than that.
NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” is emerging as the summer’s most popular show, with its two original episodes last week the only programs to top 10 million in viewership, Nielsen said.
While the biggest broadcast networks are suffering, the Spanish-language Univision is stepping up. Among the closely-watched 18-to-49-year-old demographic, Univision finished second only to Fox in prime-time last week.
It’s not World Cup soccer that is behind Univision’s success, it’s the prime-time telenovelas “Soy tu Duena” and “Hasta Dinero Separe.” Those soaps accounted for eight of the 20 most-watched programs among 18- to 49-year-old viewers of all languages last week, Nielsen said.
Netflix Adds to Online Movies with Relativity Deal
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Netflix is adding to the group of movies that its subscribers can watch online or over Internet-connected devices at the same time as they would have appeared on premium pay TV channels such as HBO or Showtime.
The deal announced Tuesday with film financier Relativity Media adds to a batch of newer movies from Disney and Sony that can be watched online through Netflix’ 2-year-old deal with Starz Entertainment on a service called Starz Play.
With new movies from Relativity available early next year, about one-fifth of the rental movie chain’s 100,000 movie and TV show titles can now be streamed online.
The company is gradually transforming itself from a mail-order DVD service to one that makes available content online over game consoles, Blu-ray players, mobile devices and TVs.
Ga. Republican Zings Obama in Hammer-and-Sickle AdRay Henry
ATLANTA (AP) — A conservative Georgia Republican congressional candidate is criticizing President Barack Obama in roadside billboards that use the communist hammer-and-sickle symbol.
The three ads from candidate Jody Hice ask passers-by: “Had Enough Of Obama’s Change?” The “C” in change is replaced by the hammer and sickle. The symbol was associated with iron-fisted 20th-century dictators.
Hice said he considers some policies of the Democratic president socialist, including government bailouts for the auto industry and an overhaul of the health insurance system.
Georgia’s Democratic Party calls the ads inappropriate and distasteful, but says Hice has the right to say what he wants.
Hice is competing with seven other Republicans to succeed Congressman John Linder.
Wrigley Agrees to Settle Eclipse Misleading Ads LawsuitCHICAGO (AP) — Chewing gum maker W.M. Wrigley Jr. has agreed to pay as much as $7 million and change how it markets and labels its Eclipse gum to settle a lawsuit that alleged its ads were misleading, attorneys for the plaintiffs said Tuesday.
Consumers sued Wrigley last year in federal court arguing the subsidiary of privately held Mars Inc. made misleading advertising claims about the germ-killing properties of Eclipse.
The ads said a new ingredient — magnolia bark extract — kills the germs that cause bad breath while competing gums merely mask bad breath.
As part of the settlement, Wrigley will change how it markets and labels its gum. It agreed to pay $6 million to $7 million to a fund that will reimburse consumers up to $10 each for the product and cover other costs of the settlement, according to the law firms Blood Hurst & O’Reardon and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd.
Wrigley said it stands behinds its advertising and scientific research regarding Eclipse and agreed to the settlement to prevent continuing distraction from its business.
The settlement is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Grammys Change Rules for Best New Artist Category
Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Music Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Lady Gaga’s exclusion from the best new artist category at this year’s Grammys has caused the Recording Academy to change eligibility requirements for the next ceremony.
Although Lady Gaga was the most popular new artist of 2009, she was ineligible for a best new artist nomination. Her hit “Just Dance” had been nominated in 2008, before she was a platinum-selling act, and previous Grammy nominees can’t be nominated for best new artist.
After Lady Gaga was excluded, Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said: “There will be some changes so that particular situation won’t repeat itself.”
The changes were announced Wednesday. The rule change allows previous Grammy nominees to be eligible, as long as the artist hasn’t released an entire album and doesn’t win.
“More and more, the first release of a new artist is as a featured artist on someone else’s album or the new artist may release a single long before the release of his/her/their entire first album,” the Academy said in a statement.
“By current rules, if the other artist’s album or the new artist’s single receives a nomination, the new artist may never have the opportunity to compete in the best new artist category. With this change, each artist will have at least one opportunity to enter in this important and highly visible category.”
Changes were also announced in other categories. Classical producers no longer have to submit a minimum of three recordings to be eligible for a nomination for classical producer of the year, and like non-classical producers, can submit just one recording.
In addition, classical box sets will be eligible if more than 51 percent of the material is at least 5 years old.
The Academy also voted to exclude all Grammy performances, and performances during any Recording Academy event, from consideration for a Grammy. The change was made to ensure the “integrity of The Recording Academy and to be completely impartial in our awards process.”
Online: http://www.grammy.com
