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Studios awarded $23.8 million in piracy case

A Malaysian man must pay film studios $23.8 million for running a Web site that allowed paying members to watch pirated movies, the Motion Picture Association of America said.

A federal judge announced the decision against Tan Soo Leong Monday, said John Malcolm, the association's director of worldwide antipiracy operations.

Leong ran the Web site film88.com and a company called MasterSurf Inc., which set up computer servers overseas to protect the business from liability, Malcolm said Tuesday.

Article copyright © 2004 Associated Press

Dr Doom revealed

Found a photo of what Dr Doom is apparently going to look like in the new film. Read the full article to see the photo. Also check out some of the production illustrations. Enjoy!

This version of Doom seems quite promising, looks close to what I'd expect based on the comic book. The Thing I am not so sure about as you'll see for yourself below.

Here's a photo of The Thing that was scanned from People magazine.

Alexander early reviews

I've glanced at a couple early reviews of Oliver Stone's new film Alexander and the verdict is less than favourable so far. Most complaints (see the Modesto Bee for an example) are that the movies is too long and too slow. I'm still going to check it out this weekend and will post a review of my own. There's great source material so it will be disappointing if this turns out to be a stinker.

Is Your Favorite Movie Line A "Great Quote"?

The American Film Institute announced its 100 movie quotes will be the theme for AFI's eighth annual celebration of 100 years of American movies. The complete list of quotes (in PDF format) is available from the AFI website.

Marvel sues two companies over role-playing game

Marvel Enterprises is suing two firms behind a computer superhero role-playing game it claims allows players to make virtual characters that are too similar to "The Hulk," "X-Men" and other heroes in the comic book company's stable.
The lawsuit claims South Korea-based NCSoft and San Jose-based Cryptic Studios violated Marvel's trademark characters in their game City of Heroes.

The game studios have replied back calling the lawsuit "baseless". You can read an article about their response over at IGN

FCC gone too far?

The BBC reports that nearly one-third of US TV stations affiliated to the ABC network dropped Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan for fear of facing indecency fines from the Federal Communications Commission.

ABC bosses and politicians had tried to persuade local stations to take part. Where the movie was screened as part of Veterans Day scheduling to commemorate US war dead, it went out in prime time with regular warnings about its content.

As I am on business in the US, I had the opportunity to listen to Howard Stern railing that Saving Private Ryan should be fined because he was fined. To put it politely, it's a stretch of the imagination to compare what is aired on the Stern radio show to a film like Saving Private Ryan. Stern's show attempts to exploit the lowest, basest aspects of human nature for his own profit. There is a good reason he dropped out of the New York governship race. He did not want to disclose his net worth. Stern is not an advocate of anyone's rights. He is simply concerned with making money off the garbage he chooses to air. I'm all for freedom of speech but Stern is exploiting that argument for his own profit-driven motives.

Versatile MultiLayer Disc to compete with Blu-ray and HD-DVD

New Medium Enterprises Inc. announced the public unveiling of the highly anticipated VMD (Versatile MultiLayer Disc), the next generation HD Disc & Drive allowing 20GB of storage on current Red Laser technology platforms. The HD films will be shown in genuine HD formats (MPEG-2, 1080i and 1080p). The company is set for launching production and sales of 15 GB, 20 GB, 25 GB and 30 GB Discs & Drives by Fall 2005. The drives will be inherently backward compatible with the existing pre-recorded and recordable DVD and CD formats.

Rollins to Host IFC Film Series

Henry Rollins will host a new TV show about movies, "Henry's Film Corner," on IFC. The monthly series debuts Dec. 4 and features Rollins providing commentary on films. A different "off-the-street" person will be a guest critic in each episode. In addition, the series will feature guests discussing how their professions are portrayed in films. For example, in the pilot episode, real adult-film stars will comment on the film "Boogie Nights," which was set in the porn industry.

In addition to starring in "Film Corner," Rollins has roles in two new movies due in 2005: the horror film "Feast" and romantic comedy/drama "The Alibi."

This article courtesy of Posted by lonnie at 04:07 PM | TrackBack