This should be good news for the Reverend Huy Dang... or not! But either way, it's still exciting, even if the series of movies kind of "jumped the shark" after the first four movies.
Comedy series Police Academy, which began life in 1984, is set to return to the big screen, according to reports.
New Line cinema is rebooting the franchise with original producer Paul Maslansky returning, The Hollywood Reporter said.
No writer or director has attached their name to the new version as of yet.
The original film, which starred Steve Guttenberg, was released in 1984 and spawned six more movies and a TV show grossing $240m worldwide.
"It's going to be very worthwhile to the people who remember it and to those who saw it on TV," Maslansky said. "It's going to be a new class. We hope to discover new talent and season it with great comedians. "
"It'll be anything but another movie with a numeral next to it. And we'll most probably retain the wonderful musical theme."
The first Police Academy film featured Steve Guttenberg as Carey Mahoney, a repeat offender forced to enter the academy.
Sex in the City actress Kim Cattrall (who once dated former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau) also starred as one of the recruits in the movie, which introduced characters including gentle giant Moses Hightower, gun-crazy Tackleberry, mousy Hooks and human sound effects machine Larvell Jones (played by Michael Winslow... I wonder if he'll be in the new movie).
The series ended with in 1994 with the seventh film, Mission to Moscow.
The series is nothing without Mahoney and Harris though.
One day after Avatar was disappointed at the Oscars, a Vancouver restaurant owner plans to file a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court today claiming copyright infringement against director James Cameron and other makers of the highest-grossing film of all time.
Emil Malak, 57, says the similarities between his Terra Incognita and James Cameron's Avatar are too striking to simply be a coincidence.
Malak's lawyer Suzan El-Khatib said the claim to be filed today will name, among others, Avatar writer and director James Cameron, his company Lightstorm Entertainment Inc., and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
El-Khatib said there are both general and specific similarities in the two stories including the premise of humans going to mine precious minerals on a planet inhabited by indigenous people.
In both stories, she said, a tree is a focal point and contains the collective memories of the indigenous people. In Terra Incognita, it is a Life Tree. Cameron calls it the "Hometree."
Even the characters are similar, she said, with both incorporating spotted faces, long braided hair, flat noses and yellow eyes.
"They are quite alike," El-Khatib said yesterday.
She said the suit will make a claim against the defendants for "damages for copyright infringement for substantially reproducing, adapting and publicly presenting, or in the alternative authorizing such acts, the plaintiffs work as a literary work and a cinematographic work entitled Avatar."
Malak, who owns the Bellaggio Cafe at Hornby Street and Robson Street in Vancouver, began thinking about his sci-fi tale in 1996 at the suggestion of his then seven- and eight-year-old sons who wanted him to write something more exciting than the opera and historical fiction he'd been working on.
It was a turning point in Malak's life. In 1996 he had lost his Granville Island Hotel in a $5 million bankruptcy.
"I took a three-year sabbatical. I lived on about $2-300 a month. I stayed with my brother in Richmond and did nothing but write," said Malak.
He began putting pen to paper for what he calls his "children's story" in 1997 and in the end he figures he spent $100,000 on his script.
He hired a graphic artist to draw his character designs and a screen writer to co-write the script. He took a screen writing course and first copyrighted his work with the Writers Guild of Canada in 1998. He copyrighted it with the guild nine more times between 1998 and 2003, every time he advanced the story and characters.
In a February 27, 1998 note filed with his documents at the Writers Guild of Canada, he wrote that he was copywriting his work because he was "afraid of the big boys."
"I had just lost Granville Island (and) lost $5 million so you become very intuitive. You don't trust anybody," said Malak. "I was so scared someone was going to steal it."
Malak, who was born in Egypt, educated in England and moved to Canada in 1993, believes it was October 2002 when he sent his script and graphic designs to about twenty movie studios including Cameron and his company Lightstorm Entertainment Inc.
He got no response and the script was never returned to him. Malak was stunned to learn of the similarities between his story and Avatar when the movie was released late last year.
Malak told The Province newspaper he believes that James Cameron had an idea similar to his - to write about indigenous people on another planet - but there's no way to account for stories that are up to 60% similar in his opinion.
"Is it possible that two ends can come up with so much similarities? Life tree, same mining material just called different names, the tails?" said Malak. "The basic building blocks of both stories are very similar."
In the end, Malak believes Avatar was shaped in part by his story and he is filing the B.C. Supreme Court writ today because he wants it to be known. He insists it's not about the money.
"I eat three times a day. I have a great life," he said. "The big boys have to recognize you can't just take things and make it a part of yours and walk all over the small guys."
"In my own heart I'm very happy and very comfortable that my vision has become a blockbuster."
The world's most famous ogre, Shrek, his princess and his motley crew of friends will open the Tribeca Film Festival next month, with the final chapter of the series making its world premiere in 3D in New York.
Shrek Forever After, the fourth instalment of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s series and the first in 3D, will screen on Tribeca's opening night April 21, 2010.
According to cops in New York, 39-year-old model Naomi Campbell is accused of striking her driver from behind and causing his head to hit the steering wheel of the car.
By the time cops had arrived, Campbell had fled by foot.
"The driver said a small bruise and swelling under his right eye was caused by her," the New York police said in a statement. "We want to talk to her."
Campbell's spokesman Jeff Raymond said that she would cooperate voluntarily with the cops.
"There shouldn't be a rush to judgment," he said in a statement. "There is more to the story than meets the eye."
In 2008, Campbell was sentenced by a London court to 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to assaulting two police officers during an expletive-filled incident after she had discovered an airline had lost one of her bags.
Campbell also spent five days mopping floors and cleaning toilets as part of a community service sentence in New York in 2007 after throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper during an argument over a pair of jeans. She was also ordered to attend anger management classes.
In a previous incident with a telephone in 1998, Campbell assaulted an assistant, Georgina Galanis. The model agreed in 2000 to plead guilty in a Toronto court to the assault in exchange for expressing remorse, paying Galanis an undisclosed amount of money and attending anger management classes.
Toronto filmmaker Charles Officer turned away from cameras Monday, overcome with emotion following the announcement of the 30th annual Genie Awards nominations.
Officer said he was "streak in the streets" ecstatic that his debut feature, NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY, had received nods for best picture and best direction.
And that was before a reporter informed him that he had received a total of ten nominations.
"We got how many?" he said. "Holy shoot! I didn't know that at all."
Esteemed actor Gordon Pinsent and actress Tatiana Maslany, who was recently honoured at the Sundance Film Festival, announced the nominations for the 30th annual Genie Awards on Monday at a Toronto hotel.
Polytechnique, director Denis Villeneuve's examination of the Montreal massacre in 1989, in which Marc Lepine killed 14 female college students, led the pack with 11 Genie Awards nominations. Other standout films include Before Tomorrow with nine nominations, Grande Ourse: La cle des possibles, The Master Key (eight nods) and Fifty Dead Men Walking (seven).
"This year's nominations reflect a national cinema that is courageous in its storytelling," Sara Morton, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, said in a statement. "They are films created from the wealth of cultures, communities and historical moments that make up the Canadian identity."
The acting contenders include Joshua Jackson (One Week) and Stephen McHattie (Pontypool) for best actor, and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Before Tomorrow) and Karine Vanasse (Polytechnique) for best actress.
Officer's indie film about a friendship between an ex-boxer, a boy and his ailing single mom stars Clark Johnson and Karen Leblanc, who are nominated for their leading roles.
"It's our community getting it out. I'm not just saying the black community; I'm saying the community of artists, people who are working on similar projects. We're all working together; we're trying to make movies. It's hard as hell. So to get recognized for doing something personal and sticking true to your guns is the ultimate thing," Officer told reporters. "I brought a lot of people in who've never worked in film. The boxers in it... these kids that I got to work with, when they see this film getting nominated, they're going to feel inspired."
The other best picture nominees are Polytechnique, Fifty Dead Men Walking, Before Tomorrow and 3 Saisons.
The 30th annual Genie Awards will take place on April 12 in Toronto.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is again facing plagiarism charges. Her name has now been added as a defendant in a lawsuit against her publishers. The lawsuit, which is being brought in a London court by the estate of the English children's author Adrian Jacobs, alleges that she lifted concepts that include wizard contests, wizard prisons, wizard hospitals, and wizard colleges – from his 1987 book "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: No. 1 Livid Land" and used them in writing "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire."
The lawsuit was originally brought against Rowling's publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing, and her agent, Christopher Little (who was also Jacobs' agent). The Jacobs estate apparently had thought it was too late to sue Rowling, as "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire" was published in 2000. But now, they say, they have discovered "legal cause of action against [Rowling] within the last six years."
The Jacobs estate is calling the lawsuit "a billion-dollar case."
It's not the first time that Rowling, estimated to be the world's wealthiest author, has had to defend herself against charges of plagiarism. One prominent case involved a 2002 suit brought by American author Nancy Stouffer who claimed that her character "Larry Potter" bore a striking resemblance to Rowling's "Harry Potter." Stouffer eventually lost her case and an appeal three years later.
Library Journal writer Lauren Barack called it right while discussing plagiarism charges against Rowling last year.
"Given the success of Rowling's Potter series it seems unlikely that she'll stop being a lightning rod for suits of this nature," Barack wrote. "While her stories are hugely popular, they do mirror many archetypes and story arcs found in popular tales."
Rowling has never cited a single author's works as the inspiration for Harry Potter. In interviews at different times she has mentioned sources as diverse as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and "The Narnia Chronicles" by C.S. Lewis as influential to her. In the United States, courts make a distinction between "fair use" and copying when considering plagiarism cases.
The Los Angeles County coroner announced their findings yesterday in the death of actress Brittany Murphy. According to CNN, the coroner determined that her death was an accident caused by a combination of pneumonia, an iron deficiency and "multiple drug intoxication."
The coroner did not reveal which drugs were involved in the actress' death, but added that the official autopsy report would be available in the next two weeks.
The actress was found unconscious in her shower on December 21, 2009. And despite performing first aid, paramedics could not revive her. She was 32 at the time of her death.
Blockbuster Inc.'s main American rival, Movie Gallery, filed for bankruptcy yesterday and plans to close a " significant number" of stores.
This is the second time in less than three years that Movie Gallery has been forced to run from creditors.
The prospect of a thousand stores being eliminated from Movie Gallery's portfolio, which includes Hollywood Video stores, could be consolations for investors who have been watching Blockbuster suffer.
As a result, Blockbuster (BBI) climbed 7% to $0.46 in morning trading.
On January 28, in a security filing, video rental chain Blockbuster Inc. said that the company's director Carl Icahn has announced his intention to resign from the company's board. Is it true? Man, that guy seemed like a real troublemaker. Remember his public conflicts with John Antioco?
Icahn reportedly said in a letter to Blockbuster CEO James Keyes that he was resigning because of Institutional Shareholder Services guidelines regarding the number of directorships a person can hold.
In May of 2005, at the company's Annual Meeting of Stockholders Carl Icahn, Edward Bleier and Strauss Zelnick, a dissident group of nominees up for election to the Blockbuster Board of Directors, won election as Class III directors with terms expiring in 2007. They replaced incumbent Blockbuster Directors Linda Griego, Peter A. Bassi and Chairman John Antioco.
Currently, Icahn is reported to own about 16.9% of Blockbuster's Class A shares and about 7.7% of its Class B shares. Icahn has seen the value of his stake falling drastically over the years. Blockbuster's stock was worth just under $10 when the advocate investor started building his stake and is now trading around 45 cents, reports noted.
On January 20, Blockbuster said it now expects GAAP net loss for 2009 to be in the range of $183 million to $193 million, excluding any impairment of goodwill and other long-lived assets. The company said its expectation for fiscal 2009 results were based on current information related to lower than expected results for the fourth quarter, particularly the 2009 holiday season.
BBI shares increased $0.03 or 6.67% and closed Monday's regular trading at $0.48. After hours, BBI shares declined $0.02 or 4.17% and traded at $0.46. The stock has traded between $0.13 and $1.56 during the past year.
Star-struck singers, rappers and actors, including Barbra Streisand, Kanye West and Miley Cyrus, checked their egos at the door yesterday to record a new version of "We are the World" for Haiti's earthquake victims, 25 years after the song raised awareness of the famine in Africa.
None of the singers of the original song were invited to participate in the update, which was recorded at the same Hollywood studio once again under the oversight of Quincy Jones and the song's co-writer Lionel Richie. In all, more than 70 stars lent their voices to the song, and they all seemed in awe of each other.
"As celebrities, we're fans of one another, so we're all looky-looing in there, and getting autographs and numbers," said Natalie Cole.
Streisand, Celine Dion and Tony Bennett appeared to inspire the most stares. Fifteen-year-old Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber joked that he would ask his new friend, R&B singer Akon, to get the telephone number of Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls.
Streisand, a noted perfectionist, ran through multiple takes of the line originally sung by Diana Ross, each one seemingly better than the previous one. Jazz singer Patti Austin came into her recording booth to coach her. Guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana sang along, even though he is not a singer. Two members of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, appeared to ignore each other.
Classical crossover tenor Josh Groban described the event as "inspired chaos."
"It's great to see so many legendary artists sweating it out. Everybody left their ego at the door," he said, referring to a request made by Jones at the original session in 1985.
"To be smack-dab in the middle of a sandwich between Barbra Streisand and Weezy (rapper Lil Wayne) was personally a creative experience I don't think I'll ever have the pleasure of having again," Groban added.
For his part, Lil Wayne said his mother asked him to get a photo of Gladys Knight. He was among a heavy quotient of hip-hop stars, including Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, Drake, LL Cool J, and will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas as well as West.
"Hip-hop is rock 'n' roll to a lot of people around the world, right now," said Jones, explaining the absence of the modern-day equivalents of original performers Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan or Paul Simon.
Lil Wayne, for one, noted that he was not a singer, and thought organizers were joking when they asked him to sing the line originally sung by Dylan. Asked if he did a better job, Lil Wayne said, "Hell no!"
Country and Latino artists were notably under-represented. Organizers said they were turned down for various reasons by some stars. In fact, most of the big Grammy winners from the night before were absent, including Beyonce and Jay-Z, who returned to New York, and Taylor Swift, who flew to Australia straight after the ceremony.
Randy Phillips, one of the organizers, said his "one regret" was the absence of dance-pop star Lady Gaga. The song, which was still being worked on into the small hours of Tuesday, will make its world premiere during NBC's coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics on February 12.
Both the song and an accompanying video, shot by Oscar-winning "Crash" director Paul Haggis, will go on sale both through traditional and online retailers. Phillips said all proceeds will go to a newly established foundation that will carefully monitor disbursement. The January 12 earthquake killed up to 200,000 people in Haiti and devastated the already impoverished nation.
That movie Avatar has surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing movie worldwide, distributor 20th Century Fox said on Tuesday.
The worldwide total for the James Cameron movie stands at $1.859 billion after Monday's sales, beating the $1.843 billion haul racked up by Titanic in 1997-1998, said Greg Brilliant, spokesman for the News Corp.-owned studio.
The data are not adjusted for inflation.
Avatar broke the seemingly insurmountable record set by Titanic in little over six weeks, handing Cameron the remarkable feat of directing the world's two biggest movies of all time. It has reigned at the top of North American box office for six weeks. It has also led the field in France, China, Germany and Russia.
The action-adventure movie, starring Sigourney Weaver, is set in 2154 and tells the tale of a disabled ex-Marine sent to Earth to infiltrate a race of 10-foot (3-metre) blue aliens and persuade them to let his employer mine their homeland for natural resources. The film took more than five years to make and was reportedly one of the most expensive films, with a budget of at least $300 million.
It has somehow impressed both critics and fans, winning a Golden Globe last week. The movie is also expected to garner an Oscar nomination next month.
Regina's Nancy Armstrong returned from Hollywood with the names and addresses of celebrities who are interested in her Booby Trapper.
Marketing her breastfeeding cover-up at a celebrity "gifting" suite in Beverly Hills a couple of days before the Golden Globe awards, Armstrong was thrilled by the response her creation got from some of the 200 celebrities and media personalities attending the event.
Marisa Coughlan, who has appeared on the television series Boston Legal and on three episodes of the hit TV show Bones, had no complaints about her pleasure with the Booby Trapper.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski won more damages on Tuesday from French publications that printed photographs of him at his Swiss home, where he is confined pending extradition proceedings in a child sex case.
A Paris court convicted the magazines VSD and Voici and the weekly newspaper Journal de Dimanche of breaching Polanski's privacy by publishing zoom-lens pictures of him and his children without permission.
It ordered them to pay a total of 16,000 Euros ($23,000 US) in fines, costs and compensation to him and his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner.
The publications had printed pictures of Polanski and his family at his chalet near Gstaad, Switzerland. The filmmaker is under house arrest there while Swiss authorities consider a demand by the United States to deport him to face charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in California in 1977.
Last week, a Paris court also ordered French daily Aujourd'hui en France, with its Paris edition Le Parisien, to pay 4,500 Euros to Polanski for printing pictures of him in Gstaad.
It convicted that paper of breaching his privacy and the right to the use of his image, rights strictly protected by French law.
Newly-crowned Golden Globe winner Avatar broke the $500 million mark in record time at the North American box office yesterday, quickly closing in on the all-time record held by Titanic for 12 years.
Distributor 20th Century Fox said James Cameron's sci-fi spectacular earned an estimated $54.6 million during the four-day U.S. Martin Luther King holiday, leading the box office for a fifth consecutive weekend. Its total increased to $505.1 million after 32 days. The Batman sequel The Dark Knight held the $500 million speed record, taking 45 days in 2008.
The international total for Avatar increased to $1.12 billion after a $129 million weekend. The worldwide total stands at $1.613 billion, trailing Titanic by just $230 million.
Avatar won Golden Globes on Sunday for best drama and director. All eyes are now on the February 2 announcement of the Academy Award nominations.
The Golden Globes, the awards show known for the fact that it often points toward the Oscars, has called Avatar the Academy Award favourite.
At the 67th Globe ceremony Sunday night, the special-effects blockbuster, which is on track to set the all-time box office record, was named best drama.
How sad...
In addition, Avatar director James Cameron, a Canadian who was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, was named best director for the motion-capture sci-fi adventure whose technical innovations may have changed moviemaking.
Back in September of 2001, the World Trade Centre in New York was destroyed. If you did not know that, you should be slapped.
Anyway, as the years passed, construction of a new building/plaza/complex began, and someone has decided to make a documentary about it.
Oscar-winning film director Steven Speilberg will make a television documentary on the rebuilding of the site, according to The Science Channel. The documentary will be titled "Rebuilding Ground Zero" and will be shown in 2011.
The series will chronicle not just the engineering and the building of the new 541-metre high skyscraper, but will also seek to honour those who lost their lives in the September 11 attack.
Blockbuster Inc. said yesterday that it has eliminated its exposure to the remaining $24 million in letters of credit that it held for Viacom, its former corporate parent.
The move bolsters the struggling movie rental company's financial position. Its shares increased 6 cents, or 8.2%, to 79 cents in afternoon trading.
The letters of credit cover potential liabilities for Viacom related to store leases that began before Blockbuster Inc. was spun off in 1999. Last September, Viacom Inc. agreed to cut the face value of the letters to $25 million from $75 million, since many of those leases have been re-negotiated without relying on Viacom credit.
Blockbuster says Viacom's total liability under the leases has now fallen below $25 million, allowing it to eliminate the letters under terms of their credit agreement.
Shaw Communications Inc. is expanding, again. Following the company's annual meeting in Calgary today, the company's CEO Jim Shaw confirmed that his company is in the race to snap up beleaguered Canwest assets.
Mr. Shaw told reporters he has met with the Asper family, who currently run Winnipeg-based Canwest Global Communication currently under bankruptcy protection.
"I'd call it exploring right now. There's no deal or anything," he said.
At this time, it is still unclear which Canwest assets, including the National Post, Global Television and specialty cable TV channels, might be of interest to Shaw. And in its first quarter results report released earlier Thursday, the Calgary-based company announced plans to enter Canada's growing wireless market at some point.
"During fiscal 2010 we also plan to take initial steps to commence wireless activities, with build out planned over the next several years," Shaw said.
The company reported higher revenues thanks to an increase in bundled television, Internet and phone services. Revenue was up 11% for the period ended November 30, 2009 to nearly $906 million up from $817.5 million for the same period last year. But, company profits took a hit due to higher non-operating costs, including debt retirement of $82 million. Net income fell to $114.2 million, or $0.26 per share, from 123.5 million, or $0.29 cents per share.
"The successful debt offerings at attractive rates completed during the quarter demonstrate the financial and operational strength of the business," Shaw said.
The company's digital customer basis, including Internet and phone subscribers, grew from 88,259 to 1,409,983.
"Our first quarter is off to a solid start," Shaw said.
Revenue in the cable division was up 13% driven by acquisitions and rate increases, the company said. Shaw bought Hamilton, Ont.'s Mountain Cablevision adding 41,000 cable subscribers as well as 30,000 Internet users and 32, 000 digital phone customers. Service revenue for Shaw Direct was also up, the company reported.
"Through high quality customer service, attractive and compelling product choice, and valuable bundled service offerings, we continue to successfully compete in the current landscape."
Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced yesterday that they will delay a fourth film in their billion-dollar Spider-Man franchise by one year and return in 2012 with a new story, new director and new cast.
The "new chapter" will tell of a high-school age Peter Parker, who is the alter ego for comic book crime fighter Spider-Man, who had been played by Tobey Maguire, dealing with human issues as well as super-human predicaments, Sony and Marvel said.
The reboot follows recent speculation about the fate of the movie in development, during which a film's script is worked on and its production planned.
Yesterday, fugitive film director Roman Polanski asked a Los Angeles judge to sentence him on a 1977 charge of having sex with a minor.
Judge Peter Espinoza set a January 22 date for a full hearing on the request, made by Polanski in a notarized document that was signed on December 26, 2009 in Switzerland and submitted by the director's Los Angeles-based lawyer, Chad Hummel.
But prosecutors, who have long sought for the extradition of Polanski to the United States, said they would oppose any bid to sentence him until he turns up physically in court.
Polanski is 76, and is currently under house arrest at his villa in the ski resort of Gstaad, Switzerland, fighting extradition to the United States.
French-Polish director Roman Polanski said on Sunday that he was overwhelmed by messages of support as he battles extradition to the United States to face a case of unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. Yeah... he raped a girl.
"In the darkest moments, each of their notes has been a source of comfort and hope, and they continue to be so in my current situation," wrote Polanski in a letter released online.
The 76-year-old Oscar winner made his first public statement since his arrest in September in a letter to French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy, who has been one of his strongest supporters.
Avatar, James Cameron's science-fiction epic, took in $232.2 million in worldwide ticket sales during its opening weekend and set a record for a 3D movie in the U.S. and Canada. The News Corp. film led the box office with $77 million in U.S. ticket sales and had the second-best debut for a December release, Hollywood.com Box-Office said.
Avatar, Cameron's first movie since Titanic, ranks among the most expensive ever made with an estimated budget of $230 million, according to the Internet Movie Database. The film, playing on 3,124 3-D screens at 2,032 locations, may take in as much as $400 million in theatres, estimates Tony Wible, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.
"It was a terrific opening," said Gitesh Pandya, editor of Box Office Guru LLC. "People are really liking the film: 92% of people surveyed are recommending it to their friends."
The previous record of $68.1 million for a 3-D opening was set by Walt Disney Co.'s Up (which was referenced on The Simpsons on at least two occasions) this year, according to Box Office Mojo, an industry researcher in Sherman Oaks, California.
In Avatar, an Earth corporation seeking rare minerals on a distant planet employs a private army to subdue the inhabitants. Australian actor Sam Worthington plays an ex-Marine who spies on the aliens by inhabiting a body cloned from their genetic material.
Cameron, 55, began writing the story in 1995 and spent 10 years developing technology, including a 3-D camera system, to create the world he imagined.
U.S. actress Brittany Murphy, who co-starred in such films as Clueless and Girl, Interrupted but saw her career wane in recent years, died in Los Angeles on Sunday after suffering cardiac arrest in her bathroom, officials said. She was 32.
She was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center about 10 a.m. PST (1:00 p.m. EST), two hours after her mother reportedly found her unconscious in the shower of the actress' Hollywood Hills home. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner said there were no suspicious circumstances, but that an autopsy would take place in the next few days.
Celebrity gossip Web site TMZ, which first broke the news, reported late on Sunday that there was "a significant amount of vomit" in the bathroom area. It said Murphy had been taking medications for 'flu-like symptoms for several days, and that there were a lot of prescriptions in the house. There was no immediate word from Murphy's publicist beyond a statement that was issued on behalf of her family: "The sudden loss of our beloved Brittany is a terrible tragedy. She was our daughter, our wife, our love and a shining star. We ask you to respect our privacy at this time."
The actress starred in films opposite Michael Douglas, Ashton Kutcher, Eminem and Angelina Jolie, but failed to attain their level of success. In recent years, she worked mostly in low-budget movies, while her emaciated appearance sparked concerns about her health.
"(Today) the world lost a little piece of sunshine," Kutcher, a former boyfriend, wrote on his Twitter page. "(S)ee you on the other side kid."
Murphy was in the news earlier this month when she reportedly was fired from the Puerto Rico set of the indie thriller The Caller. Her publicist said the split resulted from creative differences. When Murphy and her husband of two years, British screenwriter Simon Monjack, returned to Los Angeles, he lost consciousness on the plane and was rushed to hospital.
Murphy was last in theatres with the low-budget thriller Across the Hall, which opened in one theatrer each in New York and Los Angeles two weeks ago. She recently finished work on the Sylvester Stallone action film The Expendables. The acrtess was born in Atlanta on November 10, 1977, and raised in New Jersey. Accompanied by her mother, she moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s in hopes of stardom.
She made her breakthrough in the 1995 feature comedy Clueless, playing a frumpy schoolgirl who gets a makeover from Alicia Silverstone's character.
"I always felt connected to her as we shared a very special experience in our lives together," Silverstone said in a statement to People magazine. "I feel love in my heart for her -- and hope she is at peace. This is truly sad."
The acrtess built on her momentum with a succession of TV roles and appeared in two films in 1999 -- Drop Dead Gorgeous and Girl, Interrupted, for which Jolie received an Oscar. Murphy worked with Douglas in the 2001 thriller Don't Say a Word, and played Eminem's love interest in the 2002 hit 8 Mile.
The following year, she co-starred with Kutcher in the romantic comedy Just Married, and played Dakota Fanning's babysitter in Uptown Girls. But the movies failed to generate much commercial or critical heat. Her last major role was in the 2005 comic-book adaptation Sin City.
Murphy enjoyed more enduring success on the small screen, providing the voice of the vacuous Texan Luanne Platter in the cartoon series King of the Hill. She also voiced a penguin in the 2006 box office hit Happy Feet.
Lawyers for Roman Polanski battled prosecutors in a California court yesterday, arguing again for dismissal of the film director's 1977 guilty plea for having sex with an underage girl, citing judicial misconduct.
But prosecutors told the appeals court the Oscar-winning filmmaker, who fled the United States in 1978 and is now under house arrest in Switzerland, should first return to Los Angeles to face sentencing, as one judge previously ruled.
At stake for the maker of films such as Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist, which earned the French-born Polanski an Academy Award for best director, is perhaps two years in a California prison for the crime. The three-judge appeals panel is expected to rule within 90 days.
A Reuters journalist saw Roman Polanski in one of two cars which swept past some 200 waiting reporters and into the garage of Polanski's luxury home in the ski resort of Gstaad in Switzerland today.
Polanski was released into house arrest in his Swiss chalet today, following his arrest for fleeing the United States for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
"Roman Polanski was today released from custody pending extradition and transferred to Gstaad, where he is under house arrest at his chalet," the Swiss government said in a statement.
Polanski was released from prison after posting a $4.5 million bail, on condition he wore an electronic monitoring tag, surrendered his identity and travel documents and did not leave his house.
That's a shame...
I wonder if he'll cut the device off and escape...
Swiss authorities said on Thursday that they would not contest Roman Polanski's release on bail while the film director fights extradition to face U.S. sentencing over a 1977 case of sex with a 13-year-old girl. The Justice Department said in a statement it had decided not to appeal against a decision by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court on Wednesday that granted Polanski's request for release and would free him as soon as he posted bail.
"Polanski will be released from custody as soon as bail has been transferred, ID and travel documents have been lodged, and the electronic monitoring system has been installed and tested," it said.
The Swiss Federal Criminal Court ruled on Wednesday that the Oscar-winning director could be released against bail of 4.5 million Swiss francs ($4.49 million), but kept under house arrest at his chalet in the resort of Gstaad.
He pleaded guilty to having sex with the girl but fled the United States in 1978 before he was sentenced because he believed a judge might overrule a plea bargain and sentence him to 50 years in prison.
The Justice Department will decide "within weeks" whether to accept the U.S. request to extradite the film director, which was lodged at the end of October, a spokesman said earlier. A closed-door hearing on the case for an extradition has already taken place, the spokesman said. The filmmaker faces up to two years in a U.S. prison if he is extradited.
Polish-born Polanski would have two chances of appealing against any decision to extradite him, potentially dragging the legal dispute on for several months, the spokesman said.
Polanski's films include The Pianist in 2002 for which he won an Academy Award, Rosemary's Baby, Repulsion and Knife in the Water.
Feeling a little more free to do things after some debt refinancing in September, Blockbuster Inc. Now plans to boost its marketing and increase the number of movie copies it keeps in its stores during the fourth quarter of 2009.
The company also plans to start renovation some of its stores, with plans to make minor renovations in about 1,700 stores by the end of 2010.
The company plans to spend roughly $10,000-$20,000 per store to repaint, add flat-screen display televisions and make other minor changes in stores beginning this quarter, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes said. After renovating about 600 stores in 2008, the company was forced to conserve cash this year as the recession and competition took its toll, while it faced tight credit markets.
Unfortunately, despite the "good" news financially, the company still plans to close about 960 stores by the end of 2010.
The bankrupt company that owns the rights to the "Terminator" movie franchise is preparing to auction the rights next year and is already seeing strong interest, an adviser to the company said Tuesday. Halcyon Holding Group acquired the rights to the Terminator franchise in 2007 for about $25 million. The rights include revenue from future films, games, DVDs and television for the series, but the company has no or limited rights to revenue from the first three films.
Halcyon, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August, is a production company that produced the latest movie about the iconic robot from the future, Terminator Salvation. It is looking to conduct a sale of its assets in January, according to Kevin Schultz, senior managing director at FTI Capital Advisors, who is helping the company explore its strategic alternatives.
The company had been in the process of developing a fifth Terminator film after Terminator Salvation took in about $371 million in worldwide box office returns earlier this year.
A Blockbuster employee from the Edgewater, Colorado area claimed that he was attacked and stabbed on Monday evening. Well, he was lying.
Aaron Siebers, 29, reported the stabbing at about 6:30 PM when he walked to his job at Blockbuster.
Meanwhile, cops began a search for the suspects, who had been described as three skinheads or Hispanic males dressed in black. He told cops that they tried to rob him and then stabbed him with a knife.
Investigators then reviewed surveillance video taken at a nearby business, which failed to show an attack.
Siebers was re-interviewed by detectives who said he finally admitted he stabbed himself because he didn't feel like going to work.
That Michael Jackson movie titled This Is It earned $20.1 million at worldwide box offices on its first day in theatres as fans around the globe turned out in very high numbers, according to Columbia Pictures.
The movie studio said that the film, which shows the late pop star rehearsing for a series of comeback concerts before his death in June, made $7.4 million in the United States and Canada, and another $12.7 million internationally.
"The studio believes that the worldwide launch, with very strong performance across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia, represents an amazing beginning for the film and a reaffirmation of the global appeal of Michael Jackson," Columbia Pictures spokesperson Steve Elzer said in a statement.
Michael Jackson returns to the centre stage in Los Angeles today as a long-awaited documentary charting the tragic pop icon's rehearsals for his doomed comeback hits cinema screens for the first time.
Eighteen simultaneous premieres on five continents will launch a two-week release of "This Is It," a portrait of Jackson preparing for the London concerts due to have begun just weeks after his sudden death in June.
The United States has "formally" asked Switzerland to extradite film director Roman Polanski, who fled sentencing in California on child sex charges in 1978, the Swiss justice ministry said today.
Switzerland said that it would make a decision on extradition based on a hearing and on information provided by Polanski's lawyer, but that there was no deadline.
"We will take the time that is needed," justice ministry spokesman Folco Galli said.
Polanski will be able to appeal against any extradition decision to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court and, in the last instance, the Federal Supreme Court, the ministry said.
That's a shame...
I hope the old guy goes to prison, soon.
I also hope he receives a mondo-life prison sentence, like that Madoff fellow.
Advance sales for This Is It look set to make the concert movie starring the late Michael Jackson into one of the hottest tickets of the year. Two weeks ahead of its opening, the singer's concert movie This Is It has generated more than 1,600 sold out U.S. show times and is the top seller this week at two major online ticket outlets. That puts This Is It in the same territory as next month's highly anticipated "Twilight" sequel "New Moon" and other films that have generated high pre-release sales.
"The pre-sales activity all over the world has been nothing short of extraordinary," Steve Elzer, a spokesman for Sony Corp-owned Columbia Pictures, the studio behind the film, told Reuters.
"But exhibitors have really met the demand by adding screens, and tickets are available for anyone who would want to see it, anytime," Elzer said.
This Is It is composed of footage of the "Thriller" singer rehearsing for a series of London comeback concerts just before his unexpected June 25 death, at age 50, from an overdose of powerful medication. The studio has said the 112-minute movie will have a limited two-week engagement around the world, starting October 28, 2009. Online ticket seller Fandango.com reported that it has sold out more than 1,000 show times in the United States for This Is It on its site alone. Competing outlet MovieTickets.com said it has generated more than 600 sold out show times.
This Is It has generated the second highest pre-sales figures of the year for Fandango, just behind forthcoming vampire romance "New Moon," which saw tickets go on sale a month before advance tickets for This Is It became available. Fandango and MovieTickets, the two top U.S. online ticket sellers, said This Is It is on-pace to become their top concert movie ever.
For now, the 2008 film Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour is the biggest concert movie ever for the online ticket sellers. It made more than $70.6 million at worldwide box offices but played in fewer than 700 U.S. theatres. Sony Pictures, which paid $60 million for the footage of Jackson in the film, is aiming to outpace the "Hannah Montana" movie, as This Is It is expected to play on about 3,500 screens in the U.S. and Canada alone. Aside from that, Sony plans to ship more than 8,500 prints of the film to exhibitors in 75 countries, for a near simultaneous worldwide release of the film. Sony said last month that international sales for This Is It have been particularly strong in Japan and Britain.
Jackson was scheduled to play 50 shows in London starting last July 13. Concert promoter AEG Live was involved in the deal to sell its rehearsal footage to Columbia for the movie, which also benefits Jackson's estate and his family.
A previously unreleased song by Michael Jackson titled "This is It" was unveiled to the world yesterday, almost four months after the star's death.
The track was released at the stroke of midnight at www.michaeljackson.com, marking yet another exciting moment in music history for one the world's most revered artists, Sony Music Entertainment said in a statement.
The recording features backing vocals by Michael's brothers and will be played during the closing sequence of the forthcoming film: Michael Jackson's This Is it and featured on a two-disc CD set of the same name.
A new photo of the King of Pop taken during rehearsals at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles will also be unveiled, the record label said.
The album will go on sale later this month to coincide with the worldwide release of the movie on October 28, 2009.
Disc 1 of the album features some of Jackson's biggest hits such as "Billie Jean," "Smooth Criminal." "Human Nature" and "Thriller," which are arranged in the same sequence as they appear in the film. The disc ends with two versions of "This Is It," the original and the orchestral one.
Meanwhile, disc 2 offers fans the early demo versions of "She's Out of My Life," "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and "Beat It." It also featured a recently discovered spoken word poem by Jackson titled "Planet Earth."
Michael Jackson passed away on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50 after taking a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs. And here's an update on the investigation of this death: Los Angeles coroners say that Jackson's death is being treated as a homicide, but prosecutors have not filed any charges, yet.
Next month, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla are going to be visiting our beautiful country. And when they do, they plan to visit twelve Canadian cities in a matter of ten days.
New details of the visit were released this past weekend by the Office of the Prime Minister.
The two will be in the country from November 2, 2009 until November 12, 2009, marking the first trip to Canada for the two as a married couple.
"The visit by Their Royal Highnesses is a great honour for Canadians," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a statement. "It will allow all of us, particularly young people, an opportunity to learn more about the heritage and traditions of which we are all proud."
The Canadian cities included in the visit are:
St. John's, Newfoundland
Cupids, Newfoundland
Brigus, Newfoundland
Toronto, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Niagra-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Petawawa, Ontario
Ottawa, Ontario
Victoria, British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia
Montreal, Quebec
Gatineau, Quebec
Exact dates for the couple's visit to each location were not revealed. However, this will be the 15th official visit to Canada for Prince Charles. His most recent visit was in 2001. Now, if I remember correctly, Prince Charles visited Regina back in 2001.
Remember that old and creepy filmmaker guy that recently got arrested in Switzerland because he had sex with someone that was 13 years old at Jack Nicholson's house?
According to a news released by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office earlier this week, authorities there were talking to the RCMP about detaining the creepy filmmaker in Calgary and having him extradited in December of 1986 when it was discovered that the director was thinking about shooting a movie in Canada.
Alberta film industry veteran John Scott can't recall the project that Polanski was considering, but he remembers that there was excitement among Alberta's film industry bigwigs about the director's arrival. Scott also remembers the reason that Polanski decided not to come to Calgary.
"They were going to arrest him... that's why he didn't come," Scott said Wednesday. Polanski, now 76, was wanted by American authorities for having sex with a 13-year-old girl at a party at actor Jack Nicholson's home in 1977. Even if the girl agreed to have sex with him at the time, it's still considered rape for some reason, because she was young.
Polanski pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse but fled the United States in 1978, before he was sentenced, seeking exile in France. Since then, American officials have sought to have the Academy Award winning Polish-French filmmaker brought back to America to face sentencing.
The director was arrested by authorities in Switzerland on Sunday when he tried to appear at a film festival in Zurich, where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award.
Michael Jackson's fans are obviously ready to rock with him one last time, as next month's This Is It movie about the late pop star breaks records for advance ticket sales, according to the studio behind the movie. Based on rehearsal footage of Jackson taken in the weeks before the Thriller singer's death, the film does not open until October 28, 2009. But early sales began Sunday, resulting in hundreds of sold-out shows in North America alone.
Cities with particularly strong sales include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and New York, said Sony Pictures Entertainment, the division of Sony Co. that produced the film from High School Musical director Kenny Ortega. Outside of the United States, more than $1 million in tickets were sold in Japan on the first day they were available, which was a record, according to Sony Pictures.
In London, This Is It fans bought more than 30,000 tickets on the first day, which eclipsed advance interest in the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings films, which were popular in Britain.
The rehearsal footage for This Is It was produced as Jackson prepared for a series of 50 sold-out comeback shows in London that were supposed to begin July 13. Sony paid $60 million for the footage.
France's political elite rallied to the defence of Roman Polanski on Sunday, calling on Switzerland to free the 76-year-old film director rather than extradite him to the United States. Why would they do something like that?
Artists and filmmakers also urged the release of Polanski, who faces charges of having sex with a girl of 13 in 1977, accusing Switzerland of being overzealous in pursuing such an old case and bowing to U.S. demands. Why would they make these odd accusations when the charges him against him are serious? Having sex with a 13-year-old is considered rape. Polanski was due to receive a prize for his life's work at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday, but was arrested on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant after arriving in Switzerland on Saturday.
"I think this is awful and totally unjust," French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand told reporters.
"Just as there is an America which is generous and which we like, so there is an America which is frightening, and that is the America which has just revealed its face," he added.
The culture ministry said French President Nicolas Sarkozy was following the case closely and wanted the swift release of Polanski, while Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he had expressed his concerns to his Swiss counterpart. Polanski holds French citizenship and is married to French singer and actress Emmanuelle Seigner. He has spent much of his life there since fleeing the United States in 1978, but regularly visits countries where he does not expect extradition woe.
Robert Harris, a British novelist who said he had been working with Polanski for much of the past three years writing two screenplays, expressed outrage over the arrest.
"I am shocked that any man of 76, whether distinguished or not, should have been treated in such a fashion," he said in a statement, adding that Polanski had often visited Switzerland and even had a house in the resort of Gstaad.
"It is hard not to believe that this heavy-handed action must be in some way politically motivated," he said.
Born in Paris, Polanski moved to Poland with his Jewish family when still a toddler shortly before World War II. His ties with Poland are still strong and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he might appeal directly to the U.S. over the case.
Blockbuster Inc. has announced that it is planning to close as many 960 stores in the United States, which represents more than a fifth of its total US stores, by the end of next year. These closures are much more severe than the 380 to 425 stores that the company originally believed that they would need to close.
This new announcement follows on from last month's sale of its 186-store Xtra-vision chain in Ireland, suggesting that the scaling back of its international presence will continue into next year.
The Michael Jackson movie This Is It, which is based on footage from concert rehearsals before his death in June -- will have simultaneous premieres in more than fifteen cities around the world next month, the studio behind the film said Monday.
This Is It opens to the general public on October 28, 2009 for a limited two-week run. While Hollywood movies often have several premieres around the world, they rarely happen at the same time. But for This Is It, more than 15 cities, including New York, Rio de Janeiro, London, Berlin and Seoul, will host simultaneous premieres with a red carpet event in Los Angeles on October 27, said Sony Pictures, which paid $60 million for rights to the rehearsal footage. Names of the other premiere-night cities were not released. The opening events will feature satellite transmissions of Hollywood stars arriving at the premiere in Los Angeles.
London's premiere will happen after midnight local time on Oct. 28, while Seoul's event is scheduled for the morning of that day. In all, more than 25 cities worldwide will have premieres for the movie, but not all will take place at the same time. In the days before he died of an overdose of prescription drugs on June 25, Michael Jackson was rehearsing for a comeback with 50 sold-out shows in London.
The $60-million movie deal was made between Jackson's estate and concert promoter AEG Live and Sony Pictures. Based on proceeds from the movie, business deals and album sales that have arisen since Jackson's death, administrators of his estate expect to generate more than $200 million in revenue before the end of the year.
If you ever listen to music from The Beatles, you should probably know that Paul McCartney is pretty famous. Well, according a poll for Americans, he was their favourite, even though one-quarter of those polled said that the band sucked.
In addition to that, 3% of the 4,837 American adults questioned in the survey said that didn't know the Fab Four's music well enough to make a decision.
Nearly 30% of Americans questioned in the poll selected McCartney, compared to 16% who chose John Lennon, 10% for George Harrison and 9% for Ringo Starr.
"Americans over 30 and those over 65 love Paul," said John Zogby, the CEO of Zogby International, which conducted the survey.
"It must be the crazy love songs and Yesterday. Interestingly, John is the main answer for people who never go to church," he added.
The Beatles, arguably the most successful band, ever, are enjoying resurgence in sales as fans scramble for the group's reissues. The band sold 626,000 albums during the week ended September 13, 2009, according to the tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan, nearly as much as their total, until last week, for this year.
"Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" were among their best sellers.
The Walt Disney Co. Ahs said that it would remake the band's 1968 animated movie Yellow Submarine in 3D.
Those fans of Harry Potter will soon be able to kick back with a glass of "butterbeer" after riding the Hippogriff through Hogwarts grounds.
Apparently, it's not magic, but the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which is a 20-acre theme park, is due to open this spring in Florida, according to the Universal Orlando on Tuesday.
Visitors will be able to sip the non-alcoholic "butterbeer" and "pumpkin juice" at the Hog's Head Pub, go shopping and tour a huge replica of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, just like the school where Harry Potter learned his magical powers.
Other attractions will include the Dragon Challenge, which is a twin high-speed roller coaster, and the Flight of the Hippogriff, which is a coaster for families that will roll along the grounds of Hogwarts.
Within Hogwarts, Universal apparently plans to install state-of-the-art technology to bring the characters and their enemies to life.
Actor Patrick Swayze (one of Nathan Dutnall's favourite actors), who went from Broadway dancer to Hollywood star in box-office hits like Dirty Dancing and Ghost, died earlier today after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57 years old.
Mr. Swayze died at home with his family at his side, according to his publicist. He became a pop culture icon with 1987's Dirty Dancing, which defied Hollywood expectations to become one of the most-watched movies of all time.
Swayze played the swaggering dance instructor Johnny Castle in the film opposite Jennifer Grey's sheltered teenager Frances "Baby" Houseman, who becomes smitten with him while on vacation at a New York resort during the 1960s. Swayze was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly forms of the disease, in January 2008. He said at the time that the cancer had already spread to his liver.
But the actor and former dancer vowed to fight the disease and had treatment with an experimental drug. He then surprised Hollywood by filming a new detective series for television called The Beast in which he played the gruelling lead role. The series was broadcast earlier this year.
Well, we're definitely going to miss Mr. Swayze...
Remember when everyone thought that the drive-in just outside of Saskatoon was going to close?
Well, that's not going to happen, yet.
The Sundown drive-in movie theatre has shown movies for more than 40 years, but its future was uncertain in 2007, when its owner had reportedly sold the land to buyers from Vancouver. However, 84-year-old Duffy Besenski said that the deal fell through, and he's happy it did because the business is brisk.
"It hasn't been this good in 20 years." said Besenski. "So, I might as well keep it going. We're getting a lot of kids coming out there now with SUVs and pickups that were coming in the truck 20 years ago."
Besenski says that he'll keep the drive-in theatre open as long as his body holds up and he hopes his grandson will someday take over his business.
The Sundown, which opened in 1965, is just one of three surviving drive-in theatres in Saskatchewan.
YouTube, the most annoying Internet video website ever, is in negotiations with major Hollywood studios for a deal that would let its visitors pay to watch full-length movies, according to two people briefed on the negotiations.
If an agreement is reached, it would be a major change for YouTube, which has built a huge audience by offering an eclectic collection of free video clips and earns most of its revenue from advertising.
Movie studios have been pushing YouTube to consider charging for certain types of content, said a person briefed on the discussions. YouTube appears willing to do so if the studios agree to give it access to enough of their newer films close to when they come out on DVD.
Matt Groening, the guy who created The Simpsons, which was called the best television show of the 20th century by TIME Magazine, once said that the best of all of the international dubbed versions was the French one produced in Montreal uniquely for the Canadian market.
"I've always considered that a very high compliment," says Hubert Gagnon, the veteran Montreal voice actor who has been the Québécois dub for Homer Simpson over the past 20 years.
The Simpsons is one of the very few U.S. television shows that does separate dubbing in Québécois French, which is distinct from the mainstream French dubbing that is done in Paris.
Films are currently different. But, a steadily-rising number of French-dubbed Hollywood films are being diverted every year to Montreal for local dubbing.
However, in the version of The Simpsons shown in France, all of the main characters speak international French. In Quebec, however, only established types like Principal Skinner and Reverend Lovejoy do.
More than two centuries after the fact, a team of University of Amsterdam researchers have put forth a new theory on what may have killed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart so suddenly in the late 18th century. According to the group's study, reported in the U.S. medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday, a common streptococcal infection could have led to the 35-year-old composer's death on December 5, 1791.
The Dutch researchers dug into historical accounts of Mozart's sudden illness in November 1791 -- symptoms of which included a fever, rash, pain in his limbs and dramatic swelling. They then compared this with more than 5,000 other medical reports from the period.
In their research, the team discovered that Vienna had suffered a strep epidemic around the time of the "Maestro's" death.
"Deaths from edema were markedly increased among younger men in the weeks surrounding Mozart's death compared with the previous and following years," the report said.
However, the team also noted that scarlet fever was also a possibility. Researchers and historians have long hypothesized about what killed the prodigious virtuoso, with common theories ranging from poisoning to an unknown chronic condition to his having contracted a parasite from eating bad pork.
A luxury publishing company said Wednesday that it plans to put together a Michael Jackson photo book that the pop star wanted to create before his sudden death about two months ago. Kraken Opus said The Official Michael Jackson Opus will be available for customers through the website of concert ticket seller Ticketmaster, with delivery set for the Christmas holiday season.
Kraken said it had been in discussions with the pop star before he died, and now the book has been endorsed and approved by Jackson's estate. The book will detail the Thriller singer's life and career, span 400 pages of photos and text, weigh 38 pounds and come bound in leather with a silk clamshell case. The cost: $165.
Jackson's estate has already approved a movie based on rehearsal video that was taped only days before his sudden death on June 25, and the estate is awaiting a judge's approval of a merchandising deal and a travelling exhibition of memorabilia from the King of Pop.
Jackson suffered cardiac arrest and died at age 50 in Los Angeles. Police are currently conducting an investigation that appears to be focused on the role that powerful prescription drugs may have played in his death.
Researchers are hoping that signs of life discovered on a barren outcrop of rock in western Newfoundland will help pave the way for future space explorers to finally prove martians exist. Maybe these martians will start asking you to take them to your leader.
"We're closer now than we have ever been," said Penny Morrill, an earth sciences researcher from Memorial University, "Although I don't think these micro-organisms are what most people think of when they think of martians."
Morrill and her team of researchers from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, East Carolina University and NASA have discovered water in the Newfoundland rocks teeming with microbial life that they hope is similar to what might live on the "Red Planet." They are studying a 500-million-year-old rock formation known as the Tablelands, in western Newfoundland's Gros Morne National Park, which is geologically similar to the surface of Mars. The barren terrain is made up of rolling slopes of boulders that, like Martian soil, is high in iron and magnesium. The chemical content gives the rocks a reddish colour like the Martian surface, making it interesting to astro-biologists.
"Martian meteorites that have crashed to Earth are basically the same type of rock," Morrill said.
The region is one of only five known places on dry land where this type of rock exists. The others are in California, Oman, Turkey, and the Philippines. But much to Morrill's delight, when she examined the toxic water, it was brimming with bacteria. How could one be so excited about water with bacteria?
"The next question is how is the life living? What is it eating, how does it survive in the water and could life similar to this be on Mars?"
Victoria Hipkin, the chief planetary scientist for the project with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), a research sponsor, said the discovery of micro-organisms and methane gas in the Tablelands is an important step in finding Martian life. Methane was discovered on Mars in 2004 and is a possible clue that life currently exists on the planet or did in the past. Methane is created from biological and geological processes.
This should be good news for the Reverend Huy Dang... or not! But either way, it's still exciting, even if the series of movies kind of "jumped the shark" after the first four movies.
One day after Avatar was disappointed at the Oscars, a Vancouver restaurant owner plans to file a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court today claiming copyright infringement against director James Cameron and other makers of the highest-grossing film of all time. 
The world's most famous ogre, Shrek, his princess and his motley crew of friends will open the Tribeca Film Festival next month, with the final chapter of the series making its world premiere in 3D in New York.
According to cops in New York, 39-year-old model Naomi Campbell is accused of striking her driver from behind and causing his head to hit the steering wheel of the car.
Toronto filmmaker Charles Officer turned away from cameras Monday, overcome with emotion following the announcement of the 30th annual Genie Awards nominations.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is again facing plagiarism charges. Her name has now been added as a defendant in a lawsuit against her publishers. The lawsuit, which is being brought in a London court by the estate of the English children's author Adrian Jacobs, alleges that she lifted concepts that include wizard contests, wizard prisons, wizard hospitals, and wizard colleges – from his 1987 book "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: No. 1 Livid Land" and used them in writing "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire."
The Los Angeles County coroner announced their findings yesterday in the death of actress Brittany Murphy. According to CNN, the coroner determined that her death was an accident caused by a combination of pneumonia, an iron deficiency and "multiple drug intoxication."
Blockbuster Inc.'s main American rival, Movie Gallery, filed for bankruptcy yesterday and plans to close a " significant number" of stores.
On January 28, in a security filing, video rental chain Blockbuster Inc. said that the company's director Carl Icahn has announced his intention to resign from the company's board. Is it true? Man, that guy seemed like a real troublemaker. Remember his public conflicts with John Antioco?
Star-struck singers, rappers and actors, including Barbra Streisand, Kanye West and Miley Cyrus, checked their egos at the door yesterday to record a new version of "We are the World" for Haiti's earthquake victims, 25 years after the song raised awareness of the famine in Africa.
That movie Avatar has surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing movie worldwide, distributor 20th Century Fox said on Tuesday.
The world's first film shot by chimpanzees is about to hit the airwaves.
Regina's Nancy Armstrong returned from Hollywood with the names and addresses of celebrities who are interested in her Booby Trapper.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski won more damages on Tuesday from French publications that printed photographs of him at his Swiss home, where he is confined pending extradition proceedings in a child sex case.
Back in September of 2001, the World Trade Centre in New York was destroyed. If you did not know that, you should be slapped.
Blockbuster Inc. said yesterday that it has eliminated its exposure to the remaining $24 million in letters of credit that it held for Viacom, its former corporate parent.
Shaw Communications Inc. is expanding, again. Following the company's annual meeting in Calgary today, the company's CEO Jim Shaw confirmed that his company is in the race to snap up beleaguered Canwest assets.
The bankrupt company that owns the rights to the "Terminator" movie franchise is preparing to auction the rights next year and is already seeing strong interest, an adviser to the company said Tuesday. Halcyon Holding Group acquired the rights to the Terminator franchise in 2007 for about $25 million. The rights include revenue from future films, games, DVDs and television for the series, but the company has no or limited rights to revenue from the first three films.
That Michael Jackson movie titled This Is It earned $20.1 million at worldwide box offices on its first day in theatres as fans around the globe turned out in very high numbers, according to Columbia Pictures.
Michael Jackson's fans are obviously ready to rock with him one last time, as next month's This Is It movie about the late pop star breaks records for advance ticket sales, according to the studio behind the movie. Based on rehearsal footage of Jackson taken in the weeks before the Thriller singer's death, the film does not open until October 28, 2009. But early sales began Sunday, resulting in hundreds of sold-out shows in North America alone.
If you ever listen to music from The Beatles, you should probably know that Paul McCartney is pretty famous. Well, according a poll for Americans, he was their favourite, even though one-quarter of those polled said that the band sucked.
Those fans of Harry Potter will soon be able to kick back with a glass of "butterbeer" after riding the Hippogriff through Hogwarts grounds.
Actor Patrick Swayze (one of Nathan Dutnall's favourite actors), who went from Broadway dancer to Hollywood star in box-office hits like Dirty Dancing and Ghost, died earlier today after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57 years old.
Remember when everyone thought that the drive-in just outside of Saskatoon was going to close?
YouTube, the most annoying Internet video website ever, is in negotiations with major Hollywood studios for a deal that would let its visitors pay to watch full-length movies, according to two people briefed on the negotiations.
Matt Groening, the guy who created The Simpsons, which was called the best television show of the 20th century by TIME Magazine, once said that the best of all of the international dubbed versions was the French one produced in Montreal uniquely for the Canadian market.
More than two centuries after the fact, a team of University of Amsterdam researchers have put forth a new theory on what may have killed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart so suddenly in the late 18th century. According to the group's study, reported in the U.S. medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday, a common streptococcal infection could have led to the 35-year-old composer's death on December 5, 1791.
A luxury publishing company said Wednesday that it plans to put together a Michael Jackson photo book that the pop star wanted to create before his sudden death about two months ago. Kraken Opus said The Official Michael Jackson Opus will be available for customers through the website of concert ticket seller Ticketmaster, with delivery set for the Christmas holiday season.
Researchers are hoping that signs of life discovered on a barren outcrop of rock in western Newfoundland will help pave the way for future space explorers to finally prove martians exist. Maybe these martians will start asking you to take them to your leader.
