In 2008, the Tolkien Estate’s claimed that New Line studio had not paid millions of dollars in royalties it owed for the distribution of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Peter Jackson and the Tolkien Estate did not take very well to New Line’s creative accounting and turned this claim into a lawsuit. In October 2008, both parties were in heavy negotiations trying to reach a settlement, and that settlement has finally been reached.

As a result, the Hobbit can now go into production minus any delays. The settlement means The Hobbit franchise has been released to New Line who plan on putting Guillermo del Toro behind the camera in early 2010. Expect two instalments coming out in 2011 and 2012.
Sources says the studio owed 7.5% of gross receipts from all three films, though the exact number New Line settled at to get the Tolkein Estate of their back is still unknown. The Lord of the Rings raked in around $3 billion worldwide, plus revenue from other venues as well. This puts New Lines’ IOU to the members of the trust at an estimated $220 million.

Christopher Tolkien, son of the J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, in a statement said, “The trustees regret that legal action was necessary, but are glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow the Tolkien Trust properly to pursue its charitable objectives. The trustees acknowledge that New Line may now proceed with its proposed films of The Hobbit.”

You might be the one who avidly watches movies, and is known as the film critic amongst your circle of friends. To make their life easier, and even yours, maybe a movie list compilation might come in handy with your friends.

When you watch movies, you might look out for certain qualities and rate it yourself. The storyline, actors, director - your rating scale for movies could be any of these factors or more. Regardless of your rating scale, a movie list must indicate your screening process. Use a movie database software for this purpose. This makes compiling a list for your friends that must easier. It might end up being a lengthy list, but at least you are giving your friends plenty of choices and your likes and dislikes as well.

Rating the movies on your list would be useful, especially for your friends. You might make notes, make your own rating system. If you have a movie database software in place, then this task is made that much easier. You can add notes to the database, and even print out the movie list along with the notes for your friends. The list explains it all.

Once you’ve got this list of movies across your friends, you actually have more time to head out to a theatre with your friends or even by yourself to watch the latest movies. If taking friends along, you can perhaps even encourage some discussion on the film watched and create an informal group of sorts.

When you purchase a home theatre system, you have either done everything right or made absolutely bad choices. Here are the top five mistakes people make with a home movie system:

1. Bigger is better - the screen size is important, but it is not everything. Do not ignore the viewing distance. Make sure that everything looks good at the distance from screen to sofa. Take the measurements into consideration when buying your plasma or LCD screen. When buying an LCD, check out off-axis viewing positions as their viewing angle is limited.

2. Flatter Is Better - yes, it is cooler and may fit better at home. However, correctly adjusted tube-based displays deliver better picture quality. These displays do have a downside, which is that they are a bulky set, and require both initial calibration and periodic readjustment for best picture quality.

3. Ignore the source - this is a big mistake. Video displays are useless without signal sources. If your main source is antenna, you’ll need an ATSC turner to receive digital channels including HDTV, an NTSC tuner will help receive analog channels. Remember to look carefully before making the purchase, a number of digital TVs lack digital tuners.

4. Digital is HDTV - absolutely not. Television hardware and programming can be digital with being high definition. Know what you’re buying. For a instance a display cannot support at least 720 pixels x 1280 pixels if it is not true HDTV.

5. The picture looks awesome, do not bother with the controls - not true. First, fix the elevated contrast setting. Then lower the colour temperature so the whites do not look too blue.

District 9 is a movie about an alien spaceship that comes to rest over Johannesburg, South Africa. The government first waits for something to happen, and when it does not, they drill into the spaceship to make ‘first contact’. When they drill through, they come across malnourished aliens unable to make their way back home. District 9 is then set up, a camp for the aliens to recover, until a better course of action is decided upon.

This feature debut of South African writer-director Neil Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson was called ’smart and vicious and filled with moments that make you smile at the wonders of contemporary film craft, a bravura calling card from an exciting new talent.”

District 9 brings up a number of moral dilemmas. One of them bringing into focus human rights organizations and their role in such a situation - claims of human rights violations are brought up with regards to the aliens’ living conditions. The other is how far one would go to stand up for his/her ethical rights and beliefs.

Reviewers praised District 9 for creating characters viewers got emotionally attached to. When the moral issues surface during the movie, viewers are compelled to ask themselves the same questions. The movie also used a different filming technique. The first 45 minutes of the plot is told via interviews as well as video footage. This provides a clearer picture of the characters and the events about to take place.

With unique filming techniques, District 9 does have its own set of flaws. However, with a good movie, flaws are overlooked in the grander scheme of things. It is not just a good sci-fi flick, but action packed and has a solid story to its name.

Are you ready to put together your own home movie theatre system? Here are a few tips that would help with the shopping:

- HD - choose a wide-screen, high-definition television. Decide on the size of it, depending on your room. If you are on a very tight budget, then a HD is not the option to take.
- Screen size - the bigger the better. The rule of thumb is that the diagonal screen size should not be larger than half your seating distance.
- HDMI/component-video inputs - these will let you connect o high-definition and progressive-scan sources producing the best picture quality. Include composite-video, S-video and A/V inputs as well. Add the A/V inputs to the front or side to enable easy hook ups to camcorders for watching home movies.
- Progressive scan - this should be included in the DVD player. It produces a sharper, flicker-free picture. Your TV needs to have component inputs to support progressive scans.
- Multiple-disc setup - having this feature on your DVD player lets you keep a few movies and CD in the player, making it easier for you. This way you don’t have to change the CDs every single time.
- Speakers - start with three speakers if you cannot afford a full surround-sound setup. Install the centre, left and right speakers. If you like the extra bass, then add a subwoofer.
- 100 watts - any receiver than can produce 100 watts per channel is the most adequate for most home theatre systems.
- Support - look for Dolby Digital support. Ensure that your receiver include Dolby Digital decoding.
- Return policy - keep in mind that some speakers sound great at the store, but not at home. Ensure that a return policy is in place should you be disappointed with your purchase.

Trying to figure out which costumes will be hot for Halloween ‘09? Here are seven costumes that most certainly be the hottest movie costumes for men and boys.

Wolverine - The wolverine costume from the new X-Men Wolverine movie is much hotter than the costume from the X-Men comic book. However, it may not be the most popular costume this season due to its early summer release.

Star Trek Costumes - Star Trek movie released this year has ignited the “Star-Trek-Fan” in almost everyone. Although the costumes in this year’s film are based on the original characters and pretty much the same the do look slightly sleeker. You can find plenty of these costumes at online costumes stores.

Inglourious Basterds Costumes - The combination of Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino has sent this film in to box office record books. So why not don a 1940s G.I uniform this Halloween?

G.I. Joe Costumes - The new G.I. Joe in the 2009 film is a black leather clad jumpsuit wearing soldier with unbelievable skills. Although no official costume has been released yet, they might be available closer to Halloween. If not, you can always wear all-black motorcycle leather jumpsuits.

Transformers Costumes - Which boy or man does not want to be an auto-bot? The second installment of the Transformers franchise was also immensely popular and equally breathtaking. Transformers costumes are available in most costume shops.

Public Enemies - This was another hit film of 2009 and Johnny Depp’s character John Dillon will be a popular choice for this year’s Halloween. Most costume shops have 1930’s gangster outfits with toy Tommy guns, so you shouldn’t have a problem finding one.

Harry Potter Costumes - Harry Potter Costumes have been a popular during Halloween for many years and this year is no different. Almost every costume shop will have costumes for Harry, Ron Weasley, Draco, Hagrid and the crew.

Inglourious Basterds is the latest Quentin Tarantino film to hit the big screens. The movie is based on a World War II film made by Enzo Castellari in 1978. However Tarantino merely borrows the title from the old film and re-does almost everything else.

In this film, Brad Pitt’s character, Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish-American soldiers to perform organized acts of retribution against the Nazi’s in occupied France. This group called the “Basterds” by their enemy performs shocking and brutal acts of violence and mutilation of corpses. They meet Shosanna Drefus (Melanie Laurent) who witnessed the execution of her family and narrowly escaped to France. Then Shosanna together with the Basterds mount their biggest struggle - to take down the leaders of Third Reich.

Many critics claim that this film is very unlike Quentin Tarantino. The film does not build on a series of sequences upping the stakes and ending in a climax, as with his previous films. Those expecting to witness long and brutal gunfights maybe disappointed as they suddenly appear and disappear quickly. There is plenty of humor and long drawn dialogue as with any Tarantino film. However, it must be said that this film is by no means a failure. Although it may not be a modern day Pulp Fiction, it certainly reeks of Tarantino inventiveness and originality, which yet again provides his audiences with a brilliant film and a terrific good time.

Duplicity is a spy-thriller brought to you by the capable Toni Gilroy whose previous film was the immensely entertaining and successful “Michael Clayton”. The plot of the film gravitates around corporate espionage featuring exotic locations such as London, Rome, Dubai, the Bahamas and New York.

The movie features to main characters played by Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. The two agents, Owen belonging to MI6 and Roberts belonging to the CIA meet at the fourth of July celebrations at the American consulate in Dubai. Years later they are out of the government and heading counter-intelligence operations for two massive conglomerates. The movie is entertaining to say the least, hosting a complex plot that revolves around the two organizations trying to find out what the other is doing. Owen and Roberts’ exceptional acting brings out the depth in the characters and watching them exchange comic banter while trying to keep a straight face and read each other’s minds is amusing.

Although the plot is riddled with twists it is comprehensible and simple. The filmmakers make excellent use of flashbacks to convey the essence of spy-thrillers; the plush and exquisite lifestyle where money is not a problem. The movie isn’t as serious as you would expect it to be. The script is full of one-liners exchanged between Roberts and Owen. Duplicity is an entertaining, sexy, romantic comedy coupled with the intrigue of 007-like spy games.

When trying to upgrade to a new TV, most consumers are faced with a plethora of information, numbers and words that don’t really mean anything to then. One of the most common issues buyers have is whether to buy a LCD TV or a Plasma TV. What’s the difference?

LCD and Plasma TVs are two competing technologies that deliver a similar end result; bright, crisp and colorful images, far smother than those on your old CRT TV. The major difference between the two types of TVs is the contrast ratio. Although newer LCD TVs are able match the level of contrast brought about by Plasma TVs, Plasmas still out perform LCD TVs when it comes to media such as DVD movies and video games where pictures fluctuate faster between darker and lighter scenes. When it comes to color accuracy, both types of TVs are on the same level. Newer LCDs employ high-end technology to replicate real life color. However, some critics still claim that Plasmas have a small edge even over the newest of LCDs. Another key difference is that Plasma TVs have a wider viewing angle, generally around 160 degrees, whereas even the best of LCD HDTVs are limited to a 120 degree viewing angle. One more key element that should be considered is the refresh rate. Typically Plasma TVs have a better refresh rate than the newest LCD TVs. That being said, a huge advantage LCD TVs have is power consumption where LCDs consume much less power than a Plasma TV.

As far as critics go, most facts favor Plasma TVs. However at the end of the day the choice depends on personal preference.