Muppets get Pixar help

Posted by publisher | Entertainment | Thursday 29 July 2010 9:49 am

Disney is on the verge of green lighting a Muppets movie and is anxious to get things right. In this regard, they are going the same way they went with the upcoming release of “Tron Legacy” and have enlisted the help of Pixar.

Pixar has an exemplary record when comes to movie releases. Every single movie has been nothing short of financial success. Even rarely, every movie has been found favorable by all critics. Add to this the fact that Pixar keeps winning Oscars and you can see why Disney is so intent on keeping its subsidiary involved in important projects.

In the case of “Muppets“, Disney called on part of Pixar’s “Brain Trust”. Pixar president Ed Catmull and filmmakers Michael Arndt, Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Bob Peterson and John Lasseter made themselves available for the consultation. Muppets director James Bobin, producers Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman and the movie’s lead star Jason Segel participated from Disney’s side.

The reach out to Pixar may be viewed as a sign of desperation or brilliance, but whichever it is it happens to be the right one. Recently, Disney movies have had a rough time at cinemas with “Prince of Persia” and the nesest release “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” not delivering to expectations. Both those movies and two others (“When in Rome,” “The Last Song“) were projects that were begun by the previous administration. Therefore the new administration, it appears, wants to prove a point.

So far Pixar and Disney have not commented on the outcome of the meeting.

90s music – A change of seasons

Posted by publisher | Entertainment | Wednesday 21 July 2010 7:03 am

While the eighties was all about glam rock that included long hair, riveting guitar solos, melodic vocals, 90s music brought gems like Kurt Cobain, Metallica and a blast of bands that brought on the thrash metal era while pop music also changed from the synth-pop sounds of the eighties.

Almost every glam band disappeared during this era except for the phenomenon now known as Guns N Roses. And their story has continued on into the New Millennium with no band receiving as much attention as this band has.

Talk radio fueled the fire, with interviews speaking of gossip amongst both factions of Gnr while the whole nation went into shock as Kurt Cobain committed suicide. All in all, there was some spice when it came to the music scene of nineties.

It was only in the late nineties that class acts such as Mr. Big and Van Halen among other bands began to resurface to play new material, and the radio was there once again to give us all the latest news while streaming radio did their bit too, for those who lived outside the United States.

Now, with the internet in full flow, not only can listen to interviews, listen to band songs from the nineties but also read bios and watch rockumentaries of these bands as well.

And why not, a little walk down memory lane never hurts anyone.

Weeks of Jail Time for Lindsay Lohan

Posted by publisher | Entertainment | Tuesday 20 July 2010 2:41 am

Actress Lindsay Loahn will be spending several weeks of jail time as her punishment in violation of her probation for DUI. The said facility where she will be locked in is located far away from Hollywood – inside a commonplace two storey structure which stands next to a busy road inside an industrial area. The actress is to start her sentence on July 20 at the unwelcoming 16-year old prison in Lynwood California called the Century Regional Detention Facility located downtown southern Los Angeles. Lohan is said to be housed inside the 2,200-bed structure’s special needs area, where she is to live alone for her well-being.

Because of jail overcrowding and the program that gives credit to the inmates for their good behavior, nonviolent female law offenders such as Lindsay Lohan would usually serve about 25% of their sentenced jail time according to Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the Los Angeles’ County Sheriff Department. This would mean that Lohan’s 90-day jail time could be cut to approximately 3 weeks, which is actually the time for the advance screening of the movie “Machete”, which opens September 3 wherein Lohan plays as nun. This is not the first time that the actress has been to jail. It can be recalled when Lohan spent 84 minutes of lockup in this same facility in 2007 for the same crime – DUI.

The sentence was reduced from the original one day lockup period due to jail overcrowding. During the sentence, she was fingerprinted, searched and locked in bars but the officials have allowed her to keep her street clothes on.

    Paris Hilton Detained in Paris

    Posted by publisher | Entertainment | Saturday 10 July 2010 11:17 pm

    The French media has reported that actress Paris Hilton was momentarily detained after a small amount of marijuana was detected by sniffer dogs on July 17. Reports from the French newspaper Corse Marin states that the actress was caught with possession of the illegal substance (approximately one gram of marijuana) in the Figari airport. It was said that Hilton was aboard a private jet on July 16 going to the French Mediterranean Island when she was held for interrogation but was released after about half an hour in detention.

    In Corse Matin’s website, the column stated that Paris Hilton was aboard with powerful individuals from Malaysia, who were travelling from the capital of France to Porto Cervo, Sardinia. Meanwhile, in Hilton’s Twitter account (TwitLonger), Paris stated on July 17 “Just to put an end to these rumors. The stories saying I have been arrested are completely false!” “I am having the best vacation of my life”. Not a month ago, Paris Hilton was detained right after the World Cup match of Brazil and Netherlands came to a close in Port Elizabeth, South Africa when the actress was suspected to have possessed marijuana, but the accusation was dropped after a midnight court hearing. These cases as well as DUI’s are not new to the actress.

    It can be recalled back in 2007 when Hilton was accused of reckless driving and driving under the influence. She pleaded no contest, and had to spend 45 days in custody. After spending half of her sentence, the actress announced in US TV that her experience made her evaluate the effects of partying, and concluded that she will be dedicating her time helping raise funds for people suffering from multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.

      Zimmer’s Dreams Come True?

      Posted by publisher | Entertainment | Sunday 4 July 2010 9:28 am

      Hans Zimmer and Christopher Nolan have successfully collaborated in the past and their latest partnership will be judged against the success of those past endeavors. “Inception” is the third collaboration between the two men and the soundtrack is titled “Inception: Music From the Motion Picture”. Previously, Zimmer had composed the soundtracks to Nolan’s extremely successful “Batman Begins” (2005) and “Dark Knight” (2008). Zimmer said that Nolan had been discussing the movie with him for almost a year before a script was handed to him.

      He said that at that point, it became obvious that some radical thinking was required. This meant more ideas being fired back and forth between himself and Nolan. Once filming started, Zimmer visited the set to get into the mood of things and to get a feel for the atmosphere. But strangely, he was not allowed to watch the edits as Nolan wanted him to work independently.According to Zimmer, this was in line with the theme of the movie which was “shared dreaming”. The concept on a very basic level was that if two minds work on the same project at the same time, their minds would get attuned them to the same pattern of thinking; therefore arriving at the desired result. So the first time Zimmer saw the edit was when the soundtrack had been ported on to it. His reaction – “It was surprising how well it worked”.