Tolkien fans will have to wait a long time for “The Hobbit” to become a reality. The prequel to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy has hit a massive bump in the road. Director Guillermo del Toro quit the production after being frustrated by continuing delays.

He said that it was one of the hardest decisions of his life, as he had spent almost two years working on the project. However del Toro will still be involved with the movie as a co-writer for the screenplays. He will fulfill this role along with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Jackson is function as joint executive producer alongside his wife Fran. He managed to seal a deal with regards to the movie in 2007, after which he got del Toro on board.

The main reason for delays has been the situation at MGM. Reports of near bankruptcy have been hounding the studio since late last year and this has prevented any solid work on “The Hobbit” from going ahead. Contrary to popular belief, the movie has not been green lighted and the 2012 date touted by fans is quite unlikely to happen.

The movie required a long term commitment from the Director, and del Toro had been ready for the long haul. He had agreed to spend three years in New Zealand to bring the two part movie to life. Unfortunately with the delays that period had to be extend to six, which del Toro could understandably not commit to. Jackson is confident that this will not affect the production too much, as the movie is still in the early stages and does not even have a go-ahead from the studio.

British screenwriter Simon Monjack was found dead in his Los Angeles home on Sunday. Monjack was the husband of the late Brittany Murphy.
Although foul play was the conclusion by many, police refuted it and said that they had found no evidence of criminal activity or any foul play. According to Sgt. Louie Lozano, a police spokesman, the screenwriter’s death has been attributed to natural causes. The Los Angeles Coroner’s Office will now take over the investigation as criminal activity as a cause, has been eliminated.

At approximately 9.40 PM on Sunday night, firefighters had rushed to Monjack’s home in Hollywood Hill in response to an emergency call. The call had been made by a woman who is as yet unidentified. Murphy and Monjack did share their home with the Actress’s mother Sharon, but it has not been confirmed yet whether she was indeed the person on the phone.

It was only five months ago when Brittany Murphy was found dead in the same home. A visibly shaken and emotional Monjack spoke at his late wife’s funeral, extolling her virtues and calling her his soul mate and best friend. Murphy’s death was also cleared of foul play at the time, and the coroner’s office declared the death “accidental, but preventable”.

Contrary to speculation, the actress was not loaded with drugs nor did it find any evidence of drug abuse. The autopsy revealed that the she was under medication for a respiratory illness. Both her husband and mother said that she had been ill with flulike symptoms in the days leading up to her death.

The Vampire mania that is sweeping Hollywood seems to have no end in sight. “Twilight” and “New Moon” had boyfriends and husbands alike groaning, moaning and dreading a slew of copycats. But the newest offering from Lucas Foster and Warp Films tries to set things back to the way things were.
The movie is adapted from the book “Blood Oath” by Christopher Farnsworth, which hits stores this week. The plot centers around a vampire named Nathaniel Cade who is captured by the U.S. Army after the end of the civil war. Cade is then made to swear an oath to President Andrew Johnson to protect the Presidency, a task which he has carried out till the present day. His new challenge comes in the form of a biological weapon that somehow has links to the White House.

Foster, the producer responsible for thrillers like “Law Abiding Citizen” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”, is very excited by the potential of the story and has great expectations for its success when it comes out in 2011. He is so excited that he has already purchased the movie rights to the unwritten sequel of the book. His decision may be justified as the book has received rave reviews so far. Foster also claims that the book has an excellent mixture of action and different supernatural creatures which keep it lively and exciting. He credits the author with pulling off an excellent job in creating a new vampire saga. Farnsworth has been brought in to help the screenwriters in their work and will receive executive producer credits in the movie.

The summer movie season is expected to kickoff with a bang as Iron Man 2 hits U.S. and Canadian screens this week. The good news for the producers has already started flowing in. The movie has already achieved excellent box office with its advanced overseas release.

The United Kingdom led the way with $12.2 million, followed closely behind by South Korea with $10.8 Million. Overall the movie has grossed over $100 million in its opening weekend overseas. Compare this to 2008’s Iron Man which made $585 million worldwide and you can see why the producers are smiling from ear to ear. The sequel to the 2008 superhero movie is expected to gross over $120 million when it debuts in North America.

This is especially good news for Walt Disney who purchased Marvel last year for a reported $4 billion. The film once again will feature Robert Downing Jr. in his armored suit fighting villains, making snappy comments and generally making the world a safer place. Iron Man 2 will be distributed by Paramount Pictures, which is owned by Viacom Inc., due to a deal that was struck before the Disney acquisition of Marvel.

Iron Man 2 is expected to unseat the current box office leader, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, which is a remake of the classic horror series. “Nightmare” has so far grossed $32 million, ensuring that the $30 million spent on producing the movie is recovered. It also holds the record for the best opening of any horror film in the April-May period.

The Oscar winning war drama “Hurt Locker” is going to war against piracy. The producers of the movie are taking action against thousands of users who took part in actively pirating the movie. The movie’s fancier, Voltage Pictures, has signed up with a group that is actively pursuing a case that targets peer-to-peer BitTorrent users.

The U.S. Copyright Group, which is based in Washington D.C., has already started the ball rolling with regards to several other movies. However, “Hurt Locker” is the only high profile movie on the list. “Call of the Wild 3D” “Far Cry” by German filmmaker Uwe Boll and “Uncross the Stars” are some of the others on the list. So far the group was not taken very seriously by many due to the low profiles of the ten movies that were on the list before “Hurt Locker”. The addition of the Oscar winner has sent ripples through the piracy circles and arrests are one of the options that could be pursued, following a favorable result in the lawsuit.

When the lawsuit is filed, the ISP’s will be subpoenaed for records. These records will then attempt to match IP addresses with unlawful activities on the BitTorrent network. So far the ISP’s have not co-operated fully in handing out the records, but this is mostly because it involves a lot of work for them to do so. The U.S. Copyright Group sends a settlement offer to individuals who are identified. From previous cases, they have a 40% success rate on the offers. Those who did not respond have been sent new offers. The Group said that if they fail to respond to that, lawsuits and arrests will follow. The same procedure is expected to be enacted for the “Hurt Locker” pirates as well.

In the world of adult entertainment, exotic dancers or strippers are but an extension of a man’s fantasy in the real world. Almost every tourist spot in the world today uses this form of entertainment as a way to attract a large part of its customer base, needless to say, a male-dominated audience.

So if one wants to make a career in exotic dancing, the road to success lies in deft use of the stripper pole as well as in maintaining a body that makes men want you as well as women want to be you. Like the handy workman who uses conventional tools of the trade, the stripper uses ‘equipment’ at her disposal in the art of seduction as a means to an end leading to a lucrative career.

What this means for the budding exotic dancer, just as it applies to everyone wanting to be the best at what they do, is long hours of practice in a place of seclusion that will help create your own style of pole-dancing for your awestruck customers.

For this very purpose, a removable stripper pole can be very useful if you would like to use it for your workout and then dismantle it in minutes. Not only can one purchase this very useful type of pole but they can also rent it as well.

If you are already in the stripper profession, you can also find a wide range of poles that can suit every occasion such as portable stripper poles, spinning poles, glow poles as well as poles with stages.

The Na’vi may not have been involved this time but the story mirrored the movie (somewhat) in the Amazon. Recently, Director James Cameron was on location and in action trying to save a certain part of the Amazon from destruction.

Cameron and the Xingu region’s indigenous people successfully put a stop to the construction of what would have been the third largest dam in the world. If it had been constructed, it would have had severe repercussions on the way of life experienced for countless generations of the indigenous people there. The Indians claimed that the fishing, hunting and co-existence they had with the forest would disappear forever. They also said that they feared that their children and grandchildren would never live in peace.

Although this battle has been won, the war to save the forest is only just beginning. The administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has no intention of letting this go quietly. They are intent on appealing the decision by a judge to suspend bidding on construction. This is not the first time that the dam building has been thwarted; back in 1989 musician Sting spearheaded a successful protest that stopped international funding for the dam. But unlike that instance, Brazil does not need any foreign assistance to see the $11 billion Belo Monte dam project through.

As a result, the protestors have a long fight ahead of them if the forest and the way of life of the indigenous people are to be saved.

Next month two movies will hit the cinemas and cause controversy. Both movies have the Islamic religion as the central theme but neither of them attempts to portray it in a bad way. The controversy will come from other elements in the movie and how people perceive it.

The movie “Four Lions” is a satirical look at four males - Omar, Waj, Barry (a convert), Fessel- who get radicalized and decide that they should become suicide bombers. While Omar and Waj go off to terrorist camp in Pakistan the other two stay behind and Fessel comes up with a plan to train crows to carry bombs. In Pakistan Omar and Waj recruit a fifth member to the team but they are back to four when Fessel accidentally dies in a training exercise. The ultimate plan that the team has is to blow themselves up at the London Marathon. The film will no doubt cause a lot of uncomfortable feelings in England as there are many similarities to the attacks that took place in 2005 on the London Underground.

“The Infidel” will stir up some very uncomfortable feelings as it is about a Muslim man who discovers that he was born a Jew. The movie follows the chief character as he tries to discover his roots from his main source, an alcoholic Jewish cab driver, while managing to impress his daughter-in-law to-be’s father who just happens to be a firebrand Muslim preacher.

Although both movies are just about poking fun at religion, how the Muslim community at large will receive it is completely unknown. Even though Muslim actors form a large part of the main cast, the reaction is still expected to be unfriendly.

Marcus Wright, Perseus and of course, Jake Sully are the names that have propelled Sam Worthington in to the limelight and stardom.

Although a somewhat established actor before those key roles, Worthington really came into the public eye when he played in Marcus Wright in the James Cameron franchise “Terminator Salvation.” Worthington had already been involved in the production of the mega blockbuster-to-be “Avatar” long before “Terminator”, so the reception he got based on “Terminator” was a sign of things to come.

As Jake Sully in “Avatar”, Worthington captured the hearts and minds of millions worldwide. A difficult thing to do considering that for 90 % of the movie he was represented by an animated character. Nevertheless, this prompted many to sit up and take note of this “new” talent from Australia. As a result of that Worthington, was cast as Perseus in “The Clash of the Titans”. The remake of the 1981 movie features Worthington as a demigod who fights for humanity against the Olympian Gods, especially Zeus.

The new-found popularity and success is something that Worthington is taking in his stride. He says that he already had a career before this, so this is like a new chapter which he finds exciting and full of opportunities. He is also not worried about choosing the right movies and says that he will do a movie if he feels like it would be something he would watch in a cinema. The actor already has a few movies that are varying stages of production and with Cameron’s “Avatar” sequel looming on the horizon, the future looks good for this star from down under.

The Dragon has landed - gently. The fire and rampage expected from the ticket sales of “How to Train Your Dragon” simply did not materialize. Of course, this does not mean that the movie bombed but rather that expectations were not met. Analysts expected the movie to open to at about $65 million to $70 million in revenues, but it only managed to bring in $43.3 million at the domestic box office.

Disappointing as it may be, this was perhaps only to be expected. The novelty of the 3D market is wearing off. While “Avatar” has become the highest grossing movie ever and “Alice in Wonderland” keeps bringing in the big bucks, the 3D market is perhaps not ready to have more than two movies competing at the same time. Running the “Dragon” up against “Alice” and “Avatar” while ticket prices being higher than normal 2D movies was not a good move in hindsight. The movie being released at a time when ticket prices went even further up was just plain bad luck. All in all, the circumstances did not help the “Dragon” at all.

However, this raises an interesting question. Will the moviegoers be willing to continue paying premium rates for 3D movies? For “Avatar” it was justified as the theaters that showed the 3D version had to upgrade their equipment. But as the revenues roll in, prices should drop and not go up. Addressing this important factor is crucial for the future of 3D movies.