“Michael Jackson movie This Is It will preview in 15 cities - Daily Telegraph” plus 4 more

Michael Jackson movie This Is It will preview in 15 cities - Daily Telegraph
Research group nabs $1M Netflix prize to improve movie picks - Riverside Press Enterprise
Pianist known for movie theme songs dies at 88 - Napa Valley Register
Jackson's love child 'in Jacko movie' - Adelaide Now
Michael Jackson's lovechild to play him in new movie - News.com.au

Michael Jackson movie This Is It will preview in 15 cities - Daily Telegraph

Posted: 21 Sep 2009 11:50 PM PDT

Published: 1:32AM BST 22 Sep 2009

"This Is It" opens to the general public on Oct. 28 for a limited two-week run. More than 15 cities, including New York, Rio de Janeiro, London, Berlin and Seoul will host simultaneously premieres with a red carpet event in Los Angeles, said Sony Pictures, which paid $60 million for rights to the rehearsal footage. Names of the other premiere-night cities have not yet been 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, 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.

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Research group nabs $1M Netflix prize to improve movie picks - Riverside Press Enterprise

Posted: 21 Sep 2009 06:07 PM PDT

And the winner is ... Netflix.

Netflix Inc. awarded a $1 million prize Monday to a seven-member international research group as part of a three-year, intensely waged contest to help the online movie rental company predict more accurately what movies its customers will like.

What Netflix gained from the experience is likely worth more than $1 million, and the company's launch of a second $1 million contest shows it is well aware of that. In fact, when the contest launched in 2006, the first entrants took just three weeks to improve on what Netflix's internal team had been able to do on its own.

By identifying ways that Netflix could improve its movie recommendations by at least 10 percent, the winning BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos team is actually letting Netflix make picks that are twice as good as they are now.

That's important if Netflix wants to retain subscribers and keep them from exhausting their list of movies to watch. With more than 100,000 films and TV shows available, it's not enough to simply list them alphabetically, or even by genre.

Netflix's recommendation system is the software version of the video store clerk who's a movie buff, except the Netflix computer knows your personal tastes and doesn't pass judgment if "Runaway Bride" is your top pick.

Loved "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"? How about "Clerks"? If you rated both flicks at least four out of five stars, Netflix's system will likely suggest "Shaun of the Dead," a British zombie comedy from 2004. It is in Netflix's best interest that you like it -- after all, no one keeps going back for movies they hate.

But Netflix sometimes recommends duds, and incorporating BellKor's improvements will reduce the chances of that happening and double Netflix's chances of giving you the right pick.

The Netflix Prize contest was a close call. BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos and a rival group called the Ensemble each showed a 10.06 percent improvement in movie picks over Netflix's own Cinematch system.

BellKor was declared winner at an awards ceremony Monday because it submitted its final entry just a few minutes ahead of Ensemble. Like in a good cliffhanger, both came dangerously close to the deadline.

For those more excited by algorithms than touchdowns, following the Netflix Prize has been like the Super Bowl. And the winning method could have implications well beyond Netflix recommendations; any business that uses people's preferences to sell products could learn from the exercise.

Under the rules of the contest, the winning entry will be published at the University of California, Irvine's Machine Learning Repository, and Netflix will be able to use BellKor's work without paying royalties. The team is free to license it to other companies, too.

Tens of thousands of people have pored over the problem since the contest began in October 2006, using a database of 100 million real-life movie ratings from Netflix customers, with personal identities removed.

More than 51,000 contestants from 186 countries participated.

"I was stunned at how the Netflix Prize created its own economy of researchers competing and collaborating," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said.

He called the contest a "bona fide race right to the very end." As the race grew tighter, teams began to realize they would get better results if they combined their efforts. In the end, one-time rivals joined forces to form the two remaining powerhouses, BellKor and the 30-some-member Ensemble.

The winning team consists of two researchers at AT&T Inc., two engineers from Montreal, a research scientist at Yahoo Inc. and two machine-learning researchers from Austria. Netflix said all seven met in person as a group for the first time Monday.

Netflix is now planning a second contest -- a sequel, if you will.

The first required contestants to improve predictions for subscribers who regularly provide ratings on movies they've watched, 50 movies or more, on average. The second will involve those who don't rate movies often or at all; that's about half of the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company's 10 million-plus subscribers.

The second contest also dangles $1 million as a final prize, but unlike the first, it has firm deadlines, the first at six months and the second at 18 months, when the contest wraps up.

Netflix will offer 100 million data points, such as information about renters' ages, genders, ZIP codes and previously chosen movies. The information will be provided anonymously so that it can't be traced to a specific subscriber.

Chris Volinsky, a member of the winning team and director of statistics research at AT&T, wouldn't say whether he plans to enter this one, too -- just that he'll "take a look at it."

"When we started, we never thought we'd come close to winning," he said.

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Pianist known for movie theme songs dies at 88 - Napa Valley Register

Posted: 22 Sep 2009 12:05 AM PDT

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Jackson's love child 'in Jacko movie' - Adelaide Now

Posted: 21 Sep 2009 05:52 PM PDT

MICHAEL Jackson's secret "love child" is reportedly to play him in a new movie about the King of Pop's glory years.

Omer Bhatti - revealed as his fourth child after his death - has worked as a Jackson impersonator.

And now the family has chosen him to bring his father back to life in a film charting his rise to fame as the world's biggest pop star during the 1980s, The Sun newspaper in the UK reports.

Jackson is said to have told pals in 2004 that 25-year-old Omer was his son from a one-night stand.

And the Norwegian has been welcomed into the family fold following Jacko's death from a drugs overdose at the age of 50.

"Michael's story from childhood to the height of success is nothing short of astounding," a friend said of the planned film.

"It needs to be told and that's what his family want."

The film will focus on Jackson during his 20s from the success of Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad but before the child abuse controversy in 1993.

"The family feel fans would love to see a dramatic retelling," the friend said of the planned film.

"They want to cover his childhood and family life but focus on when his career went into overdrive."

Omer has been staying at the Jacksons' California home since Michael's death in June from Acute Propofol Intoxication and is believed to be seeking a DNA test to prove the star is his dad.

Omer first met Michael in 1996 in Tunisia whilst on a family holiday with his mother Pia and stepfather Riz. He impressed the star with his dance moves and they became "best friends".

In 1997, the family moved into Michael's luxury estate, where Pia is believed to have worked as a nanny and Riz a driver.

"The family is close to Omer, as Michael was. He is a fantastic performer and they would like him to play the adult Michael," the friend said.

Filming is expected to start early next year.

Meanwhile, Michael's father Joe Jackson has claimed he tried to save his son from using prescription drugs shortly before his death, but was prevented by his bodyguards.

He said: "I thought, 'I'll go get my gun and shoot my way to Michael.'

"I said to my wife, Katherine, 'We must get the boy out of there or he is dead in one week.' And one week later he was indeed dead."

Also, Madonna thought Michael Jackson was "too shy".

The Revolver singer spent weeks working with the 'King of Pop' several years ago, but never recorded a duet with him because Michael was scared of Madonna's "provocative" music.

The 51-year-old star recalled: "We spent a chunk of time together, and became friends, but it never happened. I wrote a bunch of words and presented them to him, and he didn't want to go there.

"He didn't want to be provocative. And I said, 'Well, why come to me?' I mean, that's like asking Quentin Tarantino to not put any violence in his films. I felt like he was too inhibited, too shy."

Madonna paid tribute to Michael - who died in June of acute propofol intoxication - in an emotional speech at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month.

Even though she used the occasion to "say goodbye" to her old friend, the star admits she can't stop thinking about Michael, and the torment he faced at the hands of the media.

She told Britain's Times newspaper: "When I heard he had died, the first thing that came into my head was the word 'abandoned'. I feel like we all abandoned him and put him in a box and labelled him as a strange person.

"And it used to pain me to see people go write such horrible things about him, accuse him of being a child molester, and all these things that nobody had any proof of because I've had plenty of things I've been accused of.

"When I adopted David, I was accused of kidnapping him, for God's sakes; and it's very hurtful, and people love to jump on bandwagons. The lynch-mob mentality is pretty scary."

- with BANG Showbiz

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Michael Jackson's lovechild to play him in new movie - News.com.au

Posted: 21 Sep 2009 06:50 PM PDT

MICHAEL Jackson's secret "lovechild" is reportedly to play him in a new movie about the King of Pop's glory years.

Omer Bhatti - revealed as his fourth child after his death - has worked as a Jackson impersonator.

And now the family has chosen him to bring his father back to life in a film charting his rise to fame as the world's biggest pop star during the 1980s, The Sun newspaper in the UK reports.

Special interactive feature: Life of Michael Jackson

Jackson is said to have told pals in 2004 that 25-year-old Omer was his son from a one-night stand.

Gallery: Michael Jackson

And the Norwegian has been welcomed into the family fold following Jacko's death from a drugs overdose at the age of 50.

"Michael's story from childhood to the height of success is nothing short of astounding," a friend said of the planned film.

"It needs to be told and that's what his family want."

The film will focus on Jackson during his 20s from the success of Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad but before the child abuse controversy in 1993.

"The family feel fans would love to see a dramatic retelling," the friend said of the planned film:.

"They want to cover his childhood and family life but focus on when his career went into overdrive."

Omer has been staying at the Jacksons' California home since Michael's death in June and is believed to be seeking a DNA test to prove the star is his dad.

"The family is close to Omer, as Michael was. He is a fantastic performer and they would like him to play the adult Michael," the friend said.

Filming is expected to start early next year.