“YouTube Goes to Hollywood - MSNBC” plus 4 more

YouTube Goes to Hollywood - MSNBC
Reports say YouTube is in talks to deliver movie rentals - Boston Globe
Boy falls into Boston zoo movie set's lion pit - The Guardian
Star power in anniversary film - Straits Times
Recent movie releases - Detroit Free Press

Posted: 02 Sep 2009 10:54 PM PDT

Piano playing cats and booty dancers could soon have some stiff competition.

YouTube is in talks with Hollywood movie studios to stream films on a rental basis, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The video arm of Google is discussing the proposition with studios like Lion's Gate Entertainment and Warner Bros. It appears that in most cases the movies would be available on a rental basis, although some might appear on the site for free.

If it comes to fruition, the move would represent a fundemental shift in YouTube's business model, which currently provides video content for free with advertising. YouTube is not yet a profitable company.

The Journal's source said that under the deal being discussed, some movies might be available on YouTube the day they are released on DVD.

There is speculation that the movies would cost around four dollars each to rent, the same price iTunes charges to rent recently released films.

Other sources said that 10,000 Google employees are schedule to test the movie rental service for three months before it is offered to the public. An earlier trial date was delayed due to studio negotiations, according to the Journal.

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Reports say YouTube is in talks to deliver movie rentals - Boston Globe

Posted: 02 Sep 2009 11:58 PM PDT

Every studio would probably come to different terms, but most would receive about 60 percent of the revenue from each rental, with a floor of about $2.40, which could vary depending on the age of the title, the person said. That would be similar to the studios' deals with other online outfits, as well as those agreed upon with cable operators, which offer videos on demand.

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Boy falls into Boston zoo movie set's lion pit - The Guardian

Posted: 02 Sep 2009 11:08 PM PDT

RUSSELL CONTRERAS

Associated Press Writer= BOSTON (AP) â€" A teenage boy visiting a zoo on Wednesday fell into a lion pit that's part of a set for the upcoming Kevin James and Adam Sandler movie "The Zookeeper," but he wasn't badly hurt.

No animals were in the area at the time of the accident at the Franklin Park Zoo, spokeswoman Brooke Wardrop said, and the movie crew wasn't on the set.

The 16-year-old boy tumbled about 25 feet into the pit, where a net broke his fall, and his injuries weren't considered life-threatening, fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald said.

The initial emergency call to firefighters was about a person who had fallen into a zoo's lion pit, MacDonald said.

"You know, you start having these images of animals outside, but once the officials assured us that there were no animals at all, it pretty much became a standard extrication from a hole," he said.

When firefighters showed up, there was a movie set medic with the boy, who was conscious and talking as emergency workers put him on a stretcher before taking him to a hospital.

The boy, MacDonald said, was in an area where he shouldn't have been and wasn't working for the movie, which features James, the former star of the CBS sitcom "The King of Queens," as a zookeeper unlucky at love.

Zoo officials were investigating the afternoon incident, which occurred in an old gorilla exhibit known as the Lion's Den for the movie.

In "The Zookeeper," James' lovelorn character has animal friends that break their code of silence and reveal they can talk in a desperate attempt to help him win the girl of his dreams and prevent him from quitting his job. The movie also features Cher and Sylvester Stallone.

The Franklin Park Zoo, which has hundreds of exotic animal species from around the world in exhibits including a tropical rain forest, the Australian outback and the African savannah, made headlines in July after its operator suggested some animals might have to be destroyed because authorities cut $4 million in state funding.

Gov. Deval Patrick called the claim a scare tactic. He said no animal would be killed or was ever truly threatened with euthanasia. He said the zoo had responded to the budget cut "by spreading inaccurate and incendiary information."

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Star power in anniversary film - Straits Times

Posted: 02 Sep 2009 08:16 PM PDT

HONG KONG - CHINA'S staid cultural commissars are turning to the likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, hoping that an injection of star power into a state-funded movie about the communist revolution will attract young Chinese normally turned off by government propaganda.

Jian Guo Da Ye, or The Founding of a Republic, which opens in two weeks, was commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic on Oct 1.

In retelling the tale of communist triumph known to all Chinese, the movie's cast reads like a 'Who's Who' of the Chinese film industry. Besides Chan and Li, there's Zhang Ziyi of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Tiger, Stephen Chow of Kung Fu Hustle and action picture director John Woo, among many others.

The inclusion of the stars - many of whom make nothing more than brief cameos - highlights the Communist Party propaganda czars' increasing recognition that to get the attention of the iPod-toting, Nike-wearing set, they'll have to put out a slicker product.

Not long ago, China's state-supported film and TV studios turned out exclusively predictable fare on tight budgets, often focusing on dowdy revolutionary heroes who were decidedly out of sync with the well-dressed singing idols and action stars coming out of trendsetting South Korea or Westernised Hong Kong. Chinese stars who made it in Hong Kong or Hollywood mostly kept the mainland industry at arm's length.

But as entertainment options have multiplied in China's booming economy - from big Hollywood releases to pirated DVDs to YouTube-style video-sharing Web sites - the Communist Party's Propaganda Department has been forced to adapt to get its message across to reach savvy youngsters normally disdainful of official media.

Meanwhile, ethnic Chinese filmmakers who made good abroad are sensing the huge potential of the mainland market - and know it's politically smart to get on board with the anniversary film to ensure future success.

While still small compared to the US, the Chinese box office is growing rapidly fueled by a flurry of movie theater construction, surging more than 30 per cent to 4.3 billion Chinese yuan (S$907 million) in 2008. US box office revenues reached nearly US$9.8 billion last year.

After 16 years in Hollywood, Woo returned to China two years ago to make the US$80 million two-part historical epic Red Cliff. Chan and Li's 2008 kung fu film The Forbidden Kingdom was a US-Chinese co-production shot in eastern China.

And Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee agreed to edit a line in his 2007 spy thriller Lust, Caution to make it less obvious that a lead character helps a Chinese traitor in Japanese-occupied Shanghai - conforming with official sensibilities of patriotism. -- AP

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Recent movie releases - Detroit Free Press

Posted: 03 Sep 2009 12:27 AM PDT

"District 9" ***

After spending 20 years in a South African shantytown, alien creatures are rounded up and sent to a concentration camp in Johannesburg native Neill Blomkamp's gory film, which aspires to be a sci-fi "Black Like Me." As allegory, "District 9" isn't all that compelling, but as straight sci-fi action, it packs a punch. Rated R; bloody violence, language. 1 hour, 52 minutes. By Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel.

"The Final Destination" *

Four college friends go to a stock car race, and one of them has a vision of a crowd-killing accident just before it happens. The friends leave just before the accident, but soon run into other disasters that take out the survivors who "should have been killed" at the car race. Rated R; violent and gruesome accidents, language, a scene of sexuality. 1 hour, 24 minutes. By Roger Moore.

"The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard" *

Raunchy comedy about a team of used-car sales reps charged with selling 141 cars over a long holiday weekend at a troubled California dealership. Jeremy Piven leads a promising cast that includes Ving Rhames, James Brolin, Alan Thicke and Will Ferrell, but the movie they've made is repetitive, adolescent and lame. Rated R; sexual content, nudity, language, drug content. 1 hour, 30 minutes. By Christy Lemire, Associated Press.

"Halloween II" *

A year has passed since the events of the first "Halloween." (Director Rob Zombie remade the stylish 1978 original in 2007.) Halloween is approaching, and the lost "body" of Michael Myers has been lying low and having flashbacks to his dead mom. During a couple of brutal nights, Michael works his way back into the town of Haddonfield for another shot at killing the scarred victims of his last rampage. There no suspense but lots of pretentious symbolism. Rated R; bloody violence, terror, language, crude sexual content, nudity. 1 hour, 39 minutes. By Roger Moore.

"Inglourious Basterds" *

This remake of 1978's really bad "The Inglorious Bastards" is an intentionally dumb and violent shoot-'em-up with barely a hint of the original film. Worse yet, Quentin Tarantino remade it at quarter-speed. It's slow and incompetent. Rated R; graphic violence, language, sexuality. 2 hours, 35 minutes. By Roger Moore.