Archive for January, 2010

Grammys stage 3-D tribute to Jackson

The “Avatar” 3-D trend is spreading everywhere, with the newest venture being a 3-D tribute to Michael Jackson during the Grammy awards. A specially transformed 3-D version of Jackson’s “Earthsong” will be the centerpiece of the Grammys when it airs on 31 January 2010.

First heard in 1995, “Earthsong” was also included in the “This is it” album as well. The story in the video was modified for the series of concerts Jackson was planning to do before his premature death. “There are these incredible images of the beauty of nature, and then they are seen through the eyes of a little girl, and that girl falls asleep and when she wakes up, she bears witness to the destruction of nature,” said Grammy’s co-executive producer Ken Ehrlich. “It is all about questioning what our values are.”

TV viewers do not need to worry about not being at the event, as CBS will broadcast the 3-D video. However, 3-D viewing glasses must be purchased and this can be done at any Target store as they are the exclusive suppliers.

In his glittering career, Michael Jackson won 13 Grammys’ and so it is fit that he will be honored in the special segment by other Grammy winners. They include Usher, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson and Celine Dion. Every time he performed for the Grammys, Jackson did something that was never done before, so it is fitting that such a tribute is accorded to him. Jackson will also be honored with a Lifetime Achievement award at the ceremony.

2009 Studio Shuffles Brought Lots of Shelving

In retrospect, the decisions taken to shelve these following movies were probably right, however, it would have been good to see them if they had been made.

When Rich Ross took over from Dick Cook at Disney, he decided to take stock of what was realistic and what was not. His most perplexing decision may have been the axing of Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. What no one could explain was why Ross axed the project after the studio had already spent several millions on pre-production. Of course, Ross’ rampage did not end there, Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride starring the original cast and Wedding Banned Starring Robin Williams, Anna Faris & Diane Keaton were dumped. However, the good news here is that all three will have second lease of life in 2011.

Disney was not alone in the axing department; Sony put a stop to Moneyball, a Brad Pitt and Steve Soderbergh movie. The reasoning behind it was economically sound as the movie was based on baseball and was expected to cost around $60 million. The studio felt that the theme would not have much appeal in the international market. However, by the time the cancellation came around, several hundred thousand dollars had already been spent on pre-production. The movie is being rewritten to suit a wider audience with the same actor in the lead but with Bennett Miller (Capote) in the Director’s seat.

The much awaited/dreaded remake of Footloose is also on the shelf because director Kenny Ortega decided to leg it. The dispute about creative and budget differences caused the director to leave while Paramount looked desperately for a replacement. Universal also decided to shelve a Hugh Hefner biopic for undisclosed reasons.

Avatar Tops One Billion Dollars Worldwide

Twentieth Century Fox’s Avatar brought in a worldwide figure of $1.02 billion – making it the most profitable Christmas season ever. The movie is also the fourth highest grosser in history, right behind James Cameron’s Titanic ($1.8 billion), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.12 billion) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($1.07 billion). Experts say Avatar could surpass the latter two with its widespread popularity and buzz.

The domestic box office over the New Year’s weekend raked in an estimated $68.3 million from 3,461 runs – which is the best figure ever for a movie running into its third weekend. Avatar, on its 17th day earned a whopping $352.1 million.

Foreign figures for the 3D science fiction fantasy brought in $133.5 million, bringing a foreign total of $670.2 million in three weeks of release. The global cumulative figures include $66.4 million from IMAX theatres.
Avatar while being in top spot as a mega-grosser – also made room for other movies to unleash their fury over the holidays.

Warner Bros.’ Sherlock Holmes featuring Robert Downey Jr. dropped by 38% to $38.4 million of 3,626 runs to bring in a domestic total of $140.7 million in its initial ten days. In foreign markets, the movie grossed around $37.6 million, bringing its global figure to $229 million.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, another production by Fox recorded domestic figures of $157.3 over the weekend, bringing worldwide figure to $256.4 million.

The global figures of Universal’s romantic flick, It’s Complicated stood at $72.9 million while Paramount’s Up in the Air, starring heart throb George Clooney grossed approximately $11.4 million in domestic figures.

Movie Tickets Tops in ’09

The numbers are in and movie tickets sales have overtaken the retail sales of movies on video, an occurrence that has not been witnessed since the mid 1990s. A recent report released by Adams Media Research confirmed the change in trend, which is mainly attributed to the recession. “…the reversal of fortunes of the theatrical and retail businesses can be laid at the feet of the recession” said AMR president Tom Adams. The theory is quite acceptable, as it seems that American consumers were interested in getting “more bang for their buck” in the face of the ongoing recession.

Theatrical ticket sales ended on $9.87 billion representing a 9.8 % growth, while DVD and Blu-ray movie sales ended on $8.73 billion representing a drop of 13.3 %. Although Blu-ray sales rose by 100 %, it failed to help the dwindling DVD movie market in 2009. But even though it was down in the movie category, DVD sales as a whole (movies, TV series, etc) still heads the entertainment category with a whopping $13 billion.

Rentals seem to be another preferred alternative to purchases; DVD and Blu-ray rentals were up 0.5 % raked in $8.15 billion, while cable, satellite and Telco rentals recorded a 16.3 % growth, totaling up to figures of $1.27 billion. Online movie purchases went up by 72.8 % and online rentals were up with a 60.1 % growth bringing in $250 million and $111 million respectively.

Whether the balance will be restored between the box office and movie disc sales as the recession ebbs is unclear. For the moment the cinema rules supreme.

‘The Shield’ Actors to Appear on ‘Lie to Me’

A mini cast reunion from ‘The Shield’ has been scheduled for this spring on Fox’s ‘Lie to Me’. Executive Producer of ‘The Shield’, Shawn Ryan rounded up six members from his old TV show – they include Benito Martinez, Catherine Dent, Kenny Johnson, David Marciano, Cathy Cahlin Ryan and David Rees Snell. Unfortunately, the star from ‘The Shield’ Michael Chiklis will not be part of the get-together.
The plot for this particular episode titled ‘Pied Piper’ involves a little mixup where Lie To Me’s normal crime fighters Lightman (Tim Roth) and Zoe (Jennifer Beals) speculate as to whether they actually sent the wrong child murderer to jail.

Marciano will be playing the character of Jason Wilkie who is an inmate who Lightman helped to convict for murdering a kid over 17 years ago. The child victim’s uncle and aunt, are played by Dent and Martinez. Wilkie’s younger brother will be played by Snell and his ex-girlfriend, by Ryan. They in turn lead Lightman to his new suspect in this episode, photographer Malcolm Hessler who will be played by Johnson.

Although the actual date of airing for the return of the TV show in midseason is yet to be confirmed, it has been scheduled for spring in 2010. The winter finale of Lie to Me was aired on December 14, 2009.

Shawn Ryan, creator of The Shield won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series during his period on the TV show.

TV Sector Healthy in Asia

Early December 2009 saw the three day Asian Television Forum Conference and Trade Show take place in Singapore. The Conference focused mainly on the comparatively boorish health of the Asian TV sector as well as China’s steadily growing significance towards expansion in the region. The ATF converged mainly on improving international alliances, especially within the Asian region.

Christopher Chia, CEO, Media Development Authority, Singapore said, “Our growing international links and media collaborations are a vote of confidence in the capabilities of the Singapore media industry at large.”

He also emphasized on the importance of the 3D format to the TV business while he launched a deal-signing ceremony with a 3D movie.
Other deals signed at the ATF included the Shanghai Media Group as well as a new company, Xinya Media that is based in Singapore. Most of the focus on these deals lay in repackaging Chinese content in order for it to be sold abroad.

Meanwhile, MyChinaChannel in Singapore also signed up with Shanghai Media Group’s distribution division, Wings Media to coproduce two infotainment shows. One of them would be a 13 episode show on modern China titled ‘China Trend’ while the other is called ‘Foreigners in China’, documenting on how foreigners adjust to the ‘Chinese’ way of living.

“China’s growth and transformation in the past and coming years is more than fascinating and it has translated into equally captivating subject-matter for content creation for the global market,” said Melvin Ang, executive director of MyChinaChannel.

Tyra follows Oprah

After five successful seasons, Tyra Banks has decided to call it quits with her show. The Tyra Show was immensely popular with women as it was often centered on the themes of “empowerment of women” and “inner beauty”. The series will run its course, however, and end in 2010. “This will be the last season of The Tyra Show,” Banks exclusively revealed to People magazine. “I’ve been loving having fun, coming into your living rooms, bedrooms, hair salons for the past five years.”

The announcement comes close on the heels of the bombshell dropped by daytime talk show queen and media mogul Oprah Winfrey, when she announced the end of the Oprah show. The longest running daytime talk show will come to an end in September 2011 after an amazingly popular run. All is not lost as Oprah plans on concentrating on The Oprah Winfrey Network and will be back on air with a new talk show on that network. Details of the new show have not been revealed yet.

“With Oprah’s big announcement this year, I think that gave Tyra the confidence to get out there and follow her longtime dream of film producing,” said a source for People magazine. The void in daytime television left behind by the departure of these two hosts will be hard to fill, both in stature and in programming. How it pans out will be known in the months ahead, but in the meantime Tyra will still be around on TV. She still plans to continue with her other shows America’s Next Top Model and True Beauty.

Jordin Sparks Light Up Career

Jordin Sparks’ music career had a grand start – winning American Idol – one of the best launching pads in the music industry for young and upcoming music artists. The challenge begins once you leave the shores of American Idol.

Sparks says, “”On ‘Idol’ you have to be prepared every week and understand that people are watching and judging you. I carry those lessons (with me) every day.”

Merely a month after winning the competition, Sparks released her first album. The self-titled album sold 1.6 million copies globally, and won Idol’s youngest winner a Grammy and an American Music Award in the adult contemporary category.

Once she had spotted out producers for her next album, she spent almost four months on it. Her 2nd album, Battlefield was launched in July, and earned her much acclaim for her dramatic R&B pop feel that made her one of the firm favourites of American Idol. Two tracks on Battlefield made it to the Billboard top 10: the title track and her cover S.O.S (Let the Music Play).

Sparks opened for the Jonas Brothers, Britney Spears and Alicia Keys – an incredibly clever method of reaching her audience.

Sparks has quite a few honors to her name, some of them include:

– Appointed by President George W. Bush as a member of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation for a two-year term in August 2008
– Youngest person in history to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl
– No Air won New Zealand’s #1 song of 2008