New Bond film title is confirmed
The next James Bond film is to be called Quantum of Solace, producers have confirmed.
The title is taken from one of a collection of short stories published by 007 creator Ian Fleming in 1960.
Producer Michael Wilson said the film would have “twice as much action” as 2006’s Casino Royale, which saw Daniel Craig debut as the iconic secret agent.
The next outing, previously known as Bond 22, is partly being shot at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.
At a press conference at the facility, reporters were shown a minute of footage from the new film, including Bond swinging on a rope after an explosion at an art gallery in Siena, Italy.
Another scene showed him meeting M - played by Dame Judi Dench - outside in the snow.
Filming on the movie has been taking place at Pinewood since November.
Craig said the cryptic title referenced how Bond’s heart had been broken at the end of Casino Royale.
“Ian Fleming had written about relationships,” he explained.
“When they go wrong, when there’s nothing left, when the spark has gone, when the fire’s gone out, there’s no quantum of solace.
“And at the end of the last movie, Bond has the love of his life taken away from him and he never got that quantum of solace.”
Craig said the new film would follow 007 as he goes out “to find the guy who’s responsible”.
“So he’s looking for revenge, you know, to make himself happy with the world again.
“But the title also alludes to something else in the film,” he added.
‘Driven by revenge’
Olga Kurylenko, who plays Bond girl Camille in the film, said that she has yet to film any scenes, but was working hard preparing for her role.
“I’m doing weapons training and body flight training for aerial scenes and stunt work for fighting,” she said.
“This girl is going to kick ass. She’s on her own mission and she’s driven by revenge.”
But it is not clear whether Camille is a secret agent.
French actor Mathieu Amalric, who plays the villainous Dominic Greene, told reporters his character had “the smile of Tony Blair and the crazy eyes of Nicholas Sarkozy”.
Actress Gemma Arterton plays an MI6 agent in the film and has already shot her love scenes with 007.
She said: “I felt like a giggly girl, and I felt so young and inexperienced - but I kissed James Bond!”
The 21-year-old, who recently starred in the St Trinian’s film, said her Bond role is “not so frolicksome” and her character “fresh and young, not sultry and a femme fatale”.
‘Pretty prickly’
Dame Judi Dench, who returns for her sixth Bond film, said: “I get to do more in this one, which is brilliant.”
She hinted that her character’s relationship with Bond would be “pretty prickly”.
Rumours about the name had grown after fans noticed that film studio Sony had bought the domain name quantumofsolace.com.
But co-producer Michael Wilson said the name had only been decided “a few days ago”, adding the story’s start point would be “literally an hour after the last film left off”.
Asked if Casino Royale star Eva Green would appear in Quantum of Solace, co-producer Barbara Broccoli said: “There are no flashbacks in the film, but she’s certainly on Bond’s mind.”
Director Marc Forster is in charge of work on the movie, which is due for release on 7 November.
by BBC
Reference: “Quantum of Solace” is not a spy story and Bond appears only in the background. Told in the style of W Somerset Maugham, the tale has Bond attending a boring dinner party at the Government House in Nassau with a group of socialites he can’t stand.
Bond makes an offensive remark after dinner when the other guests have left in order to stimulate conversation. This solicits a careful reply from the elderly Governor of The Bahamas who tells 007 a sad tale about a relationship between former civil servant Philip Masters stationed in Bermuda and air hostess Rhoda Llewellyn. After meeting aboard a flight to London the two eventually married but after a time Rhoda became unhappy with her life as a housewife. She then began a long open affair with the eldest son of a rich Bermudan family. As a result Masters’ work deteriorated and he suffered a nervous breakdown. After recovering he was given a break from Bermuda by the governor and sent on an assignment to Washington to negotiate fishing rights with the US. At the same time the governor’s wife had a talk with Rhoda just as her affair ended. Masters returned a few months later and decided to end his marriage, although he and Rhoda continued to appear as a happy couple in public. Masters returned alone to the UK, leaving a penniless Rhoda stranded in Bermuda, an act which he’d been incapable of carrying out merely months earlier. But Masters never recovered emotionally, his vital spark never relit. The governor goes on to tell Bond how after a time Rhoda married a rich Canadian and seems to be happy, telling Bond that his dull dinner companions whom he found so boring were Rhoda and her new husband.
While the story does not include action elements, as other Fleming tales do, it attempts to posit that Bond’s adventures pale in comparison with real life drama. Bond reflects that the lives of the people he passes somewhat superficial judgments upon can in fact hide poignant episodes.
Quantum of Solace has been announced as the name of the 22nd Bond movie, although it remains to be seen if any elements of the story will be retained.
The Bucket List
Directed by Rob Reiner
Release Date: January 11th 2008
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Rob Morrow, Beverly Todd, Alfonso Freeman, Rowena King.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OltHNarHA9A
Two elderly men, auto mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) and hospital-corporation head Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson), discover they are both terminally ill with cancer. Sharing a hospital room, they become friends and decide to fulfill their personal desires through “The Bucket List” before they “kick the bucket”. Bankrolled by the wealthy Cole, they sky dive, race each other in classic cars, and take Cole’s private jet around the world.
Cloverfield /1-18-08
Release Date: January 18th 2008
Director: Matt Reeves
Cast: Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, and Michael Stahl-David.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufYF0f-zMgY
Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.
Rambo
Release Date: January 25th 2008
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Cast: Sylvester Stallone
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNvg-SKiUjg
More Info: http://www.trustedlog.com/2007/09/08/john-rambo-attacking-soon-new-rambo-movie-trailer-and-rambo-photos/
When a group of missionary aid workers in Myanmar disappear into the vast green inferno, vigilante Vietnam War veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) leaves his job as a Salween River boatman behind to accompany a group of mercenaries on a daring rescue mission. It’s been twenty years since Rambo helped mujahedeen rebels fend off Soviet invaders in Afghanistan, and these days the former soldier lives a simple life in northern Thailand. Yet despite the fact that Rambo has long since traded his guns for a fishing reel, the world’s longest running civil war rages into its sixtieth year on the nearby Thai-Burma border. It seems like every day more rebels, mercenaries, medics, and peace workers cross through the remote village where Rambo lives, most of them never to be seen again. One day, human rights missionaries Sarah (Julie Benz) and Michael Bennett (Paul Schulze) show up asking Rambo to guide them up the Salween so they can get some much needed food and medical supplies to the desperate Karen tribe. According to Sarah and Michael the Burmese military has planted landmines all along the roads leading into the tribe’s village, making it virtually impossible to reach the tribe via land. At first Rambo flatly refuses to cross into Burma, but these refugees will most certainly die without aid and he eventually relents. Two weeks after Rambo drops the group off in dangerous territory, pastor Arthur Marsh (Ken Howard) arrives with a chilling message: the aid workers never returned from their mission into the jungle, and the embassies refuse to help Marsh and his fellow missionaries find their missing friends. Pastor Marsh knows that Sarah, Michael, and the rest of the missing missionaries are being held hostage by the Burmese army, and in order to hire the mercenaries needed for a rescue mission he has mortgaged his house and taken up a special collection from his congregation. Now, despite the fact that Rambo has long since sworn off all forms of violence, the knowledge that innocent missionaries are being used as pawns in a brutal war leaves him with no other choice than to venture behind enemy lines on his most dangerous mission to date.
Jumper
Release Date: February 15th 2008
Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Samuel L Jackson, Diane Lane, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS8u4MDq7Ow
A genetic abnormality allows a young man to teleport himself anywhere. He discovers this gift has existed for centuries and finds himself in a war that has been raging for thousands of years between ‘Jumpers’ and those who have sworn to kill them.
Iron Man
Release Date: May 2nd 2008
Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrance Howard, Leslie Bibb, Shaun Toub.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgzIM-9lfA
Weapons designer Tony Stark is in Afghanistan to introduce his new missile design to the Air Force until the unit he is traveling with is attacked and Stark is taken hostage. Injured by shrapnel embedded near his heart, his captors order him to assemble a missile for them, giving him access to a workshop. He puts his creativity to use by assembling a bulletproof set of power armor, complete with pacemaker and flamethrowers, and uses it to free himself. Back at home, he becomes Iron Man, developing a flying suit with the red and gold scheme and advanced weapon capabilities. Stark faces the Iron Monger.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Release Date: May 16th 2008
Director: Andrew Adamson
Cast: Liam Neeson (voice), Ben Barnes, Warwick Davis, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Peter Dinklage.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk-D7SuwICU
One year has passed in our world since the first adventure ended, but in Narnia, almost 1,300 years have passed, and now it is time for the Pevensie children to return and make history. The villainous King Miraz prevents the rightful king, his young nephew Prince Caspian, from ruling the land of Narnia. Caspian uses Susan’s magic horn that was left in Narnia to summon the four Pevensies to help him and a small army of Old Narnians reclaim his rightful throne.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Release Date: May 22nd 2008
Director: Steven Spielberg
Teaser 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SrwBZtt00g
Teaser 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug2vcXWczKg
More Info: http://www.trustedlog.com/2007/11/28/indiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull/
Producer Frank Marshall has confirmed that the film is set in 1957, making it nineteen years since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, thus acknowledging the real-life passing of years between films. Indiana Jones is having a quiet life teaching before being thrust back into his old adventuring. He races against agents of the Soviet Union for the crystal skull. “The theory is they are shaped by higher powers or alien powers or came from another world, or an ancient Mayan civilization had the powers,” Marshall explained. Indy’s journey takes him across New Mexico, Connecticut, Mexico City, and the jungles of Peru. There will be some humor regarding Indiana’s age.
The Incredible Hulk
Release Date: June 13th 2008
Director: Louis Leterrier
Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson.
Bruce Banner is on the run from the United States Army and General “Thunderbolt” Ross, trying to avoid capture long enough to cure the condition that turns him into the Hulk. Meanwhile, a soldier named Emil Blonsky repeats the accident that gave Banner his powers, but as he is unable to change back to human form, he blames Banner and seeks his revenge.
Louis Leterrier said that he planned to show Bruce Banner’s struggle with the monster within him. Producer Avi Arad has also said that the Hulk would be more strongly portrayed as a hero than in the previous film, while producer Kevin Feige added the film would explore “that element of wish fulfillment, of overcoming an injustice or a bully and tapping into a strength that you didn’t quite realize you had in yourself.” Arad also said the film would be “a lot more of a love story between Bruce Banner and Betty Ross.”
Get Smart
Release Date: June 20th 2008
Cast: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, The Rock, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Masi Oka.
Get Smart is an upcoming film adaptation of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry’s hit 1960’s spy parody television show Get Smart. The film will star Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 . Alan Arkin will play the Chief. Masi Oka, Terence Stamp, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dalip “The Great Khali” Singh will also star. Bill Murray and Patrick Warburton make cameos in the film, as does Bernie Kopell, who played Siegfried in the original series.
Shooting began February 2007, and was continuing as of June 2007. Some scenes were shot in Montreal, Quebec, Canada between June 11 and June 13, 2007 at 1507 Docteur-Penfield Avenue and at McGill University. It is rated PG-13 by the MPAA.
Wall-E
Release Date: June 27th 2008
Director: Andrew Stanton
WALL-E is the story of the last little robot on Earth. He is a robot and his programming was to help clean up. You see, it’s set way in the future. Through consumerism, rampant, unchecked consumerism, the Earth was covered with trash. And to clean up, everyone had to leave Earth and set in place millions of these little robots that went around to clean up the trash and make Earth habitable again.
Well, the cleanup program failed with the exception of this one little robot and he’s left on Earth doing his duty all alone. But it’s not a story about science fiction. It’s a love story, because, you see, WALL·E falls in love with EVE, a robot from a probe that comes down to check on Earth, and she’s left there to check on and see how things are going and he absolutely falls in love with her.
Hellboy II
Release Date: July 11th 2008
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, Luke Goss.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMWnUGMPtns
It’s not Nazis, machines and mad scientists but the old gods and characters who have been kind of shoved out of our world. I kind of equate it to the whole American Indian situation. The Indians were shoved onto reservations. You had your old, wise Indians who said, “You know, this is the way it is. We can’t fight anymore. We just have to accept our fate.” You then have your Geronimo character saying, “Or we could just kill the White Man.” That’s kind of the situation we have in the film. We have our elf characters resigning to the way things are and then there’s one saying, “Or we could take the world back.” The main difference is - what if the Indians had a nuclear warhead? The elves have their equivalent of the weapon that is too terrible to use. What if this guy decided to use it?
The Dark Knight
Release Date: July 18th 2008
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Anthony Michael Hall, Aaron Eckhart.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaIR9dAZRR0
In 1998, Lee Shapiro and Stephen Wise pitched the idea for a fifth Batman movie to Warner Bros. Vice President Tom Lassally. It was to be called Batman: DarKnight (not to be confused with The Dark Knight starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger) and included the Scarecrow and Man-Bat as the new villains, with the studio being most impressed with the characterization of Man-Bat. Fear was to be the initial theme (much like the main one for Batman Begins) and according to Shapiro, with Scarecrow being true to the source material. Within three months, Lee Shapiro and Stephen Wise sent their first draft to Warner Bros.. Joel Schumacher was still signed to direct but dropped out for unknown reasons only weeks after the first draft was completed. The story went as:
Bruce Wayne is in self-imposed seclusion from life, because he feels he has lost his greatest weapons in the fight against crime: his mystique and his enemies’ fear. Dick Grayson attends Gotham University, trying to discover who he is apart from his guardian and unwilling to return as Robin without him. Meanwhile, Dr. Jonathan Crane uses his position as professor of psychology at Gotham University and as resident psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum to conduct his experiments in fear. During a vengeful confrontation with a colleague, Dr. Kirk Langstrom, Crane unknowingly initiates Kirk’s transformation into the creature known as Man-Bat. The unsuspecting denizens of Gotham scream for Batman’s head, believing the Man-Bat’s nightly hunts to be the Dark Knight’s bloodthirsty return to action. Bruce dons cape and cowl once more to clear his name and solve the mystery behind these attacks. Eventually, Dick ends up in Arkham Asylum under Crane’s unsympathetic watch, and Kirk struggles with his “man vs. monster” syndrome as he longs to both reunite with his wife and get revenge on Crane.
The script for Batman: DarKnight sat at Warner Bros. and languished in development hell up until late 2000. Shapiro stated that DarKnight was in the running the longest as the next Batman movie compared to the other Batman projects in development.
City of Ember
Release Date: October 10th 2008
Director: Gil Kenan
Cast: Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau.
The story follows two teenagers as the power source begins to fail and the lamps start to flicker, who search for clues that will unlock ancient mysteries about the city.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Release Date: November 21st 2008
Director: David Yates
Cast: Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Jim Broadbent, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton.
Sneak Peek 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXypjllE3BU
Sneak Peek 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ezp-p1r7fM
Sneak Peek 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3e-P8lJXqc
Fan Trailer 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWPXJzSXTg8
Fan Trailer 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adc2Ak3bgm8
Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn’t counted on Romilda Vane’s chocolates! And then there’s Hermione, simpering (sic) with jealousy but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.
Star Trek
Release Date: December 25th 2008
Director: JJ Abrams
The story will focus on the earliest adventures of James T. Kirk and Spock, and will also feature appearances by the main characters from the original series.
thanks to cineuruguay
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a 2008 adventure film. It is the fourth Indiana Jones film and the twenty-sixth chronologically in the character’s film and television appearances. It is directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas and stars Harrison Ford in the title role. It also stars Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Karen Allen. Set in 1957, the film centers around the mysterious crystal skulls, and pits Indiana Jones against agents of the Soviet Union.
The film was in development hell since the 1989 release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, because Spielberg, Lucas and Ford wanted the best script possible. Screenwriters Jeb Stuart, Jeffrey Boam, M. Night Shyamalan, Frank Darabont and Jeff Nathanson wrote drafts, before a script by David Koepp satisfied all three men in 2006. Shooting finally commenced on June 18, 2007, and took place at locations in New Mexico, New Haven, Connecticut, Hawaii and soundstages in Los Angeles. In order to keep aesthetic continuity with the previous films, there will be minimal use of computer generated imagery and more of a reliance on traditional stuntwork, with Ford performing many of his own stunts. The film is due for release on May 22, 2008.
During the late 1970s, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made a deal with Paramount Pictures for five films about archaeologist Indiana Jones. Following the theatrical release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, Lucas let the series end as he felt he could not think of a good plot device to drive the next installment. Lucas stated that he became fascinated with crystal skulls while producing The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1992. He feels that as a plot device, the skulls are as strong as the Ark of the Covenant. Spielberg and Harrison Ford balked as they found the concept of the crystal skulls was too similar to the previous films, and two years were spent reworking it into something more acceptable. Spielberg wanted to make the film because it was a chance to reunite with Lucas and Ford, as well as to please his children and the Indiana Jones fan base.
Writing
In 1992, Jeb Stuart was hired to write a screenplay. In 1995, Lucas called Last Crusade writer Jeffrey Boam back to pen another draft. M. Night Shyamalan was hired as Boam’s replacement for an intended 2002 shoot, but he left because of what Ford described as “the failure of George and Steven to attend to him.” Shyamalan was overwhelmed writing a sequel to a film he loved like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and admitted it was difficult to get Ford, Spielberg, and Lucas to focus. Lucas admitted he would not be able to give the project his full attention until he completed the final Star Wars film in 2005. Afterwards, Stephen Gaghan and Tom Stoppard were approached to write a new screenplay.
With a title already planned, Frank Darabont, who wrote several episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, was hired in May 2002 to write. Darabont’s screenplay was set in the 1950s, after the demise of the Nazi regime, and featured cameos from Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw). It did not have Jones’ son. In December 2002, Spielberg said he planned to shoot two films before filming Indiana Jones 4 in 2004 for a 2005 release. He also dismissed the possibility of shooting it digitally. In February 2004, Lucas rejected the draft for reasons unknown, although Spielberg called this version the best screenplay since Raiders of the Lost Ark.
script was handed over to David Koepp. As 2006 began, Harrison Ford declared that if the film was not made by 2008, then the filmmakers should drop the idea altogether. Spielberg confirmed Indiana Jones 4 as his next film, calling it “the sweet dessert I give those who had to chow down on the bitter herbs that I’ve used in Munich”. Koepp tried not to make his work a “fan script”, in that he hoped to avoid any trivial references to the previous films, saying “That’s tempting, because you’ve seen the movie a hundred times and you know all the dialogue, but no human being remembers exactly what they said 25 years ago word for word, much less make reference to it. So you try to put aside the other movies and yet be in the spirit of them.” He also noted the story would have to acknowledge Ford/Indiana’s age.
Filming
On December 29, 2006, Lucas confirmed that he, Spielberg and Koepp finished the script, and that Indiana Jones 4 would commence filming in 2007. Filming began on June 18, 2007 at Deming, New Mexico, for scenes set in Morocco. An extensive chase scene was filmed between June 28-July 7 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, which doubled as Indiana Jones’ Marshall College. They moved to Hawaii, shooting twenty percent of the film for three weeks on private property, keeping production secretive. Hawaii stands in for a South American rainforest. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the biggest film shot in Hawaii since Waterworld, and will generate $22 million to $45 million in the local economy. Half the film was scheduled to shoot on soundstages at Los Angeles. These included Downey, California. Filming moved to Chandler Field in Fresno, California, substituting for Mexico City International Airport, on October 11, 2007. After shooting aerial shots of Chandler Airport and a DC-3 on the morning of October 12, 2007, filming wrapped.
Effects
Producer Frank Marshall stated in 2003 that the film would not rely on CGI; it would instead use traditional special effects and stuntwork so as to be consistent with the previous films. He reiterated this in 2006. During filming, Spielberg anticipated “30%” of visual effects would be CGI, for elements such as backdrops. With Ford performing many of his stunts, Spielberg stated he could not tell the difference between Ford during the shoots for Last Crusade and Crystal Skull. While shooting War of the Worlds in late 2004, Spielberg met with stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong, who doubled for Ford in the previous films, to discuss three action sequences he had envisioned. However, Armstrong was filming The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor during shooting of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so Dan Bradley was hired in his stead. Ben Burtt, who served as sound designer for the previous films and was an editor and director on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, will not work on this film, as he left Lucasfilm in 2005.
Music
John Williams stated on the 2003 DVD documentary The Music of Indiana Jones that he hoped to return to write the score for the film, as he did for the previous three. In June 2007, Williams’ company, the Gorfaine-Schwartz Agency, confirmed that Williams would be involved with the film. Williams began scoring the film in October 2007.
Release
Lucas intended to unveil the title with the first teaser trailer, originally scheduled for Thanksgiving 2007, but Shia LaBeouf announced it earlier at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards on September 9, 2007. The trailer was later said to be released “just before Christmas” of 2007. According to Paramount Pictures executive Rob Moore, the film will be released on both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats as part of its eventual home video release.
Marketing
Hasbro and Lego will produce toy lines for the film, and LucasArts will release two new Indiana Jones video games. The working title of one is Indiana Jones, and the other is a Lego edition. Burger King and Hallmark Cards will produce tie-ins. Random House, Scholastic, and DK will publish books, and Del Rey Books will publish the novelization, written by James Rollins. Scholastic will release a children’s novelization, alongside adaptations of the previous films. Dark Horse Comics will publish a comic book adaptation of the film, written by John Jackson Miller and drawn by Luke Ross (Samurai: Heaven and Earth). Howard Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing, attributed the massive marketing push to the fact that “It’s been nineteen years since the last film, and we are sensing a huge pent-up demand for everything Indy.”
Leaked plot details and theft
An extra in the film, Tyler Nelson, violated his nondisclosure agreement and gave an interview to the The Edmond Sun on September 17, 2007, which was then picked up by the mainstream media. In the interview, Nelson revealed several plot details from the film. Spielberg has yet to decide if he will cut Nelson’s scene. At Nelson’s request, The Edmond Sun subsequently pulled the story from its website. On October 2, 2007, a Superior Court order was filed finding that Nelson knowingly violated the agreement. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
On October 2, 2007, it was reported that a number of production photos and sensitive documents pertaining to the film’s production budget were stolen from Steven Spielbergs production office. An official with the Indiana Jones production reported the items missing on September 24 to the Sheriff’s Department. Marvin Levy, Steven Spielberg’s spokesman, said the director was concerned that the thieves would try to sell the materials, and on October 2, the people believed to be involved in the burglary sent out e-mails to several entertainment gossip websites offering to sell the images. According to IESB, TMZ.com obtained some of the stolen property and was on the verge of running the story on its TV division until Paramount lawyers stepped in. After Paramount was notified about the emails, they contacted sheriff’s investigators. A member of the online press helped the detectives by posing as a potential buyer and setting up a meeting in West Hollywood. When the seller arrived, he was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property. On October 4, Roderick Eric Davis, age 37, was charged with one felony count of receiving stolen property. He later pleaded guilty to two felony accounts and will serve two years and four months in jail.
If you’re planning an HDTV purchase this fall (or looking ahead to one this winter), keep an eye out for two emerging technologies. 1080p is now everywhere, LCD HDTVs are taking over, and 40-inch displays are evolving into the new sweet spot. But new sets slated for this fall and winter are will be among the first mainstream displays to incorporate several new technologies that can significantly improve picture quality.
Samsung, for example, recently showed off its latest lines of LCD HDTVs due out in August. One line sports a 120-Hz refresh rate–double the 60 Hz of standard LCD TVs–which makes for sharper fast-moving images. Another line uses LED backlights, which dramatically boost contrast and allow for a wider range of colors.
Both technologies should be available from a wide variety of vendors this fall, including LG Electronics, Philips, and Sharp. And as these enhancements make their way into more and more TVs, the price difference between standard LCD TVs and these newer models should shrink rapidly. Here’s a look at Samsung’s plans for 120-Hz HDTVs and LED backlighting, and why you might want to wait for a television that makes use of either technology.
120-Hz Displays
Momentum behind 120 Hz has been building since early this year. JVC was among the first vendors to ship a 120-Hz display, and Sharp’s Aquos D82U and D92U series televisions began shipping back in February. This summer, Philips, LG, and Samsung all announced their respective 120-Hz technologies, with products coming by this fall.
At 120 Hz, the television’s refresh rate is double the previous standard rate for displaying video content. By doing so, it can smooth out any residual motion blur that results from fast-moving action found in such content as sports and a scrolling news ticker on the bottom of the screen. Video content is filmed at 30 frames per second, which means such content is best shown at 60 Hz or 120 Hz.
Samsung showed a split-screen demonstration of its 120-Hz technology at an event here in San Francisco, with one side showing the 120-Hz technology, and the other side showing 60 Hz. The difference between the two was noticeable: At 120 Hz, the ticker moved more smoothly and fast-moving video appeared sharper.
The 71 series displays that Samsung is launching in August use a technology called McFi–short for Motion Compensated Frame Interpolation–to create new interpolated video frames and insert them between each frame of video to smooth out fast motion. Samsung’s technology looks for any movement, then it creates an average of those movements to insert a frame in between them. Other HDTV makers insert a black frame in between frames, an approach Samsung claims fixes the motion-blur issue, but degrade the panel’s brightness.
LED Backlighting
If you’re less concerned about fast-moving images, a display with an LED backlight may be more to your liking. The big advantage to LED-backlit TVs is improved contrast ratio. Samsung says its 81 series of displays can automatically adjust the backlight for specific parts of the picture, depending upon the source content. This allows the display to achieve deeper blacks and crisper whites than can be achieved with the Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp technology (CCFL) traditionally used by LCD HDTVs.
In CCFL, the tubes light up the back of the display; those tubes can be all on, or all off, and they allow some degree of light leakage. But LED backlighting allows a greater degree of control, which enables Samsung to claim a dynamic contrast ratio of 100,000:1, a four times improvement over its CCFL displays.
Price Premiums
While 120-Hz displays won’t be that much more expensive than standard 1080p displays are today, you will pay a premium for an LED backlit display. The 40-inch model in Samsung’s 120-Hz 71 series line should retail for $2699 when it ships in August, for example, while Samsung’s 40-inch LED backlit model from the 81 series will go for $2999.
At least with TVs in that price range, other key HDTV technologies have become standard. A year ago, 1080p resolutions were still a rarity–and available in to higher-end models only. As we head into the fall, 1080p is de rigueur on HDTVs at sizes of 40 inches and up. Samsung, for example, will have only three non-1080p models going forward in that size range. HDMI 1.3 is also getting more pervasive across a wide spectrum of LCD (and for that matter, plasma) displays.
P.S.
High-definition television (HDTV) is a digital television broadcasting system with a significantly higher resolution than traditional formats (NTSC, SECAM, PAL). While some early analog HDTV formats were broadcast in Europe and Japan, HDTV is usually broadcast digitally, because digital television (DTV) broadcasting requires much less bandwidth. HDTV technology was first introduced in the US during the 1990s by a group of electronics companies called the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance.
Advantages of HDTV in nonengineering terms
High-definition television (HDTV) potentially offers a much better picture quality than standard television. HD’s greater clarity means the picture on screen can be less blurred and less fuzzy. HD also brings other benefits such as smoother motion, richer and more natural colors, surround sound, and the ability to allow a variety of input devices to work together. However, there are a variety of reasons why the best HD quality is not usually achieved. The main problem is a lack of HD input. Many cable and satellite channels and even some “high definition” channels are not broadcast in true HD. Also, image quality may be lost if the television is not properly connected to the input device or not properly configured for the input’s optimal performance.
Almost all commercially available HD is digital, so the system cannot produce a snowy or washed out image from a weak signal, effects from signal interference, such as herringbone patterns, or vertical rolling. HD digital signals will either deliver an excellent picture, a picture with noticeable pixelation, a series of still pictures, or no picture at all. Any interference will render the signal unwatchable. As opposed to a lower-quality signal one gets from interference in an analogue television broadcast, interference in a digital television broadcast will freeze, skip, or display “garbage” information.
With HDTV the lack of imperfections in the television screen often seen on traditional television is another reason why many prefer high definition to analog. As mentioned, problems such as snow caused from a weak signal, double images from ghosting or multi-path and picture sparkles from impulse noise are a thing of the past. These problems often seen on a conventional television broadcast just do not occur on HDTV.
HD programming and films will be presented in 16:9 widescreen format (although films created in even wider ratios will still display “letterbox” bars on the top and bottom of even 16:9 sets.) Older films and programming that retain their 4:3 ratio display will be presented in a version of letterbox commonly called “pillar box,” displaying bars on the right and left of 16:9 sets (rendering the term “fullscreen” a misnomer). While this is an advantage when it comes to playing 16:9 movies, it creates the same disadvantage when playing 4:3 television shows that standard televisions have playing 16:9 movies. A way to address this is to zoom the 4:3 image to fill the screen or reframe its material to 14:9 aspect ratio, either during preproduction or manually in the TV set.
The colors will generally look more realistic, due to their greater bandwidth. The visual information is about 2-5 times more detailed overall. The gaps between scanning lines are smaller or invisible. Legacy TV content that was shot and preserved on 35 mm film can now be viewed at nearly the same resolution as that at which it was originally photographed. A good analogy for television quality is looking through a window. HDTV offers a degree of clarity that is much closer to this.
The “i” in these numbers stands for “interlaced” while the “p” stands for “progressive”. With interlaced scan, the 1,080 lines are split into two, the first 540 being “painted” on a frame, followed by the second 540 painted on another frame. This method reduces the bandwidth and raises the frame rate to 50-60 per second. A progressive scan displays all 1,080 lines at the same time at 60 frames per second, using more bandwidth. (See: An explanation of HDTV numbers and laymens glossary)
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound is broadcast along with standard HDTV video signals, allowing full surround sound capabilities. (Standard broadcast television signals usually only include monophonic or stereophonic audio. Stereo broadcasts can be encoded with Dolby Surround, an early home video surround format.) Both designs make more efficient use of electricity than SDTV designs of equivalent size, which can mean lower operating costs. LCD is a leader in energy conservation.
