pimblr.com

Edward Norton at the 'Hulk' premiere.
Edward Norton at the 'Hulk' premiere.
Friday’s premiere of “The Incredible Hulk” should prove big box office numbers, but not with any help from star Edward Norton.
Norton, I’m told, has slipped off to a desert island rather than do publicity for the movie he stars in and nominally wrote.
I say nominally because there’s been a dispute right along about who did what on “Hulk.” The screenplay is credited to “X-Men 3″ writer Zak Penn, who definitely wrote the original draft and mapped out the movie.
But wasn’t it only last July 2007 that Norton boasted of writing the screenplay at Comic-Con, the convention for people who trade comic books and associated materials? Uh, yes, he did.
I’m told that Norton did substantially rewrite the Penn draft, added lots of dialogue, and worked on the character of the Hulk’s alter ego Bruce Banner to make him more human.
But Norton fell out with Marvel and Universal and declined to do much publicity. This left the bulk of it to co-star Liv Tyler.
Interestingly, Norton is not signed to do the typical two sequels to this “Hulk,” although Tyler is and so, I’m told, is director Louis Leterrier. The reason for Norton holding out is likely a money issue. Could he be replaced in future versions? Undoubtedly, although that would be a shame. He’s terrific as the un-jolly green giant.
Meantime, some Web sites like Cinematical have noted that Universal is using Robert Downey Jr.’s surprise appearance in “Hulk” as Tony Stark aka Iron Man in their TV commercials. Downey’s presence was supposed to be a big twist at the end — so much so that I kept it out of my review the other day. But I guess that Marvel and Universal want to capitalize on “Iron Man”’s huge box office.

foxnews.com

Apple’s now offering movies via iTunes in the UK and in Canada. But that doesn’t interest me so much - it wasn’t a question of if, it was a question of when. The real news here is that they’ve obviously worked a deal with the studios to permit a 48 hour viewing period. A current pain point for many (real or perceived) is the 24 hour limit to complete watching a rental. I’ve thought 36 hours should be sufficient to allow ‘film interrupted’ folks to resume viewing their flick on a consecutive evening. While Vudu has taken things into their own hands (and probably at their own cost) to offer 24 hours of extended viewing (48 total) for an additional $2, perhaps the tide is turning and we’ll hear something (other than iPhone 2.0) out of WWDC next week…
Confused. Why limit it at all? You paid for it. The movie of dripping with DRM and is locked to a closed, proprietary device, no one else will be able to see it.
Surprisingly “hostile” tone from Apple, I thought they were all “free love” “be cool to each other” “Be like Bono” and stuff.
Has anyone ever lined up Amazon’s Unbox ( what I use ) against the iTunes movie store? Does Unbox have at least a comparable selection compared to Apple? I think Unbox is cheaper too, no DRM, media doesn’t “die” can be written to a DVD to watch on plane.
I believe Unbox has more video than Apple, but they’re also restricted (by the studios) to offering a 24 hours rental in most cases. The Vudu people tell me some of the smaller, indy, foreign, etc studios have granted them longer viewing periods.
Dave is correct in pointing out that independent studios offer 48 hour rental window on Vudu. But if Apple or any other provider convinces major studios to offer that, it’s going to be good for others as Vudu/Microsoft/Amazon/etc. will sure push for same terms too (terms are pretty much the same across all on-demand services, it’s the content mix that’s different).

zatznotfunny.com

Somewhere between Spider-Man and the Hulk, you might just find Robert Downey Jr. in a can.
Box-office expectations were big—but not crazy big—for Iron Man, which kicks off the summer movie season tomorrow (or tonight at 8 p.m., if you want to be technical about it, and include the so-called "sneak" screenings).
"This is definitely no Spider-Man 3," says Jeff Bock, a box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations Co. "But this is a huge comic-book property."
Bock's guess: Between $80 million and $100 million, and eventual status as the second biggest comic-book movie of the summer after the latest Batman adventure, The Dark Knight.
Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracking firm Media by Numbers, pegged a $75 million-$85 million opening—or, as he put it: "Higher than X-Men but less than Spider-Man."
"We don't have a lot to go on," Dergarabedian said. "This isn't a franchise yet."
Spider-Man 3, which was the latest chapter of its franchise, jump-started last summer with a phenomenal $151.1 million opening weekend.
But as 2003's Hulk reminds, it's not always about how you start. In the case of that critically panned comic-book movie, a $62 million opening gave way to a sputtering $132.2 million finish.
In the case of Iron Man, which stars Downey as a playboy genius-turned-armored crimefighter, Dergarabedian said a debut of $50 million or less would be disappointing, but not necessarily fatal.
"Because it's good, it's going to have legs," said Dergarabedian, who caught a screening a few weeks ago.
Rob M. Worley, founder of Comics2Film.com, agreed.
"I rank it among the better superhero movies," said Worley, who watched it Tuesday night. "It's the cool, hipster superhero movie."
At one point this afternoon, Rotten Tomatoes had tracked 31 early-bird reviews, and deigned all but two of them positive. Iron Man's "T-meter" reading stood at 93 percent.

eonline.com

Ananda Krishnan due in SL
Maxis Malaysia boss T. Ananda Krishnan isdue in Sri Lanka this week in connectionwith the NTT/SLT deal, market sources said.
Multi-billionaire Ananda Krishnan is aMalaysian Tamil whose parents were from SriLanka.
However, it’s not clear whether Maxis, atelecoms operator in Malaysia, will buy allof NTT Japan’s 35.2% stake in SLT, or settlefor only 25%, thereby ensuring that NTTwill continue to maintain the right ofappointing/having the CEO of their choice inSLT, by ensuring that NTT will retain aminimum 10% stake in SLT as per itsshareholder agreement, they said.
Last week NTT transferred all of its 35.2%shareholding in SLT to the Colombo StockExchange CDS, a move, which market sourcesinterpreted as a prelude to this Japanesetelecoms company preparing to divest itsholdings in SLT.
SLT has a total of 1.8 billion issued shareswith the government being its biggestshareholder with a 49.2% stake. SLT, alisted company, also has a public float of15.3% of its equity.
The past few days have seen heavy trading inSLT shares on speculation that Maxis willtrigger the Securities and ExchangeCommission’s Mergers and Acquisitions Codeby buying NTT’s 35.2% stake in SLT.If aninvestor buys a minimum 30% stake in alisted company, he triggers this Code,thereby being liable to make an offer tothat company’s remaining shareholders to buytheir stakes also in the company at itshighest traded price in the one yearpreceding the date the Code was triggered.
SLT on Wednesday closed at Rs. 40.50 ashare, down 25 cents over its previousclosing price, on a volume of 6.2 millionshares. There was no trading on Thursday andFriday on account of holidays.
Market speculation is that Maxis willexecute this deal at Rs. 42 a share.
NTT bought this 35.2% stake from thegovernment in 1997 (plus management control)for US$ 225 million.
It has been reported that Maxis has beeneyeing NTT’s stake in SLT since last year,as part of its regional expansion drive. Butits buying was stalled after this issue wentto courts and was only revived earlier thismonth, after the court gave NTT thegreenlight to sell its stake in SLT if itwishes to.

thesundayleader.lk