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EXCLUSIVE … UPDATE 9:30 AM: Warner Bros is now telling me that its outside non-studio spokeswoman failed to tell me the whole and accurate story about the process that led to the studio taking down its offensive Gangster Squad trailer this morning. A Warner Bros executive now tells me how the studio was scrambling to deal with the Aurora theater shooting crisis in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. Then, at 5 AM, one of the top distribution execs remembered that Warner Bros’ Gangster Squad trailer was playing “loose” this weekend timed to the studio’s The Dark Knight Rises release...

EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that the Motion Picture Association Of America representing the Hollywood movie studios will be co-hosting a tribute to Ronald Reagan’s film career on November 14th in Washington DC. The other host will be the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration, which is the year-long commemoration of Reagan’s 100th birthday in 2011. All the movie studios are obtaining old footage of Reagan’s 53-movie legacy from 1937 to 1965 and are putting together around 5 cinematic profiles of the former Screen Actors Guild president for the bipartisan event. But I suspect the real reason behind this Reagan tribute is to remind...

"Casting him as a director or perhaps as the star of 'Judah Maccabee' is like casting Madoff to be the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission," says Rabbi Marvin Heir. Prominent Jewish leaders are beginning to speak out against Mel Gibson and Warner Bros. over their planned movie based on the life of religious icon Judah Maccabee. SNIP

Whenever you remake a revered Hollywood film, there’s bound to be controversy, but going right to the original material is certainly an interesting approach. Warner Bros is in early talks with Robert Zemeckis to direct a live-action remake of the The Wizard of Oz and plans to use the original script from the 1939 classic. Warner Bros owns the screenplay because Ted Turner bought it along with the MGM library before Warner Bros bought Turner’s empire. This latest Oz twist comes as Disney is trying very hard to mount The Great And Powerful Oz. Sam Raimi is developing that film...

THE ACTOR who played the DC Comics character Swamp Thing in two films and a television series has died at the age of 72. Dick Durock, a 6ft 5ins former Marine, passed away at his home in Oak Park, California, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, according to his official website. Durock wore a latex bodysuit and make-up to play the monster in 1982's Swamp Thing directed by Wes Craven; its 1989 sequel The Return of Swamp Thing; and a subsequent Swamp Thing series that ran for 71 episodes from 1990 to 1993. The actor appeared in dozens of...

In what turned out to be a nightmare for the defendant, a federal jury on Thursday ruled that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs. Record companies were awarded $80,000 per song, for a total of $1.92 million. This is the second time Thomas-Rasset went to trial on the matter. The single mother from Minnesota had planned to appeal the first ruling that came down from a different federal court in October 2007. But the judge in that case decided he had given the jury erroneous instructions and a new trial was ordered. Thomas-Rasset may wish she had...

It has been said that director Howard Hawks made Rio Bravo (1959) as a reaction to two popular westerns which angered him - High Noon (1952) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). His comment on the former was, "I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head off asking for help, and finally his Quaker wife had to save him." Hawks also considered 3:10 to Yuma, which had outlaw Glenn Ford playing psychological games with lawman Van Heflin, "a lot of nonsense." So Rio Bravo was the director's take on heroism...

Warner Bros. today will launch a service giving the public the opportunity to custom-order DVDs of films never before released via the medium. The move is seen as a response to dwindling DVD sales and also to customer demand for titles that while not totally obscure, didn't necessarily generate enough heat to merit a full-on DVD release. The Warner Archive Collection, available at WarnerArchive.com, includes films dating back to the silent age and for $19.95 per disc Warners will burn, package and ship for receipt within an estimated five days. Currently there are 150 titles available with for a total...

Warner Bros. is reaching into its film vaults so it can sell old movies on made-to-order DVDs, in a move it hopes will goose sales of a vital product in a downturn. Starting today, the studio will sell copies of 150 films from the silent era to the 1980s Brat Pack that have never been released on DVD. Internet downloads of the movies will cost $14.95, while DVDs sent in the mail are $19.95. Both can be ordered at www.warnerarchive.com. The initiative, which Warner claims is the first of its kind for a major studio, is an effort by the...

If Sen. John McCain has more to say publicly about his time in a North Vietnamese prison before next month's election, it will not be with help from Warner Brothers. The studio moved quietly over the last few weeks to block any promotional showing of an interview — tied to the release of the first DVD version of the 1987 film Hanoi Hilton — in which McCain spoke of his imprisonment in the Hoa Lo prison during the Vietnam War. The studio is concerned that any pre-election showing might embroil the project in electoral politics. "It's just us trying to...

The WB brand, born as a broadcast network in 1995 and closed in 2006, will return as an online video Web site, combining short original series with classic shows, the Warner Brothers Television Group announced Monday. TheWB.com, and a complementary site for children called KidsWB.com, are part of a “digital destination” strategy by Warner Brothers, a subsidiary of Time Warner, to tailor Web sites to specific audiences. In trying to compete for consumers’ time, Warner and other media companies have sought new outlets for content, sometimes bypassing the traditional network structure and creating broadband Internet channels. “My 20-year-old daughter and...

BOOST FOR BLU-RAY! Warner Bros Will Release High-Def Titles Exclusively In That Format This is a huge development in the Blu-ray versus HD-DVD format war currently raging on. Warner Bros, which had been producing its high-def DVD titles in both formats, will start the Blu-ray exclusive later this year. The decision was made in response to stroing consumer preference for the Blu-Ray format, according to WB's announcement. I'd been hearing rumors for months that Warner Bros had been offered in the neighborhood of $250 million to go exclusively with HD-DVD. Less lavish but still big payments already had been offered...

Washington, D.C. (January 4, 2008) -- Warner Bros. today said it will endorse Blu-ray exclusively in the high-def format war against HD DVD. (See commentary below.) The move, which was predicted last month by this web site, now gives Blu-ray the exclusive backing of five major studios while HD DVD has just two. Worse news for HD DVD: Warner releases have been among the format's top sellers. However, the studio said that it will stop releasing films in HD DVD this May. Until now, Warner released movies in both formats. (Until May, Warner says it will release HD DVD titles...

Studio sets movie about CIA leak scandal WB acquired the life rights of ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson. Warner Bros. is developing a feature on the lives of Valerie Plame and Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the married couple drawn into a D.C. firestorm. Plame's status as a CIA agent was revealed by White House officials allegedly out to discredit her husband after he wrote a 2003 New York Times op-ed piece saying that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq. The film is a co-production between Weed...

Visionary student architect Howard Roark strives to break away from the classically inspired designs of ordinary architects. His unwillingness to compromise, despite the advice of his ambitious friend, Peter Keating, causes him to be kicked out of school, but earns him a job with Henry Cameron, a talented architect, who also believes that form must follow function. After Cameron is completely destroyed by the system, Roark sets up his own company, but gets only an occasional job. Roark is offered a commission to build a bank building, but when he learns that the bank wants him to add some classical...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Texas rock trio ZZ Top has parted ways with the manager who helped form the band in 1969, according to a statement issued on Sunday. In addition to splitting with Bill Ham, the band has also ended its tenure at RCA Records, 14 years after signing a five-album contract reportedly worth $30 million. ZZ Top's most recent album, "Mescalero," spent just three weeks on the Billboard 200 in 2003. Its stint at RCA, beginning with 1994's "Antenna," failed to match its run at Warner Bros. Records, where it recorded the biggest hit of its career, 1983's...

BACK-SCRATCHING BIZ: Lil' Kim, one of many artists whose popularity was rigged. WireImage Eliot Spitzer.......unveiled a deal to halt bribery of DJs and rigging of ratings — schemes designed largely to hype mediocre acts, but also bigger names, in order to score higher returns. Four months ago, he extracted a $10M settlement from industry leader Sony BMG to break up its payola ring involving DJs, radio station executives and crooked middlemen. He's still probing the industry's two remaining mega-firms — EMI and Universal Music. In his crackdown on Warner music — the industry's No. 3 label — Spitzer accused...

Matt Damon and George Clooney come back together for political thriller Matt Damon and George Clooney, who are currently working together on Steven Soder-bergh's Ocean's Eleven sequel - Ocean's Twelve, will reteam for the Stephen Gaghan-helmed political thriller Syriana. In addition, Amanda Peet is in final negotiations to join the project. Set up at Warner Bros., Clooney and Soderbergh's studio-based Section Eight will produce the project with shooting slated to begin during the summer. Gaghan adapted the script, which is loosely based on the Robert Baer non-fiction novel See No Evil: The True Story of a Foot Soldier in the...

Let's talk about sex On Everwood, the WB's family drama about life in a small Colorado town, Ephram (played by Gregory Smith) has been in love with Amy (Emily VanCamp) since the show's first episode in the fall of 2002. Their tumultuous journey to coupledom spanned the show's first two seasons, which corresponded with their sophomore and junior years in high school. The pair faced many obstacles, most of them resulting from the fact that Amy's boyfriend, Colin, was in a coma. Finally, at the end of last season, Amy and Ephram made it through the wilderness and began dating....

Oliver Stone and the studio releasing his $150 million historical epic "Alexander" should beware of Greeks bearing writs — over the film's depiction of Alexander the Great as Alexander the Fabulous. The controversial director and Warner Bros. were yesterday threatened with a lawsuit by a group of Greek lawyers who are incensed that the new movie "Alexander" portrays the hero as bisexual. The group of 25 Athens-based lawyers said they sent a letter to Warner Bros. demanding that it label "Alexander" ... as a work of fiction.... "We are not saying that were are against gays, but we are saying...

For America's multimillion-dollar Superman industry, it's a serious problem. This is a guy who's from outer space — he was born on the planet Krypton, let's not forget — but he's also from another time. He debuted in the 1930s, when Americans liked their heroes like they liked their steaks: tough, thick and all-American. Nowadays we prefer our heroes dark and flawed and tragic. Look at the Punisher (wife and kids dead), or Hellboy (born a demon), or Spider-Man (secretly a nerd). Look at Batman: his parents were killed in front of him, and he dresses like a Cure fan....

Though I read them occasionally as a boy, I have never been overly interested in comic books, especially the American sort, the ones featuring superheroes dressed in super-tight costumes fighting super villains, none of whom ever seemed to receive super-long jail sentences for attempting, yet again, to destroy Our Way Of Life. A junior realist, I tended to read, instead, the British-produced, four-times-a-month Commando comics, which were generally set during the Second World War. Commando — whose fabulous titles included Hun Bait, Iron-Cross Yankee, Ghost Stuka, and the unforgettable Deserters Deserve Death! — abjured those pathetic ads one saw in...

New HBO Series Presents Not-So-Angelic AgendaCal ThomasSyndicated Columnist HBO's latest film, Angels in America, is a two-part, multi-hour production that aired Sunday and Monday nights and will continue being broadcast all week. Angels is based on the Tony Kushner play about the American homosexual experience. I didn't want to watch it, but I did, and must admit it is one of the most effective pieces of propaganda I have encountered. Gays and lesbians are portrayed as victims -- not of their own choices but of Republicans and specifically the Reagan administration during whose second term the drama is set. British...

It was only a matter of time, I suppose. Comic-book superheroes have gone into the liberal political indoctrination business.The September issue of the DC Comics book "Justice League of America," or "JLA," presents Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman as U.N.-promoting paper dolls for a thinly disguised propaganda play against President Bush's war on Saddam Hussein.The story begins with a "napalmetto" attack on home soil. President Lex Luthor -- how nice, a supervillain standing in for President Bush -- connects the terror attack to "Qurac" and says the "Joint Chiefs are recommending military pressure." Wonder Woman protests: "International law and...

Okay, for any who have seen my opinions in the past, you know that I'm an avid comic book collector. For a few years now, my favorite title has been Justice League, or JLA for short. The newest issue, #83, came out yesterday. It was, without a doubt, the most unvarnished left-wing piece of Bush-bashing propaganda I've ever seen. The baisc set-up is this (*WARNING*--SPOILERS)...President Luthor (yes, in the DC Universe, Lex Luthor is President of the United States) has decided that the nation of "Qurac" has acquired or constructed Weapons of Mass Distruction, and has decided that he must...

 Marvin The Martian and Daffy Duck (as Duck Dodgers) will appear on official patches that Warner Bros. has designed for two NASA Mars Exploration Rover Missions this summer. The special patches will act as the defining logo for the mission and will be worn by TEAM DELTA crews, comprising members from NASA, the United States Air Force, and Boeing. They will be featured on mission control and launch pad crew suits, jackets, and mugs. "Daffy Duck and Marvin The Martian struck us as such a perfect fit, capturing the fun and adventurous spirit of these important explorations, that we were...

(note hammer and sickle on chest!) Joseph Stalin and Superman would seem to have little in common except their shared nickname, "the Man of Steel." Stalin was a brutal dictator who murdered millions, while Superman is the mythical embodiment of truth, justice and the American way. Yet in Superman: Red Son, a new three-part comic book series, the first of which has just been released by DC Comics, writer Mark Millar posits an alternative universe where Superman grew up on a collective farm in the Ukraine in the 1930s rather than in the idyllic Midwest town of Smallville, U.S.A. Indoctrinated...

'What a Girl Wants' is to avoid making a political statement.Print advertisements for the teen comedy orginially featured a photograph of star Amanda Bynes wearing an American flag T-shirt and flashing the peace sign with her fingers as she stands between two Royal British Guards.With the war in Iraq sparking anti war protests in the United States and abraod, however, Warner Brothers quickly changed the ad. The studio Monday said it feared the peace sign would be viewed as a political message.New versions of the image feature Bynes with her right hand at her side, although many of the original...

The dark side of Bugs Bunny By Sean Twist -- For the London Free Press It is the near future. Terrified of the damage cartoons have caused in society, the government passes the Bugs Bunny Law: anyone who has watched an unedited, non-politically correct cartoon will be arrested on sight. Trial will follow. Judge: Do you understand the charges against you? Twist: Apparently, I saw Daffy Duck shoot himself in the face with a shotgun (gasps of horror from gallery; a mother swoons) and because of that, now I'm a violent offender. J: A potential violent offender. Let's be clear...

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