It’s Sherlock Holmes’ birthday today! Have you seen the movie yet? If so, what did you think?
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Wednesday Deals on Sherlock Holmes’ Birthday
You can rest soundly tonight knowing that the villain responsible for uploading the Wolverine movie a month before its theatrical release will probably serve time behind bars. That is, if the FBI has grabbed the right man.
The FBI early this morning arrested Gilberto Sanchez, 47, in Bronx, N.Y., and believe he's the cold hearted criminal who leaked the 20th Century Fox feature film to the Internet in April. By the time the flick made it to the silver screen a month later, it had already been watched about 4.1 million times, says BigChampagne, a market research firm for file-sharing networks.
According to the indictment, Sanchez uploaded the film to Megaupload.com under one of his online aliases, which include "theSkilled1" and "SkillyGilly." But what the indictment doesn't say is how Sanchez managed to get his hands on a working copy of the flim, even though the copy that was leaked was missing a bunch of computer-generated special effects.
It's unclear how much jail time and fines Sanchez would face if convicted, but according to CNet, a New Jersey man who pleaded guilty to copyright infringement charges for uploading the film "Hulk" a few weeks before its big screen debut was sentenced to six months house arrest and slapped with a $7,000 fine.
Blockbuster will soon begin renting movies on SD cards. You will need to visit your nearest Blockbuster Express Digital kiosk to rent your favorite movies. There, users will be able to transfer DRM-protected movies to their own SD cards. According to a Fast Company report, the rentals will cost $1.99.
All said, hardware incompatibility may prove to be a major issue as not all phones, TV sets and notebooks feature a full-size SD cardslot. The kiosks will be built and managed by NCR Corporation, the very company that manages Blockbuster’s DVD-rental kiosks.
Image Credit: Fast Company
Looks like Spore knows how to take a hint. PC gamers weren’t quite ready to herald the game as the second coming of The Sims, so it’s jumped gaming’s ship and gotten into show business. And fortunately, thanks to a little common sense on EA’s part, someone not named Uwe Boll is walking Spore down the red carpet.
Chris Wedge, who birthed the $1.9 billion-grossing “Ice Age” film franchise, is set to be the intelligent designer behind Spore’s big screen debut. Meanwhile, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, who recently wrapped up writing Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” are penning the script. Twentieth Century Fox is partnering with EA to produce the whole thing.
"I'm always looking for unique worlds to go to in animation," Wedge said. "From every perspective -- visually, thematically and comedically -- the world of 'Spore' provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen."
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll probably learn a bit about yourself in the process. What’s not to like?
And now, we present an inside look at the creation of the possibly upcoming MechWarrior movie:
Movie Exec A: “Hey [Movie Exec B], you know what people seem to be able to relate to right now, in this time of economic hardship? Giant robots.”
Movie Exec B: “Yeah! And you know what goes great with giant robots, don’t you? That’s right: vague nostalgic ties into this generation’s childhood, ala Transformers 2.”
Movie Exec A: “Hey, aren’t the MechWarrior people getting sued for that whole ‘stealing from a nostalgic property’ business right now? Let’s make a movie out of that!”
Movie Exec B: “Brilliant! Get Shia LaBeouf on the phone, stat!”
And that’s how we like to imagine the rumored MechWarrior movie began its development. But it probably isn’t. Joystiq’s claiming that Michael Eisner’s The Tornante Company is helming the project, as Eisner owns the rights to the franchise at the moment. Apparently, Michael Gordon, the man behind such cinematic greats as Godzilla and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra is directing. Other than that, nothing else is known. We’ll let you know when – or if – we hear more.
The number of decent videogame movies can scarcely be counted on two hands (and even then, it only works if you count Metal Gear Solid 4 as a movie), but World of Warcraft’s cinematic debut is looking to turn that trend around. First, the film snagged The Dark Knight’s producer, and now Spiderman director Sam Raimi is lending his significant skills in the field of not being Uwe Boll to the project.
“Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures have a shared vision for this film and we searched at length to find the very best director to bring that vision to life,” said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard.
“From our first conversation with Sam, we could tell he was the perfect choice. Sam knows how to simultaneously satisfy the enthusiasts and the mainstream audience that might be experiencing that content for the first time. We’re looking forward to working with him to achieve that here.”
In addition to the Spiderman films, Raimi has also directed “Evil Dead” and the recent “Drag Me to Hell,” among others. Honestly though, while we’re sure Raimi‘s got something special planned for the WoW movie, we’d love to see Blizzard’s cinematic team branch its talent tree into the realm of movie magic. If WoW looked as mind-blowing as they make it out to be, well, even the four people who aren’t currently addicted to Blizzard's potent substance might give it a shot.
Microsoft’s adverts have been getting stranger and stranger, and their offering for Office 2010 is no different.
The advert comes packaged as a trailer for the action flick, “Office 2010: The Movie.” The basis for the film is simple, there’s a rogue font on the loose that causes anyone reading it to fall into a state of hypnosis and believe everything that they read. It’s then up to a mentally scarred agent to save everyone, despite the recent loss of his partner (Clippy). The trailer is filled with enough special effects to be a Michael Bay movie, and comes with nerd humor all along the way. So, if you’re interested in checking it out, you can do so here.
As for actual information about Office 2010, Microsoft will be offering a technical preview later in the month. If you’re interested, you can find additional information on their site.
Image Credit: Microsoft
