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According to an exclusive report at Deadline, J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot is putting together a limited series package based on the Stephen King bestselling crime novel Billy Summers, published by Scribner on August 3, 2021. Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, who worked on the Academy Award-nominated film Blood Diamond together, will executive produce and adapt the novel. Zwick will be directing the six to 10 episode limited series package....

Straight Outta Compton is the kind of late summer blockbuster studios only dream about. We’re officially in the doldrums, before the fall movie season hits, and this biopic about legendary West Coast rappers N.W.A continues to over perform and beat all expectations. In it’s second weekend, it crushed three new releases that completely underwhelmed. But even with Straight Outta Compton’s victory lap, no one is calling this a tough weekend to beat the competition....

The Duffer Brothers have been accused of stealing or borrowing ideas for Stranger Things since the show first debuted. Mostly from the works of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King along with a ton of iconic properties from the 1980s. However, now the creators are being sued for stealing the entire premise of the hit show from a short film that came out in 2011. The brothers have denied the claims since the lawsuit became public knowledge, and now, they have provided evidence that allegedly clears their names....

The hit action series Strike Back will return to CINEMAX in 2012 for a second season of ten new episodes, which will begin shooting in South Africa in early 2012 and air later in the year. CINEMAX/HBO will again produce the series with partners Left Bank and Sky, who will air the series in the U.K. The series marks the first time the two broadcasters have co-produced an original series together....

END OF THE HI-DEF DVD FORMAT WAR? Warner Home Video may have found a solution to the format war between the Sony-developed Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD DVD high-definition video discs: a hybrid disc that it is calling Total HD. Today’s (Thursday) New York Timesreported that the one-disc-fits-all development will be announced by Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which opens on Monday. In an interview with the Times,Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group, described the new disc as an elegant way for studios to make their content available more widely “in a way that is not conceding defeat” for whichever format they have been backing....

SUNDAY TICKET SALES OFF FOR ANGELS & DEMONS Ticket sales for Sony’s Angels & Demonsdipped far more steeply than expected on Sunday, resulting in a weekend gross that was nearly $2 million less than the studio had estimated. The movie’s $46.2-million total was just $3.2 million more than the $43 million taken in by Paramount’s Star Trekin its second week. In fact, the J.J. Abrams space prequel handily beat Ron Howard’s Da Vinci Codesequel on both Saturday and Sunday....

JACKASS POSTS BIGGER NUMBERS THAN FORECAST After reminding us earlier of H.L. Mencken’s line about nobody ever going broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, entertainment writers observed Monday that Paramount had underestimated the members of the public who bought tickets to see Jackass Number Twoover the weekend. The film did not make a whopping $28.1 million as originally predicted but an even more whopping $29 million. Jet Li’s Fearlessdebuted in second place with $10....

WAL-MART BATTLES APPLE OVER MOVIE DOWNLOADS Wal-Mart, which claims that its stores account for 40 percent of all DVD’s sold in the U.S., has been using its clout to dissuade Hollywood’s major studios from cooperating with Apple’s iTunes Music Store, which plans to sell them online. According to Business Week Wal-Mart has sent executives to Hollywood in hopes of blocking any deal between Apple and the studios. Wal-Mart has denied the report....

CELLPHONE CAPTURES VIRGINIA MASSACRE Television networks interrupted regular programming and dispatched anchors to Blacksburg, VA Monday following what was repeatedly described as the deadliest shooting on a college campus in American history. But it was the cellphone video taken by grad student Jamal Albarghouti outside Virginia Tech’s Norris Hall at the time of the shootings that provided the most memorable images and sounds of the tragedy. Just moments after he had captured the sounds of 27 shots fired by the gunman, Albarghouti sent his video to CNN’s I-Reports website, and it went on the air....

Each year, the Sundance Film Festival showcases the groundbreaking work of original storytellers. After an entirely digital festival in 2022, this year, Sundance returns to in-person events while continuing to offer online options (per Variety). The Sundance 2023 Film Festival will take place from January 19-29 on the mountain in beautiful Park City, Utah. Whether joining in on the fun in-person or from home, Sundance 2023 is set to be another year to remember....

During the first half of Super Bowl XL on February 5, Paramount Pictures will unveil a new thirty-second spot for “Mission: Impossible III” that will also kick off The Ultimate Mission, a fully integrated interactive scavenger hunt. Headquartered at www.MissionImpossible.com, The Ultimate Mission invites online users to register as Impossible Mission Force agents to solve mysteries and find clues that have been embedded in original content created especially for partners’ sites; the found clues will pay off when moviegoers see M:i:III on May 5....

Get ready for a soon-to-be cult classic on DVD. According to Teeth|Teeth’ target=’_blank’>DVD Town, Teeth will be released on DVD on May 6. The disc will be priced at $24.95 SRP. The film stars Jess Weixler as a young high school girl who discovers that she’s not quite like the other girls at school. High school student Dawn works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the local chastity group’s most active participant....

The official poster for That ’90s Show has arrived. Serving as a follow-up to That ’70s Show (that also conveniently forgets the panned, short-lived spinoff That ’80s Show), the new series brings back Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp as Red and Kitty Forman. Still at the same old place in Point Place, Wisconsin, the couple’s retirement years are interrupted when their granddaughter comes to say with them for the summer, setting up camp in the familiar basement with a new gang of pals....

Following on quickly after the confirmation that West Side Story star Rachel Zegler will star in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the first teaser has now been revealed. Revealed during the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards, the footage is very much a tease of what’s to come, as we are invited to “return to the games.” The teaser is a frosty one, as a songbird and a snake encased in ice slowly begin to break out before launching into an attack....

That famous quote from American Football coach Vince Lombardi, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” is usually plastered on gym walls, emblazoned on changing room floors, and referenced by coaches and athletes alike. It’s the modern-day gladiatorial pre-game recital, the rousing speech to the war-readied troops as they prepare for battle. While the likes of Lombardi will have you believe sport is a pointless exercise in the absence of victory, today’s great sporting documentaries often tell another story....

There are two sides to Homelander, the unstoppable superhero in The Boys. One is the beloved public persona, with thumbs up and pats on the back while smiling and smarming to camera, and the other is a monstrous, conniving force who can melt people with lasers from his eyes. A character like Homelander asks the very simple question of “What would it be like if Superman was evil?” Looking past the red, white, and blue cape, the blond hair and the perfect sound bites, Homelander (played by Antony Starr) is a murderer with the power to do anything he wants....

Paramount has set The Pianist scribe Ronald Harwood to write a feature about last fall’s Dover, Pa., courtroom decision in which a federal judge denied a school board the right to force educators to teach intelligent design instead of evolution. Lynda Obst is producing. Variety reports that Obst and Harwood say the trial had the level of emotional drama present in the 1925 Scopes Monkey trial, the subject of the 1960 film “Inherit the Wind,” which was based on the 1955 Broadway play....

Building on the tremendous success of the hit reality series Ghost Hunters, SCI FI Channel has greenlit Ghost Hunters International, following the adventures of a new team of skeptical paranormal investigators as they travel all over Europe, applying their principles of scientific debunking to some of the continent’s most legendary haunted spots. Ghost Hunters International is slated to debut on SCI FI in January 2008. Like their U.S. counterpart, TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), Ghost Hunters International is a squad of real-life “ghost-busters” - ordinary people who investigate and attempt to debunk claims of otherworldly activity....

The latest Scream TV spot ups the ante on the horror and chaos the franchise is known for. The 30-second clip features some new footage, and it is absolutely insane. Ghostface is seen in a metallic mask, using a flamethrower to possibly claim his next victim. You can check out the new Scream TV spot titled “Not this movie, Sidney!” below. Released by the Youtube channel, Hello Sidney, the clip teases the most unhinged Ghostface yet....

Watch the entire panel presentation for season 2 of Game of Thrones below! In HBO’s Game of Thrones, seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Political and sexual intrigue abound. The primary families are the Stark, Lannister, and Baratheon families. Robert Baratheon, King of Westeros, asks his old friend Eddard Stark to serve as his chief advisor. Eddard, suspecting that his predecessor had been murdered, accepts so that he can investigate further....