Savejourneyman.net now has a new message board located at http://savejourneyman.net/forums/.
The boards will be a great tool for us in the campaign to save the show. It’ll be a central location to gather to learn about the campaign and talk about it too.
In the ongoing HD DVD/Blue-ray battle, Toshiba announced today that it will be cutting the price of its HD DVD players 40 to 50 percent.
Entertainment Weekly magazine is reporting that George Miller’s upcoming “Justice League of America” film may be facing a delay because the ongoing writers’ strike. This also could spell doom and gloom for the next Superman film since it was already being delayed until the release of JLA.
Already a ratings gobbler, “American Idol,” returns to the Fox network tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 15). With the WGA strike still going on, the juggernaut will undoubtedly be totally unstoppable now.
CBS Paramount Network TV and 20th Century Studios terminated production deals as a result of the Hollywood writers strike on Monday. Here is a short list of casualties:
On CBS/Paramount: Actor Hugh Jackman, Rene Echevarria (“Medium”), Barry Schindel (“Numbers”), John McNamara (“Fastlane”), the duo of Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green (“Skip Tracer”) as well as Jennifer Levin (“Without a Trace”).
At 20th Century Studios: Paul Redford (“The Unit”), Jonathan Lisco (“K-Ville”) and Lawrence Kaplow (“House”).
Day three of the Directors Guild of America’s (DGA) contract talks with the studios went well enough for another session to be scheduled for today (Tuesday, Jan. 15). Most in Hollywood believe that the DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) will quickly hammer out a new contract to replace the pact set to expire June 30. If this happens as fast as many think, it doesn’t bode well for support of the WGA striking writers.
The biggest earners on the international film market are dominated by SF and genre-related films. Still at number one is Will Smith’s “I Am Legend,” followed by Nicolas Cage’s “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.” Coming up next is “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem” then “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”
Rounding out the top box office winners overseas are “The Golden Compass,” “Enchanted” and Jerry Seinfeld’s CGI animated feature “Bee Movie.”
I'm surprised that Toshiba is that desperate. They're already taking a loss with the HD-DVD players, and by slashing the prices, they effectively make it impossible for third-party manufacturers to justify producing them at all. Pretty soon, Toshiba will be the only ones making the players, meaning more shelf space for Blu-Ray players.
It you take into account the story we did HERE:
http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2008/01/10/one-war-coming-to-an-end/
I think it's a sure bet that Toshiba knows the end of HD DVD is near and they are just trying to unload all those stock of players before the walls come crashing down on them.
Go SONY! Go SONY! Go PS3! WOOT!
Sam: Sorry about that, it's becoming hard to remember where I read the news about the format war these days. You're probably right. A lot of people think it's also a ploy to get the BR consortium to buy them off as a last resort.
Now if only Sony would make the BluRay/PS3 a bit more affordable...
"If this happens as fast as many think, it doesn’t bode well for support of the WGA striking writers."
Very pessimistic view that. If the DGA hammers out a good deal then, because of patern bargaining, it looks GOOD for the WGA. I doubt the DGA's deal will cover everything their does but it should include something for new media that's better than the flat $250 a year that the AMPTP offered before walking out on December 7th
It doesn't look good for the WGA if the DGA caves-in on the internet/DVD compensation demands. The DGA has weakened its position on this over the last few weeks. This would undercut the WGA.
CNN just reported that Idol's numbers were the lowest it's had in four years. Could the American public finally be tiring of reality garbage?
Yeah, I saw those numbers too. You could be right. After 7 seasons the show might be starting to wear a little thin, strike or no strike. However, the ratings, although their lowest, were still higher than any other show on television, so I guess when you have been hogging the air waves for 7 years at the top, perhaps the only place left to go is down. It will be interesting to see what happens with those numbers once the real competition gets underway with the final 10.