Christian Bale (Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight”) won’t be charged in an alleged assault on his mother and sister, in part because they didn’t want to press the matter but also for lack of sufficient evidence, prosecutors said Thursday.
All 55 Netflix shipping outlets were hit by a severe technical glitch causing an outage. The Netco online rentailer had trouble sending discs to subscribers several days this week, but was back up a running Thursday night. Netflix will credit the accounts of those affected. Refund amount will be determined by the length of disruption to each customer’s service. This is only the second time in the company’s long successful history that this has happened. The cause of the snafu is being investigated. The Netflix online website was not affected.
Warner Bros. has decided to move up the release of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” from November 21 to July 17, 2009. This will put Harry up against Universal’s bigscreen adaptation of “Land of the Lost,” starring Will Ferrell.
Quentin Tarantino’s war flick, “Inglorious Bastards” is lining up a real all-star cast. The lasted to join is famed SNL alum Mike Meyers (“Austin Powers,” “Shrek”). Meyers will star with Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, “Star Trek’s” Simon Pegg and Nastassja Kinski, just to name a few who are now on board. Adam Sandler is also rumored to be in negotiations for a role.
Claire Danes (“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”) is in negotiations to star in HBO’s long-gestating biopic of Temple Grandin, a leading speaker on autism, animal expert and author.
Brian Austin Green, the actor who stars as Derek Reese on Fox’s “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” says he would like to play the Riddler in the next Batman movie, if it gets made and if Christopher Nolan is director.
The Infineon chip could be the problem that is causing customers using the newest Apple Inc’s iPhone to get all those dropped calls and has unpredictable Internet links, according to a research report from Nomura. BusinessWeek also reported on its website this week that the iPhone is suffering from faulty software on an Infineon chip, and that Apple plans to fix the problem with an upcoming software update.
The U.S. economy may be in a slight slump but you would never know it from video game sales. U.S. video game sales rose 28 percent in July from a year earlier, boosted by continued strong demand for Nintendo Co Ltd’s Wii console, according to data from research firm NPD on Thursday.
Matthew Fox’s secret negotiations (that didn’t stay secret for long) have proven successful. The star of ABC’s hit SF series “Lost” will be getting a significant raise in his salary this next season. Fox is expected to be earning about $225,000 per episode, up from the roughly $150,000 he most recently made. The rest of “Lost’s” main cast are in the process of renegotiating their deals as well, once word got out about Fox’s quiet negotiations.
While it was suspected for years, a recent dig in the Sahara Desert of a Stone Age graveyard, called Gobero, just off the shores of an ancient, dried-up lake in the Sahara is brimming with the skeletons of people, fish and crocodiles who thrived when the African desert was briefly green, researchers reported on Thursday. This proves beyond any doubt that the region was a virutal green paradise as long ago as 10,000 years, about the time of the beginnings of the first great Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations.
Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.
Hip-hop entrepreneur Percy Miller, a.k.a. Master P, is launching a family-friendly cable network, Better Black Television. The network will provide “positive content for a black and brown culture,” according to a company statement. BBTV, set to launch in 2009, will be a general entertainment channel running a wide range of scripted, unscripted and news programming, including drama and comedy series, movies, animation, reality, politics, sports and entertainment news, children’s educational and teen programming, as well as “responsible hip-hop music and videos.”
“Kick-Ass,” a comic by Mark Millar (“Wanted”) is finding it hard to be taken on by Hollywood studios because they believe it to be too violent. Huh? Too violent for Hollywood? Filmmaker Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake,” “Stardust”), is raising his own funding for the $30 million project and has designs to direct it himself as an independent film. Christopher Mintz-Plasse (“Superbad”)is in negotiations for a role, and Chloe Moretz (“The Eye”) has already been cast.
“Kick-Ass” follows a high school geek named Dave Lizewksi who attempts to reinvent himself as a real-world costumed superhero named Kick-Ass who seems doomed to failure because he’s not athletic or coordinated until he runs into real bad guys with real weapons.
Danny Huston, Shawn Roberts and Bojana Novakovic have joined the Mel Gibson-starring thriller “Edge of Darkness.”
Bernie Mac may be gone but fans will get to hear their star one last time in the upcoming Ben Stiller animated project “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.” Mac voiced the character of Zuba, the King of the Jungle and father to Stiller’s Alex. Mac died last week from complications due to pneumonia.
Out on DVD on Tuesday, August 19, 2008: “Prom Night” (the Unrated version), “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles — The Complete First Season” DVD & Blu-ray, “Dexter: The Second Season” DVD & Blu-ray, and everbody’s favorite drug-addicted, cranky M.D. – “House, M.D.: Season Four.” To purchase your copy simply mouse click on the choice or format.
Finally, the upcoming SF film “Game,” starring Gerard Butler (“300”), is being delayed to the summer of 2009 to complete visual-effects work, according to producer Gary Lucchesi.