Tarantino's 'Bill' Makes a Killing on DVD

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Quentin Tarantino's bloody revenge tale "Kill Bill-Vol. 1," starring Uma Thurman, sold more than 2 million DVDs during its first day in release, according to studio executives.

While Tuesday's 2 million first-day sales figure is not a record, it does bode well for Tarantino's pop culture comedy, whose sequel opens in theaters Friday via Miramax.

"'Kill Bill' is an extraordinary achievement and reaffirms that Quentin's films are true movie events," Miramax chief operating officer Rick Sands said.

Warner's "The Matrix Revolutions," starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss, was the top-selling DVD for the week ending April 11, according to Nielsen VideoScan's First Alert weekly sales chart.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

urists Make Stars Endangered Species

April 8, 2004

Welcome to the Starline tours, scoping out celebrity neighborhoods in the hottest streets of Hollywood. In one area, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Keanu Reeves, and Brad Pitt all live within a block of each other. Of course, Jennifer Aniston goes along for that ride, along with fellow "Friend" Courtney Cox and "Will & Grace" star Megan Mullally, who are all neighbors.

Starline tour guide Brian Donnelly says he'll break the rules to give tourists the ultimate ride, or in this case, A-List ride. Donnelly says, "I’m not supposed to go to Brad Pitt’s house, but I do. Not all the time, but I do. And I’ve gotten a couple of tickets up there, but am I supposed to? No."

Most tour guides say the celebs are nothing but fair game. Donnelly thinks all's fair in love and tour. He says, "Don’t they understand that people want to at least touch part of their of their lives, or see part of their lives? And is that a problem for them?"

But even worse, Donnelly says, "Thank God it doesn’t snow here. People would be dead all over the place."

It may only be a slight overstatement; thousands of tourists comb the hills, searching for celebs as they navigate dangerous twists and turns along the road. But the struggle to read the map and drive the road puts lots of people in harm's way. Donnelly says, "Isn’t that weird? To think that the Hollywood Hills are dangerous? It’s not dangerous because of gangs, because you get killed just driving around there."

Not weird at all for the guys who hawk celeb maps for $10 a pop. So who wins this battle? Donnelly says, "Until the celebrities revolt and get everything so things are stopped: the public."

Game on as Hollywood logs on to the PlayStation generation

Top directors want big bucks - and creative control - of video games, reports David Smith

Sunday April 11, 2004
The Observer

You've seen the film and you bought the T-shirt. But Hollywood is determined it won't stop there. Now you can play the video game, directed by Peter Jackson or Ridley Scott, or starring Pierce Brosnan and Judi Dench. Jackson, the mastermind behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has become the latest director to realise the show is not over when the credits close. He has struck a deal to exercise creative control over the game version of King Kong, his next multi-million-pound blockbuster.

In doing so, Jackson joins Ridley Scott, John Woo, George Lucas and Andy and Larry Wachowski, creators of The Matrix, in seeking to take their influence beyond the cinema to potentially every teenager's bedroom. All are keenly aware that artistically films and games are converging, while financially the future belongs to the programmers.

Jackson, according to his manager Ken Kamins in an interview with the New York Times, realised during the making of The Lord of the Rings that 'while a film experience for an audience is over after two or three hours, a successful game experience, if it captures the imagination, can last for days'.

He has reportedly agreed terms with Ubisoft, the game designer, and Universal Pictures, producer of the eagerly awaited King Kong film, to play a central role in the look and format of the accompanying game. He will take an equal share of Universal's revenue from the software. It is understood Jackson was determined not miss out as he had on The Lord of the Rings games, which boast ultra-realistic visuals and even clips from his Oscar-winning films.

Actors, too, have been attracted by the growing muscle of the games industry. The makers of James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing, hired Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, John Cleese, Willem Dafoe and supermodel Heidi Klum to play starring roles. The entirely new story was plotted by Bruce Feirstein, the screenwriter of Bond movies GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies. He told Time: 'You're either terrified of the future or you embrace it. Games are the future. I'd write another one in a heartbeat.'

The games industry became bigger than Hollywood last year, with sales of games and consoles in America reaching £5.5 billion, nudging ahead of cinema box-office receipts of £5.2bn. The games market is brimming with tie-ins and spin-offs from movies, often released simultaneously and as crucial to its success or fail ure as trailers and reviews. Directors who once pored over reels of celluloid can no longer afford to ignore the power of the Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube.

Ridley Scott, the British director of Blade Runner, Alien and Gladiator, is seeking a game designer to form a partnership with him and his brother, Tony. He reasons that games offer greater creative potential because they are less costly to make than films and not limited to two or three hours. 'The idea that a world, the characters that inhabit it, and the stories those characters share can evolve with the audience's participation and, perhaps, exist in a perpetual universe is very exciting to me,' he said.

George Lucas, never far from the cutting edge, owns both Lucasfilm and LucasArts. The latter has been more successful of late, garnering awards and critical praise for its game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic . By contrast Lucasfilm's first two Star Wars movie prequels have met with a lukewarm reaction.

John Woo, the director of Mission Impossible 2 and Face/Off, last year formed Tiger Hill Entertainment, an interactive entertainment firm, and is now developing a video game about an elaborate heist. He also hopes to turn the game into a movie, a reverse path most famously trodden by Tomb Raider's Lara Croft.

Also in the vanguard are the Wachowski brothers, avid game players and creators of The Matrix trilogy, one of which was named The Matrix: Reloaded . Joel Silver, their producer, told the New York Times that the Wachowskis wanted to produce a video game for the first movie in 1997 but could not find a backer.

Three years later, after the huge success of The Matrix, they designed games for the sequels themselves, keeping a significant chunk of the revenue and shooting to the top bracket of the Hollywood rich list.

Lead actor Keanu Reeves and rock star Marilyn Manson were among those at the 'premiere' of the game Enter the Matrix. Silver said: 'There is a great divide that has rarely been crossed ... [but] everything is changing.'

The U-turn performed by Warner Brothers, which turned down the chance to develop the Matrix games, reflects the change in attitudes. It recently launched the Warner Brothers Games brand to take on the industry giants, including the leader, Electronic Arts. In the past, say experts, studios regarded games as just another piece of merchandise alongside the toys and the T-shirts.

The breakthrough game that made them sit up and take notice was British: GoldenEye, based on the James Bond film, released in 1997 on the Nintendo 64. It was widely regarded as an excellent game in its own right, rather than a cheap film spin-off, and shifted millions of copies.

Karl Hilton, one of its designers, said: 'Until then, movie tie-ins had a bad reputation because the machines were not up to it, so no one was interested.

'But people bought GoldenEye because they liked the game or they liked James Bond. After that the cost of licences for movie tie-ins went up and it became a more hard-nosed business. Now the licences are sold way in advance of your typical Christmas blockbuster and the game will often come out in the same week. It's a lucrative market.'

Hilton, a director of Nottingham-based Free Radical Design, added: 'If a director is putting all their time and effort into a film, they want to maintain the quality across the board, including the game. If a bad game came out, it could damage the brand, and it's all about brand management now: kids are quite savvy and they'll spot it if someone is doing a cheap tie-in.

'Directors could have a big influence on the look of a game, but should remember it's very different from a film because of the interaction. Playability is everything in a game.'

With directors, actors and writers jumping on board, the games industry appears confident which way the balance of power is tilting. Bruno Bonnell, the chief executive of Atari, told Time: 'Ten years ago, most studio bosses didn't know what a PlayStation was. Now, who knows? Maybe my successor will buy a studio.'

International Sports and Media Group, Inc. and MC Media Group, LLC, Have Entered into a Joint Venture Agreement to Produce High Definition Television Programming

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 2004--

Companies Form 5ive Media Entertainment to Develop HDTV Projects

International Sports and Media Group, Inc. (OTCBB:ISME), and Macias/Clark Media Group, LLC, San Diego, have formed a joint venture to create 5ive Media Entertainment to produce HDTV television productions, "Toy Show" and "Built."

International Sports and Media Group will be aiding in the financing of the television productions through the newly formed 5ive Media Entertainment. The first two TV productions are the "Toy Show," a celebrity infused, action-charged adventure on the Motorcycle, Automobile, Aviation and Marine industries; featuring special guest appearances by Keanu Reeves (Matrix Trilogies, Something's Gotta Give), Tom Arnold (Best Damn Sports Show), Angie Everheart (Jade), just to name a few. "Built" is an introspective view on the Motorcycle and Trucking customization industries featuring famous industry veterans such as Dave Perewitz, Donny Smith, Arlen Ness and many others. Both shows are shot in Digital High Definition format.

Yan Skwara, President and CEO of International Sports and Media Group, Inc. said, "This Joint Venture with MC Media Group represents a great opportunity for both companies. Currently, just over 4 million worldwide TV households receive and watch HDTV programming, although most industry insiders expect that number to climb rapidly over the next few years. Increasing consumer demand for HDTV service is also driving sales of new consumer electronics products, such as HDTV sets and HD-capable set top boxes. Total worldwide terrestrial, satellite, and cable TV households that are watching HD programming on an HDTV set are projected to rise to almost 6 million by the end of 2004, and ultimately reach 45 million by the end of 2008. The United States has just over 1.5 million households."

President of Macias/Clark Media Group LLC, Shone Clark stated, "This Joint Venture is exciting for us. The financial-marketing vision of ISMG mixes well with our creatively-skilled core production competencies. We produce quality television and film projects and they help to support that by helping us control the brand. Our programs market directly to today's American male, ages 17-50. These groups represent a buying power of over $200 billion. Their fascination with these Lifestyle Industries (Custom Motorcycles, Boats, Cars, and Planes) has even penetrated to the 2003, NFL Superbowl (AOL/ "American Chopper") and turned Maxim Magazine into the largest subscription-base in the world of publishing."

About International Sports and Media Group, Inc.:

International Sports and Media Group, (OTCBB:ISME), is a marketing communications firm focused on assisting companies increase their brand awareness using its expertise in the sports and media sector with services including, marketing, corporate communications, public relations, hospitality and sponsorship. For more information on the Company, please visit www.ismg.info.

About Macias/Clark Media Group, LLC:

In May 2002, television and film production industry veterans Jerry Macias (Los Angeles Lakers, Cher, San Diego Gulls, Britney Spears) and I. Shone Clark (PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Sony Entertainment, MCA, Brillstein-Grey) began self-funding and producing a documentary on Motorcycles. Their vision was to become specialists in a niche market arena, "Lifestyle Entertainment programming." From this the "Toy Show" and "Built" were created. Macias/Clark's goal is to become the number one producer of cable television programming on lifestyle entertainment based content. MCMG has a manufacturing and distribution deal through Blackstone Entertainment/Ryko/WEA for Digital Video Disc.

Certain statements in this news release may contain "forward-looking" information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Act of 1934 and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release may include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Tibits

Keanu Reeves was recently lunching on the outdoor patio at Spago with a couple of buddies. Their table was just where the patio joins the inside part of the eatery. You're allowed to smoke outside but not inside. The Matrix star was puffing away at ciggies for much of the two hours he was there, when a couple, who were sitting at the next table-but indoors-told him he was ruining their meals with constant cigarette smoke. Keanu acted like a true gentleman. He not only humbly apologized and moved his party to a table in the middle of the patio, but he also picked up the couple's tab

Keanu Goes Undercover!

Washington | April 02, 2004 3:17:57 PM IST He is the face who gave Neo a new identity so much so that the Matrix almost became a cult. And now, Keanu Reeves, is all set to play an undercover agent in his upcoming movie titled, A Scanner Darkly.According to Imdb, the movie produced by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's Section 8 company, will be shot in live action and then animated.Reeves plays an undercover agent in this futuristic storywho can change his identity and face and whose overuse of the drug Substance D causes him to develop a split personality. (ANI)