TV, Movies & Home Theatre News - Page 90

Michael Bay did say he was done with Transformers after Dark of the Moon, the third outing in franchise. Shia LeBeouf has said the same thing multiple times, but the old saying goes "money talks," and I'm sure a lot of the green has been waved under Bay's nose.

Bay's next movie is a "low budget" flick called "Pain and Gain," after which would leave him open to direct a fourth Transformers movie in late 2012. Bay has had a long-held desire to make Pain and Gain and is reportedly one of the major road blocks in a fourth Transformer movie being made. If a deal is finalized, Pain and Gain will begin filming early next year to keep Bay happy, and then get him back behind the camera for Transformers 4 directly after Pain and Gain.

Bay has made a comment or two regarding another Transformers movie, he was quoted at the grand opening of Transformers: The Ride:

I didn't think this would be this soon, details on Apple TV, but here we go. Apple analyst Gene Munster has reiterated his belief that Apple is set to launch a TV in 2012.

Munster made the comments at Business Insiders' IGNITION: Future of Media conference this morning. Gene is so sure that Apple TV is coming he told anyone thinking of buying a new TV set to actually wait, because Apple's TV is going to be that awesome.

Here are some details:

Christian Bale's stint as the masked crusader, Batman, is finished. The filming of Batman - The Dark Knight Rises has wrapped, and while speaking to the Philippine Daily Enquirer, Bale said:

I wrapped a few days ago so that will be the last time I'm taking that cowl off. I believe that the whole production wrapped yesterday, so it's all done. Everything's finished. It's me and Chris - that will be the end of that Batman era.

Bale also had a few quotes on his new cast mates, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, Tom Hardy as Bane and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (a personal fave of mine) as policeman John Blake. He said about Anne Hathaway:

Boxee Box is set to receive an upgrade in the form of the Boxee Live TV. Boxee Live TV is a dongle that allows you to connect an antenna to your Box and watch channels such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC in HD without a monthly fee.

Most people are watching less traditional TV, because of Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Vudu and Vimeo. Boxee wants to get in on this, by providing something that allows you to still use those great services through Boxee Box, but allows broadcast TV channels such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC over the air in HD through Boxee Live TV.

The traditional TV model is changing, we know that. Most people (like myself) don't sit down and watch TV when it is happening, live. They'll pre-record, DVR, download, or stream it over the Internet, to watch it later. Cable companies don't understand this, as their decades-old business model is fading, and they don't know how to stop it. Companies like Boxee understand you, most importantly, the new-age of TV viewers.

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit is currently filming and Jackson is uploading Production Videos onto Facebook, with Production Video #4 from the set of the Hobbit being uploaded today. The video goes into the 3D side of things where its revealed The Hobbit is being shot in 5k resolution, 48fps and 3D. Intense, and I'm loving the high-res shoot.

The movie is being shot on digital cameras, and directly to hard drives (SSDs by the look of them) at 128GB in size. To get an idea of 5k, think of your TV with 1080p, and then imagine a Windows desktop on it. Increase what you can fit on that screen by five times, and you're nearly there. It's hard to show the scope of it, but as the market moves toward it (with the help of movies like this and James Cameron's upcoming Avatar sequels), it is a great thing for the industry.

Jackson actually says, that people who have seen scenes of The Hobbit in 48fps, say that it's "like the back of cinema has had a hole cut out of it, where the screen is, and it's like you're looking into the real world." I would agree, as an avid user of 120Hz for games, it adds a total different dimension of fluidity into the game (and in this case, movie).

The name of the upcoming 23rd James Bond film has been confirmed: Skyfall. Skyfall features the great Daniel Craig donning the role of James Bond once again (for the third time), with leading ladies confirmed as French actress Berenice Marlohe and Naomie Harris.

Skyfall is being directed by Sam Mendes, most famous for 1999's American Beauty in which he won an Oscar. Mendes has said that the storyline will take Bond to London, China, Turkey and Scotland. Skyfall will see Bond's loyalty tested to M, his superior, while espionage headquarters MI6 faces an attack.

Dame Judi Dench returns as M, and Skyfall will also co-star Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney and Javier Bardem as the villain of Skyfall. Best of all, it will be released in the UK on 26 October 2012, which is less than a year from now.

Google TV arrived last year to some lukewarm reviews, citing its complicated interface and lack of actual usefulness. Google has spun out with another push in the form of Google TV 2.0, which includes a totally revamped UI as well as access to Google's Android Market. The update will get rolled out to Sony devices starting today and will hit Logitech Revue set-top boxes soon after.

There's no new hardware announced, but we should see some from Samsung, Vizio and other partners next year. Google, for now, are focusing their efforts making its software more user-friendly and building a solid base that will continue to be improved upon with one or two major OS updates per year and through apps from third-party developers.

Google have also tweaked the YouTube app, making it more living-room friendly. Videos now start playing in full-screen mode right away and custom playlists are created on-the-fly, so a related video will automatically begin playing when the previous one finishes, leaving you not having to tweak that remote control every time a video ends. Google have also added a very nice update that gives users access to a filtered version of the Android Market with apps optimized for Google TV.

Great marketing, fanboy or just 'I did it cos I could', Joss Whedon, the man responsible for such things as Firefly, Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, Serenity and he was actually a writer for Roseanne, and even Toy Story is at the helm of the most awesome looking 'The Avengers'. If you haven't seen The Avengers trailer, I've posted it below:

The news itself, is that The Avengers has been partially shot The Avengers... on an iPhone. Interesting, isn't it? This is a great piece of marketing for Apple and the community to hear this. Seamus McGarvey, Joss Whedon's director of photography on The Avengers, revealed in an interview recently that some of the movie was shot on an iPhone.

McGarvey says:

Ubisoft is reportedly close to signing off on a deal with Sony PIctures for an Assassin's Creed movie. The rights to the movie were apparently hotly contested by a number of large studios, with Sony getting the winning ticket.

Sony is expected to foot the fill on what is to be expected, quite a large production. An Assassin's Creed movie might actually be alright, the games are phenomenally successful, they're great games themselves, there's a lot that could be done with the AC franchise.

Ubisoft are set to maintain more creative control over the development of its games for other platforms, versus the traditional one-off licensing deals with studios. Something that proved key during the bidding process with Sony.

The new standard of ultra high-definition television (UHDTV) has taken a step in the right direction as experts at the ITU Study Group on Broadcasting Service announced they have reached an agreement on most of the pertinent technical characteristics for a new UHDTV standard.

It'll be years before consumer-based products will be here (boo!) but broadcasters and others have been working for quite a while on UHDTV, which represents a gigantic leap forward in image resolution and picture quality. Just recently, Japan-based broadcaster NHK, who have played a pioneering role in the development of UHDTV, demonstrated a screen with 33 million pixels, a mammoth jump from the 2 million pixels seen on HDTV screens today.

Last month, a trial on UHDTV was arranged between London and Amsterdam and plans are underway to cover part of the 2012 London Olympic Games in UHDTV for screening at public venues around the world.