That Darth Vader/Mufasa/CNN Guy Given SAG Lifetime Achievement Award

Kudos to James Earl Jones!

From Variety:

James Earl Jones has been tapped to receive this year’s life achievement kudo from the Screen Actors Guild.Jones has long been a staple of the stage and screen, making his Broadway bow in 1957 in “The Egghead” as an understudy. In 1969, the thesp won his first Tony for his role as Jack Johnson in “The Great White Hope.” In 1970, he nabbed Oscar and Golden Globe noms for “The Boxer,” the screen adaptation of the Rialto production.
“James Earl Jones’ distinguished career on stage, in film, on television, in commercials and as a vocal presence without peer commands our admiration and respect. His long and quiet devotion to advancing literacy, the arts and humanities on a national and local scale deserves our appreciation,” said SAG prexy Alan Rosenberg.
The kudo will be presented Jan. 25 at the 15th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will be simulcast on TNT and TBS. 

SAG Honors James Earl Jones

Val Kilmer replaces Will Arnett as voice of KITT!

I really should've kept my mouth shut, but I kinda called it.

Variety is reporting that Val is replacing Will as the voice of KITT because Will is currently the voice of GMC and KITT is a Ford.
Says Arnett:

"I was very excited at the prospect of playing the part of KITT in the new 'Knight Rider' movie," Arnett said. "However, because of a long relationship with General Motors as the voice of GMC Trucks, I had to respectfully withdraw from the project."

That kinda sucks, as I was really looking forward to Arnett's sarcastic KITT, but I think Kilmer will deliver.

Dang I'm actually really mad I called it!


Story @ Variety

My Post Calling it (Boo)

'Hands tells EMI staff to "WAKE UP"'

Sent to me from Mrs. Audio Guy (thanks Hon)!

Story out of Variety, apparently Guy Hands (chairman of Terra Firma, the new owners of EMI) is telling his staff to wake up and get with!

Following the developments of iTunes, P2P, and most recently Radiohead's decision to forgo traditional studio support in releasing it's latest album (and asking fans to only pay what they think it's worth), Hands appears ready to turn the entire music industry on it's ear.

Hands wrote: "Rather than embracing digitalization and the
opportunities it brings for promotion of product and distribution
through multiple channels, the industry has stuck its head in the sand."
The Terra Firma boss believes that other EMI acts and their managers will
be following the Radiohead initiative closely to see whether such a
business model can earn musicians more money than following the
traditional record company route.
"Why should (established acts) subsidize their label's new talent roster — or for that matter their record company's excessive expenditures and advances?" Hands said in his memo.

This is very encouraging. It's one thing to have peripheral acts like The Bare Naked Ladies and The Grateful Dead supporting radical distribution of music, but to have the head of a major label practically daring the rest of the music industry (and challenging their mistakes) is down right awesome. Between this and their stance on DRM, EMI is shaping up to be the most forward thinking label in music.

The formal distribution of music can not become a free service or a loss leader. If there's no incentive to craft an album, if artists can not benefit from the distribution of their content, then we'll be headed for a musical dark ages.

READ THE REST HERE @ VARIETY

Heh-heh, turn the industry on it's "ear" ...

Google's Video Service Teams up with Seth MacFarlane

Right out of Variety,



I missed this last week as it came out on my B-Day, but apparently MacFarlane will be teaming up with Google to release video content featuring Raven Symone.

"Projects will involve a set of videos for MacFarlane, who will
create about fifty digital shorts centered on non-"Family Guy"
characters, some of whom will recur.
Symone will create how-to content in areas such as cooking and crafts; execs described it "Martha Stewart for teens and tweens.
Videos will be syndicated to sites that fit the creators' demos.
Deal
offers an example of how new media cos and content providers can take
advantage of online-video opportunities while staying within their
areas of expertise.
While portals like Yahoo have begun creating
original content, and traditional entertainment congloms like News
Corp. and NBC are trying to jump into the online syndication biz,
Google-MRC pact allows each party to handle only one side of the
equation."

Pretty cool stuff! I'll have to keep my eye out for it. Sounds like Raven's contribution will be similar to the beta site Videojug.

Story @ Variety

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Variety likes Video Games?

Well ok, maybe just Ben Fritz.
With interactive content becoming one of the chief competitors for film dollars in the "awesome" demographic, it's nice to see an article from time to time that DOESN'T slam gaming (or blame all of our problems with kids on it).
Check out Ben's write up in defense of gaming HERE. It's a really well written article tying in the new-ness of 300's look (visually very game-like), and how many critics are panning the film by comparing it to a game... though it went on to make $70 million it's opening weekend.


***As an aside, if you can, this is a really fun film to see at an IMax. My eye's were bleeding by the end, but it was a little slice of awesome!
someaudioguy some audio guy videogame voice over video game voice acting hollywood business