Universal Studios is building a ride in its theme parks in Singapore and Los Angeles, based on Michael Bay’s Transformers. The attraction is expected to “use 3-D HD footage with special effects, robotics and track to place humans in the middle of a war between the friendly Autobots and evil Decepticons, who can turn into cars, trucks, planes and other vehicles.” Yay, war!
Meanwhile, Universal the studio is planning to sell genre division Rogue Pictures to Relativity Media for $150 million. Rogue has been moderately successful producing low-budget hits like The Strangers, to which a sequel is in development; Relativity will get the development slate as well as the library, although Univeral will agree to distribute all Rogue films through 2013.
MSNBC Films, the documentary unit announced by NBC/Universal’s news channel in June, has firmed up plans for their first two releases. The festival circuit acquisition Dear Zachary will premiere at Tribeca Cinemas on October 29 before rolling out to at least four markets, and in-house production Witness to Jonestown will premiere on the channel November 9. Being that two NBC employees died covering the events at Jonestown, this may be the closest thing to a personal project that a cable network could make.
Remember how Hollywood feared a Screen Actors Guild strike earlier this year following the devastating WGA strike? Well, after a summer of fruitless negotiating, a strike from SAG may indeed finally happen. The guild is voting today on whether or not to ask its members for a work stoppage, which could have actors walking out around the same time the writer’s started picketing a year ago.
Adding to my single reason for not switching to a Mac, Netflix’s Watch Instantly service will now stream 1,000 additional movies courtesy of a deal with Starz. Time to finally buy a Roku, if you haven’t already.
Universal was reportedly already the lead candidate to acquire the available distribution partnership with DreamWorks, but just to clinch the deal the studio is offering Spielberg & Co. an additional $150 million financing safety net from parent company NBC Universal.
Hilary Swank has found another Oscar-bait role: the two-time Best Actress winner will star as the title role in Betty Anne Waters, about a high school dropout who becomes a lawyer in order to defend her brother, who has been convicted of murder.
Chris Holland of B-Side weighs in on that whole Jonathan Marlowe-sparked State of Distribution to-do. There are a lot of fine takeaways here, but here’s an especially good one: “Gear up the marketing machine and pack those [festival] screenings, because the more people who see your film now, the more people who will buy it on DVD later…This sounds obvious and simple, but some filmmakers behave as if exactly the opposite were true. They fret about piracy (you should be so lucky!)…”
“One of the things that has always nerdily bothered me about Star Wars is all the bespoke weaponry,” John Carney writes. “You know, all those weapons narrowly tailored to the specific environment in which the action is taking place.” Apparently, the latest Clone Wars vid doesn’t seem to make the situation any better.
Anne Thompson visited the charred wreckage of the Universal Studios backlot and took a few surreptitious pictures.
Filmmaker/Hollywood Babylon author Kenneth Anger has allegedly “put Satanic death curses” on the authors of the recently-released Hollywood Babylon: It’s Back!, who used the title without permission.
Though Universal says they’re still assessing the damage of Sunday’s fire, which destroyed a tape and film print vault/shipping and receiving center, there’s speculation that some of the prints lost may be irreplaceable. “So-called EK prints, struck from the original negatives when the negatives were new and thus irreplaceable, would be among the most valuable prints on Earth.”
Director Craig Gillespie is trying to cast his Lars and the Real Girl star Ryan gosling in The Dallas Buyers Club. Gosling would play a real-life AIDS patient circa 1986 who, “frustrated with the lack of available medical options and unwilling to accept a death sentence, found a lifeline using alternative drugs and created a lucrative smuggling business that made those drugs available.”
The United States of Tara––a TV pilot starring Toni Collette, produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Diablo Cody––has been picked up by Showtime. Cody is expected to write about half of the 12-episode season.
Two days after the Universal Studios fire, there are a lot of rumors going around as to the extent of the damage. A FishbowlLA tipster from a revival house in Alabama fed the blog an email that they say came directly from Universal, warning that “nearly 100% of the archive prints kept” on the lot went up in flames, and as a result, the studio “will be unable to honor any film bookings of prints that were set to ship from here.” The tragic details after the jump.
Oh, the sad irony: the Universal Studios fire, which destroyed the New York Street section of the backlot, was “caused by sparks from a blowtorch used to repair” that set. The theme park tram tour continued as scheduled yesterday, with visitors able to see the damaged facades (which will be rebuilt) up close.
Brad Pitt is “part of a team of consultants designing an 800-room, five-star hotel” in Dubai. “You can expect something that is not only stunning to look at but will also be an incredible attraction to visit or stay at,” Pitt promised in a statement. Or, somebody did––I can’t imagine that sentence coming out of Brad Pitt’s mouth.
Deepak Chopra says Hindus shouldn’t be mad about Mike Myers’The Love Guru. This is the first I’ve heard about Hindus being mad about The Love Guru. Did this happen while I was in Cannes, or is the noise level on Love Guru news really that low?
A fire hit the Universal Studios backlot on Sunday morning, destroying a video library as well as a number of notable sets and the King Kong “ride” from the tram tour. Contrary to internet hysteria, the Back to the Future clock tower (as in, “Save the Clock Tower! SAVE the Clock Tower!!!”) was damaged but remains standing, although the courthouse facade adjacent to it was destroyed, as was all of New York Street. There are tons of camcorder tourist videos of the King Kong thing on YouTube; the one embedded above is not only the best quality I could find, it also includes a shot at the end of the concrete lions that marked the entrance to the gated community in which the McFly family lived in Improved 1985. After the jump: the magic of the Clock Tower in action. …Read more
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Universal Studios is 
Chris Holland
Though Universal says they’re still assessing the damage of Sunday’s fire, which destroyed a tape and film print vault/shipping and receiving center, there’s speculation that 
Two days after the Universal Studios fire, there are a lot of rumors going around as to the extent of the damage. A FishbowlLA tipster from a revival house in Alabama 
Oh, the sad irony: 
