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In the time it takes you to reach the end of this paragraph, 15 million emails will have been sent. Thirty-thousand tweets will have been published. Three million Facebook updates will have been made. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of blogs, Instagram posts and news articles will have been added to a running total measured in billions. During the biblical flood, the world was supposedly overflowing with water; today we are drowning in gigabytes.

Technology has transformed every facet of our life – and there are few places where that is more evident than how we watch and consume TV.

Our entertainment landscape is unrecognisable from even a decade ago. Today, figures from the UK media regulator Ofcom showed that young adults spend more time scrolling on TikTok than watching broadcast television. Instead, young people have flocked to streaming services – with deep-pocketed giants like Apple TV +, Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video providing an all-you-can-eat television service.

It seems like you can’t navigate through any of Netflix’s menus or functions without stumbling across at least one Adam Sandler movie, with the actor becoming an almost ubiquitous presence on the streaming service since first signing an exclusive deal to produce a string of original films that are generally terrible, but also hugely popular with subscribers.

Netflix plan on riding the Sandler gravy train for a while yet, too, following reports that they’re keen to tie the 53 year-old down for even longer even though the two sides only renewed their agreement in January of this year, with Happy Madison Productions picking up $275 million for their near-constant contributions to the Top 10 most-watched list.

The past few years have shown both sides of Sandler, with the critically-acclaimed Uncut Gems featuring his undoubted talents as a dramatic actor, while Murder Mystery saw him revert back to type and headline...

While Netflix continues to add a lot of great content, including some new original series for the summer, the platform is also going to be losing parts of its library. In particular, July will see The Matrix trilogy depart the service for the newly launched HBO Max, with some other Warner Bros. movies also making their way over to the fledgling subscription rival. What titles, then, are no longer going to be available on Netflix come July?

Well, among the films that are leaving next month, notable pics include Cloverfield, The Curse of Benjamin Button and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, as well as the majority of the Tremors franchise. Another big Warner Bros. title, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, will also be removed, part of what’s becoming a mass transfer of content over to HBO Max as the rival looks to compete with Netflix on its back-catalogue of movies. Other high-profile losses include Ghost Rider,...

Awesomeness, the ViacomCBS-owned production studio and digital media brand behind Netflix’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and Brent Rivera’s Dream Vacation on YouTube, has announced its latest quarantine-themed slate.

Awesomeness has greenlit two new shows that are being produced remotely. The Click (working title) will follow strangers from different walks of life in quarantine, as they seek to forge new connections with one another over the course of six episodes, while Date Drop is a speed-dating show featuring six YouTube influencers that will take place entirely via videoconference. Both series will premiere next month on the AwesomenessTV YouTube channel (8.1 million subscribers).

Awesomeness is also spinning off two limited YouTube series based on its hit franchise My Dream Quinceañera, which documents various quinceañera events -- or birthday celebrations for 15-year-old girls that are widely celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas.

Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.

“Adventure And Treachery”

By Raymond Benson

Sir Carol Reed made many fine British films, among them Odd Man Out and The Third Man in the 1940s, and the Oscar-winning Oliver! in the 60s… but among his lesser known pictures from the 1950s sits this gem of an adventure yarn based on Joseph Conrad’s novel, An Outcast of the Islands, first published in 1896.

While many interiors were filmed at Shepperton Studios, much of the picture was made on location in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), a British colony at the time. That alone provided the contemporary audience with a view of an exotic world that few had seen. Given that the tale is a period piece that takes place in the late 1800s, Outcast of the Islands is truly of a time and place along the lines of the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty, but on a smaller scale.

Chicago – Season Ten for Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema (Apuc) will kick off on March 10th, 2020, and this cultural gift to the city has grown with each new Opening Night. The success of Apuc is due to its founder – veteran film curator Sophia Wong Boccio – who coordinates her board of directors, vendors, Chicago communities and volunteers to present the screenings and events. For more information about the Opening Night film, the North American Premiere of Hong Kong’s “I’m Livin’ It,” click here.

Sophia Wong Boccio for the Asian Pop-Up Cinema, Season Ten

Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Sophia Wong Boccio was born and raised in Hong Kong, to parents who were both in the film industry there. Her early business career was in in Hong Kong and Beijing, where she was the Asia Managing Director for a large multinational commodity firm. While in Beijing, she developed “Sophia’s Choice,...

"Underworld" actress Kate Beckinsale poses for the January/February 2020 issue of "Women's Health" magazine, wearing Fila, Heroine Sport and Koral, photographed by Ben Watts:

Beckinsale made her film debut in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She then appeared in Brit 'costume dramas' including "Prince of Jutland" (1994), "Cold Comfort Farm" (1995), "Emma" (1996) and "The Golden Bowl" (2000).

In the Us she appeared in indie dramas "The Last Days of Disco" (1998) and "Brokedown Palace" (1999), followed by starring roles in "Pearl Harbor" (2001), "Serendipity" (2003), "Tiptoes" (2003), "The Aviator" (2004) and "Click" (2006).

Since being cast as 'Selene' in the "Underworld" film series (2003–2016), Beckinsale has become known primarily for her work in action films...

...including "Van Helsing" (2004), "Whiteout" (2009), "Contraband" (2012) and "Total Recall" (2012).

Beckinsale continues to work in film including "Snow Angels" (2007), "Nothing but the Truth" (2008), "Everybody's Fine" (2009), "Love & Friendship" (2016), "Underworld: Blood Wars" (2016)...

..."The Only Living Boy in New York" (2017) and the ITV...

New year, and a host of new Netflix additions to match.

While subscribers are currently mourning the loss of Friends – after going dark today, January 1st, the beloved sitcom won’t be available until HBO Max arrives in May – Netflix has today rolled out a bevy of fresh TV shows and movies to keep us entertained, including some truly unmissable horror properties.

From Event Horizon to Cloverfield, The Amityville Horror to the Tremors franchise, Netflix’s horror category has officially been restocked. There’s plenty to choose from, too, including the 2002 rendition of The Ring, which only makes us long for a competent retelling of the Japanese horror legend to right the wrongs of Rings (2017). At least we have the upcoming Grudge reboot to look forward to on Friday (or January 24th if you happen to be located in the United Kingdom).

Per What’s on Netflix, here’s the comprehensive list of new additions,...

"Underworld" actress Kate Beckinsale poses for the January/February 2020 issue of "Women's Health" magazine, wearing Fila, Heroine Sport and Koral, photographed by Ben Watts:

Beckinsale made her film debut in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She then appeared in Brit 'costume dramas' including "Prince of Jutland" (1994), "Cold Comfort Farm" (1995), "Emma" (1996) and "The Golden Bowl" (2000).

In the Us she appeared in indie dramas "The Last Days of Disco" (1998) and "Brokedown Palace" (1999), followed by starring roles in "Pearl Harbor" (2001), "Serendipity" (2003), "Tiptoes" (2003), "The Aviator" (2004) and "Click" (2006).

Since being cast as 'Selene' in the "Underworld" film series (2003–2016), Beckinsale has become known primarily for her work in action films...

...including "Van Helsing" (2004), "Whiteout" (2009), "Contraband" (2012) and "Total Recall" (2012).

Beckinsale continues to work in film including "Snow Angels" (2007), "Nothing but the Truth" (2008), "Everybody's Fine" (2009), "Love & Friendship" (2016), "Underworld: Blood Wars" (2016)...

..."The Only Living Boy in New York" (2017) and the ITV...

The Oscar 2018 trio of makeup and hair nominees are marked by memorable and effective transformations: Best Actor favorite Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour,” nine-year-old Auggie (Jacob Tremblay) suffering from a rare facial deformity in “Wonder,” and Judi Dench as withering Queen Victoria restored to joyful grace in “Victoria & Abdul.”

In all three instances, the sculpting and applications provided believable looks that never detracted from superb performances. Oldman and Dench don’t resemble Churchill and Victoria, yet their appearances captured the essence of these historical figures. And while Auggie’s Treacher Collins syndrome appeared less severe than in the best-selling novel by R.J. Palacio, the effects of the deformity were very realistic.

“Darkest Hour” remains the heavy favorite, of course, but “Wonder” (released this month on Blu-ray/DVD from Lionsgate) and “Victoria & Abdul” are worthy competitors, and all three are testaments to the power of the human face.

I don't get Adam Sandler. I sometimes find him funny, but I often have trouble seeing the human being behind the mush-mouthed infantilism and blind rage that constitute his screen persona. Sandler specializes in playing petulant man-children who act up until grown-up circumstances set them straight, but the second part of that equation has never felt authentic in any of his movies. Sandler really does seem like one of the 13-year-old boys that have been his bread-and-butter for years: He thrives on lowbrow jokes and violent slapstick, and his characters are pathologically self-centered and nearly incapable of generating compassion for anyone else. When he's finally forced to value his ridiculously hot wife and family in Click, or learn to run the family business in Billy Madison, he wears the vaguely sullen expression of a brat being forced to apologize to his sister, even if he doesn't really mean it. If.

He's married to Gwen Stefani and has a solo album out – and baby No. 2 on the way – but none of that is going to Gavin Rossdale's head. "You have to relinquish all self-importance," the British rocker, 42, tells People of life as a dad. "It's not a bad thing. You don't have time to think about yourself. I used to wallow in introspection. I don't have time to be that guy now."And it's not likely he will have extra time soon. The father to Kingston, who recently turned 2, is kicking off a solo career with this month’s release of Wanderlust,...

Star Trek star George Takei and his partner, Brad Altman, have just set their wedding date – September 14 – and at least two of Takei's former cast-mates plan to attend. "The best man is my colleague from Star Trek, Walter Koenig, who played Chekov, and the matron of honor is (Lt.) Uhura, Nichelle Nichols," Takei tells People. "And Leonard (Nimoy) and his wife Susan are on the (guest) list." Takei was at Equality Maryland's seventh annual Night Out for Equality gala on Sunday night in Bethesda, where he was honored for his advocacy work in support of same-sex marriage. The 71-year old...

Gary Dourdan, best known for his role on Csi: Crime Scene Investigation, pleaded guilty to counts of cocaine and Ecstasy possession during his arraignment Wednesday in Indio, Calif. Dressed in a navy blue suit, light blue shirt and matching striped tie, Dourdan casually flashed the peace sign as he left court, got into the back of a waiting car and drove away. He was charged with three counts of felony drug possession following his April 28 early-morning arrest in Palm Springs, Calif. The heroin count was dismissed. "As a result of today's proceedings, Gary has been given diversion (a drug treatment program)," his lawyer,...

Video courtesy NBC Adam Sandler can find a joke in any situation. Take his wife Jackie's morning sickness for example: "My wife gets it very bad. She vomits a lot," he told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show Wednesday. "And my little daughter is always looking at her and is nervous to see her mom sick like that. So I had I try to relax my daughter, just saying, 'Mommy's not like bad sick. She just has something growing in her that's eventually gonna shoot out her vagina and take half your toys.' "The comedian's explanation calmed his 2-year-old,...

We scored some pretty juicy Saw V bits from Lionsgate this afternoon starting with the final casting news for the film. We learned that Laura Gordon will play Ashley, Greg Bryk (Screamers 2, Shoot Em Up) will play Malick and Carlo Rota (Boondock Saints) will play Charles in the fourth sequel arriving in theaters October 24. If that wasn't cool enough, here's the Official synopsis for the film: In the fifth installment of the popular Saw franchise, Hoffman is seemingly the last person alive to carry on the Jigsaw legacy. But when his secret is threatened, Hoffman must go on the hunt to eliminate all loose ends. Click the title for the full cast for the film directed by David Hackl from a screenplay by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton.

With a new album in the works, Whitney Houston is standing strong against allegations from ex-husband Bobby Brown, says Houston's aunt, soul singer Dionne Warrick. "Whitney Houston is back!" Warrick told People before taking the stage to perform some of her own songs at Muhammad Ali's Celebrity Fight Night Xiv event in Phoenix on Friday night "I'm thrilled that she's in the studio and working on her new album," Warwick, 67, said of her niece. "No doubt she's overcoming everything that has been put in front of her even this week." Last week, Brown, 39, dished on their marriage – making allegations...

Bobby Brown is dishing on his rocky marriage to Whitney Houston in a new tell-all autobiography – but she's not letting his accusations affect her. In this, the latest installment of the couple's long-running marital feud, Brown says of his ex, "I never used cocaine until after I met Whitney." Details from the 39-year-old pop star's book, Bobby Brown: The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But, began surfacing Thursday in the New York Post. Before Whitney, Brown writes: "I had experimented with other drugs, but marijuana was my drug of choice." Whitney's rep responded in a statement to People:...

Adam Sandler broke his ankle while playing basketball on Saturday, his rep has announced in a statement. The I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry actor, 41, still won the game, according to the spokesperson. The injury will not affect Sandler's current work schedule. His current movie, Bedtime Stories, due for release later this year, remains on schedule, the Associated Press reports. It was not specified whether it was the left or right ankle. – Stephen M. Silverman Like this story? Click on the Yahoo Buzz! button below to Buzz it up!

Still living down persistent rumors that she and Chris Brown are an item, Rihanna insists, "We are best friends, honestly, like brother and sister." Speaking to MTV News at Saturday's Kids' Choice Awards, the Girls Gone Bad singer and philanthropist, 20, said, "I won't say that we're just friends – me and Chris are really best, best friends. "We both started our careers around the same time. He is one of the only people in the industry ... I trust and hang out with all the time." And just so there's no question, she added, "If he was a boyfriend, I would say that.

Comic Relief: The Greatest… And The Latest DVD collection plays host to the best 20 years of Comic Relief and includes uncensored performances from Comic Relief 2006, which helped raise funds for Hurricane Katrina victims and animal rescue operations.

Featuring the greatest and the latest from Billy Crystal, Whoopi, Robin Williams, Lewis Black, Dane Cook, John Candy, Jennifer Coolidge, George Carlin, Mike Epps, Jim Carrey, Susie Essman, Dave Chappelle, D.L. Hughley, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Eugene Levy, Richard Lewis, George Lopez, Jon Lovitz, Bill Maher, Howie Mandel, Dennis Miller, Dudley Moore, Catherine O'Hara, Jeremy Piven, Harold Ramis, Carl Reiner, Chris Rock, Ray Romano, Rita Rudner, Bob Saget, Gary Schandling, Martin Short, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Fred Willard, Steven Wright and more!

Take a look at a clip from The Daily Show featuring the comedic talents of both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert that appears on the Comic Relief DVD.

David and Victoria Beckham looked like newlyweds when they tucked into a table at Los Angeles's Stk with fellow Brit Kate Beckinsale and her husband, Len Wiseman, for a double date Friday night. "Posh was giggling and laughing the whole time," says a fellow diner. "They looked totally normal, not really paying attention to anyone else but just focused on catching up and enjoying each other." Adds another restaurant patron: "David is still really attentive to her. Her had his arm around the back of her chair and would whisper in her ear. She was beaming, the fire is still there,...

Former Friends stars Courteney Cox Arquette and Jennifer Aniston have joined forces for a good cause. Also on board: Aniston's ex, Brad Pitt. All are serving on the honorary advisory board of Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation, not to mention Cox's husband David Arquette and fellow couple Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale – and Orlando Bloom, Kate Beckinsale, Rashida Jones, James Marsden and Eva Longoria Parker. Epidermolysis Bullosa is a rare and debilitating genetic skin condition that primarily affects children. Cox and Arquette are helping spearhead the awareness- and money-raising effort on behalf of research – with a goal of $1 million in two weeks,...

Daddy is taking away the keys to some of Britney Spears's cars – permanently. A court granted the singer's father on Monday the power to "sell or dispose of" an undisclosed number of her seven cars, documents show. Lawyers for Jamie Spears stated that the cost of maintaining the fleet of vehicles was too expensive and that the sale of "a certain of" her cars "will save substantial expense to the conservatorship estate." Among the singer's cars are two white Mercedes (a SL65 and a CLK350), a white Mini Cooper convertible, and a black Audi. Also on Monday, a court...

Heath Ledger's uncles are speaking out against his father Kim's handling of the actor's assets, saying Kim has a bad track record of estate management. Ledger's father so mishandled the management of their grandfather's estate 15 years ago in Australia that Kim was removed as executor, the uncles claim. "It plunged into enormous debt," Mike Ledger, one of Kim's brothers, tells People. Heath died in January at age 28 of an accidental mixture of prescription drugs – leaving behind a daughter, Matilda, by his ex, actress Michelle Williams. His will, written before his relationship with Williams, leaves everything to his parents and sisters.

The aunt has spoken – and she's delighted. "I was so happy when I found out," Eugenie Aubry, 36, tells People about the new baby girl born on Sunday to Halle Berry and Eugenie's younger brother, Gabriel Aubry. "It's been a long time since we've had a new baby in the family," said Eugenie. "It's very exciting." While she has yet to meet her brand new niece, the Canadian resident was thrilled to hear that new mom Halle has been practicing her language skills. "I'm a Quebecer, and it's great that she is learning how to speak French," Eugenie says. "I'm glad...

Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach have both been promoted to president of Columbia Pictures. They have also re-upped the contracts with the studio through 2011.

Belgrad and Tolmach have been in the posts of president of production at the studio since 2003. The position of studio president had been unfilled since 1999 when current studio co-chair Amy Pascal held the post.

The promotion and the new contracts keep stable a team that has been at the helm of one of the most successful and lucrative runs in any studio history. The pair have shepherded Spider-Man franchise, Casino Royale, Superbad, Hitch, The Da Vinci Code, "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," Ghost Rider, The Pursuit of Happyness, Click, 50 First Dates, The Grudge and many others. Films under their guidance have grossed about $7.6 billion.

The two will continue to report to Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Michael Lynton and Pascal.

Canadian actress Laura Vandervoort has landed the coveted role of Kara/Supergirl on the CW's Smallville, and Katie Cassidy has been added to Smallville's companion series, Supernatural.

Kara/Supergirl (Vandervoort) will have a major presence on Smallville in the coming season. The character will be introduced in the show's seventh-season premiere.

Cassidy's character Ruby also will make first appearance on Supernatural's third season premiere. Ruby is a fellow demon hunter that Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles) meet when they begin searching for the masses of demons who escaped from hell in the Season 2 finale.

Vandervoort is repped by Noble Caplan Abrams in Toronto and Anthem Entertainment.

Cassidy, daughter of '70s pop star David Cassidy, has appeared in such features as Click, When a Stranger Calls and Black Christmas. She also has been signed to play Lucy Ewing in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the hit TV series Dallas. On TV, she had a recurring role on 7th Heaven.

Taking a page from the biblical story of Noah's ark, Universal Pictures launched its PG-rated comedy Evan Almighty during the weekend. But while the film floated atop the North American boxoffice with an estimated $32.1 million, the studio found itself battling a perception that the returns on the pricey movie were less than miraculous.

Paramount Vantage's debut of the true-life thriller A Mighty Heart also appeared to meet resistance. The political thriller, opening in 1,355 theaters, bowed to an estimated $4 million for a 10th-place showing overall.

On the other hand, MGM's release of the Weinstein Co.'s PG-13 horror show 1408 exceeded expectations, seemingly reversing the boxoffice curse that has bedeviled R-rated horror movies in recent months by checking in with a strong second-place showing and an estimated $20.2 million.

For the fourth consecutive weekend, boxoffice returns for the top 10 films were down compared with the same frame a year ago. According to Nielsen EDI, the weekend's top 10 collected $122.6 million, down 2% from last year, when Sony Pictures' comedy Click led the listings with a $40 million opening.

Given Evan's price tag -- the studio has officially pegged it at $175 million -- the movie might have set itself up for a fall. It follows in the wake of Jim Carrey's PG-13 Bruce Almighty, which opened in 2003 to a three-day take of $68 million during the Memorial Day weekend.

But Evan -- from director Tom Shadyac and screenwriter Steve Oedekerk, who both worked on the original -- was designed more as a spinoff than a direct sequel. The new movie follows Steve Carell's character -- a preening newscaster in the first film -- who has been elected to the U.S. Congress and has moved his family to Virginia, where God (again in the form of Morgan Freeman) comes calling with predictions of stormy weather. In a bid for the family audience, Evan stayed within PG territory and, with its biblical overtones, even reached out to heartland Christian audiences.

With the latest tracking studies leading into the weekend suggesting that Evan would arrive in mid-$30 million territory, the movie's $32.1 million came up short. Its ultimate fate will depend on how much of a family audience it can attract during the next few weeks.

Universal reported Sunday that families accounted for 45% of Evan's opening-weekend audience, with parents comprising 24% of the crowd and children under age 13 another 21%. Slightly more than half of the overall audience, 52%, was over 25. The film earned an A-minus rating from cinemaScore.

TOKYO -- Sony Corp. on Wednesday predicted record profits and revenue for its new fiscal year after recording its biggest loss in four years for its fiscal fourth-quarter. Sony's film unit was the star performer in the electronics and entertainment giant's results for the quarter and full fiscal year.

American depository receipts of Sony closed up 6% at $55.85 after setting a 52-week high of $56.09 intraday.

While still dogged by bad publicity and the financial fallout from the failure to get the PlayStation 3 console to market on time, Sony executives in Tokyo were able to point to positive figures from such films as The Da Vinci Code, Casino Royale, Click and The Pursuit of Happyness.

For the new fiscal year, Sony forecast lower film revenue -- partly because of fewer releases -- and higher operating profitability.

Howard Stringer, who arrived in March 2005 with the task of rebuilding the ailing giant, did not attend the official earnings announcement, but in a brief interview expressed his delight at the impressive showing of Sony's Spider-Man 3 to date. "It hasn't done badly, has it", the beaming Stringer said.

In its opening weekend, the third outing for the Spider-Man franchise earned an impressive $382 million worldwide.

"We're really focusing on a more concentrated film slate with fewer, more profitable films ... the Revolution deal is winding down," said Robert Wiesenthal, group executive in charge of corporate development and M&A, Sony Corp., and executive vp and CFO, Sony Corp. of America, in a conference call with U.S. investors. "I won't call it a shift in strategy, but it's been more of an evolution where we are just much more efficient in terms of the greenlight process, more efficient in terms of marketing costs, and we are very optimistic in terms of profitability for the next year." He added the film unit targets a 10% margin and should reach that during the next two years.

War epic 300 and sequel Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest are leading the nominations for the 2007 MTV Movie Awards with five and four nods apiece. Both films have been nominated for the Best Movie award, alongside Blades Of Glory, Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan and Little Miss Sunshine. 300 star Gerard Butler is up for Best Performance and Best Fight, while Lena Headey and Rodrigo Santoro have been nominated for Breakthrough Performance and Best Villain respectively. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest actors Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley have also both picked up nods for Best Performance, while Bill Nighy is up for Best Villain. The nominations are: Best Movie: 300, Blades of Glory, Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan, Little Miss Sunshine, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Best Performance: Gerard Butler - 300; Johnny Depp - Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; Keira Knightley - Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls; Beyonce Knowles - Dreamgirls; Will Smith - The Pursuit Of Happyness Breakthrough Performance: Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada; Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine; Lena Headey - 300; Columbus Short - Stomp The Yard; Jaden Smith, The Pursuit Of Happyness; Justin Timberlake - Alpha Dog Best Comedic Performance: Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada; Sacha Baron Cohen - Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan; Will Ferrell - Blades Of Glory; Adam Sandler - Click; Ben Stiller - Night At The Museum Best Kiss: Cameron Diaz & Jude Law - The Holiday; Will Ferrell & Sacha Baron Cohen - Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby; Columbus Short & Meagan Good - Stomp The Yard; Mark Wahlberg & Elizabeth Banks - Invincible Marlon Wayans & Brittany Daniel - Little Man Best Villain: Tobin Bell - Saw III; Jack Nicholson - The Departed; Bill Nighy - Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; Rodrigo Santoro - 300; Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada Best Fight: Jack Black & Hector Jimenez vs. Los Duendes (Wrestling Match) - Nacho Libre; Gerard Butler vs. 'The Uber Immortal' (The Spartan/Persian Battle) - 300; Sacha Baron Cohen vs. Ken Davitian (Naked Wrestle Fight) - Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan; Will Ferrell vs. Jon Heder (Ice Rink Fight) - Blades of Glory; Uma Thurman vs. Anna Faris (Super Girl Fight) - My Super Ex-Girlfriend Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet: Evan Almighty ; Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer ; Hairspray; Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix ; Rush Hour 3 ; Transformers...

Adam Sandler is set to star in his first Walt Disney Pictures film, the family comedy Bedtime Stories, being directed by Adam Shankman. Sandler also will produce with his Happy Madison partner Jack Giarraputo, along with Andrew Gunn and his Gunn Films banner.

Bedtime features Sandler as a harried real estate developer whose life is turned upside down when the lavish bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew begin to come true. Matt Lopez wrote the script.

Production will begin this year for a holiday 2008 release.

Shankman and his Offspring Entertainment partner Jennifer Gibgot are executive producing along with Gunn Films' Ann Marie Sanderlin.

Jason Reed is overseeing for Disney.

Sandler worked with the Disney studio on the 1998 hit The Waterboy, but that film was released under the Touchstone Pictures label.

The actor is onscreen in the Mike Binder drama Reign Over Me. His most recent comedy, Click, grossed $137.3 million at the domestic boxoffice last year. On Saturday, he received the 2007 Kids' Choice Award for favorite movie actor.

On the heels of his success with Click, feature helmer Frank Coraci is set to make his TV debut directing CBS' pilot I'm in Hell.

The project, from CBS Paramount Network TV, stars Jason Biggs as a high-flying Wall Street player who dies in a BlackBerry-related car crash. Because Hell is at full capacity, he is reassigned to Hell on Earth and must figure out a way to get by without his career and all the fabulous trappings of his former existence.

Coraci is best known for his collaborations with actor Adam Sandler. He directed the former Saturday Night Live star in 1998's The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer and, most recently, in Click last year.

Coraci recently came on board to direct 20th Century Fox's high-concept adventure-comedy Part-Time Pirates (HR 3/14).

He is repped by Endeavor, Management 360 and attorney Jason Sloane.

Jennifer Coolidge and Alan Ruck have been tapped to star in ABC's comedy pilot Family of the Year.

Additionally, Alanna Ubach has joined Fox's comedy pilot Playing Chicken, Josh Dean has come aboard another Fox comedy pilot, The Beast, Alex Borstein has been cast in ABC's comedy pilot The Thick of It, and Anna Chlumsky has landed a lead in CW's comedy pilot Eight Days a Week.

Family, from 20th TV, revolves around the Halloways, a 10-time winner of the "family of the year" title in their dusty New Mexico home town. Coolidge, recently seen in Click and For Your Consideration, will play the family's matriarch, a former beauty queen. Spin City alum Ruck will play her affable but not very bright husband.

Chicken, from WBTV and Werner-Gold-Miller, centers on two brothers with opposite political views who are forced to live together after one Norbert Leo Butz) suffers an accident that leaves him in a wheelchair. Ubach will play his physical therapist, on whom he has a crush. Ubach (Gersh, Margrit Polak Management) had a talent deal with WGM this season.

Helmer Frank Coraci is set to follow up his Click success with 20th Century Fox's Part-Time Pirates. Terra Firma Films is producing the high-concept adventure-comedy.

The project, written by newcomer Jordan Cahan based on his original idea, has long been under wraps at the studio, which acquired the scribe's pitch in 2004.

The story revolves around working-class guys who break free from their mundane lives and take to the high seas, raiding the yachts of their greedy former bosses. In the process, they find their manhood by becoming modern-day pirates.

"Pirates are the original punk rockers," Coraci said. "Politically and socially with everything going on in the world there's never been a better time than now to revive that spirit. Arrrrrrgh!"

Terra Firma's Adam Herz, Greg Lessans and Josh Shader are producing. The project was hatched by Cahan and the Universal-based shingle and developed from scratch internally. Fox's Debbie Liebling is overseeing the project for the studio.

In addition to Click, Coraci also directed The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer. He is repped by Endeavor, Management 360 and attorney Jason Sloane.

LAS VEGAS -- Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, buccaneering producer Jerry Bruckheimer and a gourmet rat named Remy made appearances Tuesday at the ShoWest Opening Day Ceremony. Their message: If you thought 2006 was good, get ready for 2007.

That sense of optimism ran through the two-hour program at the Paris hotel, with nearly everyone who took the podium sharing his or her conviction that the exhibition industry appears on its way to a record-breaking 2007 thanks to a parade of can't-miss titles from the major studios.

After opening remarks from National Association of Theatre Owners chairman Lee Roy Mitchell and an unexpected moment of group prayer, Cook introduced a slickly produced salute to the 19 films that crossed the $100 million mark at the North American boxoffice in 2006. Cook said that last year's $9.5 billion in domestic receipts proves "that moviegoing is alive and well" and that "nothing beats the experience of seeing a major motion picture in the theater."

The eclectic group of films acknowledged in the clip montage ranged from 2006's biggest tentpole titles to an eventual best picture Oscar winner: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Night at the Museum, Cars, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Da Vinci Code, Superman Returns, Happy Feet, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Casino Royale, The Pursuit of Happyness, Over the Hedge, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Click, Mission: Impossible III, The Departed, Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, The Break-Up and Dreamgirls.

Bruckheimer showed for the first time a trailer for the latest installment in his Disney franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, to thunderous applause.

Columbia Pictures is in the process of scooping up Judd Apatow, Robert Smigel and Adam Sandler's script You Don't Mess With the Zohan, with Sandler attached to star.

The comedy, developed at Revolution Studios from an original screenplay by Apatow, Smigel and Sandler, follows the exploits of a Mossad agent who fakes his death so he can anonymously move to New York and become a hair stylist. Smigel is penning a rewrite.

Shooting will begin in the summer in Los Angeles and New York for a summer 2008 release.

Happy Madison will produce Zohan through their Sony-based shingle.

Sandler, who most recently teamed with Sony on the hit comedy Click, next appears in the comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and the Sept. 11 drama Reign Over Me.

He is repped by Endeavor, Brillstein-Grey and attorney Scott Sandler.

Apatow, whose recent writing credits include The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Fun With Dick and Jane, also penned the Sandler starrer The Wedding Singer. He is repped by UTA, Mosaic Media and attorneys Sam Fischer and Bryan Wolf.

Clint Eastwood will be honored as Filmmaker of the Year at the 54th annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards, set for Feb. 24 at the Beverly Hilton.

The Motion Picture Sound Editors also will recognize Richard L. Anderson, who has worked as a sound editor on such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Color Purple, Madagascar and Flushed Away, with the Career Achievement Award.

The MPSE also announced nominees for the Golden Reel Awards, which acknowledge the year's best work in dialogue & ADR, effects & foley, and music.

For domestic feature, dialogue & ADR, the nominees are "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," Flags of Our Fathers, World Trade Center, The Last King of Scotland, Letters From Iwo Jima, Apocalypto, Little Miss Sunshine and The Da Vinci Code.

For domestic feature, effects & foley, they are Dead Man's Chest, Flags, Blood Diamond, Iwo Jima, WTC, Superman Returns, Mission: Impossible 3 and The Prestige.

In feature animation, effects & foley, the nominees are Cars, Happy Feet, Over the Hedge, Flushed Away, The Ant Bully and Ice Age: The Meltdown.

For feature film music, the nominees are Apocalypto, Dead Man's Chest, Babel, Children of Men, Click, Lucky Number Slevin, The Proposition and Bobby.

For musical feature, the nominees are Dreamgirls, "Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny," Copying Beethoven, Take the Lead and A Prairie Home Companion.

The foreign features nominees are Casino Royale, Pan's Labyrinth, Babel, Children of Men, United 93, Curse of the Golden Flower, Slevin and The Black Dahlia.

The Golden Reels also include categories for TV, direct-to-video, special venues and computer entertainment.

Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, Adam Sandler comedy Click, Disney sequel Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and magical fairytale Pan's Labyrinth head up the shortlist for this year's Best Make-Up Oscar. Seven films make the grade for the upcoming 79th Academy Awards. The other three are Hugh Jackman-Christian Bale drama The Prestige, Tim Allen comedy The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause and sequel hit X-Men: The Last Stand. The Academy's Make-Up Award Nominating Committee will view 10 minutes of excerpts from each of the seven short-listed films on January 20, before naming three nominations when the Oscar hopefuls are announced on January 23.

Seven films -- ranging from "Apocalypto" with its tribal Mayan facepaint to "X-Men: The Last Stand" with its multihued superheroes -- have advanced to the next round in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' competition for the best makeup Oscar.

The other films on the shortlist announced Tuesday are "Click", "Pan's Labyrinth", "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "The Prestige" and "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause."

On Jan. 20, the Academy's makeup award nominating committee will view 10 minutes of excerpts from each of the films. After the screenings, members will vote to nominate three films for Oscar consideration.

Nominations for the 79th Annual Academy Awards will be announced Jan. 23. The awards will be presented Feb. 25 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland.

ORLANDO -- Sony unveiled plans for its 4K digital camera and image storage system Thursday at ShowEast, where it demonstrated the new, high-brightness 4K SRX-R 220 projector.

Company executives estimated that it will take two to three years to release the camera and system, which they said will create better resolution when combined with their 4K projector, providing the quality of a 65mm film like The Sound of Music.

They cited a recently released study from the USC Entertainment Technology Center that claimed their SRX-R110 4K projector, which made its debut last year at ShowEast, met or far exceeded every Digital Cinema Initiatives specification from color and contrast to resolution.

Clips were shown from the 65mm travelogue film Baraka as well as 2K trailers for Click and Casino Royale and a 4K trailer for Mystic India.

"4K has four times the pixels of 2K, " Sony SXRD Systems marketing manager Andre Floyd said. "The pixels are much smaller and much closer together, so you have to get very close to the screen to distinguish them."...

The ICG Publicists will honor Sony's Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal as co-recipients of the Motion Picture Showman of the Year award.

The publicists, who are part of the International Cinematographers Guild Local 600 of the IATSE, will bestow the award at their 44th annual gala, set for Feb. 7 at the Beverly Hilton.

"With more than $1.3 billion in North American ticket sales, Sony is enjoying an outstanding year at the boxoffice," said Henri Bollinger, chairman of the guild's awards committee. "Amy and Michael deserve to be recognized for their leadership and showmanship."

Sony has had a record 12 films hit No. 1 at the boxoffice so far this year, including The Da Vinci Code, The Pink Panther, Click and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Lynton is chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Pascal is SPE co-chairman. Last year, Warner Bros. executives Barry Meyer and Alan Horn shared the Showman award.

As the overseas market settles into the autumnal slowdown that precedes the year-end burst of holiday entries, a diverse group of films got a chance to find audiences in scattered markets around the world. At present, the overall international market is doing better than at this time a year ago, but it falls far short of any shouting from the rooftops. A mad scramble for dates in key moviegoing territories saw a close race for weekend boxoffice honors, with World Trade Center coming in first with $12.7 million, followed by Click, $11 million; The Devil Wears Prada, $10.9 million; and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, $8.5 million. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which dominated the overseas market for 10 of the past 13 weeks, wound down to $4 million, but not before accumulating a mammoth $631.5 million at foreign boxoffices and a total of $1.1 billion when combined with domestic returns.

As the overseas market settles into the autumnal slowdown that precedes the year-end burst of holiday entries, a diverse group of films got a chance to find audiences in scattered markets around the world. At present, the overall international market is doing better than at this time a year ago, but it falls far short of any shouting from the rooftops. A mad scramble for dates in key moviegoing territories saw a close race for weekend boxoffice honors, with World Trade Center coming in first with $12.7 million, followed by Click, $11 million; The Devil Wears Prada, $10.9 million; and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, $8.5 million. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which dominated the overseas market for 10 of the past 13 weeks, wound down to $4 million, but not before accumulating a mammoth $631.5 million at foreign boxoffices and a total of $1.1 billion when combined with domestic returns.

As the overseas market settles into the autumnal slowdown that precedes the year-end burst of holiday entries, a diverse group of films got a chance to find audiences in scattered markets around the world. At present, the overall international market is doing better than at this time a year ago, but it falls far short of any shouting from the rooftops. A mad scramble for dates in key moviegoing territories saw a close race for weekend boxoffice honors, with World Trade Center coming in first with $12.7 million, followed by Click, $11 million; The Devil Wears Prada, $10.9 million; and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, $8.5 million. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which dominated the overseas market for 10 of the past 13 weeks, wound down to $4 million, but not before accumulating a mammoth $631.5 million at foreign boxoffices and a total of $1.1 billion when combined with domestic returns.

MUNICH -- Tom Tykwer's adaptation of the international bestseller, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, has become Germany's biggest local success since the comedy 7 Zwerge -- Maenner allein im Wald (7 Dwarfs - Men Alone in the Forest) two years ago. In its third weekend of release, Perfume climbed above the three million-ticket hurdle, selling 600 thousand of a weekend national total of 1.9 million tickets and more than a million in a single week. Even the Oscar-nominated The Downfall, about Hitler's final days, had only sold 2.2 million tickets after three weeks. The film, which stars Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Ben Whishaw, outpaced the Adam Sandler starrer Click and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, both of which opened well under the 300 thousand-ticket mark this past weekend.

As the overseas market settles into the autumnal slowdown that precedes the year-end burst of holiday entries, a diverse group of films got a chance to find audiences in scattered markets around the world. At present, the overall international market is doing better than at this time a year ago, but it falls far short of any shouting from the rooftops. A mad scramble for dates in key moviegoing territories saw a close race for weekend boxoffice honors, with World Trade Center coming in first with $12.7 million, followed by Click, $11 million; The Devil Wears Prada, $10.9 million; and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, $8.5 million. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which dominated the overseas market for 10 of the past 13 weeks, wound down to $4 million, but not before accumulating a mammoth $631.5 million at foreign boxoffices and a total of $1.1 billion when combined with domestic returns.

Oliver Stone's Sept. 11 drama World Trade Center emerged at the top of the international boxoffice by a healthy margin for the weekend, compiling a gross of an estimated $12.3 million from 2,690 screens in 20 markets. The Paramount/Intermedia production, distributed by United International Pictures, was propelled by muscular openings in nine territories and buttressed by a worldwide promotion tour by the film's director and cast. The biggest of the new markets is the U.K., where "WTC" bowed at No. 2 with an estimated $3 million from 409 screens. In Spain, where it bowed at No. 1, the tally was an estimated $2.3 million from 324 sites. A No. 3 opening in Germany produced an estimated $1.5 million from 452 locations. Thanks to strong openings in seven European territories, Sony Pictures Releasing International's Click surged to the No. 2 spot for the weekend, grossing an estimated $10.8 million from 2,900 screens in 55 markets and raising its overseas total to $59.3 million. The Adam Sandler comedy bowed at No. 1 in the U.K. and No. 2 in Germany, Spain, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland.

Oliver Stone's Sept. 11 drama World Trade Center emerged at the top of the international boxoffice by a healthy margin for the weekend, compiling a gross of an estimated $12.3 million from 2,690 screens in 20 markets. The Paramount/Intermedia production, distributed by United International Pictures, was propelled by muscular openings in nine territories and buttressed by a worldwide promotion tour by the film's director and cast. The biggest of the new markets is the U.K., where "WTC" bowed at No. 2 with an estimated $3 million from 409 screens. In Spain, where it bowed at No. 1, the tally was an estimated $2.3 million from 324 sites. A No. 3 opening in Germany produced an estimated $1.5 million from 452 locations. Thanks to strong openings in seven European territories, Sony Pictures Releasing International's Click surged to the No. 2 spot for the weekend, grossing an estimated $10.8 million from 2,900 screens in 55 markets and raising its overseas total to $59.3 million. The Adam Sandler comedy bowed at No. 1 in the U.K. and No. 2 in Germany, Spain, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland.

Kate Beckinsale has stepped in to replace Sarah Jessica Parker in the Screen Gems horror thriller Vacancy. Frank Whaley has been cast as the motel thriller's anti-hero. Set to be directed by Nimrod Antal (Kontroll) based on a script by Mark L. Smith, Vacancy will co-star Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a couple who find videocams in their motel room, then realize they are being taped for a snuff film. The project marks a return for Beckinsale to Screen Gems following her starring roles in the Underworld films. She most recently was seen in Sony Pictures' Click, opposite Adam Sandler.