Category Archives: Variety (Print)

Cinema second screen?

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For theater owners (and studios), cell phones and tablets are the enemy today, distracting, and often angering, filmgoers. But a contingent of entertainment industry executives sees potential in the second screen inside movie theaters — and says it won’t be long before cinema chains agree.

“Cinemas have changed over the years, from being privately owned one-off, one-screen affairs to multiplexes owned by major corporations,” says Peter Wilson, director of High Definition and Digital Cinema. “They’re a bean counter-led business, where every square centimeter has to make money.”

Read more at Daily Variety

Resident Evil @ 10: Tapping into his inner gameboy

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Over the past 10 years, the “Resident Evil” franchise has raked in more than $700 million for Constantine Film — but if Paul W.S. Anderson’s childhood vacations had been more interesting, it might never have made a nickel.

Every summer, his grandparents would take him to a “grim” resort in England, where the only real entertainment for kids was the local arcade. For a long time, that simply meant pinball, but one day he walked in to find “Space Invaders” — and Anderson was hooked.

Read more at Daily Variety

Resident Evil @ 10: Digging into myths for ‘Retribution’

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When “Resident Evil: Retribution” hit theaters Sept. 14, many of its faces no doubt looked familar — to fans of both the films and games.

The fifth installment in this 10-year-old franchise ranks as its most ambitious. And to ensure success, writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson tapped deep into the game and film’s mythology, assembling a who’s who of characters.

Read more at Daily Variety 

Resident Evil @ 10: All vid-based adaptations aren’t created as successfully as ‘Evil’

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“Resident Evil” is an abstraction in the film world.

It’s a franchise based on a videogame that not only has found an audience, but also continued to build on it with each release. That’s a feat “Tomb Raider” couldn’t manage, even with Angelina Jolie filling out Lara Croft’s short shorts.

Read more at Daily Variety

Nintendo’s Wii U has second screen

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Nintendo has more than just videogames in mind with the Wii U, its next-generation console, which goes on sale Nov. 18 in North America. The company unveiled Thursday a new initiative dubbed Nintendo TVii aimed at improving discoverability for both over-the-air and online programming.

“It has always been our goal to maximize consumer value with what we include in the hardware purchase,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America. “It’s not just a high-definition console that will change the way people play. Wii U is the only game console with a seamlessly connected, fully integrated second screen.”

Read more at Daily Variety

Spike founder teams on vidgames

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Albie Hecht, founder of Spike TV and former president of Nickelodeon, is dipping his toes in the videogame waters.

Hecht, through his Worldwide Biggies entertainment studio, has partnered with Miniclip.com to help bring the gaming portal’s properties to TV and webisodic formats. And the duo expects to have deals in place within the next six months.

Read more at Daily Variety

E3 confab to stay in downtown L.A.

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The Electronic Entertainment Expo is staying put in Los Angeles. The annual videogame trade show ended more than a month of speculation about a possible move Monday, announcing it will remain in downtown L.A. for another three years.

The Entertainment Software Association (which owns E3) and the city have been butting heads about the show for months over pending construction of the new Farmers Field stadium, which will require the demolition of the West Hall of the LACC — eliminating 210,000 square feet of show floor space — roughly one-third of the Center’s capacity.

Read more at Daily Variety

Construction of Farmers Field could bump E3

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After 46,000 industry insiders, retailers and journalists swarmed the Los Angeles Convention Center last week for E3, the videogame industry’s annual tradeshow, none of those people know where they’re going to be next year.

While E3 is one of the city’s biggest tradeshows, generating an estimated $40 million in revenue each year from hotel bookings, restaurant and other travel spending, the construction of the new Farmers Field football stadium could drive the show out of town in 2013.

Read more at Daily Variety

Apple updates laptops, iOS

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There was no new iPhone, no new iPad and certainly no news about the long-rumored TV set, but Apple still had plenty to say at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference Monday.

CEO Tim Cook announced a refresh of the company’s laptop series, a forthcoming series of advances to the iOS operating system and the long-awaited arrival of Siri on the iPad.

Read more at Daily Variety

Syfy teams on series, game

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There’s a lot of chatter about transmedia in the videogame industry, but few companies have truly pulled off a successful collaboration of games and traditional media. Trion Worlds is hoping to buck that trend — with a lot of help from cabler Syfy.

The publisher and cabler are teaming for “Defiance,” a massively multiplayer online action game and a weekly series on the network, which has committed to a full season order.

Read more at Daily Variety