Blog OF Music, Video, Games

All Soundtracks of High School Musical 2

2007-10-18T04:17:00.000-07:00

1. All For One (High School Musical 2 Cast)
2. Bet On It (High School Musical 2 Cast)
3. Everyday (Troy & Gabriella)
4. Fabulous (High School Musical 2 Cast)
5. Gotta Go My Own Way (High School Musical 2 Cast)
6. Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (Bonus) (Sharpay & Ryan)
7. I Don't Dance (High School Musical 2 Cast)
8. What Time Is It (High School Musical 2 Cast)
9. Work This Out (High School Musical 2 Cast)
10.You Are The Music In Me (High School Musical 2 Cast)
11. You Are The Music In Me (Sharpay Version) (High School Musical 2 Cast)
Download Here

Mission: Impossible

2007-08-31T23:41:00.000-07:00

Super-spy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has retired from active duty to trains new IMF agents. But he is called back into action to confront the toughest villain he’s ever faced – Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an international weapons and information provider with no remorse and no conscience. Hunt assembles his team – his old friend Luther Strickell (Ving Rhames), transportation expert Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and background operative Zhen (Maggie Q), to rescue one of his very own trainess, Lindsey (Keri Russell) who was kidnapped while on a surveillance detail of Davian. It soon becomes evident that Davian is well protected, well-connected, and downright malicious, forcing. Hunt to extend his journey back into the field in order to rescue his wife, Julia (Michelle Monaghan), and uncover IMF double agents in the process.

Unit Production Manager

STRATTON LEOPOLD

Unit Production Manager

DAVID WITZ

First Assistant Director

TOMMY GORMLEY

Second Assistant Director

THOMAS HARPER

Second Unit Director

VIC ARMSTRONG

“Mission: Impossible Theme”

Composed by LaLo Schifrin

CAST

TOM CRUISE (Etan Hunt)

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (Owen Davian)

VING RHAMES (Luther)

BILLY CRUDUP (Musgrave)

MICHELLE MONAGHAN (Julia)

JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS (Declan)

KERI RUSSELL (Lindsey Farris)

MAGGIE Q (Zhen)

SIMON PEGG (Benfi)

EDDIE MARSAN (Brownway)

LAURENCE FISHBURNE (Theodore Brassel)

WITH

BAHAR SOOMEKH (Davian’s Translator)

JEFF CHASE (Davian’s Bodyguard)

MICHAEL BERRY, JR (Julia’s Kidnapper)

AND IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:

CARLA GALLO (Beth)

BELLAMY YOUNG (Rachael)

PAUL KEELY (Ken)

JANE DALY (Julia’s Mother)

GREG GRUNBERG (Kevin)

SABRA WILLIAMS (Annie)

ROSE ROLLINS (Ellie)

SASHA ALEXANDER (Melissa)

AARON PAUL (Rick)

KATHRYN FIORE (Party Goer)

COLLEEN CROZIER (Party Goer)

SEAN O’BRYAN (Party Goers)

BRUCE FRENCH (Minister)

ELLEN BRY (Lindsey’s Mother)

PATRICK PANKHURST (Lindsey’s Father)

TONY GUMA (Jim)

JAMES SHANKLIN (Hospital Chaplain)

ANNE BETANCOURT (Nurse Sally)

ANTONIETTA DE LORDENZO (Roadblock Driver)

ANDREA SARTORETTI (Roadblock Driver)

ANTONIO DEL PRETE (Vatican Video Room Guard)

FRANCESCO DE VITO (Greeting Priest)

GIORGIO MARCHESI (Vatican Gate Guard)

NICCOLO SENNI (Vatican Gate Guard)

PAOLO SONACELLI (Monsignore)

DAVID WATERS (IMF Officer)

MICHAEL KEHOE (Hospital Employee)

TIMOTHY OMUNDSON (IMF Agent)

WILLIAM FRANCIS MCGUIRE (IMF Head of Security)

MICHELLE ARTHUR (Airline Worker)

BARNEY CHENG (Janitor)

VIC ARMSTRONG (Stunt Coordinator)

CASEY O’NEIL (Cast Stunt Double)

STUNTS

ROBERT ALONZO

JAMES ARMSTRONG

NINA ARMSTRONG

SCOTT ARMSTRONG

WENDY ARMSTRONG

RICHARD BURDEN

ANDY CHENG

ELIZA COLEMAN

PETE EPSTEIN

DANA EVENSON – TAAVON

CONRADE GAMBLE

TANNER GILL

RANDY HALL

TERRY JACKSON

CRAIG JENSEN

BILLY LUCAS

HEIDI MONEYMAKER

MICHIKO NISHIWAKI

ERIC NORRIS

CHRIS PALERMO

JIM PALMER

DAN PLUM

MING QIU

BUSTER REEVES

KERRY ROSSALL

GEORGE SACK, JR

DENNIS SCOTT

RUSSELL SOLBERG

C.C.TAYLOR

MARK WAGNER

MARCUS YOUNG

GLEN YRIGOYEN

CLIFF FLEMING (Aerial Coordinator)

BRUCE BENSON (Helicopter Pilot)

CORY FLEMING (Helicopter Pilot)

KEVIN LA ROSA (Helicopter Pilot)

ILM Associate Visual Effects Supervisor

RUSSELL EARL

ILM Visual Effects Producer

SHARI HANSON

Visual Consultant

ERIC SCHWAB

Post Production Supervisor

DEBBI BOSSI

Re-Recording Mixers

ANDY NELSON

ANNA BEHLMER

Supervising Sound Editor

MARK STDECKINGER

CREW

Production Supervisor: MATTHEW J.BIRCH

Supervising Art Director: DAN DORRANCE

Special Effects Coordinator: DAN SUDICK

Camera Operator: COLIN ANDERSON

B Camera Operator: PHIL CARR- FORSTER

Chief Lighting Technician: ROBERT BRUCE MCCLEERY

First Company Grip: TOM GIBSON

Property Master: STEVEN B.MELTON

Armorer: HARRY LU

Makeup Designed And Super vised By: MICHELE BURKE

Department Head Makeup Artist: F.X.PEREZ

Costume Supervisor: CHERYL BEASLEY BLACKWELL

Costumer: NANCY THOMPSON

Sound Mixer: JEFF WEXLER, C.A.S

Boom Operator: DON COUFAL

Video Assist: DAN MOORE

Script Supervisor: DAWN GILLIAM

Production Coordinator: CANDICE CAMPOS

Unit Publicist: AMANDA BRAND

Spervising Location Manager: BECKY BRAKE

Set Decoration: KAREN MANTHEY

Transportation Coordinator: TOMMY TANCHARDEN

Aerial Director Of Photography: DAVID B.NOWELL, A.S.C

Art Directors: DENNIS BRADFORD

GARY KOSKO

KEVIN KAVANAUGH

SEAN HAWORTH

DOMENIC SILVESTRI

BRAD RICKER

C Camera Operator: MARK MEYERS

First Assistant Photographer: JOHN CONNOR

B Camera

First Assistant Photographer: ERIC TRAMP

SCOTT RATHNER

C Camera

First Assistant Photographers: SERGE NOFIELD

DAN MIGN

Second Assistant Photographer: NAOMI VILLANUEVA- BRUNNER

B Camera

Second Assistant Photographer: STEVE WOLFE

C Camera

Second Assistant Photographer: JULICE HELTON

Technocrane Operator: BRIAN MCPHERSON

Libra Head Operator: GRED “WOODY” SCHMIDT

Film Loader: BRANDON COX

C/W Executive: DARREN MILLER

Assistant To Mr.Cruise: JILL REMIS

Stand-In For Mr.Cruise: BRYANT POWELL

Assistant To Ms.Wagner: ARIK RUCHIM

ALISA STARLER

Assistant To J.Jabrams: ATHENA WICKHAM

SEAN GERACE

Assistant To Mr.Leopold: DANA CAVALIERO

SEAN BURKE

Production Liaison: SARAH BAKER

Visual Effects Coordinator: CHRISTOPHER RAIMO

Assistant Production Coordinator: JASON ZORIGIAN

Additional

Assistant Production Coordinator: NICK JORDAN

Foreign Locations Coordinator: LARK BERNINI

Production Secretarices: KATHRYN GALBERTH

JAMES MICHEAL MILLER

Special Effects Forepersons

DAVE BLITSTEIN • RON GOLDSTEIN • TODD K.JENSEN

ROBERT OLMSTEAD • GINTAR REPECKA • SHAWN JACOBY

Special effects Technicians

BENEDICT C.ADAMS • RYAN ARNDT • RDY AUSENSTEIN • KEVIN BOWERS

ERIC COOK • STEVE DEARTH • MATHEW DOWNEY • RODERIC DUFF

DAVID ELAND • RON EPSTEIN • STEVEN C.FICKE • KEITH HAYNES

JOE HEFFERNAN • THOMAS HOMSHER • RICHARD LANDERER

DAVID A.MARTEN • RON MATHEWS • WILIAM P.MCGINLEY

BRYAN PHILIPS • JEFF RAND • MIKE RIFKIN • ALAN RIFKIN

CLARK TEMPLEMAN • DAVID WAINE • SCOTT WHEATLEY • RICHARD ZARRO

Special Effects

Staff Shop Supervison: DAMACIO CORTEZ, JR

Special Effects Digital Set Designer: ROB JOHNSON

Special EffectPurchascer: SARA R.MORRIS

Utility Sound: ROBERT MAXFIELD

Additional Video Assist: PETER TAYLOR

CHRIS LUM

Assistant Chief Lighting Technician: CHRISTOPHER PRAMPIN

Chief Riggning Electrician: MARTY BOSWORTH

Assistant Chief Rigging Electrician: DAVE DIAMOND

Electricians

GREG ETHERDGE • ADAM HARRISON • JIMMY HARRITOS

PATRICK R.HDESCHEN • DOUG KIEFFER

HOOTLY WEEDN • CHRIS WEIGAND

Rigging Electric Foreperson: DUNCAN SOBEL

Rigging Electricians

BRANDON AINSWORTH • RANDY BABCHUCK • ED COX • CESAR GONZALEZ

GUSTAVD GRACIANO • DEAN HALVORSEN • CHARLES KING

STUART KIRSCHNER • JOHN MANOCCHIA • DEREX MILLER • RAMIRO RUIZ

MICHEAL SEAMAN • DENNIS SHELTON •CHARLES SPARKS

Second Company Grip: ALEXANDER CRUZ

First Company Righing Grip: RICK RADER

Second Company Righing Grip: HILARY KLYM

A Camera Dolly Grip Operator: LARRY SWEET

B Camera Dolly Grip Operator: MICHEAL WAHL

C Camera Dolly Grip Operator: RALPHIE DEL CASTILLO

Grips

DON DOMINO • TOMMY DONALD • ANTHONY MOLLICONE

MICHEAL SALAMONE • DAVID SALAMONE • DAVID SIREIKA, SR

Rigging Grip Forepersons: RICK HERRES

GEORGE KALLIMANIS

Rigging Grips

BILL GILLERAN • JAMIE HEINTZ • MICHEAL HESTER

RICK JOHNSON • GARY LOUZON • RICHARD MCGINNIS

PHILIP NOBLE • OM SHARPE • IGNACIO WOOLFOLK

Spydercam Supervison: TODD “HAMMER” SEMMES

Winch Tech / Rigger: MATT DAVIS

Spydercam Head Rigger: SCOTT PAIDER

Flight Control / Rigging: BEN BRITTEN SMITH

Assistant Property Masters: LANCE LARSON

SCOTT BAUER

Mask Maker Design: SYD MEAD

Frist Assistant Armorer: RON LICARI

Weapons Coordinator: AMANDA BROMBERG

Location Manager: DOUG DRESSER

Assistant Location Managers

KYLE “SNAPPY” OLIVER • J.J.HOOK • SCOTT TRIMBLE • RACHEL WATKINS

Lead Persons: BRETT SMITH

CRAIG GADSBY

Set Dressing Buyer: SARA GARDNER – GAIL

On – Set Dresser: ERIK BERENTSEN

Drapery Foreperson: JAY SMITH

Set Dressers

EDWARD J.PROTIVA • DAVID LADISH • J.R.VASQUEZ

QUENT SCHIERENBERG • KAI BLOMBERG • MICHEAL C.MAGNO

MICHAEL CASEY • DOUG DEVINE • DOUGLAS MACHALA

ERIC OLSEN • ALEX WALKER • LESLIE WARREN

Set Decorating Coordinator: MONICA FROMMHOLZ

Assistant Costume Designer: CHRISTINE CANTELLA

Key Costumers: BETH KOENISBERG

AMY ARNOLD

Key Set Costumer: DONNA O’NEAL

Set Costumer: BRENDA LAIDLAW

Costumers: DAVID FERNANDEZ

GILLIAN WATERMAN

STEPHANIE PORTNOY

Key Makeup Artists: DEBORAH PATING

MAGGIE FUNG

Special makeup Effects Fabricated By: BARNEY BURMAN – PROTEUS

MAKEUP FX

Departmaent Head Hairstylists: SHERYL BLUM

TERRIE VELAZQUEZ – OWEN

Key Hairstylist: VIVANE NOMAND

Hairstylists: ELAINA P.SCHULMAN

LYNDA K.WALKER

Style Consultant: OSCAR BLANDI

Casting Associates: ALYSSA WEISBERG

MANDY SHERMAN

GINA GARCIA

Background Casting: JENNIFER BENDER

Assistant Art Directors: CURT BEECH

NAAMAN MARSHALL

Concept Artist: TIM FLATTERY

Concept Illusrators: PAUL OZZIMO

MATT CODD

Storyboard Artists: ROBERT CONSING

GIACOMO GHIAZZA

SYLVAIN DESPRETZ

Previsualization Supervisors: DAVID DOZORETZ

LAURENT LAVIGNE

Art Department Coordinator: CHRISTINE YOUNGSTROM

Military Weapons Trainer: PETER WEIRETER

Visual Effects Editor: MARTIN ALLAN KLONER

Frist Assistant Editor: IMELDA C.BETIONG

LUCYNA WOJCIECHOWSKI

Assistant Editors

PAULA SUHY • STEFANIE WISEMAN • MARK BOURGEDIS

CEDRIC NAIRN-SMITH • JULIAN SMIRKE

Assistant Visual Effects Editor: ELANA JOY LIVNEH

Post Production Assistant: KERRY J.BLACKMAN

CHRISTOPHER HLAS

DANIELA CATHERINE OVI

Sound Designer: ALAN RANKIN, M.P.S.E

Supervising Adr Editor: KERRY DEAN WILLIAMS

Sound Editors: SCOTT WOLF, M.P.S.E

JON TITLE, M.P.S.E

MICHEAL KAMPER

PETER ZINDA, M.P.S.E

BETH STERNER, M.P.S.E

KENNETH JOHNSON, M.P.S.E

Dialouge Editors: LAURA HARRIS ATKINSON

MICHEAL SZAKMEISTER, M.P.S.E.

SUSAN KURTZ

DANIEL S.IRWIN, M.P.S.E.

ADR Editors: ANNA MACKENZIE

PAUL TIMOTHY CARDEN

Supervising Foley Editors: THOMAS SMALL, M.P.S.E.

SCOTT CURTIS, M.P.S.E.

Foley Editors: MATTHEW HARRISON, M.P.S.E.

JEREMYPITTS

LINDA LEW

Assistant Sound Editors: VICTOR RAY ENNIS

CARMEN FLORES DE TANIS

PAUL FLINCHBAUGH

RONNIE MORGAN

ADR Assistant Editor: DAVID KUDELL

Foley Artists: SARAH MONAT

ROBIN HARLAN

ADR Mixers: BOB BARON

CHARLEEN STEVEES

Foley Mixer: RANDY K.SINGER

Sound Effects Recordists: JOHN PAUL FASAL

MARK ORMANDY

TOBIAS POPPE

Additional Audio: JOHN DUNN

PAUL PODUSKA

Voice Casting: CAITLIN McKENNA

Music Orchestrated and Conducted by TIM SIMONEC

Additional Orchestrations by PETER BOYER

HARVEY R.COHEN

MARK GASBARRO

JACK HAYES

LARRY KENTON

CHRIS TILTON

Music Recorded and Mixed by DAN WALLIN

Superising Music Editor: STEPHEN M.DAVIS, M.P.S.E.

Music Editor: ALEX LEVY

Assistant Music Editor: ALAN SCHLAIFER

Music Editor Coordinator: PAUL APELGREN

Assistants to Mr.Giacchino: CHAD SEITER

ANDREA DATZMAN

Orchestra Contractor: REGGIE WILSON

Music Preparation BOOKER T.WHITE

Music Recorded At SONY PICTURES STUDIO

Music Recordist: ADAM MICHALAK

Music Technical Engineer: GREG LOSKORN

Music Floor Persons: MARK ESHELMAN

BRYAN CLEMENTS

Music Mixed at WARNER BROS.STUDIOS

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Visual Effects Plate Coordinator: STEVE RIERA

Second Second Assistant Director: DAVID “MUDDY” WATERS

DGA Traince: GREG PAWLIK

Production Assistants

ERIK AGUIRRE LUKE ALLEIN CHERYL ANDRYCO

WHITNEY “BUCK” ARNOLD JASON BEALE DAVID BOJARSKI

L.D.COZY AARON FITZGERALD MICHAEL GALASSO CHRIS GIBSON

TYSON HILGENBERS TIM KANE JASON Z.KEMP MARISA L.A TOUR

AMY LAMENDOLA OLEG LIVITS MATT LOMBARDO MICHELE MIATELO

CHRISTINE MUNDAY APRIL NOVAK KRISTINE NADAL KEVIN O’NEIL

JILL PERNO ZACK L.SMITH TARA SHACKELFORD GREG TURNBULL

Still Phoyographer: STEVEN VAUGHAN

Supervising Medic: MARIE “REE” NASHOLD

Construction Medics: MARRY LAMAR MAHLER

JEFF RODGERS

Special Effects Medic: BONNIE FERNIMEN

Rigging medic: DAVID FALICKI

Supervising Production Controller: JIM DAVIDSON

Production Auditor – All Locations: GENE STRANGE

First Assistant Auditor: JAMIE DADDIO

Second Assistant Auditors: DENISE MORA

LISA FURIA

MARGO ROMANO

Assitant Auditors: MICHAEL GRANBERRY

SEAN CARVILLE

RICHARD S.WILSON

Payroll Auditor: IRNE NAYDICHEV

Assistant Payroll Auditor: HIROMO MARDER

Payroll Clerk: PHIL BESA

Construction Auditor: YVONNE RAMOND

Assistant Construction Auditor: JERRY CARVILLE

Set Designers

J.ADRE CHAINTREUIL ANDREW REEDER SCOTT ZUBER

TIMOTHY EARLS MARK LUCERO STELLA VACCARO ROY BARNES

Model maker: JEFF FROST

Lead Graphic Designer: CLINT SCHULTZ

Graphic Designer: GEOFFREY T.MANDEL

Construction Coordinator: SEBASTIAN MILITO

Consreuction Foreperson: DIXWLL STILLMAN

Propmaker Forepersons

ROBERT ANDERSON DAVID BRENNER DALE GORDON SASHA MADZAR

SCOTT MIZGAITERS JIM ROACH MARK SHEAFFER BOBBY L.VAUGHN

Propmakers

TONY BRIDGERS KENT E.D’HUET . ATHONY IMPERATO BRIAN MERTENS

CASEY MORGAN STEVEN M.PACHECO EDWARD PRICE

RICHARD W.ROSE GUSTAVO TRASLAVINA JEFF VALDEZ

Paint Supervisor: BRUCE G.SMITH

Paint Forepersons

DANIEL P’BRIEN ROBERT PAPGAAYN ANDREW SCUDIER MICHAEL VOLZ

On-Set Painter: ANDY FLORES

Lead Plasterer: JARED TREPEPI

Plasterer Forepersons: BRIAN FERNANDEZ

HECTOR MORENO

Supervising Labor Foreperson: JOHN BARBERA

Labor Forepersons

GLENN BRAUN GARY COELHO LONNIE HASPEL

GARY METZEN JOHNNY “BEAR” MORALES

Greens Coordinator: JEFF BROWN

Greens Forepersons: BRYAN McBRIEN

FRANK McELDOWNEY

Greens

JOE BRAVO TONY CASTAGNOLA SHELDON FORD JONES HUGO MAIDA

Transportation Dispatcher: AUDREY CONRAD

Personal Drivers: DOUG WEAVER

JOHN LYBRAND

A.J.WADE

FRED LIBERMAN

Picture Car Coordinator: PAUL STROH

Catering by: FOR STARS CATERING

Craft Services: MICHAEL KEHDE

Production Security Provided by SISS LTD.

SECOND UNIT

Directors of Photography: STEPHEN ST.JOHN

C.MITCHELL AMUNDSEN

Production Supervisor: DEB SCHWAB

First Assistant Director: MATHEW DUNNE

Virginia First Assistant Director: JAMIE MARSHALL

Second Assistant Director: BRANDO LAMBDIN

Camera Operators: BILLY O’DROBINAK

CHRIS HAARHOFF

First Assistant Photographers: BAIRD STEPTOE

CHRIS HAARHOFF

First Assistant Photographers: BAIRD STEPTOE

STEPHEN WONG

Second Assistant Photographers: JOHN YOUNG

DAVID SEEKINS

Film Loader: MARCUS MENTZER

Script Supervisor: TRISA BURTON

Sound Mixer: EDWARD WHITE

Video Assist: TOM LOEWY

Chief Lighting Technician: ANDY RYAN

Assistant Chief Lighting Technician: ANDY DOROWSKY

Chief Rigging Electrician: FRANK DOROWSKY

Assistant Chief Rigging Electrician: SCOTT KEYS

Electricians

MICHAEL ANDERSON CASEY DUNN SCOT GAAL DAN PURINGTON

First Company Grip: ANTHONY T.MARRA II

Second Company Grip: MICHAEL FAHEY

First Company Rigging Grip: GARY KANGRGA

Second Company Rigging Grip: JOHN BERAN

Dolly Grip Operators: SCOTT DRINSON

HECTOR MIRANDA

Grips

SEAN DEVINE BARRY “CHIP” INGRAM TIM NASH JIM WALSH

Libra Head Operator: AARON YORK

Technocrane Operator: JASON KAY

Property Master: BRIAN DUFF

Assistant Property Master: HOWARD FANNON

Assistant Location Manager: MICHAEL CHICKEY

Virginia Location Supervisor: DON HUG

Norfolk, Virginia Location Manager: JEFFREY FRIZZELL

Richmono, Virginia Location Manager: DAWN BLACKSTEN

Washington D.C, Location Manager: CAROL FLAISHER

On-Set Dresser: MARCUS EPPS

Costume Supervisor: BRIAN CALLAHAN

Set Costumer: JAY CHENG

Head Makeup Artist: MARGIE KAKLAMANOS

Head Hairstylist: KERRY MENDENHALL

Assistant To Mr.Armstrong: PIERRE CHEMINAT

Production Coordinator: LORI BERLANGA

Assistant Production Coordinator: SARAH LORENZ

Production Secretary: MICHAEL ALVARADO

Second Second Assistant Directors: BRAD ARNOLD

ANDREW M.WARD

Virginia Second Second Assistant Director: T.COE

Production Auditor: LORI ROBERTS

Payroll Auditors: KATY TATIAN-GENOVESE

KIMBERLY AGUIRRE

Production Assistants

R.BEN ADAMS LISA DUNNE CHRIS GARNETT

MATTI KLUTZ BRETT ROBINSON

Medic: JASON INMAN

Transportation Captain: GLENN ENZEN

Transportation Co-Captain: ALAN THOMAS

Craft Services: PETER EVANGELATOS

MARY KING

ITALIAN UNIT

Line Producer: ENZO SISTI

Unit Production Manager: VITO COLAZZO

Unit Manager: ANDREA ALUNNI

Assistant Unit Manager: WILLY FASO

LAURA CORTI

First Assistant Directors: INTI CARBONI

LUIGI SPOLETINI

Second Assistant Director: EDOARDO PETTI

Art Directors: STEFANO ORTOLANI

EUGENIO ULISSI

GIACOMO CALO CARDUCCI

Set Decorator: CHIARA BALDUCCI

B Camera First Assitant Photographer: RICCADO UMETELLI

B Camera Second Assistant Photographer: SERGIO DE LUCA

Film Loader: MARCO GRAZIAPLENA

Chief Lighting Technician: STEFANO MARINO

Assistant Chief Lighting Technician: SALVATORE RUBERTO

Chief Rigging Electrician: FABIO CAFOLLA

First Company Grip: DORIANO TORRIERO

Second Company Grip: FAUSTO CANCELLIERI

First Company Rigging Grip: PAOLO FRASSON

Property Master: TONI MURER

Assistant Property Master: LUCA GIAMPAOLI

Assistant Set Decorator: ALESSIA ANFUSO

Special Effects Supervisor: RENATO AGOSTINI

Special Effects Coordinator: DANIEL ACON

Location Managers: ENRICO LATELLA

VINCENZO TESTA

Assistant Costume Designer: COLLEEN KELSALL

Costume Supervisor: DANIELA CIANCIO

Department Head Hairstylist: MARIA TERESA CORRIDONI

Assistant Editors: LIBERATA ZOCCHI

EMANUELA LUCIDI

Background Casting: SILVANO SPOLETINI

ANTONIO SPOLETINI

Assistant Art Director: SAVERIO SMMALI

Art Department Coordinator: SANDRA JELMINI

Assistant To Mr.Sisti: CARIDDI NARDULLI

Production Coordinator: NORMA MARIE MASCIA

Assistant Production Coordinator: CLAUDIA MOSCATELLO

Production Secretary: STEFANIA SISTI

Second Second Assistant Directors: NICOLA MARZANO

EDOARDO FERRETTI

Third Assistant Director: DANIELE RAMAZZOTTI

Co-Production Auditors: MARIA FIORITO

KARIN MERCURIO

Construction in Caserta: CINECITTA’ STUDIOS S.P.A.

Construction Coordinator: DINO NARDONI

Stunt Coordinator: CLAUDIO PACIFICO

Transportation Captain: MASSIMILIANO ROCHETTI

Action Vehicles Coordinator: MAURIZIO MAGGI

CHINA UNIT

Production Manager: STEVEN HARDING

First Assistant Director: SYLVIA LIU

Second Assistant Directors: LEMON LIU YICK MAN

CRYSTAL GONG CHUN

Production Supervisor: STEVE LIONETTI

Executive Producers: HAN SANPING

YANG BUTING

Co-Producers: SHI DOMING

JIANG TAO

Producer: ZHAO HAICHENG

Associate Producer: WANG GUICHUN

Production Manager: SUN YING

Assistant Set Production Manager: WU YUGUANG

Art Director: YU BAI YANG

C Camera Operator: NOAH WEINZWEIG

C Camera Second Assistant Photographer: PAN XING

Technocrane Operator: LOUIS JONG

Sound Mixer: MO CHAMBERLAIN

Chief Lighting Technician: WONG CHI MING

Assistant Chief Lighting Technician: CHAN HON SUNG

Assistant Chief Rigging Electrician: DUNCAN SOBEL

Electricians

MAK KWOK LEUNG NG TING KWAN MA MAN NANG

WONG MAN PAN DIAO GUOHUA QIAN LINHONG DIAO BIN

YEE SIN PING SHEK KIN MAN LO HDI KIT

First Company Grip: LEE CHU WING

Second Company Grip: RAYMOND KWONG SHUN YAN

First Company Rigginf Grip: SAMUEL FU KA YU

Grips

JAMES LEE ON HONG BILLY KO CHING KAM PUN HI HONG

CHAN SING HONG LAI KAM KEI LEUNG WING HONG

Property Masters: PAN WEI DA

HE XU FENG

Property buyer: ZHANG CHENG GUI

Special Effects Supervisor: BRUCE LAW

Location Managers

GAO CHAO NICHOLAS DAUBENY LIU DI

Liaison: WENG WENJUN

WENG WENBAO

Assistant Location Managers

JIN KANG LONG SHI GUO HUA TANG CHUN AARON SHERSHOW

Set Dressers: DING GEN LIN

YUAN LIN GEN

Costume Supervisor: JACK TUNG

Costumer: ZHANG YAN

Assistant Makeup Artist: EDDIE LIU

Hairstylist: WARREN HANNEMAN

Background Casting: MARY CAO XIAO DONG

Assistant Art Directors: BIAN QI

STANLEY YANG XUE LIN

STARRY LIU SHUO

Production Coordinators: YE FANG

GU PINGHU

BILLY BONIFIELD

Second Second Assistant Directors: CHENG JIA JI

FANNIE DAI HONG

BAI BAI YANG WEN JIE

Action Unit Second Second Assistant Directors: EDWARD THORNE

RICHARD HUGHES

Production Secretaries: ISIS LI MAN XIAN

CYNTHIA LAN YUENGCHANG

HERRY GAO HAN

Translators

ZOE LI XIAO YI CLAIRE LUO SAN SHERRIE DAI VICTORIA HAMILTON

Production Assistants

XU HANG MONICA LIN LAN BILL WANG HUAN GINNY WANG WEN XUAN

GILES HARDING SAM ZHANGYUN HUI ZHANG LU RACHEL WENG

BETTY LI YUAN LIAO YI GUO ZHENGHU LIU DAI GUO JIEZHI

Still Photographer: JASIN BOLAND

Special Photography: DAVID JAMES

ALEXANDER BAILEY

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Cashiers: PAOLO IOCCHI

ZHANG YE

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COPORATION

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First Assistant Photographer: JORG GOENNER

Second Assistant Photographer: PHILIPPA “PIP” HARE

Chief Lighting Technician: MARTIN FRANK

Assstant Chief Lighting Technician: RENE FROMMHOLZ

Chief Rigging Electrician: RON RAKOWSKI

Electricians: ANDRE MORGAN

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Special Effects Foreperson: BREND RAUTENBERG

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Production Coordinator: IMKE SOMMERKAMP

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INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC

A Lucasfilm Ltd. Company

San Francisco, California

Digtial Production Supervisor: PATRICK TUBACH

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Animation Supervisor: PAUL KAVANAGH

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Sequence Supervisors

TODD VAZIRI DOUG SUTTON LEANDRO ESTEBECORENA

SEAN MACKENZIE DAVID HISANAGA ROBERT J.HOFFMEISTER

MICHEAL CONTE RICHARD BLUFF BRUCE POWELL

Lead Digital Matte Artist: GILES HANCOCK

Visual Effects Art Director: ALEX JAEGER

Digital Model Supervisor: PAMELA J.CHOY

Lead Layout & Matchmove Artists: DUNCAN BLACKMAN

BRIAN CANTWELL

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Digital Paint & Rotos Supervisor: BETH D’AMATO

Lead Visual Effects Production Coordinator: KATIE LYNCH

Animators

DERRICK CARLIN DAVID SHIRK CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL

SCOTT BENZA STEVE RAWLINS

Didital Artists

DENNIS MARTIN JACK “ EDSEL” HAYE ZAIN HOMER JOSEPH SUEN

TONY SOMMERS PAMELA HOBBS JOE CEBALLOS DAVID MANDS MORRIS

AMY SHEPARD RITA ZIMMERMAN MARCEL MARTINEZ TIMOTHY GIBBONS

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MELANIE WALAS PRESTON DONOVAN MARK BUCK NEAL HALTER

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CHARLES RAY ROBERT CLOT RICHARD CLOT JOSEPH FULMER

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MICHAEL OLAGUE WILLIAM BARR THOMAS CLOUTIER

MARTIN BRENNEIS CLARK HIGGINS GREG BEAUMONTE

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“Mission: Impossible Theme”

By Lalo Schifrin

Produced by Michael Giacchino

“Come Into My Life”

Written & Performed by Jimmy Cliff

Courtesy of A&M Records & Island Records LTD

Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

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Written & performed by J.J.Abrams

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By Marcus Lewis Daniel & Clarence George Carter

Performed by The Black Crowes

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Written by Kanye West, Carl Mitchell, Armando Manzanero & Sio Wayne

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By Lalo Schifrin

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Nintendo At E3: Mad 'Mario' Titles On The Way; Wii Zapper Could Be A Future Shock

2007-08-29T18:21:00.001-07:00

Plus: company executive tries 'Wii Fit' on for size.

By Stephen Totilo

SANTA MONICA, California — Is it bragging if you can back it up?

"This is Nintendo's moment to lead," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said Wednesday (July 11) in a 77-minute presentation at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium that provided new details on major Nintendo games and a few curveballs befitting the Wii's unconventional approach (see "Microsoft Shows Off Blockbuster Holiday Lineup At E3 Kickoff").

The Nintendo presentation even opened with a video of a talking NES, then a reel showing off the Wii's crossover success, from appearances on "South Park" and "The Colbert Report" to news reports on elderly people bowling. Fils-Aime called this year's E3 a turning point, "the moment it became finally clear that video games would finally take their place beside movies, TV and music as a staple of leisure entertainment." He credited much of that success to Nintendo, claiming the company is responsible for more than two-thirds of the industry's current growth.

Fils-Aime responded to skeptics who claim the Nintendo DS is just a fad. "If I were in their shoes, I'd say the same thing," he said. But he then followed up by saying the Nintendo DS just passed its 40 million unit sales mark. He said the Wii has been "effectively sold out" for its 33 weeks of release.

The presentation spanned topics of interest to both hard-core and more casual gamers. Fils-Aime announced names and dates for several major Wii titles. Calling "Super Mario Galaxy" the first worthy successor to "Super Mario 64" and the setter of a new gold standard for the interface of games in any genre, he said the game will be released on November 12. He marked December 3 as the release date for the latest version of the Nintendo mascot-fighting series, "Super Smash Bros. Brawl," for the Wii. A new "Mario Kart," featuring online races and battles, will be released in the first quarter of 2008.

Fils-Aime showed off some new toys, too — including two shells, which essentially serve as new housing for the Wii controllers. First he brought out the Wii Wheel, a steering-wheel-shaped shell for the Wii remote. (Video of the game running on a screen behind Fils-Aime showed a traditional "Mario Kart" design, with graphics comparable to the series' GameCube edition.)

(Get glimpses of Nintendo's latest toys in these photos from E3.)

Next he introduced the Wii Zapper, which configures the remote and nunchuck as a two-handed machine-gun-style device. The player's back hand curls around the nunchuck, thumb resting on the analog stick. Their front hand holds the remote, finger on the trigger. Fils-Aime said Nintendo is working on a new game to use the zapper, although he didn't reveal which one. He did say, however, that the Nintendo game and zapper will sell for $19.99 later this year. He pointed out other games that will support the device: EA first-person shooter "Medal of Honor," Capcom shooter "Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles" and arcade-style light-gun game "Ghost Squad" from Konami.

(See how our reporter does on his maiden voyage with the Zapper right here.)

The message Nintendo projected is that the company has all angles covered. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata went onstage to talk about how a Japanese DS cookbook has compelled him to cook dinner for his family on his days off. He didn't announce that the cookbook would come to the U.S. but emphasized that Nintendo would continue to support projects like it to attract non-gamers. The next style of game in this line coming to the U.S. is "Brain Age 2," due August 20 for the DS. Nintendo will also release "Flash Focus," a DS program that sharpens visual-recognition skills.

Nintendo's star designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, usually shows up at Nintendo events to showcase the company's premier game. He took the stage to say that the game for him this year wouldn't be "Super Mario Galaxy" or the fall DS title "The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass" — it would be a new project called "Wii Fit." Behind him a crew set up white step-aerobic boards specially designed to connect wirelessly to the Wii. A demo reel showed people using the devices, with prompts on their TV screens to do yoga, aerobics and other workout routines. Sometimes the prompts were displayed as clinical diagrams; other times Miis led the users. For instance, a woman did hula moves on her board while, onscreen, her Mii rocked around in a hula hoop. The platform, called the Wii Balance Board, detects a player's balance.

After asking fitness models to demonstrate some of the 40-plus modes offered by "Wii Fit," Miyamoto asked for Fils-Aime to step onto a board. He complied, and the board ran a check of his balance. It indicated that he leans too far to the right and recommended he develop better posture. Miyamoto explained that "Wii Fit" is designed to help users improve their balance, which is considered to be a sign of fitness. The Wii registered a 27.51 body-mass index, labeling him as overweight. Fils-Aime said: "Just remember that muscle is heavier than fat." Miyamoto, who had been speaking through a translator up to that point, said in English: "Good excuse." "Wii Fit" is slated for an early 2008 release.

The conference ended with Fils-Aime beating Miyamoto in a "Wii Fit" soccer-heading contest, after which came the most confident move by Fils-Aime yet: articulating Nintendo's true ambition.

"There are 24 hours in every day, and only a small amount of time is available for leisure entertainment," he said. "Minute by minute, we intend to steal more of that time for video games."

Check out the new MTV News Multiplayer blog, updated daily, currently in beta and, this week, delivering more E3 coverage than you can shake a Wii controller at.

From http://www.mtv.com

Sony At E3: Chewbacca Helps Announce Revised PSP, PS3 Ready To Counter-Attack 'Halo'

2007-08-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

Company's press conference features avalanche of new games.

By Stephen Totilo

SANTA MONICA, California — In an E3 role reversal, the once-dominant Sony focused its press conference on reclaiming attention with an avalanche of games and a new, more casual attitude.

Previous Sony press conferences were heavy on Power Point presentations. Wednesday's, held at a soundstage at Culver City Studios, began with Sony exec Jack Tretton speaking through his PlayStation Home virtual-world avatar, projected onto four big movie screens. He said he was nervous, telling the assembled reporters and financial analysts that he'd checked four times to make sure his fly was zipped up.

Clearly, this wasn't the buttoned-up Sony of before.

(See what Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo brought to the table at this year's E3.)

The company did make one hardware announcement during the 100-minute PlayStation event. Sony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai came to the stage and pulled a PSP from his pocket. It looked like a regular unit, but he said it was a new model, set for release in September. "When you have it in your hand the difference is clear," he said, noting that it is a third lighter than the current model and 19 percent slimmer. He also said the system's batteries will last longer and games will load faster, but didn't put any figures on the improved times. The new unit can be plugged into a TV, so that whatever is on the PSP's screen can be viewed on home sets. It will be released in black and a new "ice silver" color; there is also a white model with a drawing of Darth Vader on it. That one was introduced by a man who took the stage dressed in a Chewbacca suit.

After the PSP showing, the games took over the conference. First Sony showed the smaller ones: the downloadable PS3 titles for the PlayStation Network. Sony's Phil Harrison announced that 80 downloadable games and "game packs" are in development for the PSN. Of the 80, he chose to initially showcase a radical project from Japan that he described as "a game that possibly has the least graphics and most gameplay of any game you are going to see this week." On the screen behind him flashed the game's name "Echochrome." A line drawing appeared of a stick figure walking around a simple optical illusion — an infinitely looping stairway — on a stark white background.

After the conference Harrison explained to MTV News that the character will walk automatically on stages composed of optical-illusion-based paths, leaving the player to discover — or create — new passageways by rotating the playing field. Onstage, Harrison also plugged PSN titles "WipeOut HD," "Pain," "SOCOM: Confrontation" and "Warhawk."

Harrison fleshed out details of the Home service, which he debuted at Game Developers Conference in March (see "Sony Unveils Big PS3 Secret: Gamers Get To Go 'Home' "). He showed new spaces, like a redesigned outdoor campus area that replaces the original demo's indoor lobby. He showed more nuanced connectivity than before, snapping a photo of the E3 conference attendees with a Home-enabled cell phone, uploading that photo to the wall in his virtual ski lodge and then uploading a screen shot of that wall onto a sample social-networking Web site. He said Home remains on track for a free release to all PS3 users this fall.

Microsoft may have "Halo 3" coming this year (see "Microsoft Shows Off Blockbuster Holiday Lineup At E3 Kickoff"), but Sony flexed a muscular reply by announcing PS3-only first-person shooters "Haze" and "Unreal Tournament III," which will both be on Sony systems exclusively for this year, at least.

To close the show, Harrison did the E3-cliché "oh I almost forgot, there's one more thing" bit before bringing out a developer to demonstrate a playable level of the eye-popping, not-in-2007 FPS "Killzone 2."

Sony also announced the exclusive console development services of massively multiplayer online game developer NCsoft (though no details were offered as to which types of online games the company would provide), as well as highlighting major PS3 games from major developers, most significantly, "Metal Gear Solid 4," from Konami's Hide Kojima. The renowned developer took the stage and tried to stifle a fit of coughing to explain that he was marking "MGS4" as the end of his involvement in the 20-year "Metal Gear" saga he created. He showed a new trailer of the game and said he will play the game publicly for the first time next week at a PlayStation event in Tokyo. "MGS4" is now set for an early 2008 release.

Sony also promised 15 games by the end of March 2008 from the company's vast internal studios. Highlighted projects included action game "Heavenly Sword," the new "Ratchet and Clank" and the crowd-pleasing "Little Big Planet."

Sony held E3 week's longest press conferences and the one that showcased the most games and the most developers (see "Nintendo At E3: Mad 'Mario' Titles On The Way; Wii Zapper Could Be A Future Shock"). It was a sign that the company, though rocked by negative reaction to the PS3's high price and slower-than-Wii sales, still has a lot of fuel in its tank.

After the conference Harrison leaned against the stage to talk games and fielded a question from MTV News about the game-show-buzzer controller Microsoft had shown the night before. It certainly resembled the game-show-buzzer controller Harrison has championed for the successful PS2 game show video game "Buzz!" that's out in Europe and is coming to America later this year.

"That's always the fun thing about this industry," he said. "There are leaders and there are followers." It's clear which team Sony is determined to be.

Check out the new MTV News Multiplayer blog, updated daily, currently in beta and, this week, delivering more E3 coverage than you can shake a controller at.

From http://www.mtv.com

Hannah Montana's Left-Out Lefties, Embarrassing 'Burnout' Photos, Xbox's BFF Reward & More E3 Surprises, In GameFile

2007-08-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

Show may be over, but here are some revelations that didn't make headlines.

By Stephen Totilo

E3 is over. The big game companies have paved their paths and pointed to victory. But what little tidbits of information didn't quite crack through? GameFile brings you some potential surprises that didn't make the headlines.

» As announced last week, the new September redesign of the PSP will be slimmer. It will be lighter. But reports of its genuinely improved battery life have been misunderstood. A Sony rep who showed the new model to GameFile explained that the slimmer PSP will come with a smaller battery than the current model does and that the smaller model, thanks to improved energy efficiency, will provide the same battery life as the original system's battery did. What if a gamer wants more charge? The old PSP's battery will fit in the new unit but will only nestle into the slimmer system with the help of a custom-made battery hatch cover, not the one built onto the new September PSP.

» "Burnout: Paradise" is the ambitious new open-world sequel to Criterion's crash-filled racing series. Players can hop in a high-definition sports car, drive to any point in the game's expansive virtual city and start a race. Online-connected friends who drive by can join the races. Even when not engaging in these spontaneous races, players can compete with each other. That's because every time the player drives on any of the city's roads, the game notes which members of a "friends list" have the best speed and crash runs on that street. A less-discussed "Burnout: Paradise" feature uses the PlayStation Eye USB camera to snap a photo of a player whose online opponents have sent him or her crashing. Criterion Creative Director Alex Ward told GameFile to think of the snapped photos as the equivalent of marks on a fighter plane tallying an ace's victories. He was showing the game on PS3 (it's also slated for the Xbox 360) and said he expects the system to hold up to 2,500 photos. That's a lot of shame to log.

» "God of War: Chains of Olympus" may sport the most impressive graphics yet on the PSP, but that isn't, as suspected, because of the new Sony standards that finally allow developers to tap the full speed of the portable system's processor. While the game's lead developer says they are now working on a version of the title that takes advantage of the PSP's 333-MHz chip, the version that wowed at E3 was still running on a build designed for PSPs constrained to 266-MHz, the artificial threshold imposed by Sony from the system's launch up until last month.

» "Gears of War" helped popularize the notion of online co-op play on a home console. But it also taught some gamers the cold truths of infidelity. Many were the gamers who hoped to have a friend faithfully play through the game's campaign with them and wait to make progress on the days the two couldn't make a play date only to find that the player they waited for had forged ahead without them. The developers of EA's co-op-focused "Army of Two" have a remedy: The Xbox 360 version will include a "Best Friends Forever" achievement that rewards two gamers who complete the whole campaign together.

» Any online service with a large user base can benefit from widespread developer support. One way Sony may increase the odds that the company's free online virtual world, PlayStation Home, enjoys broad adoption by gamers is to force every PS3 gamer to get it (see "Sony Unveils Big PS3 Secret: Gamers Get To Go 'Home' "). A Sony producer overseeing the project told GameFile that Home will be included as a PS3 firmware upgrade when it launches in the fall. That means every gamer will get Home simply because they will need their firmware updated to play newer games and log in to the PS3's online store.

» The makers of "Assassin's Creed," Ubisoft's spiritual successor to the critically acclaimed "Prince of Persia" series, have been loathe to reveal their new game's plot. But something has seemed strange about the game's medieval setting. Characters ambling through the dusty streets of the game's 12th-century Jerusalem occasionally flash "Matrix"-style computer-code glitches on their skin and clothing. That raised the possibility that the game might have playable areas set in the present or future. That last theory would be wrong, according to the "Assassin's Creed" developer, who told GameFile that the playable parts of "AC" are all set in the era of the Third Crusade.

» In an approach opposite from their competitors, Nintendo executives decided to show only a small percentage of the company's upcoming 2007 slate of games in the E3 demo venues. That left reporters scouring Nintendo release lists and spinning press-kit DVDs to learn more about upcoming Wii and DS games. Even those sources, however, revealed little about mysterious products such as October's "Endless Ocean" on the Wii and the late November DS offering "Nintendo Magic." A Nintendo official explained to GameFile that "Nintendo Magic" — which isn't the project's final name — is a port of "Magic Taizen," a so-called DS non-game already released in Japan. The Japanese version came with a deck of cards and is designed to teach users card tricks.

» Microsoft got some buzz for the debut of its game-show-style Xbox 360 controller. Four of them will be bundled with a new 360-specific version of the movie and TV trivia game Scene It?. The project lead at Microsoft who demoed the game showed several modes that had players answering questions about movies such as "King Kong," "The Matrix" and "North by Northwest." One area of expertise the 360 Scene It? won't tap, he told GameFile, is video games. No "Halo" trivia is planned for the game's inaugural Xbox 360 installment.

» Sega's E3 representatives showed a tiny slice of this fall's "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games" (see "Mario, Sonic Facing Off For Game Of Olympic Proportions"). They were willing to demonstrate a few events — including the triple jump and the hammer throw — and eight characters out of the game's large roster: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Dr. Robotnik. That's a roster any Mario or Sonic fan would expect. So was the game bereft of surprises? At least one novelty emerged during demos of the game: To rally the Olympics stadium crowd, players can sort of clap their hands while holding the Wii nunchuck and remote. The character the player controls will clap too, exhorting the Olympic audience to follow along.

» "Hannah Montana: Music Jam" is one of the first apparent girl games that has a shot at also reaching a more hard-core gamer audience. The reason? The game turns the DS into a drum set you can play and a guitar you can strum, and players can record vocals. Multiple DS systems can be linked wirelessly to form a DS-enabled, multi-instrument band. Does that sound appealing? Southpaws be warned: In guitar mode, "Hannah Montana" displays the neck of the guitar at an angle, from the top screen's upper left corner to the bottom screen's lower right. This gives the right-handed player a good angle at which to hit the strings. A lefty mode switches the direction the strings should strum (and assigns more convenient buttons for switching chords), but it does not flip the angle of the neck of the guitar. A Disney Interactive producer working on "Hannah Montana" told GameFile that space limitations on the DS cartridge prohibited the developers from programming flipped graphics.

Recent video game stories from MTV News:

· "Nintendo At E3: Mad 'Mario' Titles On The Way; Wii Zapper Could Be A Future Shock"
· "Microsoft Shows Off Blockbuster Holiday Lineup At E3 Kickoff"
· "Sony At E3: Chewbacca Helps Announce Revised PSP, PS3 Ready To Counter-Attack 'Halo' "

Check out the new MTV News Multiplayer blog, updated daily, currently in beta and delivering even more E3 coverage.

From http://www.mtv.com

Xbox 360 Takes A Turn: Chief Splits For EA Sports

2007-08-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

Former Electronic Arts executive taking Peter Moore's place as Xbox 360 boss.

By Stephen Totilo

Did Xbox 360 and Games for Windows chief Peter Moore have a big secret to spill at last week's E3? Sure he did. But it wasn't like previous years' announcements of a "Halo 3" release date or support from "Grand Theft Auto IV."

It's that he's leaving his job for one that sounds, well, smaller.

Electronic Arts and Microsoft announced on Tuesday (July 17) that Moore is leaving his role as corporate vice president of Interactive Entertainment Business, Entertainment and Devices Division, where he runs all things Xbox 360 and Windows. Come September 1, he'll take over EA Sports.

"The people at EA Sports have created one of the strongest brands in the entertainment industry and [EA CEO] John Riccitiello is building an organization which will extend the company's leadership to new platforms and new audiences all over the world," Moore said in a statement released by EA. "I couldn't be more excited about joining EA and moving my family back to the San Francisco Bay Area."

Former EA President of Worldwide Studios Don Mattrick will take Moore's place at Microsoft.

Xbox 360 and Windows gamers might immediately wonder how the charismatic Moore's departure will affect their gaming platforms. The company's retention of Shane Kim as the head of internal game development and the fact that game development is usually a multi-year endeavor suggest that any changes coming may not be felt by gamers for some time.

Microsoft spokesman David Dennis told MTV News that Xbox gamers need not worry about the change of guard: "Don Mattrick is a 23-year industry veteran... Most recently, Don worked with [Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division President] Robbie [Bach] and his senior leadership team on identifying new technologies and building out innovative ideas to help further broaden our gaming platform experiences, so gamers can rest assured that Xbox 360 is in good hands and that the transition will be a smooth one."

"I don't think that Peter's departure is bad for gamers at all," said Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities and one of the most outspoken commentators on the video game industry. "The only real issue is whether Don Mattrick brings the same level of leadership, which is less of a comment on Don's skills than it is a compliment to Peter's. I think that from a gamer perspective, Don is a great addition to Microsoft, as he was head of EA's Worldwide Studios for several years, is a developer by training and will likely help to improve the gaming experience."

A week before E3, Moore was making the interview rounds to talk about the Xbox 360's extended three-year warranty, a policy change that Microsoft said would cost the company a little over $1 billion (see "Xbox 360's 'Red Ring Of Death' Prompts Microsoft To Extend Warranty"). EA claimed on Tuesday, though, that Moore's departure from Microsoft has nothing to do with that. "Peter's reason to leave Microsoft was not related to the warranty question," EA spokeswoman Tammy Schachter told MTV News. "John Riccitiello has tried several times to recruit Peter to EA. We've been working on the agreement with Peter for several weeks prior to the announcement. EA regulatory filing will show that we struck an employment agreement in early June."

Moore becomes the fourth chief of the new four-division EA. The other teams are run by Frank Gibeau (EA Games), Kathy Vrabeck (EA Casual Entertainment) and Nancy Smith ("The Sims"). All report to Riccitiello.

Moore had been at Microsoft since 2003. Before that, he was president and COO of Sega of America. He was in charge of Sega during its final years making consoles. In fact, the last Sega console, the Dreamcast, was seen to fail in large part because of EA's lack of software support. In taking over EA Sports, Moore shows that he's apparently gotten over that.

Why would Moore, who currently runs business for two major gaming platforms, choose to go to EA Sports, a division of a single game-maker? Schachter shared some numbers: "He sees EA Sports as one of the most powerful brands in the entertainment business and recognizes that EA Sports is a big business. In North America, sports games generated $1.6 billion in 2006 and represents 18 percent of all games sold in 2006. EA's segment of the North American market for sports games in 2006 was over 65 percent. Peter's leadership will help grow EA Sports to more games, on more platforms and for more people worldwide."

Check out the new MTV News Multiplayer blog, updated daily, currently in beta and delivering even more E3 coverage.

From http://www.mtv.com

Corey Feldman And Corey Haim Salivating Over Long-Awaited 'Lost Boys' Sequel

2007-08-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

Horror flick to pick up where original left off 20 years ago — but alas, without Jami Gertz.

By Shawn Adler, with additional reporting by Josh Horowitz

Vampires beware! In exclusive interviews with MTV News, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman revealed that their old '80s vampire gang is back and on a mission with a long-awaited sequel tentatively titled "The Lost Boys II: The Tribe."

"There are so many questions. So many e-mails all the time," Haim insisted. "Everybody keeps asking, 'Will you please do the bloody sequel?' I think it [finally] happened for a reason. If it were any longer, I'd be gray with no teeth."

But it's a sequel that Feldman, who has already started shooting in Vancouver, British Columbia, may have to film without Haim. MTV News has learned that the actor — who stars with Feldman on the reality-TV show "The Two Coreys" — might not be able to accept a role in the film because of Canadian-border issues.

That wouldn't sit right with Feldman, the 36-year-old actor bellowed.

"I know what the fans want to see," he intimidated. "Not just out of loyalty to Corey as my friend, but I know as a fan of film that you look for [him] in a sequel. If it strays too far, then you don't consider it a real sequel, and you feel that you've been cheated."

A horror classic, the original "Lost Boys" follows a mother and her two sons as they move to a California coastal town that harbors a dark secret. When the older brother (Jason Patric) is seduced by a gang of vampires (led by Kiefer Sutherland), it's up to young Sam (Haim) and the resourceful Frog brothers (Feldman and Jamison Newlander) to ultimately save the day.

But if the plot setup is out there, it's nothing compared to the long, strange trip the sequel has taken over the last 20 years, going through several different iterations with several different writers.

"One of the original ideas for the sequel was that it was basically going to be this crusade — with the Frog brothers and Sam running around kind of like Ghostbusters, taking out vampires on a very large scale," Feldman revealed. "One version of it was we were in Washington, D.C., staking out the political vampires."

As time wore on, however, the roles for Haim and Feldman became smaller and smaller, until very recently, when all they had between them was a Feldman cameo. All that's changed thanks to the pair's resurgence on reality TV, they declared.

"Warner Bros. has further developed the script — they brought on a great writer [Hans Rodionoff, who] came up with a great story line," Feldman said, a Cheshire grin stretching across his face. "And in that script they have included [me], Corey Haim and Jamison Newlander as featured parts in the film. [In] the script, as it is today, I am one of the leads. My involvement is very close to what my involvement was in the first one. So I'm pretty much scattered throughout."

For Feldman, it's not only a chance to revisit one of his most beloved characters but also to reflect upon what made the original so good. The sequel, he says, has absorbed those lessons.

"Once again, you have a fish-out-of-water story of two young folks who move into a new town to visit their relatives and find themselves caught up with a bunch of bloodsuckers," Feldman discussed of the flick's setup. "I really like the script because of the fact that it is very close and very true to the structure of the original film — same kind of scares, same kind of laughs, same kind of relationships."

But of all the things that are similar, Feldman declared, the most important one is his character — who hasn't changed one bit since we last saw him.

"The development of my character is pretty much nil. Where you left Edgar Frog is where you find Edgar Frog," Feldman asserted with a boastful air. "The way I see it, this guy doesn't evolve. He has one purpose in life, and that purpose is to destroy all bloodsuckers. Period. He lives it [and] breathes it."

Which is not to say, Feldman clarified, that Edgar will still be working with Sam and Alan in the new flick. "He hasn't changed, but his circumstances have," Feldman teased.

"[Edgar] was always an outcast, but [here] his close-knit family have drifted apart. They've had a major problem, and because of that problem, Edgar today is working alone," he continued. "[The film is] about him trying to still carry the torch as it were, without the aid and assistance of his partners. That leaves him in an even lonelier and even more delicate place than he was in the first film being the outsider that he already was."

Helping to make him even lonelier, no doubt, is the fact that many of the original castmembers won't be returning (Newlander notwithstanding). Feldman confessed that Jason Patric, Jami Gertz and Kiefer Sutherland won't be back for the sequel. New castmembers include Autumn Reeser and Keifer's brother, Angus Sutherland.

Other than the reality show and "Lost Boys" sequel, Haim has recently teamed up with Mandalay Alliance, which develops entertainment with a focus on the urban lifestyle.

Check out everything we've got on Corey Feldman and Corey Haim

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'Halo 3' Developer Addresses Beta Complaints, Brutes, 'Bots' — And Big Surprises

2007-08-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

'Graphics in multiplayer are always toned way down,' Bungie's Frank O'Connor says of main beta gripe.

By Stephen Totilo

SANTA MONICA, California — "Halo 3" is bigger and longer than previous "Halo" games but is also supposed to be easier — and harder — than what those prepared to buy the game on September 25 might expect, according to the game's developer, Bungie Studios.

At the final "Halo 3"-related meeting of E3 last week, Bungie head writer Frank O'Connor talked with MTV News about game length, game difficulty, graphics and upcoming revelations about his development studio's anticipated new game.

"In terms of the actual game length, it's probably geometrically the biggest 'Halo,' " O'Connor said. "We found in tests [that] it's testing pretty similarly to 'Halo 1' and '2' in terms of overall game length. But we're trying to push people toward playing [the game on the] Heroic [difficulty setting], which is why we demoed that at E3. There's much more going on, and that will certainly take longer than it did on 'Halo 2.' "

To clarify: "Halo 3" will have bigger levels, and if Bungie has its way, players will choose to go through those levels in a more time-consuming, enemy-packed, harder difficulty mode to help the game last longer.

To understand what O'Connor meant, MTV News played a few minutes of the game's first level. O'Connor skipped the opening phase of the level, because he said it would have given away some big surprises. (He laughed off the suggestion that the surprise has Master Chief removing his helmet to reveal that he's "Gears of War" hero Marcus Fenix.) O'Connor had set the difficulty to Heroic. Allied soldiers and, apparently, "Halo 2" character Arbiter cut through a jungle alongside the player's Master Chief. They ambushed enemies. On a thick fallen log suspended between two tall boulders, an enemy Brute held a human soldier in the air by the throat, Darth Vader-style. A shot in the Brute's direction helped end that problem. But soon a counterattack of Covenant aliens swarmed into the jungle, and Heroic Master Chief became dead Master Chief, body held up from total collapse only because his face mask was pressed against a tree trunk.

When O'Connor had played on Heroic, he passed that part. He reached a dock where an allied drop-ship lowered into battle, then took fire and flew away to crash — only to have an enemy drop-ship descend after that and engage Master Chief in a fierce firefight. O'Connor lowered the difficulty to Normal and offered MTV News another shot. This time the dock was reached, the allied ship entered the picture and left to crash, but the enemy ship didn't come next. On Normal, it's not programmed to show up. That makes the battle less frenzied and makes the level shorter. A major set piece is left out. That's what O'Connor was trying to show. He said that, compared to previous "Halo" games, such content-based differences in difficulty levels will be more pronounced.

Bungie and Microsoft wouldn't allow any filming of the campaign mode but hoped that a trailer based on it and sessions run by O'Connor and other Bungie team members would put the game's campaign in the spotlight. Much of the reaction to "Halo 3" up until then had been based on fan impressions of the spring's open multiplayer beta (see " 'Halo 3' Sneak Peek: Three Things Every Beta Player Must Do"). One concern voiced on message boards about the beta was the game's graphics. While clearly better than those of "Halo 2," the multiplayer visuals didn't meet some players' expectations for a next-gen "Halo."

While O'Connor said that graphical improvements have been made to multiplayer since the beta, he said there are intentional reasons it may not have blown people away. "The difference between single-player and multiplayer really is multiplayer takes on a very specifically clear, sterile look because it's a competitive sport in a lot of ways. You wouldn't necessarily want to build a hedgerow maze on a football field, because people want to see what's going on. ... Graphics in multiplayer are always toned way down compared to those in single-player."

Another concern was that the multiplayer matchmaking Bungie uses didn't effectively keep novice players from getting thrown into firefights with experts. Among the suggestions offered to Bungie to remedy that were the introduction of computer-controlled "bots" that would serve as training partners for novice gamers and even a multiplayer tutorial mode. O'Connor shot the first idea down: "We're not going to do bots. We would always want to have the best [artificial intelligence] for bots possible. And the best AI for a bot is another human, that's just a fact."

Bungie had a few offerings that might help. The development team is creating "social playlists" that will encourage more casual play. "You can just dip in and out," O'Connor said. "You can quit with no penalties. It's a much easier way to go in and enjoy the experience and learn things. There's no pressure. Your rank doesn't change." And they're encouraging people to pick up skills via the campaign: "Learn the basics," O'Connor said. "Enjoy the story and the adventure. And then when you get your feet wet ... the system will have settled itself out to a nice level of evenness."

He also said Bungie will take care of these concerns by tracking player performance in online matches at a very fine level. "We're gauging and tracking people's experience as well as their skill. We can tell how good a player is, how good he is at hitting things and how good he is at throwing grenades and all that sort of stuff. ... More importantly, we can tell how long they've played. We kind of draw a line between how much they've played and how skillful they are as a result. The end result is [that] a couple of weeks after the game goes live on September 25th, we'll have pooled enough players so we can start matching you very, very closely. If you can't play at all and you can barely look around, hopefully you're going to get matched against similarly skilled or unskilled players, and you can all just run around falling off stuff for a couple of weeks until you get better."

And, intriguingly, Bungie has some surprises coming for those not sold on the multiplayer experience as it's been described so far. Said O'Connor: "There are a couple of things we haven't revealed — that we're going to reveal in the next couple of weeks — that are going to make the game more interesting to a wider range of people who are interested in multiplayer."

Clearly, there are secrets still to be revealed. That is a theme of "Halo 3," from the game's modes and features to its story: "What we hope with 'Halo 3' is by the time this story runs to a conclusion and the credits are going to roll, people are going to retrospectively look back and say, 'Well, all the questions I wanted answered have been answered.' " Then, if the player wasn't any good at "Halo 3" at the start, they should go play their first match of multiplayer — and enjoy those graphics.

Check out the new MTV News Multiplayer blog, updated daily and delivering even more E3 coverage.

From http://www.mtv.com

'Great' Guys Say They'll Make You An 'American Idol' — For The Right Price

2007-08-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

'Borat'-style docudrama 'Great World of Sound' reveals how easily phony record producers catch their prey.

By Larry Carroll

PARK CITY, Utah — After Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood and so many other "American Idol" successes, maybe the time is finally right for you to get into the studio, lay your voice down on a track and make all your dreams come true.

Or maybe that's exactly what they want you to think.

They are men like Martin and Clarence, two smooth-talking producers with Great World of Sound Records who are eager to make your demo and steer you toward superstardom. All they need is a few thousand dollars upfront — think of it as an investment in yourself.

But before you break out your checkbook, check this: Martin and Clarence are fictional. They are the stars of "Great World of Sound," a "Borat"-style docudrama with a dark-side-of-"Idol" angle that rocked this year's Sundance Film Festival and will be rolling into theaters September 14.

"We're here to show the world that this thing exists," star Pat Healy told MTV News at Sundance, discussing a con that dates all the way back to the era of Elvis but has resurfaced thanks to millions dreaming alongside their "Idol" heroes each week. "It's difficult enough if you want fame and bad enough to get caught in something like that — maybe it'll be a lesson to people watching it."

"It's a different approach to filmmaking," added his co-star Kene Holliday. "We have a mix of reality filmmaking, as well as a script that we were basically following, and then we were thrust into a position where we did a lot of shooting with interactive auditions."

In the film, Martin and Clarence are two low-level con men who set up shop in a hotel room, put a call out for local talent and offer record deals to any star-struck schmuck who walks in the door.

"The people that came through that door were ... seeking a change in there lives," Holliday recalled of the experiment, similar to the "Borat" concept of Sacha Baron Cohen's character mixing reality with fictional characters. "Some of the talent was just incredible, and some of it was just damn doggy."

From heartfelt Christian singers to a bizarre man wielding a theremin, all their performances were rewarded by opportunity knocking on the door. If they just put up a few thousand dollars, the company would pay the rest of the 10 grand it reportedly cost to press an initial group of CDs.

"A lot more than we ever expected, the checks came out," Holliday recalled. "Then the producer [of the film] would come in and say, 'We have your next appointments here' ... and you could hear them being debriefed in the next room — everybody [found out] they had been punked. ... In some cases, the people would come back in and meet the director, or meet us as ourselves."

If the aspiring singers chose not to be a part of the movie, they were thanked for their time and the footage was thrown out. But when "Great World of Sound" hits theaters, not only will audiences watch a real-life "Idol" playing out before their eyes, but they can also observe the regrettable gullibility of someone chasing a dream.

" 'American Idol' exists because the press promotes these overnight success stories," Healy explained. "People are willing to put their sense of reason aside and walk into a hotel room with two guys they've never seen before in cheap clothes and believe that they're going to be stars."

"Everyone wants to be discovered," Holliday added. "Back in the '70s and '80s, there was a plethora of 'song sharks,' that's what they call [the con men] who perform this particular type of service. ... Now, with the advent of 'American Idol,' the song sharks are back, because it's just too lucrative for them."

As the star-struck singers often find, their "producers" have disconnected their phones, vanished to a different state and taken the money with them. The director of the film, longtime David Gordon Green partner Craig Zobel, exposed much of the con through remembrances of his dad — a real-life phony record producer during the late '70s.

But before you start imagining Martin and Clarence as the villains of "Great World of Sound," you should know that the film presents them as naive middlemen, desperate to hold down jobs and blinded to the scam by their own rose-colored glasses.

"We are presenting this as a real opportunity for people to change their lives — it's not a scam," Holliday said of the situation real-life sharks (including Zobel's father) often find themselves in. "[Our characters] are the scammers, but we are being scammed. We are representing ourselves as record producers on the way to becoming proficient in this thing. We're brand new at this, and the company that we're working for, we don't realize that they're scamming us. We're sending money to these guys, and they're not doing any of the things that we're promising people."

It's a pyramid scheme that dates back decades, but as "Great World of Sound" portrays, the waters that these sharks swim in are more inviting than ever before.

"Everybody thinks they can be famous now," Healy shrugged. "There's 'American Idol,' there's 10 'American Idol' knockoff shows now. For every Jennifer Hudson, there are a million more William Hungs who want to be her. It does make people more vulnerable to it, when they see an ad in the back of a newspaper to audition for a major record label. But it's probably not true — people don't get record contracts that way."

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Want trailers? Visit the Trailer Park for the newest, scariest and funniest coming attractions anywhere.

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Nintendo Prez Raves About Wii 'Mario Kart,' Defends 'Manhunt 2,' Shares 'Endless Ocean' Secrets

2007-08-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

Nintendo Prez Raves About Wii 'Mario Kart'

By Stephen Totilo

SANTA MONICA, California — Last year some people were worried that the Wii console overseen by Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime was driving some gamers to accidentally hurl their controllers through their TV screens.

A week ago, at E3, Fils-Aime helped unveil the Wii Balance Board, a bathroom-scale-shaped controller designed for Wii-enabled full-body yoga, hula-hooping and skiing video game action (see "Nintendo At E3: Mad 'Mario' Titles On The Way; Wii Zapper Could Be A Future Shock"). Might Nintendo be concerned that the Board will drive gamers to accidentally hurl themselves through their TV screens?

(See Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime spill about new Wii devices and games, and more.)

"We take the design very seriously, so we've done a lot of testing," Fils-Aime told MTV News. "We don't see any risk of consumers falling off that Balance Board unless they're ... doing this while they've had a few too many alcoholic beverages."

Two days before Fils-Aime talked to MTV News, his company had used its annual E3 press conference to announce release dates for "Super Mario Galaxy" and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl," and unveil the Wii Fit program and Balance Board. In a wide-ranging interview, Fils-Aime discussed those announcements, offered details on "Manhunt 2" and some less-celebrated upcoming Nintendo titles, and even talked about whether people should apply to work as his assistant.

The Balance Board had generated sizable E3 buzz by Friday morning, and Fils-Aime was ready to talk about uses for it beyond Wii Fit. "Boarding games are obvious, whether it's skateboard or surfboard, he said. "My favorite idea is: Imagine a golf game where you're standing on the Balance Board measuring the shift of your weight and using the Wii remote for a [golf] club." He said Nintendo is having "lots of conversations" with outside game publishers and developers to see if such titles will be made.

The Balance Board was designed to induce the parents and non-gamers clearing Wiis from store shelves. Fils-Aime hopes more established gamers will be hooked by games like "Mario Kart" on the Wii. "I've played it," he said. "I've used the Wii wheel and it is great. The online capabilities are exactly what you would expect them to be: a large number of players [and an] online battle mode. To the 'Kart' fans, hang on [till] 2008 and all your wishes will be fulfilled."

Nintendo's E3 press conference featured fewer announcements and showcased fewer games. Fils-Aime said that was a conscious choice, designed to focus attention on what he called "breaking news." So what of the details the company left out? For example, is December 3's "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" for the Wii also going to be playable online? "We haven't said. We will make other announcements around 'Smash Bros. Brawl,' but we decided to not overly focus on it in this show." He said gamers interested in the latest news on that title should check out the blog maintained by its lead developer, Masahiro Sakurai.

At least "Smash Bros." was mentioned in the conference. What about mysterious titles like "Endless Ocean," which was listed as a Nintendo-published Wii release for October in the E3 press kit but otherwise undiscussed? It's a diving game, apparently. "It has all of the Zen of scuba-diving, which is relaxing and melodic," Fils-Aime said. "I think for people who are into that type of experience, it's going to be a blast."

Fils-Aime provided an update on the Wii Ware program, which was announced last month — for the initiative, Nintendo will allow small developers to create original, downloadable games for the Wii. Nintendo has been "overwhelmed with request for development kits," which will run developers under $2,000 each, he said.

He affirmed that Nintendo will not vet these games for content, though the titles will be required to carry an Entertainment Software Ratings Board rating. "Essentially our process is simply to make sure that it is compatible with our system and that it will play properly, but it's the developer's responsibility to get the rating and to do all of the other work required to publish the title," he said.

And where will gamers save these downloadable games when they become available in 2008? Unlike the PS3 and the most popular version of the Xbox 360, the Wii does not have a hard drive. Fils-Aime suggested users plan on utilizing secure digital cards or the Wii's internal 512 MB flash memory. The 512 MB memory may not be large enough to hold as many games as the competing consoles' hard drives, but users can re-download games they have deleted from it without having to pay for them again. Why not release a hard drive for the Wii? Fils-Aime replied: "Could there be a market for a Wii hard drive? There certainly could be."

The ratings issue has been particularly relevant to the Wii lately because of "Manhunt 2," the Rockstar game that had been slated for early July but was pushed back when the ESRB said the game merited an adults-only label (see "'Manhunt 2' On Hold — Company Chairman Calls It 'Fine Piece Of Art' "). Nintendo doesn't publish AO games. Fils-Aime said he had played some of the game and hoped the game could be "adjusted" so that it gets an M rating. "The game that I saw was a pretty violent game. For me, it's not my taste in a game, but it certainly could be for other types of consumers. I really do hope it gets published on our platform."

Fils-Aime has been a celebrity among hard-core Nintendo gamers since the 2004 E3 press conference, when he took the stage announcing that he's about "kickin' ass" and "takin' names."

"I received quite a few bizarre résumés and requests," he said. "I think all you need to do is still look at those active 'Reggie-lution' sites and all the things that are going on. Folks had this vision that they would be able to hang out and spend time with [Nintendo President] Mr. [Satoru] Iwata and [Nintendo lead game designer] Mr. [Shigeru] Miyamoto or whatever the case may be. There's a lot more work than simply hanging out and playing games." Sorry Nintendo fans, he said the job has now been filled.

From http://www.mtv.com

Ryan Reynolds Questions Our Existence In 'The Nines'

2007-08-29T17:58:00.000-07:00

Writer/director John August brings contemporary video game twist to longstanding philosophical debate.

By Shawn Adler

It was halfway through our interview when the typically affable Ryan Reynolds turned into a regular Voltaire:

"What if we were all just pawns in someone else's game? What if somebody's just playing us?" he asked, his face scrunched up in altar-boy sincerity. "What if somebody invented us on a whim?"

(Watch "The Nines" star Ryan Reynolds chat about playing three characters in the same flick, his onscreen meltdown and more.)

It was the type of collegiate philosophizing that seems somehow out of place anywhere but in a dorm room plastered with Bob Marley posters. But what made Reynolds' questions so bizarrely interesting wasn't that they had to do with his new movie, "The Nines." No, what made them so interesting — and so surprising — was that Reynolds wasn't asking them rhetorically.

"That is really a question," he said, leaning in. "What's this little experiment [life] gonna turn out like?"

Welcome to a world where the guy who played Van Wilder invites you to ponder the deeper mysteries of life, the universe and everything. Welcome to the world of "The Nines," writer/director John August's sometimes whimsical but always earnest contribution to what's known in philosophy circles as the "brain in a vat" debate, a conundrum that's occupied history's greatest minds, from René Descartes (in "Meditations on First Philosophy") to Keanu Reeves (in "The Matrix: Revolutions").

What if our brains were plugged into some type of computer program that only simulated what we experienced? What if the world we've come to accept as real weren't really real at all?

For August, that question comes with a twist.

"Generally most of the narratives that involve some sort of alternative reality, someone is a helpless captive to it. I wanted to turn that on its head," August said of the film, which enslaves its hero in a video game reality he helped create. "What if the protagonist who was ultimately powerful and in charge of this universe that we're seeing — what would his experience be like?"

August said the answer is obvious to anyone who's ever gotten stuck playing marathon sessions of "World of Warcraft" or "Dungeons & Dragons."

"This is a guy who essentially built this world and is not content to just watch it but wants to play it. He plays it so long that he forgets who he is," August revealed. "I think part of the reason why video games are so addictive is because you get a firsthand experience of seeing a new creation and getting to run around in that world, and it's simpler and more rewarding than real life."

But it isn't just one reality that Reynolds gets stuck in. The 30-year-old actor plays three different characters in the film: a television star, a video game designer and a writer. They all share certain attributes, meet similar people (Melissa McCarthy, Hope Davis and Elle Fanning also play multiple characters) and intersect with the others in bold-yet-mysterious ways — here as a seeming phantom, there as a televised prophecy. And everywhere the number nine throbs in the background, a talisman reminding Reynolds of something forgotten, something beyond his grasp.

On top of all this, August actually based one of the Reynolds characters on himself, creating some kind of meta-comment on the dual role of creator and creation (and causing more than a few heads to explode in the process).

"I really enjoyed smudging the lines between what was the movie and what was the real world," August said, laughing.

"You just kind of have to take it step by step, day by day — focus on each character as it presented itself," Reynolds said. "[Otherwise] you'd go crazy."

Which would be OK by August, he said — you're meant to.

"When I do Q&A's, I try to remind the audience that if you're feeling a little betwixt as the movie ends, that's OK. Just roll with it," the screenwriter said of the plot's initial ambiguity. "There's this thing going on in American movies that if you don't have a firm opinion about a movie by the end credits then something's wrong. I just reject that as an idea."

But what of his star's idea that we're all pawns in someone else's game, all being played by some malevolent creator? As a writer, "I know about the responsibility to what I've created," August acknowledged, but "choose to think it doesn't matter.

"Ultimately we'll never be able to know if our reality is 'reality,' or if it's a simulation," August said, taking each of Reynolds' questions at face value. "I think you have to treat the world as if it's as real as it can be — that it's the best of all possible worlds."

Check out everything we've got on "The Nines."

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.

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'Casino Royale' Writer Paul Haggis Talks Next 007 Flick: 'My Bond Is Different'

2007-08-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

'I try to ground him in realism,' he says of his slightly more super-spy.

By Larry Carroll, with additional reporting by Jeff Cornell

BEVERLY HILLS, California — When last we saw 007, he was dealing with a dead girlfriend, a bruised ego and the bullet he had just placed in the leg of the mysterious Mr. White.

On November 7, 2008, James Bond will pick up the action once again — that is, if Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis can ever finish the script.

"I'm on page 20," grinned the affable mastermind behind not only "Casino Royale," but such Oscar-baiting flicks as "Crash," "Million Dollar Baby" and "Letters From Iwo Jima." "I'll let you know [more] when I get to page 100, and hopefully by page 110 I'll be finished."

Having found a second wind after the universal acceptance of both Daniel Craig and Haggis' brutal, more realistic relaunch of the character, the writer revealed that he's attacking the script for the 22nd Bond film — which doesn't yet have a title — with certain thoughts in mind.

"I really loved [Ian Fleming's] books, and I really loved those movies, the ones that were really true to his books," Haggis said of the beloved author. "[The new script] is an odd mix between his stuff and [English espionage writer John] le Carré's stuff that I'm channeling; I'm mixing them both up"(see "Can James Bond Be Saved By 'Crash' Creator?").

Haggis confirmed that the new flick will pick up at the palatial estate on Italy's Lake Como that belongs to Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), where we'll continue to watch 007 display his effective interrogation techniques on the wounded associate of the late Vesper Lynd. "Two minutes after ['Casino Royale'] — boom — we're into this movie," Haggis explained. "That's where we pick it up" (see" 'Casino Royale': Re-Bonded, By Kurt Loder").

A lifelong Bond fan, Haggis also expressed excitement over the boundary-breaking selection of "Finding Neverland" helmer Marc Forster as director — a marked departure from the journeymen typically employed on past 007 films. "He got my vote when they were looking for a director," Haggis said. "He's been terrific to work with, and he's a great visualist. He's leaving me alone to do the story, and I think he's gonna shoot a hell of a movie."

The writer, whose gripping drama "In the Valley of Elah" is already building Oscar buzz for this winter's ceremonies, added that his script will further explore the notion of a more human, flawed super-agent. "Bond is just pure imagination, you just get to have fun," he said of the difference between writing "Royale" and something like "Crash." "But some things are similar — you see, my Bond is different than all the other Bonds. But my Bond is an actual assassin; when he kills somebody, he does it with a knife, and it's bloody, and he pays a price. He denies that he has to pay a price, but he does."

"When he sees a woman who has just witnessed something horrific and she's sitting in the shower, he just doesn't go in and [have sex with] her like the old Bond would've done," Haggis laughed. "He sits there with her, and she says, 'I can't get the blood out from under my fingernails!' and so he helps her get the blood out. That's my Bond, a different Bond, who's much more like [my usual] guys, these heroes. Yes, it's escapism and it's fun. But I try to ground him in realism."

As such, Haggis considered walking away from the Bond franchise after "Royale," thinking he'd better get out while such realism was successful and before the temptation to put Bond in invisible cars (à la "Die Another Day") kicked in. "That's why I was really worried about doing the second one. I didn't think I could do as good a job," admitted Haggis, who did reportedly turn down an offer to direct the flick. "But they talked me into [writing] it, and I'm back to try and do the best I can."

As far as additional revelations go, Haggis did admit that he recently suggested a title to the series producers ("I said, 'I think this is going to be a good title,' and they said, 'Um-hmm.' "), that he'd like to bring back Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter ("Wasn't he great? Yeah. I would really hope that he'd be in this one"), and that he won't say whether gadget-guru Q will re-emerge after a "Royale" absence.

"I'm not supposed to talk about anything, but I can tell you this: Everybody says they know where the ending is, and they're wrong," Haggis teased, in response to reports of some early filming at a horse track in Siena, Italy. "Everybody knows about the Bond girls, and they're wrong."

Asked specifically about rumored "Black Blook" actress Carice van Houten, Haggis replied, "Who's that? Oh, no, she's not going to be in this movie."

Finally, we asked Haggis what his favorite Bond film of all-time was — a question that, in retrospect, seems like as much of a no-brainer as asking Bond how he'd like his martini. " 'Casino Royale,' " Haggis laughed. "Of course!"

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'Call Of Duty 4' Says No To 'Warnado' (And Feet); 'Manhunt 2' OK'd For Halloween; 'Lair' And More, In GameFile

2007-08-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

Infinity Ward exec runs through what was rejected in the process of shaping 'Call of Duty 4.'

By Stephen Totilo

NEW YORK — What's a "Warnado"? Aside from a combination of a "war" and a "tornado," of course.

"Warnado" was one of the possible subtitles for "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," the first-person shooter coming out this fall for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. The makers of the game said at this summer's E3 that it could give "Halo 3" a run for its money.

"We had someone generate thousands of names," Vince Zampella, studio co-head of "CoD4" developer Infinity Ward, told GameFile while sitting in a dimly lit room at the Grand Hyatt last week. On a large TV, he had a preview-build of "CoD4" on pause. Later in the day, after showcasing the demo for several more outlets, hotel security would knock on the door to complain about the noise. But for the moment, the only loud sound in the room was Zampella's laughter as he recalled those suggested names. "One of them was 'Warnado,' " he said. "Or was it 'Warricane'?"

Zampella and the rest of Infinity Ward said no to "Warnado" and other suggested titles — including their own "Modern Warfare" — some time ago. He ran through a lot of other things to GameFile that were also rejected in the process of shaping their upcoming game.

But before all those negatives, note some positives about what "CoD4" is. It's the return, after a year off, of Infinity Ward to the first-person shooter franchise it built into a market leader. A different development team, Treyarch, developed last year's "Call of Duty 3." It was the first game in the franchise to take place in the modern era instead of World War II. And it's the winner of Best Action Game from the E3 Games Critics Awards. It pits the player in two interlocked campaigns — as an American combating insurgents in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, and as a British SAS trooper in Russia, where the unrest in the Middle East is instigated. It has cutting-edge graphics. It's cinematic. And it sports a multiplayer mode that Infinity Ward says will be the most fully featured yet.

Back to those responses Zampella delivered in the negative. Here's a not-so-tough blow: The player-controlled lead characters won't have feet. Many first-person shooters leave out the feet, and "CoD4" is yet another. Why? "It's a lot of work for very little payoff," Zampella said. "It doesn't really bring a lot to the game. We have a finite amount of time we can put into the game. I think it's better served in something that's a mechanic in the game or something cool that you're going to see a lot than if I happen to look down to see my feet." Is that the most significant "no"? No.

Infinity Ward and "CoD" publisher Activision have been crystal clear that this new game is a return to the form of "CoD2," an acknowledgement that Treyarch's work on "CoD3" was not as well received by franchise fans. So will Infinity Ward make every annual installment of the series from now on? No.

"We need two years to make a game," Zampella said, adding that any given single-player level takes six months to make. Would it be healthier, then, for "Call of Duty" to be released every other year or for it to continue swapping studios? Don't ask a yes-or-no question — then the answer can't be a no: "That's a tough one and I think it's debatable every way," Zampella said. "If you can have somebody else do something else and leapfrog everybody every two years, that's not so bad. I think a year is a long time between games. If a game is good enough and I love the franchise, then, the following year, I'm OK playing another one."

The game will be coming to Xbox 360 and PS3, and Zampella said there shouldn't be any discernible differences between the two versions. He said the PS3 version won't use the motion-sensitivity of that system's Sixaxis controller. "It doesn't really fit."

It's in vogue for first-person shooters to sometimes show their protagonist's body in full 3-D. "Halo 3" zooms out and shows Master Chief as an onscreen character whenever the player makes the Chief pick up the game's largest, two-handed guns and cannons. "Metroid Prime 3" zooms out of heroine Samus' helmet when she rolls into a ball. Will there be any similar third-person views of the player's character in "CoD4"? "We did not consider it," Zampella said. "It's not that it's bad. It fits some games but it didn't fit our vision of this game. It's about the immersion and being that character. Once you pull out of the head [of the character] you're like, 'Wait, that's not me.' "

Players won't be able to see more of their character than hands (and lack of feet). Will they hear him? All the squad-mates and enemy soldiers talk, so would Infinity Ward program their lead character to speak? Zampella said ... no. "I don't want to walk into the room and [hear,] 'I've got a bad feeling about this' [and then think,] 'I do?' If I want you to have a bad feeling, I need to portray it to you in the game, give you a reason to have a bad feeling, not just put a dialogue line in your head."

"Call of Duty" is one of the rare game franchises that is lauded as an industry leader for both its single-player and multiplayer modes. Why not split the two modes and offer them as separate games on separate schedules? "It's come up," Zampella said, noting that what his team currently does is "almost like designing two games for the price of one." Still, he was leaning toward keeping the solo and multi modes on one disc. "At the end of the day it's expected and it's what we do. I don't think we've ever seriously considered splitting them up into two games." So the answer? It's no.

A few more negatives: Did the Infinity Ward team start comparing their game to "Halo 3." No, the press did that. Did publisher Activision offer them a chance to make "Guitar Hero" before giving the series to "Tony Hawk" development studio Neversoft? No — and Infinity Ward is a "one-team studio" anyway, meaning one game at a time.

So to sum up, there is much that "CoD4" isn't. There is much that the "CoD" series won't be. What is Zampella positive about? "It comes down to immersion and detail," he said. "That's what makes a 'Call of Duty' game: making the world around you come alive, be believable. When you're there you forget you're playing a game. It's a cinematic experience." There just wouldn't have been anything believable about a game called "Warnado." You can't say no to that.

More from the world of video games:

Earlier this summer, the Wii, PS2 and PSP game "Manhunt 2" was blocked from release in the U.K. and given an adults-only rating by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board in the U.S. Nintendo and Sony won't permit AO games on their consoles, which essentially blocked the original incarnation of the game from making it to console gamers' hands. On Friday, however, the game's publisher Take 2 Interactive announced that a "modified" version has earned an M rating from the ESRB. The game will be released on October 31. Representatives from the game's development studio, Rockstar Games, did not return GameFile's request for comment about exactly what was modified. But Take 2's initial statement quoted Rockstar executive producer Sam House as saying: " 'Manhunt 2' is a powerful piece of interactive storytelling that is a unique video game experience. We think horror fans will love it." To read about what was in the first six hours of the AO version of the game, check out MTV News' exclusive, in-depth, hands-on report. ...

Last week's Leipzig Games Convention in Germany brought some exciting PlayStation3 and PSP breakthroughs ... for European consumers. Sony announced plans to implement PlayTV, a service that will turn the PS3 into a digital video recorder that saves TV shows, much like a modern cable box. The service will also stream that data to a consumer's WiFi-connected PS3s. In a press release trumpeting the service, Sony said PlayTV will be available in the U.K., France, Italy, Germany and Spain early next year, with other countries that use the PAL standard to follow. No announcement was made about the service coming to the U.S. ...

Games Convention hosted several speeches by top game designers, including one by Factor 5 President Julian Eggebrecht that was noted last week in GameFile. During a speech in which he complained about the struggles to get his studio's September PS3 dragon-fighting game "Lair" rated T instead of M, he called the ESRB ratings process a "charade" and said "games are not being seen, even by our own ratings boards, as an art form." He also called for a new ESRB rating between T and M. Reached for comment, ESRB spokesman Eliot Mizrachi said there were no plans to modify the ratings categories. As for whether the board sees games as art, he told GameFile: "Given the diversity of games being created (we assign over 1,200 ratings each year), it'd be hard to argue on any level that games do not represent a form of artistic expression, regardless of what one's personal opinions and values may be. That being said, our job is to impartially assign ratings to games based on their content, not to judge artistic merit."

Recent gaming stories from MTV News:

· "Beastie Boys' MCA Skateboards (Virtually) With Tony Hawk; Plus New Game Soundtrack Revealed"

Be sure to check our our Multiplayer blog, which features an update on old stories this week, including our struggle with so-called Huff-n-Puff gaming.

From http://www.mtv.com

'Balls of Fury': Pong Hit, By Kurt Loder

2007-08-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

Could a movie that mixes table tennis, spies and kung-fu action star anyone else but Christopher Walken? Probably not.

Going into a ping-pong-powered espionage movie that features Christopher Walken as a geisha-wigged 'pong-nut crime lord called Feng, one naturally fears it'll be a film that consists of little more than its kooky premise, in the manner of "Snakes on a Plane." "Balls of Fury" is a bit better than that, though: It has considerable comic brio and a pretty high laugh quotient.

The movie's central asset is its star, Dan Fogler, a Tony-winning stage actor whose growing film resume includes last year's "School for Scoundrels." Playing Randy Daytona, a onetime child ping-pong phenom gone to seed, Fogler effectively deploys his roly-poly disarray without crossing the line into abrasive slobbishness; he has sharp timing and a nice line in lovable bafflement. Tracked down to the cheesy dinner theatre where he does a very unlikely ping-pong act (the paddle work throughout the picture — it has to be CGI, doesn't it? — is pretty funny in itself), Randy is recruited by an FBI agent (George Lopez) to ramp up his 'pong chops, get back in the game, and battle his way into an underground tournament soon to be held by Feng at his remote jungle lair.

Randy is assisted in his quest by Master Wong (the iconic James Hong), a blind ping-pong sage whose Zen intuition is as dubious as his ascetic selflessness. ("Bring only your strength, your honor, and a check for 300 dollars," he tells his new student.) Also lending a hand in Randy's training is Wong's beautiful niece, Maggie (Maggie Q, of "Live Free or Die Hard"), who brings multi-butt-kicking kung-fu moves to the table (she can also slam back sizzling serves with her face).

After some cute (if overextended) preliminaries — like a match with a fearsome opponent called "the Dragon," who turns out to be a pouty schoolgirl — Randy and his team finally penetrate the evil Feng's jungle redoubt (passing through a courtyard full of ferocious 'pong players that amusingly echoes the old SPECTRE training camp in "From Russia with Love"). Soon Feng himself appears — climbing out of a slave-borne sedan chair in elaborate Fu Manchu drag, whispering to a flunky, "How's my collar?" — and makes it clear, as the games begin, that "sudden death" will not be a metaphorical term.

The picture's light, quirky tone may feel familiar to fans of "Reno: 911!"; several veterans of that series worked on this film, including writer-directors Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (who also plays a pissy German 'pong diva). They've come up with something that's a little more substantial than just big-screen TV, though. The movie has a slightly gritty, '70s look and an enjoyably offbeat structure (one of its funniest sequences flowers unexpectedly, when Randy is offered the sexual comforts of Feng's house concubines, and they all turn out to be big muscle-bound men).

But while Fogler carries the film with solid assurance (and lots of craggy comic support from Hong), there are low-energy moments of the sort often associated with low budgets. And Walken gives a performance that — for him — is fairly rote: We expect the man to be outré, and of course he is — but only in the way we expect, no more.

Still, he is Christopher Walken, and this is a ping-pong kung-fu spy movie, and in this annually awkward film-going interlude — with the blockbusters of summer behind us and the big fall heavyweights still a ways off — that's a fairly appealing combo.

Check out everything we've got on "Balls of Fury."

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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From http://www.mtv.com

'Simpsons' Video Game Loaded With Inside Jokes; Mocks EA, Gamestop, 'GTA' Protesters

2007-08-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

Players are rewarded for uncovering well-known video game cliches.

By Stephen Totilo.

SANTA MONICA, California — Homer Simpson is trapped in the grey brick hallways of a castle. On the walls hang red banners that read "Castle Duffenstein." Get it?

Bart Simpson fights the giant Lard Lad in a mission called "Shadow of the Colossal Donut." Get that?

The Simpsons engage in an eating contest called "Bite Night." Does that compute?

Two months after announcing that "The Simpsons Game" would be a parody of 25 years of video games and star a Simpsons family that knew they were in a video game, the creators of the project came to Santa Monica's E3 gaming show to demonstrate specifics. They were there to make fun of a lot of video game clichés and tease several "Simpsons" episodes' worth of in-jokes and outright mockery.

"There are lots of big, awesome surprise bosses and guest stars in this game," said "Simpsons" TV and game writer Matt Selman as a version of the game ran in the EA suite at the Le Merigot hotel. "Although I'm sure they will be on the Internet five minutes after the game is released, I would love to maintain them as surprises for now."

Well, not completely. The last time the creators of the game talked to MTV News, they hinted. They alluded to things. And they said Matt Groening wouldn't be in the game (see " 'Simpsons' Video Game Lets You Bounce Homer-Ball, Fly With Super-Bart"). Things changed. "We can confirm that Groening is a boss in the game but not the final boss," creative director Jonathan Knight said as he demoed the game at E3.

The game's creators let MTV News run a caped Bart through the "Shadow of the Colossal Donut" level, while a developer rolled a powered-up, spherical Homer with a second controller. Lard Lad stomped through a construction site, but Bart, with his trusty slingshot, was able to stop Lard Lad in his tracks. A hatch opened on the giant lad's back and started flashing. Suddenly, the game paused. Comic Book Guy appeared on-screen along with a line of text congratulating the player on finding one of 31 video game clichés tucked in the "Simpsons" adventure: the obvious weak point on the boss character. "It's the only game that can call out its own clichés," Knight said proudly.

Knight had an EA developer load up one of the game's three "Medal of Homer" missions (get that?), this one set in France. The goal was for Homer to collect white surrender flags. Hunting for one, the developer ran Homer toward an awning, took one hop onto the awning and sprung the balding patriarch into the air. The game paused again. Comic Book Guy again: "Trampolines — you have found video game clichß #3."

"Are you showing him the secret thing in 'Medal of Homer?' " the formerly secretive Selman asked one of the EA developers. The response was affirmative. "I think that's a good thing to show," Selman said. "That's a good way to whet the whistle." The big secret was the Duffenstein Castle, which is a visual homage to the pioneering early '90s first-person shooter "Wolfenstein 3D." The developers promise references big and small, from "Joust" and "Frogger" riffs to more recent "Madden" and "Grand Theft Auto" jokes. Asked to cite their most obscure, Knight mentioned a nod to "Ecco the Dolphin."

Knight said gamers should even expect a skewering of the company that made the game. "We're going to be making fun of EA in a really big way that we're not even showing at E3," he said. "We have to really, really make fun of who we are as a corporation ... I'm not going to give any details for that. It's a whole concept for a whole other level."

But maybe all these video game references aren't the best selling point. The EA guys tried a few others out during their demo. They described the powers. Be Marge and use her "super-nagging" abilities. Be Lisa and use the power of meditation to posses a giant hand that can descend from the sky and lift dumpsters and cars and drop them to make staircases or squash enemies.

Maybe the selling point is, as Selman jokingly put it, the game's theme: "We like to make fun of the fact that in video games there's always something new and always something better. And the thing you played before is always flushed down the toilet and you don't have that anymore. So in a sense the Wii and the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 represent the new thing, and that's what the 'Simpsons' are on now. But they're afraid of them ultimately being recycled by whatever's next. So in a sense we're making fun of the nature of consumerism — which is probably the biggest way to sell the game."

Maybe that's the way, though Knight did describe a tantalizing setup to one level of the game, which could also be a selling point. A game called "Grand Theft Scratchy" is released in Springfield. It's a sensation. "It's actually 'Grand Theft Scratchy' Day in Springfield," he said, "and the kids have gone crazy for it. They're are all over at the Sequelstop buying it and Marge decides she needs to lead a protest to get this violent video game banned from Springfield. So she uses her awesome mob-control powers to one-by-one gather the citizens of Springfield and destroy the advertising."

With that kind of topical relevance, might anti-game lawyer Jack Thompson show up in the game? "I can neither confirm nor deny Jack Thompson references in this game," Knight said. "I would have to consult my personal lawyer."

So how far does this game go? Gamers can see when it comes out for all major video game platforms, console and handheld, this fall. " 'The Simpsons' is really the perfect franchise to satirize and make fun of video games because fans of the show are already used to it making fun of movies and TV and music and commercials and religion and whatever — everything," Selman said. "They understand that 'The Simpsons' exists to make fun of the world."

Video games are just the next target. Got it?

From http://www.mtv.com

'Donkey Kong' King Reclaims Top Score — And He's Got Witnesses To Prove It

2007-08-28T00:35:00.000-07:00

Billy Mitchell challenges would-be record-breakers with $10,000 bet.

By Stephen Totilo.

Is Hank Aaron's home-run record the most besieged stat in sports this year? Only if you don't consider "Donkey Kong" to be a sport.

On Thursday night, former "DK" arcade champ Billy Mitchell contacted MTV News to announce that he had reclaimed the top score with a record 1,050,200 points. He has witnesses, including someone who's willing to take a polygraph test to prove the run was legit.

"It's authenticity on a scale like never before," Mitchell said. He wanted to clear all doubt about his mastery of "Donkey Kong" and honesty as a player.

Mitchell's achievement, verified live by a senior referee from the classic gaming record-keeping group Twin Galaxies, comes just four months after rival gamer Steve Wiebe claimed the crown. It comes just a few weeks before the nationwide release of a documentary, "The King of Kong," that portrays Mitchell as a cocky, meddlesome, score-denying villain (see "'Donkey Kong' Record Holder Says New Flick Settles His Score" and "Ex-'Donkey Kong' Champ Finally Speaks After Getting Bruised By New Doc").

The new score tops the recently verified score Wiebe set last summer of 1,049,100 by a narrower margin than Mitchell had initially intended. But he decided to keep things close. "I'm not Steve Spurrier," Mitchell said of the legendarily aggressive football coach. "I'm Billy Mitchell. I don't need to run up the score. I just want to put one in the win column. I want to make it competitive. I didn't want to make it too tough."

Mitchell made his record run two weeks ago at an unlikely venue: the '80s-themed annual meeting of the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers in Orlando, Florida. The brokers wanted Mitchell to attend so he could sign autographs and play some friendly arcade matches. Agreeing to attend on the condition that they make a donation to the Make a Wish foundation, Mitchell pegged the event as his return to arcade glory. "In the summer I had plenty of time to practice," he said.

Fans of rivals Wiebe and Mitchell, as well as the referees at Twin Galaxies, are highly skeptical of "Donkey Kong" world records. That's both a main topic of "The King of Kong" and a major aspect of the fallout that has followed advance screenings of the film, which portrays some TG refs as biased. Some members of Twin Galaxies have been viewed as Mitchell cronies, bending rules to let him claim records; others have cast doubts on Wiebe's scores, despite the lengths he's gone to prove they are accurate. For example, Wiebe filmed his just-toppled mark with a handheld camera set up in his garage. To extinguish doubts that previous scores he had set were done with the help of doctored arcade boards, he filmed himself putting a genuine board in the machine and removing it following his then-record feat.

This convinced some. Former Twin Galaxies senior referee Robert Mruczek, however, raised a question on the TG message board about a break in the tape that could have allowed Wiebe to switch boards.

Mitchell took extraordinary steps to prevent doubt about his new run. He achieved the score on a "Donkey Kong" board he bought off eBay. The board looked clean to him, but he sent it to Nintendo of America headquarters in Redmond, Washington, requesting someone there authenticate it. An engineer from the company, which made "Donkey Kong," e-mailed him and said the board checked out. The board was sent to Mitchell, who kept it in the Nintendo packaging. Then, at the Mortgage Brokers convention, Mitchell had the board removed from the packaging and placed into a "Donkey Kong" cabinet only when a security guard, a notary public and a manager from a nearby GameStop were watching. This process was filmed.

The GameStop manager was in charge of keeping the machine secure. "He had bought a special lock," Mitchell said. "He still had a receipt from it. And he had the key on his key ring and said it would stay there until such time — not knowing when I would accomplish this — I got the score." The gamer said he jokingly got the manager to agree to a polygraph test as well.

Mitchell achieved the new score on his second game, which took two hours and 39 minutes. Still, Mitchell says he could have done better. In the end, he jumped barrels until he let one smack Mario in the stomach. Then the clock ran out. He still had one life left and could have played five boards deeper before reaching the game's so-called kill screen. Instead, he says, he decided to keep it close. Twin Galaxies senior referee Todd Rogers witnessed the session, securing it as an official high score.

After reaching his mark, Mitchell left the machine and went home to the Fort Lauderdale area. The GameStop manager removed the board — on tape, of course — and sent it back to Nintendo where, Mitchell said, it was verified to be as clean as it had been on its first check. He thinks that will prove he did things on the up and up, though he did suggest one loophole: "Remember 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'? There could have been a little guy in there."

Mitchell is offering $10,000 to anyone who breaks his new record at the Classic Gaming Expo this weekend in Las Vegas, though he won't be there. He also doesn't know if Steve Wiebe will be there. He hasn't heard from his rival about the new score yet.

MTV News was unable to reach Wiebe or the "King of Kong" filmmakers to see if they would incorporate the new wrinkle into their story.

As for what Mitchell is up to next, he said he was eager to attend his son's football scrimmages: "My son, he can run like the wind blows." And Dad will certainly be back to "Donkey Kong," if — or is that when — the pressure is back on.

Go here to see footage of Mitchell's new run.

from http://www.mtv.com

'Braid' Challenges Meanings Of Life, 'Mario' Coins; Xbox 360 Price Drop; Gamer Homophobia & More, In GameFile

2007-08-28T00:29:00.000-07:00

Also: California violent video game law struck down.

By Stephen Totilo.

Which game set for release late this year was designed to change gamers' lives? Maybe "Halo 3." Maybe "Super Mario Galaxy." But those games' creators haven't said as much. The maker of the relatively obscure "Braid," however, says his game — a darling of the indie gaming scene and a radical twist to "Super Mario Bros." — is made to affect people in profound ways.

"I want 'Braid' to be mind-expanding," the game's creator, San Francisco-based Jonathan Blow, 35, told GameFile in an e-mail interview this week. He had just shared a preview build of the game, which won the Innovation in Game Design award at the annual Independent Games Festival in 2006. "I want people to get experiences from it that they have not gotten from anything else. I want it to inspire people to go out and do other strange things that I wouldn't have thought of."

At its most basic level, "Braid" is a side-scroller designed to evoke "Super Mario Bros." in the structure of its worlds and in the hero's left-to-right, jump-aided quest to rescue a princess. The game's distinct feature is player-driven manipulation of time. In some worlds time can only be reversed. In another it can flow differently in different places. To get a sense of how distinct "Braid" is, consider one challenge in Blow's game: a time-warped homage to "Donkey Kong."

(SPOILER WARNING: Skip the next paragraph to keep the "DK" surprise intact.)

In the world containing the "Donkey Kong" challenge, time flows forward when the game's hero runs to the right and in reverse when he runs left. It stands still when he does. Think of how the barrels in the real "Donkey Kong" roll down six tilted floors: to the left, then to the right, back and forth. In "Braid" the barrel stand-ins roll down while the Mario stand-in runs to the right. When he climbs the ladder they stand still. When he runs left on the next floor, they roll in reverse, back up toward the ape. When he reaches the next floor and runs to the right, those "barrels" roll toward him again.

Such are the mind-bending concepts in "Braid." Blow has others, some discarded. Early on he tried to implement a now-scuttled idea requiring the player to move their character through a game world only in a path that could also be played in reverse (meaning, for instance, that no falling could happen from a height the player could not jump back up to). He decided the mechanic was "relatively weak."

What makes Blow stand out from his peers in game development isn't the uniqueness of his concepts but the degree of personal and philosophical inspiration behind them. For example, that scuttled "Donkey Kong" idea came from the notion in quantum mechanics that time has to follow the same rules going forward and back. "That is a weird existential problem, because if you really take it to heart, what does it mean for your daily existence?" he said. "I wanted to try to make some gameplay that explored that idea."

If quantum mechanics isn't an inspiration all gamers will relate to, how about the concept of gold coins hanging in the air? Those coins were a staple of "Super Mario Bros." and have been in titles for years since. Blow doesn't like those coins or what they represent about goals and rewards — in games or in real life. "I feel like unearned rewards are false and meaningless, yet so many people spend their lives chasing [them]," Blow said. "You only get collectibles in 'Braid' when you solve a puzzle, and you only get one per puzzle. Some of the puzzles are easy, some are hard; but you do something very explicit to get the reward. It's not like 'Mario' and every other game since then, where there are gold coins sprinkled everywhere, and you get them just by walking along a path or jumping up to some blocks."

Such unconventional thinking is pure Jonathan Blow, and is part of the reason why he is widely admired by his peers as one of the sharpest thinkers in the field. Not surprisingly (and despite the fact that he does consulting work for game companies), he feels distant from the commercial wing of the industry. "I don't want to get on the 'modern game industry sucks' rant-wagon," he said, "but that's really a big part of the issue. When you're gunning for the big bucks, you pursue craft, not art. So most of what gamers see is just craft. Sometimes it's really good craft."

In that commercial industry Blow sees many concepts hemmed in by loyalty to outdated game-design conventions. He was underwhelmed by "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" and "Blinx: The Time Sweeper" — two games otherwise lauded for their time mechanics — because "they had this idea that it would be cool to have rewind in the game ... But they didn't want to deviate from their core idea of what a game is about (you have a limited number of lives; you fight guys and jump over traps; and if you get killed too many times, it's game over)."

Blow isn't a fan of games that are designed to punish players with frequent death, nor does he celebrate games that keep users engaged only through the promise of collecting new things. As he puts it in the "Braid" design notes: "The design goal of the game is not to be difficult, but only to be interesting."

"Braid" has a final twist that Blow wants kept secret. It can be viewed as yet another commentary on game design, and yet another commentary on life. It's for players to experience, which he says they will (at least on PC), some time between November and February. The game is also rumored to come to consoles, but he won't confirm which one(s).

After that, Blow said he has 50 other ideas in his file. And if "Braid" succeeds, he hopes to come up with more.

More from the world of video games:

The Xbox 360 is about to get a little cheaper. Microsoft announced today that all three versions of the 360 will get price cuts effective Wednesday. The $399.99 premium version, which comes with a 20GB hard drive, will drop to $349.99. Smaller cuts are being made for the $299.99 core (hard-drive-free) system, which will drop to $279.99, and the Xbox 360 Elite (120 GB hard drive), which will drop from $479.99 to $449.99. Microsoft also announced that the upcoming "Halo 3" edition of the 360, which is painted green and emblazoned with "Halo" designs (and comes with a headset and a 20GB hard drive) will retail for $399.99 but will not include a copy of "Halo 3." ...

A California law designed to label violent video games and restrict the sales of ultra-violent ones to minors was struck down by a federal court on Monday. Passed in 2005, the law was similar to those in states such as Michigan and Illinois that also ran afoul of federal courts. "At this point, there has been no showing that violent video games as defined in the act, in the absence of other violent media, cause injury to children," judge Ronald Whyte wrote in a decision quoted by The Associated Press. "In addition, the evidence does not establish that video games, because of their interactive nature or otherwise, are any more harmful than violent television, movies, Internet sites or other speech-related exposures." California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state would appeal the decision. ...

After over a year of relatively harassment-free existence, GayGamer.net, a popular destination for gay and straight gamers alike, was shut down for the weekend by an apparently homophobic hacker. Site co-owner Flynn DeMarco told GameFile on Monday that he first noticed problems in the middle of last week, when his site began to operate sporadically and someone began spamming the site's message boards with hate speech. He tried to block the harassment but found out while attending a party Friday night that the site had been knocked offline. "I was expecting this," DeMarco said. "I'm surprised it hadn't happened earlier." The site returned on Monday, and DeMarco is investigating ways to report the hack to the authorities.

Recent video game stories from MTV News:

· "Sony Exec Talks New PSP's Upgrades, GPS Attachment, NYC Appeal And More"

· " 'Grand Theft Auto IV' Delayed Until Next Year Due To 'Technological Issues' "

And be sure to check Multiplayer, which will have full text of my interview with Jonathan Blow later in the week.

From http://www.mtv.com

iPod Gets New Music Game From 'PaRappa The Rapper' Creator

2007-08-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

'Musika' allows users to 'interact dynamically with the music.'

By Stephen Totilo.

There are video games that re-create a convincing game of football or race a car around the track. And then there are the unusual ones — like "Musika," a game designed to test a player's abilities to spot the letters in the titles of songs downloaded on their iPod.

If that sounds strange — and maybe less joyous than most video game descriptions — it helps to know where it's coming from. On Tuesday morning, Apple launched "Musika" on its iTunes music store. It's the fruit of Masaya Matsuura, one of the pioneers of the music-game genre that has borne the likes of "Guitar Hero," "SingStar" and the still-in-development "Rock Band" (see "Slash, Game Developers Riff On 'Guitar Hero III' And 'Rock Band,' In GameFile"). Matsuura, who counts those games' developers as his friends, planted some of the genre's seeds with "PaRappa the Rapper," a 1996 music game for the original PlayStation.

"I was thinking about a game for downloadable audio," Matsuura told MTV News in a telephone interview from his native Tokyo earlier this week. He has music-game ideas for guitars, for robots, for all kinds of devices. For this concept with downloadable music, he said, "The iPod is designed for that."

To play the game, players pick a song from their playlist, press play, and then press one of two buttons to either select or skip letters and numbers that appear, one at a time, on the screen. The goal is to select letters that are in the song's title and skip the ones that aren't. The letters appear to emerge through a digital fog of increasingly abstract or psychedelic patterns, making it more and more of a challenge to recognize them. Hitting the correct buttons in succession builds a scoring chain. The challenge is to get a high score before the song runs out. But during all of this, the only sound the player hears is the song they've chosen, which makes it a different way of listening to music.

The concept fit one of Matsuura's overall goals for his career and his craft: He wants people to look at electronics differently. With the iPod, the change in perception he seeks is relatively modest. "Many think the iPod is just for listening to music or just for watching video or pictures, but [using "Musika,"] you can interact dynamically with the music."

Down the line he's interested in grander changes in how people view — and even care about — their electronics. Take the drum pad being made for the upcoming "Rock Band" title. "If we see the drum pad, maybe we want to beat it," he said. "But unfortunately, the drum pad is not a robot. It is just a machine so we don't have to care about how the drum machine or drum pad will be broken, how it feels about being beaten."

Matsuura's unusual perspective in such matters comes from being a big fan of robots: He became doubly animated when the conversation turned toward the topic. But he's only experimenting now and doesn't have any robot projects to announce.

Asked what he thought of the music games that have succeeded his "PaRappa" title, he said he likes the ones with guitar controllers, like "Guitar Hero." But there's something he'd like to see more of.

"Currently the main successful games in the Western world use licensed music," he said. "[Such music] was composed for listening. ... I am focusing on how American and European music creators make their own music tracks for games. That is a very interesting thing for me."

Ultimately, he said, it would be even better for these games to let people create their own music — essentially turning the hardware into musical instruments. "If the game or interactive art [help] the audience to try to express themselves using their own environment and game hardware, that would be great," he said.

While "Musika" doesn't exactly achieve that, iPod owners can run the game on any audio track in their Apple handheld and therefore make a game out of anything from a Nas track to a podcast about cars. In the small field of iPod games — the other 17 of which include "Pac-Man," "Sudoku" and "Kaplan SAT Prep" — this music game on the world's most popular MP3 player is still a significant step.

The "Musika" concept was created by Matsuura in conjunction with producers at Sony BMG, who pitched the project to Apple. (Those producers were unavailable to comment on why Apple approved the project.) The game was developed in Texas by Method Games. It is available on the iTunes music store for $4.99.

From http://www.mtv.com

New Artist: Sean Kingston

2007-08-28T00:06:00.000-07:00

A self-proclaimed product of his past, rapper Sean Kingston's history helps describe his sound. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, then raised in Miami, FL, from the age of six, he mixes more than a little dancehall and reggae into his hip-hop. The hard lyrics come from a hard life, which included incarceration, homelessness, and growing up a lot faster than he should have. His young parents didn't play teen pop or teen rap while he was being raised, so he absorbed the adult lyrics of Buju Banton, Ice Cube, and Rakim. He also lived the lyrics and landed a breaking-and-entering charge at age 11. Twenty-one days in jail, boot camp, and living in a car while his mother was incarcerated on an identity fraud rap all followed. None of it swayed the youth against hustling; it just pointed him in a different, more lucrative direction. Taking his ability to write rhymes and hooks, he started working Miami's talent show and showcase circuit hard, eventually sharing the stage with Pitbull, Ludacris, and Trick Daddy. Producer Jonathan "J.R." Rotem (Britney Spears, 50 Cent, Rihanna) caught his demo and signed the young rapper to his Beluga Heights record label right before the major-label bidding wars were to begin. The Sony imprint Epic won and introduced their new artist in the spring of 2007 with the single "Colors 2007" featuring the Game and Rick Ross. Although he sounded much older, Kingston was only 16 years old when the track landed. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide.
From http://www.mtv.com

Owen Wilson 'In Good Condition,' Hospital Says

2007-08-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

'I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time,' actor says in statement.

By MTV News staff.

Owen Wilson was reported in good condition Monday (August 27) after being taken to a hospital by paramedics over the weekend, according to The Associated Press.

Wilson "is here in good condition," Cynthia Harding, a spokeswoman for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, California, told the AP. The actor had initially been taken to St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica.

Wilson released the following statement Monday: "I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time." Several media outlets have claimed that Wilson attempted suicide, but those reports have yet to be substantiated.

On Sunday, the Santa Monica Police Department released the following statement: "On Sunday, Aug. 26, 2007, at 12:10 p.m., officers from the Santa Monica Police Department responded to a medical assistance call from the Santa Monica Fire Department at the 900 block of 23rd Street. The person was transported to a local hospital where they are being treated." No further information was provided, but People.com reported that the home is Owen Wilson's residence. Members of Wilson's family, including his brother Luke, have been reported visiting Cedars-Sinai.

Owen, 38, is the middle child of the Wilson brothers, all of whom act, frequently with each other. Earlier this year, eldest brother Andrew co-directed alongside Luke "The Wendell Baker Story," a film in which Owen appeared.

Wilson, one of the most bankable comic actors working today, is best known for his roles in blockbuster comedies including "Wedding Crashers," "You, Me and Dupree" and "Night at the Museum." One of the most prolific leading men today, he has a bevy of upcoming projects in various stages of production, including the already completed "Drillbit Taylor" and "The Darjeeling Limited."

The latter film, Wilson's latest collaboration with friend and frequent collaborator Wes Anderson, is scheduled for release September 29. Wilson was scheduled to attend the film's premiere next week at the Venice Film Festival. Wilson earned an Oscar nomination for his writing on an earlier Anderson effort in which he appeared, "The Royal Tenenbaums."

Wilson is also scheduled to appear in the big 2008 summer comedy "Tropic Thunder" opposite "Night at the Museum" co-star Ben Stiller. MTV News recently spoke to that film's co-writer Justin Theroux, who said they were still in the midst of shooting the film in Hawaii.

[This story was originally published at 12:45 p.m. ET on 08.27.2007]

From http://www.mtv.com

The Flop That Inspired 'Contra 4' And 'Duck Amuck'; 'Hot Coffee' Sequel; And More, In GameFile

2007-08-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

Also: Alvin and the Chipmunks squeak their way through covers of Run-DMC, Blink-182 songs in new game.

By Stephen Totilo

Matt Bozon's old job required him to sketch caricatures at a Six Flags theme park. His new one requires him to make the next "Contra" game. And some time in between, he got involved in the worst-reviewed DS game ever made — with surprisingly positive ramifications.

Bozon is the creative director at WayForward, a development studio in Valencia, California, where he's been designing games since the mid-'90s. Last week he spoke to GameFile about his journey as a game developer and how the company that scored a zero with one DS game wound up working on two of the most anticipated holiday titles on Nintendo's handheld system.

Bozon's career in game design started modestly: One of his first tasks at WayForward was to make art for a Super Nintendo game. The pay wasn't great right away. "It's like a lot of those other labor-of-love things," Bozon said. "We were doing lots of other jobs to subsidize our dream to be game developers, like delivering lunches."

Over the next decade WayForward created a few dozen projects: educational Muppets software; a low-selling critical darling called "Shantae" for the Game Boy Color; and a slew of licensed games, such as "Godzilla: Domination" and "The Scorpion King: Sword of Osiris."

But WayForward wanted to branch out creatively, so when Nintendo announced in early 2004 that the company would produce a two-screened handheld, the WayForward developers had some bright ideas. Bozon also had a theory about the DS. He thought it would expand Nintendo's 2003 connectivity project, which pushed for games that could be played on four Game Boy Advances, each tethered to a single GameCube home console. "I always imagined a two-screened game was going to be gameplay on two screens," he said. "You'd go into a house on the top screen and on the bottom you'd see the interior and there's still stuff going on in the top screen, which is not quite what it [turned out to be]."

Inspired by the DS announcement, the team assembled a 13-page treatment for a "Shantae: Risky Waters" DS game. The game had players rafting in 3-D on the DS' top screen while simultaneously controlling a bird on the bottom screen that was flying over a 2-D version of the river. Another phase of the game had the player digging caves in the bottom screen, while characters battled on the upper screen. They pitched it around, but no publisher took them up on the offer.

In mid-2004 the publisher THQ came to WayForward with a DS idea. THQ had licensed artwork from the makers of the hit online Korean game "MapleStory" and wanted to use the art for a DS instant-messaging program called "Ping Pals." "We had to prototype the game in the first 24 hours, having never seen the hardware, which is a huge testament to our programmers," Bozon said. They had just a handful of weeks to make the game. "We needed dev kits desperately, and here was a chance to get them."

But the problem with "Ping Pals" wasn't just time. The DS already had an IM program called "Pictochat" that came embedded into every DS. Did anyone raise their hand and ask about that? "I did that on day one," Bozon said, laughing. "THQ had their plan, and they were going to run with it.

"That's probably the game we worked on harder than any other game," he added. "The design doc for that thing was actually a bunch of sticky notes on a dry board, and about every four hours we would redesign the entire game for that entire five-week span because the technology kept shifting. We were working 24 hours a day. There was no point locking the door because there was always somebody in there."

The game was mauled by the critics, receiving a zero from some and a scattering of ones and threes from others. To be fair, the game had one rave review, from the Web site Nintendojo. It reported that, " 'Ping Pals' definitely kick-started something here," and that the game had garnered at least one super-fan. "There's one guy who was 'Mr. Ping Pals,' " Bozon said. The fan e-mailed Bozon, asking about the names and secrets buried in the program. "I was like, 'I don't know. I was half asleep. It was 5 a.m. when we were putting the names on that object.' " The game sold more than 90,000 copies in the U.S., according to sales-tracking service NPD.

A brighter future lay ahead. Within a couple of years Bozon was pitching Warner Bros. the idea to make a DS game inspired by the 1951 "Duck Amuck" cartoon. That cartoon had Daffy Duck getting tormented by the brush of an unseen animator. As best he remembers it, this was his one-sentence pitch: "Players use the stylus to harass Daffy and raise his temperature through the roof." Within a year, Warners signed on. The game, now called "Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck," made many short lists for best DS title of this year's E3 and is set for release in the fall.

WayForward also scored a plum assignment from Konami: the dream job of resurrecting the classic side-scrolling shooter franchise "Contra." Bozon and company weren't even asking for that one. "It seems kind of nuts, looking back at it," he said. This past weekend Bozon's team was putting the finishing touches on what will be called "Contra 4."

The two new WayForward DS games are set for release later this year, and it seems like the earlier suffering was well worth it. "We can point to the games we're working on now and say, 'If not for "Ping Pals" getting our foot in the door ... .' "

His company would like to make a Wii game next. What will it have to do to get its foot in there?

More from the world of video games:

Attacks on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the group that rates video games in the U.S., usually come from outside the gaming industry. But earlier this week, a salvo was fired by game developer Julian Eggebrecht, president of development studio Factor 5 and lead designer of next month's PlayStation 3 dragon-fighting game, "Lair." In a report filed at GamesIndustry.biz, Eggebrecht called the ratings process a "charade" and charged that "games are not being seen, even by our own ratings boards, as an art form." He complained about harsh restrictions of references to heterosexual and homosexual sex and said the ESRB even blocked a cheat code for "Lair" called "Hot Coffee" that would have unlocked video of a coffee maker. GameFile contacted the ESRB for comment but it didn't reply before press time. For more on Eggebrecht's speech, go to here. ...

Earlier this year the gaming world was introduced to a new publisher, Brash Entertainment, which had secured $400 million in financing to publish video games based on movie properties. The first was announced last week: "Alvin and The Chipmunks." Based on the classic kids'-music series as well as the upcoming December movie, the game will be out for PS2, Wii, DS and PC on December 4, 10 days before the movie. The game will include Chipmunks-style renditions of Run-DMC's "It's Tricky," Blink-182's "All the Small Things" and R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People." ...

What does it take to make a run at the "Tetris" world record? A Boston Globe writer is chronicling his wife's recent quest to break the "Tetris" world record of 545 lines. Follow the adventure here.

Recent gaming stories from MTV News:

· " 'Madden NFL 08' Debut Turns Times Square Into A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"
· " 'Donkey Kong' Flick Finally Barrels Into Theaters — Will Johnny Depp Play Along?"

Be sure to check out our Multiplayer blog, which features our reporter's account of the strange things that happen while covering MTV's "Rock Band" for MTV.

From http://www.mtv.com

Beastie Boys' MCA Skateboards (Virtually) With Tony Hawk; Plus New Game Soundtrack Revealed

2007-08-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Jurassic 5, Smashing Pumpkins will be heard while playing 'Proving Ground.'

By Stephen Totilo

Spider-Man, Darth Maul ... and now MCA of the Beastie Boys. What's the pattern? They've all been virtual characters on a video game skateboard.

Game publisher Activision revealed to MTV News on Friday (August 24) that the Beasties' Adam Yauch, a.k.a. MCA, will be an unlockable character in "Tony Hawk's Proving Ground," the company's October installment of its annual skateboarding franchise.

The music legend joins a roster of unlockable bonus skaters that has included superheroes and rock stars from Iron Man to Gene Simmons to last year's featured franchise guest, Travis Barker. In exclusive images, it appears that MCA will be skateboarding — of all places — on the moon.

(Check out exclusive stills of MCA from "Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.")

The news is part of the soundtrack announcement for "Proving Ground," which will include 54 licensed songs. The franchise's traditional rock-with-some-rap mix includes the Foo Fighters' "The Pretender," Nirvana's "Breed," Slick Rick's "Children's Story" and Jurassic 5's "Radio."

The music connections don't end there. Activision announced Thursday that the Xbox 360 version of "Proving Ground" will include a five-song demo of "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" (see "Slash, Game Developers Riff On 'Guitar Hero III' And 'Rock Band,' In GameFile"). The demo includes master-track recordings of Pearl Jam's "Even Flow," Tenacious D's "The Metal" and Priestess' "Lay Down," as well as covers of Pet Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and the Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane."

The "Guitar Hero III" demo will also be available for download on Xbox Live two weeks later.

Both "Guitar Hero III" and "Tony Hawk's Proving Ground" for the Xbox 360 and PS3 are developed by longtime "Tony Hawk" studio Neversoft. "Proving Ground" will also be available on the Wii, PS2 and Nintendo DS.

"Tony Hawk" and "Guitar Hero" are Activision's two biggest franchises. Both face stiffer-than-usual competition this year. The skateboarding series will face a new rival in "Skate," a well-previewed title from mega-publisher Electronic Arts. "Guitar Hero" will battle with "Rock Band," the music game coming from EA and MTV Games.

Soundtrack for "Tony Hawk's Proving Ground," according to Activision:

· !!! -- "All My Heroes Are Weirdos"
· Airbourne -- "Girls in Black"
· Angels & Airwaves -- "Secret Crowds"
· Anglo Jackson -- "Motorbike"
· At the Gates -- "Slaughter of the Soul"
· Bad Brains -- "Banned in DC"
· Beastie Boys -- "Electric Worm"
· Blackalicious -- "Your Move"
· Bloc Party -- "Version 2.0"
· Cursed -- "The Hands Will Abide"
· Cymande -- "Fug"
· Dag Nasty -- "Circles"
· Darkest Hour -- "Sanctuary"
· DJ JS-1 (featuring L.I.F.E. Long & Immortal Technique) -- "Audio Technician"
· El-P -- "Up All Night"
· Folk Implosion -- "Natural One"
· Foo Fighters -- "The Pretender"
· Fu Manchu -- "We Must Obey"
· Funky 4+1 -- "Rappin and Rockin the House"
· Future Pigeon -- "Gift Tax"
· Gallows -- "Come Friendly Bombs"
· Gorilla Biscuits -- "Hold Your Ground"
· Jimmy Castor Bunch -- "It's Just Begun"
· Jurassic 5 -- "Radio"
· Kittens -- "Carpenter"
· Los Abandoned -- "Panic-Oh!"
· Lyrics Born (featuring KRS-One and Evidence) -- "Pack Up (Remix)"
· Maylene and the Sons of Disaster -- "Memories of the Grove"
· Motorcity Daredevils -- "Bear in the Air"
· Nation of Ulysses -- "You're My Miss Washington D.C."
· Nirvana -- "Breed"
· Oh No (featuring J Dilla and Roc "C") -- "Move, Pt. 2"
· Paint It Black -- "The New Brutality"
· Paris -- "The Devil Made Me Do It (Poach a Pig Mix)"
· Percee P -- "Throwback Rap Attack (Madlib Remix)"
· Pierce the Veil -- "I'd Rather Die Than Be Famous"
· Pig Destroyer -- "Loathsome"
· Reverend Horton Heat -- "Baddest of the Bad"
· Revolution Mother -- "Come On"
· Roots Manuva -- "Chin High"
· Sayvinyl -- "That's Entertainment"
· Silversun Pickups -- "Well Thought Out Twinkles"
· Slick Rick -- "Children's Story"
· Smashing Pumpkins -- "Tarantula"
· Snapcase -- "Energy Dome"
· The Bled -- "Starving Artiste"
· The Clash -- "Clash City Rockers"
· The Cramps -- "Garbage Man"
· The Icarus Line -- "Gets Paid"
· The Kooks -- "See the World"
· The Octopus Project -- "Music Is Happiness"
· The Rolling Stones -- "Sympathy for the Devil"
· The Sex Pistols -- "Holidays in the Sun"
· Twilight 22 -- "Electric Kingdom"

Check out the new MTV News Multiplayer blog, updated daily, for even more gaming coverage.

From http://www.mtv.com

DMX's Arizona Home Raided; A Dozen Pit Bulls Removed From Residence

2007-08-25T00:19:00.000-07:00

Police also discovered weapons cache; no charges have been filed against rapper.

By Chris Harris, with additional reporting by James Montgomery and Stephen Totilo.

Deputies with the Maricopa County sheriff's office raided the Cave Creek, Arizona, home of rapper DMX on Friday morning (August 24), and according to a police spokesperson, 12 pit bulls were removed from the residence, all in bad condition. Police would not get into specifics but did say the animals are being tended to by veterinarians.

At this point, DMX (real name: Earl Simmons) has not been officially charged with any crime, but police are still investigating. DMX was not at his home at the time of the raid, during which police also discovered a large cache of weapons. Police do not believe the rapper is in Arizona but would like to question him as part of their investigation.

(See more news on the raid of DMX's house.)

A tipster notified police more than a week ago that dogs were being kept in inhumane conditions at the rapper's property, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told MTV News. "They weren't getting proper food, they weren't getting proper water, and they were tied outside in 115-degree heat," Arpaio said. "We are developing the investigation." He added that the department is seeking additional warrants to check the guns to determine if "they're legal, if he's allowed to have weapons."

According to Arpaio, the charred remains of at least one dog were recovered from DMX's backyard, and the sheriff's department will be investigating the rapper's possible involvement in illegal dogfighting. Police continue to explore the grounds around DMX's home for more dog remains.

The rapper's attorney, Stacey Richman, defended her client, saying, "He loves and lives for his animals" and "has caretakers for his homes and especially for his animals." According to Richman, "The caretaker [DMX had hired] was only coming in once a day. Of course, that was not the arrangement."

This isn't the first time police have taken an interest in DMX's dogs. Back in 2002, the rapper pleaded guilty in New Jersey to charges of animal cruelty, stemming from a 1998 raid of DMX's home. Police claimed he had neglected 13 pit bulls. He eventually plea-bargained down to fines, probation and community service, and even starred in a public-service announcement against animal abuse.

The DMX news comes the same day that NFL star Michael Vick admitted his own involvement with dogfighting (see "Why Does The Michael Vick Case Hurt Hip-Hop?"). The Atlanta Falcons quarterback told the U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia, that he would plead guilty to "conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture." Vick faces a maximum term of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Later Friday evening, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that Vick has been suspended from the league indefinitely.

MTV News will have more on this story as it develops.

[This story was originally published at 5:51 p.m. ET on 08.24.2007]

From http://www.mtv.com

Malcolm McDowell: 'Halloween' Remake Is Great, But Don't Touch 'A Clockwork Orange'

2007-08-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

New Dr. Loomis shares memories of Rob Zombie, 'Heroes' and his 'porn' work with Helen Mirren.

By Larry Carroll

BEVERLY HILLS, California — Quick, can you name the only actor who has appeared in both "A Clockwork Orange" and the "Mr. Magoo" movie; played David Cassidy's dad in a TV biopic and Mr. Roarke in a "Fantasy Island" remake; and killed Captain Kirk? Which actor has hosted "Saturday Night Live"; appeared on "Robot Chicken," "Entourage" and "South Park"; and made a "porn movie" with Helen Mirren?

OK, maybe by now you've looked at the giant photo accompanying this article. Maybe you're beginning to appreciate Malcolm McDowell, the Hollywood veteran who recently added roles as the boss man on "Heroes" and the new Dr. Loomis in "Halloween" to his stunningly eclectic resume (see "Exclusive: Malcolm McDowell, The New Dr. Loomis, Talks 'Halloween' "). And maybe you're ready to read about his thoughts on working with Rob Zombie, fearing a "Clockwork" remake and possibly returning as Mr. Linderman to wreak havoc on the Heroes' lives.

MTV: It's good to see you again, Malcolm. I visited the set months ago. The movie turned out great.

McDowell: I haven't seen it yet, but it felt good. It felt like it'd certainly be more than a slasher film, anyway.

MTV: The night I was on the set, I could sense that you guys were onto something, but you were shooting an ending that wasn't very good. The new one is much better.

McDowell: I think it probably is. The only thing I missed about the old one was the vulnerability of Michael, and [Loomis saying], "It's my fault. I'm the one." That little exchange.

MTV: But the new ending has an even greater vulnerability to it.

McDowell: It is better. ... It's a pretty horrifying final shot.

MTV: You've said before that you never saw John Carpenter's classic "Halloween." Is that still the case?

McDowell: Yes. It's better not to have seen it. John Carpenter's a master, and he made an extraordinary film. We wouldn't be here at all today if it hadn't been for John Carpenter and [the original Loomis] Donald Pleasance. ... I didn't want to be influenced by Donald Pleasance's performance.

MTV: It's still pretty cool that, 30 years later, all the lines about "those eyes" still send a chill up your spine.

McDowell: Was that in the original?

MTV: Oh, sure, that's Donald Pleasance's trademark. He's running around screaming: "Those eyes! The devil's eyes!"

McDowell: And oh my God, he had such a great voice. I'm glad I didn't hear him do it. [My performance] would have been awful. I can imagine how he did it.

MTV: Did Rob target you because of the British accent? I couldn't imagine those lines being spoken without it.

McDowell: I honestly think that was neither here nor there in his mind. He chose me because he likes my work. I know that he's a "Clockwork" freak.

MTV: Have you ever seen Rob's "Never Gonna Stop" video, in which he dresses up like Alex?

McDowell: No, he's never shown it to me. He said he would, but never did! I should ask him for the video.

MTV: Did you ever catch him trying to get some stories out of you from the legendary "Clockwork" shoot?

McDowell: No. Of course, I'd volunteer that stuff. [He laughs.] There was one particular scene [in "Halloween"] that he didn't like the lighting for. It was the scene with Myers' picture behind me and me talking to the students. I just said, "This should be like the shot in 'Clockwork' — with the spotlight coming in to make a silhouette while Alex is being presented as being 'reformed.' " He went, "Yeah, yeah!"

MTV: With "Halloween," "Psycho" and "The Manchurian Candidate," we're finally reaching the point where even the greatest films are being remade. But isn't it interesting how no one will touch Kubrick?

McDowell: Hopefully. I hope I'm not around to see the remake of "A Clockwork Orange."

MTV: Why not?

McDowell: I'm just too close to it. It's too many incredible memories of creating that character — [when] I was a young actor, which was so monumental in my life. I wouldn't like to watch someone else do it.

MTV: Rob is a very distinctive director.

McDowell: [He laughs.] I'll say. There aren't many directors I know that do rock and roll.

MTV: You've worked with dozens of directors. What kind of ideas did he have that were different?

McDowell: Rob would go, "I need something here. I don't know what. What are you gonna say?" He'd say, "Just let it go." I love doing that, because it means you can be working right on the edge. I think most of my basic improv stuff has been cut out, but they'll be on the DVD. I don't know what's in the film and what isn't, so it's hard for me to say. But I know that when I come out [of the lecture scene] I say, "They didn't like me. Was I good? Was I good? Tell me I was good." [Loomis is] real insecure.

MTV: I hate to break it to you, but ...

McDowell: It's out? I knew it would be. Well, that's just the way it is.

MTV: You recently had a very memorable story arc on "Heroes." Since they never really got into it, what exactly was Linderman's power?

McDowell: Linderman was a healer; that was the beauty of him. He was this, if you like, evil force with this power diametrically opposite to what he was, which made him very interesting. And maybe he'll be back. ... The door has been left open somewhat. When I left, they said to me, "Malcolm, just so you know, nobody ever dies forever on this."

MTV: Really?

McDowell: The door has been left open somewhat. When I left, they said to me, "Malcolm, just so you know, nobody ever dies forever on this."

MTV: Would you like to bring him back?

McDowell: If they said, "Would you come back?" I'd go in a heartbeat. ... I'd love to see him back.

MTV: Have you been keeping up with the show?

McDowell: Yes. ... I watched it last night.

MTV: So you know what happened to your boy Nathan Petrelli? Maybe Linderman could bring him back to the realm of the living?

McDowell: I don't know whether Linderman can stick his own eyes back in their sockets yet or fix his brain. We'll have to see. But he is a healer, so anything is possible.

MTV: A new DVD for "Caligula" is coming out in October, and rumor has it that you've recorded a commentary track. After all these decades of despising the film, did you finally get a chance to let it rip?

McDowell: I pretty much did let it rip. ... They said to me, "Look, Helen Mirren did a track," and I went "Dame Helen Mirren did a track on 'Caligula'? Who am I to refuse?" I've got very ambivalent feelings about the film, unfortunately, because ["Penthouse" publisher/producer Bob] Guccione really behaved so badly. He stuck in porn and all that, and it doesn't seem to bother anybody else except me.

MTV: It must be a good feeling to record one of those tracks and be able to speak frankly for a change.

McDowell: Oh, of course! I'd say, "Oh my God! This is where Peter O'Toole [was drunk] and I had to prop him up!" It's a three-disc set, and it's the ultimate collector's item of all time.

Check out everything we've got on "Halloween."

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'The Nanny Diaries': Momazons, By Kurt Loder

2007-08-25T00:07:00.000-07:00

Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney and Chris Evans face off in rich-kiddy conflict on the Upper East Side.

What lifts this movie above the usual run of dutifully sweet romantic comedies is the bright, fantasy-friendly sensibility of its two directors, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. In the same way that their first feature, the 2003 "American Splendor," transformed the gritty precincts of Cleveland into an antic wonderland for the picture's oddball characters, "The Nanny Diaries" — with cinematographer Terry Stacey once again onboard — gives us a hyper-real rendition of Manhattan that's rich with fresh color and unexpected possibilities. This is the kind of place in which the star, Scarlett Johansson, can grab onto the big, red-umbrella logo of the Citigroup building in downtown TriBeCa, go sailing up into the sky with it and the conceit doesn't seem dumb — it's charming.

In this seductively idealized vision of New York, the picture somewhat resembles "The Devil Wears Prada" — without Meryl Streep, of course. But Laura Linney brings her own style of illumination to the character of a stone-hearted society matron who's both cruelly funny and, in the end at least, faintly sympathetic. Linney plays "Mrs. X," and she and her husband, "Mr. X" ("American Splendor" star Paul Giamatti), effectively set off Johansson's mild, grumbly warmth with some tangy narrative countercurrents. (The ungainly "X" pseudonyms are a survival from the popular 2002 novel on which the movie is based.)

Johansson plays Annie Braddock, who's just graduated from college with a major in business and a minor in anthropology. Annie's single mom (Donna Murphy) wants her to go right out and conquer the corporate world; but Annie's heart is really in anthropology — she's fascinated by the study of exotic cultural enclaves. One day in Central Park, she spots a little boy about to be hit by a motor scooter and snatches him away to safety just in time. The boy's distracted mother, Mrs. X, approaches and asks her son's savior who she is; but the woman mistakes Annie's name for "nanny" — possibly because she's in the market for one. Soon, for reasons that are of course not entirely persuasive, Annie finds herself installed in a cramped room in Mrs. X's vast Upper East Side apartment, providing the round-the-clock care for her son, Grayer (Nicholas Art), that his mother and father are too self-involved to supply.

The movie takes a wittily anthropological view of upper-crust tribal customs, and as Annie accompanies Mrs. X on air-kissing rounds among her fellow over-moneyed matrons, we marvel at their social armor of pricey bags and jackets and expensively blown-out hair, and their Canyon Ranch spa retreats and salad-centric lunches at Bergdorf's. Despite the fact that none of them has much to do beyond shopping and attending endless charity galas ("Conga for the Congo"), they all seem harried to the point of near-hysteria. ("Even though I don't have a job," Mrs. X gibbers, "I never seem to have enough time for myself.") They struggle to ignore their husbands' serial adulteries, and look upon their children — when they actually look at them at all — as inconvenient but necessary accessories. (Mrs. X orders Annie not to let little Grayer nap during the day: "I prefer him tired when I get home.") As for Mr. X, he's so wrapped up in his work (and an affair with a woman in his company's Chicago office) that he's given his son a business card to remember him by.

Helping Annie maintain her bearings as she journeys deeper into this strange new world are her best friend, Lynette (Alicia Keys, so radiantly engaging we wish there were a lot more of her) and "the Harvard Hottie" (Chris Evans), an ambient hunk with every woman's dream: actual emotional content. (Evans once again brings his deft intelligence to bear on what might have been a rote character.)

With its time-tested storyline — guileless outsider exposes the hypocrisy of a stuffy upscale social milieu — the movie might almost be "Miracle on 34th Street." But it's enlivened by inventive directorial quirks (emphasizing Mr. X's prickly remoteness, for example, by obscuring his face the first few times he appears). It's a good-natured picture, and it plays out to a predictable but satisfying conclusion. Hard-pressed moviegoers could do a lot worse these days. Scan your local listings.

Click here for Kurt Loder's review of "2 Days in Paris."

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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From http://www.mtv.com

Nicole Richie's Jail Stay, 'Borat' And Other Things That Last 82 Minutes

2007-08-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

Richie could have listened to Paris twice, downed 451 hot dogs during her sixteenth of a day behind bars.

By James Montgomery

On Thursday, at 3:15 p.m. PT, Nicole Richie reported to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California, to begin paying back her debt to society. At 4:37 p.m., that debt was apparently paid in full.

(See people on the street react to Nicole Richie's and Lindsay Lohan's jail stays.)

Originally sentenced to serve four days in jail after pleading guilty to her second DUI last month (see "Nicole Richie To Serve Four Days In Jail For Drunk Driving"), Richie spent just 82 minutes — or 4,920 seconds — behind bars, which sounds less like hard time and more like a perfectly lovely way to spend an afternoon (seriously, we've had spa treatments that have lasted longer).

And that got us thinking: Since Richie was forced to waste almost a sixteenth of her entire day in the pokey, here's a list of things she could've been doing with those earth-shattering 82 minutes. Hopefully, it will serve as a deterrent the next time she thinks about smoking marijuana, popping some Valium and driving the wrong way on the Ventura Freeway. You know, sort of like what jail is supposed to be.

In 82 minutes, Nicole could have:

» Watched "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" exactly once — and said the film's title exactly once, too.

» Made somewhere in the neighborhood of nine delicious dinners, salads and appetizers using Rachael Ray's vaunted "30 Minute Meals" corollary.

» Run an entire marathon at the pace of Morocco's Hicham El Guerroj, the current world-record holder in the mile.

» Watched her good pal Paris Hilton's "1 Night in Paris" film 1.32 times.

» Listened to Hilton's Paris album twice.

» Devoured 451 hot dogs and buns at the pace of current dog-eating champ Joey Chestnut (66 franks and buns in 12 minutes).

» Battled her way through a paragraph from her 2005 masterwork "The Truth About Diamonds: A Novel," like, for example, this one: "Everyone was there that night, the whole clique we'd acquired somewhere between birth and our early twenties: Joey, Carrie, Mikela, Lanford and moi. We were all crammed into the most prized booth like a gaggle of kids on a monstrous Tilt-a-Whirl, smoking, drinking, drugging and/or gossiping in our best effort to recapture the magic we'd seen in archival photos from Studio 54's heyday."

» Held her breath under water for as long as a Weddell Seal.

» Listened to Mr. Edward Van Halen's "Eruption" solo 48 times.

» Watched her father's video for "Hello" 15 times (though we're certain that it would be impossible to sculpt a jheri-curled bust of her father's head out of clay in less than an hour and a half).

» Contemplated the failings of our justice system roughly 45 times. Or, better yet, she could have slammed 975 pints of beer at the pace of Australian drinking champion (and former prime minister) Robert Hawke.

» Listened to Lindsay Lohan's A Little More Personal (Raw) album 1.89 times.

» Watched the Zapruder film exactly 185 times. Or "The Simpsons Movie" once.

» Listened to boyfriend Joel Madden's Good Morning Revival album twice. And then suddenly realize that perhaps jail wasn't so bad after all.

From http://www.mtv.com

Album: The Re-Up - Eminem

2007-08-25T00:04:00.002-07:00

1. Shady Narcotics (Eminem Intro)
2. We're back (Eminem, Obie Trice, Stat Quo, Bobby Creekwater & Cashis)
3. Pistol Pistol (Remix) (Obie Trice)
4. Murder (Bizarre & Kuniva of D-12)
5. Everything Is Shady (Cashis)
6. The Re-Up (Eminem & 50 Cent)
7. You Don't Know (50 Cent feat Eminem, Cashis & Uyod Banks)
8. Jimmy Crack Corn (Eminem & 50 Cent)
9. Trapped (Proof Of D-12)
10.Whatever You Want (Swifty Mc.Vay & Mr.Porter of D-12)
11.Talkin' All That (Cashis)
12.By My Side (Stat Quo)
13.We Ride For Shady (Obie Trice & Cashis)
14.There He Is (Bobby Creekwater)
15.Tryin' Ta Win (Stat Quo)
16.Smack That (Remix) (Akon feat Stat Quo & Bobby Creekwater)
17.Public Enemy (Eminem)
18.Get Low (Stat Quo)
19.Ski Mask Way (Eminem Remix) (50 Cent)
20.Shake That (Remix) (Nate Dogg, Eminem, Obie Trice & Bobby Creekwater)
21.Cry Now (Shady Remix) (Obie Trice, Kuniva, Bobby Creekwater, Cashis & Stat Quo)
22.No Apologies (Eminem)

Album: Konvicted - Akon

2007-08-25T00:04:00.001-07:00

1. Gansta Bop (Akon)
2. Smack That (Akon feat Eminem)
3. Blon Away (Akon feat Snoop Gogg)
4. Be Easy (Akon feat G.A.G.E)
5. Me Myself & I (Akon)
6. You Don't Want It (Akon)
7. Cross That Line (Akon feat Rick Ross)
8. Girls (Akon feat Beenie Man)
9. Keep On Calling (Akon feat Savage)
10.Go To War (Akon feat Papoose)
11.So Fly (Akon feat Blewz)
12.Ride Out (Akon feat Tru Life)
13.Don't Let Up (Akon)
14.Gun In Hand (Akon feat Booba)
15.U Got Me (Akon feat I-Pain)
16.Look Me In My Eyes (Akon feat Blast)
17.On Da Corer Outro (Akon feat Joe & Styles)

Album: The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani

2007-08-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

1. Wind It Up (Gwen Stefani)
2. The Sweet Escape (Gwen Stefani)
3. Orange Country Girl (Gwen Stefani)
4. Early Winter (Gwen Stefani)
5. Now That You Got It (Gwen Stefani)
6. 4 In The Morning (Gwen Stefani)
7. Yummy (Gwen Stefani feat Pharrell)
8. Fluorescent (Gwen Stefani)
9. Breakin' Up (Gwen Stefani)
10.Don't Get It Twisted (Gwen Stefani)
11.U Started It (Gwen Stefani)
12.Wonderful Life (Gwen Stefani)
13.What You Waiting For (Gwen Stefani)
14.Rich Girl (Gwen Stefani feat Eve)
15.Hollaback Girl (Gwen Stefani)
16.Cool (Gwen Stefani)
17.Luxurious (Gwen Stefani)

Album: More Crazy Hits - Crazy Frog

2007-08-24T23:55:00.000-07:00

1. Intro (Crazy Frog)
2. We Are The Champions (Ding A Dang Dong) (Crazy Frog)
3. Crazy Frog In The House (Knightrider) (Crazy Frog)
4. I'm Too Sexy (Crazy Frog)
5. Hey Baby (Crazy Frog)
6. Crazy Jodeling (Crazy Frog)
7. The Final Countdown (Crazy Frog)
8. I Will Survive (Crazy Frog)
9. Nellie The Elefant (Crazy Frog)
10.Ice Ice Baby (Crazy Frog)
11.Kiss Him Goodbye ("Na Na Na, Hey Hey") (Crazy Frog)
12.Copa Banana (Crazy Frog)
13.Go Froggy Go (Crazy Frog)
14.Rock Steady (Crazy Frog)
15.Super Crazy Sounds (Crazy Frog)

Fall Out Boy Guitarist Has Only Kind Words For Liars After Accidentally 'Sharing' Demos

2007-08-24T02:24:00.000-07:00

'It was really cool hearing some positive feedback about something that I never planned on showing anyone,' he says.

By James Montgomery

It might not be humanly possible to think of two bands with less in common than Fall Out Boy and dance-punks-turned-art-freaks Liars. And yet, thanks to a hotel in Belgium, a band from Australia and some serious late-night iTunes snooping, the latter nearly spilled the beans on a huge secret involving the former.

Or did they?

Confused? Well, let's begin with Liars, former champions of Brooklyn, New York's dance-punk scene (see "Liars And Yeah Yeah Yeahs — The Next Strokes And Stripes?") who hightailed it to Berlin in 2004 to make atmospheric, spooky records about drums and something called "Mt. Heart Attack." Earlier this month, they were in Belgium to play the Pukkelpop festival and ran into some of the guys from Architecture in Helsinki, who, despite their name, are actually from Australia. The two groups got to talking — and drinking — and AIH told Liars they had spent the previous night in a local hotel using their MacBook to browse through the iTunes of some of the hotel's other guests ... some of whom just happened to be members of other bands in town to play the fest.

And, well, we'll let Liars' MySpace blog take it from here:

"Those guys were in a hotel where all the occupants' iTunes were connected. ... They logged on and found heaps of guitar-riff recordings that were apparently awesome. So they search to find whose computer it's coming from, and lo and behold, it's the solo recordings of FOB's lead guitarist (insert name here) ... who knew!?"

FOB's lead guitarist is, of course, Joe Trohman. And without ever knowing it, Liars suddenly made news about his private recordings very, very public. But just what were the mystery riffs? Potential seedlings for a Trohman solo record? Leftovers from the "Riff of the Month" thingy he was posting on FriendsOrEnemies.com? Brand-new Fall Out Boy songs?

Well, yes.

"You know, it's hard to say what exactly the ... Helsinki guys were checking out," Trohman told MTV News in an e-mail. "Everything I have recorded has either been some riffs floating around in my head that I just had to record (which have no purpose within FOB or anything at all so far) or are for Fall Out Boy, just mainly demos. I definitely love metal and from time to time come up with ideas for some heavy songs. Metal and heavy music in general is what I grew up on as you know, so I can't escape the ideas I have for those songs. Are they for a side project? No side projects here. My focus is all on Fall Out Boy, and it would be safe to say that some of the heavy stuff that was heard is for Fall Out Boy, or being proposed for some new song ideas."

So you can step back from the ledge, FOB fans: There will be no Trohman side project anytime soon. Like he said, his current focus is Fall Out Boy. But that doesn't mean that somewhere down the road, he wouldn't, you know, avert that focus to something else. Especially something involving rocking doctors ...

"You know, I have a million ideas for cool side projects all the time and I always come up with weird names for them too. But those are generally so fleeting. The reason they don't come to fruition is my own fault, I'm just too obsessed with FOB," he wrote. "My dad did have an amazing singing troupe in medical school though called 'Dr. T and the M.D.'s.' I would love to reignite that for fun — my dad was even talking about taking singing lessons."

In all seriousness, Trohman said he's just committed to finishing up Fall Out Boy's seemingly endless tour schedule (one that just got more endless thanks to the recent announcement of their Young Wild Things jaunt, which kicks off in mid-October and runs until the beginning of December; see "Fall Out Boy: Monsters Of Rock? Band's Tour To Have 'Where The Wild Things Are' Theme"). And though he claims he's not weirded out by Architecture in Helsinki's alleged spying, he is taking precautions to make sure that sort of thing doesn't happen again.

"At first ... I freaked out, had a terrible pit in my stomach, so to speak. I have an extreme lack of confidence in myself, and am very private about my little things I recorded for self-satisfaction. With that being said, I'm also bad with computers. I had no clue my iTunes was on 'Share Mode,' " he wrote. "But upon reading Liars' blog, it was really cool hearing some positive feedback about something that I never planned on showing anyone. Definitely really flattering. I back that band, and AIH, so it's cool to hear that stuff from bands I like. Either way, I went into my preferences and turned the sharing off. I'm shaking thinking about it right now."

Seen a great show? MTV News wants your photos, videos and reports from all the latest concerts for our new You R Here community. Check out the site to read, rate and comment on reviews from around the globe. We'll put the best stuff on our You R Here blog, and even in on-air news!

From http://www.mtv.com

'Resident Evil: Extinction' Takes Milla Jovovich — And, Of Course, Zombies — To Vegas

2007-08-24T02:23:00.000-07:00

Writer Paul W.S. Anderson says he's upping ante for zombie flicks once again.

By Delena Turman, with additional reporting by Larry Carroll and Shawn Adler

SAN DIEGO — When the beloved "Resident Evil" video game series exploded onto the silver screen in 2002, it was the first true zombie flick in nearly two decades. During the half-decade since, audiences have faced diseased zombies ("28 Days/Weeks Later"), running zombies ("Dawn of the Dead"), ill-conceived zombies ("House of the Dead"), funny zombies ("Shaun of the Dead") and grindhouse zombies ("Planet Terror"). Paul W.S. Anderson is intent on mixing things up again with September's "Resident Evil: Extinction," a post-apocalyptic flick he's calling the final installment of the "'Resident Evil" trilogy (see "Hated 'Resident Evil 2'? Jovovich Promises Third One Is Rad").

" 'Resident Evil' was really the first zombie movie made for about 20 years, so we were the first out of the gate," Anderson told MTV News recently. "But there have been a lot of movies that have come along since then that have done the same kind of thing."

Since most zombie films deal with the final days of human life, the next adventure of the now-superhuman Alice will aim to break the mold by picking up the action on, well, the day after the end of days. "We've gone with a new setting, and I've also gone with a real post-apocalyptic vibe," said Anderson, who's engaged to his (pregnant) leading lady, Milla Jovovich. "We felt it was so important with this one to pay off the trilogy, to end the trilogy, to really up the ante and do something fresh."

Part of that freshness also comes with the casting of Ashanti (see "Ashanti Hopes Her Bloody 'Buffy' Background Helps Her In 'Resident Evil 3' ") and red-hot "Heroes" star Ali Larter, two newcomers to the franchise. But although Larter's Niki/Jessica is fearless on the primetime show, she thought "Evil" would be a good series to join since she can't bring herself to watch the movies. "I don't even go to see [these films] in the theaters," she admitted. "I get scared. I don't watch them.

"This is going be huge and massive and amazing," Larter added.

(Watch Milla Jovovich talk about zombie birds and Ali Larter also beam about "Resident Evil: Apocalypse.")

After upping the ante, Anderson decided to lay his bets on a new setting: a soulless Sin City. "To me, what makes ['Resident Evil: Extinction'] fresh is we've moved the action from the traditional setting, which is an abandoned city with new zombies running around," he grinned. "We've moved it into the desert, to an abandoned Las Vegas."

So after two movies overflowing with dark rooms, tight spaces and those beloved zombie dogs, what can we expect from a battle in the sand? "The imagery is very big-event movie imagery," Anderson explained. "We do a lot of the scary scenes in broad daylight and they're scary — that's a real change."

"I think there's quite a few really cool moments in this one," series star Jovovich said, mentioning her favorites. "It's either going to be the zombie birds or it could be Las Vegas like half-buried in the sand."

"This one's really beautiful," Larter added. "We shot in Mexico, on the dunes, and it's about a post-apocalyptic world, and we're in a traveling caravan. It's dark — and we kill zombies really, really well."

"There are also some cool clone sequences with like a hundred different me's," Jovovich added proudly. "There's so many [good scenes] to choose from."

And although she might still be too scared to ever see "Resident Evil: Extinction," Larter does respect the Anderson aesthetic that made strong characters out of Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez. "There are strong, bold women and female characters," Larter said of the series. "The fact that Milla has this unbelievable franchise, and that they asked me to come in and be a part of it is amazing. Usually they don't even put two girls in a movie!"

Anderson, who has taken a great deal of flak over the years from "RE" purists, admits that mistakes have been made. Still, he hopes that fans will withhold judgment until "Extinction" can fully wrap up the series as he's envisioned it. "When I was making the first movie, I always envisioned we'd make a trilogy," he said. "The first movie was imagined as a prequel to the world of the video games, the second one was intended to take place during the world of the video games and the third one I always saw as a post-script."

It's the director's hope that "Extinction" effectively mixes zombie flicks and post-apocalyptic classics like "The Road Warrior" or "A Boy and His Dog," thus creating his own powerful hybrid — much like the Umbrella Corporation did with its T-Virus. "As much as I loved the [George A.] Romero movies when I was growing up — and the Lucio Fulci zombie movies — there was another genre of movies [I loved], which was the post-apocalyptic film," Anderson said. "So just as we were ahead of the curve with the first 'Resident Evil,' hopefully we're ahead of the curve again by being the first movie out of the gate to really show a devastated world — to be the [new generation's first] post-apocalyptic film."

And when Anderson conjures up destruction, he doesn't play around. When the flick opens September 21, even Alice faces extinction. "We've carefully crafted characters that you really care about over the three movies," Anderson laughed. "And now we get to pay everything off by killing them all."

Check out everything we've got on "Resident Evil: Extinction."

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Want trailers? Visit the Trailer Park for the newest, scariest and funniest coming attractions anywhere.

From http://www.mtv.com

R. Kelly Denies He's Planning A Fall Tour

2007-08-24T02:21:00.000-07:00

Despite Keyshia Cole's earlier statement, Kelly is 'currently focused on preparing for his trial and has no definite plans for anything beyond that,' according to rep.

By Jennifer Vineyard, with additional reporting by Tim Kash

R. Kelly has denied that he's planning to go on tour in October, despite R&B singer Keyshia Cole's statement to MTV News that she was to be the opening act on the trek.

"We're actually going on tour together in October," Cole said on Monday.

(See what opening act Keyshia Cole told MTV News on Monday about a possible October jaunt with R. Kelly.)

But Kelly's representative responded with a statement on Thursday (August 23) that reads: "Reports that R. Kelly is planning a concert tour in October are not true. Kelly is currently focused on preparing for his trial and has no definite plans for anything beyond that."

Neither Cole nor Kelly's representatives had confirmed when exactly in October such a tour would begin, or denied that one was being planned. The timing seemed implausible for a number of reasons, primarily because Kelly's trial on child-pornography charges begins September 17 (see "R. Kelly Child-Pornography Case Finally Going To Trial"). The trial is expected to run for four weeks, but could run longer because of the unpredictable length of jury deliberations.

Also, for the past five years, when Kelly wanted to tour outside the Chicago jurisdiction, he had to ask the court for permission — in the form of a letter to the prosecutor's office — to give it time to object (which it often did). However, the state attorney's office told MTV News on Tuesday that Kelly has not yet sought permission to tour this October. Such permission will not be necessary once the trial concludes, as Kelly will either be free to come and go as he pleases, or he'll be awaiting sentencing.

For full coverage of the ongoing R. Kelly case, see The R. Kelly Trial Reports.

[This story was originally published at 4:37 pm E.T. on 08.22.2007]

From http://www.mtv.com

Nicole Richie Checks Into, Out Of Jail; Plus Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Alba, Amy Winehouse & More, In For The Record

2007-08-24T02:20:00.000-07:00

Clarkson gets tour back on track; JT makes 'Love' with Alba; Winehouse earns MOBO award noms.

By MTV News staff

In one minute, out the next: Nicole Richie checked herself into the Century Regional Facility in Lynwood, California, on Thursday (August 23) to start serving her DUI sentence — only to find herself checking out less than an hour and a half later due to overcrowding. Richie had been sentenced to serve four days in jail. "At this time, the criteria for a female arrestee sentenced to 30 days or less for a nonviolent offense is as follows: the arrestee is booked, screened and usually released within 12 hours," the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a press release issued to MTV News. "This procedure is based on jail overcrowding to manage population levels mandated by federal court guidelines. Based on the mandated guidelines and Ms. Richie's 96 hours sentence, she will be treated in the same manner as other inmates with a similar sentence." The jail is the same one where Paris Hilton served a portion of her DUI sentence. ...

The Kelly Clarkson train is slowly getting back on the tracks. After the early-summer one-two punch of dumping her manager and canceling the tour in support of My December, the singer has booked the first two shows of what is expected to be a fall/winter outing. The dates — an October 10 show at Verona, New York's Turning Stone casino and another on October 15 at New York's Beacon Theater — are in venues decidedly smaller than some of the arenas Clarkson had been originally booked to hit as part of her scotched 35-date summer tour. The full itinerary for her rescheduled trek is expected in two weeks, according to a management spokesperson. ...

Justin Timberlake is joining the cast of "The Love Guru," a sports comedy starring Mike Myers, Verne Troyer and Jessica Alba. The Myers-produced film is set to begin production next month in Toronto and tentatively be released in theaters June 20. Timberlake will play a hockey player tangled in a love triangle with the top player on a team owned by Alba. ...

Though she's not likely to attend the ceremony given her doctor's orders to take a break from touring and making appearances for the rest of the year, Amy Winehouse is one of the leading nominees for England's Music of Black Origin awards with four nominations for Best U.K. Female, Best R&B Act, Best Video and Best Song for "Rehab." Also nominated for four awards is rapper Dizzee Rascal. The show will take place September 19 at the O2 arena in London, with the winner chosen by a tally of public votes on the event's Web site. A number of American acts are also nominated, among them Kanye West, Common and 50 Cent in the Best Hip-Hop category; and Amerie, Robin Thicke and Ne-Yo, who will battle Winehouse in the Best Song category. Rihanna has a pair of nominations, including one for Best International Act, in which she'll face off against Diddy, Akon and T.I.. ...

In related news, Paolo Nutini has reshuffled his tour plans following news that tour partner Winehouse tabled her U.S. trek until next year. The Scottish singer/songwriter's jaunt will now run from September 7 in Buffalo, New York, through October 28 in New Orleans. "I'll be thinking a good thought for her, she is a remarkable talent. In the meantime, I'm truly excited about this upcoming tour of North America — I guarantee it will be my best yet," Nutini said in a statement. ...

Rapper Saigon was arrested at 1:45 a.m. on Wednesday in New York on Manhattan's West Side after police stopped him for a traffic violation and allegedly found a switchblade-like knife in the car console. According to his lawyer Scott Leemon, the rapper (born Brian Daniel Carenard) was pulled over while driving someone else's car in what Leemon called "another example of NY's finest targeting a member of the rap and entertainment industry ... the small pocket knife was found in a console in the car, not in his possession. As such, I am hoping after further investigation this will be another example of a rapper being wrongfully arrested." Because of a prior felony assault charge, the weapon-possession charge was bumped up to a felony, according to Leemon. Saigon was released on $1,500 bail and is due in court again December 5. ...

On the hunt for killer B-sides? How about Killers B-sides? The band — which put out its last studio album, Sam's Town, less than a year ago — is planning to pump out a rarities disc before the end of the year, Brandon Flowers recently told Billboard.com. The band's cover of Joy Division's "Shadowplay," rendition of Mel Tillis' "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and "Spider-Man 3" soundtrack contribution "Move Away" are all on the tentative track list, which may include new material. The Killers have also teed up a different new song for release December 1: "Don't Shoot Me Santa," the band's next Christmas charity single for the Red Campaign. "Last year we were able to raise over $100,000 from the one song ['A Great Big Sled'], and hopefully we'll be able to do it again," Flowers said. ...

The Decemberists aren't planning just any old tour — on their upcoming trek, dubbed "The Long and Short of It," the indie-rockers will mix it up by playing at least two nights in 13 cities. They're also parsing the trek into "long" and "short" shows — the former ones will showcase their poppier material and the latter gigs will revolve around the band's epic songs. The jaunt runs from October 28 in Chicago through December 9 in Seattle. The Decemberists have also slapped together a new EP — The Perfect Crime #2 drops September 25 and features four tracks, including a remix by Junior Boys. ... Morrissey's tour plans are perhaps even more ambitious: For what is expected to be his last sweep through the States for a while, he'll hole up in Los Angeles for a marathon 10-night stand at the Palladium (October 1-13), play a four-night stand at San Francisco's Fillmore and a five-night one at New York's' Hammerstein Ballroom (October 28). Dates for the full trek are from September 21 (Las Vegas) through November 4 (Atlanta). ... Last but not least, Bright Eyes have beefed up their tour regiment, stretching their run from September 13 in Denver through November 19 in New York. ...

Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore doesn't have too many kinds words to say about Avril Lavigne and John Mayer these days — although he's got plenty of respect for a certain avant-garde legend and another classic-rock hero. "I am playing with Yoko Ono, and she's well past 70 and she rocks," he told Spin for the magazine's September issue. "Neil Young rocks. It's certainly not John Mayer or Avril Lavigne. Those people don't rock. If that's the young generation in the culture, then [forget] it. In the underground, the old guys are cool. I like the fact that the older we get the more we can rock." ... Ramones fans, get ready to be bombarded: More than four hours of unreleased and rare concert material is being piled onto "It's Alive 1974-1996," a double-DVD set poised for an October 2 release. With performances of a whopping 118 songs, the set is highlighted by unissued video footage of the band's New Year's Eve 1977 gig at London's Rainbow Theatre — the show was previously captured in audio form, as the band's noted It's Alive live album. ...

Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder will perform at the world premiere of the Iraq war documentary "Body of War" at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11. The movie, which tells the story of paralyzed Iraq war vet Tomas Young — who appeared on stage with PJ at Lollapalooza — features two new songs written by Vedder, "No More" and "Long Nights." ... Talk about product placement. Southern-rap-news Web site MemphisRap.com claims Master P and his son Romeo have teamed up with T-Mobile to promote the new Sidekick LX by writing a song called "Sidekick" for their upcoming Miller Boyz album, due September 4 on P's new profanity-free label, Take a Stand Records. ... Fred Durst is in negotiations to direct "Comeback," an inspirational Pop Warner football drama starring Ice Cube, according to The Hollywood Reporter. ...

Samuel L. Jackson will emcee Save the Children's 75th anniversary event at New York's Lincoln Center on September 6. The event, to feature a performance by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, will also serve as a tribute to former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, as well as Melinda Gates, for their humanitarian efforts. ... If you have tickets to see enigmatic metal-masked rapper MF Doom anytime soon and the guy onstage doesn't look, or even sound like, the Super Villain you know and love, you might be onto something. Bloggers have been abuzz over the past week about several recent West Coast Doom shows that have reportedly featured an impostor taking the stage in place of the rapper and performing (some say lip-synching) in Doom's place. The first sign that something was up, according to a fan who wrote into the Byron Crawford blog, was that cameras at a recent San Francisco show were strictly prohibited. The disgruntled fan wrote that Doom appeared 100 pounds lighter than usual during the 20-minute headlining performance. A spokesperson for Doom had no comment. ...

A forensics expert backed up defense claims made in the Phil Spector murder trial — and refuted by a prosecution witness on Wednesday — that Lana Clarkson might have continued breathing after she was shot at the music producer's mansion. Prosecutors sparred with the expert, Dr. Werner Spitz, afterward. ... The biggest ticketing agency in the country and the world's biggest concert promoter appear headed for a breakup. According to reports in Hits magazine online and Variety, internal documents about the negotiations from Ticketmaster said it is "doubtful" that Live Nation will renew its agreement with Ticketmaster when their current agreement expires at the end of this year. The loss of the Live Nation business, which Variety said accounted for about 15-20 percent of Ticketmaster's U.S. business in 2006, could mean Live Nation is gearing up to launch its own ticketing venture.

08.22.07

Mariah Carey is "thankful" to ex-husband Tommy Mottola but also felt like she was being controlled by the music executive while they were married, she divulged to Interview for the magazine's September issue, which hits newsstands Tuesday. In the magazine — the cover of which features a Bruce Weber photo of a barely clothed Carey — she says, "I am thankful to [Mottola] in a lot of ways. I try not to vilify him. I have to forgive him for being so restrictive. I understand him not wanting me to go out and hang out all night, but going to a spa with friends every now and then, or doing things on my own would have made a world of difference. And I'd probably still be with him if I had. Maybe it's for my own good that I wasn't 'allowed' to do those things, but that's not how it felt. It felt like suddenly I had a strict father. ... With Tommy it felt like I had this controlling situation where I wasn't allowed to be myself. This conversation that we're having now would never have taken place." Carey also opened up about the catastrophic Glitter collapse that preceded her surprise rebound. "I consider 'the breakdown' a breakthrough — I needed to hit rock bottom, however it happened. I needed to understand the cost of pushing so hard, fighting so hard against the system." ...

Diddy's Labor Day party is going to be a little less explosive than anticipated. Officials in the Hamptons, New York, have nixed the hip-hop mogul's planned $100,000 fireworks show over the Northwest Harbor on September 2 both for safety reasons and because it might have conflicted with another nearby fireworks bash set for the same night. Diddy intended to go with all-white fireworks so they would match the "white party" theme. ...

Beyoncé turned out Tuesday night at her sister Solange's "R&B Live" showcase at Times Square's Spotlight Live club in New York. Tina Knowles, Bow Wow and the Simmons sisters — Angela and Vanessa — also took in the show, which featured other acts on Mathew Knowles' Music World Entertainment, including #1 Crush, Katy Shotter and more. ...

Britney Spears chatted with Life & Style on Sunday night at a club in Los Angeles, revealing her concerns that ex-husband Kevin Federline could gain primary custody of their two children, sons Sean Preston and Jayden James. "My babies are my life. I love them more than anything," said an "emotional" Spears, according to the magazine. But the boys are doing "so good," she added. ...

Ja Rule and Game have joined forces for "Sunset," a track to be featured on Ja's Mirror LP, due November 13. "I don't think people were expecting that," he told RollingStone.com in regards to teaming up with his former rival. Ja also disclosed that another track, "Father Forgive Me," updates the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby." "Hopefully I make the Beatles proud," he said. "Big shout-out to Paul McCartney and the whole gang, Ringo and everybody!" The rock icons are getting lots of love from the rap set these days, with Wu-Tang Clan covering George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" — with Harrison's son Dhani and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante in tow — for their upcoming 8 Diagrams LP, also due November 13. ...

Juelz Santana is hammering away at his third LP, Born to Lose; Built to Win, which is due in stores in the winter. "This time around, I'm talking about survival — maintaining my lifestyle and overcoming the obstacles and challenges life brings," he said in a statement. Santana was also set to debut his new RoyElz clothing line but has had to postpone the unveiling until February due to the terminal illness of a family member. ...

Swizz Beatz was a busy man on Tuesday. The multiplatinum producer and rapper celebrated the release of his solo album, One Man Band Man, with a live performance at the Apple store in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan in New York during the afternoon. After that he hosted a party at Xchange Loft that drew the likes of Remy Ma, Birdman, Brooke Hogan, G-Unit's Young Hot Rod, Steve Stoute, Kid Capri, Free and singer Mashonda, Swizz's wife. He then capped his long day at Manhattan night spot Sol for another album-release party. ...

Keyshia Cole and Fort Wayne, Indiana's Voices of Unity Youth Choir will get the NFL season under way by performing the national anthem at the New Orleans Saints/ Indianapolis Colts game September 6. The half-hour pre-game show — featuring performances by Kelly Clarkson and others — will air at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. ... Cobra Starship will land again, on October 23, with a new LP called If the World Is Ending, We Are Throwing the Party. The disc will be issued by Fueled by Ramen and follow the band's 2006 disc, When the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets. ...

Paris Hilton and Zeta Graff settled Graff's lawsuit Wednesday (August 22), the same day jury selection was due to begin in the trial, TMZ.com reports. Graff, an actress/model, filed a $10 million defamation suit against Hilton in 2005 for allegedly planting gossip about her in the tabloids. ... Amy Winehouse fans can get ticket refunds for her postponed U.S. tour at their point of purchase, her publicist said Wednesday. ... A judge halted a lawsuit against Michael Jackson on Tuesday, ruling that it can't continue as filed, AP reports. The singer is being sued — along with the Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, California — by the family of a woman who died at the hospital after she was moved to make room for Jackson. In the suit, the family claims the woman was kept from critical care after suffering a heart attack on the same day Jackson went to the hospital with flu-like symptoms during his child-molestation trial. Attorneys for Jackson and the hospital have claimed the facts of the case didn't merit the suit. Judge Rodney Melville — who was also the judge in the aforementioned trial — gave the plaintiffs' attorney, James McKiernan, 30 days to redraft the suit. ...

A neuropathologist rejected on Wednesday a previous claim made by Phil Spector's defense that Lana Clarkson might have lived for up to a few minutes after being fatally shot in the music producer's mansion, the Los Angeles Times reports. Dr. John Andrews, who participated in the deceased actress' autopsy, is expected to be the last prosecution rebuttal witness. The defense is expected to present its rebuttal case in the next few days, with closing arguments expected soon after Labor Day. ...

The Chemical Brothers have firmed up their first, albeit brief, U.S. tour in more than five years. The group will bring its visually intensive show to New York's Hammerstein Ballroom (September 21); Brooklyn, New York's McCarren Park Pool (September 22); Chicago's Riviera Theatre (September 24); Denver's Fillmore Auditorium (September 26); San Francisco's Concourse (September 28); and Los Angeles' Nocturnal Bar (September 29). ... In other tour news, Bad Religion will trek through the States from September 29 in Queen Creek, Arizona — where they'll play at Edgefest &38212; through October 20 in Sayreville, New Jersey. Gallows and the Briggs will open most dates. And Cold War Kids will tour from November 17 in San Francisco through December 11 in Boulder, Colorado, after gigging in September and October with the White Stripes. ...

In hard-rock tour news, Down's upcoming U.S. headlining run is finally taking shape, with dates confirmed from September 27 in Reno, Nevada, through November 13 in Houston. The band — which features former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo — will release its latest, Down III: Over the Under, September 25. The Melvins will tour from September 16 in Sacramento, California, through October 18 in Dallas with Big Business. Prog-rockers Porcupine Tree will be on the road for a headlining run that begins October 3 in Orlando, Florida, and visits 18 other cities through October 29 in Atlanta. And Queens of the Stone Age have tacked seven additional shows onto their current tour. ...

Bill Murray refused to take a breathalyzer test after getting caught speeding in a golf cart in downtown Stockholm, Sweden, early Monday — and he might face a drunk-driving charge as a result, The Associated Press reports. "He refused to blow in the [breath-test] instrument, citing American legislation," Detective-Inspector Christer Holmlund told the wire service Wednesday. "So we applied the old method — a blood test. It will take 14 days before the results are in." Murray signed documentation admitting that he had been driving under the influence and agreed to allow a police officer enter a guilty plea for him if the case goes to court. A very high blood-alcohol level could result in a potential prison sentence, but fines are more likely for the actor. ...

Darren Hayes, former lead singer of Australian pop duo Savage Garden, turned himself in to London police on Friday and was arrested for an alleged racist attack against a waiter in a Thai restaurant in Soho. According to The New Zealand Herald, Hayes is alleged to have verbally abused a staffer at the Busaba Eathai Thai restaurant on July 22. Hayes was released on bail and his lawyer said he is denying the allegations. ... DNA testing carried out after James Brown's death has confirmed a third person is a child of the late rock and roll icon, his adviser Buddy Dallas told Georgia's The Augusta Chronicle on Monday. Roughly a dozen DNA tests have been carried out, and some are still pending. ...

Actress Bridget Moynahan gave birth to her child — a boy — with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The couple split up late last year. ... Wal-Mart is the latest retail giant to unveil an online music store aimed at challenging Apple's iTunes by offering DRM-free music. The Wall Street Journal reported that Wal-Mart is selling the unfettered tracks from two major labels, Universal Music Group and EMI, for 94 cents a piece and $9.22 an album. The songs can play on almost any portable music device, including iPods and iPhones.

From http://www.mtv.com

David Lynch On His 'Empire,' Turning Down 'Jedi' — And Cooking Quinoa

2007-08-24T02:19:00.001-07:00

Idiosyncratic director also says he's seen 'Bourne Ultimatum': 'There's nothing wrong with a great Hollywood blockbuster.'

By Josh Horowitz

You haven't lived until David Lynch has called you "buddy." Unfailingly polite, enthusiastic and honest, it's immediately clear in conversing with the filmmaking icon that he remains as independent as he's ever been. Just take a look at the newly released DVD of his last film, "Inland Empire." Of course, the DVD includes all 172 minutes of the perplexing story of "a woman in trouble" (the film's tag line), but it also features more than an hour of additional scenes (yes, that means more of his actors in rabbit costumes), an extended interview with Lynch and even a cooking segment with him.

Lynch took time out from his painting and daily weather reports (featured on DavidLynch.com) to discuss the new DVD, his love affair with digital filmmaking and why he turned down directing a "Star Wars" film.

MTV: Traditionally there aren't a ton of extras on DVDs of your films. Why load this one up and pull the curtain a bit on your process?

David Lynch: Pulling the curtain on some things isn't good. I always want to protect the film and experience for people. But this time there were a lot of scenes ... that formed a kind of thing that I call "other things that happened." It's like, you meet the family in the film — except for the sister who lives in Ohio. And now with this it fills that out. And then — I don't cook, but I had this recipe for quinoa. And cooking shows are very popular. So I thought I'd do a cooking thing.

MTV: Perhaps the cooking show could be a new part of your career?

Lynch: Let's talk at MTV because it could be big. It could be huge, man. [He laughs.] A black and white cooking show with stories, because there's a lot of waiting in cooking.

MTV: When you released "Inland Empire," you went on a sort of barnstorming tour, taking the film from city to city. Was that effective?

Lynch: We live in a field of relativity, so it worked out relatively well. In the Midwest, theatrically, on the seismic meter, we hardly made a blip. It's kind of sad when you go and do all these things to reach certain people that may have a great experience if they go but they just don't go. I wonder about the 17-year-old girls in the Midwest. If they could embrace "Inland Empire," I think they would have a great experience in that theater. With the DVD, now maybe there's a chance for them.

MTV: Do you think audiences are more or less apt today to go to films that revel in abstractions like yours do?

Lynch: I think there's a slight trend toward embracing new cinema, non-Hollywood blockbuster cinema. It's not erupting, but because of the Internet, I think people have more of a chance to get buzz going on alternative cinema, so I think it's hopeful out there. It just hasn't penetrated the smaller places.

MTV: In the extras it's clear that you love your actors. But I'm wondering how you convince someone like Naomi Watts to put on a rabbit costume? Did she have any trepidation?

Lynch: No. Actors are very special human beings. They yearn to take on a new character and they yearn to go deep into that and make it real. They yearn for it! It's such a thrill.

MTV: Are you planning to go back to any of your earlier work and add bells and whistles to the DVDs?

Lynch: The only one that's been talked about is "Fire Walk With Me." There are many short scenes that weren't in the final film that on their own are interesting. They just never fit in the film. There's talk of me editing and mixing those. There's a scene with Jack Nance. It's a short scene with Ed [Wright], who played Mr. Mibbler. I loved this guy. He was in "Wild at Heart" as well. Both of them are gone, so to fix those scenes, for the memory of them, it's real important.

MTV: You shot "Inland Empire" using digital technology. Will you ever go back to film?

Lynch: Never. Digital is so friendly for me and so important for the scenes, a way of working without so much downtime. It's impossible to go back. Film is a beautiful medium, but the world has moved on. The amount of manipulation we can do, anybody can do, is so much the future. Film is so big and heavy and slow, you just die. It's just ridiculous.

MTV: Do you ever find yourself drawn to Hollywood blockbusters?

Lynch: I saw "The Bourne Ultimatum." I liked the first one the best but the third one is second-best. I like entertainment. Cinema can say many things. There's nothing wrong with a great Hollywood blockbuster. But sometimes you're [into] it like crazy while it's going and when you leave it sort of pops and evaporates.

MTV: I know that controlling your films has been a big issue for you since "Dune," because that film didn't turn out as you intended. Are you ever tempted to relinquish a little control in order to have access to a bigger budget?

Lynch: Never! Never! Never! Money could never make up for dying the death of seeing what could have been and not making it that way. Maybe it's because I came from painting, but it's just theater of the absurd. The filmmaker doesn't have the final say. It's absurd! A nightmare, a horror! Why would anyone do that?

MTV: Is it true you almost directed "Return of the Jedi"? How close did you come?

Lynch: Not close at all. I had a meeting with George [Lucas]. I like George. It was his thing. I said, "You should direct this. It's your thing! It's not my thing."

MTV: Did he flat-out offer it to you at the time?

Lynch: Yeah!

MTV: But you immediately declined.

Lynch: I called him the next day.

MTV: Looking forward, do you think you'll continue to move further into experimental filmmaking, as in "Inland Empire"?

Lynch: I don't know which way anything will go because it's all about the ideas that come that you fall in love with. In between things, there are no ideas — and then suddenly there's the idea. If you fall in love with it, you know exactly what to do. Sometimes it can be surprising.

MTV: Do you ever worry the idea won't come?

Lynch: Sure, but that's how come I meditate every day, because when you meditate, you transcend and you experience the unbounded infinite ocean of creativity. And the ideas start flowing easier.

Check out everything we've got on "Inland Empire."

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From http://www.mtv.com

Lindsay Lohan Reaches Plea Deal, Will Serve One Day In Jail; 'I Relapsed,' Actress Says

2007-08-24T02:18:00.000-07:00

'My life has become completely unmanageable because I am addicted to alcohol and drugs,' Lohan says in statement.

By MTV News staff report

Lindsay Lohan reached a plea deal Thursday (August 23) on misdemeanor DUI and drug charges that will find her spending one day in jail, serving 10 days of community service and completing a drug-treatment program, according to The Associated Press. She will not stand trial.

Through her lawyer, Lohan pleaded no contest to two counts of driving under the influence, two counts of being under the influence of a controlled substance (cocaine), and reckless driving (see "Lindsay Lohan Arrested Again For DUI; Reportedly Checks Back Into Rehab"). All the charges are misdemeanors — a lucky break for the actress, as felony charges could have landed her in jail for more than a year.

Lohan was placed on 36 months probation and will be required to complete an 18-month alcohol-education program and pay hundreds of dollars in fines. She must also finish a three-day county coroner program that will require her to visit a morgue and talk to victims of drunken drivers.

"It is clear to me that my life has become completely unmanageable because I am addicted to alcohol and drugs," Lohan wrote in a statement released to MTV News. "Recently, I relapsed and did things for which I am ashamed. I broke the law, and today I took responsibility by pleading guilty to charges in my case.

"No matter what I said when I was under the influence on the day I was arrested, I am not blaming anyone else for my conduct other than myself," the statement continues. "I thank God I did not injure others. I easily could have. I very much want to be healthy and gain control of my life and career and have asked for medical help in doing so. I am taking these steps to improve my life. Luckily, I am not alone in my daily struggle and I know that people like me have succeeded. Maybe with time it will become easier. I hope so."

Lohan's cocaine charges stem from a small packet of cocaine police discovered in her jeans when she was arrested on July 24 in Santa Monica, California. According to prosecutors, the amount of cocaine found tested below the .05 grams required to qualify for a felony filing. After a May 26 crash — in which Lohan is alleged to have lost control of her Mercedes and crashed into a tree on Sunset Boulevard at 5:26 a.m. — tests on a substance found in Lohan's purse came up as .04 grams of cocaine powder, according to a press release on the charges from the DA's office.

During her second arrest — for allegedly chasing another car driven by the mother of a former assistant — officers found a container on Lohan that tested positive for .02 grams of cocaine, according to the DA office press release (see "Lindsay Lohan Proclaims Innocence, Says Drugs Were 'Not Mine': Report").

Lohan is currently at the Cirque Lodge treatment center in Sundance, Utah, where she has been ordered to stay indefinitely.

From http://www.mtv.com

ay-Z, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Diddy, T.I., Ciara, Swizz Beatz Make Hip-Hop History At NYC Show

2007-08-24T02:17:00.001-07:00

Artists performed and appeared together onstage — all of 'em! — at Screamfest stop Wednesday night.

By Shaheem Reid

NEW YORK - There were close to 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, and it's pretty much a given that none of them believe what they saw. Just imagine how much they've been calling, texting and MySpacing since the show. Heck, you might not even believe this when you read it, but as wrestling legend Kurt Angle would say, "It's true. It's damn true."

T.I. orchestrated a mammoth hip-hop moment, a piece of history in the form of an onstage party featuring the cream of the crop in hip-hop: T.I., Jay-Z, Diddy, Swizz Beatz, Ciara, Kanye West and 50 Cent. They were all onstage performing and partying together ... as in, everybody was onstage at the same time.

(Peep snaps of the heavyweights onstage together at the unforgettable show.)

The show started like just another Screamfest '07 tour stop (see "T.I., Ciara To Headline Latest Scream Tour"). Headliners Ciara and T.I. intermingled their sets much like Jay-Z and R. Kelly did on the Best of Both Worlds tour a few years back (see "Jay-Z, R. Kelly Part Ways as Best Of Both Worlds Tour Collapses"). Ciara came out first, did half her show and left. Then it was T.I.'s turn to do half his show, which led into both ATL natives performing their respective part twos. Those second halves would bring the crowd into the stratosphere and give MSG one of its memorable spectacles ever.

During the second half of Ciara's set, 50 Cent slowly rose up and onto the stage, where he and his rumored girlfriend performed "Can't Leave Him Alone." Although Fif isn't on the Scream bill, he might as well be: He's popped up with "surprise" appearances on the tour several times, including earlier this week in Hampton, Virginia. 50 was immediately greeted, well, like the man who runs New York. The crowd got stupid. After their duet, Ciara asked 50 if he would perform one of his songs, and if you think there was any way he wasn't going to rock in his hometown, you're just plain foolish.

"I Get Money" was ... well, remember the first episode of "Lost," when the plane was ripped apart and just about everyone and everything went flying? It was that. 50 brought out some of his wolves: Lloyd Banks, Mobb Deep, Tony Yayo, you get the picture. But it was big, it was loud, the energy level was as high as a satellite. It was that big MSG moment that a superstar who claims he runs the city — in that very song no less — was supposed to bring. It was almost a show-stealer.

But T.I.'s round two was utterly remarkable — and is one for the history books. The crowd had already showered him with love as he shot from the throne hits like "Top Back," "24's," "Why You Wanna," "Rubber Band Man" and "Bring Em Out" — a great show in its own right. But what he did to end his set was one of the few things missing from his career: a coronation at one the most famous venues in the world. He'd done shows at Madison Square Garden before, but never his show.

Wyclef Jean broke T.I..'s halftime silence by playing the national anthem on guitar. 'Clef later ran into the crowd during "My Swag." Then Tip started another cut from his album, "Watch What You Say." After the first verse, a banner of Jay-Z's hands throwing up the dynasty sign rolled down the back of the stage.

Jay-Z then began to stroll down a long runway, to the main stage, in the middle of the Garden. The crowd must not have believed its eyes, because there was no reaction at first. Once Jay started to rap his lines — "Rap music is something ain't it? The way these pictures is painted/ You swear these n----s is dangerous, the gangsta sh-- they be saying" — the audience went wild.

After "Watch What You Say," Jay let everyone know the Roc was in the building — and when Tip's DJ for the show, Drama, dropped the beat, the point was driven home. As Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothing" started to play, 'Ye himself walked slowly from the runway to the main stage. main stage. Moments earlier though, 50 ran to the stage from another part of the venue — seemingly unplanned, because Jay and T.I. both looked a little surprised. According to a source close to the event, 50 and Diddy had been seen joking with T.I. in his dressing room earlier in the night, but Fif coming onstage with Tip and company was not part of the program. It turned out to be some welcomed improvising, though.

There were no incidents and no signs of rivalries — as Kanye rapped, 50 ran around the stage like he was doing a victory lap, stopping along the way to bump shoulders and say what's up to Tip, 'Ye and Jay. Before Kanye could even make it to the main stage though, Diddy sprinted from the back, running past West and onto the runway to the big stage. Although the audience was rocking to West, the spectacle of seeing everybody together onstage — especially the two guys who have been hyping their September 11 in-store showdown (see "Kanye West Thanks 50 Cent For Much-Hyped Rivalry: 'We Push Each Other' " and "50 Cent Explains Last Week's Blowup, Says 'I Will Be #1 On September 11' ") — on one stage at the same time took precedence. They were all smiling and dancing and genuinely enjoying the camaraderie. 50 even threw up the Roc-A-Fella diamond sign with his hands for a couple of seconds.

"Laaaaa, la, la, la, wait till I get my money right," Kanye continued, as he stood next to 50, Diddy and Jay-Z.

Jay-Z then did one of his classics, "Encore," and the show ended with everyone in the Garden unanimously cheering and making the Roc sign. Some fans were saying that the cheers in the Garden sounded louder than when close to 60,000 at Giants Stadium did the same thing a few years ago during Summer Jam.

With everyone still hanging out onstage, Swizz Beatz and Ciara eventually made it to the stage as well, with Swizz doing one of the biggest records in rap right now, "Money in the Bank."

T.I. and Ciara ended their triumphant New York visit with renditions of his "What You Know?" and "Big Things Poppin'." CiCi proclaimed herself "Queen of the South," and rightly so.

Hungry for more hip-hop coverage? Sink your teeth into our "Hottest MCs in the Game" feature.

From http://www.mtv.com

'Superbad' Looks For Another Super-Size Weekend, In Projection Booth

2007-08-24T02:16:00.000-07:00

Our experts say Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and Mr. Bean don't have a chance against the raunchy teen comedy.

By Shawn Adler

Ah, the dog days of August. Traditionally the end of summer has been a dumping ground for the flicks that June forgot, but with a slate of weekend releases ranging from a quirky British comedy to an early Oscar contender, is it too much to hope that only one movie out in theaters will truly be "Superbad"?

Perhaps. But keep your trepidations to yourself when Samuel L. Jackson is in the room. (He's been known to scream.) The highest-grossing star in the history of show business is out to raise his already-impressive total with "Resurrecting the Champ," the story of a young reporter (Josh Hartnett) who encounters a homeless man that he thinks is a former boxing great. Legends fade, but glory is forever: With an 85 percent "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.com, many are calling "Resurrecting the Champ" Jackson's ticket to Oscar immortality.

But if Jackson thinks he can surf the wave of good reviews to the top of the weekend box office, he's gonna have to go through Jet Li and Jason Statham first. And that means "War." It'd be easy enough to summarize what the movie is about, but look — it's an action movie starring Jet Li and Jason Statham. We'd pay to watch these two actors rip apart a phone book. Call the babysitter: This East vs. West battle opens in 2,200 theaters.

Scarlett Johansson, incidentally, will not be available to watch your kids — despite what would seem to be the perfect training. The irresistible bombshell headlines "The Nanny Diaries," a chick-lit adaptation co-starring Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, Chris Evans and Alicia Keys (see "For Alicia Keys, Hollywood Stardom Beckons From The Pages Of 'The Nanny Diaries' "), about a young woman paid gobs of money to watch a troubled tyke. The indignity!

Maybe instead of stressing out, Johansson could just read the little brat a book? That wouldn't only make things easier, it might also make Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore a little richer. The pair join forces this weekend in "Dedication," director Justin Theroux's tale of star-crossed love centering on a bristly children's book author (Crudup) wooed by his determined illustrator (see "Mandy Moore: Intimidated By Billy Crudup, In Love With Green Tea — And Ready To Hit The Stage?"). The film opens in limited release in 25 theaters.

Also opening in limited release are "September Dawn," a fictional take on the Mountain Meadows Massacre with Terence Stamp and Jon Voight as crazy Mormons out for blood; Ethan Hawke's newest directorial effort "The Hottest State"; "Mr. Bean's Holiday," Rowan Atkinson's last foray into the bizarre world of his silent icon; and "Right at Your Door," a realistically themed horror movie about a wife (Mary McCormack) locked out of her house by her husband after a cluster of dirty bombs go off in Los Angeles.

But all the films might wind up being summer-schooled by "Superbad," coasting into its second week with nearly unparalleled positive buzz (see "Will Ferrell And Ben Stiller's Next Flicks Could Be Next In A 'Superbad' Rude Awakening").

He's the baddest motherf----- in cinema, but can Sam Jackson fend off a couple of high-schoolers, a British wimp and a nubile young nanny? We asked our experts.

The Predictions: She's a powerfully strong presence in "Feast of Love," but it was in Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda" that Australian actress Radha Mitchell rocketed to fame, playing a woman caught between two alternating destinies — one comic, one tragic. Will her prediction this weekend spell laughs or tears?

What's the #1 flick? How much will it rake in?

Josh Horowitz, MTV Movies editor: "Superbad" ($21 million)
"While I'm sure Jason Statham could take out Jonah Hill and Michael Cera in any kind of fight I can conjure up, I'm not so sure about his chances this weekend with 'War.' I underestimated 'Superbad' last time out, and I'm not going to make the same mistake twice. I'm looking for the word of mouth on this one to give it superbad legs in its second go-'round."

Larry Carroll, MTV News writer: "Superbad" ($22 million)
"When it comes to the box office this week, I'm more inclined to think 'Nanny Diaries,' 'War' and 'Mr. Bean' are pretenders rather than contenders. Welcome to late August. With that in mind, I'm gonna let my winning chips ride on 'Superbad,' which I can see taking in $22 million during its second weekend — and that's enough to buy a lot of Costco-size, beer-filled jugs of laundry detergent."

Radha Mitchell, "Feast of Love" actress: "Superbad" ($20 million)
"I think 'Superbad' just because I have a feeling. I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard [so much] about it. I want to see it. So that's what I would imagine would win."

Check out everything we've got on "Superbad," "Resurrecting the Champ," "The Nanny Diaries" and "War."

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Want trailers? Visit the Trailer Park for the newest, scariest and funniest coming attractions anywhere.

From http://www.mtv.com

MTV, MySpace Team Up For Real-Time, One-On-One Presidential Dialogues

2007-08-24T02:00:00.000-07:00

Series kicks off with John Edwards on September 27.

By MTV News Staff

In another sign that the upcoming presidential election is truly the first of the digital age, MTV and MySpace are teaming up to present the first-ever presidential debate to feature real time, one-on-one dialogues between candidates and voters.

All of the major Republican and Democratic candidates have signed on to participate in the events on college campuses across the nation — to be aired on MTV and MTVu and webcast on MySpaceTV and MTV.com — in which they will answer candid, unfiltered questions from young viewers. These discussions will represent the first attempt to let home viewers and a live audience interact with candidates in real time.

The first hour-long town-hall style dialogue will take place on September 27 with former Sen. John Edwards in the early primary state of New Hampshire. MTV viewers and MTV.com and MySpace users will be able to submit questions for the events through MySpaceIM, mobile devices and e-mail while they watch the live webcast. At the same time, online viewer reaction will be monitored through live polling on both MTV.com and MySpace.com.

"For years, young people have trusted MTV to inform and engage them on the issues that matter most, from politics to sexual health to the environment," said MTV President Christina Norman. "We're extremely proud to partner with MySpace on our always evolving, Emmy-winning Choose or Lose campaign, as we join forces and empower our audiences to connect with presidential candidates in a much more meaningful way."

"These presidential dialogues will bring individual candidates directly to voters - one at a time," said Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of MySpace. "We are lowering the barriers to entry, setting a high-water mark for direct engagement between presidential candidates and average Americans."

Thousands of MySpace and MTV.com users will have the opportunity to attend the dialogues from September to December of this year, some of them by "friending" the candidate's official profile on MySpace.com, adding them to their "Top 8" and then being one of the first to arrive when a new campus location is revealed.

MTV.com will also choose some of the best viewer-submitted online videos showing how they're addressing election issues that impact their community. The creators of the winning videos will be flown in for the event.

MTV wants you to cover the 2008 election for us! MTV's Choose or Lose is looking for aspiring journalists to report on the 2008 election via written stories, vlogs and photos -- you'll find all the info you need and an application right here!

Candidates confirmed to participate in the series include:

· Former Sen. John Edwards (www.myspace.com/johnedwards) on September 27

· Sen. Sam Brownback (www.myspace.com/sambrownbacks)

· Sen. Hillary Clinton (www.myspace.com/hillaryclinton)

· Sen. Chris Dodd (www.myspace.com/senatordodd)

· Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (www.myspace.com/joinrudy2008)

· Rep. Duncan Hunter (www.myspace.com/duncanhunter)

· Sen. John McCain (www.myspace.com/JohnMcCain)

· Sen. Barack Obama (www.myspace.com/barackobama)

· Rep. Ron Paul (www.myspace.com/ronpaul2008)

· Gov. Bill Richardson (www.myspace.com/richardsonforpresident)

· Former Gov. Mitt Romney (www.myspace.com/mittromney)

From http://www.mtv.com

'Grand Theft Auto IV' Delayed Until Next Year Due To 'Technological Issues'

2007-08-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

'Having been mistaken once, we don't want to be mistaken twice,' Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick says, guaranteeing no further delays.

By Stephen Totilo

Update the gaming calendar for October 2007. Publisher Take-Two Interactive announced Thursday (August 2) that "Grand Theft Auto IV" is being delayed until early next year, due to "technological issues."

The company is targeting its second quarter of next fiscal year, allowing for a release sometime between February 1 and April 30. In a conference call with investors, a Take-Two executive narrowed that down, saying, "Putting 'GTA IV' out in the Easter season isn't the worst thing in the world."

Rockstar Games, developer of the "GTA" series, has been proudly promoting the previously announced October 16 release date on Xbox 360 and PS3 for months, with no hint of a pending delay (see " 'GTA IV' Revealed: Game Returning To City That Made It Famous"). Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said those plans changed a day ago after Take-Two executives reviewed the latest build of the game. The decision to delay was made within 24 hours.

"We determined today that a delay in the launch was essential to ensure the quality of 'Grand Theft Auto IV,' " Zelnick said in the conference call late Monday.

"The reason it is being delayed is almost strictly technological problems — not problems, but challenges," Zelnick said. He said it was a challenge to create an ambitious game for two very different platforms but declined to say what the hitches actually were. "The technology that we're developing for 'Grand Theft Auto IV' is pretty complex. It's a big game. There are technical challenges across the board on both PS3 and 360. Our intention is to create a game that is the same experience on both 360 and PS3. I know that there have been rumors in the market about frame-rate and some other issues. We don't think it's helpful or beneficial to go into what the technological issues are. We are pushing the envelope on both platforms."

Zelnick declined to say how the delay would affect the "GTA IV" downloadable bonus content previously announced as exclusive to Xbox 360 and slated for early 2008.

Previous major "GTA" console games were released like clockwork in the in October 2001, 2002 and 2004. This marks the series' first major delay.

Zelnick guaranteed that the game won't be delayed again. "Having been mistaken once, we don't want to be mistaken twice."

Take-Two also announced Thursday that "Manhunt 2," currently suspended from release because it has run afoul of ratings boards in the U.S. and U.K. (see "Rockstar Games' 'Manhunt 2' Slapped With 'Adults Only' Rating"), would not be released any time in its current fiscal year, which ends on Halloween.

Check out the new MTV News Multiplayer blog, updated daily, for even more gaming coverage.

From http://www.mtv.com

Sony Exec Talks New PSP's Upgrades, GPS Attachment, NYC Appeal And Mor

2007-08-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Totilo

NEW YORK — The upcoming PlayStation Portable coming out this September is actually called the "PSP 2000." The infamous PSP hacker Dark_Alex was not hired by Sony. And the PSP is more popular here than in any other city in the U.S. (Sorry, Chicago!)

Those were just a few of the many surprises shared last week by John Koller, head of marketing for Sony's American PlayStation Portable division during a half-hour interview about the state of the PSP with MTV News.

Koller was in town to show off the new one-third-lighter, one-fifth-slimmer PSP which will arrive on store shelves in September. In a hotel suite on Manhattan's east side, he plugged the unit into a TV, demonstrating the new model's video-output function. He played a scene from Jet Li's "The One" in 480 pixels on an LG widescreen flat-panel TV. It almost filled the screen. He played a minute of the PSP game "Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters" in its native resolution, 480x272, which, while displaying bigger than it did on the PSP, only occupied about a quarter of the LG TV. (Yank the cable out of the TV and the video signal jumps to the PSP screen.)

To the eyes, the revised PSP looks like the original. To the touch, the difference is noticeable. And the name? In public the new model will be called PSP, but Koller revealed that it is codenamed PSP 2000, distinguishing it from current models, which are called PSP 1000.

Those were the points Koller intended to cover, but he proved game to answer just about anything regarding Sony's system. For example, he confirmed what subway riders may have already suspected: NYC is the king of PSP sales, since its launch. "It's gone New York, Chicago, and then it's D.C., Philadelphia," Koller said. "Then, interestingly enough, Riverside/ San Bernardino, California." Come again on that last one? "It's very weird. I've been watching it, waiting for it to fall out of the top 10, but it has stayed at [#5] the whole time of our owner base."

That's where it's being bought. But who's buying it? Koller said that the PSP has a 95 percent male ownership, compared to 50-50 for the iPod, according to studies he's seen. More of a surprise, though, is that his market research shows that the iPod has 79 percent ownership by Caucasians, Koller said, whereas the PSP is just "44 percent or 45 percent" white. Koller said Sony has noticed this demographic surprise but hasn't figured out why. Had it become something of an urban accessory? "There's been a debate going on about whether it was our marketing that's done it and turned it into more of a cultural hip-hop product or whether it just is — if the product just lends itself to that."

Whoever owns the system, Koller said they've been calling for the video-out function added to the new PSP. When the revised unit was revealed at E3 last month, it surprised many gamers because it lacked a checklist of tweaks some gaming blogs and news sites suggested were safe bets. For example, some theorized that the PSP would drop the universal media disc format or at least de-emphasize it for a new built-in hard drive. The new unit has no such drive. "We had heard discussion about a hard drive," Koller said. "The final analysis is we decided a memory stick was good enough for now."

Others hoped for a second analog stick or nub to make the PSP do a better job of running game genres styled for console controllers. "We certainly looked at the area below the [face buttons on the right side of the PSP] for a second analog stick, but we thought the issues far outweighed the benefit we'd get out of it," he said, acknowledging that engineers at Sony's headquarters in Japan had investigated such a change. He said the problem was that games programmed for a one-stick model wouldn't work well with the two-stick and vice versa. "Japan looked at it and said [it was] too big of a problem right now."

Koller addressed other added functions people might have expected, including a TV tuner like the one announced for PSP in Japan ("not possible in North America" because of over-the-air signal costs); a GPS attachment (peripheral is done and software is currently being "tweaked for North America" for release in the next 10-12 months); and a camera like the one released in Japan and Europe ("there may be some changes to the spec sheet" before it's released in the U.S.).

He said that PSP owners should expect most of the functionality improvements to their PSP to arrive via the system's regular firmware updates. "There's a lot coming," he said, though he explained it was not possible to rectify one so-called problem with those updates: that a PSP must be plugged into a wall to perform an upgrade. "If you run out of battery life, it turns into a brick," he said. Why not just have the system check the battery to see if it has enough power before upgrading? Blame non-Sony PSP batteries. "There are third-party batteries that always report as full that are actually empty," he said. "We've had I can't even tell you how many thousands of returns due to third-party batteries."

Among the feature improvements Sony has promised for some time now is an online store for videos, music and games, accessible via the PSP. Koller said the rollout is going slower than expected and won't be public until the home office in Tokyo sorts out digital rights management issues. He estimates the solutions will be determined within six to eight months. Until then, it isn't likely that Sony will expand its downloadable game options on the PSP beyond the current system that allows gamers to download PlayStation One titles via the PS3 onto the PSP.

That said, there are original downloadable games currently in development for the PSP. To those who like the quirky range available for download and play on the PS3, he said "the PSP ones are equally as good and made for a portable." He said they wouldn't be copies of downloadable PS3 games. He mentioned the well-received E3-debuting "Echochrome" — a black-and-white puzzle game involving a figure that needs to walk through optical illusions — as the type of thing in Sony's development queue. "It was initially going to be a download-service-only game," he said. "We changed it to a UMD because it's a very rich game. That's where their mind is. They're developing that kind of game."

Other PSP projects in development at Sony include a range of plans for how the handheld will sync with fall's PlayStation Home free virtual-world service (see "Sony Unveils Big PS3 Secret: Gamers Get To Go 'Home' "). Koller said ideas have included having an extra room of Home rendered on the PSP. "Intuitively, if you take the PSP with you, you would want to take some of Home with you," he said, but added that no plans are set in silicon just yet.

Engineers in Tokyo have even looked into activating the PSP's Remote Play function so gamers on the road with their PSP could access and play games saved on their home PS3 over a WiFi connection. "It's something that's being looked at," he said, noting that lag time is the main challenge. "We certainly would be interested [in doing that with] a PSN kind of game. It wouldn't be a Blu-ray disc kind of game, a large game. That would be very difficult. ... If that could be implemented, that could be great."

With all these initiatives under way, it would seem Sony could benefit from all programmers with top PSP skills. Earlier this year the world's top PSP hacker, a gamer known as Dark_Alex who had repeatedly cracked the PSP firmware despite repeated upgrades, announced he was leaving the PSP scene. Had Sony shut him down? Or had Sony hired him? "Neither," Koller said. "I think he's taking a hiatus." Does Sony hire any of the PSP hackers? " It's not even a hiring thing. They come in and actively talk to us."

As it is his job as chief marketer of the PSP in the U.S., Koller was bullish on the system. He looks to the fall's PSP exclusive "God of War: Chains of Olympus" as the system's flagship title. And he looks at a Sony-reported 90 percent surge in weekly sales since the system dropped in price from $199 to $169 in April as a sign of encouragement. The PSP processor is now unlocked to run at 333 megahertz, whereas it had been locked at 266 from launch through this spring. He said all forthcoming Sony-made games will use that speed and that consumers shouldn't expect a hit on battery life.

So the PSP, once the darling of handheld gaming, then a bystander to the rushing success of the DS, is armed for its next charge. Will it come back? It will always have New York — and San Bernardino.

Check out the new MTV News Multiplayer blog, updated daily, for even more gaming coverage.

From http://www.mtv.com

'Braid' Challenges Meanings Of Life, 'Mario' Coins; Xbox 360 Price Drop; Gamer Homophobia & More, In GameFile

2007-08-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

Also: California violent video game law struck down.

By Stephen Totilo

(SPOILER WARNING: Skip the next paragraph to keep the "DK" surprise intact.)

After that, Blow said he has 50 other ideas in his file. And if "Braid" succeeds, he hopes to come up with more.

More from the world of video games:

Recent video game stories from MTV News:

· "Sony Exec Talks New PSP's Upgrades, GPS Attachment, NYC Appeal And More"

· " 'Grand Theft Auto IV' Delayed Until Next Year Due To 'Technological Issues' "

And be sure to check Multiplayer, which will have full text of my interview with Jonathan Blow later in the week.

From http://www.mtv.com

The Ultimate High School Flick Clique, In Rewind

2007-08-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

We pick our 10 favorite high school archetypes from the movies.

By Karl Heitmueller

It's that time again, kids! Time to stock up on pencils, blue books and Trapper Keepers and start the mental preparation to go back to school! Time to rejoin the mass of struggling identities in a sea of cliques. In an effort to help you better understand the subtle social dynamics of the educational experience, we've put together a list of our 10 favorite student archetypes from motion pictures (and 10 runners-up)!

The Jock: Andy Clark in "The Breakfast Club" (1985)

The irony in choosing Andy Clark (Emilio Estevez) as the archetypical student jock is that you never see him play sports in "The Breakfast Club." But that doesn't matter. While all the characters in John Hughes' exalted high school film are painted with ultra-broad strokes, in the case of Andy, it works (as anyone who's ever been elbowed into a locker by a carb-fed doofus in a letter jacket can attest). But Estevez manages to evoke empathy for the pressure that varsity athletes often get from every angle, both in school and at home.

Runner-Up: Stef Djordjevic (Tom Cruise) in "All the Right Moves" (1983)

The Brain: Terry Griffith in "Just One of the Guys" (1985)

It's a sad societal equation that a woman's intelligence is often viewed as being proportionally inverse to her beauty. In this gender-swap tale, journalist Terry Griffith (Joyce Hyser) feels that she's not taken seriously due to her gender. So she disguises herself as a (granted, effeminate) dude and enrolls in a different school to research a paper on her thesis. The movie's a predictable '80s farce, but back then, Hyser's perfect balance of smarts and smart-ass made her a kind of thinking man's Molly Ringwald for some smitten teens.

Runner-Up: Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) in "Spider-Man" (2002)

The Cheerleader: Torrance Shipman in "Bring It On" (2000)

The San Diego Rancho Carne High School cheerleading squad is good. Really good. In fact, the cheerleaders' funky, competition-winning moves are the main reason anyone comes to the games. But things get messy when new head cheerleader Torrance Shipman (Kirsten Dunst) discovers that her predecessor stole their moves from a poor inner-city high school pep squad. Dunst's usual spunky charm is a glove-fit for the cheerleader who wants to make things right in this predictable but fun crowd-pleaser.

Runner-Up: Buffy Summers (Kristy Swanson) in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1992)

The Annoying Overachiever: Tracy Flick in "Election" (1999)

In Alexander Payne's pitch-black 1999 comedy, Reese Witherspoon plays Tracy Flick, the popular, upstanding student with the stellar extracurricular record and the aspiration to become class president ... at any cost. The movie is a wicked satire on the American political process, both the Machiavellian duplicity of those running for office and the entrenched apathy of the voting public. Witherspoon shows a refreshing lack of vanity in her sublimely unattractive portrait of Tracy, and Matthew Broderick is tremendous as the teacher whose desire to see Tracy lose just once becomes a life-shattering obsession.

Runner-Up: Ben Manibag (Parry Shen) in "Better Luck Tomorrow" (2002)

The Geek: Farmer Ted in "Sixteen Candles" (1984)

Sammy Baker (Molly Ringwald) is having a crappy birthday. Her family is so distracted by her sister's upcoming wedding that they completely forget the event. On top of that, she's got a huge crush on hunky senior Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), but can't shake the relentless pursuit of the smitten "Farmer Ted." Anthony Michael Hall, smack-dab in awkward, voice-cracking adolescence, inhabits the scrawny, obnoxious (yet ultimately lovable) geek right down to the retainer (altho' him hooking up with Jake's girlfriend is a bit of a stretch).

Runner-Up: Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) in "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004)

The Outsider: Carrie White in "Carrie" (1976)

So many high school films revolve around the outsider that it's really tough narrowing this field down. But when the evil popular kids (aren't they always?) fix the ballots to elect the creepy, unpopular Carrie (Sissy Spacek) prom queen only so they can dump a bucket of pig's blood on her upon coronation, it's a bit more extreme than anything in "Mean Girls." Unfortunately for the in-crowd, this outsider has the defense of telekinetic powers, so we'd advise backing off of the harassment! Whoops, too late!

Runner-Up: Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) in "Donnie Darko" (2001)

The Creative Visionary: Max Fischer in "Rushmore" (1999)

Granted, his grades stink, but it's not that Max (Jason Schwartzman) is stupid, he's just distracted by his many extracurricular activities. They include the beekeeper's association, the Yankee Racers club, the fencing team, the dodgeball society and most of all, the Max Fischer Players, an ensemble that puts on elaborate stage productions like a version of the cop film "Serpico." Even flunking out of Rushmore Academy and being sent to public school can't squelch Max's drive: Soon he's planning a new play, an original Vietnam War epic, "Heaven and Hell" (complete with real explosions). His dreams and aspirations can be self-destructive and quixotic, but the great thing about Max is that he'll never give up (he's a live-action Charlie Brown), which makes him one of our favorite film characters ever.

Runner-Up: Joel Goodsen (Tom Cruise) in "Risky Business" (1983)

The Stoner: Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982)

Come on, is it even a debate? No matter how serious Sean Penn becomes as an actor, he'll never totally be able to shake the indelible image of surfer stoner Jeff Spicoli from Amy Heckerling's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Spicoli's duels with the uptight history teacher, Mr. Hand (Ray Walston), have become almost as iconic as Phoebe Cates' bikini scene. As the most iconic character in one of the decade's signature films, Spicoli probably single-handedly counteracted Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug program of the '80s.

Runner-Up: Slater (Rory Cochrane) from "Dazed and Confused" (1993)

The Rebel: Jim Stark in "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955)

Not just our pick because of the title, "Rebel" cemented James Dean's legacy as the quintessential teenage iconoclast. As red-Windbreaker-ed loner Jim Stark, Dean embodied the new breed of teen whose restless alienation was finding catharsis in questioning authority (and rock and roll, but that element is strangely absent in the film). "Rebel" tapped into the zeitgeist in a more realistic way than most juvenile delinquent films of the '50s, and its tragedy is compounded by Dean's death in a car accident that same year.

Runner-Up: Riff Randell (P.J. Soles) in "Rock 'N' Roll High School" (1979)

The Bully: Melvin Moody in "My Bodyguard" (1980)

Clifford Peache (Chris Makepeace), the shy new student at Chicago's Lake View High, uses his lunch money to hire huge troubled loner Ricky (Adam Baldwin) to be his personal protector against the school bully, Melvin Moody (Matt Dillon). The motorcycle-riding Ricky, rumored to be a killer by the frightened masses at the school, slowly builds a trusting relationship with Clifford that yields a terrifically cathartic climax. The young Dillon is pitch-perfect as Moody, his dark good looks and cocky sneer belying the ultimate cowardice that lies within all bullies.

Runner-Up: Biff Tannen (Thomas Wilson) in "Back to the Future" (1985)

The Clique-Crossing Everyman: Lloyd Dobler in "Say Anything" (1989)

Granted, the film begins as high school ends for the characters in Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything," but that doesn't mean we can't tell exactly who fit in where in their school.

Inhabiting the Clash-loving, trench-coat-wearing kickboxer Lloyd Dobler, John Cusack is completely credible as the kind of laid-back guy liked by everyone from the jocks to the brains to the stoners (who better to be the key master?). All socially inept valedictorian Diane Court (Ione Skye) needs is one evening to fall for Lloyd, alongside a generation of teenage girls.

Runner-up: Randall "Pink" Floyd (Jason London) from "Dazed and Confused" (1993)

And we haven't even gotten to the punk, the preppy, the bad girl, the brown-nose, the Lothario, the class clown or the ingénue. Tell you what, meet us by the auditorium at lunch, we'll skip out and go to the mall to discuss.

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From http://www.mtv.com

iPod Gets New Music Game From 'PaRappa The Rapper' Creator

2007-08-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

'Musika' allows users to 'interact dynamically with the music.'

By Stephen Totilo

From http://www.mtv.com

Wii's 'Boogie' Vs. The Critics; 'Halo 3' Vs. 'Metroid' Hype; And More, In GameFile

2007-08-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

Designer calls it the 'best-looking game' on Wii, but some reviewers just can't get down with the dancing game.

By Stephen Totilo

Nintendo's hot home console hasn't just ushered in a strange new era for gamers — it's flipped the tables on game designers like Jean-Charles Gaudechon, who find themselves trying to redefine what makes a good game.

At EA Montreal, Gaudechon just served as lead designer of "Boogie," a dancing game for Wii that's been getting some very mixed reactions since it was released last week. The first review "Boogie" got was a 3 out of 10. The next? A 4 out of 5. "When I see a 3 out of 10, I think it's people completely hermetic to it, just not getting it," Gaudechon said in an interview with GameFile late last week.

That negative review, from 1up.com, states "this game is fun for exactly 20 minutes." The 4 rating, from GamePro, noted that "for the short time that Boogie lasts, the game is fun to play." GamePro loved the dance-based gameplay but 1up.com rejected it.

"Boogie" may prove to be just another game that is striking different people different ways. But it may also prove to be the game that typifies the new, uncertain standards of Nintendo's unusual console. What do people want out of a Wii game? What's a success and what's a failure in the eyes of gamers? What about in the eyes of developers? Or in the eyes of anyone still not sure just what is the ideal experience on the oddest video game system in years?

Take the issue of controls. Nintendo's system has asked gamers to do strange things with the controller, such as using it as a virtual tennis racket, a game-pausing flashlight or a make-believe steering wheel. The system led the EA Montreal team to make a dancing game that didn't use a mat, à la "Dance Dance Revolution," but instead is controlled by shakes of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck.

"My philosophy in terms of design: Controls shouldn't be a showstopper," Gaudechon said. "Difficultly should come from the game. It should be easy to dance. It should be tough to dance on a certain level of difficulty." He said the team faced a challenge syncing dance moves to flicks of the Wii remote. "Is it cool to shake it left and right and up and down? And how do you link dance moves together? And how does that look like choreography?"

Developers at EA Montreal are well aware of the difficulty in implementing Wii controls and getting players to use them properly. Over the winter, the studio's "SSX Blur" snowboarding game was criticized for asking players to execute complex gestures during the brief time their characters caught air after a jump. Was the game simply guilty of asking too much of players not used to motion-based controls? "I think it was an awesome idea to draw a big heart to do the biggest combo in SSX. [The controls were] an awesome idea on paper," Gaudechon told GameFile. "But it didn't get well-communicated. And maybe ... people are still discovering these controls."

The "Boogie" solution was to give players a deeper tutorial. If anything, Boogie's two-handed motion controls, which sound complex on paper, have been accused of being too simple in execution. In a strange way, that might be a sign of progress, and it might be a license for EA Montreal to push things further: "When you see 'Boogie,' you say, '[The game]'s dancing is in just a quadrant. Can we do more? Can we do crazy stuff in the air?' Maybe in a year or a couple of years from now we will ask someone to do much more difficult motion with the Wiimote."

Gaudechon said the current controls for "Boogie" are ideal for the game's target audience, a group that sounds as if it matches Nintendo's own broad view of the Wii consumer base. "When we did focus groups, we had 5-year-olds and 77-year-olds coming here. Twenty-nine-year-old hard-core gamers are not going to help us very much."

One of the odd aspects of the Wii's popularity is that the games that have succeeded on the system don't look as good as new games on the more powerful competing consoles, the Xbox 360 and PS3. "Boogie" stands out as the rare Wii game with high-quality graphics. "We did push it, and I think it's pretty obvious from what we've done," Gaudechon said. "I think it's the best-looking game out [on the Wii] now."

So how does he explain why so many other Wii games don't sport better graphics than those on the allegedly less powerful PlayStation 2? "Maybe the Wii platform hasn't been taken that seriously by developers at first," he said. "You'll get the quality from the effort you put into it. So that's a possibility."

He considered a second rationale that would explain why "SSX Blur" and Nintendo's upcoming "Super Mario Galaxy" have been among the few Wii games praised for their visuals: "Wii is maybe not great at doing realism. Nintendo is not doing realism. 'SSX' has taken the franchise into a more cartoony style. Our game is a cartoony style. 'Medal of Honor,' or maybe I shouldn't name any games, but maybe realistic games wouldn't be as good as they look on PS3."

"There's room for improvement," he added. "This console has a lot to give."

Yet being one of the Wii's graphical showpieces didn't help the game in some reviewers' eyes. And then there are the odd things being praised, such as the console's use of the remote's speaker. In order to help players stay on beat as they shake the remote to dance, EA Montreal programmed the remote to emit a clicking metronome sound. "We tried different sounds, from very annoying to less-annoying sounds," Gaudechon said. He is happy with the results, even though it was one of the last brainstorms his team had, just a couple of months before shipping. Another feature Gaudechon thinks the team nailed is an in-game video editor, a feature praised even in the 1up review.

When asked by GameFile why the game doesn't free players' hands by making its packed-in microphone a headset, Gaudechon volunteered a potential criticism he would agree with. "We pick our battles for the first one," Gaudechon said. "And I'm sure we're going to talk about online [playing], too. We could have pushed for it. It's just that at one point we just made sure we could nail what was important for the game. That's why the first version of this game is what we could do in the time we had for it."

So what does a Wii game need to have to make a difference? Novel controls? Hard controls? Top graphics? Odd innovations? A combination of features — dancing, karaoke, video editing — not seen in one game before? "Boogie" presents one set of answers. In these early months of the Wii, there's still plenty of time for a few more opinions.