Latest World News Watch: 16 Aug 2011

Usher - OMG

OMG

Artist: Usher
Label: LaFace Records, JLG
Director: Anthony Mandler
Album: Raymond V. Raymond

Source: http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=1270&vid=551930

Angela Marcello Angelina Jolie Anna Faris Anna Friel

Photos | Rihanna and Ke$ha Perform At Madison Square Garden

Rihanna and Ke$ha Perform At Madison Square Garden

Hilarie Burton Hilary Duff Hilary Swank Isla Fisher

Johnny Depp's 'Lone Ranger': Why Disney Shut It Down

Poor performance of 'Cowboys & Aliens' may have influenced studio.
By Eric Ditzian

Johnny Depp
Photo: WireImage

As cinematic collaborators go, there are few in Hollywood who can match the storytelling cred and box-office clout of Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski. The duo has delivered a trifecta of "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, taking the property from hokey amusement-park ride to multibillion-dollar franchise juggernaut.

Last fall, well before their kooky, captivating animated adventure "Rango" opened to $38.1 million domestically, Depp and Verbinski announced their next live-action collaboration would be "The Lone Ranger," a project Depp and Disney had been trying to get off the ground for years.

Now, quite surprisingly, Disney has shut down the production amidst concerns about a Western-themed film with a budget north of $200 million. Deadline reported the development on Friday, and the Los Angeles Times followed up on Monday (August 15) with further details about the stoppage. The Times reports the "Lone Ranger" budget could have ballooned to $250 million at a time when studios are looking to keep costs under control, even as a heavily reliance on CG effects drives those costs up.

"It's our intention to take a very careful look at what films cost," Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger said on a conference call with analysts on Tuesday, according to the Times. "And if we can't get them to a level that we're comfortable with, we think that we're better off actually reducing the size of our slate than making films that are bigger and increasingly more risky."

But there's also little doubt that Disney was influenced by the performance of "Cowboys & Aliens," a Western that faltered at the box office this summer despite A-list talent in front of and behind the camera. After the expensive, Harrison Ford-starring action flick opened to just $36.2 million during its first weekend, industry insiders fully anticipated that studios would shy away from the genre. "There is no getting around the fact that the Western-sci-fi genre mashup has been a terrible failure in Hollywood," Jeff Bock, box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations, told MTV News at the time. "Expect studios to stay far away from this genre in the near future."

Not even Depp and Verbinski — and their long-standing relationship with Disney — were immune to Hollywood's growing understanding that big-budget Westerns just aren't resonating with moviegoers. The move means that unless a new approach (and a new budget) can be worked out, Depp won't get to bring Tonto, the Lone Ranger's dutiful sidekick, to the screen, despite years of involvement with the project. Armie Hammer, of "Social Network" fame, was set to play the Lone Ranger himself.

"This is the origin of Lone Ranger," producer Jerry Bruckheimer told MTV News in March 2010, "so you're gonna see how the Lone Ranger became the Lone Ranger. He was a Texas Ranger, and how he became the Lone Ranger."

Are the chances that audiences get to see that origin story in theaters totally dead? The Times floats an optimistic note, citing other projects shut down because of high costs, like Denzel Washington's "Unstoppable," that were resurrected at the last minute. For now, though, it seems more likely Depp would reprise his "Pirates" role of Jack Sparrow than step into Tonto's boots — though even a fifth seafaring adventure is uncertain at this point.

"It boils down to story, script and filmmaker," Depp said earlier this year about "Pirates 5." "It's not something where I would say, 'Let's shoot it next month to get it out by Christmas 2012.' We should hold off for a bit. They should be special, just like they are special to me."

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

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1669046/johnny-depp-lone-ranger-shut-down.jhtml

Cat Power Catherine Bell Chandra West Charisma Carpenter

Team order rule needs a re-think

Jean Todt arives for Wednesday's hearing © Getty Images

Formula One should look at abolishing the controversial ban on team orders after Ferrari escaped further punishment for their manipulation of the German Grand Prix result. That is the view of the Daily Telegraph?s Tom Cary, who is of the opinion that the team orders rule now needs to be seriously looked at because of its obvious shortcomings.

?Whether you are for or against team orders, if the FIA could not back up its own rules and nail a competitor in a blatant case such as this the rule really does need reviewing. Perhaps Ferrari?s thinly-veiled threat to take the matter to the civil courts if they were punished too harshly scared the governing body, who as much as admitted the flimsiness of its rule."

Paul Weaver, reporting for the Guardian in Monza, was in favour of the ruling which keeps alive Ferrari?s slim chances in an enthralling championship.

?The World Motor Sport Council was right not to ruin a compelling Formula One season by taking away the 25 points Alonso collected in Germany. That would have put him out of the five-man title race. But the council was widely expected to increase the fine and possibly deduct points from the team, as opposed to the individual. In the end, it could be argued that common sense prevailed. But the decision will dismay those who were upset by the way Ferrari handled the situation as much as anything else.?

The Daily Mail's Jonathan McEvoy expressed outrage at the FIA tearing up its own rule book by allowing Ferrari to escape unpunished.

"Although the race stewards fined them �65,000 for giving team orders in July, the FIA World Motor Sport Council, to whom the matter was referred, decided not to impose any further punishment. It leaves the sport's rulers open to derision. It was, after all, their rule they undermined. In a statement, the WMSC said the regulation banning team orders 'should be reviewed'."

Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/team_order_rule_needs_a_rethin_1.php

Isla Fisher Ivana Bozilovic Ivanka Trump Izabella Miko