Movies

After several blockbuster films have been leaked to the Web and generated lots of press for the movies, the public is increasingly suspicious about whether the studios are orchestrating the piracy.

The most recent example came Tuesday evening, when 36 minutes of the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1," turned up on file-sharing services. Blogs and online forums overflowed with theories about who leaked the film. "It may be going a little bit too far to suggest that Warner Bros. leaked the film intentionally, but from a business perspective it … Read more

As Netflix revenues soar and as Hulu ponders a $300 million public offering, a group of people who played an enormous part in the brightening prospects of Web TV is very much overlooked.

Managers at the major Hollywood studios: Disney, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Paramount, NBC Universal, and Sony Pictures are pretty much despised in tech land allegedly for their anti-innovation and protectionist ways, but the record shows that, over the past year, they have helped build the foundation for Netflix's success and are embracing digital distribution like never before.

Last summer, the studios signed unprecedented licensing deals … Read more

Get ready for a new onslaught of Tigger and Pooh toys, games, cartoons, T-shirts, hats, and every other sort of memorabilia. Disney's new "Winnie the Pooh" is coming.

Disney today released the first trailer for its forthcoming film, which is the first Pooh adventure from Disney to hit the silver screen in more than 35 years. The studio said the new movie, which is planned for a July 15, 2011 release, will feature all the favorites from the A.A. Milne tales, including, obviously, Pooh, as well as Tigger, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, and of course Eeyore, … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--When George Lucas talks about the raison d'etre of his award-winning visual effects studio, Industrial Light & Magic, his logic might strike some in the bottom line-obsessed world of Hollywood as heretical.

"I started ILM to help make great movies," Lucas told CNET recently. "That's what we're here for. We're not here as a big moneymaking organization. We're not here as a business. We're here to make great movies."

Of course, any filmmaker would probably want to say something like that, but Lucas may well be the one person … Read more

Roll up. Roll up. You won't believe your eyes.

No, I'm not launching a new Apple product (at least not yet). Instead, I would like you to scan a piece of footage for me and tell me what you see.

I would like you to examine a YouTube video that has been sent to me by various readers and eminences. It has already been viewed by more than 1.6 million people. And it shows Irish film director George Clarke declaring that he has seen an old woman--or a man in drag--in the 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie "The Circus."

Why might this be remarkable? I am sure even Chaplin himself might have donned a skirt at least at some point in his life. Ah, but this skirted individual, with a hardened Edward G. Robinson-type face, appears to be talking on a cell phone.

You did hear me right. She (or he) appears to be in possession of a mobile device and chatting into it. … Read more

First it was the lawyers. Then it was the politicians. Now debt collectors may be coming after people accused of film piracy, even before they have their day in court.

A group calling itself the Copyright Enforcement Group (CEG), which according to its Web site specializes in media rights enforcement, appears to advocate the use of debt collectors even before the courts have rendered a judgment against accused copyright violators. CNET has obtained a copy of CEG's "service contract," which specifies the terms the group offers to client copyright owners.

"In the event that the opposing … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--It's hard to imagine anything in a museum featuring hundreds of original Disney concept sketches and art pieces, including dozens of Mickey Mouse, being as impressive as the art itself.

But try visiting the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio here and not coming away with the strong impression that the way the facility was designed, with its wide variety of beautiful digital displays, imaginative use of video screens, innovative touch-screens, audio clips of Walt himself nearly everywhere you go, and much more, is nearly as compelling an experience as the opportunity to see first-hand the origins … Read more

Doesn't appear Hulu Plus is seeing Netflix's kind of explosive subscriber growth.

Managers of the video portal may be mulling a price cut from $9.95 to $4.95, according to a story in All Things Digital.

Hulu, the free video service operated by News Corp., Disney and NBC Universal, launched a separate premium service in June in an attempt to squeeze a little more revenue. After all, the company is planning to go public, according to a Reuters report two weeks ago. It's never been totally clear how profitable the free-to-consumers ad-based service is for the … Read more

The independent film studios suing thousands of alleged file sharers for copyright violations may soon face their own version of Jammie Thomas-Rasset.

Attorneys representing some of the people accused of illegal file sharing told CNET yesterday that several have refused to settle with the indie studios--which is what Thomas-Rasset did when she was accused of illegal file sharing by the music industry. By taking this stance, the accused film pirates are challenging the filmmakers to take them to court.

So, that is what the studios will do, according to their attorney, Thomas Dunlap.

Dunlap is one of the founders of … Read more