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Peter T. Chattaway | 1 Jan 2004 01:02
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Grave discovery

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1071634093898

By STUART WINER

Absalom's conical cornice has earned it various names over the centuries,
including the Arabic version of 'Pharaoh's Hat'

When a visiting art student glanced up at the side of an ancient tomb in
the Kidron Valley and noticed the faint outline of an inscription high up
on a wall, she didn't know she had made an archeological discovery that
would help clarify a 1,500-year-old mystery.

As the setting sun cast its rays along the side of the 2,000-year-old Tomb
of Absalom, the inscription cast a faint shadow. Not recognizing its
importance, the student continued with her survey of the site, where she
was studying the use of rock in building ancient tombs for an art project.

When she got back to the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique in east
Jerusalem, however, she mentioned the inscription to her mentor, Joe Zias,
a physical anthropologist, and to Prof. Emile Puech, an inscriptions
expert who also worked on the Dead Sea scrolls.

Puech's response was one of great excitement and soon afterwards he headed
out to the site.

Although the student had taken photographs from which they could see there
was some kind of inscription, they were too faint to be read and Puech
decided to take a "squeeze," a method of making casts of inscriptions
using material similar to papier mach.
(Continue reading)

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Bruce Geerdes | 1 Jan 2004 03:08
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Re: ron howard's apollo 13 (1995)

On Dec 31, 2003, at 10:37 AM, Peter T. Chattaway wrote:

> And it's kinda weird to think that the cast and
> crew of this film spent more time in those zero-gravity-simulator 
> planes
> (or whatever they're called) than any astronaut ever did, simply 
> because
> of all the takes and re-takes they had to do

Hmm, that's what I thought when you posted the bit about the 
animatronic Jesus.  Even with the robot, James Caviezel probably spent 
more time on the cross (in the cold) than Christ did.

Bruce
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Bruce Geerdes | 1 Jan 2004 04:24
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ebert on rotk

http://suntimes.com/output/answ-man/sho-sunday-ebert28.html

Q. I hope you're enjoying the mass numbers of e-mails about not 
including "Return of the King" anywhere on your Top 10 list. I can 
understand your not having it at the top, but not even an honorable 
mention? To ignore a movie that was so good, so admired, so praised by 
you and all the other critics and everyone who sees it borders on 
criminal.

Scott Gant

St. Joseph, Mich.

A. Yep, I got a lot of e-mails. I gave "Return of the King" 3.5 stars, 
and the cutoff for the list was 4 stars. It's an impressive 
achievement, yes, but let me tell you about the other films on my list. 
My job is to see all the movies so I can tell you about the great ones 
you might not have heard about. I reviewed 278 films last year; if you 
have seen the titles on my list and think "Return of the King" is 
better than all of them, then we disagree. Nobody has heard of "The 
Son," for example, but they should have. It would tear you to pieces.

They're collecting all of the Best 10 lists at moviecitynews.com, and 
my guess is that "LOTR" is on about half the lists, which is very good 
but not overwhelming. For me, the real news in my list is the No. 1 
ranking for "Monster," which opened late in the year (it opens Jan. 9 
in Chicago) and got in under the radar for some critics, but is a 
landmark -- a powerfully great film.
(Continue reading)

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Peter T. Chattaway | 1 Jan 2004 12:37
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finding nemo ... another disney rip-off?

When _The Lion King_ came out, they accused Disney of ripping off _Kimba
the White Lion_. [1]  And when _Atlantis: The Lost Empire_ came out, they
accused Disney of ripping off _Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water_. [2]  So
naturally, someone had to accuse Pixar of stealing the idea for _Finding
Nemo_ from somewhere -- and this time, the alleged victim of plagiarism is
not a Japanese animator, but a French children's author.

[1] http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm
    http://members.aol.com/simba026/tlk_compare_table.htm
[2] http://www.oldcrows.net/Atlantis/
    http://www.animerica-mag.com/features/09.08.09/nadiavsatlantis.html

- - - 

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=430300&section=news

Author sues over Nemo "plagiarism" 
Tue 30 December, 2003 08:17 

By Shiraz Sidhva 

PARIS (Hollywood Reporter) -- A French children's author has sued Walt
Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, claiming the cartoon fish
they catapulted to fame in the worldwide blockbuster "Finding Nemo" was
plagiarised from his 1995 creation Pierrot Le Poisson Clown.

Pascal Kamina, a copyrights lawyer representing the author, Franck Le
Calvez, confirmed in a telephone interview Monday that the case --
claiming damages for breach of copyright and trademark and demanding that
they withdraw "Nemo" books and merchandise from French shops -- will come
(Continue reading)

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Thom Gladhill | 1 Jan 2004 17:11

RE: finding nemo ... another disney rip-off?

"Peter T. Chattaway" <petert@...> wrote:

>Like Nemo, Pierrot lives in a pink sea anemone and starts life
>half-orphaned because one parent was swallowed up by Liona, the scorpion
>fish. "The beginning of the story is the same, even if the scenarios 
>then
>become different," Le Calvez said.

Yeah...cause the single parent idea had never been done in a story.  And 
a clown fish living in an pink sea anemone...heck what are the chances 
of THAT?  Nothing in his claims appear to be overwhelmingly compelling 
to convince me that Pixar ripped him off, at least not at this time.

--

-- 
Thom
http://www.livejournal.com/users/thomwade/
http://www.in-one-ear.com
In One Ear Radio:
http://www.live365.com/stations/nezpop
Happy Fool Notions:
http://www.geocities.com/nezpop/
_______________________________________

"The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.  Be Brave.  
Live."~Buffy
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Lance McLain | 1 Jan 2004 17:14

RE: finding nemo ... another disney rip-off?

> >Like Nemo, Pierrot lives in a pink sea anemone and starts life
> >half-orphaned because one parent was swallowed up by Liona, the scorpion
> >fish. "The beginning of the story is the same, even if the scenarios 
> >then
> >become different," Le Calvez said.
> 
> Yeah...cause the single parent idea had never been done in a story.  And 
> a clown fish living in an pink sea anemone...heck what are the chances 
> of THAT?  Nothing in his claims appear to be overwhelmingly compelling 
> to convince me that Pixar ripped him off, at least not at this time.

Hey...I've got a clown fish living in a pink sea anenome in my tank.  Even
have a cleaner shrimp.  I wonder if I can get some money from Disney.  
They've got plenty to spare.

regards,
-Lance
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Lance McLain | 1 Jan 2004 18:11

RE: ron howard's apollo 13 (1995)

> I watched it over a couple evenings, but last night I finished watching
> _Apollo 13_ with the Jim & Marilyn Lovell commentary track turned on.  I
> had only seen this film once before, back when it was brand new, and I
> liked it again the second time around.  There is something strangely
> compelling about films like this,

This is one of those films that you can watch over and over again.  No
matter how many times I've seen it, if it is on one of the movie channels
when I'm channel surfing, it compels you to watch it.  The HBO
documentaries/
recreations hosted by Tom Hanks "From the Earth to the Moon" are also like
that.

I guess it is just someting about "realistically" not "fantastically" being
in space that compells you to watch it.

regards,
-Lance
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Peter T. Chattaway | 1 Jan 2004 22:31
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Ottawa firm creates herd of oliphants

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=15da5bcc-bfde-4ac8-8565-0a7b763b6eac

Company worked on creature construction for Lord of the Rings

Vito Pilieci 
CanWest News Service 
Friday, December 26, 2003

A tiny Canadian high-tech firm that helped bring The Lord of the Rings to
the big screen is also in the running to bring 20 characters from The
Chronicles of Narnia to life.

XYZ RGB, a six-person company in Ottawa, has also just started on director
Peter Jackson's US$100-million remake of King Kong for Universal Studios,
slated for release in 2005.

And then there's Halle Berry's bust. To make a digital replica of the
acclaimed actress, technicians at the company had to scan a cast of her
legendary bust for a film version of the comic book villain Catwoman.

"We were the first company to get a hold of the actual life-cast of Halle
Berry," said XYZ RGB president Helmut Kungl. "When we scanned her
life-cast, we even picked up the bra lines on her back from where she took
her bra off."

The company used its technology, created by the National Research Council
of Canada in the early 1980s, to make digital models of massive
four-tusked oliphants and the evil spider Shelob in The Return of the
King, the last instalment of the J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In the movie, oliphants, which stand several stories high, are used by
(Continue reading)

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Peter T. Chattaway | 1 Jan 2004 22:50
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RE: finding nemo ... another disney rip-off?

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004, Lance McLain wrote:

> > > Like Nemo, Pierrot lives in a pink sea anemone and starts life
> > > half-orphaned because one parent was swallowed up by Liona, the
> > > scorpion fish. "The beginning of the story is the same, even if the
> > > scenarios then become different," Le Calvez said.
> >
> > Yeah...cause the single parent idea had never been done in a story.
> > And a clown fish living in an pink sea anemone...heck what are the
> > chances of THAT?  Nothing in his claims appear to be overwhelmingly
> > compelling to convince me that Pixar ripped him off, at least not at
> > this time.
>
> Hey...I've got a clown fish living in a pink sea anenome in my tank.
> Even have a cleaner shrimp.  I wonder if I can get some money from
> Disney.  They've got plenty to spare.

Heh.

FWIW, I don't see a strong basis for a lawsuit in the _Finding Nemo_ case,
but I have to say I sympathize with the author, if bookstores are taking
his book off the shelves because they think *he* plagiarized somebody.

On a semi-related note, one of the things I find striking about the Disney
films of the last few years is that so many of them seem to be aping the
ideas of recent cartoons put out by *other* studios -- but I emphasize
"seem to be", since the Disney films in question must have been well into
production before the other studios' cartoons came out.  The problem is
not that Disney plagiarizes these films -- some of which weren't
successful enough to inspire imitators anyway -- but that Disney, by
(Continue reading)

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Peter T. Chattaway | 2 Jan 2004 00:14
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Anger at sex change for angel Gabriel

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/7175.html

BRIAN PENDREIGH
December 31 2003 

SHE has made a reputation for herself by making unusual career choices,
but Tilda Swinton is getting ready for what could be her biggest challenge
yet -- playing the Archangel Gabriel, in a blockbuster comic-book
adaptation with Matrix star Keanu Reeves.

Gabriel, who foretold the birth of Christ and revealed the Koran to
Muhammad, is traditionally represented as male. But while Swinton's
casting could offend Christians, Jews and Muslims alike, it is the fans of
the cult Hellblazer comics who seem most outraged by the planned sex
change.

The comic-book stories, about a modern sorcerer who has literally been to
hell and back, are regarded by their fans as the holy grail of adult
comic-book fiction. Gabriel, who is depicted as male in the stories,
becomes the arch-enemy of protagonist John Constantine, after Constantine
engineers his expulsion from Heaven.

But fans have been outraged by the casting of the Fettes-educated daughter
of the Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire in the film version, which is
entitled Constantine.

Hellblazer was created in 1985 by the comic-book writer Alan Moore, whose
work is in huge demand with film-makers. In the comics, Constantine is a
blond, working-class Liverpudlian and ex-punk-rocker.
(Continue reading)

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