films

Hollywood.com announced on Monday that it has officially completed its acquisition of Media By Numbers, a site that specializes in delivering box office numbers and analysis on the latest movies to hit theaters. Financial details were not disclosed.

"The synergies that exist within Hollywood.com and Media by Numbers create an extremely powerful combination that will allow us to realize our full potential and better showcase our services," Media by Numbers President Paul Dergarabedian said.

The Media By Numbers acquisition is part of a bigger plan on the part of Hollywood.com. Obviously feeling the heat from … Read more

Should you buy The Godfather on Blu-ray? I'll tell you in my latest video.

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Solyndra, a start-up making thin-film photovoltaic systems, has secured $600 million in funding.

It's additionally secured $1.2 billion in contracts from clients in the U.S. and Europe, the Fremont, Calif.-based company revealed Tuesday.

What start-up gets that kind of funding and client promise? Basically, one that's invented thin-film solar panels shaped like old-school fluorescent lightbulbs.

Since 2005, Solyndra has quietly been developing a proprietary CIGS-based thin film photovoltaic (PV) system and a staff of more than 500 employees.

CIGS is a material that includes a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide. It's now … Read more

It's not easy being a bank employee these days. You don't know what your bank will be tomorrow. Perhaps it will be a different kind of bank. Or even a former bank.

So perhaps it is unsurprising that Geoff Harmer, an IT chap at Barclays Bank in Basingstoke, England (a little like the nice parts of New Jersey), decided to invest $90 and his artistic talent into making a Star Wars movie.

The opus is entitled Overtime and the action takes place around the bank cubicles, in an elevator (where the protagonists encounter a tall bald man who … Read more

At this point, it's safe to assume that most of your photo collection is digital and stored on your computer and (hopefully) a backup disk or two. But what about those boxes of slides sitting at the bottom of your closet (or in your parents' basement) that are slowly but surely fading and yellowing as the years progress? Now, you could go out and easily drop a $1,000 on a film scanner from Nikon, or you could go out and grab Ion Audio's Slides 2 PC scanner for $100. Its 5-megapixel (1800dpi) scanner will leave you with … Read more

If you need more proof that thin-film solar cells is where the action is going, take a look at the money flow.

SoloPower is raising almost $200 million to ramp up manufacturing of its thin-film solar cells, according to a report in VentureWire picked up by other media outlets.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company makes cells from CIGS, a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide which a number of solar companies are betting can undercut traditional crystalline silicon.

Thin-film solar cells, from CIGS or other materials, are less efficient at converting sunlight to electricity but use far less … Read more

Ars Technica has an interesting story up today detailing the Association Against Audiovisual Piracy's analysis of P2P traffic of illegal movie downloads in France between November 2007 and June 2008, which found that more people than ever are illegally downloading some of the top domestic and foreign films.

The organization found that 90 percent of all P2P downloads came from the most popular films in theaters and that a "daily average of 450,000 downloads (in December, it was 536,000 per day), and a monthly average of over 14 million downloads" was witnessed.

Allegedly stunned by the gall of all those awful pirates, the organization felt it was necessary to send one of its hacks out to make a statement detailing how appalled it was at the information it obtained. But no one saw this one coming.

"We are facing a major phenomenon that can endanger the film industry and audiovisual industries. We did not expect such figures," ALPA director Frederic Delacroix said in a statement to the AFP.

Wow. Hold your horses for a minute here. This piracy problem can "endanger the film industry?" This should probably be filed under the "dumbest things I've heard all month heading."

If piracy kills the film industry and suddenly theaters from across the globe are closing up shop, I'll be the first to laugh, and I'll bet I won't even be laughing the loudest.… Read more

I just got a press release from iLuv announcing its new line of iPhone 3G cases, which are--excuse the pun--just luvely. However, in clicking through to the site I was struck by one accessory the company is selling: the i114, which also goes by the longer name Clear Scratch Resistant Film. It's designed to lay on top of your scratch-resistant iPhone screen and keep it from getting scratched. That's cool. But the thing costs $9.99. Throw in some tax and shipping and you're probably looking at close to $15 for a thin piece of plastic that … Read more

The common wisdom might be that the film industry loathes Google's YouTube, but that might be changing.

Lions Gate Entertainment, the studio responsible for classics like Dirty Dancing and recent TV hits like Weeds, has signed a revenue-sharing deal with the video hub.

It was alluded to by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Madison & Vine conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday, and according to the Hollywood Reporter, subsequently confirmed by Lionsgate.

It's not clear how extensive this deal will be. Presumably, it means that Lionsgate would create a branded "channel" on YouTube, and serve … Read more