How Brad Became Benjamin(video)

Behind-the-scenes footage and DVD Special Features are often hit-or-miss. Sometimes you get the insight and insider knowledge you were looking for, and sometimes you get completely disposable filler. Well, this video from TED2009 is one of the good ones. Digital Domain’s Executive Vice President Ed Ulbrich gives a talk on the technology his team pioneered in order to create photo-realistic versions of Brad Pitt’s face at various advanced ages for David Fincher’s Oscar-winning The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

I’ve had more than my fair share of people ask me how they pulled off the amazing effects we see in Benjamin Button (why anyone assumes I know is another mind-boggling affair). Well, this video’s for you guys. It’s honestly a really interesting watch and it runs down the process without being too superficial or inundating us with information. Highly recommended.

Slumdog Millionaire sweeps BAFTA Awards

Slumdog Millionaire swept the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards 2009 winning seven awards from the 11 categories it was nominated in.

Slumdog Millionaire won awards in the following categories: Best Film, Best Director (Danny Boyle), Best Adapted Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), Best Music (AR Rahman), Best Editing (Chris Dickens), Best Sound (Resul Pookutty, Glen Freemantle, Richard Pryke, Tom Sayers, Ian Tapp) and Best Cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle)

The awards were presented at a glittering ceremony on Sunday night at The Royal Opera House in London, England.

Apart from Rahman, Pookutty is the other Indian to win a BAFTA Award for Best Sound for Slumdog Millionaire.

Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel who was nominated for Best Actor lost to Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.

Freida Pinto who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress lost to Penelope Cruz who won for Vicki Cristina Barcelona.

Other winners at BAFTA:

• Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

• Best Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader)

• Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

• Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz (Vicki Cristina Barcelona)

• Best Production Design: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

• Best Make-Up & Hair: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

• Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

• Best Original Screenplay: In Bruges

The BAFTA Awards are often called the British Oscars, so it is certainly an important night for the team before they head for the grandest night of all - the Oscars in Los Angeles.

Michael Jackson is fine

Michael Jackson's camp has denied that the King of Pop is suffering from life-threatening lung disease and needs a lung transplant terming such reports as 'total fabrication'.

The singer's agent issued a statement responding to recent comments by writer Ian Halperin in the British newspaper Sunday Express, saying 'wild allegations concerning Jackson's health are a total fabrication,' E News reported.

'Concerning this author's allegations, we would hope in the future that legitimate media will not continue to be exploited by such an obvious attempt to promote this unauthorised 'biography,'' Tohme Tohme of the Los Angeles firm Scoop Marketing, Jackson's representative, said.

The spokesman also dismissed Halperin's claim that the singer was suffering from a rare genetic condition known as 'alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency' and needed a lung transplant to survive.

Halperin, who is working on a biography of Jackson, had also claimed that the singer can barely speak and suffers from emphysema and internal bleeding, and has lost 95 per cent of vision in his left eye.

'Jackson is in fine health, and finalising negotiations with a major entertainment company and television network for both a world tour and a series of specials and appearances,' Tohme said.

The 50-year-old singer and controversies have gone hand in hand. The pop star was previously accused of child abuse charges in 2005. He is also famous for undergoing multiple plastic surgeries and his eccentric lifestyle.

Is Michael Jackson aka Mikeel dying?????????

Pop music icon Michael Jackson is near death, suffering from a potentially fatal genetic disease that has affected his lungs and stripped him of vitality, Jackson-biographer Ian Halperin has claimed in a recent interview.

Speaking with the UK's Sun, Halperin has been quoted saying, 'He needs a lung transplant, but may be too weak to go through with it. He also has emphysema and chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, which his doctors have had a lot of trouble stopping. It's the bleeding that's the most problematic part. It could kill him.'

Specifically, Halperin claims that Jackson, now 50 years old, has developed a rare alpha-1 anti-trypsin protein deficiency, leaving his lungs unable to protect themselves. He also claimed Jackson, who was photographed in a wheelchair earlier this year, had been battling the disease for several years. 'He can barely speak. The vision in his left eye is 95 percent gone. For years, Michael has been working with his doctors to make sure (the disease) doesn't progress.'

Jackson's usually outspoken and stridently defensive publicist and family members have not moved to deny the claim, which in turn has only fueled speculation.

Britney Spears on Twitter

If you are fan of Britney spears then you would be interested in this...Aparently she has created her profile on the famous networking site twitter..so login and have a look..If you are not registered then you have a reason to have one..Click here to see her profile

Economic meltdown stalls Hollywood flick sequels

MOVIE MELTDOWN: The sequels have become Hollywood's first major victims of the current economic crisis.





Two planned sequels of the movie The Golden Compass have become Hollywood's first major victims of the current economic crisis, with their production being put on hold indefinitely.

Produced by New Line studio, The Golden Compass that starred actors Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig was the first of author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials fantasy trilogy to be adapted for the big screen, reports contactmusic.com.

Two further films based on Pullman's novels - The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass - were due to be made following the box office success of The Golden Compass. But plans have stalled as a result of the downturn in the international economy.

The movie has grossed more than $370 million worldwide since its December 2007 release against its budget of $180 million.

Paramount delaying films due to economic crisis

Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures' decision to delay two major holiday films - including one with an Oscar aspirations - may be a sign of Hollywood's retrenchment amid the US economic crisis, a media report speculates.

Paramount late last week announced that it would delay the release of The Soloist - a Los Angeles drama about a homeless violin player and a newspaper columnist who intervenes in his life - until next March, the Wall Street Journal said.

The movie comes from DreamWorks, the Paramount unit whose principals, Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider, recently left to start a new film venture.

The decision to delay the movie came barely a month before its planned November 21 debut, resulting in The Soloist star Robert Downey Jr's consideration for the Academy Awards to be put off till next year.

The limited release of Defiance - a war picture with Daniel Craig from the studio's Paramount Vantage specialty unit - has also been delayed until the end of 2008, meaning the film won't be in wide release until January, the paper said.

Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc, announced the delays as part of a new business strategy under which it is cutting costs by reducing the number of films released each year from around 25 to 20.

To start cutting back in 2008, the studio delayed a couple of films, which puts off most of the cost of marketing and distributing the movies until next year, the Journal said.