Batman wants an Oscar.
To be precise, Warner Bros. wants a statuette -- or 10 -- for "The Dark Knight." So the studio plans to re-release its blockbuster Batman sequel in January, the height of Academy Awards voting season.
"It's just a matter of bringing it back as a reminder for people," a studio insider explained.
Warner Bros. domestic distribution president Dan Fellman acknowledged ongoing talks with Imax execs over the prospect of restoring the Christian Bale starrer to some giant-screen venues in January. It's uncertain if "Dark Knight" also will reappear in conventional venues at that point.
Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film's huge commercial and critical success has spurred talk of possible Oscar nominations for its director, producers and cast -- most specifically Bale's co-star, Health Ledger, for the late actor's edgy performance as the Joker.
To date, "Dark Knight" has rung up about 512 million U.S. dollars domestically and 440 million dollars internationally, including more than 55 million dollars in Imax grosses. A pre-Oscars re-release would help assure its topping 1 billion dollars worldwide.
But with the title set to hit DVD in December, it's now apparent anyone hoping the Batman sequel would soar to "Titanic" heights will be disappointed. "Dark Knight" already ranks as the second-highest-grossing movie ever, after "Titanic's" phenomenal 1.84 billion dollars -- a mix of 600.8 million dolalrs in domestic box office and 1.24 billion dollars in foreign coin registered in 1997 and 1998.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
Thursday, September 11, 2008
I want more sleep, Brad Pitt moans
Hollywood star Brad Pitt is "longing for" sleep following the birth of his and Angelina Jolie's twins in July.
The "Burn After Reading" star - whose babies Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline are his fifth and sixth children with Jolie - admitted while he is happy with the new additions to his family, he wishes he could spend more time in bed.
Asked how the twins were doing, Brad replied: "They are all good - everyone's healthy, and everyone's great. Sleep is something we long for, but that's alright, we'll get it soon!"
When the 44-year-old actor was questioned about what makes him laugh, he replied: "My kids!"
Brad appears alongside close friend George Clooney in "Burn After Reading."
In the movie, from legendary directors the Coen brothers, Brad plays Chad Feldheimer - a gym employee who finds a disc full of personal financial files and uses it to blackmail Osbourne Cox, played by John Malkovich.
The film is released worldwide later this year.
Source: China Daily/Agencies)
The "Burn After Reading" star - whose babies Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline are his fifth and sixth children with Jolie - admitted while he is happy with the new additions to his family, he wishes he could spend more time in bed.
Asked how the twins were doing, Brad replied: "They are all good - everyone's healthy, and everyone's great. Sleep is something we long for, but that's alright, we'll get it soon!"
When the 44-year-old actor was questioned about what makes him laugh, he replied: "My kids!"
Brad appears alongside close friend George Clooney in "Burn After Reading."
In the movie, from legendary directors the Coen brothers, Brad plays Chad Feldheimer - a gym employee who finds a disc full of personal financial files and uses it to blackmail Osbourne Cox, played by John Malkovich.
The film is released worldwide later this year.
Source: China Daily/Agencies)
Hathaway spends a week in shock after ex arrested
Anne Hathaway "spent a week in shock" after her then-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri was arrested.
The "Get Smart" actress - who had been dating the Italian businessman for four years, but ended the relationship following him being taken into custody on charges of federal wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering - admits the incident shock her world.
She told W magazine: "As soon as I found out about the arrest, I had to get on a plane to Mexico to do a promotional tour for 'Get Smart'. And then I spent a week in shock at a friend's house. "It's a situation where the rug was pulled out from under me all of a sudden.
But just as suddenly, my friends threw another rug back under me. One said, 'Go stay at my house.' "And Steve Carell, my 'Get Smart' co-star, stepped up for me during an interview when someone asked a question about it.
He said, 'At some point you're going to have to talk about this time in your life. You don't have to do it this week. I'll take care of anything that comes your way.' "
Rafaello - who has been detained since his June arrest because he has been unable to raise the 21-million-U.S.-dollar bail money - is said to be set to strike a deal with lawyers at the Manhattan District court today to ensure he only spends five years in federal prison.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
The "Get Smart" actress - who had been dating the Italian businessman for four years, but ended the relationship following him being taken into custody on charges of federal wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering - admits the incident shock her world.
She told W magazine: "As soon as I found out about the arrest, I had to get on a plane to Mexico to do a promotional tour for 'Get Smart'. And then I spent a week in shock at a friend's house. "It's a situation where the rug was pulled out from under me all of a sudden.
But just as suddenly, my friends threw another rug back under me. One said, 'Go stay at my house.' "And Steve Carell, my 'Get Smart' co-star, stepped up for me during an interview when someone asked a question about it.
He said, 'At some point you're going to have to talk about this time in your life. You don't have to do it this week. I'll take care of anything that comes your way.' "
Rafaello - who has been detained since his June arrest because he has been unable to raise the 21-million-U.S.-dollar bail money - is said to be set to strike a deal with lawyers at the Manhattan District court today to ensure he only spends five years in federal prison.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
China readies sea search, rescue for launch of Shenzhou-7 spacecraft
The sea search and rescue teams have prepared for the launch of Shenzhou-7 spacecraft, vice minister of transport Xu Zuyuan said after a drill concluded on Wednesday.
The drill, carried out in the Yangtze River mouth on Wednesday afternoon, aimed to rescue the astronauts in case the re-entry capsule fell into sea after any accidents happened during the launch, said Zhang Jianqi, a senior official with the country's space program.
During the drill, a fixed-wing aircraft was sent to locate the re-entry capsule. Then a helicopter flew to the presumed location, released an orange smock signal and landed rescuers to check the situation of the "astronauts". Finally the "astronauts" were transported to a rescue ship for medical check-up.
The drill aimed to further enhance the search and rescue capability to ensure the safety of the astronauts, said Song Jiahui, an official with the Ministry of Transport.
The manned spacecraft Shenzhou-7 would be launched at an appropriate time between Sept. 25 and 30 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gansu Province.
Source: Xinhua
The drill, carried out in the Yangtze River mouth on Wednesday afternoon, aimed to rescue the astronauts in case the re-entry capsule fell into sea after any accidents happened during the launch, said Zhang Jianqi, a senior official with the country's space program.
During the drill, a fixed-wing aircraft was sent to locate the re-entry capsule. Then a helicopter flew to the presumed location, released an orange smock signal and landed rescuers to check the situation of the "astronauts". Finally the "astronauts" were transported to a rescue ship for medical check-up.
The drill aimed to further enhance the search and rescue capability to ensure the safety of the astronauts, said Song Jiahui, an official with the Ministry of Transport.
The manned spacecraft Shenzhou-7 would be launched at an appropriate time between Sept. 25 and 30 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gansu Province.
Source: Xinhua
Chinese researchers successfully clone pigs with swine fever-resistant gene
Three cloned piglets with a generesistant to swine fever virus , a fatal disease for the livestock, have been born in northeast China's Jilin Province, Chinese researchers said.
The piglets, weighing 1,050 grams, 1,100 grams and 550 grams, were born Wednesday afternoon in a pig farm of the Agriculture Department, Jilin University.
Experts said the piglets were the first with the gene against swine fever in the world.
Source: Xinhua
The piglets, weighing 1,050 grams, 1,100 grams and 550 grams, were born Wednesday afternoon in a pig farm of the Agriculture Department, Jilin University.
Experts said the piglets were the first with the gene against swine fever in the world.
Source: Xinhua
U.S. physicists discover new particle
Physicists at U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have discovered a new particle made of three quarks, the Omega b baryon, the lab's leading scientist Qian Jianming told Xinhua Wednesday.
The particle contains two strange quarks and a bottom quark. It is an exotic relative of the much more common proton and weighs about six times the proton mass.
Qian, originally graduated from University of Science and Technology of China and now a professor at University of Michigan, played a leading role in the discovery of this new particle. It was detected for the first time in a particle accelerator at Fermilab in Illinois.
The heavy particle is scarce today, but scientists believe it was abundant soon after the Big Bang.
"This discovery helps us understand how matter was formed in the universe. It shows the critical success of the quark model and gives us new insight into the strong force, which binds quarks together to form larger particles," said Qian.
Qian is among 600 physicists from 90 institutions involved in DZero, the international experiment at Fermilab that produced these results.
Qian said detecting the Omega b baryon was like finding a needle in a haystack. They developed algorithms that allowed them to analyze almost 100 trillion particle collisions to find 18 events with the distinctive characteristics expected from the decay of the Omega b baryon.
In the collisions in the experiment, protons and anti-protons traveling near the speed of light hit head on, occasionally producing exotic heavy particles such as the Omega b baryon. The baryon travels about 1 millimeter before it decays into other particles.
Baryons are particles that make up the visible matter in the universe today. Protons and neutrons are the lightest baryons. Allbaryons are made of different combinations of three quarks. Quarksare smaller particles that come in six "flavors:" up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. Scientists organize these flavors into three families.
Protons and neutrons are made of the quarks in the first family: up and down quarks. This new particle is the first baryon ever detected that is made only of quarks from the other two families. The Omega b baryon has two strange quarks and one bottom quark.
The discovery of the doubly strange particle brings scientists a step closer to understanding exactly how quarks form matter and to completing the "periodic table of baryons."
Source: Xinhua
The particle contains two strange quarks and a bottom quark. It is an exotic relative of the much more common proton and weighs about six times the proton mass.
Qian, originally graduated from University of Science and Technology of China and now a professor at University of Michigan, played a leading role in the discovery of this new particle. It was detected for the first time in a particle accelerator at Fermilab in Illinois.
The heavy particle is scarce today, but scientists believe it was abundant soon after the Big Bang.
"This discovery helps us understand how matter was formed in the universe. It shows the critical success of the quark model and gives us new insight into the strong force, which binds quarks together to form larger particles," said Qian.
Qian is among 600 physicists from 90 institutions involved in DZero, the international experiment at Fermilab that produced these results.
Qian said detecting the Omega b baryon was like finding a needle in a haystack. They developed algorithms that allowed them to analyze almost 100 trillion particle collisions to find 18 events with the distinctive characteristics expected from the decay of the Omega b baryon.
In the collisions in the experiment, protons and anti-protons traveling near the speed of light hit head on, occasionally producing exotic heavy particles such as the Omega b baryon. The baryon travels about 1 millimeter before it decays into other particles.
Baryons are particles that make up the visible matter in the universe today. Protons and neutrons are the lightest baryons. Allbaryons are made of different combinations of three quarks. Quarksare smaller particles that come in six "flavors:" up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. Scientists organize these flavors into three families.
Protons and neutrons are made of the quarks in the first family: up and down quarks. This new particle is the first baryon ever detected that is made only of quarks from the other two families. The Omega b baryon has two strange quarks and one bottom quark.
The discovery of the doubly strange particle brings scientists a step closer to understanding exactly how quarks form matter and to completing the "periodic table of baryons."
Source: Xinhua
First test-tube monkeys given birth in China
Chinese scientists have given birth to the country's first test-tube monkeys, which is believed to be the first step to engineer gene-modified monkeys.
Dr. Sun Qiang of the East China Normal University led the primate research group to create the seven macaques, a type of monkeys that are fond of eating crabs. Their experiments were published by the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
Closest among animals to physique, genetic nature and behavior of human beings, primate models are usually used for studying medical treatment for human diseases.
Under the state-financed program that focuses on the primate reproductive research and bio-engineering, Dr. Sun said, "Our next step is to bring about more test-tube monkeys and eventually make gene-modified monkeys benefiting for medical research."
Chinese scientists are now catching up with leading scientists in developed countries in engineering transgenic monkeys. American researchers have already produced the world's first gene-modified monkey, Andi. The scientific community has tried to use such monkeys to find new ways to treat diabetes, the Alzheimer's, AIDS and breast cancer.
Test-tube technology is the best available way to breed transgenic monkeys, experts said.
Sun's team capitalized on a few new technologies on stimulating more eggs from female monkeys and collecting semen and mammalian oocyte, as well as new ways of in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation.
The new technologies "can significantly improve the pregnancy rate and live birth of healthy baby monkeys," the scientist said.
Their technique was regarded as an efficient method in constructing various transgenic primate disease models.
All the seven new born monkeys are healthy, Sun said, with the oldest Lele, or Happiness, being aged at one and half years.
Source: Xinhua
Dr. Sun Qiang of the East China Normal University led the primate research group to create the seven macaques, a type of monkeys that are fond of eating crabs. Their experiments were published by the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
Closest among animals to physique, genetic nature and behavior of human beings, primate models are usually used for studying medical treatment for human diseases.
Under the state-financed program that focuses on the primate reproductive research and bio-engineering, Dr. Sun said, "Our next step is to bring about more test-tube monkeys and eventually make gene-modified monkeys benefiting for medical research."
Chinese scientists are now catching up with leading scientists in developed countries in engineering transgenic monkeys. American researchers have already produced the world's first gene-modified monkey, Andi. The scientific community has tried to use such monkeys to find new ways to treat diabetes, the Alzheimer's, AIDS and breast cancer.
Test-tube technology is the best available way to breed transgenic monkeys, experts said.
Sun's team capitalized on a few new technologies on stimulating more eggs from female monkeys and collecting semen and mammalian oocyte, as well as new ways of in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation.
The new technologies "can significantly improve the pregnancy rate and live birth of healthy baby monkeys," the scientist said.
Their technique was regarded as an efficient method in constructing various transgenic primate disease models.
All the seven new born monkeys are healthy, Sun said, with the oldest Lele, or Happiness, being aged at one and half years.
Source: Xinhua
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