Not that anyone buys a Microsoft Xbox specifically for the movie classics you can watch on it ... But Microsoft announced a new deal with MGM Studios that will make more than 50 of the studio's classic films available for download via the Xbox Live service, exclusively available for the Xbox 360 console. Among those titles are Rocky, The Silence of the Lambs, and the entire James Bond movie franchise.

The software and gaming giant announced previously that it sold 4.3 million Xbox 360 consoles during the fourth quarter of 2007, which built its platform base to 17.7 million units.

The new deal adds another film studio giant to the Xbox Live Marketplace movie and TV content roster, which already included Warner Bros., Paramount, Nickelodeon, Fox, Disney, New Line, Lionsgate, Miramax, MTV, and Turner Broadcasting.

Microsoft announced the new deal during its keynote at yesterday's opening day of the Consumer Electronic Show presentation in Las Vegas.

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The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) confirmed that its members will not cross the Writers Guild of America's picket lines, so the first of the major movie awards presentations, the Golden Globes, may be cancelled, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

As of late Sunday night, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and NBC, who owns the rights to air the broadcast, were in negotiations to figure out a way to save the broadcast. At issue, along with the SAG/WGA holdout, is NBC's contract with HFPA and whether there is an "out" clause in its terms.

Dick Clark Prods., which produces and co-owns the broadcast, is continuing its preparations, according to the report. DCP affirmed that it had attempted to reach an independent agreement with the WGA, as other production companies (such as David Letterman's Worldwide Pants Inc.) have done, but to no avail.

Odd as it sounds, there is precedent for going ahead even without the big stars. The 1980 Emmys went on during a boycott by TV stars.

A final decision is expected later today.
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As your children may have been reminding you incessantly for the past few days (or vice versa!), it's finally here: the new VeggieTales movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, opens in theaters nationwide on Jan. 11.

Since 1993, Mike and Phil (as Big Idea, their production company) have put out some 27 direct-to-video episodes of VeggieTales, pioneering CGI animation and capturing the imagination of children of all ages (including this 46-year-old's) with their inventive blend of value-driven storytelling, whimsical humor, and -- of course -- silly songs. Oh, the silly songs. VeggieTales took the next big step, to the big screen, in 2002 with the release of Jonah. But if Mike and Phil aren't names you automatically know, you are certainly familiar with their virtual personas: Phil is the man behind Bob the Tomato, and Mike is, of course, Larry the Cucumber.

In anticipation of next weekend's big event, Infuzemag.com spent a few minutes chatting with Lar -- er, Mike Nawrocki, the director of Pirates and one of the demented geniuses behind the VeggieTales.

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Netflix and South Korean electronics giant LG announced an agreement late yesterday to develop a set-top box that will allow Netflix customers to download movies directly to their high-definition TVs.

The online DVD-rental giant has already implemented a "Watch Instantly" feature that allows users with PCs who use Internet Explorer as their web browser to watch streamed films on their computers. Since many "early adopters" of new technology prefer the experience of watching movies on their HDTV sets, this is the logical next step, and is likely to further pressure the already-shrinking DVD market.

With more than 7 million registered users, Netflix's new content delivery stream will put pressure on the high-definition DVD market, which is currently bogged down in a format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray. The LG box will compete directly with those players and their discs.

The new Netflix-enabled LG player is scheduled for release during the second half of this year, according to the announcement.

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David Fincher's movies are among those few that truly cry out for the extended treatment. With the release of the Two-Disc Director's Cut package of his most recent film, Zodiac, fans of the film and its director are in for a real treat: a DVD release that, unlike its predecessor, is worthy of the film.

I sincerely hope you didn't buy the initial release. Paramount did a disservice to its customers with that barebones package and poor-quality transfer; the film looked bad on a regular TV, and downright awful on a decent home theater setup. I rented it, and was suitably disappointed -- all the more so given how much I enjoyed the film in the theater. Didn't even finish it.

This is the edition to own. The transfer is just right this time; the non-HD release looked and sounded terrific on my home theater setup.

The film itself represents a bit of a departure for Fincher, who is known for his intensely violent (and sometimes brutal) action sequences and sparse dialogue. Based on Robert Graysmith's books on the real-life case of the Zodiac killer (still unsolved to this day), Zodiac traces the murders, the investigation, and the fallout from that, all from Graysmith's point of view.

I know, I know: Does the world really need one more documentary about the Kennedy assassination? I don't know that producer/writer/director Robert Stone asked himself that question specifically, but he certainly found his answer with Oswald's Ghost: in this case, a very qualified yes.

Originally broadcast as part of PBS's long-running (and generally excellent) American Experience series, Oswald's Ghost focuses not so much on the assassination itself, the single greatest source of conspiracy theories ever. Rather, Stone takes a mostly historiographic approach to the subject, examining how journalists, historians, writers, and researchers, as well as the general public, responded to the event, the Warren Commission report, and the countervailing conspiracy theories that emerged in the wake of those watershed 20th century events.

Stone traces the impact of these events through their twisted aftermath, including New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison's notorious grandstanding in prosecuting businessman Clay Shaw, the public debate that occasionally cropped up on TV news programs, the reenactments and congressional committees, and so on. Stone's broad perspective could've been broader, though; aside from Norman Mailer, defenders of the lone gunman position are not heard from.  

Resolved: There are enough reviews of The Great Debaters that begin with the word "resolved." And for those who haven't seen the movie, the word appears only a handful of times in a limited number of scenes, as the introduction to each formal debate. So instead, like the movie, I will argue the affirmative by focusing less on the debates, and more on the painfully obvious dichotomy that drives the film, one that nearly destroyed twentieth-century America: white/black.

In 1935, there was a bloody line between white and black, one that linked the two races as much as it affirmed their mutual exclusion. The Great Debaters explores the lives of those who tried to cross the line, erase the line, or simply pretend it did not exist. Scripted by Robert Eisele, directed by Denzel Washington, and produced by Oprah Winfrey, Debaters tells the true story of a small-town, African-American debate team that rose to challenge one of America's greatest (and whitest) universities. Though we need only reference history to see how the story ends, the film delivers a realistic and riveting experience that few books could convey.

It is amazing that a story as dark as Sweeney Todd's (in its various incarnations) has survived for more than 200 years. Its origins are uncertain, but its enduring popularity isn't. In repeated tellings, publications, stagings, old Sweeney has variously been a greedy, bloodthirsty butcher in the guise of a barber, or, in Christopher Bond's 1973 drama, a falsely imprisoned man seeking revenge on the powerful judge who wronged him.

That's the version that Stephen Sondheim crafted into a celebrated (if remarkably dark, even given the source material) musical in 1979, which originally starred Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. "Murder, She Baked," I guess you could call it.

You could call Sweeney Todd -- Tim Burton's stylish bloodbath version -- "Murder, They Sang, and Kept on Singing." Burton's film is a visual achievement, from the lushly oppressive sets to the nearly sepia-toned cinematography, and the rich, brilliantly textured music (to say nothing of the wickedly funny, and at times winsome, lyrics) of Sondheim.

 

It's in the execution of all these elements that things don't quite gel the way I had hoped they would, even though there are breathtaking moments.

Half of this year's 10 highest-grossing movies were sequels, and four of those five were "threequels," as Hollywood studios posted a new record box office total in 2007, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Indeed, six studios exceed $1 billion in grosses, the first time that's ever happened.

Spider-Man 3 topped 'em all, registering $336.5 million in grosses, followed by Shrek the Third at $321 million. Leading the nonsequels was Transformers, which brought in $319.1 million and came in third overall.

Total box office hit $9.62 billion in 2007, which was 5 percent over 2006 and 4 percent over the previous record, set in 2002. The better news for the studios is the increase in ticket sales, which nudged 1 percent higher over last year at 1.41 billion sold. That was the highest total since 2004. (Economists tend to view ticket sales as more relevant figure, as inflation tends to pad revenue figures.)

One of the more lucrative trends for theaters and chains has been the introduction of digital projectors, which are responsible for the growth of on-screen advertising.

As for ticket prices, we paid an average of $6.82 to get in, according to estimates from the National Association of Theatre Owners.

A complete list of the top 25 releases is here.

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Sacha Baron Cohen, best known as Borat and Ali G from his hit HBO series, may be up for the lead role as '60s radical activist Abbie Hoffman in what may well be Stephen Spielberg's next film, The Trial of the Chicago Seven.

 

The film will tell the story of the seven activists, including Hoffman and his Yippie counterparts, who were charged with inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Their trial was itself a bizarre media event, filled with pranks and outbursts.

Cohen has officially retired the Borat character following the success (and controversy) of the 2006 film, Borat: Cultural Leanings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. He can currently be seen in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Spielberg's representatives have not confirmed the report, which originally appeared in London's Sunday Times.

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