hollywood

Finally, Twitter Music is available to all

You don't have to be the host of "American Idol" to use Twitter Music anymore.

A little more than a month after CNET broke the news that Twitter was working on a stand-alone music discovery app and a week after that app was rolled out to an invite-only group of celebrities and others -- including Ryan Seacrest -- the general public can now get its hands on the music discovery app.

Twitter officially unveiled #music on Thursday during "Good Morning America." The company later provided more details about the service in a blog post, saying … Read more

Movie studios target mobile apps for copyright infringement

After targeting Web sites for copyright infringement for years, Hollywood is now setting its sights on mobile apps, according to Reuters.

Time Warner, Walt Disney, Sony, Viacom, and Twentieth Century Fox have all recently sent app "take down" notices to Google. Citing copyright infringement, these studios are demanding that the Web giant remove apps that use the likeness of characters in their movies or TV shows.

One of the offending apps is "Hobbit 3D Wallpaper HD," which has images from the popular movie, according to Reuters. Other apps are from movies like "Clash of the … Read more

'Star Wars' spin-offs said to focus on Han Solo and Boba Fett

The first two "Star Wars" spin-off films will focus on Han Solo's origin story, and the "rogue's gallery of galactic scum" in bounty hunter Boba Fett's world, Entertainment Weekly reported today.

Yesterday, Disney announced that it would be releasing a series of spin-off films built around individual "Star Wars" characters and produced alongside three forthcoming full-length "Star Wars" sequels. According to EW, the first two side projects will be about a young Han Solo and about Boba Fett.

"Several sources close to the projects confirmed this was the direction the development was taking," EW wrote, "although each cautioned it's still very early in the process, and, well, the deal could always be altered further." … Read more

Next 'Star Wars' may not be ready by 2015, Lucasfilm boss says

In what may come as a shock to "Star Wars" fans already planning to line up for the next film in the storied franchise in just two years, "Episode VII" may not be ready by 2015 after all.

That bombshell was dropped deep in The Hollywood Reporter's profile of new Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy today. Much of the main part of THR's story was devoted to divulging how Kennedy had corralled "Star Trek" director J.J. Abrams to sit in the director's chair on "Episode VII," but in a … Read more

How Lucasfilm corralled J.J. Abrams to direct next 'Star Wars'

For someone who has said that "Star Wars" was "the first movie that blew my mind," you'd think that the chance to direct "Episode VII" would have been a no-brainer. But J.J. Abrams wasn't so easy to convince.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the "Lost" creator and "Star Trek" director needed some cajoling, and in the end, it was left to new Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy -- the woman handpicked by George Lucas to run his beloved empire -- to seal the deal.

Late last week, word … Read more

J.J. Abrams: One director to rule them all?

Since 1977, there's been "Star Trek" and there's been "Star Wars" and never the twain shall meet.

It's not that fans of one franchise couldn't be fans of the other. But for the most part, if you were involved in the production of one, you weren't involved in the other. But now, with word out of Hollywood that "Star Trek" and "Star Trek Into Darkness" director J.J. Abrams may helm the forthcoming "Star Wars Episode VII," we may have an unprecedented mixing of the … Read more

Amazon to launch auto rip, an effort to sex up CDs

Update January 10 at 6:10 a.m. PT: Amazon has now introduced its AutoRip service.)

LAS VEGAS -- The compact disc has long been left for dead by most tech-savvy music fans, but Amazon apparently still sees some life left in the format.

Amazon managers are expected to announce soon that CD buyers from now on will automatically receive copies of the same tracks stored in their Amazon cloud, free of charge, multiple sources with knowledge of the plan told CNET. The cloud-stored tunes can then be accessed from Web-enabled devices.

The feature is being referred to internally as &… Read more

Hollywood bigwig Peter Chernin joins Twitter's board

Welcome, @peterchernin, to Twitter's board.

— Twitter (@twitter) November 16, 2012

Twitter said this afternoon that former News Corp. executive Peter Chernin has become the newest member of its board of directors.

Well known in Hollywood, Chernin helped launch Hulu and is on Pandora's board. The move was expected, with All Things D reporting earlier in the day that Twitter was "poised" to name Chernin.

Rumors about who would be the newest Twitter director have been flying for months, with Chernin's name prominently mentioned.

Twitter's current board members are CEO Dick Costolo, co-founder Evan Williams, … Read more

Report: Hollywood big shot Peter Chernin set to join Twitter's board

As Twitter becomes more and more mainstream, it may also be trying to become more Hollywood.

According to AllThingsD, Twitter plans to name Peter Chernin, a well-known Hollywood executive, to its board of directors. Chernin would take the spot on the board vacated by Flipboard CEO Mike McCue.

Rumors have been flying for months that Chernin, who has held top slots at News Corp., and who helped start Hulu and is on Pandora's board, would become a Twitter director.

Twitter's current board members are CEO Dick Costolo, co-founder Evan Williams, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, co-founder and … Read more

Google Play exec says big media can't ignore service (Q&A)

Look at Google go.

Not only are the new Android-powered Nexus devices here but Google has loaded the gadgets with more movies and music. For the first time, Google Play, the new name given to the old Android Market, can boast licensing deals with all the major music labels and film studios. That must have taken some doing.

Big entertainment companies have long complained about what they perceived as Google's reluctance to help protect copyrighted works from online pirates. But Android devices are everywhere and the popularity of the operating system makes it difficult for music and film companies … Read more