sony pictures

HBO renews Universal film deal, one less studio for Netflix

HBO has locked up the pay-TV rights for films from Universal Pictures, one of the top six Hollywood film studios, the company's said today.

HBO, owned by Time Warner, and Comcast-controlled Universal, said they extended their licensing agreement into the next decade. HBO will continue to own exclusive access to the movies during the pay-TV window -- the period that begins after movies are made available for sale on download and discs.

The deal limits Netflix's ability to land another big licensing agreement similar to the one it entered into with Disney late last year. A month ago, … Read more

Sony: We've changed, we've really changed!

For once, the typically secretive Sony Corp. was downright forthcoming.

While his presentation yesterday at the UBS Media Conference in New York drew far less attention than one given yesterday by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Robert Wiesenthal, Sony Corp of America's CFO, served up more new info about his company.

Here's a quick taste:

Wiesenthal said Sony is no longer wedded to the idea of proprietary formats and doesn't necessarily have to try and make everything itself--which is why the company is cozying up to Google and embracing the Android operating system for some of its mobile … Read more

Can the Smurfs help UltraViolet kill off the DVD?

Hollywood continues to try to lay the foundation for UltraViolet, the technology that studio managers hope will replace the DVD.

Sony Pictures on Friday issued Blu-ray versions of "The Smurfs" and "Friends With Benefits" and also provided disc buyers with access to UV copies of the films. The studio will do the same with the release of the revenge flick "Columbiana" on December 20.

In addition, Variety, a film industry trade publication, is reporting that Sony Pictures will release a UV version of the Brad Pitt hit movie "Moneyball" on January 10. … Read more

Sony Pictures making deal for film rights to Jobs bio--report

It looks like Sony Pictures wants to release a biopic about Steve Jobs based on Walter Issacson's upcoming authorized biography.

According to Mike Fleming at blog Deadline New York, the studio is working on a deal that would give it film rights to the book, which is set to be released later this month.

Fleming says the film's producer will be Mark Gordon, who produced "Saving Private Ryan," among many other projects.

Sony, the studio behind last year's hit Facebook/Mark Zuckerberg flick "The Social Network," would not comment, Fleming says.

The biography by former Time magazine Managing Editor Issacson includes two years' worth of interviews with Jobs and his family members and colleagues, and is now set to be released October 24. The original date was November 21, which was moved up from the "early 2012" time frame the publisher originally announced.

Though there have been other biographies about Apple's iconic co-founder, who died this week, Isaacson's has been billed as the first published with Jobs' participation.… Read more

What was Hollywood's role in Netflix price hike?

Some of those searching for clues about why Netflix unexpectedly raised prices last week appear to be convinced that the trail leads to Hollywood, the home of the top six film studios.

After Netflix announced Tuesday that prices would rise by 60 percent, a popular theory was that CEO Reed Hastings sought to build up his war chest. Acquisition costs for streaming content are soaring.

Last week The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Netflix renewed a multiyear licensing agreement with NBC Universal for a fee of as much as $300 million a year. That's more than 10 times the $22 … Read more

Is UltraViolet on track with effort to seed cloud?

While much of Hollywood appears to be helping pave the way for cloud film services, there are still some nagging questions about how much support there is for the technology.

Certainly, lots of people are saying they're on board. Most of the top Hollywood film studios--with the exception of Disney--are part of a consortium that has developed UltraViolet, a set of technical standards they hope will act as the bedrock for the next-generation home video format. UV is designed to ensure that consumers will be able to play their movies and TV shows through a wide range of cloud … Read more

Hackers claim 177K e-mails from Sony Pictures France

Sony's turn as the whipping boy for Internet hackers continued over the weekend. Two hackers posted a list of e-mails they say they took from the Sony Pictures France Web site.

The two hackers who claim responsibility are a Lebanese student who goes by the handle Idahc, and a French friend of his who goes by Auth3ntiq. The two say they copied 177,172 e-mails from the entertainment company's site, but posted only 70 of them on the code-sharing site Pastebin. They say they will not be posting all of the e-mails they found.

Jim Kennedy, Sony Pictures … Read more

Sony Pictures says 37,500 customer records exposed

Almost a week after hackers posted a trove of customer information stolen from various Sony businesses' Web sites, Sony Pictures has more details on the attack.

Today the company posted a statement saying that personally identifying information of 37,500 customers had been exposed in the breach.

"We are continuing to investigate the details of this cyberattack; however, we believe that one or more unauthorized persons may have obtained some or all of the following information that you may have provided to us in connection with certain promotions or sweepstakes: name, address, email address, telephone number, gender, date of birth, and website password and user name," the statement reads.

Sony Pictures notes that it had not requested credit card information, Social Security numbers, or driver's license numbers from those people.

Sony Pictures said it notified those affected this morning. … Read more

Sony confirms Lulzsec compromised server data

Sony Pictures tonight confirmed that some of its Web sites were breached yesterday.

In a joint statement, Sony Pictures Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton and Co-chairman Amy Pascal said the company has contacted the FBI in an attempt to find out who was behind the cyberattack.

Yesterday a group of hackers calling themselves Lulzsec brashly taunted Sony on Twitter saying it would "embarrass" the company by posting data stolen from the company's servers. Several hours later the group posted online 150,000 people's passwords, names, e-mail addresses, addresses, and phone numbers from SonyPictures.com and Sony … Read more