'THE HOBBIT' FINALLY GETS A TRAILER

Fans of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films have reason to cheer today as there is finally a trailer of the upcoming movie, “The Hobbit.” The first of a two-movie production, “The Hobbit” tells J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel tale of Bilbo Baggins journeying with Gandalf (for the first time) to help reclaim Erebor for its rightful dwarven owners. The first installment will focus on the earlier part of the group’s adventures, including the finding of the One Ring by Bilbo in Gollum’s cave.

The trailer shows that the film is being produced with the same look and feel as his first three LotR movies. Indeed if you didn’t know you were watching the trailer for the Hobbit you might think you were seeing clips from the trilogy. This is due in large part to Jackson being able to retain the original actors who played Gandalf and Galadriel, a welcome sight for fans who demand consistency across production.

NETFLIX EXPANDING TO UK AND IRELAND IN 2012

Well it looks like Netflix's rumored UK launch was a lot more than just a rumor. Today, the company announced that it will indeed expand to the UK and Ireland "in early 2012," promising to offer unlimited streaming on PCs, tablets and mobile devices at a "low monthly subscription price." The company didn't say what that price would be, nor did it offer any details on available content or supported devices, though more details will be announced closer to its launch. We're also expecting to hear more from Netflix during its Q3 earnings conference call later today, when we should find out about the impact of its recent price hike and Qwikster turnaround. Whether or not its foray into the UK can loosen Lovefilm's grip on the domestic market, however, remains to be seen.

HONEYCOMB TABLETS GET NETFLIX STREAMING

Netflix subscribers can finally stream movies to their Android tablets without worrying about installing third-party .apks files or attempting annoying work-arounds. The company announced on Wednesday that its application now supports tablets running Android 3.x (Honeycomb). In addition, the Netflix app supports users in Canada and Latin America now. Netflix for Honeycomb is free, provided you already subscribe to the company’s “Watch Instantly” streaming service, and it is available in the Android Market now.

RUMOR: APPLE TO STREAM MOVIES USING iCLOUD

Apple's iCloud may have only just launched but according to rumors reported by the LA Times and Wall Street Journal, it's already negotiating with Hollywood to add movies to the service.

The timing is particularly curious because Apple, along with Disney, is one of the notable holdouts from the movie studio-backed Ultraviolet scheme, which launches the first two movies on Friday. However, according to "people familiar with the matter" it could allow Ultraviolet access on iDevices via an app, while also bringing its usual media lock-in magic by also throwing in streaming copies of any flicks purchased on iTunes, but only on its own hardware. Recently activated streaming of purchased TV shows to the Apple TV shows the cloud's potential, but we'll have to wait for deals to be signed before that North Carolina datacenter puts Hollywood's best on its to-do list.

ULTRA-VIOLET MOVIE STREAMING SERVICE FROM MOVIE STUDIOS TO LAUNCH THIS WEEK

Warner Bros, Sony, Paramount and 20th Century Fox’s UltraViolet service, which will allow consumers to stream purchased movies to internet connected devices, will make its debut this week. The movie studios hope UltraViolet will attract consumers back to purchasing movies instead of simply renting them. Here’s how it will work: when you purchase a DVD or Blu-ray disc with an UltraViolet label, you will have the option to also stream the movie to portable devices such as smartphones and tablets, or to connected TVs.

The idea is that users will be able to permanently purchase a movie and keep a copy of it in the cloud. “We want to emphasize the concept of ‘buy once, play anywhere,’” Warner Bros president of digital distribution Thomas Gewecke said. For now, it remains unclear how successful the service will be, as many consumers have instead opted for products that provide streaming access to large libraries of movies, such as cable set-top boxes, Boxee or Roku.

“Green Lantern” and “Horrible Bosses” are the first two movies to offer an UltraViolet option, and both films will be available for purchase on Friday.

SONY PICTURES CLOSE TO ACQUIRING STEVE JOBS BIOGRAPHY RIGHTS FOR FEATURE FILM

Sony Pictures is working on a deal to acquire the rights to Steve Jobs’s biography for a feature film, Deadline reported on Friday. The highly anticipated authorized biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacsson is due for release on October 24th, and Sony Pictures is reportedly making a substantial offer for the motion picture rights. ”I’m hearing the deal is $1 million against $3 million and that Mark Gordon will be the producer,” Mike Fleming wrote on Deadline. Sony Pictures is thought to be a good fit for the project following its work on business book turned feature film Moneyball and the Oscar-nominated The Social Network. If the studio manages to work out a deal, this would be only the second film to chronicle Jobs’s career, the first being Pirates Of Silicon Valley

DISH NETWORK LAUNCHES BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE PASS

Dish Network on Friday announced the upcoming availability of Blockbuster Movie Pass, an unlimited video streaming service akin to Netflix’s “Watch Instantly.” Beginning October 1st, Dish subscribers will have unlimited access to a small library of digital content that they can stream to a PC or to a TV using a standard Dish set-top box. While Netflix is moving in a completely different direction, having just spun off its DVD rental service to focus on streaming, Dish is sticking with the multi-pronged approach as Blockbuster’s best bet. “We’ve created a package that combines the best assets of the movie entertainment and video gaming industries with the convenience and integration provided by a multichannel video provider,” said Blockbuster president Michael Kelly in a statement. “Blockbuster Movie Pass is the ultimate programming package for every movie buff. The combination of DVDs by mail and unlimited in-store exchanges provides more than 100 million people living near Blockbuster stores, which are open 7 days a week, immediate satisfaction and unmatched choice.”

LEAKED COPY OF "SUPER 8" TURNS UP ON P2P NETWORKS, POINTS TO HOWARD STERN AS OWNER

Poor-quality cammed copies of Super 8 started turning up online as soon as the movie premiered, but during the last 24 hours the game has gotten a whole lot more interesting. Several P2P release groups have uploaded the movie in high-quality, each one apparently sourced from the same studio-issued DVD Screener.

As can be seen from the screenshot below, the copy has the usual watermarks across the bottom of the screen stating that the movie is the property of Paramount Pictures. However, in the top right hand corner is another watermark which appears to indicate who the copy was given to – H STERN.

The watermark runs throughout the entire copy and although it’s possible that someone is trying to have some fun at Mr Stern’s expense by putting it there, it seems unlikely that a release group would do such a thing.

Furthermore, if that was the case and a clean ‘unpranked’ copy was available, it would turn up very quickly indeed. At the moment it seems that all release groups are using the same source.

The other possibility of course is that there is another H STERN on the DVD Screener list. Likely? We’ll probably find out on Monday.

WAL-MART ADDS MOVIE STREAMING TO WEBSITE

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has added streaming movies to its website as the world's largest retailer attempts to grab a bigger share of the online movie market from rival service Netflix Inc.

The decision to offer movie sales and rentals through Walmart.com comes just two weeks after Netflix raised prices for the majority of its customers. The price hike provoked howls of protest from consumers and disappointing subscriber growth projections, leading to a significant drop in Netflix's stock price.

Wal-Mart, long the nation's leading seller of DVDs, signaled its intent to double down on digital movie distribution in February 2010, when it spent a reported $100 million to acquire Vudu, a Silicon Valley start-up that was gradually being added to home entertainment devices.

Since the acquisition, Vudu has been able to leverage the giant retailer's clout with manufacturers to incorporate is service into more than 300 consumer electronics products, including Internet-connected television sets, Blu-ray disc players and the Sony PlayStation 3 game console.

This spring, Vudu began offering movie rentals and purchases via the Web, through Vudu.com, positioning the service to better compete with the likes of Amazon.com, Apple Inc.'s iTunes or Blockbuster.

Offering 20,000 movie titles for rental and purchase through Wal-Mart's website, which attracts about 40 million monthly visitors, is a further step in that direction. It better positions the retailer to take on established online players, as well as traditional competitors such as Best Buy, which last may bought digital video service CinemaNow.

On Wal-Mart's website, the movies will be available the same day the DVDs go on sale in stores. Rental prices range from 99 cents to $5.99. Digital purchases are priced from $4.99 to $24.99.

DISH NETWORK CLOSING 200 MORE BLOCKBUSTER STORES

Dish Network on Thursday revealed plans to shutter 200 additional Blockbuster stores, dropping the number of nationwide locations to approximately 1,500. Dish won an auction to take control of Blockbuster and its remaining assets this past April, after the fallen giant filed for bankruptcy last September. Dish said that the 15,000 employees working in Blockbuster locations that will remain operational will not lose their jobs. The company also said employees of the locations set to be shuttered will have the opportunity to transfer to other stores. Blockbuster failed to evolve with the shifting movie rental industry — when it finally did begin to offer new portfolio options to compete with the likes of Netflix, it neglected to add any real value or differentiation beyond competitive offerings. Coupled with the expense of operating physical rental shops, Blockbuster didn’t stand a chance. Dish Network acquired Blockbuster’s in April for approximately $228 million in cash, and it remains to be seen whether or not Dish can manage to transform the current business into something worthwhile.

RUMOR: AMAZON TO STREAM MOVIES TO OWN BRANDED TABLET

Amazon has plans to offer a streaming movie service tied to its forthcoming own-branded tablets, researchers at Detwiler Fenton claim. According to the research team, Amazon’s streaming movie service will be available to early adopters of Amazon’s tablet for free. The revelation seems obvious, but the Boston-based research firm’s claim could be the first well-sourced confirmation of the service, reports of which were purely speculative until now.

It is also believed that Amazon’s tablets will feature deep integration with Amazon’s Cloud Locker streaming music service, and the Amazon Appstore will likely be a point of focus as well.

TGG reported last month that Amazon is working on a pair of tablets — the dual-core “Coyote” and the quad-core “Hollywood” — that will give the company new revenue streams to compliment its dedicated Kindle eReaders.

AUSTIN MOVIE THEATER MAKES EXAMPLE OF TEXTER; USES VOICEMAIL AS PSA

We’ve all been to the movies and seen the message beforehand telling us to turn off our cell phones. It’s basically common sense at this point, but some people need to be reminded. Recently, a woman visited the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, and chose to send texts during the movie. The theater, which has a strict no-texting policy, did not take kindly to the text-happy woman and decided to make an example of her.

The woman was asked to stop texting twice during the movie but was kicked out when she refused. For some reason, the irate woman decided to leave the Drafthouse a voicemail giving them a piece of her mind. The Drafthouse in turn decided to make the woman’s embarrassing voicemail into a video that it now plays before films start.

The video transcribes the entire call in a rather comical way. The very angry woman is a little hard to understand at times, but, thanks to the transcription, it’s clear that she calls the U.S. the “Magnited States of America,” and pronounces the word “regular” as “reglear.”

In the voicemail, the woman said she has texted in “all the other theaters in Austin,” and that no one cared when she did that. She obviously has a warped perception of things, as I’m pretty sure fellow movie goers would be a little bothered by the light of her phone.

NEW VILLAIN REVEALED FOR AVENGERS MOVIE

The Avengers is currently in production and we know a bit about the protagonists. The main villain for "The Avengers" is none other than Thor's adoptive brother and archenemy Loki and that he will need some serious muscle to go up against "The Avengers" and he does this by using the cosmic cube. Loki uses the cube to get a hold of the Aliens (aka The Skrulls) to invade Earth and fight "The Avengers." Skrulls are green-skinned reptilian humanoids with large pointed ears, red or green eyes, and corrugated chins.

But that’s not at all! There is another big time villain in the movie.

According to very trusted sources, the other villain is Thanos! To back up the sources claims we have the Infinity Gauntlet on display at last year’s San Diego Comic Con and it just made an appearance in Odin’s Vault in "Thor".

YOUTUBE LAUNCHING STREAMING WITH OVER 3,000 MOVIES FROM ALL MAJOR STUDIOS

In the midst of a blog post welcoming us to "the future of video" head of YouTube Salar Kamangar confirms that starting today it will add around 3,000 new movie titles for rental in the US, along with reviews and behind the scenes extras.

NBC Universal, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. are the new studios YouTube is partnering with to add the 3,000 new and catalog releases, doubling the amount previously available. The pricing is $2.99/$3.99 for movies viewable via PC or Google TV (no other devices support mentioned) and the FAQ notes that YouTube supports resolutions up to 4K but "most" of the new additions are sadly in SD, which is up to its partners.

RUMOR: SPOTIFY GETS CLOSER TO LAUNCHING MOVIE SERVICE

Spotify continues to negotiate with Facebook over its long promised U.S. launch. But that isn’t the only thing the music streaming service has been up to. They’ve negotiated a number of deals with major movie studios to offer users streaming movies as well as music, a source in the industry tells us.

Earlier this week we reported that YouTube plans a similar service (something we first wrote about last year). As with Google/YouTube, we’re not sure when Spotify will launch the new service. But our best information suggests this Fall.

And these aren’t your standard Netflix/Amazon/iTunes type movie deals, either, we’ve heard. Spotify is aiming to offer users much earlier access to movies. Similar to the release dates that hotel’s get for premium in-room movies. They’re expensive, but users can often see them just a couple of weeks after they’ve been in theaters.

We believe the studio deals being negotiated are for worldwide rights, so Spotify users anywhere would have access.

Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, is denying the rumor, however he has denied a number of past rumors that turned out to be true.

THEATER OWNERS READY TO FIGHT STUDIOS OVER $30 PREMIUM VOD PLANS

While we're not exactly in a hurry to spend $30 each on 60-day delayed movie rentals, theater owners are quite upset by the whole premium video-on-demand plan apparently being pushed by Warner, Sony, Fox and Universal. The most active objector so far appears to be AMC Theaters, which announced yesterday it would notify studios that it plans to "adapt its economic model" regarding movies bound for p-VOD. What it wants is likely a bigger slice of the revenue and also a heads up on which movies will be getting the earlier releases. Rival theater chains Regal and Cinemark have already expressed plans to cut promotion and screens for movies headed to p-VOD, but without any official announcement it's still not clear which movies those will be. Of course, cutting down promo and screens cuts into the theater's own revenue, so we'll consider this one another waiting game and wait to see who blinks first.

RUMOR: BLADE RUNNER TO GET PREQUEL/SEQUEL

According to Variety, Alcon Entertainment is in final talks to secure film, television and ancillary rights for Blade Runner. Fans of the original movie will be happy to hear those rights do not include the ability to remake the original movie.

Once secured by Alcon their next step is not entirely clear since they are still trying to figure that out as well. The entertainment company hasn’t even decided whether or not Ridley Scott, the original director of the film, will be involved in any future movies. In fact, it sounds like the only thing that is a definite is that Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, who are with Alcon Entertainment, won’t direct.

In Blade Runner, Harrison Ford plays a retired police officer who while active would hunt down biologically engineered humanoids referred to as replicants. Replicants are used on off-world colonies and legally cannot return to Earth. When they do, they are hunted down by special police officers like Ford referred to as “blade runners.” Unwillingly, Ford is drafted back into service as a blade runner and the plot takes off from there.

While Blade Runner did poorly at the box office in its initial run, it has developed a cult following which has led to interest in the possibility of making prequels or sequels based on the storyline.

REDBOX REAFFIRMS STREAMING OPTION

In a meeting with analysts, Redbox President Mitch Lowe reaffirmed the Coinstar-owned company’s plans to launch a Netflix “Watch Instantly” competitor this year. Coinstar CEO Paul Davis first confirmed the forthcoming service last year during an earnings call, though he would not specify whether the company’s Internet streaming service would utilize an all-you-can-eat pricing model or and a la carte model. Lowe has now confirmed that the service will be subscription-based, but he did not indicate price points for the service. Redbox currently owns and operates a large network of unmanned DVD rental kiosks located throughout the country. These self-service kiosks, which are stocked with new releases and popular recent titles, allow customers to rent DVDs for as little as $1. Redbox still has not revealed a partner for its upcoming streaming service, though rumors suggest Amazon may be the most likely candidate. [BGR]

GOOGLE UNVEILS MOVIE STUDIO VIDEO EDITOR FOR HONEYCOMB

Google today unveiled Movie Studio, a new application for the upcoming Honeycomb era of Android tablets that lets people edit videos.

The software, which Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt announced during a speech here at Mobile World Congress, is designed to expand on a phone's abilities to capture imagery.
With it, people can combine still images and videos to create broader video that can be shared online. People will be able to add musical soundtracks, fade to black at the end of the video, and add effects like the Ken Burns-style panning so common on Apple video software.
The software requires Android 3.0, the tablet-optimized version of Android set to debut soon with Motorola's Xoom tablet.

"When you play with Honeycomb, you'll get the sense of beauty and power we have with the new interface," Schmidt said. "I just really love it."

SHAWN LEVY TO DIRECT "FANTASTIC VOYAGE" REMAKE

It was thought James Cameron was going to direct the remake of the 1966 sci-fi classic "Fantastic Voyage". It is now known that Cameron is only producing and Shawn Levy will be directing. Levy just finished directing "Real Steel" about robot fighters staring Hugh Jackman. No word on who will star in this remake, although Raquel Welch, one of the original movie's stars, should definitely do a cameo.