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A new Hollywood pitch for Apple?

Another Apple conference, another turn on the rumor mill.

As Steve Jobs gets ready for his keynote address at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference this week, bloggers are buzzing about a report in the Financial Times that says the company is in talks with major Hollywood studios to launching an online movie rental business.

Apple already sells movies for download through iTunes, but the paper said the studios are more interested in the rental business, which they see as less threatening to DVD sales. According to the article, films would cost $2.99 for a 30-day rental and could … Read more

Speed Racer's 'Mach 5' comes to life

We extend our thanks in advance for your indulgence of our trip down memory lane this morning. Honest, we've tried to shake this nostalgia bug, but it keeps coming back--and this time we're not going to fight it, and you'll see why.

The Speed Racer car is real. That's right. The "Mach 5" has been brought to life in full glory from the '60s animation version (at least the body, anyway) for the Warner Bros. movie scheduled for release next year, according to Gizmodo. And thank goodness for that, because it's probably the … Read more

Arrgh...Movie pirates nabbed with night-vision goggles

You'd think catching movie pirates would be as easy as preventing anyone with a camcorder from entering a movie theater. Or throwing a net over Johnny Depp's house.

Instead, Malaysian theater workers are employing a high-tech strategy. According to a Reuters report, the Motion Picture Association is training Malaysian theater workers to strap on night-vision goggles to catch pirates in the act of filming.

And it's working. In the past two months, 17 illegal movie-tapers have been caught by begoggled Malaysian ushers.

Could New York City be the next test bed for the night-vision goggle probe? According … Read more

'Pirates' flash drives for all your digital booty

You probably already know that the merchandising mania for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has gone just a teeny bit over-the-top. Well, the tech tie-ins don't stop with skull-and-crossbones TVs: Pocket Lint claims to have found evidence of Pirates USB drives made by A-Data. Apparently, they'll come pre-loaded with wallpapers and other movie media goodies, and will be available in up to an 8GB capacity. Now that's some legit buried treasure.

However, there's no product page or pricing information yet. But considering the other sorts of Pirates tie-ins that we've already seen, … Read more

'Star Wars' homages through the years

We've got a gallery over at CNET News.com of some of our favorite 'Star Wars' pop culture homages over the past few decades, from Spaceballs to Lost. In case you stepped in late, today's the 30th anniversary of the original A New Hope release--seriously, has it really been that long? Talk about timeless.

Click here to see the rest of the gallery.

P.S.: What's the matter, Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?

Nothing faked in iClone's animation

Do you want to be the next John Lasseter? Is Hayao Miyazaki your hero? iClone Studio Edition 2.0 updates the feature-heavy, template-based 3D animation studio aimed at the amateur animator. It's a must-see app if you're trying to break into the camera side of movies and animation, or if you just want to play around with 3D animation without having to draw everything from scratch.

The installation is a bit of a drag, with a mandatory registration that also scans your computer's hardware. If your machine is tall enough for the ride, you can get access to an extended trial version with a few more templates than the regular trial. Once you're in, though, iClone really gets down to business.… Read more

Homer gets a custom Xbox, sans doughnut

News of the Electronic Arts "Simpsons" video game has barely rolled off the presses, but the product merchandizing juggernaut has long been in high gear.

Microsoft is coming out with a Homer-yellow Simpsons Xbox 360 to coincide with this summer's movie, though CrunchGear says there will be only 100 of them made for promotional events. We'll be starting an office pool to see how quickly they end up on eBay, not to mention how high the bids will go.

The only thing missing is a doughtnut accessory like the one dangling from the strap for Samsung'… Read more

Lights, cameras, cell phones!

What do a creepy old lady and a six-foot lobster have in common? Both were subjects of prize-winning films at the second annual Cellflix Film Festival at Ithaca College, a nationwide competition of 30-second films shot with cell phones.

Zack Wilson won the $5,000 grand prize for his piece, "Assisted Living," about a wise old lady whose sense of humor shows a young nurse the importance of enjoying life. Wilson reportedly spent about 90 minutes shooting and 10 hours editing.

The video is sweet and funny, but I don't think it should have won the grand … Read more

Tribeca Film Festival slowly warms up to new media

Can you make a server sexy?

Short answer: No.

But you can still throw it a glitzy launch party.

Over the past week or so, I've been poking my head into various events at the Tribeca Film Festival in lower Manhattan, which runs through tomorrow. I've always thought of film festivals as sort of low-tech affairs, and in a lot of ways, it's true--at a screening of Edward Burns' new flick, Purple Violets, the producers apologized for the first reel being "too light," and at the premiere of Spider-Man 3 co-star James Franco's latest … Read more