WWE
RAW 1000th Episode Screens In Australia today; Movie,
Hollywood, Celebrity and Casino News - 25th July 2012
WWE
RAW 1000th Episode Screens In Australia today; Movie,
Hollywood, Celebrity and Casino News; The Dark Knight
Rises, The Wolverine, Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Games...
Pro
wrestling fans down under in Australia - are you ready?
The WWE RAW 1000th episode screens today at 2.30pm
EST on FOX8. Most of the modern day wrestling legends
who helped make RAW as great as it is will be appearing.
Today's Media Man agency report also offers up news
and info on comic book movies and games associated
with 'The Dark Knight Rises', 'The Wolverine' and
'Amazing Spider-Man'. Then we check out the Australian
casino scene, and pick up a bit of political and celebrity
news for good measure. Keep checking the news website
portal daily for some of the most superior news coverage
on the internet.
WWE
Boss Vince McMahon on his WWE; (Q&A interview)...
As
the 1,000th episode of "Raw" approaches,
the wrestling king offers his thoughts on professional
wrestling aka "sports entertainment" (The
Hollywood Reporter).
Vince
McMahon has the final say at the WWE. He is the chairman
and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, and his
wife, Linda, is running for the U.S. Senate from Connecticut.
McMahon, 66, is preparing for the 1,000th episode
of USA flagship live show Raw, the longest-running
episodic primetime program in the U.S. Raw, which
reaches more than 600 million homes worldwide and
contributed massively to the network's $340 million
in revenue from live and televised entertainment in
2011. Today they kick of with adding a third hour
and becoming the most interactive show in pro wrestling,
and in just about any other medium or genre.
THE
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: You started on USA, moved to another
network and then returned to USA …
Vince McMahon: We became the No. 1 show on USA. And
they wouldn't be No. 1 right now in primetime if not
for Raw. We switched one time to what became the Spike
network and became the No. 1 show there. We have proved
that we can pretty much make TV networks.
THR:
WWE and your performers have started using Twitter
more.
McMahon:
Back in the early days, our performers elicited a
response -- a boo or a cheer. Today, we use all this
social media. We are going to do Tout, in which the
WWE just invested. With that, you get a 15-second
video shout-out that goes straight to our TV programs.
Beginning with the 1,000th show, people can participate
in terms of the types of matches and what actually
happens on air. It will be the most interactive TV
programming in the world.
THR:
Over the years, you had ups and downs. You had the
Monday night ratings wars with WCW, for example.
McMahon:
Ted Turner was a bit of a battle [when he bought the
World Championship Wrestling circuit]. Ted was part
of Time Warner; that was difficult to compete with.
But perseverance is extremely important in life and
in business. The other guys got tired of traveling
each and every week to do TV. They just didn't have
the same passion we do. They were working for a paycheck.
It was only a matter of time until they burned out.
THR:
Why has so much of your talent, like The Rock, gone
on to film careers?
McMahon:
Our talent is taught not to be prima donnas, to be
on time and know their lines. And quite frankly, people
in Hollywood, once they see what we do, they are amazed.
Our talent doesn't demand the biggest trailer or a
certain amount of grape juice or whatever the hell
it is. Our talent is extremely flexible and knows
how to act, so it's a logical extension for them.
THR:
UFC gets big pay-per-view numbers. How do you stack
up against them?
McMahon:
We're in show business, they are a sport. Their ratings
are abysmal. They are in the pay-per-view business,
and they do reasonably well there. We just set a record
for WrestleMania. We had 1.3 million buys for this
year's WrestleMania, and our pay-per-view numbers
for our shows have been up 30 percent since then.
So, we are looking pretty good.
THR:
Are you going to watch the Olympics?
McMahon:
I consider our business the Olympics, and it doesn't
just happen every few years, but every night. My favorite
part will be the closing ceremonies. That means the
Olympics are over, and everyone will settle down and
Raw, Smackdown! [on Syfy] and WWE will have more prominence.
STORY:
ION Enters Pro-Wrestling Ring with 'WWE Main Event'
WRESTLING
ROOTS
Dwayne
Johnson/The Rock: The third-generation wrestler began
his film career with The Mummy Returns. Next: G.I.
Joe: Retaliation, The Fast and the Furious 6.
Stacy
Keibler: Keibler wrestled and managed WWE stars, then
placed third on Dancing With the Stars. And, oh yeah,
she's been dating George Clooney since 2011.
"Stone
Cold" Steve Austin: McMahon's beer-swilling adversary
appeared in The Expendables.
Hulk Hogan: He's acted in Rocky III, starred on his
own reality show and done voice acting for Robot Chicken.
Freddie
Prinze Jr.: The She's All That star and WWE fan was
hired to help create Raw storylines in 2008. He has
guest-hosted on the show as well.
WWE Triple H Talks Talent...
Promoting
this coming Monday's historic 1000th episode of Raw,
Paul Levesque, also known as Triple H, addressed a
number of topics including Randy Orton's ongoing sixty-day
suspension for his second violation of WWE's Talent
Wellness Program.
Orton,
who hails from St. Louis, Missouri, the site of Monday's
show, will be unable to appear due to the suspension.
Though Levesque won't divulge what Orton did wrong,
he notes "The Legend Killer" will be back
once the suspension concludes.
"It
is important to remember that all of our wrestlers
are human but they also have to be accountable,"
Levesque says of Orton's suspension.
As
WWE's Executive Vice President of Talent and Live
Events, Levesque's corporate role is to discover tomorrow's
Superstars. He admits it's a struggle.
"We're
trying to teach them to be the Stone Colds and the
Undertakers of tomorrow, but the one thing we can't
teach is charisma," said Levesque. "You
can teach people to do moves and create story lines
and the psychology of what we do, but you can't teach
someone to be the Rock. It's an innate ability to
walk into a room and have everyone pay attention.
Put aside the athleticism and what happens in the
ring, what our business is really about is connecting
with people emotionally. If you are emotionally connected
to your character, then people will want to see you.
It's true in Hollywood and movies. You don't have
to be the best actor, just be a presence."
Triple
H, The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
created on-screen personas "fans loved, hated
or loved to hate" on Raw in the late '90s. Levesque
feels they were the first stars of reality television.
"Every
guy we have, whether it's me, whether it's the Undertaker,
whether it's John Cena playing the character John
Cena, is a performer," said Levesque. "What
we did is very much the beginning of reality television.
'Jersey Shore,' whether people want to believe it
or not, is a scripted kind-of show. They don't give
them every single word, but they give them premises
and they set things up. It's not a documentary where
you follow them around brushing their teeth. And that's
what we are — we blur that line and that's what
people find intriguing."
Levesque
also offers insight on The Rock and Kane's on-stage
personalities, WWE's decision to make their shows
"PG" television, critics denouncing wrestling
as "fake," and more.
WWE Raw Supershow - What To Expect On The Broadcast
Live in St. Louis, Mo, USA
The
three-hour WWE Raw era will start with a new signature
WWE open capturing WWE through the years.
Rapid-fire
clips of memorable moments throughout Raw's history
- Vince's "Bret screwed Bret" speech, Shawn
Michaels losing his smile, Edge retiring, Ric Flair
retiring, and Triple H tributing Eddie Guerrero.
A
video package focusing on "Stone Cold" Steve
Austin, Shawn Michaels and and Bret Hart becoming
friends again.
WWE
champion C.M. Punk vs. John Cena for the WWE Title
1
-- World Hvt. champion SHEAMUS & REY MYSTERIO
& SIN CARA vs. CHRIS JERICHO & DOLPH ZIGGLER
(w/Vickie Guerrero) & ALBERTO DEL RIO
2
-- JACK SWAGGER vs. BRODUS CLAY (w/Mick Foley)
3
-- IC champion CHRISTIAN vs. THE MIZ -- Intercontinental
Title match
Charlie
Sheen via Skype to talk wrestling and "anger
management".
4
-- HEATH SLATER vs. LITA
The Undertaker returns to RAW.
5 -- WWE champion C.M. PUNK vs. JOHN CENA -- WWE Title
match
*special
thanks to our friends at WWE, Pro Wrestling Torch,
Wrestling Observer Newsletter and Wrestling Inc in
assisting with this report.
New X Men, Wolverine 2 Film Revealed Possible New
Viper Actress...
New
X Men, Wolverine 2 film revealed possible new Viper
actress. According to a new report from Collider,
talks with Jessica Biel to play character Viper in
the new Wolverine 2 flick, did not workout,so now,
this new Russian actress Svetlana Khodchenkova is
currently in talks to play Viper instead. It’s
also reported that Svetlana is expected to close a
deal with the studio pretty quickly.
The
character of Viper is said to be of Eastern European
decent, and has a complex relationship with Wolverine
that includes, at one point, a sham marriage. Svetlana
is mostly known for her work in Russia, but she appeared
last year in the espionage flick “Tinker, Tailor,
Soldier, Spy.”
On
location work on The Wolverine will be done in Japan,
while stage work will be shot in Australia in August.
The movie stars: Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki
Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima,
Brian Tee, and is scheduled to hit theaters on July
26th,2013. Stay tuned.
Wolverine sequel: Jessica Biel out...
Just
days after Jessica Biel was announced to play Viper
in the forthcoming Wolverine sequel, The Wolverine,
it has emerged that the actress has now walked away
from the project after contract talks broke down.
James
Mangold has taken the reins for this installment with
Hugh Jackman returning to play the titular title role.
It will hopefully stay faithful to the Chris Claremont/Frank
Miller series which sees Wolverine transported to
Japan in one of his darkest storylines.
Biel
had been cast as Viper, a character who has a tempestuous
relationship with Wolverine/Logan, including blackmail,
a forced marriage and the odd wound – both physical
and mental. Viper is also known as Lady Hydra, a high
ranking officer in the Hydra network, but this may
not be referenced in The Wolverine as the rights to
Hydra are with Disney/Marvel Studios and Hydra was
used in Captain America: The First Avenger.
The
Wolverine has had a bumpy ride so far getting to the
big screen, with Darren Aronofsky leaving the project
very early on. This caused a delay in filming, which
then grew as Hugh Jackman had commitments to film
Les Miserables.
It’s
another setback for the production that commences
in Australia this August before filming on location
in Japan. Sources say that Fox are now talking to
other actors about the role as they look to move quickly
to replace Biel.
The
film is scheduled for release July 2013.
Marvel Entertainment movies; Thor, Spider-Man boost
popularity of online slot games...
The
Media Man agency reports that Marvel comics themed
games such as Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, Fantastic
Four and The Incredible Hulk have received a boost
thanks to recent and upcoming movie releases tied
in with Marvel Entertainment. For the gaming world
that Excelsior! (as Marvel legend Stan Lee would say).
Check em out at PartyCasino.com,
as featured across the Media Man network.
Comic Book Movies News Update...
DC
Comics:
Director
and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino will soon be scripting
for DC Comics. The announcement, made at San Diego
Comic Con, was nothing short of cryptic, and we are
waiting on more details to be divulged.
Marvel Comics:
The
Marvel NOW! Point-One teaser sequentially revealed
the heroes that will be strongly implicated in the
special issue to be released this Fall. The characters
are Nick Fury, Jr., Cable, Ant Man, Loki, Wiccan,
Miss America, Nova and Starlord.
Film and Television:
Dreamworks
recently entered a bidding war for Classic Media film
and television rights to properties like He-Man, Godzilla,
Voltron, Turok, Dick Tracy, Archie, Rocky and Bullwinkle,
and many more.
Marvel
Studios is investigating the leak that uncovered the
production of a Guardians of the Galaxy film weeks
before the film's planned announcement at San Diego
Comic Con.
The
Dark Knight Rises has reportedly earned $162 million
at the box office in its opening weekend despite tragedy.
The gross puts TDKR third behind Marvel's The Avengers
and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II,
both of which had inflated grosses due to 3D ticket
sales.
O'Neill formally takes over as Echo chairman - 23rd
July...
Australian
Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill has officially
taken over as chairman of casino operator Echo Entertainment
Group's board.
Mr
O'Neill takes over from John Story who stepped down
on June 8 following a campaign to remove him by James
Packer, head of rival casino operator Crown.
Mr
O'Neill, a non-executive board director and chief
executive of the Australian Rugby Union, subsequently
assumed the role of Echo's acting chairman.
His
appointment received Mr Packer's support.
Mr
Packer, seeking a presence in the lucrative Sydney
gaming market, wanted to to increase his influence
on Echo, which holds the city's sole casino licence.
Crown
took a 10 per cent holding in Echo.
Echo
operates The Star in Sydney, the Jupiters casinos
on the Gold Coast and in Townsville, and the Treasury
casino in Brisbane.
Crown
operates the Crown casino in Melbourne and the Burswood
casino in Perth.
Steven Spielberg Wants Chris Hemsworth for Robopocalypse...
Aussie
actor Chris Hemsworth was a relative unknown Stateside
only a couple years ago, but he has become the go-to
guy for roles requiring a handsome badass who fights
inhuman threats. Hemsworth has battled Frost Giants
in Thor and alien invaders in The Avengers as Thor
— and Thor's wicked brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston),
in both movies — and trolls as the Huntsman in
Snow White and the Huntsman, and it looks like he
will soon be battling robots for director Steven Spielberg
in Robopocalypse.
The
three-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker has been
trying to put together an adaptation of Daniel H.
Wilson's best-selling novel of the same name since
before the book was completed, and now it seems he's
finally ready to start moving forward with it. According
to Deadline, Spielberg recently met in secret with
Hemsworth to discuss starring in the movie and has
chosen him to lead the resistance against the artificial
intelligence Archos, which seeks to annhiliate the
human race.
Further
details on the adaptation are scarce at this point.
Goddard wrote the initial screenplay adaptation of
his book, but Deadline reports that Kario Salem (The
Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) has been hired
to rewrite Goddard's script. Here's the synopis of
the book from Random House's website:
Not
far into our future, the dazzling technology that
runs our world turns against us. Controlled by a childlike
— yet massively powerful — artificial intelligence
known as Archos, the global network of machines on
which our world has grown dependent suddenly becomes
an implacable, deadly foe. At Zero Hour — the
moment the robots attack — the human race is
almost annihilated, but as its scattered remnants
regroup, humanity for the first time unites in a determined
effort to fight back. This is the oral history of
that conflict, told by an international cast of survivors
who experienced this long and bloody confrontation
with the machines. Brilliantly conceived and amazingly
detailed, Robopocalypse is an action-packed epic with
chilling implications about the real technology that
surrounds us.
It's
the robots' world, we just live in it...for now.
Random
House also has a one-minute video short set in the
world of Robopocalypse on its site. The director of
the short, Stephen Lunsford, is no Spielberg, but
the short is worth watching solely for the creepy,
child-like voice of Archos declaring itself humanity's
god.
Robopocalypse
will be a joint Dreamworks-Fox production distributed
by Disney. It is slated for release on April 25, 2014.
Hugh Jackman echoes sorrow over massacre...
Australian
actor Hugh Jackman has expressed his sadness following
the mass shooting at a US screening of The Dark Knight
Rises.
'All
I can echo is the sorrow I feel for the families,
the community, for everybody,' he says.
'It's
an issue that goes way beyond, obviously beyond acting,
beyond film or anything like that.
'This
is just a tragedy on a level that we have experienced
in Australia many years ago in Tasmania and it's devastating
and I can't comment on (it) anymore than as a human
being and my feelings for those people involved.'
Jackman
was speaking in Sydney at a press conference on Tuesday
for his new film The Wolverine, alongside its director,
James Mangold, and Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Jackman
was sporting a red right eye, but it wasn't because
of training for the action movie, but rather 'a very
energetic game of tag with my kids', which he thinks
burst a blood vessel.
Jackman
says it wasn't easy getting back into shape for the
part, particularly coming from his last role as Jean
Valjean in Les Miserables.
'That
was a particular challenge because Les Mis, I had
to start at 83 kilos and I finished at about 97 kilos
by the end of the movie,' he says.
'We
did have a holiday recently, but it was more like
boot camp for me. But the kids and Deb (his wife,
actress Deborra-Lee Furness) were happy.'
Shooting
of The Wolverine is scheduled to start in Sydney on
July 30, after a number of setbacks for the sequel
to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Last
March, director Darren Aronofsky left the project,
and Mangold stepped in to replace him. Then the shoot,
which was originally meant to be in Japan, was postponed
last October because of weather conditions.
Mangold
says The Wolverine is based on a series of comics
that detail the mutant's journeys in Japan and he
refuted reports that Jessica Biel had turned down
the lead role of Viper.
'The
story couldn't be more of a fantasy frankly, in terms
of what I was reading, so it was nothing more than
a list of people we were considering and still are,'
he says.
Jackman,
who has played Wolverine now in five different movies
over the past 12 years, says he takes the movies on
one at a time.
For
The Wolverine, he saw the screenplay and was sold.
'I
feel like a golfer, always looking for a hole in one
and I thought this was the best script we've had,'
he says.
Hollywood declares box office truce after massacre...
The
Hollywood studio behind the Batman movies has decided
not to publish weekend box office figures after the
Colorado theatre massacre.
Twelve
people were killed and 58 injured when a gunman dressed
in full body armour opened fire at a packed midnight
premier of The Dark Knight Rises in Denver.
James
Holmes, 24, was taken into custody outside the cinema
after the attack. He is in solitary confinement and
is due in court on Monday morning.
Within
hours of the attack, Warner Brothers had cancelled
the movie's Paris premiere, which was to have been
accompanied by a press junket with the cast and crew
including director Christopher Nolan and main star
Christian Bale.
The
company also cancelled red carpet events for the film
in France, Japan and Mexico, although screenings will
go ahead as planned.
Warner
Bros has now confirmed it will not publish weekend
takings - a form of crowing about box office success
- until Monday.
This
was despite the fact that unofficial figures cited
by industry daily Variety suggest that it made $US75
million on Friday alone, the third biggest opening
day ever at the US box office.
The
move was swiftly followed by major Hollywood rivals
including Disney, Fox, Sony, Lionsgate and Universal.
After
initial radio silence from most of the cast and crew,
Nolan issued a statement lamenting the "senseless
tragedy," and expressing "our profound sorrow
at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire
Aurora community".
On
Saturday Bale, who plays Bruce Wayne aka Batman, also
expressed his sadness.
"Words
cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin
to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims
and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them,"
he said in a statement.
In
a separate move Warner Bros scrambled to pull a trailer
for another film, Gangster Squad, including a scene
in which mobsters shoot at theatre audiences. (AFP)
Christian Bale: My Heart Aches for Victims
The
film is expected to be among the most lucrative movie
openings and possibly contend with the record $207.4
million brought in by "The Avengers."
"The
Dark Knight Rises" star Christian Bale said Saturday
that his heart goes out to the victims of the Colorado
shootings, a tragedy that brought Hollywood studios
together in a rare show of solidarity as they opted
to give the weekend box-office a rest.
"Words
cannot express the horror that I feel," Bale,
who plays the caped crusader in the film, said in
a statement. "I cannot begin to truly understand
the pain and grief of the victims and their loved
ones, but my heart goes out to them."
Meanwhile,
Sony, Fox, Disney, Universal, Fox, Paramount and Lionsgate
said Saturday that they are joining "Dark Knight
Rises" distributor Warner Bros. in withholding
their box-office numbers for the weekend.
Warner
Bros. announced Friday that it would forgo the usual
revenue reports until Monday out of respect for the
victims and their families in the Aurora, Colo., shooting
that killed 12 and wounded 58 at the midnight show
of "The Dark Knight Rises" earlier in the
day.
The
other studios said they also would not report numbers
until Monday. Box-office tracking service Rentrak,
too, said it would not report figures this weekend.
Sunday
box-office estimates are a weekly routine for Hollywood,
with studios jostling for bragging rights as the No.
1 movie and always aiming to break revenue records.
Before
the shooting in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater at
a midnight screening of the new Batman film, the box-office
performance of "The Dark Knight Rises" had
been eagerly anticipated. The film is expected to
be among the most lucrative movie openings and possibly
contend with the record $207.4 million brought in
by "The Avengers."
But
that now appears unlikely, even though "The Dark
Knight Rises" earned $30.6 million from midnight
screenings alone. Hollywood trade publications Variety
and Hollywood Reporter reported estimates of roughly
$75 million to $77 million for the film on Friday,
based on box-office insiders.
That
would put it on track for somewhere around $165 million
for the weekend. Such a total would be the second
highest weekend opening ever, after "The Avengers."
Any
projections, though, are bound to be rough approximates
given the atypical nature of the situation. Many of
Friday's tickets were presold before the shooting.
Moviegoers making their way to theaters also faced
increased security and, in some places, bag checks.
AMC Theaters, the country's second-largest movie chain,
said it would not allow costumed fans or face-covered
masks into its theaters.
Warner
Bros. rushed to react to the tragedy, immediately
canceling a Friday night premiere in Paris. On Saturday,
it also canceled the other remaining red-carpet extravaganzas
in Mexico City and Tokyo.
The
studio, a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., also moved
to pull trailers from its upcoming film "Gangster
Squad" from theaters. The trailer of the film,
which stars Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling in a ruthless
war between Los Angeles police and the mob, includes
a scene of mobsters firing into a crowded movie theater
from behind the screen.
Christopher
Nolan, the director of "The Dark Knight Rises"
earlier responded to the tragedy, expressing his sorrow
for the victims and their families.
Said
Nolan: "The movie theater is my home and the
idea that someone would violate that innocent and
hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is
devastating to me."
