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Nintendo Co. has announced three promotions at the very top of its Nintendo of America division and disclosed pricing and availability for its upcoming next-generation Wii console.

Tatsumi Kimishima, formerly Nintendo of America president, now assumes the role of chairman of the board and CEO. Reggie Fils-Aime was promoted to president and chief operating officer, having been executive vp sales and marketing. Mike Fukuda becomes executive vp business development, up from senior vp. All of the promotions were announced by Nintendo Co. president Satoru Iwata and are effective immediately.

Nintendo also confirmed that the price of the Wii system will be lower than $250 in the U.S., and disclosed its plans to ship 6 million systems worldwide between its launch in the fourth quarter of 2006 and the end of March 2007.

Sources: IGN, G4

The Musemum of Television & Radio will be holding a seminar on June 2nd, from 6 -8pm. (Cost $5) The Musemum will screen an episode of the Sci Fi Channel’s “Battlestar Galactica ,” followed by a Q&A with the cast and creative team.

I think the seminar is sold out. But there might be closed circuit tickets available. Call to find out more information.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Mike Myers is in final talks to write, produce and star in an untitled self-help comedy, says The Hollywood Reporter. The Paramount Pictures feature centers on a self-help guru named Pitka who is called upon to solve a couple’s romantic problems. Like Myers’ groovy Austin Powers incarnation, Pitka was created and workshopped by Myers at several theaters in Manhattan. Myers will co-write with longtime associate Graham Gordy.

In April, Myers signed on to star in Paramount’s How to Survive a Robot Uprising. Myers is also voicing Shrek again in DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek the Third.

Source: Variety

Sony has preemptively bought comedy pitch Jack and Jill from screenwriter Ben Zook, with Adam Sandler eyeing a possible role and producing through his Happy Madison with Todd Garner’s Broken Road.

The studio and producers are keeping the storyline under wraps.

Sandler, who runs Happy Madison with partner Jack Giarraputo, has only committed to producing.

Sandler will be seen in theaters next month in Revolution and Columbia’s comedy Click.

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — They may sport love handles and Ivy League degrees, but every two weeks some Silicon Valley techies turn into vicious street brawlers in a real-life, underground fight club.

Kicking, punching and swinging every household object imaginable — from frying pans and tennis rackets to pillowcases stuffed with soda cans — they beat each other mercilessly in a garage in this bedroom community south of San Francisco.

Then, bloodied and bruised, they limp back to their desks in the morning.

“When you get beat down enough, it becomes a very un-macho thing,” said Shiyin Siou, 34, a Santa Clara software engineer and three-year veteran of the clandestine fights. “But I don’t need this to prove I’m macho — I’m macho enough as it is.”

Inspired by the 1999 film Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton, underground bare-knuckle brawling clubs have sprung up across the country as a way for desk jockeys and disgruntled youths to vent their frustrations and prove themselves.

“This is as close as you can get to a real fight, even though I’ve never been in one,” the soft-spoken Siou said.

Despite his reserved demeanor, he daydreams about inflicting pain on an attacker. “I have fantasies about it,” he said.

Read the full USA Today story here

Transformers director Michael Bay has updated his official News Blog with word on the first week of filming:

We finished our first week. One of the best first weeks on a movie I’ve ever experienced. We shot over 250 set ups.

I’m working on the military aspects of the film right now in New Mexico at Hollaman Air Force base and the Army’s White Sands missile base. The military has been stellar with us. This is the largest military cooperation since Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down.

Friday we shot two CV-22′s (Ospreys). They fly like aliens dropping out of the sky. We also shot stealth fighters and low attack missile runs (50 feet off the deck) A10 Warthogs. They look so deadly and mean.

We also shot in an army tank grave yard, that has more tanks in it then all of Iraq. The military cast Josh and Tyrese are surrounded with top notch Seal Team members.

I almost dropped from heat stroke on Wednesday in the 118 degree heat. Several crew went down in the heat on these dunes. It is amazing how quickly it can come on – I now see how some of those football players drop dead from heat stroke.

Another article on the filming at Holloman Air Force Base can be found here. DreamWorks and Paramount are eyeing a July 4, 2007 release date for the big screen adaptation.

Despite the fact that X-Men: The Last Stand pulled in about $196 million in just four days worldwide (it cost approximately $210 million to make), Marvel Studios’ Avi Arad tells Variety that they are going to move forward with the two spin-off movies instead of X-Men 4:

A big second frame decline is thus likely. But with nearly $200 million in domestic grosses by next weekend a virtual lock, Fox execs won’t be shedding too many tears.

More likely, they’ll be talking to their partners at Marvel about the next step for the franchise, since “Last Stand” was supposed to be the final film in a trilogy.

“The first reaction, which we should discard, is here comes ‘X-Men 4,’” said Marvel Studios topper Avi Arad. “We’re working on ‘Wolverine,’ which is definitely a continuation, and we have a very interesting script about a young Magneto.”

We wouldn’t be surprised if Fox does indeed talk to Marvel Studios about a fourth movie considering the phenomenal numbers the third installment has already brought in. We’ll keep you updated on the spin-offs and if there’s any other developments

Source: Variety May 30, 2006

A lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses the Motion Picture Association of America of hiring a hacker to steal information from a company that the MPAA has accused of helping copyright violators.

The lawsuit (click for PDF), filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by Torrentspy.com parent Valence Media, doesn’t identify the man the company says was approached by an MPAA executive. But the suit calls the man a former associate of one of the plaintiffs and alleges that he was asked to retrieve private information on Torrentspy.com, a search engine that directs people to download links.

Torrentspy’s complaint includes claims that the man whom the MPAA allegedly paid $15,000 to steal e-mail correspondence and trade secrets has admitted his role in the plot and is cooperating with the company.

Read the rest here

“It is a Hollywood drama, what happened here,” Ira Rothken, Torrentspy’s attorney, said in a telephone interview Wednesday evening.

BUCHAREST, Romania – More than 60 years after it was seized by communists, the Romanian government is to hand back one of the country’s most popular tourist sites, the fabled Dracula Castle, to its former owner, the culture minister said Tuesday.

The castle, worth an estimated $25 million, was owned by the late Queen Marie and bequeathed to her daughter Princess Ileana in 1938. It was confiscated by communists in 1948 and fell into disrepair. It will be transferred on Friday to Dominic van Hapsburg, a New York architect who inherited the castle from Princess Ileana decades after the communists seized it, minister Adrian Iorgulescu told a news conference.

Van Hapsburg is a descendant of the Hapsburg dynasty which ruled Romania for a period starting in the late 17th century.

The hand-over ceremony will take place Friday at noon in the 14th century castle’s museum deep within the fortress in Transylvania, Iorgulescu said.

Restoration work began in the late 1980s and was partially completed in 1993. It is now one of Romania’s top tourist destinations. Under the agreement, the owner will not be allowed to make any changes to the castle for the next three years, Iorgulescu said.

While known and marketed as “Dracula’s Castle,” it never belonged to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula character. But the prince is thought to have visited the medieval fortress.

The Gothic fortress, perched on a rock, has appeared in numerous Dracula movies.

At the gates of Bran Castle, peasants sell Dracula sweaters hand-knitted from the thick wool of local sheep, cheesecloth blouses, and Vampire wine. The castle is the most famous of 15 citadels and fortresses in the area, which were built by peasants to keep out marauding armies of Turks and Tartars and cruel local medieval lords.

Another former royal property, the Peles Castle, built in the late 19th century in the mountain town of Sinaia, will be returned to former King Michael. He owned it before it was confiscated by the communist regime in 1948.

Romania passed legislation earlier this year to return property to its former owners and establish a “property fund” to pay damages for assets that cannot be returned. The fund includes stock in state-owned companies that are being privatized.

A U.S. company’s video game simulating an invasion of Venezuela is supposed to hit the shelves next year, but it’s already raising the ire of lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez supporters in Venezuela’s National Assembly suspect the makers of “Mercenaries 2: World in Flames” are doing Washington’s bidding by drumming up support among Americans for an eventual move to overthrow Chavez.

Full Story Here