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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews


A new (Asian) hope

Posted: 26 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

The new Lucasfilm Singapore headquarters is now fully operational.

FOR a building called The Sandcrawler, Star Wars fans may find the lack of Jawas there disturbing.

However, the Force was definitely strong with the new official headquarters of Lucasfilm Singapore. George Lucas himself had come to town to launch the building, together with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.

In the Star Wars universe, sandcrawlers are the giant, mobile homes used by the Jawas – those hooded little fellows with glowing yellow eyes who sold R2-D2 and C-3PO to the Skywalkers in Episode IV: A New Hope.

The Singaporean version of The Sandcrawler is a shining and hugely impressive building that retains the shape of the vehicle from which it draws its name, and leaves visitors with absolutely no doubt in their minds as to the building's occupants.

In a lush green park within the building compound, a serene-looking bronze statue of Yoda sits, his lips pursed in a slight smile as if in approval of Lucasfilm's spanking-new headquarters. Sculpted by Lawrence Noble, it is an exact replica of the Yoda statues that grace Lucasfilm's headquarters in San Francisco and the Big Rock Ranch building in California's Marin County.

(use next to or inset pic A) The Sandcrawler as used by the diminutive Jawas in Star Wars. - copyright¿ © 2014 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

The Sandcrawler as used by the diminutive Jawas in Star Wars.

Inside the seven-storey building, posters, statues and prop replicas from the Star Wars movies and other Lucasfilm works line the corridors. Even the elevators are modelled after the ones in the Death Star (you would half expect Darth Vader himself to appear every time the elevator doors whoosh open).

Designed by Aedas Architecture, The Sandcrawler received a Gold Plus Greenmark certification in Singapore and has won an impressive six architectural awards including the prestigious Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award for Best New Global Design.

Besides Lucasfilm Singapore, The Sandcrawler will also house the regional headquarters of The Walt Disney Company (South-east Asia) and ESPN Asia Pacific.

According to Lucas, the building is a culmination of years of hard work by the Lucasfilm team in Singapore, which was formed in 2005.

"This building signifies the possibilities we saw and realised when we initially launched the Singapore unit," Lucas said in his speech at the opening ceremony. "It's the culmination of many years of hard work and dedication, and I'm proud to be here for the opening. The building is everything I hoped it would be and I look forward to the day that I can sit in a theatre and see all of the amazing work that comes from the artists that work here."

Since its formation in 2005, Lucasfilm Singapore has grown into a digital entertainment powerhouse within the region, making significant contributions to the 2011 Academy Award-winning animated feature film Rango and the Emmy-winning television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

In addition, Industrial Light & Magic Singapore has contributed cutting-edge work on a myriad of blockbusters, such as the second, third and fourth instalments of the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, the Transformers trilogy, Marvel franchises including Iron Man and The Avengers and the new Star Trek films, to name a few.

Filmmaking legend George Lucas and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong walking past Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers and Darth Vader at the opening of The Sandcrawler in Singapore on Jan 16. - AFP / Roslan Rahman

Filmmaking legend George Lucas and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong walking past Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers and Darth Vader at the opening of The Sandcrawler in Singapore on Jan 16. - AFP / Roslan Rahman

Return of the franchise

Now, enough about the building. Let's talk about Star Wars for a while.

A day before the official launch, Kennedy held court at a group interview with regional journalists and gave an intriguing (if vague) idea of what we can expect from the upcoming Episode VII, the proposed spin-off movies, as well as the future of the Expanded Universe as a whole.

"George was very clear about how it works. The canon he created was the Star Wars Saga, and right now Episode VII falls within that canon," she said. "The spin-off movies, or we might come up with some other way to call them, they exist within that vast universe of storytelling that George created. So there are endless opportunities. And those are standalone movies. There is no attempt to carry characters in and out of the Saga episodes.

"From a creative standpoint, it's a roadmap that George created that is pretty clear."

And what about the Expanded Universe, that rich, vast and somewhat messy mass of accumulated stories in comics, novels, videogames and other mediums?

"They all fall within the Star Wars universe ... and those are the ground rules that we will still abide by," she said.

Malaysians William Gallyot (left) and Lyon Liew are part of the multi-national team at Lucasfilm Singapore.

Malaysians William Gallyot (left) and Lyon Liew are part of the multi-national team at Lucasfilm Singapore.

Before joining Lucasfilm as president in 2012 (after the company was acquired by Disney), Kennedy was a prolific film producer whose credentials include ET, Empire Of The Sun and the Jurassic Park trilogy. She was also the CEO of Amblin Entertainment, a film and television production company she co-founded with acclaimed director Steven Spielberg, and her husband Frank Marshall in 1981.

The transition from being a film producer to running a studio has been easier than she expected. "My career has been focused primarily on making films, which I will continue to do because I also serve as producer on the new Star Wars films we are working on right now," she said. "But prior to that, I was running Amblin, and I find that many of the things involved with producing movies do align themselves with the skills needed to run companies.

"I felt this is a point in my career where I can take the skills I've had over the years producing movies and move that into many opportunities beyond just making motion pictures," she said.

The Empire takes root

According to Kennedy, the work coming out of Lucasfilm Singapore has been rivalling the work coming out of the company's more established offices in the United States, Canada and Britain.

"Even though Lucasfilm and ILM have been in existence for almost 40 years, very quickly, the team trained here in Singapore (is) reaching the point where the work coming out of Singapore is rivalling the work that is coming out of San Francisco, Vancouver and eventually the UK," she said.

Lucasfilm Singapore currently has over 360 employees, but eight years ago when Lucasfilm Singapore was formed, there were only 26 artists, and Malaysian animator Lyon Liew was one of them.

(FOR STAR2 USE ONLY)(MUST USE COPYRIGHT LINE)The Sandcrawler building that houses Lucasfilm Singapore is modeled after the iconic Sandcrawler vehicle seen in the Star Wars movies.  ⿿ © 2014 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Another view of the Sandcrawler building

Liew joined the company in November 2005 as a technical director. He started working on the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series and in April 2009, became the cloth simulation lead on the project.

"My job was to simulate all the clothing in Clone Wars, and make sure everything looked physically right. Yoda was one of the most difficult characters we worked on because when he fights, he jumps all over the place, and cloth simulation is difficult when he is going really fast," he said, adding that when he started on the job, he was thrown into an episode with Yoda. So basically it was do, or do not for him at the time. There was no try.

After a short stint away from the company in 2010, the Malacca-born Liew rejoined as a creature technical director, and has worked on The Avengers, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, Pacific Rim, Star Trek Into Darkness, and currently, Transformers: Age Of Extinction.

"What I do (as a creature technical director) is add in skeletal and basic controls (for creatures), and add on anything else that has to do with it, like cloth and hair simulation, as well as muscle simulation," he said. "We don't build the creature, but work on what's around and inside the creature."

He also works on the creatures' rigid body dynamics. For example, when a giant robot crashes through a building, his unit does the destruction.The elevators in The Sandcrawler are modelled after the ones in the Death Star.

The elevators in The Sandcrawler are modelled after the ones in the Death Star.

Another Malaysian who is currently in Lucasfilm Singapore is William Gallyot, who joined in July 2010 through the Jedi Masters Training Program (JuMP), and was hired as a full-time texture artist in December 2010. He's currently working on an unnamed animated feature as a surfacing technical director.

"I work on the shades and textures for characters and environments that you see. First, we get a flat model from the modellers, and ... I make it more physically accurate before it is rendered," he said. "Skin, for example, should look like skin, and metals have different kinds as well, like rusty and shiny and so on."

For both Liew and Gallyot, joining Lucasfilm was a dream come true, especially since they both grew up on Star Wars.

"Lucasfilm is like the pioneer of the entire visual effects industry, and you always hope that you would one day get into the company after paying your dues," said Gallyot. "So getting in here so early – this is my first full-time job – was very exciting."

"Star Wars pretty much created this industry, so to be able to come and work on Clone Wars, an extension of Star Wars, was really quite special, especially for those of us who grew up here," said Liew.

So now they are already working for the leader in visual effects, where do they go from here?

"For me, it's not a question of where I want to go after this, but more about what project I want to be on. In Lucasfilm we get a lot of awesome stuff coming in, and that keeps us motivated," said Gallyot.

Of course, among those "awesome" things they mentioned are the new Star Wars movies, which the two of them are hoping to get on.

"That's one of the most exciting to look forward to now. We are so inspired to get on that movie ... most of us started off as Star Wars fans, so it's like coming full circle for us!" said Liew.

Revisiting Lizzie Borden

Posted: 26 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Christina Ricci stars in the new Lifetime movie Lizzie Borden Took An Ax, which recounts the story of the 19th century Fall River, Massachusetts, woman who was tried (and acquitted) for the axe-murder of her father and stepmother.

This isn't the first time the brutal tragedy was the subject of a TV movie. On Feb 10, 1975, the ABC movie of the week, The Legend Of Lizzie Borden, offered Elizabeth Montgomery in a haunted, terrifying portrayal that was light years away from her best-known role as Samantha on Bewitched. Here are five things to know:

1. Montgomery was nominated for an outstanding lead actress Emmy in a special programme – drama or comedy. (She didn't win).

2. New York Times TV critic John J. O'Connor called the TV movie, "a complex and memorable creation."

3. The cast included contemporary and future TV series stars Katherine Helmond (Soap, Who's The Boss?), Ed Flanders (St. Elsewhere), Hayden Rorke (I Dream Of Jeannie) and Don Porter (Gidget).

4. In the version of the TV movie distributed for European audiences, Montgomery was shown nude as she hacked her parents (Borden disrobed to avoid getting bloodstains on her clothing). US audiences saw a much more discrete scene.

5. Montgomery and Lizzie Borden were sixth cousins once removed, both descending from 17th century Massachusetts resident John Luther, according to genealogists. — Newsday/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Adi Putra's royal flush

Posted: 25 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Hard work, luck and looks shot former lighting technician Adi Putra to acting stardom.

SINGAPORE-BORN actor Adi Putra might be a marquee name in the television and movie industry today but his start in the entertainment scene was less than glamorous.

A former Pizza Hut delivery boy, 7-Eleven employee and air-conditioning technician, his first full-time job after completing national service was as a lighting technician for Singapore MediaCorp's Chinese television serials.

His days as the lowly crew guy on a film set charged with making stars such as Fann Wong and Christopher Lee look good are long gone.

With a decade's worth of acting experience and more than 30 television dramas and over a dozen films to his name, the 32-year-old is now hot property in the entertainment scene in Malaysia.

Adi, who shuttles between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, now leads the lifestyle of an actor who has made good. He shares a terrace house in Ulu Klang with his producer wife Aida Yusof, 38, and four cars – three BMWs and a Satria Neo – are parked in the garage.

Man of many talents: Adi Putra knows that having long-term success in the Malaysian entertainment industry means branching out into more than just acting.

Adi Putra knows that having long-term success in the Malaysian entertainment industry means branching out into more than just acting.

You could attribute his success to a combination of hard work, luck and good timing. His handsome looks helped too.

In 2003, he joined a beauty contest organised by a Singaporean Malay lifestyle and entertainment magazine Manja and was crowned Mr Photogenic.

Acting came by chance. While working at MediaCorp, producer friends asked him to be an extra in television shows on Malay station Suria.

After that, he was offered his first major acting role as a gym instructor in Anak Metropolitan 2, a popular television drama centred on wayward teenagers.

His performance led to his nomination in the Most Promising Actor category at a Singaporean Malay entertainment awards ceremony Pesta Perdana in 2004 and another role in comedy drama Cinta Bollywood 2.

Then came the turning point in his life. Producer, director and actress Erma Fatima offered him a major role in Malaysian television drama Haryati 2.

Sensing the opportunity to make his mark on the much larger Malay acting industry across the Causeway, the 23-year-old Adi packed his bags and left for Kuala Lumpur.

After shooting was done in three months, he decided to stick around and try to break into the competitive entertainment industry in Malaysia.

The going was tough. He lived on the money he earned from Haryati 2 and when funds ran low, he slept on the streets, in mosques and at homes of friends.

Slowly, he started getting acting jobs and within two years, he became a familiar face in the industry there.

Looking back, he says: "It was a risky gamble and I knew that there were no guarantees that I would get more jobs after the first drama. But I firmly believed that my future was there in the Malaysian acting industry."

Today, he plays mainly leading roles in popular television soaps on Malaysian TV.

He is a box-office draw on the silver screen too. He stars in Malaysia's highest grossing film, 2011's gangster flick KL Gangster, which earned RM12mil. (The film also stars another Singapore-born actor who has made it big in Malaysia, Aaron Aziz.)

Naturally, Adi is in the follow-up, KL Gangster 2, which made headlines after pirates uploaded the film on the Internet and sold bootleg DVD copies a month before it screened in cinemas in October last year.

His leading role in Langgar, a crime movie released in April last year, earned him a nomination in the Best Male Film Actor category in Anugerah Skrin. He lost to Malaysian actor Shaheizy Sam.

Being a star means that his personal life is constantly in the spotlight.

In 2012, the Malaysian press went to town when they found out that he had filed for divorce. He retracted it shortly after.

He also made the news in September when a Malaysian businessman lodged a police report against him, accusing Adi of sending lewd pictures and text messages to his 30-year-old wife.

Adi says that he cannot comment on the case because it is still under police investigation but he will speak about it once the Malaysian police have concluded their findings.

He admits that he and his wife, whom he married in 2006, had "personal problems" in the past, but adds that their marriage today has never been better. They got married in April that year, six months after meeting on the set of a television drama Kerana Dosa Kelmarin which Aida was producing.

She says: "Some people might think six months is quick, but I felt like we had known each other for years. He had all the qualities that I admired, he was hardworking, disciplined and a good Muslim. I knew he was the one for me."

The couple has a daughter.

He sounds exasperated when he refers to tabloid stories about him. "I always get asked, how is your marriage? My wife and I, we just go through our daily lives and we don't let all the talk and gossip affect us."

Aida says that Adi is very much a family man and a doting father.

"He's always concerned about the baby, what she's eating, how she's doing, even while he's at work. And if the baby cries in the middle of the night, he wakes up to feed her."

Sometimes, he cooks at home, whipping up dishes such as mee goreng and sardin sambal, which he had learnt when he was a teen helping out in his technician father's sideline catering business.

Asked if she has ever had issues with him having plenty of female fans or the gossip linking him to many of his onscreen love interests, Aida responds with a laugh: "I'm in the entertainment business too, so I'm immune to all the attention that he gets. And I don't get jealous when he's acting in love scenes with other actresses because he's just doing his job."

Adi is not content with being a heart-throb actor and has ambitions to make it behind the camera.

Last year, he formed his own production house, Nur ADP, and took on triple roles – as producer, co-director and lead actor in the film adaptation of the best-selling religious drama novel Suami Aku Ustaz set to be released this year.

He knows that having long-term success in the Malaysian entertainment industry means branching out into more than just acting.

"KL Gangster might be the most profitable movie in Malaysia but I was just an actor in that film. If I was the producer, then I would have more reason to celebrate its success."

He has also invested in non-entertainment business ventures in Singapore and Malaysia, chief among them the bathroom products brand Tuscani and Islamic tourism agency Al-Qaswa.

Despite his packed schedule, Adi, who has an older sister, 41, and an older brother, 40, always sends a text message to his mother, Noor Banoo Khan, or talks to her at least once a day.

"He always keeps me updated on what he's up to, whether he's in the middle of a shoot or busy on some other project," says the 62-year-old housewife.

The doting mother has watched all his movies and television dramas. "I am thankful to God that my son is successful in his career. One thing about Adi, when his mind is set on something, he works hard to get it." – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz


A new (Asian) hope

Posted: 26 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

The new Lucasfilm Singapore headquarters is now fully operational.

FOR a building called The Sandcrawler, Star Wars fans may find the lack of Jawas there disturbing.

However, the Force was definitely strong with the new official headquarters of Lucasfilm Singapore. George Lucas himself had come to town to launch the building, together with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.

In the Star Wars universe, sandcrawlers are the giant, mobile homes used by the Jawas – those hooded little fellows with glowing yellow eyes who sold R2-D2 and C-3PO to the Skywalkers in Episode IV: A New Hope.

The Singaporean version of The Sandcrawler is a shining and hugely impressive building that retains the shape of the vehicle from which it draws its name, and leaves visitors with absolutely no doubt in their minds as to the building's occupants.

In a lush green park within the building compound, a serene-looking bronze statue of Yoda sits, his lips pursed in a slight smile as if in approval of Lucasfilm's spanking-new headquarters. Sculpted by Lawrence Noble, it is an exact replica of the Yoda statues that grace Lucasfilm's headquarters in San Francisco and the Big Rock Ranch building in California's Marin County.

(use next to or inset pic A) The Sandcrawler as used by the diminutive Jawas in Star Wars. - copyright¿ © 2014 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

The Sandcrawler as used by the diminutive Jawas in Star Wars.

Inside the seven-storey building, posters, statues and prop replicas from the Star Wars movies and other Lucasfilm works line the corridors. Even the elevators are modelled after the ones in the Death Star (you would half expect Darth Vader himself to appear every time the elevator doors whoosh open).

Designed by Aedas Architecture, The Sandcrawler received a Gold Plus Greenmark certification in Singapore and has won an impressive six architectural awards including the prestigious Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award for Best New Global Design.

Besides Lucasfilm Singapore, The Sandcrawler will also house the regional headquarters of The Walt Disney Company (South-east Asia) and ESPN Asia Pacific.

According to Lucas, the building is a culmination of years of hard work by the Lucasfilm team in Singapore, which was formed in 2005.

"This building signifies the possibilities we saw and realised when we initially launched the Singapore unit," Lucas said in his speech at the opening ceremony. "It's the culmination of many years of hard work and dedication, and I'm proud to be here for the opening. The building is everything I hoped it would be and I look forward to the day that I can sit in a theatre and see all of the amazing work that comes from the artists that work here."

Since its formation in 2005, Lucasfilm Singapore has grown into a digital entertainment powerhouse within the region, making significant contributions to the 2011 Academy Award-winning animated feature film Rango and the Emmy-winning television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

In addition, Industrial Light & Magic Singapore has contributed cutting-edge work on a myriad of blockbusters, such as the second, third and fourth instalments of the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, the Transformers trilogy, Marvel franchises including Iron Man and The Avengers and the new Star Trek films, to name a few.

Filmmaking legend George Lucas and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong walking past Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers and Darth Vader at the opening of The Sandcrawler in Singapore on Jan 16. - AFP / Roslan Rahman

Filmmaking legend George Lucas and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong walking past Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers and Darth Vader at the opening of The Sandcrawler in Singapore on Jan 16. - AFP / Roslan Rahman

Return of the franchise

Now, enough about the building. Let's talk about Star Wars for a while.

A day before the official launch, Kennedy held court at a group interview with regional journalists and gave an intriguing (if vague) idea of what we can expect from the upcoming Episode VII, the proposed spin-off movies, as well as the future of the Expanded Universe as a whole.

"George was very clear about how it works. The canon he created was the Star Wars Saga, and right now Episode VII falls within that canon," she said. "The spin-off movies, or we might come up with some other way to call them, they exist within that vast universe of storytelling that George created. So there are endless opportunities. And those are standalone movies. There is no attempt to carry characters in and out of the Saga episodes.

"From a creative standpoint, it's a roadmap that George created that is pretty clear."

And what about the Expanded Universe, that rich, vast and somewhat messy mass of accumulated stories in comics, novels, videogames and other mediums?

"They all fall within the Star Wars universe ... and those are the ground rules that we will still abide by," she said.

Malaysians William Gallyot (left) and Lyon Liew are part of the multi-national team at Lucasfilm Singapore.

Malaysians William Gallyot (left) and Lyon Liew are part of the multi-national team at Lucasfilm Singapore.

Before joining Lucasfilm as president in 2012 (after the company was acquired by Disney), Kennedy was a prolific film producer whose credentials include ET, Empire Of The Sun and the Jurassic Park trilogy. She was also the CEO of Amblin Entertainment, a film and television production company she co-founded with acclaimed director Steven Spielberg, and her husband Frank Marshall in 1981.

The transition from being a film producer to running a studio has been easier than she expected. "My career has been focused primarily on making films, which I will continue to do because I also serve as producer on the new Star Wars films we are working on right now," she said. "But prior to that, I was running Amblin, and I find that many of the things involved with producing movies do align themselves with the skills needed to run companies.

"I felt this is a point in my career where I can take the skills I've had over the years producing movies and move that into many opportunities beyond just making motion pictures," she said.

The Empire takes root

According to Kennedy, the work coming out of Lucasfilm Singapore has been rivalling the work coming out of the company's more established offices in the United States, Canada and Britain.

"Even though Lucasfilm and ILM have been in existence for almost 40 years, very quickly, the team trained here in Singapore (is) reaching the point where the work coming out of Singapore is rivalling the work that is coming out of San Francisco, Vancouver and eventually the UK," she said.

Lucasfilm Singapore currently has over 360 employees, but eight years ago when Lucasfilm Singapore was formed, there were only 26 artists, and Malaysian animator Lyon Liew was one of them.

(FOR STAR2 USE ONLY)(MUST USE COPYRIGHT LINE)The Sandcrawler building that houses Lucasfilm Singapore is modeled after the iconic Sandcrawler vehicle seen in the Star Wars movies.  ⿿ © 2014 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Another view of the Sandcrawler building

Liew joined the company in November 2005 as a technical director. He started working on the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series and in April 2009, became the cloth simulation lead on the project.

"My job was to simulate all the clothing in Clone Wars, and make sure everything looked physically right. Yoda was one of the most difficult characters we worked on because when he fights, he jumps all over the place, and cloth simulation is difficult when he is going really fast," he said, adding that when he started on the job, he was thrown into an episode with Yoda. So basically it was do, or do not for him at the time. There was no try.

After a short stint away from the company in 2010, the Malacca-born Liew rejoined as a creature technical director, and has worked on The Avengers, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, Pacific Rim, Star Trek Into Darkness, and currently, Transformers: Age Of Extinction.

"What I do (as a creature technical director) is add in skeletal and basic controls (for creatures), and add on anything else that has to do with it, like cloth and hair simulation, as well as muscle simulation," he said. "We don't build the creature, but work on what's around and inside the creature."

He also works on the creatures' rigid body dynamics. For example, when a giant robot crashes through a building, his unit does the destruction.The elevators in The Sandcrawler are modelled after the ones in the Death Star.

The elevators in The Sandcrawler are modelled after the ones in the Death Star.

Another Malaysian who is currently in Lucasfilm Singapore is William Gallyot, who joined in July 2010 through the Jedi Masters Training Program (JuMP), and was hired as a full-time texture artist in December 2010. He's currently working on an unnamed animated feature as a surfacing technical director.

"I work on the shades and textures for characters and environments that you see. First, we get a flat model from the modellers, and ... I make it more physically accurate before it is rendered," he said. "Skin, for example, should look like skin, and metals have different kinds as well, like rusty and shiny and so on."

For both Liew and Gallyot, joining Lucasfilm was a dream come true, especially since they both grew up on Star Wars.

"Lucasfilm is like the pioneer of the entire visual effects industry, and you always hope that you would one day get into the company after paying your dues," said Gallyot. "So getting in here so early – this is my first full-time job – was very exciting."

"Star Wars pretty much created this industry, so to be able to come and work on Clone Wars, an extension of Star Wars, was really quite special, especially for those of us who grew up here," said Liew.

So now they are already working for the leader in visual effects, where do they go from here?

"For me, it's not a question of where I want to go after this, but more about what project I want to be on. In Lucasfilm we get a lot of awesome stuff coming in, and that keeps us motivated," said Gallyot.

Of course, among those "awesome" things they mentioned are the new Star Wars movies, which the two of them are hoping to get on.

"That's one of the most exciting to look forward to now. We are so inspired to get on that movie ... most of us started off as Star Wars fans, so it's like coming full circle for us!" said Liew.

Revisiting Lizzie Borden

Posted: 26 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Christina Ricci stars in the new Lifetime movie Lizzie Borden Took An Ax, which recounts the story of the 19th century Fall River, Massachusetts, woman who was tried (and acquitted) for the axe-murder of her father and stepmother.

This isn't the first time the brutal tragedy was the subject of a TV movie. On Feb 10, 1975, the ABC movie of the week, The Legend Of Lizzie Borden, offered Elizabeth Montgomery in a haunted, terrifying portrayal that was light years away from her best-known role as Samantha on Bewitched. Here are five things to know:

1. Montgomery was nominated for an outstanding lead actress Emmy in a special programme – drama or comedy. (She didn't win).

2. New York Times TV critic John J. O'Connor called the TV movie, "a complex and memorable creation."

3. The cast included contemporary and future TV series stars Katherine Helmond (Soap, Who's The Boss?), Ed Flanders (St. Elsewhere), Hayden Rorke (I Dream Of Jeannie) and Don Porter (Gidget).

4. In the version of the TV movie distributed for European audiences, Montgomery was shown nude as she hacked her parents (Borden disrobed to avoid getting bloodstains on her clothing). US audiences saw a much more discrete scene.

5. Montgomery and Lizzie Borden were sixth cousins once removed, both descending from 17th century Massachusetts resident John Luther, according to genealogists. — Newsday/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Adi Putra's royal flush

Posted: 25 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Hard work, luck and looks shot former lighting technician Adi Putra to acting stardom.

SINGAPORE-BORN actor Adi Putra might be a marquee name in the television and movie industry today but his start in the entertainment scene was less than glamorous.

A former Pizza Hut delivery boy, 7-Eleven employee and air-conditioning technician, his first full-time job after completing national service was as a lighting technician for Singapore MediaCorp's Chinese television serials.

His days as the lowly crew guy on a film set charged with making stars such as Fann Wong and Christopher Lee look good are long gone.

With a decade's worth of acting experience and more than 30 television dramas and over a dozen films to his name, the 32-year-old is now hot property in the entertainment scene in Malaysia.

Adi, who shuttles between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, now leads the lifestyle of an actor who has made good. He shares a terrace house in Ulu Klang with his producer wife Aida Yusof, 38, and four cars – three BMWs and a Satria Neo – are parked in the garage.

Man of many talents: Adi Putra knows that having long-term success in the Malaysian entertainment industry means branching out into more than just acting.

Adi Putra knows that having long-term success in the Malaysian entertainment industry means branching out into more than just acting.

You could attribute his success to a combination of hard work, luck and good timing. His handsome looks helped too.

In 2003, he joined a beauty contest organised by a Singaporean Malay lifestyle and entertainment magazine Manja and was crowned Mr Photogenic.

Acting came by chance. While working at MediaCorp, producer friends asked him to be an extra in television shows on Malay station Suria.

After that, he was offered his first major acting role as a gym instructor in Anak Metropolitan 2, a popular television drama centred on wayward teenagers.

His performance led to his nomination in the Most Promising Actor category at a Singaporean Malay entertainment awards ceremony Pesta Perdana in 2004 and another role in comedy drama Cinta Bollywood 2.

Then came the turning point in his life. Producer, director and actress Erma Fatima offered him a major role in Malaysian television drama Haryati 2.

Sensing the opportunity to make his mark on the much larger Malay acting industry across the Causeway, the 23-year-old Adi packed his bags and left for Kuala Lumpur.

After shooting was done in three months, he decided to stick around and try to break into the competitive entertainment industry in Malaysia.

The going was tough. He lived on the money he earned from Haryati 2 and when funds ran low, he slept on the streets, in mosques and at homes of friends.

Slowly, he started getting acting jobs and within two years, he became a familiar face in the industry there.

Looking back, he says: "It was a risky gamble and I knew that there were no guarantees that I would get more jobs after the first drama. But I firmly believed that my future was there in the Malaysian acting industry."

Today, he plays mainly leading roles in popular television soaps on Malaysian TV.

He is a box-office draw on the silver screen too. He stars in Malaysia's highest grossing film, 2011's gangster flick KL Gangster, which earned RM12mil. (The film also stars another Singapore-born actor who has made it big in Malaysia, Aaron Aziz.)

Naturally, Adi is in the follow-up, KL Gangster 2, which made headlines after pirates uploaded the film on the Internet and sold bootleg DVD copies a month before it screened in cinemas in October last year.

His leading role in Langgar, a crime movie released in April last year, earned him a nomination in the Best Male Film Actor category in Anugerah Skrin. He lost to Malaysian actor Shaheizy Sam.

Being a star means that his personal life is constantly in the spotlight.

In 2012, the Malaysian press went to town when they found out that he had filed for divorce. He retracted it shortly after.

He also made the news in September when a Malaysian businessman lodged a police report against him, accusing Adi of sending lewd pictures and text messages to his 30-year-old wife.

Adi says that he cannot comment on the case because it is still under police investigation but he will speak about it once the Malaysian police have concluded their findings.

He admits that he and his wife, whom he married in 2006, had "personal problems" in the past, but adds that their marriage today has never been better. They got married in April that year, six months after meeting on the set of a television drama Kerana Dosa Kelmarin which Aida was producing.

She says: "Some people might think six months is quick, but I felt like we had known each other for years. He had all the qualities that I admired, he was hardworking, disciplined and a good Muslim. I knew he was the one for me."

The couple has a daughter.

He sounds exasperated when he refers to tabloid stories about him. "I always get asked, how is your marriage? My wife and I, we just go through our daily lives and we don't let all the talk and gossip affect us."

Aida says that Adi is very much a family man and a doting father.

"He's always concerned about the baby, what she's eating, how she's doing, even while he's at work. And if the baby cries in the middle of the night, he wakes up to feed her."

Sometimes, he cooks at home, whipping up dishes such as mee goreng and sardin sambal, which he had learnt when he was a teen helping out in his technician father's sideline catering business.

Asked if she has ever had issues with him having plenty of female fans or the gossip linking him to many of his onscreen love interests, Aida responds with a laugh: "I'm in the entertainment business too, so I'm immune to all the attention that he gets. And I don't get jealous when he's acting in love scenes with other actresses because he's just doing his job."

Adi is not content with being a heart-throb actor and has ambitions to make it behind the camera.

Last year, he formed his own production house, Nur ADP, and took on triple roles – as producer, co-director and lead actor in the film adaptation of the best-selling religious drama novel Suami Aku Ustaz set to be released this year.

He knows that having long-term success in the Malaysian entertainment industry means branching out into more than just acting.

"KL Gangster might be the most profitable movie in Malaysia but I was just an actor in that film. If I was the producer, then I would have more reason to celebrate its success."

He has also invested in non-entertainment business ventures in Singapore and Malaysia, chief among them the bathroom products brand Tuscani and Islamic tourism agency Al-Qaswa.

Despite his packed schedule, Adi, who has an older sister, 41, and an older brother, 40, always sends a text message to his mother, Noor Banoo Khan, or talks to her at least once a day.

"He always keeps me updated on what he's up to, whether he's in the middle of a shoot or busy on some other project," says the 62-year-old housewife.

The doting mother has watched all his movies and television dramas. "I am thankful to God that my son is successful in his career. One thing about Adi, when his mind is set on something, he works hard to get it." – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

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A darker following

Posted: 27 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

The new season of The Following leaves Kevin Bacon's character a little hopeless.

From the moment he read the first script for the The Following, Kevin Bacon knew audiences would love the show.

As he pored over the pages for the Fox series, Bacon – who has seen a lot of scripts in his career – was surprised by all of the twists and turns. He was confident viewers would be drawn to the interesting, complex characters living through – or dying in – shocking moments.

He was right. The first season of The Following was such a hit that Fox ordered a second season, which premieres in Malaysia tonight.

"The fact that people found it and embraced it, and the excitement that I feel and the connection that I feel to the fans of this show, is probably deeper than anything I've experienced in my career. So that is something that we all are eternally grateful for," says Bacon.

What captivates people is the story of burned-out former FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Bacon). The near-fatal injuries he sustained while tracking down a serial killer – cult favourite Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) – sent Hardy to the sidelines. He was coaxed back to work when Carroll escaped from prison. The first season chase ended with an explosion that initially looked as if it had killed Carroll.

No great villain can be dismissed that easily. Carroll's back, bringing Hardy more pain and misery.

One thing that made the first season so compelling was the fear it generated through plot twists. A pixie-like nanny turns out to be one of Carroll's biggest supporters. Characters who looked like they would be around for a long time got killed. And, it was impossible to guess the loyalties of those who didn't die.

All you have to do is watch the first two minutes of the second-season opener to realise that even sacred cows go to slaughter.

Series creator Kevin Williamson explains that he doesn't put violence in the series – it will run for 15 episodes – just for the shock value. There has to be a good reason for taking any type of violent action.

"We sort of write to the story and what the story calls for and what the shocking moments are. And, you know, I don't run away. I don't shy away from violence. But also I never ever just want it to be gore for the sake of gore," says Williamson. "It's always been to sort of shock and sort of push the story forward and make you gasp and also make you truly be afraid and truly be scared of these characters and the situation."

Those situations tend to pop up as the guardians of good and evil wage their mental, physical and emotional battles. Neither Hardy nor Carroll hesitate when it comes to getting what they want.

This season, what Hardy needs is a little extra motivation to resume his battle against Carroll and his crazed cult followers. Hardy lost his obsession with Carroll when he believed the killer to be dead. On the one-year anniversary of the believed death, Hardy is given reason to resume his battle. In a contrast to the first season, Hardy is now clean and sober.

Williamson stresses that the show is about Hardy's journey and his struggle to find some hope in life, to find some reason to live. He has a death curse that hangs over him like a dark cloud.

One thing that remains the same is Carroll's fanatical followers.

"Psychopaths are willing to step outside the normal bounds of human behaviour, and I think people find that really interesting and people fantasise about that themselves. Most people don't carry it out, but they think, wow, that's amazing that these people can live with no sense of empathy for somebody else or no sense of an idea of a consequence to any of their actions," says Purefoy.

If this season goes the same as the first, there will be more successes by Carroll than Hardy. The fact that the killer was able to so easily manipulate the FBI during the first year earned some criticism. Williamson explains it's the nature of the writing that law enforcement needed to be slightly inept in the early episodes to keep the show going.

"When you look back, you're like, oh, man the FBI's really stupid. There really was some justified criticism and I'll swallow it and take it and will learn from it and grow. That's some of the growing pains of a first-year show, I felt," says Williamson.

"One of the things we did this year just to solve that issue, because the writers' room took it very seriously, is we took him out of the FBI and it's more of a character. ... We've taken Ryan Hardy to a brand new world. He's in a brand new starting place. We're in New York City. We have a brand new template to paint from, to paint on."

With the changes, The Following looks to scare and entertain by always keeping the audience guessing. Bacon's vowed to make sure that part doesn't change: "I feel a lot of responsibility for the show, for it to be good and for people to embrace it and for week after week for it to remain viable and on the air." — The Fresno Bee/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

> The second season of The Following starts tonight on Fox (Astro Ch 710) at 9.50pm.

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Obama warns divided Congress that he will act alone

Posted: 28 Jan 2014 09:15 PM PST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday to bypass a divided Congress and take action on his own to bolster America's middle class in a State of the Union address that he used to try to breathe new life into his second term after a troubled year.

Standing in the House of Representatives chamber before lawmakers, Supreme Court justices and VIP guests, Obama declared his independence from Congress by unveiling a series of executive orders and decisions - moves likely to inflame already tense relations between the Democratic president and Republicans.

While his rhetoric was high flying, Obama's actions were relatively modest, collectively amounting to an outpouring of frustration at the pace of legislative action with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and able to slow the president's agenda.

"I'm eager to work with all of you," Obama told the lawmakers gathered for the annual speech. "But America does not stand still - and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do."

Obama's orders included a wage hike for federal contract workers, creation of a "starter savings account" to help millions of people save for retirement, and plans to establish new fuel efficiency standards for trucks.

He said he was driven to act by the widening gap between rich and poor and the fact that while the stock market has soared, average wages have barely budged.

"Inequality has deepened," Obama said. "Upward mobility has stalled. The cold hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by, let alone get ahead. And too many still aren't working at all."

SALUTE TO WOUNDED SOLDIER

In an emotional, flag-waving finish to his speech, Obama drew a standing ovation from people of all political stripes by saluting the heroism of Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg. The Army Ranger survived a roadside blast in Afghanistan and has recovered to the point where he attended the speech, seated next to first lady Michelle Obama.

"Like the America he serves, Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg never gives up, and he does not quit," Obama said.

In a nod to bipartisanship, Obama drew applause with a brief tribute to John Boehner, "the son of a barkeeper" who rose to become speaker of the House of Representatives and the top Republican in Congress. Boehner gave Obama a thumbs-up.

Obama's political objective in the address was to create a narrative for Democrats to use as they seek to head off Republicans eager to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats in November elections and build on their majority in the House.

The party in control of the White House typically loses seats in these so-called mid-term elections, but Democrats feel they stand a chance of limiting their losses or even making some gains.

To that end, Obama drew loud applause by underscoring in particular the economic plight of women, who he noted make up about half the U.S. workforce but still earn 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Women voters helped re-elect Obama in 2012.

"This year, let's all come together - Congress, the White House and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street - to give every woman the opportunity she deserves, because I firmly believe when women succeed, America succeeds," he said.

Obama's governing strategy means he has scaled back ambitions for large legislative actions and wants to focus more on smaller-scale initiatives that can reduce income inequality and create more opportunities for middle-class workers.

The wage hike for federal contract workers to $10.10 per hour, for example, will mean a pay raise for only about 560,000 federal contract workers.

That's only a tiny fraction of the number who would see bigger paychecks under stalled legislation to increase the minimum wage.

Some 3.6 million workers were paid the federal minimum wage in 2012. By comparison, only 560,000 are employed as federal contractors for $12 an hour or less, according to the think tank Demos. And Obama's executive order only affects new and renewed contracts.

Obama spent a sizable part of his speech hammering away at issues that have long been debated but remain stalled, like closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He renewed an appeal for Congress to give him the authority to speedily negotiate international trade agreements, a proposal held up by Democratic opposition.

And on one of his biggest priorities, immigration reform, Obama urged Congress to work together on an overhaul. He tempered his criticism of Republicans who have held up the legislation, with signs of possible progress emerging in recent days among House Republicans.

Obama stopped short of taking a step that immigration reform advocates have called on him to take. He did not take executive action to freeze the deportations of parents of children brought to the United States illegally.

"Let's get immigration reform done this year," he said.

'REFIGHTING OLD BATTLES'

On healthcare, the issue that rocked his presidency and caused many Americans to lose confidence in him, Obama defended the overhaul law he signed in 2010 but did not dwell on it, urging Americans to sign up for medical insurance coverage by a March 31 deadline.

"I don't expect to convince my Republican friends on the merits of this law," Obama said. "But I know that the American people aren't interested in refighting old battles."

He said nothing about whether he would approve the long-delayed Keystone XL Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that environmentalists oppose.

Instead, Obama spoke passionately about the need to tackle climate change, a statement that could foreshadow more executive actions to reduce carbon emissions this year.

Obama said, "The shift to a cleaner energy economy won't happen overnight, and it will require some tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact."

Republicans clambered for some of the same rhetorical ground as Obama in pledging to narrow the gap between rich and poor but staked out a different vision for doing so.

U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman of the House Republican Caucus, said in her party's official response to Obama's speech that Republicans want to rely on free markets and trust people to make their own decisions, not have the government make decisions for them.

"The president talks a lot about income inequality, but the real gap we face today is one of opportunity inequality," she said, videotaped seated on a couch in a living room setting.

With three years left in office, Obama is trying to recover from a difficult past year in office, when immigration and gun control legislation failed to advance in Congress and the rollout of the key provisions of his healthcare law stumbled.

Polls reflect a dissatisfied and gloomy country. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Tuesday showed 68 percent of Americans saying the country is either stagnant or worse off since Obama took office. People used words like "divided," "troubled" and "deteriorating" to describe the state of the country, the poll showed.

Obama dwelled mostly on domestic issues in his hour-long address, but warned Congress he would veto any effort to increase economic sanctions on Iran as he tries to reach a comprehensive deal with Tehran to ensure it does not obtain a nuclear weapons capability.

A CNN poll found that 44 percent of respondents viewed Obama's address very positively while 32 percent felt somewhat positively about it and 22 percent were negative toward it.

Obama will talk up the economic themes from the speech in a two-day road trip starting on Wednesday that will include stops in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Tennessee.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Roberta Rampton, Susan Cornwell, Mark Felsenthal, Margaret Chadbourn, Alina Selyukh, Emily Stephenson and Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Will Dunham)

Obama urges Guantanamo closure this year, shift from 'permanent war footing'

Posted: 28 Jan 2014 09:10 PM PST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama told Americans on Tuesday that 2014 should be the year to finally close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay as the United States winds down its military role in Afghanistan and shifts away from a "permanent war footing."

In his annual State of the Union address, Obama renewed his old vow - dating back to the start of his presidency five years ago - to shut the internationally condemned jail at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, and he called on Congress for further action to help him do so.

"This needs to be the year Congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantanamo Bay," Obama said. "Because we counter terrorism not just through intelligence and military action, but by remaining true to our constitutional ideals and setting an example for the rest of the world."

Obama stopped short of offering any new prescriptions on how he intends to empty Guantanamo of its remaining 155 prisoners. They were rounded up overseas after the September 11, 2001, attacks and have been held without trial ever since.

But after U.S. lawmakers made it easier late last year to transfer Guantanamo inmates to their home countries, Obama is in a better position than before to gradually reduce the detainee population. But he said Congress needed to give him further flexibility.

The effort to close Guantanamo is a critical part of Obama's broader drive to roll back some of the most controversial aspects of the global fight against Islamist militants as he presses ahead with plans to formally end the long, unpopular war in Afghanistan by the end of the year.

Obama has already sought to narrow the scope of the deadly U.S. drone campaign against al Qaeda and its allies, and recently announced reforms in surveillance activities triggered by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden's revelations.

"Even as we aggressively pursue terrorist networks - through more targeted efforts and by building the capacity of our foreign partners - America must move off a permanent war footing," Obama said.

GETTING PAST BUSH'S 'WAR ON TERROR'

Opened by President George W. Bush in 2002, Guantanamo became a symbol of the excesses of his administration's "war on terror" interrogation and detention practices.

Obama failed to meet his promise to close the prison within a year of taking office in early 2009, and although he has since

recommitted to his pledge, he was reluctant until now to set a new time frame for achieving it.

His renewed promise followed congressional passage in December of a broader defence spending bill that loosened some restrictions on Obama's ability to send more of the Guantanamo detainees home.

Despite that, he still faces major obstacles to shutting Guantanamo. Lawmakers refused to budge on a ban on bringing Guantanamo prisoners to the U.S. mainland.

On top of that, complications remain with Yemen, where U.S. officials fear released prisoners might join up with an active al Qaeda branch. Yemen's government also has yet to build a long-promised detention centre for any prisoners sent home.

Obama also used his speech to reassure a war-weary American public that the U.S. military was on track to withdraw from Afghanistan after more than a decade of war there.

"We will complete our mission there by the end of this year, and America's longest war will finally be over," he said.

He also sent a thinly veiled message to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is locked in a test of wills with Washington over efforts to reach a long-term security pact that would enable a small contingent of U.S. forces to remain in the country beyond 2014.

The White House has warned that it will resort to a "zero option," pulling out all U.S. forces at the end of the year unless he signs a security deal soon.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Obama takes tough line against Iran sanctions to Congress

Posted: 28 Jan 2014 08:55 PM PST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took his hard line against new sanctions over Iran's nuclear program directly to U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday by pledging in his annual State of the Union address to veto any legislation that threatens talks with Tehran.

Obama said an interim agreement seeking to curb Iran's nuclear program was already taking effect, and the ongoing diplomacy was important for U.S. safety.

"The sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible. But let me be clear: if this Congress sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, I will veto it," Obama said in his speech in the House of Representatives chamber.

"For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed," he said.

He reassured Israel, a U.S. ally that is extremely wary of Iran's nuclear program, referring to "a Jewish state that knows America will always be at their side." He added that all options - including the military option - were on the table for keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon if need be.

Tehran rejects allegations that it is seeking the capability to produce nuclear arms, insisting its atomic ambitions are limited to peaceful purposes such as the generation of electricity.

Fifty-nine of the 100 U.S. senators, including 16 of Obama's fellow Democrats, co-sponsored a bill that would impose new restrictions on Iran if talks on a permanent deal falter.

But Iran has warned it will walk away from negotiations on its nuclear program - raising the risk of conflict in the Middle East - if the bill becomes law. The measure is now stalled in the Senate amid expectations the chamber's Democratic leaders will not allow a vote.

Supporters insist the bill would help hold push Iran during the negotiations. "The Menendez-Kirk bill is an insurance policy against Iran's development of nuclear weapons and ensures a process for the peaceful dismantlement of Iran's nuclear infrastructure," Illinois Republican Senator Mark Kirk said in a statement after Obama's speech.

Obama said U.S. diplomacy "backed by pressure" had rolled back Iran's nuclear program for the first time in a decade, as negotiators from six world powers hold talks with Iran.

"These negotiations will be difficult. They may not succeed," he said, adding his administration was "clear-eyed" about Iran's backing for terrorist organizations and mistrust "that cannot be washed away" between Washington and Tehran.

"If John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan could negotiate with the Soviet Union, then surely a strong and confident America can negotiate with less powerful adversaries today," Obama said.

Obama promised to support more sanctions if Iran backs away from the talks.

But if the negotiations succeed, he said, Iran could take "an important step to rejoin the community of nations, and we will have resolved one of the leading security challenges of our time without the risks of war."

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VietJetAir to finalise US$9bil Airbus order to meet low cost carrier market challenge

Posted: 28 Jan 2014 03:21 PM PST

SINGAPORE/PARIS: Vietnamese carrier VietJetAir said it would finalise a $9 billion order for up to 92 Airbus aircraft next month as it seeks to tap into Southeast Asia's fast growing low-cost market dominated by AirAsia Bhd and Lion Air.


In September, privately owned VietJetAir and Airbus agreed a provisional order for mostly A320 planes, but the deal did not show up on the order book of Airbus in its 2013 data.

"VietJetAir will sign a purchasing agreement with Airbus in Singapore next month to buy 92 aircraft," said Luu Duc Khanh, VietJetAir's managing director, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

"Signing the MOU last year was our initial step and this is a next step to make our development plan comes true," he told Reuters.

A firm order is seen as a strong indication of future revenue for airplane manufacturers and triggers a deposit from airlines. Airlines mainly pay for aircraft when they take delivery and usually win significant discounts for large orders.

The latest deal worth $9 billion at list prices, includes firm orders for 62 medium-haul jets as well as options for 30 more. VietJetAir, an existing A320 operator, has said it also plans to lease eight more Airbus planes.

Vietnam's fledgling airline industry is poised to boom as local competition heats up with fleet expansions, new routes and planned share offerings that are set to make it one of the world's three fastest-growing markets. State-run flag carrier Vietnam Airlines dominates the local market.

An Airbus spokesman in Singapore said: "We don't comment on discussions that may or may not be taking place with customers or reports of potential announcements."

VietJetAir, which has been flying since December 2011, offers domestic flights and also flies to Bangkok. It has ambitious plans to develop into a regional airline, taking advantage of a boom in regional air travel.

Malaysia's AirAsia Bhd and Indonesia's Lion Air have similarly announced bold plans to expand their fleets and have captured market share from full service airlines.

A source familiar with the situation said the Airbus-VietJetAir deal would be one of the big orders to come out of the Singapore Airshow which starts on Feb. 9.

The aircraft will be delivered in phases over 10-12 years, with VietJetAir set to take delivery of the first few aircraft in the last quarter of this year, the source said.

The source did not wish to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.- Reuters

300-yr-old Stradivarius violin, worth millions, plucked from musician in Wisconsin robbery

Posted: 28 Jan 2014 07:29 PM PST

MILWAUKEE: A 300-year-old Stradivarius worth millions of dollars was stolen from a concert violinist by thieves who shot the musician with an electric stun gun just after he had performed with the instrument in suburban Milwaukee, police said on Tuesday.

"It appears the violin was the primary target of this robbery," Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn told reporters, adding that the two thieves were seen fleeing the scene of the crime in a minivan.

The so-called Lipinski Stradivarius, an instrument made in 1715 and distinguished by unique striations on its back, was stolen on Monday night at a college campus in Wauwatosa, immediately west of Milwaukee, Flynn said.

The instrument was on loan to violinist Frank Almond of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra when it was taken from him following a performance, Flyn said.

Police said Almond was subdued with a stun gun fired at him by one of the thieves, who then jumped into the waiting getaway vehicle driven by another suspect.

Violins such as the one stolen can sell for $5 million to $10 million, Flynn said. He added that the FBI has entered the Lipinski into its international art theft database.

"This violin is very valuable, but very valuable to a very small population," Flynn said in a news conference carried by ABC affiliate WISN on its website. "This is not something that can be easily sold for even a fraction of its monetary value."

Milwaukee Orchestra president Mark Niehaus said rare instruments such as the stolen Stradivarius are in circulation because they "need to be played to live on."

The missing instrument is one of roughly 600 violins, violas and cellos built by the famed Italian maker Antonio Stradivari that are still in existence.

Korean-born classical musician Min-Jin Kym's 300-year-old Stradivarius violin was snatched in November 2010 when she stopped at a London restaurant to buy a sandwich. That instrument was found three years later and sold at auction for $2.3 million in December, according to the BBC.

A rare Stradivarius violin that once belonged to the granddaughter of English poet Lord Byron sold for $15.9 million in 2011 at a charity auction for Japanese disaster relief.- Reuters

US Industry summary

Posted: 28 Jan 2014 07:26 PM PST

As Olympics loom, NBC leads in the race for prized viewers

(Reuters) - Comcast Corp's NBC network, for years a ratings laggard, is ahead in a key contest among broadcasters even before it attracts millions of viewers this month to its marquee event, the Winter Olympics. "The Blacklist," which stars James Spader as a master criminal who helps the FBI, and the second-year drama "Chicago Fire" have pushed NBC into the lead among viewers 18 to 49, the group most prized by advertisers.

BBC faces damning criticism over failed $170 million digital project

LONDON (Reuters) - The BBC came under fire on Tuesday for botching a 100 million pound ($170 million) digital project in the latest of a series of reports to criticize top management for their running of Britain's publicly funded broadcaster. Public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) saidBBC executives led by then Director General Mark Thompson, now New York Times Company chief executive, failed to realize in time that the Digital Media Initiative was in trouble.

British PM Cameron's ex-media chief knew of phone-hacking, court hears

LONDON (Reuters) - The former media chief to British Prime Minister David Cameron listened to a hacked voicemail revealing an affair between two leading actors and declared it "brilliant" when he was editor of the News of the World, a London court heard on Tuesday. Dan Evans, a former reporter and self-confessed prolific phone hacker on the Rupert Murdoch tabloid, said Andy Coulson was one of 10 senior figures on the now-defunct paper who knew how he intercepted voicemails to generate front page stories.

Comcast in talks to license technology to Cox -sources

(Reuters) - Comcast Corp, the No. 1 U.S. cable operator, is in advanced discussions about licensing its "X1" video operating system to Cox Communications, the third-largest cable operator, according to people familiar with the matter. Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said on January 7 that the company is looking to license its latest cloud-based technology to other cable operators. Comcast has been in talks to provide Cox with a "white label" version of the product without using Comcast's Xfinity product name, two sources said.

China says New York Times reporter broke visa rules, will leave

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that a China-based reporter for the New York Times broke rules on residence visas and would be leaving the country before the end of the week, in a case which could sour Beijing's relations with Washington. The issue of media freedom for foreign reporters in China has attracted high-level concern in the United States, especially over worries that the government is denying visas for organizations that carry negative stories about China.

Rivals DirecTV and Dish team up to sell customized political ads

(Reuters) - DirecTV and Dish Network Corp, the largest U.S. satellite TV providers that usually compete for customers, announced on Monday that they have joined forces to sell customized ads in a bid to gain a slice of $3.4 billion political ad market dominated by local broadcasters. Both companies have been in a push to sell so-called addressable ads, which are targeted to their subscribers, based on data about their households.

Ex-journalist admits hacking at Murdoch paper, rival Sunday Mirror

LONDON (Reuters) - A former journalist on Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid and its rival Sunday Mirror has admitted conspiring to hack into hundreds of phones to get exclusive stories about celebrities. Daniel Evans told London's Old Bailey Court on Monday he had been a prolific phone-hacker and that Andy Coulson, one of Murdoch's ex-editors and later Prime Minister David Cameron's media chief, had known what he did before employing him.

Twenty-First Century Fox to take majority stake in YES Network

(Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc said it would take control of Yankees Entertainment and Sports (YES) Network, by raising its stake to 80 percent from 49 percent. Twenty-First Century Fox, which first acquired its stake in YES Network in 2012, said the remaining 20 percent stake will continue to be held by Yankee Global Enterprises.

Comcast eyes Time Warner Cable's East Coast markets: source

NEW YORK (Reuters) - No 1 cable provider Comcast, in its talks with Charter about a possible deal to acquire parts of Time Warner Cable, would be interested in an agreement that gives Comcast the New York market and parts of New England, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. Discussions between Comcast Corp and Charter Communications Inc have gotten more substantive in recent days, partly because Comcast felt takeover target Time Warner Cable was seeking too high a price for itself, the person said on Friday.

Fox scores with Hispanic TV, online ad sales for Super Bowl

(Reuters) - Twenty First Century Fox, whose Fox network is getting an average of $4 million for a 30-second spot on its sold-out Super Bowl telecast, has almost reached that mark on its Spanish-language channel and online video stream. Fox should have sold nearly 90 percent of available advertising time on Fox Deportes by the time the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks take the field on February 2, saidTom Maney, executive vice president of advertising sales at Fox Hispanic Media.

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