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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Here Comes Tech-Heavy “Avatar” (and the Inevitable Smurf Spoof)

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Hollywood director James Cameron is well known for his heavy use of special effects and techtastic techniques in his movies, which include “Titanic,” “Aliens” and the first–and best–two “Terminator” blockbusters.

In a few weeks, Cameron is hoping to hit geek gold again with a 3-D sci-fi juggernaut called “Avatar,” which is about an indigenous blue-colored tribe and their inevitable greedy enemies.

Thus, cue the Smurfs!

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Viral Video: “2012”–Killer Special Effects…Literally!

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Hollywood is selling the end times hard this week with the opening of “2012,” a blockbuster-style movie about the last days of the world for humanity.

Apparently, we were warned!

It’s based on junk theories about how the 5,125-year-long Mayan Long Count calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, which can only mean that so goes the universe.

So, until the apocalypse, enjoy the trailers.

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The New “Prince of Persia” Trailer: From Videogame to Jake’s Awesome Abs?

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Here’s the new trailer for the upcoming videogame-to-live-action Disney fantasy adventure movie, “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.”

It still looks an awful lot like a videogame and is chock full of special effects–but the adaptation also seems to feature much in the way of shirtlessness and mascara-wearing on the part of star Jake Gyllenhaal.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

“Terminator” Terminated? Actually, Restructured!

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Memo to all Cyborg Geeks:

“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology….We can make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.”

Wait, that’s “The Six Million Dollar Man” motto!

But it might as well apply to the Hollywood outfit that owns the “Terminator” movie franchise.

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Saturday, September 12, 2009

Viral Video: Teen Girl Alert! “Twilight: New Moon” Trailer Loose in the Internet Wild.

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Since it was tacked onto the slasher movie, “Sorority Row,” which opened this weekend, many have been posting the brand new trailer for “New Moon.”

The second installment of the “Twilight” vampire series debuts Nov. 20, natch!

But for those who cannot wait, here’s the new trailer, as well as the two older ones.

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Yahoo and Microsoft: Breaking (And Making) Up Is Hard to Do

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Oh, they’re still talking. Except when they’re not. And, then, they are.

Such has been the course of discussions Yahoo and Microsoft continue to be engaged in about a possible partnership deal around search and online advertising.

“It runs hot, then cold, then hot, then who knows,” said one person close to the situation.

It’s kind of like a digital version of the romantic travails of Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson, minus the paparazzi and screaming matches in trendy clubs.

Here’s an update of the talks.

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Monday, May 4, 2009

Here Comes the Summer Movie Geektravaganza: Trek to Demons to Bots to Cyborgs to Potter!

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With bootleg copies ripped on the Internet or not and with an $87 million opening weekend for “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” it looks like the nerdiest summer movie season ever is off the races.

Hollywood, caught in the digital maelstrom, certainly is fine and dandy making bank by co-opting all the techie themes, gadgets and special effects, with a slate of movies over the next months that are like catnip to geeks of all kinds.

Including BoomTown, for example, which plans to fork over a lot of dough to pay for all the techtastic entertainment that those old media moguls can dish out before they collapse.

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Friday, December 19, 2008

Online Video: How Did BoomTown Leave Out the Trekkies?

After posting the hot new trailer for the fourth in the cyborg series, “Terminator Salvation,” yesterday, someone pointed out BoomTown was remiss in not including the one for the new “Star Trek” movie. No longer! It’s out in May and will look at the early lives of Captain James Tiberius Kirk and his sidekick and Vulcan-phenom, Spock. The video preview definitely boldly goes….

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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Online Video: The “Terminator Salvation” Trailer

BoomTown is a freakish fan of cybernetic organisms–living tissue over a metal endoskeleton, duh!–and thus feels compelled to include this, the latest trailer from the upcoming fourth movie in the “Terminator” series, called “Terminator Salvation.” The franchise is everywhere these days, including a television series I am also obsessed with, called “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” But the big Skynet guns are trained on the movie blockbuster, which will be out next summer. Oh, they’ll be back alright.

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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Harry Potter and the Half-True Trailers

Last week, BoomTown posted on the amazing number of Joker impression videos related to the hit Batman movie, “The Dark Knight,” that were popping up all over the Web.

Next up?

Well, it seems the honor will be going to Harry Potter knockoffs and tributes, due to the upcoming sixth movie in the series about the boy wizard, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

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Friday, May 2, 2008

Batman Trailer Mashup Lookalike

One of my favorite things about the Web is how quickly and effectively you can take media and mash it up into all sorts of new forms.
Case in point, this comparison of scenes from a trailer from the latest Batman movie, “The Dark Knight” and that of 1989’s original “Batman.”
Incredibly, many of the scenes [...]

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Friday, January 25, 2008

The Very Dark Knight

It is hard to look away from the swirl of media that the untimely and tragic death of Heath Ledger has engendered, and the Internet has jacked the frenzy into overdrive.

Along with an explosion of Web stories and video about the late actor–unfortunately too, please-don’t videos from outside the home of his family seem particularly appalling–there has also been controversy around a very prominent online marketing campaign that has been going on related to the next in the blockbuster Batman series, “The Dark Knight.”

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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