Entertaining Posts

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Stallone sued, accused of stealing screenplay

NEW YORK | Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:27pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Action movie star Sylvester Stallone is accused in a lawsuit of copying another writer's screenplay to make "The Expendables," a movie about mercenaries hired to defeat a military dictator.

The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday by writer Marcus Webb, who said the screenplay for "The Expendables" is "strikingly similar and in some places identical" to his work entitled "The Cordoba Caper."

Webb seeks unspecified damages for copyright infringement and an order from the court stopping further infringement in any sequel by Stallone, his credited co-author David Callaham, Millennium Films, Nu Image Films and Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation.

Representatives of Stallone and other defendants could not immediately be reached for comment.

"The Expendables" -- produced by Millennium and Nu Image and distributed by Lions Gate -- was released worldwide on August 13, 2010. It featured a cameo appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger after he left his post as California governor, along with other aging action heroes Stallone and Jet Li.

According to the lawsuit, Webb registered "The Cordoba Caper" screenplay and a short story with the same title and plot with the U.S. Copyright Office in June 2006. Between 2006 and 2009, the lawsuit said, the screenplay was made widely available by Webb for consideration in the movie industry.

"There can be no dispute that Stallone and/or Callaham had access to and copied protectable elements of the screenplay," the lawsuit said.

"The Cordoba Caper" tells the story of a team of elite, highly-trained mercenaries hired to defeat General Garza, a rogue army general of a small Latin American country," the lawsuit said.

The court document provides details of the ways in which Webb sees similarities between his screenplay and the released movie, including the opening "with a hostage rescue at sea, off a foreign coast, which has nothing to do with the main plot."

It said the main villain in both is a General Garza, a military dictator with a notorious human rights record.

Webb said he has been deprived of benefits from the screenplay such as potential earnings from the production, distribution and performance of "The Expendables."

"Expendables 2," a sequel to "The Expendables," is due for release on August 17, 2012. (See here).

The case is Marcus Webb v Sylvester Stallone, et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-7517.

(Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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Boyz II Men still making music after 20 years

By Sabrina Ford

NEW YORK | Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:33am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In 1991, Boyz II Men arrived on the pop music scene with their own brand of R&B that peppered Motown-like harmonies with New Jack Swing, a genre that fused R&B, hip-hop and pop music.

The following year their wrenching ballad "End of the Road" sent the Philadelphia natives to international superstardom, and on Tuesday, the band releases "Twenty," a double-disc album of new and revisited material commemorating the 20th anniversary of their debut album, "Cooleyhighharmony."

"Twenty" reunites Wanya Morris, Nathan Morris and Shawn Stockman with "End of the Road" producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. Their latest single, "One Up for Love," the video for which premiered last Friday, was produced by Edmonds.

"There's a song for every person, a song for each day," Boyz II Men singer Wanya Morris told Reuters.

"It's autumn so the leaves are changing and it gives me a 'So Amazing' vibe," he added, referencing a new mid-tempo track produced by the hitmaking duo Tim & Bob.

"Tomorrow, if I'm feeling more romantic," Morris continued, "I may want to listen to something like 'Slowly,'" which is the album's slinky ballad that also was produced by Tim & Bob.

The 20-song collection is comprised of 12 new original tracks and eight newly-recorded versions of classics like "Motownphilly," "I'll Make Love to You," and "On Bended Knee."

"When we first did the songs they were just given to us and we went into the studio and got it done," explained Nathan Morris. "But now we've been singing them for so long and even experienced some of the stuff that we've been singing about ... we're able to express them a lot better."

CHANGING TIMES

The group marvels at how far they -- and the record industry overall -- has changed in 20 years.

"When we came out there wasn't even an Internet! No Internet!" said Wanya Morris. "Everything is digital now and it's easier to get your talent out fast."

But Wanya is careful not to discount celebrities like Justin Bieber whose career was launched on YouTube.

Bieber, who was born the same year that Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You" was a hit, counts the group among his influences, and he and Boyz II Men recorded a song together for the teen star's upcoming Christmas album.

" was the perfect avenue for us to do something different because it's the type of record that doesn't matter how old you are or who you are, it doesn't matter, as long as the song sounds great," said Wanya Morris.

While many Boyz II Men-inspired acts such as 98 Degrees have come and gone in the last two decades, Wanya Morris attributes his group's longevity to their homegrown bonds. The trio met while students at The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts.

"Most of the time you have solo artists that come together to form a group, and they're often contrived by a record label or a manager -- just four or five guys who look like models or TV stars," said Wanya. "Boyz II Men, we came together through music."

To be sure, there have been differences among the group over the years. Originally a quartet, the group saw the exit of original member Michael McCary in 2003.

Although health issues were cited at the time, Nathan Morris says now that McCrary "kind of got lazy" and that "it wasn't an amicable separation."

Now, the band struggles with being called legends because, they say, there is much more music to come.

"Legendary status is usually reached at the end of your career. We're just beginning a new chapter in ours," said Wanya Morris. "We hope that title is still representative of who we are when we put out the record 'Forty'!"

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Monday, October 24, 2011

Singer Loretta Lynn out of hospital

NASHVILLE, Tenn | Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:23pm EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - Country music legend Loretta Lynn was resting at home on Monday after spending part of a "scary" weekend in the hospital suffering from pneumonia, the singer said.

"It was one scary night ... But I am feeling better and just gonna take it easy for a couple of weeks," she said in a statement from her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.

The 76-year-old music icon went to a Kentucky hospital early on Saturday after awakening on her tour bus complaining of difficulty breathing, her web site said.

Lynn canceled her two weekend performances in Kentucky and North Carolina, but the statement said she expected to return to the stage on November 3 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The singer, who grew up poor in Kentucky's coal-mining country before rising to fame, has additional performances scheduled in Mississippi, Louisiana and North Carolina.

Lynn, whose hits including "If You're Not Gone Too Long" and "Don't Come Home A Drinkin'," has released 70 albums and charted 16 No. 1 hits in a career spanning five decades.

She has won two Grammys and written several books, including "Coal Miner's Daughter," which was made into a movie that earned Sissy Spacek an Oscar for her performance as the singer.

(Reporting by Tim Ghianni; Editing by Andrew Stern and Jerry Norton)

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