Dateline Los Angeles, CA: They have got to draw back the audiences that have been missing due to ever increasing DVD sales and rentals, downloading and  the Internet game playing. But what can Hollywood offer that you cannot get in the comfort of your home? The claim is  that Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D" is the answer and will rescue the film industry by bringing back the crowds to theaters across America. Before that film's 3-D re-release last year, 3-D digital cinema still was a technology people questioned. Granted Walt Disney Pictures helped push it along with "Chicken Little" the first new 3-D digital-cinema  in Nov. 4, 2005. And Sony Pictures also assisted with its 3-D release of "Monster House" in July. With that, some big name directors came on board, including  James Cameron and Robert Zemeckis who have sincerely committed to several new 3-D projects. But the initial catalyst was Tim Burton's 1993 film that was re-released in 3-D last  October in 168 theaters, grossed $8.7 million, and  changed most of the naysayers into conceding that perhaps 3-D was here to stay. This also made the Theater owners of America take notice. "3-D is becoming a much bigger value add than originally thought. 'Chicken Little' and 'Nightmare Before Christmas' blew the socks off all our members. When you can take a product that's been around for a while and bring it out and make $9 million, that's impressive", admitted their official spokesperson. Since then, Sony has green lighted Robert Zemeckis' animated film "Beowulf" for a November release; New Line Cinema began work on "Journey 3-D", which will  open Aug. 8, 2008; and James Cameron is already into "Avatar" pre-production for 20th Century Fox with a release date of May 22, 2009. Thousands of screens are expected to be equipped for digital 3-D by the time "Avatar" is released. There has been a tremendous effort made on part of all the partys involved. Particularly the performance of 3-D and the film makers behind it have been a tremendous catalyst to move things forward at a rapid pace.  Still, many challenges on the deployment of digital cinema remain.  Only 2,000 screens out of 43,000 nationwide have been deployed, but the speed of deployment is picking up. Last April 11, there were only 359 digital-cinema screens in the the entire USA. Here’s the U.S. Theater owners' bottom line: "The public has responded well to it, the studios seem to all be preparing pictures around it, and there is a lot of excitement about it. It's a much better experience, and we're always trying to deliver a premium experience." They left out their most important sentence...”and it will bring back the audiences and our profits!”

Dateline Hollywood, CA: Some say that  Daniel Craig makes one helluva James Bond. And in a certain way, those fans may be right. But, alas, the new 007 will temporarily abandon his Bond manners and jump into the horns and forked tail of Lucifer himself in Hollywood’s newest adaptation of Adam and Eve, called “I, Lucifer” based on the best selling novel by Glen Duncan. The plot begins with God giving Satan one last chance at redemption. He must live out a full and blameless life as a human. But, true to his character, Lucifer negotiates  a trial period of one month, even though he has no intention of taking God up on the final offer. Satan simply wants to put a human body through as many vices as possible. But complications set in while he inhabits a human body. He starts to have feelings that the Devil never thought possible. In the end, will he take up God’s offer after all? You’ll have to wait till the end of 2008 to find out. Playing the corrupted Angel really isn’t far away from his new Bond role now, is it? If you think Daniel should restrict himself to His Majesty’s Secret Service, we are sorry to inform that he is branching out in all directions, film wise, for fear that he will be typecast and be doomed forever playing only the secret agent. What a terrible life that would be! Not only will he be a devil, but you will soon see him in the family fantasy picture, “The Golden Compass”, as a British Lord, with Nicole Kidman playing the dark lady role and again with Nicole in “The Invasion”, a sci-fi horror film as they save the world from an alien epidemic.

Dateline Tehran, Iran: local government officials and media are criticizing Hollywood over the film “300”. According to BBC News, the Iranian  President, his government's ministers, as well as the local press are claiming that the new film “..is offensive regarding historical Persian cultural personages!”. The movie centers around the Battle of Thermopolis, wherein a small Greek contingent of soldiers stood off  an entire Persian Army. Iran’s Cultural Minister declared, "The movie plunders Iran’s historical past and insults our civilization". He claims that this film is part of a psychological warfare plan of the West against Tehran and the Iranian people.” The minister added, “ After the Islamic revolution, Hollywood and other cultural centers of the United States have begun to study how to attack our civilization. Certainly this film is  a result of these studies!” Needless to say the film is banned from being shown in the country. And all this free publicity, even though some may consider it negative, is sure to boost current record box office profits even higher, all around the world in the coming weeks and months.