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(Source screendaily.com) Andy Serkis, famous for pioneering motion-capture performance in The Lord Of The Rings, King Kong and the upcoming Tintin films, has revealed he will collaborate with musician Nick Cave on a motion-capture movie of The Threepenny Opera. The Brecht and Weill musical play was first performed in 1928 in Berlin.

“It’s nice to announce it in its hometown,” said Serkis this week. The actor is in town to talk about his bravura performance in sexdrugs&rock&roll as the late rock star Ian Dury

(Source: telegraph.co.uk) Animation in the country “is at a tipping point: it either survives or dies”, industry leaders wrote in a joint letter to The Daily Telegraph.

Shows such as Wallace & Gromit, Bob the Builder and Noddy have made England “a recognised centre for animation”, they said.

But they forecast: “Within a matter of years, we will not be producing any such fantastic properties as a result of tax breaks and government incentives in other countries.”

They are calling on the Government to extend the Film Tax Credit to animation companies working on television programmes so that they have a “level playing field” with those in countries like Ireland, France and Canada.

A consortium of music industry groups has begun lobbying the U.S. Congress to receive what they believe is their fair share of revenue from online music sales services like Apple’s iTunes.

In a new story from CNet, music industry representatives plead their case as to why they are entitled to revenue for downloads of films, TV shows, and 30-second song samples that feature their work. Songwriters say they do not receive enough revenue from the Web to live off of, and they believe they are owed a larger share of sales.

(Source: TAUW) Another week, another App Store scandal. Over the weekend, Apple rejected an update to the NIN: Access app (reviewed here) because of “objectionable content.” The objectionable content? 1994’s The Downward Spiral (iTunes link, also available in a deluxe edition here). Needless to say, Trent Reznor is a little upset (TUAW disclaimer, Reznor uses adult language, if this bothers you, avert your eyes or don’t click the link).

This latest incident allows us to revisitother incidents of non-sensical approval decisions. In the case of Tweetie, Apple backed off the potential objectionable content claim and let the update through. In the case of craigsphone, the developer re-routed potentially “adult” content to Mobile Safari. As for South Park, well, it’s still not in the App Store.

Tim Burton has revealed that he would like to work with The Cure.

The Sweeney Todd director told BBC 6Music that the band’s output has always been an inspiration to him.

Burton was speaking after he presented the group with the Godlike Geniuses prize at the Shockwaves NME Awards.

Burton said: “I could easily see really liking to do something, collaborate some time.

“I have been [a fan] for so many years and they’ve been so inspirational to me, so it’s a real honour to be here with them.”

Steven Severin (bassist for Siouxsie & The Banshees) will be performing “Music For Silents”, his score for the 1926 silent surrealist classic film “The Seashell & the Clergyman” at The Independent in San Francisco on Monday, April 6th. Tickets go on sale at TicketWeb on Feb 15th.

Below is a review from a recent performance of the same show in the UK:

When Germaine Dulac premiered her film The Seashell and the Clergyman in 1928, playwright Antonin Artaud, who penned the half-hour short’s original scenario, is said to have heckled the screen, going so far as to call its director a “cow”. If such confrontational behaviour sounds like a precursor to punk’s assault on culture half a century later, a new score to the film by former Siouxsie and the Banshees bassist Steven Severin is all too appropriate.

(Source: observer.com)  Our issues with Hollywood’s current obsession over 3-D have been well documented this week. The short of it is: it stinks! Watching Monday’s dimensionally enhanced episode of Chuck was like doing our taxes–arduous, exhausting, unfulfilling, and, by the end of it, our eyes were burning. How is that fun again? Why anyone would want to watch an actual movie in 3-D is beyond our comprehension at this point; if we wanted to see things in three dimensions, we’d just look around our apartment. And yet! James Cameron’s 3-D experience, Avatar, might have us whistling a new tune by the end of the year. Total Film was kind enough to post an exclusive feature about the upcoming film, featuring new quotes from the former King of the World and the results are alternatively awe-inspiring and bananas. When Academy Award-winner Steven Soderbergh says “there’s going to be before that movie, and after” and “the shit I saw was crazy”, we stand up and take notice.

Cramps frontman Lux Interior passed away today (Feb. 4th) at a Glendale, Calif., hospital due to a pre-existing heart condition, the band’s publicist confirms to Billboard. He was 52.

The Cramps formed in 1976 and were part of the now legendary downtown New York punk scene. Their line-up shifted over the years but always included Lux and his wife, Poison Ivy. The band’s rockabilly infused punk has been credited as an influence by bands like the White Stripes and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

Interior, whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser, was born October 21, 1946 in Ohio. He met Ivy in 1972 and started the band shortly thereafter.

(Source: Collider.com) Written by Steve “Frosty” Weintraub

One of the things that’s so great about the Sundance Film Festival is the abundance of documentaries. Each year the festival seems to raise the ante on subject matter and this year seems to be no exception, as the festival is filled with a myriad of docs on a variety of subjects.

That being said, one of the documentaries I was looking forward to watching this year was called “The Cove”. I was going to check it out based on the subject matter (eco-warriors protecting dolphins) but after watching the clips I was provided, I’m even more interested.

The reason…it ends up ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) helped make the movie not using their expertise with CGI or other computer effects….nope…it ends up they helped to create ways to hide the HD cameras using practical effects that you’d see in a Hollywood movie! Trust me, watch the first clip and you’ll be amazed.