First Steve Jobs movie gets red carpet premiere

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) – The first movie about Apple‘s legendary co-founder got a warm reception at its world premiere on Friday, just 15 months after Steve Jobs‘ death.

“jOBS,” starring “Two and a Half Men” actor Ashton Kutcher as the tech and computer entrepreneur who revolutionized the way people listen to music and built Apple Inc into an international powerhouse, got a red carpet roll-out at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of hitting U.S. theaters on April 19.

“jOBS” chronicles 30 defining years of the late Apple chairman, from an experimental youth to the man in charge of one of the world’s most recognized brands. It is the first of two U.S. feature films about Jobs, who died in 2011 at age 56.

“Everybody has their own opinion about Steve Jobs, and they have something invested in a different part of his story. So the challenge is to decide what part of his story to tell, and not disenfranchise anybody,” director Josh Stern told Reuters ahead of the screening.

“Hazarding a guess and venturing into too much speculation is always dangerous, especially with a character who is so well-known,” Stern added.

The film, co-starring Josh Gad and Dermot Mulroney, begins with Jobs the dreamer, the poet and the occasional drug user in college, and his initial ideas for Apple Computers, before his vision took on a life of its own.

Much of the drama is based around the early 1980s, and Jobs‘ ideologies for the Apple Lisa and Macintosh computers, which ended up performing poorly for the company and led to Jobs being fired.

Kutcher’s Jobs is seen as the rock star of the tech world, admired but misunderstood in his early days as he constantly tried to think outside of the box and bring a notion of “cool” to his brand.

The audience on Friday warmly applauded the film following the screening.

In a question-and-answer session after the screening, Kutcher took to the stage to talk about his preparations of mastering Jobs‘ posture, hand gestures and eccentricities, saying his “painstaking research” included watching more than 100 hours of footage of the Apple innovator.

Notably missing from the film are details about Jobs’ personal life – his court settlement with the mother of his first child features only in the backdrop of the 1980s, a time when he struggled to gain support from the Apple board for his visions.

Stern told the audience that he deliberately stayed away from the CEO’s personal life, saying the film was “not about getting mired in some of the soap opera” of Jobs’ life.

Kutcher, 34, told Reuters on the red carpet before the screening that he was honored to play Jobs but also terrified because of the former Apple chairman’s iconic status.

“To be playing a guy who so freshly is in people’s minds, where everywhere you go you can run into people who met him or knew him or had seen a video of him … that’s terrifying because everyone is an appropriate critic,” Kutcher told Reuters.

WRONG PERSONALITIES

Hours before the screening, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said the movie appeared to misrepresent aspects of both his own and Jobs’ personalities and their early vision for the company.

Wozniak was commenting after seeing a brief clip of an early scene that was released online on Thursday.

“Totally wrong. … The ideas of computers affecting society did not come from Jobs,” Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Jobs and Ronald Wayne in a California garage in 1976, told technology blog Gizmodo.com.

“The lofty talk came much further down the line,” Wozniak said in a series of emails.

“Book of Mormon” star Gad, who plays Wozniak, told Reuters on Friday’s red carpet that the filmmakers had tried to reach out to him to get his input on “jOBS,” but that Wozniak was “participating in another project about Steve Jobs.”

Wozniak is tied to a movie based on Walter Isaacson’s official biography “Steve Jobs,” being developed by screen writer Aaron Sorkin of “The West Wing” and “The Social Network” fame. No release date or casting has been announced.

Kutcher said he hoped Wozniak would look more kindly on the movie when he had seen the whole two hours.

“I hope that when he sees the film, he feels that he was portrayed accurately, that the film accurately represents who he was and how he was, and more importantly, inspires people to go and build things,” he said.

(Additional reporting By Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; editing by Philip Barbara)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West

New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very young or old. The season's first flu case resistant to treatment with Tamiflu was reported Friday.

Eight more children have died from the flu, bringing this season's total pediatric deaths to 37. About 100 children die in an average flu season.

There is still vaccine available although it may be hard to find. The CDC has a website that can help.

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CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

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Disney says JJ Abrams to direct next 'Star Wars'

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's official. The force is with J.J. Abrams.

The Walt Disney Co. issued a statement Friday night confirming reports that had been circulating for two days that Abrams, Emmy-award-winning creator of TV's "Lost" and director of 2009's "Star Trek" movie, has been pegged to direct the seventh installment of the "Star Wars" franchise.

"J.J. is the perfect director to helm this," said Kathleen Kennedy, the movie's producer and president of Lucasfilm, which was acquired by Disney last month for $4.06 billion.

"Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise. He understands the essence of the Star Wars experience," Kennedy said in the statement.

The movie will have a script from "Toy Story 3" writer Michael Arndt and a 2015 release.

Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" in the original trilogy, will work as a consultant on the new project.

Abrams has already headed the reboot of another storied space franchise, "Star Trek," for rival studio Paramount Pictures. The next installment in that series, "Star Trek: Into Darkness," is set to hit theaters May 17.

But he has long been known as a "Star Wars" devotee. Abrams spoke about the plot of the original "Star Wars" in the lecture series "TED Talks" in March 2007, and reportedly became enamored of "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof partly because Lindelof was wearing a "Star Wars" T-shirt when they first met.

In 2009, Abrams told the Los Angeles Times: "As a kid, 'Star Wars' was much more my thing than 'Star Trek' was."

In Friday night's statement he called it an "absolute honor" to get the job.

"I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid," Abrams said.

Lucas himself said in the statement that "I've consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller. He's an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn't be in better hands."

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2012 stock report: Pains and gains

If you invested heavily in Illinois companies that provide consulting services, you had little reason to celebrate in 2012.

While the Standard & Poor's 500 index ended the year up 13 percent, most large businesses in the region that counsel other companies on how to improve their operations saw their stock prices drop.

Business support services was one of the few sectors getting clobbered in a 2012 Tribune ranking of Illinois and northwest Indiana stocks' performance.

Stock prices gained at about 70 percent of the 127 companies on the list, and about half outperformed the S&P 500. Bank owners such as Taylor Capital Group emerged from their 2011 doldrums, and Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and Discover Financial Services marked their second consecutive year of soaring stock prices.

The year's biggest decliner, down 76 percent, was Groupon, as once-torrid revenue growth at the daily deals offerer started slowing.

Career Education was the second-worst performer; its stock fell 56 percent. The highly scrutinized for-profit school chain said it would close campuses and cut jobs amid sinking revenue and financial losses.

Sectors boosted by broad gains in 2012 included electrical parts and equipment, industrial machinery, and specialty chemicals.

Of seven Illinois banks on the list, all but one outperformed the S&P 500, with price appreciation of those six ranging from 16 to 86 percent.

In contrast, stocks of four of five professional services firms — Navigant Consulting, Huron Consulting Group, Heidrick & Struggles International and R.R. Donnelley & Sons — closed down 2 to 38 percent.

Each had its own set of issues.

Navigant's services, for example, include advising companies that face disputes, litigation and investigations, including government probes, as well as businesses that need help valuing potential mergers and acquisitions.

"You see fewer government investigations during an election year, as regulators are leaving their jobs, and they don't want to start new ones," said Tobey Sommer, a SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst. "Also, worries about the 'fiscal cliff' slowed M&A because CEOs didn't want to look foolish acquiring a company in September ahead of the fiscal cliff when they might have been able to buy it for 20 percent less in January had we gone off."

Meanwhile, Heidrick's troubles included a slowing market for executive searches. In early 2012, analysts expected Heidrick's annual earnings to be in the range of about $1.30 per share. It appears that it will earn closer to 57 cents a share.

Huron's earnings estimates during 2012 were also trimmed, to about $2.10 from about $2.40 a share as the timing of fee payments to its health care consulting business proved volatile.

"Its underlying demand is strong," but an increasing number of clients had signed contracts where a larger portion of revenue was contingent on the outcome of Huron's consulting work, said Randle Reece, analyst with Avondale Partners LLC. That made it harder for the company and the analysts who cover it to predict the timing of revenues, since they are deferred.

For investors interested in "Dumpster diving," Morningstar Inc. considers Exelon, WMS Industries and Caterpillar to be high quality yet undervalued this year, said Heather Brilliant, chief equities strategist.

Navigant is among the region's beaten-down stocks liked by stock research firm EVA Dimensions LLC. "Its fundamentals are improving, and it's really cheap," said EVA analyst Andrew Zamfotis.

Best of the best

Here are the top three stock gainers of 2012:

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Soccer coach suspended in Maine West hazing case

Another soccer coach linked to hazing allegations on athletic teams at Maine West High School has been suspended without pay by the district while officials pursue his dismissal.

Maine Township High School District 207 officials reached that decision on freshman boys soccer coach Emilio Rodriguez at a special board meeting Thursday night, a month after reaching the same decision on the employment of head varsity soccer coach Michael Divincenzo.

“The board believes Mr. Rodriguez violated District 207 Board of Education policy and professional expectations by failing to adequately prevent, recognize, report and punish student hazing,” board president Sean Sullivan said in a statement read at the meeting.

Both men were originally placed on paid leave and reassigned from teaching duties this fall when allegations of hazing surfaced in early October on the Des Plaines school’s soccer and baseball teams.

Those allegations are the subject of a lawsuit filed on behalf of four alleged hazing victims on the soccer team and against the district, both coaches and Maine West Principal Audrey Haugan.

Rodriguez, a tenured applied arts and technology teacher, has 17 days to request a hearing on his dismissal through the Illinois State Board of Education, officials said.

Through an attorney, Divincenzo recently requested an appeal hearing with the state board. The appeal process could take up to one year, officials said.

Rodriguez could not be reached for comment on Thursday night. But Des Plaines police reports show he and Divincenzo previously denied any knowledge of team hazing or initiation rituals.

District officials also fulfilled early promises made shortly after the hazing allegations surfaced by approving the hiring of former assistant U.S. attorney Sergio Acosta to lead the district’s independent investigation into hazing allegations, and California-based consultant Community Matters to lead focus groups studying bullying and hazing prevention techniques.

Last week, district officials confirmed the receipt of grand jury subpoenas in the Cook County state’s attorney’s ongoing investigation. Officials reiterated their commitment to “cooperate fully with all agencies conducting their own investigations, including the Cook County State’s Attorney, Des Plaines Police and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

One subpoena, dated Dec. 6 and obtained by the Tribune, directs Maine West Principal Audrey Haugan to produce “personnel files, disciplinary records, reports, memorandums, summaries, interviews, investigations, notes, statements or other such writings or recordings for Michael Divincenzo and Emilio Rodriguez, and any and all other employees associated with coaching student athletes from 2007 to the present time.”

In another Dec. 6 subpoena, Superintendent Ken Wallace is directed to produce “any written materials describing or explaining” school, student athlete, coach or teacher conduct codes or rules, “or rules or any other similar such writings including but not limited to the topics of hazing, sexual misconduct or physical misconduct in any manner associated with Maine West High School.”

Wallace, Haugan, Maine East Principal Michael Pressler and Maine South Principal Shawn Messmer also received subpoenas dated Dec. 7. Those subpoenas, which were partially redacted, seek “any and all letters, emails, reports, memorandums, call logs, writings, recordings, or other such material regarding” redacted information, “including any such documents from within the school records or school file for” redacted information.

jbullington@tribune.com

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Microsoft profit dips ahead of Office revamp

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's quarterly profit edged lower as Office software sales slowed ahead of a new launch, offsetting a solid but unspectacular start for its Windows 8 operating system and sending the company's shares down 1.4 percent.

The results mark a stark change from the 1990s, when Microsoft was the unchallenged king of computing and the release of a new Windows operating system would supercharge sales, generate excitement and generally boost its stock.

None of that appears to be true now, as Microsoft has been overtaken by Apple Inc and Google Inc in the rush toward mobile computing, while sales of traditional desktop computers are in decline.

"There's still no sign that Windows 8 is a gangbuster," said Andrew Bartels, an analyst at Forrester Research. "Compared to prior periods, where you saw a big increase when a new one came out, you're not seeing that."

Profit at the world's largest software company slid to $6.4 billion, or 76 cents per share, in the fiscal second quarter, from $6.6 billion, or 78 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Wall Street had expected 75 cents per share, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Overall sales rose 3 percent to $21.5 billion, Microsoft said on Thursday, in line with analysts' estimates.

The biggest factor weighing on Microsoft was a 10 percent decline in sales at its Office unit to $5.7 billion, which took into account the loss of deferred revenue relating to discounted upgrades to the new version of the software, expected shortly.

"It's a pause before a product launch, which is typical," said Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones.

WINDOWS SHRUG

Windows sales jumped 24 percent to $5.9 billion, slightly ahead of analysts' average expectations, which had been gradually lowered over the last few months. That also included some deferred revenue relating to discounted upgrades.

Microsoft said it has sold more than 60 million Windows 8 licenses since its late-October launch, an unexceptional start for a product which has not gripped the public's imagination in the way of Apple's iPad.

The company already announced 60 million Windows 8 sales two weeks ago, broadly in line with Windows 7 sales three years before.

"Windows 8 continues to have an uphill battle in convincing investors this is going to be the key to the growth story for Microsoft," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. "It continues to be a major prove-me product cycle."

Microsoft did not detail sales of its new Surface tablet - a direct competitor to the iPad - although chief financial officer Peter Klein said the company was expanding production and distribution.

Windows executives suggest that Windows will win more people over when new touch-screen devices start hitting the shelves in coming months.

"Demand is stronger than supply across a number of key device types, whether Windows tablets, convertibles, or all-in-ones," Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Microsoft's Windows unit, told Reuters earlier this month. "Most of the opportunity is still ahead of us."

Analysts seem prepared to give Microsoft more time to prove its point.

"It's been disruptive but the PC market is far from dead," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial. "Even if they have minimal success with Surface, they don't need much to move the needle."

Microsoft shares have fallen 2 percent since Windows 8 was launched on October 26, compared to a 5 percent gain in the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index. They fell to $27.06 in after-hours trading, after closing at $27.23 on Nasdaq.

(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Richard Chang and Bob Burgdorfer)

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Voice of Te'o prankster? Couric plays voicemails

NEW YORK (AP) — The person Manti Te'o says was pretending to be his online girlfriend told the Notre Dame linebacker "I love you" in voicemails that were played during his interview with Katie Couric.

Taped earlier this week and broadcast Thursday, the hour-long talk show featured three voicemails that Te'o claims were left for him last year. Te'o said they were from the person he believed to be Lennay Kekua, a woman he had fallen for online but never met face-to-face.

After the first message was played, Te'o said: "It sounds like a girl, doesn't it?"

"It does," Couric responded.

The interview was the All-American's first on camera since his tale of inspired play after the deaths of his grandmother and girlfriend on the same day in September unraveled as a bizarre hoax in an expose by Deadspin.com on Jan. 16.

Te'o's parents appeared with him for part of the interview and backed up his claim that he wasn't involved in the fabrication, saying they, too, had spoken on the phone with a person they believed to be Kekua.

Couric addressed speculation that the tale was concocted by Te'o as a way to cover up his sexual orientation. Asked if he were gay, Te'o said "no" with a laugh. "Far from it. Faaaar from that."

He also said he was "scared" and "didn't know what to do" after receiving a call on Dec. 6 — two days before the Heisman Trophy presentation — from a person who claimed to be his "dead" girlfriend.

The first voicemail, he said, was from what was supposed to be Kekua's first day of chemotherapy for leukemia.

"Hi, I am just letting you know I got here and I'm getting ready for my first session and, um, just want to call you to keep you posted. I miss you. I love you. Bye," the person said.

In the second voicemail, the person was apparently upset by someone else answering Te'o's phone.

The third voicemail was left on Sept. 11, according to Te'o, the day he believed Kekua was released from the hospital and the day before she "died."

"Hey babe, I'm just calling to say goodnight," the person on the voicemail said. "I love you. I know that you're probably doing homework or you're with the boys. ... But I just wanted to say I love you and goodnight and I'll be ok tonight. I'll do my best. Um, yeah, so get your rest and I'll talk to you tomorrow. I love you so much, hon. Sweet dreams."

Couric suggested the person who left those messages might have been Ronaiah Tuisasosopo, a 22-year-old man from California, who Te'o said has apologized to him for pulling the hoax.

"Do you think that could have been a man on the other end of the phone?" she asked.

"Well, it didn't sound like a man," Te'o said. "It sounded like a woman. If he somehow made that voice, that's incredible. That's an incredible talent to do that. Especially every single day."

Tuiasosopo has not spoken publicly since news of the hoax broke. The Associated Press has learned that a home in California where Te'o sent flowers to the Kekua family was once a residence of Tuiasosopo and has been in his family for decades.

Also on Thursday, the woman whose pictures were used in fake online accounts for Kekua said Tuiasosopo confessed to her in a 45-minute phone conversation as the scheme unraveled.

Diane O'Meara spoke with The Associated Press in a telephone interview. She said Tuiasosopo told her he'd been "stalking" her Facebook profile for five years and stealing photos.

O'Meara's attorney, Jim Artiano, said they had not decided on whether to take any legal action.

The 23-year-old O'Meara, of Long Beach, Calif., said she knew Tuiasosopo from high school and he contacted her through Facebook on Dec. 16. She said that, over the next three weeks, Tuiasosopo got in touch with her several times, attempting to get photos and video of O'Meara. She said he made up a story about wanting them to help cheer up a cousin who was injured in a car crash.

O'Meara learned her identity had been stolen on Jan. 13 when she was contacted by Deadspin.com.

The next day she got in touch with Tuiasosopo.

"When I contacted Ronaiah I got a very bizarre vibe from him, he became very nervous, he wasn't asking the questions I expected. He was asking 'Who contacted you? What did they say?'" O'Meara said.

Later that day, he confessed, O'Meara said. She said she asked Tuiasosopo why he didn't simply stop the hoax.

"He told me he wanted to end the relationship," O'Meara said. "He said he wanted to stop the relationship between Lennay and Manti, but Manti didn't want Lennay to break up with him ... He said he tried to stop the game many times."

When news of the hoax broke a few days later, O'Meara said she received a text from Tuiasosopo asking her to call him as soon as possible. O'Meara said she didn't respond.

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Associated Press writer Tami Abdollah contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

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From “Skyfall” to “The Avengers,” how the foreign box office is trouncing domestic

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Foreign audiences are buying what Hollywood is selling, pushing the industry to a record-breaking year at the worldwide box office.

Last year, blockbusters like “The Avengers,” “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Skyfall” deftly navigated cultural barriers everywhere from Toluca, Mexico, to Hyderabad, India, demonstrating how the film business’ future hinges on a global cultural and commercial exchange.

Internationally, ticket sales grew by 3 percent to $ 23.1 billion compared to $ 22.4 billion the previous year, with foreign territories accounting for 68 percent of the top 10 grossing films. Thanks to a 5.8 percent rise at the domestic box office from roughly $ 10.2 billion to $ 10.8 billion, according to Rentrak, it was the biggest tally in box-office history.

“We are the beneficiaries of growing markets,” Chris Aronson, head of 20th Century Fox’s domestic distribution, said. “You’re seeing big numbers coming out of places like China that keep increasing every year – and other places like India and Russia that are evolving. They’re not yet mature movie going markets, but they’re going to be fantastic.”

All of this expansion has come while much of the world, particularly Europe, has been mired by recession. Yet studio executives say that a massive expansion of IMAX and 3D-capable theaters in certain regions has cushioned the blow in softer markets like Italy and Spain.

“We’ve seen some downturn in parts of the world, but the tremendous growth we’ve experienced in other places like Russia, Latin America and now China has compensated for it,” Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, president of distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures International, said.

Of course, some of those areas present thorny regional challenges, perhaps none more so than China.

With its massive population of moviegoers, China remains a marketplace with almost boundless potential. However, its rigid bureaucracy is frequently protectionist and suspicious of foreign investment, making it an elusive profit center.

Things are improving, though. Thanks to a much touted trade agreement that was signed last year, more non-Chinese films can be distributed in the country. As a result, analysts now think that China is poised to become the second largest market for U.S. films, surpassing Japan.

By 2020, some speculate it could even eclipse the United States.

That doesn’t mean China has always welcomed the increased competition with its own domestic-made films. After authorities became concerned that the influx of U.S. blockbusters was hurting their own local productions, they scheduled “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Dark Knight Rises” to open against each other last summer. Industry executives say that significantly cut into their box office takes.

More recently, “Skyfall” became the latest film to run afoul of China‘s stringent censors and was forced to re-edit scenes.

It also saw its release in the country pushed back from November to January to give Chinese films a wider berth.

“It’s a very interesting, very exciting country right now, but the whole aspect of having a country that on the one hand is becoming more and more capitalist, but on the other hand still has lot of government control, just makes it extremely difficult to navigate,” said Charles Roven, producer of “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Those hurdles won’t cool Hollywood’s expansionist kick. Particularly endearing foreign markets to Hollywood is the fact that audiences overseas are more tolerant of films that bomb domestically.

“Total Recall,” for instance, cost $ 125 million to produce but only managed to earn a meager $ 58 million stateside. It mopped up some of that red ink by grossing $ 139.6 million, perhaps benefiting from audiences who were unfamiliar with the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger original.

However, box-office analysts caution that the days of foreign markets feasting on hamburger and mistaking it for steak may one day come to an end.

“International audiences are more forgiving, but the bar is set higher now in terms of the need to do just more than just putting special effects on screen,” said Bruce Nash, founder of the box office statistics site The Numbers. “A studio can no longer guarantee success simply by spending $ 150 million on a movie.”

Credit for the sizzling box office does not rest simply with bigger budgets, analysts and studio executives say. They contend it goes to a slate of films like “The Amazing Spider-Man” or “Skyfall” that have an aspirational quality that makes them easily accessible in some far-flung parts of the globe.

“Whether you’re growing up in Moscow, Seoul or Kansas City, you could imagine yourself being Spider-Man, and I think many guys fantasize about being James Bond,” said Rory Bruer, worldwide president of distribution at Sony Pictures. “These stories may be set in New York or England, but they don’t belong to us, they belong to the world.”

Not that all superhero films are created equal. Take “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2″ – some box-office watchers think that the character’s narcissism and arrogance rankled Asian audiences, resulting in the films being the rare blockbusters that actually performed better domestically than abroad.

However, partner Iron Man with Captain America and Thor in “The Avengers” and the message of team-work resonates much more strongly with the same audiences that may have rejected the character in his solo ventures. The result was that $ 888.4 million of the film’s box office take came from foreign territories.

“The narrative arc transcends borders,” said Kristen Simmons, senior vice president of the worldwide motion picture group at the research firm Ipsos MediaCT.

“You have these flawed characters coming together for the common good and that is culturally appealing across the world.”

Studios are also taking pains to tailor stories so they aren’t as geographically specific – setting them in the future or in a city or countryside that could double for urban or rural environments anywhere in the world. And they’re peppering their cast with international stars, so their films will be more reflective of the ethnic makeup of their audiences.

Among the recent instances of global casting were Indian star Irfan Khan’s key roles as a scientist in “The Amazing Spider-Man” and the narrator of “Life of Pi,” as well as Wang Xueqi, the so-called Sean Connery of China‘s addition to the cast of the upcoming “Iron Man 3.”

That can do a lot to increase playability abroad and to bring in fans who remain stubbornly immune to the charms of Robert Downey Jr. or Will Smith.

Sometimes the bet works, as in the case of “Life of Pi,” which rode its international setting and cast to $ 356.3 million at the foreign box office. That far surpasses the $ 95.6 million in domestic receipts and is the major reason the costly film will make a profit despite its $ 125 million budget and esoteric storyline about the search for faith.

Other times the globe-trotting gamble doesn’t pay off. “Cloud Atlas” spanned time, space and multiple continents, but bombed both domestically and abroad. Despite its sprawling, international troop of actors, the film eked out a mere $ 71 million worldwide, which won’t cover its reported $ 100 million production costs.

Producers say that casting decisions can’t just be a case of tokenism, they have to be dramatically sound. Nor do the films have to be pandering.

“If you stay true to the concept and elements that originally attracted you to the material, you can still make it appealing on a worldwide basis,” Roven said.

“I don’t believe making a movie accessible means you have to dumb them down,” he added.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.

The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" to its detractors — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1.

For a 55-year-old smoker, the penalty could reach nearly $4,250 a year. A 60-year-old could wind up paying nearly $5,100 on top of premiums.

Younger smokers could be charged lower penalties under rules proposed last fall by the Obama administration. But older smokers could face a heavy hit on their household budgets at a time in life when smoking-related illnesses tend to emerge.

Workers covered on the job would be able to avoid tobacco penalties by joining smoking cessation programs, because employer plans operate under different rules. But experts say that option is not guaranteed to smokers trying to purchase coverage individually.

Nearly one of every five U.S. adults smokes. That share is higher among lower-income people, who also are more likely to work in jobs that don't come with health insurance and would therefore depend on the new federal health care law. Smoking increases the risk of developing heart disease, lung problems and cancer, contributing to nearly 450,000 deaths a year.

Insurers won't be allowed to charge more under the overhaul for people who are overweight, or have a health condition like a bad back or a heart that skips beats — but they can charge more if a person smokes.

Starting next Jan. 1, the federal health care law will make it possible for people who can't get coverage now to buy private policies, providing tax credits to keep the premiums affordable. Although the law prohibits insurance companies from turning away the sick, the penalties for smokers could have the same effect in many cases, keeping out potentially costly patients.

"We don't want to create barriers for people to get health care coverage," said California state Assemblyman Richard Pan, who is working on a law in his state that would limit insurers' ability to charge smokers more. The federal law allows states to limit or change the smoking penalty.

"We want people who are smoking to get smoking cessation treatment," added Pan, a pediatrician who represents the Sacramento area.

Obama administration officials declined to be interviewed for this article, but a former consumer protection regulator for the government is raising questions.

"If you are an insurer and there is a group of smokers you don't want in your pool, the ones you really don't want are the ones who have been smoking for 20 or 30 years," said Karen Pollitz, an expert on individual health insurance markets with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "You would have the flexibility to discourage them."

Several provisions in the federal health care law work together to leave older smokers with a bleak set of financial options, said Pollitz, formerly deputy director of the Office of Consumer Support in the federal Health and Human Services Department.

First, the law allows insurers to charge older adults up to three times as much as their youngest customers.

Second, the law allows insurers to levy the full 50 percent penalty on older smokers while charging less to younger ones.

And finally, government tax credits that will be available to help pay premiums cannot be used to offset the cost of penalties for smokers.

Here's how the math would work:

Take a hypothetical 60-year-old smoker making $35,000 a year. Estimated premiums for coverage in the new private health insurance markets under Obama's law would total $10,172. That person would be eligible for a tax credit that brings the cost down to $3,325.

But the smoking penalty could add $5,086 to the cost. And since federal tax credits can't be used to offset the penalty, the smoker's total cost for health insurance would be $8,411, or 24 percent of income. That's considered unaffordable under the federal law. The numbers were estimated using the online Kaiser Health Reform Subsidy Calculator.

"The effect of the smoking (penalty) allowed under the law would be that lower-income smokers could not afford health insurance," said Richard Curtis, president of the Institute for Health Policy Solutions, a nonpartisan research group that called attention to the issue with a study about the potential impact in California.

In today's world, insurers can simply turn down a smoker. Under Obama's overhaul, would they actually charge the full 50 percent? After all, workplace anti-smoking programs that use penalties usually charge far less, maybe $75 or $100 a month.

Robert Laszewski, a consultant who previously worked in the insurance industry, says there's a good reason to charge the maximum.

"If you don't charge the 50 percent, your competitor is going to do it, and you are going to get a disproportionate share of the less-healthy older smokers," said Laszewski. "They are going to have to play defense."

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Online:

Kaiser Health Reform Subsidy Calculator — http://healthreform.kff.org/subsidycalculator.aspx

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Damon 'hijacks' Kimmel's ABC show

NEW YORK (AP) — Matt Damon had his revenge.

The butt of a long-running joke on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," the actor opened Thursday night's show as a kidnapper who tied Kimmel to a chair with duct tape and gagged him with his own tie.

"There's a new host in town and his initials are M.D.," Damon said. "That's right, the doctor is in."

For years, Kimmel has joked at the end of his show that he ran out of time and was unable to bring Damon on as a guest. Kimmel was the silent one Thursday, watching from the back of the stage as Damon did his job.

Damon tormented Kimmel by bringing on a succession of big-name guests. Robin Williams stopped by to finish the monologue. Ben Affleck had a walk-on role. Sheryl Crow was the bandleader and performed her new single. Nicole Kidman, Gary Oldman, Amy Adams, Reese Witherspoon and Demi Moore all crowded the talk show's couch.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long, long time," Damon said. "This is like when I lost my virginity, except this is going to last way longer than one second."

Damon's guest hosting turn came at a key time for Kimmel. ABC earlier this month moved the show to 11:35 p.m. ET and PT after a decade of airing it a half hour later, putting him in direct competition with Jay Leno and David Letterman.

Thursday's special program aimed for the same water-cooler status as a memorably lewd short film Damon made for the show a few years ago with Kimmel's then-girlfriend, Sarah Silverman. It went viral and remains probably the best-known skit in the show's history.

To twist the knife even further, Damon brought Silverman on as his final guest Thursday night, with Kimmel looking on forlornly as she likened their five-year relationship to an unfortunate trip to a hot dog vendor.

"Is there anything you'd like to say to Jimmy?" Damon asked.

"No, I'm good," Silverman replied.

Then came the sweetest revenge of all, with Damon promising to ungag Kimmel in the show's final minutes.

"Wait," he said. "I'm sorry. We're out of time."

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