August 20, 2012.

Dear diary,

 Yesterday wasn’t so good. Spent most of the day puking my guts out. I still don’t know what it was exactly I ate. It nearly turned out to be a very rotten day but the EPL drama spiced it up. Absolute thrillers all through. It’s nice to see Eden Hazard start his EPL career on a very bright note, even if he’s a Chelski man.  Two assists (yes, I call pks assists too) against Wigan in the opening 6 minutes must really do a lot for his already bloated ego.  He turned out to be the difference between the two sides, although he fizzled out as the game went on. Let’s see how he finishes this season sha. Victor Moses also put up a good showing. Though he was absent for most of the first half, he completely took control of the left flank in the second and Ivanovic eat the grass on more than one occasion. A pity Wigan couldn’t find a goal. They really deserved one.

 Man Shitty-Southhampton. Nice to see the noisy neighbors get a good run for their bottomless purse at their own home ground. That annoying vile frenchie just had to spoil the party again. He scored a beautiful goal to win the match for them. The oil money boys seem to have started the season exactly as they finished last season, doing what is required to win matches. They have begun to show signs of becoming champions- the will of fire to win. The title will stay at Manchester this season, though am not sure which half of Manchester will have bragging rights.

Went through my RSS filters today and got really bad news. Top director Tony Scott jumped off a bridge yesterday in Los Angeles in broad day light. Eye witness accounts say he parked his car and jumped without hesitating (talk about guts). I didn’t know until I read his bio this morning that he had directed a lot of my favorite films. During his career, Tony directed 16 feature films, and a lot more music videos and TV commercials. He was the man behind The Hunger (1983), Top Gun (1986), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Revenge (1990), Days of Thunder (1990), The Last Boy Scout (1991), True Romance (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), The Fan (1996), Enemy of the State (1998), Spy Game (2001), Man on Fire (2004),Domino (2005), Déjà Vu (2006), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009),Unstoppable (2010).  Tony’s films were action-packed blockbusters, and most of them were box office successes with Enemy of the State being the highest grossing movie in 1990s.

His works also included The Hunger (1 episode in 1997 and 1 in 1999), AFP: American Fighter Pilot, Executive producer (2002), Numb3rs, Executive producer (2009 to 2010), The Good Wife, Executive producer (2009–2012), Gettysburg, Executive producer (2011), and Labyrinth, Executive producer (2012) all for television. He also directed short films including Loving Memory (1969), One of the Missing (1971), The Hire: Beat the Devil (2002) and Agent Orange (2004). Commercials he directed include DIM Underwear (1979), Player, Achievements and Big Bang for Barclays Bank (2000), Telecom Italia (2000) (Starring Marlon Brando and Woody Allen), Ice Soldier for US Army (even the army advertises) in 2002 and One Man, One Land for Marlboro (2003).

For more info, read my last post.

Mr. Scott had a very successful career. Most of his films were successful box office hits. He had money, had a family (3 wives and two twin sons from wife number 3)  and his elder brother was also a director and am sure was loved, admired and respected by many in his chosen field yet he chose to end it all by jumping-off a bridge 185-feet high. Seems success is not all its made out to be.

Blockbuster Director jumps off bridge

English film director Anthony Scott is dead. He jumped off the off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in the San Pedro port district of Los Angeles, California at about 12:30 pm local time on  August 19, 2012.

Scott, born in North Shields, Northumberland, in England, and frequently captured behind the camera in his signature faded red baseball cap, is credited with directing more than two dozen movies and television shows and producing nearly 50 titles.

Best known for muscular but stylish high-octane thrillers that showcased some of Hollywood's biggest stars in a career dated back to the 1980s and established him as one of the most successful action directors in the movie industry.

Tony Scott’s started out directing music videos and commercials. His first shot at directing a feature film was the direct adaptation of the Henry James story The Author of Beltraffio for French television in 1975, a project he landed by virtue of winning a coin-flip against his brother. His next film was the vampire film The Hunger, in 1982. The Hunger starred David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve and introduced Willem Dafoe in a small role. The Hunger had elaborate photography and sumptuous production design, but it failed to find an audience, received harsh reviews by critics, and had disappointing box office sales (though it later became a cult favourite).

In 1985, producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer approached Scott to direct Top Gun. Scott, though reluctant at first, agreed to direct Top Gun. Though the film received mixed critical review, it became one of the highest-grossing films of 1986, taking in more than US$176 million, and making a star of its young lead, Tom Cruise. Following Top Gun's success, Scott found himself on Hollywood's A list of action directors.  He reteamed with Simpson and Bruckheimer in 1987 to direct Eddie Murphy and Brigitte Nielsen in Beverly Hills Cop II in 1987 which also went on to become one of that year’s  highest  grosser. His next film, Revenge (1990), starred Kevin Costner, Madeleine Stowe and Anthony Quinn. Revenge was followed by Days of Thunder starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

Other films he directed included The Last Boy Scout (1991) and True Romance (1993) from a script by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. The cast included Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Tom Sizemore, Chris Penn, Val Kilmer and in bit roles, James Gandolfini and Samuel L. Jackson. Scott's next film, Crimson Tide (1995), was a submarine thriller starring Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington. The Fan (1996) came next and starred Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin and Benicio del Toro. Scott's 1998 film Enemy of the State, a conspiracy thriller, starred Will Smith and Gene Hackman, and was his highest-grossing film of the decade.

Spy Game was released during the Thanksgiving holiday of 2001. It starred Robert Redford and Brad Pitt and made about 60 million dollars at the U.S. box office. Man on Fire was released in April 2004 and made over 75 million dollars at the U.S. box office. It starred Denzel Washington, Christopher Walken, Dakota Fanning, Radha Mitchell, Giancarlo Giannini, Marc Anthony, Rachel Ticotin and Mickey Rourke. Next for Scott came Domino (2005) starring Keira Knightley. In autumn 2006, Scott reteamed with Denzel Washington for the futuristic action film Déjà Vu.  Scott once again teamed up with Denzel Washington on The Taking of Pelham 123, which also starred John Travolta and was released in theaters on 12 June 2009. The film was a remake of the 1974 film of the same title starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. His last feature film was Unstoppable, again starring Washington with Chris Pine.

According to Lieutenant Joe Bale, a watch commander for the Los Angeles coroner's office, onlookers saw Scott, 68, parking his car, a Black Toyota Prius on the bridge and then leap into the water below without hesitating. Investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department’s harbor division found contact information in his car and a suicide note in his office. Scott’s body was later recovered by law enforcement from the harbor shortly before 3 p.m. and was subsequently identified as being that of the filmmaker and younger brother of fellow movie director Ridley Scott.

Scott is survived by his wife, Donna Wilson Scott, and their twin sons, Frank and Max.

May his soul find peace.

Made in China: China accused of copying American sitcom "Friends"

China is world-famous for many things; Olympic medals, Chinese food, large population and their manufacturing prowess. And oh, before I forget, they are also world-famous for "copying". In the past, it used to be just manufactured stuff. Now, it seems like they are including tv shows to their list of made-in-china products.

A group of attractive young people living in adjacent apartments, who spent a lot of time hanging out in coffee shops and talking about their lives: the Chinese TV sitcom "Ipartment" is basically Friends in a different language. But viewers are complaining that Ipartment is crossing the line between homage and outright theft, with entire scenes and whole swaths of dialogue copied verbatim from the hit ’90s sitcom and other American TV shows.

China’s version follows the lives of seven friends and neighbors in Shanghai (Friends, for a refresher, focused on the inhabitants of two neighboring New York City walkups). Some of the characters have similar jobs to those in the American version, such as a computer programmer and university lecturer.

Ipartment, which debuted in 2009 from the Shanghai Film Group, has run long enough now that viewers have taken to message boards and Sina Weibo—China’s massive Twitter-like social media service—to allege that entire scenes have been lifted word for word right out of American sitcoms like Friends, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory.

The mainland tabloid Global Times says that Ipartment’s producers admit to using jokes from “various sources,” according to The Telegraph, but deny that they full-on copy from other shows, although they have apologized to one joke writer and offered compensation for using the jokes without permission.

The show’s representative says “comedies have stereotypes, like the handsome man, the gorgeous woman, the cheap man and so on. They have that in many comedies. Our creation is not plagiarism, but more a homage to the American sitcom.”

Culled from The Times

Anyway sha. We know say China tin no dey last.