NBC Universal Leader Heads to Paramount
Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures appointed Frederick Huntsberry, president of NBC Universal International, as chief operating officer, the film studio said Sunday, Bloomberg News reported in the Los Angeles Times. Huntsberry begins at the Hollywood studio today. He comes to Paramount after 12 years with General Electric Co., the parent company of NBC, where he served as executive vice president of NBC Universal Television Distribution as well as interim president and chief operating officer of Universal Pictures.
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Redondo Beach Panel Looks at Changing Torrance Boulevard
f Redondo Beach planners could wave magic wands over the city’s tired stretch of Torrance Boulevard, the crumbling car wash would disappear, and its overgrown lot would get cleaned up, the Daily Breeze reports. Aging strip malls and auto shops would become live-work spaces and shopping areas for new residential plans. And the small entrance sign at the city border would learn a lesson in self promotion, making itself into a nautical-themed gateway.
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For Ailing Disney, a Shot of Strong Medicine
Since last year, Hollywood has been expecting the Walt Disney Company to announce layoffs in its film division. But with two humbling years at the box office, the company is planning something bigger: a larger overhaul of its movie studio, the New York Times reports. After a yearlong review of its operations, Walt Disney Studios will soon announce a major reorganization of its live-action movie division, which will alter the way Disney movies are made and marketed, according to several people briefed on the plan.
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Downloads of Films Soon to Be Burnable
The online movie service Movielink has struck a technology licensing deal that would set the stage for selling film downloads that customers could burn to DVD, the Los Angeles Times reports. Santa Monica-based Movielink today was expected to announce a deal with Sonic Solutions to use its DVD-on-Demand software to enable computer users to burn DVD copies of movies they download off the Internet. The on-demand movie service, jointly operated by five studios, has yet to say which entertainment companies will take advantage of this new feature.
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