A large fire is burning at the world-famous Universal Studios in Los Angeles, California.
The blaze was reported before dawn on a sound stage at the film studios, said Los Angeles fire captain Frank Reynoso.
More than 100 city and county firefighters are helping studio staff tackle the flames, which have caused several explosions.
No injuries have been reported at the 230-acre site, which saw filming for King Kong and The War of the Worlds.
Helicopters have been dropping water on to the burning structures, and television pictures showed flames leaping into the air as a thick cloud of smoke covered the site.
Hollywood history
James Barnes of the LA County Fire Department said the fire had virtually destroyed at least one building, and firefighters were battling to stop the flames from spreading to adjoining structures.
He said the fire could now be affecting a King Kong ride at the studios.
“There’s some Hollywood history going up in smoke today and we’re doing our best to minimalise the damage,” he told the BBC.
Reports suggest the blaze has damaged Universal’s New York street scene.
There are indications that the sound stage had recently been used for filming, says the BBC’s Rajesh Mirchandani in Los Angeles.
It is likely that there would have been a good deal of flammable material and props, as well as fuel supplies, on the site, our correspondent adds.
Behind-the-scenes tours of the studios are a long-established tradition still popular with visitors today.
BBC News
Wasn’t New Line enough? Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures have joined New Line in Film Studio Heaven. On Thursday both got dissolved as Time Warner cites “cost savings and elimination of redundancies” as the reason. You can read the whole article here.
Might as well. Talks between SAG and studios have halted once again as studios claim SAG is asking too much in regards to dvd sales, among other things. Does this sound familiar? I guess we should prepare ourselves for more Deal or No Deal Around the World as you won’t be running to the theaters this go round. As long as I get to see 24 Day 7 come January after waiting since May 2007, things are fine. This year is shaping up to be a good one.
Monday and Tuesday saw the ax of a few hundred New Line employs in both New York and Los Angeles. What started as the small film studio being leafed under the bigger Warner Bros., ends as the total dissolvement of the studio. Not surprised. Warner Bros. will be in charge of all films that are scheduled to release this year. This concerns me as there were alot of promising films set to hit theaters from New Line and I wonder if Warner Bros. will care for these films as much as they do with their own original projects or will they just do whatever with them to get them out of the way. He’s Not That Into You is already feeling the affects. Life and Style is reporting that the August release date has been changed to October. Good sign or Bad sign?
Asked if it’s true that the release date of Jen’s film has been pushed back from Aug. 1 to Oct. 24, a New Line rep confirms to Life & Style, “That is the tentative new release date, though I don’t believe its 100 percent official yet. It’s definitely no longer August 1.”
Life and Style
Sister Hood of the Traveling Pants 2(Warner Bros.) is set to release August 8th and can’t have these two female audience driven films competing against each other can we. Seventeen Again staring Matthew Perry/Zac Efron went from a 2009 release date to an August 15, 2008 date a few months ago before the official announcement. Keep in mind the movie basically just wrapped. Also there were talks of changing Journey To the Center of the Earth starring Brendan Frasier from it’s July 11th release date because Bros. were thinking about it conflicting with their big budget movie The Dark Night. I am not even mentioning the numerous films New Line has in production or pre-production status. The fate of those films have yet to be seen including the much anticipated The Hobbit.
List of other New Line Releases for 2008
Four Christmases~ Vince Vaughn Reese Witherspoon 11/26
Sex and the City ~Sarah Jessica Parker Cynthia Nixon 5/30
The Time Traveler’s Wife ~Eric Bana Rachel McAdams 9/19
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay ~John Cho Kal Penn 4/25
Sucks for him, but this is what happens when you have someone like Mary Parent take over as CEO.
Rick Sands ended his two-plus year stint at MGM by stepping down from his chief operating officer post Wednesday.
The studio said Sands is leaving to pursue other opportunities in entertainment and content. Sands declined comment.
The move had been expected ever since Mary Parent took the reins of MGM’s worldwide motion picture group earlier this month, thus taking over many of Sands’ duties.
Variety
And the beat goes on…
MGM has named Mary Parent to be chairperson of its Worldwide Motion Picture Group. She will be responsible for oversight of MGM’s worldwide theatrical production, distribution, marketing and business affairs for MGM, reporting directly to chairman/CEO Harry Sloan, and the MGM board of directors. Parent, the former vice chairman of Worldwide Production at Universal Pictures, was a highly regarded executive before she stepped out of the executive suites with Scott Stuber to form the production shingle Stuber/Parent.
Her appointment fills a major need for MGM as it evolves from a slate that came largely from outside providers to a self-generator of feature films. Parent brings strong relationships with filmmakers and actors that will help bring credibility to that effort.
Variety
I agree with the last part about bringing strong relationships to MGM, so smart move!
New Line’s 40-year run as an independent studio ended Thursday when Time Warner said it would fold the company into Warner Bros. New Line will become a unit of Warners, maintaining separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations.
Variety
