Aug 20 2013

Barnes & Noble Is Suffering a ‘Hunger Games’ Hangover

Per Bloomberg Business News:

 

A Barnes & Noble store in Emeryville, Calif., in February 2012

 

Barnes & Noble (BKS) continues to spin downward, and it wants everyone to know who is to blame. The Nook? Nope. It’s Suzanne Collins, who hasn’t written a single installation of The Hunger Games this year, and E.L. James, who has stopped writing Fifty Shades of Greybooks without any concern for the impact it would have on the bookseller.

On Tuesday the company announced it had lost $87 million in the most recent quarter. Retail revenue, which makes up about 75 percent of its total revenue, dropped 9.9 percent. The company also said Leonard Riggio, its chairman and largest shareholder, was dropping his effort to buy that part of the business. Barnes & Noble’sattempt to grow a Silicon Valley startup—which Riggio did not include in his buyout effort—continues to be a drain on its traditional retail business. Revenue in the Nook portion of the business was down 20.2 percent, with the money it brought in by selling Nook devices falling 23 percent.

Many analysts, and this magazine, figured that Barnes & Noble would bring the effort to an end. Instead, the company says it plans to further integrate its Nook and retail businesses. It thinks that its digital efforts still have potential to bolster its retail business, even if they are burning through cash for now. Barnes & Noble now claims 22 percent of the U.S. e-book market, and says it has sold 10 million Nook devices. “If we want to be in the device business, we have to be in the content business no matter how they’re produced. We think our people can produce better devices than anyone else,” Michael Huseby, company president, told investors in a conference call on Tuesday morning.

Even today, Barnes & Noble should have a natural advantage in the bookselling business, because most readers seem to want a mix of digital and print, says Michael Shatzkin, chief executive of Idea Logical, a consultant for publishers. “Only Barnes & Noble has e-books, print books, online and offline. The challenge for them is to keep the customers as customers change their patterns of consumption,” he says. “It’s very hard to discern, because Amazon (AMZN) buries its numbers so much, but it’s my impression that the gap between Amazon.com and BN.com is growing.”

The company said more than half of the drop in retail sales was basically a hangover following the 2012 binge on The Hunger Games and Fifty Shades of Greytrilogies. And while digital content sales dropped 15.8 percent in the quarter, Barnes & Noble said that, excluding the impact of those titles, they only fell 6.9 percent. Digital content isn’t selling very well because Nooks aren’t selling very well.

It’s not just Barnes & Noble. According to the Association of American Publishers, net sales of trade books in the first quarter of 2013 were down 4.7 percent from a year earlier, with almost all of the losses concentrated in the young adult category. It should go without saying thatFifty Shades of Grey, which wasn’t published in the U.S. until April 2012, is not included in those young adult numbers.

Barnes & Noble said it also expects to see sales lag this quarter, when compared to 2012′s hit-fueled performance. It looks on the horizon and sees John Grisham and Stephen King riding to the rescue with new novels coming later this year. It just has to hope that everyone doesn’t just put them on their Kindles.

Aug 19 2013

‘Doctor Who’: ‘Luther’ creator Neil Cross writing for Peter Capaldi

From DigtalSpy.com   Story by Morgan Jeffrey

 

Luther creator Neil Cross has confirmed that he will return to Doctor Who for its eighth series.

Cross told Stuff.co.nz that he is “really excited about writing for Peter Capaldi” – the 55-year-old actor recently cast as the 12th Doctor.

Peter Capaldi arriving for the Orange British Academy Film Awards

© PA Images

Peter Capaldi

“I am going back [for series eight],” the writer revealed. “I have got story ideas tucked away… there’s a whole bunch of stuff I want to do.

“[Showrunner] Steven [Moffat] is clearly very busy with the 50th anniversary special and Christmas special, but I have to find out from Steven what his intentions for the Doctor are and what sort of stories he wants me to write.”

Cross – who previously wrote Who episodes ‘The Rings of Akhaten‘ and ‘Hide‘ – described Capaldi as “an outstanding choice” to replace current lead Matt Smith.

The Doctor (Matt Smith) & Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) in Doctor Who S07E02: 'The Rings of Akhaten'

© BBC

The Doctor & Clara in ‘The Rings of Akhaten’

“I am familiar with Peter Capaldi’s work and I am looking forward to it,” he said.

“There’s something about his physicality, his image, his wit, that evokes the Doctor. There’s something about him that evokes classic Doctor Who.”

Doctor Who‘s 50th special will air on Saturday, November 23, with Capaldi’s first full series to follow in 2014.

> Bill Nighy turned down Doctor Who: “It comes with too much baggage”

Watch Digital Spy‘s Geek TV special about Peter Capaldi and the 12th Doctor below

Read more: http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a507800/doctor-who-luther-creator-neil-cross-writing-for-peter-capaldi.html#ixzz2cSQb1sWd
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Aug 19 2013

Ender’s Game author Orson Scott Card compares Obama to Hitler

Ok, I think Card’s doing everything he can to cause the movie to fail…

Per the UK Daily Guardian. Story written by: Ben Child

 

The sci-fi writer, who has already angered many with his views on same-sex marriage, expounds the comparison in a 3,000 word essay

 

Orson Scott Card

Essay crisis … Orson Scott Card

He has already upset many with his views on homosexuality. Now Orson Scott Card, author of the iconic source novel which forms the basis of upcoming sci-fi blockbuster Ender’s Game, has repeated the trick, and imagined a post-democratic USA in which the current president rules as an autocrat forever.

  1. Ender’s Game
  2. Production year: 2013
  3. Country: USA
  4. Directors: Gavin Hood
  5. Cast: Abigail Breslin, Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford
  6. More on this film

In the essay, which was published on Card’s Civilisation Watch blog and titled “Unlikely Events”, the novelist posits a future where Obama rules as a “Hitler- or Stalin-style dictator” complete with his own “national police force” of “young out-of-work urban men”. He also suggests that Obama and his wife, Michelle, might amend the US constitution to allow presidents to remain in power forever before the next presidential election and would then “win by 98 percent every time”. Adds the author: “That’s how it works in Nigeria and Zimbabwe; that’s how it worked in Hitler’s Germany.”

Card labels the post “an experiment in fictional thinking,” adding: “Will these things happen? Of course not.” However, his work is unlikely to please executives at studio Lionsgate, already on the back foot over Ender’s Game after many – including gay group Geeks Out – highlighted Card’s opposition to same-sex marriage in the US and suggested film-goers might consider boycotting the upcoming movie based on his 1984 novel.

Card, a practising member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and key figure in the anti-gay National Organisation for Marriage, has been highly vocal on the issue for a number of years. His views, and the Geeks Out boycott, have seen him encouraged to stay away from promotional appearances to promote the Ender’s Game movie such as last month’s Comic-Con in San Diego. Lionsgate, meanwhile, has been at pains to flag up its equal rights credentials, issuing a statement describing the studio as “proud longtime supporters of the LGBT community, champions of films ranging from Gods and Monsters to The Perks of Being a Wallflower and a company that is proud to have recognised same-sex unions and domestic partnerships within its employee benefits policies for many years”. The studio added last month: “We obviously do not agree with the personal views of Orson Scott Card and those of the National Organisation for Marriage.”

Ender’s Game, which stars Asa Butterfield, Abigail Breslin, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley and Harrison Ford, centres on a gifted child who is sent to a military school in space to prepare for an alien invasion. It is released in UK cinemas on 25 October, Australian cinemas on 31 October and US cinemas a day later.

 

 

Aug 18 2013

Depression And Feeling Miserable

 

The sad thing about being one who suffers from a form of depression is that fact that it can make such a sudden appearance. Today, I’ve been doing nothing but polishing my novel and just now feel like crying.

Why?

That’s a question I can’t answer. All I know is I suddenly feel depressed and can’t put a finger on why. Oh I could name fifty thousand things, but I don’t think any of them are the true cause of why I feel this way. Somehow, I can help but think it just comes on to come on and take me onto a ride into sadness.

Either way, that’s not much I can do but hold on and wait for the ride to climb back up again. Yes, it sucks, but will belly aching do any good? Not one damn bit, so I guess I just have to live with it.

Aug 17 2013

Doctor Who fans in ageism row as they dub Peter Capaldi ‘too old’ to play the Time Lord

  • Peter Capaldi, 55, dubbed ‘unattractive, too old’ and a ‘bad choice’ by fans
  • ‘The Doctor meant to be someone young, both Matt and David were very cute… now they give us an old guy’ said another
  • Show boss Steven Moffatt said: ‘The Doctor just chooses a face off the rack. He doesn’t care whether he’s young or old’
  •  Actor had been the odds-on favourite to play the part
  • Flurry of bets led bookmakers to change his odds from 40-1 to 5-6
  • Suggestion that the choice for the coveted role was leaked by BBC insider despite top secret campaign

 

Peter Capaldi was favourite to win with punters, but others were not so enthralled by the decision.

His official unveiling as the new Doctor Who during a live programme on BBC1 led many online to dub the seasoned actor ‘too old’ for the role.

The 55-year-old actor is the same age as first Doctor William Hartnell was when he made his debut in the role in 1963.

One Twitter user wrote: ‘One of sons just said of Peter Capaldi: “Is that the new Doctor? He’s old, he’ll die quicker than the 11th Doctor”‘.

Capaldi, the bullying Malcolm Tucker in political satire The Thick Of It, was unveiled on Sunday night as the 12th actor to play the lead role in Doctor Who.
Debate: Fans of Doctor Who have sparked an ageism row as some have branded the twelfth Doctor Who Peter Capaldi, too old, at age 55

 

No surprises: Veteran actor Capaldi, who is best known as politico Malcom Tucker from satire The Thick Of It, was the favourite to be unveiled as the new Doctor

 

And the new Doctor is... Peter walked out to rapturous applause by the studio audience

 

Some users on the social networking site described his announcement as ‘exciting’ and ‘perfect’, but others were more critical – one wrote: ‘Peter Capaldi is not attractive because he’s old’, while another posted: ‘I’m not watching Doctor Who any more. Peter Capaldi is too old.’

It's ME! Peter Capaldi arrives home after it was announced he's to become the 12th Doctor WhIt’s ME! Peter Capaldi arrives home after it was announced he’s to become the 12th Doctor Who

The unveiling caused a flurry of comments on MailOnline, with many expressing their views on the new Doctor’s age.

Cdst20, from Cardiff wrote: ‘Needed to be someone younger and more attractive to keep Dr Who relevant as did reader Leeb, of Nottingham: ‘I think younger would have been better, to be honest I think this is a bad choice.

Katty of Bournemouth said: ‘I want to say i am going to stop watching Doctor Who, however, i love it  too much. So i am going to give it a go but i don’t want the doctor to be a old guy.’

 

‘Too old. Same age as the first Dr in 1908. All the others were more than 10yrs younger, shirley1919.

‘Very very disappointed! The Doctor meant to be someone young, both matt and David were very cute and funny doctors, and now they give us an old guy, no offence to the new guy he may be an amazing actor but he just doesn’t fit the part,’ Fara23.

 

But show boss Steven Moffatt defended his choice saying: ‘The Doctor just chooses a face off the rack. He doesn’t care whether he’s young or old.’

And despite the many comments dismissing him as too old, Capaldi did get some support from fans and celebrities alike.

’55 looks a lot younger and healthier now than it did in William Hartnell’s time. And yes, I do go back to the original William Hartnell series,’ write Day Javue on MailOnline’s comments section.

Quince 57 called Capaldi a ‘Great choice,he is very attractive and so much more watchable than the last Doctor.’

And Emma from Lincoln: ‘I love him! So glad they’ve cast an older gentleman, although the fangirls are probably throwing fits about not having a young pretty boy to squee over.’

Former Doctor Who assistants Karen Gillan called Capaldi, a ‘superb choice. Swear I’ve seen him in Pompeii’, and Freema Agyeman tweeted: ‘Peter Capaldi! The show is in safe hands. Great choice #newdirection.’
Big secret: The BBC are said to have gone to great lengths to keep the identity of the new Time Lord a secret in an operation they nicknamed 'Houdini'

 

The Scottish star had been the odds-on favourite to become the next inhabitant of the Tardis, and it appears the result may have been known three days ago, when a flurry of bets led to bookmakers suspending betting on him and lowering his odds from 40-1 to 5-6.

They now stand to lose around £100,000.

 

Joe Crilly, a spokesman for William Hill, said: ‘We have seen people trying to back Peter Capaldi as much as possible at every price available.’

That raised questions last night about whether someone at the BBC had leaked the name – despite the corporation going to great lengths to keep the identity of the new Time Lord a secret in an operation it had codenamed Houdini.

Some 400 Doctor Who fans, some dressed as their favourite characters, were in the audience last night to see the announcement.

Capaldi, who appeared in a 2008 episode of the series alongside tenth Doctor David Tennant, told presenter Zoe Ball of his excitement at taking on the role.

‘It’s so wonderful not to keep this secret any longer,’ he said.

‘For a while I couldn’t tell my daughter who kept on looking on the internet and kept seeing people saying so and so should be the Doctor and she got rather upset.

‘But it has been absolutely fantastic in its own way, so many wonderful things have been happening.’

CAPALDI WROTE TO RADIO TIMES PRAISING DR WHO WHEN HE WAS 15

A lifelong fan of the show, Peter Capaldi even wrote a letter to the Radio Times about the Daleks when he was a teenager.

In the letter, the then 15-year-old who attended the Glasgow School of Art, wrote: ‘Your Special has certainly made the year for Dr Who fans.

‘A rather sad year due to the untimely death of the Master, alias Roger Delgado.

‘But I hope that in 15 years’ time, in 1988, you will publish another Special to celebrate 25 years of wandering in time with the Doctor.’

Lifelong fan: A 15-year-old Peter wrote to the Radio Times about Doctor WhoLifelong fan: A 15-year-old Peter wrote to the Radio Times about Doctor Who

 

‘It was quite hard because even though I’m a lifelong Doctor Who fan, I haven’t played Doctor Who since I was nine in the playground. I downloaded old scripts from the internet and read those.’

Capaldi will appear briefly in a Christmas special as the current Doctor, played by Matt Smith, leaves, and his first series will be broadcast late next year. Speaking in a pre-recorded video, Smith said: ‘I know what’s coming and he’s gonna have a blast.’

The live unveiling came after weeks of speculation about who would be the next Doctor.

Suggestions included Harry Potter star Rupert Grint, James Bond actors Ben Whishaw and Rory Kinnear, and Homeland actor Damian Lewis.

Peter Capaldi biography

Family man: Peter, his wife Elaine and their daughter Cecily in 2004Family man: Peter, his wife Elaine and their daughter Cecily in 2004

Capaldi was born in Glasgow in April 1958 to an Irish mother and Italian father.

He enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art, but was also a member of the Antonine Players during high school.

During his studies at the School of Art, he fronted a punk band called Dreamboys, whose drummer Craig Ferguson, is now an actor and chat show host.

He made his big screen debut in 1983 film Local Hero and appeared in an episode of Minder two years later.

Over the past three decades, roles followed in Dangerous Liaisons, Peep Show, Waking The Dead, The Crow Road and The Devil’s Whore.

However, it was his role as Government spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in BBC comedy series The Thick of It which earned him the most acclaim.

The Scottish star won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Role for The Thick Of It in 2010.

Acclaim: Peter with his BAFTA TV Award in 2010Acclaim: Peter with his BAFTA TV Award in 2010

The same year, he won the first for two Best TV Comedy Actor accolades at the British Comedy Awards for the show, followed by a second in 2012.

As well as TV and film, Peter has also starred on stage, starring in The Ladykillers in the West End last year.

However, Peter is equally talented behind the camera and in 1995 won an Oscar for Best Short Film (Live Action) for Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life.

He has also written Soft Top, Hard Shoulder, which won the audience award at the London Film Festival in 1993.

Recently, Peter starred alongside Brad Pitt in World War Z and BBC2 series The Hour, for which he received a BAFTA nomination.

He has already filmed roles in the forthcoming films The Fifth Estate and Maleficent and is currently shooting BBC drama series The Musketeers.

Peter lives in North London with his wife Elaine Collins and th