“The Three Stooges” Still Set For 2010, Search Is On For Curly

A film about the Three Stooges, simply titled The Three Stooges, is scheduled to be released in 2010. The Farrelly Brothers, who have directed smash hits such as There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, Me, Myself & Irene are attached to the project, even though their Warner Bros. deal to write and direct the film has expired. First Look Studios, working with C3 Entertainment, will distribute the motion picture. The Farrellys have said that they were not going to do a biopic or remake, but instead new Three Stooges episodes set in the present day. The film taken to MGM studios will start production in the fall of 2009 to be released in 2010, and will be distributed worldwide by Columbia and Sony Pictures.

Jim Carrey is set to play Curly, with the actor already making plans to gain 50 pounds to approximate the physical dimensions of Jerome “Curly” Howard. The studio is zeroing in on another Oscar-winner, Benicio del Toro, to play Moe. The studio had previously set Oscar-winner Sean Penn to play Larry, but Penn has since dropped out to spend time with his family. Actors Paul Giamatti, Simon Pegg and Zach Galifianakis are rumored to be replacing Penn.

Farrelly hasn’t mentioned much about its status aside from, “It will be three half-hour episodes rolled into an hour-and-a-half movie,” he said. “Each part picks up where the other one left off. They look the same, talk the same and act the same, but it takes place in the present, and we wrote new material.” There is some lingering skepticism that Penn’s departure could cause a “domino effect” on the other actors.

Stringer At Sony Shareholders Meeting: “My Role Is To Recover The Business”

Sony, fresh from forecasting first back-to-back annual losses in half a century, is making “steady progress” in cutting costs, Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer said recently in front of thousands at the 92nd Shareholders Meeting in Tokyo. The company is eliminating 16,000 jobs, shutting factories and reducing the number of suppliers to cope with the global recession. Sony last month forecast it would post a second straight annual loss for the first time since its 1958 listing. The meeting essentially allowed shareholders to give final approval regarding some new additions to the board of directors, and give Stringer even more power as President.

“My role is to recover the business,” Stringer, 67, told shareholders today at their annual meeting in Tokyo.

Sony aims to marry “brilliant hardware engineers” with “equally strong software,” said Stringer, who’s chairman and chief executive. He wants to avoid losing out to rivals’ products with better, more advanced functions, as Apple achieved with its iPod music player and Amazon did with its Kindle book reader, he said. Stringer, who joined Sony in 1997 and became CEO in 2005, replaced Ryoji Chubachi as president on April 1. The company announced the move in February and said at the time it will combine Vaio computers, Walkman music players and games under Kazuo Hirai, who would focus on creating gadgets that work with each other and connect to the Internet.

“We are not going to be beaten again in the network age,” Stringer said today. “This is our challenge and our opportunity and this is why we made the structural change. We have not finished, we have a long way to go.”

Columbia Shuts Down Brad Pitt/Steven Soderbergh’s “Moneyball”

Moneyball is a movie that was set to release in 2011 based on the book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, a book by Michael M. Lewis, published in 2003, about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager, Billy Beane. Its focus is the team’s modernized, analytical, sabermetric approach to assembling a competitive baseball team, despite Oakland’s disadvantaged revenue situation. Actor Brad Pitt is attached to play Billy Beane, while comedian Demetri Martin is attached to play Paul DePodesta. However, Amy Pascal (Co-Chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment) at Columbia has put the upcoming movie on “limited turnaround status,” which in fancy terms basically means that Amy and others weren’t happy with the latest script rewrite by Soderbergh. Limited turnaround means the film may still wind up with a different studio, as well, with Warner Bros. and Paramount considered top prospects.

If a new financier doesn’t emerge by the end of Monday, Variety reported, Columbia will consider options that include replacing Soderbergh, delaying the film until Pascal and the filmmaker find themselves in synch on the script or pulling the plug altogether.

Kotaku Reveals New PS3 Motion Controller Details

During our liveblog of Sony E3 2009, I was really impressed with how Sony’s presentation had gone, despite with the shadow of interest in Project Natal that hung overhead in many gamers minds. One of the more surprising revelations was the PS3 Motion Controller (coming in Spring 2010), which was the most precise 1:1 controller we’ve ever seen. It’s like Wii for the PS3 but so much more accurate. Real movements with the controllers are real movements on the screen, and you could be shown with objects in your hand via the Eye camera. Kotaku is reporting on some new details on the functionality of the Motion Controller for the PS3 and we’re humbled by them. I think that this will be a great direction for Sony and I could easily see major IP’s making motion games in Sports, FPS, Action-Adventure categories and so forth. Could 2010 really be the year of the Playstation 3? Could a major player make a huge motion-based hit for Holiday season in 2010? The race is on.

From Kotaku: “SCE pitched the new controller as capable of functioning “with any games across all genres from casual to core.”

On the technical side, SCE says that the PlayStation Eye accessory will come equipped with force feedback rumble. Sony boasts that the “face-tracking and head-tracking capability already in the PS3 SDK” will offer developers “powerful tools for new types of user interaction.”

Sony says its new controller will also work in tandem with the Eye’s built-in microphone array for voice input and voice recognition. Up to four of the new motion controllers can be tracked at once by the PlayStation Eye. Adding the wand controller to games comes at a horsepower cost, Sony notes, writing that the “motion-tracking library has some SPU overhead and has an impact on memory as well, although these will be minimized.”

The developer targeted communication also indicates that Sony is “currently looking into the possibility” of combining motion control wand and stock PS3 controller functions, offering the example of “the motion controller as a sword and use DualShock 3 as a shield.”

VAIO P Gets a Spec Bump. 600 Series Ready for Pre-orders

As we mentioned earlier, when summer season hits we would see a new and refreshed VAIO P series. Lo and behold, SonyStyle posted new models for your eyes to see. Noticeable features: price bumped to $999.99 and all the models listed come with a sweet and speedy SSD ranging from 64 to 128Gb. Higher end model packs Intel Processor 1.60 Ghz (I was hoping to see Bluetooth 3.0 too but to no avail) A variety of colors to choose from too, though I just wish they added some decorative options, as plain colors don’t do its justice. Check out all the specs here.

Thanks Dharmesh Vasant!

Phone Arena Shows Off Sony Ericsson’s Satio

Phone Arena recently did an incredible Sony Ericsson Satio review, which is a 12 megapixel dynamo phone with a 16 million color screen and much more. The operating system, Symbian, seems well-rounded but a little boring. Android would probably be much better suited for something of this caliber, don’t you think? We recently covered the Satio in our comparison table with the iPhone 3GS, and the initial Satio product announcement. The phone isn’t expected to hit until the end of the year.

And, for your added enjoyment, here is the promotional Sony Ericsson video with a cute model:

Paris Hilton Dumps Blackberry, <3′s Sony Ericsson

I never thought that I would be writing about Paris Hilton, but yesterday Hilton announced she is taking her reality TV show and a hunt for a new best friend to the distant shores of Dubai. Coincidentally, she also announced that she is now with Sony Ericsson and is no longer using Blackberry. She was given five Sony Ericsson handsets, Hilton said. We haven’t been able to find an immediate report of what models she received, but I imagine there must be one XPERIA in the mix there.

“One is even like a watch with a phone on it and it’s so cool,” she said. “So I’m switching my BlackBerry to Sony Ericcson today. Sorry BlackBerry, I’m now a Sony Ericcson user and very excited.”

Wearing a floor-length green dress, Hilton told reporters in Dubai yesterday that the 22 female contestants in the Middle Eastern version of “My New BFF” will compete to be her best friend forever on the somewhat popular show on MTV. However, because customs are a little more strict in the Middle East, the content will be much more appropriate, but quirky nonetheless. Hilton’s career as a celebrity has included acting, singing, clothing lines and a perfume – some love her, and some absolutely despise her; I suppose she is simply this century’s Elizabeth Taylor.

“I’m here to find my best friend but I’m also here to expand my brand,” she said. “And I would love to open a hotel in Dubai, it would be incredible to have a Paris Hotel and nightclub. So maybe I’ll be checking out some properties while I’m here too.”

Greeting the audience with “as-salaam alaykum,” the Arabic salutation, she was keen to learn how to translate some of her favorite English phrases.

“How do you say ‘hot’ in Arabic?” she asked. “How do you say ‘huge’?”

Maria Sharapova and Sony Ericsson Present Prototype Bluetooth Dress

Sony Ericsson’s official spokesmodel (aka global brand ambassador), Maria Sharapova, presented a dress yesterday that is far different than anything on the market: it has Bluetooth. British fashion student Georgie Davies dreamed up the knee-length short-sleeved white dress as part of a school project with mobile phone-maker Sony Ericsson to figure out ways of incorporating new technology into fashion. Davies said the dress is designed to connect to the wearer’s phone by Bluetooth wireless technology, so she can be alerted to a call even in noisiest of places when the dress flashes a variety of blue, green, and white hues.

“When you’re in a pub or a bar, you can never, ever hear your phone,” 20-year-old Davies told Reuters on Wednesday.

One shoulder of the dress down to the hip is embellished with translucent white scales that move and light up. Sharapova showed off the dress to a horde of photographers and a crowd of passers-by from the window of a luxury department store in central London.

Story and pictures courtesy of Daylife/Reuters.

Sony To Replace NWZ-W202′s Affected By Sweat/Moisture Issue

It wasn’t very long after our eye-opening article “Sony’s NWZ-W202 Wearable Walkman Can’t Sweat It” appeared that Sony’s Marcy Cohen (Senior Manager of Communications) stopped by the blog to leave a note about the situation. It appears that Sony is fully aware of this issue and will be offering a replacement solution before the end of the month for all affected users. Sounds great! Keep an eye on Sony Insider on June 30th for more details. Here’s the official response:

We’d like to assure your readers that Sony makes every effort to ensure that our products not only meet our own strict quality standards, but also support a positive customer experience. The comments about the W series Walkman (NWZ-W202), which has been available in the US and Europe since April 2009, involved a small number of W series Walkmans reportedly malfunctioning following exposure to sweat or other liquids.

We take all customer feedback seriously, so we have implemented additional safeguards to promote sweat/moisture resistance. We are confident that these measures will ensure all W series Walkman models support increased customer satisfaction and meet our high quality standards.

We will provide information for contacting Sony Customer Support and replacement unit availability by Tues. June 30th. We sincerely apologize to our customers for any inconvenience.

Thanks, Marcy!

Passing The Torch From One Sony Blogger To Another

I couldn’t resist posting this classic picture I recently came across from Sony Electronics photostream on flickr. It’s of Senior VP of Corporate Communications Rick Clancy (now retired) writing a blog post while VP of Corporate Communications Dave Migdal looks on. Little did we all know that Rick would retire months later and Dave would take over as lead blogger at the Sony Community site.