Daily Archives: July 27, 2015

Avatar 2: James Cameron Waiting for the Right Technology, Scripts for the Three Sequels Complete

Posted on July 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

It’s been a long wait of six years for fans of Avatar. The ground-breaking film by James Cameron is set to have three sequels and by the looks of it Cameron seems to have completed the scripts for the films.

James Horner, the noted music director who worked with Cameron in Titanic and Avatar had revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the Oscar winning director was taking a lot of time preparing the scripts for Avatar 2, Avatar 3 and Avatar 4.

James Cameron wanted to make one more film based on Pandora, but his contract mentioned only three sequels and hence he was reworking the whole idea to make it fit within three films.

It is sad to note that Horner would have contributed to the background score of Avatar 2 as he had done with Avatar, but he recently passed away in plane crash. Horner and Cameron had been good friends and his loss is a huge setback to the whole team working on Avatar 2. There has been no announcement about who will be replacing the Oscar winning music director.

James Cameron is known to create magic in his films. Avatar brought to life the rich plants and animals in Pandora. In Avatar 2 James Cameron is planning to depict the water ecosystem of the planet.

According to Clapway, James Cameron is planning on using a technology that will help him film beautiful scenes underwater. The technology that he plans on using is still not present and there is work being done to bring it to existence because of which there is a slight delay in the production process.

Cameron himself has revealed that the technology will help them speed up the filming process. A lot of the graphics and computer software have been developed at Weta Digital in New Zealand where Avatar 2’s animation and special effects is worked upon.

Producer Jon Landau said that Avatar 2 will have a team who is going to help them test out new technology for underwater motion capture. Landau said that they can use animation and graphics to simulate the water, but the same can’t be done for the actors. For this very reason they need technology that helps them capture the actor’s experience when they shoot inside a tank for Avatar 2.

Screen Rant reported that Cameron had pushed back the release-date of Avatar 2 from December 2016 to December 2015 so that he has adequate technological back up. This delay will also give him time to iron out the scripts of the three films because the production of the films will start simultaneously.

Avatar 2 and the subsequent films will release one after another and the work on them will start at the same time for which Cameron needs to check and double check that everything has been fine tuned because he will have his hands full when the filming begins in full force.

Cameron has an elaborate idea about the world of Pandora and he has roped in different screenwriters to help him pen down the three upcoming films. Avatar 2 has been written by Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa, these two have been the screenwriters for Rise of the Apes.

Avatar 3 has been done by the writer of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Josh Friedman and Avatar 4 by Shane Salerno who wrote Savages along with director Oliver Stone.

The different screenwriters will make sure that the audience gets a new experience every time they go to watch an Avatar sequel. The films are going to be released within a year from each other and the different writers will ensure that each experience is slightly different from the other.

Avatar 2 will see many of the old actors coming back in their original roles. Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who were killed in Avatar will be back in Avatar 2. There is no news about what role they will be playing in the script and if they will appear in the flashback mode. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana will reprise the lead roles of Jake Sully and Neytiri respectively.

Avatar is set in Pandora, a moon of the Alpha Centauri star system. Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vis, who have high respect for the plants and animals of their planet. However, the humans from the earth encroach on their land and endanger the inhabitants. Jake Sully a disabled soldier sent to Pandora enters the world of the Na’vi and helps them fight to keep their world safe from the humans.

Preproduction work for Avatar 2 started in 2014. The film will be shot extensively in New Zealand.

Leave a comment and tell us what you expect from Avatar 2.

source:dyaherald.com

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Man City’s Raheem Sterling backed to overcome boo-boys after controversial Liverpool exit

Posted on July 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

But as the new season edges closer, England manager Roy Hodgson is convinced Manchester City’s new £44m signing will reveal in the abuse he is likely to receive this season.

Sterling is likely to play a major part on England’s road to Russia, which pairs them with the two qualifying clashes with Scotland.

But the 20-year-old has seen his standing hit rock bottom for the antics he used to engineer his move from Liverpool.

He was targeted for abuse when England played Ireland in Dublin last month and has continued to be slated on social media.

But Hodgson insisted he will come out of the experience as an even better player.

“The fact is he was playing for a club with a very strong fan base, not only in England but in other parts of the world,” said Hodgson. “The fans locally at Liverpool took unkindly to the fact that he made it clear he wanted to move.

“That is part and part of football. If anything that will help him to mature and improve even more. He is a remarkably strong and robust person, not just physically on the field but mentally.

“And these things, if anything, will make him stronger. He has got a big price tag to carry around, but I think he is a good enough player to do so.

“But it is up to him to do that because we have had a lot of faith in Raheem Sterling. He has never been out of our thoughts at any time, whether he has been playing well or not playing well or in the team or not in the team.

“We have always had him in our 25 as a player for the future and we think, if we are ever going to become a really good team, we need players like him because of his exceptional talent.”

One benefit from Sterling’s move, added Hodgson, was that the attacking midfielder would again be playing Champions League football.

“Ideally you want all of them playing in the Champions League,” he said of his squad. “But we don’t live in an ideal world and the fact is the clubs, especially at the top of the Premier League, have an awful lot of money.

“They can buy players from any country in the world. England and the Premier League today is like how Italy was when I worked there in the 90s.

“All the players flocked there. There is not many players you could talk to who wouldn’t say they’d like to play in the Premier League.

“If you English you are not going to be competing against ordinary players, if you are one of the better ones.

GETTYRaheem Sterling upset Liverpool fans with his antics

“You are going to be competing against world stars, people who have achieved great things in the game. But I think that could be an advantage in the long run.

“We are a young team, we have got a lot of growing up to do. I think the players are approaching it in the right way and all these things will be a further string to their bow.

“See it positively rather than see it in the negative – because the competition is so strong he has to go and sit on the bench some of the time.”

Hodgson said he was disappointed to see Manchester City’s other England signing, Aston Villa’s Fabian Delph, pick up a hamstring injury on his debut. James Milner also moved, from City to Liverpool.

“If the players are happy and content with their moves I still expect them to be the Delph, Sterling and Milner I have got to know and respect and like in their previous club,” he said.

“I have got no reason, really, to fear any move. I just really want them to play. But having said that always when when we put an England team together, the players are among the best 25 best players in the country, but there are always going to be some of them who don’t play regularly for their teams.

“With teams in the top four or five competition is immense, just so as long as they are getting enough football.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

GETTYAlex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored for England the last time they played Scotland

“We have done okay so far with players who haven’t necessarily played every game for their club.”

Along with Scotland, England were drawn in Group F with Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Yesterday the fixture dates were confirmed, with the auld enemy matches on Friday November 11, 2016, at Wembley and the return game at Hampden Park on Saturday June 10 2017.

Hodgson said the pairing with Scotland would produce a couple of memorable qualifiers.

“Scotland is the stand-out fixture for everybody with the fierce rivalry that we have,” he said. “It is the oldest rivalry, I believe, amongst footballing nations.

“If the recent friendlies with Scotland are anything to go by they will be very, very exciting games, tense and intense games and the atmosphere will be unbelievable.

“So if people want to see a fanatic football atmosphere, I would invited them to Wembley when we play Scotland and to Scotland when we play up there, because they will see what passionate football supporting is all about.”

source:express.co.uk

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Eλλάδα: Τέρμα στο χύμα τσίπουρο

Posted on July 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

// // //

Συνολικά οι εμπειρογνώμονες του Οργανισμού εξέτασαν 482 νομοθετικές ρυθμίσεις που διέπουν τη λειτουργία των κλάδων αυτών καθώς και της κλωστοϋφαντουργίας και του μηχανολογικού εξοπλισμού, τομείς στους οποίους δεν βρέθηκαν εμπόδια στον ανταγωνισμό. Οι συστάσεις που περιλαμβάνονται στην εργαλειοθήκη προβλέπουν 82 αλλαγές στον κλάδο των ποτών και 6 στα πετρελαιοειδή, οι οποίες έχουν τεθεί υπόψη της κυβέρνησης προκειμένου να λάβει τις τελικές αποφάσεις.

Η μελέτη του κλάδου των ποτών ο ΟΟΣΑ επικεντρώνεται στην παραγωγή και διακίνηση «χύμα» τσίπουρου και συναφών προϊόντων και καταλήγει στο συμπέρασμα ότι ετησίως 17 – 19 εκατ. λίτρα τσίπουρου διακινούνται αφορολόγητα, με αποτέλεσμα να δημιουργείται αθέμιτος ανταγωνισμός.

Το μέγεθος αυτό προκύπτει αν υπολογίσει κανείς την παραγωγή των 67 μεγάλων μονάδων του κλάδου (3 εκατομμύρια λίτρα που φορολογούνται με 12,75 ευρώ ανά λίτρο καθαρής αλκοόλης) και των 30.000 περίπου μικρών αποσταγματοποιών (που δηλώνουν ότι παράγουν 5-7 εκατ. λίτρα και έχουν πολύ μικρότερη φορολογία, 1,33 ευρώ ανά λίτρο αλκοόλης) και συγκρίνει τα μεγέθη αυτά με την συνολική ποσότητα που διακινείται στην αγορά η οποία σύμφωνα με τον ΟΟΣΑ είναι 24 εκατ. λίτρα.

Η πρόταση του Οργανισμού είναι να καταργηθεί η διακίνηση «χύμα» τσίπουρου, ούτως ώστε όποιες ποσότητες δεν είναι τυποποιημένες να κατάσχονται και να περιοριστούν οι μικροί παραγωγοί αποκλειστικά στην κάλυψη των δικών τους αναγκών. Η πρόταση αυτή όπως αναγνωρίζει ο ίδιος ο Οργανισμός είναι βλαπτική για τα συμφέροντα των μικρών αποσταγματοποιών αλλά έχει το πλεονέκτημα ότι η εφαρμογή της μπορεί εύκολα να ελεγχθεί, Εναλλακτικά προτείνεται να υποχρεωθούν οι μικροί παραγωγοί να εκδίδουν φορολογικά παραστατικά, κάτι που όμως έχει το μειονέκτημα της δυσκολίας στους ελέγχους.

Για την μπύρα η πρόταση είναι να θεσπιστεί κλιμακωτή φορολογία στους μικρούς παραγωγούς, ούτως ώστε να τους δοθούν κίνητρα, όπως ισχύει και σε άλλες χώρες της ΕΕ. Προτείνεται επίσης η άρση σειράς εμποδίων όπως τα ελάχιστα τετραγωνικά μέτρα για εγκαταστάσεις παραγωγής μπύρας, οινοπνευματωδών, εμφιάλωσης, επεξεργασίας νερού, κ.α., η υποχρέωση των ζυθοποιείων να διαθέτουν ξεχωριστή αποθήκη πρώτων υλών, η απαγόρευση παραγωγής ξυδιού και αλκοολούχων ποτών από τα οινοποιεία κ.α.

Στον κλάδο των πετρελαιοειδών οι προτάσεις του Οργανισμού επικεντρώνονται στο καθεστώς τήρησης των αποθεμάτων ασφαλείας καυσίμων και περιλαμβάνουν μεταξύ άλλων την κατάργηση της ελάχιστης διάρκειας των συμβάσεων τήρησης, την θέσπιση υποχρέωσης να τηρούνται αποθέματα για το σύνολο των προϊόντων, τη διευκόλυνση της τήρησης αποθεμάτων σε άλλη χώρα-μέλος της ΕΕ (που επιτρέπεται ήδη από τη νομοθεσία) κ.α.

Πηγή:Νέος Κόσμος

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Varoufakis reveals cloak and dagger ‘Plan B’ for Greece, awaits treason charges

Posted on July 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

Yanis Varoufakis claims he had approval to plan a parallel banking system Photo: Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis claims he was authorised by Alexis Tsipras to look into a parallel payment system.

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// ]]>// Varoufakis reveals cloak and dagger ‘Plan B’ for Greece, awaits treason charges – Telegraph &lt;img height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”” style=”display:none” src=”https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=678338115628438&amp;amp;ev=PixelInitialized” /&gt;

A secret cell at the Greek finance ministry hacked into the government computers and drew up elaborate plans for a system of parallel payments that could be switched from euros to the drachma at the “flick of a button” .

The revelations have caused a political storm in Greece and confirm just how close the country came to drastic measures before premier Alexis Tsipras gave in to demands from Europe’s creditor powers, acknowledging that his own cabinet would not support such a dangerous confrontation.

Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister, told a group of investors in London that a five-man team under his control had been working for months on a contingency plan to create euro liquidity if the European Central Bank cut off emergency funding to the Greek financial system, as it in fact did after talks broke down and Syriza called a referendum.

The transcripts were leaked to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. The telephone call took place a week after he stepped down as finance minister.

“The prime minister, before we won the election in January, had given me the green light to come up with a Plan B. And I assembled a very able team, a small team as it had to be because that had to be kept completely under wraps for obvious reasons,” he said.

^{Yanis Varoufakis (right), Greece’s former finance minister, with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras}

Mr Varoufakis recruited a technology specialist from Columbia University to help handle the logistics. Faced with a wall of obstacles, the expert broke into the software systems of the tax office – then under the control of the EU-IMF ‘Troika’ – in order to obtain the reserve accounts and file numbers of every taxpayer. “We decided to hack into my ministry’s own software programme,” he said.

The revelations were made to a group of sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and life insurers – many from Asia – hosted as part of a “Greek day” on July 16 by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF).

Mr Varoufakis told the Telegraph that the quotes were accurate but some reports in the Greek press had been twisted, making it look as if he had been plotting a return to the drachma from the start.

“The context of all this is that they want to present me as a rogue finance minister, and have me indicted for treason. It is all part of an attempt to annul the first five months of this government and put it in the dustbin of history,” he said.

“It totally distorts my purpose for wanting parallel liquidity. I have always been completely against dismantling the euro because we never know what dark forces that might unleash in Europe,” he said.

The goal of the computer hacking was to enable the finance ministry to make digital transfers at “the touch of a button”. The payments would be ‘IOUs’ based on an experiment by California after the Lehman crisis.

A parallel banking system of this kind would allow the government to create euro liquidity and circumvent what Syriza called “financial strangulation” by the ECB.

“This was very well developed. Very soon we could have extended it, using apps on smartphones, and it could become a functioning parallel system. Of course this would be euro denominated but at the drop of a hat it could be converted to a new drachma,” he said.

Mr Varoufakis claimed the cloak and dagger methods were necessary since the Troika had taken charge of the public revenue office within the finance ministry. “It’s like the Inland Revenue in the UK being controlled by Brussels. I am sure as you are hearing these words your hair is standing on end,” he said in the leaked transcripts.

Mr Varoufakis said any request for permission would have tipped off the Troika immediately that he was planning a counter-attack. He was ready to activate the mechanism the moment he received a “green light” from the prime minister, but the permission never came.

“I always told Tsipras that it not be plain sailing but this is the price you have to pay for liberty,” he told the Telegraph.

“But when the time came he realised that it was just too difficult. I don’t know when he reached that decision. I only learned explicitly on the night of the referendum, and that is why I offered to resign,” he said. Mr Varoufakis wanted to seize on the momentum of a landslide victory in the vote but was overruled.

He insisted that his purpose has always been to go on the legal and financial offensive within the eurozone – placing the eurozone creditors in a position they would be acting outside EU treaty law if they forced Grexit – but nevertheless suggested Syriza did have a mandate to contemplate more radical steps if all else failed.

“I think the Greek people had authorised us to pursue energetically and vigorously that negotiation to the point of saying that if we can’t have a viable agreement, then we should consider getting out,” he said in the tape.

Mr Varoufakis said the real aim of Germany’s Mr Schauble’s tough stance on Greece is force a revolution in the whole structure of monetary union, with France squarely in his sights.

“Schauble believes that the eurozone is not sustainable as it is. He believes there has to be some fiscal transfers, some degree of political union. He believes that for that political union to work without federation, without the legitimacy that a properly elected federal parliament can render, can bestow upon an executive, it will have to be done in a very disciplinary way,”

“And he said explicitly to me that a Grexit is going to equip him with sufficient terrorising power in order to impose upon the French, that which Paris has been resisting: a degree of transfer of budget making powers from Paris to Brussels.”

Mr Varoufakis told the Telegraph that the Mr Schauble has made up his mind that Greece must be ejected from the euro, and is merely biding his time, knowing that the latest bail-out plan is doomed to failure.

“Everybody knows the International Monetary Fund does not want to take part in a new programme but Schauble is insisting that it does as a condition for new loans. I have a strong suspicion that there will be no deal on August 20,” he said.

He said the EU authorities my have to dip further into the European Commission’s stabilisation fund (EFSM), drawing Britain deeper into the controversy since it is a contributor. By the end of the year it will be clear that tax revenues are falling badly short of targets – he said – and the Greek public ratio will be shooting up towards 210pc of GDP.

“Schauble will then say it is yet another failure. He is just stringing us along. he has not given up his plan to push Greece out of the euro,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Greek stock market could reopen on Tuesday after almost a month out of action. The Athens Stock Exchange has been shuttered since June 29, when the banks were also temporarily closed to stem the exodus of deposits.

“It’s certain that it will not open on Monday, maybe on Tuesday,” a spokesperson for the exchange told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

source:telegraph.co.uk

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