Hasta La Gadget!

There’s been no shortage of movie projects that lean on crowdfunding to get production underway. Producing a movie based on a major TV series like Veronica Mars, however? That’s fresh. Creator Rob Thomas has obtained support from Warner Bros. and lead actress Kristen Bell for a Kickstarter funding drive that, if it hits its $2 million goal, will shoot a full-length Veronica Mars feature this summer with a premiere around early 2014. Pledge makers would be rewarded with anything from a copy of the script through to a speaking role in the title. To us, the real highlight is the planned release strategy — like an increasing number of movies, we’d be watching digital copies “within a few days” of the opening, rather than months. While Thomas and crew can’t declare the fundraiser over until April 12th, it’s advancing quickly enough that the focus is less on whether or not the project will go forward and more on its chances at becoming an internet-backed blockbuster.

Update: Just a few hours after kicking off its crowdfunding effort, the Veronica Mars movie project has surpassed its $2 million goal. Right now it’s hovering around $2,035,000, but we suspect it’ll balloon even further within the 30 days that remain in the campaign.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Alt

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Source: Kickstarter

I bet you wish you could share all the fascinating things you’re watching on Netflix with friends, and thanks to a new feature that Netflix announced today, you finally can. Netflix Social is the company’s first attempt at getting in on the social networking buzz with Facebook, and it allows you to see what’s popular among your friends.

Netflix uses Facebook to connect you with all of your friends that use Netflix, so once you connect your Netflix account to Facebook and agree to share the content you’re watching, you’ll see two new rows show up on the Netflix homepage, one of which is “Friends’ Favorites,” where you can browse through the movies and shows that your friends enjoy.

The other row is called “Watched By Your Friends,” and it consists of movies and shows that your friends have recently watched. It provides a list of all your Facebook friends who are on Netflix, and you can cycle through individual friends to see what they recently watched. This is an unfiltered list, meaning that it shows all the movies and TV shows that your friends have agreed to share.

Of course, you can control what you share and what you don’t want to share, so if there’s a movie or TV show that you watch, but you don’t want to share it with your friends, you can simply click on the “Don’t Share This” button under each item. Netflix is rolling out the feature over the next couple of days, and the company says that all US members will have access to Netflix social by the end of the week.

Netflix introduces Netflix Social to share favorite movies and shows with friends is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We were able to make a pretty good guess as to the villain of Star Trek Into Darkness after the full-length trailer came out, and although this new teaser doesn’t seem to reveal any big secrets of its own, it’s damned awesome. This trailer’s been showing up attached to Oz: The Great and Powerful and gives us a near whiplash-inducing, full-speed tour through the upcoming movies awesome set-pieces. More »

What once was a haven for illegal downloading is now just an afterthought. After the shutdown of Megaupload last year, it seems users are starting to resort to legal downloading means, according to a study from Carnegie Mellon University. The study suggests that studios saw a boost in digital movie and music sales since the shutdown.

The 18-week study consisted of 12 countries, and revenues from digital sales and rentals for two movie studios were anywhere from 6% to 10% higher than they would have been if Megaupload hadn’t been shut down. Unsurprisingly, the countries that featured the most Megaupload users were the countries that experienced increased usage in legal downloads.

It’s interesting to note that most Megaupload users would think about just switching to a new service to illegally download copyrighted content, but with the movies and music easier to obtain legally, it seems a lot of users have decided to think twice after the Megaupload shutdown and have switched over the legal means.

Countries such as France, Spain, Mexico, and Belgium saw the most growth in legal downloads, while Canada, Australia, and Ireland saw the least impact. The study suggest that the number of users using legal means of obtaining digital content could rise if studios made their content more readily available.

Megaupload shutdown increased legal movie downloads, according to study is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The future for Barnes & Noble’s NOOK business looks pretty bleak, but the company is continuing to make the best of what they still currently have by announcing more partnerships for its NOOK Video streaming service. Movies from several big studios will be making their way to NOOK Video, including titles from Lionsgate, MGM, and Paramount, as well as content from National Geographic.

While the NOOK devices and its services are available in multiple countries, it seems that today’s announcement of new partnerships are exclusive to the US, and financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Other partners announced today include Relativity Media, Little Pim, and Film Buff. Of course, this is another step for Barnes & Noble to compete with Amazon’s Instant Video service and Apple’s iTunes video sector.

Of course, this move is a way for Barnes & Noble to bolster up its NOOK business. While the company is uncertain as to the future of NOOK, it seems they’re wanting to change some things around, and today’s partnerships with several big studios may point the NOOK business in the right direction, but we’ll have to wait and see.

As part of the deal, NOOK users will have access to a handful of new movies and TV shows, including The Hunger Games, the Twilight series, Skyfall, Rocky, Fargo, Flight, Paranormal Activity 4, Act of Valor, Safe Haven, House at the End of the Street, Mad Men, Border Wars, and Amazing Planet. The deal made with Little Pim will consist of foreign language learning for children.

Barnes & Noble NOOK Video expands with Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount, and more is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.