English Entertainment
ABC to air reality show `American Inventor’
MUMBAI: US broadcaster ABC will kick off a new reality show American Inventor shortly. It is being brought by the producers of the music based reality show American Idol and Cowell’s Syco Television. Cowell is a judge on American Idol.
The show will undertake the biggest search ever for America’s best new invention. It’s open to people of all ages, including kids! Casting calls begin on 14 November 2005 across America. Cowell says, “America has always been the mother of invention, from the airplane, rockets, plastic and the internet to flip-flops and soda. This is the ultimate American dream. We want this show to make someone a multi-millionaire.”
With one million dollars at stake American Inventor will celebrate the best in homespun American ingenuity. From mothers with a notion for a better baby stroller to experienced engineers with several patented inventions, American Inventor is open to anyone with a great idea. No invention is too big or small!
Prospective contestants can enter with a sketch, a prototype or even just a concept. The competition is open both to individuals and teams. The invention must be something that can be mass produced and sold to consumers in a retail outlet. Expert judges will narrow down the initial entries to a group of finalists, who will each be given $50,000 dollars to develop their product, refine it and take it to the next level. But in the end it will be up to America to call in and vote on which invention is worthy of the one million dollar prize.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
