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Get back to me when they find a planet with Orion slave girls on it...

Is CmdrTaco giddy with anticipation of some giant prank for Thursday? Yes. I'm expecting perhaps OMG Ponies II: When Ponies Attack! But they might have some other brilliant plan.

german tax shelter

that's how he does it: you can't lose money backing a money losing film made by uwe boll. he basically has exploited a financial loop hole that the german goverment instituted in a well-meaning way to get german movies made, but instead their law got raped by a troll called boll making bad non-german movies based on video games

the good news: the germans repealed the law awhile back

so how and why is he still making movies?

because of comments like yours. no, really: the first rule of public relations is that there is no such thing as bad public relations. he gets his name out there. he is now riding on his notoreity. hated and vilified, but his name still gets out there. that gets him interest. really

want to never hear of another uwe boll movie again? stop mentioning him. i'm serious

and that online petition? guaranteed to wind up creating this, from two weeks ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/movies/18schw.html

which feeds the monste rof loathing him more, which gets more ocmments on slashdot, which means the undead troll boll lives forever

http://www.cinematical.com/2008/05/26/tales-of-the-black-freighter-getting-dvd-release/

Sorry, Sylvester Stallone, you're already ruining... remaking...Death Wish.

• Up will follow WALL-E for Pixar, featuring the voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, John Ratzenberger and Jordan Nagai.
  
• Tinkerbell will go direct-to-DVD, followed by three sequels. So four Tinkerbell films all together.
  
• Rapunzel is back! Not only that, but the classic story will be done in full CGI.
• King of the Elves is another film coming from Disney animation in 2012, and it's based on a Phillip K. Dick story.
  
• Toy Story and Toy Story 2 to be released in 3-D in 2009 and 2010.
• Toy Story 3 hits theaters on June 18, 2010
• Newt will be Pixar's film in 2011, and it comes with this description: "What happens when the last remaining male and female blue-footed newts on the planet are forced together by science to save the species, and they can't stand each other?
• Cars 2 coming in 2012!

Boll is actually quitting because the German government recently closed the tax loophole that allowed Boll and other German filmmakers to set up their "films" as tax shelters for businessmen (with no intent of ever making any money). The gravy train has dried up and the scam is over.

Slashdot story quality is often low; apparently Slasdot editors don't even Google the stories. This is the real story; it was an armed robbery: Coppola Says Robbery Cost Years of Data (AP). This poorly edited story has even more detail: Thieves Steal Francis Ford Coppola's Everything.

I suspect that there is more to the story than we know. I suspect that he is more worried about release of information than loss of information. The AP article says he had a backup copy of a screenplay on which he is working.

The moral of the story is: Have proprietary data? Use TrueCrypt. Supports Windows and Linux. As all encryption software must be, it is open source, very mature, and supports both Windows and Linux. Supports encrypted devices and encrypted folders, including hidden folders.

To encrypt a file, use the free open source Gnu Privacy Guard.

The blocked page says the page was blocked due to a phrase found on Boing-Boing. Now take a wild guess as to what phrases might appear on Boing-Boing that the city of Boston might want to block?

(Also, if you want to try something fun, look up reviews of the ATHF Movie. It got around 2-3 stars from most news papers. The exception? All Boston papers gave it their lowest rank. Plus the movie was banned in several Boston theaters.)

So, yes, it's actually highly likely that Boston banned Boing-Boing over Boing-Boing embarrassing them.

Everything is still in negotiations phase, but the plans are real.

http://www.cinematical.com/2007/03/27/duchovny-say s-x-files-2-negotiations-almost-complete/

Yeah, the films have made billions, and will probably go on making making hundreds of millions over the next few decades as New Line license the rights. In which case quibbling about a $50-$100million looks downright mean, and it's not even a good business if Jackson ends up making the Hobbit with another studio as seems likely. Presumably if they'd played straight, they'd have made way more than $50-100 million out of the Hobbit if he'd directed it for them.

Bill O'Reilly Wants to Ban Horror Movies (and is a Moron)

Chomsky? Linkavich Chomsky?

Either way, I would take the freedom of someone saying the most racist hurtful things on the planet to me directly over censorship any day. Google is right. The funny part is they've got more balls to do what's right regarding freedom of speech than the US government these days.

There was a article Cinematical http://www.cinematical.com/2006/01/06/missing-netf lix-the-mailman-did-it/ How postal workers assist with the problems... Those who claim MY MAIL HAS NEVER BEEN LOST in XX Years... Well, they dont want your postcards.. they want your dvds

I remember that, too... I think this was it. Ah yes, it was discussed here, too. That's probably where I ran into it. This bit suggests the tax loophole has now been closed.

A little info here. Not sure how accurate the info is though.

Uhmmmm...probably to late to even be modded, huh?

Another scooper, MK, wrote in with his story of meetingnone other than George Lucas, while in Hawaii on his (MK's) honeymoon. MK had this to say about his chance encounter with the Master:

I was vacationing at the Mandarin Oriental in Hawaii for my honeymoon in 2004. I ran into George Lucas and his family on the beach there. I was sitting in a hammock, just about to get up, and he asked me if I was done. I said yes and began to leave....

He said so "Where are you from" ... I said I was from NY. He said "Are you here for the shoot?" I said no, "Here on my honeymoon."

I told him I was a big STAR WARS fan and was anxiously awaiting the conclusion of the most recent trilogy.

I asked him if STAR WARS was going to end with this next installment and.

He said, "'Star Wars' will never end. My involvement may, but the story will go on...."

I said what do you think would be more interesting.... telling a story prior to PHANTOM MENANCE or after RETURN OF THE JEDI?

(Lucas) said, no question about it, prior to PHANTOM MENACE. He said, that if he did ever do another storyline.... that he would do when the Jedi regained control of the universe from the Dark Lords (there were many of them) 800 years before PHANTOM MENACE. And a young Jedi named Yoda was instrumental in the effort.

None of these stories are (or can truly be) confirmed at this moment, so only time will tell.