Author: Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Mohamed Marwen Meddah is a Tunisian-Canadian, web aficionado, software engineering leader, blogger, and amateur photographer.

‘Halo’ To Be Made Into Movie

A few days back it was reported that Microsoft was looking for a buyer for their just-completed movie script for the best-selling X-Box game “Halo”.

According to TheHollywoodReporter, 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures have teamed up to purchase and put the Microsoft Halo script to film.

Microsoft is expected to make an announcement next week about the deal it has struck with Hollywood to make the movie.

The company caused a stir in Hollywood with its demands of upfront money and creative control over the movie, according to news reports.

Reuters said Microsoft first wanted $10 million and 15 percent of initial box-office sales but settled with Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox on a deal for a $5 million upfront payment and 10 percent of the box office. The movie is expected to be released in 2007.

Hollywood has a history of screwing up with movies based on games, let’s hope they change our minds with this one.

[Sources: Seattle Times, CanMag]

Yahoo Interested In Skype?

Yahoo Inc. is looking to boost its business in what they believe is the Internet’s next big growth area — voice communications.

Yahoo already has deals with several landline and wireless telephone companies, including SBC Communications, Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Corp., for a variety of Web-based services.

For what the future could hold, Yahoo points to its deal with Britain’s BT Group Plc, which sells the BT Communicator — a version of Yahoo’s Messenger that can not only handle voice calls between computers but make and receive telephone calls.

Anyway, some rumours are surfacing about talks between Yahoo and Skype, close enough that maybe even an acquisition is being cooked. Something like this would complicate Yahoo

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Mr. & Mrs. SmithLast night, after having some coffee at Starbucks (Which is testing with a month of free wireless internet btw), I talked my wife and brother-in-law into going to the cinema to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

The movie stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored married couple who both secretly from each other work as assassins. They only find out when they’re hired to kill each other.

After hearing and reading about the movie, then seeing the trailer, I expected this movie to be a pretty good one. It exceeded my expectations. It was a really great movie.
It was really funny and lots of fun. I truly enjoyed myself watching it.
The humour was really cool, the action was kickin’, the plot was real good and the chemistry between Brad and Angelina was amazing.
In fact, I like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie a lot more after this movie.

This must be one of the best action/comedies of the year. I highly recommend it.
I personally would really like to see it again.

My score for it is: 9/10.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith

Star Wars - Episode 3Last night, I finally got to watch Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith, and what a movie it was!

I’ve been wanting to see the movie ever since it came out, and I knew I’d see it in Jordan, but the thing that kept me from going to see it from day one is that I wanted to go see it with my brothers-in-law as they are both very big fans of Star Wars.

Anyway, back to the movie. It was awesome!! For sure so much better than Episodes 1 and 2. It’s up there with the old Episodes.

The visual effects were amazing, the sound was great, the lightsabers were beautiful, the fight sequences were perfect, the plot was really good…etc.
One of the best movies I’ve seen this year for sure.

My favourite sequences are the following ones:
– At the beginning of the movie, when Obi Wan’s spaceship crashes and he jumps out of it, opens his lightsaber and start fighting.
– The whole transformation of Anakin into Darth Vader.
– The sequences that put everything into place for Episode 4.

George Lucas did a great job with this one, finishing off his story and his cinematic masterpiece.
I don’t think anything as big as Star Wars will come along for a very long time.

I’m itching to see all the 6 movies all over again, once in the order they were released and once from Episode 1 to 6.
I hope they releases a cool DVD package of the movies soon.

My score for it is: 9.5/10.

Judging Books

They say that you should never judge a book by it’s cover, I say you shouldn’t even judge it by it’s first two chapters.

Many times, while reading a new book, especially novels, I’d find it so boring in it’s first chapters that I’d start to think about quitting or it’d take me so long to just get through a chapter.

But then when I get past the first chapters that the writer obviously wanted to use as a long introduction of the characters and to give some background to build his story on, the book becomes a lot more interesting and exciting, sucking you into the story.

Other books suck you in from the very first sentences. It doesn’t mean they’re better, it just reflects the writer’s style and how he wants to approach and tell his story.

Personally, I read and finish books that suck me in from the beginning faster, the ones that don’t take a bit more time before I’m stuck to the book and can’t let go of it.

Chinese Blogs Face More Restrictions

More restrictions from China…

The Chinese government has announced plans to police web forums, chat rooms and blogs alongside other websites.

Websites in China have long been required to be officially registered.
The authorities are now determined that blogs should also be brought under state control.

Private bloggers must register the full identity of the person responsible for the sites, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said.

All blogs and websites must be registered by 30 June.

[Source: BBC News]

This follows a similar move by the Bahraini government in April.

The purpose behind such moves is an obvious attempt by the governments to keep a leash on bloggers, track everyone and hold them accountable for their opinions.

I hope we don’t see other countries following suit and imposing such restrictions on bloggers.

links for 2005-06-07

Hostage

Last night we went to another movie, this time in Le Royal’s cinema.

The movie was “Hostage” featuring Bruce Willis and Kevin Pollack.

It’s about a failed police negotiator who turns into a small town cop, and then is faced with a situation where he must save the lives of a family held hostage. This draws him into a much more dangerous situation where his own family are also in danger.

The movie starts out pretty slow and a bit boring, but then the pace picks up a bit and the story gets together better making it a pretty decent movie.

It’s not one of Bruce’s best movies, but it’s still ok.
Maybe I had higher expectations, that’s why I didn’t enjoy it fully, but it’s pretty good.

Some people likened it to Bruce’s work on the Die Hard series, but I honestly find those movies a lot better than this one.

My score for it would be: 6.5/10.