divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/62952?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+England+prepare+to+fly+out+after+India+all-clearch=Sportc3=The+Guardianc4=England+in+India+2008-09%2CIndia+cricket+team%2CEngland+cricket+team%2CEngland+cricket+series%2CCricket%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CCricketc6=Mike+Selveyc7=2008_12_04c8=1128468c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=England+in+India+2008-09c13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FEngland+in+India+2008-09" width="1" height="1" //divpEngland are ready to resume their tour of India after a security report from Chennai alleviated safety concerns. That, coupled with the prospect of similar assurance from Mohali, has convinced the England and Wales Cricket Board that it is safe for the two Test matches to go ahead./ppWith the exception of Ryan Sidebottom, ruled out by a side strain, and Stuart Broad, who is being allowed a few more days to recover from a hamstring injury suffered during the recent abandoned one-day series before flying out to Chennai, it will be a full England squad - including Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison, and reinforced by nine members of the performance squad - that will fly to Abu Dhabi today for a holding camp, where they will practise before moving on to Chennai on Monday. The first of two Tests is scheduled to begin there on December 11./ppThe announcement from Lord's of the intention to resume the tour came after two days of meetings between ECB officials, security advisers and government departments. "The only consideration in all our discussions has been the safety and security of the team and support staff," explained Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket. "We have been delighted by the input of the Professional Cricketers' Association and also the willingness of the Board of Control for Cricket in India to act upon our recommendations regarding security. While we have sought to reassure players that their safety is paramount we have not pressurised any player into making the trip against their will./pp"Those who leave for Abu Dhabi are all anticipating travelling to India if both the head of the PCA, Sean Morris, and I are happy that Reg Dickason's security plans have been activated. The board and players will be kept fully informed." /ppHe added: "The PCA and ECB have worked extremely closely on this issue, and the players have been fully supportive throughout. We will access the highest calibre of security advice on a regular basis so that we can provide the players with the latest accurate information. I have been assured by the ECB that they would never compromise the players' safety and security." Both Hugh and Sean Morris were due to travel to India last night to meet Dickason and will fly on to the United Arab Emirates to brief the players./ppThe key to the unanimous decision to return was the positive assessment of conditions by Dickason, the ECB security expert. Dickason was in Chennai yesterday, inspecting the team hotel, the /ppMA Chidambaram Stadium and the route between the two, and has expressed himself satisfied with the strong arrangements that will be put in place by the Chennai police under its commissioner, Thiru K Radhakrishnan./pp"We can provide absolute total security," the police chief said yesterday after Dickason had completed his tour. Dickason will now carry out a similar exercise in Mohali, before completing his reports. Yesterday the chief executive of the ECB, David Collier, praised the way the Indian authorities had handled the situation. "Everyone has been highly cooperative and helpful," he said. "Everything that Reg has asked for has been agreed."/ppIf it has been viewed as an expensive extravagance to bring the tour party home for such a brief period, then to persuade the Test party in its entirety to return when so much talk was of dissidents is something of a triumph. There had been suggestions from influential figures that several players, possibly Flintoff and Harmison, were intent on staying at home regardless of the outcome of the security report./ppMeanwhile, it was confirmed that West Indies will tour England in the early summer in place of Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka had been pencilled in provisionally, but player commitments to the Indian Premier League, given the backing of their cricket board, meant it was no longer a viable option. The tour will feature two Tests, at Lord's and Chester-le-Street, and three ODIs. West Indies' visit will provide a lead into a busy summer that also includes the Twenty20 World Cup and an Ashes series. Its timing, with the opening Test scheduled for May 6, precludes any hope of a large window of opportunity for England players to ply their trade in the IPL./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/englandinindia200809"England in India 2008-09/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/indiacricketteam"India Cricket Team/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/englandcricketteam"England Cricket Team/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/englandcricketseries"England cricket series/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/cricket"Cricket/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Vnl8B9fUgtdd1RMSpOSTMcXV1KI/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Vnl8B9fUgtdd1RMSpOSTMcXV1KI/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

By David Lambert - The other day MTV/Paramount announced that The Hills - The Complete 4th Season will be arriving on DVD. We didn't have any cover art for you at the time, but now we've got an early... (more)

Have you ever wondered how, exactly, the Hollywood studios came up with their logos? No, not really? It's cool, I've never given much thought to it either, but the folks over at Neatorama did, and they tracked down the stories behind the logos for Dreamworks SKG (boy fishing on a moon), MGM (which was your favorite lion?), 20th Century Fox, Paramount (are those real mountains?), Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures (who's that torch lady again?). It's a rather fascinating read, if only to learn the names behind the artists who created some of the more recognizable images in film history.

From the Dreamworks SKG description: "Spielberg wanted the logo for DreamWorks to be reminiscent of Hollywood's golden age. The logo was to be a computer generated image of a man on the moon, fishing, but Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Muren of Industrial Light and Magic, who has worked on many of Spielberg's films, suggested that a hand-painted logo might look better. Muren asked his friend, artist Robert Hunt to paint it. Hunt also sent along an alternative version of the logo, which included a young boy on a crescent moon, fishing. Spielberg liked this version better, and the rest is history. Oh, and that boy? It was Hunt's son, William."

Check out the rest over on Neatorama. Which logo is your personal favorite? (And is it weird to have a favorite Hollywood studio logo?)

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Filed under: Fandom, Newsstand

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Paramount has licensed a classic for a slew of Godfather-themed tech.nbsp;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/eh/rss/C157/~4/473925635" height="1" width="1"/

pSuper Talent and Paramount have announced an agreement that will allow Super Talent to produce a line of flash drives that bear artwork from the classic film The Godfather. Super Talent says it will ship the first Godfather USB flash drives this month. .../pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/I4UNews?a=R6nn1gWP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/I4UNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/I4UNews?a=mbQd759j"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/I4UNews?i=mbQd759j" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/I4UNews?a=gDonbadS"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/I4UNews?i=gDonbadS" border="0"/img/a /div

Super Talent today announced that the firm has signed a licensing agreement with Paramount Licensing Inc. granting rights to manufacture and market USB Flash drives based on Paramount Pictures movie title, "The Godfather."

He's had the honor of being the on-screen offspring of names like Harrison Ford and Carrie-Anne Moss. He's faced a few different types of robots. And now, well, he's following the likes of Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Matthew McConaughey, and Matt Damon.

Variety reports that Shia LaBeouf is going to star in the next John Grisham flick cooking up at Paramount, The Associate. If it doesn't sound familiar -- that's because it's an upcoming novel slated for release in January. The film will focus on a student (LaBeouf), heading towards graduation at Yale Law School, who somehow gets manipulated into taking a job with a prestigious law firm. This gig gives him "privileged information about a multibillion-dollar lawsuit." After that, I guess thrilling twists ensue.

It looks like the Shia train has no signs of stopping quite yet. Could the fiery world of law do it? I don't know... I liked him more when he was a wee tyke, and I can't picture him as a Yale smartie. Can you?

Filed under: Thrillers, Casting

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By David Lambert - Nickelodeon and Paramount Home Entertainment present SpongeBob vs. The Big One, a new DVD release coming out on March 3rd. It includes 6 episodes of the show that are new-to-DVD, plus... (more)

White Dog
Samuel Fuller's follow-up to The Big Red One was shelved by Paramount Pictures before its scheduled release in 1982 because of fears that its premise -- a white dog has been trained to attack black people -- would stir up more controversy than box office. Fuller was understandably outraged; in his autobiography, A Third Face, he wrote: "The studio has used me as a scapegoat for their lack of determination and courage." The film, co-written by Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential), with a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, later received acclaim when it was released in Europe but never received a home video release in the US and has rarely been seen here. Kristy McNichol plays an actress who adopts the dog; Paul Winfield is as an anthropologist who tries to reverse the training. The Criterion Collection DVD includes a featurette with Hanson, producer Jon Davison, and Fuller's widow, plus a print interview with the dog trainer and essays by J. Hoberman and Armond White. I'm buying, but even if you're not a huge fan of Samuel Fuller, you'd want to check it out. Rent it.

Step Brothers
Combining Will Farrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, and Mary Steenburgen under one roof, Step Brothers mines familiar territory with sharp timing and plenty of belly laughs. Mine is, admittedly, a distinctly minority opinion. Available on DVD (single-disc rated, single-disc unrated, two-disc unrated) and Blu-ray, with an audio commentary by Farrell, Reilly, director Adam McKay, and a score by Jon Brion. Other features include deleted scenes and alternate takes, a gag reel, 'making of,' and a couple of gag featurettes. Rent it.

Much more on Wanted, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian after the jump, plus Indies on DVD, Blu-ray Picks, and Collector's Corner.

Filed under: Action, Animation, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New on DVD, Family Films, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie

Continue reading Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 12/02

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Les studios Paramount Pictures ont signé Shia LaBeouf pour le premier rôle du film The Associate. Il s'agit de l'adaptation au cinéma d'un roman de John Grisham, dont Paramount a récemment acquis les droits. [...]