Euro Disney could be hostile bid target for Swiss group – report

Euro Disney SCA could soon be the target of a hostile takeover bid from Center-Tainment, a Swiss leisure group, according to a report in French daily Le Monde.

The report is based on an e-mail received from Center-Tainment, apparently in error, which says the bid will be launched tomorrow. Journalists are to be invited to a press conference in a Paris hotel, which has confirmed having received a reservation for a conference room.

Euro Disney investors would be offered Center-Tainment shares, which are listed on the Frankfurt stock market. They were last trading at 13 eur, down 27.8 pct from yesterday's close.

Le Monde said that Euro Disney officials have not been contacted by Center-Tainment, but acknowledged that it is aware of the e-mail.

Parent company Walt Disney owns a 39.8 pct stake in the company, which operates the Disneyland Europe theme park near Paris. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia owns a 10 pct stake.

The company posted a net loss of 73.1 mln eur in the full year to Sept 2006, on sales of 1.088 bln.

Euro Disney shares were last trading down 0.01 eur at 0.06 eur in Paris.

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Disney’s ‘High School Musical’ Launches Live Concert Tour

The parents milling around backstage are about the only thing in Disney's new $8.5 million "High School Musical" stage spectacular tour that look anything like well, high school. Engineered by veterans of Rolling Stones tours and tricked out with intricate choreography, confetti drops and a giant backdrop screen for heartthrob close-ups, the concert was designed to wow the "tween" fans who made the TV movie a nationwide hit faster than Paris Hilton can say, "hot."

The snappy 90-minute stage performance zips along untethered from the plot of the movie, a love story between a basketball jock and an academic decathlon nerd who upset their school's social order by auditioning for lead roles in a musical.

Instead, the concert features the six stars as celebrities, rather than in their character roles, and showcases hits from the movie soundtrack. Lucas Grabeel, one of the movie's main characters, emcees the proceedings, giving frequent shout-outs to the audience and stringing together set pieces with good-natured onstage banter.

Three cast members with newly released or forthcoming solo albums Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu do solo sets.

The only cast member missing the concert tour is Zac Efron, who played the male lead in the movie. He is working on the movie version of the musical "Hairspray." Drew Seeley, who sang on the "High School Musical" soundtrack and co-wrote one of its songs, is touring in Efron's place.

Nine trucks, 10 buses and about 90 crew members will accompany the six performers on the 40-city arena tour, which begins in San Diego on Nov. 29 and wraps up with a finale in Las Vegas on Jan. 28. The group will play a newly added New Year's Eve gig in Uniondale, N.Y.

It's a professional schedule for a cast that is mostly new to the rigors of the road, though the stars are all professional actors, some with serious tween bona fides: Tisdale, who played comically evil drama queen Sharpay, is well known to fans of the popular Disney Channel sitcom "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."

"I'm freaking out!" exclaimed Coleman as she bopped around backstage in San Diego before the show's last dry run. At 26, Coleman – who parlayed her popularity into a stint on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" – is the oldest of the group.

Minutes later, she was twirling across the stage in a pair of sparkling high heels she called "blinged out."

The star of the concert is 17-year-old Hudgens, the Posh Spice lookalike who played Gabriella, the "brainiac" in the movie. Along with reprising duets from the soundtrack, Hudgens slinks through three songs from her new pop album as a giant rhinestone-encrusted "V" drops down from the ceiling and her music video plays on the screen behind her.

The tour follows Disney's success with another concert series based on its TV musical, "The Cheetah Girls," which laid the groundwork for the success of "High School Musical."

"Cheetah Girls" director Kenny Ortega, a veteran choreographer who worked on "Dirty Dancing" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," created and directed "High School Musical." He said the stage show was a natural extension for a pop phenomenon.

"We all have other projects we could be doing, but we wanted to get out there and do this for all the fans," he said.

The movie drew nearly 8 million viewers in its first outing on the Disney Channel last January, making it the top-rated basic-cable TV show that week. A repeat airing the very next night attracted more than 6 million viewers, according to the Nielsen Media Research group, making it the No. 2-rated cable show of the week. Since then, Disney estimates nearly 60 million people have seen the movie.

What started as a bubble gum TV movie – "Romeo and Juliet" meets "Grease" for the iPod generation – has spawned a sing-along karaoke version, a triple-platinum album, cell phone ring tones, a novel and, yes, countless real high school musicals. It has not been released in theater.

A sequel is set to begin production early next year for broadcast in August, and Ortega said a potential Broadway production is in the early workshop phase. Spinoff shows are being planned for the Disney parks.

Ortega won an Emmy for choreography on the movie in September, while the soundtrack was nominated for an American Music Award in the general pop category.

According to Disney, the soundtrack is on track to be the year's top-selling album. It reached No. 10 on the Billboard pop-music charts two weeks after its release last January, hit No. 1 four weeks later and, after sliding down to No. 3, returned to the top spot again. At one point there were nine singles from the soundtrack on the chart in the same week.

"If you'd told me a year ago I'd be here, I'd have laughed," said Ortega. "We went into this just to make a little $4.5 million movie. All this is extra."

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Disney Order In More Pirates Of The Caribbean DVDs For UK market…

‘The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ DVD has become the fastest selling DVD in the UK ever according to new reports.

Film lovers have been desperate to get their hands on their very own copy to take home; so much so that Disney has been forced to order and extra million copies for the UK in time for the Christmas rush.

1.5million copies of the film starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley have already been sold; it is estimated that if demand for the DVD is maintained then 3million copies will have been sold by the end of the year.

Brian Winsor, Disney’s marketing boss said of the DVD rush: “It seems as though the appeal of Jack Sparrow and his shipmates goes on.”

And on and on and on…

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Disney campaign tries to shift attention from Gibson’s travails

Even before Mel Gibson's drunken, anti-Semitic tirade this summer, his upcoming film "Apocalypto" was a tough sell.

Graphically violent, subtitled and cast with relatively unknown actors who speak their lines in an obscure dialect, Gibson's tale of a collapsing Mayan civilization was already outside Hollywood's mainstream fare. Then came Gibson's humiliating drunken driving arrest on a Malibu highway in July, which overnight threatened to turn the Oscar-winning director from the film's biggest asset into its biggest liability.

Starting Thanksgiving night, distributor Walt Disney Studios kicked off a campaign aimed at shifting attention from Gibson's foibles and onto his movie. Up against what the industry is calling "the Mel factor," the director appeared on a prime-time special on Disney's ABC network, hoping to blunt any damage that he may have caused "Apocalypto."

Hosted by Diane Sawyer, who snared Gibson's first postarrest interview last month, ABC devoted an hour to the Dec. 8 release. The program was arranged before Gibson's arrest, and includes footage the network shot on location while he was filming in Mexico.

Gibson co-wrote and produced the movie but does not appear in it.

Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook believes that moviegoers can separate Gibson's offscreen behavior from his work behind the camera.

"The public is smart enough to differentiate what happens in someone's personal life and their professional life," Cook said.

Forgive and forget?

Nonetheless, it's uncertain whether Gibson's fans are ready to forgive him, let alone embrace an R-rated movie that he has made on an unfamiliar topic.

"I don't envy Disney — they have an uphill battle," "Spider-Man" producer Laura Ziskin said. "It looks like a hard sell to begin with. He's the tool with which to market it, and he has a black mark against him."

Disney plans to position "Apocalypto" as a riveting action adventure, opening the movie on more than 2,000 screens. Its publicity materials, trailer and TV spots play up the film as a visceral, "heart-stopping" story of a man who makes a daring escape from a world on the brink of destruction to save himself, his pregnant wife and their child.

Despite Gibson's DUI arrest, Disney still is treating him as an important selling point: Gibson narrated many of the TV and radio spots, which started airing this week as part of an aggressive ad buy.

Gibson, 50, was arrested July 28. He was reported to have made a number of profane and anti-Semitic remarks to officers. As part of a plea agreement, Gibson agreed to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, appear in public service announcements and pay $1,300 in fines.

In the days after Gibson's arrest, Cook called Gibson and his publicist, Alan Nierob, to assure them that Disney still supported the film and would release it as planned.

Last month, Nierob launched Gibson's public comeback by arranging a two-part taped interview with Sawyer on ABC's "Good Morning America." Gibson apologized for his anti-Semitic remarks, said he was ashamed and acknowledged his long struggle with alcohol.

Heading off media frenzy

Nierob and Disney are hoping Gibson's public mea culpa will blunt any new media frenzy that could be reignited by the attention Gibson will undoubtedly get with the release of the movie.

"We're not running from anything," Nierob said. "We've already addressed his DUI arrest publicly."

Nierob has kept a tight hold on his client's promotional activities and has been working closely with Cook and his team to carefully craft a publicity and marketing strategy to focus media attention on the film.

"We're marketing it in a straight-ahead manner and focusing 100 percent on the movie itself," Cook said. "Obviously, it's an unbelievable cinematic achievement and we're dealing with the talent of Mel Gibson the filmmaker."

As part of its effort, Disney will begin aggressively showing the film to exhibitors, college students, critics and other opinion-makers as soon as Gibson delivers his final print.

Disney's financial risk is limited because Gibson financed the $50 million movie through his film company Icon Productions.

The studio is on the hook for at least $25 million in marketing expenses, which it is able to recoup before Gibson's company receives any box-office dollars. Icon will pay the studio a distribution fee based on a percentage of the film's ticket sales in the United States and Canada.

Disney made the deal to market and distribute "Apocalypto" in July 2005. Cook was among a group of top studio executives invited by Gibson and his producing partner, Bruce Davey, to read the translated script. Gibson, a superstar actor from films such as "Lethal Weapon" as well as Disney's "Signs" and "Ransom," by then had proved himself an accomplished director with "The Passion of the Christ" and the Oscar-winning "Braveheart."

"Apocalypto" will face steep competition on the Dec. 8 weekend, opening against two other adult-oriented movies, the Warner Bros. drama "Blood Diamond," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Sony Pictures' romantic comedy "The Holiday," featuring Cameron Diaz and Jack Black.

"Adult audiences will be torn in different directions," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. "And people are going to have to decide if they can separate the movie from the man. If the buzz is strong enough, they'll go. Disney is going to have to rely on great reviews and great word of mouth."

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Disney to distribute about 23 films domestically in fiscal 2007

Walt Disney Co. (DIS) plans to distribute domestically about 23 films in the year ending next Sept. 30, the entertainment and media company said Wednesday in its annual report.
At the end of its latest fiscal year, Walt Disney said in the filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, it had released domestically 1,566 full-length live-action features, animated features, cartoon shorts and live-action shorts.
That number of films distributed for fiscal 2006 compared with 1,536 films released by Disney in the U.S. as of Oct. 1, 2005, according to its annual report for the prior fiscal year.
As reported, the Burbank, Calf., company's fiscal 2006 revenue rose 7.3% to $34 billion, partly due to strong box-office performance of films such as "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" and "Cars," the filing said.
Disney said the fiscal 2007 films planned for U.S. release comprise 14 feature films under the Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures banners, and nine more films under the Miramax label.
Disney shares closed at $32.99 on Wednesday, down 24 cents. The company's shares have risen more than 30% in value in the past year.
 

Comcast and Disney’s On-Demand Deal

It was a long time coming, but I believe that the deal signed by Comcast(Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Disney(NYSE: DIS) Tuesday will be of major importance for both companies. Comcast subscribers will now be able to access Disney and ABC television programs and films on the operator's cable video-on-demand service.

The multibillion-dollar pact, which reportedly had been in negotiation for three years, will include films from Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax Films, and Touchstone Pictures. Comcast will charge $3.99 for first-run films and $2.99 for older pictures. Some of the films apparently will be available only after a 15-day window following their release in DVD form. Comcast will also receive the right to use Disney promotional video on Comcast.net, the operator's newly upgraded website.

Television programs covered under the agreement will include Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Nightline, plus content from Disney's ESPN, Toon Disney, and SoapNet channels, among others. Furthermore, for $1.23 billion, Comcast will acquire Disney's 39.5% of the E! Entertainment channel, making Comcast the network's sole owner. And Comcast will launch a Spanish-language sports network to be called ESPN Deportes.

With the deal, Disney will obtain yet another, longer-lasting outlet for its film and television content, thereby enhancing and lengthening the income stream from that content. Comcast may make out even better. The agreement will provide it with a host of new content for its video-on-demand offering. Frankly, I think that this is a major step forward for the nation's largest cable operator.

Video on demand, which allows subscribers to view programming when they choose, has been a potentially critical offering for the cable operators for several years. Its importance is tied in part to competition with satellite companies DirecTV(NYSE: DTV)EchoStar(Nasdaq: DISH), which can provide only a rudimentary approximation of video on demand. 

However, solid video-on-demand technical capability, which the cable operators possess, is virtually useless without compelling programming. But agreements between programmers and cable operators have been far slower to materialize than many had expected. Therefore, this new agreement is of real significance for Comcast and potentially for other cable operators.

Comcast and Disney have been unusual among media companies in 2006 — the year has been good to their shareholders. That shouldn't change now, since it appears that these two revitalized companies have inked a win-win agreement.

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Crocs Announces Global Expansion Of Disney Line

The U.S. shoe company Crocs, Inc., has announced it will release its "Disney by CROCS" line in stores in Latin America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Middle East and South Africa. A select line of Disney character-themed shoes will be available this holiday season, with an expanded launch taking place in Spring 2007.

The Mickey Mouse Adult Beach and Kid's Cayman models, which come in Mickey's signature black and red along with other colors, will be the first to debut. "Disney by CROCS" shoes featuring Winnie the Pooh, Disney princesses, Disney fairies, and characters from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and Pixar's "Toy Story" and "Cars" will follow.

Business Wire reports Ron Snyder, CEO of Crocs, stated, "The success of the Disney by Crocs line at select U.S. and Canadian retailers, in addition to the growing worldwide demand for Crocs, signaled the need for us to expand our efforts with global distribution."

Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney Consumer Products, said, "Our relationship with Crocs is especially gratifying because it delivers a unique style of footwear that has been so well received not only in the U.S., but internationally."

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Huge Crowds Expected At Disney Theme Parks Over Holiday

Many people will be driving and flying into town for a holiday trip to the theme parks and Disney is ready for the rush. One of the first things tourists will do once they arrive in Orlando is visit a theme park, including the Magic Kingdom.Attendance is always high during the holiday season and, this year, Disney says is no different. According to a spokeswoman, Walt Disney World posted record revenues, record cash flow and record net earnings for the 2006 fiscal year.One of the reasons why the company is doing so well is because attendance at the Magic Kingdom and other Disney World theme parks continues to climb. In fact, attendance is up five percent compared to this time last year.Even though it's been unusually cold the past few days, park visitors Eyewitness News spoke with said there's no other place they'd rather be during the Thanksgiving holiday."We have came here for the last three years for Thanksgiving to spend it at the campground. We decided to come, it's the best time of the year, and bring our family for Thanksgiving," said holiday traveler Gina Schmidt."Normally, we go to a relative's house, but this week the kids are out of school for the whole week. They've never been to Disney, so we thought we would bring them to Disney," said holiday traveler Bryan Doubek.Industry insiders are expecting the large crowds at Disney to continue.Disney recently rolled out two new attractions based on the character in the movie Finding Nemo. Nemo: The Musical is at Animal Kingdom. The ride Nemo and Friends is at Epcot

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Disney’s Chicken Little: Ace in Action Blasts Off Final Wii Trailer

Buena Vista Games has just released a brand new trailer for the Wii version of "Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action." Featuring gameplay footage filled with action and hilarious in-game cut-scenes, the new trailer brandishes amazing graphics and colorful quests which players will encounter throughout game.

You can download the new "Chicken Little: Ace in Action" trailer here (27.5 MB).

Developed by Avalanche Software, a Buena Vista Games studio, for the Wii, PlayStation 2 system and the Nintendo DS, "Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action" is based upon the ending of the original motion picture and features Chicken Little and his ragtag group of friends as over-the-top Hollywood action hero versions of themselves. The team must traverse the universe in order to save the planet Earth from the clutches of their villainous enemies, Foxy Loxy, Goosey Loosey and Sleazel Weasel.

"Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action" allows players to travel the galaxy, exploring planetary locales with plethora of out-of-this-world weaponry and unique vehicles. Gamers play as Ace on foot, Abby in a spaceship and Runt as a tank commander. In the Wii and PlayStation 2 system versions, the original Chicken Little character and his friends appear in cut scenes and provide commentary. Adam West ("Ace"), Zach Braff ("Chicken Little") and Joan Cusack (original "Abby") reprise their film roles as the voices of their characters. Humorous original cut scenes were written and created by Avalanche Software, the game's developers.

Incorporating a 3D top-down view, the Nintendo DS version of "Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action" takes advantage of the dual screens and wireless multiplayer capability of the system. The Nintendo DS version is developed by DC Studios.

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Oklahoma firm sues Disney over ‘Cars’

An Oklahoma toymaker has put up a roadblock against media giant The Walt Disney Co. and its hit movie “Cars,” alleging trademark infringement.

In a federal lawsuit filed last month in Oklahoma City, Collectible Promotional Products Inc. of Woodward, Okla., claims Disney and toy company Mattel Inc. incorrectly used a similar trademark to its “Real Cars” line of collectible toy cars.

CPP said it has been using a chevron design with the words “Real Cars” above it since 1994. The company applied for a federal trademark, which was granted in 1998. CPP contracted with Mattel to make and package limited numbers of Hot Wheels toy cars such as the Carroll Shelby Limited Edition 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C.

“Cars,” which Disney’s Buena Vista studio released in June, so far has made $244 million at the U.S. box office. That makes it the No. 2 movie of the year behind “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”

Disney applied for federal trademark protection for its design – a chevron with the word “Cars” inside an oblong shape – in late 2004. The company said it would apply the trademark to scores of products, including fruit drinks, jewelry and toy cars.

In conjunction with the movie’s release this summer, Mattel began selling toys licensed from “Cars” characters such as Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen.

A Mattel spokeswoman said the company does not comment on litigation. A spokesman for Disney said the company is reviewing the lawsuit but has no comment.

Lea Knight, owner of CPP, said the company sold six lines of Real Cars collectibles made by Mattel in limited batches of 10,000 each.

“We’ve been using that design on our invoices and Web site for the last few years,” Knight said.

A portion of the sales went to children’s charities, he said. That stemmed from a need to give back after the Shriners paid for the treatment of his son, Logan, for childhood arthritis.

With its deep pockets, Disney is a frequent target of lawsuits related to its movies. But the company also aggressively polices its own trademarks, recently cracking down on stores in Los Angeles that sold counterfeit pinatas based on Disney characters.

Rachel Blue, an intellectual property expert at law firm Doerner, Saunders, Daniel & Anderson LLP in Tulsa, Okla., said trademark infringement lawsuits have increased in the past few decades as companies ascribe more value to their brands.

“That’s your identity as a company, so people are a little more concerned about that,” said Blue, who is not involved in the Oklahoma case. “Trademarks are assets, just like anything else, and you want to protect those.”

Blue said the law places trademarks along a continuum, with coined terms such as Exxon less susceptible to infringement actions. Companies such as Apple are protected, too, because it sells computers, not fruit, and no reasonable person would confuse the two. At the other end of the scale are generic words in everyday use, such as “tree,” which cannot be trademarked.

Blue said CPP’s case against Disney and Mattel is a close call, but trademark law tends to favor the company who used the mark first.

“Disney appears to have adopted the same elements the prior user had,” she said. “There’s a similarity of marks and goods involved with the toy cars, so this makes it a much more difficult question.”

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