Thursday, January 29, 2009

Movie buffs can now search all film genres on new website

London, January 28 (ANI): Movie buffs can now get information as to which film is being shown at which cinema hall on a new website.

Internet users can search form movies as well as where and how they can be watched on the findanyfilm.com.

The website also gives cinema listings, DVD sale and rental options, and suggests legal download sites.

More than 30,000 films-including action movies, thrillers, classics, and Bollywood hits-are said to be part of the catalogue.

The website not only searches the film, but also brings up all the formats it is available in.

It even provides information on proximity, price, and popularity.

Movie buffs can read a synopsis of the film, watch the trailer, and even click through to book tickets or buy or rent the DVD.

Just in case a film being looked for is unavailable in the UK, the user can sign up to receive an email alert when it finally reaches these shores.

The UK Film Council, which has set up findanyfilm.com, claims that it will vastly speed-up and simplify movie searches.

"This new site is going to transform how consumers find the films they want to watch - we will soon wonder how we ever coped without it," Sky News quoted Peter Buckingham, the head of distribution and exhibition at the council, as saying.

"We have turned what was often an incredibly time-consuming, frustrating process into one that makes it much easier for film fans to see films in the UK," he added.

The website, however, is not the first of its kind.

"It's a great idea because people do use the web to research what they will see in the cinema or on dvd," said Sky News entertainment correspondent Matt Smith.

"But they are a bit late to the party because there is already a similar site that everyone in the industry and film buffs use, called IMDB.com," he added. (ANI)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

'Flying car' team off to Timbuktu

The world's first bio-fuelled flying car. Flight footage courtesy of Mentorn Media/Height and Hazard for Channel 4's Daredevil series

A team of British adventurers has set out to complete a schoolboy fantasy - journeying for 42 days from London to Timbuktu by "flying car".

Led by pilot Neil Laughton, 45, of West Sussex, the team will make the 3,600-mile trip in a Parajet Skycar - a dune buggy with a fan and paragliding wing.

The Skycar and support team began their epic journey in London's Knightsbridge.

The bio-fuelled flying vehicle was designed by Dorset engineer Giles Cardozo, 29, in less than two years.

The team said it was the "world's first road legal bio-fuelled flying car".

With the help of a giant fan-motor, ex-SAS soldier Mr Laughton plans to soar over the Pyrenees, before taking to the skies again to hop across the 9-mile (14-km) Straits of Gibraltar, then the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, stretches of the Sahara desert and on to Timbuktu in Mali.

SKYCAR IN NUMBERS
Flying car team
Weight: 1,000lb (480kg)
Engine: Four cylinders, 1,000cc
Flight range: 185 miles (300km)
Cruising altitude: 2,000-3,000ft (600m-900m)
Top speed: 70mph (110km/h) airborne; 110mph (180km/h) road
Cost: £50,000 ($76,000)

Speaking before the departure, Mr Laughton said: "I just can't wait to see their faces when we fly in and start playing football with them.

"I don't think they will be able to believe somebody in a flying car has just visited them."

Mr Laughton said the journey through the Sahara posed particular dangers.

"We have been following the Foreign Office advice on the political situation in the area north-west of Timbuktu.

"There is a significant kidnap threat... so we have to be very careful."

Mr Cardozo will join Mr Laughton as co-pilot for the African leg of the trip.

Mr Cardozo's Wiltshire-based firm, Parajet, makes the "paramotors" that propel the Skycar once it is airborne.

The self-taught engineer has been dreaming of creating a flying car since childhood and plans to sell Skycars commercially at £50,000 each.

Mr Laughton had also hoped to make the 22-mile (35km) flight across the English Channel, but he said that plan was vetoed by civil aviation officials.

  ©Template Blogger Elegance by Dicas Blogger.

TOPO