Movies based on Marvel Comics characters have been huge money-spinners in recent years, but efforts to build a single, coherent Marvel film universe has been complicated by the fact that the rights to the publisher's superheroes are a tangle of contracts held by different Hollywood Studios. The Avengers-related movies (featuring Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Shield) for example – collectively known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe – are made by Marvel Studios, which are part of the Walt Disney empire. But the rights to Spider-Man are owned by Sony, while 20th Century Fox has the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four. This is why Spider-Man and Wolverine, for example, are never seen or mentioned in The Avengers films. All this is about to change. Marvel Studios and Sony have agreed to a deal that means Spider-Man will become part of the MCU and will next be seen in a yet-to-be-named MCU film, before appearing in the next instalment of his own film franchise, which could also feature characters from Avengers. The announcement also promised a new creative direction for the web slinger after the last two Spider-Man films received lukewarm reviews. Whether this means star Andrew Garfield will be replaced remains to seen. It also raises the possibility of a similar deal with 20th Century Fox to bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four into MCU. – The National staff
Hollaphonic album tops local charts
The Dubai-based electronic music duo Hollaphonic have topped UAE download charts with their debut album – before it is even released. Advance orders put Personal Space at the top of the iTunes album chart on Monday, February 9. The news came as band members Olly Wood and Greg Stainer revealed their hopes of cracking the European market with their latest single, Dangerous, which features guest vocalist Vince Kidd, who found fame in the United Kingdom as a contestant on The X Factor and The Voice. Wood and Stainer called the new single "the opening of a new chapter" for the group. – The National staff
Kunal Kapoor weds Big B’s niece
Actor Kunal Kapoor married Naina Bachchan, the niece of the Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, in a private ceremony on Monday, February 9, in the Seychelles. The Times of India reported that the beach wedding was attended by family and close friends. A formal reception will be held in New Delhi soon. Naina is the daughter of Bachchan's younger brother Ajitabh. – The National staff
Iggy Azalea takes bite out of pizza chain
Rapper Iggy Azalea, no stranger to bruising battles on social media, unleashed her anger against a new target on Monday, February 9 – a pizza chain. The Australian singer, who was nominated in two top categories at the Grammy Awards on Sunday but won nothing, ordered a pizza from the American chain Papa John’s. A few hours before the ceremony, she said on Twitter that the delivery person had handed out her phone number. She accused Papa John’s of violating her privacy, and attached pictures of unsolicited text messages from a fan asking to meet her. The pizza chain, in an effort at humour, replied by quoting one of her songs: “Please don’t bounce us”. Azalea was not amused and threatened legal action. “When an employee steals information it’s called data breach. It’s illegal. There are steps a corporation is supposed to follow afterward,” she tweeted. “They don’t include tweeting out song lyrics to the customer making the complaint. It’s really unprofessional.” – AFP
‘Record ratings’ for Better Call Saul
Sunday's debut of the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul was watched by 6.9 million viewers in the United States, which the AMC network said was the biggest series premiere in cable-TV history. The much-anticipated prequel, starring Bob Odenkirk as shifty lawyer Saul Goodman, had help with its ratings from the show that was broadcast before it on Sunday – The Walking Dead returned for the second half of its fifth season with an audience of 15.6 million. Meanwhile Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city, where the show is set and filmed, is hoping Better Call Saul will offer a similar boost to tourism that was seen during the run of Breaking Bad. The city has created a website to help tourists find locations from the shows. Better Call Saul is broadcast here on OSN First HD on Sundays. – AP
Vigil for Bobbi Kristina Brown
Hundreds of people lit candles, shone flashlights and held their glowing cellphones toward the sky as they gathered in suburban Atlanta on Monday night to pray for the late Whitney Houston's daughter, who is fighting for her life in a hospital after being found facedown in a bathtub late last month. Shining a Light for Healing for Bobbi Kristina Brown was held at the Riverdale Town Center amphitheatre south of Atlanta, said event organiser Corey Punzi, the city's marketing specialist. The amphitheatre is a venue that Brown's father, singer Bobby Brown, christened as its first performer in 2010. Bobbi Kristina is the only child between Bobby Brown and Houston. Her relatives have said she is "fighting for her life" at an Atlanta hospital. Police, citing an ongoing investigation, have not disclosed many details of the circumstances in which Brown was found. Houston was also found unresponsive in a bathtub on February 11, 2012, and later died. The Riverdale mayor Evelyn Wynn-Dixon was among those who sang gospel hymns on stage, as members of the crowd sang and danced along. Several vigil speakers touched on the struggles and scrutiny Brown's family has faced in recent years, comparing them to their own trials and tribulations. "They bleed and hurt like us," Wynn-Dixon told the crowd before singing the gospel song There's a Leak in This Old Building. Brian and Poco Reese, both 52, of Johns Creek, Georgia, said they would make the roughly 40-mile (64-kilometer) drive back home feeling refreshed, uplifted and hopeful for Bobbi Kristina's recovery. "We watched her grow over the years. We love her," Poco Reese said. – AP
Finalists for The Folio Prize announced
Tales of troubled families from Kenya and India, the musings of an ironic New York writer and the story of emotionally bruised Canadian siblings are contenders for The Folio Prize, a lucrative fiction award open to English-language authors. The eight finalists for the £40,000 (Dh224,000) prize, announced on Monday, include Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor's Kenyan family epic Dust; Akhil Sharma's Indian immigrant story Family Life; Brooklyn-based Ben Lerner's autobiographical 10:04; and Canadian author Miriam Toews's tragicomic tale of sisterhood, All My Puny Sorrows. The other finalists are American writer Jenny Offill for her exploration of relationships in Dept of Speculation; Colm Toibin for his tale of an Irish widow, Nora Webster; the Scottish writer Ali Smith for her dual-narrative novel How to be Both; and Canada-born British author Rachel Cusk for her story-spinning yarn Outline. Writer William Fiennes, who heads the judging panel, said all the finalists had stretched the possibilities of storytelling.
“It’s easy to say something new and it’s easy to say something true,” he said. “But these books all say something true about human experience in a way that feels like something new.”
The Folio Prize was established last year and aims to rival the Booker Prize as the English-speaking world's most prestigious literary award. It is open to any English-language work of fiction published in Britain in the previous year, which led some to predict the prize would be dominated by American writers. Five of last year's finalists were American, including the winner, George Saunders, for the short-story collection Tenth of December. This year's list includes writers from four continents, five women and three men. Fiennes said the diversity was not by design – "agenda was excellence" – but it was still a relief.
“If it had turned out to be eight white men from Brooklyn, we’d have all felt a bit sheepish,” he said.
The winner will be announced on March 23 at a ceremony in London. – AP
Moesha actor gets one year unsupervised probation
A former child star on the 1990s sitcom Moesha who was arrested in Arizona on suspicion of drink-driving has been sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation. Officials say 28-year-old Marcus Paulk pleaded guilty on Monday to a misdemeanour count of driving under the influence. Sheriff's officials say Paulk was stopped in suburban Scottsdale, Arizona, early on the morning of the Super Bowl. They say he drove "dangerously close" to a fire engine and two police cars that were stopped with their emergency lights flashing. The arresting officer reported that Paulk smelled of alcohol and had a bag of marijuana in his pocket. Paulk lives in California. He's best known for his role on the UPN sitcom Moesha, which ran from 1996 to 2001 and featured the pop star Brandy. – AP