Catalina Sandino Moreno will star opposite Aaron Eckhart in Incarnate, the new franchise hopeful from Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions.
The role was initially to be played by Rosario Dawson, but the Sin City and Seven Pounds actress left the project due to scheduling reasons. The movie is due to begin production in November in Los Angeles.
Brad Peyton is directing the micro-bugdet pic, which tells of "an unconventional exorcist -- with the ability to tap into the subconscious of the possessed -- who meets his match when a 9-year-old boy is possessed by a demon from his past," according to Blumhouse.
Blumhouse and IM Global are co-financing, while Blumhouse International is handling international sales.
Blum is producing. Exec producing are Blumhouse's Couper Samuelson, Stuart Ford, Charles Layton, Michael Seitzman, Trevor Engelson and Peyton.
Moreno broke into the industry with her acclaimed performance in 2004’s Maria Full of Grace, a role for which she earned an Oscar nomination. She most recently was one of the stars of FX’s crime show The Bridge and counts, among her feature credits, StevenSoderbergh’s two-part Che films.
She is repped UTA and Estelle Lasher at Principal Entertainment.
New iPads means new accessories, right? Hot on the heels of announcing the new iPad mini and the ridiculously thin iPad Air, Apple revealed two new cases to go with each. These include a standard cover (similar to what's available now), which is priced at $39. There's also going to be a leather ...
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — At least seven inmates in Florida have used forged documents in attempts to escape from prison, including two killers who were mistakenly freed because of the paperwork, authorities said Tuesday.
Police said they were looking at several suspects in the investigation of the escape of Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker, but so far they have made no arrests. Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey said the prisoners were not cooperating.
"In law enforcement terms, they've lawyered up," Bailey said. "But we will find the details of what led to these escapes without their help, but should they choose to cooperate, we will have the answers that we need, the answers that we demand sooner rather than later."
Jenkins and Walker were let out of a Panhandle prison on Sept. 27 and Oct. 8, respectively, because of fake paperwork that reduced their life sentences to 15 years, authorities said. It was Jenkins' second time trying to escape with forged papers. He failed in 2011, Bailey said.
Jenkins and Walker were captured Saturday at a Panama City motel. Authorities found an iPad and cellphone there, and they were reviewing them for evidence. Police also want to know how the men got to the motel and who was coming from Atlanta to take them somewhere else.
The convicted murderers arrived at the Orange County Jail on Tuesday and were placed in maximum security in two separate locations. It's the same jail where they registered as felons in the days after they were released from prison. Hours later, they were ordered back into the custody of the Department of Corrections.
Besides the forged documents, forensic examiners were looking at computers and printers seized from the Franklin County prison. So far, there is no indication that any Department of Corrections workers helped the inmates with their escape, but investigators are still looking at any possibilities of an inside job, Bailey said.
"There is no hard evidence that has happened," he said. "If there were, there would be an arrest."
The mistaken release led the Corrections Department to change its policy for early prisoner releases. It also caused the chief judge in the judicial circuit that covers Orange and Osceola counties in metro Orlando to change how orders are filed in the clerks of courts offices. The forged paperwork that led to the release of Jenkins and Walker was filed in the Orange County Clerk of Courts office.
Chief Circuit Judge Belvin Perry signed an order Monday that prohibits judicial orders from being accepted at drop-off boxes. His order also requires judicial assistants to keep a log of all orders to change an inmate's prison sentence.
When the clerk's office gets an order to change a sentence, the clerk must verify with the judge or judicial assistant that the order was issued, according to the new measures.
While investigating the Walker and Jenkins case, authorities discovered two other prisoners at the Franklin County prison that were in the process of obtaining fake release orders.
Bailey said authorities know of three other prisoners who attempted similar escapes. The first was case was the release of Nydeed Nashaddai out of a Pinellas County jail in 2009. He was captured in less than a day, sentenced to 20 years for escape and sent to the Franklin County Prison. Another case involved an inmate at a Gulf County prison.
Earlier this year, Franklin County prisoner Jeffrey Forbes' escape attempt was thwarted by a detective who discovered that his release date had been changed. In emails released Tuesday by the state attorney in Orlando, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent described the attempt as a "system failure." In the June email, the agent said he planned to meet with workers in the clerk's office in Orlando.
The agent and representatives from the state attorney's office met with the clerk workers to learn how the office receives documents, said Leesa Bainbridge, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Clerk of Courts.
"There were no follow-up meetings or advisories, except to assure us the investigation had not implicated any clerk employees," Bainbridge said in an email. "In other words, there was no indication that the Forbes case was anything more than an isolated incident."
___
AP writer Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report.
The 1975 has been on a meteoric rise in 2013. The pop-rock quartet's self-titled debut album landed at No. 1 in the U.K. Earlier this summer, the band opened for The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, London.
While the band is rooted in the present with its current success, its throwback influence goes beyond its name. Lead singer Matthew Healy says The 1975 was inspired by the 1980s — specifically, '80s teen movies.
"Those movies, they discuss everything that I discuss: love, fear, sex and a longing for something beyond. A longing for something bigger," Healy says. "Everybody knows the feeling of a moment being particularly cinematic. I don't know what the world was like before cinema and music and art existed. All I know is that my brain is based around the things that I've seen. And I think the idea of romance, that kind of lustful desire, that's what I am obsessed with."
John Hughes, the filmmaker behind cult classics like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Sixteen Candles, put teen angst front and center in his productions; Healy says those movies have stayed with him and influenced the lyrical imagery of songs like "Heart Out."
"It's an obvious fist-in-the-air moment. You can imagine doing an amazing freeze-frame shot to this song," Healy says. "There's such a visual element to it when I'm writing. I have quite a clear-cut narrative — a tiny John Hughes movie, if you will — in my head when I'm writing."
The University of Miami's athletic director, Blake James, walks to an NCAA Committee on Infractions hearing in Indianapolis in June. The school's failings "enabled a culture of noncompliance," the NCAA said Tuesday, in announcing penalties for the school and its football and men's basketball coaches.
Michael Conroy/AP
The University of Miami's athletic director, Blake James, walks to an NCAA Committee on Infractions hearing in Indianapolis in June. The school's failings "enabled a culture of noncompliance," the NCAA said Tuesday, in announcing penalties for the school and its football and men's basketball coaches.
Michael Conroy/AP
The University of Miami "lacked institutional control" and didn't notice multiple violations by a booster who for years gave cash and gifts to athletes, the NCAA said. But the organization says the school's football team can play in the postseason, stopping short of the harshest punishment available.
The Miami Hurricanes football program will be stripped of three scholarships a year for three years, the NCAA said Tuesday. The men's basketball team will also lose one scholarship a year during that probationary time. Describing the NCAA's decision Tuesday, The Miami Herald called it "a gift."
Other penalties include a five-game suspension for the school's former head basketball coach, Frank Haith, who is now at the University of Missouri. Several assistant coaches from the football and basketball teams are also being punished.
The forbidden activities involved members of several divisions of the school, from the football and basketball programs to the athletics department itself. The school's failings "enabled a culture of noncompliance," the NCAA said Tuesday.
"These staff members had a poor understanding of NCAA rules or felt comfortable breaking them," the NCAA said in a news release announcing the penalty. "Furthermore, some of the coaches provided false information during the enforcement staff and university's investigation."
The NCAA's Committee on Infractions held a hearing this past summer with the university, which had imposed its own punishments on the football program, including a two-year ban on postseason play.
"The case involved numerous, serious violations of NCAA rules, many of which were not disputed by the university," the NCAA says. "Overall, it involved 18 general allegations of misconduct with 79 issues within those allegations."
The case included revelations made by Nevin Shapiro, a disgraced financier who is currently serving a prison sentence for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme. Two summers ago, Shapiro told Yahoo Sports that he had entertained or helped school athletes and potential recruits for years.
"At a cost that Shapiro estimates in the millions of dollars, he said his benefits to athletes included but were not limited to cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play (including bounties for injuring opposing players), travel and, on one occasion, an abortion," Yahoo Sports reported.
Shapiro has been called a "rogue" booster. But the committee, which refers to Shapiro not by name, but only as "the booster," says that he also had a public involvement with the school, from donating $500,000 to the athletic program over several years to hosting a fundraiser to benefit the men's basketball program. A student athletes' lounge was also named after Shapiro — a detail mentioned in the report that helps remove any lingering doubt about "the booster's" identity.
It seems that when Shapiro began to fall on hard times, he sought help from school officials — including the return of a $50,000 gift. And the NCAA found that matters seemed to escalate along with Shapiro's legal troubles.
"After the booster was incarcerated in 2010, he began to threaten the former head men's basketball coach and assistant coach and demand money," according to the NCAA report. "The committee determined the former head men's basketball coach and the former assistant men's basketball coach worked together to make sure the booster received $10,000 to end the booster's threats."
WASHINGTON (AP) — In some ways, computers make ideal drivers: They don't drink, do drugs, get distracted, fall asleep, run red lights or tailgate. And their reaction times are quicker.
They do such a good job, in fact, that a new study by the Eno Center for Transportation says self-driving cars and trucks hold the potential to transform driving by eliminating the majority of traffic deaths, significantly reducing congestion and providing billions of dollars in economic benefits.
Former drivers may be able to safely work on laptops, eat meals, read books, watch movies and call friends as they travel. The elderly and disabled may gain critical mobility.
But the study says considerable hurdles to widespread use of self-driving cars remain, the most important of which is likely to be cost.
Contact: Marie Thoms methoms@alaska.edu 907-474-7412 University of Alaska Fairbanks
Is moonlight dangerous? It depends on what you are, according to a study published online recently in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
"Ecologists have long viewed the darkness of a moonless night as a protective blanket for nocturnal prey species," said Laura Prugh, a wildlife biologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
In the dark, creatures of the night can go about their business in relative safety from lurking predators. Moonlight, according to this logic, helps predators find their prey and is risky if you are a prey species trying not to get eaten.
That's not always so, says Prugh, a researcher with the UAF Institute of Arctic Biology, and colleague Christopher Golden of Harvard University.
"The theory that moonlight increases predation risk ignores the fact that prey animals also have eyes, and they often use them to detect predators," said Prugh. If moonlight helps predators to find prey, it could also help prey species to detect approaching predators.
To find out if moonlit nights are dangerous, Prugh and Golden compiled the effects of moonlight reported in existing studies of 58 nocturnal mammal species. If moonlight is dangerous for prey species, they expected predators to be more active on moonlit nights and prey species to be less active.
The researchers found that species ranged widely in their affinity for moonlight, from the moon-loving or lunar-philic lemurs of Madagascar to the lunar-phobic kangaroo rats in the southwestern United States. And, responses to moonlight were related to the sensory systems of species rather than their positions in the food chain.
Prey animals that use vision as their main sensory system, such as primates, were generally more active on bright nights. Prey species that rely mainly on senses like smell or echolocation, such as many rodents and bats, were generally less active. And contrary to expectations, predators such as African lions were less active on moonlit nights.
"Moonlight is indeed risky for some prey species, but only those that use vision as a backup system rather than their first line of defense," said Prugh. "Our synthesis shows that moonlight can benefit visually oriented prey." And as for those lurking predators, the moon may often hurt rather than help their chances of catching prey.
This study is the first to examine moonlight effects across a diverse assemblage of species. Nearly half of all mammals are nocturnal, experiencing lunar cycles that cause light levels to change by three orders of magnitude every month.
"Our results suggest that moonlight alters predator-prey relations in more complex ways than previously thought," said Prugh, who added that she hopes this study will stimulate further research.
"Do lunar cycles affect population growth rates? How do artificial lights affect the hunting success and vulnerability of nocturnal species? These are important questions that we do not currently have answers to," Prugh said.
###
ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Laura Prugh, lprugh@alaska.edu, 907-474-5965, is a wildlife biologist at the Institute of Arctic Biology and Department of Biology and Wildlife at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her research focuses on wildlife community ecology.
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Study: Death by moonlight? Not always
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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Contact: Marie Thoms methoms@alaska.edu 907-474-7412 University of Alaska Fairbanks
Is moonlight dangerous? It depends on what you are, according to a study published online recently in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
"Ecologists have long viewed the darkness of a moonless night as a protective blanket for nocturnal prey species," said Laura Prugh, a wildlife biologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
In the dark, creatures of the night can go about their business in relative safety from lurking predators. Moonlight, according to this logic, helps predators find their prey and is risky if you are a prey species trying not to get eaten.
That's not always so, says Prugh, a researcher with the UAF Institute of Arctic Biology, and colleague Christopher Golden of Harvard University.
"The theory that moonlight increases predation risk ignores the fact that prey animals also have eyes, and they often use them to detect predators," said Prugh. If moonlight helps predators to find prey, it could also help prey species to detect approaching predators.
To find out if moonlit nights are dangerous, Prugh and Golden compiled the effects of moonlight reported in existing studies of 58 nocturnal mammal species. If moonlight is dangerous for prey species, they expected predators to be more active on moonlit nights and prey species to be less active.
The researchers found that species ranged widely in their affinity for moonlight, from the moon-loving or lunar-philic lemurs of Madagascar to the lunar-phobic kangaroo rats in the southwestern United States. And, responses to moonlight were related to the sensory systems of species rather than their positions in the food chain.
Prey animals that use vision as their main sensory system, such as primates, were generally more active on bright nights. Prey species that rely mainly on senses like smell or echolocation, such as many rodents and bats, were generally less active. And contrary to expectations, predators such as African lions were less active on moonlit nights.
"Moonlight is indeed risky for some prey species, but only those that use vision as a backup system rather than their first line of defense," said Prugh. "Our synthesis shows that moonlight can benefit visually oriented prey." And as for those lurking predators, the moon may often hurt rather than help their chances of catching prey.
This study is the first to examine moonlight effects across a diverse assemblage of species. Nearly half of all mammals are nocturnal, experiencing lunar cycles that cause light levels to change by three orders of magnitude every month.
"Our results suggest that moonlight alters predator-prey relations in more complex ways than previously thought," said Prugh, who added that she hopes this study will stimulate further research.
"Do lunar cycles affect population growth rates? How do artificial lights affect the hunting success and vulnerability of nocturnal species? These are important questions that we do not currently have answers to," Prugh said.
###
ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Laura Prugh, lprugh@alaska.edu, 907-474-5965, is a wildlife biologist at the Institute of Arctic Biology and Department of Biology and Wildlife at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her research focuses on wildlife community ecology.
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| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New iPads means new accessories, right? Hot on the heels of announcing the new iPad mini and the ridiculously thin iPad Air, Apple revealed two new cases to go with each. These include a standard cover (similar to what's available now), which is priced at $39. There's also going to be a leather ...![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
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