Archive | 2010 | March

Hollywood producer Avi Arad working on new film about spinach-gulping sailor

The animated sailor was created in the United States by cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar. Following his rise to fame in the 1930s, he began appearing in animated films and numerous TV shows and became an idolized hero.

In 1980, Robert Altman directed a box office flop in which Robin Williams played the role of Popeye. Arad’s animated film, however, is expected to have a better box office performance

After the huge success of “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland”, the next popular character to succumb to the three-dimensional technology trend will be Popeye the sailor.

Israeli producer Avi Arad, who is responsible for a number of Hollywood box office hits such as “Spider-Man”, “Blade”, “X-Men” and “Iron Man”, is working on a 3D animated movie about the spinach-gulping character.

“During my childhood in Israel I grew up on short films starring Popeye,” Arad says. “When I recently acquired the rights for ‘Popeye’, I simply burst into the famous ‘Popeye the Sailorman’ song.”

Arad’s goal is introduce the enchanting hero, his beloved Olive Oyl and his nemesis Bluto to a generation unfamiliar with Popeye.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Delegation from third-biggest computer company in world visits country, meets senior officials in Industry, Labor, and Trade Ministry and Finance Ministry. If plan come to fruition, center will be built in periphery, employing 100 workers, mostly engineers

Computer powerhouse, Dell, the third largest computer company in the world, is considering building a research and development center in Israel. Yedioth Ahronoth has learned that a delegation from Dell visited the country last week, led by Kim Thompson, a senior VP in the company.

The objective of the visit was to look into the option of receiving a grant from the State of Israel to establish the research center.

The delegation held meetings in the Finance Ministry and in the Industry, Labor, and Trade Ministry during which it expressed interest in the expected government tenders to be issued for the “cloud computing” project with the company’s entry into the server category.

The government cloud computing project is an information storage project at massive information centers accessible via internet. These information centers are intended to replace the servers located at organizations themselves.

While in Israel, Thompson and members of his team met with Israel’s Chief Scientist Dr. Eli Opper, Industry, Labor, and Trade Ministry Director General Sharon Kedmi, and Senior Deputy Accountant General Tal Haramati.

Estimates in the Industry, Labor, and Trade Ministry are that if Dell decides to move ahead with its R&D center in Israel, more than 100 employees will work there, including dozens of engineers.

Various grants and aid tracks offered to foreign companies for establishing research and development centers in Israel were presented to Thompson and his assistants.

Dell is traded on Wall Street and recently published its financial reports for the last quarter of 2009. The reports showed that the company surpassed analysts’ forecasts, earning $334 million in the fourth quarter of last year. The company’s income during this period was $14.9 billion, an 11% increase over the $13.9 billion income made in the last quarter of 2008.

The company was founded by Michael Dell, an American Jew from Texas who currently serves as the company’s CEO. Dell’s sales total more than $57 billion a year.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Israeli Consulate in Boston holds special reception for Sacramento Kings forward. ‘His success in basketball is an example of the State of Israel’s success,’ says Consul General Nadav Tamir

The Israeli Consulate in Boston on Thursday night held a special festive reception for Sacramento Kings forward Omri Casspi, a day before his team faced the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.

American Jews who attended the event received flags and shirts of Israel. Casspi handed out signatures to children and other fans and gave an interview to a local television station.

Casspi hands out signatures during Boston visit (Photo: Nir Landau)

“We are glad to host Omri in Boston,” said Israeli Consul General Nadav Tamir. “He is proud to be Israeli and we Israelis are proud of him. His big success in the field of basketball is an example of the State of Israel’s success in many fields, against all odds, thanks to a lot of creativity and courage.”

The Sacramento Kings were beaten 93-79 on Wednesday night by the New Jersey Nets. Sacramento played its third straight game without guard Tyreke Evans, who leads all rookies with 20.3 points per game.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Jerusalem-based Maslamani Group slated to acquire concession to market French affordable clothing brand in Israel, to compete with Swedish H&M

Yet another European fashion chain is making a foothold in Israel . The Maslamani Group, one of the largest Israeli importers of kitchen wear products owned by the Maslamani family from Jerusalem is slated to sign a concession agreement with the French fashion chain Promod and market the brand in Israel, Yedioth Ahronoth learned.

Promod specializes in affordable clothing for women aged 20-30 and plans on competing with the Swedish H&M brand which caused a stir by opening stores in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem earlier this month.

A previous attempt to bring Promod to Israel was recorded in 2005 when the Hamashbir Lazarchan department store tried to acquire the concession and distribute the French retailer’s clothes in Israel.

The Maslamani Group is a privately-owned company which markets prominent kitchen wear brands from France, both in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It is responsible for the availability in Israel of such brands as Pyrex, Tefal and Mikasa. In the Palestinian market, the group mainly sells electronic equipment.

Promod operates 262 French braches, as well as 787 stores around the world, including in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and the Gulf states.

Source: Ynetnews.com

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