Reports now say that Sony will be shipping 2 million PS3 units to the United States and Japan by the end of 2006–down from the company’s promised 4 million units. That means 400,000 PS3’s in the U.S. at launch.

How bad is it? Sony has decided not to launch in Europe until 2007–after the Christmas season.

It’s shocking!

The game industry is not amused–particularly not by the most recent demonstration of Sony’s willingness to publicly maintain positions which are clearly untenable until the the last possible moment:

We simply felt that for the giant corporation to slip the European launch – after standing on stage and telling the whole world that it was committed to November 17th – would be so embarrassing for the firm as to be inconceivable. The very fact that the firm’s own track record contains a similar embarrassment in the form of the PSP launch – which eventually slipped a massive nine months in Europe – seemed to stand as a stark reminder that Sony had learned a hard lesson and would pull out all the stops to prevent a recurrence.

Hercules has Season 3 spoilers, but the really good news is that BSG episode 3.10 is written by . . .

Galley Hero Jane Espenson. Total hotness.

Over at AICN, Quint has an open letter to Fox about Mike Judge’s Idiocracy. This movie has been sitting in the can for a long, long time and now Fox has released it on 130 screens in 7 cities with no–and I mean zero–ad support. Go to the various Fox studio websites and the movie isn’t even mentioned as being in production, let alone coming soon, let alone in theaters. In fact, so far as I can tell, Fox may not even have released a trailer for it.

Again, this is Mike Judge we’re talking about. Maybe the movie stinks; I don’t know. But shouldn’t having made the funniest movie of the decade count for something? Actors work for decades on smaller accomplishments.

And Jenny is there.

Overheard from Galley Friend M.G.: “Not that I’m even remotely surprised she’s shaved, but it is a little bigger than I expected. It looks like that thing could hold an elephant tusk.”

Obviously, this isn’t funny, particularly not for Chargers’ lineback Steve Foley:

About 3:30 a.m., the off-duty officer started following a suspected drunk driver in the area of northbound Highway 163 and Highway 52, Brugos said. The vehicle was described as weaving and its speed ranged from 30 to 90 mph and nearly hit several vehicles, he said.

After stopping at a red light, the off-duty officer pulled beside Foley, identified himself as a police officer, and ordered him to pull over, but Foley drove away, Brugos said. Foley stopped again, and got out of his car, approaching the officer, according to police. The officer again identified himself, pulled out a gun, and ordered the suspect several times to stop, Brugos said.

“However he continued to walk toward the officer, making the statement, ‘That’s a bb gun’,” Brugos said.

Foley then got back into his car and the off-duty officer followed him to a cul-de-sac in Poway, where Foley lives.

Foley got out of the car and started walking toward the officer, while his female passenger drove the car alongside him, Brugos said. The officer identified himself again and then fired a warning shot into the bushes, Brugos said. Brugos said the female then revved the engine and drove directly at the officer, by then out of his car; the officer fired two shots at Foley’s vehicle. The officer was not hit by the car.

Foley reached into his pants with his right hand as he approached the officer and the officer fired at the suspect. Foley acknowledged he’d been shot, Brugos said, but continued to move toward the officer, who fired again. Foley then fell to the ground.

But it is weird.

Galley Friend B.W. sends the link to this WSJ story on declining DVD revenue for Hollywood. It’s a great story, but check out this hidden gem:

Recently, for example, the major studios opened negotiations to provide movies to be played on Apple Computer Inc.’s video iPod — an important step toward Hollywood’s digital future. Then Wal-Mart, the biggest seller of DVDs, disrupted the talks when it delivered a pointed warning to the studios not to give Apple a better deal for digital movies than the retailer gets for physical copies.

“Our conversations with the studios are about what Wal-Mart has always been about — giving our customers the best value and selection,” said a Wal-Mart spokeswoman in an email response.

Wal-Mart = slightly evil

But also of note is the Katzenberg’s somewhat iffy pronouncement on the future of Hi-Def DVDs:

“DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg says while the new format will be a high-margin business, ‘it’s not clear whether it will grow into a mass-market platform.'”

That’s not a ringing endorsement of the medium. Could it be that Sony loses big even if Blu-Ray wins the war?

This past Labor Day weekend, my wife and I were in Boston visiting friends. We were staying at a hotel and, before we went out, I happened to flip on the TV and catch bits of Superman II. I enjoyed the original (except for the last ten minutes, when Superman decides to fix things by reversing the earth’s rotation, thus allowing for reversal of time). But just a few thoughts/questions on the sequel:

1. Did you know the story and screenplay are attributed to Mario Puzo?

2. Or that General Zod is played by Terence Stamp?

3. Superman’s mother warns her son that once he chooses to become a human being, there is no turning back. So how was he able to turn back?

4. Did the Fortress of Solitude really come equipped with those silver satin sheets for superconsummation?

I got this summary for the movie Driving Lessons from the PR company handling it’s local release:

We first meet Ben (RUPERT GINT), a shy, bookish 17-year old, as he begins a very unpromising summer vacation. While the other kids are out having fun, Ben spends these precious few weeks attending Bible classes, having driving lessons with his overbearing and overly religious mother (Laura Linney) and helping out at a local old people’s home. It’s certainly not his ideal summer but, with a demanding, vigilant mother and a passive vicar for a father, Ben is anything but in control of his own destiny. Ben’s absurdly straitlaced world is turned upside down when he gets a job assisting Evie (Julie Walters), an eccentric retired actress. . . . What follows is a journey in which Ben and Evie help each other move forward in their radically different lives, as Ben is forced to confront how he was brought up and who he wants to be.

How some people in Hollywood find the courage to stand up to the Christianists again and again is one of the great and beautiful mysteries of our culture. All across the globe, Christians are perpetrating terrible crimes right now: blowing up buildings, bombing hotels and markets, kidnapping and decapitating prisoners, stoning homosexuals and sexually active girls, forcing heathens to convert at the barrel of a gun. The fortitude it requires of our artists to take these people on . . . well, what more can you say?

Only this: You may understand the personal bravery it takes to make a movie which exposes the oafish hypocrisy of Christian zealots, but what you may not fully appreciate is the professional courage involved. Writer/director Jeremy Brock is risking his career to tell an unconventional story like this. The religious nutcases who run the entertainment industry squash nearly every attempt to portray believers as anything but saints.

Mr. Brock might never be able to work again. Hero just isn’t a big enough word.