Butterboom goes back to the future.

This is it! The last day of 2007.

This is our last look at the last few months of postings at Butterboom.com, that we thought were milestones in 2007.

Have a read and if you want to see more, just use the “Melted Butter” pull down menu on the right column to read posts categorized week-by-week.

See you with new Butter in 2008!

Batman tears up the city, and causes chaos like The Joker.

Originally Published on Butterboom.com: NOVEMBER 12, 2007

We attended last Friday morning’s The Dark Knight press conference at The Grand Hyatt, attended by Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, director Christopher Nolan and producers Charles Roven and Kevin de la Noy. You didn’t miss much! It was basically a “Thank You” to Hong Kong for supporting them during their 5-day shoot. But notable quotes from their open Q&A:

- Morgan Freeman is staying on a high-floor at the Four Seasons facing the harbour.

- Chris Nolan was in Hong Kong earlier this year writing the screenplay for this Batman sequel, and had been here at the beginning of his career at the film festival.

- Nolan also debunked the rumour that the reason they cut a scene of Batman jumping into the harbvour because of its pollution was wrong, they changed the script and not because of the pollution, and that Nolan has no problem with throwing his star into the harbour, polluted or not!

- Bale let it be known, that he was in fact going to jump off the IFC that afternoon.

No questions about the film story, and why Batman is in Hong Kong, were allowed to be asked. But it does seem certain that Hong Kong is Hong Kong in the movie and not a stand-in for Chinatown in Gotham City, or some other story device, as the filmmakers made sure to point out that this was the FIRST time Batman would appear out of Gotham City in a movie. Mostly in part to show the expansive world that the movie Batman lives in (as he does in the comic books.)

But, hey, why take our word for it - watch the whole video here.

Ok the rest of the hoopla has happened over the weekend and The Standard reported more on what happend in Centeral on Friday:

Tempers were frayed when the shooting of the latest Batman movie was interrupted by crowds of fans trying to get a closer glimpse of the caped crusader as police and other security personnel battled with the lunch-hour traffic around Hong Kong’s oldest wet market.

And of course in this age of digital camera’s with built in YouTube encoding, here are a selection of videos shot by passerby’s in Central during the filming as well as video captures of the news reports from TVB and ATV, view all of them after the jump.

The Dark Knight opens worldwide on July 18, 2008.

CONTINUE

Goods of Desire T-Shirts get the smackdown from the cops.

Originally Published on Butterboom.com: NOVEMBER 2, 2007

Yay! Our first super-sensational headline! G.O.D. the furniture and clothing retailer that makes Ikea look like, well, Ikea - has just been busted for selling Triad-themed T-shirts. This is the most awesome fashion news we’ve heard in a long time:

A bid to turn a Hong Kong-made and designed T-shirt into a fashion icon for local youths has run foul of the law with the arrest of 18 people from a local chain store yesterday.Police said the design on the T-shirts marketed by Goods of Desire - or G.O.D. as the store is popularly known - was linked to a triad society and that those who purchased them could also be arrested.

Possessing triad products is a violation of the law and people wearing a shirt with such logos will be arrested, Organized Crime Triad Bureau Acting Superintendent Cheng Fuk-chuen warned.

Police confiscated 88 T-shirts and more than 500 postcards printed with a “14K” logo, “? x K”- with the numbers written in Chinese characters - from the store’s five offices and warehouse located in Central, Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Yuen Long. They arrested nine men and nine women, including salespersons and designers, aged between 21 and 51.

Of course now we all want one. Doesn’t get much more hip than wearing designer triad labels. Well, this will keep everyone talking for months to come. If you are looking for us this weekend, we’ll be in Mong Kok looking for the knock-offs. Watch out hip-hop, we got our own playahs now.

Believe the hype of Kowloon’s newest mall sensation.

Originally Published on Butterboom.com: OCTOBER 15, 2007

We visited Elements this weekend and we’ll say its pretty impressive and will definitely give The Landmark, IFC Mall AND Pacific Place a run for its money!

Elements, a new 1 million-square-foot shopping mall, has opened in Kowloon West here as part of a $10 billion redevelopment of the area by the Mass Transit Railway Corp. An office tower, two new hotels (a W Hotel and a Ritz-Carlton) and extensive transportation services are also part of the venture.

All your luxury brands are there, dozens of interesting restaurants and a hot cupcake shop called Petits by Deschamps which you should look out for and get to early because the cupcakes at HK$21 a pop go fast. Metro, a mega bookstore from the Philippines has its first Hong Kong branch there and its awesome. While you will find HMV, Fortress and Broadway you will not find Bossini or Giordano anywhere and that is good. Three Sixty is the supermarket. But the ice rink kind of slaps the “family” feel back in, and leaves us cold. But the kids skating here are definitely wearing Dior and not Nike.

Fancy double-decker Tiffany and Co., big spacious Zara, Prada and Pringle of Scotland coming soon. Even though we went on a Sunday and it was packed with local tourists checking out the site and not really shopping, it still was a breeze to get around and it seems not all of the Hong Kong Island shoppers either know about it or are bothering to “trek” over one more MTR station. But we like what we see and think that its close enough to Central that people will spill over there eventually, especially after the official launch happening on Oct. 18th.

And it must be cool if it has its own Wikipedia page already!!!

Finally, free newspapers in English!

Originally Published on Butterboom.com: SEPTEMBER 5, 2007

In the boldest news of the year, former paid-English language newspaper The Standard will switch to FREE distribution in Hong Kong:

Media conglomerate Sing Tao News Corp (1105) announced yesterday its English-language newspaper, The Standard, will switch to free circulation next Monday - a move industry observers expect to change the landscape of the Hong Kong media market.”There is a worldwide trend towards free tabloid newspapers that deliver news in an easy-to-read, lively and no-nonsense style,” Sing Tao News Corp chairman Charles Ho Tsu-kwok told a press conference. “The time has arrived for Hong Kong’s first free- circulation English newspaper.”

Initially, 120,000 copies will be distributed daily at more than 80 high- traffic points in the main business districts, including Central, Western, Admiralty, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Quarry Bay, and Tsim Sha Tsui.

If no new players enter the free- paper market, The Standard can break even in 12 or 18 months, said Sing Tao chief executive Lo Wing-hung.

Following the experience of Headline Daily, The Standard will double its circulation if a new competitor joins the fray, Lo said. “No matter what, we will be ahead of our competitors by at least two times their circulation,” he said. “This is how Headline Daily secured a substantial market share.”

We think this is huge news for Hong Kong as we have many free Chinese newspapers available in MTR stations, this is the first English language one with what will be the largest circulation newspaper in Hong Kong. So look out for it on Monday and let us know what you think!

Hiro, Niki, Matt and Suresh expose their secret identities.

Originally Published on Butterboom.com: AUGUST 30, 2007

It’s not often that the #1 TV series in the U.S. sends its cast all the way to Hong Kong to promote its show. But the producers of HEROES have done just that and we were lucky to meet Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, Masi Oka and Sendhil Ramamurthy at the Mandarin Oriental in Central yesterday on the Hong Kong stop of their Asia-wide promotional tour.

Heroes debuted earlier this year in Hong Kong on Star World and will roll out season 2 in January 2008 (call them here to subscribe) and has proven popular in Hong Kong as it has most of the rest of the world in its first season - no small feat for a new hour-long drama about different kinds of people who discover they have superpowers.

The 4 actors seemed to have fun working together and spoke about their support for Masi Oka’s Emmy nomination, how they loved working on the show and how they would like to come back to Hong Kong and have the city play a part in the show. They were very cheeky about answering any questions about if their characters are actually still alive at the beginning of Season 2 - and no we didn’t get a chance to ask Grunberg anything about the Cloverfield movie, so don’t ask.

If you want to see what all the hoopla is about, good timing, because the 8-disc DVD set of Heroes Season 1 is out in stores now (HK$499 with free shipping at HMV). We can sum it up in one way - its like the first X-Men movie but without the costumes and codenames, but with more conspiracies and all the characters seem like they could be your neighbors.

Are you a real Heroes fan? if so, email us the name of the actor who plays Masi Oka’s character’s father on the series and we’ll send you the Pressbook we got from Star which has comics and nice photos of the cast. First correct answer wins! UPDATE: Thanks to all who entered. Kevin from Admiralty was the first one with the correct answer: George Takei.

Below see the trailer for Season 2 (don’t watch it if you haven’t seen the end of season 1 yet) and more photos from the event:

More photos on the next page…

CONTINUE

The US$2.4 billion resort finally swings opens its doors.

Originally Published on Butterboom.com: AUGUST 28, 2007

It’s been years in the making, but The Venetian Macao (Yes, they spell it with an “o” not a “u”) opens today on schedule as the 27th casino in Macau. We posted about an early bird special earlier this month, but all 3,000 rooms are booked up for the rest of the month. But can they keep that momentum? We’ll bet that we’ll be privvy to more “Special Deals” in the months to come, but it will definitely be a weekend hotspot for Hong Kongers for the next few months with not only 850 gaming tables and over 4,000 slot machines but entertainment and fancy restaurants as well.

Also in Venetian news, the big tennis match between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras in November has been sold out in about 2 weeks time. Good job bringing in international sports superstars to get more Hong Kong people, and no doubt people from around the region, to come and have a look and spread the word of mouth about the new resort destination.

The real thing, unlocked and ready to go.

Originally Published on Butterboom.com: AUGUST 21, 2007

That did take a lot longer than we thought. But you can get yourself an unlocked iPhone at G-World Mobile (call them at 2396-6900. You too, Steve) and you’re looking at about HK$9000 for the iPhone and the unlocking package. As you can see here at PhoneDaily, the Apple iPhone is running on a CSL SIM card.

We’ve had a chance to play with it and its exactly as advertised. Very easy to use, quick response and just oodles of fun. You can wait till next year when it will be officially released in Hong Kong or you can go for the Prada phone or the HTC one that is available everywhere now.