Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 17

How hot was Burn After Reading? B2 TVlistingsBll Pride andiIMH; MOVIES MUSIC np rr9 EDITOR: KERI SWEETMAN, 780-429-5346; culturethejournal.canwest.com DANCE AR EDMONTON JOURNAL MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2008 in iw 1 5. J7 "tirt mm Wwr JJ lanioiiu. 4 Fox wins raves for meticulous restoration of film classics The King And Carousel presented daunting challenges 0 the FOU With a No. 1 album, the singer is back on top and happy even if he always sounds glum CONCERT PREVIEW Neil Diamond When: Tuesday, 8 p.m. Where: Rexall Place Tickets: $54.74 to $119.74 plus service charges at Ticketmaster 11- A JAMIE PORTMAN Canwest News Service CENTURY CITY, CALIF.

When 20th Century Fox decided to restore one of its biggest hits, T7ie King And for DVD audiences, it faced an immediate problem. The equipment used to shoot both this 1956 film and another classic musical, Carousel, was now obsolete, making the restoration process decidedly difficult. But the people at Fox Home Entertainment were de; termined to give the public a freshly minted set of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, no matter how great the challenge. Still, Schawn Belston, Fox's vice-president and executive director of film preservation, admits it was a daunt ing proposition. "The King And I and Carousel were shot in an odd, 55-millimetre gauge, so to work on these films, we had tq specially build laboratory equipment to deal with handling, transporting, cleaning, to deal with the needs of me films in everyway." The end result was a pair of reissues of pristine beauty" Over the past decade, Fox has meticulously restored and reissued more than a thousand films from its library, bestowing the same type of care on a Charlie Chan mystery and Laurel and Hardy comedy as it does on a heavyweight, such as The King And I or The Grapes of Wrath'.

In the process, it has won ecstatic praise from DVD re-viewers and a warm response from a public that has flocked to buy its product. And more goodies are on the way, including an eagerly awaited reissue of the Oscar-winning 1933 film version of Noel Coward's stage hit, Cavakade which takes a panoramic look at British society in times of peace and war and also Fritz Lang's suspense masterpiece, Man Hunt. See RESTOKfc I B2 1 v. JON BREAM McClatchy Newspapers Neil Diamond talks in a brooding Brooklyn baritone. It's hard to discern whenhe's done making his point, because his tone never wavers, his voice never drops at the end of a sentence, his pauses all sound pregnant.

However, tellDiamondhe's the oldest male artist to headline a major arena tour and suddenly he lights up like the man of a thousand stage gestures who thrills crowds of 15,000 night after night, decade after decade. "Well, I didn't know that," the startled 67-year-old said with a chuckle over the phone from his Los Angeles recording studio. "I do know that I'm the oldest recording artist in the history of Billboard charts to have a No. 1 album." He was not surprised when his Home Before Dark debuted at No. 1 in June, he said, because his new manager, Irving Azoff Van Halen and Guns 'N Roses was determined to make that happen.

(ThinkofDi-amond's appearance on American Idol.) "I was satisfied with this album from the get-go," the veteran said matter of factly. "Everything else was wonderful, but it was beside the point, really." Spend a half hour on the phone with Diamond and he comes across like a solitary man whose glass is half empty, a neurotic New Yorker who's forever in a blue mood, a guy who has sung so many blues songs that his life has become one. So how happy is he right now? "I'm always restless. When one thing is completed, I'm looking forward to the next tMig.Ineedsometliingtooccupymymind, my heart, my emotions and my life," he said. "So I'm forming the next big challenge, and that always makes me feel good." See DIAMOND B2 "ffli Tgj7 i urn JT.

W.r 1 Neil Diamond: Td say I'm about eight or8h" on a 10-point happiness scale. FOX CLASSlW Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner in a scene from The King And I (1956), a film classic recently restored and released on DVD OTTAWA CITIZEN. CANWEST NEWS SERVICE. FILE New TV station caters to Edmonton emerging populations OMNI offers range of cultural programming, including Cantonese news show ELIZABETH WITHEY Journal Culture Writer EDMONTON in other languages, especially Cantonese. OMNI's schedule includes a wide range of cultural programming, from German cooking shows to Bollywood movies.

Viewers can expect programs in Spanish, Polish, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Somali, Portuguese and Punjabi, among others. OMNI will also air well-known English-language shows like The Price is Right, The Simpsons and Cold Case. The station also plans to invest in Alberta-made indie documentaries, both in English and non-official languages. "There is a need for self-expression in these communities," Ziniak says. ewitheythejournal.canwest.com mmmm not yet available on satellite.

The station is based downtown in the same building as Citytv and will use the same newsroom facilities. "There is continued growth in terms of ethnocultural audience, and until now they ve not had a station that caters to their needs," says Al Thorgeirson, regional vice-president of television for Rogers Media, which owns the station. OMNI was licensed in 1979 as Canada's first free multilingual and multicultural television system. It also broadcasts in Ontario and British Columbia. casts for Alberta because "they are quickly emerging communities and really do need the information in their native language." These communities are also the most promising in terms of advertising revenue for the commercial station, Ziniak adds.

OMNI's newscasts will cover the upcoming federal election as well as provincial affairs, giving politicians with the necessary linguistic skills a chance to speak to constituents in their native language. Ziniak says it was challenging to find local talent fluent enough to report Starting today, Edmonton's Chinese community can watch the local news in Mandarin and Cantonese. OMNI, a new ethnic television station that launches in Edmonton and Calgary this morning, also boasts a local South Asian newscast in English and weekly shows in 20 languages. The television provider's mandate is to reflect Alberta's culturally diverse population through inclusive and accessible programming. In Edmonton, OMNI airs on cable channel 11 and over-the-air-channel 56.

It is Madeline Ziniak, OMNTs national vice president, says the station selected Chinese-language and South Asian news mm.m nrx 5w kck to Name. The Back to Beijing contest Address. City. Postal Code. Telephone Day.

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