TechBytes: Movie Clips For Sale

Dec. 15, 2009— -- Starting today, Paramount Pictures will sell movie clips similar to the way ring tones are sold. The studio is launching the site ParamountClips.com, which allows users to search hundreds of films frame-by-frame and buy what they want. Available titles include classics such as "Ghost," "Braveheart" and "Top Gun," which can be searched by actor, line of dialogue, location or other criteria. Initially, ParamountClips.com will be limited to businesses but eventually be opened to consumers.

Apple says it's working hard to catch up to demand for one of its new desktop computers. The company says it's "about two weeks behind in shipping its 27-inch iMac computers. They went on sale in October and have been one of Apple's bestsellers. But supply shortages are not the only problem with the computers. There have been reports that the screens have arrived broken or are malfunctioning.

"Avatar" reaches theater this Friday. It is the most expensive movie ever made, estimated to have cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which, of course, means there's a video game tie-in.

CNet's Dan Ackerman said the game falls prey to some of the same problems that video games based on movies and TV shows do. "The game has a disjointed narrative that you really need to have seen and understood the movie in order to get, and it's got a repetitive game play where you're kind of doing the same thing over and over again," Ackerman concluded.

"If you're a real fan of James Cameron or the 'Avatar' movie, obviously, it's something you're going to want to sit down and play. If you're not, it's easy to skip."

The game is available now for all the major gaming consoles.

The red carpet arrivals for tomorrow night's world premiere of "Avatar" will be broadcast online. The stars will answer questions, including some posted by viewers. The premiere can be viewed at ustream.tv/avatar at 9 p.m. ET.