Huggers to head BBC technology

Erik Huggers has been appointed director of future media and technology at the BBC, replacing Ashley Highfield. Mr Huggers joined the BBC in May last year as group controller of future media and technology, launching the new version of the iPlayer, the on-demand internet service. Mr Huggers will be responsible for the BBC’s output on the internet, interactive TV, mobile, and other emerging platforms.

Before joining the BBC, Mr Huggers was at Microsoft, where he launched the MSN portal in the Benelux countries and was responsible for Windows Media in Europe. One of Mr Huggers’ tasks will be to resolve the row between the BBC and internet service providers, many of which feel the BBC should pay compensation for the extra demands the iPlayer demands makes on their networks.

Chinese Artist Swipes at Kung Fu Panda

Nobody pokes fun at a panda in this town and gets away with it.

A Chinese artist known for invoking his country’s bamboo-gnawing national symbol in nearly everything that he does has filed a complaint against DreamWorks over its treatment of Po, the initially inept bear voiced by Jack Black in Kung Fu Panda.

Zhao Bandi, who last month rallied for a boycott of the film, is demanding an apology from the studio for certain attributes it assigned to the title panda, including his green eyes and the fact that he has a duck for a father.

Beijing’s Chaoyang District People’s Court has formally accepted his suit, he says.

But Bandi is not asking for any money—just the apology.

“Designing the panda with green eyes is a conspiracy,” the fortysomething artist and fashion designer wrote on his blog.

Demme drama, Harris western join Toronto film fest

A new Jonathan Demme film, an Ed Harris western and a dramatic French cinema hit are among the latest batch of titles set to screen at the Toronto film festival this September.

U.S. filmmaker Demme’s family drama Rachel Getting Married, starring Anne Hathaway, joins the glitzy gala lineup, along with British-U.S. co-production The Other Man, helmed by Notes on a Scandal director Richard Eyre.

The latter, an adaptation of a Bernhard Schlink short story, stars Liam Neeson as a man who discovers that his wife (Laura Linney) has had a secret relationship with another man (Antonio Banderas).