NEWS CLUES: Like A Post-BBQ Beatdown Of The Truth

Shyamalan To Shoot Next Flick At Soon-To-Be-Built Phillywood Studio

large_phillywood.jpgGROUNDBREAKING on an $85 million Hollywood-style movie-production studio in Delaware County won’t begin for at least a couple months, but one director already wants to shoot his next film there: M. Night Shyamalan. The studio’s developers – Philadelphia real-estate attorney Jeffrey Rotwitt and Santa Monica, Calif.-based Pacifica Ventures – say they could be only days away from securing crucial tax breaks. Their Sun Center Studios would be built in Chester Township on the 33-acre site of the Tri-State Sports complex. They also are in advanced negotiations with Paramount Pictures – which would use the studio to shoot “The Last Airbender,” a $100 million live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s wildly popular animated TV series – and Shyamalan, who would write, direct and produce the film. Plans are to build the movie props while studio construction is under way, so Shyamalan’s crew can start shooting as soon as the soundstages open early next year, according to Chester Township Councilman Bob May.”They’re building this whole project right around Shyamalan’s movie,” May said. [via DAILY NEWS]

10,000 Men Movement Is 8,800 Short Of Living Up To Its Name

tenthousandphillymen.jpgNine months after the 10,000 Men movement was launched with great fanfare, the organization that vowed to mount a massive campaign to retake Philadelphia’s crime-ridden streets has fielded only four patrol units totaling about 200 men. Some of the thousands who attended the organization’s initial rally Oct. 21 said the project had failed to capitalize on the outpouring of enthusiasm for organizing African American men into crime-fighting patrols. They say the movement has lost momentum. “There was an image after the event that there was going to be this massive amount of people out on the streets, and that didn’t happen,” said Bilal Qayyum, a community activist who helped organize the 10,000 Men project. “Clearly there should have been way more men out in the streets by now.” [via INQUIRER]

ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT: Family Inflicts Brutal Beatdown For Cook Out Killing

beating.gifThomas and Diane Barrow lived together on Atlantic Avenue, near Long Lane, and were hosting a barbecue Saturday evening when they got into a fight that stemmed from Thomas’ possessive nature, according to family. When the fight became physical, Linda Barrow tried to intervene but Thomas allegedly assaulted her as well. Linda Barrow went to get help and when she returned, Thomas was gone and her sister was “bleeding profusely” from her upper torso, police said. Linda Barrow told police that the last words her sister uttered before collapsing were: “The bastard stabbed me.” Diane Barrow was pronounced dead at the scene shortly before midnight on Saturday. Throughout the early-morning hours, family and friends milled around outside as cops processed the crime scene, Chitwood said. About 4 a.m., Officer Amanda Pombo, who was guarding the scene, saw the victim’s family and friends in a private conversation before jumping into cars and driving away, Chitwood said. Unbeknownst to those family and friends, Pombo followed them in a marked police cruiser to a used car lot on Marshall and Rocklyn roads. A man who had been waiting in the lot, later identified as Thomas, emerged and that’s when six to 10 of Barrow’s family and friends began attacking him, police said. Chitwood believes that Thomas had asked somebody to help him make a getaway, but that person most likely phoned in Thomas’ whereabouts to Barrow’s family instead. MORE

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