Comic Con: Live Blogging The Resident Evil: Afterlife Panel

Come September, Milla Jovovich will reprise her role as Alice in the fourth film in the Resident Evil franchise. The longest series in the history of videogame adaptation, the stars and crew are here in San Diego to show us some footage and answer some questions. And guess what? I’m here to live blog it! 

4:06 Kicking it off with a trailer we've already seen, only this time it's in 3D. Arriving on stage are director/writer/producer Paul W.S. Anderson, Wentworth Miller, Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich. Despite the fact that this was one of those rare movies to actually be filmed in 3D, the whole video was almost entirely clear without the glasses. No depth=why made 3D? 

4:10 Anderson says he has always been a fan of 3D, but it was Avatar that showed him that the technology was ready. 

4:11 The exact same creative team and cast has worked on all four films in the franchise. 

4:13 Larter says that Milla and Anderson are the heart of the franchise that properly treat the franchise with the perfect amount of passion. 

4:17 The movie was shot in 3D and changed the way that Anderson shot, set up and edited the film. He believes it will be the same type of shift as color and sound. 

4:18 Footage of the fight between Ali, Milla and The Executioner from the Resident Evil 5videogame. I don't know if it is because of the prop or the 3D, but his axe looked like plastic. 




4:24 Milla accidentally shot out one of the cameras on set with a gun. Good use of $100,000. 

4:27 Just as implied at the end of the third film, there will be an army of Alices in this new film. 

4:28 The film was shot all over the world and has the higher budget than any other in the franchise. 

4:31 After diverting from the story of the video games in the third film, this film will be heavily based on Resident Evil 5 

4:32 Sorry, fans: Leon will not be in this film. 

4:34 A fan just got Milla to say "Multipass" like Leeloo from The Fifth Element. Awesome.

4:39 Most of the action scenes in this film were done on green screen, though not all of them. 

4:41 Larter just called The Phantom camera (aka the one Cameron used for Avatar) "the diva of the set" because of its inability to function in hot or cold temperatures. 

4:43 That's all for this one. Check back in a few for the next round of live blogging! 

hi-X Europe in talks over potential bidder

Pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF) Chi-X Europe has received a letter of enquiry from a privately-owned firm that could lead to an offer to purchase.

The firm issued a statement to confirm that it had received an enquiry "from a third party, which may or may not lead to an offer for the whole or partial sale of the company".

Launched by agency broker Instinet in March 2007, Chi-X Europe currently trades around 1,200 of the most liquid securities across 15 major European markets and, unlike a number of rivals, claims to have achieved profitability so far in 2010. The firm traded €482 billion of European stocks in Q2 2010 and reported taking a 27.6% share of trading in FTSE 100 stocks, 21.1% of the CAC 40 and 20.2% of the DAX 30. According to data vendor Thomson Reuters, Chi-X Europe accounted for 17.25% of the European share market by turnover by June 2010, making it one of the leading exchanges in the region. From 3 September, the London-based MTF aims to offer trading in 50 international depository receipts from firms listed in 12 countries.

Chi-X Europe’s board, which includes representatives from a number of the firm’s 16 shareholders, met on Monday, 23 August to discuss the enquiry, which was received over the weekend. Members of staff were informed of the situation in the afternoon. Although Instinet retains the largest single stake in the firm, around 34%, Chi-X Europe’s ownership base has diversified to include many of the venue’s most active trading members, from global investment banks to proprietary trading firms such as Optiver.

The potential bid is believed to have come from a “non-listed firm”, which rules out most large exchange groups. Lower-than-expected trading volumes in Europe since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in Q3 2008 have undermined the business models of a number of Chi-X’s peers, leading to a period of consolidation among trading venues. The London Stock Exchange Group completed the acquisition of Chi-X’s rival MTF Turquoise in Q1 2010, for example, while NYSE Euronext incorporated Euro Millennium, a pan-European dark pool, into its Smartpool MTF in Q4 2009 following the group’s purchase of NYFIX, a US-owned technology and execution services provider.

"Any future offer must be examined and assessed to ensure that it fully values the company and also we must take into consideration the strategic interests of shareholders/stakeholders," said John Woodman, chairman of Chi-X Europe.

"This interest in Chi-X Europe is a result of our track record in becoming a major European exchange over the last three years and our move into profitability in 2010. We were not seeking a transaction and the option of remaining independent would allow us to build further value for shareholders," he added.