Pink Floyd album to become opera

The Montreal Opera will turn Pink Floyd's hit 1979 album The Wall into an opera, which will debut next year to mark the city's 375th anniversary.

At a news conference, Pink Floyd member Roger Waters said he dismissed the idea when first approached, but changed his mind when he heard the music of the opera. "I sat there not expecting to be moved, and I was moved. Very moved."

China-owned AMC to buy US Carmike Cinemas

AMC Entertainment Holdings, controlled by China's richest man, has agreed to buy its American rival Carmike Cinemas in a US$1.1 billion (S$1.52 billion) all-cash deal that would create the world's largest cinema chain. AMC is majority owned by billionaire Wang Jianlin's Dalian Wanda Group. The agreement combines the second- and fourth-biggest United States movie theatre chains and vaults the resulting entity past Regal Entertainment Group.

Abrams producing space documentary series

Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams has turned his attention to a real space drama, with a series of Web-based documentaries about a Google-backed race to the moon.

Produced by Abrams and directed by documentary film-maker Orlando von Einsiedel, the series chronicles some of the 16 teams vying for US$30 million in prizes for landing and operating a privately developed robotic spacecraft on the moon before Dec 31, 2017.

Abrams' nine-part series, called Moon Shot, offers an overview of the Google Lunar X Prize contest and follows individual members from several of the teams, said a spokesman. Each film is seven minutes long. The series debuts on March 15 on Google Play and on March 17 on YouTube.

Singer Katy Perry, wearing the colours of the American flag, with United States presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton (left) at a star-studded fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Wednesday. The glitzy line-up for the Hillary Victory Fund "I'm With Her" benefit concert also included singers Elton John and Andra Day. PHOTO: REUTERS