Another score for billionaire Oakley founder Jim Jannard and his Lake Forest-based Red Digital Cinema Camera Co.: Mega-director James Cameron (“Avatar,” “Titanic”) has paid $2.9 million for 50 Red Epic-M cameras, according to Jannard’s posting on Red Digital’s website. Cameron presumably plans to use the hi-res, hand-held cameras (cost, $59,000 each) on his “Avatar” sequels. DigitalTrends.com notes that other big-name directors who are using Jannard’s cutting-edge cameras on upcoming films include Peter Jackson for “The Hobbit,” Steven Soderbergh for “Contagion,” Ridley Scott for “Prometheus” and Marc Webb for “The Amazing Spider-Man” …
He’s made 36 movies in 40 years and Imax director Greg MacGillivray isn’t easing up. The chief of Laguna Beach-based MacGillivray Freeman Films, along with wife Barbara and son Shaun, is working on three 3-D Imax films, a television series, a documentary and a Web-based initiative, all part of a $55 million “One World One Ocean” campaign. MacGillivray says he has donated $10 million to the environmental effort …
MacGillivray says he, too, is testing the Red Epic camera and expects to order four of them: “Jim Jannard is one of my heroes, and he really has come up with the best camera available, besides the Imax 1570” …
Chance encounter: OC Supe John Moorlach, who has been skeptical that the state’s proposed sale of the OC Fair & Event Center can pencil out, and businessman Guy Lemmon, who represents the Fait family that wants to buy it, found themselves seated next to each other on a Southwest flight returning from Sacramento. It worked out well for Lemmon. “I feel a little bit better about them taking over and taking care of the fair,” Moorlach says. Still to be heard from on the controversial sale plan is the state Court of Appeal and Gov. Jerry Brown (see Viewpoint, page 47) …
Another chance encounter: While visiting the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, EE RR and Mary Ann bumped into OC lawyer couple Ashleigh Aitken and Michael Penn. EE notes that global hospitality firm Delaware North, which has been unable to pry contracts away from local vendors (the OC Fair’s swap meet in 2004, John Wayne Airport restaurant concessions last January), appears to be quite capable of operating the space center for NASA …
Peter Ueberroth has added to the trophy case this month. He received the John Wooden Global Leadership Award from UCLA’s Anderson B-school. Also, the Ueberroth Family Foundation received the Dove Award at a Balboa Bay Club event that netted $500,000 for Human Options …
Spokesman Bill Blanning has left Broadcom and started an OC-based communications consulting firm, Cape Media …
The fabulous Japanese art collection of Corona del Mar’s Joe and Etsuko Price is on display at Bowers Museum. An Ito Jakuchu exhibit runs through June 12, followed by the works of other masters from June 18 through July 17.
