BERLIN (AP) – A newly reconstructed version of the 1925 Soviet silent classic “Battleship Potemkin,” featuring shots cut from the original, will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

The film now includes the original’s Russian graphics and the opening words of revolutionary Leon Trotsky, which were cut in “one of the most spectacular cases of censorship in the 1920s,” a festival statement said Wednesday. No complete print of the original film survived, it said.

Trotsky and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who took control of the Communist Party in the 1920s, were rivals.

“Battleship Potemkin,” directed by Sergei Eisenstein, dramatizes the mutiny on the Russian ship and its role in inspiring a failed 1905 uprising against the country’s czars.

It is perhaps best known for the “Odessa steps” sequence, in which a child in a stroller rolls down a staircase as fighting rages around it.

Germany’s federal film archive and the British Film Institute supported the reconstruction, which was supervised by Enno Patalas, festival organizers said.

The movie – with live musical accompaniment from the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg – will be shown Feb. 12 and Feb. 13. The festival runs Feb. 10-20.

Tak earns prestigious award

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) – Noted movie camera engineer Takuo Miyagishima will receive a Gordon E. Sawyer honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Miyagishima, a longtime employee of the Panavision camera company specializing in lens design, is the 18th recipient of the Sawyer award, which is presented to an individual “whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry.”

“Tak has been and continues to be a leading design engineer,” said Richard Edlund, chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, in a statement Tuesday. “His work with Panavision, in particular the technologies he has created, revolutionized the industry.”

He will receive his Oscar at the academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards Dinner on Feb. 12, with portions of the ceremony to be included during the live 77th Academy Awards telecast on Feb. 27.

Justice center named for Lane

RENO, Nev. (AP) – Former judge, boxing referee and TV personality Mills Lane was honored near the site of a justice center that will be named for him.

“One thing we all know is, we love Mills Lane,” Rep. Jim Gibbons said Tuesday. “We remember those good days.”

Lane, 67, who suffered a stroke nearly three years ago, took part in the ceremonies, but did not speak. His son, Terry, said it was just his father’s second public appearance since the stroke.

The ceremony took place in the existing court building next to the site of the future Mills B. Lane Justice Center that will house Reno’s municipal courts and district attorney offices. Lane formerly served as Washoe County district attorney and district court judge.

He officiated 102 championship fights, including the 1997 heavyweight match in which Mike Tyson bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear. Lane also was a TV judge from 1998-2001 on a reality show that bore his name.

Jennings has chance to win more

LOS ANGELES (AP) – If winning more than $2.5 million wasn’t enough, “Jeopardy!” whiz Ken Jennings will have a shot at winning an additional $2 million – but the competition will be tougher this time around.

A “Super Tournament” will pit Jennings in a final match against two survivors of a competition among nearly 150 past five-time winners, producers of the game show announced Tuesday.

Host Alex Trebek called the tournament the “quest for Ken.”

“Ever since Ken started his amazing run, people have been speculating on how some of the past “Jeopardy!’ players would do against him,” Trebek said in a statement. “We’re answering that question.”

Jennings, too, was anxious about the challenge.

“I can’t wait to see who I’ll be up against in the finals,” he said.

Jennings earned $2,520,700 after a 74-game winning streak. He was beaten by California real estate agent Nancy Zerg.

The matches will begin airing in February or March, and the finals will air in May, said “Jeopardy!” publicist Jeff Ritter.

The third-place winner will receive $250,000 and the second-place winner, $500,000.

‘Fateless’ will debut at festival

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) – “Fateless,” the film adaptation of 2002 Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz’s novel of a young boy’s experience of the Holocaust, will premiere at the Budapest Film Festival in early February.

“Fateless” will be shown out of competition and likely as the festival’s finale feature, Krisztina Hermann, executive secretary of the Hungarian Association of Film Artists, said Tuesday.

The 36th edition of the festival will be held Feb. 1-8.

“Fateless” will begin playing in Hungarian movie theaters shortly after the festival, as well as in Italy, where distribution rights already have been secured, said publicist Zsolt Greczy.

The film was directed by Lajos Koltai, who was the cinematographer for Istvan Szabo’s “Mephisto,” winner of the 1982 Oscar for best foreign language film.

Kertesz’s book tells the story of a boy who is deported from his native Budapest to Auschwitz, Poland, and other Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Kertesz himself was deported as a 14-year-old to Auschwitz.

The script was written by Kertesz.

“Fateless,” shot in Hungarian, had a budget of some $15 million, a very high figure for a Hungarian film.

Bobbitt acquitted of charges

LAS VEGAS (AP) – John Wayne Bobbitt has been acquitted of charges that he battered family members after the discovery of a sex toy in his bedroom.

In finding Bobbitt innocent of domestic violence, a Las Vegas judge ruled Monday that Bobbitt’s 14-year-old stepson was to blame for the August fight.

Bobbitt gained fame in 1993 when his first wife, Lorena, sexually mutilated him.

Monday’s trial focused on a scuffle involving Bobbitt’s stepson and the boy’s mother, Joanna Ferrell, who is Bobbitt’s wife of three years. Bobbitt, 37, had faced four misdemeanor battery counts.

Witnesses testified the teen became enraged after finding the sex toy. He began throwing things around the living room until Bobbitt confronted him.

When the boy shoved him, Bobbitt pushed him to the ground and restrained him, witnesses for both the prosecution and defense testified. Accounts varied whether Bobbitt ever punched the boy.

After the acquittal, Municipal Court Judge Pro-Tem Gary Lang reprimanded Bobbitt for failing to attend court-ordered anger management classes after a 2003 domestic violence conviction, and said Bobbitt would suffer serious repercussions if he failed to show up for his remaining 23 weeks of classes.

Ferrell filed for divorce the day after the August incident, but she and Bobbitt reconciled. Her son now lives with his father in New Mexico.

Outside the courtroom, Bobbitt said he was thrilled with his acquittal.

“I’ve never been so happy with the judicial system,” Bobbitt said.

‘Sesame Street’ goes into the body

NEW YORK (AP) – “Sesame Street” characters have gone around the globe and into space, and soon they’ll be exploring the human body.

Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization, is creating a series of museum learning experiences and “Sesame Street Presents: The Body” is first up. It will premiere at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix in May and run through November. It will then travel to cities around the country through 2010.

“An interactive exploration of the human body is the perfect topic for our youngest visitors, and that, in combination with Sesame Workshop’s expert educational content and their large cast of lovable characters, creates a quality experience that we’re proud to offer to our community,” said Chevy Humphrey, executive vice president of the center.

The exhibit will emphasize scientific investigation and developmental- and curriculum-based learning goals for children ages 2 to 8.

Brewer to take over performance

NEW YORK (AP) – American soprano Christine Brewer will sing in a New Year’s Eve performance of Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9” with the New York Philharmonic, led by music director emeritus Kurt Masur.

Brewer will replace Adrianne Pieczonka, who has withdrawn to allow for doctor-prescribed vocal rest to recover from a previous illness, the orchestra announced Tuesday. The other soloists remain unchanged.

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