Couple links: XLNT Ads, Starbucks, The Film Department, Jaman on AppleTV

I'm down in Mountain View at Under the Radar today -- lots of interesting company presentations. Coolest so far: XLNT Ads, an agency for user-generated advertising.

Some links worth looking at today:

- 'Starbucks Sticks With Film-Promotion Plan', from WSJ.com. From the piece:

The Seattle coffee chain plans to announce today that it has picked "Arctic Tale," from Paramount Classics and National Geographic Films, as its second movie venture. The film is about a walrus pup and a polar bear who grow up and find their frozen environment melting underneath them.

Starbucks's much-anticipated entry into the film business last year ended up a disappointment for the company. The chain marketed the uplifting spelling bee tale "Akeelah and the Bee" in its stores by printing hard-to-spell words on cup sleeves and asking baristas to tell customers about the film. Executives have conceded that the movie's ticket sales came in lower than they had hoped for.

- From Anne Thompson/Variety: 'Gill and Sacker Launch New Film Department.' The opening paragraph:

As the movie business slowly moves away from the outmoded inflated big-studio model, momentum is starting to shift to the stand-alone indies that are in a position to deliver to the studios high-quality mid-range commercial pictures for a price. Of course that's easier said than done. And many folks are having the same idea at the same time. So will ex-Miramax and Warner Indie Pictures exec Mark Gill and partner Neil Sacker, ex of the Bob Yari Group as well as Miramax, be able to pull off their new financing and production co. The Film Department, which they've raised $200 million to launch?

They plan to make about six films a year, at $10 to $35 million a piece.

- Jaman has figured out how to get its indie movies onto AppleTV, reports Om Malik.