Tuesday March 25, 2008

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

Touchstone Pictures has acquired “Home Free,” a comedy written by sibling scribes Alexi and Noah Hawley, in a mid-six-figure deal. Storyline is being kept under wraps, but it’s a male-driven comedy described as a middle-aged “Risky Business.” It’s the first big studio spec sale for the brothers. Alexi Hawley scripted the “Exorcist” prequel “Dominion” for Warner Bros. and “Garfield 3″ for Fox, while Noah Hawley most recently has been writing for the Fox series “Bones.”

Moxie Pictures is teaming with Killer Pictures to develop a feature from “The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba and Herbert Matthews of the New York Times.” Written by NYT correspondent Anthony DePalma, the book examines how Matthews’ mythmaking profiles of Castro set the stage for his rise to power. Matthews, one of the top foreign correspondents of his era, was smuggled into the jungles of the Sierra Maestra Mountains to get the first detailed interview with Castro. That and other glowing articles impacted American perception before the fall of the Batista regime and Castro’s takeover of the Cuban government.

The Hallmark Channel has given the go-ahead to “Dear Prudence,” a two-hour backdoor pilot starring Jane Seymour as the host of a TV show who has a sideline: helping people solve mysteries. Les Alexander, co-author of the original script and co-executive producer, said if the movie scores with viewers when Hallmark schedules it in late summer, “Prudence” could go back into production for one or more two-hour movies. Alexander and his partner Jonathan Mitchell, a financier, plan to spend $2.8 million on an 18-day shoot, an unusually expensive TV movie for Hallmark, whose license fee will come to about $1.8 million.

PROJECT UPDATES

Hugh Jackman and “Eli Stone” co-creator Marc Guggenheim are teaming with Virgin Comics to create “Nowhere Man,” an original comicbook series that is designed to be transferred to the bigscreen as a Jackman vehicle. Story was being kept under wraps, but Jackson’s Seed Productions partner John Palermo said it features a protagonist reminiscent of the one Will Smith played in “I Am Legend.” The concept is a futuristic world where mankind has traded privacy for safety, a premise that sprouted with Seed, Virgin CEO Sharad Devarajan and chief creative officer Gotham Chopra. “This is our first comic, and we feel the concept is transferable to other arenas, perhaps first as a videogame, and then a movie,” Palermo said. Guggenheim has also written installments of “Amazing Spider-man” and “Wolverine” for Marvel Comics. Jackman is in Australia, starring for 20th Century Fox in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” the spinoff movie that will hit theaters May 2009. Said Jackman: “I’ve had so much fun in the graphic novel world with the ‘X-Men’ franchise that I wanted to get even more involved. I’m excited to work with Virgin and Marc and create a compelling character and story that hopefully will also make it to the bigscreen.”

ACQUISITIONS/ FESTIVAL NEWS

Helmer Toki Inoue’s 21-minute short “Daichi o tataku onna” (The Woman Who Struck the Earth) won the Yubari Fantastic Film Festival’s Off-Theater Competition as the fest closed on Sunday. The jury, headed by vet helmer Isshin Inudo, picked the winner from 14 competish pics. The fest also unspooled 12 pics in its Special Invitation section, including Korean opener “Cyborg She” and closer “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” as well as “Juno,” “Let There Be Blood,” “The Bucket List” and “Shoot ’Em Up.” Some 8,868 attendees saw 60 pics in the fest’s five days. Last year’s Yubari festival was cancelled after its main sponsor, the city government, went bankrupt. The event is now run by a nonprofit org that recruited supporters around the country to keep the fest going.

BUSINESS NEWS

The Justice Dept. said Monday it has found no reason to block or oppose the proposed merger between the XM and Sirius satellite radio companies. The Federal Communications Commission has yet to rule on the deal, but DOJ’s announcement is a huge victory for Sirius topper Mel Karmazin, who has repeatedly appeared before congressional committees throughout the past year and met with regulators to answer questions and parry critics’ claims that the merger would constitute a monopoly. “After a careful and thorough review of the proposed transaction, the (DOJ antitrust) division concluded that the evidence does not demonstrate that the proposed merger of XM and Sirius is likely to substantially lessen competition, and that the transaction therefore is not likely to harm consumers,” said assistant attorney general Thomas O. Barnett. “We found we should not challenge the transaction.” Barnett said Justice Dept. lawyers rejected arguments made mostly by consumer groups and the National Assn. of Broadcasters that satellite radio was a unique market and that a merger would allow creation of a monopoly that would jack up subscription rates. “There was no evidence to support that proposition,” Barnett said. Indeed, certain factors argued against it, such as “competitive alternative services available to consumers, technological change that is expected to make those alternatives increasingly attractive over time and efficiencies likely to flow from the transaction that could benefit consumers,” Barnett said. Another key point that Barnett said antitrust lawyers examined was the likely effect the merger would have on current competition between XM and Sirius. He said they concluded there would be no effect, since the two satcasters don’t really compete against each other.

Fox Television is refusing to pay a $91,000 broadcast indecency fine that the Federal Communications Commission slapped on the network for a 2003 episode of its “Married by America” reality show. In a statement released Monday — the deadline by which Fox had to respond to the FCC’s official notice of forfeiture — the net said it will instead file a request for the FCC to reconsider the fine. In 2004, the FCC initially fined 169 Fox stations $7,000 each — a total of $1.2 million — for the episode, which included images of contestants licking whipped cream off strippers. Recently, however, the agency reduced the number of stations to 13 and thus the fine to $91,000, saying it would fine stations only in markets from which it had received complaints. Fox has argued that the material was not statutorily indecent but rather was integral to the storyline. Vap, the packaged media subsid of the Nippon Television net, will join with Internet biz Forecast Communications to launch a webcasting video-on-demand limited liability partnership, the partners announced on Monday. V.F. Partners will launch on April 1, with Vap and Forecast each kicking in Y150 million ($1.52 million) in start-up capital.

V.F. will license NTV-financed toons and Vap-owned contents to webcasters. Its first offering will be “Real Drive” (”RD Senno Chosashitsu”), a futuristic suspense toon produced by Production I.G. in collaboration with Shirow Masamune, the author of “Ghost in the Shell” and other hit comics. The toon will preem on NTV on April 8. The following day it will be available on the GyaO and Showtime streaming vid sites and on the GyaO mobile site. In addition, the toon will be offered on the GyaO Next VOD service for TV. Both GyaO and Showtime belong to the Usen media and telco group. “Real Drive” received its production coin from D.N. Partners, a contents fund backed by NTV and NTT DoCoMo.

Barney and Bob the Builder have a new home Stateside. Lionsgate, which once eyed Hit Entertainment as an acquisition target, will begin distributing the U.K.-based company’s properties on homevid in May. Hit, owned by private equity investment group Apax Partners, has a library of 1,500 kidvid titles, including Thomas the Tank Engine, Aardman Animation’s “Wallace & Gromit” series and the Jim Henson Co.’s “Fraggle Rock.” Fox Home Entertainment had most recently distributed Hit Entertainment fare Stateside under a pact brokered in 2006. Lionsgate pact follows the resignation of Hit CEO Bruce Steinberg earlier this month (Daily Variety, March 6). Jeffrey D. Dunn, a former Nickelodeon Networks prexy, took over from Steinberg, a former topper at Fox Kids Europe and general manager at paybox BSkyB. Hit hired Dunn for his U.S. experience; company runs preschool channel Sprout with PBS. Deal further fortifies Lionsgate’s kidvid lineup. The company already distributes Bratz, the Care Bears and Clifford properties. It also distributed Barbie discs for a time, selling more than 27 million discs before Universal took over that property two years ago.

Former Gersh Agency chief operating officer Hugh Dodson has launched Paragon, a sports and entertainment management outfit. Concurrent with its launch, Paragon has acquired sports management firm Steve Feldman & Associates, topped by NFL agent Steve Feldman. Paragon will provide career management for athletes and develop and finance original content. The firm currently represents about 31 NFL players, including New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison and Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Mike Patterson. Gross annual client contracts exceed $50 million.

In a rare Chinese-Indian entertainment pact, India’s Pyramid Saimira Theater Ltd. and the China Society of Music Research Board have set up a joint venture — Jiangsu Pyramid Longzhe Group — to promote the arts in China. “We will create a huge theater chain network, food courts, gaming parlors and other entertainment services,” said Pyramid managing director P.S. Saminathan. “We will also bring international content to China and will showcase and market Chinese content across the world.” As regulation of foreign media remains very strict in China, and the two countries are still tussling over certain border areas, move represents a doubly rare thawing of relations in a sector that China regards as politically sensitive. A memorandum was signed in Beijing, marked by a series of live performances there and in Nanjing.

Georgia’s troubled News Corp.-run Imedi TV inched closer to reopening on Monday, when it emerged that a distant relative of founder Badri Patarkatsishvili, who died last month at age 52, was claiming majority ownership. Joseph Kay, a U.S. citizen whom Russian media reports identified as previously known as Yusif Kakalashvili, may meet staffers at the commercial TV and radio station in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi as early as today to discuss his plans. Imedi has been off the air since Dec. 26, when political pressure in the run-up to a snap presidential election ended broadcasts. Ina Gudavadze, Patarkatsishvili’s widow, has also claimed ownership of the station. Kay’s ownership documents are dated Nov. 14. Gudavadze claims her late husband — who stood as a presidential candidate against incumbent Mikhail Saakashvili in Georgia’s early January elections — could not have signed legal papers that day as he was in their home near London and entertaining friends until late at night. A Monday report in Russian newspaper Kommersant quoting an unidentified source close to exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky — a friend and business partner of Patarkatsishvili — supported Gudavadze’s version. The station has been run by News Corp. under power of attorney since October, when Patarkatsishvili increased his political activities in a failed attempt to oust Saakashvili as president. Tbilisi-based News Corp. exec Lewis Robertson declined to speculate Monday on Kay’s ownership claim or a timetable for the station’s return to the air.

Russia’s top TV broadcaster, state-owned First Channel, will move its news and information programs to a skyscraper in Moscow. The 30-story building on the Russian capital’s Olympisky Prospect, in which the channel is an investor, will house news studios and broadcast suites, morning shows and daily programs, channel general director Konstantin Ernst said. “The approaching digital revolution on Russian TV may lead to massive growth in the number of channels and demand for more content, which our current Moscow production facilities cannot meet,” Ernst told Daily Variety. The channel also plans to build film studios near Moscow’s second airport at Domodedova, southeast of the capital. The new facilities would meet the First Channel’s TV and film production needs for the next 10 years, Ernst said.

The Indian entertainment sector could be worth 1.157 trillion rupees ($28.6 billion) by 2011 if it grows at the expected annual rate of 18%. Forecast is one of many that will be released today by accounting and consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in what has become a regular feature of the entertainment industry’s annual three- day Ficci-Frames convention in Mumbai. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ India report will also show that growth of 17% in 2007 exceeded company forecasts of 15% as players diversified across media and language groups. Authors of the report also point to record foreign investment of $211 million in the Indian entertainment sector and the march of digitalization. “Digitization is the future for most segments, and companies have to adopt this revolution with appropriate infrastructure, relevant business models and technology upgrades along with associated costs,” said Timmy Kandhari, executive director and leader of the Technology, Infocomm and Entertainment & Media practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers in India. “The pace of adoption will determine industry dynamics.” Ad-supported entertainment is the fastest growing sector — 22% in 2007 — and is forecast to experience “a paradigm shift, with digitally interactive media gaining popularity among the consumers. Internet and mobile are the two keys enablers for the digitally interactive media,” according to the report. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that Internet advertising will hit $104 million in 2008 and $272 million in 2012. The Indian film biz is expected to expand from $2.37 billion in 2007 to $4.35 billion by 2012 as movie players discover revenue streams beyond the box office such as TV, mobile, Internet, homevideo, merchandise, music, remake rights and branded entertainment opportunities.

A teen comedy from studio GTH looks set to become the first major hit in Thailand this year after raking in nearly 40 million baht ($1.2 million) in its first weekend. “Pidtermyai huajai wawoon”(Hormones) is directed by Songyos Sukmaganan (”Dorm”) covers four stories about young love in high school and college. Cast includes Charlie Trairat and Focus Jirakul from “Fan Chan,” Sirachat “Michael” Jearthavorn from “Dorm” and Chutima Teepanart from “Seasons Change.” “It’s our strongest-opening film,” says GTH executive Yongyuth Thongkongtoon. “We made $270,000 on the opening Thursday, and the revenue has been stable over the next three days.” It’s considered a strong opening if a Thai pic opens with more than $180,000 on the first day. “Hormones” capitalized on the school summer holidays and fact that there were no big Hollywood films opening that weekend. New releases in Bangkok over the weekend include the U.S. remake of GTH’s Thai horror hit “Shutter” and “In the Valley of Elah.”

STRIKE AFTERMATH

The wave of euphoria that swept over Hollywood following the end of the WGA strike has been replaced by a whole new set of emotions: anxiety, depression, fear, nervousness — and anger. One month after scribes put down their pickets, a March malaise has set in, with folks in town wondering when — or if — things will get back to “normal.” There are significantly fewer TV pilots, budgets for series are being cut back, feature films are being put on hold in fear of a SAG walkout, and the shifts in the TV and film skeds have meant either accelerated workloads or prolonged unemployment. And all this is occurring as everyone is feeling the pinch of an overall economy that’s in or heading into recession. On the TV side, dramatically fewer pilots are in production compared to most years, resulting in reduced employment for helmers and thesps already hit hard by the WGA strike. Many of those pilots that have been picked up are being hastily assembled to be ready for the May upfronts, creating extra stress and pressure for scribes and development execs. Meanwhile, to make up for revenues lost during the strike, networks and studios are holding onto each penny as if it were their last, cutting back on development deals and being stingy with raises. “There’s a real sense that faucets are not fully open,” one scribe on a top network drama said. On the film front, the mood is a bit less glum, with reports of brisk business in the spec and book markets, as well as numerous projects just waiting to be cleared for takeoff. What’s more, the expected flurry of post-strike films are in a holding pattern — in part because fear of a SAG walkout this summer is causing execs to think twice about greenlights. Thunder Road producer Basil Iwanyk said that the overall level of anxiety and stress around town is “very high,” and that anyone who claims otherwise “is lying.” “Everybody is shocked there wasn’t a barrage of scripts,” he said. Iwanyk, who also works in TV, said the small-screen biz is “a complete catastrophe.” As if there weren’t enough bad news, many observers worry that the meltdown of the larger U.S. economy will soon hit Hollywood hard, resulting in even tougher times. Observers cite everything from Time Warner’s downsizing of New Line to CBS supremo Leslie Moonves’ decision to ax the Eye’s annual Tavern on the Green upfront bash as evidence of the sort feeding Hollywood’s current anxiety.

LABOR NEWS

With the town still unnerved as a result of the 100-day writers strike, leaders of SAG and AFTRA are taking the final steps today to hammer out a bargaining proposal for a new feature-primetime contract. Official negotiations with the majors could start as early as Monday — a date the companies requested two weeks ago, only to be told by SAG that it needs to complete its prep work for the talks before it can agree to a start date. The current SAG-AFTRA contract expires June 30, and the approach of that date has triggered a scramble to stockpile features as a hedge against another strike. Starting negotiations swiftly will depend largely on whether the two performers unions can set aside the animosity that’s dominated their relationship in recent months. The unions and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers had no comment Monday. SAG and AFTRA are holding two days of closed-door meetings of their respective wages and working conditions committees today and Wednesday to formulate the package. The unions will hold a joint board meeting Saturday to sign off on the proposal. In the wake of the WGA strike and SAG’s strong support for the writers, many in Hollywood have concluded that SAG may not automatically settle for the terms of the recent deals for the Directors Guild of America and Writers Guild of America. And SAG leaders have indicated they’ll push for better terms than what the DGA and WGA received in their recent deals — particularly in new media, DVD residuals and language guaranteeing that actors will be consulted on use of their image for any endorsements.

INDUSTRY MOVES

World Wrestling Entertainment has tapped Steve Barnett senior veep of production at WWE Films as the division ramps up a slate of pics to produce. Barnett was most recently a senior VP at indie production shingle Titan Film Group, and senior VP of production and development at Dimension Films, where he oversaw such films as Frank Darabont’s “The Mist,” as well as the upcoming remake of horror pic “Piranha.” Before Dimension, Barnett was exec VP of production at Mark Canton’s Atmosphere Entertainment, helping shepherd such projects as “300,” “The Spiderwick Chronicles” and George A. Romero’s “Land of the Dead.” He also exec produced Romero’s latest, “Diary of the Dead.” Barnett also served as senior VP of production at Michael Ovitz’s Artists Production Group.

CBS Corp. has shuffled leaders in its mobile content division. Jeff Sellinger has replaced Cyriac Roeding as exec veep-general manager of CBS Mobile. Division housed within the larger CBS Interactive wing is tasked with slicing and dicing CBS entertainment, sports and news for consumption on cell phones and other wireless platforms. Roeding launched the division in May 2005. Sellinger signed on to the unit as a director in November 2005 and quickly advanced to veep and then senior veep late last year.

Image Entertainment, one of the largest homevid indies, has formed a worldwide television sales division and named Steve Saltman to lead it. As senior VP of worldwide television, Saltman will oversee sales of Image-licensed and Image-distributed content across all TV platforms, including broadcast, cable and satellite, pay-per-view and video-on-demand. Previously, he was senior VP of domestic television.

Steve MacDonald, who has headed FilmL.A. for the past four years, will ankle next month to accept a position with Strategic Development Solutions. FilmL.A. made the announcement Monday and said its board will discuss its exec committee’s recommendations at its meeting Tuesday. MacDonald took over the agency — a nonprofit org that aims to promote local production by simplifying the permitting process — when it was still known as Entertainment Industry Development Corp. His predecessor Cody Cluff was convicted of embezzling the org’s money for personal use and was sentenced to three years of probation in 2004.

Days after Lori Sale exited ICM, Paradigm has named her head of artist marketing, a fledgling division within the agency focused on helping clients branch out into other platforms. Sale, who spent two years at ICM, informed the agency weeks ago that she would seek new opportunities. ICM disputed that version of events. She was hired by Paradigm chairman Sam Gores.

TECHNOLOGY/ MULTI-PLATFORM CONTENT

The Beijing government has released “most wanted” photographs of suspects captured on film during the recent Tibet riots and carried on Chinese versions of Yahoo! and MSN, prompting further criticism of the role international webcos play in tracking down dissidents. The “most wanted” also ran on Chinese portals such as Sina.com and news.qq.com along with a hotline for informants to call. Of the 24 named in the manhunt list, two have already been caught. These sites have not come under the widening restrictions on Internet use in China, which has played havoc with email access, as well as shutting down sites related to last week’s Tibetan riots. Nasdaq-listed Yahoo! owns 40% of Alibaba, which operates Yahoo! China. “It beggars belief that Yahoo! is acting as China’s right-hand man in its brutal crackdown on Tibetan protesters,” said Free Tibet campaign director Matt Whitticase. “Yahoo! knows very well that these protesters will have no access to legal representation and that either execution or long prison sentences and torture awaits any protester arrested in Lhasa. Free Tibet Campaign calls on all Yahoo! subscribers to cancel immediately their accounts.” The company has been criticized before for helping the Chinese government control dissent after it was revealed that it helped the police in its inquiry over the journalist Shi Tao. Material from his Yahoo! email account was used in his trial and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 for “divulging state secrets.”

Toon maker GDH announced on Friday that subsid Gonzo will stream two of its new toon series online to foreign fans the same day they are broadcast in Japan. “The Tower of Druaga — The Aegis of Uruku” and “Blassreiter” will open on April 4 and 5 respectively on the YouTube, Crunchyroll and BOST sites with English subtitles. The sites will use various methods to provide the toons, from free streaming to fee-based downloads. Gonzo is going with simultaneous domestic TV and international Web release to counter illegal downloading and file-sharing, which has become rampant in the foreign anime community. Another aim is to explore new Web-based business models that maximize profits from VOD and other contents exploitation, while cutting distrib costs.

WEBSITES TO WATCH

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1583768

MTV.com debuted a new Flash-based full-episode video player in time for new episodes of The Hills this week, featuring improved streaming quality, color fidelity and resolution. It also offers a full-screen viewing option and automatically adjusts for 16 x 9 ratio video. Better yet, MTV.com also streamlined its design to feature more white space and less clutter.

http://www.justin.tv/

Live webcam “lifecasting” portal Justin.tv celebrated its one-year anniversary over the weekend and looked back on some impressive stats. The free UGC webcaster logged 87 million page views, 24.9 million unique visitors, 28,106 total channels and 356,197 registered users.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/

Warning–be prepared to spend the next few hours goofing off and laughing hysterically. The web joint venture between Comedy Central and Matt Stone & Trey Parker is up and running. South Park Studios offers up thousands of searchable, embeddable clips and contains every episode ever made of South Park, for free. The venture, which will also serve as an incubator for new digital projects, is groundbreaking as far as major media goes, splitting ad revenue 50/50 between the Viacom channel and the show’s creators. That kind of rev share should help motivate Matt and Trey to offend people in all kinds of new ways.

http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Cookin_with_Coolio/Cookin_with_Coolio/1CoolioCapreseSalad_530.aspx
And don’t forget to check out my new favorite cooking show. My Damn Channel has launched cooking with Coolio. Need I say more?

SOURCES

www.variety.com
www.cynopsis.com