Thursday April 10, 2008

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

• An eclectic group of thesps and helmers are fanning out across Gotham’s five boroughs to shoot “New York, I Love You.” Orlando Bloom, Olivia Thirlby, Hayden Christensen and Ethan Hawke are among those who have boarded the omnibus pic, a mixture of contemplative romance and unabashed civic boosterism. The anthology of shorts follows the format of “Paris, je t’aime,” a surprise specialty hit released last year. A few names had been rumored online since the project was first announced last spring (Woody Allen has nothing to do with it, contrary to reports). Paparazzi have swooped down on the production, currently midway through a planned 10-week shoot, and blogs started to teem with photos, especially when Scarlett Johansson started lining up shots. Johansson, like fellow thesp Natalie Portman, is making her helming debut on the project. Portman also stars in a separate short. Directors include Mira Nair, Brett Ratner and Alan Hughes, plus international helmers such as Fatih Akin, Andrey Zvyagintsev and Wen Jiang. The pic’s producers include Marina Grasic, exec producer of “Crash”; Marianne Maddalena, of the “Scream” pics; and Jan Korbelin, exec producer of Lionsgate’s “The Lucky Ones.” Domestic rights are still being negotiated, and Bill Bloch’s QED is selling international.

• Our Stories Films has preemptively bought the comedy spec “Court Appointed Attorney,” by Brent Askari and Chum Langhorne. Don Michael Paul is attached to direct. Story is described as a two-hander about a shy public defender who, with the help of his client, becomes a Johnnie Cochran type. Bryan Brucks of Brucks/McDonald Entertainment will produce alongside Our Stories’ Tracey Edmonds. Glendon Palmer brought the project into the company.

• Universal Pictures has acquired the recent L.A. Weekly cover story “How to Get Divorced by 30″ and will use the article by Sascha Rothchild as the basis for a romantic comedy. Marc Platt will produce the picture with Dana Fox, writer of Fox’s upcoming Ashton Kutcher-Cameron Diaz starrer “What Happens in Vegas …” and 2005’s “The Wedding Date.” The author, using the disintegration of her first marriage along with those of five other friends, posits it’s best to begin with a “starter marriage” before finding your ultimate mate. She lays out 15 steps to guide readers to ending the first marriage. The U comedy will focus on a heroine who road-tests the “starter marriage” premise and then finds her perceptions redrawn by reality and relationships.

• Overture Films has purchased teen comedy spec “Freshly Popped,” penned by tyro scribe Megan Parsons, and set it up with Steve Tisch, Jason Blumenthal and Todd Black at their Escape Artists banner. Chris Coggins and Lance Johnson of Escape Artists are co-producing. Story is about a teenage girl who works at movie theater and is trying to decide to whom she wants to lose her virginity.

• New Regency has snapped up Aaron Philson Brown’s action spec “Smash” for low six figures. Barry Josephson (”Enchanted”) is set to produce. Story centers on a rebellious teen who moves to a suburban Midwest town where the popular crowd lures him into their world of souped-up cars and demolition derbies. Deal marks the first sale for Brown, who hails from the world of advertising in New York. Josephson is producing “They Came From Upstairs” for 20th Century Fox and Regency as well as an adaptation of the “Sisters Grimm” series of books at Regency. Brown is repped by Stephen Crawford at Luber Roklin Entertainment and lawyer Rob Szymanski.

PROJECT UPDATES

• Oprah is hoping that Oz will prove a wizard in syndication. She’s shopping a health and wellness talkshow hosted by heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, a fixture on her own yakker. The proposed show is being auctioned with the major TV syndicators vying to lock it in for a fall 2009 launch date. Oz, head of the cardiovascular program at New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, has made a number of appearances on “Oprah” as well as hosting “Second Opinion With Dr. Oz” on the Discovery Channel. A spokesman for Winfrey’s Chicago-based Harpo Prods. declined to comment. Harpo would have broad input into the production of the show with Oz, the way it does with “Dr. Phil” and “The Rachael Ray Show.” But CBS TV Distribution does the actual day-to-day production of “Dr. Phil” and “Rachael Ray,” as well as clearing the stations and selling the national ad time within each hourlong episode. Similarly, the winning bidder of “Dr. Oz” would do the production and line up stations and advertisers. News of a “Dr. Oz” series first surfaced on the Broadcasting & Cable magazine website. Insiders say Winfrey is looking for the best deal. CBS TV’s relationship with Winfrey doesn’t hurt, but it wouldn’t necessarily give it a leg up on its competitors. Eye unit also has its own medical talkshow, “The Doctors,” launching this fall. But that program wouldn’t rule out CBS TV Distribution making a play for “Oz.”

• “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” (”Welcome to the Sticks”) has broken a 42-year box office record to become the most successful French film on home turf. Helmed by and starring comic Dany Boon and co-starring Kad Merad, the laffer topped 17.5 million admissions in Gaul this week, netting distrib Pathe around $163 million after six frames. That breaks the admissions record set by Gerard Oury’s wartime comedy “La grande vadrouille” in 1966. “Ch’tis” pokes gentle fun at Gallic attitudes toward the northeastern-most corner of the country, notorious for incessant rain, near-incomprehensible slang and basic cuisine by national standards. Merad’s character, a senior post office manager, suffers a fate worse than death in being exiled to “le nord” from sun-kissed southern France for work infractions.

ACQUISITIONS/ FESTIVAL NEWS

• The Weinstein Co. has closed a deal on North American rights to helmer Andrew Jarecki’s love story-cum-murder mystery “All Good Things,” about a Gotham real estate dynasty in the 1980s. Weinstein Intl. will handle foreign sales for Groundswell Prods. commencing with Cannes. Pic is the debut feature helming gig for Jarecki (docu “Capturing the Friedmans”). Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella and Jeffrey Dean Morgan star. Drama is budgeted at about $20 million and begins shooting in New York and Connecticut this month.

• Universal Pictures Intl. has acquired the overseas distribution rights to “This Side of the Truth,” a comedy written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson. Gervais stars as a storyteller who lives in a world where nobody lies; he patents the fib and uses it to become a star. Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe and Louis C.K. star; Tina Fey, Christopher Guest, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hodgman and Jonah Hill have supporting roles. Pic marks Gervais’ feature film debut after creating hit series “The Office” and “Extras.” Lynda and Oly Obst will produce.

BUSINESS NEWS

• Two weeks into the shoot of the Will Gluck-directed comedy “Fired Up,” Screen Gems has given the helmer a three-picture deal. Company has sweetened Gluck’s pact on “Fired Up,” his feature directing debut, and has also set him to direct two more laffers. Gluck will direct an untitled comedy in development at Screen Gems about a group of men whose plans for their Hamptons rental are upended when a woman rents one of the rooms. Gluck also will direct “Virginity Rocks,” a co-production with Maxim magazine that’s being scripted by Melissa Carter. Pic is about a gorgeous transfer student who clings to virginity and gets all the school’s promiscuous girls to abstain as well.

• George Lucas’ Lucasfilm is suing London-based prop workshop Shepperton Design Studios in London’s High Court for copyright infringement. Shepperton Design Studios topper Andrew Ainsworth acted as prop designer on the original “Star Wars” film in the 1970s, and his firm produced costumes including the iconic Stormtrooper mask. The firm subsequently began selling replica items online advertised as “made by the original prop-maker from the original molds.” It sells the Stormtrooper armor and helmet for $3,500 at SDSprops.com. Lucasfilm argues that Shepperton’s sale of upscale replica “Star Wars” costumes is unlawful as Shepperton does not possess the copyright. Lucasfilm won some $20 million in damages in U.S. courts in 2006, but it needs the support of the High Court in London to enforce the order on the British Ainsworth.

• Korean conglom Hanwha has teamed with film trading company Daisy Entertainment to launch the leisure-to-chemicals giant’s second content fund. The fund, which will invest 10 billion won ($10.2 million) over five years, will be the country’s first to focus on buying Korean rights to foreign movies. Its first targets are 2929 Entertainment’s James Gray-helmed “We Own the Night” and Dimension Films’ “Superhero Movie,” to which Daisy has Korean rights. Coin comes chiefly from two Hanwha subsids, ad agency Hancomm and Hanwha Venture Capital, plus Daisy and Hanaro Telecom. Hanwha Group, one of the South Korea’s 10 largest congloms, is diversifying into communication and network service industries. The first Hanwha cultural content fund was formed by Hancomm and seven other companies last year with $10.5 million.

STRIKE NEWS/ LABOR ISSUES

• Peter Chernin and Robert Iger have wrapped their diplomatic mission with SAG. Insiders say there are no plans for any more informal powwows between the studio toppers and SAG’s top brass prior to the start of formal bargaining between the studios and actors union on April 15 at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ Encino HQ. As they did with the directors and writers, News Corp. prexy Chernin and Disney CEO Iger met with SAG toppers, including prexy Alan Rosenberg and national exec director Doug Allen, in an effort to come to an agreement on the agenda for the formal bargaining seshes. Industry sources say a meeting held last week was cordial but not particularly substantive, with Chernin and Iger making it clear to guild leaders that the AMPTP has no plans to deviate significantly from the template established in the Directors Guild and Writers Guild contracts reached earlier this year. That message was reinforced Monday with an open letter to the industry about the SAG talks (Daily Variety, April 8). Speculation in the biz is that despite the line in the sand drawn by the majors, SAG negotiators will come to the table with a proposal for a different compensation formula in the area of new media than those thrashed out in the DGA and WGA pacts.

• With SAG waiting in the wings, IATSE and the majors have concluded three days of negotiations without reaching a deal — though both sides asserted that they’ve made progress. In a joint announcement Wednesday afternoon, the below-the-line union and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers said they’ve agreed to recess the talks to accommodate the sessions with SAG and AFTRA. SAG’s talks start Tuesday, AFTRA’s on April 28. The IATSE talks — held at AMPTP headquarters in Encino — took place more than a year before the conclusion of the current deal, which expires in August 2009 and covers about 25,000 West Coast workers in 18 locals. No date was given for the resumption of talks. In the announcement, the AMPTP and IATSE said the talks covered new media, minimums and the pension and health plans, including the impact of the 2006 Pension Protection Act on funding standards. IATSE has traditionally held its talks long before the contract expiration; its strategy is based on the notion that the majors are willing to make a deal that’s most favorable to the union in exchange for labor stability. The two sides also said Wednesday that a news blackout will remain in effect until the conclusion of the negotiations. Had a deal emerged, the AMPTP would have been able to assert that it had reached four consecutive deals this year — each covering new-media residuals and jurisdiction — as a way of isolating the Screen Actors Guild from the rest of Hollywood. The SAG talks are expected to be contentious since SAG leaders are insisting on improvements on the terms reached by the DGA and WGA, while the AMPTP has warned against such a stance (Daily Variety, April 8). The SAG-AFTRA feature-primetime contract expires June 30. Hollywood remains worried that SAG’s aggressive approach to talks may result in a strike; in response, studios have been stockpiling features as a hedge against a work stoppage.

INDUSTRY MOVES

• In the latest development in an already eventful agency week, Robert De Niro has left Creative Artists Agency for Endeavor. De Niro hit his payday stride in the comedy arena, where his salary approached $18 million for laffers like “Meet the Fockers.” Sources said that De Niro and partner Jane Rosenthal will move their Tribeca Productions shingle over to Endeavor as well. His exit with CAA was amicable, with sources explaining that a long relationship had simply run its course. De Niro’s surprising move caps one of the more eventful week in the history of Endeavor, which just hired exiting UTA agents Nick Stevens, Lisa Hallerman and Sharon Sheinwold, and brought Ben Stiller into the fold. Other clients, Jack Black included, may move from UTA to Endeavor as well.

• As an agent, Sue Naegle sold HBO one of its biggest hits. Now, as the pay cabler’s new entertainment prexy, she’ll need to lure in viewers who are no longer sold on HBO. Following days of speculation, HBO confirmed Wednesday that Naegle — a UTA partner who’d served as co-head of that agency’s TV department — had been tapped to succeed Carolyn Strauss as HBO’s top series exec. HBO co-prexy Richard Plepler and West Coast topper Michael Lombardo announced the move. Meanwhile, moving quickly to fill the void left by Naegle’s departure, UTA tapped Matt Rice to head the tenpercentery’s scripted TV department. Naegle is no stranger to HBO. As scribe Alan Ball’s rep, she packaged one of HBO’s signature skeins, “Six Feet Under,” as well as Ball’s upcoming HBO vampire drama “True Blood.”

• Sony Pictures Entertainment Networks Asia has promoted Ang Hui Keng to senior VP of channels management and finance. Previously VP of finance, distribution and operations, Ang has been with SPE Networks for 10 years and was involved with the launch of AXN channel and the opening of the group’s office in Singapore.

TECHNOLOGY/ MULTI-PLATFORM CONTENT NEWS

• MySpace has inked a content distribution partnership with ShineReveille Intl. that aims to broaden the reach of the original content featured on the MySpaceTV platform. Accord calls for ShineReveille to handle international TV, homevid and merchandising rights for MySpaceTV properties. The deal is not exclusive, however, and some MySpaceTV properties may come to the Web giant with international rights already encumbered by deals with other distribs or rights holders. In many cases, however, deal will allow ShineReveille to shop MySpaceTV fare to international outlets in new TV or homevid formats as well as open merchandising opportunities. MySpace will retain U.S. and worldwide Web distrib rights on most properties. Partnership is a two-way street in that ShineReveille will be able to use MySpace’s worldwide heft to test out some of its new programs and formats via MySpaceTV and MySpace social networking services in more than 25 territories worldwide.

WEBSITES TO WATCH

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/human-footprint/

Nat Geo has launched a new practical site to help viewers calculate the impact they will likely have on the Earth, based on their consumption habits. NGCHumanFootprint.com, built to promote an NGC special airing on Sunday night at 9 pm ET/PT, features a cool flash-based interface that queries users on tendencies such as how many miles they drive each day, then compares the totals to US, UK and Japan averages.

http://www.rushmoredrive.com/

With that nasty court battle behind them, IAC/InterActive Corp. can get back to the business of launching websites. RushmoreDrive is the first in a series of new sites planned, an African American-targeted search, news, job and social networking portal filtering content as it relates to black users.

http://daily.mahalo.com/

Mahalo Daily host Veronica Belmont is leaving one of the longer running web shows to become co-host of a tech show called Tekzilla on Revision3, a show she often guest stars on. Nothing against founding host Patrick Norton, but Veronica should help jazz thing up considerably.

http://think.mtv.com/Seventeen

ThinkMTV, Seventeen Magazine and Declare Yourself are looking for 90-second viral videos demonstrating to young people how easy and painless it is to vote. The best entry will get a trip for two to LA and VIP passes to Declare Yourself’s celebrity-packed “Young Hollywood” party in September.

SOURCES:

www.variety.com
www.cynopsis.com