Friday April 18, 2008

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

• Halle Berry will star in and produce psychological drama “Frankie and Alice” for indie shingle Access Motion Pictures in association with Reality Pictures in Motion. Story follows a young woman struggling with multiple personality disorder and torn between who she is and a racist Caucasian alter-personality that preys upon her mind. No production start date has been set. “Frankie and Alice” is the second independent production for Toronto-based Access Motion Pictures, which recently completed “Phantom Punch,” a Sonny Liston biopic starring Ving Rhames and directed by Robert Townsend.

• Lee Byung-hun, one of the few Korean actors to be repped by a U.S. talent agency – Endeavor – will co-produce and star in one of the most expensive Korean TV series to date. Lee, who stars in Paramount Pictures’ upcoming “G.I. Joe,” has pacted with Taewon Entertainment and Kang Je-Kyu Film to produce blockbuster TV Series “IRIS.” Developed by “Taegugki” director Kang Je-kyu, the $22 million skein is co-scripted by writers at Kang Je-Kyu Film and Korea’s top- script house A-Story.

• “Battlestar Galactica” showrunner Ronald D. Moore is making a major move to the bigscreen, signing with United Artists to create and write a sci-fi trilogy. UA’s keeping details of the project under wraps. Moore has written extensively for TV and film, with feature credits on the upcoming “The Thing” as well as previous credits on “Mission: Impossible II,” “Star Trek: First Contact” and “Star Trek: Generations.”

• Jack Angelo and Sam Brown have set up their comedy pitch “Fear Phil” at Disney, with Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot’s Offspring Entertainment set to produce. Studio spent high six against low seven figures for the project that revolves around an insurance salesman who makes a living preying on other people’s fears, only to wake up and find that his own worst fears are coming true. Angelo and Brown recently penned “Undateable,” also set up at Disney and Offspring, which is based on the lot.

• “Heroes” regular Milo Ventimiglia has a new role: comicbook star. Through their Divide Pictures shingle, the thesp and producing partner Russ Cundiff have inked a deal with Devil’s Due Publishing to create “Rest,” a comicbook miniseries to be published in the fall. The four issues in the series will revolve around the dangers of staying awake as a man is drawn into a conspiracy between a malevolent pharmaceutical company and the U.S. government. The design of the main character will be inspired by Ventimiglia’s likeness. Mark Powers, who penned the comicbook “Drafted” and edited “X-Men,” will write the issues based on a story by Mike O’Sullivan.

• Marvel Comics has signed a deal to turn one of its superheroes, the Black Panther, into a primetime animated series for BET, starting early next year. BET made the announcement at its upfront presentation in New York as the highlight of a batch of new series being readied for the 2008-09 season, under the supervision of Reginald Hudlin, president of entertainment for BET. In addition to “The Black Panther,” BET singled out “Brutha,” a docu-reality series featuring producer Jermaine Dupri and focusing on five brothers in a singing group “who learn just what it takes to navigate the treacherous terrain of the music industry.”

• Columbia Pictures has snapped up Johnny Rosenthal’s action-adventure spec “Iron Jack” for $1.25 million against $2 million. Todd Garner is producing through his Broken Road Prods. banner. Spec sparked a heated bidding war that involved MGM, CBS Films and Spyglass. Set in the 1930s, story centers on a renowned novelist and his quest for a legendary treasure. George Heller and Jeremy Bell are exec producing.

PROJECT UPDATES

• Val Kilmer, 50 Cent, Sharon Stone, Dylan McDermott and Brian Presley will topline Nu Image/Millennium’s action-drama “Streets of Blood,” with Irwin Winkler, Avi Lerner and Randall Emmett producing. Charles Winkler, son of Irwin Winker, is directing. The eight-week shoot will start next month. “Streets” centers on the relationship between two police officers dealing with the lawlessness of New Orleans in the post-Katrina environment. Story’s by Eugene Hess and Dennis Fanning, with Hess penning the screenplay. Exec producers include Boaz Davidson, Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, George Furla, John Thompson and Matt O’Toole.

ACQUISITIONS/ FESTIVAL NEWS

• IFC Entertainment has secured North American rights to Madonna’s directorial debut, “Filth and Wisdom.” Scripted by Madonna and Dan Cadan, and co-produced by Madonna and Nicola Doring, comedic drama was initially intended as a short. It will unspool in autumn, with a theatrical run coinciding with video-on-demand availability. Intertwining plotlines track, among other characters, a man who spanks for money, a chemist and a pole dancer. The material girl had initially contemplated an iTunes release, but instead partnered with IFC.

BUSINESS NEWS

• Jennifer Garner and producing partner Juliana Janes have signed a first-look deal with Warner Bros. for their Vandalia Films banner. Garner, who has worked with Janes for six years, has been looking to expand her role as a film producer. “To start with, we’ll develop material as potential starring vehicles for me,” Garner said. “I’d have to be pretty passionate about something to commit to the project if I wasn’t intending to be in it.” The pair dubbed the banner Vandalia because it was the first name picked for the state of West Virginia, where Garner is from. Garner is in production on New Line Cinema’s “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” opposite Matthew McConaughey. She will then segue to the Ricky Gervais-helmed comedy “This Side of the Truth.”

• U.K. box office gross for the first quarter of 2008 is on a par with the same period in 2007, according to figures to be released today by the Film Distributors Assn. The biggest grosser was Warner Bros.’ sci-fi actioner “I Am Legend,”, which banked £13.4 million ($26.5 million) between January and March. Gory musical “Sweeney Todd” — also from WB — was next best with $20.6 million, followed by romantic comedy “P.S. I Love You” ($18.8 million) from Momentum Pictures, Fox’s teen pregnancy pic “Juno” ($18.2 million) and Paramount monster movie “Cloverfield” ($18 million). Easter week (March 21-27) trade was dominated by family-skewed offerings “Horton Hears a Who!” and “The Spiderwick Chronicles.” But teen dance sequel “Step Up 2 the Streets” was a surprise hit for Universal and is still going strong. Last weekend, it slipped just 25% in its fourth frame for an impressive $17.4 million running cume. The solid first quarter showing has industryites in an upbeat mood going into the summer tentpole season.

• Another organization Thursday urged deregulation of Taiwan’s cable TV market. Pay-TV lobby group Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia unveiled a report “Taiwan’s Digital Gap – Regulation and Development of the Pay-TV Industry.” “A consistent legal framework that is both technology and content neutral is essential for further industry investment that will bring new value to consumers,” said CASBAA chairman Marcel Fenez. “The status quo restricts content choice and services that are already available to other consumers in the rest of Asia. This position needs urgent attention.” Earlier in the week Cable Broadband Institute in Taiwan and research house Media Partners Asia published a report saying that deregulation would lead to investment and digitalization.

• As crowded as the indie and specialty film arenas are in the U.S., the global marketplace has room for growth. That was one major finding of “Middlemen to Minimajors,” a study released Thursday by U.K. consultants Oliver & Ohlbaum. International markets are currently quite fragmented, with market shares of more than 10% exceedingly rare. To realize the upside of the global film biz, indie players will need to consolidate, according to the report. Firm’s analysis found that indie film distribs claim 28% of the $51 billion global film market, but outside the U.S., that figure rises to 40%. Of the $51 billion, about $10 billion goes to marketing and publicity costs and $24 billion on production. Once all expenses are recorded, the net margin averages about 12%. Roughly two-thirds of distrib income comes from video rights, with the balance divided equally between theatrical and TV sales. Through 2012, the film sector as a whole will grow by 2%-3%, more sluggishly in 2008 and 2009 but at a brisker pace once economic conditions improve.

• The EU’s regulatory body, the European Commission, gave the go-ahead on Wednesday (April 16) for the merger of Vivendi’s games unit with California-based game developer Activision. Announced in December pending regulatory approval, the complex $9.85 billion deal will give Vivendi a 52% stake in the new entity, to be called Activision Blizzard. The new company, with projected annual revenues of $3.8 billion in its first operating year, looks likely to become the world’s biggest independent game publisher, eclipsing current industry supremo Electronic Arts. The EC announced that “for all categories of game software, the combined firm would continue to face strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and game console manufacturers such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.”

• Google’s still got it. The search giant’s profit jumped almost a third in the first quarter despite Wall Street concerns about the faltering economy’s impact on its paid click business. Netco said it earned $1.31 billion during the first quarter vs. $1 billion a year earlier. Revenue shot up 42% to $5.19 billion for the quarter. Google’s strong showing outpaced Wall Street expectations, which had faded in recent months. Indeed, Google’s top exec painted a rosy outlook for the year, no matter what happens in the overall economy. “It’s clear to us that we’re well positioned for 2008 and beyond, regardless of the business environment that we find ourselves surrounded by,” chairman and chief exec Eric Schmidt told Wall Street analysts in a Thursday afternoon conference call. Google issued its earnings report after the stock market closed, and the company’s stock promptly shot up in after-hours trading, passing the $500 mark for the first time since February. It had been trading at $449.54 when the market closed. The Netco also reported that international revenue now brings in more than half of its total coin, accounting for $2.65 billion, or 51%, compared to 47% in the year-earlier period. The company said that aggregate paid clicks rose some 20% over a year ago and around 4% above the fourth quarter 2007. Google completed the acquisition of DoubleClick during the quarter, and the company said it laid off around 10% of DoubleClick staffers earlier this month. Rival Netco Yahoo has been exploring a deal under which it would outsource to Google its search advertising as a way to fend off Microsoft’s takeover bid. Yahoo has also been exploring a merger with Time Warner’s struggling AOL unit.

• Tribune Co. execs were pressed by bankers about the company’s debt ratio and overall liquidity in a conference call Thursday with lenders to discuss the company’s 2007 financials. A subdued Sam Zell presided over the call without using any of the colorful or salty language that has raised eyebrows during some of his meetings in the past few months with employees at Tribune’s TV stations, newspapers and other business units. Most of the hourlong discussion focused on parsing nitty-gritty financial data. Tribune execs said the long-planned sale of the Chicago Cubs was moving along. The due diligence books detailing the team’s finances are expected to be sent out to prospective buyers within the next 21⁄2 weeks. Tribune execs also hinted at big changes to come for the company’s WGN Superstation cabler. Randy Michaels, Tribune’s CEO of broadcasting and interactive, said the channel would be relaunched in May; there’s been speculation that the company will drop the “WGN” tag in a branding effort aimed it making it more of a national service and less rooted in its TV station sibling WGN Chicago.

STRIKE NEWS/ LABOR ISSUES

• The Screen Actors Guild’s third day of negotiations with the majors has launched with no fireworks — even though the two sides were far apart when talks started earlier this week. Thursday’s talks began at mid-morning at the headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers in Encino. Despite the absence of a news blackout, both sides have refrained so far from any comment about the negotiations beyond admitting that the talks are going on via jointly issued statements at the end of the day. SAG’s feature-primetime contract expires June 30. Informed sources confirmed SAG did not back off its promise to make demands that won’t be granted by the AMPTP, most notably an increase in the DVD residuals and far sweeter new-media terms than those in the DGA and WGA deals. In informal talks with SAG leaders earlier this month, Disney president Robert Iger and News Corp. president Peter Chernin made it clear to SAG national exec director Doug Allen and SAG president Alan Rosenberg that the majors will only make a deal that’s patterned after the directors’ and writers’ deals. The key question remains whether SAG leaders will be willing to compromise as talks continue. SAG’s scheduled to meet every day except this Sunday until April 26. AFTRA is scheduled to begin its talks on its handful of primetime shows on April 28. If SAG hasn’t signed a deal with the AMPTP by then, it’s widely expected that AFTRA will be able to reach an agreement quickly.

INDUSTRY MOVES

• BMG has shaken up its side of the Sony BMG music empire, tapping Barry Weiss to replace Clive Davis and moving Davis to a position where he will work with major artists. Barry Weiss has been upped to chairman-CEO of the BMG Label Group and will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the group and its labels, which include RCA Records, Jive, J Records, LaFace, Arista, Volcano, Verity, GospoCentric and Fo Yo Soul.

• “Wild Hogs” helmer Walt Becker has signed with CAA. Becker and his producing partner Jennifer Eatz recently inked a two-year first-look deal at Disney. His directing credits also include “Van Wilder” and the upcoming Disney comedy “Old Dogs,” starring Robin Williams, John Travolta, Seth Green and Matt Dillon.

• CBS has put Barbara Abseck in charge of its Gotham entertainment PR department. Abseck has been named to a newly created position as executive director-East Coast manager for the Eye’s communications unit. She’ll oversee media relations with New York and East Coast media outlets while also acting as liaison to the net’s marketing group.

TECHNOLOGY/ MULTI-PLATFORM CONTENT

• Defying the conventional wisdom in TV land these days, the CW has decided to hype the upcoming return of “Gossip Girl’ by opting not to stream episodes of the show on the Web. Most networks have been hyping Internet streaming as a key component of the marketing and monetization of series. Indeed, the recent WGA strike was waged in no small part because of nets’ desire to put content on the Net. But CW execs seem to be worried that “Gossip Girl” may be too popular online. Skein is regularly among the most downloaded shows on iTunes and is off the chart in terms of Web buzz. Despite all those signs of success, CW execs — as well as suits at CW parents CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. — have been frustrated that raw Nielsen ratings haven’t been higher. There’s also concern that the show’s long strike-induced hiatus, as well as its new timeslot, will put a dent in the show’s numbers. Net’s goal is to make the show a must-watch on the broadcast platform. For now, the decision to stop streaming new segs of “Gossip” applies only to the five episodes slated to air beginning Monday.

• Time Warner confirmed that it has launched a Hong Kong version of AOL this week. News Corp’s social networking site MySpace also went “official” on its Indian site, which has been operational since January. AOL Hong Kong site includes communications products (free e-mail and instant messaging) and regional content in Chinese. Company has partnered with local content owners including China News, United Daily News and Phoenix New Media to provide feeds. MySpace India claims already to have half a million subscribers and to be growing at 30% a month. There are currently no plans to launch it in local language versions. Earlier this week AOL launched it Taiwanese version and MySpace its localized Korean-language site.

• NBC Universal became the latest TV studio to unveil a purely digital production outfit. Based in Burbank and led by VP Cameron Death, the NBC Universal Digital Studio formed a flagship strategic partnership with OMG Digital to line up sponsors for its shows right out of the gate. Multiplatform Sci Fi conspiracy series Gemini Division will be the studio’s first release coming this summer, developed with Sony Pictures Television International. It stars Rosario Dawson as a New York City cop who uncovers an underworld of “genetically fabricated life forms,” produced with Electric Farm Entertainment (the team behind Afterworld.) Woke Up Dead, also from Electric Farm, is the studio’s next project about a college student who wakes up one day as a zombie. NBC Universal Digital Studio retains domestic distribution rights for both series while SPTI retains all international rights including television, theatrical and DVD releases, internet, digital sell-through, gaming and mobile rights.

WEBSITES TO WATCH

www.pingg.com

If Evite invitations remind you too much of keggers, jello shots, and ’80s theme parties, check out this more sophisticated online invitation site where you can say goodbye to childish clip art. Rather than directing guests to a website plastered with ads, pingg enables users to create stylish email invites that can even be customized with one’s own images. Guestlists and RSVPs can all be managed through the pingg platform, and for additional costs, both paper and text invites can be sent as well.

www.eqal.com

lonelygirl 15 and KateModern creators Miles Beckett and Goodried formed a new studio focusing on producing original series for social networks dubbed EQAL, with $5 million in Series A financing led by Boston-based Spark Capital. Also involved in the round were Ron Conway (an early Google investor); Netscape co-founder Marc Anderssen; Hollywood producer Conrad Riggs (Survivor); and former Google executive Georges Harik.

Animoto.com

More advanced than other online slide-show creators like RockYou or Slide, Animoto is a tool that allows users lacking motion graphics experience to create “videos” from their own photos and images. Photos are displayed in sync with the music’s rhythm, making the slideshow more like a music video. The site’s new Facebook application, which notifies everyone tagged in the photos uploaded, is expected to generate viral growth for the tool.

SOURCES:

www.variety.com
www.cynopsis.co

www.trendcentral.com