Monday May 19, 2008

BOX OFFICE

Weekend Estimate
May 16, 2008 – May 18, 2008 (*millions)
FILM GROSS
1 Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian $56,573,000
2 Iron Man $31,200,000
3 What Happens In Vegas $13,850,000
4 Speed Racer $7,645,000
5 Baby Mama $4,593,005
6 Made Of Honor $4,500,000
7 Forgetting Sarah Marshall $2,537,585
8 Harold And Kumar Escape $1,800,000
9 Forbidden Kingdom, The $1,000,000
10 Visitor, The $687,000

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

• Universal hopes to hit just the right note with “Pitch Perfect,” acquiring the rights to a nonfiction tome by Mickey Rapkin for Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman to produce. Kay Cannon (“30 Rock”) has been tapped to write the adaptation, which Banks and Handelman will produce under their Brownstone Prods. shingle. Rapkin, senior editor at GQ magazine, spent a season covering competitive collegiate a cappella. He followed the teams from Tuft University, the University of Oregon and the University of Virginia, writing about the singing, groupies, partying and rivalries. “Pitch” is intended to be a comedy set in that world. Rapkin’s book is due out this month via Gotham Books. Banks and Handelman are also producing the in-production Disney sci-fi thriller “The Surrogates” along with Mandeville Films. Banks, who is not attached to act in “Pitch,” next shoots Oliver Stone’s “W.” She is repped at UTA and Untitled. Cannon is a writer and performer on “30 Rock” and did a rewrite on “Baby Mama.” She is repped by Endeavor and Brillstein Entertainment.

• Yari Film Group will finance and co-produce action thriller “Kerosene Cowboys.” “Top Gun”-style pic is based on characters from Randy Arrington’s novel “Kerosene Cowboys: Manning the Spare,” about pilots of an elite naval attack squadron. Script is by first-timer Adam Prince. Director and cast deals are in the works.

• Producers are Dave Riggs and Nikolai Suslov of Svarog-Afterburner Films, and YFG CEO Bob Yari. The Collective’s Shaun Redick is the exec producer. Producers have access to the U.S. Dept. of Defense’s Fighter Weapons School as well as to Russia’s air force bases and tactical aircraft. Production is anticipated to start in August at the Top Gun Naval Air Station in Nevada followed by several locations across Russia.

• DreamWorks is bringing a project on the life of legendary pirate Blackbeard to the bigscreen. David Franzoni, who wrote “Amistad” and “Gladiator” for the studio, will pen “Blackbeard,” which delves into the life of British buccaneer Edward Teach. Barry Josephson (“Enchanted”) is producing alongside motivational speaker and former Philadelphia 76ers prexy/co-owner Pat Croce, who wrote “Pirate Soul,” a book that chronicled the golden era of piracy, which spanned 1690-1730. Denise Radovanov is exec producing.

• MGM could be bringing back the Cold War. “Red Dawn,” John Milius’ 1984 tale of a group of American rebels fighting Soviet forces, is a candidate for a remake, studio toppers Harry Sloan and Mary Parent revealed Saturday at the American Pavilion in Cannes. They also confirmed that 1987’s “Robocop” could resurface in a new version.

PROJECT UPDATES

• Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon are set to star in “The Greatest,” a drama that marks the directing debut of its screenwriter, Shana Feste. The drama revolves around a young girl who throws into chaos a family that is trying to get over the loss of a teenage son. Brosnan and Sarandon play the grieving parents. Shooting will begin this summer on the East Coast. Barbarian Films will finance and serve as exec producer on the co-production of Silverwood Films and Brosnan’s Irish DreamTime. Silverwood’s Lynette Howell and Irish DreamTime’s Beau St. Clair will produce. Brosnan will exec produce with Doug Dey, Aaron Kaufman, Douglas Kuber and Ron Hartenbaum.

• Jose Padilha, whose “Elite Squad” won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear this year, is set to direct a Jason Keller-scripted action thriller for Warner Bros. Gianni Nunnari’s Hollywood Gang Prods. is producing with Management 360. Originally developed at WB under the title “A Willing Patriot,” the currently untitled drama revolves around an American federal agent who goes undercover in South America’s dangerous so-called tri-border area — where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet — in an attempt to dismantle a terrorist-funding network.

• Danish helmer Asger Leth has signed on to helm “Olympia” for Columbia Pictures. Mark Gordon (“10,000 BC”) is producing the love story, which is set against the backdrop of the ancient Olympic Games in Greece as war waged between Athens and Sparta. Lawrence Inglee also produces. Robert Rodat (“Saving Private Ryan”) wrote the screenplay, and helmer Gavin Hood penned a rewrite.

• Cillian Murphy and Eddie Redmayne have boarded Peter Mackie Burns’ “White Male Heart.” Burns, who won a Berlin Golden Bear for short film in 2005 with “Milk,” will direct Olivier Award-winning Scottish playwright David Harrower’s psychological thriller. David Smith of Brocken Spectre and Helena Danielsson of Hepp Films are producing with Dan Films’ Julie Baines exec producing.

ACQUISITIONS/ FESTIVAL NEWS

• Harvey Weinstein is working his magic to bring “The Alchemist” to the bigscreen more than a decade after author Paolo Coelho sold the film rights to his bestselling novel. Production on the $60 million project is set to start late spring with Weinstein personally producing for the Weinstein Co., which will also handle worldwide sales. Laurence Fishburne acquired the feature rights with indie banner A-Mark Entertainment from Warner Bros. Fishburne is still attached to direct, star and produce although Weinstein will be bringing in a new writer, reportedly an Oscar-winning scribe, to deliver a fresh draft of the script. “The Lord of the Rings” producer Barrie Osborne has, however, ankled the project. He had been due to co-produce with Fishburne and Helen Sugland while the project had been set at A-Mark. Weinstein is believed to have acquired the film rights from Fishburne and A-Mark for just under $3 million. Weinstein Co. refused to comment on the size of the deal, which was brokered by Paradigm Motion Picture Finance Group, who also rep Fishburne. Move is something of a coup for Weinstein, who was in an ebullient mood at the Cannes confab announcing the deal.

BUSINESS NEWS

• In another example of the strengthening ties between talent agencies and production financing, Screen Capital Intl. and the William Morris Agency announced on Saturday the creation of a $100 million film-financing company that will be used to fund up to 50 movies over the next five years. The Cassian Elwes- and Rena Ronson-led William Morris Independent will rep the venture, Incentive Filmed Entertainment, and supply a steady stream of potential projects. Initially, films will have production budgets under $15 million. WMAi will rep worldwide rights to all films financed by the fund. Incentive, which opened for business on May 15, is backed by a line of credit arranged by JPMorgan Chase, with the U.K.-based Aramid Entertainment Fund, in which Screen Capital is a major shareholder, and private investors providing the balance of the capital. Incentive also will take advantage of domestic and foreign tax incentives.

• India’s largest entertainment conglom, Reliance Big Entertainment, unveiled deals Sunday intended to make it a significant Hollywood player. Announcement came on the heels of company’s declaration at a glitzy Cannes event that it will spend $1 billion over the next 18 months building its businesses in India and globally. Reliance has signed a string of development deals with the production shingles of a stellar array of top Hollywood talent: Nicolas Cage’s Saturn Prods., Jim Carrey’s JC 23 Entertainment, George Clooney’s Smokehouse Prods., Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone Prods., Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and Jay Roach’s Everyman Pictures. Deals are described as “production silos” under which Reliance Big Entertainment provides development coin to enable the talent to nurture or acquire movie projects before taking them to the studios with which they have first-look arrangements. In a second stage, deals allow Reliance to participate in up to 50% of a movie’s subsequent production funding and to secure rights in India.

STRIKE/ LABOR NEWS

• SAG’s leaders are drawing a line in the sand: In the future actors must still be asked for their consent for clips of their film and TV work to be displayed online. The clip issue’s emerged as a key point in SAG’s feature-primetime negotiations with the majors, set to resume May 28 — or earlier, should the AFTRA primetime talks conclude quickly. AFTRA’s negotiations go into their ninth day today at the headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. In a recent SAG website video posting, national exec director Doug Allen took issue with the congloms’ proposal that they be allowed to be distribute such clips online — with payment but without consent required — and stressed that actors have had the right of refusal in traditional media for 50 years. He called it “one of the real boulders in the road” that the two sides need to traverse in order to reach a deal.

TECHNOLOGY/ MULT-PLATFORM CONTENT

• Comcast agreed to carry linear network MGM HD across its footprint and offer MGM HD movie titles to customers via VOD. The service draws from MGM’s library of over 4,100 films. Additionally, Multichannel News report MGM HD also landed a deal with Time Warner, its fourth cable carriage deal in addition to Comcast, Dish Network (both signed this week) and DirecTV.

• Fox International Channels’ Fox Networks launched Worthnet.Fox, a vertical ad network targeting international consumers of financial news and investment advice online. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network – including wsj.com, barrons.com and MarketWatch – will be among the key media partners available, with representation focused in Latin America.

• Online ad spending surpassed $21 billion last year according to a new report from the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers, an increase of 26% from 2006. Search remained the dominant category accounting for 41% of spending, almost double what display claimed (21%). Digital video ad dollars accounted for about 2% of the overall pie.

WEBSITES TO WATCH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCWh3IFtDQ

An interesting film where Rauschenberg discusses one of his most controversial works. Robert Rauschenberg, the artistic pioneer died last week at the age of 82.

SOURCES:

www.variety.com
www.cynopsis.com