MUMBAI: News Corporation has acquired a 19.9 per cent stake in Bona Film Group, a leading film distributor and vertically integrated film company in China, from the company‘s founder, chairman and CEO Dong Yu.
Following the close of these transactions, Yu‘s ownership will be reduced to 8,210,803 ordinary shares (not including options to purchase 545,615 ordinary shares), representing approximately 27 per cent of the company‘s ordinary shares outstanding.
These transactions are expected to close in the next 15 days and are subject to customary closing conditions.
“One of Bona‘s unique advantages is its vertically-integrated business model, which differentiates the dompany from other film distributors in China,” said News Corporation China investments SVP, News Corporation & CEO Dr. Jack Gao.
“China‘s film market is growing at a rapid pace, positioning the country to be the second largest film market following the United States, and Bona‘s market leadership, compelling value proposition and tremendous growth potential make this an attractive opportunity for News Corporation.”
On his part, Yu has entered into separate agreements to acquire 1,000,000 Bona ordinary shares from SIG China Investments One, Ltd., 1,000,000 Bona ordinary shares from Matrix Partners China Funds and 1,500,000 Bona ordinary shares from the Sequoia Funds, at an average price of $11.40 per share, or $5.70 per American Depositary share.
“We are thrilled to receive this strategic investment from News Corporation. As one of the leading film distributors in China, we are committed to bringing the best quality Chinese films to broad audiences around the world. News Corporation‘s extensive global reach, investment and distribution will help accelerate our strategy to expand our global footprint,” said Yu.
Since its IPO in 2010, Bona has developed its business significantly.”We believe now is the time to diversify our ownership structure by introducing select strategic investors. This is an exciting period of growth for China‘s film industry, and we look forward to exploring the international commercial opportunities for Chinese films with our new partner,” Yu said.
Category: International
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News Corp picks up 19.9% stake in China’s Bona Film
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The Avengers amasses $95.4 million in 3rd week
MUMBAI: Continuing its onward victorious march, Disney and Marvel‘s The Avengers garnered a weekend tally of $95.4 million from 54 territories in its third week.
Avengers‘ weekend action was down by 39 per cent from the last weekend‘s gross. In just 12 days, the film has out grossed such Marvel titles as Captain America ($192 million offshore), Iron Man ($266.7 million), Thor ($268.3 million) and Iron Man 2 ($311.5 million).
Besides setting industry opening records in a dozen offshore markets including Brazil and Mexico, the Joss Whedon-directed film rolled up mighty market cumes in the UK ($65.7 million), China ($52.3 million), Mexico ($49.6 million), Korea ($41.3 million), Australia ($40.5 million), Russia ($36 million), France ($33.4 million) and Germany ($24.1 million).
Slightly eating into Avengers‘ gross intake was Warner Bros.‘ Dark Shadows that opened offshore at 5,664 sites in 42 territories for an estimated $36.7 million. It finished No. 2 on the weekend.
The Johnny Depp film drew 93 per cent of what 2005‘s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory grossed in the same markets at “the same point in release,” said Warner Bros. (Factory went on to take in $268 million offshore.)
The biggest market for Shadows was Russia, where the film playing at 977 situations grossed $5.3 million. A No. 1 France opening generated $4.6 million at 474 situations, and in the UK, the film collected $4 million from 515 venues.
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Cinedigm acquires New Video for $ 14 million
MUMBAI: Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp., the global leader in digital cinema, has decided to acquire leading entertainment distributor New Video Group, Inc. for $14 million in upfront consideration. This in addition to the additional earn out potential of up to $6 million over three years tied to the future financial results of the Cinedigm Entertainment Group.
The upfront consideration will be paid with $10 million of cash from Cinedigm‘s balance sheet and $4 million of Cinedigm stock issued at the trailing 10 day volume weighted average price.
“Cinedigm is now a fully integrated distributor of independent films and specialty content,” said Cinedigm Chairman and CEO Chris McGurk. “Over the past year, we have analyzed many companies in the digital distribution space for home and mobile entertainment and determined that New Video is the best partner for us. New Video‘s highly regarded management team, led by Susan Margolin and Steve Savage, is entrepreneurial, forward-looking and innovative.
Their tremendous success in the ever-evolving digital space, combined with their expertise in content acquisition, sales and marketing and distribution of traditional packaged goods, puts them clearly ahead of the pack. Our new distribution capabilities will provide a unique, one stop end-to-end digital distribution solution for independent content providers and financiers. And for our shareholders, this accretive acquisition solidifies Cinedigm‘s stated goal to expand our low risk, high reward fee-for-service content distribution business to complement our industry leading VPF servicing and software businesses,” he said.
The acquisition of New Video will create a new full service end-to-end digital releasing studio, enabling the Company to acquire and distribute independent films and specialty content both theatrically and through digital, mobile and home media platforms.
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Two OZ filmmakers to attend Sundance’s Screenwriters Labs
MUMBAI: Two Australian filmmakers Ariel Kleiman, co-writer and director and Sarah Cyngler, co-writer of a film titled Partisan will travel to Utah to take part in the annual Sundance Institute‘s Directors and Screenwriters Labs.
Partisan is the story of an 11 year-old boy Alexander who is raised to see the world through his parent‘s eyes, begins to think for himself.
The program will call on accomplished advisors, professional actors and production crews to shoot and edit scenes from Partisan‘s screenplay to help Kleiman and Cyngler refine their ideas. The workshop, that will run for a month from 28 May, will also include emerging filmmakers from the US, Italy, Romania, France, Algeria, Chile and the UK.
Kleiman‘s short film Young Love was screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it took an honourable mention in short film-making.
His follow-up Deeper Than Yesterday had its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival in the Critics Week where it won the Kodak Discovery Award for best short film and the Petit Rail Door. The film was also awarded the Jury Prize for in international film-making at 2011?s Sundance Film Festival. -
Australian filmmaker barred from talking to govt. funding body
MUMBAI: An Australian filmmaker James Ricketson who has been conducting a one-man crusade against the management of government funding body Screen Australia has been banned from talking to it.
Ricketson has been conducting a lengthy campaign complaining that the organisation has unfairly declined to fund his documentary project Chanti‘s World that Screen Australia had rejected.
Ricketson has published a letter from Screen Australia CEO Ruth Harley telling him that the organisation will no longer deal with him because of "harassment and intimidation" of staff on his blog.
The letter read:"After giving the matter serious and careful consideration, Screen Australia has taken the decision that it will not accept further funding applications from you, or engage in correspondence with you about funding applications. I appreciate that this is an unusual step and one which we do not take lightly. However, we believe that your conduct towards Screen Australia is unreasonable, and that your correspondence places our staff at risk.
We are under a legal obligation to protect our staff from harassment and intimidation. Staff who have dealt with your correspondence have found it stressful and their well-being has been affected. Your public statements in relation to our staff have also caused distress, and appear to be calculated to damage the reputation of individuals and this organization. We reserve our rights in relation to those statements, and we sincerely ask you to reflect on, and refrain from, such conduct going forward."
Screen Australia declined to comment on the issue but confirmed it is the first time in the agency‘s history a film-maker has been banned from applying for funding. The agency said that in the future it may review the decision to ban Ricketson for applying for funding if staff felt at risk.
Last year when Ricketson applied for script funding through Screen NSW under a pseudonym, he was unsuccessful.
In 1993 Ricketson won an AFI for best adapted screenplay for his film Blackfellas and was also nominated for best direction for the same film.
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De Niro to team up with Michael Douglas in Las Vegas
MUMBAI: Robert De Niro will star opposite Michael Douglas in CBS Films‘ comedy Last Vegas.
Written by Dan Fogelman and directed by Jon Turteltaub, the film centers on a quartet of retired boomers who are called upon for a Las Vegas bachelor party by their friend, a ladies man who is finally settling down and marrying a woman half his age.
According to the production house, De Niro will play the party-averse Paddy Connelly, who reluctantly agrees to fly to Vegas at the request of his friends. The man has a beef with Douglas‘ character over a girl they liked when they were young.
The film is being produced by Laurence Mark and Amy Baer.
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The Avengers likely to gross $ 1 billion by Sunday
MUMBAI: Disney‘s The Avengers is expected to cross the $800 million mark Thursday and might gross $1 billion globally by Sunday or early next week. It is said that if it reaches the milestone on Sunday, its 19th day in release, it will be on par with Avatar and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in terms of record-breaking speed.
Through Wednesday, the film directed by Joss Whedon had grossed $775.4 million worldwide, including a Wednesday take of $31.2 million. Last weekend, it scored the biggest domestic debut of all time with an intake of $207.4 million.
This weekend Avengers could well gross $100 million domestically and $100 million overseas. But those numbers could come in lower if the drop is bigger than expected.
The only new wide release of the weekend is Tim Burton‘s campy adaptation of the 1966-71 daytime soap Dark Shadows.The film that has Johnny Depp in the lead as a vampire is likely to open between the $35 million to $40 million range domestically. It also opens in 42 markets overseas, where Depp is a huge international star.
Dark Shadows could beat Avengers in certain territories but might not be able to match Avengers‘ overall weekend international gross. Burton‘s film got off to a strong start Wednesday in France, grossing roughly $770,000 to beat Avengers on its third Wednesday.
Made at a cost of $100 million, Dark Shadows should go well among women though interest has picked up among men in recent days.
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California-based Eureka Productions wins 14 awards
MUMBAI: California-based film production company Eureka Productions won 14 awards at the recently held 45th annual Worldfest-Houston International Film festival.
"We are delighted to say that your Remi Award assumes a very special significance this year, as more than 4,200 category entries were competing from 32 countries," said Houston director Hunter Todd.
"More than 550 international filmmakers attended the 10 day cinema and video celebration and conference with masters classes in various aspects of film production,, finance, and distribution. We were blessed with filmmakers from all over the world; China, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Thailand, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nepal, Nigeria, England, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Bosnia, Eritrea, Croatia, Iraq, Iran, Canada, India, Pakistan, Italy, Taiwan, Israel, Japan, Germany, Scotland, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovenia, Bermuda, Viet Nam, Serbia, Poland, Greece, England, Poland, and even the good old USA," he added.
Films that won Eureka Productions awards included "how- to" instructional videos and documentaries about world peace, ‘breaking news,‘ sports, fitness and healing, the integration of spiritual teachings in Indian government policies and more.
The production house had previously won awards for its documentaries on Afghanistan, Central America, the Himalayas, sustainable logging, sustainable farming and more.
Eureka Productions specialises in martial arts, healing, and social issues documentary videos. The company‘s martial arts production department focuses on cutting edge presentations of gigong, meditation, healing and the internal martial arts. -
Documentary on Kim Dotcom in offing
MUMBAI: Kim Dotcom, the founder of shuttered file-sharing service Megaupload will be the subject of a documentary and biography, it is understood.
The documentary would not only explore the Megaupload case but also examine issues of content ownership and the battle for control of the Internet.
The film titled Mega Conspiracy is being produced by actor-producer Donovan Leitch and Alex Mardikian, a friend and business associate of Dotcom. Marc Levin, who had earlier directed Prayer for a Perfect Season will helm the project.
Dotcom has been accused by the US government of facilitating and participating in large-scale copyright infringement through his Megaupload cyber locker service causing more than $500 million in losses to copyright holders — including all six major Hollywood studios and the big record labels.
The service was shut down in January when authorities in New Zealand raided Dotcom‘s $24 million office there.
It is understood that Mardikian and Leitch have shot roughly 60 hours of interviews for the documentary. In addition to talking with Dotcom, the filmmakers also met the employees of Megaupload who also were named in the 6 January indictment. -
Oz film The Sapphires for Cannes fest
MUMBAI: An Australian film The Sapphires has been added to the Cannes Film Festival‘s ‘Official Selection‘.
The film is an adaptation of the stage musical that sees three Aboriginal singers plucked from a remote Aboriginal mission to become the next Supremes and entertain the troops in Vietnam.
The film, produced by Goalpost Pictures‘ Rosemary Blight and Kylie du Fresne and first time feature director Wayne Blair, has been accepted to screen in official selection, out of competition in a midnight screening.The film, that is Australia‘s only feature film to be selected by the festival this year stars Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Chris O‘Dowd and newcomers Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell.
A Hopscotch Films/Entertainment One release, The Sapphires is set to release in August.