Category: International

MUMBAI: Exhibitors are unhappy over Sony‘s decision to release Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs digitally on 8 December, less than three months after its theatrical release.

Sony said that Meatballs would be made available for early home entertainment viewing by owners of internet-enabled TV sets and certain Blu-ray Disc players.
Owners of Sony-branded Bravia TVs and the latest generation of networked Sony Blu-ray players will be able to rent the title almost a month earlier than the Jan. 4 street date for the DVD and Blu-ray discs.

This marks the second time Sony has tried to exploit inter-divisional synergies between Sony Pictures and Sony Electronics on a home-entertainment release. Summer 2008 actioner Hancock also got a month‘s digital jump on its packaged media release when released for Bravia and Sony Blu-ray households the following October.

That tightened its theatrical window to about 3 1/2 months. But the Hancock move but drew less discernible reaction from exhibitors who object to any disc released sooner than four months after a pic‘s theatrical opening.

Distributed in both 2D and 3D versions theatrically, Meatballs, which bowed 18 September played last weekend in a total 1,126 venues and was expected to shed at least a few hundred engagements next Friday.

MUMBAI: Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group president Mark Zoradi has put in his papers. The 29-year Disney veteran used to look after global marketing for the entire theatrical slate and was one of the most powerful studio executives in the field.

During his tenure as president of Buena Vista International (BVI), Zoradi delivered numerous $1bn-plus domestic and overseas years including an extraordinary run of 12 consecutive $1bn years at the box-office.

Zoradi had assumed the post of president of Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group in July 2006 after having led the studio‘s international distribution and marketing arm formerly known as BVI for 14 years. 

He joined the Disney fold in 1980 as a marketing manager for Walt Disney Home Video in the beginning of the home entertainment boom. He eventually moved into television as marketing director for the Disney Channel.

In 1985 Zoradi entered the feature business as director of sales for Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. He was named vice-president and general manager of Buena Vista Television and from 1987 to 1992 led the rapid growth of this business unit and was responsible for ad sales, finance, administration and operations. In 1992 he set up BVI, generating $16.8bn from 1995-2006.
 

MUMBAI: Newsweek film critic David Ansen is set to join Film Independent as artistic director of next year‘s Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF).

Senior programmer Doug Jones has been promoted as associate director of programming for the event that is set to run from 17 to 27 June next year.

Said Ansen, “LAFF is uniquely positioned to draw on the industry‘s history and broad range of talent to create a festival that will not only showcase the best new work from around the world but provide unforgettable film-going experiences for the audience.” 

Averred Film Independent executive director Dawn Hudson, “With one of the most respected tastemakers joining forces with a talented producer like Rebecca, we continue to build a top-notch team that makes the Los Angeles Film Festival a platform for nurturing the diversity of films being made and bringing them to the everyday filmgoer.”

Ansen was Newsweek‘s movie critic from 1977-2008 and continues to write for the publication as a contributing editor. He has written several documentaries for television about film celebrities and was on the selection committee of the New York Film Festival from 1990-98.

MUMBAI: Canada-based NeoClassics Films has lapped up worldwide rights to Geoffrey Enthoven‘s Belgian comedy drama The Over The Hill Band. The film is the latest from the producers of the 2008 Cannes Critics‘ Week winner Moscow, Belgium that NeoClassics distributed in the US earlier this year.

The Over The Hill Band that is the story of a 70-year-old widow who sets up an R&B band with her friends stars Marilou Mermans and Jan Van Looveren.

MUMBAI: Wild Bunch Germany, the new German distribution arm of the French film group, has signed a two-picture deal with Graham King‘s GK Films, taking rights in Germany to Martin Campbell‘s Edge Of Darkness starring Mel Gibson and Jean-Marc Vallee‘s The Young Victoria with Emily Blunt.

The deal, meant for Germany and Austria for both films, was closed by GK Films sales chief Lisa Wilson with Wild Bunch Germany‘s Marc Gabizon.

The eight-month old Wild Bunch Germany bought SC International‘s Gunslinger starring Josh Hartnett earlier in the week. “We are trying to build a theatrical operation in Germany,” said Gabizon adding, “and we are looking for movies that could be successful and make sense financially.”

He says Edge Of Darkness will be released in Germany in the first quarter next year after the US opening on 29 January.

MUMBAI: IFC Films has picked up all-US feature rights of Olivier Assayas‘ Carlos, a mini-series about terrorist Carlos The Jackal that will be shown on the Sundance Channel in spring next year.

The distribution house plans an autumn 2010 theatrical and VOD release to a shortened version of Sundance Channel‘s three-part mini-series of the same name.

Canal Plus will screen the film in early 2010. Studio Canal and Film En Stock‘s Daniel Leconte and Jens Meurer produced Carlos in association with Sundance Channel.

Edgar Ramirez stars in the lead as Carlos, who masterminded a wave of terrorist attacks across Europe and the Middle East in the 1970s and 80s. Carlos is mostly English-language with passages in French and Spanish.
 

MUMBAI: Slumdog Millionaire along with The White Ribbon and A Prophet figure prominently in the 22nd European Film Awards nominations that were announced last weekend.

All the three films received nods as “European Film 2009” along with Fish Tank, Let The Right One In and The Reader.

Michael Haneke, Jacques Audiard and Danny Boyle, the directors of the three films respectively, have also received nominations for ‘Best Director. 

Also in the running are, Haneke, Audiard along with his co-writer on A Prophet Thomas Bidegain and Slumdog scribe Simon Beaufoy for the European Screenwriter award.

Andrea Arnold‘s Fish Tank is a key nominee with film, director and actress nominations.

The Awards will take place in Germany‘s Ruhr area on 12 December.

MUMBAI: In its first weekend, Disney‘s A Christmas Carol roped in an estimated $31 million at the North American box-office. It is surprising to note that the studio was expecting the good result.

The Oscar contender Precious that is Lionsgate‘s select-theaters debut of Lee Daniels‘ drama grossed $1.8 million from 18 theaters in four cities for an average of $100,000 per-screen.

The Michael Jackson documentary This Is It held on to the second spot, dropping just 40 per cent from its opening.

The other releases found it tougher to secure a foothold.

Overture‘s military satire The Men Who Stare at Goats clocked in at the third place with $13.3 million. Finishing in fourth place was Universal‘s horror thriller The Fourth Kind grossed over $12.5 million, while the weekend‘s other wide arrival, Warners Bros‘ The Box and Twilight Zone- tagged behind in the fifth and sixth place.

MUMBAI: Coach 14 has bagged the foreign sales rights of Bobby Moresco‘s Castro‘s Daughter, the story of Alina Fernandez, who was the product of a love affair between Fidel Castro and Cuban socialite Naty Revuelta.

Moresco, an Oscar-winning screenwriter (Crash) who co-wrote the screenplay with Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz. WME will also be representing the film for sales and packaging.

Fernandez was a child when Castro would visit her mother‘s home as he planned his first failed attempt to overthrow the government. She was ten years old when she learnt that Castro was her father. 

After years of openly expressing her differences with him, Fernandez was branded a dissident and forbidden to leave Cuba. In 1993, she fled the country disguised as a Spanish tourist.

Said Martinez In a statement, “We are very excited to have established a relationship with both Coach 14 and WME and are truly excited at Coach‘s enthusiasm toward the film and feel honored to have Alexis, who has such a high level of positive energy, representing the film.”

MUMBAI: The Danish Girl, based on a novel by David Ebershoff novel will have Gwyneth Paltrow pitched opposite Nicole Kidman.

The film tells the story of Danish painter Einar Wegener, played by Kidman, who was the first man to undergo a sex change operation in 1931.
Paltrow will play Einar‘s wife Greta which was to be essayed by Charlize Theron earlier.

The film being produced by Kidman and her partner Per Saari with Gail Mutrux, Linda Reisman and Anne Harrison, is being directed by Sweden‘s Tomas Alfredson, who had earlier made child vampire movie Let The Right One In.