Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Film director Roman Polanski agreed to pay his sexual assault victim $500,000 to settle a lawsuit 15 years after he fled the U.S., according to court documents provided to media on Friday.

The settlement deal between Polanski and the victim, Samantha Geimer, was reached in October 1993 were confidential, but the amount was disclosed in court documents because of a two-year struggle to get Polanski to pay.

MUMBAI: Disney is downsizing staff of its Miramax specialty division. This follows Dick Cook‘s resignation as studio chairman a couple of weeks ago.

In all likelihood Rich Ross president of Disney Channels Worldwide will succeed Cook.

By January, about 50 jobs will be downsized that will leave about 20 employees in the unit‘s New York office.

Disney said that Daniel Battsek will remain as Miramax president, overseeing development and production out of New York. The trimmed-down Miramax will release only about three movies per year.

MUMBAI: Film director Roman Polanski agreed to pay his sexual assault victim $500,000 to settle a lawsuit 15 years after he fled the U.S., according to court documents provided to media on Friday.

The settlement deal between Polanski and the victim, Samantha Geimer, was reached in October 1993 were confidential, but the amount was disclosed in court documents because of a two-year struggle to get Polanski to pay.

MUMBAI: Jewell Jordan Mason, the stunt double for Luise Rainer in Oscar-winning 1937 film The Good Earth and also for Merle Oberon in Wuthering Heights in 1939, died on 24 September in California at the age of 92.

Jordan worked as an un-credited extra, double and stunt double in Hollywood in the 1930s and ‘40s, appearing in films like Tarzan Escapes (1936), Ever Since Eve (1937), Ninotchka (1939), Destry Rides Again (1939) and New Moon (1940).

MUMBAI: The ongoing legal battle between the studios and Redbox has taken another step when Fox filed a motion seeking to have the dollar DVD rental service‘s lawsuit against it dismissed in a Delaware District Court.

Earlier in August, Coinstar-owned Redbox sued Fox for copyright misuse and anti-trust violations, claiming the studio doesn‘t have the right to delay it from buying and renting its DVDs. (Redbox has also sued Warner and Universal for similar defensive measures).

Fox argued that it never actually refused to supply Redbox with its discs — it just hasn‘t been able to come to terms with the rental kiosk company. Fox also argued that it‘s not “injuring competition” by not making its titles available to Redbox on all the rental service‘s terms – an important requisite to an anti-trust complaint.

Redbox shot back with a statement. “Fox continues its pursuit to prohibit consumer access to new-release DVDs at an affordable prices,” it read. “Redbox remains steadfast in our commitment to protecting consumers‘ rights and to providing our customers the DVDs they want, where they want and at the low price they want.”

MUMBAI: Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc‘s CEO Mark Juliano has said that it was surprising to go through an announcement by a private equity fund that it wanted to participate in the bankrupt company‘s restructuring.

Said Juliano, “The fund, New Century Investments, had previously expressed interest in the company, but could not verify their financial wherewithal. We last spoke to the fund in February but have not heard from it since.”

New Century said in a statement that it has been following the company since late 2008 and now believed it was “time for us to make our move.” They did not provide details about how they planned to participate in the restructuring.

Juliano said that New Century had initially sought to buy the company outright, but it was now his understanding that the fund wanted to join either the bondholders or the Trump-Beal venture.

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has picked up North America and Latin American rights to Michael Hoffman‘s The Last Station starring Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, James McAvoy and Paul Giamatti.

The historical drama played to great acclaim at its recent world premiere in Telluride and is a co-production between London-based Zephyr Films and Germany‘s Egoli Tossell Film.

Hoffman adapted the screenplay from Jay Parini‘s 1990 novel of the same name. The story follows a young intellectual who arrives at the rural estate of Leo Tolstoy and gets entangled in a battle over the Russian author‘s legacy involving his wife Countess Sofya and the conniving leader of a Utopian society. Ann-Marie Duff also stars.

Chris Curling, Jens Meurer and Bonnie Arnold served as producers while Andrei Konchalovsky handled executive producer duties.

SPC negotiated the sale with Robbie Little‘s LA-based The Little Film Company. SPC‘s upcoming roster includes An Education, Broken Embraces,The White Ribbon, A Prophet, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, Micmacs, Lebanon and Get Low.

MUMBAI: Less than a week after resigning from The Weinstein Company, Tom Ortenberg has disclosed plans of his new venture- One Way Out Media. The company will be based in Santa Monica and operate as a film consultancy, financier and distribution entity serving the independent community.

For the past eight months, Ortenberg had served as head of theatrical for the Weinsteins and prior to that was president of theatrical films at Lionsgate.

Orteneberg served more than 12 years at Lionsgate Entertainment, opening their Los Angeles office in 1996 and serving as president of theatrical films until 2009. He left to serve in the same capacity for the Weinsteins, a short-lived partnership that resulted in a parting of the ways last week.

Hoped Ortenberg, “We might finance a lower budget film, pre-buy North American rights to a film with partial financing or foreign sales in place, provide finishing funds or P&A, find a diamond in the rough at a film festival and self-distribute a picture theatrically, or even partner with an existing studio on a production or acquisition.

“One Way Out Media will allow me to use my expertise and passion for film to work closely with film-makers in getting their movies successfully financed and produced, as well as properly marketed and distributed.”

Orteneberg started his film career at Columbia Pictures in 1985 as an assistant in the accounts receivables department and rising to the level of senior sales manager before leaving in 1989 to go to Hemdale Film Corporation, where he served as president of distribution and marketing

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MUMBAI: Film folks from France, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Hollywood are terrified about last week‘s arrest of Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski when he flew into Zurich to receive an honorary award from the city‘s international film festival.

Several high profile industry names, such as Harvey Weinstein and Debra Winger, have come out in support of Polanski.