Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Seeing DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc‘s strategy for Dragon failing, it‘s come to light how Hollywood, that spends more than $4 billion a year promoting movies, is under pressure to cut costs and experiment.

From Time Warner Inc‘s Warner Bros to Walt Disney Co, Hollywood‘s stalwarts have been employing Youtube and Twitter, consolidating advertising staff and using fans to spread the message through viral marketing.

Hit by the downturn, Hollywood had cut its ad spending by 8 per cent to $4.39 billion in 2009 after cutting it short by 3 per cent in 2008. It is likely that more cuts would come about in the first half of this year.

Dreamworks spent $160 million to $175 million to market Dragon and then had to revamped its promotional materials and TV commercials right before the film released. However, its campaign fell flat with audiences.

The movie logged in $43.7 million in its domestic debut weekend compared to a projected $65 to $70 million.

In the wake of a revised campaign, Dragon has held up well and its critical praise and has earned $104.7 million in ticket sales so far.

Faced with weak DVD sales, studios like Disney and Viacom Inc‘s Paramount have cut costs by combining marketing for DVDs and theatrical releases, whereas earlier they used to have separate teams to do so.

MUMBAI: Looks like Elizabeth Taylor is going to marry for the ninth time.

The 78-year-old Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor is engaged to manager Jason Winters, 49.

Winters, a talent manager from Sterling Winters Management, recently bagged the job as Janet Jackson‘s new manager.

In 2007, Liz gushed to columnist Liz Smith about Jason, saying, “Jason Winters is one of the most wonderful men I‘ve ever known and that‘s why I love him. He bought us the most beautiful house in Hawaii and we visit it as often as possible.”

Some of Liz‘s previous marriages include Conrad Hiton (the grand-uncle of Paris and Nicky Hilton), Eddie Fisher (Carrie Fisher‘s father), Richard Burton (two separate times) and most recently Larry Fortensky – from whom she split 1996.

A representative of the actress confirmed that Liz and Jason were indeed a longtime couple but did not divulge beyond that.

MUMBAI: Gregory Meyer, the co-founder of DVDXpress that merged with Redbox last year, has initiated a proxy battle with Blockbuster in his aim to see himself as company director.

News of the proxy battle comes as Carl Icahn disclosed that he sold all of his Class B shares and more than 48,000 Class A shares of Blockbuster. That leaves the billionaire financier with less than 4 per cent of the company, down from about 17 per cent recently.

Meyer, who owns 620,000 Blockbuster shares, wants to replace James Crystal when shareholders vote at the annual meeting 26 May. Crystal incidentally owns 140,000 Blockbuster shares.

In a filing, Meyer said that one reason shareholders should oust Crystal is that he hasn‘t purchased shares from the open market and has got them only through his service on the board. Meyer also noted that when Crystal joined the board in 2007, The stock of Blockbuster was at $6.50 a share and it closed at 28 cents on Thursday.

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes called Meyer‘s self-nomination “a costly and disruptive proxy contest,” and recommended that shareholders vote for Crystal.
 

MUMBAI: Mel Gibson will donate the sets from the film he‘s currently working on to a new museum coming up according to the governor of the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz Fidel Herrera.

Gov. Herrera says that several sets were built inside the Ignacio Allende prison in the port city of Veracruz that will be converted into a museum once Gibson has done with the filming.

On 1 January, 1,500 inmates were transferred out of the prison to make room for Gibson‘s film How I Spent My Summer Vacation that began production this week.

Gibson had also filmed his 2006 film Apocalypto in Veracruz.Then also Gibson had donated some of the film sets.

MUMBAI: Lawyers of Roman Polanski have filed an appeal in a California appeals court saying that the 33-year-old sex case and its lengthy delays have been an assault on the state‘s judicial system.

The court should order an investigation of judicial misconduct in Polanski‘s original case and the filmmaker should not have to pay for it, they contended. The 76-year-old has mounting debts and has no way to earn a living while in custody, his attorneys observed.

The defense made their latest plea in response to arguments from prosecutors who say Polanski must return from Europe to face sentencing. The defense argued that the director should be sentenced in absentia to time served. The papers were filed in the California 2nd District Court of Appeal.

Polanski was arrested six months ago on a fugitive warrant from Los Angeles and is under house arrest in Switzerland.
He had served part of a 90-day period in prison ordered by the judge for a “diagnostic study.” His departure was prompted by the judge‘s private statements that he planned to renege on the agreement that the study would be Polanski‘s full sentence, according to documents filed in the case.

The original prosecutor in the case recently gave closed door testimony to that effect, the lawyers have said.

Defense lawyers Chad Hummel and Bart Dalton said that the misconduct allegations should not be buried just because the trial judge is dead and some participants are no longer in the district attorney‘s office.

Polanski, who has directed films like The Pianist and Chinatown fled the US in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.
 

MUMBAI: Former president of production at Imagine and producer Jim Whitaker has signed a first-look deal with Disney.

The pact is said to the first after Rich Ross took over as Chairman. Terms of the deal and details of the kinds of movies Whitaker would make were not disclosed.
Disney has been cutting back deals or letting some producers like Scott Rudin go with who it is in negotiations to end their deal early.

Whitaker worked at Imagine for about 16 years, starting as a summer intern in 1993 and worked his way up as production president, receiving executive producer credits on films like Friday Night Lights, American Gangster and the upcoming Robin Hood.

Whitaker left the Universal-based banner last year to direct Project Rebirth, a documentary that chronicles the rebuilding of Ground Zero and will be part of the permanent collection of the site‘s museum.

He worked with Disney on Flightplan, the 2005 Jodie Foster thriller for which he was the executive producer.