Variety Drops Todd McCarthy

Variety is dropping its chief film critic, Todd McCarthy. The New York Times reports: “Neil Stiles, the president of Variety, said the entertainment industry trade paper is cutting from its staff two of its most prominent writers — film reviewer Todd McCarthy and theater critic David Rooney. In a telephone interview, Mr. Stiles said the critics were cut as a cost-saving measure. ‘It’s economic reality,’ Mr. Stiles said. He said the paper will continue to carry the same number of reviews, but he expects them all to be done on a freelance basis. Many of the trade paper’s reviews are currently done by freelance writers.”

andy lauer posted to Industry Moves on March 8, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Littin Leaving Cinetic

After ten years, Matt Littin is leaving Cinetic Media to launch ErGo Media Capital in New York City, according to Screen International. His new venture, according to the trade paper, will provide venture capital for films, games, music, TV and new media.

eug posted to Industry Moves on February 24, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

CinemaStreet, New Production Company, Forms

Independent producer Dana Offenbach and entrepreneur Mark W. Campbell are partnering to form the production company CinemaStreet, LLC. CinemaStreet will focus on developing and producing independent feature films with low to mid-range budgets. Campbell is a former Wall Street investment banker and venture capitalist who began investing in and developing projects for film and television several years ago. Offenbach has independently produced TV commercials, shorts and feature films. CinemaStreet will look to fund its slate from various sources and already has a number of film projects in different stages of development and financing including “The Pale Horsemen,” the directorial debut of Kevin Grevioux based on the graphic novel of the same name, “Original Provisionals,” a drama about inner city youth set in the 1970s directed by Christopher Scott Cherot, and a project about J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO program and the murder of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton.

andy lauer posted to Industry Moves on February 5, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Baldauf Takes Marketing Reins at Fox Searchlight

Fox Searchlight Pictures Presidents Nancy Utley and Stephen Gilula announced today that Larry Baldauf has been named Executive Vice President of Marketing effective early March assuming the role previously held by Stephanie Allen. He will jointly manage all aspects of marketing with Executive Vice President of Marketing Michelle Hooper. They will report directly to Gilula and Utley.

Mr. Baldauf was a founding partner of Hollywood based advertising agency “Acme Trailer Company” along with Mike Camp, Stephen Grzymala, Bob Thompson and Scott Walls. Acme is working on several audio-visual campaigns, including Paramount Pictures’ “Up in the Air.” Prior to Acme Trailer Company, Mr. Baldauf was Creative Director of “The Lounge,” a boutique arm of Craig Murray Productions. While there, he managed theatrical campaigns for “Thank You For Smoking,” “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Juno.”

“Fox Searchlight is the only studio that could possibly have tempted me to leave a partnership and owner position in my own company. I have had the honor of working on many Searchlight films as a vendor, and am proud to be joining Nancy Utley, Steve Gilula, Michelle Hooper and their passionate and talented group of people,” said Baldauf in a statement. “I wish Stephanie Allen much happiness and creative fulfillment - she has set a very high creative bar to maintain. I also wish my very talented partners and good friends at Acme continued success.”

andy lauer posted to Industry Moves on February 5, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Babelgum and FilmBuff Launch New Mobile Channel

To coincide with this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Cinetic Rights Management’s digital movie label “FilmBuff” has just launched a channel on the Babelgum platform. The channel will make available a series of clips and trailers from some of the festival’s past hits, including “Slacker”, “The Order of the Myths” and “Metropolitan”.

The channel also promises to feature exclusive monthly titles, only available through Babelgum. The first to launch during the festival will be Spencer Halpin’s documentary about the video game industry, “Moral Kombat”. 

The “FilmBuff” channel is mobile, and can be accessed by simply downloading the Babelgum video app onto your iPod or iPod Touch. Plus, it’s completely free.

bryce renninger posted to Industry Moves on January 29, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)