As Mark Gill and Neil Sacker’s Film Department seeks new funding via an IPO, they’re announcing that they’re plunking down some of their remaining cash on a new script produced by Michael De Luca, the original action-comedy True Memoirs of an International Assassin, written by Jeff Morris. Why telegraph this news?
During trying times, many companies are using PR to signal to the industry that they are actively in the game.
Timing is key. While he had long closed a deal, Apparition’s Bob Berney waited until he was preparing to enter the Sundance buying fray before he alerted the indie film community that he had acquired all North American rights to The Square (the first feature from Australian stuntman-turned-director Nash Edgerton and actor/writer Joel Edgerton) for a planned April 9 opening (complete with Nash Edgerton’s internet hit short Spider). Similarly, Paramount reminded Indiewood of the still-extant Vantage label and its new low-budget film division by announcing the buy of Davis Guggenheim’s education expose Waiting for Superman at the start of the fest.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Independents, Apparition, Overture, Weinsteins, Studios, Disney/Miramax, Paramount on February 3, 2010 at 3:33pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
Ben Affleck is a happy man.
His ex-LivePlanet partner and Gone Baby Gone producer Sean Bailey, one of the brains behind Project Greenlight, has landed as head of production at Disney, replacing outgoing exec Oren Aviv. That’s because one upcoming tentpole that has sent new Disney chairman Rich Ross over the moon is Joseph Kosinki’s remake Tron Legacy, which scored big with genre fans at July’s Comic-Con. Ross had already agreed to develop a new project with Bailey and Kosinski, a remake of Disney’s 1979 sci-fi thriller The Black Hole.
Ross also approached for the gig Summit’s Erik Feig, who wasn’t willing to leave the little studio that Twilight built. Why? As an early investor in Summit, Feig stands to profit handsomely if someone buys the company.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Studios, Disney/Miramax on January 14, 2010 at 3:56pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
It’s deja vu all over again. A studio in management upheaval. A new studio head recruited from TV being directed to reinvent the wheel by a boss who is a film biz outsider.
It took Paramount’s Brad Grey several years to recover from his steep learning curve and early mistakes. He was bailed out by a canny business deal to buy DreamWorks, which eventually left the Paramount fold. But the studio still benefits from that deal, as many projects contain DreamWorks DNA, including Michael Bay’s fast-tracked Transformers 3, which Bay admits he was urged to prep for 2011 release.
As Disney acquisition Marvel will take time to ramp up its production, Disney’s new studio chief Rich Ross will need to rely on key supplier DreamWorks to buttress his slim release slate going forward. Fortunately, unlike Grey, Ross has forged a cordial relationship with DreamWorks partners Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider. For all their sakes, let’s hope it continues that way.
Ross continues to reshape the motion picture division. Inevitably, 20-year Disney vet Oren Aviv has resigned his post as production president.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, Steven Spielberg, Genres, Biopics, Sci-fi, Independents, DreamWorks, Studios, Disney/Miramax on January 12, 2010 at 4:22pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
by Anne Thompson, posted to Independents, Moguls, Studios, Disney/Miramax on January 5, 2010 at 12:05pm PST | Permalink | Comments (2)
Tim Burton was born to direct Alice in Wonderland, and Johnny Depp in Tammy Faye makeup isn’t bad casting as the Mad Hatter either. Here’s the latest trailer. Yes, I know another studio is shamelessly exploiting a brand name. But this “package” I want to see. Burton took elements from both the Lewis Carroll classic and Through the Looking Glass, including lines and imagery from The Jabberwocky. Mia Wasikowska plays Alice, Stephen Fry voices the Cheshire Cat, Anne Hathaway is the White Queen and Michael Sheen is the White Rabbit. On this film, Burton is handling more CG effects and green screen than ever before. He doesn’t do much mo-cap, mostly pure animation. Disney releases the film on March 5.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, Tim Burton, Genres, Fantasy, Studios, Disney/Miramax, Video, Trailers on December 16, 2009 at 10:50am PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
Must-Sees:
Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air has been deemed a too-dark marketing challenge. But the movie’s strength is the way it skips past conventional genre cliches while deftly taking its characters through romantic escape and isolation—and the tough economy. Paramount Pictures is one of the few studios that can market both big and little movies. Up in the Air may be on its way to some Oscar nominations: it won four awards from the National Board of Review, including best picture of the year. It’s tied with Precious for number one on the Gurus ‘O Gold. Reviews are stellar: Tomatometer: 84%. Metascore: 81.
The period biopic about Leo Tolstoy’s tumultuous last year, The Last Station, played like gangbusters at Sneak Previews last night. The marital drama starring Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer and James McAvoy scored a surprising five Independent Spirit nominations. Here’s EW’s rave. Tomatometer: 62%. Metascore: 71.
Bright Star, writer-director Jane Campion’s tragic period romance about Fanny Brawne and poet John Keats (Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw) is back in LA at Laemmle’s Royal for an Academy run. Subtle, precise, and gorgeously mounted, it’s my favorite movie of the year. Tomatometer: 83%. Metascore: 81.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Headliners, George Clooney, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Sandra Bullock, Tobey Maguire, Independents, Apparition, Reviews, Studios, Disney/Miramax, Paramount, Sony/Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Classics on December 3, 2009 at 5:00pm PST | Permalink | Comments (2)
In order to understand why Disney chief exec Bob Iger is handing the reins of the studio over to Rich Ross, all you have to do is read this Time Magazine feature on the success of Disney’s cable division. As Disney Channel chief, Ross nurtured a succession of teen stars (Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato), pushing them through the Disney system—TV show, recording contract, concert tour and merchandise—earning literally billions for the studio:
ABC is struggling, sales are way down at Disney’s theme parks and stores, most of its non-Pixar movies have been wan performers, and revenue from DVDs is shriveling. The cable networks, which in addition to the Disney Channel include ESPN, ABC Family, Soapnet and Disney XD, brought in 26% of the company’s $26.3 billion in revenue and 58% of its $4.8 billion in operating income during the nine months ending June 27. In the past three years, they have represented 80% of Disney’s revenue growth.
Since Iger took over the chairman’s reins from Michael Eisner in 2005, he has been more than willing to adapt to the changing technological landscape without regard for the way that things have been done in the past. Studio chairman Dick Cook was out the door two months ago, and after Ross took over the studio, studio president Mark Zoradi also left, followed by marketing chief Jim Gallagher. Miramax head Daniel Battsek is gone, but the specialty division was always a bit of a square peg in a round hole at Disney. The Weinsteins always chafed at corporate oversight. One could hope that this new studio management team—which has just laid off 20 more staffers—would figure out a way to reinvent the label. But that is unlikely.
Ross is overhauling the Disney studio’s marketing, distribution and operations structure.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Studios, Disney/Miramax on November 11, 2009 at 7:03pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
BAFTA LA’s Britannia Awards at the Hyatt Regency were a blast Thursday night, as the Brits handed out achievement awards to Kirk Douglas, Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, Danny Boyle and Robert De Niro. The show was far better than last year, which went on “at ass-paralyzing length,” as host Stephen Fry put it.
Ben Stiller Makes Robert De Niro Laugh
Stone-faced throughout the night, De Niro cracked up (along with the rest of the room) as Stiller tweaked him, saying that he was “voted the least likely to twitter,” and admitted that during the Little Fockers sequel, he had given him a shot of adrenaline in his penis. “I’ve seen him fall asleep during a take,” he said. “He was jet-lagged from opening Nobu Antarctica. Even when he sleeps he’s more interesting than most others.”
For his part, De Niro described himself as the “quintessential British actor,” reserved and witty. He imagined doing Taxi Driver as a Brit. “I say, are you speaking to me?” In a more sober moment he said, “I want to thank what’s left of Miramax for their faith in Everybody’s Fine. I got a message to call back after the holidays.”
[More photos on the jump]
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, BAFTA, Headliners, Chris Pine, Studios, Disney/Miramax on November 6, 2009 at 12:52pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
Just weeks after Disney announced that Miramax was scaling back to three releases a year (what’s the point?), the specialty unit’s president, Daniel Battsek, 50, is exiting the company. This is not a surprise, except that like former Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, Battsek was a company man (18 years). He had been rewarded by Cook for years of service with the Miramax gig in the first place, replacing the Weinsteins in 2005. He had run Disney’s distribution arm in the U.K. But with his protector gone, he was soon out the door.
New Disney Studios chairman Rich Ross said in a statement:
“With the change in direction at Miramax, we have reached a mutual agreement with Daniel Battsek that he will leave his post as president, effective January 2010. During his 18 years of service, he has brought some very prestigious and award-winning films to the studio from ‘Calendar Girls’ to ‘The Queen’ to ‘No Country for Old Men.’ We wish Daniel the very best on his future endeavors.”
Updates, analysis and Battsek’s letter to his staff are on the jump.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Studios, Disney/Miramax on October 30, 2009 at 12:14pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (4)
Disney chairman Bob Iger has finally announced that Disney Channel star Rich Ross, a 13-year Disney veteran, will replace Dick Cook as chairman of Walt Disney Studios. As studio chief he will supervise worldwide production, distribution and marketing of the Walt Disney, Touchstone, Miramax and Disney/Pixar labels. He will also take on Disney’s theater and music groups.
The release is on the jump.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Studios, Disney/Miramax on October 5, 2009 at 2:37pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
Anne Thompson does more than just break news; she provides an insider’s clear-eyed analysis of a business that defines culture at home and abroad.
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