Re-releases reliably dot the theatrical calendar and this week have a standout. Oldboy, the 2004 Cannes prize-winner, re-released by Neon on its 20th anniversary restored and remastered, grossed $235k on Wednesday and $150k Thursday — for a total cume $385k on 250 screens heading into the weekend.
San Francisco, NYC and LA, led by Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, are the top-performing cities so far for Park Chan-wook’s classic film — the first screening in U.S. theaters since its original North American release in 2005.
Oldboy follows Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik), who, after being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, is released but must find his captor in five days. The critically acclaimed film is the second installment of Park’s The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and followed by Lady Vengeance (2005). Oldboy won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. It grossed $15 million worldwide, and saw...
San Francisco, NYC and LA, led by Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, are the top-performing cities so far for Park Chan-wook’s classic film — the first screening in U.S. theaters since its original North American release in 2005.
Oldboy follows Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik), who, after being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, is released but must find his captor in five days. The critically acclaimed film is the second installment of Park’s The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and followed by Lady Vengeance (2005). Oldboy won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. It grossed $15 million worldwide, and saw...
- 8/18/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Two-time BAFTA nominee Maxine Peake (The Village) is set to star as renowned Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in the timely Cannes market package Mother Russia.
The film will tell the story of world-renowned journalist and human rights activist Politkovskaya, who went from being a local print journalist to braving the Chechen killing fields and exposing Russian state corruption under Vladimir Putin. She refused to give up reporting on the war in Chechnya despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence, including being poisoned. She was ultimately murdered in the elevator of her block of flats and it remains unclear who paid for the contract killing.
Oscar nominee Ciaran Hinds (Belfast) will play Nobel Prize-winning newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov and BAFTA nominee Jason Isaacs (The Death Of Stalin) will play Politkovskaya’s husband Sacha.
Luminosity Entertainment is launching worldwide sales on the project at the Cannes market.
Pic is being produced...
The film will tell the story of world-renowned journalist and human rights activist Politkovskaya, who went from being a local print journalist to braving the Chechen killing fields and exposing Russian state corruption under Vladimir Putin. She refused to give up reporting on the war in Chechnya despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence, including being poisoned. She was ultimately murdered in the elevator of her block of flats and it remains unclear who paid for the contract killing.
Oscar nominee Ciaran Hinds (Belfast) will play Nobel Prize-winning newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov and BAFTA nominee Jason Isaacs (The Death Of Stalin) will play Politkovskaya’s husband Sacha.
Luminosity Entertainment is launching worldwide sales on the project at the Cannes market.
Pic is being produced...
- 5/13/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Rapper and actor Ice Cube’s Cube Vision has signed a multi-picture production deal with Back on the Strip firm Luminosity Entertainment, in association with 5120 Entertainment and SmokeyScreen.
The pair will co-produce feature films and TV series and the first is comedy Cube in My Head.
This follows a hapless white guy, who begins to hear the voice of Ice Cube in his head after an accident and starts to turn his life around. It’s being packaged now, with production scheduled for later this year.
Ben Hurwitz will be overseeing the project for Cube Vision.
Jeff Kwatinetz and Matt Johnson negotiated the deal on behalf of Cube Vision and Elie Samaha and Geno Taylor did the same for Luminosity.
“Excited to be working with Elie and his team to make some great movies, especially this one. Who couldn’t use me in their head?” said Cube.
“It is a...
The pair will co-produce feature films and TV series and the first is comedy Cube in My Head.
This follows a hapless white guy, who begins to hear the voice of Ice Cube in his head after an accident and starts to turn his life around. It’s being packaged now, with production scheduled for later this year.
Ben Hurwitz will be overseeing the project for Cube Vision.
Jeff Kwatinetz and Matt Johnson negotiated the deal on behalf of Cube Vision and Elie Samaha and Geno Taylor did the same for Luminosity.
“Excited to be working with Elie and his team to make some great movies, especially this one. Who couldn’t use me in their head?” said Cube.
“It is a...
- 5/12/2022
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
J.K. Simmons, Forest Whitaker, Sarah Silverman among narrators.
Luminosity Entertainment will kick off world sales in Cannes on Assaf Ben Shetrit’s documentary Prophets Of Change examining the lives of musicians and activists from both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and featuring all all-star roster of narrators.
President Daniel Diamond announced the acquisition on Tuesday (May 10) and said, “Assaf has crafted an enormously inspiring film about extraordinary human beings who find a way to break a cycle of decades of distrust and fear to create unlikely friendships and extraordinary music. This is exactly the movie the world needs right now.
Luminosity Entertainment will kick off world sales in Cannes on Assaf Ben Shetrit’s documentary Prophets Of Change examining the lives of musicians and activists from both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and featuring all all-star roster of narrators.
President Daniel Diamond announced the acquisition on Tuesday (May 10) and said, “Assaf has crafted an enormously inspiring film about extraordinary human beings who find a way to break a cycle of decades of distrust and fear to create unlikely friendships and extraordinary music. This is exactly the movie the world needs right now.
- 5/10/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Luminosity Entertainment is teaming up with Dean Altit’s Altit Media Group and Kia Jam’s K.Jam Media to finance and co-produce Bot Wars, a sci-fi tentpole film based on the novels of the same name by J.V. Kade, which will be directed by Alexander Kiesl and Steffen Hacker.
The Bot Wars books tell the story of how mankind was brought to the brink of extinction by waging war against Artificial Intelligence and sentient Robots, and how human ingenuity and the primal instinct to survive led to mankind’s ultimate victory. A writer for the film has not yet been attached.
“The world and characters brought to life in J.V. Kade’s novels are tremendously original, thrilling and thought provoking,” said Luminosity’s Daniel Diamond. “We are very excited to be working with Dean and Kia in bringing Alexander and Steffen’s vision of this incredible story to the big screen.
The Bot Wars books tell the story of how mankind was brought to the brink of extinction by waging war against Artificial Intelligence and sentient Robots, and how human ingenuity and the primal instinct to survive led to mankind’s ultimate victory. A writer for the film has not yet been attached.
“The world and characters brought to life in J.V. Kade’s novels are tremendously original, thrilling and thought provoking,” said Luminosity’s Daniel Diamond. “We are very excited to be working with Dean and Kia in bringing Alexander and Steffen’s vision of this incredible story to the big screen.
- 12/6/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Elie Samaha, Missy Valdez, Geno Taylor and Daniel Diamond’s newly launched Luminosity Entertainment have set their first movie, the comedy Back on the Strip, starring Wesley Snipes and Tiffany Haddish.
Luminosity will finance, produce and distribute feature films theatrically in the U.S. and handle foreign sales.
Back on the Strip reps the theatrical directorial debut of Chris Spencer, the creator and EP of Real Husbands of Hollywood and EP and scribe of Grown-ish. It follows a young man, Merlin (Spence Moore II), who moves to Las Vegas to pursue his dream of becoming a magician after losing the woman of his dreams. But when a costume malfunction reveals his physical “gifts,” he is recruited to become the frontman of an infamous male revue group. The comedy chronicles a series of escapades as Merlin tries to achieve magician success, pursuing his dream girl and finding family in the process.
Luminosity will finance, produce and distribute feature films theatrically in the U.S. and handle foreign sales.
Back on the Strip reps the theatrical directorial debut of Chris Spencer, the creator and EP of Real Husbands of Hollywood and EP and scribe of Grown-ish. It follows a young man, Merlin (Spence Moore II), who moves to Las Vegas to pursue his dream of becoming a magician after losing the woman of his dreams. But when a costume malfunction reveals his physical “gifts,” he is recruited to become the frontman of an infamous male revue group. The comedy chronicles a series of escapades as Merlin tries to achieve magician success, pursuing his dream girl and finding family in the process.
- 10/19/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Elie Samaha’s Luminosity Entertainment and Mike Karz’s Gulfstream Pictures have snagged the worldwide rights to Abner Benaim’s dramatic thriller, “Plaza Catedral.”
The deal, forged by Luminosity partner and co-president Daniel Diamond and Karz, closed just ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (Ficg) on Oct. 3. “Plaza Catedral” is in competition at Ficg’s main category, the Mezcal Awards.
“Plaza Catedral is a very powerful, moving film with superb performances and outstanding direction by Benaim. We are proud to be a part of bringing this film to worldwide audiences,” said Diamond.
This is the first non-English pickup by Luminosity, which was launched in September. “I haven’t represented many, if any, non English-language films but audiences in the U.S. and around the world are demonstrating their interest in content of all nationalities and languages, as evidenced by the success of shows like ‘Lupin,...
The deal, forged by Luminosity partner and co-president Daniel Diamond and Karz, closed just ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (Ficg) on Oct. 3. “Plaza Catedral” is in competition at Ficg’s main category, the Mezcal Awards.
“Plaza Catedral is a very powerful, moving film with superb performances and outstanding direction by Benaim. We are proud to be a part of bringing this film to worldwide audiences,” said Diamond.
This is the first non-English pickup by Luminosity, which was launched in September. “I haven’t represented many, if any, non English-language films but audiences in the U.S. and around the world are demonstrating their interest in content of all nationalities and languages, as evidenced by the success of shows like ‘Lupin,...
- 10/3/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: One of Hollywood’s most colorful characters of recent decades, Elie Samaha, is making a comeback with L.A.-based Luminosity Entertainment.
Samaha, entrepreneur and producer of movies including The Whole Nine Yards, Battlefield Earth and The Pledge, is joining forces with fellow industry vets Daniel Diamond and Geno Taylor at Luminosity, which will look to finance, produce and distribute movies in the U.S., as well as handle international sales.
The company tells us it plans to develop and produce 15 films over the next two years, with budgets up to $50M per title. Genres will include action, thriller, urban, faith-based, comedy, family, fantasy and sci-fi with an eye toward diversity and global appeal.
Financing for the company includes investments by Samaha, Steven Markoff, Sherwin Jarol and Dr. David Wood. The Board of Advisors includes former Warner Bros Domestic Distribution President Dan Fellman, former William Morris Chairman Jim Wiatt...
Samaha, entrepreneur and producer of movies including The Whole Nine Yards, Battlefield Earth and The Pledge, is joining forces with fellow industry vets Daniel Diamond and Geno Taylor at Luminosity, which will look to finance, produce and distribute movies in the U.S., as well as handle international sales.
The company tells us it plans to develop and produce 15 films over the next two years, with budgets up to $50M per title. Genres will include action, thriller, urban, faith-based, comedy, family, fantasy and sci-fi with an eye toward diversity and global appeal.
Financing for the company includes investments by Samaha, Steven Markoff, Sherwin Jarol and Dr. David Wood. The Board of Advisors includes former Warner Bros Domestic Distribution President Dan Fellman, former William Morris Chairman Jim Wiatt...
- 9/23/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
In today’s film news roundup, Cim Group sells Hollywood & Highland but retains the Dolby Theatre, “The Matrix” gets re-released and the comedy “Straight Up” gets bought.
Property Sale
Cim Group has sold the Hollywood & Highland retail-entertainment center to Gaw Capital and Djm while retaining ownership of the Dolby Theatre, site of the Academy Awards.
Cim acquired the Hollywood & Highland complex in 2004, three years after it debuted. It also signed a 20-year contract in 2012 with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to maintain the annual Academy Awards at the Dolby and recently made a programming deal with the Hollywood Pantages Theatre to bring Broadway shows to the Dolby.
Gaw Captial and Djm said Monday that they plan to renovate Hollywood & Highland over the next 24 to 30 months. The deal does not include the adjacent Tcl Chinese Theatre, owned by Elie Samaha and a consortium of investors.
“The retail landscape has shifted,...
Property Sale
Cim Group has sold the Hollywood & Highland retail-entertainment center to Gaw Capital and Djm while retaining ownership of the Dolby Theatre, site of the Academy Awards.
Cim acquired the Hollywood & Highland complex in 2004, three years after it debuted. It also signed a 20-year contract in 2012 with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to maintain the annual Academy Awards at the Dolby and recently made a programming deal with the Hollywood Pantages Theatre to bring Broadway shows to the Dolby.
Gaw Captial and Djm said Monday that they plan to renovate Hollywood & Highland over the next 24 to 30 months. The deal does not include the adjacent Tcl Chinese Theatre, owned by Elie Samaha and a consortium of investors.
“The retail landscape has shifted,...
- 8/6/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Filmmaker Joe Dante is cherished in the horror community for his wonderful work on films such as Gremlins, The Howling, and The ’Burbs, but perhaps one of his more under-seen (and recent) movies is The Hole. Through their multi-media brand Untold Horror, Dave Alexander and Mark Pollesel are looking to change that by celebrating Dante's 2009 fantasy horror film with a 3D screening at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday, November 30th, including a Q&A with Dante hosted by fellow filmmaker John Landis.
For more information, visit Fandango and Tcl Chinese Theatre online, and read on for the full announcement of The Hole screening and Q&A, which is expected to be the first of multiple Untold Horror events.
From the Press Release: Hollywood, CA - A rare 3-D screening of Joe Dante’s 2009 young adult horror classic The Hole will be held on November 30, 2018, at Hollywood’s legendary Tcl Chinese Theatre.
For more information, visit Fandango and Tcl Chinese Theatre online, and read on for the full announcement of The Hole screening and Q&A, which is expected to be the first of multiple Untold Horror events.
From the Press Release: Hollywood, CA - A rare 3-D screening of Joe Dante’s 2009 young adult horror classic The Hole will be held on November 30, 2018, at Hollywood’s legendary Tcl Chinese Theatre.
- 11/27/2018
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Pandas are beloved around the world, and now they are coming to the big screen in the IMAX® original film “Pandas,” a breathtaking documentary adventure and amazing experience for the whole family narrated by Kristen Bell (“Frozen,” TV’s “The Good Place”).
At Chengdu Panda Base in China, scientists are taking the captive breeding program to the next level and preparing captive-born cubs for the wild. This film follows one such researcher, whose passion leads her to initiate a new technique inspired by a black bear rehabilitator in rural New Hampshire. What starts as a cross-cultural collaboration becomes a life-changing journey for one special panda named Qian Qian. The film, captured with IMAX® cameras, follows Qian Qian on an exciting new adventure into the mountains of Sichuan as she experiences nature for the first time and discovers her wild side.
David Douglas and Drew Fellman, the filmmakers behind “Born to be Wild...
At Chengdu Panda Base in China, scientists are taking the captive breeding program to the next level and preparing captive-born cubs for the wild. This film follows one such researcher, whose passion leads her to initiate a new technique inspired by a black bear rehabilitator in rural New Hampshire. What starts as a cross-cultural collaboration becomes a life-changing journey for one special panda named Qian Qian. The film, captured with IMAX® cameras, follows Qian Qian on an exciting new adventure into the mountains of Sichuan as she experiences nature for the first time and discovers her wild side.
David Douglas and Drew Fellman, the filmmakers behind “Born to be Wild...
- 3/27/2018
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Exclusive: Paul Becker directs the story of a homeless dancer and his brother.
Premiere Entertainment Group (Peg) has acquired international sales rights to the family holiday film Breaking Brooklyn.
Louis Gossett Jr and newcomer Colin Critchley, Nathan Kress and Madeleine Mantock star in the story about a homeless young dancer and his brother who are taken in by an old Broadway showman when their father is arrested.
When one of the young men learns that their new guardian could lose his theatre, they enter a dance contest to save it.
Paul Becker directs and Elie Samaha, Donald Kushner and Missy Valdez are the producers.
Peg CEO Elias Axume launches sales in Berlin at the European Film Market (Efm) this week and brokered the rights acquisition with Samaha.
The sales slate includes psychological thriller You Were Never Here starring Mireille Enos and Sam Shepard; crime drama The Preppie Connection; and family drama We Don’t Belong Here with Catherine Keener...
Premiere Entertainment Group (Peg) has acquired international sales rights to the family holiday film Breaking Brooklyn.
Louis Gossett Jr and newcomer Colin Critchley, Nathan Kress and Madeleine Mantock star in the story about a homeless young dancer and his brother who are taken in by an old Broadway showman when their father is arrested.
When one of the young men learns that their new guardian could lose his theatre, they enter a dance contest to save it.
Paul Becker directs and Elie Samaha, Donald Kushner and Missy Valdez are the producers.
Peg CEO Elias Axume launches sales in Berlin at the European Film Market (Efm) this week and brokered the rights acquisition with Samaha.
The sales slate includes psychological thriller You Were Never Here starring Mireille Enos and Sam Shepard; crime drama The Preppie Connection; and family drama We Don’t Belong Here with Catherine Keener...
- 2/10/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Lisa Vanderpump and husband Ken Todd have been mixed up in a gay bar brawl! The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills stars were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by Ryan Carrillo and Andrew Gruver, who claim that they planned to open a sports-themed gay bar, only to have the location "stolen" by Vanderpump and Todd via underhanded paperwork. In the lawsuit (obtained by The Wrap), filed by Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, Aug. 14, Carrillo and Gruver claim they partnered with producer Elie Samaha, [...]...
- 8/15/2013
- Us Weekly
Hollywood’s iconic Chinese Theatre is about to get an internal makeover that will transform it into an Imax auditorium. Imax, the Toronto-based large-screen theater company, has struck a deal with the owners of the Chinese, but declined to comment on the high-profile move into the landmark Hollywood Blvd. property pending necessary city approvals for the project. Nightclub operator-turned-film producer Elie Samaha and producer Don Kushner bought The Chinese Theatre, which was originally built in 1927 as Grauman's Chinese Theatre, from Warner Bros. and Viacom in 2011. In January, Chinese TV manufacturer Tcl purchased naming rights
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- 4/12/2013
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This story first appeared in the March 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. When Donald Kushner began building a second home on top of a mountain deep in West Malibu, he had no idea it was going to be so big. "From the plans my architect showed me, I thought it looked quite modest," says Kushner, 67, a film producer (Tron, Monster, Tron: Legacy) and an owner of the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. He also is a partner in several L.A. bars and clubs, including Lure, Hemingways and Roxbury, with his Chinese Theatre co-owner, producer Elie Samaha.
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- 3/8/2013
- by Mallery Roberts Morgan
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Eighty-five years after the iconic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opened on Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, the favorite spot for both A-list Hollywood premieres and gawking tourists will now be named the TCL Chinese Theater, after a television manufacturer based in — you guessed it — China.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Chinese firm (whose name stands for “The Creative Life”) has signed a 10-year deal worth more than $5 million for the naming rights to the theater, which is owned by producers Donald Kushner (Tron: Legacy) and Elie Samaha (The Whole Nine Yards). Officially unveiled Friday morning, the deal includes...
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Chinese firm (whose name stands for “The Creative Life”) has signed a 10-year deal worth more than $5 million for the naming rights to the theater, which is owned by producers Donald Kushner (Tron: Legacy) and Elie Samaha (The Whole Nine Yards). Officially unveiled Friday morning, the deal includes...
- 1/11/2013
- by Adam B. Vary
- EW - Inside Movies
Grauman's Chinese Theatre, one of Hollywood's most venerable landmarks, is getting a new name. Grauman's is being rechristened Tcl Chinese Theatre after Chinese electronics company Tcl purchased naming rights to the movie palace, an individual with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap. The Los Angeles Times, which first broke the news, reported that Tcl forked over $5 million for rights to have its name emblazoned above the theater. The money will be used to upgrade the theater's sound system and projector and for other refurbishments, the individual said. Producers Elie Samaha and Donald...
- 1/11/2013
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
Over the years, Battlefield Earth has not so quietly carved out its own little niche as being one of the worst movies ever made. It's another one of those stories about a movie with a huge budget that tanked when it hit theaters, but it didn't take long for us to realize this wasn't just another stinker. It was a monumental stinker. It was pitched as "Planet of the Apes starring John Travolta," and instead it was just a comically awful movie starring John Travolta and a planet full of dreadlocks. There are plenty of reasons why it's on all those lists about really bad movies. Here's one... After the film became one of this nation's greatest big-screen tragedies, producer Elie Samaha admitted that "everyone" thought...
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- 1/3/2013
- by Erik Davis
- Movies.com
Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa, the Desert Hot Springs property that had a cameo in Robert Altman’s 1992 film The Player, has been sold to Hollywood buyers. Along with real estate investor Gidi Cohen, the 270-acre property was acquired by producers Steve Markoff and Donald Kushner and entrepreneur Elie Samaha — the trio who bought Grauman’s Chinese Theatre last year. According to Coachella Valley real estate sources, the buyers paid less than $10 million for the property, which is said to have been built in the 1920s by Al Capone and served as his West Coast hideout. Photos: Hollywood's Biggest
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- 2/22/2012
- by Daniel Miller
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
I’d heard a few months ago that London tenpercenter Duncan Heath and investor Ron Burkle were talking. But when it comes to the agent, that’s all he ever does is talk, talk, talk. He’s been looking for a financial rescuer for his Independent Talent Group (aka Independent Talent Agency, formerly ICM-uk) for seemingly forever — something Heath’s own statement accompanying today’s news readily admits. Frankly, I washed my hands of Heath a long time ago after he flunked my truthfulness test. So now he and Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies have consummated a deal. Exactly how Burkle is picking his showbiz partners remains a real mystery to me and others. Ryan Kavanaugh? Duncan Heath? Who’s next — James Robinson? Elie Samaha? David Bergstein?...
- 2/8/2012
- by NIKKI FINKE
- Deadline TV
Update: Duncan Heath responds to what I wrote: “So I guess you don’t like me. That’s Ok. On a personal level, one probably has to bite the bullet — that’s just life. But I cannot keep quiet when it involves Independent Talent and its finances. The company did not need a ‘financial rescuer’ and never has. The finances of the company are incredibly robust. As our press release clearly states, we want to expand the business, and Yucaipa and Ron Burkle are going to help us do just that.” Previous: I’d heard a few months ago that London tenpercenter Duncan Heath and investor Ron Burkle were talking. But when it comes to the agent, that’s all he ever does is talk, talk, talk. He’s been looking for a financial rescuer for his Independent Talent Group (aka Independent Talent Agency, formerly ICM-uk) for seemingly forever — something...
- 2/8/2012
- by NIKKI FINKE
- Deadline Hollywood
Not long after they acquired the lease to Grauman's Chinese Theatre in April, Elie Samaha and Donald Kushner paid a courtesy call to the captain of the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Division. "She said, 'I heard you're changing [the theater] to a nightclub,' " recalls Samaha, who with Kushner also operates eight clubs and several restaurants in and around Hollywood. "I said, 'Over my dead body!' " Instead, the duo is revamping the iconic yet troubled home to eight decades of movie premieres, as well as the hand- and footprints of nearly 200 stars, from Clark Gable to
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- 1/6/2012
- by Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On Jan. 26, the King of Pop’s prints will be immortalized on Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. In a rare public appearance, Michael Jackson’s three children—Prince, Paris and Blanket—will use a pair of their father’s shoes and one of his famous sequined gloves to mark the cement on the famous walk. The event, presented by the theater’s new owners Donald Kushner and Elie Samaha, will even include a tribute performance from the cast of the Cirque du Soleil show, “Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour.” The show is also running at the Staples Centre in Los...
- 1/6/2012
- Pastemagazine.com
Elie Samaha, a former dry cleaner with a spotty track record in Hollywood, and Don Kushner, executive producer of "Tron: Legacy," have agreed to buy Grauman's Chinese Theater, according to the L.A. Times.
The paper said that a partnership between Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures parent Viacom Inc. has signed an agreement to sell the iconic theater on Hollywood Boulevard for an undisclosed sum.
The sale, expected to close May 20, includes the Mann Chinese 6 multiplex.
Read more at the L.A. Times...
The paper said that a partnership between Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures parent Viacom Inc. has signed an agreement to sell the iconic theater on Hollywood Boulevard for an undisclosed sum.
The sale, expected to close May 20, includes the Mann Chinese 6 multiplex.
Read more at the L.A. Times...
- 4/28/2011
- The Wrap
"Wayne's World" star Tia Carrere is single again after finalising her divorce from her husband of eight years. The actress filed papers in April, citing irreconcilable differences for the breakdown of her marriage to her second husband, photographer Simon Wakelin.
A judge at Los Angeles County Superior Court finalised their divorce this week, and the former couple will reportedly share custody of their four-year-old daughter, Bianca. Carrere and Wakelin divided up their assets according to their pre-nuptial agreement and the actress also agreed to split the rights to a movie script she is working on, which is due to go into production later this year, reports TMZ.com.
Tia Carrere wed Simon Wakelin on New Year's Eve, December 31 in 2002. When first filing for divorce, she was asking for sole custody of the couple's four-year-old daughter, Bianca. The actress' first marriage to Elie Samaha also ended in divorce after seven years.
A judge at Los Angeles County Superior Court finalised their divorce this week, and the former couple will reportedly share custody of their four-year-old daughter, Bianca. Carrere and Wakelin divided up their assets according to their pre-nuptial agreement and the actress also agreed to split the rights to a movie script she is working on, which is due to go into production later this year, reports TMZ.com.
Tia Carrere wed Simon Wakelin on New Year's Eve, December 31 in 2002. When first filing for divorce, she was asking for sole custody of the couple's four-year-old daughter, Bianca. The actress' first marriage to Elie Samaha also ended in divorce after seven years.
- 8/20/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Ronald Tutor has always loved going to the movies.
As a child growing up in a close-knit Armenian-American family in the San Fernando Valley, he not only saw films but got a taste of business through his mother, who for a time headed the ladies' wardrobe department at Universal Studios. Eventually, however, he followed his father into the construction business, where he went on to make his fortune.
Now Tutor, who is chairman and CEO of Tutor Perini construction, has committed to personally investing about $200 million in partnership with Colony Capital and others to purchase Miramax Films from Disney for more than $650 million.
In an exclusive interview with THR, Tutor unleashed a bombshell: There will be no role in the new theatrical distribution company for the controversial David Bergstein, with whom Tutor has been investing in movies and movie companies for the past seven years.
In a rare, wide-ranging discussion...
As a child growing up in a close-knit Armenian-American family in the San Fernando Valley, he not only saw films but got a taste of business through his mother, who for a time headed the ladies' wardrobe department at Universal Studios. Eventually, however, he followed his father into the construction business, where he went on to make his fortune.
Now Tutor, who is chairman and CEO of Tutor Perini construction, has committed to personally investing about $200 million in partnership with Colony Capital and others to purchase Miramax Films from Disney for more than $650 million.
In an exclusive interview with THR, Tutor unleashed a bombshell: There will be no role in the new theatrical distribution company for the controversial David Bergstein, with whom Tutor has been investing in movies and movie companies for the past seven years.
In a rare, wide-ranging discussion...
- 7/11/2010
- by By Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Wayne's World" star Tia Carrere has filed for divorce from her husband Simon Wakelin. The 43-year-old actress has been married to the photo journalist for seven years.
Carrere apparently filed the papers in person at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, according to TMZ. She cited irreconcilable differences as reason for the split. She wants sole physical custody of their 4-year-old daughter Bianca. Her divorce papers show they have a prenuptial agreement.
The couple married in November 2002.
This is Carrere's second marriage. She was previously married to "Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000" producer Elie Samaha from 1992 to 2000.
Carrere apparently filed the papers in person at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, according to TMZ. She cited irreconcilable differences as reason for the split. She wants sole physical custody of their 4-year-old daughter Bianca. Her divorce papers show they have a prenuptial agreement.
The couple married in November 2002.
This is Carrere's second marriage. She was previously married to "Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000" producer Elie Samaha from 1992 to 2000.
- 4/5/2010
- icelebz.com
Tia Carrere has filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, according to People.
The mag reported that the former "Wayne's World" beauty has split from Simon Wakelin, her husband of seven years.
The former couple reportedly has a prenup.
It's the second divorce for the actress, who was formerly married to producer Elie Samaha.
Carrere and Wakelin have a daughter, Bianca, 4, who the star is reportedly seeking sole physical custody of.
Instead of hiring a lawyer, Carrere is reportedly handling the attorney duties herself.
Copyright 2010 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This ...
The mag reported that the former "Wayne's World" beauty has split from Simon Wakelin, her husband of seven years.
The former couple reportedly has a prenup.
It's the second divorce for the actress, who was formerly married to producer Elie Samaha.
Carrere and Wakelin have a daughter, Bianca, 4, who the star is reportedly seeking sole physical custody of.
Instead of hiring a lawyer, Carrere is reportedly handling the attorney duties herself.
Copyright 2010 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This ...
- 4/3/2010
- by AccessHollywood.com Editorial Staff
- Access Hollywood
"Wayne's World" star Tia Carrere has filed for divorce to end her seven-year marriage. The actress filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, April 2, citing irreconcilable differences for the split.
She wed photographer Simon Wakelin, her second husband, on New Year's Eve, December 31 in 2002. Carrere is asking for sole custody of the couple's four-year-old daughter, Bianca. The actress' first marriage to Elie Samaha also ended in divorce after seven years. She split from the producer in 2000.
Additionally, the 43-year-old actress' divorce paper also cited that the couple has a prenuptial agreement, as People reported.
Tia Carrere will be seen in romantic comedy movie "You May Not Kiss the Bride", which is slated for this year release. In the film, Carrere stars opposite Dave Annable, Katharine McPhee, Rob Schneider and Vinnie Jones.
She wed photographer Simon Wakelin, her second husband, on New Year's Eve, December 31 in 2002. Carrere is asking for sole custody of the couple's four-year-old daughter, Bianca. The actress' first marriage to Elie Samaha also ended in divorce after seven years. She split from the producer in 2000.
Additionally, the 43-year-old actress' divorce paper also cited that the couple has a prenuptial agreement, as People reported.
Tia Carrere will be seen in romantic comedy movie "You May Not Kiss the Bride", which is slated for this year release. In the film, Carrere stars opposite Dave Annable, Katharine McPhee, Rob Schneider and Vinnie Jones.
- 4/3/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Wayne's World star Tia Carrere has filed for divorce to end her seven-year marriage.
The actress filed papers in Los Angeles on Friday, citing irreconcilable differences for the split.
She wed photographer Simon Wakelin, her second husband, on New Year's Eve (31Dec) in 2002.
Carrere is asking for sole custody of the couple's four-year-old daughter, Bianca.
The actress' first marriage to Elie Samaha also ended in divorce after seven years. She split from the producer in 2000.
The actress filed papers in Los Angeles on Friday, citing irreconcilable differences for the split.
She wed photographer Simon Wakelin, her second husband, on New Year's Eve (31Dec) in 2002.
Carrere is asking for sole custody of the couple's four-year-old daughter, Bianca.
The actress' first marriage to Elie Samaha also ended in divorce after seven years. She split from the producer in 2000.
- 4/3/2010
- WENN
Tia Carrere's seven-year marriage to a British photojournalist is coming to an end. The Wayne's World star, 43, who is acting as her own attorney, filed for divorce from Simon Wakelin in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday, seeking sole physical custody of their daughter, Bianca, 4. Her divorce papers, which cite irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split, show the couple has a prenuptial agreement.This is the second marriage to end in divorce for Carrere, who split from producer Elie Samaha in 2000. A rep for Carrere wasn't immediately available for comment. Get a sneak peek of this week's issue...
- 4/2/2010
- by Ken Lee
- PEOPLE.com
As writer-director Troy Duffy recalls it, the cast and crew of The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day were more than a tad nervous when they began work on their Boston-set, vigilante-action sequel. “Everybody was terrified to be the guy that screwed it up,” he says of the Toronto shoot for his movie, which is released October 30. “They knew the fans would find out where they lived and burn their f—-ing house to the ground." If you've never heard of Troy Duffy or his films you’re not alone. The Boondock Saints, a violent slice of Tarantino-esque Irishsploitation, was...
- 10/22/2009
- by Clark Collis
- EW.com - PopWatch
Cologne, Germany -- Intertainment, the rights group controlled by ex-Kinowelt heads Michael and Rainer Kolmel, continues to bleed red ink.
According to preliminary figures released Monday, the operation lost €4.7 million ($6.7 million) in 2008 on virtually nonexistent revenue of less than $1 million.
Intertainment exists solely to pursue a series of legal actions linked to its 2004 fraud trial against Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures.
While Intertainment was awarded $122 million in that case, it has collected only a small fraction of the cash. Intertainment has litigation ongoing against Comercia Bank, which approved Franchise's dodgy budgets, with the trial set to start in April next year.
According to preliminary figures released Monday, the operation lost €4.7 million ($6.7 million) in 2008 on virtually nonexistent revenue of less than $1 million.
Intertainment exists solely to pursue a series of legal actions linked to its 2004 fraud trial against Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures.
While Intertainment was awarded $122 million in that case, it has collected only a small fraction of the cash. Intertainment has litigation ongoing against Comercia Bank, which approved Franchise's dodgy budgets, with the trial set to start in April next year.
- 8/31/2009
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Billy Bob Thornton is attached to star in the boxing drama “Pound for Pound,” based on a book by F.X. Toole, the author of the book that became the hit “Million Dollar Baby.” The film follows the two stories of an aged former fighter who struggles with depression, age, and the death of his son, as well as the struggles and rise of a young Latino boxer, and how their two lives eventually intertwine. Ron Shelton is writing and directing, with Elie Samaha executive producing. Leslie Greif and Herb Nanas are producing via Greif Company. “Pound For Poud” is hoping to begin shooting in the beginning [...]...
- 8/22/2009
- by Costa Koutsoutis
- ShockYa
Million Dollar Billy Bob?
Billy Bob Thornton is attached to star in "Pound for Pound," a boxing drama based on a novel from F.X. Toole, the author of the book that became "Million Dollar Baby."
Ron Shelton will write and direct the indie film, which Leslie Greif and Herb Nanas are producing via their Greif Company banner. Elie Samaha will exec produce.
The project centers on the parallel lives of a retired and widowed boxer beset by depression after his grandson is killed in a car accident and an up-and-coming teenage Latino fighter from a difficult background. The lives of the two intersect in unexpected ways. Thornton will play the retired boxer, while producers are out to cast on the younger role. The project aims to shoot in the first quarter of 2010.
Producers say that despite the dark undertones, there remains an optimistic note to the pic. "Unlike 'Million Dollar Baby,...
Billy Bob Thornton is attached to star in "Pound for Pound," a boxing drama based on a novel from F.X. Toole, the author of the book that became "Million Dollar Baby."
Ron Shelton will write and direct the indie film, which Leslie Greif and Herb Nanas are producing via their Greif Company banner. Elie Samaha will exec produce.
The project centers on the parallel lives of a retired and widowed boxer beset by depression after his grandson is killed in a car accident and an up-and-coming teenage Latino fighter from a difficult background. The lives of the two intersect in unexpected ways. Thornton will play the retired boxer, while producers are out to cast on the younger role. The project aims to shoot in the first quarter of 2010.
Producers say that despite the dark undertones, there remains an optimistic note to the pic. "Unlike 'Million Dollar Baby,...
- 8/20/2009
- by By Steven Zeitchik
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There’s a new playhouse in Hollywood and it’s making a lot of noise. New York nightlife impresario Rob Vinokur, who brought you Crobar and Elie Samaha, have successfully launched Hollywood's most buzzed about, first South Beach style nightclub in Los Angeles, Playhouse Hollywood. Playhouse debuted on July 9th, and it's unlike any other Los Angeles club. The space can hold over 1,000 party animals and a lighting system that will remind you of any Las Vegas club. There will also be a 24-hour diner, Sweet Love Hangover, connected to Playhouse and located in the...
- 7/20/2009
- Hollyscoop.com
He's been called an unabashed Hollywood hustler. Sordid tales of unpaid vendors, lawsuits, layoffs and movie shutdowns have dogged him in the year and a half since he took over specialty distributor ThinkFilm and foreign sales agent Capitol Film.
Yet David Bergstein is unperturbed.
"There is always an adjective that precedes us: 'Beleaguered,' 'financially distressed,' " Bergstein said recently from his plush new offices in the Fox Plaza in Century City, with a hint of an accent from his native New York. "And none of these people know anything."
What is known is that after a summer in which ThinkFilm has been battered by bad press -- especially during the repeated shutdowns of the Jake Gyllenhaal political satire "Nailed," financed by a Bergstein-backed entity -- he is actively looking for cash.
Whether that will be enough to repair the executive's strained relationships with Hollywood and allow his company to stay in business remains to be seen.
But Bergstein is adamant that he is on the right track.
"Our business plan is not so much about the movie business," he said, noting that he controls about a thousand films. "It's really to build a global digital distribution business. It's based on the expectation that in the not too distant future most content will be delivered digitally and on-demand."
Bergstein began to make a mark in Hollywood just 18 months ago, when he and construction magnate Ron Tutor bought ThinkFilm and London-based Capitol.
Yet after releasing 20-odd pictures in 2006 and 2007, only nine ThinkFilm movies have opened this year. Bergstein apparently has sold off some films, canceled others and has refused to commit to release dates for the only other two films originally scheduled for 2008: January's Sundance Film Festival pickups "Phoebe in Wonderland" and "The Escapist."
At the same time, at least four separate lawsuits have been filed against ThinkFilm this year by vendors and others claiming they were short shifted.
"Some of what is out there is true," Bergstein said. "The vast majority is not true. And for the stuff that is true, my answer is, 'So what? So what if X, Y or Z might be owed money?' "
That attitude has some in the creative community fuming.
"He's the biggest disgrace in the film business," said producer Albie Hecht, formerly president of Nickelodeon, who produced the Oscar-nominated ThinkFilm documentary "War/Dance" and claims he still has not seen the small advance ThinkFilm promised. An arbitration is pending.
"This is someone who goes around making deals and looks like he has no intention of fulfilling his obligation to filmmakers and artists," Hecht added. "Not only is it disgusting, but downright immoral."
Alex Gibney, director of the Oscar-winning ThinkFilm documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," charges in a lawsuit that ThinkFilm did not have the financial resources to properly release his film and "fraudulently concealed this fact from the film's creative team, its investors and the film's sales agent, Cinetic Media."
Bergstein said Gibney was paid everything he was owed, including a $50,000 Oscar bonus. Bergstein also downplayed lawsuits by Allied Advertising seeking $4.2 million for ads it placed and Brooklyn-based Mammoth Advertising, which said it has nearly $430,00 in unpaid bills.
Lawsuits are just part of doing business, said Bergstein, 46, whose office is stacked with boxes of files and a framed photo of John Lennon flashing a peace sign.
He made a small fortune acquiring depreciated assets, cutting costs and selling for a profit, then dived into the film business in 2003 via his acquisition of Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures library.
"He is used to going in, buying something that's normally four cents for two cents and then saying to everyone, 'It's a distressed asset. I'm only going to pay you half of what you deserve,' " said a veteran talent manager and producer who has worked with Bergstein. "It's just a whole mindset that is antithetical to the movie business."
Bergstein acknowledged he's had problems paying such creditors as PR companies and production services, but he said those issues were caused by the move of ThinkFilm's headquarters from Canada to the U.S., which required new accounting and tracking systems.
A spokesman for Investment bank Db Zwirn & Co. says it has about $100 million in loans to ThinkFilm’s umbrella company. Zwirn was forced to liquidate a hedge fund this year but Bergstein said he has been able to find additional funds from Comerica Bank and others.
He said he has brought ThinkFilm’s debts from $30 million to $8 million and is pumping in another $25 million to market ThinkFilm releases on top of a total investment of $400 million for all his entertainment businesses, which include a postproduction facility and music publisher in London. He declined to say where that new money will come from.
Bergstein said he has image problems because nobody in Hollywood really knows him. He grew up in New York and attended Polytechnic Institute (now part of New York University), studying engineering and pre-med. In the late 1970s he became an investment banker, seeking undervalued stocks.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and worked for a mortgage broker, then began buying real estate. He operated Metropolis Publishing for a time and acquired Express Inc., an online DVD seller that had gone bankrupt in 2001, losing a reported $240 million.
Bergstein and Tutor, a friend who headed two major construction companies that merged this year in a deal valued at $862 million, began investing in Los Angeles restaurants, including Le Dome. There they met Samaha, who was flying high with Franchise Pictures. When Franchise began struggling, Bergstein and Tutor loaned Samaha $14 million, secured by Franchise's film library. When Franchise went under, Bergstein ended up with most of the library.
Armed with product, Bergstein and Tutor acquired ThinkFilm in November 2006 for a reported $18 million in cash and $5 million in debt. The distributor, founded in September 2001 by veteran execs Jeff Sackman, Randy Manis and Marc Hirshberg, as well as Mark Urman from Lionsgate, fielded a string of such Oscar-worthy films as "Half Nelson," which earned Ryan Gosling a best actor nod in 2007, and "Born Into Brothels," 2005's winner for best documentary.
Bergstein said ThinkFilm was insolvent when he bought it. Sackman, who quit the company in anger in April, said it was profitable for four of its first five years but looked for a buyer two years ago when art-house attendance dipped.
"We were very cooperative at first," Sackman said of Bergstein.
At Bergstein's urging they went on a buying spree, acquiring films like "In the Shadow of the Moon," which ThinkFilm bought for $2.5 million at Sundance in 2007 but which grossed only $1.1 million in theaters that November.
Indeed, only four films out of more than 30 releases during the past two years have grossed more than $1 million, including Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," which grossed $7 million last fall, and Helen Hunt's "Then She Found Me," which grossed $3.6 million in April despite advertising money being pulled, sources said.
Many planned ThinkFilm releases are now in limbo. The dark comic drama "Momma's Man" was announced in March as a ThinkFilm acquisition and August release. But the deal never happened and it went to Kino International instead.
"Battle in Seattle," "A Stone's Throw" and "A Happy Death" have been taken off the calendar and the drama "Blue Valentine" was never made because the promised funding fell through.
ThinkFilm doesn't list "The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams" as having been released but producer Julian Adams said it was released briefly last August. Since then he said he has been unable to get a financial statement from Bergstein. "I can't even describe the heartache," Adams said. "I'm beyond frustrated with it."
Bergstein's highest-profile production is the $30 million "Nailed," directed by David O. Russell, which was shut down by SAG, the DGA and Iatse four times this summer over money woes.
Bergstein said the guild problems have been resolved and that the movie only needs two days of pickup shots; others said scenes crucial to the film are missing. In any case, additional days were funded and the film will apparently arrive on schedule in early 2009.
Producer-director Taylor Hackford, who is finishing postproduction on ThinkFilm's "Love Ranch," starring his wife Helen Mirren, said funding came through "just in time."
"The fact is he stayed with us," Hackford said of Bergstein. "We never shut down for a day. Everybody got paid."
Other Bergstein-backed movies nearing completion include the road comedy "Five Dollars a Day," the romantic comedy "My Sexiest Year" and the $30 million crime drama "Black Water Transit."
It's unclear what effect, if any, ThinkFilm's apparent money woes will have on Bergstein's current productions. But his credibility, per various sources, is at an all-time low.
One agent said he feels sorry for Urman, who must field calls from angry filmmakers and skeptical reporters. "(Bergstein) over-committed," the agent said. "He didn't care about the budgets of movies. He just did them. It was like almost a three-card Monte game. Monies were moving in all different places to meet the latest fire drill, and at some point the cards stop and there is no money."
Urman declined repeated requests for an interview, but Bergstein angrily denied rumors that the company is firing employees, withholding paychecks and stiffing profit participants.
When he bought ThinkFilm, he said, he agreed with Canadian regulators to close its Toronto office, which resulted in layoffs. He also put pressure on Urman and Sackman to trim the staff, and he outsourced home video to Image Entertainment, which Bergstein was to acquire. The Image deal later fell apart, with Bergstein blaming Image for backing out and Image claiming Bergstein did not come through with funding. A separate deal to acquire Im Global as a second sales agent also unraveled, and Bergstein recently divested his majority interest in the company.
Bergstein dismissed as "complete nonsense" allegations that he has not paid DVD royalties. "We're the same as any other studio," he said. "We recoup what we're due. We get our distribution fee and the rest goes out. Sometimes reporting by ThinkFilm was in fact late, just like studios report to me late sometimes."
Bergstein said his plans for ThinkFilm are much larger than anyone realizes. Theatrical distribution and foreign sales platforms are only a means in which to gather content before the industry transitions to selling directly to consumers digitally. Then the key will be to own the most content, so despite all the naysayers, he plans to acquire even more movie and TV libraries.
In the meantime, Bergstein said ThinkFilm's finances are solid and it will continue to release films.
But Sackman said what has happened at the company he co-founded breaks his heart.
"I am very proud of what we built and accomplished at ThinkFilm," Sackman said. "And very sad to see how in the past 16 months the company and its reputation have been diminished."...
Yet David Bergstein is unperturbed.
"There is always an adjective that precedes us: 'Beleaguered,' 'financially distressed,' " Bergstein said recently from his plush new offices in the Fox Plaza in Century City, with a hint of an accent from his native New York. "And none of these people know anything."
What is known is that after a summer in which ThinkFilm has been battered by bad press -- especially during the repeated shutdowns of the Jake Gyllenhaal political satire "Nailed," financed by a Bergstein-backed entity -- he is actively looking for cash.
Whether that will be enough to repair the executive's strained relationships with Hollywood and allow his company to stay in business remains to be seen.
But Bergstein is adamant that he is on the right track.
"Our business plan is not so much about the movie business," he said, noting that he controls about a thousand films. "It's really to build a global digital distribution business. It's based on the expectation that in the not too distant future most content will be delivered digitally and on-demand."
Bergstein began to make a mark in Hollywood just 18 months ago, when he and construction magnate Ron Tutor bought ThinkFilm and London-based Capitol.
Yet after releasing 20-odd pictures in 2006 and 2007, only nine ThinkFilm movies have opened this year. Bergstein apparently has sold off some films, canceled others and has refused to commit to release dates for the only other two films originally scheduled for 2008: January's Sundance Film Festival pickups "Phoebe in Wonderland" and "The Escapist."
At the same time, at least four separate lawsuits have been filed against ThinkFilm this year by vendors and others claiming they were short shifted.
"Some of what is out there is true," Bergstein said. "The vast majority is not true. And for the stuff that is true, my answer is, 'So what? So what if X, Y or Z might be owed money?' "
That attitude has some in the creative community fuming.
"He's the biggest disgrace in the film business," said producer Albie Hecht, formerly president of Nickelodeon, who produced the Oscar-nominated ThinkFilm documentary "War/Dance" and claims he still has not seen the small advance ThinkFilm promised. An arbitration is pending.
"This is someone who goes around making deals and looks like he has no intention of fulfilling his obligation to filmmakers and artists," Hecht added. "Not only is it disgusting, but downright immoral."
Alex Gibney, director of the Oscar-winning ThinkFilm documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," charges in a lawsuit that ThinkFilm did not have the financial resources to properly release his film and "fraudulently concealed this fact from the film's creative team, its investors and the film's sales agent, Cinetic Media."
Bergstein said Gibney was paid everything he was owed, including a $50,000 Oscar bonus. Bergstein also downplayed lawsuits by Allied Advertising seeking $4.2 million for ads it placed and Brooklyn-based Mammoth Advertising, which said it has nearly $430,00 in unpaid bills.
Lawsuits are just part of doing business, said Bergstein, 46, whose office is stacked with boxes of files and a framed photo of John Lennon flashing a peace sign.
He made a small fortune acquiring depreciated assets, cutting costs and selling for a profit, then dived into the film business in 2003 via his acquisition of Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures library.
"He is used to going in, buying something that's normally four cents for two cents and then saying to everyone, 'It's a distressed asset. I'm only going to pay you half of what you deserve,' " said a veteran talent manager and producer who has worked with Bergstein. "It's just a whole mindset that is antithetical to the movie business."
Bergstein acknowledged he's had problems paying such creditors as PR companies and production services, but he said those issues were caused by the move of ThinkFilm's headquarters from Canada to the U.S., which required new accounting and tracking systems.
A spokesman for Investment bank Db Zwirn & Co. says it has about $100 million in loans to ThinkFilm’s umbrella company. Zwirn was forced to liquidate a hedge fund this year but Bergstein said he has been able to find additional funds from Comerica Bank and others.
He said he has brought ThinkFilm’s debts from $30 million to $8 million and is pumping in another $25 million to market ThinkFilm releases on top of a total investment of $400 million for all his entertainment businesses, which include a postproduction facility and music publisher in London. He declined to say where that new money will come from.
Bergstein said he has image problems because nobody in Hollywood really knows him. He grew up in New York and attended Polytechnic Institute (now part of New York University), studying engineering and pre-med. In the late 1970s he became an investment banker, seeking undervalued stocks.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and worked for a mortgage broker, then began buying real estate. He operated Metropolis Publishing for a time and acquired Express Inc., an online DVD seller that had gone bankrupt in 2001, losing a reported $240 million.
Bergstein and Tutor, a friend who headed two major construction companies that merged this year in a deal valued at $862 million, began investing in Los Angeles restaurants, including Le Dome. There they met Samaha, who was flying high with Franchise Pictures. When Franchise began struggling, Bergstein and Tutor loaned Samaha $14 million, secured by Franchise's film library. When Franchise went under, Bergstein ended up with most of the library.
Armed with product, Bergstein and Tutor acquired ThinkFilm in November 2006 for a reported $18 million in cash and $5 million in debt. The distributor, founded in September 2001 by veteran execs Jeff Sackman, Randy Manis and Marc Hirshberg, as well as Mark Urman from Lionsgate, fielded a string of such Oscar-worthy films as "Half Nelson," which earned Ryan Gosling a best actor nod in 2007, and "Born Into Brothels," 2005's winner for best documentary.
Bergstein said ThinkFilm was insolvent when he bought it. Sackman, who quit the company in anger in April, said it was profitable for four of its first five years but looked for a buyer two years ago when art-house attendance dipped.
"We were very cooperative at first," Sackman said of Bergstein.
At Bergstein's urging they went on a buying spree, acquiring films like "In the Shadow of the Moon," which ThinkFilm bought for $2.5 million at Sundance in 2007 but which grossed only $1.1 million in theaters that November.
Indeed, only four films out of more than 30 releases during the past two years have grossed more than $1 million, including Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," which grossed $7 million last fall, and Helen Hunt's "Then She Found Me," which grossed $3.6 million in April despite advertising money being pulled, sources said.
Many planned ThinkFilm releases are now in limbo. The dark comic drama "Momma's Man" was announced in March as a ThinkFilm acquisition and August release. But the deal never happened and it went to Kino International instead.
"Battle in Seattle," "A Stone's Throw" and "A Happy Death" have been taken off the calendar and the drama "Blue Valentine" was never made because the promised funding fell through.
ThinkFilm doesn't list "The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams" as having been released but producer Julian Adams said it was released briefly last August. Since then he said he has been unable to get a financial statement from Bergstein. "I can't even describe the heartache," Adams said. "I'm beyond frustrated with it."
Bergstein's highest-profile production is the $30 million "Nailed," directed by David O. Russell, which was shut down by SAG, the DGA and Iatse four times this summer over money woes.
Bergstein said the guild problems have been resolved and that the movie only needs two days of pickup shots; others said scenes crucial to the film are missing. In any case, additional days were funded and the film will apparently arrive on schedule in early 2009.
Producer-director Taylor Hackford, who is finishing postproduction on ThinkFilm's "Love Ranch," starring his wife Helen Mirren, said funding came through "just in time."
"The fact is he stayed with us," Hackford said of Bergstein. "We never shut down for a day. Everybody got paid."
Other Bergstein-backed movies nearing completion include the road comedy "Five Dollars a Day," the romantic comedy "My Sexiest Year" and the $30 million crime drama "Black Water Transit."
It's unclear what effect, if any, ThinkFilm's apparent money woes will have on Bergstein's current productions. But his credibility, per various sources, is at an all-time low.
One agent said he feels sorry for Urman, who must field calls from angry filmmakers and skeptical reporters. "(Bergstein) over-committed," the agent said. "He didn't care about the budgets of movies. He just did them. It was like almost a three-card Monte game. Monies were moving in all different places to meet the latest fire drill, and at some point the cards stop and there is no money."
Urman declined repeated requests for an interview, but Bergstein angrily denied rumors that the company is firing employees, withholding paychecks and stiffing profit participants.
When he bought ThinkFilm, he said, he agreed with Canadian regulators to close its Toronto office, which resulted in layoffs. He also put pressure on Urman and Sackman to trim the staff, and he outsourced home video to Image Entertainment, which Bergstein was to acquire. The Image deal later fell apart, with Bergstein blaming Image for backing out and Image claiming Bergstein did not come through with funding. A separate deal to acquire Im Global as a second sales agent also unraveled, and Bergstein recently divested his majority interest in the company.
Bergstein dismissed as "complete nonsense" allegations that he has not paid DVD royalties. "We're the same as any other studio," he said. "We recoup what we're due. We get our distribution fee and the rest goes out. Sometimes reporting by ThinkFilm was in fact late, just like studios report to me late sometimes."
Bergstein said his plans for ThinkFilm are much larger than anyone realizes. Theatrical distribution and foreign sales platforms are only a means in which to gather content before the industry transitions to selling directly to consumers digitally. Then the key will be to own the most content, so despite all the naysayers, he plans to acquire even more movie and TV libraries.
In the meantime, Bergstein said ThinkFilm's finances are solid and it will continue to release films.
But Sackman said what has happened at the company he co-founded breaks his heart.
"I am very proud of what we built and accomplished at ThinkFilm," Sackman said. "And very sad to see how in the past 16 months the company and its reputation have been diminished."...
- 8/6/2008
- by By Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the theatrical screening of "Rescue Dawn".In "Rescue Dawn", screenwriter-director Werner Herzog continues his long obsession with obsessed men battling nature and themselves in a merciless wilderness.
That this particular protagonist, a German-born American Navy aviator shot down in Laos during the Vietnam conflict, will survive we know because Herzog made a documentary 10 years ago, "Little Dieter Must Fly", about his extraordinary story. This does nothing to diminish the harrowing tale of near-Messianic figure who wills himself out of a seemingly inescapable corner of Hell.
MGM has moved the release date of this film several times, finally pushing it to Wednesday, presumably to steal some Fourth of July patriotic fervor for the debut. One worries, though, that it might get lost amid the summer tentpoles despite it being Herzog's most mainstream and accessible film yet. Let's hope not.
Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler and this is one of the actor's most complex and compelling performances. The movie stays with the character for nearly every shot, watching his transformation from a youth who embraces every aspect of the American way to a more sober individual whom nature and his fellow man want to break but can't.
The movie suggests that all the prisoners in a Laotian prison compound, run by proxy by the Viet Cong, are slightly mad. Bale shows how madness can creep slowly into a man's soul in ways much more frightening than physical abuse. Yet he never completely succumbs. Not that he doesn't see a ghost at one point and the rationality of his decision-making deteriorates somewhat.
As Dieter tells it to fellow Yank prisoners, Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), he wanted to fly ever since an American fighter pilot zeroed in on him as a small boy in a German town during World War II. Even crashing in enemy territory during his first mission fails to discourage him. The first night in the prison camp, after being tortured for refusing to sign a "confession," he is plotting an escape. There is no escape, his fellow prisoners -- Americans and Vietnamese -- tell him. The jungle is the real prison. Where can you go?
But Dieter hatches a plan anyway and works tirelessly to convince others. He is the only true believer. But things go awry and he and Duane find themselves alone in hostile territory with no choice but to try to walk barefoot to the Thai border.
The brilliance of the film comes in small details: during the escape when Duane suddenly bends over to vomit because of anxiety and fear. Or in the strange smile on Dieter's face when he is paraded through a colorful village whose natives eye him with curiosity rather than hatred.
Zahn maintains the nuttiness that informs his comic performances, but here Herzog and the actor deepen the pathos in such behavior coming as it does in the face of almost certain death. Davies plays an airman with an unhinged mind who is all the more dangerous for that.
Herzog's use of lush jungle locations in Thailand, eloquent camera work and an unobtrusive but powerful musical score bring to life his latest story of a man in the wilderness battling the elements on his own terms.
RESCUE DAWN
MGM
Gibraltar Entertainment
Credits:
Screenwrier-director: Werner Herzog
Producers: Elton Brand, Steve Marlton, Harry Knapps
Executive producers: Elie Samaha, Gerald Green, Nick Raslin, Freddy Braidy
Director of photography: Peter Zeitlinger
Production designer: Arin "Aoi" Pinijvararak
Music: Klaus Badelt
Costume designer: Annie Dunn
Editor: Joe Bini
Cast:
Dieter Dengler: Christian Bale
Duane: Steve Zahn
Gene: Jeremy Davies
Y.C.: Galen Yuen
Phisit: Abhijati "Muek" Jusakul
Procet: Chaiyan "Lek" Chunsuttiwat
Little Hitler: Teerawat "Ka-Ge" Muenwaja
Running time -- 125 minutes
Rated: PG-13...
That this particular protagonist, a German-born American Navy aviator shot down in Laos during the Vietnam conflict, will survive we know because Herzog made a documentary 10 years ago, "Little Dieter Must Fly", about his extraordinary story. This does nothing to diminish the harrowing tale of near-Messianic figure who wills himself out of a seemingly inescapable corner of Hell.
MGM has moved the release date of this film several times, finally pushing it to Wednesday, presumably to steal some Fourth of July patriotic fervor for the debut. One worries, though, that it might get lost amid the summer tentpoles despite it being Herzog's most mainstream and accessible film yet. Let's hope not.
Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler and this is one of the actor's most complex and compelling performances. The movie stays with the character for nearly every shot, watching his transformation from a youth who embraces every aspect of the American way to a more sober individual whom nature and his fellow man want to break but can't.
The movie suggests that all the prisoners in a Laotian prison compound, run by proxy by the Viet Cong, are slightly mad. Bale shows how madness can creep slowly into a man's soul in ways much more frightening than physical abuse. Yet he never completely succumbs. Not that he doesn't see a ghost at one point and the rationality of his decision-making deteriorates somewhat.
As Dieter tells it to fellow Yank prisoners, Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), he wanted to fly ever since an American fighter pilot zeroed in on him as a small boy in a German town during World War II. Even crashing in enemy territory during his first mission fails to discourage him. The first night in the prison camp, after being tortured for refusing to sign a "confession," he is plotting an escape. There is no escape, his fellow prisoners -- Americans and Vietnamese -- tell him. The jungle is the real prison. Where can you go?
But Dieter hatches a plan anyway and works tirelessly to convince others. He is the only true believer. But things go awry and he and Duane find themselves alone in hostile territory with no choice but to try to walk barefoot to the Thai border.
The brilliance of the film comes in small details: during the escape when Duane suddenly bends over to vomit because of anxiety and fear. Or in the strange smile on Dieter's face when he is paraded through a colorful village whose natives eye him with curiosity rather than hatred.
Zahn maintains the nuttiness that informs his comic performances, but here Herzog and the actor deepen the pathos in such behavior coming as it does in the face of almost certain death. Davies plays an airman with an unhinged mind who is all the more dangerous for that.
Herzog's use of lush jungle locations in Thailand, eloquent camera work and an unobtrusive but powerful musical score bring to life his latest story of a man in the wilderness battling the elements on his own terms.
RESCUE DAWN
MGM
Gibraltar Entertainment
Credits:
Screenwrier-director: Werner Herzog
Producers: Elton Brand, Steve Marlton, Harry Knapps
Executive producers: Elie Samaha, Gerald Green, Nick Raslin, Freddy Braidy
Director of photography: Peter Zeitlinger
Production designer: Arin "Aoi" Pinijvararak
Music: Klaus Badelt
Costume designer: Annie Dunn
Editor: Joe Bini
Cast:
Dieter Dengler: Christian Bale
Duane: Steve Zahn
Gene: Jeremy Davies
Y.C.: Galen Yuen
Phisit: Abhijati "Muek" Jusakul
Procet: Chaiyan "Lek" Chunsuttiwat
Little Hitler: Teerawat "Ka-Ge" Muenwaja
Running time -- 125 minutes
Rated: PG-13...
- 7/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In "Rescue Dawn", screenwriter-director Werner Herzog continues his long obsession with obsessed men battling nature and themselves in a merciless wilderness.
That this particular protagonist, a German-born American Navy aviator shot down in Laos during the Vietnam conflict, will survive we know because Herzog made a documentary 10 years ago, "Little Dieter Must Fly", about his extraordinary story. This does nothing to diminish the harrowing tale of near-Messianic figure who wills himself out of a seemingly inescapable corner of Hell.
MGM has moved the release date of this film several times, finally pushing it to Wednesday, presumably to steal some Fourth of July patriotic fervor for the debut. One worries, though, that it might get lost amid the summer tentpoles despite it being Herzog's most mainstream and accessible film yet. Let's hope not.
Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler and this is one of the actor's most complex and compelling performances. The movie stays with the character for nearly every shot, watching his transformation from a youth who embraces every aspect of the American way to a more sober individual whom nature and his fellow man want to break but can't.
The movie suggests that all the prisoners in a Laotian prison compound, run by proxy by the Viet Cong, are slightly mad. Bale shows how madness can creep slowly into a man's soul in ways much more frightening than physical abuse. Yet he never completely succumbs. Not that he doesn't see a ghost at one point and the rationality of his decision-making deteriorates somewhat.
As Dieter tells it to fellow Yank prisoners, Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), he wanted to fly ever since an American fighter pilot zeroed in on him as a small boy in a German town during World War II. Even crashing in enemy territory during his first mission fails to discourage him. The first night in the prison camp, after being tortured for refusing to sign a "confession," he is plotting an escape. There is no escape, his fellow prisoners -- Americans and Vietnamese -- tell him. The jungle is the real prison. Where can you go?
But Dieter hatches a plan anyway and works tirelessly to convince others. He is the only true believer. But things go awry and he and Duane find themselves alone in hostile territory with no choice but to try to walk barefoot to the Thai border.
The brilliance of the film comes in small details: during the escape when Duane suddenly bends over to vomit because of anxiety and fear. Or in the strange smile on Dieter's face when he is paraded through a colorful village whose natives eye him with curiosity rather than hatred.
Zahn maintains the nuttiness that informs his comic performances, but here Herzog and the actor deepen the pathos in such behavior coming as it does in the face of almost certain death. Davies plays an airman with an unhinged mind who is all the more dangerous for that.
Herzog's use of lush jungle locations in Thailand, eloquent camera work and an unobtrusive but powerful musical score bring to life his latest story of a man in the wilderness battling the elements on his own terms.
RESCUE DAWN
MGM
Gibraltar Entertainment
Credits:
Screenwrier-director: Werner Herzog
Producers: Elton Brand, Steve Marlton, Harry Knapps
Executive producers: Elie Samaha, Gerald Green, Nick Raslin, Freddy Braidy
Director of photography: Peter Zeitlinger
Production designer: Arin "Aoi" Pinijvararak
Music: Klaus Badelt
Costume designer: Annie Dunn
Editor: Joe Bini
Cast:
Dieter Dengler: Christian Bale
Duane: Steve Zahn
Gene: Jeremy Davies
Y.C.: Galen Yuen
Phisit: Abhijati "Muek" Jusakul
Procet: Chaiyan "Lek" Chunsuttiwat
Little Hitler: Teerawat "Ka-Ge" Muenwaja
Running time -- 125 minutes
Rated: PG-13...
That this particular protagonist, a German-born American Navy aviator shot down in Laos during the Vietnam conflict, will survive we know because Herzog made a documentary 10 years ago, "Little Dieter Must Fly", about his extraordinary story. This does nothing to diminish the harrowing tale of near-Messianic figure who wills himself out of a seemingly inescapable corner of Hell.
MGM has moved the release date of this film several times, finally pushing it to Wednesday, presumably to steal some Fourth of July patriotic fervor for the debut. One worries, though, that it might get lost amid the summer tentpoles despite it being Herzog's most mainstream and accessible film yet. Let's hope not.
Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler and this is one of the actor's most complex and compelling performances. The movie stays with the character for nearly every shot, watching his transformation from a youth who embraces every aspect of the American way to a more sober individual whom nature and his fellow man want to break but can't.
The movie suggests that all the prisoners in a Laotian prison compound, run by proxy by the Viet Cong, are slightly mad. Bale shows how madness can creep slowly into a man's soul in ways much more frightening than physical abuse. Yet he never completely succumbs. Not that he doesn't see a ghost at one point and the rationality of his decision-making deteriorates somewhat.
As Dieter tells it to fellow Yank prisoners, Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), he wanted to fly ever since an American fighter pilot zeroed in on him as a small boy in a German town during World War II. Even crashing in enemy territory during his first mission fails to discourage him. The first night in the prison camp, after being tortured for refusing to sign a "confession," he is plotting an escape. There is no escape, his fellow prisoners -- Americans and Vietnamese -- tell him. The jungle is the real prison. Where can you go?
But Dieter hatches a plan anyway and works tirelessly to convince others. He is the only true believer. But things go awry and he and Duane find themselves alone in hostile territory with no choice but to try to walk barefoot to the Thai border.
The brilliance of the film comes in small details: during the escape when Duane suddenly bends over to vomit because of anxiety and fear. Or in the strange smile on Dieter's face when he is paraded through a colorful village whose natives eye him with curiosity rather than hatred.
Zahn maintains the nuttiness that informs his comic performances, but here Herzog and the actor deepen the pathos in such behavior coming as it does in the face of almost certain death. Davies plays an airman with an unhinged mind who is all the more dangerous for that.
Herzog's use of lush jungle locations in Thailand, eloquent camera work and an unobtrusive but powerful musical score bring to life his latest story of a man in the wilderness battling the elements on his own terms.
RESCUE DAWN
MGM
Gibraltar Entertainment
Credits:
Screenwrier-director: Werner Herzog
Producers: Elton Brand, Steve Marlton, Harry Knapps
Executive producers: Elie Samaha, Gerald Green, Nick Raslin, Freddy Braidy
Director of photography: Peter Zeitlinger
Production designer: Arin "Aoi" Pinijvararak
Music: Klaus Badelt
Costume designer: Annie Dunn
Editor: Joe Bini
Cast:
Dieter Dengler: Christian Bale
Duane: Steve Zahn
Gene: Jeremy Davies
Y.C.: Galen Yuen
Phisit: Abhijati "Muek" Jusakul
Procet: Chaiyan "Lek" Chunsuttiwat
Little Hitler: Teerawat "Ka-Ge" Muenwaja
Running time -- 125 minutes
Rated: PG-13...
Morgan Creek and producer David Bergstein have won all the rights to 72 films from the library of bankrupt Franchise Pictures with a joint bid of $30.7 million. The library includes such titles as The Pledge, The Whole Nine Yards, City by the Sea and dozens of others produced by the company, founded by the charismatic nightclub owner-turned-producer Elie Samaha. Morgan Creek, headed by James G. Robinson, was a distributor of some of the films in the library, and Bergstein (Laws of Attraction) participated in some of the productions. Morgan Creek and Bergstein also numbered among Franchise creditors. An auction was conducted under the supervision of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Woodland Hills, with the acquisition expected to be finalized within 30 days. Last month, German media group Intertainment and Samaha reached a separate, $3 million settlement of a long-running legal squabble that followed the shuttering of Franchise.
MUNICH -- Intertainment AG and former Franchise Pictures CEO Elie Samaha have settled their long and complex legal dispute for $3 million, a small fraction of the sum awarded Intertainment two years ago by a U.S. judge, Intertainment said from its Munich headquarters over the weekend. The settlement also includes Samaha's interests in about 100 Film Production or distribution companies, Intertainment said in a statement. The value of the stakes cannot be determined because many of the companies named in the judgment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy soon after the verdict, and because "third parties have also claimed ownership rights in several of these companies," the statement read.
- 8/21/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- Donal Logue's sophomore directing turn, The Second Coming, has attracted Bill Paxton, who is attached to star in the production for producer Orian Williams, with co-financing by Elie Samaha and Markus Barmettler. The feature, adapted from Walker Percy's novel of the same name by Logue and Jeff Kitchen, is the story of a depressed, suicidal widower who falls in love with a young woman who's escaped from a mental institution. "On one level they could be crazy," said Logue, "but on another they're saner than anyone." Williams and Logue, who's also producing, are aiming to begin principal photography in Greenville, S.C., early next year.
- 5/19/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- Ruediger Baeres, the founder and supervisory board chairman of insolvent German licensing company Intertainment AG, resigned Monday, citing personal reasons. Baeres remains the leading shareholder in Munich-based Intertainment, which he founded in 1993 and took public on Germany's Neuer Markt index in 1999 at the peak of the country's media stocks bubble. Baeres used the cash from Intertainment's initial public offering to invest in Hollywood, signing a long-term financing agreement with Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures and a five-year deal with veteran producer Arnold Kopelson.
COLOGNE, Germany -- Ruediger Baeres, the founder and supervisory board chairman of insolvent German licensing company Intertainment AG, resigned Monday, citing personal reasons. Baeres remains the leading shareholder in Munich-based Intertainment, which he founded in 1993 and took public on Germany's Neuer Markt index in 1999 at the peak of the country's media stocks bubble. Baeres used the cash from Intertainment's initial public offering to invest in Hollywood, signing a long-term financing agreement with Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures and a five-year deal with veteran producer Arnold Kopelson.
"Tristan & Isolde" suffers from a bad case of anemia. The ancient Celtic romance of forbidden love, later transformed by Anglo-Norman and German writers into the courtly literature of lies and delusions, has been reduced here to a sappy Dark Ages soap opera interrupted by brutal battles and dialogue of astonishing prosaic deadness. At its core is a pair of lovers no contemporary audience could possibly care for, and at the periphery are characters that threaten to become interesting but never quite do.
"O, what have I done?" wails one lover, and director Kevin Reynolds and writer Dean Georgaris ("The Manchurian Candidate") might be asking the same question. Reportedly, this was a "dream project" for exec producers Tony and Ridley Scott, who nevertheless handed it off to another filmmaker. Perhaps there's a lesson in this: Dream projects delivered to others cease to be dreams and become mere projects. Boxoffice outlook for Fox might bring new meaning to the term Dark Ages. International and home video business looks more promising.
Drifting far from its source material -- but then who other than a medievalist would care? -- "Tristan & Isolde" is a thoroughly contemporary "epic" about a guy with the hots for the wife of his mentor/savior/king/father figure. Think an early draft of Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere.
After the fall of Rome, Irish warlords have divided and conquered the English tribes. Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell) seeks to unite those tribes against the Irish with the help of his No. 1 warrior Tristan (James Franco in a performance that can only be called inert). A clever ambush results in a resounding victory for the English, but at the cost of the apparent death of Tristan.
His body is shoved into the Irish Sea on a burning funeral pyre, and that's that. But wait! He's alive and washes ashore in -- would you believe it? -- Ireland with a nasty gash on his tummy. His rescuer is none other than Isolde (Sophia Myles), the daughter of King Donnchadh (David Patrick O'Hara). The medieval world was indeed a small one.
Without revealing her identity, Isolde nurses him back to health, takes him to her bed, puts him in a sailboat and, voila, he's back home without anyone asking the most obvious question: Where have you been the past few months? So Tristan has no idea who his savior is, and Isolde has no idea that it was Tristan who conveniently slayed the brutal general to whom she had been so unwillingly betrothed.
Instead of reinvading England with a depleted army, the wily Irish king comes up with another divide-and-conquer trick: He promises his no-longer-engaged daughter in a tournament among the English tribes that looks like the medieval equivalent of a bum fight. Wouldn't you know it, the recovered Tristan wins the tournament, unwittingly securing his lover's hand in marriage for his king, Lord Marke. Talk about missing the mark!
The problem here is that no one, with the possible exception of cinematographer Arthur Reinhart, brings this world to life. The film is like a Monty Python movie with the jokes removed. Reynolds has Franco mope around like a boy who has lost his puppy. Myles fares better as she is beautiful and smart but has little to play against. Sewell, O'Hara and Mark Strong as a conniving tribal leader play characters vastly more interesting than the leads.
Then there is the dialogue. Isolde to Tristan on her wedding night: "I'll pretend it's you". Marke to Tristan in the glow of connubial bliss: "I didn't know how empty I was". Isolde to Tristan: "Why does loving you feel so wrong?"
Reinhart drains away any bright colors, any reds, greens or blues, in favor of earthen tones. This suits designer Mark Geraghty's glum fortresses and rude hovels. Anne Dudley's score is a tad mournful but, hey, this is Tristan and Isolde.
To paraphrase Isolde, why does everything in this film feel so wrong?
TRISTAN & ISOLDE
20th Century Fox
An Apollopromedia-MFF (Tristan and Isolde) Limited Stillking-Qi Quality International-Co-Production of a Scott Free production
Credits:
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Screenwriter: Dean Georgaris
Producers: Moshe Diamant, Elie Samaha, Lisa Ellzey, Giannina Facio
Executive producers: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott
Director of photography: Arthur Reinhart
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Anne Dudley
Co-producers: Anna Lai, Jan Fantl, Morgan O'Sullivan, James Flynn
Costumes: Maurizio Millenotti
Editor: Peter Boyle
Cast:
Tristan: James Franco
Isolde: Sophia Myles
Marke: Rufus Sewell
Donnchadh: David Patrick O'Hara
Wictred: Mark Strong
Melot
Henry Cavill
Bragnae: Bronagh Gallagher
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 126 minutes...
"O, what have I done?" wails one lover, and director Kevin Reynolds and writer Dean Georgaris ("The Manchurian Candidate") might be asking the same question. Reportedly, this was a "dream project" for exec producers Tony and Ridley Scott, who nevertheless handed it off to another filmmaker. Perhaps there's a lesson in this: Dream projects delivered to others cease to be dreams and become mere projects. Boxoffice outlook for Fox might bring new meaning to the term Dark Ages. International and home video business looks more promising.
Drifting far from its source material -- but then who other than a medievalist would care? -- "Tristan & Isolde" is a thoroughly contemporary "epic" about a guy with the hots for the wife of his mentor/savior/king/father figure. Think an early draft of Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere.
After the fall of Rome, Irish warlords have divided and conquered the English tribes. Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell) seeks to unite those tribes against the Irish with the help of his No. 1 warrior Tristan (James Franco in a performance that can only be called inert). A clever ambush results in a resounding victory for the English, but at the cost of the apparent death of Tristan.
His body is shoved into the Irish Sea on a burning funeral pyre, and that's that. But wait! He's alive and washes ashore in -- would you believe it? -- Ireland with a nasty gash on his tummy. His rescuer is none other than Isolde (Sophia Myles), the daughter of King Donnchadh (David Patrick O'Hara). The medieval world was indeed a small one.
Without revealing her identity, Isolde nurses him back to health, takes him to her bed, puts him in a sailboat and, voila, he's back home without anyone asking the most obvious question: Where have you been the past few months? So Tristan has no idea who his savior is, and Isolde has no idea that it was Tristan who conveniently slayed the brutal general to whom she had been so unwillingly betrothed.
Instead of reinvading England with a depleted army, the wily Irish king comes up with another divide-and-conquer trick: He promises his no-longer-engaged daughter in a tournament among the English tribes that looks like the medieval equivalent of a bum fight. Wouldn't you know it, the recovered Tristan wins the tournament, unwittingly securing his lover's hand in marriage for his king, Lord Marke. Talk about missing the mark!
The problem here is that no one, with the possible exception of cinematographer Arthur Reinhart, brings this world to life. The film is like a Monty Python movie with the jokes removed. Reynolds has Franco mope around like a boy who has lost his puppy. Myles fares better as she is beautiful and smart but has little to play against. Sewell, O'Hara and Mark Strong as a conniving tribal leader play characters vastly more interesting than the leads.
Then there is the dialogue. Isolde to Tristan on her wedding night: "I'll pretend it's you". Marke to Tristan in the glow of connubial bliss: "I didn't know how empty I was". Isolde to Tristan: "Why does loving you feel so wrong?"
Reinhart drains away any bright colors, any reds, greens or blues, in favor of earthen tones. This suits designer Mark Geraghty's glum fortresses and rude hovels. Anne Dudley's score is a tad mournful but, hey, this is Tristan and Isolde.
To paraphrase Isolde, why does everything in this film feel so wrong?
TRISTAN & ISOLDE
20th Century Fox
An Apollopromedia-MFF (Tristan and Isolde) Limited Stillking-Qi Quality International-Co-Production of a Scott Free production
Credits:
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Screenwriter: Dean Georgaris
Producers: Moshe Diamant, Elie Samaha, Lisa Ellzey, Giannina Facio
Executive producers: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott
Director of photography: Arthur Reinhart
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Anne Dudley
Co-producers: Anna Lai, Jan Fantl, Morgan O'Sullivan, James Flynn
Costumes: Maurizio Millenotti
Editor: Peter Boyle
Cast:
Tristan: James Franco
Isolde: Sophia Myles
Marke: Rufus Sewell
Donnchadh: David Patrick O'Hara
Wictred: Mark Strong
Melot
Henry Cavill
Bragnae: Bronagh Gallagher
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 126 minutes...
Claire Danes is in final negotiations to star alongside Richard Gere in The Flock, Bauer Martinez's thriller being directed by Andrew Lau. Flock follows a hypervigilant federal agent (Gere) who is training his young female replacement (Danes). The two must track down a missing girl who might be connected to a paroled sex offender under investigation. Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell wrote the script. Bauer Martinez's Philippe Martinez will serve as producer on the film along with Elie Samaha, Jenette Kahn, Adam Richman and Lau. The budget is pegged in the $35 million range.
BERLIN -- German rights group Intertainment said Wednesday that it has reached a settlement with bond companies Film Finances Inc. and Film Finances (1998) Canada Ltd. in connection with Intertainment's long-running dispute with Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures. Under terms of the settlement, Intertainment will receive an undisclosed cash payment from both bond companies. Film Finances Inc. and Film Finances (1998) Canada also will withdraw their claims against the now-insolvent Franchise Pictures and its subsidiaries. The move could make it easier for Intertainment to collect on the $121.7 million judgment it was awarded in June when a Los Angeles court found Franchise guilty of fraud in the calculation of budgets for such films as "The Whole Nine Yards" and "The Art of War", for which Intertainment had agreed to buy international rights (HR 6/17).
- 3/17/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BERLIN -- German rights group Intertainment said Wednesday that it has reached a settlement with bond companies Film Finances Inc. and Film Finances (1998) Canada Ltd. in connection with Intertainment's long-running dispute with Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures. Under terms of the settlement, Intertainment will receive an undisclosed cash payment from both bond companies. Film Finances Inc. and Film Finances (1998) Canada also will withdraw their claims against the now-insolvent Franchise Pictures and its subsidiaries. The move could make it easier for Intertainment to collect on the $121.7 million judgment it was awarded in June when a Los Angeles court found Franchise guilty of fraud in the calculation of budgets for such films as "The Whole Nine Yards" and "The Art of War", for which Intertainment had agreed to buy international rights (HR 6/17).
- 3/17/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- German rights group Intertainment said Thursday that it has settled out of court with reinsurance group XL Reinsurance America Inc. for $5 million. In exchange, Intertainment has agreed to drop all charges against XL and company head Steve Cardone. Further details of the deal are sealed by a confidentiality agreement between the parties. Intertainment had filed suit against XL, along with Comerica Bank and bond companies Film Finances and Film Finances Canada, for collusion in the fraud carried out against the German group by Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures. XL acted as an insurer for the now-defunct Worldwide Film Completion and was involved in the approval of inflated budgets for Franchise films that Intertainment agreed to co-finance, Intertainment alleged.
- 12/10/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- German rights group Intertainment is taking aim at Elie Samaha's personal wealth in an attempt to recoup some of the $121.7 million in damages Intertainment won this year in its successful fraud suit against Samaha and his now-defunct Franchise Pictures. At the company's annual shareholders meeting Friday in Munich, Intertainment said Samaha has until Dec. 6 to disclose his personal earnings and assets, after which time the company can make claims against him, based on the earlier court ruling. The court found that Franchise and Samaha had defrauded Intertainment by inflating the budgets on films the German distributor had agreed to acquire international rights to, including The Whole Nine Yards and Get Carter.
- 10/31/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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