Week of
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International Profile: Argentina Offers Reminder of Basic Business Model
6 hours ago
Habemus un megastar. Argentina got its most recognizable media icon March 13 when Jorge Mario Bergoglio was named Pope Francis, replacing soccer idol Diego Maradona as Argentina’s most famous export. Latin America is key to the Catholic Church, but it’s increasingly important to the global showbiz industry as well. In 2012, Argentina’s box office grew faster than China’s, spiking 35%. It boasts some of the world’s most aggressive movie buyers, such as Sun Distribution; and crossover talent, such as Pablo Trapero, now signed up to direct an English-language film for Working Title. More than anything else, however, Argentina offers a reminder of a basic business model. If Hollywood — or any other player elsewhere — wants to increase market penetration, that success will come most easily by collaboration with local players and talent. In Argentina, Disney is showing the way.
(Pictured Above: Bridge in Puerto Madero.)
Biz Opportunities
Creatively, it’s a gold mine. »
- John Hopewell
Aamir Khan: International Star You Need to Know
6 hours ago
Claim To Fame
The 48-year-old Bollywood star has 43 films to his credit. And his 2012 daytime talkshow “Satyamev Jayate” reached an audience of 500 million each day via Rupert Murdoch’s Star India network and government pubcaster Doordarshan. Season two is in the pipeline.
(From the pages of the April 2 issue of Variety.)
Social Impact
On the talkshow, he addresses issues including killing of female fetuses, child sexual abuse, honor killings and domestic violence. He successfully campaigned for the Indian government to pass a long-pending child protection bill.
Fans
Steven Spielberg sez he’s watched “3 Idiots” three times (from the Hindustan Times).
Controversy
On “Satyamev Jayate,” Khan highlighted malpractice in the medical profession. This earned the ire of the Indian Medical Assn., which demanded an apology. Khan refused, saying those medical professionals troubled by his whistle-blowing were likely the cause of the problems in the first place.
Other Credits
He starred in 2009’s “3 Idiots, »
- Variety Staff
Spanish director Bigas Luna dead at 67
7 hours ago
Spanish film director Juan Jose Bigas Luna, a colorful chronicler of sexual and social excess, died Friday near Tarragona, Spain, after a long battle with cancer. He was 67.
It was typical of Bigas Luna, a larger-than-life bon vivant who soon became a one-man-brand, that when Spain followed up the 1975 death of dictator Francisco Franco with a splurge of tits-and-bums quickies, Bigas Luna’s second feature, 1978’s “Bilbao,” rolled off the new sexual liberties to portray a hen-pecked husband who kidnaps a prostitute to slake his sexual frustrations, hanging her from his ceiling like a religious martyr.
“Bilbao” initiated Bigas Luna’s long-term exploration of sexual and emotional inadequacy, set in the context of social repression. This inspired the 1990’s sexual awakening drama “The Ages of Lulu,” whose S & M orgy was cut by the British Board of Film Classification.
These obsessions also lends weight, however, to Bigas Luna’s finest film achievement, »
- John Hopewell
Box Office: ‘Evil Dead’ Looks Lively With $12 Million Friday Haul
12 hours ago
Sony’s “Evil Dead,” a remake that raises Sam Raimi’s 1981 original from its cult classic grave, is rising slightly higher than expectations this weekend. “Evil Dead” earned $11.9 million Friday, with a three-day haul of around $27 million projected.
The TriStar, FilmDistrict and Ghost House Productions release got off to a strong start against players with a little broader appeal this frame, including Universal’s “Jurassic Park” 3D rerelease and Fox-DreamWorks Animations “The Croods.” Friday will almost definitely be the scarer’s strongest day, with that early jump quite certainly enough positioning the film to win the weekend.
Behind it, “Jurassic Park” is falling tightly in line with expectations that were a little unsure heading into the weekend. The actioner took $7 million Friday for second, and will likely land in the high teens through Sunday as expected, but a pair of strong holdovers are expected to muscle it down to fourth place in that time. »
- Michael Sullivan
Buenos Aires Intl. Independent Film Festival inks global pacts for pics
17 hours ago
Ten years ago, the Buenos Aires Intl. Independent Film Festival’s Buenos Aires Lab was Latin America’s first works-in-progress showcase, and now it’s undergoing a radical reboot and expanding internationally.
On May 21, Bal and Cannes Festival’s Film Market will present four of the 10 pics-in-post from Bal’s April event.
In 2014, Bal will link to a yet-to-be announced Latin American fest for joint projects-in-development workshops. The projects will be shown at a European fest, also yet-to-be revealed, boosting international visibility, say Bal directors Violeta Bava and Ilse Hughan.
What will not change is Bal’s hallmark mix of potential crossover fare, left-of-field titles, off-the-radar new talent and established young directors such as Rodrigo Moreno (The Minder), who presents Reimon, his first female-character-driven drama.
Santiago Palavecino’s Some Girls, Costa Rican Neto Villalobos’ dramedy “Por las plumas” and Claudio Marques and Marilia Hughes’ high school drama “After the Rain, »
- John Hopewell and Charles Newbery
Buenos Aires Festival Spolights Local Pics
17 hours ago
Buenos Aires is a city with a passion for cinema: It has 12,000 film students, for example, and the Buenos Aires Intl. Independent Film Festival — Bafici for short — attracted 350,000 people last year, up 15% on the previous edition.
Artistic director Marcelo Panozzo, who took over the reins last May, points out that while the Internet has increased the awareness of independent cinema among Argentine auds, these films do not, by and large, get distribution in theaters: The fest is the only place where they can be seen on a bigscreen.
The vibe of the fest, which runs April 10-21, can be summed up in one word, says Panozzo: Curiosity. “It’s the word that best defines the excitement that forms around the programming’s announcement,” he says.
But what makes the fest a must-attend? “First and foremost, that the majority of important Argentinean films from the past 15 years originated in Bafici. Second, »
- Leo Barraclough
Bradley Cooper to Replace Jude Law in ‘Jane Got A Gun’
5 April 2013 5:11 PM, PDT
After a couple of bumps in the road, indie western “Jane Got A Gun” looks to be back on track with Bradley Cooper in talks to join the cast.
Cooper would be replacing Jude Law, who fell out after learning that the film’s original director, Lynne Ramsay, dropped out of the project.
The pic stars Natalie Portman and Joel Edgerton with Gavin O’Connor helming.
“Gun,” penned by Brian Duffield, follows a woman who asks an ex-lover for help in order to save her outlaw husband from a gang which is out to kill him. Joel Edgerton plays the ex-lover while Cooper would play the leader of the gang.
Pic will mark the first film for Scott Steindorff’s Scott Pictures. Producers are Steindorff, Aleen Keshishian, Terry Dougas and Portman.
Several weeks ago, it seemed like the film was falling apart after Michael Fassbender also departed due to scheduling conflicts. »
- Justin Kroll
‘Porgy and Bess’: Gershwins’ Opera Gets Film Update (Exclusive)
5 April 2013 5:03 PM, PDT
Producers Mike Medavoy and Bobby Geisler are developing a re-envisioned and updated film version of George and Ira Gershwin’s iconic opera “Porgy and Bess.”
The duo is working with the Gershwin family and the estate of lyricist DuBose Heyward to develop the project. Marc George Gershwin, nephew of the Gershwin brothers, told Variety that he’s optimistic that Medavoy and Geisler will be able to produce a fresh take on the 1935 work.
“We get approached a lot with ideas that aren’t very good but Mike has a great track record,” Gershwin noted. “We’re confident that he’s going to able to find the right director and writer. And we already have the music.”
“Porgy and Bess” premiered in New York in 1935 with a cast of African-American singers, featuring the songs “Summertime,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “Bess You Is My Woman Now,” “I Loves You Porgy” and “I Got Plenty of Nuttin. »
- Dave McNary
Jane Campion to Receive Directors Prize at Cannes Festival
5 April 2013 4:56 PM, PDT
Jane Campion will be presented with the Carrosse d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival May 16.
The kudos is awarded annually by Film Directors Guild and sponsored by Canal+ Cinéma. It is a tribute paid by the directors to honor one of their own, chosen from the international filmmaking community for the innovative qualities, the courage and independent mindedness of his or her work. Since its creation in 2002, this award has been given to Jacques Rozier, Clint Eastwood, Nanni Moretti, Ousmane Sembene, David Cronenberg, Alain Cavalier, Jim Jarmusch, Naomi Kawase, Agnès Varda, Jafar Panahi and Nuri Bilge Ceylan in 2012.
There will be an afternoon conversation with Campion, followed by a screening at Cannes’ Théâtre Croisette.
The prize will be presented that evening during the Directors’ Fortnight opening ceremony. »
- Variety Staff
Film Reviews: Opening This Week (April 1-5, 2013)
5 April 2013 3:25 PM, PDT
Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner
Distributor: Cinema Guild
Cindy Kleine pays tribute to her famed theater-director hubby in “Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner,” with thoroughly delightful results. Gregory’s tale-spinning fluency dazzles just as much as it did in Louis Malle’s “My Dinner With Andre,” but this time with a wry familiarity all Kleine’s own. Shot at home or in various improvised rehearsal spaces — with much photographic evidence of Gregory’s sterile, unhappy childhood, as well as occasional clips from “My Dinner With Andre” and the other filmed Gregory/Wallace Shawn collaboration, “Vanya on 42nd Street” — the film juxtaposes work and biography with wondrous open-endedness, and should enchant fans as well as those new to the table.
Read the full review.
Distributor: First Run Features
Bert Stern would seemingly make for an ideal documentary subject, celebrated for his »
- Variety Staff
Latest WGA Report Reveals 85% of Members Are Grateful to Be White Males
5 April 2013 3:00 PM, PDT
On the heels of last week’s Writers Guild of America study that revealed TV writing staffs continue to be overwhelmingly made up of white male writers, the WGA released a follow-up report today that discovered 85% percent of WGA members are extremely grateful to be white males.
(From the pages of the April 2 issue of Variety.)
According to white male writer and WGA president Chris Keyser, the latest report helped calm the nerves of numerous WGA white male members who see minority and female writers as a threat to their jobs.
“Most of the time being a TV or film writer is really discouraging, so it’s nice to finally read a report that makes me feel better about myself,” white male TV writer Greg O’Donnell tells Hollywood & Swine. “All of the white male WGA members I’ve talked to are doing their best to make sure nothing changes. »
- Hollywood and Swine
Jessica Chastain Boards del Toro’s ‘Crimson Peak’
5 April 2013 11:15 AM, PDT
Guillermo del Toro is finalizing the guest list for his haunted-house thriller “Crimson Peak” as Jessica Chastain is final negotiations to co-star in the Legendary Pictures movie.
She joins Benedict Cumberbatch, Emma Stone and Charlie Hunnam with Guillermo del Toro set to direct. Plot details are unknown at this time as del Toro and Lucinda Coxon work through a rewrite on a script del Toro and Matthew Robins originally penned.
Legendary will produce and be a participating financing partner on the movie, with Universal Pictures retaining an option to finance at a later date. The film is set to begin shooting in February 2014.
“Crimson Peak” will reteam Chastain with del Toro, who exec produced the horror film “Mama,” in which she starred.
Since receiving an Oscar nomination for her perf in Sony’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” the only other project Chastain had committed to was the adaptation of “Miss Julie. »
- Justin Kroll
Milo O’Shea Dead: Dublin-born Stage and Screen Actor Dies at 86
5 April 2013 10:18 AM, PDT
Milo O’Shea, an Irish actor-recognized by his black bushy eyebrows and playful smile— whose films include “Ulyssess” and “Barbarella,” died April 2 of complications from Alzheimer’s disease in Gotham. He was 86.
O’Shea, both a stage and screen actor, was born in Dublin on June 2, 1926. His father was a professional singer and his mother was a harpist and ballet dancer. His first leading screen role was in the 1967 film adaption of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” when he played Leopold Bloom.
O’Shea’s debut performance on Broadway was the 1968 production of “Staircase,” where he played a gay hairdresser. In that same year, he played the role of Friar Laurence in Franco Zeffirelli’s film adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” and the mad scientist Durand Durand in Roger Vadim’s science-fiction fantasy “Barbarella.”
Other films in O’Shea’s repertoire include “The Verdict” starring Paul Newman and “That Matchmaker,” where »
- Michelle Salemi
Dan Aykroyd to Take a Trip With ‘Tammy’ (Exclusive)
5 April 2013 10:00 AM, PDT
Melissa McCarthy and New Line have turned to a comic legend to complete the cast of their laffer “Tammy” as Dan Aykroyd is in negotiations to join the project.
Susan Sarandon and Mark Duplass are also on board, with McCarthy co-directing with spouse Ben Falcone. McCarthy and Falcone are also producing from a script they co-wrote.
Pic follows a woman who, after losing her job and learning that her husband has been unfaithful, hits the road with her profane, hard-drinking grandmother (Sarandon).
Aykroyd would play Duplass’ father, who encounters McCarthy and Sarandon on their road trip.
Production is set to start next month.
Aykroyd is repped by CAA and recently lent his voice to the annie “Legend of Oz: Dorothy’s Return.” »
- Justin Kroll
Variety’s Scott Foundas Remembers Roger Ebert: A Mentor to the End
5 April 2013 6:00 AM, PDT
The first message I ever received from Roger Ebert came nearly 20 years ago, in the form of a reply to a fan letter I’d sent him with little hope of hearing back. At the time, I was a high-school student in Tampa, infatuated with movies and making my first stabs at writing about them in the school paper — reviews written with the latest edition of Ebert’s annual “Movie Home Companion” close at hand. Then there was the weekly broadcast of “Siskel & Ebert” (or “At the Movies with Siskel & Ebert” or “Siskel & Ebert and the Movies,” as it was variously known over the years) — requisite viewing in our house, even if it was sometimes challenging, in the pre-Internet, pre-TiVo era, to follow its frequent shifts of airtime and day throughout the syndication universe.
I can’t recall the exact contents of Roger’s letter, which I still have tucked away in a drawer somewhere, »
- Scott Foundas
New Mexico Governor OKs Sweetened Production Incentives
4 April 2013 7:51 PM, PDT
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has signed legislation to increase the state’s incentives for film and television production.
The provisions, included as part of a tax reform bill dubbed the New Mexico Jobs Package, increases the state’s rebate for series TV production to 30% from 25% of a producer’s total qualified spend in New Mexico. Feature films will also be eligible for a 30% rebate on resident labor if they use a qualified production facility and for a 25% rebate on other expenses.
Martinez and New Mexico legislators worked out a deal last month for a package of tax cuts after Martinez said she could not give tax cuts to only the film industry.
The bill has been dubbed the “Breaking Bad Bill” since the series has been filmed since 2007 in Albuquerque, where its final episodes are being shot. It also provides for the roll-over of up to $10 million in unused funds in each fiscal year. »
- Dave McNary
Judge Rejects DC Comics’ Claims Against Attorney in ‘Superman’ Case
4 April 2013 6:44 PM, PDT
DC Comics has won some key recent rulings over the rights to Superman, but a federal judge has rejected central claims they’ve made against Marc Toberoff, the attorney for the heirs to the creators of the Man of Steel.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Otis Wright also refused DC’s effort to force Toberoff to pay some $500,000 in attorney’s fees, going so far as to say that the singling out of their attorney “smacks of animus” toward him. One of Toberoff’s specialties has been representing authors and their heirs as they seek to invoke a provision of the Copyright Act that allows them to reclaim rights to their creations after a certain period of time.
When the heirs to Superman co-creators Joseph Shuster and Jerome Siegel sought to reclaim the character, it set up a protracted legal tangle that has lasted nearly a decade. In October, »
- Ted Johnson
Variety’s Peter Debruge Remembers Roger Ebert: A Champion Among Men
4 April 2013 5:37 PM, PDT
Roger Ebert is the reason I’m a film critic.
In college, just as I was beginning to review films for the school paper, I wrote my idol an email taking issue with one of his reviews and was stunned to receive a response. His message was short, maybe a sentence long, but encouraging, open-ended, the start of a conversation — a conversation that continued across some 15 years.
At the time, I was debating whether to major in film studies or fall back on something safer. I’d grown up with no TV and a film diet severely limited by my parents, who preferred that I spent my time reading books. And so I did. At a certain point, the single most important book in my collection was Ebert’s movie yearbook — a ginormous, dog-eared monster that amassed, in some 800 pages, many of his Chicago Sun-Times reviews. My bible. It described »
- Peter Debruge
Variety’s Justin Chang Remembers Roger Ebert: A ‘Crash’ Course in Criticism
4 April 2013 5:36 PM, PDT
I will always regret that I had only one direct exchange with Roger Ebert, and it took place via email. In that brief but (for me) significant correspondence, he proved as kind and gracious a soul as you would expect. Personally, I wish I’d behaved better.
It was on March 6, 2006, the morning after “Crash” won the Oscar for best picture — an upset in every sense for those of us who were rooting for the presumptive favorite, “Brokeback Mountain.” The resulting online uproar was so intense that it spurred Ebert to write a vigorous defense of Paul Haggis’ film, decrying “the fury of the ‘Crash’-lash” and accusing the hardcore “Brokeback” fans of acting in bad faith. More or less proving him right, I lashed out. I fired off a crankily defensive email, lambasting someone I had read and respected for ages but never met, and whom I would have »
- Justin Chang
Disney Staffers Brace for Layoffs Amid Planned Reorg (Exclusive)
4 April 2013 5:32 PM, PDT
Employees at the Walt Disney Co. are bracing for layoffs that are expected in the coming weeks as part of a reorganization of key operations.
It is believed that the company’s movie studio will be hardest hit, particularly in the areas of home entertainment, production and marketing, according to multiple sources familiar with matter.
The exact number of reductions are still being determined, as Disney brass conclude a company-wide review process that tasked each division with ensuring that staff levels are in line with the company’s needs in a changing marketplace, particularly in divisions affected by shifts in new media and technologies. The internal audit was ordered late last year by Disney chief executive Bob Iger and chief financial officer Jay Rasulo to identify areas of redundancy and departments that need revamping amid changing business models.
Many at the studio expect that the cuts and restructuring will occur »
- Marc Graser
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