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I hear that several major agencies were pursuing helmer Pierre Morel, 
whose film Taken (produced by Luc Besson and starring Liam Neeson for 20th Century Fox) which has alreade well overseas and looks like the No. 1 pic opening in North America this weekend. (ICM was boasting about this in a staff meeting only to find out two hours later that it had lost Morel to ex-ICMer Robert Newman at Endeavor). Morel came to many’s attention because the opening scenes of his District 13 (aka District B13) were acknowledged to have influenced the opening scenes of the Bond pic Casino Royale. Morel’s next movie is Hunter-Killer for Neal Moritz and Sony.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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District 13 is worth seeing. It’s not The Godfather, but the action is great and like nothing I had seen before. This guy has a value for sure. Good get, Endeavor.
writer-boy
That’s “District B13,” and Morel is indeed a scrappy talent. Good for him.
Newman was a big part of the original signing team at ICM. Renee Tab and Ben Smith were the other agents on the team.
Now that Renee and Ben aren’t at ICM any more, it makes sense that he went to Newman.
“Taken” rocks!
Liam Neeson kicks some major ass. Who the hell knew he had moves like that!
Morel is a phenomenal talent. He shot B13 on a shoe-string budget and it is 10 times the action that Bond was. Luc’s relationship w/ Berg brought him into ICM, Smith/Tab couldn’t get him a proper profile and he was left swinging in the wind when those jokers left so he bounced. Makes sense to me.
The UK is not a meter (see Quantum of Solace).
Right, Liam Neeson surprised me, too, move over, Arnie!
The flick per se is nothing to get excited about, at least not past midpoint. Action fans may like good ass-kicking, but even they do have their limits when it comes to suspension of disbelief. TAKEN crosses that line. In the end, Neeson couldn’t entirely sell me this one-man-show. Doesn’t Jason Statham get a little help from his friends, at least once in a while?
Luc Besson is a genius and I love this new influx of Euro-Action. But they do have “suspension of disbelief issues.” They love outlandish action, it goes a little beyond what Americans – raised on Marvel Comics and Joel Silver movies – are used to.
The question is… why Robert Newman? Anyone who knows anything knows that he’s got about 200 clients, and has juniors service for him. And if your movie fails (Xavier Gens — case in point), he’ll lose your phone number. Newman spends the majority of his day poaching other clients rather than servicing his own.