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FIRST BOX OFFICE: ‘Fast & Furious 6′ Easy #1 With $35M Friday And $100+M Memorial Weekend For Franchise Biggest; ‘Hangover III’ $14M/$50M; ‘Epic’ $11M/$50M; Records?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday May 24, 2013 @ 1:32pm PDTTags: Box Office, Epic, Fast & Furious 6, The Hangover Part III

Box Office Hangover Part IIIFRIDAY 1:30 PM, 5TH UPDATE: I’ve just received from my sources the first Friday and Memorial Weekend estimates which assume the four-day (and even 4 1/2-day) holiday period’s total box office can expand significantly over 2011′s record $270M. The easy #1 is Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 is pulling out ahead with $35M today (including Thursday late shows and Friday midnights) to target $100+M for the long weekend from 3,658 domestic theaters. This will be the franchise’s biggest opening by far. The #2 film is Warner Bros’ The Hangover Part III co-financed with Legendary Pictures making $14M today after earning $11.7M for its Wednesday late shows/Thursday midnights. It’s aiming for a $50M Memorial Weekend from 3,555 North American theaters over its 4 1/2 day debut. And #3 right now is Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios’ toon Epic which is looking at $11M today and expecting $50M in 3,882 U.S. and Canadian locations for Memorial Weekend. It’s tracking after what has been a drought of family fare since March.

The real question is how much this Memorial Weekend box office can expand over last year’s to accommodate all 3 new tentpoles. There’s also 3 proven blockbusters still in the marketplace: Disney/Marvel’s Iron Man 3 in 3,424 theaters, Warner Bros/Village Roadshow’s The Great Gatsby in 3,090 locations (which today crossed $100M domestic after only 14 days and is the first Baz Luhrmann film to do so), and Paramount/Skydance’s Star Trek In Darkness in 3,907 theaters. Big online ticketseller Fandango reports this is its biggest Memorial Day weekend for sales ever with Fast & Furious 6 selling 53% more Fandango tickets than The Hangover Part III.

After 12 years, five films and more than $1.5 billion at the global box office, the sixth Fast & Furious installment should successfully transition from street racing to heist action to terrorist plot as it opens wide today. F&F6 debuted in 2,409 North American theaters for Thursday 10 PM late shows and Friday midnights and made $6.5M which speeded past Fast 5‘s $3.8M late show grosses from an uncrowded April 29, 2011. F&F6 debuts day and date in 59 total international territories this weekend after popping Universal’s biggest opening in the UK and Ireland last Friday. Pic already has $53.4M from 34 international markets, opening #1 in all of them as the franchise’s biggest opener. Another 25 territories release today.

THURSDAY 11:30 PM, 2ND UPDATE: Warner Bros’ The Hangover Part III co-financed with Legendary Pictures went wide in 3,555 North American theaters today and my sources say it opened to $11 million which includes Wednesday late shows and Thursday midnights. That’s miniscule compared to The Hangover Part II‘s Thursday opening of $31.6M - 3,615 locations on May 26, 2011 - which was the highest-grossing opening day ever for a live-action comedy. (H3‘s also is less than Thursday’s $13.5M debut a week ago for Star Trek Into Darkness.) Plus audiences only gave The Hangover Part III a ‘B’ CinemaScore compared to the ‘A-’ which the sequel scored. This threequel also scored even worse reviews (only 26% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) than H2 (34%) which was considered embarrassingly awful. By contrast, F&F6 and Epic both scored 70+% positive RT reviews. But H3 is still going to make a lot of moolah: worldwide moviegoers really like this mindless crap especially during the summer months. Internationally, the comedy is taking off in 3 markets this weekend – the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The studio tells me early numbers in Australia indicate a strong opening day of A$1.75M from 494 screens, dominating 80% of the Top 5. NZ also opened big, controlling over 70% of the Top 5. Next weekend H3 opens in 32 markets, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil. Read More »

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Cannes: Radius-TWC Buys Keanu Reeves’ Helming Debut ‘Man Of Tai Chi’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday May 22, 2013 @ 12:02am PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Keanu Reeves, Man Of Tai Chi, Radius-TWC
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: In its second significant deal at Cannes, Radius-TWC acquired North American rights to Keanu Reeves‘ directorial debut Man Of Tai Chi in a low seven-figure minimum guarantee. The film is set in modern Beijing and follows the spiritual journey of a young martial artist (Tiger Hu Chen) whose unparalleled tai chi skills land him in a highly lucrative underworld fight club. As the fights grow tougher, he must compromise his own beliefs in order to survive. This is the second deal for Radius, which on Saturday acquired the Directors Fornight film Blue Ruin. TWC-Radius also has the Nicolas Winding Refn-directed Only God Forgives playing here at Cannes, with Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas starring.

Related: Hammond: A New Day As HBO and VOD Movies Compete For Palme d’Or

Reeves, who also stars in the film, met Chen during The Matrix, where Chen was a stuntman and a trainer for Reeves. It’s Chen’s first lead role, and the film also stars international action fixtures like The Raid’s Iko Uwais and Jeremy Marinas. Michael G. Cooney wrote the script and Man Of Tai Chi is a co-production between China Film Group, Wanda Media, Village Roadshow Pictures Asia and Universal Pictures. Lemore Syvan is the producer. Radius will release the film in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Related: Cannes: Reeves Presents ‘Man Of Tai Chi’ Read More »

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Cannes: Keanu Reeves Presents Directorial Debut & China Co-Production ‘Man Of Tai Chi’

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Monday, 20 May 2013 15:46 UKTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, China Film Group, Keanu Reeves, Man Of Tai Chi

A representative of China Film Group today called Keanu Reeves’ upcoming Man Of Tai Chi “the most important co-production” for the company this year. Reeves makes his directorial debut with the kung-fu film that is a co-production from CFG, Wanda Media, Village Roadshow Pictures Asia and Universal Pictures. At a gathering to introduce clips from the film, Reeves said he shot for more than 105 days in Beijing and Hong Kong, where the crew was at one point locked on a set because of a severe typhoon. He chose this movie to make his helming debut because it was “the story I felt I could tell and wanted to tell and didn’t want anybody else to tell.”

Man Of Tai Chi focuses on a young, innocent martial artist who struggles to maintain his values amid the pressures of contemporary society. Tiger Chen plays the man who is lured into the underground boxing world where Reeves plays the man out to manipulate him. Reeves and Chen worked together on the Matrix movies where Chen taught Reeves about “wires and kicks and punches.” The pair became friends and over five years developed the story. Reeves says it was just about “four or five years ago that I started to think about directing. But I always said I would only direct if I had a story to tell.”

Giving himself an extra challenge, the story is told in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Reeves says, “I had to listen. The process was very collaborative. I had great support in terms of translators, casting or working on a scene… As an actor, you’re part of telling a story and as a director you’re responsible for it, but you can’t do it yourself so the collaboration was the gift.” Read More »

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‘Great Gatsby’ Upsets ‘Iron Man 3′ Box Office

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday May 16, 2013 @ 8:58am PDTTags: Box Office, Iron Man 3, The Great Gatsby

OK, here’s some box office hilarity for you. Even if it’s only for one night, an adaptation of a 90-year-old novel toppled fanboy favorite Iron Man 3 as the #1 film in America Wednesday. Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio became the top-grossing film in North America with $3.9M from 3,535 theaters vs Iron Man 3‘s $3.85M from 4,253 theaters, according to Warner Bros which co-financed with Village Roadshow and is distributing worldwide. Gatsby‘s 6-day cume is now $63.3M. “It’s a stunning box office upset for the ages,” one exec gushed to me this morning. On the other hand, Disney/Marvel’s Iron Man 3 opened two weeks earlier in the U.S. and three weeks earlier overseas and should pass $1 billion in worldwide gross today and $300 million in North America. And let’s not forget that IM3 lost tickets to the opening of Star Trek Into Darkness last night. Its cumulative performance to date is international $691.9M and domestic $298.6M for a global total of $990.5M. Iron Man 3 is now the 2nd highest grossing superhero movie of all time overseas behind Marvel’s The Avengers and currently stands as the #11 highest grossing film of all time in the international marketplace. By country: China $102.4M, Korea $55.6M, UK $49.7M, Mexico $43.6M, Russia $40.2M, Brazil $39.0M, France $36.4M, Australia $33.7M, Japan $21.4M, Italy $19.8M, Taiwan $18.4M, Germany $18.4M, Indonesia $14.6M, Philippines $14.3M, Hong Kong $13.1M, other markets $171.4M.

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Hammond On Cannes: Opening Night ‘Gatsby’ Party Wet But Elaborate

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday May 15, 2013 @ 7:28pm PDTTags: Baz Luhrmann, Brian Grazer, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Robinov, Leonardo Di Caprio, Moulin Rouge, Steven Spielberg, Sue Kroll, The Great Gatsby, Tobey McGuire
Pete Hammond

Baz Luhrmann followed up his biggest opening day in America with his biggest opening day in France as The Great Gatsby took in $78K in partial-day results that still were bigger than his Moulin Rouge and Australia. Understandably in a party mood thanks to the overperformance of his U.S. box office last weekend, the director pronounced himself pleased with one of the most elaborate after-parties which Cannes has seen since Moulin Rouge premiered here in 2001. Warner Bros co-hosted the gala event with Gatsby‘s other key financier, Village Roadshow. “I love it.  I think Jay Gatsby would have loved it too. ‘Screw the rain,’ he would have said,” Luhrmann laughed.

The Cannes celebration of its opening-night film continued into the early morning hours despite a monsoon-like downpour. When I left around 2 AM, though, the party showed no sign of winding down. Luhrmann was frequently out on the dance floor whooping it up with the likes of Warner Bros worldwide marketing czarina Sue Kroll (“When you open the festival, you have to spend a good amount of money on the party,” Kroll told me), his co-star Isla Fisher, and his WME agent Robert Newman. Also there was the festival guru Thierry Fremaux, who told me that the first film he ever programmed when he first snagged the prestigious Cannes gig was Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.

Luhrmann said he was now really optimistic about the global … Read More »

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‘The Great Gatsby’ Hip-Hops To Big $52M; But ‘Iron Man 3′ Still Tops; ‘Peeples’ Flops

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday May 11, 2013 @ 10:00pm PDTTags: Box Office, Iron Man 3, The Great Gatsby, Warner Bros

Great Gatsby Box OfficeSATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM, 4TH UPDATE: There’s more good news at the box office for the start of Summer 2013. Domestic grosses for Warner Bros‘ The Great Gatsby (3,035 theaters) just keep going strong. Big online seller Fandango tells me this female-driven film is heading into Mother’s Day and ticket sales show no signs of flagging across the country from city to heartland. Despite audiences giving it a ‘B’ CinemaScore. In addition to moviegoers showing up dressed in 1930s period costumes, exhibitors are reporting some audiences spontaneously bursting into applause when Leonardo first appears on screen. (When’s the last time that happened?) That’s prompted some Hollywood execs to speculate this is the original Titanic crowd. Warner Bros hopes the Baz Luhrmann-directed, DiCaprio starrer ”perfectly counter-programs” all the May action movies. My sources’ latest estimates for the 3D tentpole are $19.4M for Thursday/Friday, and -6% for $18M Saturday. Hollywood is expecting an overperforming $52M first weekend for the romantic drama co-financed by Village Roadshow and based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 classic novel. The #1 film is still Disney/Marvel’s Iron Man 3 (which has the biggest theater count at 4,253) with $19.7M Friday (-72% from last Friday’s huge opening) and a huge $33M Saturday for $75M this weekend. (Last year The Avengers made an incredible $103M in its second weekend…) Before Friday, IM3 grossed $794M — international cume $581.6M and domestic $212.4M. Now the North American cume should be $287.4M through Sunday. Yowza! The only other major newcomer is Lionsgate’s Peeples (2,031 theaters), a ‘Tyler Perry Presents’ comedy not written or directed by him but by Tina Gordon Chism. It received a ‘B-’ CinemaScore and weak grosses even for a tiny budget of $15M: $1.1M Friday and $1.8M Saturday for a $4.2M weekend.

Gatsby‘s success might all seem surprising considering the film’s uneven reviews. Then again these critics — the vast majority white middle-aged men — are complaining about Luhrmann’s supposed “sacrilege” in adding hip-hop to Gatsby which of course is set in the decade dubbed “The Jazz Age”. Way to make themselves look old and out of touch. (Are these the same purists who piled on when Bob Dylan went electric? I found the music a fresh touch.) While Leo’s and Tobey Maguire’s performances are praised, Carey Mulligan’s is not. Then again there were misgivings in the media from the day the extravagant Baz project was first announced – the 4th attempt to film the novel after Warner Baxter starred in 1926, Alan Ladd in 1949, and Robert Redford in 1974. But tracking told a different story: it was strong from the day Lurhmann’s version co-scripted with Craig Pearce came on — especially heavy with females but also registering decently with men. The Great Gatsby kept improving its numbers as the full frills and very effective marketing campaign took hold. Even without P&A, the movie’s cost reportedly ballooned up to $200M. But Warner Bros claims that figure is $160M, which was brought down to $105M because of ”tons of rebates” from Luhrmann’s Australia filming location. That was then split 50-50 between the studio and co-financier Village Roadshow. (Initially the budget was $80M when Sony passed, and then $120M when Warner Bros and Village Roadshow first came aboard.) Read More »

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Tom Cruise’s ‘All You Need Is Kill’ & ’300′ Sequel Release Dates Delayed

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 9, 2013 @ 7:03pm PDTTags: 300: Rise Of An Empire, All You Need Is Kill, Warner Bros

Warner Bros has pushed the release date for the Tom Cruise-starrer All You Need Is Kill to June 6, 2014, from its original date of March 7, 2014, and 300: Rise Of An Empire will now take the March 7, 2014, spot. The 300 sequel initially was set for release on August 2, 2013. All You Need Is Kill, from Warner Bros and Village Roadshow Entertainment, will now go up against Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It will open in select international markets beginning May 30, two weeks ahead of the start of the World Cup. Warner Bros/Legendary’s 300: Rise Of An Empire, will face off against Fox’s animated pic Mr. Peabody And Sherman. 300: Rise Of An Empire now avoids going up against Universal’s actioner 2 Guns. The first 300, released in March 2007, earned more than $456 million worldwide.

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Benjamin Walker In Talks To Join Ron Howard’s ‘In The Heart Of The Sea’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday May 7, 2013 @ 4:09pm PDTTags: Benjamin Walker, Big Deals Film, Chris Hemsworth, In The Heart Of The Sea, Ron Howard, Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros is in talks with Benjamin Walker, who played the prexy in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, to join Chris Hemsworth and Tom Holland in In The Heart Of The Sea, the Ron Howard-directed adaptation of the Nathaniel Philbrick book about the whale attack on the Essex which became the basis for Melville’s Moby Dick. Brian Grazer is producing with Joe Roth, Paula Weinstein and William Ward, with Palak Patel exec producing. Warner Bros is making the film with Village Roadshow Pictures. Walker is in talks to play George Pollard, the arrogant privileged son of a whaling family who attempts to use his family name to gain captaincy, and who butts heads with shipmate Chase (Hemsworth), who knows the job and the sea much better. Pollard’s rep is ruined because of a mishap with another ship and he is relegated to night watchmen duty for the rest of his life.

Read More »

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Studios Translate Local Language Movies Into Lucrative Global Business

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Sunday, 5 May 2013 22:47 UKTags: Big Deals Film, Fox International Productions, Universal International, Warner Bros Pictures

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, goes the old saying. While the studios continue trying to crack the nut of getting Hollywood films into China, many of the majors also have a wider global strategy that’s proving lucrative both there and elsewhere: Local-language production. Hollywood’s involvement in the area is not new. But, increasingly, movies that are co-produced or distributed by the majors in such places as China, India, Germany, Italy, Spain, Korea and Latin America are finding themselves reaping strong returns.

The markets “are huge,” especially where local box office rivals that of Hollywood pictures. Homegrown films in China, for example, generally snag about 50% of the annual market share and are currently widely outperforming Hollywood films – this week’s Iron Man 3 notwithstanding. In India, the indigenous share of a $2B market can be as much as 90%. There’s an argument to be made that Chinese or Indian films don’t cross cultural borders, but with those kinds of numbers, “Why would the film need to travel?” posits an exec.

Richard Fox, EVP International for Warner Bros., says the studio is looking to develop relationships to make Chinese-language films. “There are a lot of moving pieces in assessing which countries to focus on,” but, “if it doesn’t recoup in the country of origin, we don’t get involved,” he says. Warner recently bet well in Mexico where its comedy Nosotros Los Nobles smashed records with the second biggest opening ever for a non-animated local film.

Another studio exec says local language production “is all relatively opportunistic.” It can be a distraction to try and stay abreast of local material, but “paying attention to local markets, filmmakers and stories around the world gets you more educated in terms of worldwide taste and emerging filmmakers.” Plus, “the minute you have a hit, it’s ‘How much money are we making? Why don’t we up this business?’” Here’s a look at how the studios are speaking in various tongues: Read More »

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CinemaCon: Warner Bros Wins Strong Exhibitor Reaction To Summer Slate

By PETE HAMMOND | Tuesday April 16, 2013 @ 8:10pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, CinemaCon, Dan Fellman, Jeff Robinov, Pacific Rim, Superman: Man of Steel, The Great Gatsby, The Hangover Part III, Warner Bros
Pete Hammond

It was Warner Bros Pictures’ turn for studio slate presentations at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas Tuesday and President of the Warner Bros Pictures Group Jeff Robinov unveiled the studio’s packed summer lineup with its familiar mix of comedy, horror, superheroes, monsters, and sequels. Robinov looked to the future and thanked all the studio’s partners: New Line, Legendary, Village Roadshow, Alcon, and MGM (on the Hobbit trilogy). He also thanked his new boss Kevin Tsujihara who won the job of Chief Executive Officer replacing Barry Meyer. ”All of us share his vision and this will be an exciting time under his leadership,” Robinov said. Distribution head Dan Fellman initiated a bunch of baseball analogies after the success of Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros’ Jackie Robinson biopic 42 last weekend. It followed a string of 5 straight box office disappointments for Warner Bros and occasional other partners (like New Line). ”Consistency has always been a hallmark of Warner Bros Pictures. But even the most consistent player can hit a few fouls,” Fellman told exhibitors. Fellman emphasized that Warner Bros is the only studio to score $1 billion box office gross domestically 12 years in a row. And International Distrib topper Veronika Kwan Vandenberg pointed out that the studio in 2012 grossed over $4 billion worldwide thanks to hits like The Dark Knight Rises  and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Add to that the 85th Oscar-winning Best Picture success of Argo. Plus, this year Warners Bros is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its founding by the Brothers Warner in 1923.

The season starts out May 10th with the 3D drama from Baz Luhrmann, The Great Gatsby, originally intended for the 2012 awards season but held for Summer 2013 instead. Luhrmann is still tweaking the movie which will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 15th, but sent along a pre-taped introduction – complete with music underscoring  to the film’s trailer. Footage was shown at last year’s CinemaCon but this was much different and in 3D. No question it looks like another visual triumph for the director of Moulin Rouge  and Romeo And Juliet which starred his Gatsby lead Leonardo Di Caprio. Luhrmann said he was inspired to use 3D when he saw a 3D screening of the Alfred Hitchcock 1950s drama Dial M For Murder (also released by Warners). Even though he said the most special effect in this movie is the acting.

Director Todd Phillips publicly chided Luhrmann before introducing The Hangover Part III trailer. “It would be nice if Baz showed up. There are a lot of directors backstage. We showed up,” he said. Phillips then fed the exhibitors’ egos by saying that comedies should be seen in theaters where everyone can laugh together. Warner’s is now referring to his sleeper smash as the Hangover Trilogy.

Next was Zack Snyder, director of Man Of Steel, who turned up with the world premiere of the film’s new trailer which will play before Oblivion starting on Friday. “There’s no competition between superheroes obviously. But if there were, he would win,” said the unabashed fan of the comic book hero. “I am sorry to even have to say this now but we shot the movie on film and anamorphic. We wanted to give your cinemas a big giant movie movie.” He also acknowledged producer Christopher Nolan’s help during their first meeting in steering him in the right direction on the film. Nolan and his co-producers Emma Thomas and Chuck Roven were in the audience but oddly not introduced to the crowd. The trailer played well and Nolan seemed pleased with the reaction when I saw him afterwards. Read More »

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Global Showbiz Briefs: Tribeca Heads To UK; New Zealand Film Revenues Surpass $3B; Sundance London; Odin’s Eye

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Wednesday, 10 April 2013 05:00 UKTags: Film New Zealand, Sundance London, Tribeca Film Festival

Tribeca Expands In UK
The Tribeca Film Festival is coming to the UK, after a fashion. Distributor Tribeca Film will release select titles from the festival across multiple platforms in the region beginning April 16 and for an eight-week run. The movies, including two that are screening at the festival this year, will be accessible via pay-per-view with Virgin Media and on select digital platforms including iTunes, PlayStation, and Xbox. Greetings From Tim Buckley and Fresh Meat along with previous fest selections Supporting Characters, Rubberneck, Monogamy and The Wild And Wonderful Whites Of West Virginia will be available. Tribeca chief creative officer Geoff Gilmore tells me the festival is also exploring the initiative in places beyond the UK. “We want to see how the model works and how much the Tribeca Festival brand can expand.” Gilmore says it’s clear that festival platforms are “something you have to take advantage of in the distribution world. Read More »

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Village Roadshow Ups Matthew Velkes To COO

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday April 4, 2013 @ 1:25pm PDTTags: Matthew Velkes, Village Roadshow

Village Roadshow Pictures Entertainment today promoted CFO Matthew Velkes to the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer, the company announced. Velkes will report to Bruce Berman, Chairman and CEO of VRPE and Greg Basser, CEO of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group. “We are pleased to recognize Matthew’s enormous contributions to Village Roadshow Pictures by naming him COO. During his six years at the company, Matthew’s work has expanded beyond the financial realm to that of a full-fledged motion picture executive. His extensive relationships in the community will serve the company well as we move forward to develop our next projects,” said the duo in a statement on Thursday. Velkes joined Village Roadshow back in 2006 as CFO. Those came after stints as Senior Vice President, Motion Pictures Finance and Business Development for Twentieth Century Fox and as CFO and later COO of startup independent film company Pandemonium. Before that Velkes had a career in investment banking.

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Oz Government Gives Disney $22.5M To Lure ’20,000 Leagues’ Shoot To Australia

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday April 2, 2013 @ 2:38am PDTTags: 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, Australia, Disney

In the largest inducement it’s ever offered to a Hollywood production, the Australian government has confirmed it will give Disney a one-off payment of $22.5M to shoot 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: Captain Nemo in Oz. Sources tell Deadline the greenlight on the David Fincher film is still contingent on casting, but it is expected that Fox Studios in Sydney and Village Roadshow Studios in Queensland will share hosting of the production. Disney executives had asked the federal, New South Wales and Queensland governments for subsidies which would effectively lift the 16.5% location rebate to 30%, similar to the $12.8M payment by the federal government which persuaded Fox to shoot The Wolverine in Sydney. 20,000 Leagues, which is budgeted at about $150M, could create up to 2,000 jobs, the government said. Last month, the government provided $20M in new funding to attract international productions and said it was committed to raising the location rebate if the Oz dollar remains high, but it did not set a time.

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Movie Castings: Chris Elliot & J.K. Simmons Join Hugh Grant RomCom; ‘Jupiter Ascending’ Adds David Ajala

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday March 27, 2013 @ 11:45am PDTTags: Chris Elliott, David Ajala, J.K. Simmons, Jupiter Ascending, Movie Castings

Chris Elliot and J.K. Simmons have signed on to join Hugh Grant and Marisa Tomei and Allison Janney in the still untitled romantic comedy from Marc Lawrence. Simmons will portray Dr. Lerner, Chair of the University’s English department where Grant’s Ray Michaels character teaches. Lerner takes former Oscar winning screenwriter Michaels under his wing. Simmons is represented by The Gersh Agency. Elliott will play Jim, a Shakespeare professor and neighbor to Michaels. Elliott is represented by UTA and Anonymous Content. Lawrence is writing and directing the film, which is scheduled to start filming in NYC next month.

David Ajala has joined the cast of Lana and Andy Wachowski’s Jupiter Ascending.The British actor will play Ibis in the sci-fi action film. The character is the leader of the cyber hunters who are after Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis’ characters.  Besides Tatum and Kunis, the Warner Bros-Village Roadshow co-production also stars Sean Bean and Eddie Redmayne. Jupiter Ascending is set to shoot in London and to be released on July 25, 2014. Ajala can next be seen by blockbuster audiences in Fast & Furious 6. He is repped by managers Jeff Golenberg and Matt Goldman and the UK’s Oliver Slinger from Independent Talent Group.

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Global Showbiz Briefs: ‘Stan Lee’s Mighty 7′, Endemol & Village Roadshow

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Wednesday, 27 March 2013 04:00 UKTags: Endemol, Stan Lee's Mighty 7, Village Roadshow Entertainment

PGS To Offer ‘Stan Lee’s Mighty 7′ At Mip Market
Andy Heyward’s A Squared Entertainment is partnering with Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment and Archie Comics to produce Stan Lee’s Mighty 7. The TV movie trilogy is billed as the first-ever reality superhero show and sees Lee insert himself into the story as a writer hired by Archie Comics to create a new group of superheroes. But when a group of seven aliens crash lands near his trailer, Stan decides to teach them how to behave as superheroes to thwart the military that’s in hot pursuit. The Mighty 7 comic book began appearing last year as a bi-monthly series. PGS Entertainment is kicking off sales at Mip-TV next month with the first movie to deliver in Q4. Read More »

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Kick Gurry Boards ‘Jupiter Ascending’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday March 25, 2013 @ 8:50pm PDTTags: Jupiter Ascending, Kick Gurry

Don Groves is a Deadline contributor based in Sydney.

EXCLUSIVE: Aussie actor Kick Gurry has joined the cast of Lana and Andy Wachowski’s sci-fi thriller Jupiter Ascending, his second collaboration with the siblings following Speed Racer. Gurry was offered the role by the Wachowskis when he was in London shooting Doug Liman’s All You Need Is Kill with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. A WB-Village Roadshow co-production, Jupiter Ascending stars Sean Bean, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne and Mila Kunis and is set to shoot in London. Gurry’s credits include the TV series Cybergeddon, Offspring and Tangle. Gurry doesn’t have a U.S. agent. The deal was negotiated by his Australian rep, United Management’s Natasha Harrison, and Richard Genow of Stone, Meyer, Genow, Smelkinson and Binder.

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WB Dates Wachowskis’ ‘Jupiter Ascending’, Shifts De Niro-Stallone ‘Grudge Match’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday March 14, 2013 @ 6:28pm PDTTags: Grudge Match, Jupiter Ascending, Warner Bros

Warner Bros has moved the Robert De Niro-Sylvester Stallone fight movie Grudge Match to January 10, 2014 from November 15, 2013. Kevin Hart plays the promoter in the project directed by Peter Segal. Tim Kelleher wrote the script and the most recent draft is by Entourage‘s Doug Ellin. The only other film currently set to open that weekend is Lionsgate’s tentatively titled horror movie Ghosts. And the studio set Andy and Lana Wachowski’s new sci-fi epic Jupiter Ascending to open July 25, 2014. Sean Bean, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, and Mila Kunis star in the WB-Village Roadshow co-production. The only other movie slated opposite Jupiter is Paramount’s Hercules project with Dwayne Johnson.

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Village Roadshow Boards The Wachowskis’ ‘Jupiter Ascending’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday February 20, 2013 @ 11:49pm PSTTags: Andy Wachowski, Jupiter Ascending, Lana Wachowski, Village Roadshow, Warner Bros

Don Groves is a Deadline contributor based in Sydney.

Village Roadshow is extending its collaboration with Lana and Andy Wachowski, joining Warner Bros. to co-produce the action sci-fier starring Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis and Sean Bean. That will be VR Entertainment Group’s fourth collaboration with the Wachowski siblings following The Matrix trilogy and Speed Racer. VREG is also partnered with WB on The Great Gatsby, All You Need is Kill and Fury Road. Village Roadshow Ltd. today announced net profit after tax of $A33.5 million ($34.3 million) in the half year to December 31, up 18.4%. The main drivers were theme parks in Australia, Arizona and Hawaii ($44.2 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), film distribution in Australia ($27.2 million) and cinemas in Australia and Singapore ($25.5 million).  The firm’s Gold Class Cinemas in the U.S. recorded a small loss but managing director Graham Burke tells Deadline that business is growing strongly. VREG is committed to co-produce 6-8 Hollywood films per year after renewing its joint venture with WB for five years and increasing its U.S. credit facility to $1.1 billion last November. VRL draws an annual dividend of $5 million from its 47% stake in VREG, as Burke notes the firm continues to build the library, now at 72 titles.

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Global Showbiz Briefs: Oscar Nominees ‘War Witch’ & ‘Buzkashi Boys’ In LA, New 007 Novel, French Critics ♥ ‘Amour’, & More

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday February 20, 2013 @ 11:24pm PSTTags: Amour, Buzkashi Boys, Foxtel, Global Showbiz Briefs, Summer In February, The Best Offer, War Witch

‘War Witch’ Actress Granted Visa For Oscars
Rachel Mwanza, who won best actress prizes in Berlin and Tribeca last year for her lead performance in War Witch, has been granted a visa to travel from Congo to North America in order to attend the Oscars on Sunday and other awards shows. War Witch is nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Mwanza was a non-pro when she was discovered living on the streets of Kinshasa and was cast in the movie about a 12-year-old girl who is kidnapped by African rebels, forced to kill her parents at gunpoint and then fight as a child soldier against the government. According to Tribeca Film, which acquired War Witch for North America, the filmmakers continue to provide her with a caregiver and oversee her education. The film is directed by Kim Nguyen is also nominated as Best International Film at Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards, has 12 nominations for Canadian Screen Awards on March 3 and 9 nominations for Québec’s Jutras on March 17. Tribeca is platforming the film starting March 1 in New York, then March 8 in Los Angeles and in select cities thereafter. It will be available VOD from February 26.

Afghan ‘Buzkashi Boys’ Arrive In LA For Oscars
After an Internet campaign raised money for expenses and Turkish Air Lines donated tickets for them and a shaperone, the two teenage stars of the Oscar-nominated short film from Afghanistan arrived in Los Angeles today. The 28-minute film is the first to be produced by the Afghan Film Project, a non-profit that aims to train filmmakers in Afghanistan. It focuses on two children growing up in Kabul who dream of becoming Buzkashi riders, horsemen who compete in the dangerous Afghan national sport similar to polo in which riders try to carry a headless goat across a goal line. The film earned U.S. director Sam French a nomination for Best Live Action Short Film. Producers said they launched the campaign because they lacked a travel budget for Fawad Mohammadi and Jawanmard Paiz, who will attend the Oscars Sunday night. Read More »

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