Beatrice Springborn Named President Of TV Development & Production For Craig Zadan And Neil Meron’s Storyline Entertainment

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday May 6, 2013 @ 11:31am PDT
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Beatrice Springborn has joined Craig Zadan and Neil Meron’s Storyline Entertainment as President of television development and production. Springborn, who starts today and reports to Zadan and Meron, has been hired under Storyline’s first-look deal with Universal TV and NBCUniversal’s international TV production division to produce series and specials for both the U.S. and international markets. Springborn also has been tasked with expanding the company’s footprint into genre and book-based series. Additionally, she will shepherd Storyline’s current series, which currently include Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime and Smash on NBC.

For the past two and a half years, Springborn was SVP for Caryn Mandabach Prods. where she oversaw development genre- and book-based series for the worldwide marketplace. She previously was EVP of TV and film production and development at Gale Anne Hurd’s Valhalla Motion Pictures (The Walking Dead). Read More »

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MRC, Universal Fund John Lee Hancock-Helmed ‘Highwaymen;’ Liam Neeson, Woody Harrelson Courted To Play Texas Rangers Who Killed Bonnie & Clyde

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday April 10, 2013 @ 11:03am PDT
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Media Rights Capital has teamed up with its Ted partner Universal Pictures to co-finance Highwaymen, a drama about the Texas Rangers that hunted and gunned down Depression Era bank robbers Bonnie & Clyde. The film is coming together for a first quarter 2014 production start. John Lee Hancock will direct and Liam Neeson and Woody Harrelson are being courted to star. The John Fusco-scripted drama focuses on legendary lawman Frank Hamer, who was coaxed by a consortium of banks to assemble a posse and end the robbery reign of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in the 1930s. Casey Silver is producing.

Hamer was an old style Texas Ranger who’d survived 100 gunfights and killed 53 people, and he focused on the duo after their gang organized a jail break and killed a guard. They’ve been talking about this feature for awhile, but they will most certainly come after a miniseries on the same subject by History and Lifetime that’s being directed by Bruce Beresford and has William Hurt playing Hamer. Read More »

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Discovery Shows Off Star Power At Upfront Presentation

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday April 4, 2013 @ 6:36pm EDT

Sharks used to be the big stars for Discovery Communications. But the company’s upfront presentation in New York included a varied lineup of celebs with Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Mariel Hemingway, Morgan Freeman, William Hurt, LaToya Jackson, NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon and Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson — as well as a performance by singer Colbie Callat. Execs did most of the storytelling in the company’s annual sales pitch to ad buyers. Advertising Sales President Joe Abruzzese not surprisingly told buyers that Discovery’s networks offer “the best environment for your brands.” In addition to the popularity of the programming, he says the channels have four fewer commercial minutes per hour than their competitors. What’s more, he noted that because Discovery owns all of its own content, it’s easier to integrate brands into the shows, blurring the line between programming and promotion. Daredevil Nik Wallenda opened the New York event walking across a tightrope strung above the audience at Jazz at Lincoln Center — a promotion for Discovery’s broadcast of his June 23 walk across the Grand Canyon. He assured attendees that he was wearing a safety tether because “the insurance companies demanded it. Not for my safety, but for yours.” He won’t wear one at the Grand Canyon event, which will be hosted by NBC News’ Natalie Morales and Willie Geist.

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Lifetime Developing ‘Cleopatra’ Miniseries

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 15, 2013 @ 9:52am PST
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: After featuring Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra as portrayed by Lindsay Lohan in its original movie Liz & Dick, Lifetime is now going for the real thing, putting in development a four-hour miniseries about the famous Egyptian queen. Written by Robert Port (Numbers) and produced by Michael Goldstein and Mike Larkin (Scoundrels), the mini tells the story of one of the most popular figures in ancient history. The last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra is known mostly for her beauty; her liaisons with Rome’s Julius Caesar and Mark Antony; and her tragic suicide that was followed by the fall of Egypt, which became a Roman province. This is a rare multi-part miniseries for Lifetime, whose longform business has been focused primarily on TV movies. The cable network recently came on board History’s four-hour Bonnie & Clyde miniseries, which is being shared by the two sibling nets. It stars Holliday Grainger, Emile Hirsch, Holly Hunter and William Hurt and is directed by Bruce Beresford. Read More »

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Holliday Grainger & Emile Hirsch To Star In Lifetime/History’s ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ Mini

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday February 11, 2013 @ 9:00am PST
Nellie Andreeva

Holliday Grainger and Emile Hirsch will play the infamous bank-robbing couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in Bonnie & Clyde, Lifetime/History’s four-hour miniseries directed by Oscar-nominated helmer Bruce Beresford and produced by Sony Pictures TV and Craig Zadan and Meron’s Storyline Entertainment. They join Oscar winners Holly Hunter and William Hurt, who were recently cast in the project. Written by John Rice and Joe Batteer, the mini is based on the true story of Clyde Barrow (Hirsch), a charismatic convicted armed robber who sweeps Bonnie Parker (Grainger), an impressionable, petite, small-town waitress, off her feet, and the two embark on one one of most infamous bank-robbing sprees in history. Hunter will play Bonnie’s mother Emma Parker; Hurt plays Frank Hamer, the Texas Ranger credited with tracking down and killing Bonnie and Clyde. Originally set up at History, Bonnie & Clyde will now air simultaneously on two A+E Networks, History and Lifetime, the latter of which has taken lead on the mini’s development and production.

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Holly Hunter & William Hurt To Co-Star In Lifetime/History’s ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ Mini

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday February 6, 2013 @ 1:00pm PST
Nellie Andreeva

William HurtHolly HunterLifetime and History are surrounding the leads of their four-hour Bonnie & Clyde miniseries with top-caliber talent. Oscar winners Holly Hunter and William Hurt are set to co-star in the project, directed by Oscar-nominated helmer Bruce Beresford and produced by Sony Pictures TV and Craig Zadan and Meron’s Storyline Entertainment. This marks a reunion for the actors who starred together in James L. Brooks’ 1987 movie Broadcast News.

Written by John Rice and Joe Batteer, the mini is based on the true story of bank robbing couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow whose roles are still casting. Hunter will play Bonnie’s mother Emma Parker. After Emma’s husband died when Bonnie was only four, Emma moved with her three children to Dallas to find work as a seamstress. Hurt will play Frank Hamer, the Texas ranger credited with tracking down and killing Bonnie and Clyde. Originally set up at History, Bonnie & Clyde will now air simultaneously on two A+E Networks, the male-driven History and female-focused Lifetime, which has taken lead on the mini’s production. Both Hunter and Hurt have received four Oscar nominations, winning once — for The Piano and Kiss Of The Spider Woman, respectively.

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ICM Partners Signs Katie Holmes

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday January 29, 2013 @ 9:21am PST
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Katie Holmes has signed with ICM Partners. She leaves CAA.

The move occurs just after the Broadway closing of the Theresa Rebeck play Dead Accounts, which Holmes starring in. She next appears in the untitled Christian Camargo-directed film with William Hurt, Jean Reno, Ben Wishaw, Mary Rylance and Allison Janney, and she also starred in Broadway in the revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.

I can remember when Holmes, thanks to her success as the Dawson’s Creek cutie, and she was building nice movie momentum in films like Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm, Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys and Sam Raimi’s The Gift. When she married the planet’s biggest movie star, Tom Cruise (a CAA fixture), it understandably overshadowed everything else. Now that she’s on her own, there is an opportunity for her to recapture that early mojo, either on TV or on the movie screen, and it will be the job of  ICM Partners to facilitate that. Holmes is still managed by John Carrabino, and lawyered by Robert Offer.

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Cast Lines Up For BBC-Science Channel Drama About The Challenger Disaster

A mix of North American and British talent will topline an untitled BBC/Science Channel movie about the search for what caused the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle explosion. William Hurt and Bruce Greenwood will star as physicist Richard Feynman and Air Force General Donald Kutyna, respectively. Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner who also assisted on the Manhattan Project, was instrumental in uncovering the truth, as was Kutyna whom he befriended in the process. Brian Dennehy is also on board as William Rogers, the chair of the presidential commission and Joanne Whalley will play Feynman’s wife. British actors Kevin McNally (Downton Abbey), Read More »

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Jennifer Connelly Joining Akiva Goldsman’s ‘Winter’s Tale’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday October 11, 2012 @ 2:08pm PDT
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Jennifer Connelly is in talks to reunite with A Beautiful Mind scribe Akiva Goldsman as she joins the cast of his directorial debut, Winter’s Tale. The Warner Bros film, based on the Mark Helprin novel, is about a dying young woman (Downton Abbey‘s Jessica Brown Findlay) who falls in love with a thief (Colin Farrell) who breaks into her palatial home on Manhattan’s West Side. Connelly will join her A Beautiful Mind and Noah co-star Russell Crowe, in a cast that features William Hurt, Will Smith, Matt Bomer, Lucy Griffiths and Eva Marie Saint. Connelly is repped by CAA and The Schiff Company.

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Akiva Goldsman’s ‘Winter’s Tale’ Sets Matt Bomer, Lucy Griffiths, Eva Marie Saint

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday September 21, 2012 @ 9:11am PDT
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: In his directorial debut, Akiva Goldsman continues to add to an already strong cast for Winter’s Tale. Magic Mike and White Collar star Matt Bomer, True Blood‘s Lucy Griffiths and Eva Marie Saint round out a film that stars Colin Farrell, Downton Abbey‘s Jessica Brown Findlay, William Hurt, Will Smith and Russell Crowe. The film, based on the Mark Helprin novel, is about a dying young woman (Findlay) who falls in love with a thief who breaks into her palatial home on the West Side of Manhattan, in a drama that takes place in 19th century and contemporary Manhattan. Farrell plays the thief and Bomer will play his father while Griffiths plays his mother.

Goldsman isn’t divulging the role Saint will play, as it is a pivotal plot point. The Oscar-winning star of such films as North By Northwest, she last appeared in a major movie when she played Martha Kent in 2006′s Superman Returns. Marc Platt and Michael Tadross are producing. Warner Bros begins production in Manhattan on October 27, and Goldsman has also tapped Caleb Deschanel to do cinematography and Hans Zimmer to do the score. Sounds promising.

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Akiva Goldman’s Weed Road Aligns With Safehouse Pictures For Warner Bros Deal

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday September 9, 2012 @ 12:54pm PDT
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: In a unique deal, Weed Road Pictures has brought in Safehouse Pictures to partner in its first-look deal at Warner Bros which has been extended through 2014. Akiva Goldsman will continue to run Weed Road Pictures and Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell will continue to run Safehouse Pictures, but the two companies will partner on new projects as well as selected films from each of the companies’ previous slates. The production collective will share offices and internal staff on the Warner Bros. lot.

Goldsman is making his directing debut for the studio on Winter’s Tale, the drama that stars Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Will Smith, Russell Crowe and William Hurt. The Safehouse partners have Mommy and Me at Sony with Meryl Streep and Tina Fey attached, and Harold scripted and is exec producer on All You Need Is Kill, which Doug Liman is directing with Tom Cruise at Warner Bros. Harold and Tunnell are also producing Fountain City with Andrew Adamson to direct, and The Key man at Open Road Films — the latter two of which Harold also wrote. Additionally Harold wrote and will executive produce All You Need is Kill with Doug Liman set to direct and Tom Cruise to star, and Twilight Zone with Matt Reeves attached … Read More »

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Tribeca Sets Up ‘The Good Shepherd’ Series Adaptation At Showtime With Robert De Niro Directing & Eric Roth Writing, Drama At CBS

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday September 5, 2012 @ 2:14pm PDT
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVERobert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal’s Tribeca Prods. continues a strong selling season with deals at Showtime for The Good Shepherd and at CBS for a family medical drama from TV writer/playwright Diana Son (Law & Order: Criminal Intent). Both projects are produced by CBS TV Studios where Tribeca is under an overall deal. Rosenthal and De Niro executive produce, with Tribeca’s Berry Welsh serving as producer.

Showtime is developing The Good Shepherd, a period drama based on the characters from the 2006 Cold War feature spy thriller directed by De Niro and co-produced by Tribeca. The film’s writer, Oscar winner Eric Roth, will write/exec produce the series adaptation, with De Niro set to direct, the first time the Oscar winner has been attached to direct a Tribeca TV project. The series will follow the family of a CIA operative.

Producers originally planned to do a Good Shepherd feature sequel but opted to pursue pay cable for an opportunity to delve deeper into the characters in a serialized format. The 2006 movie starred Matt Damon as a senior CIA officer, with Angelina Jolie, William Hurt and Alec Baldwin, De Niro co-starring.

This would mark the first series created by CAA-repped Roth in two decades, since the 1992 Fox musical drama The Heights, which he co-created. He spent the last two decades mostly in features, earning four Academy Award writing nominations and winning for Forrest Gump. He is currently an executive producer on Netflix’s House Of Cards and served as co-executive producer on HBO’s Luck. Read More »

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William Hurt Joins Akiva Goldsman’s ‘Winter’s Tale’

Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: William Hurt has been set in the final major role of Winter’s Tale, the Warner Bros adaptation of the Mark Helprin novel that marks the feature directing debut of Oscar-winning scribe Akiva Goldsman. Goldsman worked for seven years on the project, directing episodes of the TV show Fringe to get ready, while he worked on the script to get a green light from a studio which usually doesn’t make $46 million fables. It has helped Goldsman that he was able to lean on his past collaborators Russell Crowe and Will Smith (Goldsman made three films with each actor) to ramp up the star power in smaller roles. Hurt plays the father of a dying young woman who falls in love with a thief who breaks into her home, a palatial West Side mansion, in a drama that takes place in 19th century and contemporary Manhattan. Goldsman cast Colin Farrell to play the thief and Downton Abbey‘s Jessica Brown Findlay plays the dying young girl. The film is being made on that budget while shooting entirely in New York, switching from 1899 to the present. The film begins production in October, with Marc Platt and Michael Tadross producing. ICM Partners rep Hurt.

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Slated Announces Inaugural Polanski & ‘Seagull’ Projects

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday May 8, 2012 @ 11:57am PDT

Roman Polanski Marina ZenovichOnline film investment site Slated announced today that they have helped raise financing for a modern retelling of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull and a follow-up to the Emmy-winning documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired. First announced at the Sundance Film Festival this year, Slated seeks to link up experienced and vetted filmmakers with investors to help indie movies secure financing. Read More »

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Specialty Box Office: ‘Bad Ass’, ‘Falling Away’, ‘Late Bloomers’, ‘Unraveled’

By BRIAN BROOKS | Thursday April 12, 2012 @ 6:19pm PDT

This coming weekend’s specialty releases include Samuel Goldwyn Films’ Bad Ass, starring Danny Trejo as a Vietnam veteran who takes matters into his own hands to solve a murder, while Indican Pictures’ Falling Away takes a look at a Los Angeles inner-city neighborhood reeling from the aftermath of a devastating school bus crash. Also among Friday’s limited openers is English-language foreign film Late Bloomers starring Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a couple confronting their pre-retirement years with divergent results. And documentary Unraveled is a fascinating look at the gilded house arrest of Marc Dreier, a convicted ponzi mastermind who plundered over $700 million from investors, a crime that was overshadowed only by Bernard Madoff’s arrest for the largest fraud scheme in American history just days before.

Bad Ass
Director: Craig Moss
Writers: Craig Moss, Elliot Tishman
Cast: Danny Trejo, Charles S. Dutton, Ron Perlman
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
The folks behind action-drama Bad Ass didn’t get much help in terms of resources putting their project together. One jurisdiction even withdrew promised support, which prompted the production to re-locate altogether. “We developed the film in house and financed the film from our own private equity sources without pre-sales,” producer Ash Shah told Deadline. ”It actually came together pretty quickly. The only hiccup we had was after being approved for a rebate from a state (unidentified), they turned around and decided they weren’t going to honor their approval. We had a window with Danny Trejo’s availability so we decided to shoot in LA instead.” Once in LA though, the production went “pretty straightforward,” noted Shah who added that director Craig Moss delivered a “fun and action packed movie for the Grindhouse crowd.” The film centers on a vet who becomes a local hero after saving a man from attackers on a city bus. After his best friend is murdered and the police show little interest in solving the crime, he again takes matters into his own hands. Read More »

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Hot Teaser: Stephenie Meyer’s ‘The Host’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday March 22, 2012 @ 6:01pm PDT

With the tween-focused The Hunger Games opening imminently, Open Road is hoping to whet the appetite of that audience for another film in that vein, with the first teaser trailer from the adaptation of Twilight writer Stephenie Meyer‘s sci-fi novel. The Host stars Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, Diane Kruger, William Hurt and Frances Fisher. It is currently in production, being directed by Andrew Niccol. Ronan stars as Melanie Stryder, one of the last humans putting up a fight against an alien species called Souls, parasites that invade human bodies, fuse to each person’s consciousness and systematically erase their personalities. The Host was Meyer’s follow-up to her hit Twililght book series. Open Road is releasing the film March 29, 2013.

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Frances Fisher Joins Cast Of ‘The Host’

By BRIAN BROOKS | Friday February 24, 2012 @ 2:40pm PST

EXCLUSIVE: Fisher will star in the sic-fi feature written by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. Fisher joins Diane Kruger, Saoirse Ronan and Jake Abel in the cast and will play Maggie, a stern aunt to Melanie (Ronan) and sister to Uncle Jeb (William Hurt). They are among the few human survivors of a parasitic alien species called the Souls which have plagued Earth. Andrew Niccol will direct from an adaptation first written by Meyer. Principal photography is scheduled to begin this month in Louisiana and New Mexico, and a wide release is set for March 29, 2013. Fisher is best known for her roles in Titanic, Unforgiven, The Lincoln Lawyer, and In The Valley Of Elah. She is repped by Greene & Associates and Sanders Armstrong Caserta Management.

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Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton To Star In Double Feature

Mike Fleming

Thursday, February 2, 2012 – Santa Monica…. Academy Award®-nominee Jessica Chastain (The Help, The Tree of Life) and Joel Edgerton (Warrior, Wish You Were Here) have signed on to star in a double-feature film project for Myriad Pictures: The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Hers.

The love story explores a New York City couple’s relationship during a difficult time in their marriage, from the different perspective of the husband, (Edgerton), a restaurant owner, and of the wife (Chastain), who goes back to college. Academy Award® ‐ winner and 5-time nominee William Hurt (The Kiss of the Spider Woman, Syriana) is in discussion to join the cast.

Ned Benson (In Defiance of Gravity) wrote the two scripts and will direct both films. Cassandra Kulukundis (A Late Quartet, In Defiance of Gravity) is producing. Kulukundis is also Casting Director (There Will Be Blood, Shattered Glass).

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69th Golden Globe Award Nominations

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday December 15, 2011 @ 3:27am PST

Golden Globes Film: HFPA Reaches For The Stars
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69th Golden Globe Award Noms: Scorecard
2012 Golden Globes: Nikki’s Non-Analysis

Golden Globe Awards NomineesBEVERLY HILLS (Thursday, December 15, 2011): This morning at 5:30 AM the nominations in 25 categories for movies and television for the 2012 Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The stars were introduced by Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Aida Takla-O’Reilly. The ballots were submitted to the accounting firm of Ernst and Young on Monday. The awards will be televised by NBC live on January 15 at a star-studded ceremony hosted again by comedian Ricky Gervais:

The 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards NOMINATIONS

HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION 2012
G
OLDEN GLOBE AWARDS FOR  THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,  2011

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
THE  DESCENDANTS - Ad Hominem Enterprises; Fox Searchlight Pictures
THE HELP – DreamWorks Pictures, Participant Media; Touchstone Pictures
HUGO – Paramount Pictures presents a GK Films Production; Paramount Pictures
THE IDES OF MARCH – Columbia Pictures, Cross Creek Pictures, Exclusive Media Group, Crystal City Entertainment; Sony Pictures Releasing
MONEYBALL – Columbia Pictures; Sony Pictures Releasing International
WAR HORSE – DreamWorks Pictures; Touchstone Pictures

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
GLENN CLOSE  – ALBERT NOBBS
VIOLA DAVIS – THE HELP
ROONEY MARA – THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
MERYL STREEP – THE IRON LADY
TILDA SWINTON – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
GEORGE CLOONEY – THE DESCENDANTS
LEONARDO DICAPRIO – J. EDGAR
MICHAEL FASSBENDER – SHAME
RYAN GOSLING – THE IDES OF MARCH
BRAD PITT – MONEYBALL

BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
50/50 – Summit Entertainment and Mandate Pictures; Summit Entertainment
THE ARTIST – La Petite Reine, Studio 37, La Classe Americaine, JD Prod, France3 Cinema, Jouror Production, uFilms; The Weinstein Company
BRIDESMAIDS – Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Apatow Productions; Universal Pictures
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS – A Mediapro, Versatil Cinema & Gravier Production; Sony Pictures Classics
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN – The Weinstein Company

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
JODIE FOSTER – CARNAGE
CHARLIZE THERON – YOUNG ADULT
KRISTEN WIIG – BRIDESMAIDS
MICHELLE WILLIAMS – MY WEEK WITH MARILYN
KATE WINSLET – CARNAGE

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
JEAN DUJARDIN – THE ARTIST
BRENDAN GLEESON – THE GUARD
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT – 50/50
RYAN GOSLING – CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE.
OWEN WILSON – MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

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