Magnet Releasing picked up U.S. distribution rights to Monsters, in a deal made hours after the film debuted at a midnight screening at SXSW. Magnet is the genre arm of Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures. The Gareth Edwards-directed thriller concerns a road taken by a journalist and an ... Read More »

Well, this is a surprise. Stanley Gold is rejoining Gang Tyre Ramer & Brown. Gold was managing partner of the law firm until 1985, when he left to become president/CEO of Shamrock Holdings, Roy Disney's private investment company. He also joined ... Read More »

Upstart distributor Phase 4 Films has given a home to controversial German filmmaker Uwe Boll. Phase 4 has acquired North American rights to three Boll films that include Darfur, the genre filmmaker's departure into serious subject matter. Billy Zane, Edward Furlong, and Kristanna Loken play journalists in Sudan who see ... Read More »

The art world expects paintings to spike in value once the artists dies. It doesn't often happen in the music world, but Michael Jackson has achieved one more record: getting the highest amount ever paid for a recording contract. According to ... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE: Martin Scorsese is lining up his young leads for The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I'm told that Asa Butterfield will play the title character, with the female lead role of Isabelle going to Chloe Moretz, who is lighting up the ... Read More »

Amanda Seyfried, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Orlando Bloom have joined Michael Gambon, Janet McTeer and Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs. The film marks the feature producing debut of Damages star Close, who co-wrote the script with Man Booker prize-winning author John ... Read More »

UPDATE: Marvel Studios is also testing leads for the female role of Peggy. While Marvel is looking for an American actor to play Captain America, the candidates for the female lead are British. So far, Keira Knightley, ... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE: Made flush by vampires and werewolves, Twilight Saga maker Summit Entertainment is trying witches. Summit made a pre-emptive mid-six figures acquisition of The Last Witch Hunter, a Cory Goodman pitch that has franchise potential, and the attachment of Wanted director ... Read More »

We already know that Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman/CEO Michael Lynton, himself rail thin, keeps "cutting the fat" at Sony by laying off hundreds of staff who are integral to the studio's operation. Now, in an address to theater owners at ShoWest that covered everything from the economy to 3D, Lynton's emarks took a surprising turn when he focused on movie theater concession stands that he claims are making kids obese. Here are Lynton's remarks on the subject:

"The final point I want to make today has to do with opening a different kind of window altogether a window of healthier foods at your concession stands.

I don’t mean close the window for popcorn, soda, and candy.  Audiences love them, and should always be able to buy them at your theaters. I can almost imagine the Romans eating popcorn and drinking Coke at the Coliseum 2,000 years ago. Or the Greeks munching on Sno-Caps at the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens.

I suggest you consider adding a few healthier items to your existing menu. I believe it’s the right thing to do your industry, for our audiences…and for America.  Here’s why:

It’s great for America because childhood obesity, and obesity in general, is an epidemic of major proportions, and requires everyone to chip in to stem the tide. According to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, nearly one out of three young people are already overweight or obese.  That puts them at higher risk of diabetes, asthma, heart failure and a shorter life span.

By the way, young people and people of color are the most frequent moviegoers, and they are also the most at risk for the damaging health effects of obesity.

In response to this health care crisis, schools have changed their lunch programs and fast food outlets have begun to add healthier foods to their menus.  Even at our studio, we’ve added a daily healthy lunch special, and a subsidized salad bar in our commissary.

By bringing healthier snacks into your concession stands, you would be helping our country meet an urgent public health need.

Read More »

EXCLUSIVE From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: One of the best known names in the British film industry is now reviewing its options. Antony Fraser, the new interim CEO, expects to announce where the company’s going next within one ... Read More »

Here’s a nugget to add to the news that David Fincher will direct Pawn Sacrifice, the Sony/Columbia Pictures drama about chess wiz Bobby Fischer. Tobey Maguire is committed to star as Fischer, ... Read More »

The Screen Actors Guild Awards® will return to a Sunday evening in 2011. Our 17th annual ceremony will be held on Jan. 30, 2011. Actor® nominations for the outstanding film and primetime television performances of 2010 will be announced on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010.

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - March 15, 2010 - NBC and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced today that Primetime Emmy® Award-winning executive producer/director Don Mischer (“We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial”) will produce the network’s exclusive broadcast of this year’s “62nd Primetime Emmy® Awards” airing live coast-to-coast for the first time in over 30 years on Sunday, August 29 (5-8 p.m. PT, 8-11 p.m. ET).

Paul Telegdy, Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming, NBC and Universal Media Studios, and John Shaffner, Chairman and CEO, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, made the joint announcement.
“Don produced a Primetime Emmy telecast last year that hit it out of the park,” said Shaffner. "We know he can creatively build on that accomplishment.”

This year marks Mischer’s 10th time as executive producer of the Primetime Emmy broadcast. The 62nd Primetime Emmy® Awards will be produced by Don Mischer Productions. Nominations for the awards will be announced Thursday, July 8 at 5:40 a.m. (PT) from the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre at the headquarters for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood, Calif.

EXCLUSIVE: Director Martin Scorsese is in talks with Sacha Baron Cohen and Ben Kingsley to star in The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the director's next film. Graham King's GK Films is financing and still working out distribution. King is considered likely ... Read More »

The Tribeca Film Festival today unveiled the remainder of the films that will play at the April 21-May 2 fest. Last week, Tribeca set a competition lineup. The new films, assigned to four out-of-competition programs, ratchet the bold-faces that should help ... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: Over the past few years, Goldcrest has been investing in 18 Hollywood movies including Twilight, Knowing, Tropic Thunder for DreamWorks, Paramount and Summit. Now it’s changing tack and wants to invest in between 3 to 5 British films a year. It will be providing 20% of each project’s budget as an equity investment. Goldcrest has raised £19 million through the UK government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme. This EIS funding is designed to stimulate investments in risky enterprises such as movies. However, the amounts each EIS can raise are pretty small. Goldcrest’s investment will be capped at just £2 million ($3 million) per £8 million feature.

UK producers will be grateful for any new source of funding. Banks returning to gap financing, something which was being touted last year, just hasn’t happened. Adam Kulick, partner at Goldcrest Capital, said, “We would like to do more in the UK with UK filmmakers. The deal structures can be more complex than studio deals due to the number of parties involved, and therefore can be harder work to pull together, but it is incredibly rewarding.”

One rival financier said that Goldcrest isn’t focusing on British films out of any altruism though. It’s got no option now that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has stopped it “daisychaining” these EIS schemes together, I'm told. HMRC clamped down just before Christmas on ... Read More »

From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: News Corp's James Murdoch and WME's Ari Emanuel both talked tough at the recent Abu Dhabi Media Summit about the illegal downloading of movies and TV shows. You’d have to look hard through all the James stuff to find the Ari stuff, but I thought it would ... Read More »

From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: First Holly Pye, the WME reality TV agent here in London, left to join talent manager James Grant Media. Now JGM has announced Pye will head up its new reality division. No surprise there.

From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: Copenhagen cinemagoers are paying up to 20 euros ($28) a ticket to see Avatar, compared with an average Danish ticket price of 10 euros. Slovakian cinemagoers are paying 8 euros per ticket to see the James Cameron technopic, compared with an average of 4 ... Read More »

From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: Piers Morgan, one of the judges on America’s Got Talent, has compiled his list of the top 100 UK celebrities. It’s clearly a case of the Mail On Sunday aping the Sunday Times’ influential Rich List. Except with showbiz names. And guess who Morgan ... Read More »