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SUMMER SLUMP? Will Smith’s ‘MIB3′ Slows To $70M Memorial Weekend; Fifth Major Movie To Disappoint While ‘The Avengers’ Sets New $500M Domestic Speed Record

NIKKI FINKE — Mon, 28 May 2012 04:45:39 +0000

SUNDAY PM, 5TH UPDATE: My sources report a single-digit drop from Saturday to Sunday as Sony hoped (right now -8%). So Men In Black 3 domestic projections of $55M three-day weekend and $70M four-day Memorial Holiday may stand. Although rival studios say the numbers are $54.5M/$68M. That’s not anywhere close to the $90M where Hollywood thought this popular franchise could open its threequel, or the $80M which Sony expected. Even not adjusted for the 3D premium, or higher ticket pricesm or inflation, MIB3 couldn’t beat Will Smith’s I Am Legend ($77M in 2007) or Hancock ($62M in 2008). Problem is that MIB3 was very expensive to make. (more below…)

SUNDAY AM, 4TH UPDATE: A lot was riding on this weekend’s worldwide totals for Will Smith (back at cineplexes after a 4-year hiatus) and Sony (reviving a costly Columbia Pictures franchise that was dormant for a decade). But Memorial Weekend newcomer Men In Black 3 is now the 5th major studio release that has underperformed domestically at the start of Summer 2012. Plus, demonstrating more trouble for Hollywood, overall moviegoing of $190M is down a huge -32% from last year’s record. Overseas, MIB3 was off to a better start, and Sony is projecting it to take in an estimated $202M worldwide total during its first few days of release in 106 territories. Of that, IMAX sales contributed approximately $12M to the global cume, which is 20% higher than the previous record for a worldwide Memorial Day release because of aggressive IMAX building overseas. Sony said MIB3 was #1 in 104 countries. In this country, yes, MIB3 finally vanquished three-time #1 Marvel’s The Avengers which was starting its 4th week in domestic release. Even so there’s continuing good news for Disney’s 3D superhero assembly: it crossed $500M on Saturday, reaching the mark in just 23 days which is setting a new speed record (better than Avatarwhich took 32 days). In 3,918 theaters, it’s a solid #2 with about a $36.9M three-day weekend and a $48.5M Memorial Holiday. It is currently the #4 film of all time globally and domestically and is currently the #5 film of all time internationally, passing Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($771M) this weekend. Even if Avengers weren’t sucking the air out of North American box office, trust me when I say the movie moguls are worried what lies ahead for their films in June after a dismal domestic May…

As for MIB3, I think Sony should have made a bigger deal of pairing the 3D scifi laugher with 6 minutes from its upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man throughout the run of the engagement in IMAX 3D. Starting Friday, rival studios were right on target telling me that MIB3 was falling short of what Hollywood expected for North America or overseas. Barry Sonnenfeld’s/Rick Baker’s latest playing in very wide release at 4,248 theaters opened with $17.9M Friday and then went up 8% with $19.4M Saturday. “It’s a little less than we hoped for,” a Sony exec admitted to me tonight. So that’s just $55M for the 3-day weekend and only $70M for the 4-day holiday.

Even overseas, depending on who’s analyzing, MIB3 started out as a mixed bag. Sony claimed “some fantastic new openings around the world, led by Russia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. Russia was a sensational dominant #1 opening grossing $3.5M, accounting for 85% of the box office. This is bigger than the opening day of Avengers and is Sony’s biggest opening day of all time.” Overseas, estimates in top performing markets were: China $19.0M, Russia $18.8M, Korea $8.3M, Japan $7.9M, Mexico $5.9M, Germany $5.7, France $5.6M, Australia $5.3M, Brazil $5.0M, UK $5.0M. But rival studios tell me that “despite great tracking internationally, their midweek openings in Australia, France, Korea, and Germany are mostly behind Battleship or John Carter. Weird.” Those are two comps which no studio wants to hear in the same sentence with its summer blockbuster.

Here’s why the cost of MIB3 soared: The time travel elements of Etan Cohen’s script had to be re-worked by Jeff Nathanson who needed more time to pull off the tricky plot device while Cohen worked on another project. So the film shut down for about six weeks, which is a rarity for a major tentpole, and then Cohen came back to finish the movie. That caused the cost to skyrocket from a range of $225M (which is what Sony claims as the budget) to $300M (which is what rival studios say it really was). Between that and all the gross profit participants – besides Will Smith, this is one of Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment productions with his former lieutenants Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald producing through their Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation - every dollar counts. Now the question is how many families come out for Monday’s holiday. MIB3 is helped by good word of mouth with audiences giving it a ‘B+’ CinemaScore (‘A-’ from under age 18). Exit polling should that 54% of the opening weekend audience was male and 46% was female. Of those moviegoers, 44% was under age 25 and 56% was 25 or older.

The point of threequels is that they sell themselves. So the marketing campaign went on auto-pilo wuth the usual multi-platform media. It kicked off with the launch of the first trailer on Sherlock Holmes 2. The cast participated in International junkets and premieres starting in Seoul and continuing to Tokyo, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, London, Moscow, and New York. There was a MIB time capsule that will be housed at NASA’s Cape Canaveral for the next 43 years. Pitbull did the film’s theme song while legendary make up artist Rick Baker had an exhibit of his aliens at the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC. The main part of the campaign consisted of saturated television covering network season finales, the NBA playoffs, and kids networks. Sony worked with Viacom to create a two-phased, cross-network promotion themed around the “aliens amongst us” across MTV, Comedy, Spike, VH1, CMT, and MTV2 which extended into a strong viral campaign around the blog site TheMenInBlackSuitsAreReal.com.

High hopes for writer/producer Oren Peli and his Paranormal Activity-pedigreed horror newcomer Chernobyl Diaries (2,433 theaters) deflated. First it was given a dreaded ‘D+’ CinemaScore from audiences. Then Alcon Entertainment’s genre acquisition took a big 33% drop on Saturday from Friday’s opening. It’s now likely to finish in only 6th place through Monday, less than disappointing holdovers Battleship (3,702 theaters) from Universal and The Dictator (3,014 theaters) from Paramount and even Dark Shadows from Warner Bros, too. Back in February, Alcon purchased Chernobyl Diaries‘ North American and international release rights in Germany, Spain, and Japan for Peli’s reality-based horror thriller. The film was released by Warner Bros via an output deal with Alcon co-founders/co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove who are the pic’s EPs. Produced by Peli and Brian Witten (Dark City, Final Destination, Friday The 13th), it marks the directorial debut of veteran visual effects artist Brad Parker. Chernobyl Diaries is the first fully financed film by Glen Basner’s FilmNation Entertainmen. It was brought into Alcon by Dave Fierson, Alcon’s SVP of Business Affairs. Peli almost overnight has become a cottage industry for low-budget horror thrillers after he wrote and directed the first Paranormal Activity whose trilogy now has grossed a huge $576M for Paramount. It’s interesting to me that Alcon, which began in 1997 with financial backing from FedEx chairman Fred Smith, has now gone from primarily family fair like My Dog Skip, The Blind Side, and Dolphin Tale to a horror flick.

Here’s the Top Ten (based on 3-day weekend estimates):

1. Men in Black 3 3D (Columbia/Sony) NEW [4,248 Theaters] PG13
Friday $17.9M, Saturday $19.4M
3-Day Weekend $55M, 4-Day Holiday $70M

2. Marvel’s The Avengers 3D (Disney) Week 4 [3,918 Theaters] PG13
Friday $9.6M, Saturday $14.1M
3-Day Weekend $36.9M, 4-Day Holiday $48.5M, Cume $523.8M

3. Battleship (Universal) Week 2 [3,702 Theaters] PG13
Friday $3.0M (-65%), Saturday $4.1M
3-Day Weekend $10.7M, 4-Day Holiday $13.3M, Cume $44.2M

4. The Dictator (Paramount) Week 2 [3,014 Theaters] R
Friday $2.7M (-51%), Saturday $3.3M
3-Day Weekend $9.6M, 4-Day Holiday $11.5M, Cume $43.3M

5. Chernobyl Diaries (Alcon/Warner Bros) NEW [2,433 Theaters] R
Friday $3.5M, Saturday $2.3M
3-Day Weekend $8.0M, 4-Day Holiday $9.2M

6. Dark Shadows 3D (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,404 Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.0M, Saturday $2.8M
3-Day Weekend $7.5M, 4-Day Holiday $9.4M, Cume $64.9M

7. What To Expect When You’re Expecting (Lionsgate) Week 2 [3,021
Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.2M (-42%), Saturday $2.6M
3-Day Weekend $7.1M, 4-Day Holiday $8.7M, Cume $23.7M

8. Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox Searchlight) Week 4 [1,233
Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.4M
3-Day Weekend $6.3M, 4-Day Holiday $8.0M, Cume $18.2M

9. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 10 [1,421 Theaters] PG13
Friday $590K, Saturday $851K
3-Day Weekend $2.2M, 4-Day Holiday $3.0M, Cume $396.0M

10. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 6 [786 Theaters] PG13
Friday $395K, Saturday $540K
3-Day Weekend $1.4M, 4-Day Holiday $1.8M, Cume $88.7M

FRIDAY AM: This will be the first weekend in a month that Marvel’s The Avengers has not dominated North American box office as #1. Instead, Sony Pictures’ Men in Black 3 is anticipated to top today at a giant release in 4,248 runs for the start of Memorial Weekend as Will Smith returns to the cineplex after a long hiatus. This is his first major starring role in four years, and what could have been a tired franchise was freshened by a time travel plot and Josh Brolin. The studio just announced the scifi comedy made $1.5M for its first midnight showings in 2,233 locations calling it “Good. Expect a big day today, and kids to drive a huge Saturday-Sunday-Monday.” Hollywood believes the popular laugher can scare up as much as $80M-$90M domestic and north of $200M worldwide for the four-day holiday. Meanwhile Alcon Entertainment’s horror genre acquisition Chernobyl Diaries distributed domestically by Warner Bros posted a larger than expected midnight opening with $525K from 1,325 locations. “This result is at the very high end of all horror comps,” an exec emailed me. ”Stay tuned… It could beat tracking for the weekend.” Immediately Hollywood began revising up its $15M estimates for the film whose theater count is 2,433 this weekend.

Cannes Finale: The Jury Talks And Hammond’s Analysis Of The Winners

PETE HAMMOND — Sun, 27 May 2012 22:21:17 +0000

It’s all over now, and really all over at Cannes for the American contingent of five competition entries plus English-language films like Walter Salles’ On The Road and David Cronenberg’s not-well-received Robert Pattinson starrer Cosmopolis. The Cannes Jury led by italian actor-director Nanni Moretti has spoken and Americans hoping for a repeat of last year when the single U.S. entry, The Tree Of Life actually won the Palme d’Or, are crying in their french onion soup. At the post-awards press conference American jury member Alexander Payne was asked if he thought the ‘Americannes’ snub said anything about the overall quality of the country’s movies. He snapped back that one festival does not speak for the state of cinema in any one country.

The closest thing to a film American audiences won’t need subtitles for is Ken Loach’s wonderful The Angels Share which is set in Glasgow and features accents so thick the filmmaker decided to add English subtitles. It is also the only comedy to take a prize as the jury mainly favored some of the more dour, serious-minded films in the race. Cannes juries often do that. Backstage Loach was elegant when he said his film shows solidarity with all those in Europe who resist austerity and believe “another world, a better world is possible”.

There’s also one head-scratcher just about every year and this year it’s a beheaded scratcher, Post Tenebras Lux from Mexico’s Carlos Reygadas in which a man rather remarkably manages to twist off his head using only his hands. There’s also a pointless orgy scene thrown in but even its defenders are hard-pressed to say what this film is about. So of course they gave him a major prize, Best Director. At the press conference at least two of the jurors strongly defended the film. They were so convincing they had me believing that I must have seen a different film.
“Personally I loved it. It was very brave and very tender. It dared to fail,” said director Andrea Arnold whose own films tend to be bleak so maybe it spoke to her. At any rate Moretti said it was one of three movies that really divided the jury and the only one of a “controversial” threesome that got a prize. The other two were Ulrich Seidl’s provocative and naked Paradise Love about older overweight Austrian women who frequent a Kenyan resort in order to get it on with the local boys who work there, and critical favorite Holy Motors from director Leos Carax, a futuristic crazy little trip that is the kind of movie that plays well at festivals but likely will be in and out of U.S. arthouses in a week and then headed for the midnight circuit. It was no surprise at all that this panel didn’t dig it judging from the films they did choose. Its reputation since debuting Wednesday is frankly a bit overblown. Indomina picked it up today for domestic distribution.

Asked at the press conference if his directing prize was “revenge” for the negative response to his film, Reygadas was diplomatic when he said “I am very thankful to journalists who detested it (you’re welcome) and those who liked it.”

The only American movie to come out of any Cannes competition with anything at all is Behn Zeitlin’s debut film, Beasts Of The Southern Wild, an Un Certain Regard entry that was named winner of the festival’s Camera d’Or prize for best first feature. Fox Searchlight releases it next month. An excited Zeitlin said everyone who worked on the film had never done a movie before so this was a big deal. Films entered in all of the various competitions in Cannes are eligible for the Camera d’Or, not just main competition movies.

Overall I thought the jury did a good job, the Reygadas film aside, coming up with a fairly conservative but deserving group of winners. However the award to two novice actresses director Christian Mungiu found on the Internet for his leads in the religious cult film, Beyond The Hills was another mystery as Marion Cotillard and Nicole Kidman might have figured for risky, higher-profile turns in their movies Rust And Bone and The Paperboy. This award actually would have probably gone to French star Emmanuelle Riva for Amour, Michael Haneke’s ultimate Palme d’Or winner. Rules state that any film which wins one of the top three honors, Palme d’Or, Grand Prix and the Jury Prize are eligible only for one award. That explains how Beyond The Hills was able to be the only film to win two including one for Mungiu’s script. And it is also why the superb performance of Denmark’s Mads Mikkelsen which jury member Ewan McGregor called “subtle and beautifully played” was able to grab best actor for The Hunt, since Amour’s sentimental favorite Jean-Louis Trintignant was not eligible because of his film’s triumph for the Palme d’Or. Both Trintignant and Riva made well-received speeches on stage after Austrian Haneke collected his second Palme in 3 years. He has also been a past winner in several other categories. Cannes loves him no matter who is on the jury. The touching film about a couple’s struggles at the end of life is probably the one that will bring this world class director his first Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film. It’s going to play through the roof at the Academy. There won’t be a dry eye in the house and both its stars could find themselves nominated, too. I have never witnessed such a prolonged or more emotional ovation at one of these shows. It’s ironic that what is basically a French film is labeled an Austrian entry because of the nationality of its director. France can take pride anyway.

With an Italian jury president is it any real surprise that Italy’s only entry Matteo Garrone’s Reality, about a man who becomes obsessed with getting on the Big Brother TV show, placed second winning the important Grand Prix? Yes. Although I found it quite entertaining most of the press seemed to be stunned since it wasn’t on anyone’s radar for a prize. Afterwards they even asked Garrone, a previous Grand Prix winner for Gomorrah if he was just as stunned? He basically said he hasn’t been reading the reviews but he was surprised because he felt the competition was stiff. Oscilloscope picked it up for domestic release yesterday. The winners circle in fact was full of past winners including Haneke, Garrone, past Palme d’Or winner and Cannes regular Ken Loach, and past Palme d’Or winner Mungiu. Cannes is like a club. Once you’re in, you’re in.

Considering the high quality of most of the entries, this would have to be judged a very good Cannes, if not on a par with last year when three films went on to Best Picture nominations and The Artist became the first French film to win. By the way last year’s Cannes Best Actor-turned Oscar winner Jean Dujardin was sitting in the audience next to the film’s Oscar winning director Michel Hazanavicius, whose wife Berenice Bejo hosted the ceremony.

Where this Cannes will really factor is in the Academy’s foreign-language race as it unveiled a slew of top contenders. Last year only one Cannes entry made it onto the Acad’s final list, an unusually poor showing. That shouldn’t be the case this year.

Moretti did say he didn’t want to go into detail but none of the awards were handed out unanimously, a sign of a very good year as the films likely had an impact one way or another on each jury member individually. He said they met 8 times over the course of the festival and then he gave one pointed observation of what he thought about the overall quality when he said, “I noted on the part of several directors that they seemed more in love with their style than their characters”. Ouch. Moretti is a past Palme d’Or winner himself for the humanistic film about loss, The Son’s Room, so it is also probably no wonder Amour, which Sony Pictures Classics will release later this year in the U.S., would win the Palme d’Or on his jury.

Viva l’Amour. Viva Le Cannes. I’m outta here.

Serial Killer Drama Tops BAFTA TV Awards

THE DEADLINE TEAM — Sun, 27 May 2012 22:03:45 +0000

Dominic West, Emily Watson and Monica Dolan won acting awards at the TV BAFTAs today for their roles in Appropriate Adult, a miniseries about Britain’s controversial investigation of serial killer Fred West and his wife Rosemary. Dominic West played Fred, Watson portrayed a social worker in the case and Dolan played Rosemary — beating Dame Maggie Smith who was nominated for Downton Abbey. Andrew Scott was voted best supporting actor for Sherlock, in which he plays the arch-nemesis Moriarty to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes. Cumberbash was nominated for best actor but lost to Dominic West. But Appropriate Adult lost to another miniseries, This Is England ’88.

Complete list of winners:

LEADING ACTOR — Dominic West, Appropriate Adult - ITV1

LEADING ACTRESS — Emily Watson, Appropriate Adult - ITV1

SUPPORTING ACTOR — Andrew Scott, Sherlock - BBC One

SUPPORTING ACTRESS — Monica Dolan, Appropriate Adult - ITV1

DRAMA SERIES — The Fades, Susan Hogg, Caroline Skinner, Jack Thorne, Farren Blackburn – BBC Production/BBC Three

SOAP & CONTINUING DRAMA — Coronation Street - ITV Studios/ITV1

INTERNATIONAL — Borgen, Adam Price, Jeppe Gjervig Gram, Tobias Lindholm, Camilla Hammerich – DR/BBC Four

ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMANCE — Graham Norton, The Graham Norton Show BBC One

FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME — Jennifer Saunders, Absolutely Fabulous - BBC One

MALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME — Darren Boyd, Spy - Sky One

SINGLE DRAMA — Random, Polly Leys, Kate Norrish, Debbie Tucker Green, Nadine Marshall - Hillbilly Television/Channel 4

MINI SERIES — This Is England ’88 - Warp Films/Channel 4

FACTUAL SERIES — Our War, Colin Barr, Bruce Goodison, John Douglas, Stuart Bernard - BBC Productions/BBC Three

SPECIALIST FACTUAL — Mummifying Alan: Egypt’s Last Secret – Blink Films/Channel 4

SINGLE DOCUMENTARY — Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die, Craig Hunter, Charlie Russell, Rosy Marshall, Gary Scott - Keo North/BBC Two

FEATURES — The Great British Bake Off, Anna Beattie, Richard McKerrow, Simon Evans, Emma Willis - Love Productions/BBC Two

REALITY & CONSTRUCTED FACTUAL — The Young Apprentice, Michele Kurland, Colm Martin, Darina Healy, Andy Devonshire - Talkback-THAMES/BBC One

CURRENT AFFAIRS — Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed (Panorama), Frank Simmonds, Paul Kenyon, Matthew Chapman, Joe Casey – BBC Productions/BBC One

NEWS COVERAGE — Channel 4 News: Japan Earthquake - ITN/Channel 4

SPORT & LIVE EVENT — The Royal Wedding (BBC) - BBC Entertainment & Events/BBC One

NEW MEDIA — Psychoville – BBC/BBC Online

ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME — Derren Brown: The Experiments, Derren Brown, Simon Dinsell, Iain Sharkey, Fiona Cotter-Craig - Objective Productions/Channel 4

COMEDY PROGRAMME — Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, Stewart lee, Richard Webb, Tim Kirkby – BBC Productions/BBC Two

SITUATION COMEDY — Mrs Brown’s Boy’s Brendan O’Carroll, Stephen McCrum, Ben Kellett, Martin Delany – BBC Scotland, BBC Productions co-production with BocPix in association with RTE/BBC One

YOUTUBE AUDIENCE AWARD — Celebrity Juice

CANNES: Michael Haneke’s ‘Amour’ Takes Palme d’Or; ‘Beyond The Hills’ Wins Screenplay, Actress Nods

PETE HAMMOND — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:28:25 +0000

Michael Haneke’s Amour today took the Palme d’Or prize for Best Film at the finale to this year’s Cannes Film Festival. A hugely popular win at today’s ceremony as well as its premiere, the intimate drama about an elderly couple confronting the end of life was Haneke’s second win in three years. He won in 2009 for White Ribbon. Haneke and his actors on stage Jean Louis Trintignant and Emmanuele Riva received a huge standing ovation. The five American entries were shut out of the top awards — last year’s winner was the single U.S. entry, Terrence Malick’s The Tree Of Life, and all this year’s were foreign-language films. FULL ANALYSIS and interviews with the jury coming.

Cosmina Stratan and Christina Flutor shared the Best Actress prize for Çristian Mungiu’s Beyond The Hills. Mungiu also was awarded the prize for best screenplay for Beyond The Hills, which was a rare case in which the jury honored one film with two awards. Mads Mikkelsen was named best actor for Jagten (The Hunt) directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Carlos Reygadas was named best director for Post Tenebras Lux. The Jury Prize went to Ken Loach’s The Angels Share. The ceremony began with the prize for Best Short Film going to Sezziz Be Deng (Silent) by L. Rezan Yesilbas.

This year’s Sundance Film Festival hit Beasts Of The Southern Wild, which screened in the Un Certain Regard sidebar event, was recognized with the Prix de Camera d’Or (Golden Camera) award for first film. Accepting the award, director Behn Zeitlin said it’s “not just my first film but also the first film of just about everyone who worked on it. You never know if you are going to be invited to dance in the temple but thank you. You changed everyone’s lives”.

(Photo of Riva, Haneke, Trintignant by Getty Images)

Sundance Selects Acquires ‘Like Someone In Love’: Cannes

MIKE FLEMING — Sun, 27 May 2012 13:48:50 +0000

CANNES, FRANCE (May 27, 2012) – Sundance Selects announced today from the 2012 Cannes Film Festival that the company is acquiring all US rights to LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE directed and written by former Palme d’Or winner Abbas Kiarostami (CERTIFIED COPY, THE TASTE OF CHERRY). The film is an MK2 and Eurospace Production. It stars Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno and Ryo Kase. It was produced by Marin Karmitz (MK2) and Kenzo Horikoshi (Eurospace), and associate produced by Nathanael Karmitz and Charles Gillibert. LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE made its world premiere in competition earlier in the week at the Cannes Film Festival.

In his follow-up to the stateside hit CERTIFIED COPY (which starred Juliette
Binoche), Abbas Kiarostami’s returns with yet another dazzling cinematic
puzzle. An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about
him. He thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home. She offers him
her body. Soon it becomes apparent that the web that is woven between them in
the space of 24 hours bears no relation to the circumstance of their encounter.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “It’s a great
honor to continue our relationship with Abbas Kiarostami after our successful
collaboration with him on CERTIFIED COPY. His latest film is a beautiful,
mysterious masterpiece that we hope to continue to build his following with in
the US. We are also clearly very happy to be working with our good friends at
MK2 and also with Eurospace.”

IFC Films/Sundance Selects recently announced that it had acquired Walter
Salles’ ON THE ROAD which is an MK2 production. The film screened to acclaim
earlier in the week at Cannes in Competition. The two companies have previously
collaborated on Gus Van Sant’s PARANOID PARK, Olivier Assayas’ SUMMER HOURS,
Abbas Kiarostami’s CERTIFIED COPY and the upcoming Assayas’ film SOMETHING IN
THE AIR.

Sundance Selects/IFC Films is already a major American presence at Cannes this
year with several films already screening at the festival: Walter Salles’
competition film ON THE ROAD which the company acquired right before the
festival began and will release jointly under IFC Films and Sundance Selects;
Cristian Mungiu’s competition film BEYOND THE HILLS which is being releasedunder
the Sundance Selects label; Adam Leon’s SXSW-winner GIMME THE LOOT which is also
being released under Sundance Selects and is screening in Un Certain Regard;
Rodney Ascher’s Sundance sensation ROOM 237 which was acquired for IFC Midnight
and is screening at Director’s Fortnight; Ken Loach’s competition film THE
ANGELS’ SHARE which Sundance Selects acquired during the festival; Ben
Wheatley’s dark comedy SIGHTSEERS which is screening in Director’s Fortnight,
and was acquired by IFC Films during the festival; and IM Sang Soo’s competition
film THE TASTE OF MONEY which the company acquired yesterday for its IFC
Midnight label.

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of
Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films with Victoire Thevenin
of MK2 on behalf of the filmmakers.

Nicole Kidman Speaks Out On Taking Risks, Roles And Taking Over Cannes: Interview

PETE HAMMOND — Sun, 27 May 2012 13:28:45 +0000

With two movies premiering in the Official Selection on successive nights and big worldwide market pre-sales announced for an upcoming film in which she plays Grace Kelly, Nicole Kidman ruled the Croisette in the second half of the Cannes Film Festival this week, and though she looked every inch the glamorous movie star on those back-to-back jaunts up the steps of the Grand Theatre Lumiere, it’s hard work invading the world’s most famous film festival. Perhaps that is why when she arrived Friday morning for Deadline’s interview and entered the Majestic Hotel’s 6th floor suite with its sweeping views of the Cote d’Azur all she wanted to do was take off her shoes and relax for a few minutes. No such luck in the crux of this go-go-go festival.

Kidman has been working a lot lately but all she’s looking forward to next is finally getting back to her ”normal” life again before tackling Grace Kelly’s anything-but-normal life in late Fall here in the South of France. Since making changes in her team a couple of years ago (she signed with Geyer Kosinski who also manages Angelina Jolie), the kinds of movies she’s doing are consistently more challenging and of a risk-taking nature, which is the way she likes it. The Oscar winner (The Hours) has often been drawn throughout her career to edgier material but now it seems to be her mantra. From her role as a Southern trollop in Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy which got Cannes twittering on Thursday to her first big TV project playing pioneering war correspondent and Ernest Hemingway’s third wife Martha Gellhorn in HBO’s Hemingway And Gellhorn directed by Philip Kaufman (which had the rare honor of a Cannes premiere for a TV movie) she has made a lot of noise just as Cannes 2012 is winding down. Add to that the challenge of being one big star playing another in the upcoming Grace Of Monaco and recently completing the great Korean director Chan-Wook Park’s (Oldboy, Thirst) first English-language feature Stoker, Kidman’s plate is full of fascinating projects. Things really turned around in late 2010 when the independently made film version of the devastating David Lindsay-Abaire Pulitzer Prize winning play Rabbit Hole, which she also helped produce, won her a third Best Actress Oscar nomination along with rave reviews. She was somehow even attempting to fit in a Broadway revival of Sweet Bird Of Youth opposite James Franco but it didn’t ultimately pan out. It’s not as if she needed the work.

So what’s it like being back in Cannes with not one, but two very different roles? “I’ve been here many times but this is my first time to have two. Usually you do one film and go home and say ‘bye-bye’ but now here I am again today, ” she said in this brief respite between premieres as she apologized for the hoarseness in her voice. “It’s unusual because they are so different and that’s what I love as an actor – to try different things.”

Everyone will be able to see her performance as Gellhorn when HBO premieres the 2 ½-hour movie on Monday night. She’s dedicated her work in it to war journalist Marie Colvin who died tragically in February covering the conflict in Syria. Colvin was a modern day Gellhorn along with others like Christiane Amanpour. “She was doing what Martha would be doing right now. And she loved Martha. Martha was such a great woman. In the hands of Phil (Kaufman), because he loves women, I think it is great that he’s told her story now. Not everybody’s story gets to be told but she trailblazed for a lot of female journalists to be sure. She was also a role model for women now and for people,” said Kidman who admits she wasn’t at all familiar with Gellhorn but started researching her and told Kaufman she had to play her.

And as in many Kaufman movies there are also some torrid love scenes with Clive Owen who plays Hemingway. “I said to Phil, ‘I am up for it’. That’s me as an actor. I don’t want to not do things because of my own inhibitions or because I am censoring myself, Nicole. I want to be truthful to the story and the character. But I think the point of those scenes is to show what they had and whether there was a war going on or a bomb going off they made love because they were so physically drawn to each other. That gives the fire to their relationship. That’s the kind of people that they were. They lived hard, they drank hard, they partied hard, they wrote incredible prose and they eventually destroyed their relationship and each other. But they went on to do magnificent work out of that,” she said.

It’s obviously a great role for an actress, the kind that doesn’t come around much outside of places like HBO. “God bless HBO because no one would really do this for cinema now. Without HBO this just wouldn’t get done. I am willing to go on stage, TV, big screen – they are all relevant now. It’s a whole different world. They all have enormous relevance artistically because how do you get the stories told through different mediums? How do you reach people? You reach so many more people and that is great,” she says of the HBO experience.

It was also an ”experience” playing Charlotte Bless, the Deep South girl next door (if you happen to live in a trailer park near a swamp) in her other Cannes premiere The Paperboy which is in competition and co-stars Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey and John Cusack. She just simply went for it and if the film divided critics, her performance as a bit of a tramp who loves men behind bars was widely praised. “It shocked people. Yes, it’s very polarizing but that’s cool by me. That’s the sort of stuff I do and I am used to that. People love it or hate it (Note: it did receive a 16-minute standing ovation at the premiere – longest of the festival - but there were boos at the morning critics screening). You get the Guardian giving it the most incredible review and then you get other reviews going ‘what is this? I don’t get it’. But that’s me as an actor. I like that high wire stuff because I would rather do that than be bland,” she says.

Bland she definitely isn’t. In Paperboy there’s a steamy, out-in-the-open sexual encounter between Kidman and the accused killer played by Cusack. Taking place in the prison they are physically several feet apart and never make physical contact, but manage to reach heights of ecstasy anyway in the campy scene that makes Sharon Stone’s antics in Basic Instinct look PG by comparison. But it was the now infamous “peeing” scene that really lit up Twitter after the film was first shown here Thursday. In the movie Efron gets stung by jellyfish in the ocean and a couple of girls nearby suggests that urine is the best thing to provide in order to ease the sting. Kidman who is at the beach with Efron defiantly steps in and screams at the girls, “If anyone is gonna pee on him, it’s gonna be me!” And with that the fun begins (she did it – no stunt pee) in what was perhaps the single most talked about scene in any movie in Cannes this year. Still she seemed surprised when I told her it was all the buzz.

“Yes, I did the scene. That was what Lee wanted. It was in the script. And it’s pretty out there. I mean I love Zac. He’s such a great guy and let me just say I am glad it was him. I feel safe with Zac and hopefully he feels safe with me. Oh my God I can’t believe it’s all over Twitter. Of course it would be all over Twitter,” she laughed.

I’m sure she won’t have to worry about that kind of scene when she stars as Grace Kelly, the elegant star-turned-Princess in a movie bio to be directed by Olivier Dahan who also guided Marion Cotillard to an Oscar for La Vie En Rose, a film Kidman says she loved. But it will be one big Oscar winning star playing another big Oscar winning star which would seem to present a new set of challenges for Kidman when she begins shooting it in late Fall. It has enjoyed robust pre-sales here at Cannes. “I have been offered things before of playing famous actresses of past eras but it wasn’t time for me to do that. But this has a great script. I know a little about Grace Kelly. I wasn’t a massive obsessed fan of Grace Kelly but I want to find out who she was and find the truth of that. But now I don’t do anything. I go on a plane and go back to my family and kids and say ‘oh I am a normal person after all’.”

A normal person who just took Cannes by storm.

Indomina Rolls With ‘Holy Motors’ For U.S.

NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor — Sun, 27 May 2012 08:28:07 +0000

The Indomina Group has acquired US distribution rights to Leos Carax’s Cannes competition title, Holy Motors. The film enjoyed a robust reception when it premiered here last week to mark Carax’s first time in competition since 1999’s Pola X. Some are calling it a strong candidate for the Palme d’Or tonight. The experimental work chronicles a few hours in the life of Monsieur Oscar, a shadowy character chauffeured around Paris in a white limousine who takes on different roles for his various “appointments.” Longtime Carax collaborator Denis Lavant stars along with Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue and Michel Piccoli. Indomina’s Rob Williams negotiated the deal with Wild Bunch’s Carole Baraton.

UK Editor Arrested In News Corp Scandal

THE DEADLINE TEAM — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:17:41 +0000

An employee at News Corp’s British publishing unit was arrested today on suspicion of conspiring to corrupt public officials with illegal payments for stories, Bloomberg reports. Police didn’t identify the 37-year-old but the Telegraph newspaper said she was Clodagh Hartley, a government editor for The Sun tabloid. She was released on bail. News International confirmed the woman arrested today was an employee but declined to comment further. Her arrest was the result of new information provided to police by News Corp’s Management Standards Committee which is handling the company’s internal investigation.

Oscilloscope Takes U.S. Rights To ‘Reality’

THE DEADLINE TEAM — Sat, 26 May 2012 20:21:09 +0000

Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to Matteo Garrone’s Cannes competition film Reality, his first feature since 2008’s critically acclaimed and award-winning Gomorrah. Oscilloscope will take the film to additional festivals this fall with a theatrical, DVD, and digital release to follow early next year. Reality is a darkly comic portrait of Luciano, a fishmonger whose unexpected and sudden obsession with being a contestant on Big Brother leads him down a rabbit hole of skewed perceptions and paranoia. Reality was produced by Garrone and Domenico Procacci (Gomorrah), with Jean Labadie of Le Pacte as co-producer. Deal was negotiated by Dan Berger and David Laub of Oscilloscope with Janine Gold of Fandango Portobello assisted by Garrone’s U.S. reps Bart Walker of Cinetic Media and Jeff Berg of ICM.