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Berlin: So Much For Bad Blood Between Harvey And Megan Ellison; TWC Acquires Wong Kar Wai’s ‘The Grandmaster’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday February 7, 2013 @ 8:59am PSTTags: Berlin Film Festival, Big Deals Film, Harvey Weinstein, Megan Ellison, The Grandmaster, The Grandmasters
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: I’ve read about the supposed bad blood between Harvey Weinstein and Annapurna Pictures principal Megan Ellison over the subpar box office grosses of The Master. But any idea they’re not doing business together seems to be a bit crunched by a new deal they’ve just made. The Weinstein Company has acquired all rights in the U.S. and English-speaking Canadian territories from Annapurna on Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, which premieres tonight as the opening film at the Berlin Film Festival. TWC also landed rights to Australia, New Zealand, and the UK from Wild Bunch.

The Grandmaster, written by Wong, Zou Jingzhi, and Xu Haofeng, was executive produced by Ellison (she has money in the movie), and produced by Jacky Pang and Wong. The film opened to critical praise last month in China and has just reached over $50 million at the box office there, making it the director’s highest-grossing film in his career.

I’m sure there is uneasiness between Ellison and Weinstein. In an interview I did with him at Sundance, Weinstein acknowledged their mutual disappointment over The Master and how it didn’t break out, with Ellison not coming near recouping the $35 million or so that she spent to make the film. In hindsight, Weinstein felt he could have helped by selling the more relate-able theme of the homebound warrior who’s lost and looking for something to believe in, rather than the origins of Scientology theme that stuck with the film and didn’t get a strong response.

It is an epic martial arts drama set against the tumultuous backdrop of 1930s China and inspired by the life and times of the legendary IP Man (Tony Leung), mentor to Bruce Lee. The story focuses on two kung fu masters, IP Man, and Gong Er, and as their worlds collide on the night of the Japanese invasion in 1936. The plot encompasses themes of war, family, revenge, desire, love, and memory. The all-star cast headed by Tony Leung Chiu Wa also includes Ziyi Zhang, Chang Chen, Xiao Shengyang and Song Hye Kyo as well as hundreds of Asia’s top martial artists. READ MORE »

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Laeta Kalogridis And Patrick Lussier Set To Script New ‘Terminator’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday January 17, 2013 @ 9:53am PSTTags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Big Deals Film, David Ellison, Laeta Kalogridis, Megan Ellison, Patrick Lussier, The Terminator
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Skydance Productions and Annapurna Pictures have set Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier to script the next installment of The Terminator franchise.

Her credits include Avatar, Shutter Island and Alexander, produced White House Down. Lussier scripted Wes Craven’s Dracula … Read More »

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Megan Ellison Enlists Brother David For ‘Terminator’ Reboot

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday December 3, 2012 @ 2:11pm PSTTags: Annapurna Pictures, Big Deals Film, David Ellison, Megan Ellison, Skydance Productions, The Terminator
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Nearly 18 months after Megan Ellison pledged over $20 million for the rights to finish The Terminator‘s humanity vs the Skynet cyborgs storyline with a new series of films, she has finally closed the complicated rights deal with Pacificorp. Other than the fact no progress has been made all this time on a script, the surprise here is Ellison has enlisted her brother, David Ellison, to be her financial and creative partner. There is still no studio attached, but future Terminator films will be done as a co-production between her Annapurna Pictures and his Skydance Productions. The Ellisons will produce, while Dana Goldberg, Paul Schwake and Ted Schipper will be exec producers.

Even though Pacificorp spent $29.5 million several years ago to win the rights after Halcyon turned them over to bankruptcy court, insiders tell me that the big numbers in place 18 months ago have been adjusted downward. That is because of the uncomfortable specter of a ticking clock that has continued to wind down as no forward progress was being made. New copyright laws allow for North American rights to The Terminator to revert back to creator James Cameron in 2019 (that happens after 35 years, and The Terminator was 1984). While that law hasn’t been tested in the courts, no major film company would want to move forward on a project with a potentially catastrophic rights crisis looming. So the original pricey deal — made with the expectations there would be three films — was scaled down because the reality is they might only get to make two installments. Four films have been made so far, the first two directed by Cameron, another by Jonathan Mostow and the last, 2009′s Terminator Salvation, helmed by McG. Read More »

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Hot Trailer: ‘The Master’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday May 21, 2012 @ 1:11pm PDTTags: Joaquin Phoenix, Megan Ellison, Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master, The Weinstein Company
Mike Fleming

The Weinstein Company has provided the first images from The Master, the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed film that stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams. In this clip there is no Hoffman, who plays a man who creates a belief system and watches it take off in … Read More »

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Cannes Film Festival: Producers To Watch

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 1:09am PDTTags: Alexander Rodnyansky, Cannes Film Festival, Megan Ellison, Red Granite

The past year has seen the emergence of producers from varied backgrounds who are working on high-profile projects with major talent. This year in Cannes, a constantly heard refrain is that there is an abundance of quality product. Below are some of the key producers responsible:

Megan Ellison: The daughter of Oracle founder Larry Ellison has deep pockets and good taste that have put her at the forefront of today’s hot producers via her Annapurna Pictures. She’s also respected for what one distributor says is her “strategy of working only with strong directors.” Of the official selection films in Cannes, she produced John Hillcoat’s Lawless. Last year at Cannes, she won a bidding war for the rights to make 2 more Terminator installments. On her upcoming roster are Kathryn Bigelow’s hunt for Bin Laden pic, being sold by the sales company she’s backing, Panorama Media. There’s also Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths (sold by Hanway), Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming The Master, which the Weinsteins have and Inherent Vice starring Robert Downey Jr as well as Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher with Steve Carell and Channing Tatum and also via Panorama. Deadline also recently reported a big deal is in the works for Ellison and Annapurna to fully fund American Bullshit, the drama that has David O Russell attached to direct, with Christian Bale also attached and Bradley Cooper in talks.

Red Granite: When Red Granite Pictures launched its international sales division in Cannes last year, they did so in style. You can tell a lot about a company from the way it throws a party and Red Granite’s last year is one people still talk about. Kanye West performed with Jamie Foxx joining him to duet on Gold Digger while Leonardo DiCaprio, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt rocked out on the beach. In 2011, Red Granite’s first production, Westfeldt’s Friends With Kids, was released and the company has steadily been building its roster of impressive product including Wolf Of Wall Street with DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese and Out Of The Furnace starring Christian Bale, Zoe Saldana and Casey Affleck which Scott Cooper is directing. Red Granite is also selling those pictures. Exec Joe Gatta tells me the company’s vision is to “make quality movies first and foremost. It’s a tough business; we have a lot of competition and we want to stand out as a company that’s getting the movies made.” Gatta says Red Granite wants to “grow, but grow steadily.” That could “in the future” include distribution, but the company will definitely grow its sales division under Danny Dimbort, the former Millennium/Nu Image partner who Gatta calls “the best in the business.” The goal for Red Granite is to be doing 3-5 productions per year with some third party pick-ups in the mix. Read More »

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Megan Ellison To Back New Shingle Panorama Media, Launching At Cannes

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 26, 2012 @ 9:28am PDTTags: Annapurna Pictures, Marc Butan, Megan Ellison
Mike Fleming

Los Angeles, CA – April 26, 2012 – Annapurna Pictures, Megan Ellison’s nascent production company, has agreed to back Panorama Media, a new production, financing, and international sales entity based in Los Angeles. Panorama will be run by company President Marc Butan and its Head of International Sales Kimberly

… Read More »

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Megan Ellison In Talks To Fund ‘American Bullshit’ With Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday April 18, 2012 @ 6:34pm PDTTags: American Bullshit, Big Deals Film, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, David O. Russell, Megan Ellison
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: While the acquisitions landscape is showing signs of that pre-Cannes dullness, a big deal is in the works for Megan Ellison and her Annapurna Pictures to fully … Read More »

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Samantha Morton, Amy Adams And Carey Mulligan Circle Spike Jonze Film

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday February 1, 2012 @ 6:12pm PSTTags: Amy Adams, Carey Mulligan, Joaquin Phoenix, Megan Ellison, Samantha Morton, Spike Jonze
Mike Fleming

UPDATE: Sources tell me that the project that Morton, Adams and Mulligan and Phoenix are doing was written by Spike Jonze himself, and not Charlie Kaufman. The … Read More »

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Jason Clarke Lands Kathryn Bigelow’s Bin Laden Film; Elite Cast Circling Other Roles

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday November 10, 2011 @ 12:54pm PSTTags: Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison, Osama Bin Laden, Rooney Mara, Tom Hardy
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Jason Clarke is the first actor set for the Kathryn Bigelow-directed drama about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden for Sony Pictures and Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures. An elite group of actors is being courted for the ensemble. I’m … Read More »

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Megan Ellison Seeds Gore Verbinski-Produced ‘Bitterroot,’ With Video Wiz Chris Milk At Helm

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday October 27, 2011 @ 9:27am PDTTags: Gore Verbinski, Megan Ellison
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures has acquired and will finance Bitterroot, a drama that is being produced by Gore Verbinski’s Blind Wink banner and Scott Aversano. The film will likely mark the feature directorial debut of Chris Milk, an inventive … Read More »

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Ambyr Childers Signs With WME, Lands ‘Gangster Squad’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday October 3, 2011 @ 8:51am PDTTags: Gangster Squad, Josh Brolin, Megan Ellison, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ruben Fleischer, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn
Mike Fleming

Ambyr ChildersAmbyr Childers, who played the daughter of the faith founder (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film for Megan Ellison’s Annapurna and The Weinstein Company, has landed a key role in Gangster Squad, the Ruben Fleischer-directed period … Read More »

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‘Fast’ Schedule Forces Justin Lin To Exit ‘Terminator’, But He Might Be Back

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 4:30pm PDTTags: Annapurna Films, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Justin Lin, Megan Ellison, Pacificor, The Terminator
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Things are starting to move on The Terminator franchise, but a plan by rights owner Megan Ellison and Arnold Schwarzenegger to put the first of two pictures in production for the fourth quarter of 2012 has forced director Justin Lin to drop out. But borrowing the film’s signature phrase “I’ll be back,” Lin has left the door open to a return if Ellison and Schwarzenegger will wait until he completes the sixth installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise.

The Terminator franchise has been under the radar since Ellison’s Annapurna Films spent over $20 million to buy film rights during the Cannes Film Festival, with Lin and Schwarzenegger attached. Lin wants to make the film but simply won’t be available, the same situation that prompted him to withdraw from Summit’s Highlander. Lin has been working closely with Schwarzenegger and Ellison to figure a way to end the James Cameron-hatched battle between humans and the cyborgs of Skynet. It would require some effort for Ellison to get the film underway by late next year. She hasn’t got a script and I don’t think she’s even hired a screenwriter yet. She also hasn’t set a studio partner, even though several are interested. Read More »

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Toronto: Megan Ellison’s COO Robert Barnum Exits

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday September 12, 2011 @ 8:21am PDTTags: Megan Ellison
Mike Fleming

Rob Barnum, who was COO of Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures banner, has quietly left the company within the past few weeks. Behind the scenes, they are saying it was amicable and that Barnum wanted to be more of a creative … Read More »

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Sony Pictures Bearing Down On Kathryn Bigelow’s Bin Laden Movie

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday May 24, 2011 @ 4:41pm PDTTags: Amy Pascal, Cannes, Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison, Sony Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: I’m told that Sony Pictures is negotiating to acquire U.S. distribution rights to the untitled Kathryn Bigelow-directed drama about Navy SEAL Team 6′s hunt for Osama bin Laden. Mark Boal, Bigelow’s partner on the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, is finalizing a script that changes the film from a drama about an unsuccessful attempt to hunt the Al Qaeda leader into a methodical hunt that culminates in his death. The film is being fully financed by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures. Production will start in the early fall and the pic will be ready for release in 2012.

Deadline pegged the Bigelow-Boal film — formerly titled Killing Bin Laden – as a potentially hot project the night that President Barack Obama interrupted programming to announce that the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center had finally been located and killed. It most certainly has worked out that way. The project was far along at this point, and they were talking to actors like Joel Edgerton even before bin Laden was killed. Sony’s Amy Pascal has been aggressive about the film since that night, and the studio and others heard the pitch from Boal right before buyers headed off to the Cannes Film Festival. Read More »

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CANNES: FilmDistrict Acquires U.S. Rights To Joe Gordon-Levitt/Bruce Willis Sci-Fi Action Film ‘Looper’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Saturday May 14, 2011 @ 2:41pm PDTTags: Amy Pascal, Bruce Willis, CAA, Cannes, Emily Blunt, Gary Oldman, James Stern, Jeff Daniels, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Megan Ellison, Michael Benaroya, Paul Dano, Peter Schlessel, Piper Perabo, Rian Johnson, Shia la Beouf, Tom Hardy
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: A frenzied Saturday auction on the Croisette has ended with FilmDistrict in final negotiations for U.S. distribution rights to Looper, the Rian Johnson-directed science fiction film that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt and Bruce Willis. There were at least six bidders spanning major studios and independents, and it sounds like some serious upfront money was paid. But the intriguing part is that the deal orchestrated between CAA and FilmDistrict’s Peter Schlessel will likely end in FilmDistrict using an option with Sony Pictures, which would release and market the film through the TriStar label. That replicates the distribution structure of District 9, which Schlessel acquired while he was at Sony. The picture has a similarly brainy construct and is also reminiscent of the first Terminator.

Johnson wrote the script, about a contract killer who works for the mob of the future, and who kills victims  that are sent back in time 30 years, so there is no trace of the crime in the future. It’s a great gig, until the killer (Gordon-Levitt) recognizes that one of his targets (Willis) is a futuristic version of himself. Piper Perabo, Paul Dano and Jeff Daniels also star. The film was financed by Endgame’s James Stern, who produced with Johnson’s partner Ram Bergman.

CAA still has to paper the deal, but that likely gives Sony and Amy Pascal its second release schedule addition in the last 24 hours. As Deadline revealed early Saturday, the studio acquired the David Frankel-directed Great Hope Springs with Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell starring. Read More »

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CANNES: Forecast Strong For ‘The Wettest County In The World’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Saturday May 14, 2011 @ 4:18am PDTTags: Cannes, Gary Oldman, John Hillcoat, Megan Ellison, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Benaroya, Shia la Beouf, The Wettest County in the World, Tom Hardy
Mike Fleming

The project that has the Cannes buying crowd most hot and bothered at the moment is the John Hillcoat-directed The Wettest County in the World. Hillcoat, who directed The Road, here covers a band of Depression Era bootleggers in the South, with Shia La Beouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and … Read More »

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Cannes: Megan Ellison Wins ‘Terminator’ Rights Auction

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday May 13, 2011 @ 12:34am PDTTags: Annapurna Films, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cannes, Justin Lin, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison, Paul Thomas Anderson
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Megan Ellison has won an auction for the rights to make at least two more installments of The Terminator franchise, with Fast Five’s Justin Lin attached to direct and Arnold Schwarzenegger attached to star. The deal came down to Ellison’s Annapurna Films and Lionsgate, which seemed to have had the project sewn up until she came forward with a dramatic bid. The auction at the time was for a guarantee for at least half of the $29.5 million paid by hedge fund Pacificor to pull the franchise out of bankruptcy. Unclear what the winning amount was, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it hit the $20 million mark. CAA brokered the deal.

Deadline revealed the two finalists in the auction on Wednesday, and I’m told that the deal closed late Thursday. Ellison, the daughter or Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and sister of Paramount-based Skydance producer/financier David Ellison, is winging her way to Cannes right now. She has a lot going on here. Read More »

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Lionsgate, Megan Ellison In Battle For ‘Terminator’ With Arnold Schwarzenegger And ‘Fast Five’s Justin Lin

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday May 11, 2011 @ 1:50pm PDTTags: Annapurna Films, Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Cameron, Justin Lin, Lionsgate, Megan Ellison, The Terminator
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: A high-stakes battle is being waged for the right to relaunch The Terminator, with Fast Five helmer Justin Lin attached to direct and Arnold Schwarzenegger attached to reprise his signature role in one of filmdom’s most iconic franchises. Yesterday, it looked like Lionsgate would win the property with an outright purchase, with an upfront payment of at least half of the $29.5 million that Pacificor spent to claim the property in a bankruptcy auction. That was until Megan Ellison and her Annapurna Films came in with a bid that was higher. They are now fighting it out. As she usually does when she commits to a film, Ellison is staking that amount without having a distributor locked in place.

As Deadline revealed late last month, CAA brought out the package to the town, the first real activity on The Terminator project since February 2010, when the property emerged from a bankruptcy auction and into the possession of Pacificor. While there were several dealmaking scenarios offered, including an option and first dollar gross fees, it’s understandable why an outright purchase would be most attractive to the rights holders.

The Santa Barbara-based hedge fund posted a bid of $29.5 million, with the promise that additional multimillion-dollar payments for each film would go to Halcyon, the company that made the 2009 McG-directed Terminator Salvation. That’s a lot of money to lay out for an extended period of time, with interest costs rising.

I’m told that the deal will close shortly, and that the project could become another hot Schwarzenegger title at the Cannes Film Festival market that’s just getting under way. It would be the third Schwarzenegger movie there. Lionsgate also has Schwarzenegger in the action film The Last Stand, set up as the English language debut of Kim–ji-Woon. Schwarzenegger is also at the center of a QED-funded project that Schwarzenegger is also attached to star in, Cry Macho. Lionsgate has long been interested in extending the James Cameron-created universe of Skynet, John and Sara Connor, and the indestructible cyborgs. In fact, when Halcyon ran out of money and went into bankruptcy,  Pacificor beat out a combined bid by Lionsgate and Sony planning to make back-to-back sequels to bring the franchise to a natural creative conclusion. Read More »

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Harvey Weinstein Buys World Rights To Paul Thomas Anderson’s Untitled Next Film

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday May 9, 2011 @ 11:26am PDTTags: Amy Adams, CAA, Cannes, Harvey Weinstein, Joaquin Phoenix, Laura Dern, Megan Ellison, Paul Thomas Anderson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Weinstein Company
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: The Weinstein Company has won a quiet but fevered bidding battle for worldwide distribution rights to the untitled next film by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film begins production June 13, with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix so far set to star. Megan Ellison is financing. It is Anderson’s first trip behind the camera since There Will Be Blood.

Hoffman and Phoenix are locked. As for the actresses, I’m told that Anderson is eyeing such women as Madisen Beaty (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) for a role, with Amy Adams, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo‘s Lena Endre and Laura Dern also mentioned as actresses Anderson is interested in. The auction was held at CAA headquarters late last week, with Fox Searchlight also squarely in the mix.

This is the project that Anderson has worked on for a long time, once under the title The Master. He has greatly overhauled the script and now, Hoffman stars as a man who returns after witnessing the horrors of WWII and tries to rediscover who he is in post-war America. He creates a belief system, something that catches on with other lost souls. The film is fully financed by Ellison’s Annapurna banner. At a time when the implosion of the indie film marketplace made pricey auteur films so hard to finance, Ellison has emerged as something of a godsend to the small group of auteurs she is working with. She’s enabled Anderson to make the movie at or near the $35 million budget the film was going to cost back when Universal stepped away. Read More »

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