2008 | Films

10,000 BC

Conventional where it should be bold and mild where it should be wild, "10,000 BC" reps a missed opportunity to present an imaginative vision of a prehistoric moment. Pussyfooting around with multicultural fantasies of how various African tribes might have banded together against unnamed pyramid-building slavemasters, with periodic attacks by now-extinct giant beasts, helmer Roland Emmerich does serve up some moments of grand spectacle to enliven an otherwise bland concoction. After long delays (pic was originally announced for summer 2007 release), Warner Bros. is pointedly opening the film in what is now referred to as the "300" slot, generating expectations that should result in a potent opening. Stateside B.O. will likely slide quickly, but international prospects appear quite brawny.

With the nearly limitless possibilities provided by CGI and violence-tolerant R ratings, it would seem that, if you're going to make an action epic set in an exotic time and place, you just need to go for it. Regardless of one's critical opinions of individual films, it's hard to deny the balls-out, ultra-visceral, stylistically audacious approaches of "Apocalypto" and "300" injected some fresh excitement into a long-dormant and generally derided genre.

Goldwyn, Potter visit 'Last House'

Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter will star in Rogue Pictures' "Last House on the Left."

Dennis Iliadis is on board to direct the remake of Wes Craven's seminal horror film about escaped convicts who take two teenage girls hostage and then take refuge in one of the girl's home after leaving her for dead.

Mark Haslett, Carl Ellsworth and Adam Alleca penned the screenplay.

Craven is producing alongside Marianne Maddalena and Sean Cunningham.

Shooting is scheduled to begin this month in South Africa.

Multihyphenate Goldwyn's recent acting credits include "The Last Samurai." He is repped by CAA.

Potter most recently appeared on the bigscreen in "Saw." She is handled by the Gersh Agency and Benderspink.

SAG completes online casting directory

The Screen Actors Guild has completed the launch of its year-old iActor online casting directory, which includes nearly 24,000 member resumes.

SAG announced Tuesday that the site has been enhanced to allow casting directors and producers to verify an actor's union eligibility for work in SAG-signatory productions -- also known as "Station 12" cast clearance.

SAG also touted the site's customizable search function, allowing casting directors to sort actors into lists according to personal work methodology, credits, skills and geographic locations.

"We know that the industry's heading in the digital direction, and we want to lead the way," said Steve Graham, SAG's director of online casting.

Graham also noted that the resumes on the site -- which will see its availability expanded well beyond the current 100 or so casting directors -- represent a cross-section of earnings and geographic locations.

Graham said the site's launch last year was first aimed at assembling as many resumes -- including headshots and reels -- as possible and then starting to bring the town's major casting agencies aboard. National exec director Doug Allen noted that the site is tied in with SAG's 75th anniversary.

BVI takes 'Wrap' to Latin America

BARCELONA — Buena Vista Intl. will distribute Ramon Costafreda's "Wrap Up" in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile.

Pic is a co-production between Argentina’s Pol-ka Patagonik Film Group, Spain's Continental and Oberon Cinematografica.

Disney is a shareholder in Patagonik, one of Latin America’s biggest film producers.

Scripted by Fernando Castets ("The Son of the Bride") and helmer Costafreda, the pic stars Manuela Pal ("Palermo Hollywood"), Felix Gomez ("Summer Rain") and Maria Bouzas ("The Impatient Alchemist.")

"Wrap Up" is a tender-humored immigrant fable, turning on a young woman, who arrives in Galicia, Northern Spain, from Argentina. A make-up specialist, she’s at a crossroads in her life, and still deeply affected by the death of her lover. She then falls in love with the son of her old lover.

Title "Wrap Up" refers to “the most popular SMS message written by parents to their children,” helmer Costafreda told Variety.

Niki Taylor

Niki Taylor, host of Bravo’s “Make Me a Supermodel”

Last film I saw:
“The Bucket List,” directed by Rob Reiner

Three films that mean a lot to me:
“The Color Purple,” directed by Steven Spielberg
“Forrest Gump,” directed by Robert Zemeckis
“Enchanted,” directed by Kevin Lima

Who do you think is the best actor in Hollywood at the moment? (male or female)
Amy Adams

Who do you think was the brightest star of the silver screen?
Tom Hanks

Song currently playing in my iPod:
“Time Won’t Let Me Go,” The Bravery

Three songs that mean a lot to me:
”Better Together,” Jack Johnson
“Forever,” Ben Harper
“Cannonball,” Damien Rice

Ever feel that certain song lyrics were written with you in mind? What are they?:
”I Will Remember You,” Sarah McLaughlin (“Clinging to a past that doesn’t let me choose”)

Concert that changed your life:
Van Halen in 1993

Peace at last in Emmy battle?

Could peace finally be in the offing between the two rival TV academies?

A New York judge has upheld December's arbitration ruling in favor of the Los Angeles-based TV Academy against its New York counterpart, effectively ending last year's bitter battle between the two sides.

Los Angeles' Academy of TV Arts & Sciences -- which awards the Primetime Emmys -- had accused Gotham's National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences of attempting to establish a new Broadband Emmy infrastructure without permission.

The American Arbitration Assn. halted those plans, agreeing with ATAS that NATAS -- which hands out Daytime, News and Sports Emmys, among other categories -- had violated terms of the 1977 divorce between the West and East Coast acads.

Balking at that ruling, NATAS filed a petition with the New York State Supreme Court in December, asking that the ruling be set aside on the grounds that the arbitrators had exceeded their authority. The arbitrators had announced which acad held jurisdiction by genre, rather than by daypart -- and NATAS took issue.

But the judge, in a 19-page opinion on Monday, said the arbitration panel's findings were final, with one exception. Both NATAS and ATAS continue to hammer out a proposal to launch a Spanish-language Emmy Award -- an issue that hasn't yet been settled.

"We are gratified that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is unanimously victorious in a very fair and accurate arbitration, and that we can continue our vision to preserve the Emmy brand," ATAS said in a statement.

Meledandri, Universal team on deals

Chris Meledandri's Universal-based shingle has a name -- Illumination -- and a batch of deals.

Meledandri left Fox Animation nine months ago to put Universal into the family-film game; Illumination's animated and live-action features will begin showing up in 2010.Work begins on the first animation project later this year, and by 2010, Meledandri said the company will generate two to three family films each year for U's distribution pipeline.

Talent deals so far have been underwritten by Universal -- several of the scribes signing pacts for pics were involved in recent Fox hits -- but Meledandri and the studio confirm they will close a deal by later this year for outside coin that will co-finance both development and production slates.

Meledandri confirmed he made an exclusive deal with Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio to write two animated films, but wouldn't divulge the specific projects they are scripting. The duo wrote the feature adaptation of "Horton Hears a Who," which Fox releases March 14. The writers also will become consultants on Illumination projects for several years.

Where to eat in Austin

Full disclosure: It's been a long time since I lived in Texas and when I did, it wasn't in Austin. However, over my 23 years in that state, the city became my kinda-Mecca. (Sacred, yes. Holy, no.)

All of which is not a bad way to describe the perspective of the tens of thousands who converge on SXSW every year. If you're among them, you deserve to eat well. Or to put it another way: You're a fool if you don't. The best breakfasts in any city/state/country. Fantastic Tex-Mex. And, of course, the barbecue.

With that in mind, I've assembled a top-10-plus-five list: Ten places I know, love and can vouch for; five that I don't know but hope to based on recommendations from Those Who Know. Some, but not all of these places are within or walking distance from Austin's downtown. For the closest-to-definitive list of SXSW-accessible restaurants, go to SXSW Baby!, the terrific and utterly unofficial SXSW blog. There you'll find a fairly exhaustive rundown, complete with Google Map.

Our lists share some names, but I've given myself the luxury of including spots that demand a rental car. (A small price for gingerbread pancakes at Kerby Lane.)

Enough preamble. Here's the food, sorted by name and SXSW proximity.

Web spurs piracy growth

BEIJING -- In one of the most popular pirate DVD shops in Beijing, there is more shelf space where the fake copies of recent Hollywood blockbusters used to reside. Could this be a sign the studios are winning their battle against Asia's pirates? Not likely -- things are getting more sophisticated, that's all.

"The appearance of the retail piracy market has changed recently, with one of the main reasons being the April 2007 Judicial Interpretation, which lowered the threshold for criminal prosecution from 1,000 discs to 500 discs," says Mike Ellis, senior vice prexy and regional director for the Motion Picture Assn. in the Asia-Pacific region.

This means retailers hold fewer discs on the premises, but now customers choose discs from catalogs while the seller brings their picks into the shop from an off-site storeroom. The pirates are incredibly flexible in how they work.

The Year of the Rat began in February, and for the studios this year of the wily rodent will be all about matching the cunning and speed of the pirates with legislative changes plus more prosecutions and arrests.

The MPA estimates its members lost $6.1 billion to worldwide piracy in 2005, the last year for which complete figures are available, about $1.2 billion of that from piracy across the Asia-Pacific region, slightly less than in the U.S.

Technological changes pose a major threat, particularly the transition to digital.

SND sells 'Trivial' to Japan

French sales company SND/M6 has sold all Japanese rights to New Select on Sophie Marceau’s “Trivial,” a France-set suspenser, which the French thesp co-wrote, helmed and starred in, playing opposite Christophe Lambert.

In an homage to Hollywood of yore, Lambert plays Lt. Jacques Renard, an on the rocks cop, tipped off to an apparent murder by a femme fatale limned by Marceau.

In a second Japanese sale, Hexagon has taken Japanese rights to Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s “Pretty Things.”

Set against the Paris-music scene, the identity theft thriller allowed Marion Cotillard to give early proof of her acting panache in a double role as two identical twin sisters.

Sale, said SND’s Gegory Chambet, rolled off Cotillard’s recent Academy Award actress win for “La Vie en rose.”

Canada’s Equinoxe and Romania’s Media Pro have also taken Guillaume Nicloux’s twisting thriller “The Key,” toplining Guillaume Canet, director-star of international hit “Tell No One.”

Spanish banks back SGR film fund

MADRID — BBVA, Spain’s second-biggest high street bank, and savings banks Caixa Tarragona, Cajamar and Caja Madrid have inked with the country’s ground-breaking Audiovisual SGR film fund.

A two-year-old, Madrid-based mutual guarantee scheme, Audiovisual SGR underwrites low-interest bank loans for film and TV companies.

Spain’s conservative financial establishment has traditionally fought shy of film and TV lending, making the latest SGR accords part of a breakthrough in local film finance.

Opening up its portfolio of financial entities, SGR has also signed up Germany’s Deutsche Bank.

"Our main achievement in these first two years has been to win the confidence of Spain's financial world," Audiovisual SGR general manager Susana Serrano told Daily Variety.
More than one option

* (Co) Daily Variety
Filmography, Year, Role
* (Co) Daily Variety

At a first-ever performance review, SGR revealed Tuesday some film titles benefiting from its guarantees.

Antonio Banderas' "Summer Rain," Nacho Vigalondo's "Timecrimes," Rodrigo Pla's "La Zona" and Iciar Bollain's "Mataharis" figure among 69 Spanish feature films backed by SGR since creation.

To date, SGR has finalized 114 loan guarantee deals, worth Euros 22.3 million ($33.9 million). Credits help drive projects budgeted at a total $182.4 million, employing 1,200 professionals.

Everyman circles Screen Cinemas

LONDON — Everyman Media Group is negotiating to buy indie U.K. exhib chain Screen Cinemas.

Variety understands that talks have reached an advanced stage.

Everyman topper and property developer Daniel Broch has been expanding the media group ever since re-vamping the ailing, arthouse Everyman cinema in the North of London and re-branding it as the Everyman Cinema Club in 2000 as a leisure brand.

Backed by a consortium of deep-pocketed investors, Broch launched the Everyman Media Group in 2006 and has set about a £100 million ($152 million) expansion of the company, with plans to open 50 new sites over the next five years.

Last year, Broch inked a deal to build a 20,000 square foot development in London’s Hammersmith, which will include four Everyman screens as well as function rooms.

Films