Daily Variety articles from October 2009

Daily Variety archives from October 2009

Gulf gusher: Qatar group bows film fund.(Al Noor Holdings )
October 30, 2009... Qatar is joining the Middle East movie gold rush. Qatari media group Al Noor Holdings has launched the $200 million Al Noor fund to finance and produce up to 15 features for the international market in the next five years. Al Noor...

HBO, Lionsgate follow scribe to stalker tale.(Bret Easton Ellis to write The Follower)
October 30, 2009... HBO and Lionsgate TV have set Bret Easton Ellis to pen a series adaptation of "The Follower," the stalker tale by crime novelist Jason Starr. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The drama is described as a dark social satire chronicling the dating...

B.O. thriller and chiller.
October 30, 2009... "This Is It" grossed $20.1 million in its first day at the worldwide box office--a solid, but not glowing, start for Michael Jackson's final act. The Sony release grossed $7.4 million from 3,481 theaters at. the domestic B.O., including $2.2...

Wii woes for Nintendo.
October 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nintendo's bottom line has taken a beating from plunging sales and the recent price cut on its popular Wii console. Profits at the Japanese vidgame giant fell 52% during the first half of its financial year to $768...

Not leery of the future.
October 30, 2009... Apostle Films' Denis Leary and Jim Serpico are busy prepping their post-"Rescue Me" plans. The shingle is shooting back-to-back the final two seasons of the FX drama, which is set to end its run in 2011. At the same time, Apostle has lined up...

Fox's series sizzles: Yankees-Phillies' Game 1 aud up 33%.
October 30, 2009... The World Series is off to a flying start for Fox, with Wednesday's Game 1 between the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees the second-highest-rated opener of the decade. Nielsen estimates that an average audience of 19.51 million tuned...

Six scribes draw Acad's Nicholl nod.(Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences picks Matt Ackley, Vineet Dewan, Angus Fletcher, John Griffin, Nidhi Anna Verghese, and Jeff Williams in Nicholl Fellowship )(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has selected six screenwriters for this year's Nicholl Fellowship out of a record 6,380 scripts submitted. Each writer or writing team will be awarded $30,000 at the gala dinner in Beverly...

Jackman opts out of Oscarcast gig.(Inside Moves)(Hugh Jackman )(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... While speculation is running high on who'll host the Oscars, one name that can be crossed off the list is Hugh Jackman. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The thesp, who's starring on Broadway with Daniel Craig in the drama "A Steady Rain," quietly...

D'Works fetches 'Doggy'.( Doggy Day Care for Dreamworks)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... DreamWorks has snapped up Laurie Craig's comedy spec "Doggy Day Care." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Based on a story by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Julie Goldstein and Craig, the project, set in a dog day care, concerns what really happens when...

Euro org backs pix at AFM.(American Film Market and European Film Promotion )(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Pic support org European Film Promotion will head to Santa Monica's American Film Market next week with extra coin from the European Union's Media Program. Over the past decade, EFP has provided an umbrella office at AFM for small- and...

Joe Kernen.(Tenpercenteries)
October 30, 2009... WME has inked CNBC's Joe Kernen. He can currently be seen on the cabler's "Squawk Box," which he has hosted since 1995. Prior to "Squawk Box," he was the network's on-air stock editor. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Serinda Swan.(Tenpercenteries)
October 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Serinda Swan ("The Break-Up Artist") has signed with UTA. She recently completed filming "Tron Legacy" and will next be seen as Aphrodite in "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," being helmed by Chris...

Katheryn Winnick.(Tenpercenteries)
October 30, 2009... Katheryn Winnick ("Cold Souls") has signed with Alchemy Entertainment for management. Most recently, Winnick was cast alongside Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal in "Love and Other Drugs," which Ed Zwick will helm. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

APA has signed thesps James Lafferty and Luke Macfarlane for representation.(Tenpercenteries)
October 30, 2009... APA has signed thesps James Lafferty and Luke Macfarlane for representation. Lafferty can still be seen on "One Tree Hill" while Macfarlane continues to work on "Brothers and Sisters." Lafferty is still managed by Paceline Entertainment while...

Finian's Rainbow.(Theater review)
October 30, 2009... (St. James Theater; 1,701 seats; $120 top) A David Richenthal, Jack Viertel, Alan D. Marks, Michael Speyer, Bernard Abrams, David M. Milch, Stephen Moore, Debbie Bisno/Myla Lerner, Jujamcyn Theaters presentation, in association with Melly...

Thesps courting Gershwins' 'Girl'.(Legit Bits)(Ana Gasteyer, Wayne Knight, Marc Kudisch and spouses Becki Newton and Chris Diamantopoulos in Girl Crazy)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Ana Gasteyer, Wayne Knight, Marc Kudisch and spouses Becki Newton ("Ugly Betty") and Chris Diamantopoulos ("The Starter Wife") will star in the Encores! concert staging of Gershwin tuner "Girl Crazy." The 1930 musical, which has a score by...

The Vineyard Theater's successful production of Colman Domingo's "A Boy and His Soul" has been picked up for a commercial transfer by producer Elizabeth Ireland McCann.(Legit Bits)
October 30, 2009... The Vineyard Theater's successful production of Colman Domingo's "A Boy and His Soul" has been picked up for a commercial transfer by producer Elizabeth Ireland McCann. The show, which is about to end its extended run at the Vineyard, scored...

Playwright Rajiv Joseph ("Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," "Animals Out of Paper") is among the 10 scribes to pick up the 2009 Whiting Writers' Award, which comes with a cash prize of $50,000 for each recipient.(Legit Bits)
October 30, 2009... Playwright Rajiv Joseph ("Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," "Animals Out of Paper") is among the 10 scribes to pick up the 2009 Whiting Writers' Award. which comes with a cash prize of $50,000 for each recipient. Joseph was the only legit...

Italo screen grab: Benetton, Mediaset team for biggest exhib.(World News)
October 30, 2009... Italy's biggest exhib, a united effort of fashion's Benetton family and prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset, was unveiled in Rome on Thursday. The circuit, which merges Italy's former Warner Village Cinemas loop with...

Blighty's Big Talk makes Optimum deal.(World News)
October 30, 2009... Brit shingle Big Talk has inked a co-financing and co-production pact with U.K. distrib and producer Optimum Releasing. It's the latest sign of Optimum's desire to ramp up production and become a major player in the British film industry. ...

'Metropolis' at Berlinale.(World News)(60th Berlin Film Festival )(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... The 60th Berlin Film Festival will screen Fritz Lang's original cut of "Metropolis," which was feared lost but was discovered in an Argentine museum last year, at a gala ceremony on Feb. 10, the Berlinale said Thursday. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

In feevee flipflop, ProSieben clarifies.(World News)
October 30, 2009... ProSiebenSat. 1 topper Thomas Ebeling pulled back on Thursday from his bombshell announcement a day earlier that the European broadcasting group was considering turning its free-to-air TV channels into pay outlets (Daily Variety, Oct. 28). ...

Top BBC execs to take pay cut.(UNITED KINGDOM)
October 30, 2009... The BBC has unveiled plans to slash 25% from the cost of senior staff salaries, resulting in the loss of 18% of management posts and a freeze on exec pay. Some 20 million [pounds sterling] ($33.1 million) will be cut from the $131 million in...

Tix sales record.(AUSTRIA)
October 30, 2009... Austria broke the 1 million mark for cinema ticket sales for the first time this year, crossing the magic barrier with more than two months to spare, Austria's Film Institute said Thursday. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The run to cinemas in...

Orange sales kick up.(FRANCE)
October 30, 2009... Subscriptions to Orange TV's premium pay TV services Orange Sport and Orange Cinema Series rose 50% to 596,000 through Sept. 30. Premium pay subscriptions at Orange TV, the TV arm of giant Gallic telco France Telecom, stood at 400,000 at the...

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.(Movie review)
October 30, 2009... An Apparition release of a Stage 6 Films presentation of a Don Carmody/Chris Blinker production. Produced by Brinker, Carmody. Executive producers, Lloyd Segan, Rob Fried. Directed, written by Troy Duffy, based on a story by Troy Duffy,...

Peacock reups 'Chuck'.(NBC)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... NBC has ordered up six more episodes of "Chuck" for midseason. The critically favored but low-rated "Chuck" barely survived the ax last May, but Peacock execs were wowed enough by an aggressive campaign from the show's loyalists to keep it on...

August Coppola.(Obituaries)(Obituary)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Nicolas Cage's father, literature professor August Coppola, died Tuesday following a heart attack. He was 75. Coppola is the brother of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, and he taught literature and served as dean of creative arts at San...

Dee Anthony.(Obituaries)(Obituary)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Dee Anthony, who began a 40-year music managing career representing neighborhood friend Jerry Vale in the 1950s and later worked for Tony Bennett, Peter Frampton and other popular artists, died Sunday in Norwalk, Conn. He was 83. Anthony was...

Lou Jacobi.(Obituaries)(Obituary)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Actor Lou Jacobi, who was known for comic roles and won praise in dramatic ones over a long career in the theater and movies, died Oct. 23 in Manhattan. He was 95. The Canadian-born actor made his Broadway debut in 1955 in "The Diary of Anne...

Linda Day.(Obituaries)(Obituary)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... TV director Linda Day, who paved the way for women in the smallscreen biz, helming episodes of shows including "Dallas" and "Archie Bunker's Place," died of cancer Oct. 23 in Georgetown, Texas. She was 71. Born in Los Angeles, Day started as...

Collin Wilcox Paxton.(Obituaries)(Obituary)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Collin Wilcox Paxton, who played the accuser in the 1962 classic "To Kill a Mockingbird," died Oct. 14 in Highlands, N.C. She was 74. She is best known for her role as Mayella Violet Ewell, the white girl who accused a black man of raping her...

Vic Mizzy.(Obituaries)
October 30, 2009... Vic Mizzy, who composed the indelible theme music for "The Addams Family" and "Green Acres," died Oct. 17 in Los Angeles. He was 93. For the "The Addams Family" theme, which became a long-remembered part of '60s pop culture, Mizzy played the...

Anne Friedberg.(Obituaries)
October 30, 2009... USC School of Cinematic Arts professor Anne Friedberg, who published several works on film critical studies, died Oct. 9 in Los Angeles following a long struggle with colorectal cancer. She was 57. Friedberg was married to screenwriter and...

Don Lane.(Obituaries)(Obituary)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Don Lane, a pioneer of Oz's late-night chat shows, has died in Sydney after a long battle with dementia. He was 75. Nine Network spotted Lane, who became known Down Under as the Lanky Yank, singing in a Hawaiian nightclub called the...

Fest's prodigal son: Koehler parlays tireless consumption of world cinema into eclectic fest menu.(RAPTURE IN THE DARK)(Los Angeles Film Exposition's Robert Koehler )
October 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Filmex--the legendary Los Angeles Film Exposition that debuted at Grauman's Chinese in 1971--not only thrives to this day under its married name, AFI rest, it also christened a passion and a professional calling in the...

Breaking free: sensitive to the new economic reality, organizers flex their nonprofit muscles by knocking down the pay wall.(GRATIS GESTURE AN INSTANT HIT)(American Film Institute)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... One of the silent challenges of AFI Fest last year--amid the crashing economies of 2008--was that the event's artistic director, Rose Kuo, found herself wondering early and often what sort of festival, if any, she might be directing in 2009. The...

10 actors to watch: whether it be for this year's award season or for the next few decades, Variety's class of 2009 is poised for breakout success and set to make an impact on the bigscreen.(V PLUS)
October 30, 2009... MAGGIE GRACE Having 'Taken' off with a box office hit, 'Lost' thesp sets sights far ahead As the kidnapped daughter Liam Neeson would stop at nothing to save, Maggie Grace considered her lead role in "Taken" a gift, even before the film...

Place of Execution.(Television program review)
October 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] (Two-part movie; PBS, Sun. Nov. 1-8, 9 p.m.) Filmed in the U.K. by Coastal Prods. in association with Ingenious Broadcasting 2 and presented by WGBH Boston. Executive producers, Rebecca Eaton, Robson Green, Sandra...

Poliwood.
October 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] (Docu; Showtime, Mon. Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.) Produced by Screen Media Films and the Creative Coalition in association with Baltimore Pictures. Producers, Robin Bronk, Robert Baruc, Tim Daly, Jason Sosnoff; director,...

Djimon Hounsou.(Players)
October 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Djimon Hounsou ("Blood Diamond") will star in "Elephant White" for Nu Image/Millennium with Pachya Pinkaew ("Ong Bak"). He portrays an assassin hired by a businessman to avenge the murder of his daughter by white slave...

Julia Ormond.(Players)
October 30, 2009... Julia Ormond has been cast in a four-episode arc for the upcoming season of Showtime's "Nurse Jackie." She will play a well-respected international broadcast journalist who falls in love with one of the hospital's doctors. Ormond just wrapped...

Danny Huston.(Players)
October 30, 2009... Danny Huston is set for Robert Redford's period drama "The Conspirator" alongside Robin Wright Penn, James McAvoy and Tom Wilkinson. Huston will portray the prosecutor in the trial of Mary Surratt, a Confederate sympathizer who was tried as a...

Chow Yun-Fat.(Players)
October 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Chow Yun-Fat is set to follow up his role as the ancient philosopher Confucius with a part in Chinese helmer Jiang Wen's Western laffer "Let the Bullets Fly." Chow will co-star alongside the popular comedian Ge You. The...

Jim Sturgess.(Players)
October 30, 2009... Jim Sturgess ("21") will star opposite Kirsten Dunst in Juan Diego Solanas' "Upside Down," a Romeo and Juliet-style sci-fi fantasy. Pic will start shooting in Montreal in mid-February for a fall 2011 release. Sturgess was most recently seen in...

Kathleen Robertson ("Hollywoodland") and Reid Scott ("My Boys") will star in the indie "Losing Control.".(Players)
October 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kathleen Robertson ("Hollywoodland") and Reid Scott ("My Boys") will star in He indie "Losing Control." Pic follows Scott's Harvard student, who moves to China after having his marriage...

Jeremy Strong.(Players)
October 30, 2009... Jeremy Strong has signed on to "The Romantics" opposite Liv Tyler. Gait Niederhoffer has penned the pic and will direct. Strong's past credits include "The Happening" and Magnolia Pictures' "Humboldt County." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Kwesi Boakye.(Players)
October 30, 2009... Kwesi Boakye has signed on to appear in the TNT Skein "Men of a Certain Age," which preems in December. Boakye is set to play Andre Braugher's son in the show. He was most recently seen in "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself."

'Max' without Mel? New 'Fury' in Oz.
October 30, 2009... Charlize Theron is revving up for "Mad Max: Fury Road," with producer-director George Miller set to start filming next August in Australia. British actor Tom Hardy ("Black Hawk Down") will also star opposite Theron. Thesps are the first major...

'Mortal' getting Unique life.(Unique Features's The Mortal Instruments)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Unique Features partners Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne will team with Constantin Film on "The Mortal Instruments," an adaptation of the Cassandra Clare fantasy book trilogy. The partners have set Jessica Postigo ("Operation Checkmate") to write...

'Idaho' next for indie producer.
October 30, 2009... Indie feature "Buhl, Idaho" will shoot in Twin Falls and Buhl this month for "Frozen River" producer Heather Rae. Jaffe Zinn, an Idaho native and NYU Tisch School grad, penned the script and is making his feature debut. His screenplay, about...

Quentin Tarantino, Anjelica Huston, Kirk Douglas and Jonathan Demme are among the presenters set for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science's Governors Awards on Nov. 14.
October 30, 2009... Quentin Tarantino, Anjelica Huston, Kirk Douglas and Jonathan Demme are among the presenters set for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science's Governors Awards on Nov. 14. Kudofest features a presentation of the Irving G. Thalberg...

Screen Media Films has acquired political thriller "Formosa Betrayed" and set a February a domestic release in 15-20 North American cities.(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Screen Media Films has acquired political thriller "Formosa Betrayed" and set a February a domestic release in 15-20 North American cities. Pic is the initial project for Formosa Films, Will Tiao's newly formed production and finance company....

Comedy Central has given a six-episode greenlight to a half-hour sketch series starring Nick Swardson ("Reno 911!").(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Comedy Central has given a six-episode greenlight to a half-hour sketch series starring Nick Swardson ("Reno 911!"). Skein will feature comedy skits, digital shorts and street interviews, along with animation inspired by Swardson's popular...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to "The Wind Journeys," Colombia's submission for Oscar's foreign-language film category, and set a spring theatrical release.(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Film Movement has acquired North American rights to "The Wind Journeys," Colombia's submission for Oscar's foreign-language film category, and set a spring theatrical release. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Pic, directed by Ciro Guerra, will be...

ABC's revamped "Scrubs" returns to the network airwaves Dec. 1.
October 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ABC's revamped "Scrubs" returns to the network airwaves Dec. 1. Show, which will undergo an overhaul this year as the focus shifts to a medical school setting, will air Tuesdays at 9 starting that night. For its...

Film Independent has selected 40 participants for this year's Project: Involve, an annual mentorship program meant to help the careers of filmmakers from underrepresented communities in the entertainment industry.
October 30, 2009... Film Independent has selected 40 participants for this year's Project: Involve, an annual mentorship program meant to help the careers of filmmakers from underrepresented communities in the entertainment industry. At its kickoff reception,...

The Drama League will honor Angela Lansbury in a benefit gala co-directed by Michael Mayer ("Spring Awakening") in February.(Legit Bits)(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... The Drama League will honor Angela Lansbury in a benefit gala co-directed by Michael Mayer ("Spring Awakening") in February. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mayer and his associate director on "Spring," Beatrice Terry, will team to helm the event,...

'Twilight' to rise again.(Brief article)
October 30, 2009... Summit Entertainment will re-release "Twilight" in theaters Nov. 19 for a single night, before it launches "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" the next day. Summit, which made the announcement Thursday, said it had decided to re-release "Twilight"...

Google tunes up music search feature.
October 30, 2009... Google launched an enhanced music search feature late Wednesday that allows those who use the search engine to hear and even buy music via the Web giant's dedicated partners. Pages for music-related queries at Google.com will now include...

Weekend B.O. preview.(box office)(Brief article)(Statistical data)
October 30, 2009... Weekend B.O. Preview Variety.com/weekendopeners 'This Is It'... is it Sony pic "Michael Jackson's This Is It," which bowed Tuesday, is the lone wide opener at the box office this Halloween weekend. A sampling of recent concert films and how...

'Curb' appeal.(VARIETY.COM)
October 29, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Brian Lowry weighs in on the current controversy surrounding HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Variety.com/BLTv

We are the world: 'This' gets global blitz.(This Is It)
October 29, 2009... While Michael Jackson's "This Is It" concert tour was supposed to mark a major comeback for the singer, Sony's documentary represents a comeback of a different sort: a return to the kind of movie event that Hollywood was once known for. On...

Actors raise voices on vidgame deal.
October 29, 2009... Screen Actors Guild thesps have thrown a wrench into the world of videogame voice work, rejecting a tentative deal for a new contract and asking employers to return to the bargaining table. The American Federation of Television & Radio...

Eye player logging off.
October 29, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Quincy Smith left his gig as an investment banker at Allen & Co. three years ago to join CBS with the mandate of making the Eye a player in digital media. Now that the Eye has moved into the top 10 of online...

Cherry still ripe.
October 29, 2009... Marc Cherry has sealed a new deal that could keep "Desperate Housewives" on the air through 2013. As part of a two-year extension Cherry signed with ABC Studios, Cherry will remain exec producer of "Housewives" for an eighth and ninth season....

Scott dances to '80s tune.(Tony Scott )(Brief article)
October 29, 2009... Tony Scott has become attached to direct a film about the rise and fall of Steve Banerjee, the man responsible for creating Chippendales, who was consumed by excess and competition when the male strip clubs became a phenomenon in the 1980s. ...

Michael Jackson's This Is It.
October 29, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] (Docu) A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures presentation in association with the Michael Jackson Co. and AEG Live. Produced by Randy Phillips, Kenny Ortega, Paul Gongaware. Executive...

In the Heights.(Movie review)
October 29, 2009... (Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, Fla.; 2,610 seats; $72.50 top) A Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller, Jill Furman Willis, Sander Jacobs, Goodman/Grossman, Peter Fine, Everett/Skipper presentation of a musical in two acts with music and...

'Miracle' on Rialto: duo to make B'way debuts in revival.(LEGIT)
October 29, 2009... Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill will topline a new Broadway revival of "The Miracle Worker" opening at Circle in the Square Theater in the spring. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kate Whoriskey, helmer of Pulitzer Prize winner "Ruined" and recently...

Thesps play Charades for LAByrinth.(Legit Bits)
October 29, 2009... Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Billy Crudup and Julia Stiles are among the celebs lined up to participate in the LAByrinth Theater Company's annual fundraiser "Celebrity Charades." Eric Bogosian referees the event, called "Celebrity...

The 2010 season of Lincoln Center's American Songbook program will showcase work from legiters such as Jeanine Tesori, Martha Plimpton, Michael Friedman and Rebecca Luker as well as music acts, including Marianne Faithfull, the Dirty Projectors and Suzanne Vega.(Legit Bits)
October 29, 2009... The 2010 season of Lincoln Center's American Songbook program will showcase work from legiters such as Jeanine Tesori, Martha Plimpton, Michael Friedman and Rebecca Luker as well as music acts, including Marianne Faithfull, the Dirty Projectors...

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center has picked up a $40,000 grant from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.(Legit Bits)
October 29, 2009... The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center has picked up a $40,000 grant from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. Funds will go toward the development of new plays at the 2010 and 2011 editions of the O'Neill's annual National Playwrights...

'Graceland' graces LCT.(LEGIT)(Brief article)
October 29, 2009... Ellen Fairey's play "Graceland" and a tuner called "On the Levee" will round out the 2009-10 season for Lincoln .Center's LCT3, devoted to programming new works by emerging legit creatives. "Graceland," about two adult siblings who reunite to...

U library on demand: Studio, TCM open vaults.
October 29, 2009... Universal Studios Home Entertainment has partnered with Turner Classic Movies on a new manufacturing-on-demand service, kicking off Friday with a series of horror films never before released on DVD. Featured films, many of which have...

Auds swoon for 'Moon'.
October 29, 2009... The indie-rock soundtrack for Summit's "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" moved up a notch to take the No. 1 slot on the U.S. album chart last week. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Chop Shop/Atlantic title, which debuted at No. 2 last week after...

Digital switch coin found.
October 29, 2009... Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. has secured a line of credit of up to $100 million to help theater owners make the transition to digital, a prerequisite for showing films in 3D. GE Capital Media's Communications & Entertainment business and...

Duo partner in 'Crime'.
October 29, 2009... Vera Farmiga and James Caan have been set to star with Keanu Reeves in "Henry's Crime," the romantic comedy that will be directed by Malcolm Venville ("44 Inch Chest"). Sacha Gervasi ("Anvil! The Story of Anvil") penned the script. The...

Several years ago, after Halle Berry won the Oscar for "Monster's Ball," I was seated by that film's producer, Lee Daniels, at a party given by Vogue's Andre Leon Talley.(Lee Daniels)(Brief article)
October 29, 2009... SEVERAL YEARS ago, after Halle Berry won the Oscar for "Monster's Ball," I was seated by that film's producer, Lee Daniels, at a party given by Vogue's Andre Leon Talley. During dinner, Lee told me all his hopes and dreams, and we became...

Clive Davis continues to treat the rejuvenated Whitney Houston like a piece of fragile china.(Brief article)
October 29, 2009... CLIVE DAVIS continues to treat the rejuvenated Whitney Houston like a piece of fragile china. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Whitney is Clive's greatest discovery, and he has been her faithful supporter through thick and thicker. Now that Whitney...

DW isn't afraid of 'Dark'.(DreamWorks' Someone in the Dark)(Brief article)
October 29, 2009... DreamWorks has preemptively snapped up Richard Blaney and Gregory Small's spec "Someone in the Dark" and has attached Carlos Brooks to direct. Gavin Polone ("Zombieland") and former DreamWorks exec Marc Haimes are producing. Brooks, who...

The Box.(Movie review)
October 29, 2009... A Warner Bros. release of a Media Rights Capital presentation of a Darko Entertainment production. Produced by Scan McKittrick, Richard Kelly, Dan Lin. Executive producers, Sue Baden-Powell, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Ted Field, Paris Kasidokostas...

CMJ Marathon runs into tuneful trends.(music NOTES)
October 29, 2009... For the first decade or so of its existence, the CMJ Music Marathon--an outgrowth of the then-grassroots tipsheet College Music Journal--was an invaluable resource for A&R folk and diehard fans looking to get an early glimpse of the next big...

The Multicultural Motion Picture Assn. will honor the Fox comedy "Glee" with the favorite new television cast ensemble award at the 17th annual Diversity Awards, to be held Nov. 22 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
October 29, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Multicultural Motion Picture Assn. will honor the Fox comedy "Glee" with the favorite new television cast ensemble award at the 17th annual Diversity Awards, to be held Nov. 22 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Other...