Starts movie production site Amazon Studios
Amazon.com Inc. is starting a Web business aimed at helping filmmakers get their movies onto the big screen.
Amazon Studios, which the online retailer announced Tuesday, is seeking full-length films and scripts from filmmakers and screenwriters that can be entered through its website, http://studios.amazon.com . It plans to distribute a total of $2.7 million to those who submit the best works by the end of next year. Amazon said this includes an annual award of $100,000 for the best script and $1 million for the best film it receives by Dec. 31, 2011, as well as monthly awards.
Amazon Studios may then produce these projects as feature films through a “first-look” agreement with Warner Bros. Pictures, which means Amazon Studios is obligated to show Warner Bros. the projects first, but if the movie studio passes Amazon Studios can take them elsewhere.
Amazon said that, in addition to the annual and monthly awards, it will pay $200,000 to the screenwriter or filmmaker behind a project that it ends up releasing as a feature film. The company will also pay an additional $400,000 if the film brings in over $60 million in U.S. box office sales.
Several judges — who include Mark Gil, a producer and former Miramax and Warner Independent Pictures president, and Mike Werb, screenwriter of films including “Face/Off” and “The Mask” — will choose the best movies and scripts.
Amazon already has some experience in the film industry: It owns the Internet Movie Database, or IMDB, and holds a stake in LOVEFiLM International Ltd., which is a European subscription DVD rental company.
SAG-AFTRA Calls For A Strike Against “League of Legends”
"League of Legends" is caught in the middle of a dispute between Hollywood's actors union and an audio company that provides voiceover services for the blockbuster online multiplayer game.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called a strike against "League of Legends" on Tuesday, arguing that Formosa Interactive attempted to get around the ongoing video game strike by hiring non-union actors to work on an unrelated title.
Formosa tried to "cancel" the unnamed video game, which was covered by the strike, shortly after the start of the work stoppage, SAG-AFTRA said. The union said when Formosa learned it could not cancel the game, the company "secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for 'non-union' talent only." In response, the union's interactive negotiating committee voted unanimously to file an unfair labor practice charge against the company with the National Labor Relations Board and to call a strike against "League of Legends" as part of that charge.
"League of Legends" is one of Formosa's most well-known projects. The company provides voiceover services for the game, according to SAG-AFTRA.
SAG-AFTRA has accused Formosa of interfering with protections that allow performers to form or join a union and prevent those performers from being discriminated against — a move the union called "egregious violations of core tenets of labor law."
Formosa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "League of Legends" developer Riot Games said that the company "has nothing to do" with the union's complaint.
"We want to be clear: Since becoming a union project five years ago, 'League of Legends' has only asked Formosa to engage with union... Read More