Paramount Pictures to launch big-budget animation unit
By Ryan Nakashima, Business Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Following the blockbuster success of “Rango,” Paramount Pictures said Wednesday that it is creating a division to make its own big-budget animated movies, putting the studio in competition with longtime partner DreamWorks Animation.
The new division will make one animated film per year with a fairly large budget by Hollywood standards — up to $100 million each. The first title is set for release in 2014.
Paramount’s first fully owned animated movie, “Rango,” charmed audiences. The flick, starring Johnny Depp as a chameleon in the Wild West, has grossed more than $240 million worldwide since its release in March.
Paramount’s chairman and chief executive, Brad Grey, said the studio is looking to produce more of its own material because it is more lucrative than simply distributing other studio’s pictures for a fee.
“It’s in our best interest at this point — with the global distribution business that we’ve built, as well as the great production pipeline — to own our own product,” Grey said in an interview.
The move will put a strain on its longtime agreement to distribute movies from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the maker of “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda.” Paramount has distributed two or three DreamWorks movies a year since 2006, earning 8 percent of the box office receipts and recouping all its marketing costs. The deal expires at the end of next year, and the two studios have not yet agreed to another deal.
Paramount has offered a one-year extension on the same terms, but it is looking to get a better deal for any extension beyond 2013, according to a person familiar with the studio’s thinking. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Ben Mogil said Paramount’s announcement suggests that it and DreamWorks will head their separate ways, to DreamWorks’ detriment.
“Clearly, a new in-house competitor to DreamWorks is a negative,” he wrote in a research note Wednesday.
Paramount plans to create characters in conjunction with Nickelodeon, a channel that is also owned by Paramount’s parent company, Viacom Inc. The plan is not just to make movies from characters on television such as “SpongeBob Squarepants,” but to develop Nickelodeon with fresh material as a film brand for families, Grey said.
“Every now and then you could see a SpongeBob, but hopefully we’ll come up with new franchises,” he said.
Paramount makes about 12 movies per year. Its latest release, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” had the biggest Fourth of July weekend opening ever, with nearly $116 million in tickets sold domestically. In one week, “Transformers” has raked in $404 million worldwide.
Alec Baldwin Urges Judge To Stand By Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Case In “Rust” Shooting
Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Friday to stand by her decision to skuttle his trial and dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin halfway through a trial in July based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be revived once any appeals of the decision are exhausted.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that there were insufficient facts and that Baldwin's due process rights had not been violated.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers alleged that they "buried" it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Marlowe Sommer described "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct" by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Defense counsel says that prosecutors tried to establish a link... Read More