April 6, 2012
The Weinstein Co. scores PG-13 rating for ‘Bully’
By Derri J. Lang, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Weinstein Co. said Thursday an edited version of the film “Bully” will be released across the U.S. on April 13 with a PG-13 rating.
The Motion Picture Association of America initially gave the film an R rating for language, meaning kids under 17 were restricted from seeing it without an accompanying adult.
The MPAA declined to change the rating when The Weinstein Co. appealed. The company released the film March 30 in limited release without a rating.
“Bully,” directed by Lee Hirsch, is an examination of school bullying that follows five kids over the course of a school year.
The Weinstein Co. said three uses of an expletive were removed to earn the PG-13 rating.
“I feel completely vindicated with this resolution,” Hirsch said in a statement. “While I retain my belief that PG-13 has always been the appropriate rating for this film, as reinforced by Canada’s rating of a PG, we have today scored a victory from the MPAA.”
Hirsch initially declined to edit the documentary’s offensive language because it would diminish the painful reality of bullying.
The Weinstein Co. later decided to resubmit a new version of “Bully,” and the MPAA ratings board gave it a PG-13 for intense thematic material, disturbing content and some strong language – all involving kids, Joan Graves, chairman of the classification and rating administration, said in a statement.
“The ratings system has worked exactly as it is supposed to,” she said. “Parents have been kept informed of the content of each version of the film, and they have been given the information they need to make movie-going decisions on behalf of their kids.”
The ruling ends a monthlong dispute between The Weinstein Co. and the MPAA over the rating that prompted 17-year-old high school student Katy Butler of Ann Arbor, Mich., to start an online petition calling for a lower rating so more young people can see it.
Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees were among the celebrity supporters of the film.
Burger King apologizes to Blige over ad
NEW YORK (AP) – Burger King is apologizing to Mary J. Blige and her fans for releasing an ad that garnered the singer serious fan backlash.
The clip featured Blige soulfully singing about the fast-food chain’s new chicken snack wraps. It immediately went viral when it was released Monday, and some in the black community said it was stereotypical. Burger King pulled the ad Tuesday over what the company said was a music licensing issue. The company explained Wednesday the spot was unfinished.
In a statement, Blige said she understood why fans were upset. She said the ad didn’t come across the way it was planned and she would never put out an unfinished spot.
Burger King said it was released prematurely and they hope to have the final ad on the air soon. More in first story below when first reported.
Famed founder of Marshall Amplification dies at 88
LONDON (AP) – Jim Marshall, who helped shape the sound of rock with his groundbreaking amplifier designs, has died. He was 88.
His son Terry Marshall said he died in a hospice in England on Thursday morning after suffering from cancer and several severe strokes.
Jim Marshall was known throughout the music world for founding Marshall Amplification, which produced the amplifiers that rocked music halls and arenas after their introduction in 1960.
Photographs from the era show many of rock’s most illustrious guitarists performing in front of stacks of Marshall amplifiers.
Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page and others were drawn to the rough, loud sound produced by the English-made amps.
Warner/Chappell Production Music LaunchedNEW YORK–Warner/Chappell Music, the global music publishing arm of Warner Music Group Corp., has announced the launch of Warner/Chappell Production Music, uniting the company’s award-winning production music houses, which consist of more than 70 catalogs, including 615 Music, Non-Stop Music, Groove Addicts, Full Tilt and CPM.
For the new venture, Warner/Chappell has unveiled a website (www.warnerchappellpm.com) which allows visitors to easily and intuitively search its production music catalogs from a single source, for quick and direct access to Warner/Chappell Production Music’s extensive holdings.
WarnerChappellPM.com hosts all of Warner/Chappell Production Music’s 70+ catalogs of music, allowing users to preview all of its tracks and view them sorted by brand, catalog, style, or purpose. The site also features video and audio montages of the various uses of Warner/Chappell’s production music, including sports programming, news, music packages, and advertisements. WarnerChappellPM.com will also provide users with up-to-minute news from across its various brands, including the latest additions to its catalogs.
“Warner/Chappell is home to production music catalogs that span decades of high-quality works,” said Cameron Strang, chairman & CEO of Warner/Chappell Music. “The launch of Warner/Chappell Production Music combines the strength of these brands–each of which has a reputation for producing some of the most popular compositions in the production music space–under the Warner/Chappell umbrella, all in order to better serve our customers.”
Warner/Chappell Production Music’s brands have composed works for countless well-known TV shows, movies and companies, including Toy Story, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Bourne Legacy, the Today show, Who Wants to be A Millionaire?, ESPN, Disney, Capital One, DirecTV, Motorola, Subway, Major League Baseball, Cox Communications, SPEED TV, and Volkswagen.
Paramount to add 500 films to YouTube rentals
By Jake Coyle, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – YouTube and Paramount Pictures have reached a deal to make nearly 500 films available to rent online, even while their parent companies continue to feud over a $1.76 billion lawsuit.
The agreement announced Wednesday makes Paramount the fifth major Hollywood studio to join YouTube’s online video store, a growing rental library that typically charges $2 to $4 per viewing. 20th Century Fox is now the only major studio holdout.
But Paramount seemed less likely to join given that its parent company, Viacom Inc., is still pursuing a 2006 lawsuit that seeks damages for alleged piracy by YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc. A federal judge in New York ruled in 2010 that YouTube hadn’t broken U.S. laws governing digital piracy, but Viacom is appealing the decision.
The Paramount films will be available on YouTube Rentals and Google Play. Online movies and pay-per-view options have spurred heated competition between Google, Apple Inc.’s iTunes store, Amazon.com Inc.’s website and the subscription video service from Netflix Inc.
“Paramount Pictures is one of the biggest movies studios on the planet,” said Malik Ducard, director of content partnerships at YouTube. “We’re thrilled to bring nearly 500 of their films to movie fans in the U.S. and Canada on YouTube and Google Play.”
The deal brings YouTube’s collection to nearly 9,000 titles. For most movies, renters have up to 30 days to begin watching a video but must complete the viewing within 24 hours after starting.
Some Paramount films have already been added, while others will be made available in the next few months.
NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., the Walt Disney Co. and many independent studios have made deals to rent their latest releases through YouTube.
Australia court finds Google hosted misleading ads
SYDNEY (AP) — An Australian court on Tuesday found Google Inc. guilty of breaching trade law by hosting misleading or deceptive advertisements in a ruling that holds search engines responsible for their advertisers’ content.
Three Federal Court judges unanimously overturned a lower court’s ruling from September last year that Google was not responsible for advertisers’ breaches of Australia’s Trade Practices Act.
The appeal court ruled that Google had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct with four ads that appeared on its Google Australia website. The advertisers used the names of competitors as keywords to trigger their own ads appearing.
The court ruled this was likely to mislead people searching for information about those competitors. Google’s “AdWords” system posts small text-only advertisements next to search results based on search keywords selected by the advertisers.
The section of the law that Google breached does not impose a fine. But the court ordered Google to make changes to prevent future breaches and to pay court costs to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which appealed the September ruling.
Google said it was disappointed by the decision and is considering its options, which include a High Court appeal.
“Google AdWords is an ads hosting platform and we believe that advertisers should be responsible for the ads they create on the AdWords platform,” Google said in a statement.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said he had appealed the original ruling because it raised important issues about the role of search engine providers as publishers of paid content.
“This is an important outcome because it makes it clear that Google and other search engine providers which use similar technology to Google will be directly accountable for misleading or deceptive paid search results,” Sims said in a statement.
Sam Margolius Joins MassMarketLOS ANGELES – Sam Margolius has teamed up with MassMarket as their Director of New Business, working out of the LA office of the bi-coastal VFX company.
Margolius joins MassMarket from his position as Account Executive for Wiredrive.
In his new role at MassMarket, Margolius will work closely with management, the executive producers and the creatives to define and execute all sales and communication initiatives.
Thailand bans film adaptation of ‘Macbeth’
BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand’s film censors have banned an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” saying it could inflame political passions in the country where it is taboo to criticize the monarchy.
The Thai-language film “Shakespeare Must Die” is about a theater group in a fictional country resembling Thailand that is staging a production of “Macbeth,” in which an ambitious general murders his way to the Scottish throne.
Director Ing K. said Wednesday that censors felt politically violent scenes in the film “could cause divisiveness among the people of the nation.”
Thailand is known to be heavy-handed with censorship, from banning anti-monarchy criticism to blurring pictures of cigarettes and alcohol on television.
Clay Epstein Joins Arclight Films
LOS ANGELES – Arclight Films announces the addition of Clay Epstein as VP of Sales & Acquisitions to their executive team.
Epstein who will report directly to COO, Chris Perry, will play a crucial role in acquiring content at all stages and identifying new co-production opportunities. His sales duties will primarily include all rights in Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia and UK as well as TV library sales worldwide. He will collaborate with the complete sales team for all rights in North America.
He teaches an MFA class in Film Finance Marketing and Distribution at the New York Film Academy and is a frequent guest lecturer at UCLA, the Los Angeles Film School and California State University Northridge. He has been a panelist for a number of film festivals and organizations including Women in Film, Thessaloniki Film Festival, The Los Angeles Irish Film Festival, and the London Film Festival and is currently serving his second term as an IFTA board member.
Epstein is a graduate of California State University Northridge and holds a BA in Film Production with a minor in Italian Studies.
Burger King ad with Blige stirs criticismNekesa Mumbi Moody, Music Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – A Burger King commercial featuring Mary J. Blige singing about chicken has been pulled. But the fast-food chain is blaming music licensing issues for the decision – not criticism of the ad.
The spot debuted this week. In it, Blige sings soulfully about chicken snack wraps.
But as the video went viral, some in the black community criticized the ad as stereotypical. The black women-oriented website Madame Noire likened it to “buffoonery.”
Burger King said Tuesday the commercial was pulled because of a licensing concern. The company said it hopes to have the Blige “ads back on the air soon,” though a spokeswoman would not comment on whether they ads would be the same.
The spokeswoman also noted that other celebrities, including Salma Hayek and Jay Leno, also are advertising the snack wraps.
A rep for Blige did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ashton Kutcher to portray Steve Jobs in biopicLOS ANGELES (AP) — He’s already a titan of social media, so it only makes sense that Ashton Kutcher would play the late Apple founder Steve Jobs in an upcoming biography.
Kutcher’s publicist confirmed Tuesday that the independent film “Jobs” will begin production in May while he’s on hiatus from the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men.” Variety first reported the casting news.
The 34-year-old actor, who has over 10 million Twitter followers, will portray Jobs through his rise from hippie to hugely revered technological entrepreneur as the co-founder of Apple. Jobs died last October after a long battle with cancer.
Heat Hires Daniel Teng As Sr. StrategistSAN FRANCISCO–Daniel Teng has joined San Francisco-based independent ad agency Heat as senior strategist. As agency of record for EA SPORTS, Heat will tap Teng’s experience on a range of sports and youth brands including Gatorade, PlayStation, Pepsi and YouTube. The new position demonstrates Heat’s objective to further deepen its strengths in sports and youth branding/advertising.
Prior to coming aboard Heat, Teng worked at TBWA\Chiat\Day L.A. and AKQA, San Francisco. His strategic skill set has helped contribute to several award-winning campaigns, including Cannes Lions awards for Gatorade Replay, and Effie and AAAA/Jay Chiat awards for Gatorade, Pepsi and Playstation.
Patton Oswalt to host 16th annual Webby Awards
By Jake Coyle, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – Patton Oswalt will host the 16th annual Webby Awards.
The actor-comedian will emcee the May 21 event, it was announced Tuesday, where winners are famously restricted to five-word acceptance speeches. The awards will be held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City and streamed live on WebbyAwards.com.
The Webbys, which celebrate Internet achievement, are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a group of about 1,000 Web experts and Internet professionals.
Winners are announced ahead of the awards show. Nominees will be unveiled next week, with winners announced May 1.
This year’s Webby Awards received more than 10,000 entries.
Oswalt recently co-starred in the film “Young Adult.” He also plays a supporting role in the upcoming “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.”
RLJ To Acquire Image Entertainment and Acorn Media GroupBETHESDA, Md.- Black Entertainment Television (BET), announced today that RLJ Acquisition, Inc. (OTCQB: RLJAU; RLJA; RLJAW) has entered into agreements to acquire each of Image Entertainment, Inc. (OTCQB:DISK) and Acorn Media Group, Inc., to create one of the largest independent distributors of digital and video content globally. The new combined company will be named RLJ Entertainment, Inc.
Under the terms of the agreements, the holders of common stock of Image Entertainment will receive from RLJ Entertainment 2,139,000 shares of common stock of RLJ Entertainment and the holders of preferred stock of Image Entertainment will receive aggregate consideration of $22,600,000, which will be paid in cash and in the form of promissory notes to the holders of preferred stock of Image Entertainment. The shareholders of Acorn Media Group will receive $105 million in cash, 1,000,000 shares of common stock of RLJ Entertainment and warrants to purchase 1,000,000 shares of common stock of RLJ Entertainment. After the completion of the business combination, the current stockholders of Image Entertainment and Acorn Media Group will own approximately 11% and 5% of RLJ Entertainment, respectively, assuming no redemptions. The current stockholders of the Company will own approximately 74% of RLJ Entertainment, assuming no redemptions.
Councilmember Alarcón Acts to Support Extending and Expanding Film Tax Credits in CaliforniaLOS ANGELES — Los Angeles City Councilmember Richard Alarcón today co-introduced a resolution that would offer the City of Los Angeles’ support to State legislation that will extend tax incentives intended to attract and retain film and television production in California. If approved by the City Council, the resolution (which was co-introduced by Councilmembers Alarcón and Eric Garcetti and seconded by Councilmember Tom LaBonge) would formally include support for any legislation that would extend State tax credits for filming, as well as any legislation that would expand these credits to attract and retain a broader range of productions, in the City’s 2012-2013 State Legislative Program.
Though tax credits in California have been mostly successful in providing incentives for larger film productions to remain, the credits do not provide adequate incentives for many smaller productions, including commercial production, to film in California. According to the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), the commercial production industry is responsible for more than $5 billion in economic production in the United States, with more than 84% of all commercials shot as live-action productions. Just more than half of those productions, however, shoot in California.
Trailer from Houston’s new film, makes its debutBy Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Music Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – Viewers got a first glimpse of Whitney Houston’s upcoming film Monday when NBC’s “Today” show premiered a trailer for the much-awaited release, and a fuller clip debuted on Yahoo! Movies.
A remake of the 1976 original, “Sparkle” stars Houston as the mother of three girls who form a singing group and struggle with fame and drug addiction. The trailer displayed the daughters, including “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks, in performance. Houston is prominent throughout, at one point singing the classic gospel song “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”
She also tells one of her daughters: “I always knew you had the gift. It makes me feel like I did something right. Don’t lose it.”
Debra Martin Chase, who is a producer of the film, said she had mixed emotions with the trailer’s release; the movie is scheduled for release Aug. 17.
“On the one hand, I’m so excited about the movie and we’re really happy with how it turned out,” she said in a phone interview Monday. “(But) just to have it said yet again that this is Whitney’s last performance, it’s hard. It’s hard.”
Houston is listed as the executive producer of the movie, which had already finished filming in Detroit when the superstar died Feb. 11 at 48 in Beverly Hills, Calif., on the eve of the Grammy Awards. An autopsy has shown she accidentally drowned in the bathtub, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors.
There is no mention made of drugs in the trailer, and Chase declined to say whether it would be a focal part of the movie as it was in the original, saying she didn’t want to talk specifically about the plotlines until closer to the movie’s release date.
She also added that the movie was not altered to increase Houston’s time in the film in the wake of her death.
Houston had worked to get “Sparkle” to the screen for 12 years. It was her first movie since 1996’s “The Preacher’s Wife” and 20 years removed from her debut in the blockbuster movie “The Bodyguard,” which was rereleased for one night last week.
Spike Lee apologizes for retweeting wrong addressSANFORD, Fla. (AP) – Spike Lee has apologized to a Florida couple who say they were forced to leave their home when a Twitter posting that the director helped spread listed their address as that of a man who shot an unarmed teenager.
Elaine and David McClain are in their 70s and say they have a son named William George Zimmerman who lived in their Sanford-area home in the mid-1990s. They say he is no relation to 28-year-old George Zimmerman who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26.
The killing has touched off widespread public outrage and protests across the country, including from Lee and other celebrities, because Zimmerman was not arrested. He says he acted in self-defense.
Lee tweeted late Wednesday: “I Deeply Apologize To The McClain Family For Retweeting Their Address. It Was A Mistake. Please Leave The McClain’s In Peace.”
