May 17, 2013

Weinstein showcases Grace Kelly, Mandela flicksCANNES, France (AP) – The Weinstein Company’s fall slate of awards contenders will feature a glamorous Grace Kelly, a brawny Nelson Mandela and a mysterious J.D. Salinger.
   Harvey Weinstein previewed some of his company’s most anticipated upcoming releases at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday. He’s made a habit of such previews, and did the same last year for the Oscar-winning films “Django Unchained” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”
   Nicole Kidman was on hand to introduce footage of “Grace of Monaco,” in which she stars as Kelly after wedding Prince Monaco Rainier III .
   Weinstein also showcased its Salinger documentary, “Salinger,” which is being advertised like a kind of detective tale about the reclusive author. And its long-awaited “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” starring Idris Elba, places Mandela almost in an action film context.

ShootersINC Forms, Unveils Directorial RosterNEW YORK–ShootersINC, a content company spanning production, editorial, VFX, graphic design, finishing and sound design, has further diversfied with the formation of a directorial roster. The lineup consists of seven recently signed directors: Robert Adamo, Kris Magyarits, Rob Markopoulos, Ira Rosensweig, Judy Starkman, Julian van Mil and Scott Whitham.

“We thought long and hard about launching and managing our own directorial roster,” said Ray Carballada, president of ShootersINC family of companies, which also includes ShootersNYC, ShootersTV and DIVE.  “We have some definite opinions on what the marketplace is demanding of us today and will be in the future. The only way we could satisfy that need is to provide a truly integrated product. Adding directors is a key step, but it is critical that we are managing the jobs from concept through distribution now, which creates more value for our clients.”

“Just as the process of production and postproduction has come together,” added Anne Marie Starker, VP of business development for ShootersINC, “so has our clients’ desire for a company that can meet their creative service challenges from beginning to end.”

Executive producer Jim Huie, who also collaborates with EPs Cris Andrei and Carolyn Jefferson, said of the strategy that went into assembling the roster, “We looked at our clients’ objectives, what type of work they were asking us to produce, and we intentionally searched for directors that fit those areas. That was a really interesting process. We’ve built reels for each one of our directors that are targeted at the work we believe our clients will be producing in the foreseeable future.”

This strategy has already translated into business with projects booked for Capri Sun and Lancaster County Tourism before the ShootersINC directors roster was officially launched.

Space not the final frontier for viewing moviesBy Seth Borenstein, Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The crew of the International Space Station is boldly going where no one has gone before — to see the new “Star Trek” film.

The three astronauts were offered a sneak peak of “Star Trek Into Darkness” days before it opens Thursday on Earth, seeing it not in 3-D, but Zero-G.

NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said the movie was beamed up to the outpost Monday and the two Russians and American on board had a day off Tuesday. That gave them a chance to view it on their laptops. It’s unclear if they watched it.

U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy is taking part Thursday in a Google+ hangout that’s bringing together two Earth-bound astronauts, film stars Chris Pine, Alice Eve and John Cho, and its director and screenwriter. 

Student Academy Award winners announcedBEVERLY HILLS, Calif.–Thirteen students from nine U.S. colleges and universities as well as three students from foreign universities have been selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards competition.  They will be brought to Los Angeles for a week of industry activities that will culminate in the awards ceremony, hosted by 1978 Student Academy Award winner and comedian Bob Saget, on Saturday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

This year saw first-time honors go to Elon University, Occidental College and the University of Michigan in the U.S. competition, as well as to Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland, and RITS School of Arts, Belgium, in the foreign competition. The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in each of the award categories will be announced at the June 8 ceremony.

The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title):

Alternative
“Bottled Up,” Rafael Cortina, Occidental College
“The Compositor,” John Mattiuzzi, School of Visual Arts
“Zug,” Perry Janes, University of Michigan

Animation
“Dia de los Muertos,” Lindsey St. Pierre and Ashley Graham, Ringling College of Art and Design
“Peck Pocketed,” Kevin Herron, Ringling College of Art and Design
“Will,” Eusong Lee, California Institute of the Arts

Documentary
“Every Tuesday: A Portrait of The New Yorker Cartoonists,” Rachel Loube, School of Visual Arts
“A Second Chance,” David Aristizabal, University of Southern California
“Win or Lose,” Daniel Koehler, Elon University

Narrative
“Josephine and the Roach,” Jonathan Langager, University of Southern California
“Ol’ Daddy,” Brian Schwarz, University of Texas at Austin
“Un Mundo para Ra�l (A World for Ra�l),” Mauro Mueller, Columbia University

Foreign Film
“Miss Todd,” Kristina Yee, National Film and Television School, United Kingdom
“Parvaneh,” Talkhon Hamzavi, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
“Tweesprong (Crossroads),” Wouter Bouvijn, RITS School of Arts, Erasmus College Brussels, Belgium


To reach this stage, U.S. students competed in one of three regional competitions.  Each region is permitted to send up to three finalists in each of the four categories.  The Student Academy Awards Executive Committee screened and voted on the finalists in the Foreign Film category.

The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level.  Past Student Academy Award� winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar� nominations and have won or shared eight awards.  The roster includes such distinguished filmmakers as John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee.

The 40th Student Academy Awards ceremony on June 8 is free and open to the public, but advance tickets are required.  Tickets are available online at www.oscars.org.

Univision pairs with Rodriguez on El Rey networkNEW YORK (AP) — Univision Communications said Tuesday that it is pairing with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez on the English-language El Rey television network that is geared to young viewers and scheduled to debut this December.

Rodriguez is a filmmaker whose projects include “From Dusk Till Dawn.” The first scripted series for El Rey will be an expansion of that movie, with the extra time allowing him to expand the story and explore richer Aztec mythology, he said.

The company that runs Univision, the most-popular Spanish-language network in the country, said Tuesday it has invested in El Rey. Terms were not disclosed. It is set to begin in December with a national distribution agreement with Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company.

The network is expected to have a mix of reality, scripted, music and sports programming, along with movies.

“El Rey Network will serve as a launching pad to satisfy the tastes of young adults looking for exciting, cinematic, action-packed content,” Rodriguez said.

Univision has expanded over the past two years, creating several new networks. One partnership with ABC is called Fusion, an English-language news network geared toward a Latino audience.

The Univision network said it will premiere two new telenovelas during the next season. “La Tempestad” will star William Levy and Ximena Navarrete, a former Miss Universe. “Mentir para Vivir” will star David Zepeda and Mayrin Vilanueva.

Randy Falco, president and CEO of Univision Communications Inc., told advertisers Tuesday that the company is at the intersection of two big growth opportunities: the Latino market and digital.

TV-over-Internet service hits Atlanta next monthBy Anick Jesdanun, Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Aereo, the startup that offers live television broadcasts over the Internet starting at $8 a month, said it will start service in the Atlanta market on June 17, following an expansion to Boston on Wednesday.

Until this week, the service had been available only in the New York City area.

Aereo said Tuesday that it will offer 27 Atlanta-area broadcast channels, plus the Bloomberg TV cable channel. Service will be limited to residents of 55 counties in Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. Those who had pre-registered will be able to start using Aereo on June 17. Others will be eligible a week later.

Aereo converts television signals into computer data and sends them over the Internet to subscribers’ computers and mobile devices. Subscribers can watch channels live or record them with an Internet-based digital video recorder. They can pause and rewind live television, just like using a DVR.

Aereo sells its service as a low-cost alternative to cable or satellite TV, and it plans to target those who have dropped pay-TV service or never had it. Aereo offers far fewer channels than most pay-TV packages, but it could appeal to viewers who already turn to Hulu, Netflix and other online sources for TV shows and movies.

Broadcasters see Aereo as a threat to their revenue, even though stations already make signals available for free. Broadcasters are increasingly supplementing advertising revenue with fees they get from cable and satellite TV companies for redistributing their stations to subscribers. If customers drop their pay-TV service and use Aereo instead, broadcasters lose some of that revenue.

The latest Aereo expansion came as ABC said it will offer live online feeds of local stations in some markets. The feeds are available for free starting Tuesday until June 30 to everyone in the New York and Philadelphia areas. After that, they will be limited to subscribers of certain cable services.

A cable subscription isn’t required to use Aereo. Rather, Aereo charges a separate monthly fee.

So far, federal courts have ruled against broadcasters’ claims that Aereo’s service constitutes copyright infringement. Aereo claims what it is doing is legal because it has thousands of tiny antennas at its data centers and assigns individual subscribers their own antenna. According to Aereo, that makes it akin to customers picking up free broadcast signals with a regular antenna at home. Broadcasters argue that the use of individual antennas is a mere technicality meant to circumvent copyright law.

Although the latest ruling will likely be appealed, broadcasting companies have already threatened to take their stations off the air. The Fox and Univision television networks are among those that say they might end their free broadcasts and become a subscription-only channel like CNN, Nickelodeon and Discovery. CBS Corp. has threatened additional lawsuits.

Tuesday’s expansion announcement came one day after Aereo eliminated discounted annual plans. In the past, subscribers could pay $80 a year for a plan with 40 hours of storage. That plan normally cost $12 a month, or $144 for the year. Aereo also eliminated a $1 day pass. The main, $8-a-month plan remains with 20 hours of storage. The $12-a-month plan now comes with 60 hours, rather than 40.

The Barry Diller-backed company announced in January that it plans to expand beyond New York to 22 additional U.S. markets. Boston and Atlanta represent the first metropolitan areas outside New York. Others expected in the coming months include Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington.

ABC, meanwhile, will expand its live stream service to six other markets where it owns stations: Los Angeles; San Francisco; Fresno, Calif.; Chicago; Houston; and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. In addition, ABC has reached a deal with Hearst Television to offer the service in Hearst markets, too. They include Boston, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Milwaukee.

The service will also be limited to certain cable subscribers in those markets. ABC, which is owned by The Walt Disney Co., has deals with Comcast Corp., Cablevision Systems Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc.’s U-verse.

Big 4 cellphone carriers unite on anti-texting ads
By Peter Svensson, Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The country’s four biggest cellphone companies are set to launch their first joint advertising campaign against texting while driving, uniting behind AT&T’s “It Can Wait” slogan to blanket TV and radio this summer.

AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile will be joined by 200 other organizations backing the multi-million dollar ad campaign.

The campaign is unusual not just because it unites rivals, but because it represents companies warning against the dangers of their own products. After initially fighting laws against cellphone use while driving, cellphone companies have begun to embrace the language of the federal government’s campaign against cellphone use by drivers.

AT&T and Verizon have run ads against texting and driving since 2009. In 2005, Sprint Nextel Corp. created an education program targeting teens learning to drive.

“Every CEO in the industry that you talk to recognizes that this is an issue that needs to be dealt with,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in an interview. “I think we all understand that pooling our resources with one consistent message is a lot more powerful than all four of us having different messages and going different directions.”

Beyond TV and radio ads, the new campaign will stretch into the skies through displays on Goodyear’s three blimps. It will also include store displays, community events, social-media outreach and a national tour of a driving simulator. The campaign targets teens in particular.

  AT&T Inc. calls texting and driving an “epidemic,” a term it borrows from the federal Department of Transportation. The U.S. transportation secretary has been on a self-described “rampage” against cellphones since his term began in January 2009.

Stephenson said that “texting while driving is a deadly habit that makes you 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash.” The figure refers to a 2009 government study of bus and truck drivers. It isn’t based on crashes alone, but on the likelihood the drivers showed risky behavior such as lane drifting or sharp braking, sometimes culminating in a crash.

The unified ad campaign comes as some researchers are starting to say that while texting and driving at the same time is clearly a bad idea, it’s not contributing measurably to an increase in traffic accidents. The number of accidents is in a long-term decline, and the explosion of texting and smartphone use doesn’t seem to be reversing that trend.

In the 2009 government study, texting, email and surfing on the cellphone was a factor in about 1 percent of crashes, well below epidemic levels.

“There’s no question that phone use is causing crashes. But so far it doesn’t appear to be adding to the overall crash problem,” says Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, which is funded by the insurance industry. The institute’s analysis is based in part on comparing accident rates before and after states enact bans on hand-held cellphone use while driving. Most states ban cellphone use at least for some drivers; 39 states and the District of Columbia ban text messaging for all drivers.

James Sayer, a research scientist at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, has suggested that the debate over driver distraction “needs to address far more than cellphones. Only addressing the ‘new’ forms of distraction will have limited impact in terms of total lives saved.” Sayer made the remarks in a presentation to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Nonetheless, the cellphone industry and the federal government have focused their attention on cellphones.

 The government’s Distraction.gov site singles out cellphones as the greatest danger among all sources of driver distraction. In an interview last year with The Associated Press, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that in 2010, 3,092 lives “could have been saved if someone had the sense to put down their cellphone.”

That figure is based on a misunderstanding of the department’s statistics, which showed that 3,092 people were killed in crashes involving distractions of all kinds, including eating, drinking, fiddling with the car stereo and talking to passengers. The number of deaths in 2010 that the Department of Transportation attributes to cellphone use was 408, or 1.2 percent of the total traffic death toll.

That figure could be an undercount, though, as it’s hard for police to figure out after a crash if a cellphone was involved. Sayer suggested that the real share of traffic deaths caused by cellphones is 3.5 percent.

In campaigning against the use of their products, cellphone companies are in the company of liquor makers, which include discrete reminders not to drink and drive in their advertising. However, drunk driving remains a far bigger killer than cellphone use, accounting for 10,228 traffic deaths in 2010, or 31 percent of the total.

“We have people using our technology, and when they use our technology it has some rather traumatic impacts on society,” Stephenson said in the interview. “I think it’s a logical place for us to engage.”

The four-way industry collaboration around the “It Can Wait” campaign will last until September, Stephenson said, but it could continue if the partners agree.

Judge OKs class-action settlement over SkechersBy Brett Barrouquere
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge approved a $40 million class-action settlement Monday between Skechers USA Inc. and consumers who bought toning shoes after ads made unfounded claims that the footwear would help people lose weight and strengthen muscles.

U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell in Louisville approved the deal, which covers more than 520,000 claims. About 1,000 people eligible for coverage by the settlement opted not to take part.

Those with approved claims will be able to get a maximum repayment for their purchase — up to $80 per pair of Shape-Ups; $84 per pair of Resistance Runner shoes; up to $54 per pair of Podded Sole Shoes; and $40 per pair of Tone-Ups.

Russell also awarded $5 million for the attorneys in the case to split. Russell ordered that the money cannot come from the $40 million settlement fund set aside for consumers.

Two people that served as the lead plaintiffs in the case will receive payments of $2,500 each.

Russell considered multiple factors in deciding to approve the settlement and found it provides just compensation to the plaintiffs.

“Accordingly, the court finds that the proposed settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate,” Russell wrote.

The approval comes a year after Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based Skechers reached a deal with the Federal Trade Commission over the ads. The settlement covers more than 70 lawsuits from across the country. The lawsuits were consolidated in federal court in Louisville. Skechers denied the allegations but said it settled to avoid long litigation.

The settlement grew out of a series of ads Skechers aired featuring celebrity endorsers such as Kim Kardashian and Brooke Burke, with claims that the shoes could help people lose weight and strengthen their butt, leg and stomach muscles.

Skechers billed its Shape-ups as a fitness tool designed to promote weight loss and tone muscles with the shoe’s curved “rocker” or rolling bottom — saying it provides natural instability and causes the consumer to “use more energy with every step.” Shape-ups cost about $100 and are sold at retailers nationwide.

Ads for the Resistance Runner shoes claimed people who wear them could increase “muscle activation” by up to 85 percent for posture-related muscles and 71 percent for one of the muscles in the buttocks.

Eleven people filed objections to the settlement, ranging from people seeking the full purchase price of their shoes in return to one person saying the settlement would preclude him from seeking damages on his own.

The judge rejected those arguments.

Should claims not consume the entire $40 million settlement, Russell ordered the remaining money to go to the Federal Trade Commission.

A settlement with the FTC bars Skechers from running the ads in the future.

The agency settled similar charges with Reebok last year over its EasyTone walking shoes and RunTone running shoes. That $25 million agreement also provided customer refunds.

Minty hired as COO of DDB California
LOS ANGELES–DDB Worldwide, part of Omnicom Group (NYSE), announced today that it has appointed John Minty to serve as chief operating officer of DDB California. In this new leadership position, Minty will be responsible for managing all operational aspects of DDB’s U.S. offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, including agency and client financials, where he will work alongside DDB California CEO Mike Harris to spur growth.

Most recently, Minty spent five years at independent agency Venables Bell & Partners where he served as CFO and eventually COO adding oversight of production to his finance and operations responsibilities, including Lumberyard, VB& P’s integrated content production facility’s production.  Minty was a member of VB&P’s executive management team, a team charged with assisting in the development and execution of overall agency strategy.

Prior to VB&P, Minty served as McCann’s CFO of the global Microsoft account and director of finance and pperations at TBWA/Chiat Day. A native Australian, Minty also spent time at Whybin Lawrence/TBWA, Mojo Partners and Clemenger BBDO in Sydney.

Lucasfilm: New ‘Star Wars’ movie to be shot in UKLONDON (AP) — The next “Star Wars” movie will be shot in a galaxy far, far away from Hollywood — Britain.

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy says the company has reached a deal with British Treasury chief George Osborne to make “Star Wars: Episode VII” in the U.K.

She said Friday that the production company was “revisiting the origins of ‘Star Wars'” for the new movie. Parts of all six previous movies were made in Britain.

Osborne said the announcement was “great news for fans and our creative industries.”

“Star Wars” maker Lucasfilm was bought last year for $4.05 billion by The Walt Disney Co., which has announced plans for a new trilogy of films.

The first new movie, directed by sci-fi wunderkind J.J. Abrams (“Star Trek”), is due for release in 2015.

NBC promotes fall season with Twitter contest
NEW YORK (AP) — NBC is giving the public more than just a new slate of programming. There are prizes to be had, too.

The network said Sunday that it’s holding a Twitter-based sweepstakes linked to its fall schedule presentation to advertisers — a social-media twist on the annual TV rite occurring this week.

One of the prizes is a trip to Los Angeles to attend a final taping of Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show.” The other is a New York visit to see one of the first tapings of the relocated “Tonight” with new host Jimmy Fallon.

The contest opens Monday, when the network announces its lineup, and it runs through June 13. Fans can enter by following NBC’s Twitter accounts of its upcoming schedule, which will include a new Sean Hayes sitcom.

‘Django Unchained’ back in Chinese movie theaters
By Louise Watt
BEIJING (AP) — Quentin Tarantino’s violent slave-revenge movie “Django Unchained” returned to Chinese theaters on Sunday, about a month after it was pulled on opening day for unspecified “technical reasons.”

The rare suspension order on April 11 by the movie’s importer, China Film Group Corp., led to speculation that the Hollywood film had run afoul of Chinese censors despite weeks of promotion.

“Django Unchained” reportedly already had some violent scenes cut and had been cleared by China’s rigorous censors, who generally remove violence, sex and politically edgy content.

“The new version is one minute shorter than the previous one,” said a manager at a UME Cineplex cinema in Beijing.

The manager, who gave only his surname, Wang, speculated that a nude scene might have been cut.

Calls to China’s regulatory agency, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, were not answered.

“Django Unchained,” which won two Oscars, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a plantation owner and Jamie Foxx as a freed slave who trains to become a bounty hunter and demands his wife’s freedom before the U.S. Civil War.

China has become the second-biggest movie market behind the U.S. with sales of $2.7 billion last year, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. While Hollywood is eager for a slice of this market, directors are having to accept the altering of their movies if they show China in a bad light, or to make them suitable for all ages in the absence of a classification system in China.

Earlier this year, some Chinese moviegoers were left confused because of awkward cuts to the James Bond feature “Skyfall” that included unflattering references to the sex trade in the Chinese territory of Macau. Then “Cloud Atlas” was shown in Chinese cinemas minus 38 minutes that included gay and straight love scenes.

China is even getting American studios to sanction alternative versions of films specially tailored for Chinese audiences, such as “Iron Man 3.” The Chinese version features local heartthrob Fan Bingbing — absent from the version showing abroad — and lengthy clips of Chinese scenery.

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