May 24, 2013
Banned Iranian director Rasoulof coming to Cannes
CANNES, France (AP) – Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, whose movies are banned in his country and who has been sentenced to jail by the Islamic regime there, is coming to Cannes for a screening of his latest film, publicists for the movie said Thursday.
“Manuscripts Don’t Burn” tells the story of an Iranian author secretly writing his memoirs – and authorities’ attempts to destroy the manuscript.
Publicists for the movie said Rasoulof would attend Friday’s official screening. The film is competing in Cannes’ sidebar competition, Un Certain Regard.
In 2010, Rasoulof and fellow director Jafar Panahi were arrested in Iran for filming without a permit, sentenced to six years prison and banned from filmmaking for 20 years on charges that included “making propaganda” against the ruling system.
Rasoulof’s sentence was later reduced to a year on appeal, and he is currently on bail.
His film “Goodbye” won a prize at Cannes in 2011, but the director wasn’t allowed to travel to France to accept it.
“Manuscripts Don’t Burn” was made clandestinely in Iran, and the names of its cast and crew do not appear on the credits.
There was much speculation about the film in the run-up to the Cannes festival, which ends Sunday. When the Cannes lineup was announced last month, Rasoulof’s entry was listed simply as “Anonymous.”
ND ad agency sues creators of Cartoon Network show
Fargo, ND (AP) – A North Dakota advertising agency is suing the creators of a Cartoon Network show, alleging that they copied a state marketing campaign.
H2M, a Fargo-based advertising and marketing agency, filed the lawsuit against Dane Boedigheimer and Spencer Grove in U.S. District Court in North Dakota on Monday. Boedigheimer and Grove are the creators of the animated series “Annoying Orange.”
H2M alleges Boedigheimer and Grove ripped off a copyrighted character called The Talking Orange that was created for television commercials for the North Dakota Department of Transportation. The commercials aired in North Dakota and western Minnesota from 2005 to 2010. The lawsuit also names Annoying Orange LLC and Annoying Orange Inc., both based in California.
“Defendants Dane Boedigheimer and Spencer Grove were raised, resided, educated, attended film school, were employed and first obtained access to ‘The Talking Orange’ in North Dakota and western Minnesota – the same area where Plaintiff H2M’s ‘The Talking Orange’ and its derivatives, were widely disseminated on cable television,” the suit states.
The Talking Orange is comprised of an inanimate orange that has a superimposed mouth with lips, tongue and teeth. An actor’s mouth speaking the character’s part is composited onto the orange. It has a “snotty, annoying and slightly obnoxious” voice, which gives it an abrasive and abusive persona, the lawsuit stated.
“Like ‘The Talking Orange,’ ‘Annoying Orange’ appears to be speaking with a ‘voice’ that is perfectly in sync with the movement of the actor’s mouth, lips, teeth and tongue,” according to the lawsuit.
Boedigheimer and Grove are both North Dakota natives and attended college at Minnesota State University-Moorhead before relocating to California, the lawsuit said. Both still have family members in North Dakota and western Minnesota.
H2M is seeking damages, an injunction prohibiting Boedigheimer and Grove from profiting off their product, and attorneys’ fees.
A representative of Boedigheimer and the producers of the show said she could not comment on current litigation. A spokeswoman for Cartoon Network also said the channel had no comment.
NBC hires news division chief from Britain
By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — NBC went out of the company and out of the country to find a president for its news division, on Monday naming the first woman to hold the top job.
Deborah Turness, former editor of ITV News in Britain, replaces Steve Capus, who resigned earlier this year, and will begin her new job in August.
Turness will take over a news division bruised by the “Today” show losing its long-held dominant position in the morning to ABC’s “Good Morning America.” NBC’s flagship “Nightly News” broadcast still tops the evening news ratings, but anchor Brian Williams recently saw his “Rock Center” newsmagazine abruptly canceled after less than two years on the air.
“It is quite simply the greatest imaginable honor to be named as the next president of NBC News,” Turness said.
In NBC’s new management structure, she reports to Pat Fili-Krushel, head of the NBC Universal News Group, as do MSNBC President Phil Griffin and CNBC President Mark Hoffman.
Fili-Krushel was not immediately available for comment. She said in a statement that Turness is “very familiar” with NBC News through a partnership the two networks have.
Turness, who is 46, became editor of ITV News in 2004, the first woman and youngest person to hold that job. Often overshadowed by the state-funded BBC, ITV is Britain’s largest commercial television network. ITN, which is 40 percent owned by ITV, is Britain’s top commercial news producer. Turness joined the company in 1988 as a news producer and worked for four years during the 1990s in the company’s Washington bureau.
“Deborah epitomizes everything that is best about ITN, inspiring our newsrooms with her ideas, enthusiasm and energy,” said John Hardie, CEO of ITN. As editor of ITV News, Turness was in charge of news coverage and business operations.
The morning will no doubt be her top priority upon joining NBC. The decline of “Today” is a major blow to the company’s pride and bottom line. Women dominate the show’s viewership and the ham-fisted replacement of anchor Ann Curry with Savannah Guthrie last year tore at the show’s popularity. It has not gone unnoticed that men supervised the show during its turnover.
Within the next two years, Turness will likely be responsible for choosing Matt Lauer’s successor on “Today” should the long-running anchor decide to leave.
“Nightly News” still has a comfortable lead in evening news ratings over ABC and CBS. But Turness will probably face lingering morale issues related to the cancellation of “Rock Center” after being bounced around the network’s prime-time schedule.
Seth MacFarlane won’t return as 2014 Oscar hostLOS ANGELES (AP) — Seth MacFarlane is too busy to host the Oscars in 2014.
The multitalented comedian says on Twitter that he “tried to make it work schedule-wise, but I need sleep.”
MacFarlane said in his tweet Monday that Academy Awards producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are among the best in the business. Zadan and Meron produced this year’s Oscar show, which earned higher ratings among coveted younger viewers, and will be returning for the 2014 telecast.
MacFarlane earned mixed reviews for his first outing as Oscar host in February, with some finding his material sexist and anti-Semitic.
The creator of “Family Guy” suggested Oscar producers tap the eccentric actor Joaquin Phoenix to host the show.
Martin Scorsese to present Mel Brooks with AFI AwardLOS ANGELES–Martin Scorsese will present Mel Brooks with the American Film Institute’s 41st Life Achievement Award – America’s highest honor for a career in film. The private black tie gala will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on June 6 and will air on TNT Saturday, June 15, at 9 p.m. ET/PT and as part of an all-night tribute to Brooks on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Sunday, July 24, at 8 p.m. ET. Brooks will be recognized for his range of mastery as a director, producer, writer, actor and composer.
Martin Scorsese is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time having received the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to cinema, two AFI Awards, an Academy Award, a Palme d’Or, Grammy Award, two Emmys, four Golden Globes, a BAFTA and three DGA Awards. Scorsese’s body of work includes films such as “The Departed,” “Gangs of New York,” “Goodfellas,” “Hugo,” “Mean Streets,” “Raging Bull,” “Taxi Driver” and the upcoming “Wolf of Wall Street, which will be released in fall 2013.
“For over 50 years, Mel Brooks has given the world its greatest gift – laughter,” said Sir Howard Stringer, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees. “At the American Film Institute, we also want to shine a proper light on his contributions to the art form as writer, producer, director and actor – and who better to bestow this honor than one of the masters of American film, Martin Scorsese.”
In addition to airing the AFI Life Achievement Award special, TCM’s July 24 celebration of Mel Brooks will include two of his classic films: the rarely shown “The Twelve Chairs” (1970), making its TCM debut, and “The Producers” (1968), the wild comedy that earned Brooks an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Also included with TCM’s presentation will be classic interviews with Brooks by television legends Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett.
Proceeds from the AFI Life Achievement Award gala event directly support the Institute’s national education programs and the preservation of American film history.
Japan’s ‘Shield of Straw’ an action pic in Cannes
By Jill Lawless
CANNES, France (AP) — Director Takashi Miike says shooting an action movie in Japan is a lot harder than it looks.
His Cannes Film Festival entry “Shield of Straw” is a robust thriller about a team of police tasked with escorting a child-killer with a billion-yen bounty on his head safely across the country.
“It was extremely difficult to shoot all the scenes in Japan,” he told reporters Monday. “It was impossible to close down the highways and get so many police cars on the road” — and Japan’s railway operator refused to let the filmmaker shoot on its trains. Fortunately, Taiwan uses Japanese trains on its system, and was happy to oblige.
Although touched with serious themes of loyalty and duty, at heart “Shield of Straw” is an old-fashioned action flick, bursting with car chases, gunfights and explosions to rival anything from Hollywood — including a spectacular highway pileup and minutes of mayhem on a high-speed train.
The director says he felt Japanese cinema had lost the art of making “spectacular scenes — so I gave myself a challenge.”
“In Japan we’ve lost a lot of traditions with action (movies),” he said. “It’s not audiences who don’t want to see these movies. It’s the professionals, the people who make the films.
The prolific 52-year-old director has a long history of shocking cinemagoers with the gory and sometimes cartoonish violence of his films, which range from horror movies to tales of gangsters and samurai.
“Shield of Straw” — starring Nanako Matsushima (best known outside Japan for “Ring”) and Takao Osawa — was met with a mix of cheers and boos at its first Cannes press screening. Trade magazine Variety judged that it “feels out of place in Cannes competition, but would be right at home on local megaplex screens.”
Miike — who competed at Cannes in 2011 with his 3-D picture “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai” — admitted he was “really astonished” to be selected this time, and Osawa said he was “a little stressed” about how the film would be received at its red-carpet premiere Monday evening.
But festival director Thierry Fremaux has compared “Shield of Straw” — adapted from a novel by manga artist Kazuhiro Kiuchi — to the 1940s and ’50s films of Howard Hawks — movies that achieve artistry while sticking to cinematic formula.
“I wanted to make a film in a rather classical way,” Miike said.
“I don’t really know what I’m heading towards now — perhaps toward a more traditional type of cinema, perhaps the opposite.”
Expectations high for next XboxBy Derrik J. Lang, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s almost time for a new Xbox.
Eight years have passed since Microsoft unveiled the Xbox 360, double the amount of time between the original Xbox debut in 2001 and its high-definition successor’s launch in 2005. With the next-generation Xbox expected to be revealed Tuesday, anticipation for the entertainment console’s latest evolution is higher than Master Chief’s spaceship.
“People get excited about new consoles because consoles represent the future,” said Stephen Totilo, editor of gaming site Kotaku.com. “When you buy a new console, you’re essentially investing in five years of your future in the hopes that this box won’t just be cool the day you buy it, but in five years from now, it will be even cooler.”
The platform has been the exclusive home to such popular gaming franchises as sci-fi shoot-’em-up “Gears of War,” racing simulator “Forza” and first-person shooter “Halo,” starring super-soldier Master Chief. In recent years, Microsoft expanded the console’s scope beyond just games, adding streaming media apps and the family-friendly Kinect system.
The next generation of gaming already got off to a rocky start last November when Nintendo launched the Wii U, the successor to the popular Wii system featuring an innovative tablet-like controller yet graphics on par with the Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3. Nintendo said it sold just 3.45 million units by the end of March, well below expectations.
Microsoft will likely take aim at Sony during Tuesday’s next-generation Xbox unveiling at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Sony was first to showcase plans for its upcoming PlayStation 4 — but not the actual box — at an event in New York last February. The reaction to that console, which featured richer graphics and more social features, was mixed.
Totilo said to wow gamers with the next Xbox, Microsoft must show off great games for it that players will crave, as well as technology that feels futuristic. He said there’s concern from Xbox fans that Microsoft has lost interest in hardcore gamers with their recent efforts to attract casual gamers with the Kinect, its camera-based system that detects motion.
There will be at least one hardcore game showcased at the Microsoft’s event: “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” the next chapter in the popular military shooter franchise from “Modern Warfare” developer Infinity Ward. Activison-Blizzard Inc. previously announced that “Ghosts” would be on display Tuesday and will be available for both current and next-generation consoles.
“They wanted ‘Call of Duty’ on their stage to show off what next gen is capable of,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “We’re excited about the approach that both Microsoft and Sony are taking to the next generation. Our business, of course, depends on them launching this new hardware, so we want to do everything we can to help.”
For the past five years, questions and rumors about a new Xbox have circulated more than the chainsaw on the end of a “Gears of War” rifle. What will the new Xbox be called? How much will it cost? Will it play used video games? Blu-ray discs? Will it be backwards compatible? Must the Kinect always be on? Will it require a connection to the Internet?
It’s that rumor about an always-on Xbox which has ignited the most negative comments on social networks, according to research firm Fizziology. Overall, Fizziology said gamers seem to be more jazzed about a potential new Xbox, with 32 percent of the chatter positive compared to 10 percent of the sentiment negative in online conversation.
“I think because people have been waiting a long time, expectations are higher,” said Laurent Detoc, North America president of Ubisoft Entertainment. “As a result, they may not be seeing what they anticipated. In the end, from the research we’ve done, there’s a strong appetite for new machines. I have no doubt they’re going to sell extremely well.”
Andy Grant joins CP+B as associate creative directorLOS ANGELES–CP+B has hired Andy Grant as associate creative director. He will be based in the agency’s Los Angeles office.
Grant joins CP+B from BBH, where he spent the last five years at their offices in both New York and Singapore. During his 13 years in advertising, Grant has worked across the globe at such shops as TBWAHuntLascaris, WCRS, Leo Burnett and Ogilvy, where he created campaigns for Google, Axe, Levis, British Airways, Audi and Vaseline. His work on the “Prescribe The Nation” campaign for Vaseline, which saw the brand conduct a social experiment in a small Alaskan town, was covered extensively by major national press in the U.S. and won the Grand Prix at the Jay Chiat Awards. His work has also been honored at The One Show, Clios, Cannes and The Loerie Awards.
A Native American tale with int’l pedigree surfaces at CannesBy Jake Coyle, Entertainment Writer
CANNES, France (AP) — It took an international production starring a Puerto Rican and a Frenchman to bring the Native American tale “Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian” to the big screen.
The film, an English language one from French director Arnaud Desplechin, made its premiere Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival, where it’s among 20 movies competing for the prestigious Palme d’Or.
It’s principally a tete-a-tete between two men: the Blackfoot Indian Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro), who’s suffering from head trauma after serving in World War II; and an eager anthropologist and psychologist from France, George Devereux (Mathieu Amalric), who treats him at a Topeka, Kansas, military hospital.
“The film has one foot in Europe and one foot in America,” Desplechin told reporters Saturday. The “A Christmas Tale” director shot the movie in the Midwest and on a Blackfoot reservation in Montana.
In the genre of psychotherapy films — from Hitchcock’s “Spellbound” to David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” — “Jimmy P.” is particularly faithful to the probing dialogue between patient and analyst. It’s a case study of a film, adapted from Devereux’s 1951 book, “Reality and Dream,” that includes lengthy transcriptions of sessions. Desplechin said he wanted to grasp “the adventure” between the pair as they become friends while sifting Jimmy’s memories for the roots of his pain.
Much of it rides on the chemistry between Del Toro and Amalric, both widely-respected, shape-shifting international actors. They operate, though, on very different rhythms, with Amalric’s frantic energy contrasting with Del Toro’s weary heaviness.
“I’m very impressed with Benicio as a person,” said Amalric. “I thought: How can I use this, the fact that I’m deeply impressed?”
Del Toro, who said the two first met several years ago in Cannes, said that two actors either connect, or they don’t. He identified with one quality of Jimmy, whose Indian name means “Everybody Talks About Him.”
“Everybody talks about him,” said Del Toro. “Everybody talks about me.”
As for whether “Jimmy P.” constitutes an American film, Desplechin said he sides with the festival’s classification, which goes by director. But, he said, the film is ultimately about a transitional kind of nationality, and the friendship that blooms between a discriminated-against Native American and an immigrant doctor, both finding their way in a country foreign to them.
Said Desplechin: “It’s the story of two men becoming American.”
