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Post by Ace on Jun 28, 2006 4:36:27 GMT -5
Exclusive: Brosnan's Next AffairWednesday, September 07, 2005 Exclusive: Brosnan's Next Affair It's not every day you get to meet James Bond. For FilmFocus, that day was today, and the Bond in question was the ever-charming Pierce Brosnan. We were chatting about his new film, The Matador, which is due for release in the next few months (and is, incidentally, very, very funny), but while we had him, we quizzed him and his producing partner in Irish DreamTime Films, Beau St. Clair, about the news floating around (as we reported on Monday) that Thomas Crown would get another outing on the big screen in The Topkapi Affair. St. Clair confirmed it was in the works. "It's not so much a sequel," she told us, "maybe a new instalment. We're really going to go out there again and we're kind-of on the tightrope with this." The film is based on a Thomas Crown-free book by Eric Ambler called Light of Day which was made into a 1964 film called simply Topkapi (released a few years before Steve McQueen's The Thomas Crown Affair) starring Peter Ustinov. As Brosnan explained to FilmFocus, "MGM wanted us and pushed us - they were saying 'Give us Thomas Crown.' We were reluctant initially, but they told us to have a look at Topkapi." And the set-up is very Thomas Crown; involving the complicated heist of a priceless diamond-encrusted dagger (that isn't all it appears to be) from a real-lifer former Ottoman palace, Topkapi, in Istanbul, which is now a museum to the Ottoman Empire. "We looked at Topkapi and found an angle in there for Thomas Crown," Brosnan told us, "So we have Harley Peyton working on it at the moment. We're just nursing the script along at the moment. There's a screenplay there, it just needs some tweaking and some work done to it to go back and find the voice." Brosnan also revealed just how much of the original film, and indeed the novel it's based on, would remain. "We're using the diamond dagger, and we're using that as a key into the story, really. That's the Trojan horse again, but it'll be much more Thomas Crown-oriented in structure." But Rene Russo, it seems won't be returning. In the 1999 version, she's the detective on the case of art-thief Crown. "It's a different woman this time," he said, "and a different affair." Of course we'll keep you up-to-date with The Topkapi Affair as we get more news and you'll be able to read our interview with Brosnan and St. Clair when The Matador is released in the winter. By Joe Utichi.
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Post by Ace on Jun 28, 2006 11:20:09 GMT -5
Total Film: Red Carpet: The MatadorPierce Brosnan on banishing Bond, Daniel Craig and the Thomas Crown Affair sequel 22 Feb 2006 12:08pm Cool, hip and low-key – like the film, the UK premiere of The Matador didn’t follow convention. The film stars Pierce Brosnan as a washed-up, burned-out hitman who is clawing around for a purpose. Some are calling it a true nail in the coffin of the Irishman’s seminal turn as James Bond. So does he feel he’s laid the ghost of the superspy to rest? “I don’t know, have I? Oh good, there you go, fantastic,” he says, running a hand through his hair. “I wasn’t going into this to break any mould but I certainly was aware of the theatricality of the piece. The symbolism of me strutting across a hotel lobby in speedos, having strutted across many hotel lobbies over the years in tuxedos and suits – that didn’t escape me.” Brosnan admits to being completely bowled over by the script from writer/director Richard Shepard. “He really did an outstanding job in creating this kaleidoscopic, intimate piece about characters that are lonely and driven. It was like doing a play and that’s one of the joys of Richard’s writing – once the clapper went down you had 12 pages of dialogue to rattle through and play with.” Despite leaving 007 behind with 2002’s Die Another Day, the 52-year-old Irishman is aware that the questions will keep coming about the franchise and, particularly, its new standard bearer, the now-toothless Daniel Craig. “There’s going to be mishaps,” he tells TF. “You always get twisted some way or another if you throw yourself into it. I got my face cut open by a stuntman, I hurt my knee, it’s all part of it.” As for the criticism being levelled at Craig – including a new website that asks for all Bond fans to boycott Casino Royale – Brosnan is philosophical. “I think Daniel is a very fine actor. These are rocky waters but I think he will have the last laugh.” The sharp suits and witty retorts certainly won’t be confined to the past for Brosnan as he revealed to Total Film that the follow-up to The Thomas Crown Affair – tentatively titled The Topkapi Affair – is ready to go… except for the small detail of the script, currently being penned by Bandits screenwriter Harley Peyton. “We were supposed to get it on Valentine’s day but we didn’t. He said it’ll be another two weeks so I’m still waiting for the script.” If you saw a picture of Brosnan from the tail end of last year, chances are he was sporting an impressive set of whiskers. “Ah yes, the facial hair – it was homegrown and what can I say? The wife didn’t like it.” So was it purely for his own amusement? “No, no. Liam Neeson and myself did a western called Seraphim Falls.” Not a western in the Brokeback Mountain vein? “No, not that kind of western, we don’t go camping together or anything like that. It’s a post civil war movie written by a wonderful first time director called David Von Ancken. It’s an anti-war movie and I managed to stay on the horse, which is always good.” With that, Brosnan bids Total Film a good night – and struts his stuff across yet another lobby…
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Post by Ace on Sept 10, 2006 11:34:08 GMT -5
Bascially it says TCA2 is very much on MGM's newly alive and expanded slate.
Variety: MGM ready to return to tentpole strategy. Studio is ready to unveil TERMINATOR4, TCA2 and HOBBIT over the next few years
Sept 10,2006
In 1969, when the jaunty former CBS president Jim Aubrey showed up at MGM with a mandate to revive the studio, the first thing he did was kill all 15 big-budget, commercial pictures in the pipeline, including "Tai-Pan" and "Man's Fate."
Fast-forward to 2006: MGM chairman-CEO Harry Sloan, who's been at the Lion just under a year, is doing exactly the opposite.
Having barely finished remaking MGM into a pure distribution and marketing outlet for producers of mid-range indie pics, Sloan is moving the studio aggressively into the tentpole biz.
Over the next few years, MGM is planning to release half a dozen films, some in the $150 million to $200 million-plus range. Studio is ready to unveil such high-profile projects as "Terminator 4"; one or two installments of "The Hobbit," which Sloan hopes will be directed by Peter Jackson; and a sequel to "The Thomas Crown Affair" with Pierce Brosnan.
It has already announced a "Pink Panther" sequel and the next 007 pic "Bond 22," due out in November 2008. "Rocky Balboa" unspools in February.
The pics are all franchises that MGM owns the rights to through its 4,000-title library. The goal is to release two or three tentpoles a year, all of which will be made with financial partners, including Wall Street money or other studios.
Sloan thus becomes the latest in a long line of chieftains who have tried to revive the fortunes of the once-fabled studio. MGM was the pinnacle of the studio system through the 1950s before it was acquired by Kirk Kerkorian in 1969, but since the '70s has suffered through a series of sales and financial setbacks.
Only two years ago, the Lion was again written off as a viable studio entity when it was bought by Sony, Comcast and a group of private equity firms that paid -- or overpaid -- $4.8 billion in a heated bidding war with Time Warner.
It's not the worst showbiz deal of the decade: The Time Warner-AOL deal grabs that dubious honor. But two years later, Fox, and not Sony, has the rights to distribute MGM's homevideo output, and Sloan is making the studio a stand-alone entity.
The folks at Sony and their partners must be wondering what they got for their money. Here's what: Sloan tells Variety his aim is to build MGM into a $10 billion company -- more than twice what the partners paid for it.
The goal is surprisingly ambitious for someone who's marking his first hands-on foray into the motion picture biz. The studio has distributed three films so far: the Weinstein Co.'s "Lucky Number Slevin" ($22.5 million domestically) and "Clerks II" ($24 million) and Maverick Films' "Material Girls" ($10.5 million).
Not exactly remarkable figures, but those were modestly budgeted pics and Sloan is convinced that the studio's growth will be marked by megapics.
Working under Sloan is chief operating officer Rick Sands, a seasoned executive from Miramax and DreamWorks. And Sloan has had experience in showbiz, buying and selling off companies for great profit, such as SBS Broadcasting, New World Entertainment and Lionsgate.
With sweeping views, Sloan's spacious office at MGM's Century City headquarters is a creamy yellow, with white moldings, and a classical rotunda that recall the interior of a Vegas casino (inherited from previous chairman Alex Yemenidjian).
Sloan seems genial and relaxed -- too unstressed, frankly, for a studio head.
"We expect to do with 400 people what they did with 1,400," he says, referring to MGM's pre-sale size, as though making movies was a pretty basic, even breezy, endeavor.
Sloan is plotting MGM's resurgence with an operation lean in overhead and risk. For its big projects, MGM is hedging its bets financially by partnering with other studios and Wall Street funds, including slate financing deals popular at other studios. Sloan says MGM won't be tapping its investors for tentpole coin.
The financial and distribution rights to the Bond movies will be split with Sony. (For the upcoming "Casino Royale," Sony has theatrical rights, MGM has TV rights.) "The Hobbit" will be produced in partnership with New Line, which Sloan says shares the rights to the property with MGM.
Sloan downplays the importance of the Showtime deal, which expires in January 2009, by pointing out that MGM receives more revenue from its long-term international TV deals. He's more worried about closing those because many international territories are controlled by a single buyer like Sky in the U.K. or Premiere in Germany.
In another aggressive move, MGM will be hiring about 100 new people to launch an international television distribution arm for its films.
MGM's structure and strategy are far different from what was conceived in the deal two years ago. Wall Street types say the partners even needed to renegotiate their covenants with banks, which lent money to one kind of a company -- basically a gutted shell with library -- and got entirely another.
Soon after the consortium bought MGM, diverse agendas clouded the picture. Comcast sought titles for its key video-on-demand service. Sony sought films for Blu-ray, although MGM isn't exclusive to that new DVD format.
Financial partners Providence Equity, Texas Pacific Group, DLJ Merchant Banking and Quadrangle just wanted to make money.
Sony, with a 20% minority stake, was the only partner in the movie biz. So it took the lead, and a leader was needed to pull the consortium together.
But the partners came to believe their new asset would be impaired by the general impression that MGM had been absorbed by Sony and was closed for business.
Sloan was hired last October, and is said to have put in $50 million of his own money. He won't confirm the figure but says it was for the same value as the earlier investors.
The consortium's most provocative decision was canceling MGM's library distribution deal with Sony after a year and handing it to 20th Century Fox, which set up a dedicated worldwide sales force of 50 people.
"When that (DVD rep) goes into Wal-Mart he's not wearing a Sony blazer, he's wearing a Lion," Sloan says.
With Sony distributing MGM's library, cash flow is said to have plunged a whopping 25%-35% in a year -- a drop that can't be explained by overall market fluctuations.
Some in Hollywood say Sony studio staffers on the ground didn't want to distribute the MGM movies, and weren't given the proper incentives to do it well. Others note that studios have different strengths, and distribbing library fare isn't Sony's strongest suit.
Fox took over domestic distribution in August, and is starting international duties this month.
Sony defenders have argued that the complex transition from MGM to Sony, involving education, logistics and technology, just needed more time. They note old movies lost more ground than other categories in the overall DVD malaise. And they point out that MGM had slowed production in the year before and during the sale which meant it had fewer new titles to freshen up the library.
Enter Fox, offering a large and very alluring guarantee.
MGM has no production or development department. "The companies that are least efficient in development and production are the major studios," he says matter-of-factly.
Chuckling, he recalls his statement when MGM announced it was going into distribution last March: "We decided to skip the part where you lose your ass on development and production."
But as MGM moves to tentpoles and there's more at stake, is it worth it to stay out of the filmmaking process?
"These properties don't necessarily benefit from studio interference," Sloan insists. "Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson know what they're doing with James Bond. Peter Jackson knows what he's doing. And Steve Martin and Bob Simonds certainly know what they're doing with 'The Pink Panther.' "
MGM has set up an extraordinarily trim marketing team of fewer than 20 and relies heavily on outside vendors. In some cases, it will market in collaboration with other studios.
Under marketing head Perry Stahman, MGM works with producers on everything from trailers to billboards, with the Lion putting up a minimum of $20 million toward P&A, and producers footing the rest. (MGM's P&A fund is worth $150 million.) Some companies, like the Weinstein Co., handle marketing entirely on their own.
Still, how lean an operation can MGM afford when it rolls out campaigns for mega-sized films?
Already, some producers grumble that MGM's marketing arrangement works better in theory than reality, and that "collaboration" is confusing with so many involved parties.
Sloan acknowledges that "there have been kinks," but points out that MGM's marketing department is new. Stahman didn't come on board until April, and as recently as last week, marketing hires were still being announced.
"I think it's fair to say that three months ago we didn't have a marketing department and now we're releasing 12 films before the end the year," Sloan says. "The only thing that would be unusual would be for things to be going 100% according to plan."
Sands adds, "It's not just a structural issue, but a learning-how-to-work-with-people-efficiently issue. Everyone has different expectations and we're trying to meet those expectations within reason."
With distribution in place, Sloan and Sands see the decision to pursue tentpoles is a natural next step for MGM. Their mandate has been to create new product to freshen the Lion's valuable library.
New product feeds MGM's domestic and international output deals, including a lucrative pay TV arrangement with Showtime. In that deal, which is largely what lured producers such as the Weinstein Co. to MGM, Showtime pays the Lion a fee for its films. Sloan wouldn't comment on the terms. But fees are typically 20%-25% of a film's theatrical U.S. box office and 50% of video rentals.
Sloan downplays the importance of the Showtime deal, which expires in January 2009, by pointing out that MGM receives more revenue from its long-term international TV deals. He's more worried about closing those because many international territories are controlled by a single buyer like Sky in the U.K. or Premiere in Germany.
In another aggressive move, MGM will be hiring about 100 new people to launch an international television distribution arm for its films.
MGM's structure and strategy are far different from what was conceived in the deal two years ago. Wall Street types say the partners even needed to renegotiate their covenants with banks, which lent money to one kind of a company -- basically a gutted shell with library -- and got entirely another.
Soon after the consortium bought MGM, diverse agendas clouded the picture. Comcast sought titles for its key video-on-demand service. Sony sought films for Blu-ray, although MGM isn't exclusive to that new DVD format.
Financial partners Providence Equity, Texas Pacific Group, DLJ Merchant Banking and Quadrangle just wanted to make money.
Sony, with a 20% minority stake, was the only partner in the movie biz. So it took the lead, and a leader was needed to pull the consortium together.
But the partners came to believe their new asset would be impaired by the general impression that MGM had been absorbed by Sony and was closed for business.
Sloan was hired last October, and is said to have put in $50 million of his own money. He won't confirm the figure but says it was for the same value as the earlier investors.
The consortium's most provocative decision was canceling MGM's library distribution deal with Sony after a year and handing it to 20th Century Fox, which set up a dedicated worldwide sales force of 50 people.
"When that (DVD rep) goes into Wal-Mart he's not wearing a Sony blazer, he's wearing a Lion," Sloan says.
With Sony distributing MGM's library, cash flow is said to have plunged a whopping 25%-35% in a year -- a drop that can't be explained by overall market fluctuations.
Some in Hollywood say Sony studio staffers on the ground didn't want to distribute the MGM movies, and weren't given the proper incentives to do it well. Others note that studios have different strengths, and distribbing library fare isn't Sony's strongest suit.
Fox took over domestic distribution in August, and is starting international duties this month.
Sony defenders have argued that the complex transition from MGM to Sony, involving education, logistics and technology, just needed more time. They note old movies lost more ground than other categories in the overall DVD malaise. And they point out that MGM had slowed production in the year before and during the sale which meant it had fewer new titles to freshen up the library.
Enter Fox, offering a large and very alluring guarantee.
By all accounts, the vote by MGM's board, including Sony reps, to change distribution partners was a unanimous, if not a happy one.
But the fact remains that MGM has decreased in value since the partners bought it. That means Sloan has to dig MGM out of a hole before he can start to make money for the studio's owners.
What's past is past, Sloan says.
"It's more about MGM taking control of its own destiny than one distributor over another," he says. "A viable, free-standing studio is worth significantly more than a company that's captive to another studio ... come sale time" -- which he predicts within five to seven years.
Whether the original deal was worth $4 billion, $5 billion or $6 billion "depends on what you think will happen with the video market. Discussing whether the price was high or low is behind us."
"I think it's got to be worth $10 billion, which is what I want to do with it."
That's a big number, more reflective of a powerful media conglom than a struggling standalone studio.
Others have tried to revive MGM's fortunes before. For 30 years, MGM was bought and sold (several times by Kerkorian), relaunched and then scaled back. It missed out on every opportunity of investing in cable, in satellite, in broadcasting, while others jumped in.
Sloan says MGM won't make that mistake again. It's scouring the globe for acquisitions, primarily in new media
"There's still opportunity because I think as much will happen in the next five years as happened in the past 30," Sloan says.
He is confident that MGM's investor group will open its wallet when something big comes along, even if it means competing with the likes of News Corp., Viacom or Walt Disney.
"I think our shareholders have the resources and the appetite to look in the same fashion as the other companies. They have an appetite not to miss the opportunities."
Sloan describes a period of relative harmony among MGM's investors. He praises the board (who happen to be his bosses) which is stocked with luminaries including Providence Equity chief Jonathan Nelson, TPG's David Bonderman and Sony Corp. chairman-CEO Howard Stringer.
"The group met, made some changes in the model. They confronted it intelligently and cooperatively," he says. "At this point, everybody is primarily a financial investor."
As for speculation that at a certain point Sloan will do with MGM what he's done with companies in the past -- take them public in an IPO -- he says: "I've run a number of public companies, I like the public sphere." But being at MGM "is a bit of a breather after 20 years of being a CEO or chairman of a public company and having quarterly conference calls."
Not one to rest on his laurels, he adds: "But I don't know how long the breather will be."
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tim
Nomad
Posts: 23
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Post by tim on Sept 13, 2006 0:53:08 GMT -5
great news.TCA2 is really happening
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Post by Ace on Oct 29, 2006 16:07:47 GMT -5
Er... I put these in the TCA topic and they should have been here:
Pierce Brosnan joins the star list in Cannes
11 Oct 2006
The stars of Prison Break are not the only heartthrobs at MIPCOM 2006: former James Bond Pierce Brosnan is also be in Cannes to promote the sequel to 1999's gentleman thief flick The Thomas Crown Affair. Asked whether he would rather play a gentleman thief or a gentleman spy, Bronson said he had no real preference. "I decided to do the Crown film so I could play a different note in a similar genre. The sequel's scripts will be ready next month, and we'll start shooting in the new year. "
As far as Brosnan is concerned, he is happy to put James Bond behind him. Thomas Crown is a film close to his heart as it was one of the first film produced by his own compay, Irish Dream Time.
"We took the original off the shelf a while ago -- we took the old film's story as a starting point for ours -- and MGM went with it.
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ABOUT MIPCOM
MIPCOM is the global content event for co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing entertainment content across all platforms. It provides the key decision-makers in the TV, digital and audiovisual content industry with the only forum to network, discover future trends and trade content rights on a global level.
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So it looks like he's out there in his producer's hat selling distribution and TV rights for TCA2.
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Variety: H'Wood dramas draw big bucks in Cannes
10/12/2006
CANNES - A clutch of Hollywood drama series were hot commodities on the Croisette as this week's Mipcom TV trade show began to wind down late Wednesday.
While buyers in some territories are still holding fire, deals for CBS Paramount's "Jericho," NBC Universal's "Heroes," Warner's "The Nine" and Disney's "Ugly Betty" are almost a certainty, barring a major falloff in ratings Stateside for one or another. These shows have already been licensed in some markets where the relevant major has an ongoing output deal with a station.
The good news for the Hollywood sellers is that Yank hits are pulling in record dollars. The U.K., Germany and France are the hottest markets, accounting among them for almost half of the total per-episode price paid for series from all of international.
"There's no doubt 'Ugly Betty' is the prettiest girl at the dance," Disney's worldwide distribution topper Laurie Younger told Daily Variety.
"It's great to have a hit show like 'Heroes' to present to buyers. We will be closing some deals in the near term on it," said NBC U distribution prexy Belinda Menendez.
Younger confirmed that pricing for top series abroad had broken the $1.5 million-per-episode barrier. "Of ours, more than one has done so," she said.
It would not be hard to imagine the Disney exec was referring to "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."
Younger said that many countries were also negotiating to do localized versions of various Disney hits, including four separate "Desperate Housewives" in Latin America. "Reversioning of scripted American shows is definitely a hot trend," she said.
In the last five years, drama series have supplanted movies as the most sought-after American product on offer at trade shows like Mipcom and its sister event Mip in the spring. However, given the proliferation of new outlets abroad, the demand for content of all sorts has mushroomed, making for a lively sales bazaar this go-round.
Fox's sophomore hit "Prison Break" is already a huge success in France on M6 --- thanks in part to efforts to localize the music for the show by including an original hit tune by a Gallic rap artist.
"Adding these localized elements really raised the awareness of the show in France," said Fox exec VP Marion Edwards. Stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell were, she said, "bowled over" by the reception they got when they arrived in Cannes.
Other U.S. product that buyers were buzzing about were as diverse as the new "Thomas Crown Affair" movie from MGM --- star Pierce Brosnan putting in an appearance didn't hurt; DIC's tween phenom "The Slumber Party Girls," whose cast performed at a gala to celebrate the company's 25th anni; and the Mouse House's "High School Musical."
But Mipcom is not just an American showcase. Europeans also come to town to sell during Mipcom and they, too, had some momentum.
Granada's steamy "Dracula," which in the U.K. will air on the BBC, was a hot ticket. In a departure from the usual Brit costumer look, a flyer for the show featured a blood-spattered couple getting intimate, vampire-style.
"The standard of American shows is very high right now, but buyers still look to the U.K. for blue-chip event programming like this. It is difficult to beat," Granada Intl. managing director Nadine Nohr said.
Nohr pointed out that one-off TV movies are benefiting these days from broadcasters' declining interest in films. "A made-for-TV film will premiere on TV. A theatrical film has been seen in so many places before it airs on free-to-air TV," she said.
On the reality front, Granada was receiving a lot of requests for "They Shouldn't Be Alive," a 10-part doc featuring incredible tales of survival.
The Germans, too, brought with them some well-crafted shows, many with a historical bent.
Veteran Teutonic producer-distributor Jan Mojto is selling a number of WWII-set series or minis --- mainly to other Europeans. "The best soil for drama is undoubtedly WWII," he said. Mojto also has a "Hindenberg" project in the works and an ambitious "Schindler's List"-type drama set during the rape of Nanking in 1937. "Those two might interest the States," he said.
And German United Distributors talked up the remastered version of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's epic "Berlin Alexanderplatz," which will be available next year.
Italy's Lux Video reported plenty of interest in its docudramas "Pope John II" and "Mother Teresa."
Off the beaten track within the Palais, the weird and wacky also seemed to be attracting foot traffic.
London-based Zeal TV is selling six one-hour episodes of a doc called "Sex Change Hospital." Each episode follows two people undergoing a transgender operation. "The show has created a lot of buzz," said head of sales Nick Sallon.
On a stand covered in flag-motifed wallpaper, a user-generated content outlet called Worldmadechannel.tv was showing a live broadcast of Slavic children decked out in traditional costume, giving their best shot at a folk dance.
"The idea is to give everyone their three minutes of fame," said Nataliya Kuznetsova of the Netherlands-based channel, which, she says, is available to a potential 4 billion people via satellite and the Internet.
Mentorn is continuing to tap the reality craze with a series of "World's Worst" formats, including "World's Worst Pet" and "World's Worst Hairdresser."
And tucked away in the bowels of the overblown Palais, porn was proving a popular choice for mobile TV buyers. Producer-distrib Alain Siritzky was there formatting short porn clips for mobile television.
"Justine" and "Emmanuelle 7" were doing well, he said.
(Alison James and Liza Foreman contributed to this report.)
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Hollywood Reporter: MIPCOM abuzz about multiplatform opportunities
Oct. 10, 2006
CANNES -- Sunshine and blue skies greeted buyers and sellers on the opening day of this year's MIPCOM, with distributors upbeat about the continued resurgence of U.S. drama fare and new multiplatform revenue opportunities. This year's market is also enjoying more than a touch of Hollywood celebrity glamor. MGM brought in Pierce Brosnan to promote the sequel to "The Thomas Crown Affair" and to host a dinner with major buyers, while 20th Century Fox hosted a series of press conferences and buyer meet and greets with "Prison Break" stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell. Adverts for studio product festooned the hotels fronting the world famous Croisette, giving the Riviera-side market a more U.S. look than in previous years. (Mimi Turner and Scott Roxborough)
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Post by Ace on Nov 14, 2006 13:28:21 GMT -5
Variety: MGM is set to generate $500 mil a year Sloan reveals latest on 'Panther,' 'Crown' and 'Hobbit' By ADAM DAWTREY
Tue., Nov. 14, 2006
LONDON — MGM is aiming to generate almost $500 million a year in free cashflow, compared with the $100 million a year that the studio produced before its restructuring under its current owners, according to MGM chairman and chief exec Harry Sloan.
Speaking to the European Media Leaders Summit in London, Sloan explained that most of this coin will be used to service and amortize MGM's $3 billion debt load. "What's left goes on the screen," he said.
In a radical rethink of the studio's business model, Sloan has cut MGM's investment in new film and TV production from $700 million a year on its balance sheet to just $100 million.
Overheads have been slashed from $270 million to $115 million, with staff reduced from 1,471 to around 400 employees.
After close analysis of MGM's previous business and the other majors, Sloan explained that he and his private equity partners had decided to cut out the expense of development and production in favor of focusing on distribution.
"It's no secret that the Hollywood business has been in turmoil," he said. "The DVD business has flattened out prematurely. There are labor difficulties on the horizon; I think there's a very good chance there's going to be a strike; this is probably the worst period of relations between talent and the studios. Piracy you've heard about all the issues."
Against that bleak backdrop of a studio system Sloan describes as "broken," he and his partners "had a chance to analyze and to challenge every single assumption by which a studio operates," he said, in order to "create a modern, business-like studio model."
The bulk of MGM's distribution slate is made up of product supplied by indie producers and financiers, such as the Weinstein Co., Lakeshore and Sidney Kimmel. But it also plans to invest in two or three tentpoles of its own every year.
Sloan, in London for the world premiere of the latest James Bond movie "Casino Royale," highlighted MGM's five core franchises — Bond, the Pink Panther, Thomas Crown, Rocky and the Hobbit.
Next year is likely to see MGM go into production with new installments of the first three.
Steve Martin recently delivered a script for the latest "Pink Panther," which will see his Inspector Clouseau character being forced to team up with equally eccentric and bumbling detectives from several other European countries to defeat a continent-wide crime wave. Shooting is expected to start in February.
The next "Thomas Crown" movie, starring Pierce Brosnan, is scheduled for March, with a likely budget around $100 million. Daniel Craig will also return in the sequel to "Casino Royale."
But Sloan said that "Rocky Balboa," which is set for release next year, will probably be the last installment in that franchise, because Sylvester Stallone's title character will be too old to get back in the ring.
As for "The Hobbit," Sloan confirmed that MGM was in advanced talks with Peter Jackson to make two movies based on JRR Tolkein's "prequel" to "The Lord of the Rings."
The first would be a direct adaptation of "The Hobbit," and the second would be drawn from "footnotes and source material connecting 'The Hobbit' with 'Lord of the Rings,' " he explained.
Sloan did not reveal when these projects might be ready to start shoot-ing. An MGM spokesman emphasized that negotiations with Jackson are still in progress, and that production isn't likely until 2008 or even 2009.
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$100 million? That's more than double the cost for the first film. Yes there's been 7 years of inflation (and probably a much larger producers fee for PB) but that's still pretty large. Of course the first made a MINT on DVD/VHS/TV.
It's great to see they have a production date start -- and with that date looks like PB's next film -- he doesn't have time for another in between unless it's a very short stint. I wonder if this means they have a director and lead co-star (and with that cost it doesn't look like MGM will be cutting corners)
Ace
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tim
Nomad
Posts: 23
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Post by tim on Nov 15, 2006 5:34:49 GMT -5
A 100 million budget for Topkapi Affairs Is there something behind it ,could this be part of compensation for Brosnan after he being dropped from playing James Bond.But 100 million is too much for this kind of heist film.Even film like ocean eleven and its sequel cost lesser and with quite a number of A list actor in it. But i'm still confused why the budget is so high?
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Post by Ace on Nov 15, 2006 10:22:30 GMT -5
The movie business doesn't do compensation like that, it's afterall a business. They better than anyone know how much the last movie made and obviously have certain expectations for the 2nd (they've certainly wanted it long enough)
The budget does seem too high but then MGM spent $80million on the last Pink Panther. Oceans 11 cost less because I believe the actors weren't paid much more than scale upfront but rather took their percentages after which probably cost more in the end for the studio.
The first TCA cost $48m but that was 7 years ago, and was with a ton of product placement. So I'd expect the 2nd to cost more -- though $100m still seems too high -- but then that's without knowing the director or co-star and maybe it's the budget pre-product placement partners.
Ace
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Post by Ace on Jan 24, 2007 16:46:43 GMT -5
EW: Pierce Brosnan tells us he's ready to loot more museumsJan 24, 2007, 04:11 PM | by Joshua Rich Categories: Film Pierceb_l Forget about James Bond, people -- it's been almost eight long years since Pierce Brosnan was last shoehorned into the tailored suit of that other dapper gent: Thomas Crown. And while there's been chatter for ages and ages about a sequel to that 1999 remake, nothing's emerged. So I was glad when the 53-year-old star told me that The Thomas Crown Affair 2 (sometimes referred to as The Topkapi Affair) is still moving forward and getting closer to reality. We met last week in L.A., where he was doing press for his latest movie, the Western Seraphim Falls. (A full Q&A with Brosnan, in which he discusses this film and, of course, life after 007, will run on EW.com tomorrow.) Here's what he told me about TTCA2, which he's producing and which, apparently, will not reunite him with costar Rene Russo: "Thomas Crown 2, for all intents and purposes, will happen. The script came in two days ago and it's good. We've announced it, we've said to the world that we're going to do it -- come hell or high water, we're going to do it. The bar is high on this one, the expectation is high on it." He has reason to be cautious, since in the two-plus years following the revocation of his 007 license to kill, Brosnan has starred in a number of relatively inexpensive indies like The Matador and the upcoming thriller Butterfly on a Wheel. But TTCA2, he notes, is "jumping back into the big budget world." What's more, the actor seems to have an extra-personal stake in the matter, since he recently asserted that The Thomas Crown Affair is his favorite of his own movies. Yep, even more than the Bonds. I can't really disagree with that -- anybody else?
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Post by Ace on Mar 7, 2007 17:01:57 GMT -5
From the larger Mamma Mia article in Variety: Brosnan takes the job while preparing a sequel to "The Thomas Crown Affair," which John Rogers scripted and which Brosnan is producing under his Irish DreamTime banner. A director will be set shortly and production will begin before year's end. And Kung Fu Monkey is writer John Roger's blog he writes today 8.) And this was what I was working on last year Brosnan takes the job while preparing a sequel to "The Thomas Crown Affair," which John Rogers scripted and Brosnan is producing under his Irish DreamTime banner. A director will be set shortly and production will begin before year's end. The producers on it are filthily cool, and I hope they'll let me talk about the process a bit for your illumination. All this, of course, assuming somebody doesn't come along and rewrite the script after me. Which does happen, you know. Or so I've heard.
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Post by sparklingblue on Mar 7, 2007 17:09:30 GMT -5
I'm so curious what they are going to do with the original material. I watched Topkapi this week, but I'm still rather clueless where they might go with it.
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Post by Ace on Apr 24, 2007 1:52:41 GMT -5
This topic was brought up when John Rogers name was revealed as the new scriptwriter. How can the man that wrote Catwoman be hired? Well here you go -- an excerpt from one post from his very entertaining (and exceedingly well written and reasoned) blog. Thursday, March 15, 2007 Writing: Arbitration LettersOne of the contributing factors to the brown-out here, other than meeting with producers to talk about casting, and selling the house and realizing oh sweet holy mother of God I don't ACTUALLY KNOW HOW TO DIRECT -- is that I'm working on the arbitration letter for TRANSFORMERS. For you Spec-Monkeys and the generally curious, the process of figuring out who exactly gets the blame/credit for a movie is actually pretty convoluted, particularly when a.) there are multiple writers and b.) there are massive amounts of money to be made. The main reason people want credit on a movie is not for bragging rights or employment; everybody in Hollywood knows what kind of writer you are based on your scripts circulating through the studio system. Which is the answer, by the way, to the question I get on an almost weekly basis in my e-mail: "How the hell are you still working?" Nobody in Hollywood blames me for CATWOMAN, because they all like the other scripts I've written. Particularly the unmade ones. Hell, I've gotten hired on stuff because of my early, unmade version* of the CATWOMAN script. So there you go. Welcome to Oddsville. Credits determine residuals. And residuals, my friends, are the only candy we get in the studio system. We are way, way far down the line from box-office bonuses and gross points. The simple truth is that the massive studio films generate so much lucre in their wake that even our shitty flotsam and jetsam residual deal, on a halfway successful film, is life-changing. To be blunt, after reading the shooting script of CATWOMAN, I was pretty dubious about having my name on it. (Full Disclosure: My name was one of the ones the studio submitted in the tentative writing credits. There was arbitration on the movie, but I didn't initiate it) But then -- and I am being brutally honest here, folks, you may lose a chunk of respect for me, if you had any, er, ever-- I thought about the two odd years of shitty, shitty development, weekly meetings with ungodly notes until finally they asked me to leave because I'd gotten too truculent with my insistence that if we made the movie the way they wanted, it would suck ... and I considered any possible residuals the bonus pay for that experience. After all, how bad could it be? The shooting script was odd and kind of boring, but was it really that bad? Talk about an object lesson. On the other hand, said residuals are one of the things that allow me to match your donations to military charities. So, there you go. What's the process? This is really more Craig's territory, but here's how I understand it. Shortly after the picture locks, the studio determines what they consider to be the final shooting script. Sometimes this document's provenance is pretty oblique, as pages are being rewritten on the fly, there are improvs -- basically, it's the text version of what you finally see on screen, using the pages that were the basis for what was actually shot. (In TV we called this the "As Broadcast", or "As Broad" for short). Then the studio looks at all the writers on the movie, balances creative inputs from various drafts with whatever internal office politics they have -- people will protest, but hey, we're not children here -- and they notify the Writer's Guild of the Tentative Writing Credits for the movie. The Guild then forwards this notice to all writers of record, to see if anyone disagrees with the credits. If you do, you can ask for arbitration. The arbitration process is also automatically triggered under certain circumstances, as when one of the Producers is given a writer's credit. This is not always a Bad or Undeserved Thing, but it is a Suspect Thing, and so it's better to be safe than sorry. At this point, the studio determines what it considers to be the documents of record for the shooting script's evolution. Submitted drafts, treatments, etc. and when there's original material, that's included. These materials are given to three Guild screenwriters, chosen randomly from an approved list that's, well, umpteen pages long. These screenwriters -- always anonymous -- read all the materials (poor bastards), compare them to the shooting script, and rule on what the credits should be. If that form of judgment seems terrifyingly subjective, humans who run the Guild would agree with you. As a result, there are actually decades-old guidelines for not only how this process runs, but they also define various credits in extremely specific forms. That is, "Written by", "Story by", "Screen story by", and "Screenplay by", when you see those whip past on the big black screen, are all finely attenuated objective terms with completely different meanings. There's even a limit --recently added -- as to how many different people can share each of these credits. Now the insane ugly truth here is that trying to turn the difference between "Story by" and "Screenplay by" and "Written by" into solid, actionable guidelines for the arbitrating readers is, well ... insane. Despite the best efforts of the Guild folk -- and I do honestly believe that they've done a pretty good job of trying to bang these rules out given the weird nature of their assignment -- the guidelines somehow manage to be both authoritative and vague. In some conditions a "significant contribution" is considered enough. In other places actual percentages of screenplay are mentioned, but the reader is then chastised about using too literal an analytical framework to come up with said percentage. Ugh. And now it gets ugh-ier. Because this is where the arbitration letter comes in. Each screenwriter then gets to write a letter, substituting in the anonymizing terms "Writer A", "Writer B" for our identities, in which we argue out how we interpret these objectively/subjective guidelines applying to the scripts in question, supporting the credits we think are fair. These letters can range from "I agree to the credits as submitted" to inch-thick legalistic opuses. The real thriller is that you have no idea what other writers are claiming. Some guys come on hard on arbitration because they got fucked on their last project, and now it's time for the hate to run downhill. So while you're docilely tooling along with "I think these credits are fine,", Writer F is crafting a footnoted fifty page on how you contributed Jack subShit to the script, and need to be kicked off the credits toute suite. These letters tend to have a lot of attention focused on them, not particularly because they're so effective (at least in my belief) but because, irrationally, it's the one part of the process where you feel any sort of control. Some people treat it as a way to finally vent the various frustrations they've felt at the film development process. I've read arbitration letters that come off like debate team scripts, and I've read some that you wouldn't be surprised to discover were pages torn from a heartbroken stalker's hidden wishbook. This creates a horrible spiral, where even if you don't want to parse through nine goddam drafts of the project, you have to in order at least bang out enough paragraphs to lodge yourself in the readers' minds, to pre-empt some nuke assault another writer might be launching. And while the results from the arbitration process are generally pretty reasonable , every now and then some infamously bizarre decision will come down the pipe that's so disturbingly arbitrary, it reinforces the sense of panic and helplessness most writers feel ... well, every day-ish. There are always desultory attempts at fixing the credits system. To be blunt, it's a complicated situation in an age of corporate film-making, with years-long multi-draft development. If I remember correctly, there were something like ten -odd writers vying for the credit slots on CATWOMAN. I don't know the answer, and I doubt I'll still be in the business when they come up with one. Frankly, it's just fucking grubby. I mean, every screenwriter's felt like a whore at some point in his career. Arbitration is where we scrawl on the lipstick, tug on the stained minidress and entertain Uncle Billy's gentlemen friends from Russia.
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Post by Ace on Apr 30, 2007 18:43:58 GMT -5
Turkey, not Greece, to be setting for new Pierce Brosnan blockbusterMay 1 2007 Ankara Aslıhan Aydın The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) has struck a deal with US film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) allowing the follow-up to the successful “The Thomas Crown Affair,” likely to feature the star of the first film, former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, to be shot in Turkey. The film, based on Crown author Eric Ambler’s novel “The Light of Day,” is titled “The Topkapı Affair”; however, MGM’s original plans had reportedly been to create a set that resembled İstanbul’s Topkapı palace and shoot the film in Greece. The deal between TRT and MGM has left Greece out in the cold with current plans set to shoot the film in İstanbul, though whether Topkapı itself or a replica will be used is still unclear. TRT General Deputy Manager Ali Güney said that the question of where to film “The Topkapı Affair” had arisen at a meeting between TRT and MGM on a different subject, but that once the subject of the film had come up, it had been decided on at the meeting. Güney said that broadcast right to the 1964 “Topkapı” film shot in İstanbul lay with MGM, and that TRT had sprung into action when it heard about plans for a remake. Güney said that in meetings with MGM officials, images from the first film and of Topkapı Palace itself had convinced top MGM officials to shoot the film in İstanbul, not in Greece.
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Post by Ace on Jun 27, 2007 0:54:01 GMT -5
Not exactly from a reliable or even a top source so take it all with a grain or 1,000 of salt Zee News: Angelina Jolie all set to bed Pierce Brosnan!London, June 27: Hollywood stunner Angelina Jolie is all set to bed actor Pierce Brosnan in her next big feature film. The Tomb Raider actress has been roped in to star opposite Brosnan in the sequel to the 1999 film ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’. And the buzzword is that the sequel, titled ‘The Topkapi Affair’ will be full of steamy bedroom scenes between the ex-007 and Jolie. “Pierce is keen to turn The Thomas Crown films into a long-running series of movies. He reckons it can work just as well as Bond or The Bourne Identity sequels,” The Sun quoted a source, as saying. “The Thomas Crown character has the potential to have the same appeal as Bond, especially with a stunning leading lady like Angelina,” the source added. The filming is expected to start next year, with the bulk of shooting done in Egypt and Russia. Bureau report with ANI input
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Post by Ace on Jun 27, 2007 1:26:14 GMT -5
Looks like this originally came from that bastion of journalism -- The Sun Time for Pierce 'n' Jolie affair June 27, 2007 ANGELINA JOLIE will bed PIERCE BROSNAN in her next big feature film. BRAD PITT’s other half has signed to star in the sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair. The Topkapi Affair will be packed with bedroom antics between the ex-007 and the Lara Croft actress. A source said: “Pierce is keen to turn The Thomas Crown films into a long-running series of movies. “He reckons it can work just as well as Bond or The Bourne Identity sequels. “The Thomas Crown character has the potential to have the same appeal as Bond, especially with a stunning leading lady like Angelina.” Ange put pen to paper during a break from filming assassin movie Wanted in Prague a couple of weeks ago. The Topkapi Affair will be shot in Egypt and Russia next year, with Ange making her first film appearance flying since earning her pilot’s licence. Pierce has also been in training to get slimmed down for his latest film role in the big-screen version of Mamma Mia! — in which he parades around in trunks. I’m sure he’ll keep an eye on the belly if Angelina’s expecting a washboard like Brad’s.
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Post by sparklingblue on Jun 27, 2007 3:09:00 GMT -5
I'm sorry, but these last two articles just made me laugh. ;D
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Post by Ace on Jun 27, 2007 12:00:49 GMT -5
Could they make rumored casting news sound more smutty? I want to hear Pierce say "reckon" before I can believe it. Egypt and Russia? Where did those two locations come from? What happened to Turkey and NYC?
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Post by londonstreet on Jun 27, 2007 13:53:37 GMT -5
I really hope they're just rumours....otherwise I'll be very worried...anyone but not Angelina, pleeaase....
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Post by Lauryn on Jun 27, 2007 21:08:05 GMT -5
Could they make rumored casting news sound more smutty? I'm sure they could if they tried a bit harder. It's "The Sun." I can't wait to see the spread on pg. 3. Hey, it's a Murdoch rag. All those furrin' countries are the same, wot? If the SMA really does hit the mattress with the man-eating Ms. Jolie I fear there'll be nothing left afterwards but his orange sneakers.
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Post by Ace on Jun 27, 2007 22:12:03 GMT -5
If the SMA really does hit the mattress with the man-eating Ms. Jolie I fear there'll be nothing left afterwards but his orange sneakers. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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