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4 articles from 2007

20 June 2007 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

Marc Forster, whose films include Stranger Than Fiction, Finding Neverland, and Monster's Ball, has been signed by producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli to direct the 22nd James Bond movie, Sony Pictures Entertainment and MGM announced Tuesday. The companies said that Daniel Craig will return in the role of Bond. In a statement, Forster said, "The new direction that the Bond character has taken offers a director a host of new possibilities." Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-chairman Amy Pascal commented that Forster's previous films show "that he will bring to this film all the elements Bond audiences expect -- action, humor, suspense, and thrills." The title of the film has not been disclosed.

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7 May 2007 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

The success of Spider-Man 3 brought promises of additional episodes of Spidey and his enemies. "There'll be a fourth and a fifth and sixth and a seventh," Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal told Daily Variety[/I]. "As many stories as Peter Parker has to tell, we'll do sequels." Her colleague, Michael Lynton, told the BBC that there would be "as many as we can make good stories for. ... Everybody's been so busy trying to get this one out that that's been the focus. ... When everybody comes up for air, we can think about how to make the next one." Lynton added that, although the critics by and large drubbed the film, "the exit polls show that the audience really loved the movie, and that's what counts." Sony distribution chief Jeff Blake told the New York Times that the box-office count "justifies the expense of a franchise picture like this. And I think it's a great sign for the summer." Several analysts predicted that the film will exceed the revenue produced by the previous two Spider-Man installments, which grossed $821 million and $783 million respectively worldwide -- although they expressed doubt that it could overtake the all-time box office champ Titanic, which took in $1.85 billion.

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11 April 2007 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

Bernard Weinraub, who covered the movie industry for the New York Times in the 1990s, has lambasted his former employer for assigning a freelance critic, David Ng of the Village Voice, to review his first play, The Accomplices. While most critics gave the film positive reviews, Ng excoriated it. In an interview with L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, Weinraub said, "This New York Times review is so out of left field. It's unprofessional and unworthy of The New York Times. ... It would be one thing if everybody disliked the play, or even the majority of the critics disliked the play. But the only bad review came from only this freelancer who seems to have his own agenda as he wrote what can only be called a diatribe." Finke points out that the review apparently was assigned to Ng "in order to avoid favoritism." Ironically, in 1999 Weinraub removed himself from movie coverage for the Times after marrying Columbia Pictures Chairman Amy Pascal, acknowledging the appearance of a conflict of interest. "If your spouse is running a studio, it's hard to fully cover an industry," he said at the time.

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21 March 2007 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

After director Julie Taymor's cut of Across the Universe, featuring music of the Beatles, was greeted with derision by preview audiences, it was recut by Revolution Studios chief Joe Roth and shown last week to a receptive audience in Phoenix, AZ that gave it a score of 86 percent, L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources. But when Taymor learned of the screening, insiders told Finke, she had an angry "meltdown." One studio insider told Finke: "We were dealing with a woman who has absolutely no sense of commercial potential. At one point, [Sony Pictures Co-chairman] Amy Pascal took her to dinner and diplomatically told her 'how good it could be' if only she'd cut the movie. But Julie still refused. Indeed, that's the refrain of everyone: there's a great movie in there, somewhere. But, as [Taymor's cut] stands now, it's so complicated it's just a bad movie."

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4 articles from 2007