Press Releases Archive for January, 2011

7 Features In Oscar VFX Race

January 5, 2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Beverly Hills, CA –The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that seven films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 83rd Academy Awards®. The films are listed below in alphabetical order: “Alice in Wonderland” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”…

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VIMEO INCREASES UPLOAD LIMIT TO 5GB PER FILE FOR PLUS MEMBERS

Online video sharing site Vimeo®, an operating business of IAC [NASDAQ: IACI], today announced that it has increased the size of a single file that a Vimeo Plus member can upload from 2GB to 5GB. As one of the only video sharing websites without limits on video length, this increased file size option gives Vimeo Plus…

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SUNDANCE INSTITUTE, YOUTUBE AND ACURA TO MAKE 12 SHORT FILMS FROM 2011 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL AVAILABLE FOR FREE ON YOUTUBE SCREENING ROOM

For Immediate Release Series will Run for Six Weeks Short Films from Directors with Feature Films in the Festival Also Available Park City, UT, January 5, 2011 – Sundance Institute announced today a collaboration with YouTube to make available, in the YouTube Screening Room, 12 short films from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival as well…

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“THE SOCIAL NETWORK” MAKES ITS WAY BACK INTO THEATERS AND DEBUTS ON DVD

“THE SOCIAL NETWORK” SET TO CROSS $200 MILLION WORLDWIDE AS ACCLAIMED MOTION PICTURE MAKES ITS WAY BACK INTO THEATERS AND DEBUTS ON DVD CULVER CITY, Calif., January 5, 2011 – As The Social Network, the most critically acclaimed film of the year, is set to launch on DVD, the hit film is poised to pass…

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SUNDANCE SELECTS TAKES WORLDWIDE RIGHTS TO ZEINA DURRA’S THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE!

MARCH 2011 THEATRICAL AND VOD RELEASE PLANNED New York, NY (January 5, 2011) — Sundance Selects, the national video on-demand platform for independent film in the documentary and world cinema categories, announced today that the company is acquiring worldwide rights, excluding UK and Mexico, to director Zeina Durra’s humorous, atmospheric political drama THE IMPERIALISTS ARE…

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SCREEN MEDIA ACQUIRES PHASMA EX MACHINA FOR RELEASE IN 2ND QUARTER 2011

New York, NY (January 5, 2011) — Screen Media Films is proud to announce the acquisition of Matt Osterman’s debut feature “Phasma Ex Machina” from XYZ Films.  The critically acclaimed supernatural thriller is set to be released in the second quarter of 2011 on DVD/VOD under the updated title: “Ghost from the Machine.” The film…

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Starz Sells 25% Equity Stake in Starz Media to The Weinstein Compan

Starz Sells 25% Equity Stake in Starz Media to The Weinstein Company; Anchor Bay and TWC Enter into Multi-Year, Multi-Platform Entertainment/Distribution Agreement Englewood, Colo. and New York, NY (January 4, 2011) – In a significant strategic partnership within the ever-changing home/digital entertainment market, Starz, LLC has agreed to sell The Weinstein Company (TWC) a 25% stake…

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Cinema Eye Partners with Filmmaker Magazine for Inaugural “Heterodox Award for Narrative Films”

4 January 2011, New York – The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking announced today the five nominees for the first annual Cinema Eye Heterodox Award, sponsored by Filmmaker Magazine. The Cinema Eye Heterodox Award marks a new award category created to honor a narrative film that imaginatively incorporates nonfiction strategies, content and/or modes of production….

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Writer’s Guild 2010 Awards

SCREEN WINNERS  ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY  Inception, Written by Christopher Nolan; Warner Bros. . . .   ADAPTED SCREENPLAY The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich; Sony Pictures      . . DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY Inside Job, Written by Charles Ferguson; Co-written by Chad Beck, Adam Bolt; Sony…

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The Producers Guild Nominates…

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures 127 HOURS Producers: Danny Boyle, Christian Colson BLACK SWAN Producers: Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver INCEPTION Producers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas THE FIGHTER Producers: David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Mark Wahlberg THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT Producers: Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray…

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ROGER EBERT ANNOUNCES FILM CRITIC IGNATIY VISHNEVETSKY AS NEW CO-HOST OF EBERT PRESENTS AT THE MOVIES

CHICAGO, January 4, 2011 – Ebert Productions is proud to announce that Ignatiy Vishnevetsky has joined the team at Ebert Presents At the Movies. Vishnevetsky will accompany the previously announced Christy Lemire of The Associated Press as co-host on the new weekly program.  The show is scheduled to debut on January 21 on public television stations…

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THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS UNVEILS STELLAR 2011 BLU-RAY 3DTM RELEASE SLATE

Leader In 3D Filmed Entertainment To Offer At Least 15 Films On Growing Blu-ray 3D Format For The Home — TRON: LEGACY and TANGLED Lead Day-and-Date 3D Releases and THE LION KING and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Make 3D Debut — BURBANK, Calif. — January 3, 2011 — Continuing its leadership in the advancement of…

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Press Releases

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon