Press Releases Archive for December, 2012

The Walt Disney Company Completes Lucasfilm Acquisition

At closing Disney issued 37,076,679 shares and made a cash payment of $2,208,199,950.

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9 Foreign Language Films Vie For Oscar

Amour, War Witch, No, Royal Affair, Intouchables, Deep, Kon-Tiki, Beyond The Hills, Sister

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33RD LONDON CRITICS’ CIRCLE FILM AWARDS NOMINATIONS

London – Tuesday 18 December 2012 The London Critics’ Circle is delighted to announce the nominations today for its 33rd Film Awards. Michael Haneke’s Amour and Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master lead the nominations with seven apiece. Amour received nods in categories including both Sky Movies Film of the Year and Foreign Language Film, the…

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Sundance Institute Announces 12 Projects Selected for Feature 2013 Screenwriters Lab

Dedicated to the Memory of Founding Creative Advisor Frank Pierson.

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Sundance Institute Announces Grants to 25 Documentaries

$550,000 in grants from its Documentary Film Program and Fund.

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2012 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

“Zero Dark Thirty,” the drama chronicling the long ten-year hunt for Osama bin Laden in the wake of 9/11 hit its mark, according to the Chicago Film Critics Association. In voting for their annual awards, the film led with five awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow, Best Original Screenplay for Mark Boal,…

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2012 CHICAGO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION NOMINEES

“The Master” leads.

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“Lincoln” leads Houston Film Critic Society Awards with eight nominations

“Lincoln” leads Houston Film Critic Society Awards with eight nominations

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7 FEATURES ADVANCE IN RACE FOR MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING OSCAR®

December 15, 2012 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BEVERLY HILLS, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that seven films remain in competition in the Makeup and Hairstyling category for the 85th Academy Awards®. The films are listed below in alphabetical order: “Hitchcock” “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” “Les Misérables” “Lincoln” “Looper”…

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OSCAR NOMINATIONS VOTING OPENS MONDAY TO 5,856 ACADEMY VOTERS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 14, 2012 BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Nominations voting for the 85th Academy Awards® will open at 8 a.m. PT, Monday, December 17, for the 5,856 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  Members will have until 5 p.m. PT, Thursday, January 3, 2013, to vote electronically or…

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FILM COMMENT ANNOUNCES 2012 BEST OF YEAR LISTS

“HOLY MOTORS,” “THE MASTER” AND “MOONRISE KINGDOM” ARE 1-2-3.

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282 FEATURE FILMS IN CONTENTION FOR 2012 BEST PICTURE OSCAR®

December 14, 2012 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Two hundred eighty-two feature films are eligible for the 2012 Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. To be eligible for 85th Academy Awards consideration, feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by…

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The Walt Disney Company and Cox Communications Announce Comprehensive Distribution Agreement

New Multi-Year Deal Provides Sports, News and Entertainment to Cox Customers In and Out of the Home WatchESPN, WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH Disney XD and WATCH Disney Junior To Launch This Month to Cox Customers December 13, 2012 05:54 PM Eastern Time  ATLANTA & NEW YORK–Cox Communications and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) today announced…

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2013 Sundance Film Festival Adds Four Feature Films, Including El Mariachi as ‘From the Collection’ Screening

For Immediate Release December 13, 2012 Park City, UT — Sundance Institute today announced the addition of four films to the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, including Magic Magic (Director: Sebastián Silva), Muscle Shoals (Director: Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier) and Wrong Cops (Director: Quentin Dupieux) as well as El Mariachi (1993) for the From the Collection screening….

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Detroit Film Critic Society Nominates 2012

ARGO, THE IMPOSSIBLE, SILVER LININGS, TAKE THIS WALTZ, ZD30

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KCRW to Curate Evening Music Programming at 2013 Sundance Film Festival

For Immediate Release December 12, 2012 KCRW to Program Three Nights of Live Musical Performances for Festival’s Music Café and Broadcast Live from Park City, Utah All Performances to be Free and Open to the Public (21 and Older) Los Angeles, CA & Park City, UT — Sundance Institute and KCRW today announced that the…

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Nominations Announced for the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®

LOS ANGELES  (Dec. 12, 2012) — Nominees for the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards for outstanding performances in 2012 in five film and eight primetime television categories as well as the SAG Awards honors for outstanding action performances by film and television stunt ensembles were announced this morning in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center’s SilverScreen…

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75 ORIGINAL SONGS TUNE UP FOR 2012 OSCAR®

December 11, 2012 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BEVERLY HILLS, CA– Seventy-five songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2012 are in contention for nominations in the Original Song category for the 85th Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each…

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Cinema Eye Honors Announces 2013 Heterodox Nominees, Launches Voting for 2013 Audience Choice Prize

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 11, 2013 The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking today announced the five nominees for its third annual Cinema Eye Heterodox Award, sponsored by Filmmaker Magazine. The Cinema Eye Heterodox Award honors a narrative film that imaginatively incorporates nonfiction strategies, content and/or modes of production. The five films nominated for the…

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“LINCOLN” LEADS WITH A RECORD SETTING 13 NOMINATIONS FOR THE 18TH ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS

“LES MISÉRABLES” SCORES 11 NOMINATIONS AND “SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK” IS A TOP CONTENDER WITH 10 NOMINATIONS CRITICS’ CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS ANNOUNCES FIRST-EVER FAN VOTED AWARD   AWARDS CEREMONY TO BE BROADCAST LIVE ON THE CW NETWORK THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 2013 AT 8:00 PM ET/PT (Los Angeles, CA – December 11, 2012) – The Broadcast Film…

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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