Artist: Jean Michel Jarre and Natasha Atlas
Genre(s):
Electronic
Discography:
Cest La Vie Cdm
Year: 1998
Tracks: 4
Friday, 11 July 2008
Jean Michel Jarre and Natasha Atlas
Artist: Jean Michel Jarre and Natasha Atlas
Genre(s):
Electronic
Discography:
Cest La Vie Cdm
Year: 1998
Tracks: 4
Potential strike already affecting film
AMPTP declares de facto stoppage in play
As the clock ticks ever closer to the June 30 end of SAG's contract, the industry is nervously contemplating the possibility of yet another strike -- even as it admits that, at least in terms of film production, a de facto strike already exists.
The AMPTP, in what could be characterized as its lack-of-progress report issued Thursday, argued that a de facto strike "limiting the greenlighting of features and disrupting pilot production" already has begun. As one talent attorney observed: "No one is doing anything that finishes after June 30, (and) nobody's starting anything now. There is the impact of a strike already."
The threat of a stoppage has had an impact on production schedules at the major studios, which pushed a slew of projects into production back in April in order to complete filming by June 30.
DreamWorks is wrapping both John Hamburg's "I Love You, Man" and Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones" this week, while Paramount is aiming to finish principal photography during in the next two weeks on its untitled Wayans Bros. comedy, "G.I. Joe" and Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island," starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Warners is finishing up shooting on Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant," its Seth Rogen starrer "Observe and Report" and the action pic "Ninja Assassin." Universal is racing the clock on "Land of the Lost," starring Will Ferrell. Disney's "Race to Witch Mountain," "When in Rome" and "High School Musical 3" are on track to be finished by month's end. And Columbia/MGM's latest Bond adventure "Quantum of Silence" is set to wrap next week.
United Artists is squeezing in the additional footage it's shooting on the Tom Cruise starrer "Valkyrie" before the witching hour strikes.
At the same time, a number of movies aiming for key 2009 release dates decided to risk potential disruption by moving forward anyway.
Columbia's "Angels and Demons," the follow-up to "The Da Vinci Code," already was forced to postpone production once when writer Akiva Goldsman could not turn in a script polish during the writers strike. With a release date moved from Dec. 19 to May 15, 2009, the film began shooting this month, with Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard on location in Rome. Crossing its fingers, Columbia is calculating that if a strike does force a shutdown, production can resume in time to make the spring release date.
Other big-budget productions have contingency plans in place.
DreamWorks/Paramount's "Transformers" sequel is before the cameras in Pennsylvania, with shooting eventually set to move to New Mexico. In the event of a strike, director Michael Bay figures he can shut down principal photography and focus on VFX and second unit work. Halcyon's "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins," which is shooting exteriors in New Mexico now before moving to soundstages next month, is planning a similar strategy if its actors become unavailable.
In the case of Screen Gems' "Mardi Gras," which is shooting in New Orleans, the schedule has been arranged so that the final eight days of shooting, set for July, are all interiors and can be completed later in Los Angeles if a strike closes down the Louisiana shoot.
Several projects are set to begin filming in July but could be postponed.
At Warners, Clint Eastwood's "Gran Turino" is revving its engines for a proposed mid-July start in hopes that it will be ready for release by year's end. Disney's video game adaptation "Prince of Persia" and Columbia's disaster pic "2012" are moving forward with casting as they ready to shoot next month.
Other projects are awaiting a resolution before moving forward.
MGM has held off greenlighting its remake of "Fame" and "The Thomas Crown Affair 2," even though the Lion, trying to stage a comeback, hopes to begin rolling out new material by the end of 2009.
On the indie front, any strike would have less impact because SAG says it has already signed guaranteed completion agreements on more than 300 independently produced films that would allow them to keep working during a strike.
Among the more prominent projects are Oliver Stone's "W," the QED-financed pic shooting in Louisiana, with Josh Brolin George W. Bush; the Catherine Zeta Jones-toplined "The Rebound"; the Lindsay Lohan starrer "Labor Pains"; the Nicolas Cage remake "Bad Lieutenant"; and Nia Vardalos' "I Hate Valentine's Day."
A number of indie producers said they were able to land a higher cut of talent because of their ability to guarantee that actors will collect a paycheck this summer regardless of what happens at the bargaining table.
Newer stand-alone companies such as Overture and Summit largely will bypass the effects of the strike as well because of lighter production schedules or completion guarantees. While Summit has no films set to shoot in July, the sci-fi tale "Pandorum," which Overture will distribute in North America, is set to go before the cameras with financing from Germany's Constantin.
Overture and Par Vantage also are behind Michael Moore's sequel to "Fahrenheit 9/11." The movie is in production and is expected to continue shooting through the summer, but documentaries by and large won't be affected by any SAG labor action.
Because of disruptions that already have taken place, anxiety can be felt throughout the post community.
"We believe this will be worse than the WGA strike," said Stephen Buchsbaum, CEO of the Post Group. "During the WGA strike, we were doing projects that didn't involve the WGA -- some independent films, game shows and reality shows. Those all have SAG hosts, and unless there is a side deal struck, we believe this impact will be catastrophic.
"The post industry still has not recovered from the writers strike," he continued. "The industry has not come back, partly because TV season as we know it is still in limbo."
Unease also is growing in the visual effects community.
"I'm hearing about and seeing people being laid off or told hurry up and wait," Visual Effects Society executive director Eric Roth said. "It seems like there is already a strike."
This situation is further aggravated by the lurching global economy, weak dollar and increasing amount of VFX work heading to less expensive destinations.
"It's a recipe for the perfect storm at the worst possible time," Roth said.
Jay A. Fernandez, Carolyn Giardina, Borys Kit and Leslie Simmons in Los Angeles and Gregg Goldstein and Steven Zeitchik in New York contributed to this report.
See Also
The Decemberists
Artist: The Decemberists
Genre(s):
Indie
Rock
Discography:
The Crane Wife
Year: 2006
Tracks: 10
Picaresque
Year: 2005
Tracks: 11
Live On KRCW (THU APR 21, 2005
Year: 2005
Tracks: 10
Her Majesty The Decemberists
Year: 2003
Tracks: 11
5 Songs
Year: 2003
Tracks: 6
The Lightning Seeds
Artist: The Lightning Seeds
Genre(s):
Other
Discography:
Tilt
Year: 1999
Tracks: 12
Cloudcuckooland
Year: 1989
Tracks: 11
TV ad spending to set record in U.S. presidential race
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The 2008 presidential race, which has already drawn a record number of dollars and voters, is poised to shatter another record: the amount of money spent on television advertisements.
As Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain barnstorm across the country before the November election, they will spend heavily on ads that will increasingly reflect the cut-and-thrust of the campaign.
Total spending on TV ads in the presidential race is expected to top $800 million (400 million pounds), said Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising. Such spending totalled $500 million, the previous record, in the 2004 race.
That's good news for the television business, which is suffering from a pullback in spending from automotive, real estate and financial service advertisers.
Thanks in part to the expected boost from the U.S. election, spending on network and local TV advertisements is expected to rise between 2 percent and 3 percent in 2008 while cable TV advertising is expected to rise 6 percent, according to ZenithOptimedia.
"Every month, every quarter we're setting records," CBS Corp chief financial officer Fred Reynolds said at a recent investor conference. The company, which owns the CBS network and local television stations, billed a record of nearly $30 million in political advertising in the first quarter of 2008, he said.
Other companies expected to benefit from the campaign include General Electric Co's NBC and Walt Disney Co's ABC; broadcasters like Sinclair Broadcast Group, Belo Corp and Hearst-Argyle Television; and media companies such as Gannett Co Inc and Meredith Corp.
Even in the YouTube era, TV advertising is still the best way to reach wide swaths of voters directly, experts say. TV ads also shape news coverage and are frequently replayed, at no charge, during newscasts.
As Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain barnstorm across the country before the November election, they will spend heavily on ads that will increasingly reflect the cut-and-thrust of the campaign.
Total spending on TV ads in the presidential race is expected to top $800 million (400 million pounds), said Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising. Such spending totalled $500 million, the previous record, in the 2004 race.
That's good news for the television business, which is suffering from a pullback in spending from automotive, real estate and financial service advertisers.
Thanks in part to the expected boost from the U.S. election, spending on network and local TV advertisements is expected to rise between 2 percent and 3 percent in 2008 while cable TV advertising is expected to rise 6 percent, according to ZenithOptimedia.
"Every month, every quarter we're setting records," CBS Corp chief financial officer Fred Reynolds said at a recent investor conference. The company, which owns the CBS network and local television stations, billed a record of nearly $30 million in political advertising in the first quarter of 2008, he said.
Other companies expected to benefit from the campaign include General Electric Co's NBC and Walt Disney Co's ABC; broadcasters like Sinclair Broadcast Group, Belo Corp and Hearst-Argyle Television; and media companies such as Gannett Co Inc and Meredith Corp.
Even in the YouTube era, TV advertising is still the best way to reach wide swaths of voters directly, experts say. TV ads also shape news coverage and are frequently replayed, at no charge, during newscasts.
Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglorious Bastards’ Will Be Two Movies, Probably Won’t Be Ready for Cannes
Photo: Getty Images
As recently as March of last year, Quentin Tarantino's long-delayed WWII movie Inglorious Bastards was rumored to be a three-movie series, and it seemed like a release might be a long, long way off. Then, a month ago, Tarantino announced that it would be ready for Cannes in 2009, which suggested that he had perhaps scaled back a bit. Now comes word that the project will be released as two movies (which should obviously be called Inglorious and Bastards, just for the marquee impact).
That gives Tarantino about ten months to finish the scripts, find himself some actors — he now says previous mentions of Michael Madsen, Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken, and others were just "conversations" — and shoot and edit two movies. It's possible, of course, but it's also possible that this project is but a ball of yarn for Tarantino's mischievous-kitten tendencies, and in a year, it will be a seven-part cartoon musical. —Linda Holmes
Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards to be Two Movies [/Film]
As recently as March of last year, Quentin Tarantino's long-delayed WWII movie Inglorious Bastards was rumored to be a three-movie series, and it seemed like a release might be a long, long way off. Then, a month ago, Tarantino announced that it would be ready for Cannes in 2009, which suggested that he had perhaps scaled back a bit. Now comes word that the project will be released as two movies (which should obviously be called Inglorious and Bastards, just for the marquee impact).
That gives Tarantino about ten months to finish the scripts, find himself some actors — he now says previous mentions of Michael Madsen, Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken, and others were just "conversations" — and shoot and edit two movies. It's possible, of course, but it's also possible that this project is but a ball of yarn for Tarantino's mischievous-kitten tendencies, and in a year, it will be a seven-part cartoon musical. —Linda Holmes
Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards to be Two Movies [/Film]
Win tickets to T in the Park
The Sun and Tennent’s Lager have teamed up to give you and FOURTEEN of your
mates the chance to win tickets to T in the Park festival! We're also
throwing in a 20-man tent in the exclusive competition winners area, as well
as complimentary Tennent's Lager across the weekend.
To celebrate 15 fantastic years of T in the Park this incredible prize offers
one very lucky Sun reader and FOURTEEN of their friends the chance to enjoy
the weekend of a lifetime at this year’s festival from Friday 11th – Sunday
13th July.
This unbelievably spectacular prize package means you could win these FIFTEEN
tickets to see amazing artists including The Verve, Rage Against The
Machine, Kings of Leon, REM, Stereophonics, The Fratellis, KT Tunstall, Amy
Winehouse, The Futureheads, Ian Brown, Primal Scream, Interpol, Hot Chip and
Aphex Twin.
After the excitement of watching the very best bands T in the Park has to
offer- from unsigned acts on the T Break Stage to world class headliners
closing the Main Stage- you can make your way to the exclusive winners area
to find a 20 man tent already pitched for you!
Click here for our Terms & Conditions
To stand a chance of winning this fantastic prize, all you have to do is
answer one simple question. Just click the link below and you could be the lucky winner. CLICK HERE TO ENTER
Competition ends Thursday, July 10, 2008
Applicants must be over 18 years of age to enter
No cash alternative is available
www.drinkaware.co.uk
mates the chance to win tickets to T in the Park festival! We're also
throwing in a 20-man tent in the exclusive competition winners area, as well
as complimentary Tennent's Lager across the weekend.
To celebrate 15 fantastic years of T in the Park this incredible prize offers
one very lucky Sun reader and FOURTEEN of their friends the chance to enjoy
the weekend of a lifetime at this year’s festival from Friday 11th – Sunday
13th July.
This unbelievably spectacular prize package means you could win these FIFTEEN
tickets to see amazing artists including The Verve, Rage Against The
Machine, Kings of Leon, REM, Stereophonics, The Fratellis, KT Tunstall, Amy
Winehouse, The Futureheads, Ian Brown, Primal Scream, Interpol, Hot Chip and
Aphex Twin.
After the excitement of watching the very best bands T in the Park has to
offer- from unsigned acts on the T Break Stage to world class headliners
closing the Main Stage- you can make your way to the exclusive winners area
to find a 20 man tent already pitched for you!
Click here for our Terms & Conditions
To stand a chance of winning this fantastic prize, all you have to do is
answer one simple question. Just click the link below and you could be the lucky winner. CLICK HERE TO ENTER
Competition ends Thursday, July 10, 2008
Applicants must be over 18 years of age to enter
No cash alternative is available
www.drinkaware.co.uk
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