Download Fun. Time Had at 2013 Grammy Awards

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February 11, 2013
Da
y
il
weekend b.o.:
thief nabs no. 1
PAge 3
argo triumphs
at bafta awards
PAge 5
nbc cancels
do no harm
PAge 6
berlin 2013:
weinstein has
taste for blood
PAge 7
berlin review:
a single shot
PAge 9
Fun. Time Had at
2013 Grammy Awards
By Erik Pedersen
The Grammy Awards spread
its gold around much more
liberally than in years past,
but New York rock band
fun. won two of the traditional Big Four categories —
best new artist and song of
the year for ”We Are Young”
— Sunday night at Staples
Center in Los Angeles.
Mumford & Sons won the
night’s big prize, album of
the year for Babel, spoiling
what potentially was shaping
up as The Black Keys’ big
night. The Ohio duo of Dan
Auerbach and Patrick Carney
won best rock song and best
rock performance for “Lonely
Boy” and best rock album.
El Camino, respectively. And
Auerbach also won the last
award handed out in the afternoon during the pre-telecast
portion of the 55th Grammys,
JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images
Inside:
Fun.’s Andrew Dost, left, Nate Ruess and Jack Antonoff accept their prize
for best new artist Sunday night during the 55th annual Grammy Awards.
producer of the year (nonclassical); he was the only
person to win four Grammys
on Sunday.
For the first time since
2001, there were four rock
acts up for album of the year.
Interestingly, two of them —
including Mumford’s Babel
— were not up for best rock
album. In fact, Mumford won
only other award on the night,
for best longform video (Big
Easy Express), a trophy they
collected nearly seven hours
earlier across the street at
the Nokia Theatre.
”We were in the pre-tel,”
frontman Marcus Mumford
see page 2
Page 2 of 9
February 11, 2013
grammys 2013
FROM page 1
said backstage, “and we sat
there with six nominations,
and we were like, ’Ah, cool,
we’ve got six nominations.’
And then one after the other
it was like, The Black Keys
and The Black
Keys, so we just
kinda resigned
ourselves. Like
last year’s was
Adele’s year
and we thought Mumford
this was gonna
be the Black Keys’ year.
Now that we’ve got one, it’s
fuckin’ awesome!”
Katy Perry presented the
best new artist Grammy.
At the podium, she told the
nominees: “If you don’t win
tonight, don’t worry: I was
never even nominated in
this category — and I have
my own eyelash line.” When
30-year-old fun. frontman
Nate Reuss accepted the
nod, he noted a bit of irony
in that “the show is in highdefinition, and as you can
see, we are old — we’ve been
doing this for 12 years.”
Fun. also scored with its
performance, which was
particularly poised considering the fact that the band
played “Carry On” in an
indoor downpour onstage,
which drew big cheers from
the crowd. They were buoyed
by a chuckle-inducing intro
by Neil Patrick Harris, who
said, “As legendary gangsta
rap icon Katharine Hepburn
once said, “If you obey all the
rules, you miss all the fun.”
Another big winner Sunday was Gotye, whose “Somebody That I Used to Know”
won record of the year. The
award was presented by
Prince — resplendent in
dark shades and sparkly
walking stick. “Listening to
this man growing up, I was
inspired to make music,”
Gotye said of Prince during
his speech.
The Belgian-Australian
singer-songwriter also won
a pair of Grammys during
the pre-tel portion. He had
a good line while accepting
the award for best alternative music album. “Thanks
to everyone
for making,
quote, ‘nonalternative’
albums so this
category can
exists.” He also Gotye
won for pop/
duo group performance for
“Somebody,” which features
Kimbra.
Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull
presented the first award,
best pop performance. Lopez,
who caused such a ruckus
with her barely-there 2000
Grammy dress, was draped
this time in a black number
that showed lots of shoulder
and lots of leg.” As you can
see, I read the memo,” she
said, drawing laughs in reference to the now-notorious
missive sent out by CBS last
week warning red carpeters
not to wear outfits that bare
too much T and/or A. “You
inspired the memo,” replied
Pitbull.
Adele won the pop performance award for “Set
Fire to the Rain.” That last
word could be transformed
to “reign” — the Grammy
was Adele’s seventh, after
sweeping last year with a
half-dozen. Backstage later,
she was asked how far along
she is with her next album.
“I’m not very far along at all;
I’ve been having lots of meetings,” said the British singer
said, who had her first child
in October. “I’ve been reading
my baby nursery rhymes.”
Another fun moment at
the podium: While introducing a performance by Justin
Timberlake, the normally unflappable Beyonce seemed a
mite thrown when her intro
partner Ellen
DeGeneres
stared at her
throughout.
As Timberlake sang his
Adele
current single
“Suit & Tie,”
the telecast was shown in
living black-and-white. He
then was joined by Jay-Z for
a rap interlude before Timberlake launched into the
also-new “Pusher Love Girl,”
amid repeated shrieks from
the crowd. The performance
drew a standing-O.
Of course, one of the
Grammys’ signature moves
is to pair performers for what
the announcer repeatedly
referred to during bumpers
as “Grammy Moments.”
Indeed, there were several
that were noteworthy.
One of the highlight performances was a tribute to
reggae legend Bob Marley.
Bruno Mars and Sting sang
“Locked Out of Heaven,”
following by Sting playing
his Police record “Walking
on the Moon” and Rihanna
and Marley sons Ziggy,
Stephen and Damian, who
did Dad proud with “Could
You Be Loved.”
Current Hollywood Reporter
cover boy Jack White was
backed by his all-female
backing group The Peacocks
on “Love Interrupted” —
during which he dropped a
very audible F-bomb — then
switched to his all-male band
The Buzzards, adding a blistering guitar solo to “Freedom at 21.”
Kelly Rowland, fresh off
her Super Bowl halftime
appearance, and Nas presented the inaugural best
urban contemporary album
to Frank Ocean. “I hear the
way you disarm the audience
is to imagine you all naked
— but I don’t want to do
that,” Ocean said. “I want
to picture you all as kids in
tuxedos and dresses.” OK.
There was something of
an upset in the best pop
vocal album category, as
Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger
won over fun., Maroon 5,
Pink and Florence + The
Machine. Her brief acceptance speech was among
the most entertaining.
After mentioning alcohol —
then quickly adding, “Just
kidding, kids!” — and giving
shout-outs to some of her
fellow nominees, she said,
“Miguel, I don’t know who
the hell you are, but we
need to sing together!”
Clarkson’s win made it
three for American Idol
winners, following a pair
by Carrie Underwood for
“Blown Away,” including
best country solo performance during primetime.
A total of 754 individuals
were nominated for the 81
total Grammys, only 11 of
which were handed out
during the primetime show,
which was hosted by LL
Cool J and delayed in the
West.
Click here for more
2013 Grammys coverage.
Page 3 of 9
February 11, 2013
box office news
Identity Thief Absconds
With $36.6 Million Bow
weekend box office top 10
By Pamela McClintock
BERLIN — Winter Storm
Nemo was no match for
Melissa McCarthy.
The actress’s new comedy
Identity Thief, co-starring
Jason Bateman and helmed
by Seth Gordon, soared
past expectations to score
a $36.6 million debut, one
of the top five openings of
all time for an original Rrated comedy and the best
opening so far of 2013, topping the $28 million earned
four weeks ago by fellow Universal pic Mama.
Universal estimated that
the blizzard, which paralyzed
much of New England, took
a 10 percent hit on box-office
grosses and that without it,
Thief would have cleared
$40 million. The pic marks
McCarthy’s first starring role
since Bridesmaids — which
opened to $26 million —
and was fueled by females,
who made up 58 percent of
the audience.
This
week
Movie/Distributor
3-day
gross
(in mil)
Percent
change
# of
theaters
Pertheater
average
Cume
to
date
1
Identity Thief (Universal)
$36.6
—
3,141
$11,650
$36.6
2
Warm Bodies (Lionsgate)
11.5
-44
3,009
3,822
36.6
3
Side Effects (Open Road)
10.0
—
2,605
3,845
10.0
4
Silver Linings Playbook (Weinstein)
6.9
-11
2,809
2,459
90.0
5
Hansel & Gretel (Paramount)
5.8
-39
3,285
1,750
43.8
6
Mama (Universal)
4.3
-34
2,677
1,615
64.0
7
Zero Dark Thirty (Sony)
4.0
-23
2,562
1,561
83.6
8
Argo (Warner Bros.)
2.5
-23
1,405
1,779
123.7
9
Django Unchained (Weinstein)
2.3
-24
1,502
1,523
154.5
10
Bullet to the Head (Warner Bros.)
2.0
-56
2,404
824
8.2
rentrak
Receiving a B CinemaScore, Thief stars Bateman
as a guy whose identity is stolen by a woman (McCarthy).
Bateman originally pitched
producer Scott Stuber on
the idea of the two leading
characters being men, but
after seeing McCarthy in
Bridesmaids, they adapted
the role for her.
The comedy’s supporting
cast includes Amanda Peet,
Jon Favreau and Tip “T.I.”
Harris. Elliot Inc. co-financed
the $35 million movie with
Universal.
Even with the success of
Thief, overall box-office revenues were down 45 percent
from the same weekend last
year when The Vow debuted
to $41.2 million and Safe House
opened to $40.2 million.
Also bowing Friday was
Steven Soderbergh’s independently financed Side Effects,
starring Rooney Mara and
Channing Tatum. The psychological thriller opened to
$10 million, roughly in line
with expectations, and likewise earned a B CinemaScore.
Open Road Films is distributing Side Effects, which
delves into the perils of antidepressants and the pharmaceutical industry. Jude
Law and Catherine ZetaJones also star. The film —
which Soderbergh claims
will be his last — makes its
international debut this
week at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Side Effects came in No. 3
after Thief and Warm Bodies,
which fell a relatively narrow 44 percent in its second
weekend, grossing $11.5 million for a domestic cume of
$36.6 million.
Silver Linings Playbook continued to enjoy an impressive
hold, coming in No. 4 and
falling only 11 percent from
the previous weekend. The
best picture Oscar contender
from The Weinstein Co. has
now grossed $90 million.
see page 4
Page 4 of 9
February 11, 2013
box office news
FROM page 3
Among other best picture
nominees, Argo made news
in its 18th week in release,
grossing $2.5 million to reclaim a spot on the Top 10
chart as it upped its theater
count to 1,405. The pic, coming in No. 8, has now earned
$123.7 million domestically.
Debuting in 300 Imax
locations across the country
was Paramount’s Top Gun 3D.
The classic Tom Cruise pic,
directed by the late Tony
Scott, grossed a respectable
$1.9 million for a location
average of $6,333.
Chinese blockbuster Lost
in Thailand didn’t pack much
of a punch in its U.S. debut,
earning a paltry $29,143 from
29 AMC theaters across the
country (AMC Entertainment is now owned by Chinese conglomerate Wanda).
Lost has grossed nearly
$200 million in China.
Die Hard 5 Gets
Jump OverSeas
By Frank Segers
While Sony’s Django Unchained remained No. 1 overseas for the fourth consecutive weekend, the highlight
of a sluggish session on the
foreign theatrical circuit was
the limited introduction of
the Fox release A Good Day
To Die Hard.
Getting a jump on its U.S.
and Canada bow this week,
the fifth installment of the
action franchise starring
Bruce Willis opened over
the weekend in just seven
Asian markets and drew
$10.1 million at 1,102 locations for a per-screen average of over $9,000.
Django Unchained has grossed
$187.1 million since opening internationally on Christmas Day.
In South Korea, the opening take including previews
was $4.2 million from 459
sites. Good Day set a Fox
record in Indonesia and set
a franchise record in Hong
Kong ($1.2 million at 87
spots). The film was “poised
to take advantage of the
Chinese New Year holiday
[which began Sunday],
a time audiences tend to
flock to cinemas,” said Fox.
Over a 25-year span,
the four previous Die Hard
titles all starring Willis have
prospered overseas, grossing a total of $694.6 million,
according to Fox figures,
with the second sequel of the
franchise, 1995’s Die Hard
With A Vengeance, leading
the pack with an offshore
tally of $264.5 million.
The 1988 original Die
Hard drew $57.8 million in
offshore box office, with the
first sequel, 1990’s Die Hard
2, grossing $122.5 million.
The last sequel, 2007’s Live
Free or Die Hard, completed
its foreign box-office run
with $249.7 million.
Still dominant in Germany,
France, Switzerland and
Belgium, director Quentin
Tarantino’s Django collected
$18.7 million from 5,280 locations in 65 markets. The
action Western starring Jamie
Foxx, Christoph Waltz and
Leonardo Di Caprio, which
earned five Oscar nominations, has grossed $187.1 million since opening abroad on
Christmas Day.
In Germany, its best market, Django drew $3.9 million
in its fourth round at 843
sites for a market cume of
$35.6 million. In France, the
Sony release has been No. 1
for four consecutive weeks,
with the latest weekend tally
($3.3 million) down a relatively benign 33 percent from
the prior round. Its market
total stands at $27.2 million.
Identity Thief, the No. 1
domestic title, opened overseas in an assortment of
smaller markets — Bulgaria,
Croatia, Romania, Slovenia
and Taiwan — and grossed
$230,000 at 112 screens. The
Universal comedy’s international rollout will intensify
over the next three months.
Opening No. 1 in Australia ($2.3 million at about 190
spots), Hansel and Gretel:
Witch Hunters, Paramount/
MGM’s 3D co-production
distributed overseas in most
territories by the former,
grossed $11.6 million on the
weekend overall at some
3,600 situations in 45 territories, lifting its overseas
cume to $84 million.
Universal’s Les Miserables,
with its eight Oscar nominations, grossed $10.1 million
on the weekend at 3,100 situations in 45 markets, pushing the musical’s foreign gross
to $215 million and $359 million worldwide. A Russia bow
generated $1.6 million at 470
playdates for a No. 3 market
ranking, while the film’s fifth
holdover round in the U.K.
garnered $2.7 million from
453 sites, enough for a No. 2
market ranking and a 31-day
market cume of $53.3 million.
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln
is nearing the $50 million
offshore box-office mark
($47.6 million) after a $10 million weekend at 4,080 venues
in 50 territories. Openings
in seven markets buoyed its
results, with a No. 4 Australia bow delivering $1.77 million at 220 locations.
Gaining box-office traction
in Mexico ($1 million from
273 spots in market debut)
was Paramount and other
distributors’ Flight, starring
best actor Oscar nominee
Denzel Washington, which
grossed $8 million on the
weekend overall in 28 markets. The pic’s foreign cume
stands at $34.8 million, with
a France debut due this week.
Recording the biggest
opening in Spain so far this
year was Universal’s Mama,
which earned a muscular
$3.4 million from 324 locations. It was the fourthbiggest original horrorfilm market opening. The
weekend take overall for
the Jessica Chastain vehicle
delivered $6.1 million at
1,358 playdates in 15 territories, seven of which were
new. The pic’s early foreign
cume stands at $13.4 million.
Lionsgate zombie romance
Warm Bodies drew $4.6 million from some 2,000 screens
in 24 markets, pushing its
very early foreign cume up
to $8.7 million. The same
distributor’s The Impossible,
starring best actress Oscar
nominee Naomi Watts, earned
$4.3 million on the weekend,
lifting the overseas cume for
the tsunami disaster pic to
thr
$138 million.
Page 5 of 9
February 11, 2013
awards news
Argo, Les Mis Take
Top BAFTA Honors
By Tim Adler
emy of Film and Television
Arts handed out its awards
Sunday night in rainy London, and the stars turned
out in full for the event.
Lincoln, nominated for
10 awards at the glittery ceremony at the Royal Opera
House, won just one prize:
best actor honors for Daniel
Day-Lewis.
Local favorite Les Miserables won four BAFTAs,
including a best supporting
actress nod for Anne Hathaway. With nine nominations,
Les Mis trailed Lincoln in the
run-up to the ceremony.
Accepting her trophy,
a breathless Hathaway
even managed to thank
Les Mis author Victor Hugo,
even though he’s been dead
for 128 years. Hathaway
praised her cast and crew
as the “goodest-hearted
group of loves whose talent
knocked me sideways.”
Argo won three prizes —
having been nominated for
seven — for best film, directing and editing.
“This has been a second
act for me,” helmer Ben
Affleck said. “You’ve given
me that. I want to dedicate
this award to anybody out
there who’s trying to get
their second act.”
Argo producer George
Clooney added: “Ben, if this
is your second act, I don’t
know what you’re going to
do for your third.”
Stuart Wilson/Getty Images
LONDON — The British Acad-
Argo producers George Clooney, left, Grant Heslov and Ben Affleck
pose backstage Sunday at the British Academy Film Awards in London.
And Bond was definitely
back. Local hero 007 won
two prizes for Skyfall for
outstanding British film and
original music. “This really
is the icing on the cake,” said
Skyfall director Sam Mendes.
I want to thank Ian Fleming
for inventing this character.
Here’s to the next 50 years.”
U.S. pics that went away
empty-handed included
Zero Dark Thirty, nominated
for five awards; The Master,
nominated for four; and
The Hobbit, up for three.
The biggest surprise of
the night was 85-year-old
Emmanuelle Riva winning
lead actress honors for the
French film Amour, besting
Helen Mirren, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain and
Marion Cotillard.
Amour also won in the
category of film not in the
English language, although
its director Michael Haneke
was a no-show.
Quentin Tarantino’s Django
Unchained won two BAFTAs:
best original screenplay and
best supporting actor for
Christoph Waltz.
Tarantino thanked producers Harvey Weinstein
and Amy Pascal for having
the courage to back what he
called “a pretty hot-potato
script.”
Accepting his supporting
actor prize, Waltz added:
“The thing that moves me
the most, Quentin, is your
unconditional trust in allowing me to put your talent
to its proper use, you silvertongued devil you.”
There were cheers in the
auditorium when Life of Pi,
nominated for nine awards,
won two for cinematography
and special visual effects.
Celebrities including Jeremy Renner, Hugh Jackman
and Joaquin Phoenix braved
the pouring rain in London
to attend. Rubber-necking
fans shivered beneath umbrellas to catch a glimpse of
other stars such as Bradley
Cooper, Samuel L. Jackson
and Sally Field stroll down
the sodden red carpet.
One no-show was Meryl
Streep, who was grounded
in New York because of bad
weather. Elizabeth Olsen,
nominated for the best newcomer EE Rising Star Award,
revealed that she only made
it to London by catching the
last flight out of New York.
Commenting on the number of men sporting beards
on this year’s red carpet —
among them George Clooney, Ben Affleck and Hugh
Jackman — ceremony host
Stephen Fry quipped, “I’ve
got a strong feeling that
I’m not the only actor here
tonight wearing a beard.”
There were jokes aplenty
during Sunday evening’s
ceremony. Fry, a British
TV comedian, took digs at
various targets including
Scientology and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,
a pic in which his own part
ended up on the cuttingroom floor. “If they can
squeeze — I mean, lovingly
craft — another six films
of out of Tolkien’s slim volume, the final film should be
called The Hobbit: Are We
Nearly Bloody There Yet?”
quipped Fry.
Meanwhile Field, presenting the award for best
original screenplay, joked
that Eddie Redmayne (Les
Misérables) was backstage
“puking his guts up” from
food poisoning before faking a barf herself.
And Samuel L. Jackson
joked there were so many
Hollywood agents on the
plane coming over from
Los Angeles, he felt like he
was in a remake of Snakes
thr
On a Plane.
Page 6 of 9
February 11, 2013
tv news
NBC Axes Do No Harm
After Two Episodes
Raver secures
central Role in
NCIS: LA Spinoff
By Michael O’Connell
and Philiana Ng
CBS’ potential NCIS: LA spinoff has found its leading lady.
Grey’s Anatomy’s Kim
Raver has landed the central role in the Shane Brennan vehicle, The Hollywood
Reporter has learned.
NCIS: Red revolves
around a mobile team of
agents forced to live and
work together as they crisscross the country solving
crimes. The back-door pilot
will air in the spring as an
episode of NCIS: LA.
Raver (24) will play Special Agent Paris, the leader
of the Red team, who is athletic, smart and witty with
a degree in forensic science.
She can drive a golf ball
300 yards and has an IQ
in the 98th percentile. She
prefers to (and often does)
work alone.
The actress joins a cast
that includes co-lead John
Corbett (Parenthood) as former NCIS special agent Roy
Mills; ER’s Scott Grimes as
the team’s forensic specialist
Dave; NCIS: LA’s Miguel Ferrer, who will reprise his role
as NCIS assistant director
Owen Granger; Red Dawn’s
Edwin Hodge, who will play
Special Agent Kai; and Damages’ Gillian Alexy, who will
play Special Agent Claire.
Repped by WME and
Mosaic, Raver most recently
starred in the Lifetime pilot
Secret Lives of Wives (which
did not move forward) and
did an arc on NBC drama
thr
Revolution.
Do No Harm is officially done.
After earning the distinction of becoming the lowestrated scripted premiere in
the history of the Big Four
networks, the midseason
drama has been taken off
NBC’s schedule following
two low-rated episodes.
The widely panned
medical series from creator
David Schulner was a modern update of Robert Louis
Stevenson’s Strange Case of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It
opened to just a 0.9 rating
in the adults 18-49 demo
and 3.1 million viewers, then
dipped even lower in week
two to a 0.7 demo rating.
Starring Steven Pasquale
(Rescue Me) as a doctor with
a split personality, the cast
also included Alana de la
Garza, Phylicia Rashad and
Samm Levine.
With just two episodes
aired, Do No Harm stands
with CBS’ Made in Jersey
as the fastest cancelations
to come during the 2012-13
TV season.
NBC will replace previously scheduled episodes of
Do No Harm on Feb. 14 and
Feb. 21 with encore broadcasts of the “Friending Emily”
and “Dreams Deferred” episodes of long-running procedural Law & Order: SVU.
The 10 p.m. Thursday time
slot has proved problematic
for NBC, which has struggled to successfully launch
With just two installments aired, Do No Harm stands with CBS’ Made in
Jersey as the fastest cancellations to come during the 2012-13 TV season.
scripted dramas in the period
since ER left the air in 2009.
In the past few seasons, the
network failed with Prime
Suspect and another dualreality drama, Awake, before
dropping newsmagazine
Rock Center With Brian Williams — now airing Fridays
— into the slot.
Do No Harm’s cancellation
comes days after Smash made
a weak return to NBC’s midseason schedule, dropping
more than 70 percent in
adults 18-49 to a meager
1.1 rating compared to last
year’s anticipated debut, and
hours after news broke that
Christina Applegate was exiting the retooled Up All Night.
Fellow midseason entry Deception also opened softly in
early January, and White
House comedy 1600 Penn
has not been able to sustain
The Office’s audience.
Do No Harm continues the
broadcast networks’ struggles
with dual-universe dramas.
Despite positive reviews, NBC
canceled underperformer
Awake after one season, and
Fox axed Lone Star after two
episodes. In 2008, NBC canceled Christian Slater’s splitpersonality series My Own
Worst Enemy after a handful
of airings.
Since the beginning of
the year, NBC has gone
from first to last among
the Big Four networks without The Voice and Sunday
Night Football. Tuesday
comedies Go On and The
New Normal have dropped
substantially without a rich
Voice lead-in.
NBC, meanwhile, still
has Anne Heche’s Save Me —
which recently tapped The
Big C’s Darlene Hunt as its
new showrunner — on the
bench, with high-concept
Revolution returning in late
March. On the drama side,
Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal,
which was picked up straight
to series, has yet to be slated.
By Lesley Goldberg
Page 7 of 9
February 11, 2013
berlin 2013
TWC Acquires Rights
to Vampire Pic Blood
By Pamela McClintock
BERLIN — Hoping for a franchise, The Weinstein Co. has
won a bidding war for U.S.
rights to Mark Waters’ bigscreen adaptation of Blood
Sisters, the first book in
Richelle Mead’s bestselling
Vampire Academy series.
Insiders said the deal is
valued at north of $30 million, between the acquisition
fee and marketing commitment. TWC struck the pact
with financiers Reliance Entertainment and IM Global,
and has a rolling option on
subsequent installments. At
least two Hollywood studios
were bidding for U.S. rights
to the movie, which stars
Zooey Deutch, Lucy Fry
and Danila Kozlovsky.
Blood — set to hit theaters
on Feb. 14, 2014 — is one of
the biggest U.S. deals ever
to emerge from the European Film Market in Berlin,
which runs in conjunction
with the Berlin International
Film Festival. IM Global has
sold the film to many key
foreign territories as well,
including to eOne in the
U.K., Universum in Germany,
Metropolitan in France, West
in CIS, Hoyts in Australia
and New Zealand, eOne in
Canada and Intercontinental
in Hong Kong.
Other Berlin titles that
U.S. domestic distributors
are keen on include Grace
of Monaco, starring Nicole
Kidman (CAA screened the
movie for buyers Sunday).
Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy
book series has sold more than
eight million copies worldwide.
In Blood, Rose Hathaway
develops a mental and spiritual bond with her “BVFF”
(best vampire friend forever),
Princess Lissa. The two girls
attend a strict school for vampires designed to retain their
humanity, where it is Rose’s
task to protect the Princess.
Among the everyday issues
faced by teenage vampires,
Rose falls for Dimitri, their
dreamy guardian, and together the three battle the
mysterious forces of the evil
Moroi who are set on destroying the Princess’s bloodline.
Blood marks Harvey
Weinstein’s first foray into
the young-adult franchise
arena. His company is currently riding high on the critical and box-office success
of best picture Oscar contenders Django Unchained
and Silver Linings Playbook.
“I am thrilled to be working on the first feature for
Vampire Academy,” said
Weinstein. “This series is
fantastic and I am excited
to bring it to the screen for
diehard fans and introduce
the stories to a whole new
audience.”
The Vampire Academy
book series has sold more
than eight million copies in
35 countries. To date, there
are six titles.
Blood will be produced
by Don Murphy and Susan
Montford of Angry Films,
Michael Preger and Deepak
Nayar of Kintop/Reliance.
IM Global CEO Stuart Ford
will executive produce.
Added Murphy: “The
addition of Harvey and
the TWC distribution and
marketing team gives us
the opportunity to present
this wonderful franchise to
the world in a bold, unique
fashion and only adds to
Vampire’s considerable
momentum.”
The Kintop Reliance/IM
Global film will go into production in early summer.
Picturehouse
Is Back: Berney
grabs Gilly Pic
By Stuart Kemp
and Pamela McClintock
BERLIN — Bob Berney’s re-
cently relaunched Picturehouse has inked a deal for
U.S. rights to Stephen Herek’s The Great Gilly Hopkins,
which has Oscar winner
Kathy Bates and Danny
Glover attached to star.
Gilly is an adaptation
of Katherine Paterson’s
Newbery Award-winning
young-adult novel about a
wisecracking, gum-chewing
11-year-old who is moved
from foster home to foster
home, outwitting them all.
When she is placed in the
home of Maime Trotter
(Bates), the weirdest foster
mom yet, she fights her way
out — but her plan doesn’t
go as intended.
Berney’s U.S. deal, struck
with producer William Teitler, marks a return to the
front lines for the veteran
marketing and distribution
executive.
Berney relaunched Picturehouse in January. The
company he founded in 2005
as a joint venture with HBO
Films and New Line had
been shuttered by Warner
Bros. in 2008.
In Berlin, the familiar
face at the markets arrived
with a company now boasting an exclusive, multiyear
output deal with Netflix.
U.K. sales and finance
banner WestEnd Films also
has come aboard Hopkins to
shop rights to international
buyers.
“Stephen Herek and Bill
Teitler understand the importance and success of the
Katherine Paterson pedigree
around the world,” said
Berney. “The story is heartwarming and true, funny
and touching. The film will
register with young audiences and families because
of its authentic approach to
the material. We look forward to working with the
creative team and WestEnd
see page 8
Page 8 of 9
February 11, 2013
berlin 2013
FROM page 7
Films to make this movie
a breakout success.”
In January, Paterson
received the 2013 Laura
Ingalls Wilder Award,
a U.S. prize that honors
authors and illustrators
whose books have made
a lasting contribution to
children’s literature.
Aniston Joins
Bogdanovich’s
Funny that way
By Georg Szalai
BERLIN — Jennifer Aniston
will join Owen Wilson, Jason
Schwartzman, Cybil Shepherd, Eugene Levy, Kathryn Hahn and Brie Lawson
in the Peter Bogdanovich
comedy She’s Funny That Way
(aka Squirrels
to Nuts).
Bogdanovich and Louise
Stratten wrote
the script.
Red Granite Aniston
International,
the foreign sales arm of
L.A.-based film production,
finance and international
sales firm Red Granite Pictures, will handle international sales on the film.
Red Granite International
co-presidents Danny Dimbort and Christian Mercuri
will tout the project in Berlin. Wes Anderson and Noah
Baumbach are producing.
Principal photography
is set to begin in June in
New York.
Funny That Way tells the
story of a married Broadway
director (Wilson) who falls
for a prostitute-turned-
actress and works to help
her with her career.
Aniston, repped by talent
agency CAA and management company Brillstein Entertainment Partners, will
play a therapist whose mother
is in rehab for alcoholism.
McHale, Graham,
Williams Unite
for Christmas
By Pamela McClintock
BERLIN — Joel McHale,
Lauren Graham and Robin
Williams are set to star in
the dysfunctional holiday
comedy A Friggin’ Christmas
Miracle, written by Wreck-It
Ralph scribe Phil Johnston.
Prolific television helmer
Tristram Shapeero, whose
credits include Community,
Parks and Recreation and
Veep, is attached to direct
Christmas in his feature debut.
Production is set to begin in
late March in Atlanta.
Christmas follows Boyd
Mitchler (McHale) and his
wife Luann (Lauren Graham)
as they spend a dreaded
Christmas with Boyd’s father
Mitch (Williams) and his family of misfits. Upon realizing
that he has left all of his son’s
gifts at home, Boyd hits the
road with his father and
younger brother in an attempt
to make the eight-hour round
trip before sunrise.
Sycamore Pictures, which
turned out the Sundance hit
comedy The Way, Way Back,
is producing Christmas. Hyde
Park International is repreClick here for more news
and reviews from the
Berlin Film Festival.
senting foreign rights and
is shopping the project to
buyers gathered here at the
European Film Market.
WME is arranging financing and representing U.S.
rights.
“After an extremely exciting and successful week in
Park City, we are very excited
to head to Atlanta to begin
production on Phil’s heartfelt comedy surrounding a
lovable but dysfunctional
family, with another ensemble cast that is an embarrassment of riches,” said
Sycamore’s Tom Rice, who
is producing Christmas with
Joe and Anthony Russo.
McHale’s credits include
Community, and Graham’s
include Parenthood. Williams
recently wrapped production
on Phil Alden Robinson’s
Angriest Man in Brooklyn and
soon will begin production
on Dito Montiel’s Boulevard.
Williams is repped by
WME and MBST; McHale
and Shapeero are with WME;
Graham is repped by ICM;
and Johnston is with CAA.
Gordon-Levitt OK
With Making Cuts
to His addiction
By Scott Roxborough
BERLIN — Joseph GordonLevitt will cut out the most
graphic sex scenes from his
directorial debut, Don Jon’s
Addiction, in order for the
film to qualify for an R rating in the U.S., the actordirector said Friday.
“Yes, we expect we have
to do that, and I’ll be getting
started on it as soon as I get
back,” Gordon-Levitt said at
a press conference during the
Berlin International Film Festival, where Voltage Pictures’
Don Jon’s Addiction is screening in the Panorama section.
Questions about whether
the romantic comedy — in
which Gordon-Levitt plays
a modern-day Lothario
addicted to pornography —
would have to be toned down
for U.S. release have been
swirling since the film premiered in Sundance.
Relativity Media snagged
U.S. rights to the film, which
also stars Scarlett Johansson,
Julianne Moore and Tony
Danza, from Voltage after
a fierce bidding war. But the
size of the Relativity deal
— $4 million upfront and a
guaranteed $25 million P&A
spend — made it clear an R
rating likely was essential if
Ryan Kavanaugh’s company
was to have any chance of
making a profit.
To achieve that, the festival version of Addiction will
have to be neutered. But
the director said he didn’t
think cutting out the egregious images would affect
the story.
“I think it is important
that those images are in
there, but what precisely
you see isn’t that important,”
Gordon-Levitt said. “What’s
important is the rhythm of
the film, the repetition of
what the Don Jon character
does, over and over.”
And while pornography
and sex addiction are key
themes, the helmer stressed
that Addiction was “really a
love story” that aims to explore ideas of intimacy and
the media’s obsession with
sex, packaged in the form of
thr
an edgy comedy.
Page 9 of 9
February 11, 2013
berlin review
A Single Shot
Sam Rockwell searches for an
opportunity in A Single Shot.
By David Rooney
BERLIN — In the grisly backwoods yarn A Single Shot,
William H. Macy makes a
couple of brief appearances
as a low-rent small-town lawyer. He wears a screamingly
obvious toupee, a cheap
plaid jacket and garishly
mismatched floral tie, plus
he has a limp, a gammy arm
and a chronic case of the
shakes. All that’s missing are
ill-fitting dentures. In many
ways, this heavy-handed
caricature epitomizes David
M. Rosenthal’s misjudged
thriller, an inbred child of
A Simple Plan and Winter’s
Bone that aims for atmospheric literary tragedy but
instead delivers overripe pulp
with pretensions.
Given that Matthew F.
Jones adapted his own novel
for the screen, much of the
blame for this lurid mess
lands on the writer’s shoulders. But director Rosenthal (Janie Jones) — while
he loftily cites the inspiration
of Terrence Malick, Stanley
Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa and
other filmmaking luminaries
in press notes — is no slouch
when it comes to adding
crude, derivative layers.
This is especially the case
with some of the chewier
performances, which seem
to be reaching for Coen
Brothers-style idiosyncrasy
but consistently overshoot
or fall short of that mark.
As crack-smoking whitetrash ex-con Obadiah “The
Hen” Cornish, for example,
Joe Anderson appears to be
worshipping at the shrine
of Robert De Niro’s hammy
turn in the Cape Fear remake.
But he’s far from the only
purveyor here of Southernfried cliche.
Aside from glowering
skies over misty forest locations (the Vancouver area
stands in for West Virginia),
what A Single Shot has going
for it chiefly is the lead performance of Sam Rockwell,
who lends the material more
conviction than it merits. He
plays John Moon, who has
lost his livelihood and his
family since his parents’ dairy
farm went into foreclosure
and his diner-waitress wife
Jess (Kelly Reilly) exited with
their baby son.
Living alone in a trailer,
John is a skilled rifleman who
has been charged multiple
times for poaching game on
Nature Conservancy land.
During one illicit hunt, he
shoots at a moving target
through the trees and accidentally kills a teenage runaway. While still absorbing
the shock he finds the dead
girl’s hideout and discovers
a case full of money stashed
there. Desperately figuring
this might be his best chance
at winning back his family,
he covers the body and takes
the loot. But before long, all
kinds of skeevy backwater
types start closing in, bringing escalating violence.
One of the key problems
with Jones’ script is that he’s
been unwilling to pare down
the novel into clean cinematic
lines. There are too many
characters and too much plot,
which may have worked with
the breathing space of prose
fiction but seems hopelessly
crammed and lacking fluidity on the screen.
For instance, much time
is spent on John’s hope of
saving his relationship with
Jess, but the climactic redemption comes while protecting a neighbor’s daughter (Ophelia Lovibond) who
barely exists as a character.
(In all honesty, less of the unconvincing Reilly is not necessarily a bad thing.) And
by switching midway from
Obadiah to an equally onedimensional antagonist in
the sinister Waylon (Jason
Isaacs), the villains pretty
much cancel each other out
with their badass posturing.
Other than Rockwell’s intense John, whose unhinged
panic climbs as he gets in
deeper and deeper, none of
the characters makes much
of an impression. And both
the director and writer show
such patchy story sense that
a lot of the buildup to the
final bloodshed and malevolence registers as suspensefree clutter. The pic’s splashes
of seediness and brutality
seem more like gratuitous
flourishes than any serious
attempt to capture the grim
Americana shadow-world so
rivetingly explored in films
like Winter’s Bone.
Shot in murky tones by
Eduard Grau and wildly overscored with Atli Orvarsson’s
agitatissimo string section,
A Single Shot becomes both
laborious and clumsy at
wrangling all its plot points.
This is particularly evident
when it falls to Jeffrey Wright,
as John’s hooch-swillin,’ fornicatin’ old friend Simon,
to explain the origins of
the cash in a cumbersome
monologue.
“The drunker I get, the
more reasonable the most
un-fuckin’-reasonable things
seem to me,” says Simon at
one point. Unfortunately,
most audiences won’t have
a jug of applejack to help
them along.
Venue: Berlin International Film
Festival (Forum).
Production: Bron Studios,
Unified Pictures, Unanimous
Entertainment, in association
with Media House Capital,
Demarest Films, Visionary
Pictures.
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Jeffrey
Wright, Kelly Reilly, Jason Isaacs,
Joe Anderson, Ophelia Lovibond,
Ted Levine, William H. Macy,
Amy Sloan, Heather Lind, W. Earl
Brown, Jenica Bergere.
Director: David M. Rosenthal.
Sales: Inferno Entertainment.
No MPAA rating,
thr
116 minutes.