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UK Extends Movie Tax Break Until 2015
10 November 2011 7:21 AM, PST
Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that film tax relief will be extended for four more years until the end of December 2015. It had been due to expire March next year. The UK tax break is worth 16% of the budgets of Hollywood movies shooting over here, and 20% of the budgets for local films. The news is designed to re-assure Hollywood that the UK is still the place to shoot big-budget movies. Recent Hollywood productions that have shot at Pinewood Studios include Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows and Snow White and the Huntsman. The tax break has been worth $151 million to producers over the most recent financial year, supporting over $1.6 billion spent on 208 UK-qualifying films. Josh Berger, president and managing director Warner Bros UK, welcomed the news: “In the last year alone, we’ve produced six major feature films here, released the final film in the UK-produced »
- TIM ADLER in London
James Murdoch Bristles But Never Falters In 2nd Appearance Before Parliament
10 November 2011 3:06 AM, PST
Breaking News … Refresh for latest live-blogging from London … Update: James Murdoch confidently and steadfastly maintained that he has been cooperative and fully forthcoming about what he knew and did not know when he testified at his previous appearance before MPs. Facing hostile questioning and bristling at suggestions the business under his supervision was like the mafia, Murdoch cooly but aggressively continues to maintain he was never informed of the specific contents of a damning email about the News Of The World‘s level of involvement or that there was any evidence of widespread phone-hacking. In a stark “they said/he said” contradiction of the former executives’ assertions, he reiterated that former News International lawyer Tom Crone and News Of The World former editor Colin Myler never showed him or disclosed to him all the legal documents surrounding the phone-hacking scandal. When asked about Crone and Myler’s assertions that he was informed, »
- TIM ADLER in London
What Will James Murdoch Say Tomorrow?
9 November 2011 1:08 PM, PST
Observers I have spoken to predict that News Corp’s James Murdoch will be better briefed than he was in July — and may admit to a small mea culpa — when he returns to Parliament tomorrow to answer questions about the News Of The World phone-hacking scandal. He’s expected to continue to defend his inaction about the lawbreaking in the face of mounting evidence that he must have known more about the problem earlier in the process than he previously testified. Back in July, he denied knowing until late 2008 that phone-hacking at Notw went beyond one rogue reporter. That would clear him of the charge that he authorized hush-money earlier in the year when he approved a $1.4M settlement for a hacking victim who knew that a second reporter was involved — on the condition that the victim he keep quiet about the matter. Since Murdoch testified, senior News International executives »
- TIM ADLER in London
Jennifer Saunders To Pen ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ Movie
8 November 2011 8:41 AM, PST
Absolutely Fabulous creator and co-star Jennifer Saunders plans to write a movie version of the BBC TV comedy. She hopes to pen the feature film next year once she has finished work on the Spice Girls London stage musical Viva Forever. BBC Films boss Christine Langan tells me: “I think she’s a genius. I can’t imagine anything more exciting than working with her.” Absolutely Fabulous, which aired on BBC America, follows the lives of two best friends – Edina, an international PR guru by trade but a 1960s teenager at heart, and Patsy, a sex-crazed magazine editor. Ab Fab: The Movie will kick off with Patsy and Edina waking up hungover in the empty drifting yacht of an oligarch in the middle of the ocean. Even worse, their cellphones can’t get a signal. BBC America has just co-produced three new Absolutely Fabulous TV specials, the first of which »
- TIM ADLER in London
Hayley Atwell Joins ‘Captain Nemo’
8 November 2011 6:50 AM, PST
Hayley Atwell has been piped on board The Return Of Captain Nemo, a $10 million 3D sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea that hopes to start shooting January 16. David Morrissey, star of Brit TV’s Red Riding, is also attached to this Captain Nemo adventure, to be directed by Pearry Teo. Atwell — who has just tested for Universal’s Joseph Kosinski-directed Tom Cruise science fiction film Oblivion – will play the heroine Sara, while Morrissey plays her uncle, the chief adviser to President Ulysses S Grant, who frees Nemo from prison to try and discover why mysterious “sea monsters” are sinking ships up and down the Atlantic Coast. Hugh Bonneville, star of PBS/ITV period drama Downton Abbey, has already been announced as Nemo. Producer Amy Krell says she is closing the finance from U.S., Asian and UK investors, and will shoot in Romania. Like 300, The Return Of Captain Nemo »
- TIM ADLER in London
‘Wallace & Gromit’ Creator May Be Driven Out of Britain
7 November 2011 8:37 AM, PST
Aardman Animations, the UK company behind Wallace & Gromit, may be forced to make its next TV cartoon series in either Ireland or Germany. Miles Bullough, head of broadcast of Bristol-based Aardman, tells me he may have no option but to produce Ploo, Aardman’s latest $3 million-$5 million pre-school animation series, outside of Britain. This is because unlike Canada, France and other countries, there are no UK tax breaks for animated TV. It hopes Chancellor George Osborne, the politician in charge of UK finances, will announce a tax break later this month. Aardman is lobbying for the UK film tax credit — worth 15%-20% of the cost of production — to be extended to children’s animation. The company must decide whether to make Ploo overseas by the end of March. For a company as British as Wensleydale cheese and afternoon tea, it is a decision Bullough hates having to make. “For us »
- TIM ADLER in London
Time Warner’s $1.3B Bid For Endemol Shows How Much Rupe Overpaid For Shine
7 November 2011 7:38 AM, PST
Time Warner Makes $1.4B Offer For Endemol One insider familiar with the negotiations describes Time Warner’s bid for the debt-laden Dutch TV company as “rock bottom.” I’m told Endemol’s owners consider the Time Warner bid “ridiculously low.” It comes to seven times Endemol’s expected $192M earnings this year before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda). It’s anybody’s guess as to whether that’s enough for Endemol’s three owners — Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset, Goldman Sachs’ Capital Partners and Endemol founder John De Mol’s investment vehicle Cyrte. I’m told that Cyrte wooed Ronald Goes, head of international TV production at Warner Bros, into making the bid; the Dutch Time Warner executive used to be COO of Endemol. “His job is to do this kind of deal,” says media analyst Claire Enders. “His view is that Endemol has significant assets that can be built up. »
- TIM ADLER in London
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