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Tribeca Awards Funds to Six New Media Projects
40 minutes ago
Six interactive docu projects from creatives including Gael Garcia Bernal have been awarded a total of $400,000 from the Tribeca Film Institute New Media Fund.
The nonprofit Tfi and the Tribeca Film Festival, the fest with which Tfi is loosely affiliated, have both positioned themselves as champions of transmedia and multiplatform works in recent years. It’s the third year Tfi has handed out coin from its new media fund to support such work, and the 2013 fest was the first to incorporate interactive projects, grouped under the subheading Storyscapes, as part of the festival’s main slate of titles.
Bernal teams with Marc Silver and Lina Srivastava on “Who is Dayani Cristal?,” a cross-platform look at poverty, immigration and human rights all pegged on the discovery of an unidentified body in Arizona.
Also among the projects snagging funds are “Chasing the Sun,” Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simon’s interactive online tale »
- Gordon Cox
Helen Mirren and Manish Dayal Set to Make ‘Journey’ for DreamWorks
1 hour ago
Helen Mirren and Manish Dayal are set to star in the DreamWorks pic “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” which is based on the Richard Morais novel.
Lasse Hallstrom will direct from a script by Steven Knight. Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Juliet Blake are producing.
Pic revolves around an Indian family that moves to Southern France and opens an Indian restaurant a hundred feet across the street from a Michelin-starred French restaurant, and a culinary battle ensues.
Pic will bow on Aug. 8, 2014.
The CAA-repped Mirren can be seen next in the Summit pic “Red 2.” Past credits for Dayal, who is repped by by Innovative Artists and Industry Entertainment, include “90210″ and “The Good Wife.” »
- Justin Kroll
Sandie Don Upped To Head Of Distribution At Hopscotch/eOne
1 hour ago
London — Entertainment One has upped co-founder Sandie Don to head of distribution for its Aussie film biz Hopscotch/eOne.
In the role, Don will oversee theatrical distribution for Hopscotch/eOne including acquisitions, sales and marketing.
Don, who previously held the role of marketing and acquisitions director, will continue to focus on both the acquisition and distribution of local and international productions as well as the lineup from eOne output partners including Summit and Lakeshore.
Don formed Hopscotch Films in 2002 with partners Troy Lum and Frank Cox. The outfit grew to become one of Australia’s leading indie distribs and was subsequently acquired by eOne in 2011.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with Sandie for many years and I’m delighted to announce her promotion,” said Lum, managing director of Hopscotch/eOne. “Sandie has an unparalleled understanding of our market and outstanding relationships with the talented creative community in Australia. »
- Diana Lodderhose
Snowden YouTube Film Delivers Digital Snapshot
1 hour ago
Hong Kong–The team of Hong Kong film makers who last week delivered “Verax”, a short film about fugitive former Nsa operative Edward Snowden, say they were propelled by an urge to get beyond the media headlines.
The picture was made by a quartet of semi-professionals comprising Jeff Floro (謝夫發露), Edwin Lee (李健恩), Shawn Tse (謝兆龍) and Marcus Tsui (崔正傑), and was posted to YouTube late last week. It was scripted by Tsui and Lee.
“First it was a snapshot in time. When Snowden popped up in Hong Kong he got so much attention that it really got people talking. We wanted to give an alternative view on the situation, beyond the media chase for where he was and what he knew,” Lee, a former TV and multimedia journalist with Hong Kong’s Atv and the South China Morning Post, told Variety.
Others on the team see “Verax” in more political terms. »
- Patrick Frater
DreamWorks Animation Gives ‘Turbo’ Boost to Macau
13 hours ago
New DreamWorks Animation feature “Turbo” will have its Asian regional premiere in Macau on July 13, a few days ahead of its North American commercial release on July 17.
The picture will be screened at a special event at the Venetian Theater, within the giant Venetian Macao casino resort complex, as part of the ongoing launch of The DreamWorks Experience at Cotai Strip Resorts.
Opening on July 1, The DreamWorks Experience is a family-oriented attraction featuring characters from the Dwa movie stable.
The Experience is a joint venture between Dwa and Hong Kong stock market-listed casino operator Sands China. It will include daily parades and meet-and-greets with characters, including Po from “Kung Fu Panda”; Shrek, Fiona and Puss in Boots from “Shrek”; Alex the lion, King Julien and the penguins from “Madagascar”; and Toothless and Hiccup from “How to Train Your Dragon.” From the fourth quarter of 2013, a sound and light show and »
- Variety Staff
Film Review: ‘The Lone Ranger’
13 hours ago
In classic Westerns, the hero rides off into the sunset, but in “The Lone Ranger,” it’s Tonto we see shambling off toward Monument Valley as the credits roll. No longer simply the sidekick, Tonto gets top billing in Disney’s extravagant but exhausting reboot, whose vaguely revisionist origin story partners a heavily face-painted Johnny Depp with the blandly handsome Armie Hammer. Directed by “Pirates of the Caribbean’s” Gore Verbinski, this over-the-top oater delivers all the energy and spectacle audiences have come to expect from a Jerry Bruckheimer production, but sucks out the fun in the process, ensuring sizable returns but denying the novelty value required to support an equivalent franchise.
It’s a testament to Depp’s Lon Chaney-like ability to reinvent himself from role to role that so much of Bruckheimer’s quarter-of-a-billion-dollar gamble rides on whether he can bring some of that Jack Sparrow mojo »
- Peter Debruge
New L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti Vows to End Runaway Production, Hire ‘Film Czar’
15 hours ago
Los Angeles’ newly inaugurated mayor, Eric Garcetti, pledged to be a “salesman-in-chief” for the city, including “ending runaway film and TV production for good.”
After being sworn in at a ceremony on the steps of City Hall on Sunday evening, Garcetti announced a series of goals for his term, much of them focusing on the city’s business climate. The flight of production from the Los Angeles area — from major feature films to NBC’s “Tonight Show” — was part of his focus during the campaign for mayor.
“I’ll lobby hard in Sacramento, and at the county level … and I’ll set an example in L.A., by working to eliminate the tangle of fees and rules that make filming here more like ‘Les Miserables,’ instead of ‘Fast and Furious’ like it ought to be,” Garcetti said, before quipping about the showbiz references in his prepared speech, “We were going to go with ‘Happy Feet, »
- Ted Johnson
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