EYE ON FILM
Feb 1-Feb 7
Studio/Exec Shuffle:
Universal Pictures – Holly Bario has been named executive vp production.
HBO Films – Julie Goldstein has come aboard as senior vp.
20th Century Fox – Chris Petrikin has joined as senior vp corporate communications.
Paramount Pictures – Nancy Kirkpatrick is leaving her post as executive vp worldwide publicity to start her own company; plans to handle film publicity from preproduction through DVD release on a project-by-project basis and will maintain a relationship with Paramount, working on their titles.
Paramount Pictures - Eric Kops is leaving his post as senior vp publicity to start his own company; has worked in marketing at Sony Pictures and MGM and has 16 projects in development for his new shingle.
Fangoria Entertainment – established a feature division and tapped studio exec Brian Witten to head up the banner; will focus on original horror-genre projects and forge alliances with studios and indies for production and distribution.
Unnamed - Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey are forming a new performance capture film company based at Walt Disney Studios; the company will perform all of the technique’s labor-intensive functions in-house; Disney will distribute and market its films worldwide.
New Movies:
“Nottingham” – Universal Pictures; Imagine Entertainment, Brian Grazer; no dir. attached yet; Russell Crowe to star.
“Nights in Rodanthe” – Warner Bros.; Village Roadshow Pictures; no dir. attached yet; Richard Gere and Diane Lane to star; shooting to begin in late May.
“Invaders” – Warner Bros. Pictures; Thunder Road; Pierce/Williams Entertainment; spec script purchased from scribe Jayson Rothwell.
“Christmas in Connecticut” remake – Warner Bros. Pictures; no writer assigned yet; Jennifer Garner set to topline the pic.
“The Marc Pease Experience” - Paramount Vantage, Amy Israel and Geoff Stier; Groundswell Productions, Michael London and Bruna Papandrea; Firefly Pictures, David Rubin; dir. by Todd Louiso; Jason Schwartzman signed on to star; Ben Stiller in negotiations for a co-starring role; production to begin in March.
“Simon Bloom, the Gravity Keeper” – Universal Pictures, Jeffrey Kirschenbaum; Larger Than Life, Naketha Mattocks; Gotham Group, Lindsay Williams; possible directing vehicle for Gary Ross.
“Pompeii” – RP Productions, Robert Benmussa; no studio or distribution partners as yet have been approached; dir. by Roman Polanski.
“A Little Game” – Focus Features; WAM Films, Alain Chabot and Stephanie Danan; dir. by Ang Lee.
“A Thousand Splendid Suns” – Columbia Pictures, Scott Rudin; written by Khaled Hosseini; novel to be published in May.
“My Best Friend” remake – Universal Pictures, Erik Baiers; Imagine Entertainment, Brian Grazer, Karen Kehela Sherwood, David Bernadri and Nikki Levy; Tazora Films, Agnes Mentre; no talent is attached.
“The Brothers Bloom” – Weinstein Co., Ram Bergman; Endgame Entertainment, Jim Stern; written and dir. by Rian Johnson; Adrien Brody and Rinko Kikuchi have been cast to join Rachel Weisz.
“You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” – Columbia Pictures in process of scooping up script written by Judd Apatow, Robert Smiger and Adam Sandler.
“Walk Hard” – Columbia Pictures, Matthew Tolmach and Jonathan Kadin; dir. by Jake Kasdan; written by Judd Apatow and Kasdan; Kristen Wiig in final negotiations to co-star opposite John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer; film scheduled to start shooting this month in Los Angeles.
“Dirty Step Stomp” – Weinstein Co.; Benderspink, Chris Bender, Mason Novick and JC Spink; spec spoof by Steve Basilone & Annie Mebane.
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