Warner Bros shakes up DC Comics division

By Alex Dobuzinskis – Reuters

 A Warner Bros executive guiding “Harry Potter’s” box office magic will be taking control of Superman as well, the Hollywood studio said on Wednesday in a shake-up of its DC Comics brand.

In its reorganization of DC Comics, Warner Bros changed the division’s name to DC Entertainment Inc and named movie executive Diane Nelson as president of the unit, with the goal of using DC’s characters across film, television, video games and consumer products, Warner Bros said.

Nelson manages the studio’s “Harry Potter” movie franchise. This year’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” has made more than $917 million at worldwide box offices since its July release. Nelson will continue her role with “Harry Potter.”

Warner Bros is a unit of Time Warner Inc.

‘Terminator Salvation’ producers sue investors, could lose franchise rights

Ben Fritz – LATimes.com

The legally embattled owners of “Terminator” are back — in court, that is.

Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek, producers of Warner Bros.’ and Sony Pictures’ May release “Terminator Salvation,” have filed a pair of $30 million lawsuits: One against Santa Barbara hedge fund Pacificor, which loaned them money to buy the rights to the science-fiction film series, and another against a former employee of Pacificor who helped arrange the loans.

The suits come as the Halcyon Company, owned by Anderson and Kubicek, has been attempting to raise money to keep operating their company, according to several people familiar with the situation.

The duo also is in the early stages of development on a fifth “Terminator” film, two people familiar with their efforts said.

If they don’t prevail in the suit or raise enough money to pay back Pacificor, however, they may not get the chance to make another movie. According to the complaints, the hedge fund may end up taking control of the “Terminator” rights, which served as collateral for its loans.

Anderson and Kubicek have been involved in numerous lawsuits during their three-year career in Hollywood, during which “Terminator” is the only film they have produced and released. Previous legal opponents have involved investors, a “Salvation” producer, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The suit against Pacificor involves a dispute over a $5-million bridge loan that the hedge fund made to Halcyon in December 2007 after it had provided a $30-million loan in April of that year to buy the “Terminator” rights. Earlier this month, Pacificor filed a lien against a separate company owned by Andersion and Kubicek called Dominion Group through which they were to be paid for their producing duties on “Salvation.”

Anderson and Kubicek claim in the suit that they did not owe money on the loan under the terms of a February settlement and that Pacificor filed the lien in a “desperate and deliberate attempt to seize ownership and control of the Halcyon entities and of the ['Terminator'] franchise.”

Pacificor’s lien, the complaint states, has prevented the pair from borrowing against the money they are owed for their producing services on “Salvation,” a payday estimated in the Benjamin lawsuit to be worth more than $7.5 million.

“We haven’t seen the lawsuit, however, we do not believe we have done anything wrong,” said Andrew Mitchell, CEO of Pacificor. “We believe we have the right to put a lien on the Dominion assets.”

The second lawsuit, filed against Kurt Benjamin, a former vice president of business development at Pacificor who helped facilitate the loans, paints Anderson and Kubicek as a pair of relative naifs who were pushed into financial ruin by Benjamin, Mitchell and “Salvation” producer Moritz Borman.

It alleges that Benjamin hid that he was working for Pacificor and represented himself as an independent agent to negotiate terms favorable to his employer. It claims he encouraged Anderson and Kubicek to unwisely spend Halcyon’s own funds on production of a “Terminator Salvation” video game “so that it would not be able to meet its obligations and would therefore fall under the total control of Pacificor.”

Benjamin, the complaint alleges, demanded and received numerous payments from Halcyon to close its various loans, payment that the lawsuit refers to as “blackmail.” Pacificor CEO Mitchell, meanwhile, allegedly demanded to be paid $250,000 per year to serve on Halcyon’s board.

“The allegations in the Halcyon lawsuit are false and without merit,” Benjamin said when reached for comment. ”I intend to refute these claims through the legal process and will file suit against Halcyon, Dominion, Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek.”

The suit also claims that Borman offered Benjamin and Mitchell bribes to foreclose on the franchise and sell it to a buyer group that included him. Although Borman is not a defendant in the suit, and Halcyon settled a dispute with him this year over producing fees he claimed to be owed, the new complaint alleges that he intentionally pushed “Salvation” over budget to force Anderson and Kubicek into further financial distress so they would be unable to pay back their loan to Pacificor and he could eventually buy the asset.

Asked to comment, Borman replied, “I have no idea what they’re talking about.”

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Superman co-creator’s family given rights

Marc Graser– Variety.com

Warner Bros. and DC Comics have lost a little more control over the Man of Steel.

In an ongoing Federal court battle over Superman, Judge Stephen Larson ruled Wednesday that the family of the superhero’s co-creator, Jerry Siegel, has “successfully recaptured” rights to additional works, including the first two weeks of the daily Superman newspaper comic-strips, as well as portions of early Action Comics and Superman comic-books.

The ruling is based on the court’s finding that these were not “works-made-for-hire” under the Copyright Act.

This means the Siegels — repped by Marc Toberoff of Toberoff & Associates — now control depictions of Superman’s origins from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-El and Lora, Superman as the infant Kal-El, the launching of the infant Superman into space by his parents as Krypton explodes and his landing on Earth in a fiery crash.

The first Superman story was published in 1938 in Action Comics No. 1. For $130, Jerry Siegel and co-creator Joel Schuster signed a release in favor of DC’s predecessor, Detective Comics, and a 1974 court decision ruled they signed away their copyrights forever.

In 2008, the same court order ruled on summary judgment that the Siegels had successfully recaptured (as of 1999) Siegel’s copyright in Action Comics No. 1, giving them rights to the Superman character, including his costume, his alter-ego as reporter Clark Kent, the feisty reporter Lois Lane, their jobs at the Daily Planet newspaper working for a gruff editor, and the love triangle among Clark/Superman and Lois.

While ownership of the Man of Steel is one point of all this legal activity, the real issue is money and how much Warner Bros. and DC owe the Siegels from profits they collected from Superman since 1999, when the heirs’ recapture of Siegel’s copyright became effective.

DC owns other elements like Superman’s ability to fly, the term kryptonite, the Lex Luthor and Jimmy Olsen characters, Superman’s powers and expanded origins.

In a statement, Warner Bros. and DC said, “Warner and DC Comics are pleased that the court has affirmed that the vast majority of key elements associated with the Superman character that were developed after Action Comics No. 1 are not part of the copyrights that the plaintiffs have recaptured and therefore remain solely owned by DC Comics.”

The Schuster estate originally did not participate with the Siegels’ case because Schuster has no spouse or children. But his estate later won a ruling of a recapture identical to the Siegels, which will be effective in 2013. At that point, the Siegels and Schusters will own the entire copyright to Action Comics No. 1. That will give them the chance to set up Superman pics, TV shows and other projects at another studio.

If they want to get a new “Superman” or even “Justice League” pic featuring the superhero, Warner Bros. and DC will be forced to go into production by 2011.

Universal postpones ‘Wolfman’ , moves ‘MacGruber’

Makeup Master Rick Baker getting "choked" by Benicio Del Toro

Carl DiOrio – HollywoodReporter.com

Universal’s embattled film execs Tuesday newly scheduled several films for release slots, but that potentially positive move came with a downbeat footnote: The studio also bounced “The Wolfman” out of the current fiscal year.

Universal said the “Wolfman” postponement — to Feb. 12 from a previous Nov. 6 release date — was due in part to visual effects work that’s likely to stretch deep into the fall. That would prevent several key scenes from being available for the pic’s marketing campaign, though a trailer from the Benicio Del Toro starrer is set to hit theaters Aug. 21.

“Wolfman” is now slotted for the four-day Presidents Day frame, which also features the Valentine’s Day holiday on Feb. 14. Four other wide releases are also scheduled for the lucrative session: Disney’s 3D rerelease of “Beauty and the Beast”; Summit Entertainment drama “Remember Me,” starring Robert Pattinson (“Twilight”); Warner Bros.’ romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day,” starring Jessica Biel and Bradley Cooper; and Fox’s adventure fantasy “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.”

The move from fall to winter positions “Wolfman” to kick-start Universal’s boxoffice season by giving the studio an early tentpole release. But the high-profile pic’s delay also denies Uni’s corporate parents GE and NBC Universal revenue from a potential hit in a boxoffice year that’s seen the studio mired in market share mediocrity, with its most recent theatrical release “Bruno” underperforming and June tentpole “Land of the Lost” failing utterly.

Uni placed “The Fourth Kind” — a modestly budgeted thriller recently acquired from Gold Circle Films — into the Nov. 6 slot vacated by “Wolfman.”

Uni gained another big first-quarter release by newly slotting for March 12 a CIA thriller tentatively titled “Green Zone,” which reteams “Bourne Ultimatum” director Paul Greengrass and topliner Matt Damon. And the studio tagged its sci-fi thriller “Repo Men” — formerly titled “The Reposession Mambo” — as an unslotted first-quarter release.

In other moves, Rogue Pictures’ comedy “MacGruber” is now set for release on April 16, and the Judd Apatow-produced laugher “Get Him to the Greek” is set for June 11. Uni marketing and distribution president Adam Fogelson said he was particularly pleased with slotting “Greek” on a date corresponding to the June launch pad for this summer’s R-rated comedy blockbuster “The Hangover.”

“We think we have a real winner of a movie,” Fogelson said.

Another early summer tentpole — Universal’s Robin Hood adventure starring Russell Crowe — remains slotted for May 14.

Mattel’s Max Steel goes to the movies

Marc Graser – Variety

Just weeks before Paramount Pictures invades theaters with “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra,” the studio is teaming with Joe Roth to pick up Mattel’s “Max Steel” as another action figure it wants to play with on the bigscreen.

The toy property revolves around a 19-year-old extreme sports junkie recruited by a secret agency after an accident infects his body with nanobots, making him superhuman.

Although Mattel introduced the character in the U.S. in 1999 as an action figure, and soon after in an animated series that ran from 2000-2002, he’s proved more popular in Latin America, where Max Steel is the region’s No. 1 action figure. Mattel has continued to produce animated direct-to-DVD features for the region, produced by Rainmaker Entertainment in Vancouver.

But Mattel wants to use movies as a way to relaunch the toy line in the U.S. and the rest of the world, the way the “Transformers” pics have helped generate new heat around Hasbro’s action figures.

“A theatrical film plays a significant role to relaunch the franchise,” said Barry Waldo, Mattel’s VP of worldwide entertainment marketing and strategy. “But we have a strong Latin consumer we’re going to keep happy while broadening the franchise for the rest of the world. We wouldn’t do ourselves a favor if we turned a blind eye to it. That’s the artistic challenge we’ve got.”

Roth, who is a producer on Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” at Disney, and produced last summer’s “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army,” will serve as executive producer on “Max Steel,” with Waldo and Tim Kilpin, general manager for Mattel’s girls, boys and games group, who is shepherding the company’s top brands for boys and girls.

Mattel was keen on pairing with Roth, considering the Max Steel character has similarities to the “XXX” franchise he launched while head of Revolution Studios. The Xander Cage character in the first film was an extreme sports athlete turned spy.

Roth has had a relationship with Mattel over the years when it comes to marketing and charities.

Mattel and Roth are seeking a screenwriter and director, who will work closely with the toymaker to develop the film’s characters and storyline to match the company’s plans for the franchise.

“Max Steel” will be the first pic Mattel has set up at Paramount since it began aggressively looking to turn its toys into features.

It’s the sixth property that Mattel has set up in the past year or so since signing with Creative Artists Agency to get those movies made. Mattel has “He-Man: Masters of the Universe” and “Hot Wheels” at Warner Bros. with Joel Silver producing; “Major Matt Mason” with Tom Hanks; and a musical based on a yet-to-be-revealed monster property at Universal that Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are shepherding. A “View-Master” movie is also in the works at DreamWorks, with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman producing

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10th Annual Golden Trailer Award Winners

10th Annual Golden Trailer Award Winners

Show Category Winners

Best Action

Fast and Furious, AV Squad, Universal

Best Animation/Family

WALL-E, Craig Murray Productions, The Walt Disney Studios

Best Comedy

Bruno, The Ant Farm, Universal Pictures

Best Documentary

Man on Wire, The Editpool, Icon Film Distribution

Best Drama

Frost/Nixon, Empire Design, Working Title Films

Best Horror

The Unborn, Buddha Jones, Rogue Pictures

Best Independent Trailer

The Wrestler, Mark Woollen & Associates, Fox Searchlight

Best Music

Where the Wild Things Are, The Ant Farm, Warner Bros.

Best Romance

500 Days of Summer, Mark Woollen & Associates, Fox Searchlight

Best Thriller

Angels & Demons, Trailer Park, Sony Pictures

Best Video Game Trailer

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Eyestorm Productions, Lucasarts

Best Voice Over

Tropic Thunder, Buddha Jones, DreamWorks

Golden Fleece

The Spirit, Seismic Productions, Lionsgate

Most Original

My Winnipeg, Kinetic Trailers, IFC Films

Summer 2009 Blockbuster

Star Trek, Aspect Ratio, Paramount Pictures

Trashiest Trailer

One Eyed Monster, The Refinery, Liberation Entertainment

Best In Show

Star Trek, Aspect Ratio, Paramount Pictures

Pacific Title and Art Studio to be liquidated

David S. Cohen – Variety

   Pacific Title & Art Studio, the 90-year-old Hollywood post-production house, has gone into receivership and will be liquidated.

   According to an email Pacific Title prexy-CEO David McCarthy sent to employees, efforts to obtain new financing for the company have failed.

   Pac Title will complete all current projects before the end of June.

“We will be contacting our customers shortly to explain what our intent is and to work with them to either complete their pending projects or to cease activity on the projects and transfer the elements to other facilities or return customer materials as appropriate,” he wrote.

   McCarthy’s missive held out some hope that a buyer may emerge that will leave the company intact but told all employees, “You should immediately consider yourself laid off.”

   The company received a $3 million cash infusion in 2008, but McCarthy said the industry slowdown caused by the turmoil surrounding SAG, “tax incentives in other locales and general economic conditions have all combined to create an excessively harsh industry situation that Pac Title could not escape.”

  The company has been dogged by rumors of its impending failure for weeks, after missing payroll more than once and furloughing a number of employees last week.

Pac Title was founded in 1919 by Warner Bros. animation artist Leon Schlesinger and counts among its credits “The Jazz Singer,” “Gone With the Wind” and “Ben Hur.”

Recent credits include “Terminator Salvation,” “Fast and Furious,” “Watchmen” and “Gran Torino.”

   In recent years it had moved into digital post, including visual effects and restoration. It was bought by private equity funds Celerity Partners and Ticonderoga Capital, which felt the company was well positioned to take digital work that would be outsourced by the major studios.

   But the company ran into hard times after the new owners dismissed topper Phillip Feiner in 2007. In August of that year he sued for wrongful termination and breach of contract

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How two novice producers came to own the Terminator movie franchise

Los Angeles Times –

   Anyone who saw “Terminator Salvation” this weekend might have noticed a curious credit at the opening of the film: “Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson present …”

   Who do these guys think they are, David O. Selznick?

 

   Not quite. But at a time when the big studios control almost all the major sequels, save for “Star Wars,” Anderson and Kubicek are two upstarts who, with only a single unreleased low-budget comedy to their name, snagged the rights to one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises.

  A few key details on their brief career as co-CEOs of the Halcyon Co.:

-The year Anderson and Kubicek decided to get involved in film producing: 2005

-Number of movies they have made: Two, “Cook Off” and “Terminator Salvation”

-Amount they paid for the rights to “Terminator” in 2007: $25 million, provided by Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor LLC.

-Budget for “Terminator Salvation”: About $200 million, funded primarily with a $60 million advance from Warner Bros. for domestic distribution rights and $100 million from Sony Pictures for international.

-Number of lawsuits Anderson and Kubicek have been involved in during their four-year producing career: Four, with legal opponents including MGM, a former investor, and “Salvation” producer Moritz Borman. In addition, “Salvation” executive producer Peter Graves recently filed a breach of contract claim for arbitration against the duo.

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Two Key Execs Out in Village Roadshow Shakeup

 

Village Roadshow Pictures (VRP), a division of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group (VREG), announced that it completed the restructure of its film production facility on.  Also 2 key executives are exiting. Dana Goldberg, the president of production, is leaving with a year still to go on her contract. And Jeffrey Lampert, the EVP of physical production, is going to transition to a consulting role.The restructure, led by Rabobank International and JP Morgan Chase, with current financial accommodation of $900 million and provision for additional capacity of $350 million, includes the permanent financing of the 2008 releases Get Smart, Nights in Rodanthe, Yes Man and Gran Torino which were produced in partnership with Warner Bros.

VREG Chairman, Graham Burke, and VREG CEO, Greg Basser, in announcing the restructure, said, “This restructure would not have been possible without the ongoing loyalty and commitment shown to us by our partners at Warner Bros. and Time Warner. We also pay tribute to our lead banks, Rabobank and JP Morgan Chase, who have steered complex negotiations to a successful conclusion in this unprecedented economic environment.”

“We are extremely pleased that Village Roadshow has achieved its financial goals,” said Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer, Warner Bros. “The company has been an excellent partner for over 30 years, and they are terrific people. We look forward to continuing our successful relationship and to many more years of making great movies together.”

VRP’s upcoming films for 2009 include the live-action adaptation of the classic children’s book Where The Wild Things Are from director Spike Jonze set for release on October 16. Also scheduled this year is Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law and directed by Guy Ritchie, which arrives in theaters on Christmas Day.

In its twelve-year history, Village Roadshow Pictures has become a leading independent coproducer and co-financier of major Hollywood motion pictures, having produced in excess of 60 films including, as co-productions with Warner Bros., The Matrix trilogy, the Ocean’s series, Happy Feet, Mystic River, Analyze This, Miss Congeniality, Two Weeks’ Notice, I Am Legend and Gran Torino.  

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