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i Da ly

2015 Grammys: Smith Wins Four, Beck Nabs Best Album Honors Staff report

Sam Smith (left) was tapped as best new artist, In the Lonely Hour earned him pop vocal album honors and “Stay With Me” was named record and song of the year, while Beck’s Morning Phase was named album of the year and best rock album.

Viewers of this year’s Grammy Awards would have been well advised to take a mood-stabilizing drug before tuning in. How else to navigate the endless tonal

shifts of this music industry promotional concert masquerading as an awards show? At the telecast’s start, repeating host s ee page 2

smith: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images; beck: John Shearer/Invision/AP

T

he music industry’s biggest

stars turned up at Sunday’s 57th annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Beck claimed both the album of the year and best rock album honors for Morning Phase. Meanwhile, Sam Smith collected multiple Grammys, including nods for record of the year, song of the year, best new artist and pop vocal album. Eminem won the best rap album Grammy for The Marshall Mathers LP 2, while Beyonce and Jay Z took the honor for best R&B performance for “Drunk in Love.” Singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert claimed the honor for best country album with Platinum. Click here to see a full list of Grammy winners. As for the CBS broadcast itself, the following is The Hollywood Reporter critic Frank Scheck’s review:

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LL Cool J promised that we would see 23 musical performances, which barely left any time for, you know … awards. When someone did win, they were generally played offstage within seconds. The performances themselves spanned such a wide stylistic and emotional range that the ultimate effect was more numbing than stimulating. By the end of the seemingly endless evening, it was as Lennox if you were walking away from a buffet feeling nauseatingly overstuffed. Continuing the show’s propensity for unlikely mashups of performers, West we were treated to such bizarre combinations as Tom Jones and Jessie J, singing “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” with the latter wearing a strange Stefani sheer outfit that resulted in Jones not having to bother undressing her with his eyes. Hozier sang his hit “Take Me to Church” accompanied by Annie Lennox, who for some reason then performed a solo on an imaginary harmonica during her rendition of “I Put a Spell on You.” That legendary trio Peter, Paul and Mary — I mean Kanye West, Paul McCartney and Rihanna — delivered their collaboration “FourFiveSeconds,” with the former Beatle reduced to the role of backup singer/guitarist. Kanye seemed much more comfortable in his earlier solo number “Only One,” which he performed not in the spotlight but rather directly on top of one. The Voice co-hosts Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani dueted on a rendition of “My Heart Is Open” featuring a lavish string section. Usher sang Stevie Wonder’s “If It’s Magic” accompanied by a harpist, with Wonder belatedly making an appearance only to deliver a brief harmonica solo — on a real harmonica, at least. Then there was the peculiar combina-

tion of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, although they at least have been performing together for some time now. Singing “Cheek to Cheek,” they managed to bridge their six-decade age span with finesse, although it’s difficult not to feel that she’s just playing dress-up. Bizarre performances abounded, but not in a good way. Madonna performed her new single “Living for Love” accompanied by a seeming herd Madonna of half-naked Minotaurs in a stage tableau resembling a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Performing a striptease during the number to demonstrate Pharrell that she’s still devotedly using her Thighmaster, she was eventually raised to the rafters as if ascending to heaven. Sia replicated the Prince hallucinatory effect of her “Chandelier” music video including her dancing doppelganger and a cameo by actress Kristen Wiig, but she might as well have been performing in another venue entirely. But the most truly jaw-droppingly strange performance of the evening came courtesy of Pharrell Williams, dressed in a bellboy outfit seemingly borrowed from The Grand Budapest Hotel, performing his smash hit “Happy” with all the happiness drained out of it. Like Common and John Legend would later in the night, his performance referenced the “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture that originated with the protests in Ferguson, Mo. Pharrell was accompanied by classical pianist Lang Lang, in an apparent attempt to duplicate the success of last year’s collaboration with Metallica, and soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer, who wandered onstage playing guitar as if he was paying off a bet. As is so often the case, it was the impromptu moments that were the most entertaining: Taylor Swift enthusiastically inventing new dance steps for every

number she watched from the audience. Sam Smith’s acceptance speeches, and they were legion, that included admitting how his music didn’t come together until he stopped trying to lose weight and thanking the man who broke his heart because he now had four Grammys as a result. West jokingly rushing the stage after Beck’s surprise best album win. Bennett looking utterly bemused while watching AC/DC rocking through Swift “Highway to Hell.” Prince, with his now ubiquitous walking stick, introducing the best album award by noting, “Albums still matter, like books and black Beyonce lives.” Jamie Foxx reprising his Ray Charles impersonation while presenting an award with Wonder. One of the more incongruous segments began Legend with a PSA delivered by President Obama about violence against women. That was followed by that most socially conscious of performers, Katy Perry, singing “By the Grace of God” while clad in an angelic white gown, which might have been easier to take seriously if we hadn’t witnessed her performing atop a giant robotic lion at the Super Bowl a week earlier. The evening ended on serious notes. Beyonce, as if making up for her controversially sexy turn in last year’s awards with “Drunk in Love,” went into full gospel mode with a powerful rendition of the hymn “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” That was followed by Legend and Common, warming up for the Oscars, performing their song “Glory” from the Selma soundtrack and finally, as if to accentuate his dominance of the evening, Smith and Mary J. Blige reprising their duet on “Stay With Me.” Click here for more coverage of the 2015 Grammy Awards.

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awards news

By Gregg Kilday Birdman ’s A leja ndro G. Ina r r it u

took top film honors at the 67th annual Directors Guild of America Awards, which were held Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, Calif. His pal Alfronso Cuaron, last year’s winner for Gravity, presented the award to Inarritu, who had flown into Los Angeles to attend the event from Canada, where he is currently filming The Revenant. In his acceptance, Inarritu suggested that making a movie is not as hard as it once was because of new technologies, but “to make a good film we all know is war, and we have just to survive it. If this is considered a great film, it doesn’t have anything to do with me. It’s a miracle.” Coming in the wake of previous wins from the Producers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, Birdman continues to build momentum heading toward the Academy Awards. The DGA Award is considered a particularly telling signal, because the winner of the DGA Award has gone on to earn the Oscar as best director in all but seven years since the DGA Award was created. Birdman triumphed over American Sniper, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Imitation Game at the DGA Awards. At the beginning of the evening, Jane Lynch, who served as emcee, joked that since DGA president Paris Barclay is a gay, black man and she’s a six-foot-tall woman, “between the two of us, you’ve got 85 percent of your diversity tonight.” In fact, the winners proved to be unusually diverse. In addition to the Mexicoborn Inarritu, women took four awards. Laura Poitras claimed the honor for outstanding directorial achievement in a documentary for Citizenfour, her portrait of Edward Snowden and dissection of the surveillance state. The award for television MOV/miniseries went to Lisa

“To make a good film we all know is war, and we have just to survive it,” Birdman helmer Alejandro G. Inarritu said in his acceptance speech. “If this is considered a great film, it doesn’t have anything to do with me. It’s a miracle.”

Cholodenko for HBO’s Olive Kitteridge. Transparent’s Jill Soloway took home comedy series honors for her Amazon show, while Lesli Linka Glatter won in the drama series category for Showtime’s Homeland, one of two episodes of the show that were nominated in the category. Soloway expressed pleasure in being welcomed into the ranks of directors, saying, “I just got into the DGA. I got my card three weeks ago,” while Poitras commented, “This is an incredible honor to receive from my colleagues and fellow filmmakers. This is an incredible time to be a documentary filmmaker. People are doing work that is incredibly groundbreaking and risk-taking.” During the course of the evening, each of the five nominated feature directors was presented with medallions by their colleagues. Michael Mann introduced Inarritu. Bill Murray, acknowledging that he’s a member of Wes Anderson’s acting company, spoke affectionately of the director of The Grand Budapest Hotel. Julie Delpy, who has collaborated with Richard Linklater on the Before Sunrise series, introduced the Boyhood director. And, appearing on video from London, where they were set to attend the BAFTA ceremony, Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley sang the praises of The Imitation Game helmer Morten Tyldum.

And while American Sniper may not have won, its director Clint Eastwood was clearly the most popular man in the room judging by the applause that greeted every mention of his name. Sniper star Bradley Cooper, who shut down his Broadway show The Elephant Man for the night to make a quick trip to Los Angeles, related how, when shooting that movie’s rodeo sequence, Eastwood himself got down on the ground in the dirt and directed the actor to jump over him to capture one particular shot. Cooper offered an Eastwood impersonation that got big laughs as he described how, once he got the take he wanted, Eastwood got up, dusted himself off, and said, “All right, that’s enough of that shit.” Eastwood, observing that he’s been a member of the guild for 46 years, vowed, “I’ve had a wonderful life in this business — and I’m not over with it yet.” Barbra Streisand made an appearance to hand out the TV awards for variety/ talk/news/sports. The award for regularly scheduled programming went to Dave Diomedi for the first episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, while the prize for specials went to Glenn Weiss for directing the 68th annual Tony Awards. It was the sixth DGA Award that Weiss has won for directing the Tonys, but he seemed most excited to be accepting the award from Streisand, saying, “Am I not going to be the most popular guy on Broadway?!” Steven Spielberg also made a surprise appearance just before the final award of the night to announce that next year the DGA will institute a new honor recognizing emerging talent that will be given to a director for a first film. “Our guild was founded on the premise of providing support for filmmakers in what can often be a complicated business,” he said. “This s ee page 4

Getty Images

DGA Awards: Birdman’s Inarritu Takes Home Top Film Honors

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new honor is the culmination of something our organization does very well — honor creativity and foster support.” In addition to its awards for outstanding achievement in film and TV direction, the DGA presented its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Awards in TV Direction to James Burrows and Robert Butler. Glen and Les Charles, whose shows include Taxi and Cheers, paid tribute to Burrows as “the foremost comedy director in TV.” In accepting, Burrows first said, “This does not mean I’m retired,” adding he was accepting on behalf of all his fellow sitcom directors in the guild “so we can make the term ‘traffic cop’ obsolete.” Pierce Brosnan — whose big break came when he was selected to star on TV’s Remington Steele, one of the many shows Butler directed during a long career which encompassed all genres but is especially notable for shows like Hill Street Blues — credited Butler for giving him a career. But the veteran director took it all in stride, saying of the film clips that preceded his acceptance, “How about that commercial?” before concluding, “I somehow landed in the most rewarding rat race of them all.” The DGA also presented Special Service Awards to members Phillip Goldfarb and Julie Gelfand, who received the Frank Capra Achievement Award and the Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award, respectively. Click here to see the complete list of winners.

Boyhood, grand Budapest win big at BAFTA Awards By Alex Ritman and Georg Szalai

W h i l e l a st mon t h’s nom i nat ions

provoked a large degree of shock at Mr. Turner’s omission for the top honors and Selma’s complete absence, the BAFTA film awards on Sunday night mostly went to pics that have earned praise throughout awards season. Boyhood took home best film, best direc-

tor and best supporting actress honors, while Eddie Redmayne landed the best actor prize — one of three wins for The Theory of Everything — and Julianne Moore scored best actress for Still Alice, which is still not out in U.K. cinemas. Having earned the most nominations with 11, The Grand Budapest Hotel went home with the evening’s highest tally of five statuettes, including for original screenplay. Neither Grand Budapest director Wes Anderson nor Boyhood’s Richard Linklater were present, with Ethan Hawke and Stephen Fry slamming the DGAs for keeping the latter stateside. The night’s biggest surprise may have been the complete lack of awards for The Imitation Game despite a momentous push for the film and the continued debate over its subject, late computer genius and WWII code-breaker Alan Turing. Many might be thinking the film’s chances for success at the Oscars are also numbered. One Sunday win, however, that can’t be replicated in Hollywood later this month was for the The Lego Movie in the animation category, something that helmer Phil Lord poked some fun at onstage, declaring BAFTA his “favorite academy by far.” Click here to see a list of winners.

Selma, Murder, black-ish top NAACP Image Awards

By Arlene Washington

Selma took home top film honors,

while ABC’s Black-ish and How to Get Away With Murder won top TV awards at the 46th annual NAACP Image Awards. “We did this movie because we wanted to tell their story — our story,” Selma producer Oprah Winfrey said Friday in accepting the honor. She also presented the Entertainer of the Year award to No Good Deed’s Taraji P. Henson. From one music mogul to another, Russell Simmons presented Clive Davis with the Vanguard Award for his contributions to the music industry. Simmons said backstage that Davis’ strong love for melody is blind to race, which has helped

him to break barriers in music. “His heart is so beautiful and I think that’s what it takes to understand melody the way he does,” said Simmons. “To cross genres, it doesn’t matter what culture. It didn’t matter to Clive because he was a melody man. Giving him the award meant a lot to me personally.” Simmons also admitted he’s addicted to Fox’s Empire, which follows the ups and downs of music magnate Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) and his family. He applauded the increase of lead roles for AfricanAmericans on television, Anderson but said that when powerful groups in Hollywood such as the Film Academy are not diverse, they may not understand the need to improve diversity. “The Academy shouldn’t be 95 percent white,” said Simmons. “There should be a shift in the infrastructure this time around as the shows are hot.” Filmmaker Spike Lee gave a wellreceived speech after receiving the Chairman’s Award. He said that the recent Oscar snubs show that up-andcoming filmmakers should not always look for validation. “It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work,” said Lee. “It becomes dangerous when the outcome becomes not the art but to win a Grammy, Oscar or a Tony whatever it is and you pick the prize ahead of the art.” Host Anthony Anderson was grateful to finally receive an Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Comedy Series for his role on Black-ish. After joking about how his nominations never turned into wins, Anderson admitted there was no better way for him to earn his awards than with his Black-ish cast. “I almost feel vindicated,” quipped Anderson. “It took me 10 nominations over the course of 20 years. I’m happy and humbled by this, but I’m most excited and happy at the fact that we won this as a family.” Click here to see a list of winners.

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movie news

B.O. Report: SpongeBob Sequel Squeezes Out $56 Million in Debut By Pamela McClintock Com i ng i n a h e a d of i n dust ry

projections, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water soaked up an estimated $56 million from 3,641 theaters in its domestic debut, giving new life to the family franchise and wresting the top spot from American Sniper. The performance of the Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies sequel, combined with the blockbuster success of The Lego Movie on the same weekend a year ago, firmly establishes February as a home for animated fare (Lego Movie debuted to a whopping $69.1 million). And overseas, SpongeBob is doing five times more business than the first film, grossing $26.8 million to date from 25 territories — including $11.1 million in Mexico — for an early worldwide total of $82.8 million. The news ranged from bad to terrible for big-budget sci-fi epics Jupiter Ascending and Seventh Son. The long-delayed Jupiter, starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, opened to $19 million from 3,181 theaters despite costing $150 million to make, while Seventh Son, starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore, bombed with $7.1 million from 2,875 locations

The performance of Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies’ The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, combined with the wild success of The Lego Movie on the same weekend in 2014, firmly establishes February as a home for animated fare.

(the latter cost a net $95 million). Jupiter Ascending did win the overseas box-office race with an okay $32.5 million from 65 countries, faring best in Eastern Europe and Asia. Russia led with $4.7 million, followed by France with $2.3 million. The movie has yet to roll out in China,

Japan and Australia. In North America, Sniper beat both Jupiter and Seventh Son to come in No. 2 with $24.2 million from 3,885 theaters in its fourth weekend in nationwide release. Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated pic has

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now grossed $282.3 million domestically. SpongeBob 2, which earned a B CinemaScore, hits theaters more than a decade after The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie opened to $32 million domestically on its way to earning $130 million globally. The first film was directed by Stephen Hillenburg, creator of the Nickelodeon television show. Series writer and executive producer Paul Tibbitt directed the latest effort, with regular castmembers Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence and Mr. Lawrence reprising their roles. Antonio Banderas, who plays a villainous pirate, and Slash co-star. “In the U.S., the movie definitely has multigenerational appeal. It did a lot of business at night,” said Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore. “And overseas, you can see how much the brand has grown.” SpongeBob opened in a handful of foreign markets last weekend, including Mexico, where its cume compares to $3.5 million all in for the original. And in Brazil, the sequel has grossed $4.6 million. “Hopefully, it won’t take 10 years to make another film,” said Moore. The success of Sniper is sure to soften the blow of Jupiter for partners Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow. Directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski, the latter was originally slated to open last summer, but was delayed at the eleventh hour. Jupiter’s audience skewed heavily male (57 percent) despite its female heroine, a mere Earthling who discovers she is a galactic queen. It also played notably older despite its youthful stars, with 82 percent of ticket buyers over the age of 25 (it’s likely that Wachowski fans made up a large share of the audience). The film earned a B- CinemaScore; ditto for Seventh Son. Seventh Son stars Bridges and Moore, who is nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for Still Alice. The tentpole is the second box-office dud in a row for Legendary after Michael Mann’s Blackhat, at least domestically. The good news for Legendary is that

Weekend Box Office Top 10 This week

Movie/Distributor

3-day gross

Percent change

# of theaters

Pertheater average

Cume to date

(in mil)

1

SpongeBob Squarepants 2 (paramount)

$56.0

—

3,641

$15,380

$56.0

2

American Sniper (Warner bros.)

24.2

-21

3,885

6,220

282.3

3

Jupiter Ascending (warner bros.)

19.0

—

3,181

5,973

19.0

4

Seventh Son (universal)

7.1

—

2,875

2,470

7.1

5

Paddington (weinstein)

5.4

-35

2,888

1,858

57.3

6

Project Almanac (paramount)

5.3

-36

2,900

1,838

15.8

7

The Imitation Game (weinstein)

4.9

-3

1,963

2,487

74.7

8

The Wedding Ringer (sony)

4.8

-16

2,138

2,245

55.1

9

Black or White (relativity)

4.5

-27

1,823

2,479

13.1

10

The Boy Next Door (universal)

4.1

-33

2,193

1,870

30.9 rentrak

Seventh Son, coming in No. 4, has already earned $83.6 million overseas, including nearly $26 million in China, where Legendary East is releasing the movie and where the country’s state-owned film company China Film Group made an eight-figure investment in the film. Still, that won’t be enough to stem an overall financial loss. Universal is distributing Seventh Son on behalf of Legendary and has yet to open it in 15 foreign markets. Despite competition from SpongeBob, British family film Paddington rounded out the top five in its fourth weekend with a sturdy $5.4 million from 2,888 theaters for a domestic cume of $57.3 million and worldwide gross of nearly $200 million. The Weinstein Co. is distributing the pic in the U.S. on behalf of StudioCanal. Another family film also made headlines this weekend — Disney’s Oscar nominee Big Hero 6, which surpassed the $500 million global mark, thanks to a heroic run in Japan, where it has now earned $66.7 million. The Disney Animation Studios title has earned $218.6 million domestically and $286.6 million abroad for a $505.1 million tota;. Back in the U.S., TWC also continued to see strong results for The Imitation Game, another best-picture Oscar contender. The British biopic, starring Bene-

dict Cumberbatch, fell just 3 percent to $4.9 million from 1,963 theaters for a North American cume of $74.7 million.

Rogen, Efron to reunite for Neighbors sequel By Tatiana Siegel

T h er e l ik ely won’ t ev er be a

sequel of The Interview. But Seth Rogen fans can rejoice now that there’s a Neighbors 2 in the works. Universal is moving forward with a follow-up to its hugely successful comedy from last summer that will reunite all of the major principals including stars Rogen, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne as well as director Nicholas Stoller. Neighbors, which cost just $18 million to make, earned $268 million worldwide. The studio will give the sequel a wide release on May 13, 2016 — a date it was holding for a different R-rated comedy that Uni had yet to name. Penned by Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien, Neighbors revolved around a couple (Rogen, Byrne) with a new baby who are forced to live next to a fraternity house and do whatever they can to take it down. Cohen and O’Brien are back for the sequel, which will have a female twist. This time a sorority moves s ee page 7

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in next door to the couple, who enlist their former nemeses from the fraternity to help battle the raucous sisters. Universal is eyeing a summer shoot. Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver — who together produced The Interview — are producing Neighbors 2 through their Point Grey Pictures. Good Universe, which has collaborated on several films with Point Grey including Neighbors and This Is the End, is producing as well. Cohen and O’Brien will serve as executive producers alongside Good Universe’s Nathan Kahane and Joe Drake. Neighbors 2 marks Rogen’s first deal since the media frenzy surrounding The Interview (Sony initially withdrew the film from theaters following threats of violence made by the hacker group Guardians of Peace, but then changed course and released it in smaller venues and simultaneously on VOD). Rogen, repped by UTA, Principal Entertainment and attorney Fred Toczek, is portraying Steve Wozniak in Universal’s upcoming Steve Jobs biopic.

Zemeckis Set to direct Pitt Romantic Thriller By Erik Hayden

Robert Zem eck is is on boa r d to

direct Brad Pitt in an untitled romantic thriller from Paramount and New Regency, the studios announced Friday. Plot details for the movie are unknown at this time, other than that it is set Pitt during World War II and is epic in scope. Steven Knight, who penned Eastern Promises and a screenplay for Pitt’s World War Z sequel, wrote Zemeckis the script for the project, which originally was developed by Graham King’s GK Films. Now that the film has a studio home, King is joined by Zemeckis and Steve

Starkey as producers. Zemeckis last directed 2012’s Flight, starring Denzel Washington, which was a critical and commercial success for Paramount, earning over $150 million in worldwide receipts and receiving two Academy Award nominations. Zemeckis is currently in postproduction on The Walk, a Tri-Star drama starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt that is slated for an October release. Borys Kit contributed to this article.

China Poised to Expand Censorship Crackdown By Clifford Coonan

BEIJING — China will dramatically step up its crackdown on web content to include censorship of feature films streamed online in a raft of tough new rules that until now mostly had been aimed at overseas TV dramas. Until late last year, online video sites largely were self-censoring, but the government is cracking down hard on pornography, violence or anything that might challenge the authority of the ruling Communist Party, and Hollywood movies are the next target of the campaign. “We are at an early stage in this process,” an industry source said Saturday at the Berlin Film Festival. “The government is planning to extend the censorship rules to include movies next, after imposing restrictions on TV dramas.” China is the world’s second-biggest film market, and Hollywood studios have started reaping profits from selling content to sites such as Youku Tudou, Baidu’s iQIYI, Sohu.com and Tencent. But negotiating its regulatory environment can be tricky, and censorship of movies online would make the market more challenging. “It probably wouldn’t be a huge problem if some scenes of sex or violence were cut,” said one leading U.S. sales agent, “but if scenes started to be rearranged, or there were other wholesale changes, watch out.”

There are fears that increased censorship also could encourage more piracy and could give domestic movies, which have to go through the censorship process very early on, an advantage. “The government wants to make sure it has oversight over all content that is shown online, and it was always obvious that they would extend the crackdown on TV dramas to features,” said the source. Last week there were reports that the rules had been extended to include Hong Kong TV shows.
April 1 is a key date, as that is when the new rules come into play, and more details about the restrictions are expected to emerge in the coming weeks. Marc Ganis, whose Jiaflix outfit has teamed with the China Movie Channel’s streaming movie website M1905 to show international feature films, confirmed that China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) likely will become more active in regulating the digital distribution of video content, including movies. “They’ve started with television shows — movies are on the horizon,” said Ganis. In September, SAPPRFT announced it must OK all foreign TV shows before they can be posted on video sites, and producers must present the whole season for approval before screening.
The TV rules mean shows like Game of Thrones and The Newsroom could face delays of up to nine months before being broadcast. Jean Prewitt, president-CEO of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, says the size of China’s massive market makes it “essential” for the success of the independent film and TV industries. “China has not yet eliminated historical barriers for imported films, but television opportunities have existed,” said Prewitt. “Any steps to create new barriers through censorship or other regulations seriously threaten the ability of independents to access distribution opportunities. IFTA strongly advocates that all trade barriers be eliminated including expanded and unwarranted censorship regulations.”

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tv news Williams to Take Leave From NBC Nightly News By Ryan Gajewski Br i a n W i l l i a ms w i l l be st eppi ng

away from NBC Nightly News for a number of days. The anchor sent a note on Saturday to the show’s staff, announcing that Lester Holt is replacing him for an unspecified amount of time. The news comes as Williams is embroiled in a scandal surrounding his story about being a pasWilliams senger in a helicopter that took fire in Iraq in 2003. On Jan. 30, an NBC Nightly News clip was posted to Facebook in which Williams repeated a story he had told previously about having been in the helicopter that was hit and went down during the Iraq invasion. After the story was questioned, Williams apologized on last Wednesday’s Nightly News, saying that his helicopter was following the one that was hit. “I feel terrible about making this mistake, especially since I found my OWN WRITING about the incident from back in ‘08, and I was indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp,” Williams wrote on Facebook. In a memo to staff on Friday, NBC News Deborah Turness wrote that a team of people was working to “make sense” of the incident. “In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions,” wrote Williams in his message about going on hiatus from the show. “As managing editor of NBC Nightly News, I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days, and Lester Holt has kindly agreed to sit in for me to allow us to adequately deal with this issue. Upon my return, I will

continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us.” In related developments on Sunday, Williams canceled his planned appearance this Thursday on CBS’ Late Show With David Letterman as he deals with fallout surrounding the helicopter story. During a 2013 Late Show appearance, Williams told the story of his chopper taking fire, leading Letterman to tell the news anchor that he had newfound respect for him.

O’Donnell to leave View to focus on her health By Aaron Couch

Rosi e O’Don n el l is ex i t i ng A BC’s

The View. She will leave the show this week to focus on her health and family, following a split from wife Michelle Rounds, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. “Rosie is an immensely talented star who comes in each and every mornO’Donnell ing brimming with ideas, excitement and passion for the show,” an ABC rep said in a statement to THR. “When she told us that she wanted to exit The View, we respected and understood her desire to put her well-being and her family first. We’re delighted she’s still part of the ABC family with upcoming guest appearances on The Fosters. And we know she’ll return to The View often with her unique point of view and updates on her work and her family.” O’Donnell returned to The View in September 2014 after having held a seat on the show during the 2006-2007 season. She joined during a rebuilding period for the show, which saw Barbara

Walters sign off in May 2014. Along with O’Donnell, the show welcomed Rosie Perez and Republican political analyst Nicolle Wallace. But behind the scenes, O’Donnell and co-host Whoopi Goldberg are known to have clashed, and the reboot has failed to reverse the show’s ratings woes. The View’s ratings are flat year-over-year among total viewers, and are down 9 percent among women 25-to-54, the show’s target audience.

fargo’s Hanks joins CBS Comedy Pilot life By Lesley Goldberg

Col i n Ha n k s is g oi ng f rom t h e

Minnesota crime beat to suburbia. The Fargo alum has nabbed the costarring role in CBS’ comedy pilot Life in Pieces, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The project, written on spec, focuses on one family told through separate stories of its different Hanks family members. Hanks will play Greg Short, the coddled youngest of three siblings who finds himself overwhelmed and unprepared for the birth of his first child. Better Off Ted’s Justin Adler will write the script and executive produce the 20th Century Fox Television single-camera entry. Kapital Entertainment’s Aaron Kaplan will executive produce. For Hanks, who was already generating multiple pilot offers this season, the casting marks his follow-up to his Emmy-nominated supporting actor turn on FX anthology series Fargo. His role as Gus Grimly also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Repped by UTA, MGMT and Bloom Hergott, Hanks’ small-screen credits also include Dexter, The Good Guys, Mad Men, NCIS and episodes of Bad Teacher and Mom. He is also set to appear in the theatrical release Elvis & Nixon, which is currently shooting

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berlinale 2015 Lionsgate Acquires Moore-Page Pic Freeheld By Borys Kit Lionsgate h a s won a bidding wa r

for rights to Freeheld, which tells the true story of the late Laurel Hester, a police detective who fought government officials for equal treatment when she was diagnosed with cancer. Julianne Moore stars as Hester, while Ellen Page plays her life partner, Stacie Andree. In a contest that went overnight and into dawn in the German capital, Lionsgate beat out numerous other bidders, including Focus Features, Sony Pictures Classics and Netflix. The deal for North American rights was in the high seven figures, according to sources. Even more noteworthy is the bidding war erupted after execs saw only a 12-minute sizzle reel and not a completed film, since Freeheld is still in post. Moore is a favorite to take home the best actress Oscar this year for her work in Still Alice, so Freeheld was already generating interest going into Berlin, where the producers, including Endgame Entertainment, decided to shop domestic rights. Last year, a bidding war also erupted in Berlin over The Imitation Game before it was completed. CAA and WME Global, which packaged and arranged financing, conducted the auction through the wee hours. Endgame’s James D. Stern negotiated the deal on behalf of the producers. The film, equal parts love story and civil-rights drama, follows Hester’s relationship with her partner and their fight both against Hester’s illness and government officials, who were preventing her pension benefits from going to Andree. Steve Carell, Michael Shannon and Luke Grimes co-star in the drama, based on the 2007 Academy Award-winning documentary short of the same name. Peter Sollett directed the film and Ron Nyswayner penned the script.

Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara and Benicio del Toro. Broad Green’s deal for the pair of movies isn’t a complete surprise. Last week, the company and Imax came aboard to complete financing of Voyage of Time, the nature documentary that Malick has been working on for the past 30 years.

Sony pictures Classics nabs drama 13 Minutes By Georg Szalai

Julianne Moore (left) and Ellen Page star in Freeheld.

Page is also one of the producers of Freeheld, along with Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, Kelly Bush, Stern, Richard Fischoff, Duncan Montgomery, Jack Selby and Cynthia Wade. Also producing was Phil Hunt and Compton Ross of Head Gear Films, who co-financed the film. Bankside Films, who also co-financed Freeheld, is handling foreign sales.

Malick movie Knight Sells to Broad Green By Pamela McClintock

BERLIN — Upstart distributor Broad Green Pictures has struck a lucrative deal for U.S. rights to Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups, starring Christian Bale, as well as Malick’s upcoming untitled pic. The pact, valued at $6.5 million, came just hours before Knight made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival (it played for buyers earlier in the day). CAA and WME Global brokered the deal. In the film, Bale plays a Hollywood screenwriter addicted to success and trapped by illusions. Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett and Isabel Lucas co-star. Nicolas Gonda, Sarah Green and Ken Kao produced the film, with Kao financing via his Waypoint Entertainment. Tanner Beard executive produced. The same team are behind Malick’s untitled film, also starring Bale and Portman alongside Michael Fassbender,

BERLIN — Sony Pictures Classics has picked up North American and Latin American rights to Hitler assassination drama 13 Minutes from Beta Cinema. Directed by Oscar-nominated helmer Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall), the pic is playing out of competition at the Berlin Film Festival. The deal with Sony Classics was being negotiated before Berlin got underway, according to insiders. The movie is about would-be assassin Georg Elser. “With 13 more minutes, the bomb he had personally assembled would have torn apart Adolf Hitler and his henchmen,” a plot description says. “But this was not to be, and on Nov. 8, 1939, Hitler left the scene of the attempted assassination earlier than expected, leaving Elser to fail catastrophically.” The pic stars Christian Friedel, Katharina Schuttler, Burghart Klaussner and Johann von Bulow and was produced by Lucky Bird Pictures in co-production with SWR, ARD Degeto, BR, WDR, ARTE, Delphi Medien and Philipp film production. Producers are Boris Ausserer, Oliver Schundler and Fred Breinersdorfer. “Sixty years after the end of WWII there continues to be extraordinary stories from that period, and 13 Minutes is one of those stories,” said Sony Classics in a statement. “Oliver Hirschbiegel is a gifted storyteller, whose film we are proud to bring to the public.” Click here to download THR’s Berlin Dailies.

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BERLIN reviewS Knight of Cups

Christian Bale gets caught up in a life of Hollywood excess in Knights of Cups.

By Todd McCarthy

BERLIN — Having swung so far out of orbit on To the Wonder to have been sucked into a creative black hole, Terrence Malick makes it about half-way back to terra firma with Knight of Cups. A resolutely poetic and impressionist film about creative paralysis, indecision, father and sons, female muses and life slipping away as surely as water down a river, the seventh feature from this takes-his-time writerdirector is far more partial to free association and stream-of-consciousness notations than to conventional storytelling. The upshot is a certain tedium and repetitiveness along with the rhythmic niceties and imaginative riffs. But whereas his last work of real weight, The Tree of Life, achieved rarified moments of emotional and lyrical expressiveness, this one mostly operates on a more dramatically mundane, private and even narcissistic level. While the name cast will help, boxoffice potential is still very modest. Examined with more nuance, this subjective, physically tactile film is designed not to play out dramatic encounters in a theatrical way, but to capture moments in their immediate essence, much as one might remember them. Shifting from scene to scene with all the seeming randomness of shuffling cards (the film is broken into chapters named after tarot cards, such as “The Moon,” “The Hanged Man” “The High Priestess” and so on, the import of which remains elusive on an initial viewing), Malick aims to reproduce on film the way we recall incidents, sensual encounters and emotional exchanges. He’s not
interested in long, wellarticulated dialogue exchanges but in experiences defined by physical contact, gestures, glances, light, colors, the tenor of voices, all of it overlaid by diverse music carefully chosen to express the dominant emotions of the characters. In his own idiosyncratic way, Malick comes as close as anyone does today to making silent films, in which relationships and emotional dynamics are expressed visually

and with music rather than with talk. The approach has its pros and cons. What the film conveys most bracingly is the fleeting nature of human exchange, of how moments that passed between people and lasted only seconds can remain vividly embedded in memory forever. Such incidents are backdropped by a pictorially beautiful but conceptually simplistic contrast between the cold, hard surfaces of an urban environment and the rich beauty of unspoiled natural landscapes, the latter a longtime Malick preoccupation; he even provides a pretentiously cosmic context with a few outer space shots, which might have been better saved for the director’s upcoming Voyage in Time Imax venture. The downside is a feeling of repetition and, over time, shallowness, as the sheer weight of evocative, ethereal images is not matched by complexity, depth or character development. Pointed evocations of emotional or otherwise memorable moments can create little pings of recognition and impact, but the wispy way that they are generally represented makes the pic feel lightweight rather than profound. For such an image-dependent filmmaker, Malick can also be terribly literalminded. After some quick glimpses of childhood and some gobbledygook about a pearl, a cup and a prince who enters a deep sleep, film-world denizen Rick (Christian Bale) is awakened in his modernistic beach-adjacent condo by a strong earthquake, only to then hear his father (Brian Dennehy) reminding him, “Son, you’re just

like I am. You can’t figure your life out.” As if this were not enough thematic clarity, the first of the many women we see Rick cavorting with, the reed-like Della (Imogen Poots), rubs it in further. “We’re not leading the lives we were meant for. We were meant for something else,” the racoon-eyed waif intones as she spins though an aquarium and a studio backlot. Rick may well be suffering from a spiritual/emotional/creative malaise, but he’s obviously getting what many good-looking young men want to get out of Hollywood — lots of great-looking women. Any number of interludes of a few minutes each have Emmanuel Lubezki’s exceptionally mobile, everrepositioning camera making every effort to capture something meaningful but evanescent passing between Rick and his woman of the moment. And what a collection of women they are:
There’s a physician ex-wife (Cate Blanchett), a woman he may have gotten pregnant and wanted to marry (Natalie Portman), a lovely model (Freida Pinto) and a freespirited good-times Aussie who certainly looks like the most fun (Teresa Palmer). There are plenty of others as well, especially at a lavish outdoor party scene where you can play spot-the-celebrity (oh, there’s Ryan O’Neal, and let’s have a word from Bruce Wagner). Sandwiched in between Rick’s female encounters are unsettling ones with his father and troubled brother (Wes Bents ee page 1 1

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BERLIN reviewS F ro m page 1 0

ley) that stir up still-burning family embers, including a reference to another brother who died, echoing aspects of Tree of Life. Although we don’t hear him say much, Dad’s gruff, critical nature would seem to lie at the root of his son’s problems. Unlike most of the movie, which is largely set on fashionably chic Westside L.A. locations, the men are often seen downtown on skid row, which doesn’t do much other than to fill out the film’s visual presentation of opposites: desert and sea, light and dark, love and hate, fertility and barrenness. Malick’s most distinctive ambition here is his attempt to create an almost pointilistic portrait of a man by evoking acute moments of his past and present, and this sustains real interest for a while, as you wait to see how it all might come together. But as the pic just keeps offering more of the same — beachside amblings, bedroom tussles, solo walks, musical swelling — it doesn’t build or pay off with what it seems designed to do, which is to provide either a dramatic or philosophical apotheosis. On a more mundane dramatic level, Malick’s method, which allows for only slashes of dialogue to emerge through the voiceovers and music, keeps the characters, even the ever-present Rick, at a remove; he’s a knot of confusion who reveals very little of what he thinks, feels or wants. Even though you’re with him for two hours, you know precious little about him. As always, Lubezki’s work is rapturous. Either by luck or design, the Los Angeles skies in this film are always clear, graced with soft, pastel colorings and not a spec of smog. Venue: Berlin Film Festival. (Competition). Production: Waypoint Entertainment. Cast: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Brian Dennehy, Freida Pinto, Wes Bentley, Isabel Lucas, Teresa Palmer, Imogen Poots. Director-screenwriter: Terrence Malick. Not rated, 118 minutes.

Ben Zaken By Stephen Dalton

BERLIN — A bracingly austere slice of somber social realism from Israel, Ben Zaken is the debut feature of young writerdirector Efrat Corem. The dramatic focus is an impoverished family living in a social housing project in the coastal city of Ashkelon, but the context could be almost any place where money is tight, jobs are scarce and living conditions basic. While it is refreshing to see a rare contemporary Israeli drama that is not overshadowed by the Palestinian conflict, Corem’s low-budget glumfest quickly starts to feel like a cheap holiday in other people’s misery. Most of its scenes are filmed in cramped interiors in static shots, with no music and little tonal variation. Imagine a Ken Loach movie drained of all passion and humour. Ben Zaken is a dead-cert festival booking, especially with the perpetual political heat surrounding Israel. But distributors are unlikely to see a commercial angle. Three generations of the Ben Zaken family share a small apartment on the edge of Ashkelon. Long-suffering matriarch Dina (Chani Elemlch) is still cooking and cleaning for her two grown sons, doting on the older boy Leon (Mekikes Amar), an alpha-male type who runs a construction business. The younger Schlomi (Eliraz Sade) is more problematic, a chain-smoking 34-year-old waster struggling to hold down a job while playing single father to his 11-year-old daughter Ruhi (Rom Shoshan), a fierce tomboy who is bullied and alienated at school. Tensions run deep in this pressurecooker environment, both between siblings and across generations. Ruhi constantly bickers with her father and grandmother, attracting concerned attention from teachers and child welfare workers. Unable to offer his daughter the life she deserves, Schlomi weighs up the option of sending her to a children’s home, which would mean facing up to his failings as a deadbeat dad. His indecision hangs in the air as the pic ends, feeling like a lose-lose deal.

Eliraz Sade tries to watch over his daughter (Rom Shoshan) in Ben Zaken.

Corem’s stated intention with Ben Zaken was to dramatize a section of Israeli society rarely seen on screen: the working-class residential townships with their shabby synagogues, dusty grocery stores and crowded immigrant population. This she achieves in a thorough but oppressively dour manner, stripping away any hint of sentimentality while laying heavy emphasis on drab domestic drudgery in spartan living conditions. At least the cast provide some respite from all this relentless low-voltage gloom. Shoshan is a great find for the role of Ruhi, a prematurely wise head on a young body. Hollow-eyed and heavy-browed, she looks like a Frida Kahlo painting made flesh. Batel Mashian also stands out in a minor role as a 20-year-old neighbor with an obsessive crush on Leon, her luscious beauty and lustful energy seemingly beamed in from an entirely different film. Inevitably, Corem soon shuts down this subplot before it contaminates her pic with too much joy. Because no one is allowed to feel pleasure in Ben Zaken, it seems. Nobody smiles, or dances, or falls in love, or has sex, or even expresses a tender emotion. Laughter and poetry and messy, bittersweet, hope-driven humanity are all banned from this cinematic ghetto. Corem has made a worthy and thoughtful debut, but she really needs to let a little more sunshine in next time. Venue: Berlin Film Festival (Forum). Production: Laila Films.
 Cast: Rom Shoshan, Eliraz Sade, Mekikes (Ronen) Amar, Chani Elemlch, Batel Mashian.
 Director-screenwriter: Efrat Corem.
 Not rated, 90 minutes.