I was just reading this column on Macworld about how it has been two months since Apple debuted movie downloads via iTunes, and how it has been too long and too much a success for other studios besides Disney to not join in. Even though I'm aware of a major reason for the slow migration by Hollywood to iTunes, I decided to do a little search in order to find any other stories on the status. Turns out, I completely missed this news on our own Apple Weblog. Looks like Fox may be the first non-Disney studio to offer its movies through iTunes, though a deal is still only in the negotiation stages. You guys know what that could mean, right? Star Wars available to download. Actually, I have a good feeling that Lucas wouldn't be into that idea.

Anyway, Fox has been in talks with Apple before, so we can't get our hopes up just yet. One thing I wonder is why Paramount and Warner Bros. haven't shown interest. Is it because they are going exclusive with XBox? However, nobody knows what that service will be like or how successful it will be. But, we do know that Disney has so far sold over half a million movies through iTunes (and earned $1 million in the first week alone), so I would think all the studios would be more interested in Apple's service.

What I also want to know is, what happened to Lionsgate in all of this?

Last time I reported on the confusing family known as Viacom, I mentioned that MTV Films and Nickelodeon Films were being adopted (consolidated) by Paramount Pictures. Well, I was sorta wrong. In continuing my allegory, let me just say that MTV and Nickelodeon are not being sheltered so much as they are growing up -- although like many young grown-ups these days, they will continue to live with their parents.

In case you ever paid attention to the corporate logos preceding an MTV or Nickelodeon movie, you likely noticed that in addition to the MTV or Nickelodeon logos, the Paramount Pictures logo also flashed on the screen. This is because Paramount distributed the films. But now MTV and Nickelodeon are adults and can distribute themselves, just like Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics and Dreamworks. They're still part of the Paramount/Viacom family, of course, but they are trusted more than they were as children (er, production companies). Best of all, like the adultalescents they are, MTV and Nickelodeon get to retain their cool status as brands for teens and kids, respectively.

Producer Scott Aversano has been hired as president of both labels.

As if being an indie-film lover in NYC wasn't already a dream come true, much of the city is going to be discounting the ticket price for independent films, too. Well, for a few days, anyway. In collaboration with the Independent Feature Project (IFP) -- which holds its annual market in September -- and its "Independent Film Week", 10 New York theaters will be reducing their admission on ALL shows (I am assuming this means non-indies, as well) from Monday, September 18 through Thursday, September 21. Many of the city's favorite art-house locations are included, although some are noticeably, and disappointingly, absent, such as Film Forum (I'll excuse them for being non-profit, and an otherwise wonderful establishment), the IFC Center, the Quad Cinemas and the Angelika Film Center. The fact that the Angelika isn't participating just goes to show that it no longer has any redeeming qualities left (and I'm not biased just because I used to work there). I mean, considering that it has been host to the IFP Market for most of its existence, one would think it should be included.

Anyway, if you don't mind seeing a movie for only $6 in a theater where you can't hear the subway roaring beneath your seat, you might want to hold off on seeing one of NYC's large selection of films until that special week. The places offering this deal are: Anthology Film Archives; Cinema Village; Landmark's Sunshine; Cobble Hill Cinemas; BAM Rose Cinemas; ImaginAsian; Museum of Modern Art; Walter Reade Theater; Brooklyn Heights Cinemas and Kew Gardens Cinemas.

Look out, America: The country music stars are coming! Both Tim McGraw (Flicka) and Toby Keith (Broken Bridges) have movies coming out this fall, and Paramount Classics is planning to sell the hell out of Keith and his film. According to this morning's Variety, Paramount is teaming with Ford Trucks (which is sponsoring the whole thing), Big Screen Concerts and CMT Films for a big fancy world premiere on September 7.

For the small fee of $12.50, fans in about 100 cities (as well as soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, who one assumes will get in for free) will get to see a special screening of the film, preceded by a 30-minute feature consisting of "taped performances by Keith and his co-star Lindsey Haun" and red-carpet interviews with Keith, Kelly Preston, Willie Nelson, Burt Reynolds, as well as other cast members. (The red carpet is outside a theater in Tennessee, where I guess the movie is being show. Or maybe they're all going to see a concert -- is Madonna playing Nashville?)

While this fan-friendly premiere successfully targets Keith's current audience, one wonders how necessary it actually is -- won't his fans go see the movie, even without all these bells and whistles?

The trades reported this morning that Will Ferrell and his writer-director pal Adam McKay have signed a two-year, first-look deal with Paramount's specialty division, Paramount Vantage. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal will be focused on low-budget films ($10-20 million), not for Ferrell to star in, but to enable the pair to "grow a brand via their newly formed Gary Sanchez Prods." Vantage president John Lesher, feeling that Vantage is leaning too high-brow (they're making both No Country for Old Men and Paul Thomas Anderson's oil epic, There Will be Blood), was eager to add some projects that would broaden the division's base, both in terms of genre and target audience. Lesher, however, is not slumming: He feels McKay's and Ferrell's contributions will be "sophisticated and fresh material," just like the rest of the Vantage slate.

I gotta say that I'm not going to instantly call BS on Lesher's ravings here, though that's my normal inclination with studio spin. I mean, sure, Anchorman is full of stupid humor. But it's also way weirder and smarter than most mainstream comedy -- it could have been a lucky accident, I guess, but at least until Talladega Nights comes out, we can remain hopeful about the quality of the films that will come out of this deal.

"It must be nice to always know better, to always be the smartest one in the room."
"No. It's awful."

-- Peter Hackes and Holly Hunter, Broadcast News

For all of the talk about An Inconvenient Truth's ground-breaking nature -- a top-ten Box Office showing in its first week despite playing on less than 100 screens nationwide, a unique cinematic opportunity to have an ex-Vice President open up on film about his life and ideas, an unabashed attempt to try and change the direction of the planet's fate with mere storytelling and argument -- it also demonstrates one of the classic rules of indie filmmaking. If you want to get something on film fast, have the person you're filming practice, practice, practice. It works for adaptations of plays (like The Shape of Things or Melvin Goes to Dinner); it works for concert films (like The Last Waltz and Neil Young: Heart of Gold). There are no guarantees to success in filmmaking, but if your project involves pointing the camera at someone who's doing something they've done any number times before you've certainly narrowed down the number of things that might go terribly wrong.

And Al Gore has been talking -- and thinking -- about global warming for 30 years; recently, he's begun addressing crowds about the topic. Directed by high-end TV veteran Davis Guggenheim, An Inconvenient Truth takes Gore's road show and makes a movie out of it. In many ways, An Inconvenient Truth is like the documentary equivalent of adapting a musical like Phantom of the Opera or Hairspray into a film. And in many ways it is not, because when you make a film out of The Phantom of the Opera, there's not a flurry of punditry about if The Phantom is going to run for President again in 2008.

The stars in Hollywood aren't the only ones who get face-lifts. Paramount Classics is having so much work done, you probably won't recognize it after today. The art-house division of Paramount Pictures, founded by the studio in 1998 to compete in the booming indie-film market, had a big shake-up last fall that resulted in different leadership. Now John Lesher, the company's new president, is announcing his decision to break up the division and rename it Paramount Vantage. The old label is not going away completely, though. Paramount Classics will exist within Paramount Vantage mostly for the acquisition and distribution of foreign films and documentaries. The new company will be handling the rest of the art-house category including low-budget comedies and horror films. Its first release will be Babel, which is premiering at Cannes this month and comes out in theaters this October.

As much as the changes sound confusing and unnecessary, Lesher's plans are pretty smart. The name Paramount Classics -- it always seemed to imply its films are old -- was a bad idea on the part of Paramount, which built the division from scratch while most studios were buying existing indie-film distributors. Also, as a major player in the art-house market, the company has never seen the level of success that its competitors have, and starting fresh with a new name could distance Paramount Vantage from its weak past. Already on deck for distribution are new films from Noah Baumbach, the Coen brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson and the directorial debut of Mike White.

Buzz is starting to swirl around Babel, which debuts next Tuesday at Cannes. The film, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) and scripted by Guillermo Ariagga, stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, and Gael Garcia Bernal, tells the stories of four characters linked by a single act of violence. If you've seen Innaritu's previous films, perhaps kinda know what to expect, and if you haven't, well, for shame, and hie thee to the nearest video rental facility. Jeff Well's over at Hollywood Elsewhere is either much,. much more important than us, or really well connected, or just damn lucky, because the man always gets access to the coolest scripts way before the rest of us mere mortals. So, natch, he's seen an early copy of the script for Babel, and he's quite positive about it.

Wells has a really good interview up with Innaritu on his site. Unfortunately, he didn't get to preview the film as part of the deal (apparently even his charisma has it's limits), but the interview is well worth a read. Check it out.

Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells opened up a politely-worded can of whup-ass the other day all over MCN's David Poland for what he called Poland's slamming of the Al Gore-global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, as a film "no one really wants to see" (note: I tried to find the actual piece where Poland wrote this and couldn't, so perhaps Poland said this in a private conversation). At any rate, as Mark noted the other day, Gore has been everywhere promoting his film, which he calls the "ultimate action flick", but Poland's not the only one questioning whether people really care enough about the issue of global warming to shell out their cash to see the flick, much less make major lifestyle changes as a result.

The Hollywood Reporter's Anne Thompson wrote a piece the other day on the filmmakers' tireless promotion of the doc, which will be showing at Cannes in spite of having already opened at other fests, and how Paramount Classics is taking a risk opening a documentary about global warming against X-3 on Memorial Day weekend.

For the first time in the history of the Academy Awards show, a rap song will be performed during the show's telecast. This was a surprise to me, because I could have sworn Eminem performed "Lose Yourself" when it was nominated, but apparently that was just me hallucinating. This year, several members of the rap group Three 6 Mafia - Jordan "Juicy J" Houston, Paul "DJ Paul" Beauregard and Darnell "Crunchy Black" Carlton - will perform Beauregard and Houston's nominated song, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp", from Hustle and Flow. I can't wait to see whoever is presenting the award say that song title while trying to keep a straight face.

 

Since Americans already went crazy for a French movie set in a very cold place, Paramount Classics and National Geographic figure it's pretty much a no-brainer that we'll dig another one. To that end, they spent about $12 million - supposedly outbidding several other distribution houses - to acquire the rights to The White Planet, a French documentary about the plants and animals that live at the North Pole (in other words, a whole world away from where the penguins we know and love reside). Shot over the course of three long years, the movie is currently in post-production, so its ability to attract an audience is unproven. The film's producers expect to have it in French theaters at the end of March, however, and Paramount is clearly hoping that it turns out to be wildly popular.

Is this why it took me all week to get a Dreamworks publicist on the phone? Variety is reporting that the Viacom board have agreed to purchase the struggling studio founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. Whispers started last summer that the movie factory, whose live action unit has fallen far behind the animation division in recent years, would likely sell to NBC/Universal for something like $1 billion. Though Paramount was at one point considered a viable, if less-visible suitor, more recently word had spread that they were pulling out of contention, in fear that such an acquisition would be too financially demanding for a company currently engaged in a massive corporate split. But if early word on this deal is correct, Sumner Redstone and friends have agreed to pay at least 150% of the figure bandied about in connection with the NBC deal. Paramount are themselves hurting for a hit, after the one-two flopout of Get Rich or Die Tryin' and Aeon Flux; through this deal, they'll handle distribution of Dreamworks' live action and (potentially much more lucrative) animated content.

It's pretty sneaky to leak this kind of big news late on a Friday night, but we can only imagine that there will be more details come Monday morning. Feel free to return to your regularly scheduled weekend.

... and no, none of those shots involve his work in Get Rich or Die Tryin', surely much to Jim Sheridan's dismay.

Over on The Envelope, Steve Pond reports that, besides for his shot at a Best Supporting Actor nod for Lion's Gate's Crash, Paramount Classics are launching two campaigns on behalf of Howard's work in Hustle and Flow: Best Actor and Best Original Song. Although Howard had no hand in composing "Hustle and Flow (It Ain't Over)", he did perform it in the film, and, if the song got a nomination, he'd likely be invited to the Kodak Theater to rap his way into viewer's hearts. Pond says the song has a real shot at a nomination, and maybe even a win; the Academy has been honoring "edgier" songs of late ("Blame Canada" from the South Park movie and Eminem's "Lose Yourself" both won within the past few years), and the song is a crucial part of the emotional movement in the film.

But what'll be really interesting, is if all three campaigns work, and the double-nominated actor takes the stage to deliver lyrics along the lines of "stuck in this fuck-a-marole ... got me connin my niggaz, spittin game to my hoes." Classy.

• Focus Features - whose 2005 Oscar slate is heavily weighted towards literary adaptations – has brokered a deal with Random House, to create a co-venture to be called – wait for it – Random House Films. Essentially, the publishing house will pay NBC/Universal's indie arm to make movies out of their books. Oh, sorry – I mean, Focus and Random House will share costs and profits on the titles they co-produce.
• Watch your back, Josh Hartnett – your girlfriend, Scarlett Johansson, is about to star opposite Colin Farrell in director Neil Jordan's Borgia. Set in 15th century Rome, Jordan's script is said to be chock full of "betrayal, backstabbing and murder,." I'm just saying – now might be a good time to talk about where this relationship is going ...
• John Lesher, currently an exec at talent agency Endeavor, is leaving to become president of Paramount Classics. Viacom's indie division (whose website made my computer crash the first time I tried to write this post) has nothing of interest on its slate aside from the Colin Farrell/Salma Hayek drama Ask The Dust; this is presumably why they need a new president. But like new Paramount production head Gail Berman, Lesher has zero experience in film production.
• Nic "I named my kid after Superman!" Cage will star opposite Julianne Moore in Next, and action/sci-fi about a guy who can see the future, and the federal agent on his tail. Lee Tamahori's got the directing covered.

Just three days ago, news broke that Dreamworks' dance card had suddenly gone from empty to full. First, the folks at NBC/Universal, presumably suitably humbled after David Geffen's outing of their initial lowball offer, came back to the table; and it turned out that Paramount, too, had their eyes on The Studio That Spielberg Built. But now, just as suddenly as they stepped into the game, Paramount has apparently jumped right out. According to the LA Times, Paramount chief Brad Grey was dying to incorporate Dreamworks into his content empire, but the exec's plan was shut down by his bosses, Sumner Redstone and Tom Freston. The Viacom chiefs are apparently pretty confident that now is not the time to go around acquiring companies – after all, Viacom itself is currently in the process of splitting into two seperate entities.