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PARAMOUNT
Following the smash success of his feature debut Sex and the City, Michael Patrick King signed a first-look deal with DreamWorks. He¿ll start with an upcoming "deconstructed" romantic comedy, and has also suggested that a Sex and the City sequel would not be out of the question.

SONY
R.L. Stine's children's horror book series Goosebumps will see a big-screen adaptation, now that producer Neil Moritz acquired rights from Scholastic. Deborah Forte of Scholastic will also produce the Columbia film.

UNIVERSAL
Gore Verbinski will direct and produce Universal's adaptation of the videogame Bioshock, taking place in an underwater city in social chaos. The film marks the first-ever adaptation deal for videogame publisher Take-Two Interactive.

IFC
Cannes Grand Prix winner Gomorra, from Italian director Matteo Garrone, was picked up for U.S. distribution by IFC. Based on a best-selling novel, Gomorra tells five stories about modern-day Mafia life in Naples.

MAGNOLIA
Sundance entry The Great Buck Howard, starring John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn and Jay Leno, was acquired by Magnolia Pictures and will be released in the fall. Directed by Sean McGinly (Two Days), the film centers on a washed-up magician.

LIONSGATE
Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic W has found a home at Lionsgate, which will release the drama in theatres on Oct. 17. Josh Brolin stars as the 43rd President, with Elizabeth Banks as his wife Laura, James Cromwell as George H.W. Bush, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice and Ioan Gruffudd as British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

OVERTURE
Michael Moore will once again tackle the Bush administration in his next documentary, described as a sequel to 2004's Fahrenheit 9/11. Overture Films will co-finance and co-produce the film with Paramount Vantage, which will handle international distribution.

MAGNOLIA
Wayne Wang¿s drama A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and Trygve Allister Diesen and Lucky McKee¿s thriller Red were both been picked up Magnolia for distribution. Prayers debuted at Toronto, while Red, starring Brian Cox and Amanda Plummer, was a Sundance acquisition.

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS
As part of a joint venture with Lionsgate and Shangri-La Entertainment, Roadside Attractions will distribute CSNY: Déjà vu, a documentary directed by Neil Young about his iconic band, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The documentary was filmed during the group¿s "Freedom of Speech 2006" tour.

MIRAMAX
Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell will all become family in Miramax's Everybody's Fine, a drama about a widowed father (De Niro) trying to reconnect with his adult children. Kirk Jones (Nanny McPhee) is directing his own screenplay, adapted from the Italian film Stanno tutti bene.

SCREEN GEMS
Channing Tatum (Step Up) will star for director Lasse Hallström in Screen Gems and Relativity Media¿s Dear John, an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel about a soldier who falls for a college student while home on leave. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are producing the film, which they had developed as part of a deal with New Line.

OVERTURE FILMS
First-time screenwriter Megan Parsons will see Overture distribute her film Freshly Popped, about a teenage girl preparing to lose her virginity. Escape Artists will produce the comedy.

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
Sony Pictures Classics made several purchases near the end of the Cannes Film Festival, including the animated Israeli documentary Waltz with Bashir, a semi-autobiographical tale of an Israeli soldier. The company's acquisitions also included Belgian immigration drama Lorna's Silence and Norwegian filmmaker Brent Hamer's tragicomedy O'Horten.

PALM PICTURES
Palm Pictures and Vivendi Entertainment will release New York, I Love You, a collection of short films by acclaimed directors about love in Gotham. The film is a spinoff of the 2006 art-house hit Paris, je t'aime. Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson each make their directing debuts here, and Kevin Bacon, Orlando Bloom, Chris Cooper, Julie Christie and Shia LaBeouf are among those appearing in the shorts.

PARAMOUNT
J.J. Abrams (the upcoming Star Trek) will turn to comedy for Hot for Teacher, a high-school story about a senior who wants to have sex with his teacher before graduation. Abrams will produce Jay Dyer's spec script for Paramount through his Bad Robot banner.

WALT DISNEY
Jake Gyllenhaal will play the title character in Disney's Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, an adaptation of the hit videogame series. Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace) will co-star as a feisty princess who helps the prince stop a scheming nobleman. Mike Newell (Love in the Time of Cholera) is directing, with Jerry Bruckheimer producing.

SCREEN GEMS
Jane Austen's Emma will get another update, this time heading to an inner-city high school as a Screen Gems musical, likely to be called Emme. Chris Bender and J.C. Spink, who had teen hits with the American Pie series, will produce.

WEINSTEIN CO.
The 1980s TV series ¿Fraggle Rock,¿ from the Jim Henson Creature Shop, will become a live-action movie musical via The Weinstein Company. Cory Edwards (Hoodwinked) will direct and write the screenplay, with the Jim Henson Company producing. The series followed a society of Fraggles who live in an underground series of caves and occasionally interact with other species, including humans.

SONY
Neil Moritz's Original Film will stay at Sony through 2012, with two of Original's films--Prom Night and Vantage Point--having opened at number one for Sony this year. Other Moritz hits include I Am Legend and the Fast and the Furious franchise, which is currently in production for a fourth film.

INDEPENDENT
Spike Lee is planning an untitled documentary about basketball legend Michael Jordan, to be financed by the NBA. Lee's 40 Acres & a Mule Filmworks will produce, and the director says he hopes to bring the film to Cannes next year.

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
Brian De Palma's The Fury will be remade at Fox 2000, with newcomers Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman writing an update of the 1978 horror movie. The story focuses on a young man with kinetic powers who is kidnapped by the government after they discover his unusual gifts. Ted Field will produce.

THINKFILM
ThinkFilm will distribute the thriller The Escapist, the story of a inmate breaking out of prison, starring Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper (The History Boys) and Damian Lewis (TV¿s "Life"). Rupert Wyatt makes his directorial debut with the film.

INDEPENDENT
Mel Gibson will return to the screen for the first time since 2002, playing a policeman investigating his daughter's death in Edge of Darkness. William Monahan (The Departed) is writing the script, an adaptation of the 1985 British miniseries of the same name, and series director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) is set to helm. Graham King will produce through his GK Films.

WALT DISNEY
Disney announced its entire animated slate for the next four years, including films from both Disney Animation and Pixar. Pixar highlights include next summer¿s Up, a sequel to 2006's Cars, and two original films set for 2011, titled Newt and The Bear and the Bow. Disney will move into unusual territory in Christmas 2012, releasing the film King of the Elves, based on the novel by Philip K. Dick. Pixar also announced that all of its forthcoming films beginning with Up will be released in 3D.

THE WEINSTEIN CO.
The Weinsteins will distribute All Good Things, Andrew Jarecki's drama about love and real estate in 1980s New York. Ryan Gosling plays the rich son of a real estate magnate, and Kristen Dunst is his girlfriend who mysteriously disappears. Jarecki previously made the acclaimed documentary Capturing the Friedmans.

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  UPCOMING SHOW

June 23-26, 2008
Amsterdam RAI
 NIELSEN EXPO FILM GROUP
  US BOX OFFICE TOP 5
1. Wall-E $63.08
2. Wanted $50.92
3. Get Smart $20.21
4. Kung Fu Panda $11.69
5. The Incredible Hulk $9.57
Weekend of 06/29/2008
Estimates in millions

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