VFX Flap Over Dwayne Johnson's 'Hercules' Work Going to U.K. (Exclusive)
April, 09, 2013 4:56 pm | Comments On #double negative, Dwayne Johnson, Hercules, Hydraulx, MGM, Movies, VFXA big budget “Hercules: The Thracian Wars” production starring Dwayne Johnson is stirring controversy in the visual effects community because of a decision by co-producer MGM to base all the post-production in the United Kingdom, according to insiders on the movie.
With the $110 million budget for the film already inching up, MGM has told bidders on the project directed by Brett Ratner that $30 million of post-production needs to take place in the United Kingdom.
A spokeswoman for MGM said the studio had no comment. A production executive close to the film said only that the film “is a European production, so everything is being done in Europe.”
The decision was presumably because the U.K. has a generous tax incentive, which in this case would yield a $6 million credit back to MGM. The visual effects business, about $18 million of work,...
Read MoreRoger Ebert: Movie Maven, Digital Immigrant, Unconquerable Spirit
April, 05, 2013 7:59 am | Comments On #Cannes, Critic, Movies, news, reviews, Roger EbertIt was March 2009 when Roger Ebert popped up on my email.
“What do you think about Twitter?” the critic, who died of cancer on Thursday, asked me out of the blue.
What did I know? All I knew was that it was the new internet plaything that had everyone buzzing. Roger, who I knew mainly by his outsized reputation and his famous thumbs, was mulling whether he should start an account. He wanted my view as another legacy print journalist who had just jumped into the digital deep end with TheWrap.
Should he leave the Chicago Sun-Times, where he’d spent four-plus decades, he pondered? Could he become a standalone brand in the brave new world of the internet, as newspapers fired their critics, one by one?
Also read: Alonso Duralde: How Roger...
Read MoreMovie Market Research Fractures More – Who Will Change the Game?
April, 02, 2013 7:56 pm | Comments On #Ipsos OTX, Movies, mpg, nrg, Vincent BruzzeseOnce again, the movie industry fractured just a little bit more today. Ipsos OTX, one of the leading market research firms, sold its worldwide motion picture group to a group of investors led by Vincent Bruzzese. That’s the same impulse that propelled Reed Elsevier to sell Marketcast, another major market researcher, to a similar group about a year ago.
These are the outfits that quietly rule over Hollywood marketing: testing trailers, conducting research screenings, tracking opening weekend and gauging consumer fandom.
The big global players -- Ipsos, Reed Elsevier -- are getting out of the Hollywood game, a sign of their inability to figure out how to make the fast-evolving business function in their standardized business models.
This leaves the research landscape peppered with three big players, including NRG (still secretive enough not to have a logo)....
Read MoreVincent Bruzzese on MPG Sale: The Consumer Has Changed, but Not the Way We Do Research
April, 02, 2013 11:28 am | Comments On #Ipsos, Market Research, Media, Movies, OTX, Vincent BruzzeseTheWrap grilled Vincent Bruzzese, the newly minted CEO of Motion Picture Group LLC, on the day he announced a break off from Ipsos OTX and set a course as an independent research company.
What set this in motion?
This is a very amicable split. From our perspective we’re looking forward as an independent company to evolve research beyond what it has been.
There are so many changes to the research landscape, what is the reason for that?
Despite the fact that there’s a number of research companies, tools, innovations, you see more movies losing money than ever before. Now there’s an "Ishtar every three or four months. There’s blame to go around, and...
Ipsos OTX Sells Motion Picture Market Research Group (Exclusive, Updated)
April, 02, 2013 8:41 am | Comments On #Ipsos, Ipsos OTX MediaCT, Market Research, MoviesIpsos, the global market research firm, is selling its motion picture research division to an investment group, the group's president Vincent Bruzzese told TheWrap.
Update: the companies confirmed the news broken by TheWrap in a news release on Tuesday.
It read: "The Ipsos OTX Motion Picture Group (MPG), a top research company that services the movie business with comprehensive data on everything from film development to audience analysis, today announced a collaborative decision to spin off as an independent company from Ipsos, the Paris-‐based global leader in market research."
The motion picture group, known as the MPG division of Ipsos OTX, will move as a unit with Bruzzese, who has led movie research for the past two years and will continue to do so, he said. He will become the CEO.
The investment group is led David Lugliani, a...
Read MoreCasting Ace Reporter Jeff Sneider Rejoins TheWrap!
April, 01, 2013 10:58 am | Comments On #jeff sneider, Media, Movies, thewrap
Jeff Sneider, the ace casting reporter who won his early reporting chops at TheWrap, will be returning to the site as film reporter covering casting and deals, I’m thrilled to let you know.
Jeff will be taking over the Deal Central column that he anchored before heading to Variety, where he became one of the trade’s most tireless and passionate reporters on the film business.
“I once acknowledged that 'second chances are rare in this business,' and I'm grateful to TheWrap for believing in me and offering me this exciting opportunity,” Sneider said. “I've been impressed with how TheWrap has grown since I've been away and I look forward to returning to this top-...
Read MoreWhere’s the Beef Stroganoff? NYT Backs Down on Sexist Obit
March, 31, 2013 8:47 am | Comments On #Media, new york times, New York Times obituary, ObitA Twitter avalanche descended on the New York Times Saturday for sexism in an obituary. The Times backed down. Score one for Twitter and feminism, which, if I’m not completely crazy, just might be rediscovering the voice it left back in the 1970s.
Not that the Times’ Douglas Martin didn’t stick his foot in his mouth. He opened the obituary for gifted rocket scientist Yvonne Brill with the words:
“She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. “The world’s best mom,” her son Matthew said."
Not until the second paragraph did the obit note that she “was...
Read MoreTheGrill Conference Expands to AFCI Locations Show in June
March, 27, 2013 12:53 pm | Comments On #AFCI, Media, Movies, Television, The Grill, The Wrap, TheGrillExciting news: we are expanding our popular Grill conference to The Locations Show, a two-day gathering in downtown Los Angeles in June that serves the global movie and television production industry.
TheGrill@ Locations Show will take place on Friday, June 28, at the Los Angeles Convention Center and will feature Wrap journalists interviewing industry leaders and innovators focused on the changing landscape of global production.
We will have a special segment on China and its place as the fastest-growing market for entertainment content of all kinds. TheGrill also will feature the latest technology and innovative products, as well as the most relevant financing incentives for producers, production managers and directors. A full program will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
"The team at ...
Read MoreRon Burkle, Richard Beckman Form 3 Lions Branded Entertainment
March, 25, 2013 2:36 pm | Comments On #Media, Richard Beckman, Ron Burkle, three lions entertainmentBillionaire Ron Burkle and former Hollywood Reporter CEO Richard Beckman have joined forces to create a new branded entertainment company, Three Lions Entertainment, they announced on Monday.
Joel Katz, global chairman of Greenberg Traurig’s international media and entertainment practice, will be a minority partner and have a seat on the board. Three Lions Entertainment's first TV specials will revive "Fashion Rocks" and "Movies Rock" that were previously made with Conde Nast.
Beckman left Prometheus, then-parent of the Reporter, last year. He had been CEO, and previously had been a senior executive at Conde Nast. The new company will be based in New York City and its offices will open in April.
...
Read MoreTom Cruise Lawyer on 'In Touch' Lawsuit: There Won't Be a Settlement (Exclusive)
March, 25, 2013 1:58 pm | Comments On #In Touch, magazine, Media, Movies, Tom CruiseTom Cruise is planning on a courtroom confrontation with the publishers of “In Touch” and “Life & Style” magazine despite ongoing private mediation, his attorney exclusively told TheWrap.
“I don’t expect there will be a settlement,” attorney Bert Fields told TheWrap, after reports that the case had gone to private mediation. “This isn’t just about money. We would want the record made absolutely clear with some prominence that their story was not true. They’d have to say it on the cover, and there would have to be some financial amount.”
Also read: ...
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Description
Sharon Waxman's take on life on the left coast, high culture, low culture and the business of entertainment and media.
Follow me on Twitter @sharonwaxman and follow TheWrap @thewrap!
Sharon is also the author of two books, Rebels on the Back Lot and Loot.
