Gravitas, Variance pact on indies

Gravitas Endeavors and Variance Films are joining to obtain and co-release seven to eight independent films yearly theatrically inside the U.S. and Canada and also on VOD.Companies made the announcement Thursday, every day just before the outlet of South by Southwest, where the companies plan to use their purchases teams to search for independent, documentary and foreign films that will make the most of every day and date theatrical/VOD release. Both companies may even still acquire films individually for individual slates.The partnership uses a P&A fund created by Gravitas while retaining key extended-term rights. Variance will execute the theatrical release Gravitas will handle the film across VOD operators.The companies suggested the alliance just like a natural extension from the relationship built throughout the final couple of years where Variance has handled theatrical and Gravitas has handled VOD include "American: The Total Amount Hicks Story, "Amigo," "Ip Guy," "Ip Guy 2: Legend in the Grandmaster," "Prior to the Light Takes Us," "Legend in the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen," "The Lottery," "White-colored on Grain" and "Passport to love.InchInchThis partnership reduces another barrier for filmmakers, developing a thrilling and financially viable new alternative for people who might otherwise need to either pay a less-than-sufficient arrangement or possibly have no choice but in to the arena of fundraising event to locate P&A," mentioned Dylan Marchetti, founding father of Variance Films.Six-year-old Gravitas is possessed by founder Nolan A. Gallagher and funded by earnings. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Jessica Lucas Haunted With The Evil Dead

She's in predicts come down for the woodsSince acquiring in Jane Levy to switch Lily Collins becasue it is leading lady, the Evil Dead reboot remains on something from the casting roll, with director Fede Alvarez accumulating the type of Lou Taylor Pucci and Shiloh Fernandez. The feminine quotient is becoming high once more, as Cloverfield's Jessica Lucas and newcomer Elizabeth Blackmore will be in predicts join them.The first film's creator Mike Raimi is creating this redo along with regular cohorts Make the most of Tapert and Bruce Campbell, as well as the slightly changed story finds Levy as Mia, a young lady who heads with a remote cabin having a couple of pals to weather a drug withdrawal. Lucas, supposing she eventually signs on, would play a nurse who is also really Mia's nearest friend. Blackmore would play Fernandez' fiancée, a completely new face among the gang.But, this being The Evil Dead, there's an awful, Necronomicon-created surprise awaiting our youthful figures, getting a horde of demons just waiting to result in danger.Alvarez is positioned to kick the madness off this April in Nz, with shooting also planned for Michigan.

Investor Service Blasts Disney For Giving CEO Bob Iger Too Much Pay And Power

Disney sounds spitting mad about a new report from Institutional Shareholder Services that urges stockholders to vote against some of the company’s board candidates — and, in an advisory vote,to oppose the compensation agreement for CEO Bob Iger. ISS “has substituted its opinion for the studied analysis and judgment reached by the Board” based on a view of the company that’s “both deeply flawed and out of touch with shareholder interests,” Disney said today in an SEC filing. Yesterday’s ISS report charged that Disney’s agreement to makeIger the company’s chairman as well as CEO gives him too much power and is “an about-face” from the corporate governance reforms it made in 2004. At the time, Disney was fighting the widely held view that it had a weak board that merely rubber-stamped decisions from then-CEO Michael Eisner. ISS adds thatIger’s compensation “has risen sharply over the past five years despite lackluster shareholder returns.” When he becomes chairman, as well as CEO, Iger’s pay package will rise to $30M from $26M. That makes the chairman position “little more than a bargaining chip” for independent directors when they look for a successor to Iger when he steps down in 2016. ISS urged investors to vote against the members of the Governance and Nominating Committee who approved the change: Judith Estrin, Aylwin Lewis, Robert Matschullat, and Sheryl Sandberg. It also called for a “no” vote when shareholders are asked to give their opinion about the compensation arrangement. In response, Disney says that the board decided that “succession planning would be best served” by having Iger as chairman, and wouldhelp “enable a healthy mentoring process” for his replacement. The company never said that it would keep the two jobs separate: The decisions “are necessarily situational and need to be based on an assessment of the structure that would best serve the interests of shareholders.” The company adds that 90% of the board is independent, and has an independent lead director. As for the say-on-pay vote, Disney says that Iger’s “among the most successful and well-regarded chief executive officers in the media industry” and has “delivered exceptional total shareholder return.” Disney says that a $100 investment made in October 2005 when Iger became CEO was worth $171 at the end of 2011. His pay is “entirely in line with the compensation paid chief executive officers of the five other media peers” — News Corp., Time Warner, Comcast, CBS, and Viacom.

Ratings: Daytona 500 Helps Fox Finish First Smash Increases

The Bachelor, Ben and Courtney Nine days to the Bachelor then one lady remains a substantial subject of conversation: Courtney. After three effective fantasy dates, last week's removed contestant Kacie returned to warn Ben (again) in regards to the trash-speaking, very confident model. We spoken with Chris Harrison, who notifies us that Courtney is constantly dominate the conversation in next week's Women Tell All episode. Plus: What went wrong with Nicki adding to her exit? You think Nicki was excessively confident?Chris Harrison: I don't think she was excessively confident since just learn your date along with your relationship and there's very little else to check on it to. Only we have an opportunity to watch Lindzi watching Courtney plus it was only another level. The Bachelor's Chris Harrison: I believed Kacie might be inside the final two Where you think it went wrong with Nicki?Harrison: There's not a problem with Nicki or their relationship, but you're splitting fur at this time around. Toward the conclusion, you have to request: Which do I see developing a serious run as of this with? At this time around Lindzi and Courtney fit that bill. It's pretty sure Ben's deeply deeply in love with both of these as well as it's strange to condition that and look for how different they are, but that happens every season. You'd think you'd reach the finish in the show with two similar women, but it's rarely the problem. Why Lindzi get all the adventurous dates?Harrison: It absolutely was just coincidence. I observed everybody was acquiring on might I'm bad since we made Lindzi do every one of these dying-repel stunts. Perhaps you have think Courtney was genuine in their apology to Ben about how precisely she treated the women?Harrison: The big question for you is if anybody is buying it. She's trying to do some serious damage control and fasten this that is one factor we'll still discuss within the Women Tell All. Can she even get this right? And eventually, can it be round the viewer or any other women to not accept an apology so when not, are you currently presently no a lot better than Courtney is? In my opinion she's doing everything she'll to correct it, but it's around Ben as well as the watching individuals to determine if they are purchasing it, and also at this time around public opinion remains not buying it. The Bachelor's Chris Harrison: I never might have predicted this negative reaction to Ben Did Kacie can whatsoever when she returned?Harrison: I believed maybe he gained a mistake with Kacie, only because I realize that particular in the reasons he removed her was making it simpler on themselves, on her behalf family and her. Her father mentioned if she's not the primary one, then eliminate her which he came off that hometown date thinking, "It won't happen, therefore i will." To go to from, she's a front-runner and saying, "I like this girl" to "I'm getting rid of her" was this kind of drastic move, despite the fact that I understood it, I believed she may result in farmville. I wouldn't are actually surprised if he'd taken her back. It seems virtually every season lately someone returns. Harrison: Every season you have to discover should there be somebody who needs that closure and desires to come back. With Kacie, it fit his or her goodbye was horrible. She didn't request anything and you'll understand why she wanted that closure. Then, once it absolutely was all mentioned and done, she needed another parting shot at Courtney. The Bachelor's Emily on her behalf account surprising exit: People say I dodged a bullet Simply how much did her words really weigh on his concluding decision?Harrison: If the was sweet little Kacie who everyone reliable and respected, it hit somewhat harder for him because her words moved a little excess fat. He'd justified all things in his mind plus it was tenuous at best. Kacie was the hay who broke the camel's back and very sent him in to a tailspin. He'd it within the mind it had been OK which he's in a great place, but she absolutely destroyed that. Exactlty what can you tease about next week's Women Tell All episode?Harrison: Inside a couple of days is all about Courtney. The women stick to the pack attitude that they're not buying it, and then we try taking a little measures to correct might attempt to discover if we could resolve it. We retrace good quality figures because you forget that Courtney wasn't that large from the deal for your first half from the show. Blakeley needed more warmth, we consult with Jenna, Jennifer, who was simply huge front-runner then just left, and Jamie, who made her awkward exit more awkward. More youthful crowd happen to be waiting to apologize to Casey S. because which were weighing on him substantially. He felt like he'd handled that poorly. The women were certainly harsh on him. They were in the mood and so they were feisty capable to go, so he caught his great deal of flak. Watch this week's Bachelor: The Morning After <

New Avengers image featuring Thor and Agent Coulson

[brightcove]1213024251001[/brightcove]The Avengers' cinema release marches ever closer, and the promotional material just keeps on coming.The latest arrival is a new image featuring Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) looking concernedly at a computer monitor in the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.Is it something sinister? Or are they just just browsing Black Widow's Facebook page?We'll find out when The Avengers opens in UK cinemas on 27 April 2012.

Rachael Ray: Cook took to new venture

Host Rachael Ray shares a few laughs with husband John Cusimano on the kitchen set of her daytime talkshow.As her eponymous syndicated talkshow hits the 1,000-episode mark, cook, entrepreneur and infectiously upbeat television personality Rachael Ray attributes its success and popularity to the fact that she's as excited about it today as she was when it began."From the very first day of the show and 1,000 episodes later, I absolutely love having a live audience and the energy that you get from that," Ray says. "It's as powerful to me now as it was that first day."While she was "nervous" those first couple of years mingling at the on-set kitchen table with A-list movie stars and world leaders that she'd once admired from afar, Ray is now considered a heavy-hitter conversationalist with knife-sharp interview skills, effortlessly engaging the eclectic pool of on-air talent with whom she has, quite literally, broken bread (from pita to sourdough to focaccia)."You feel more comfortable in your own skin as time goes on," says Ray, whose enviable list of past guests includes Bill Clinton, Tom Jones, Ringo Starr and Michael J. Fox.But playing host to such an impressive array of celebrities has also been a grounding experience for Ray."You learn that whether or not somebody is a huge athlete or a famous politician or a movie star that we're all just human," she says. "People are just people, and that's one aspect of our show that's really unique and that we've worked on developing. Whether we have an Oscar-winning actress on the show or the president of the United States, they are there with their elbows on the kitchen table and for a minute they forget that they are famous. When they come to our show we want them to feel comfortable and relaxed and just be themselves."It's the on-set informality and Ray's down-to-earth, girl-next-door affability that works in the show's favor, proffers exec producer Janet Annino."Ours is not a sensationalist show and Rachael is not interested in gossip," Annino says. "What she's interested in is what a person's favorite foods are and what are her must-have beauty products. For all guests the show is a safe, warm and comfortable place to be. When people come for a visit it doesn't feel like work to them. People relate to Rachael. Everybody thinks of Rachael as their best friend.""She's very down to earth, she's relatable and her philosophy, which helps us guide the show, is that you don't have to be rich to live a rich life -- to have good food, good style and nice decor. She helps people do that," says Aaron Meyerson, CBS Television Distribution's president of programming and development, who adds that advertisers and brand integrators flock to "Rachael's" friendly on-set environment.For Ray (with seemingly endless reserves of enthusiasm), figuring out how to relax in front of a live studio audience and harness her energy level appropriately was an important part of the learning curve, Annino says."One of the things that Rachael discovered over time is that it's OK to sit inside the silence, that if there's a brief moment of dead air nobody has to fill it," she says. "The minute she just started being herself and realized that she didn't have to act like a host is when she truly came into her own. The moment she stopped having an interview and started having a conversation -- whether she was talking to you or me or to Hugh Jackman -- that's when it all clicked for her.""Rachael has incredible likability," adds John Nogawski, president of CBS Television Distribution. "The combination of that likability and that huge brand that out there has kind of grown her game and grown her fame."And, of course, there are the obvious perks that keep cast and crew of "Rachael Ray" ecstatic to go to work every day."We're never hungry," laughs Ray. "I teach all the recipes on the show, and at the end of every episode one portion goes to a different crew member. And at the end of the week all of our excess food goes to City Harvest food bank. All of our perishables always go to food banks."We walk the walk and talk the talk. I'm incredibly proud of our show and our staff. We all make it happen together. We're a family."'Rachael Ray' 1,000th EpisodeCook took to new venture | Ratings up from a year ago | Ray's favorite guests, moments | Hot culinary brand branches out Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Joe Carnahan Opens Up About 'Death Wish' Remake

Word came down earlier this week that director Joe Carnahan had already lined up his next project, hot off the success of his most recent, "The Grey." Carnahan is set to direct a remake of the Charles Bronson punk-killing classic "Death Wish." News of the remake hit fans' ears and the world erupted in a cry of "Liam Neeson for 'Death Wish'!" but the director remained quiet about the project until Tuesday (January 31). Carnahan took to Twitter to give an update on the project and the way he intends on approaching it. First off, Carnahan clarified exactly what the project is, a book adaptation instead of a film remake. "Guys. I'm doing 'Death Wish.' But this version is a re-imagining of the book and set in present day Los Angeles. The L.A. of 'Collateral,'" he wrote. Beyond the source material, Carnahan explained how his vision of L.A. will shape what the movie becomes. "It's on buses, cabs, metro trains. I want to show an unseen version of L.A," he wrote. "L.A. on foot. Prowling. Hunting. The vast emptiness of downtown." As his description sounded vaguely like Nicolas Winding Refn's take on the City of Angeles from "Drive," one fan mentioned it to Carnahan, who replied "Refn did a phenomenal job shooting L.A. It took on a different dimension. That's the key." The tweet that many took as the director's biggest revelation was widely misinterpreted. "The only role I'm writing in 'Death Wish' which will mark the ONE time I've ever written exclusively for an actor, will be for @FrankGrillo," he wrote. This was presumed to mean Grillo had the role of Paul Kersey, Charles Bronson in the original films. Carnahan quickly clarified that nowhere did he mention a specific character for Grillo. "Guys, I said I was writing a role for @FrankGrillo. Nobody said anything about Frank playing the Kersey part. Relax folks. We have a plan." Grillo also mentioned that plans for "Death Wish" in no way derail his plans for a big screen adaptation of the true-life military story, "Killing Pablo." Who do you want to see in the lead role for Joe Carnahan's "Death Wish"? Tell us what you think in the comments below and on Twitter!