NYFF reasserts its place

'My Week With Marilyn'Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet star in Roman Polanski pic Carnage, which opens the NY Film Festival. Your Skin My Home Is A Harmful Method The NY Film Festival's opening tonight with Roman Polanski's starry "Carnage" marks the launch of the new phase for that event. The 2010 17-day 49th edition may be the first because the completing the $40 million Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, which adds two more screens as well as an amphitheater, permitting developers to grow and deepen the selection of films that complement the little primary slate. This season the recently extended selection includes 36 photos inside a retrospective of Japanese production company Nikkatsu along with a robust variety of paperwork, avant-garde shorts, restored oldies and extra fare. Using the new film center and also the 50th anniversary approaching, coordinators in the Film Society of Lincoln subsequently Center goal to reassert the festival's place like a destination both for that industry as well as for film fans. "You want to recapture the nation's attention in NY around film," stated Film Society professional director Rose Kuo. "We have been trying strongly towards the film world, and i believe we'll see an uptick in participants from round the country." Even with the growth of the facilities and programming, one element that isn't likely to grow may be the ultra-exclusive primary slate of 25-28 films. "One thing that's distinctive concerning the NY Film Festival is the fact that its primary selection is extremely small," stated Film Society program director Richard Pena. The festival happens to be upfront about its exacting creative standards and it is ambitions -- or highfalutin pretensions, populists sometimes argue -- to curate a condensed but comprehensive picture of the season in serious moviemaking. NYFF hasn't been referred to as a marketplace, since when a film screens in the fest it's likely been observed in other festivals and acquired for distribution. Nevertheless its status for exclusivity causes it to be an invaluable stay in the marketing launch of the film. Just request Michael Barker, the co-topper of The new sony Pictures Classics, with a whopping five films within the fest this season, including "Carnage." Based on Barker, the worldwide launch of "Carnage" started using its world preem at Venice, however the kickoff within the U.S. is signaled through the media attention which will emerge from its stint at NYFF. Barker needs the film to become a major contender this Christmas season. "We're confident the person to person begins here," he stated. "And since the festival is known for its standards, additionally, it talks to honours givers." A slot within the festival does not only assist the movies with famous company directors and large-title casts for example "Carnage" -- or like Pedro Almodovar's "Your Skin My Home IsInch and David Cronenberg's "A Harmful Method," two more SPC films to become tested throughout the fest. ("My Week With Marilyn" and "The Descendants" are two more high-profile photos one of the 27 films around the slate.) The fest also provides a marketing advantage towards the harder sells -- the foreign films from little-known creatives that may make use of all the interest they are able to get. SPC has a few individuals, too: Asghar Farhadi's Iranian film "A Separation" and Frederick Cedar's Israeli offering "Footnote." This season documentaries convey more of the host to prominence, in the primary slate as well as in the complementary programming. It had not been by design, fest coordinators stated, but they are happy the total amount exercised. Cinemax Documentary Films has three paperwork within the fest, with "George Harrison: Residing in the fabric World" around the primary slate and "Vito" and "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" one of the complementary films on tap. "I do not think Cinemax customers always say, 'Oh my God, I am obtaining a film in the NY Film Festival!'" accepted Sheila Nevins, prexy of Cinemax Documentary Films. "However in the hierarchy from the documentary community, whenever you create a film for television also it eventually ends up in a film festival, it brings a brand new type of recognition." Most agree the festival is much more about art than business. Still, there's a benefit to finding yourself in exactly the same cluster of theaters using the type of individuals who attend such occasions, specifically for filmmakers with brewing projects. Executives in the Film Society picture NYFF like a hotspot not only for that industry however for moviegoers of all types. The 2010 selection, for example, courts auds of any age with family-friendly tests of Hayao Miyazaki photos and Charlie Chaplin's "The Gold Hurry." The center's new screens mean additional showtimes for warm tickets could be included to accommodate popular. Overall this season, the amount of tests has increased by 100 to around 320. Plus, it's wished the brand new facilities help produce a greater air of ease of access generally for that festival. "I believe the coffee shop and also the amphitheater say, 'Come and spend time here,'" Kuo stated. "It's why is us a destination." Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

Netflix Shares Down 11 Percent During Thursday Trading

Shares of Netflix stock were taking another beating during afternoon trading on Thursday, with the price down 11.4 percent to $112.62. The company's stock is currently down 62 percent from its all-time high in July of this year.our editor recommendsAmazon Taking on Netflix With New Unlimited Streaming InitiativeHumbled Netflix Separates DVD and Streaming Businesses, Abandons Price Changes The slump is the latest bad news for the DVD by mail and online streaming movie service, which has weathered much criticism after first raising its prices, then splitting the company in two. Analysts point out the increasing pressure in the streaming entertainment marketplace, which was joined on Wednesday by Amazon, which unveiled a low-cost tablet device called the Kindle Fire. The company already offers its own streaming videos through its website. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Microsoft was also about to announce a leap into the streaming entertainment marketplace by offering pay television service from Comcast and Verizon through its Xbox Live network. Related Topics Netflix

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WME Signs Robin Williams: CAA Furious

EXCLUSIVE: There's nothing that infuriates Hollywood agencies a lot more than once they feel they haven’t had warning that the client is going to leave. And that's why CAA’s Bryan Lourd et al requested a “save” meeting for today with Robin Williams. (And CAA is expert at keeping clients with one of these “save” conferences, I ought to add.) However, people within the Academy Award-winning actor’s camping let me know he did provide them with sufficient warning and for that reason switched lower CAA’s request. Therefore it’s now official: WME’s Adam Venit and Marc Geiger have signed Williams in most areas. And Lourd is livid. This isn't the very first time that Williams leaves CAA under uncomfortable conditions. He was the very first CAA client to depart the company and join Michael Ovitz’s ill-fated management company. That sparked a war between Ovitz and also the partners from the agency he co-founded like Lourd. After Ovitz’s AMG unsuccessful, CAA recognized Williams into the fold. Williams, who besides his Supporting Actor Oscar permanently Will Hunting also offers 2 Emmys and 5 Grammys, will next be heard in Happy Ft 2 and observed in The Large Wedding opposite Robert P Niro and Diane Keaton. Last spring, Williams received great reviews for his Broadway debut in Bengal Tiger In The Baghdad Zoo. However for a company like WME, Williams ongoing career like a stand-up comedian is exactly what’s really lucrative: His newest tour, Robin Williams: Weapons of Self-Destruction, was among 2010′s most effective, grossing $40 million, in addition to becoming the topic of an Cinemax special and comedy album nominated for any Grammy.

When Taylor Lautner Wept

I know we all kind of visualize Taylor Lautner as a big strapping serving of beefcake and cheese, but the Abduction star is sensitive, too. Just ask him how he reacted to both the end of production and an early-edit screening of Breaking Dawn, Part 1. Or don’t ask him! Fine! Either way, here’s your Buzz Break. [via BuzzSugar] · “Is Scarlett Johansson Dating Kieran Culkin?” (Spoiler alert! No.) [People] · Is it time for iconic manic pixie dream girl Zooey Deschanel to change up her persona? (Spoiler alert! Yes.) [Salon] · As the 1,000,000th person cast in Lincoln, playing Confederate VP Alexander Stevens, Jackie Earle Haley wins an all-expenses-paid trip for two to DreamWorks HQ for a personal meeting with Steven Spielberg. I’m sure there will be balloons. [Deadline] · I’ve been saying it for years to incredulous ears, but finally Science confirms: “Smokers are less likely to be obese. And the declining use of cigarettes across the country — due to both tightening pocketbooks and new laws (thanks, Mayor Bloomberg) — accounts for a bigger increase in the obesity rate in the U.S. than any other factor.” So! Light up for your health! [The Atlantic Wire via The Awl]

Toronto TOLDJA! Horror Hit Youre Next Sells To Lionsgate

BREAKING: One of the hot titles of the Toronto Film Festival, the horror film You’re Next, has sold to Lionsgate. I reported in my festival analysis story that Lionsgate was making this deal, and had been hearing for the better part of a week it was hot and heavy with CAA in negotiating a low-seven-figure minimum guarantee and P&A commitment for the film some feel could have the box-office breakout potential of 2010 Toronto’s Insidious, based on the raucous response the film received at screenings. You’re Next was directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett, the team behind the 2010 Toronto film A Horrible Way to Die. It was a competitive situation, with The Weinstein Company and Paramount and Indian Paintbrush also circling the deal. This negotiation has been going on since the film’s first screening September 10 in the Midnight Madness program. The deal took awhile because it anticipates the possibility that it might launch a franchise with future installments, which the filmmakers have strong control in. The theatrical release will be wide and most likely occur in fall 2012. In You’re Next, a family comes under a terrifying and sadistic attack during a reunion getaway. Stranded in a secluded home, they are forced to fight off a barrage of axes, crossbows and machetes. The killers soon discover that one of the victims is surprisingly talented at fighting back. Keith Calder, Jessica Wu and Barrett produced the film that stars Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen, Nicholas Tucci and Barbara Crampton. Lionsgate co-COO and Motion Picture Group president Joe Drake and Acquisitions and Co-Productions president Jason Constantine finally fessed up this morning that they’d closed the deal. “This project represents everything that we look for in a horror film,” Constantine said in a statement. “It is a celebration of its genre, featuring top-notch performances from a sophisticated script, brilliantly directed, that will leave audiences on the edge of their seats when they’re not jumping out of them.”

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A Gifted Guy

Shot in NY by CBS Television Galleries. Executive producers, Neal Baer, Carl Beverly, Sarah Timberman, Susannah Grant director, Jonathan Demme author, Grant.Michael Holt - Patrick Wilson Anna Paul - Jennifer Ehle Rita Perkins-Hall - Margo Martindale Anton - Pablo Schreiber Should you slice it lower to its bones (a suitable example for any medical program), "A Gifted Guy" owes a debt to "A Christmas Carol": The series features Patrick Wilson because the self-absorbed neurosurgeon who encounters a belated spiritual epiphany, unleashing do-gooder impulses that transform him from gifted bastard into something nearer to Dr. Kildare. The semi-religious component (embodied here through the ghost of doctor's past) will probably play well with CBS' heartland audience, however the long term prognosis dangles on if the series will find a pulse beyond just older audiences within an up-for-grabs Friday timeslot. Wilson's Dr. Michael Holt is arrogant and brilliant before an unexpected visit from his ex-wife Anna (Tony champion Jennifer Ehle). Yet that chance encounter assumes another hew when he finds out she died just before their meeting (why he did not learn about this earlier is really a mystery that is better left overlooked), leading him to provide his services for an overcome clinic his ex had championed. All of a sudden, Holt is showing a far more humane streak and carrying out professional bono surgical procedures -- a big change that is not lost on individuals around him, including his sister (Julie Benz) and office manager (Margo Martindale, designed for better stuff compared to pilot presents). Sis even enlists a spiritual guide ("The Wire's" Pablo Schreiber) to ascertain if there's a method to exorcise Anna's gh-gh-ghost. Produced by Susannah Grant and run by Neal Baer (a physician who done "ER" before "Law & Order: Special Sufferers Unit"), "A Gifted Guy" is unquestionably serious, inside a "Marcus Welby, M.D." type of way. Publish-purchase tinkering also enhanced the pilot, with Anna becoming Holt's conscience in ways that better describes her presence, while removing some humor using their only-he-sees-her encounters. Beyond creating the premise, the opener features three medical plots -Body in regards to a tennis prodigy, another dedicated to a hard patient (Bill Irwin) and lastly Michael's grudging efforts to assist an unwell kid. It's tricky, but fairly effective. Granted, there is an abundance of medical shows built around wish-fulfillment dreams of doctors who truly care, with nary a reference to insurance forms or HMOs. It is simply that medicine is continuing to grow more difficult as well as politically thorny. Most probably, the series' beating heart lies between two comforting notions -- the presence of a bigger spiritual world and also the good a committed physician can accomplish here on the planet once touched by an angel or implanted using the milk of human kindness. Whether there's enough material to sustain a set stemming from Michael's pivot toward greater generosity of spirit because of Anna's gentle prodding remains unclear. CBS' rankings anticipation can not be unreasonably high, and Wilson feels as though a star who many CBS audiences will think about not only as gifted but as "that nice-searching youthful guy." Nevertheless, individuals having a stake in "A Gifted Man's" fate must practice exactly the same regimen many follow because they have surgery: Put rely upon the surgeon, yes, but additionally pray for the aid of a greater energy.Camera, Tom Weston production designer, John Kasarda editors, Mark Manos, Michael Schweitzer, Nancy Forner casting, Bernard Telsey, Risa Bramon Garcia. 60 MIN.With: Julie Benz, Bill Irwin. Contact John Lowry at john.lowry@variety.com

ABC Family Renews 'Make It Or Break It,' Orders More 'Lying Game'

ABC FamilyThe Laying Game ABC Family has restored Allow It To Be Or Break It and acquired 10 additional instances of newcomer drama The Laying Game, additionally to giving pilot orders to four projects. "ABC Family broadened its schedule to provide three nights of original programming this summer time, and that we saw our most effective on record, one which gave us our personal 'triple-threat' -- Switched at Birth, The Key Existence from the American Teen and Pretty Little Liars," ABC Family leader Michael Riley stated inside a statement announcing this news Friday. The renewal will require gymnastics series Allow It To Be Or Break It, produced by Carol Sorensen and starring Chelsea Hobbs into its third season. The eight-episode third season will premiere the coming year, that will begin to see the cast journey towards the Olymics. The youth-skewing network's back-nine order for Laying Game, from Alloy Entertainment and Warner Horizon and in line with the books by Sara Shepard released in August to at least one.39 million audiences, based on Nielsen. The extra 10-episode order stretches the rookie series' season to 19 payments. This news comes a next day of the cabler canceled rookie drama The Nine Lives of Chloe King. Meanwhile, the 4 projects acquired to pilot incorporate a two comedies and 2 dramas: &bull Bunheads, an hourlong scripted drama from Gilmore Girls' Amy Sherman-Palladino, turning around Michelle, a Vegas showgirl who marries a guy on impulse and moves to his sleepy seaside town where she ends up working alongside her new mother-in-law at her dance school. "I spent two decades of my existence with my hair inside a bun. I had been said to be a dancer," Sherman-Palladino stated. "My mother would be a dancer. Her finest heartbreak was after i got on 'Roseanne'. So, while penning this won't ever equal playing 'Rumpelteazer' inside a bus and truck tour of 'Cats,' it will allow me to to tip my hat to some really special amount of time in my existence." &bull Intercept, an hourlong action thriller turning around several university students who get roped into fixing crimes when one of these produces a higher-tech communication device that intercepts conversations through the West Coast. Ray Wright (The Crazies) authored the pilot and can executive produce. &bull Baby Dad, one half-hour comedy in the Nine Lives of Chloe King executive producer Serta Berendsen which is all about Ben, a twentysomething who turns into a father overnight after his ex-girlfriend leaves their daughter on his doorstep. &bull Village People, from Siblings executive producer Meg DeLoatch. The multicamera half-hour comedy involves just one, high-powered career lady who switches into an infant from the teen mother and ends up taking care of each of them. Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com Twitter: @Snoodit ABC Family TV Development

Harrison Ford talks Indiana 5

Harrison Ford has revealed sun and rain which will make him desire to continue coming back towards the Indiana Manley character. It is also not space travel.When asked for inside a recent LA Occasions event if he'd be up for doing more Indiana Manley movies, Manley mentioned: "Possibly a fifth, however ain't prone to Mars.""Next time we have a script for Indiana Manley, I'd be delighted to see the level of smoothness.InchInchEvery time we meet him, we preferred to succeed the audience's understanding from the level of smoothness, not just by putting him in adventures, but by learning something about him...""That's what introduced for the meeting of his father [in the last Campaign], carried out by Sean Connery, and also the boy [in Kingdom in the Very Skull], carried out by Shia, and becoming Marion back."He then joked that Spielberg only utilizes him for Indiana Manley movies, even though, becoming an actor, he's a bit of range.Spielberg's reply? "You understand who I offered Jurassic Park to? This individual. Alan Grant, Jurassic Park, the next.InchAround we love to Mike Neill because role, that's one publish-release alteration we are in a position to certainly begin with.