eOne nabs 'Special Forces' in U.S.

PARIS -- eOne has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Diane Kruger starrer "Special Forces" from French major StudioCanal. Deal marks eOne's first U.S. theatrical pickup since launching its distribution branch in the States in August. The pic will be released next spring. It has now been sold in all key territories, most of which were closed at Cannes. Pic is now sold out worldwide with the exception of a few territories that will close soon, StudioCanal said. Set in Afghanistan, the high-voltage thriller turns on a French journalist who gets kidnapped by the Taliban. Budgeted just under $25 million, pic was lensed in Tajikistan, Djibouti and the French Alps. It marks the feature debut of Stephane Rybojad, a former documentary filmmaker who previously helmed docus on the special forces. Kruger plays opposite Benoit Magimel, Denis Menochet, Raphael Personnaz and Djimon Hounsou. Pic is produced by Paris-based up-and-coming shingle Easy Company. Led by prexy David Reckziegel, eOne Films North America plans to release 12-15 films theatrically in the U.S. every year. As well as the U.S., eOne operates in the U.K., Canada, Benelux, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Scandinavia and South Africa. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Round The Edge: Online Cleaning cleaning soap Opera Network May Fold, Spelling The Conclusion Of OLTL, AMC

EXCLUSIVE: That is potential very not so great to clean cleaning soap fans who feel grateful this Thanksgiving that canceled ABC series One Existence To Reside In and many types of The Children may continue online. That now is probably not happening. It absolutely was considered a bold and harmful move when Wealthy Frank &Rob Kwatinetzs Prospect Park within this summer time developed a certification deal with ABC to keep OLTL and AMC alive for online distribution. The transfer from broadcast TV for the Web shown a lot more difficult than anybody anticipated. I hear that Prospect Park self-funded extensive research which is principals held hundreds of conferences with potential traders for Online Network, which was initially slated to create inside the first quarter of 2012. (The newest plan remains a minimum of Existence To Reside In to consider first, with all the Kids positioned on hold.) Within an indication of potential hurdles, Prospect Park in the finish of the summer time launched a disagreement it had been “in the whole process of working out the essential regards to our recommended collective settling contracts while using appropriate guilds and unions, which we ought to just do before firming up handles above- and below-the-line talent.” I hear that people discussions shown difficult, mostly due to there being no existing template for just about any broadcast program shifting online. Word is the guilds are actually searching to help keep OLTL and AMC to broadcast terms, that's somewhat understandable since the Prospect Park-ABC deal necessitates the 2 series to carry on being shipped concentrating on the same quality andin the identical format and length. But shows produced on broadcast terms are impossible to assist with internet versus. TV advertising. (ABC, making supplemental income on its soaps from off-network sales to SoapNet and foreign areas, mentioned it absolutely was still losing profits on OLTL and AMC, leading to their cancellation.) To produce the mark launch date, the cleaning cleaning soap authors hired by Prospect Park specified for to begin work captured nonetheless they haven’t as there is no deal with the WGA. And many types of pacts with stars from OLTL and AMC that Prospect Park made within the last handful of several days were contingent on clearances with the unions. In addition, I’ve discovered potential problems with the web network’s tech partners. I hear that Prospect Park principals continue being searching for a final-minute treatment for keep the cleaning cleaning soap online venture going but feel pressed in to a corner after tiring every possible avenue and should close the lid around the moment today.

Bioshock Movie Finally Sunk

Game adaptation forget about afootA couple of years back there's large talk from the movie based on Bioshock, the amount of crazy art-deco steampunk underwater photography enthusiasts from Irrational Games and Take-Two. Colossal budgets were, er, allotted, and Gore Verbinski was installed on direct. But nothing happened, and Irrational honcho Ken Levine now states that you will find "forget about a burning desire" to acquire Bioshock made.Bioshock really was probably the most intriguing prospects for the sport-to-film journey, given its chance of amazing design, which is oddly Ayn Rand-like anti-utopian ideas. But concerns inside the immense costs (mentioned being north of $160m) were elevated throughout Verbsinki's tenure, which he bowed out if the made an appearance the film might shoot outdoors the u . s . states to economize.Verbinski did, however, remain aboard as producer, and there's talk of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo overpowering behind the cameras until a run of other potential Fresnadillo films made an appearance to suggest he wasn't any more interested.The comfort was silence, despite the fact that as recently as last May Levine was saying the Bioshock film was "still inside the conversation", lucrative confesses the speaking has basically stopped. "We have got not not even close to configuring it made," according to him. "We'd a deal [at Universal] together with a director, but we don't need to get it made just regarding configuring it made."Once the film would eventually happen, Levine stresses that, "It's arrived at be a thing that will both supply the fans something they need, and introduce people who've no clue Bioshock to something that's good overall game. It must be described as a good representation."So no film Large Daddys or Little Brothers and sisters, Pipe Mania, Vita-Chambers or drowned Xanadus for now, but no less than it seems the abandonment is gloomier to qc. Levine features a past just like a film author, it is therefore difficult that Bioshock will resurface just like a movie afterwards. And meanwhile, Bioshock Infinite is going next season.

Muppets Twilight Parody Posters Online

Emo romance for Kermit, Piggy & Rowlf The run of Muppet parody trailers has formally finished now, but to accompany Breaking Prawn, listed here are a couple of Twilight-y posters. We're able to not possibly imagine why they've been timed so...This trio of Muppet Saga ads provides Dame Piggy as Bella Swine, who's most most likely presented to swooning over re-bloodstream pressure dimensions of Muppeting Levels. We're inferring that she's also torn between romantic trysts while using vamphibian Kermit, and were-pianist Rowlf. Kermit doesn't look especially sparkly here, but Rowlf, who not placed on clothes anyway, is correctly shirtless.We're unsure the central drama of Breaking Beginning quite translates here though, since the Muppet Christmas Carol shows us the pig as well as the frog can procreate with no trouble whatsoever...Lucky Us citizens have the Muppets for Thanksgiving, but it's within the Uk in February.

Exclusive: MTV Developing Another Animated Series with Beavis and Butt-mind Producers

Worst Pals Forever Heh-heh, you mentioned development. Hot in the effective relaunch of Beavis and Butt-mind, MTV is joining again with executive producers Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dork Krinsky on another animated series. Worst Pals Forever, which follows several teenage women simply because they navigate secondary school, remains acquired just like a pilot with the cable network. Thomas Middleditch (Splinterheads), whose animation credits include voices for Beavis and Butt-mind and Ugly Us citizens, created the show. Worst Pals Forever involves besties Sandy, Brittany and Barrier, who hover round the edges of recognition inside their secondary school. Meanwhile, their friendship is provide the exam simply because they cope with cattiness in addition to their teenage crushes. MTV remains pleased with the return of Beavis and Butt-mind, which first demonstrated within the finish of October with 3.3 million audiences. Last night's episode averaged single.4 rating among grownups 18-34, beating NBC and CBS at 10 p.m. Animation was once commonplace in MTV, as well as the network remains attempting to return into the sport, getting also launched the completely new animated series Good Vibes. Ternion, the expansion company setup by Judge, Altschuler and Krinsky (all whom also labored together on King in the Hill as well as the 2009 feature Extract), will produce. Also on Altschuler and Krinsky's busy plates, the producers were developing an Adam Carolla animated project at Fox. Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

Exclusive Psych Sneak Look: Can Molly Ringwald Cure Crazy Shawn?

James Roday Psych's Shawn (James Roday) is actually somewhat round the awesome side, nevertheless it seems like he many have lately become themselves committed. In Wednesday's episode, titled "Shawn, Interrupted" - an homage for the 1999 women-gone-really-crazy film Girl, Interrupted - Shawn must admit themselves with a mental institution to monitor a recently billed killer who pleaded madness nonetheless they suspect being completely, well, sane. Before he and Gus catch the theif, Shawn's arrived at convince Nurse McElroy (carried out by Brat Packer Molly Ringwald) that he's really battling with something. Psych's James Roday on Shawn and Juliet, Gus' "growing pains" and breaking all the rules "They tell me I've got something referred to as narcissistic personality disorder. But, the fact remains, this lustrous hair and dimpled face are essentially Chapter 1," Shawn states before listing off such existence-threatening conditions as "crazy intelligence syndrome" and "obsessive effective disorder." "Goodness, I have not experienced somebody that is affected with many different ailments that don't exist," Nurse McElroy (Ringwald) notifies her new patient. Shawn's explanation? According to him he's later on. Apparently, it won't be tough to convince the nurse he's lost his marbles ultimately! See the exclusive clip from Wednesday's episode: Psych airs Wednesday at 10/9c on USA.

Oscar Index: Hello, Hugo! (And Goodbye, J. Edgar)

Oscar-ed out for the week? Don’t be! Movieline’s Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics is here to remind both the casual and obsessive fan alike that the Academy Awards are, first and foremost about movies. With that in mind, let’s have a look at where this season’s Oscar Index crop landed after one of the most turbulent patches in recent memory. [Click the graphs for full-size images.] The Leading 10: 1. The Descendants 2. War Horse 3. The Artist 4. The Help 5. Midnight in Paris 6. Moneyball 7. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 8. Hugo 9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 10. J. Edgar Outsiders: The Tree of Life; My Week With Marilyn; The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn; The Ides of March; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Margin Call; Shame What a week, with Hugo, J. Edgar and War Horse all finding their ways to audiences for the first time. Well, sort of the first time: The West Coast pundit class that opted to wait and see about Hugo for themselves before deigning to so much as raise their eyebrows for its fond East Coast first look is officially over the moon after two very well-received special screenings (including one at the Academy) last weekend. No longer a work-in-progress (“99.9%-finished,” in Pete Hammond’s words) Martin Scorsese’s 3-D tribute to movies and movie-love set off a relative mushroom cloud of praise, with the likes of Sasha Stone writing “Martin Scorsese’s Hugo is a lyrical dream, a film that pays homage to what is so transformative about cinema,” and Steve Pond calling it “the most magical moviegoing experience I’ve had in a very long time.” It couldn’t have hurt that the guild/media event on Saturday afternoon featured a Q&A attended by Scorsese and awards-magnet collaborators like editor Thelma Schoonmaker, composer Howard Shore, DP Bob Richardson and production designer Dante Ferretti. (And moderated by Paul Thomas Anderson, because why not?) Pond noted that while that night’s Academy screening that night wasn’t quite the barnburner enjoyed by Moneyball and The Help, at least 100 voting members took in the earlier show, so it might even out. Not quite, said Hammond, who nevertheless remained optimistic about Hugo’s chances: The attendance figure at the Academy screening is middling, nowhere near the packed houses for other recent Oscar contenders — Midnight In Paris, Moneyball, The Ides Of March to name three that nearly filled the place. Despite Scorsese’s name, part of the problem might be that it is currently perceived as more of a 3-D kids film by Academy members, who generally don’t lavish Oscar attention on that genre. Paramounties are positioning it as something with equal or even greater adult appeal and I would agree, if you can work them to a winter’s passion to see it the way it should be seen. It’s much more ambitious than the average studio family holiday offering. At the very least it’s definitely got HUGE film freak appeal (count me as one of those). Scorsese working at the absolute top of his game may be key to getting those older butts in seats. From my perspective it is a masterpiece of personal filmmaking along the lines of Fellini’s Amarcord, Truffaut’s Day For Night and Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso. I don’t disagree, but the bottom line for Hugo is the craft categories. Taken together, Stone’s smart breakdown of the “1 percent” Best Picture threshold and Gold Derby’s analysis of Hugo’s technical strengths — not to mention Scorsese’s A-list accomplices noted above — forecast a perfect storm of influence within the Academy’s individual branches. In other words: Round up enough consummate pros at their peaks — in the service of Scorsese’s most personal film — and you’ve got a phenomenon on your hands. And it’s this year’s prestigious Royal Film Performance, a bit of news whose timing I wouldn’t exactly attribute to serendipity. The biggest hurdle is the box office, which could in fact be a problem despite the 3-D boost; neither The Muppets nor Arthur Christmas are going to cede much ground in the five-day Thanksgiving frame. (Not to be outdone, The Artist and My Week With Marilyn — two more beautifully made homages to moviemaking — open in limited release the same weekend.) But with Paramount clearly knowing the triumph it has, as well as the movie-love motif so prevalent in this year’s race, has any other film this year accrued so much potential — so much sheer momentum — so fast? On the other hand, has any film fallen farther off the pace quicker than J. Edgar? A week ago, mere whispers of disapproval were all that separated it from the season’s established frontrunners. Today, it’s rocking a pathetic 44 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and has all the political goodwill of a thong with Brett Ratner’s likeness ironed on the front. OK, maybe it’s a little better than that: A small core of critical heavyweights are behind it, and no one should underestimate the Eastwood factor that so regularly wins Academy hearts and minds (and, more often than not, votes). But come on. Apart from the sporadic raves for Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer (which we’ll get to in a bit), this one is over. For Warner Bros., suddenly it’s on to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close — an interesting, almost shocking institutional shift that boosts the latter film’s stakes immensely. No pressure, Warners! Meanwhile, War Horse has finally peeked out of the stable for actual viewers. A smattering of far-flung previews last week yielded generally positive, even glowing reactions, though it’s up to you how much weight you choose to give an AICN review (“War Horse is what movies are all about — transporting the audience into a world that will never exist again. As for myself, I loved every moment”) and a steady trickle of Twitter approbation, or even the anonymous hater quoted by Jeffrey Wells: “I don’t know what’s happened, but the man who made Saving Private Ryan didn’t make this.” It’s thin in general, but hey! Every clue helps. The Leading 5: 1. Alexander Payne, The Descendants 2. Steven Spielberg, War Horse 3. Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist 4. David Fincher, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 5. Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris Outsiders: Martin Scorsese, Hugo; Stephen Daldry, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; George Clooney, The Ides of March; Bennett Miller, Moneyball; Tomas Alfredson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Clint Eastwood, J. Edgar As usual, what goes for Picture goes, too, for Director, though I’m not quite ready to downgrade Fincher for Scorsese’s sake. At the moment, the bottom two slots are cutthroat musical chairs for them and Allen; my gut tells me Dragon Tattoo will surge post-Hugo, nudging Woody out for good with only Daldry left to battle through January. Your mileage may vary; if so, tell me about it!