Richard Crudo served three terms as president of the American Society of Cinematographers during the mid-’00s, and he’s back atop the guild after eight years. The Brooklyner — whose Dp credits include FX’s Justified along with the features American Pie and My Sexiest Year — was voted to the top post by the Asc board, which also announced today that it has elected Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson as VPs. Other officers tapped include Treasurer Victor J. Kemper, Secretary Fred Goodich, and Sergeant-at-Arms Isidore Mankofsky. “I am honored to have another opportunity to serve this great organization,” says Crudo, who served three terms as Asc president from 2003 through 2005. “Our 94-year history makes us the longest-standing group in the motion picture industry. As always, we will be aggressively promoting our art and craft, as well as the related interests of cinematographers everywhere.” Crudo also served as an...
- 6/5/2013
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
Things may not have worked out for their "2 Broke Girls" characters, but Kat Dennings and Nick Zano are willing to give it a shot in real life.
The two were spotted getting cozy at the Lakers game on Jan. 3rd, seen holding hands, making kissy faces and cuddling close before they made their way out of the game while holding hands.
A source tells Us Weekly, "Kat and Nick are getting to know each other right now. They are not exclusive but have gone on dates."
But we think things between the co-stars might might be more serious than the source believes. On Dec. 29, Dennings tweeted to "Young Adult" star Patton Oswalt:
"@pattonoswalt My boyfriend and I left the theater feeling like really great people."
We're not sure if 25-year-old Dennings would just throw the word "boyfriend" around if they weren't together, but Zano did just split with girlfriend...
The two were spotted getting cozy at the Lakers game on Jan. 3rd, seen holding hands, making kissy faces and cuddling close before they made their way out of the game while holding hands.
A source tells Us Weekly, "Kat and Nick are getting to know each other right now. They are not exclusive but have gone on dates."
But we think things between the co-stars might might be more serious than the source believes. On Dec. 29, Dennings tweeted to "Young Adult" star Patton Oswalt:
"@pattonoswalt My boyfriend and I left the theater feeling like really great people."
We're not sure if 25-year-old Dennings would just throw the word "boyfriend" around if they weren't together, but Zano did just split with girlfriend...
- 1/6/2012
- by Stephanie Marcus
- Huffington Post
Hollywood has two more newly single stars.
According to E! Online, celebrity pair Haylie Duff, 26, and Nick Zano, 33, have called it quits after three years together.
"The relationship just ran its course," a rep for Haylie told E!.
The pair first met in 2007 on the movie set of "My Sexiest Year."
Both Haylie and Nick have a history of dating fellow stars.
The actress has been previously linked to Nick Carter, Kevin Connolly, and Brody Jenner, while Nick - who is currently guest starring on "2 Broke Girls" - has been linked ...
Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
According to E! Online, celebrity pair Haylie Duff, 26, and Nick Zano, 33, have called it quits after three years together.
"The relationship just ran its course," a rep for Haylie told E!.
The pair first met in 2007 on the movie set of "My Sexiest Year."
Both Haylie and Nick have a history of dating fellow stars.
The actress has been previously linked to Nick Carter, Kevin Connolly, and Brody Jenner, while Nick - who is currently guest starring on "2 Broke Girls" - has been linked ...
Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
- 11/11/2011
- by nobody@accesshollywood.com (AccessHollywood.com Editorial Staff)
- Access Hollywood
For Napoleon Dynamite actress Haylie Duff, her courtship with boyfriend Nick Zano is no longer all that, well, dynamite. After three years together, Hilary's older sis and the What I Like About You actor have split up. "The relationship just ran its course," Haylie's publicist confirms to E! News. The two met in 2007 while working together on the movie My Sexiest Year. They began dating a year later, according to Life & Style, who first broke the news of the breakup. Fortunately for Haylie, she'll soon have another man to occupy her time: her sister is expecting a baby boy! —Reporting by Sharareh Drury...
- 11/10/2011
- E! Online
Images have been floating around consisting of a relatively unknown actor, Geoff Ward supposedly screen-testing for Zack Synder's Superman reboot. Superman Homepage & Cbm are among other sites who have received these images, that you can check out below. The anonymous source says: "Director Zack Snyder, has nearly chosen his next Superman. Actor Geoff Ward was auditioned and called back three times. Yesterday he was given the physical screen test on a green screen with new suit and all. I have iphone pics." Geoff Ward has acquired minor roles in film titles such as Dark Queen, My Sexiest Year, and most recently The Forgotten Jewel. And while it's strongly believed that these images are from Ward himself, expressing a bit of self-promotion, what do you think?...
- 1/9/2011
- ComicBookMovie.com
Karolina Kurkova, who is possibly nine months pregnant, has been photographed proudly showing off her growing baby bump on Thursday afternoon, October 22. Strolling over SoHo in New York City, the supermodel opted to wear a black shirt matched with jeans and flowery scarf.
Czech beauty Karolina first announced that she is expecting a baby with fiance Archie Drury in July, during when her pregnancy was reportedly six months old. At that time, her representatives confirmed, "Supermodel and actress Karolina Kurkova and her fiance, film producer Archie Drury have announced that they are expecting their first child. The couple have been together for a little over a year."
Aside from her personal life, Karolina Kurkova has been modeling for famous lingerie brand Victoria's Secret since 2001. She was once also in the line of Victoria's Secret Angels. Beside being a model, she has also expanded her acting career by appearing in...
Czech beauty Karolina first announced that she is expecting a baby with fiance Archie Drury in July, during when her pregnancy was reportedly six months old. At that time, her representatives confirmed, "Supermodel and actress Karolina Kurkova and her fiance, film producer Archie Drury have announced that they are expecting their first child. The couple have been together for a little over a year."
Aside from her personal life, Karolina Kurkova has been modeling for famous lingerie brand Victoria's Secret since 2001. She was once also in the line of Victoria's Secret Angels. Beside being a model, she has also expanded her acting career by appearing in...
- 10/23/2009
- by celebrity-mania.com
- Celebrity Mania
Karolina Kurkova will soon become a mother as her representative has confirmed she is carrying a bun in the oven. Father of the baby is the supermodel's fiance Archie Drury. The forthcoming infant will be the pair's first child.
In a statement issued to People, the representative says, "Supermodel and actress Karolina Kurkova and her fiance, film producer Archie Drury have announced that they are expecting their first child." The statement, furthermore, read "The couple have been together for a little over a year."
Though so, no confirmation has been made by the representative on how many months Karolina has been pregnant and when she is due to give birth. It is also not known if she and Archie already find out the sex of their baby.
Karolina Kurkova is a Czech supermodel. She is best known for modeling for famous lingerie brand Victoria's Secret. She was once listed as one of Victoria's Secret Angels.
In a statement issued to People, the representative says, "Supermodel and actress Karolina Kurkova and her fiance, film producer Archie Drury have announced that they are expecting their first child." The statement, furthermore, read "The couple have been together for a little over a year."
Though so, no confirmation has been made by the representative on how many months Karolina has been pregnant and when she is due to give birth. It is also not known if she and Archie already find out the sex of their baby.
Karolina Kurkova is a Czech supermodel. She is best known for modeling for famous lingerie brand Victoria's Secret. She was once listed as one of Victoria's Secret Angels.
- 7/15/2009
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Karolina Kurkova is expecting her first child with fiance Archie Drury, a former Marine and Scientologist who turns to be a film producer. Her representatives confirmed to People, "Supermodel and actress Karolina Kurkova and her fiance, film producer Archie Drury have announced that they are expecting their first child. The couple have been together for a little over a year."
Karolina reportedly has been carrying the baby for sixth months. With her baby bump, it can be assumed that the Czech beauty will not join this year's Victoria's Secret fashion show. The actress has been modeling for the famous lingerie brand since 2001 when she was only 17 years old and once was in the line of Victoria's Secret Angels.
Besides modeling, Karolina Kurkova also expands her career in acting. She made her film debut by appearing in 2007 drama comedy "My Sexiest Year". She also co-stars with Channing Tatum in summer action flick "G.
Karolina reportedly has been carrying the baby for sixth months. With her baby bump, it can be assumed that the Czech beauty will not join this year's Victoria's Secret fashion show. The actress has been modeling for the famous lingerie brand since 2001 when she was only 17 years old and once was in the line of Victoria's Secret Angels.
Besides modeling, Karolina Kurkova also expands her career in acting. She made her film debut by appearing in 2007 drama comedy "My Sexiest Year". She also co-stars with Channing Tatum in summer action flick "G.
- 7/15/2009
- by celebrity-mania.com
- Celebrity Mania
He's been called an unabashed Hollywood hustler. Sordid tales of unpaid vendors, lawsuits, layoffs and movie shutdowns have dogged him in the year and a half since he took over specialty distributor ThinkFilm and foreign sales agent Capitol Film.
Yet David Bergstein is unperturbed.
"There is always an adjective that precedes us: 'Beleaguered,' 'financially distressed,' " Bergstein said recently from his plush new offices in the Fox Plaza in Century City, with a hint of an accent from his native New York. "And none of these people know anything."
What is known is that after a summer in which ThinkFilm has been battered by bad press -- especially during the repeated shutdowns of the Jake Gyllenhaal political satire "Nailed," financed by a Bergstein-backed entity -- he is actively looking for cash.
Whether that will be enough to repair the executive's strained relationships with Hollywood and allow his company to stay in business remains to be seen.
But Bergstein is adamant that he is on the right track.
"Our business plan is not so much about the movie business," he said, noting that he controls about a thousand films. "It's really to build a global digital distribution business. It's based on the expectation that in the not too distant future most content will be delivered digitally and on-demand."
Bergstein began to make a mark in Hollywood just 18 months ago, when he and construction magnate Ron Tutor bought ThinkFilm and London-based Capitol.
Yet after releasing 20-odd pictures in 2006 and 2007, only nine ThinkFilm movies have opened this year. Bergstein apparently has sold off some films, canceled others and has refused to commit to release dates for the only other two films originally scheduled for 2008: January's Sundance Film Festival pickups "Phoebe in Wonderland" and "The Escapist."
At the same time, at least four separate lawsuits have been filed against ThinkFilm this year by vendors and others claiming they were short shifted.
"Some of what is out there is true," Bergstein said. "The vast majority is not true. And for the stuff that is true, my answer is, 'So what? So what if X, Y or Z might be owed money?' "
That attitude has some in the creative community fuming.
"He's the biggest disgrace in the film business," said producer Albie Hecht, formerly president of Nickelodeon, who produced the Oscar-nominated ThinkFilm documentary "War/Dance" and claims he still has not seen the small advance ThinkFilm promised. An arbitration is pending.
"This is someone who goes around making deals and looks like he has no intention of fulfilling his obligation to filmmakers and artists," Hecht added. "Not only is it disgusting, but downright immoral."
Alex Gibney, director of the Oscar-winning ThinkFilm documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," charges in a lawsuit that ThinkFilm did not have the financial resources to properly release his film and "fraudulently concealed this fact from the film's creative team, its investors and the film's sales agent, Cinetic Media."
Bergstein said Gibney was paid everything he was owed, including a $50,000 Oscar bonus. Bergstein also downplayed lawsuits by Allied Advertising seeking $4.2 million for ads it placed and Brooklyn-based Mammoth Advertising, which said it has nearly $430,00 in unpaid bills.
Lawsuits are just part of doing business, said Bergstein, 46, whose office is stacked with boxes of files and a framed photo of John Lennon flashing a peace sign.
He made a small fortune acquiring depreciated assets, cutting costs and selling for a profit, then dived into the film business in 2003 via his acquisition of Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures library.
"He is used to going in, buying something that's normally four cents for two cents and then saying to everyone, 'It's a distressed asset. I'm only going to pay you half of what you deserve,' " said a veteran talent manager and producer who has worked with Bergstein. "It's just a whole mindset that is antithetical to the movie business."
Bergstein acknowledged he's had problems paying such creditors as PR companies and production services, but he said those issues were caused by the move of ThinkFilm's headquarters from Canada to the U.S., which required new accounting and tracking systems.
A spokesman for Investment bank Db Zwirn & Co. says it has about $100 million in loans to ThinkFilm’s umbrella company. Zwirn was forced to liquidate a hedge fund this year but Bergstein said he has been able to find additional funds from Comerica Bank and others.
He said he has brought ThinkFilm’s debts from $30 million to $8 million and is pumping in another $25 million to market ThinkFilm releases on top of a total investment of $400 million for all his entertainment businesses, which include a postproduction facility and music publisher in London. He declined to say where that new money will come from.
Bergstein said he has image problems because nobody in Hollywood really knows him. He grew up in New York and attended Polytechnic Institute (now part of New York University), studying engineering and pre-med. In the late 1970s he became an investment banker, seeking undervalued stocks.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and worked for a mortgage broker, then began buying real estate. He operated Metropolis Publishing for a time and acquired Express Inc., an online DVD seller that had gone bankrupt in 2001, losing a reported $240 million.
Bergstein and Tutor, a friend who headed two major construction companies that merged this year in a deal valued at $862 million, began investing in Los Angeles restaurants, including Le Dome. There they met Samaha, who was flying high with Franchise Pictures. When Franchise began struggling, Bergstein and Tutor loaned Samaha $14 million, secured by Franchise's film library. When Franchise went under, Bergstein ended up with most of the library.
Armed with product, Bergstein and Tutor acquired ThinkFilm in November 2006 for a reported $18 million in cash and $5 million in debt. The distributor, founded in September 2001 by veteran execs Jeff Sackman, Randy Manis and Marc Hirshberg, as well as Mark Urman from Lionsgate, fielded a string of such Oscar-worthy films as "Half Nelson," which earned Ryan Gosling a best actor nod in 2007, and "Born Into Brothels," 2005's winner for best documentary.
Bergstein said ThinkFilm was insolvent when he bought it. Sackman, who quit the company in anger in April, said it was profitable for four of its first five years but looked for a buyer two years ago when art-house attendance dipped.
"We were very cooperative at first," Sackman said of Bergstein.
At Bergstein's urging they went on a buying spree, acquiring films like "In the Shadow of the Moon," which ThinkFilm bought for $2.5 million at Sundance in 2007 but which grossed only $1.1 million in theaters that November.
Indeed, only four films out of more than 30 releases during the past two years have grossed more than $1 million, including Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," which grossed $7 million last fall, and Helen Hunt's "Then She Found Me," which grossed $3.6 million in April despite advertising money being pulled, sources said.
Many planned ThinkFilm releases are now in limbo. The dark comic drama "Momma's Man" was announced in March as a ThinkFilm acquisition and August release. But the deal never happened and it went to Kino International instead.
"Battle in Seattle," "A Stone's Throw" and "A Happy Death" have been taken off the calendar and the drama "Blue Valentine" was never made because the promised funding fell through.
ThinkFilm doesn't list "The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams" as having been released but producer Julian Adams said it was released briefly last August. Since then he said he has been unable to get a financial statement from Bergstein. "I can't even describe the heartache," Adams said. "I'm beyond frustrated with it."
Bergstein's highest-profile production is the $30 million "Nailed," directed by David O. Russell, which was shut down by SAG, the DGA and Iatse four times this summer over money woes.
Bergstein said the guild problems have been resolved and that the movie only needs two days of pickup shots; others said scenes crucial to the film are missing. In any case, additional days were funded and the film will apparently arrive on schedule in early 2009.
Producer-director Taylor Hackford, who is finishing postproduction on ThinkFilm's "Love Ranch," starring his wife Helen Mirren, said funding came through "just in time."
"The fact is he stayed with us," Hackford said of Bergstein. "We never shut down for a day. Everybody got paid."
Other Bergstein-backed movies nearing completion include the road comedy "Five Dollars a Day," the romantic comedy "My Sexiest Year" and the $30 million crime drama "Black Water Transit."
It's unclear what effect, if any, ThinkFilm's apparent money woes will have on Bergstein's current productions. But his credibility, per various sources, is at an all-time low.
One agent said he feels sorry for Urman, who must field calls from angry filmmakers and skeptical reporters. "(Bergstein) over-committed," the agent said. "He didn't care about the budgets of movies. He just did them. It was like almost a three-card Monte game. Monies were moving in all different places to meet the latest fire drill, and at some point the cards stop and there is no money."
Urman declined repeated requests for an interview, but Bergstein angrily denied rumors that the company is firing employees, withholding paychecks and stiffing profit participants.
When he bought ThinkFilm, he said, he agreed with Canadian regulators to close its Toronto office, which resulted in layoffs. He also put pressure on Urman and Sackman to trim the staff, and he outsourced home video to Image Entertainment, which Bergstein was to acquire. The Image deal later fell apart, with Bergstein blaming Image for backing out and Image claiming Bergstein did not come through with funding. A separate deal to acquire Im Global as a second sales agent also unraveled, and Bergstein recently divested his majority interest in the company.
Bergstein dismissed as "complete nonsense" allegations that he has not paid DVD royalties. "We're the same as any other studio," he said. "We recoup what we're due. We get our distribution fee and the rest goes out. Sometimes reporting by ThinkFilm was in fact late, just like studios report to me late sometimes."
Bergstein said his plans for ThinkFilm are much larger than anyone realizes. Theatrical distribution and foreign sales platforms are only a means in which to gather content before the industry transitions to selling directly to consumers digitally. Then the key will be to own the most content, so despite all the naysayers, he plans to acquire even more movie and TV libraries.
In the meantime, Bergstein said ThinkFilm's finances are solid and it will continue to release films.
But Sackman said what has happened at the company he co-founded breaks his heart.
"I am very proud of what we built and accomplished at ThinkFilm," Sackman said. "And very sad to see how in the past 16 months the company and its reputation have been diminished."...
Yet David Bergstein is unperturbed.
"There is always an adjective that precedes us: 'Beleaguered,' 'financially distressed,' " Bergstein said recently from his plush new offices in the Fox Plaza in Century City, with a hint of an accent from his native New York. "And none of these people know anything."
What is known is that after a summer in which ThinkFilm has been battered by bad press -- especially during the repeated shutdowns of the Jake Gyllenhaal political satire "Nailed," financed by a Bergstein-backed entity -- he is actively looking for cash.
Whether that will be enough to repair the executive's strained relationships with Hollywood and allow his company to stay in business remains to be seen.
But Bergstein is adamant that he is on the right track.
"Our business plan is not so much about the movie business," he said, noting that he controls about a thousand films. "It's really to build a global digital distribution business. It's based on the expectation that in the not too distant future most content will be delivered digitally and on-demand."
Bergstein began to make a mark in Hollywood just 18 months ago, when he and construction magnate Ron Tutor bought ThinkFilm and London-based Capitol.
Yet after releasing 20-odd pictures in 2006 and 2007, only nine ThinkFilm movies have opened this year. Bergstein apparently has sold off some films, canceled others and has refused to commit to release dates for the only other two films originally scheduled for 2008: January's Sundance Film Festival pickups "Phoebe in Wonderland" and "The Escapist."
At the same time, at least four separate lawsuits have been filed against ThinkFilm this year by vendors and others claiming they were short shifted.
"Some of what is out there is true," Bergstein said. "The vast majority is not true. And for the stuff that is true, my answer is, 'So what? So what if X, Y or Z might be owed money?' "
That attitude has some in the creative community fuming.
"He's the biggest disgrace in the film business," said producer Albie Hecht, formerly president of Nickelodeon, who produced the Oscar-nominated ThinkFilm documentary "War/Dance" and claims he still has not seen the small advance ThinkFilm promised. An arbitration is pending.
"This is someone who goes around making deals and looks like he has no intention of fulfilling his obligation to filmmakers and artists," Hecht added. "Not only is it disgusting, but downright immoral."
Alex Gibney, director of the Oscar-winning ThinkFilm documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," charges in a lawsuit that ThinkFilm did not have the financial resources to properly release his film and "fraudulently concealed this fact from the film's creative team, its investors and the film's sales agent, Cinetic Media."
Bergstein said Gibney was paid everything he was owed, including a $50,000 Oscar bonus. Bergstein also downplayed lawsuits by Allied Advertising seeking $4.2 million for ads it placed and Brooklyn-based Mammoth Advertising, which said it has nearly $430,00 in unpaid bills.
Lawsuits are just part of doing business, said Bergstein, 46, whose office is stacked with boxes of files and a framed photo of John Lennon flashing a peace sign.
He made a small fortune acquiring depreciated assets, cutting costs and selling for a profit, then dived into the film business in 2003 via his acquisition of Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures library.
"He is used to going in, buying something that's normally four cents for two cents and then saying to everyone, 'It's a distressed asset. I'm only going to pay you half of what you deserve,' " said a veteran talent manager and producer who has worked with Bergstein. "It's just a whole mindset that is antithetical to the movie business."
Bergstein acknowledged he's had problems paying such creditors as PR companies and production services, but he said those issues were caused by the move of ThinkFilm's headquarters from Canada to the U.S., which required new accounting and tracking systems.
A spokesman for Investment bank Db Zwirn & Co. says it has about $100 million in loans to ThinkFilm’s umbrella company. Zwirn was forced to liquidate a hedge fund this year but Bergstein said he has been able to find additional funds from Comerica Bank and others.
He said he has brought ThinkFilm’s debts from $30 million to $8 million and is pumping in another $25 million to market ThinkFilm releases on top of a total investment of $400 million for all his entertainment businesses, which include a postproduction facility and music publisher in London. He declined to say where that new money will come from.
Bergstein said he has image problems because nobody in Hollywood really knows him. He grew up in New York and attended Polytechnic Institute (now part of New York University), studying engineering and pre-med. In the late 1970s he became an investment banker, seeking undervalued stocks.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and worked for a mortgage broker, then began buying real estate. He operated Metropolis Publishing for a time and acquired Express Inc., an online DVD seller that had gone bankrupt in 2001, losing a reported $240 million.
Bergstein and Tutor, a friend who headed two major construction companies that merged this year in a deal valued at $862 million, began investing in Los Angeles restaurants, including Le Dome. There they met Samaha, who was flying high with Franchise Pictures. When Franchise began struggling, Bergstein and Tutor loaned Samaha $14 million, secured by Franchise's film library. When Franchise went under, Bergstein ended up with most of the library.
Armed with product, Bergstein and Tutor acquired ThinkFilm in November 2006 for a reported $18 million in cash and $5 million in debt. The distributor, founded in September 2001 by veteran execs Jeff Sackman, Randy Manis and Marc Hirshberg, as well as Mark Urman from Lionsgate, fielded a string of such Oscar-worthy films as "Half Nelson," which earned Ryan Gosling a best actor nod in 2007, and "Born Into Brothels," 2005's winner for best documentary.
Bergstein said ThinkFilm was insolvent when he bought it. Sackman, who quit the company in anger in April, said it was profitable for four of its first five years but looked for a buyer two years ago when art-house attendance dipped.
"We were very cooperative at first," Sackman said of Bergstein.
At Bergstein's urging they went on a buying spree, acquiring films like "In the Shadow of the Moon," which ThinkFilm bought for $2.5 million at Sundance in 2007 but which grossed only $1.1 million in theaters that November.
Indeed, only four films out of more than 30 releases during the past two years have grossed more than $1 million, including Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," which grossed $7 million last fall, and Helen Hunt's "Then She Found Me," which grossed $3.6 million in April despite advertising money being pulled, sources said.
Many planned ThinkFilm releases are now in limbo. The dark comic drama "Momma's Man" was announced in March as a ThinkFilm acquisition and August release. But the deal never happened and it went to Kino International instead.
"Battle in Seattle," "A Stone's Throw" and "A Happy Death" have been taken off the calendar and the drama "Blue Valentine" was never made because the promised funding fell through.
ThinkFilm doesn't list "The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams" as having been released but producer Julian Adams said it was released briefly last August. Since then he said he has been unable to get a financial statement from Bergstein. "I can't even describe the heartache," Adams said. "I'm beyond frustrated with it."
Bergstein's highest-profile production is the $30 million "Nailed," directed by David O. Russell, which was shut down by SAG, the DGA and Iatse four times this summer over money woes.
Bergstein said the guild problems have been resolved and that the movie only needs two days of pickup shots; others said scenes crucial to the film are missing. In any case, additional days were funded and the film will apparently arrive on schedule in early 2009.
Producer-director Taylor Hackford, who is finishing postproduction on ThinkFilm's "Love Ranch," starring his wife Helen Mirren, said funding came through "just in time."
"The fact is he stayed with us," Hackford said of Bergstein. "We never shut down for a day. Everybody got paid."
Other Bergstein-backed movies nearing completion include the road comedy "Five Dollars a Day," the romantic comedy "My Sexiest Year" and the $30 million crime drama "Black Water Transit."
It's unclear what effect, if any, ThinkFilm's apparent money woes will have on Bergstein's current productions. But his credibility, per various sources, is at an all-time low.
One agent said he feels sorry for Urman, who must field calls from angry filmmakers and skeptical reporters. "(Bergstein) over-committed," the agent said. "He didn't care about the budgets of movies. He just did them. It was like almost a three-card Monte game. Monies were moving in all different places to meet the latest fire drill, and at some point the cards stop and there is no money."
Urman declined repeated requests for an interview, but Bergstein angrily denied rumors that the company is firing employees, withholding paychecks and stiffing profit participants.
When he bought ThinkFilm, he said, he agreed with Canadian regulators to close its Toronto office, which resulted in layoffs. He also put pressure on Urman and Sackman to trim the staff, and he outsourced home video to Image Entertainment, which Bergstein was to acquire. The Image deal later fell apart, with Bergstein blaming Image for backing out and Image claiming Bergstein did not come through with funding. A separate deal to acquire Im Global as a second sales agent also unraveled, and Bergstein recently divested his majority interest in the company.
Bergstein dismissed as "complete nonsense" allegations that he has not paid DVD royalties. "We're the same as any other studio," he said. "We recoup what we're due. We get our distribution fee and the rest goes out. Sometimes reporting by ThinkFilm was in fact late, just like studios report to me late sometimes."
Bergstein said his plans for ThinkFilm are much larger than anyone realizes. Theatrical distribution and foreign sales platforms are only a means in which to gather content before the industry transitions to selling directly to consumers digitally. Then the key will be to own the most content, so despite all the naysayers, he plans to acquire even more movie and TV libraries.
In the meantime, Bergstein said ThinkFilm's finances are solid and it will continue to release films.
But Sackman said what has happened at the company he co-founded breaks his heart.
"I am very proud of what we built and accomplished at ThinkFilm," Sackman said. "And very sad to see how in the past 16 months the company and its reputation have been diminished."...
- 8/6/2008
- by By Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Paul Castro, one of the scribes behind August Rush, has signed a two-picture deal with producers Michael Wasserman and Amy Balsam's the Unusual Suspects banner.
The deal, made before the WGA strike, sees Wasserman and Balsam acquiring two projects from Castro: the drama Eileen's Ice and the coming-of-age road drama Cupcake, which will mark the writer's directorial debut.
"Ice" centers on an unorthodox nun who is ordered to take in a troubled teen under house arrest and learns that the two unlikely companions have more in common than she thinks.
Cupcake follows a teen's quest to find the father he never knew with the help of a prostitute named Cupcake.
Wasserman produced the recent baseball movie The Final Season, while Balsam co-produced My Sexiest Year with Frankie Muniz, Harvey Keitel and Haylie Duff.
Castro's August Rush, starring Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, opens Wednesday November 21. Castro is repped by Preferred Artists.
The deal, made before the WGA strike, sees Wasserman and Balsam acquiring two projects from Castro: the drama Eileen's Ice and the coming-of-age road drama Cupcake, which will mark the writer's directorial debut.
"Ice" centers on an unorthodox nun who is ordered to take in a troubled teen under house arrest and learns that the two unlikely companions have more in common than she thinks.
Cupcake follows a teen's quest to find the father he never knew with the help of a prostitute named Cupcake.
Wasserman produced the recent baseball movie The Final Season, while Balsam co-produced My Sexiest Year with Frankie Muniz, Harvey Keitel and Haylie Duff.
Castro's August Rush, starring Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, opens Wednesday November 21. Castro is repped by Preferred Artists.
- 11/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- In the first pickup from the Hamptons International Film Festival slate, ThinkFilm has nabbed North American rights to Thursday's world premiere My Sexiest Year.
Writer-director Howard Himelstein's autobiographical coming-of-age story follows Jack Stein (Frankie Muniz), a 17-year-old aspiring writer who lives with his mother (Frances Fisher) in Brooklyn. When her health declines, she sends him to live with his horse-racing handicapper father (Harvey Keitel) in Miami.
Jack soon becomes distracted by new friendships with a rich druggie (Dan Levy) and his sister (Haylie Duff) and the famous model (Amber Valletta) Jack falls for. Ryan Cabrera plays Jack's high school nemesis. Christopher McDonald and Karolina Kurkova also star.
The pickup reunites ThinkFilm with producers Michael Cerenzie and Paul Parmar, part of the team behind its upcoming Sidney Lumet thriller Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
Himelstein directed Power of Attorney and scripted Myriad Pictures' upcoming Oscar Wilde adaptation A Woman of No Importance.
Cerenzie and Christine Forsyth-Peters' of CP Prods. will produce Russell Mulcahy's Zen and the Art of Slaying Vampires.
ThinkFilm U.S.
Writer-director Howard Himelstein's autobiographical coming-of-age story follows Jack Stein (Frankie Muniz), a 17-year-old aspiring writer who lives with his mother (Frances Fisher) in Brooklyn. When her health declines, she sends him to live with his horse-racing handicapper father (Harvey Keitel) in Miami.
Jack soon becomes distracted by new friendships with a rich druggie (Dan Levy) and his sister (Haylie Duff) and the famous model (Amber Valletta) Jack falls for. Ryan Cabrera plays Jack's high school nemesis. Christopher McDonald and Karolina Kurkova also star.
The pickup reunites ThinkFilm with producers Michael Cerenzie and Paul Parmar, part of the team behind its upcoming Sidney Lumet thriller Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
Himelstein directed Power of Attorney and scripted Myriad Pictures' upcoming Oscar Wilde adaptation A Woman of No Importance.
Cerenzie and Christine Forsyth-Peters' of CP Prods. will produce Russell Mulcahy's Zen and the Art of Slaying Vampires.
ThinkFilm U.S.
- 10/18/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rachel Specter, Brendan Miller, Anna Osceola, John Keefe, Jeffrey Christopher Todd and Jocelin Donahue have enrolled in the Comedy Central pilot Not Another High School Show.
The six relative newcomers comprise the ensemble cast of the project, a spoof of teen TV dramas that's from Sony Pictures Television and executive producers Mike Bender, Neal Moritz and Joel Gallen (Not Another Teen Movie). The project will spoof shows ranging from Dawson's Creek to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The O.C.
It's understood that the producers wanted to cast fresh faces in the roles of the archetypal teen characters.
The High School pilot begins shooting Saturday in Los Angeles.
Specter's credits include the indie My Sexiest Year opposite Frankie Muniz as well as HBO's Entourage, CBS' How I Met Your Mother, WB Network's What I Like About You and Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh." She is repped by Ryan Daly and Mara Santino at KSA and managed by Adam Griffin.
The six relative newcomers comprise the ensemble cast of the project, a spoof of teen TV dramas that's from Sony Pictures Television and executive producers Mike Bender, Neal Moritz and Joel Gallen (Not Another Teen Movie). The project will spoof shows ranging from Dawson's Creek to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The O.C.
It's understood that the producers wanted to cast fresh faces in the roles of the archetypal teen characters.
The High School pilot begins shooting Saturday in Los Angeles.
Specter's credits include the indie My Sexiest Year opposite Frankie Muniz as well as HBO's Entourage, CBS' How I Met Your Mother, WB Network's What I Like About You and Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh." She is repped by Ryan Daly and Mara Santino at KSA and managed by Adam Griffin.
- 11/2/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.