War Around Kirchs Media Empire

"Banks try to tear out the fillet pieces to themselves", however, also media Mogul Murdoch stands ready to take!

The drama unfolds around Leo Kirch and his(its) with five to six billion Euros high if heavily indebted media group (premiere, SAT.1, per Seven, cables 1) does not head for a decision. " These days we see many sources on the road who would like to bring the elephant to its knees ", says an insider.

One is of them, the Australian media Mogul Rupert Murdoch to whom already a fifth of Kirch's Pay TV broadcasting station premiere belongs. Murdoch would gladly put his fingers between Kirch's other broadcasting stations to take control.  Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB said on Wednesday that Kirch Managing Director Dieter Hahn had resigned from its board, in a sign of increasingly sour relations between the two media companies. (Read Full Story……)

Lasse Hallstrom on 'Paper' Trail

"The Shipping News" director Lasse Hallstrom is committing to shoot a Miramax adaptation of the David Liss novel "A Conspiracy of Paper" this fall

That means he will drop out of "Cinderella Man," the Universal/Miramax drama about Depression-era heavyweight boxing champ Jim Braddock, starring Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger.

"A Conspiracy of Paper" is a thriller set in London in the early 18th century, framed around the inception of the stock exchange. Benjamin Weaver is an outsider in eighteenth-century London: a Jew among Christians; a ruffian among aristocrats; a retired pugilist who, hired by London's gentry, travels through the criminal underworld in pursuit of debtors and thieves.

In A Conspiracy of Paper, Weaver investigates a crime of the most personal sort: the mysterious death of his estranged father, a notorious stockjobber. To find the answers, Weaver must contend with a desperate prostitute who knows too much about his past, relatives who remind him of his alienation from the Jewish faith, and a cabal of powerful men in the world of British finance who have hidden their business dealings behind an intricate web of deception and violence. Relying on brains and brawn, Weaver uncovers the beginnings of a strange new economic order based on stock speculation--a way of life that poses great risk for investors but real danger for Weaver and his family.

In the tradition of The Alienist and written with scholarly attention to period detail, A Conspiracy of Paper is one of the wittiest and most suspenseful historical novels in recent memory, as well as a perceptive and beguiling depiction of the origin of today's financial markets. In Benjamin Weaver, author David Liss has created an irresistibly appealing protagonist, one who parlays his knowledge of the emerging stock market into a new kind of detective work. It will reunite Hallstrom with Oscar-nominated "Chocolat" scribe Robert Nelson Jacobs, who adapted the novel.

About the Author; David Liss was born in 1966 and grew up in south Florida. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the department of English at Columbia University, where he is completing his dissertation on how the mid-eighteenth-century novel reflects and shapes the emergence of the modern idea of personal finance. He has given numerous conference papers on his research and has also published on Henry James. He has received several awards for his work, including the Columbia President's Fellowship, an A. W. Mellon Research Fellowship, and the Whiting Dissertation Fellowship. He holds an M.A. degree from Georgia State University and a B.S. degree from Syracuse University. Liss lives in New York City with his wife and can be reached via his website, www.davidliss.com

Kirkus Reviews wrote " A well-researched and highly entertaining historical mystery debut that compares favorably with An Instance of the Fingerpost. Liss's fiendishly intricate tale of financial skulduggery and multiple murder, set in a solidly realized early-eighteenth-century London, has as its redoubtable protagonist and narrator one Benjamin Weaver.   The very model of a modern historical mystery."

Hallstrom signed on for "Paper" after "Cinderella Man" was pushed back by about 14 months as a result of Crowe's decision to star first for "Witness" director Peter Weir in "Far Side of the World," a $135 million maritime epic that will begin shooting this summer.

Steven Soderbergh; The Informant: A True Story

 In a high-six-figure deal, Warner Bros. Pictures has acquired feature rights to "The Informant: A True Story," a tale of conspiracy that Steven Soderbergh is developing at his Section Eight shingle with an eye to direct.

Scott Burns will adapt the book, which was penned by New York Times investigative reporter Kurt Eichenwald.

From an award-winning New York Times investigative reporter comes an outrageous story of greed, corruption, and conspiracy—which left the FBI and Justice Department counting on the cooperation of one man .

It was one of the FBI's biggest secrets: a senior executive with America's most politically powerful corporation, Archer Daniels Midland, had become a confidential government witness, secretly recording a vast criminal conspiracy spanning five continents. Mark Whitacre, the promising golden boy of ADM, had put his career and family at risk to wear a wire and deceive his friends and colleagues. Using Whitacre and a small team of agents to tap into the secrets at ADM, the FBI discovered the company's scheme to steal millions of dollars from its own customers.

But as the FBI and federal prosecutors closed in on ADM, using stakeouts, wiretaps, and secret recordings of illegal meetings around the world, they suddenly found that everything was not all that it appeared. At the same time Whitacre was cooperating with the Feds while playing the role of loyal company man, he had his own agenda he kept hidden from everyone around him—his wife, his lawyer, even the FBI agents who had come to trust him with the case they had put their careers on the line for. Whitacre became sucked into his own world of James Bond antics, imperiling the criminal case and creating a web of deceit that left the FBI and prosecutors uncertain where the lies stopped and the truth began.

In this gripping account unfolds one of the most captivating and bizarre tales in the history of the FBI and corporate America. Meticulously researched and richly told by New York Times senior writer Kurt Eichenwald, The Informant re-creates the drama of the story, beginning with the secret recordings, stakeouts, and interviews with suspects and witnesses to the power struggles within ADM and its board—including the high-profile chairman Dwayne Andreas, F. Ross Johnson, and Brian Mulroney—to the big-gun Washington lawyers hired by ADM and on up through the ranks of the Justice Department to FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno.

A page-turning real-life thriller that features deadpan FBI agents, crooked executives, idealistic lawyers, and shady witnesses with an addiction to intrigue, The Informant tells an important and compelling story of power and betrayal in America Burns identified the property after hearing about it on Ira Glass' weekly Public Radio Intl. program "This American Life." He then discovered that it had been first optioned by Michael Jaffe of Jaffe/Braunstein Films with the intent of turning it into a television movie. Burns convinced Jaffe to give him a shot at setting it up as a feature and brought it to Section Eight, which Soderbergh runs with George Clooney. Broadway Books published the book last July.

About the Author; Kurt Eichenwald who also wrote "Serpent on the Rock: Crime, Betrayal and the Terrible Secrets of Prudential Bache," has written about white-collar crime and corporate corruption for the New York Times for more than a decade. A two-time winner of the prestigious George Polk award for excellence in journalism and a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize, he has been repeatedly selected by TJFR Business News Reporter as one of the nation's most influential financial journalists. For the Times, he has covered some of the highest-profile news stories emanating from the business world, including the Archer Daniels Midland story,. is currently covering the Enron scandal for the Times. Eichenwald lives in Westchester County, outside New York City, with his wife and three children.

Burns is currently developing three projects at Working Title Films: "P239," "California Fire and Life" and an untitled project based on the life of a crime scene cleaner.

John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet stalked in Col thriller 'I.D.

John Cusack, Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet are in final negotiations to star in Columbia Pictures' ensemble feature "I.D." for director James Mangold and studio-based Konrad Pictures. The project begins shooting next month in Los Angeles.

The film is described as a modern psychological thriller in the vein of "And Then There Were None" and "Ten Little Indians." It follows 10 people marooned at a roadside motel during a fierce desert storm who discover that they are being killed off one by one.

"I.D." reunites Liotta with Mangold, both of whom worked on 1997's "Cop Land." Columbia production president Peter Schlessel and executive vp Doug Belgrad are overseeing the project, picked up in November as a spec script from British playwright-screenwriter Michael Cooney in a mid-six figure deal.

Cusack, repped by WMA, next stars in Alliance Atlantis Communications' "Hoffman."

Liotta, repped by Endeavor, next stars in New Line Cinema's "John Q," Cutting Edge Entertainment's "Narc," Fox 2000's "Phone Booth" and HBO's "Point of Origin."

Peet, repped by the Gersh Agency and Industry Entertainment's Eric Kranzler, stars in several upcoming projects, including 20th Century Fox/New Regency Pictures' "High Crimes," Paramount Pictures' "Changing Lanes," MGM's "Igby Goes Down," Warner Bros.' "Date Squad" and Myriad Pictures' "Rain Falls."

MGM Walking Tall, remake

MGM and Hyde Park Entertainment have teamed to develop a remake of the 1973 actioner "Walking Tall" and are negotiating with writer David Klass to adapt the project.

"Tall" centers on a Southern sheriff's one-man mission to remove corruption in his county. The original film was directed by Phil Karlson and starred Joe Don Baker, Elizabeth Hartman and Leif Garrett, among others.

The project also spawned two sequels: 1975's "Walking Tall Part II" and 1977's "Final Chapter -- Walking Tall."

Hyde Park co-chairman and co-CEO David Hoberman told The Hollywood Reporter that the project will be modernized and updated but kept simple.

"It seemed time for a movie about someone who takes the law into his own hands and rights the wrongs of a corrupt community," Hoberman said.

Hoberman will produce with Hyde Park co-chairman and co-CEO Ashok Amritraj as well as Lucas Foster and Keith Samples. MGM vp production Eric Paquette is overseeing for the studio.

The project isn't the first remake for MGM, following such previous remakes as "The Thomas Crown Affair" and the upcoming "Rollerball," both directed by John McTiernan. The studio also is developing a remake of "The Pink Panther."

Klass, repped by UTA, wrote the recent Showtime feature "In the Time of the Butterflies," starring Salma Hayek. He also penned "Desperate Measures" and "Kiss the Girls." Hyde Park has a first-look deal with MGM and a second-look deal with the Walt Disney Co.

Ed Harris, The Human Stain for Miramax

Ed Harris has joined the cast of Miramax Films/Lakeshore Entertainment's "The Human Stain" opposite Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins. The project will begin shooting March 25 on the East Coast.

Directed by Robbie Benton, "Stain" is based on Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Roth's novel of the same name and revolves around an unfairly disgraced light-skinned black college professor, Coleman Silk (Hopkins), who has spent his life passing himself off as Jewish. He also has had an affair with Faunia Farley (Kidman), a troubled yet fiercely independent young woman. The story is told by novelist Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise), who investigates Silk's life and death and discovers that the man has led a life of dark secrets. Harris will play Lester Farley, the ex-husband of Kidman's character.

Nicholas Meyer adapted the novel, which is being produced by Lakeshore chairman Tom Rosenberg and president Gary Lucchesi. Scott Steindorff of Village Stone Prods., who brought the book to Lakeshore, also is producing.

Harris, repped by CAA and his manager Neil Koenigsberg, stars onscreen in "A Beautiful Mind." He next stars in Paramount Pictures' "The Hours" and "Buffalo Soldiers," which Miramax acquired for distribution at last year's Toronto International Film Festival. Multihyphenate Harris directed, produced and starred in 2000's Sony Pictures Classics feature "Pollock," which earned him his third Oscar nomination for best actor.

Simon Wincer Climbs Into Saddle For Dis' 'Stallion'

"Free Willy" director Simon Wincer has joined a pair of contributors to the original 1979 "The Black Stallion" film to bring a "Stallion" prequel to large-format theaters for the Walt Disney Co.

Wincer is no stranger to equine pics, having directed the 1983 feature "Phar Lap," about a champion New Zealand racehorse.

Titled "Young Black Stallion," the prequel explores the origin of the legendary horse in a tale of a young girl and a black stallion who come into each others' lives and rescue one another from dangerous situations.

While Wincer is new to the "Stallion" franchise, a pair of the original film's contributors -- producer Fred Roos and writer Jeanne Rosenberg -- are involved in the prequel.

"Stallion" also is being produced by the Kennedy/Marshall Co. and will be overseen by vp production Karen Glass for the studio.

For Rosenberg, "Stallion" is her latest large-format credit, following "China: The Panda Adventure" and "T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous." Production on "Stallion" is scheduled to begin March 4 in Africa.

Wim Wenders, Martin Scorsese teamed for The Blues

Wim Wenders has teamed with Martin Scorsese and a host of acclaimed filmmakers to create an epic documentary series on the subject of the blues.

"The Blues", the project sees Wenders and Scorsese joined by such directors as the UK's Mike Figgis, a musician who has composed some of his own film scores, and Marc Levin, the New York-based cinema verite documentarian whose first feature Slam won the Sundance Festival and Cannes’ Camera d’Or.

Also thought to be negotiating to direct a seventh segment in the series - although his prospective involvement has not been made public yet - is Clint Eastwood, a well-known jazz afficionado who won acclaim in 1988 for Bird his biopic on bebop legend Charlie Parker.

Scorsese will executive produce with Ulrich Felsberg, Wenders’ partner in German production outfit Road Movies, and with Jody Patton, president of Clear Blue Sky Productions. Clear Blue is the US film financier founded by Microsoft founder Paul Allen.

The series, a long-standing ambition of Scorsese's, begins with a journey from Africa to the Mississippi Delta, where the music originated - from field hollers, work songs and church choirs. Scorsese, whose credits include his 1978 documentary on The Band's farewell concert The Last Waltz, is directing that first element himself, entitled From Mali To Mississippi.

Wenders - whose long cinematic association with music includes his box office hit Buena Vista Social Club - is now due to follow three of his favorite blues artists in a segment called Devil Got My Woman.

Levin takes a more contemporary look at musicians such as Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, while Figgis examines the influence of the blues on UK artists such as Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger.

Also directing segments are Charles Burnett, best known for To Sleep With Anger, and Richard Pearce, who has directed films such as Country, No Mercy and Leap Of Faith. Alex Gibney and Margaret Bodde are producing, with Road Sales handling international sales.

FX and Artisan Television in Development On Movie About Enron Scandal

FX and Artisan Television are in development on a made-for-television movie about the Enron scandal of which award-winning producer Lowell Bergman will serve as a consultant, announced FX President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly and Artisan Pictures CEO Robert Cooper. In addition, the companies anticipate making other deals for an inside look at Enron. The movie may be two or four hours in length pending development.

"We are committed to making a credible and compelling movie out of this pretty incredible and complex story,'' said Kevin Reilly President of Entertainment at FX. "Lowell Bergman has made his mark getting to the bottom of complicated stories and that's why we are in the best possible hands as we strive to get the facts straight and distill the issues. However, the dramatic guts of the story -- cronyism, dishonesty, ambition and capitalism gone awry -- are taking shape with each passing day.''

Bob Cooper, who will be Executive Producer of the project, has produced numerous acclaimed feature and made for television films. As President of HBO Pictures, Cooper oversaw and approved the production of some of the best ever made for television movies including "Barbarians at the Gate,'' "And the Band Played On'' and "The Josephine Baker Story.'' Recently, Cooper Executive Produced "Sins of the Father'' for FX and Artisan Television, which garnered extensive critical acclaim and outstanding ratings.

"We want to create a story that echoes powerful ideas and images in the same vein as such seminal productions as 'Barbarians At the Gate,' 'And The Band Played On' and 'All The President's Men,''' said Cooper. "Having the esteemed journalist Lowell Bergman involved in this project will be invaluable in helping us tell this story and cast a mirror on our world and ourselves.''

Lowell Bergman graduated from U.C. Santa Barbara and was one of the founding members of the Center for Investigative Reporting. He spent 16 years as a producer with CBS's "60 Minutes,'' where he was honored with several Emmys and a Peabody Award. More recently he has been a frequent contributor to the New York Times and served as both producer and correspondent for numerous PBS Frontline documentaries. The story of his investigation of the tobacco industry for "60 Minutes'' was chronicled in the feature film "The Insider.''

"I am very excited to be involved with Bob Cooper to tell a very complex and important story and make it accessible to the general public,'' added Bergman. "This is a story of men versus women and how it was the women who stood up to the electric cowboys of Houston.''

FX's most recent original movie, the critically acclaimed "Sins of the Father'' (1/6/02), starred Tom Sizemore, Richard Jenkins, and Ving Rhames. It was based on the relationship between Bobby Frank Cherry and his son Tom Cherry, and the role Tom played in helping the government bring an indictment against his father. The elder Cherry was indicted for his role in the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church -- an event that resulted in the death of four girls and changed the course of the Civil Rights movement.

FX and Artisan Television are currently in pre-production on a film about Bobby Kennedy titled, "RFK,'' which will be directed by Emmy Award nominated Robert Dornhelm.

FX's next original movie "Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie,'' from Fox Television Studios, stars David Krumholtz in the lead role and is directed by Ernest Dickerson. "Big Shot'' is the true story of Benny Silman, whose flirtation with sports gambling while a student at Arizona State University spiraled out of control and was the catalyst for one of the most significant sports bribery conspiracies in the history of college athletics.

Artisan Entertainment Inc. is a leading independent producer and distributor of theatrical, television and home entertainment product. The Company coordinates its business activities through two wholly owned operating divisions, Artisan Pictures and Artisan Home Entertainment.

Terror Plots Return to Movies

Hollywood froze with the rest of the world on Sept. 11. Terrorism-themed movies vanished from the schedule, and studios grappled with the notion that the reality of the terrorist attacks might sap viewers' tastes for film violence of any sort.

It was a short freeze. The industry generally is back to business as usual, relieved that Sept. 11 seems to have left moviegoers unaffected in the types of films they want to see.

Problematic films postponed after Sept. 11, including Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Collateral Damage," Tim Allen's "Big Trouble," and Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock's "Bad Company," were quickly put back in the lineup for this year. Releases of two major war movies scheduled for 2002, "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Black Hawk Down," were moved up to last fall. (Read Full Story…..)

Alan Jackson Still No. 1 With

The tastes of record buyers didn't change much over a week's time — the top nine albums remained the same for the week ending Sunday, with Alan Jackson's "Drive" at No. 1.

 "Drive," which has been at the top of the charts for three weeks, sold 189,000 copies. Creed's "Weathered" remained at No. 2, with 109,000 copies sold, followed by Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory," 91,000 copies; Ludacris' "Word of Mouf," 86,000 copies; and Nickelback's "Silver Side Up," 78,000 copies.

There was one big jump, however: Mary J. Blige's "No More Drama" rose from No. 28 to No. 10 on the charts, selling about 62,000 copies, according to figures released Wednesday. That's twice as many albums as she sold the previous week.

Blige got a boost because she re-released the disc, which debuted last August and had already sold more than 1.7 million copies. The album has a new cover, two new songs and two remixed tracks.

Spin magazine Editor in Chief Alan Light said Wednesday that it's unusual for a record company to rerelease a hit album after just five months.

"I can't think of anybody who's gone in and torn up a relatively new album this much," he said. "If it works, it will be interesting to see if other people pick up on that as a way to revive interest."

The two biggest debuts of the week came from vastly different genres; the soundtrack to the Beanie Sigel-Jay Z flop movie "State Property" sold 52,000 copies to place at No. 14, while a notch below was Barbra Streisand, with 51,000 copies sold of "Essential Barbra Streisand."

The week's top selling discs:

1. "Drive," Alan Jackson, 189,000
2. "Weathered," Creed, 109,000
3. "Hybrid Theory," Linkin Park 91,000
4. "Word of Mouf," Ludacris, 86,000
5. "Silver Side Up," Nickelback, 78,000
6. "Pain Is Love," Ja Rule, 68,000
7. "Stillmatic," Nas, 66,000
8. "8701," Usher, 63,000
9. "M!ssundaztood," Pink, 62,137
10. "No More Drama," Mary J. Blige, 61,602