• Hitman Hanks
• Mystery over Mad Max 4
• Plans for bloodthirsty Hannibal prequel
• Propaganda big on Carr hip-hop comedy 'Japan'
• "Sexy Beast" shows moviegoers a very different Ben Kingsley. This time he's the anti-Gandhi.
• Microsoft pessimistic about broadband Xbox
• AOL Time Warner has dropped out of the quest for Emap USA, said several financial sources.
• Strong dollar clamps lid on studios' overseas take
• Online sports sites struggle at the plate

Hitman Hanks

Sam Mendes’ latest project the Road to Perdition marks something of a change for Tom Hanks. Casting off the affable everyman character that has become his stock-in-trade, Hanks has discovered his dark side as a mobster hitman.

Set in prohibition-era Chicago, the film focus’ on hitman Michael ‘the Angel of Death’ O’Sullivan, who seeks retribution in blood when his family is murdered. For anyone wondering exactly how Mendes is planning to turn the cuddly star of Forrest Gump and Castaway into a professional killer, these pics from the set will shed some light. Scored by Filmforce, these great images show Hanks in full wiseguy garb and a shot of Chicago’s 37th Street, transformed to great effect by Mendes into a vision of the 1930s.

Mystery over Mad Max 4

Writer/director George Miller has finally taken Mad Max 4 into production, according to reports. Although the identity of the leads is still a closely guarded secret, the Melbourne Herald Sun says Mel Gibson is unlikely to star, but may assume a producer role. Heath Ledger, who appeared with Gibson in The Patriot, is rumoured to be on the cast list. It is understood Mad Max 4 is now being shot in Morocco, and will also use South Australian sites at Coober Pedy and the Flinders Ranges

Plans for bloodthirsty Hannibal prequel

The 1991 hit movie has already spawned a successful sequel in Hannibal. It is now reported that Director Brett Ratner - the man behind Rush Hour and The Family Man - is in talks with Universal to receive about $4 million to direct Red Dragon.

It is an adaptation of Thomas Harris' 1981 best-selling crime thriller that first introduced Hannibal "the Cannibal" to readers. The most important ingredient necessary for the success of Dragon is yet to be confirmed: Anthony Hopkins. The Welsh actor is in negotiations to reprise his Oscar-winning Lecter role for Red Dragon. But his decision depends on the script.

Other members of the team are in place. Dino De Laurentiis, who produced Hannibal, will return to produce the Red Dragon with Martha De Laurentiis. The previous movies' screenwriter Ted Tally has also lent his talents to the project.

The story opens with Lecter being arrested for the first time by ex-FBI agent Will Graham, a top investigator who quit the bureau after nearly becoming one of Lecter's victims. Eagle-eyed film fans will recognise elements of the plot.

Red Dragon was previously made into the 1986 picture Manhunter, directed by Michael Mann and produced by the De Laurentiises. The new film will incorporate elements of the book not seen in Manhunter. The last Hannibal Lecter movie, Hannibal, starring Hopkins and Julianne Moore, grossed $180 million overseas and $165 million in the US to date.

Propaganda big on Carr hip-hop comedy 'Japan'

By Zorianna Kit

Propaganda Films has made a low-six-figure deal for the comedy pitch "Big in Japan," based on an original idea by helmer Steve Carr ("Next Friday"), which he will produce and possibly direct.  First-time writer Jason Taragon will write the pitch, which is about a one-hit wonder hip-hop group that gets a second chance when their music is rediscovered in Japan by a growing subculture of Japanese kids obsessed with rap.

Carr's producing partner Heidi Santelli will co-produce the project, with Propaganda's Rick Hess executive producing. Carr and Santelli signed a deal this month to direct and produce commercials and music videos for Propaganda. This is their first feature pairing with the company.

"Japan" also takes Carr back to his musical roots, having first made his mark as a music video director, working with artists like Jay-Z on his hits "Hard Knock Life" and "Can I Get a ... ," the latter of which won him MTV's best rap video award. Carr went on to combine his music experience with film when he made his directorial debut on New Line Cinema's "Next Friday," which starred and was executive produced by rapper Ice Cube from his own script.

"Steve has gone from directing 'Next Friday' to a huge studio feature like 'Dr. Dolittle 2,' on which Heidi served as a co-producer," Hess said. "Our relationship with all our directors is to take their careers to the next level, so this is all about Propaganda supporting Steve and Heidi and taking them to that level."

Carr is repped by CAA, 9 Yards Entertainment and attorney Karl Austen. He is currently developing the Warner Bros. comedy "Icemen" for producer John Davis

"Sexy Beast" shows moviegoers a very different Ben Kingsley. This time he's the anti-Gandhi.

When you think of the wiry British actor, words like "violent" and "manic" don't exactly spring to mind. You think of the quiet intensity that earned him a best-actor Oscar for 1982's "Gandhi," the inner strength that made him so memorable in films like "Bugsy" and "Schindler's List." He's even brought intelligence and warmth to lighter films like "Dave."

Here, as a foul-mouthed, gun-toting, butt-kicking British thug, Kingsley is unpredictable, impossible to stop watching. His performance alone would make "Sexy Beast" worth seeing, but it punctuates a stylish noir thriller that's totally addictive.

The movie is about a mobster who's dragged from retirement for one last big heist - not exactly a novel premise. But the movie looks great, and that makes it hard to resist.

Kingsley plays Don Logan, a bad guy who treks to Spain's Costa del Sol to persuade former gangster Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone) to return to London to help orchestrate a major bank robbery.

Gal is perfectly happy sunning himself by the pool at his villa - as he does in the film's striking opening sequence - and having long dinners and drinks at night with his wife, former porn star Deedee (Amanda Redman) and their equally sleazy close friends from London, Jackie and Aitch (Julianne White and Cavan Kendall).

We never learn what exactly Gal did during his gangster days, and that's OK. All that matters is that he's integral to this mission. In a thick Cockney accent, Don reasons with Gal, then cajoles, then prods, then angrily demands when no other tactic works.

The two men engage in a verbal battle that's quick and funny, but with a dangerous undercurrent. They complement each other: Don's edgy, Gal's easy-going; Don's hunting, Gal's retreating.

Without giving away too much, let's just say that not everyone makes it to London, but those who do participate in a stunning underwater robbery.

"Sexy Beast" is the first feature film from director Jonathan Glazer, who made his name with commercial and music videos. Before this, he directed the sleek, stylish video for Jamiroquai's hit "Virtual Insanity." But don't write him off as just another purveyor of Short Attention Span Theater.

He'll hook you from the first moment - a high shot of Gal baking his body by the pool - and the camera angles are consistently inventive throughout. A boulder dislodges from the hills above Gal's villa and crashes into the pool, and we see it tumble from the boulder's perspective.

Glazer likes slow motion and quick edits, seductive Spanish ballads and deafening techno music. His style looks an awful lot like that of director Guy Ritchie, who also makes sensory-overload movies about British thugs.

Much of the credit must go to editors John Scott and Sam Sneade - and to screenwriters Louis Mellis and David Scinto, whose words smoothly roll off the actors' tongues. It's hard to believe this is their first script to make it to the big screen.

And the title? Glazer says he chose it in part because it's "impressionistic and a bit brazen."

House: FOX SEARCHLIGHT

Duration: 84 Mins.

Film Width: 2.35

Color: Color

Sound: Dolby Digital

Production: A Recorded Picture Company presentation, in association with FilmFour, Kanzaman S.A.

Cast:

• Alvaro Monje  
• Amanda Redman  
• Ben Kingsley  
• Cavan Kendall  
• Ian McShane  
• James Fox  
• Julianne White  
• Ray Winstone  

Credits:

• Associate producer(s)  Hercules Bellville   Peter Watson  
• Co-producer(s) Denise O’Del  
• Costume designer(s) Louise Stjernsward  
• Director(s) of photography Ivan Bird  
• Director(s) Jonathan Glazer  
• Edited by John Scott   Sam Sneade 
• Music by Roque Banos  
• Producer(s) Jeremy Thomas  
• Production designer(s) Jan Houllevigue  
• Writer(s) David Scinto   Louis Mellis  

Microsoft pessimistic about broadband Xbox

Xbox Chief Executive Steve Ballmer admits Microsoft is concerned about the Xbox's online future. He told the Financial Times they have grown more pessimistic about it than they were a few years ago. He also stated that the slower-than-expected spread of broadband across the world may have a negative effect on the console's sales. Microsoft recently ploughed $15 billion into a project aimed at kick-starting further broadband use. The company had hoped it would see improvements in time to support its console debut.

AOL Time Warner has dropped out of the quest for Emap USA, said several financial sources.

A Time Inc. spokesman said, "We never say if we're at the dance - never mind who we're dancing with."  That decision is apparently fueled by the desire to complete a $1 billion plus deal to buy British consumer magazine powerhouse IPC.

That seems to clear the air for a showdown between three finalists in the Emap bidding. David Pecker and American Media and Evercore; William Reilly and Texas Pacific Group; and Henry Kravis and Primedia.

The final bids are due to investment banker Morgan Stanley next week.  Of course, the bid by Texas Pacific could be problematic. Reilly, a co-founder of Primedia, has a non-compete agreement with his former company. One source said he expected it could get tangled up in a lawsuit with current Primedia CEO Tom Rogers filing suit.

American Media owns The National Enquirer and the Globe and Star magazines but would like to expand into a mainline magazine company. That could help it secure a bigger chunk of the lucrative ad market. Emap, despite its troubles, still boasts strong auto titles in Motor Trend and Hot Rod and other titles from Guns & Ammo to Teen.

Emap PLC, the British parent company, has written down the value of the assets by $870 million, bringing the book value of the company down to an estimated $700 million. But there are some who think the company will be lucky if the bidding breaks out of the $500 million to $600 million range. Emap paid $1.5 billion for the properties only two years ago.  "I can't comment on any of the people who are in or out," said Tom Moloney, the chief operating officer of Emap worldwide. "The process is moving along," he said.

Strong dollar clamps lid on studios' overseas take

By Don Groves

Film revenues for the seven Hollywood majors shrank almost everywhere in Europe except in the resilient British market, according to newly released figures for 2000. Although the slippage in many markets can be attributed largely to the strength of the greenback vs. ailing local currencies, distributors say their figures reflect dwindling ticket sales in key territories such as Germany and Japan.

Europe generated $1.23 billion in rentals for the majors last year (55 percent of the pie), down from 1999's $1.27 billion. Asia and Australasia ponied up $668 million (30 percent), compared with the prior year's $707 million. Latin America contributed $328 million (15 percent), up from $306 million.

The decline in some markets was largely "product-driven," said 20th Century Fox Intl. prexy Scott Neeson. He pointed to Germany, where attendance fell last year despite an increase both in screens and in the number of films released.

"The problem in Germany is that a small percentage of the population goes to cinemas a lot and the vast majority don't go at all," Neeson said. "The industry needs to get together to look at ways of fixing that."

In Japan, which remained the U.S. majors' most lucrative theatrical market overseas despite a pronounced downturn, Neeson is convinced teens have cut back their moviegoing because they're spending upwards of $100 a month on cell phones that allow them to transmit photographs and messages to each other.

"That's the hypothesis everybody in the industry talks about. We will find out (if the theory holds up) by carrying out a survey in the near future," said Kiri Inomata, president of UIP Japan. But it was the unyielding greenback that trumped any gains the studios might otherwise have made. Neeson estimates that Fox Intl.'s theatrical revenues have been diminished by about 25 percent over the past three years due to the strong dollar.

In Europe alone, exchange rates wiped about 15 percent off Columbia TriStar's rentals last year, and the studio's exec VP Tony Manne does not detect any radical changes since then. "There have been no major hits or improvements in currencies compared with last year," Manne said.

United Intl. Pictures president and chief operating officer Andrew Cripps estimated that currency swings, mostly in Europe, depleted UIP's billings by about 10 percent. "I see stability in exchange rates in the major markets, but I don't think we can forecast a good recovery," Cripps said.

A Bit Off

The Hollywood majors' rentals outside North America tallied $2.24 billion in 2000, a slight downtick from 1999's $2.29 billion.

The figures, compiled by the Motion Picture Assn. and circulated privately among member companies, are a reliable barometer of the seven majors' fluctuating theatrical fortunes abroad. But they are a less effective gauge of those markets' overall B.O. health, as they don't count local product or films handled by indies.

While the trend toward splitting rights between a variety of domestic and international parties continues, Manne believes independently produced big-ticket films increasingly are ending up in the hands of the majors overseas.

He cited John McTiernan's "Rollerball," which German financier-distrib Helkon Media financed by selling domestic rights to MGM and all foreign rights, except Germany and Japan, to Col TriStar.

"Most of the customers for (pricey indie-originated projects) are the majors, because they're the only ones who are big enough to bankroll them and can cover their risks via TV and homevideo deals," Manne said.

UIP's Cripps disagreed, contending that the MPA's rental stats are not a true guide to the state of the biz in markets such as Japan and Germany because rights there frequently are laid off to indies.

Five of the top 20 titles in Japan, for instance -- "The Green Mile," "End of Days," "The Blair Witch Project," "Sleepy Hollow" and "U-571" -- were released by Japanese distribs last year, Cripps noted.

As for Germany, he said, "A lot of MPA films were sold off or subject to co-production deals not seen in other markets." U.S. studios collectively saw their film rentals dip in Asia, while Latin America experienced an upswing.

Brazil and Mexico showed healthy gains, spurred by aggressive multiplex rollouts in both territories. In Asia, South Korea and Taiwan rose, also benefiting from new screens and fairly stable currencies. The 14 percent plunge in the studios' rentals in Japan last year can be attributed equally to the weak yen and to the overall market's decline, UIP's Inomata said.

Nationwide, admissions fell by 6.5 percent, but the attrition rate was worse in Tokyo (12 percent in ticket sales, 15 percent in grosses, Inomata estimates) as the capital continued to suffer from the "doughnut effect" -- audiences deserting Tokyo to patronize new multiplexes in outlying areas.

Banking On Summer

"We certainly hope last year's B.O. decline will be reversed this year, especially because of the forthcoming stronger summer releases," Inomata added.

Hollywood films generated just $4.1 million in rentals in mainland China last year, in part a reflection of how little of the B.O. cake remains after the exhibs' cut, monopoly importer China Film's fees and a panoply of taxes have been extracted. Nevertheless, that number was an improvement from 1999's minuscule $1.4 million.

To gain entry to the World Trade Organization, the Beijing government has promised to undertake a raft of reforms, including doubling to 20 the number of foreign films imported each year on a revenue-sharing basis.

But execs such as Manne doubt 20 will be anywhere near enough to justify the massive investment needed to build screens, rejuvenating the country's aging, dilapidated cinemas. "I think it could be 10 years before we see anything real (in revenues) from China," he said.

Online sports sites struggle at the plate

by Cheryl Meyer

In the competitive dot-com landscape, few arenas breed more blood-and-guts rivalries than online sports.  ust ask the founders of Active.com, a Web site that battled about 20 competitors over the past few years. The La Jolla, Calif., company, built by marathon runners and triathletes, attracted more than $50 million to stay the course.

After several mergers and acquisitions and three venture rounds, Active.com is now the top site in the nation that allows athletes to register online for more than 20,000 events, including cycling competitions, triathlons and 10-kilometer races.

At least 17 of Active's competitors have shuttered, and even among the survivors the outlook for profitability is cloudy.

Many of the failures spent too much on marketing and keg parties or relied too heavily on advertising, which slumped once the market collapsed last year.

StreetZebra.com, a sports and recreation information Web site based in Marina del Rey, Calif., went bankrupt earlier this year despite a $10 million infusion from an investment group led by Dallas buyout firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc.

Content-related sports sites also buckled. San Francisco's Quokka Sports Inc., which ran the official Web site for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April when advertisers balked and financing didn't come through. Quokka had reeled in $78.2 million in corporate and VC backing before going public two years ago and formed a partnership with NBC to deliver Olympics coverage over the Web.

In January, Broadband Sports Inc., a Santa Monica, Calif., Web-production company for professional athletes, closed and laid off its staff after burning through about $60 million from investors J.P. Morgan H&Q, Sequoia Capital and others. And college sports site Rivals.com of Seattle recently sold its assets to Tennessee-based AllianceSports, a company Rivals acquired in January 2000.

The list goes on.

For those interactive sites that survived, including Active.com, obstacles to profitability remain. One of the top sports sites on the Web, SportsLine.com Inc., is still in the red despite about $75 million in cash on the books as of March 31. With IPOs hardly an option, many companies are relying on current funds to carry them through to profitability. Some tech businesses hope to be acquired.

"Valuations are significantly down," said David Moross, co-founder of Sports Capital Partners, a New York investment fund that backs sports-related companies, including online businesses. "Liquidations are significantly up. Capital has dried up completely. I think companies that have cash are trying to string out as long as they can. Basically it's a brutal environment."

Many online sports ventures say they're healthy, with enough cash to carry them into the black. Active, for example, which received its funding from Ticketmaster of Pasadena, Calif., Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and La Jolla-based Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, says it holds more than 90% of the sporting events market and counts 260,000 sports teams registered to use its Web tools.

Fort Lauderdale-based SportsLine went public in 1997 after receiving capital from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Reuters New Media and CBS. Most surviving sports sites may already have weathered the worst part of the storm.

Investors and executives stress several common threads that separate the flops from the front-runners, especially experienced management.

"We all make mistakes somewhere down the line, but by and large, what we have done is we've brought in a mature management team," said Gavin Chittick, CFO of London-based Sports.com Ltd., Europe's largest online sports site in terms of traffic and a subsidiary of U.S.-based SportsLine.com. "This place isn't run by a bunch of kids."

Sports.com offers fans news, fantasy leagues and an online betting service, among other features, and brings in revenues from advertising and content distribution. The company provides content for numerous corporate giants, including AOL-Time Warner Inc., the Financial Times Ltd. and Lycos Europe, and has inked partnership deals with www.Wimbledon.org and other premier sporting events.

Founded two years ago when dot-coms were hot, Sports.com secured $62.5 million total in funding, most of which came in January 2000 from investors including Sports Capital, the Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Hicks, Muse and athletes Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal. The company hopes to close another funding round from existing investors in July, Chittick said.

Ron Taylor, special partner at Enterprise Partners, said he invested in Active because of the staff. "The first thing we look for is people," he said. "They weren't a couple of business-school graduates who were looking for something to do." Enterprise invested less than $10 million in Active.com in two separate rounds, he said.

Adopting a strong revenue plan was also key. Taylor said Active.com's plan to collect convenience fees from athletes interested in registering for events online made sense. Dan Marriott, Ticketmaster's executive vice president of corporate development, said his company invested in Active because it mirrored Ticketmaster's plan Ñ collecting service fees to buy tickets online.

Internet ticketing, only 3% of Ticketmaster's business about four years ago, now represents 30%, or 19.7 million ticket sales last year, Marriott said.

According to investors and those in the industry, one of the biggest mistakes sports sites made was uncontrolled burn rates. Dozens of dot-coms overspent on marketing, trying to lure new eyes to their sites.

That wasn't the case at Thegolfwarehouse.com, a golf e-commerce site of Wichita, Kan., owned 65% by Sports Capital. Mark Marney, who founded the company with his brothers Richard and Mike, said they chose to concentrate on customer service rather than marketing to new consumers. This year, sales are 80% above last year at this time, and the company should break even this year, he said.

"I think it was just common sense," Marney said of their decision.

Over the past two years, thegolfwarehouse.com battled with more than 20 competitors. Today, said Moross, almost "Everybody has packed up that business," making the Kansas golf-club seller a shoo-in with industry manufacturers.

Active.com also played it safe. "Don't misunderstand us. We spent a crapload of money," said CEO Dave Alberga. "We raised $51 million, and we've spent three-quarters of that. What we spent it on, however, was event acquisition, not consumer branding, not publication of magazines, not a bunch of other ways that we could easily have gone.

"Honestly, two years ago given that the market was so ill-defined, we could have easily chosen the wrong path."

Cash-healthy sports sites could ride out today's economic slump. Without cash, though, they face a tough road, as most investors have become skittish on business-to-consumer Internet startups. Hicks Muse, for example, has taken a fresh look at its investments, choosing to regress to its prior interests.

"After making a handful of small investments in new-economy companies in 1999 and 2000, we are now 100% focused on back-to-basics investing in our traditional investment areas of branded food and consumer products, media and manufacturing," spokesman Roy Winnick said.

For instance, on May 23, the company finalized its $370 million buyout of pickle maker Vlasic Foods International.

Ticketmaster typically won't invest in sports-related companies unless there's a strategic fit, Marriott said. And Sports Capital, which has less than 15% of its portfolio invested in Web firms, has backed away from the online craze.

"We don't do Internet investments anymore," Moross said.