Denzel Washington Marks 'Time' for $20 Million

Denzel Washington will draw a $20 million paycheck for "Out of Time," an MGM thriller that will re-team the Oscar-nominated "Training Day" star with his "Devil in a Blue Dress" director Carl Franklin.

Washington will play a small Florida town's police chief who does the wrong thing for the right reason and then must use guile to get out of a difficult situation, complicated by two women. Shooting begins in May.

"The tone of this film is lighter than Denzel's last two films, but it is smart, fun and has tentpole potential," said MGM production president Alex Gartner.

Washington is up for an Oscar for his role as a corrupt cop in "Training Day," and his latest film, "John Q," set a President's Day weekend opening record with more than $23 million.

While it is not uncommon for stars to choose overtly commercial fare to hike their "quotes," Washington's rise is noteworthy in that he continues to choose edgy and provocative films.

He had numerous offers for his next slot, but chose "Out of Time" in order to work again with Franklin. By the time the film begins production, Washington should be done with post-production on his directorial debut, which hasn't yet been formally titled but is known as "The Antwone Fisher Story." Fox Searchlight will release it in late fall.

Landing Washington is a coup for MGM at a time when the studio is trying to rebound from the box office disappointments "Rollerball" and "Hart's War," the latter of which was crushed when it opened opposite the "John Q."

 According to record industry sources, Carey has been discussing potential deals with several major labels, including Island Def Jam, RCA and Elektra, who are interested in capitalizing on her star power despite her flameout with EMI.

Sin Eater", the first project For Michael Kuhn

Shooting has started in Rome's Cinecitta Studios on 20th Century Fox's "Sin Eater", the first project to go into production through former PolyGram Filmed Entertainment chief Michael Kuhn's new production outfit.

Directed by Brian Helgeland (A Knight's Tale), Sin Eater is the story of a mysterious character who exorcises the sins of dead people and stars Heath Ledger (Helgeland’s lead in A Knight’s Tale) in the role of a young rebellious priest. It also features Peter Weller (Robocop) and two more A Knight’s Tale alumni Mark Addy and Shannyn Sossamon.

Producers of the $38m movie are Craig Baumgarten and Adam Merims of Baumgarten Merims Productions along with Helgeland and Tim Van Rellim. Kuhn’s N1 Film Productions GmbH & Co is the production entity behind the film and Kuhn is listed as an executive producer alongside Thomas M Hammel (From Hell).

The movie is the first fruit of a multi-picture distribution deal Kuhn struck with Fox last year, which will see the US major distribute up to ten films from Kuhn over a four year-period in North America, the UK, Italy, Germany and Latin America. Fox picked up the rest of the world from Kuhn on Sin Eater after it had sold him the picture.

Sin Eater started shooting in Rome on January 14 and has seen acclaimed set designer Milien Kreka Kljakovic (Delicatessen) reconstruct the interior of the Vatican in Cinecitta's famous Teatro 5, the largest sound stage in Europe which was famously used by Italian director Federico Fellini.

Post-production is set to be carried out by Ridley and Tony Scott's London-based outfit The Mill. The film is scheduled for an August release in the US.

Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox Italia has confirmed that it will soon start producing Italian pictures as well as co-producing European projects. At the moment, 20th Century Fox is also shooting in Italy comedy Just Married directed by Andrew Bergman and Shawn Levy with Christian Kane and  Brittany Murphy.

Mariah Carey Talking with Other Labels

Pop diva Mariah Carey got $28 million to walk away from her gig at music giant EMI Group Plc last month, but now the suitors are lining up for her hand. "Mariah is talking with several companies," a spokeswoman for the star said, refusing to elaborate further.

Officials for Vivendi Universal, the parent of Island Def Jam, and AOL Time Warner Inc's Warner Music Group, parent to Elektra, declined comment. Officials from Bertelsmann AG's RCA were unavailable.

Carey's lawyer, Donald Passman, told Reuters in January that recording companies had shown interest in the star ever since speculation of her breakup with EMI began circulating weeks late in 2000.

Industry sources speculate her next deal will be valued at far below the estimated $80 million to $100 million EMI originally agreed to pay her only to see the singer's new album, "Glitter" and a film by the same name bomb.

Under the buyout pact, Carey got $28 million to walk away and retains another $21 million previously paid to her when the EMI contract was first signed in April 2001.

"She doesn't need a lot of money at this point. She just needs someone to distribute her music. People still think she's a very marketable brand," said one record label executive.

Carey's fallout with EMI has come to symbolize the dysfunctional state of the music industry, which has paid huge sums of money to a few acts that have failed to live up to their value in a year when sales have slid, online piracy has increased and pop stars railed against industry accounting practices.

The news also topped a turbulent year for the singer who suffered an emotional and physical breakdown and has figured prominently in gossip columns since the end of her marriage to Sony Corp,  Sony Music Entertainment chief Tommy Mottola, who discovered her as an 18-year-old waitress.

Other artists have recently gone on to bigger and better things after being let go by EMI's Virgin. After recording two albums for Virgin, reggae star Shaggy signed to MCA Records, where his 2000 album, "Hotshot," was one of the best-selling releases last year.

And the Wallflowers recorded one little-noticed album for Virgin in 1992 before being let go and landing at Interscope, where their 1996 album, "Bringing Down the Horse," sold 6 million copies worldwide. MCA and Interscope are units of Vivendi Universal.

Endemol Hunting For German Film Production Companies

Dutch media giant Endemol Entertainment plans to expand its role as a producer for cinema and television in Germany with the purchase of a number of film production companies.

In an interview with the business daily Handelsblatt, Endemol Deutschland general manager Werner Schwaderlapp revealed that negotiations are already underway for the acquisition of majority 51% stakes in four to five film production companies this year.

He stressed that the size of the companies under consideration played no role, although other sources reported that Endemol's shopping list does not include any publicly listed companies.

Endemol's planned return to this market - it sold its 23% stake in Helkon Media in August 2000, after it said that it wanted to withdraw from the area of film production - is explained by its seeing little potential for further growth in the field of entertainment, where it is market leader in the production of light entertainment shows.

In addition, the new acquisitions would form part of an international network of film production companies under the Endemol umbrella, with other production houses in Italy and Spain.

As observers have suggested, given the increasing concentration in the TV production sector in Germany, it would seem an astute move for independent producers to ally themselves with a strong partner with access to financial resources to bankroll projects as other companies have done by seeking a home within the KirchGroup or Bertelsmann's Ufa.

At the moment, Endemol's German production activities include show producer Endemol Productions; Endemol Filmproduktion Muenchen, which was founded in May 1999 and has produced five TV movies; a 50% stake in the interactive TV producer Hurricane Fernsehproduktion; and a 50/50% joint venture in the infotainment outfit META Produktion.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has agreed to re-instate the independent status of TV producer Endemol UK, thus allowing it greater access to foreign investment from European broadcasters.

Endemol, which expanded this year into Brazil and Mexico with co-production accords with TV Globo and Televisa, posted consolidated revenues up 62.8% to Euros 914.3m and an EBITDA of Euros 150.7m, a 51.1% jump over 2000.

There are people in the tech industry who believe that piracy is the killer app for their business

Delivering Hollywood majors a boffo victory, an influential Senate panel on Thursday blasted the tech industry for refusing to play ball and figure out a way to stop pirated pictures from being zipped around the Internet.

No one on the Senate Commerce Committee even bothered to step in when Walt Disney Co. chairman Michael Eisner began to exchange heated words with Intel executive VP Leslie Vadasz. By the end, both were scoffing, unable to conceal their disdain. Eisner, wowing solons with his feistiness, said no Internet protection, no more Hollywood.

"There are people in the tech industry who believe that piracy is the killer app for their business. Their quarter-to-quarter growth is pushed forward by people getting things for free," Eisner said.

"I really take exception to that," Vadasz said. "Contrary to what Mr. Eisner says, we as an industry have not been built up around thievery."

But Vadasz seemed to have no friends up on the dais, thanks to an intensive, months-long lobbying campaign by Motion Picture Assn. of America president Jack Valenti and the major studios. Testifying with Eisner were Valenti and News Corp. president Peter Chernin.

It was clear that the political powers-that-be had sided with the MPAA forces, threatening legislation if the tech sector didn't return to the bargaining table and solve three key copy-protection issues. "If you cannot protect what you own, you don't own anything," Valenti said.

Committee chair Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) and other pols have begun to cite the lack of copy protection as one of the key culprits holding up the digital TV transition: No Hollywood content, no transition.

The solons did exact one promise from Vadasz: by the end of March, the country's top computer makers will present technology that prevents the transfer of content from digital TV sets to the Internet.

But two other key issues remain unresolved.

Studios also want technology that would stop traditional TV sets receiving a digital signal from being hooked up to cyberspace.

And, perhaps more critically, the Hollywood majors are seeking technology that will stop computer users from file-swapping pirated movies on the Internet.

Vadasz said government intervention in these areas would do "irreparable damage" to the computer biz, and that Hollywood wants to overburden computers and other devices with too many restrictions.

Hollings dismissed the characterization as "nonsense," saying, in essence, that Congress doesn't want to neuter the computer biz but, rather, to neuter piracy.

"This is an example of the rhetoric we've been hearing for years," Eisner told Hollings. "If you don't protect content on the Internet, that's the end of the entertainment business."

Eisner said it was no coincidence that the heads of the country's leading computer companies sent a letter Wednesday to studio chiefs expressing a continued willingness to negotiate a resolution. He felt the letter was prompted by the hearing and Hollings' threat to file legislation if the tech sector and consumer electronics don't figure out how to protect content.

The room filled with laughter when Vadasz countered that the timing of the letter had nothing to do with the Senate hearing. The letter, sent from Dell, Microsoft, Intel and other computer makers, said a private solution was still possible and that the tech biz is committed to sitting down with Hollywood.

Taking a more low-key approach than Eisner, Chernin said the studios don't want to deprive consumers of their right to record movies for personal viewing at home. At the same time, he said, studios need to know their content will be reasonably secure.

"Thus, the single most important issue for all entertainment companies, and certainly for every content producer, is that of copyright protection, a constitutional right that has increasingly come under attack in this digital age," Chernin said.

Vadasz took a dig at Valenti, recalling how the MPAA topper once referred to the VCR as the "Boston Strangler" of the film industry. As it turned out, of course, the video biz created a new revenue stream for Hollywood.

When it came his turn to testify, Valenti laughed off the barb. "By the way, I did say that and I would use it again. It's a picturesque phrase."

Eisner Seeks Federal Role in Halt in Digital Piracy

Congress needs to encourage common ways of stopping digital piracy of movies, TV shows and other entertainment products that threatens to stifle industry innovation, Walt Disney Co. Chief Michael Eisner said on Thursday.

In written testimony to a U.S. Congressional committee Eisner called on the federal government to "facilitate the establishment of open and common standards for technological protection of creative content in digital distribution."

The illegal copying of digital movies, music, videos, DVDs and other products is a huge problem for media companies like Disney as the advent of the Internet has allowed users to download copyrighted material for free from other users.

Most recently, song swap services like Napster riddled the music industry with lost revenues, and the same sorts of sites are now threatening movie and TV producers.

The problem has become more acute with the popularization of new, high-speed broadband technologies, which allow for faster downloading of large files such as movies than traditional dial-up lines.

The research firm Viant of Boston estimates that more than 350,000 illegal pirate movies are downloaded from the Internet every day, according to Eisner's testimony.

Many companies are working on ways to stop the pirating of copyrighted materials, but Eisner called on Congress to step in and work with the private sector to develop a common standard that can be quickly installed in consumer electronic devices.

"What the market needs is some means to ensure interoperability and a common set of 'baseline' technologies to help digital media devices and identify and reject the illegal pirated copies," he said in written testimony submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation.

By stepping in to help, the government can ensure the rapid emergence of new standards that might otherwise take years to take hold if left to industry forces alone. Eisner said the government can also help assure that the new standards are "open," meaning "not limited to the proprietary developments of a single firm" and able to be licensed "at a reasonable cost."

"Once standards are set, they must be mandated for inclusion in all digital media devices that handle creative content," Eisner wrote.