Weekend Boxoffice March 15 - 17, 2002

"Ice Age" led the way with $47.9 million since its March 15 bow, smashing the old three-day record for a March release -- $31.4 million for Jim Carrey's "Liar Liar" in 1997. It becomes the third best animated opening of all time after "Monsters, Inc." ($62.6 million) and "Toy Story 2" ($57.4 million). (More….)

Paul Bettany, For Master and Commander Peter Weir

Paul Bettany has landed the second lead role in the Peter Weir-directed "Master and Commander." The 20th Century Fox production, with investments from Universal/Miramax, is set to start shooting June 17 at Fox Studios Baja in Mexico.

The project reteams Bettany with his "A Beautiful Mind" co-star Russell Crowe, who is toplining the $120 million-budgeted project based on Patrick O'Brian's series of action-adventure novels set at sea.

In "Commander," Bettany will star as the ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, a close friend of Navy Capt. Jack Aubrey (Crowe). Maturin, also an intelligence agent, is the first naturalist, a la Charles Darwin, to see the richness and strangeness of life on the far side of the world, as the two sail the high seas against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars.

Samuel Goldwyn is producing while TCF topper Hutch Parker oversees the project for the studio along with senior vp production Michael Andreen. Weir adapted O'Brian's novel for the screen.

About the Author, Patrick O'Brian'; In addition to twenty volumes in the highly respected Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian's many books include Caesar, Hussein, Testimonies, The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore. O'Brian also wrote acclaimed biographies of Pablo Picasso and Sir Joseph Banks and translated many works from the French, among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Lacouture's biographies of Charles de Gaulle. He passed in January 2000 at the age of 85.

Bettany recently completed Lars Von Trier's latest film, "Dogville," in Sweden as well as "Heart of Me" opposite Helena Bonham Cater and directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan. His other credits include "A Knight's Tale," "The Reckoning" and "Gangster No. 1." He is repped by ICM and Melanie Greene at Melanie Greene Management.

The Prom, To Artisan Pictures

Artisan Pictures has acquired Stephen Falk's romantic comedy spec script "The Prom" for a low-six-figure advance.

"Prom" concerns a teen boy in love with his best friend, the archetypal girl next door, who is staring down the barrel of the senior prom. The dilemma: She's already got a date, and worse, is determined to make her big night all the more meaningful by deflowering that date.

The picture is the feature film writing debut of Falk, who recently won the best screenplay award for his pic "You Down with OCD?" at the South by Southwest Film Fest.

David Collard Sells Untitled Pitch To Disney

The Walt Disney Co. has snatched up an untitled pitch from scribe David Collard ("Out of Time").

The drama, set against the backdrop of intramural boxing at the Naval Academy, centers on a young man from the wrong side of the tracks whose dream of attending Annapolis becomes a reality. But once at the Academy, the young man is not sure whether he can measure up against the best and brightest.

Collard penned "Out of Time," which is set up at MGM with Denzel Washington attached to star and Carl Franklin to direct. Collard had written for the Fox show "Family Guy" along with writing partner Ken Goin.

Miramax Cuts Staff by 14% in Reshuffle

Miramax Films was hit with a heavy round of layoffs Friday as co-chairmen Harvey and Bob Weinstein pink-slipped about 75 staffers -- roughly 14% of the studio's 540 workers. The cuts were made in Gotham, Los Angeles, London and Rome and includes employees of both Miramax and genre arm Dimension. Publicity, production, distribution, finance, marketing and Talk Miramax Books suffered losses.

About 70% of the personnel who lost their jobs were at lower or mid-management positions, and they were said to have been given small severance packages.

"A number of factors led to this decision," said Matthew Hiltzik, VP of corporate communications. "We had increased our staff by 16% over the past four months, one of our busiest times of the year. These cuts restore us to the level where we were last October."

Hiltzik also said the recent appointments of Rob Landsbaum as chief financial officer and Amanda Lundberg as executive VP of worldwide publicity, "offered a natural opportunity to re-evaluate our staffing and personnel."

Miramax dodged the wave of layoffs afflicting other entertainment companies last year. But the Weinsteins may be re-evaluating the structure and direction of the company as the end of Oscar season approaches.

Miramax Films has recently displayed a renewed interest in the kind of pictures that have historically brought it the most success: smaller English-language titles and foreign acquisitions, as opposed to glossy, expensive pictures such as "The Shipping News" and "All the Pretty Horses." Hiltzik cited pickups "In the Bedroom" and "Amelie" as examples of the types of pics Miramax will continue to pursue.

But for a mid-size company, Miramax also continues to maintain a deep roster of execs in areas like production, acquisitions and publicity.

"The company is way over-staffed," said a source inside the studio. "There are just too many people. But that doesn't make today any less depressing."

Other pressure on Miramax's bottom line has come from the demise last year of Talk magazine -- which cost Miramax more than $20 million since its startup nearly three years ago -- and disappointing box office results for recent high-profile films like "The Shipping News," which grossed just $11.4 domestically, and "Imposter," the $30 million-budgeted Dimension picture that grossed less than $10 million. More recently, Miramax's Nicole Kidman starrer "Birthday Girl" grossed only $5 million.

Though Miramax and Dimension together posted a record box office year in 2001, riding on the shoulders of such pictures as "Bridget Jones's Diary," "Spy Kids," "The Others" and "Serendipity," the costs of making so many films and losing big on some of them may have finally caught up with the company.

Hiltzik said the cuts were not required by parent company Walt Disney, which last year mandated 4,000 job cuts. Landsbaum and Lundberg were said to have been instrumental in Miramax's decision to make broad cuts. Publicity was hit especially hard. Distribution also saw deep cuts, but production, development, marketing and acquisitions were not greatly affected.

Disney plans 'real' TV film on Prince William

Insiders say that while more major cuts are unlikely, a handful of additional personnel, possibly in acquisitions, will be given pink slips. And some executives will not be renewed once their contracts come due. Prince William's life is bring turned into a Disney TV movie that aims to show how he has dealt with the death of his mother, Princess Diana.

The film, tentatively titled Prince William, will be shot in Britain this spring, the paper said. Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network hopes to air it by the fall on its "Wonderful World of Disney" Sunday showcase.

The story will follow William from the night of Diana's death in a Paris car wreck in August 1997, when he was 15, to the present, the paper said. It will use news accounts and research to chronicle his coming-of-age in a media bubble, as well as the royal family's efforts to raise him properly.

The characters will be portrayed as "real and flawed," Variety quoted ABC executive Quinn Taylor as saying.

"They're just a family trying to struggle through (William's teen years) with this tremendous spotlight on them," Quinn told Variety.

He promised the film would not become a caricature, and said the film's director, Michael Watkins, a veteran of The X-Files and NYPD Blue, is "known for edgy material."

The report did not mention any casting details. The movie will be produced for ABC by Fox Television Pictures, which is ultimately owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

USA Network planning a four-hour mini around the life of Helen of Troy

USA Network is planning what it hopes will be a major television event with the production of a 4-hour original mini-series based on the legendary life of Helen of Troy.

The mini series will cover the legend of the savage war that raged around the walls of Troy for ten years over the beauty of one woman, Helen. Her father had kept Helen prisoner in her own home, terrified that other men's desire to possess Helen's god-like beauty would destroy his kingdom. Helen was allowed in public only after he had arranged her marriage. But when a young warrior, Paris of Troy, and Helen saw each other, they fell in love. They risked everything to be together, sparking ancient history's greatest war. Helen was the face that launched a thousand ships against the city of Troy. After countless had died, history's most infamous betrayal -- the Trojan Horse -- brought the story to an end.

So who is going to play this great beauty? No star is yet attached to the project that will go into production in the summer of 2002 and is slated to premiere in late first quarter 2003.

The mini-series will be produced by Fuel Entertainment and distributed by USA Cable Entertainment. It's been written by Ronnie Kern (The Princess and the Marine) and will be executive produced by Adam Shapiro, former USA Network senior vice president of long-form programming and producer of Andre and Tom's Midnight Garden.

The Venice Film Festival sinks into farce

Berlusconi accused as directors shun prestigious post. There are several ways to bungle one of Europe's leading film festivals. You could put somebody with no experience in charge. You could turn it into a political football. You could induce a boycott by film directors and actors. Or, if you were the Italian government, you could do all three.

The Venice Film Festival, part of the Biennale art exhibition, may be five months away but it is already threatening to degenerate into a public relations calamity for a man in urgent need of a showcase, Silvio Berlusconi.

By tradition the Biennale is an extravaganza where up-and-coming artists carve international reputations, but the Italian prime minister hoped this one would also give his government an opportunity to showcase administrative skills and political savvy.

Instead the government finds itself accused of incompetence, hypocrisy and a heavy-handed attempt to promote a rightwing agenda. Which might explain why Martin Scorsese and - allegedly - fellow Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino turned down the organisers' pleas to come to the rescue and run the film festival, the most high-profile segment of the Biennale exhibition.

Scorsese cited other commitments. Quentin Tarantino's excuse, if the reports that he was asked are true, is not known, but commentators say two words would have sufficed: poisoned chalice.

No takers

The list of those who have turned down the job is growing embarrassingly long. At the weekend two putative Italian candidates, Pier Luigi Celli and Piera Detassis, discreetly said they did not think the conditions were right. At least another five candidates had already been canvassed in vain.

The appointment has become a race against time to avert a fiasco because preparations for the film festival are far behind schedule. "It is simply absurd, grotesque and ridiculous that we still do not have a credible candidate," said Carlo Lizzani, a former festival director.

Behind the failure to fill the post is a problem haunting the government: lack of trust. Few believe its promises to stay out of the director's decisions.

The trouble began when the government chose Franco Bernabe, a man with no background in contemporary art, to head the whole Biennale. The Biennale, the world's most famous contemporary art show, is generally held every two years and incorporates the annual film festival.

Mr Bernabe's stints on the boards of an energy utility and a telecom company would bring managerial dash, it was claimed, but critics branded him a crony of the media tycoon-turned prime minister. Mr Berlusconi's media empire has spread its tentacles throughout Italy's cultural landscape and cabinet ministers are regularly accused of serving their political master's ideological interests.

"It's not that Bernabe is necessarily rightwing but the government would expect him and the people he appoints to be broadly sympathetic to their policies," Tomasso Debenedetti, a cultural commentator, said.

What neither the government nor critics seemed to expect was for Mr Bernabe to take his independence seriously, and insist on choosing the heads of the art and cinema exhibitions, among others.

Enter Vittorio Sgarbi, the outspoken junior minister for culture who slaps down anyone, even his boss, culture minister Giuliano Urbani, who challenges his artistic judgment.

Mr Sgarbi, who recently said contemporary art was "shitty", has savaged Mr Bernabe in a series of interviews, accusing him of blunders and denouncing his candidates as incompetents. The loss of the Australian art critic Robert Hughes, who changed his mind about heading the art exhibition after being snagged in red tape, was deemed inexcusable.

Mr Sgarbi made it clear that this year's Biennale was to be cleansed of the alleged leftwing bias of previous years, when Mr Berlusconi was in opposition.

Mr Sgarbi floated a candidate of his own, Marina Cicogna, a countess who produced films back in the 1960s and 70s, but that ideas was squelched.

Mr Urbani is angry with Mr Bernabe for chasing high-profile arty foreigners instead of toeing the government line on appointing manager-types drawn from the business community.

A crisis meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday to agree a compromise candidate but the damage has already been done. The film world is chattering that whoever takes the job will be tainted.

"I am used to working with full independence and autonomy. And I don't believe that those conditions will be possible at the Biennale," said Piera Detassis, who turned down the job.

Leftwing Italian producers, directors and actors have threatened to boycott the event unless a suitable candidate is found. They will not be easy to placate.

Always hostile to Mr Berlusconi, they are especially furious with the government for not keeping the previous Biennale director, Paolo Baratta, and for cutting grants to film-makers.

They warn that the prime minister's television and film production companies could swoop into the Biennale and turn it into a Berlusconi-fest. His companies' dominance of Italian media can make or break new films, they complain.

Sour grapes, responds a government spokesman. The left has long colonised the Biennale and is shrieking at a genuine effort to make it politically independent.