Sundance: Magnolia gets '2 Days'

Magnolia just nabbed its second Sundance title in a day, as distrib announced Saturday evening it had picked up North American rights to "2 Days in NY."Just hour searlier, the distrib announced rights to the controversial drama "Compliance."The follow-up to Julie Delpy's "2 Days in Paris," "2 Days in NY," is a relationship comedy that also stars Chris Rock.Distrib plans a theatrical release in major markets and a run on Magnolia's Ultra VOD program.CAA repped the sale. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Oscar noms challenge small distribs

'Albert Nobbs'NY -- While year-finish film honours are an recognition together with an invaluable marketing strategy, for independent entrepreneurs they are also challenging. Furthermore to selling their film with a audience, indie distribs also needs to woo kudos voters, which requires some type of special finessing -- and they've to complete all this around the limited budget.The 2009 week, "Albert Nobbs" and "Margin Call" were among the indie films receiving Oscar nominations. The noms were a payback for careful and thrifty release plans. Inside the situation of "Albert," supplied by LD Entertaiment and Kerbside Sights, that meant single-week being qualified engagement, which was substantially less costly than the usual fourth-quarter theatrical release.The procedure for Roadside's other entry, Lionsgate co-acquisition "Margin Call," wound up being to construct buzz, also to possess a specific approach to media buys. Reviews which are positive due to its timely Wall Street material, additionally to individual to individual, were important. The film also acquired attention when its VOD availability didn't appear to harm its box office through the movie's fall day-and-date strategy."One of the challenges for movies that don't have massive marketing budgets is disbursing the word, however for your word to happen, you have to get yourself a critical mass of people to find out it," states Kerbside co-prexy Eric D'Arbeloff. "The Academy isn't that totally different from everyone else -- others will simply see movies in theaters, others watch screeners while others find out about the film utilizing their pals who have seen it on VOD. We felt like these were distinct audiences, (which) gave us a lot more individual to individual.InchPrizes season is available in an active season, with family a while and holiday holidays. Experts see many, many films, quite a few Academy of motion Picture Arts & Sciences individuals will work people, and thus do small amount of time to find out a substantial number of films before they develop a ballot."Albert Nobbs" saw Oscar noms for actress (Glenn Close), supporting actress (Jesse McTeer) and makeup. "Margin Call" was attracted on for original script.Kerbside sends out screeners and holds official AMPAS and guild tests, though less frequently because the art galleries do, states Kerbside co-leader Howard Cohen. The distrib dedicated to drumming up media interest. A year ago, Kerbside saw 2010 Sundance pickup "Winter's Bone" nab four top Oscar noms, including one to find the best picture.David Dinerstein, who aided recommend the "Nobbs" plan now heads LD Distribution, states tugging out "Nobbs" from theaters for just about any month after its one-week Oscar being qualified run in the finish of December aided put a small budget towards the best use."Rather than requiring to compete within the consumer level in individuals days, we felt we have to target people within the Academy as well as the guilds," according to him. "Using the nominations, it provides an opportunity to chop via a little simpler laptop or computer might have been otherwise." The limited country wide rollout that began Jan. 27 uses last week's noms and allows a few specific TV ads to attain potential Academy and guild voters.Dinerstein states Close's Career Achievement Award at January's Palm Springs Film Festival gave the pic an important boost too.To date because the cost towards the organization for Oscar attention, Dinerstein, much like others asked with this particular article, demurs. But according to him that, similar to the launch connected having a of LD's films, your financial allowance is under nearly all his rivals. "Without getting deep pockets, you need to be smarter, whether it is round the publicity side or possibly in choosing the sorts of screens you've,Inch according to him.4-year-old Oscilloscope saw its sixth Oscar nom when "In case your Tree Falls: An Account around the globe Liberation Front," a historic have a look at political activism, was attracted on inside the feature documentary category.Oscilloscope prexy David Fenkel states the little group inside the doc and foreign-language feature nominating committees can be a boon to indies, which causes it to be simpler to pay attention to the best people. Fenkel expects to possess director Marshall Curry discuss the film at new bookings in primary areas across the country, emphasizing its relevance.Newer to the sport is Drafthouse Films founder Tim League, whose sophomore release "Bullhead" acquired a foreign-language film nom. League cites the film's AFI Fest and Palm Springs honours (and helmer Michael R. Roskam's mention among Variety's 10 Company company directors to check out) as improving the violent thriller enter Oscar's 5 best, along with reaching to foreign-language committee voters.For his publish-nomination strategy, League expects to gradually slowly move the tentative April 27 release date to February, and furthermore to DVD screeners, he's finalizing streaming partners now to get the film into Academy members' houses, a technique sure to be-loved by cost-conscious distribs."I realize there is available a difficult road before us," League states. "We're smaller businesses -- an worker of three -- but we could be scrappy." Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Vertigo inks deal on 'Tattoo' novels

'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'In a move that would probably appeal to Lisbeth Salander, DC Entertainment imprint Vertigo will publish a graphic novel based on Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" this fall.Vertigo is working closely with Larsson's estate and Hedlund Literary Agency to develop the book that Scottish crime author Denise Mina will pen, with cover image created by Lee Bermejo and art from Leonardo Manco and Andrea Mutti.Book hits bookstores in November."We're thrilled to be adapting this incredible story into a series of graphic novels," said Vertigo's executive editor Karen Berger. "Denise, Lee, Leonardo and Andrea have such great passion for the material and stylistically they're a perfect match to bring it to comics life. Their beautifully dark and visceral work will certainly blow us all away."The move to go the graphic novel route with Larsson's tale makes sense, given its origins as a bestselling phenomenon -- the first of a trilogy that has sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. Sales for all three books exceed 17 million copies in the U.S. alone, including digital sales of 3.5 million copies.Mina's cime novels include "Deception" and "Field of Blood." She has also written for Vertigo's "Hellblazer" series and most recently penned "A Sickness in the Family," another graphic novel for the publisher.Bermejo recently completed DC's "Batman: Noel," a followup to "Joker," both bestsellers; while Argentinian artist Manco's credits include "Hellblazer" and Italian artist Mutti first worked with Vertigo on "The Executor" graphic novel before its "DMZ" comicbook series. Contact Marc Graser at marc.graser@variety.com

Collins In Talks For Evil Dead Remake

She's the completely new Ash. Type of...As being a demon tearing using a forest, the remake of Mike Raimi's Evil Dead has out of the blue acquired pace in the last handful of several days which is now racing towards the screens. And in line with the gang at Bloody Disgusting, one of the primary ingredients could soon maintain place, with Lily Collins in final predicts play Mia, the important thing lady.Ultimately doubt Collins will probably be channelling Bruce Campbell's style, it might seem like Mia might be the brand new Ash inside the story, among several pals who mind with a remote cabin where they release evil forces within the Book in the Dead. one at a time, they're possessed...This time around around around, gleam subplot that finds Mia round the trip to detox carrying out a fight with drugs - which factors into people not thinking her when she tries to get some good outdoors help.With Raimi's Ghost House team controlling things, Fede Alvarez is pointing the completely new movie, working in the script he written with Rodo Sayagues, that has furthermore been using the beautifying hands of Diablo Cody.The film is searching to start shooting this March in Nz. Collins, meanwhile, we be seen this year in Tarsem Singh's undertake the Snow White-colored story Mirror Mirror. That particular will arrive on March 16.

Helmers, designers take the edge out of war

'The Flowers of War''War Horse'"War films are wonderful challenges," says Thomas Walsh, president of the Art Directors Guild. "But they're right at the top of the food chain in terms of assignments that are difficult to do well."That didn't stop two veteran directors -- Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou -- from taking a bite this year, with "War Horse" and "The Flowers of War," respectively. The first is set largely in the hellish world of trench warfare, the second during the nightmare days of the Nanking Massacre.But while both directors were unquestionably up to the serious challenges of staging war, destruction and battle scenes, they both did something unusual: Without stinting on the atrocities of battle, they chose to frame their stories as fables.That left some of the biggest challenges on each film up to the designers, costumers and makeup artists. They had to bring a sense of verisimilitude to every scene -- with an artistic twist."How do you mix being pragmatic and being poetic?" asks "War Horse" production designer Rick Carter. "That's the design challenge: To create a place where both of those aspirations are fulfilled."Carter and Spielberg have a relationship that spans nearly 30 years, which meant they had an easy, familiar way to communicate. Spielberg would sometimes say "surprise me," Carter recalls."Every day was like creating a new painting," Carter says.That meant finding a way to gradually lead the audience and the film from the green, rocky hills of Devon, England into the blasted, otherworldly surface of the war's battleground across the English Channel. Carter located an airfield west of London, gutted and trenched it, then sculpted it meticulously.Carter says he and Spielberg were influenced by the films of John Ford and David Lean, who knew how to make movies that evoked the landscape around them."You're tracking a sense of what was lost, and how you survive," says Carter. "That sort of thinking informed a lot of imagery, and that starts to form a fable."It was 2006's "Pan's Labyrinth," however, that informed the imagery of Yimou's "Flowers," says the film's production designer Yohei Taneda, who notes that both films tell their stories through the eyes of a young girl."Rather than reenact history," writes Taneda through a translator, "I felt it would be more interesting to add a slightly subjective, fable-like feel to depict war as experienced by the innocents."To achieve that, Yimou leaned heavily on contrasting spare bursts of color with a bleak, bombed-out landscape. Drab schoolgirl clothes contrasted with the silken outfits of prostitutes and an enormous stained-glass window."Yimou tended to have lots of requests and demands when it came to color," writes Taneda, who built the destroyed city of Nanking entirely on soundstages and backlots, almost the opposite of Spielberg's choice to stay largely on location. Taneda says he wanted to render the bombed-out city as "ruins deserving of love," with "each crumbling building distinctive and beautiful."But neither director wanted to tread on familiar territory. Spielberg told his department heads that "this is not ('Saving Private) Ryan.' " And in portraying the colorful red-light district, Yimou had no intention of using the signature lanterns he featured in 1991's "Raise the Red Lantern.""He strongly insisted he would never use lanterns on his movies again," writes set decorator Yoshihito Akatsuka, who then had to come up with a substitute and chose a Chinese decorated gate.Adhering to a "fable" atmosphere, however, required compromises. Spielberg's desire for a PG-13 rating on "War Horse" meant some "artistic license" had to be taken, as head makeup designer Lois Burwell recalls. She cites the gas burns on lead character Albert's eyes, which were first conveniently covered with a bandage and then muted once exposed. "But the integrity is still there," she says. "Accurate, but in a toned-down way. Remember, the war may be the premise but the film is about the emotions of the people and the animals."And therein is born the artistry: With both "Flowers" and "War Horse," the directors have taken the horror-film dictum of not showing the monster to heart, which leaves the scariest parts of each in the audience's imaginations and allows the human story to dominate. Still, it's a fine line to walk -- one that can't be accomplished without expert below-the-line department heads."I applaud anyone who makes a war film with moderation," says Walsh. "A good war movie is not a snuff movie. In lesser hands, a war movie coming out at Christmastime -- with animals -- could be a dangerous film. These movies prove that you can show the war, but celebrate the individual."Eye on the Oscars: Art Direction, Costumes & Makeup Scenes reveal souls | Makeup for beauty more than skin deep | Helmers, designers take the edge out of war | Realistic, exotic look for 'Lady' Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Fashion Slam: Ode For The Perfect Guy David Beckham

First Launched: The month of the month of january 4, 2012 5:32 PM EST Credit: H&M Caption David Beckham in new H&M campaign (Jan. 2012)La, Calif. -- Oh my gosh. Oh, my, my. Oh David Beckham. Exactly how should we love thee? Let us count the techniques. We could start with that 6-pack. The well toned torso. The chiseled arms. The facial skin is gorgeous, clearly. After which it theres.well, well allow it to relaxation only at that. Hes the whole package. So, enables all just take some time out of your busy day to know the soccer star showing up in tight skivvies in new ads for H&M. More youthful crowd was the facial skin, or possibly is the fact that body, of Armanis under clothes line last year. Total stud. I gotta send a sizable shout towards the stud inside my existence- my awesome husband, who's beyond understanding if the involves my Beckham obsession! Thanks! Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Corporation. All rights reserved. These elements is probably not launched, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.