Edward Stanton Redstone dies

Edward Stanton Redstone, a partner with his brother Sumner Redstone in their family-owned exhibition chain, National Amusements, before he turned to a career in banking, died suddenly in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on Dec. 23. Edward graduated from Colgate U. and Harvard Business School and was involved in philanthropic efforts both in New England and later in California. In addition to his brother, Redstone is survived by his wife, Madeline; four sons; and a number of grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at the Tamarisk Country Club, Rancho Mirage, on Jan. 19 at 4 p.m. Donations may be made to the Betty Ford Center Foundation, 39000 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage, CA 92270. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

L.A. production up over last year's holiday week

With much of Hollywood on holiday, last week's offlot production activity registered mild levels -- but well ahead of Christmas week a year ago. Total permitted production days for features, TV and spots hit 389, up 104 days from the same period in 2010, according to the FilmL.A. permitting agency. The Christmas week represented a sharp drop from the Dec. 12-18 week when total permitted production hit the highest level of the quarter last week with 827 days. "It's especially hard to make much of a week's worth of information at this uncertain time of year," noted Film L.A. spokesman Philip Sokoloski. "We saw a great deal more television and far less feature activity last week than we did in the same week in 2010." Feature activity hit the lowest level of 2011 with just 49 days, 46 fewer days than a year ago. The previous low had been set during Thanksgiving week with 58 days; both holiday weeks were miniscule in comparison with the 2011 highs for the year of 246 days and 229 days during the last two weeks of June. New features started last week included "Cyber Planet" and "Spreading Darkness." As usual, TV represented the lion's share of local production with 226 days last week, more than double the 2010 period. "We had quite a few TV reality shows (and a much smaller handful of TV dramas) pulling permits to film at more than one location during the same day," Sokoloski said. "This is a common permitting trend for reality TV, affording the production team maximum flexibility even as it inflates our numbers. The inflation effect is even more pronounced when shows do this over multiple days within the same week." Dramas shot last week included "Bones," "Touch" and "The Closer" while reality episodes included "Life in L.A.," "Celebrity Couples," "Braxton Family Values," "Real Life" and "Untitled Tenant Show." New dramas which began shooting include "Zero Dark Thirty" while new reality skeins include "Scarlet Grey," "Q Viva the Chosen" and "Ryu Challenge." Spots last week totalled 114 days, up 28% from Christmas week last year -- but less than half the previous frame, when commercials hit a robust 260 days. FilmL.A. will release the final 2011 total next week, including "other" categories such as music videos that comprise about 25% of offlot filming. The total's likely to rise from 2010's 43,646 days, given that the first three quarters of this year saw gains of 4.7%, 1.1% and 15.4% -- highlighted by a 50% jump in third quarter feature film activity to 2,079 days. Offlot activity in Los Angeles posted its most robust numbers in 2008 in the aftermath of the end of the Writers Guild of America strike. Feature filming in the second quarter that year totaled 2,482 days and TV activity totalled 5,765 days. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

Dialect coach Robert Easton dies

Character actor and Hollywood dialect coach Robert Easton, whose successes include teaching Forest Whitaker to speak like Idi Amin in the 2006 movie "The Last King of Scotland," died of natural causes on Monday, Dec. 16, at his home in the San Fernando Valley. He was 81. Whitaker won the Oscar for best actor for his performance in the film. Easton was born in Milwaukee but lived in Texas for a time and attended the U. of Texas at Austin. As a young actor, Easton often played country bumpkins on TV because of his drawl. Fearing that he would be typecast, he worked on different accents and learned he could mimic regional speech patterns. He earned dozens of credits on films and TV shows as a dialect or dialogue coach, becoming known as the Henry Higgins of Hollywood and working with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Liam Neeson, Dennis Hopper, Anne Hathaway, Ben Kingsley and Robert Duvall, among others. Easton first began in showbiz in the 1940s on the radio show "Quiz Kids" as the one of the young, high-IQ competitors. He also appeared on other radio programs including "Fibber McGee and Molly" and "The Fred Allen Show." He made his first film appearance, uncredited, in 1949's "Undertow"; by 1951 he earned his first credit as a dialect coach, on the film "Havana Rose." Easton also earned dialect-coach credits on "The Molly Maguires," "Scarface," miniseries "North and South" and "Good Will Hunting." His movie credits as a thesp include "Paint Your Wagon," "Pete's Dragon," "Working Girl," "Pet Sematary II" and "Primary Colors." On television, he appeared on episodes of "Gunsmoke," "Father Knows Best," "The Munsters," "The Beverly Hillbillies" (he later appeared in the bigscreen adaptation), "Petticoat Junction," "Lost in Space," "Perry Mason," "Get Smart," "Mod Squad" and "The Bionic Woman," among many other programs. He had a regular stint as a voiceover actor on the animated series "Stingray" in 1964-65. Easton's wife June died in 2005. He is survived by a daughter and granddaughter. (Associated Press contributed to this report.) Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

Bill Murray Reportedly Hates 'Ghostbusters 3' Script

Another day, another "Ghostbusters 3" rumor and this one comes from gossip mag The National Enquirer of all places! The scandalmongers are reporting that after star Bill Murray was sent the latest screenplay of the project, he mailed fellow ghostbusters Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis a nasty present: a box with the script totally shredded inside like confetti. The note attached read, "No one wants to pay money to see fat, old men chasing ghosts!" The Enquirer reports that Dan and Harold were so upset by his response, that they plan on making the movie without him. Dread Central has more on the report. Sound like a lot of nonsense to you too? Let us know below, and keep on reading for more of the week's Horror Bites. 'Hansel and Gretel' Set to Battle Witches This Fall "Dead Snow" director Tommy Wirkola makes his Hollywood debut with the upcoming "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" but Fangoria is reporting that Paramount will be shuffling the release date from March 2 to sometime next fall. Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star as the iconic children in the woods all grown up. The whole gingerbread house debacle inspired them to become expert witch hunters. Here's hoping we'll get our dark fairy tale fix sooner rather than later. 'The Innkeepers' Paranormal Viral Clip Have you been looking forward to "House of the Devil" director Ti West's latest, "The Innkeepers?" A bit of viral goodness has hit the interwebs to get everyone pumped for the film's VOD release on December 30. Sara Paxton and Pat Healy star in the chiller about a ghostly hotel and the inn's employees who try to uncover the secrets of its dark past. This EVP footage should satisfy (and possibly terrify) the supernatural enthusiasts. New Teaser Images for 'John Dies at the End' "Phantasm" director Don Coscarelli's newest "John Dies at the End" based on the novel of the same name by David Wong (AKA Jason Pargin) has some new images on their Facebook page that are getting us more excited for the movie's upcoming Sundance appearance. The "Bubba Ho-Tep" filmmaker's fans have been waiting for a new project by the director since his 2005 "Masters of Horror" episode. Fans of the book which began as a web series in 2001 are also anticipating seeing the horror/sci-fi/comedy story on the big screen. Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, and Doug Jones star alongside Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes two slacker buddies that are charged with saving all of humanity. Paranormal creatures and a weird time-traveling drug known as Soy Sauce creates trouble for the friends and the residents of their midwestern town. Hit the Facebook page for a preview. 'Hostel III' Clip Requires an Exterminator Whenever we think of the holidays, we always imagine high stakes gambling and perverse games of torture. Perhaps that's why the DVD and Digital Download premiere of "Hostel III" is coming to you on December 27 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Friends at a bachelor party in Vegas end up gambling on their lives when they are lured off the strip and into the Elite Hunting Club's private playhouse. Dread Central has an exclusive clip that should make your skin crawl if you're curious. Tell us what you think of this week's Horror Bites in the comments and on Twitter!

Trent Reznor on Relating to 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' Darkness; Why Grammys are 'Rigged and Cheap'

Gone was the eyeliner, the leather, the booze and drugs... When Trent Reznor took the stage at the 2011 Academy Awards to accept his Oscar for Best Original Score for David Fincher's The Social Network, the 46-year-old frontman and creative mastermind behind the influential industrial band Nine Inch Nails, handsomely clad in a Prada tux and accompanied by his production partner Atticus Ross, beamed and - shocker - even cracked a smile. It was a moment that no doubt inspired countless Gen Xers to let out a collective, "Trent Reznor just won an Oscar?!" our editor recommendsDave Grohl on Trent Reznor: 'He's My Generation's Most Talented Musician-Producer-Songwriter'Trent Reznor Releases 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' Full Soundtrack List The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Film Review'Dragon Tattoo' Director David Fincher on NYer Embargo Fight: Ban All Critics From Early Screenings Sell out? Hardly. In the mild-mannered world of scoring, where John Williams and Randy Newman are household names, Reznor the rock star stands out, even though he's one of more than a dozen fringe artists currently working in film, including Jonsi from Sigur Ros (We Bought a Zoo) and Chemical Brothers (Hanna). Paired for the second time with perhaps his directorial equivalent, the equally dark and subversive Fincher, Reznor's music for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo evoke the sort of nihilistic, dissonant sounds and anti-establishment themes on that could have been heard on Nine Inch Nails' 1999's double-CD The Fragile, not its biggest commercial success but an artistic highpoint for Reznor -- until Oscar came along. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter's music editor Shirley Halperinfrom his Beverly Hills home, Reznor gets candid about life's highs and lows -- from his career to his addiction to his battle with record companies -- in this week's THR cover story. ON WHY DRAGON TATTOO HIT CLOSER TO HOME THAN SOCIAL NETWORK... Although Reznor had a Facebook account when he began scoring for The Social Network ("I'm still suspicious," he says), Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, with its frenetic pacing and sexually charged storyline centered on a Swedish murder mystery (adapted from Stieg Larsson's best-selling book), felt like more familiar territory for the musical anti-hero who sang of needles, pushers and whores on the 3.7 million-selling The Downward Spiral. "The Social Network was very much an education from start to finish," says Reznor. "It was tricky because it involved mainly people in rooms bitching at each other; it didn't seem obvious what role music would play. This film felt a bit more like: 'Ah, serial killers and anal raping, I know what that sounds like. It's not as much of a stretch ...' Let me rephrase that -- a dark tone felt more familiar." ON WHERE HE KEEPS HIS OSCAR AND WHY A GRAMMY IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND Nine Inch Nails sold 13 million albums in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan, were nominated for 12 Grammys and won two. But you won't find either Grammy displayed in the house that Pretty Hate Machine built. Reznor, a native of Mercer, Penn., admits that having moved several times in the past two decades (Cleveland , New Orleans, Los Angeles), he's not sure where the trophies are, nor does he care. The Oscar, however, sits prominently next to his Golden Globe (puny in comparison) in his living room. "Winning that Academy Award, I'm not ashamed to admit it," says Reznor. "The others don't mean anything. Why don't the Grammys matter? Because it feels rigged and cheap - like a popularity contest that the insiders club has decided. The movie side is interesting, challenging, different and rewarding in way that I hadn't experienced through my music career." By the end of awards season, the music had claimed 15 of the film's 126 honors (curiously, Social Network didn't garner a single Grammy nomination). ON HOW REZNOR CAME UP WITH THE THREE-NOTE MELODY THAT INSTANTLY DEFINED THE TONE OF THE SOCIAL NETWORK Atticus Ross says he's still amazed by the three-note theme to Social Network, which came as a last-minute add-on by Reznor to a nearly finished track, "almost as an afterthought." Ross, 43, recounts the Oscar-making moment: "Trent said, 'I've got an idea for this piano line; let me just try this.' And he puts down that line and plays what I think is one of the greatest cinematic pieces of last year. Fincher really zeroed in on it, and it was that piece that changed the whole landscape of that film." The British-born Ross has no hesitation in calling the melody "genius," telling THR, "I can say that objectively because it wasn't me who came up with it." REZNOR'S FIRST ATTEMPT AT FILM SCORING WAS A COLOSSAL FAIL. HE BLAMES ADDICTION In 2001, Reznor was recruited by director Mark Romanek, who had worked on NIN videos "Closer" and "The Perfect Drug," to compose music for the indie thriller One Hour Photo, starring Robin Williams. Reznor submitted several compositions, but none made it into the movie. "I remember there was an issue with the studio trusting someone who had never scored a film before, so that was the end of that," he says, recalling the sting of rejection by Fox Searchlight. "But the way I choose to see things in my own life, I was getting into a pretty bad space. I was an addict and not functioning very well at that time. So I'm kind of grateful it didn't come together because I couldn't have done my best work then." Whether his first film fail came before or after hitting rock bottom, Reznor can't recall, but he says, "It was another brick in the wall of, 'Hey, you need to get your shit together.' " He got sober that summer and has been clean for 10 years. FRIENDS RECALL A "FUNCTIONING ADDICT" WHO WORKED TIRELESSLY AT SEEING HIS VISION THROUGH. Reznor's affiliation with Fincher goes back to 1995, when the director used a remix of NIN's rock radio staple "Closer" as the opening sequence to his movie Seven. It wasn't long after that Reznor launched himself headlong into a four-year stint in New Orleans, grappling with a heroin and alcohol addition that threatened to derail his music career or kill him, whichever came first. One former party pal who wished to remain anonymous recalls a fair share of drunken, cocaine-fueled nights in the Big Easy with Reznor and Marilyn Manson (who was signed to Reznor's Nothing Records in 1993). "Trent would just go nuts -- he was addicted to the lifestyle, as so many of us were," the friend says. "He's so much more positive now, it's anextreme difference." Another former member of NIN's extended family described Reznor as an exceptionally functional addict. "He always delivered," says the source, who notes that dealing with him directly often felt "like walking on thin ice. ... He was very controlling of the work environment -- everything was about perfection and being very professional. But he had his vision and was always working towards it, whether he was writing an album or shooting a video or going on tour or signing other artists." Today, says Reznor, "I feel fortunate that I came through it physically intact and with my brain pretty much working." ON TAKING A BREAK FROM NIN Music's most intense industrial act is not dead, but Reznor is taking a breather. What prompted the break? Touring. "It was starting to grate on me a bit that it doesn't feel as truthful as it once did," Reznor explains, the days when he and his bandmates would cover themselves in corn starch (to contrast the glut of black leather) long behind him. "I'm kind of moving into a different phase, and I think that's a good thing in terms of a human being evolving, maturing and progressing - to not feel obligated to behave or write music for a certain thing." Indeed, his new passion project, the band How to Destroy Angels, is a full-on family affair featuring his wife of two years Mariqueen Maandig and Ross. Their cover of Bryan Ferry's "Is Your Love Strong Enough?" (from the 1985 Tom Cruise film Legend) appears at the end of Dragon Tattoo, and they are currently racing to meet a self-imposed mixing deadline. The band will release the album independently on Reznor's own Null Corporation. Says Reznor: "No committees, no bureaucracies, no e-mails a week later of why you can't do this. There's no talking to people on the other side of the world that have their own set of agendas and 'no' written a hundred different ways on a piece of paper." ON RECONCILING WITH HIS RECORD COMPANY... It wasn't all that long ago that Reznor was encouraging NIN fans to steal his music (as an act of protest, claiming his label was price gauging for reissues and repackaged albums) and calling Universal Music execs "greedy f-king assholes." But independence has its drawbacks, too. "I miss how a record label can help spread the word that you have something out," Reznor confesses. "Sometimes I feel like stuff disappears into the ether. You tend to rely on the power of your Twitter feed and how loud you can shout from the rooftops, but I've noticed that voice isn't so loud in, say, France." Perhaps that's what precipitated a recent lunch meeting between Reznor and Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine where the two "swapped war stories." Says Reznor: "Jimmy is a friend. We get along better when we're not working one under the other, not that I can remember it ever being a personal animosity. There was frustration when I was on the label because I believed it didn't serve the customer right and couldn't move as fast as I liked and I felt like, I'm not at the right place anymore." Today, his views on the music industry's shortcomings remain harsh and at the same time, realistic. "Today, if you're not one of the four acts that gets carpet-bomb marketing and has a Coldplay-esque genericness that makes you a commodity to enough people that it warrants spending a lot of money to use outdated means of marketing to tell the masses what to like, you put a record out and it's consumed, stolen, judged and forgotten in a day. It used to be a couple days." To read THR's full cover story, click here PHOTO GALLERY: View Gallery 'The Social Network' NY premiere Related Topics Dave Grohl David Fincher Trent Reznor Atticus Ross The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Mickey Liddell Launches Indie Distribution Company With Vital Classics Co-Founder David Dinerstein At Helm

BREAKING: After making pricey festival purchases recently including Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Biutiful after which finding marketers to place them out, Mickey Liddell has released their own distribution operation headed by David Dinerstein to produce films like his Toronto acquisition Killer Joe, directed by William Friedkin. Here’s the announcement: HOLLYWOOD, CA, December 12, 2011 Liddell Entertainment, the innovative production and distribution financier is starting a brand new theatrical distribution entity, LD Distribution, and named indie veteran David Dinerstein as mind from the new company. The companys initial slate includes: William Friedkins significantly acclaimed Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey the lately wrapped production, Disconnect, starring Jason Bateman and Alexander Skarsgard in the Oscar nominated director Henry-Alex Rubin and also the horror film, The Gathering, from Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, the authors of Saw lV, V and Vl that is presently in publish-production. The organization intends to release four to six films in the initial year. LD Distribution will positively acquire films and supply distribution for Liddell Entertainments growing production slate. Liddell Entertainment is striving to create 4 to 6 movies annually with budgets as high as $25 million. We're thrilled to create David Dinerstein aboard to operate our new distribution operation. He is among the leading independent entrepreneurs within our business and that we are confident that he's the best person to guide the charge with this remarkable slate of films, stated Mickey Liddell. LD Distribution intends to take a cutting-edge and forward thinking method of the marketing and distribution in our films. Mickey and that i anticipate creating a effective company on an innovative and economic level, stated David Dinerstein. With this degree of production, coupled with our current acquisition and financing activities, full-fledged theatrical distribution becomes the apparent next thing, states Chad Reineke, Liddells mind of economic matters. Dinerstein will even help manage the approaching releases of Liddell productions and purchases by current distribution partners, such as the Gray starring Liam Neeson and directed by Joe Carnahan that is being written by Open Road Academy contender, Albert Nobbs starring Glenn Close and Jesse McTeer, with Kerbside Points of interest and Quiet House starring Elizabeth Olsen, also with Open Road. In the last couple of years, Liddell Entertainment acquired or created several films such as the Academy Award nominated Biutiful, starring Javier Bardem and directed by Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu I Really Like You Phillip Morris starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor Good Hair starring Chris Rock approaching release The Particulars starring Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Ray Liotta (The Weinstein Company acquired at Sundance 2011) along with the genre movies, The Haunting Of Molly Hartley and also the Collector. Before opening Liddell Entertainment in 2006, Mickey Liddell created Go, Damaged Hearts Club, Lying in the usa and tv shows Everwood and Jack and Bobby. David Dinerstein joins as Leader of LD Distribution and brings a lot more than two-and-a-half decades of promoting, distribution and purchases experience to the organization. Dinerstein comes with an esteemed history and it has built and handled several independent companies using their beginning. He's labored with plenty of filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Justin Lin, Sofia Coppola, Baz Luhrmann, Jane Campion and Kevin Cruz. His films have received over 72 Academy Award Nominations and 15 Oscars. Most lately Dinerstein was Leader of D Squared Films. Formerly he was Leader of Lakeshore Entertainment, and Leader and co-founding father of Vital Classics. He was among the original designers of Fox Searchlight as Senior V . P . of promoting and was mind of promoting at Miramax Films. Just before Lakeshore, Dinerstein co-founded and offered as co-Leader of Vital Classics where he acquired, created and distributed 50 plus films such as the Academy Award champion, Hustle & Flow starring Terrence Howard, and also the award-winning Mad Hot Ballroom, among the greatest grossing documentaries ever. While at the organization younger crowd produced and oversaw campaigns for that Virgin Suicides, You Are Able To Rely On Me, which received two Oscar nominations, and also the Golden Globe nominated epic, Sunshine. At Fox Searchlight, film campaigns Dinerstein oversaw include: The Siblings McMullen, the champion from the 1995 Sundance Grand Jury Prize and probably the most lucrative films of 1995 Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty Al Pacino’s Searching For Richard Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm and Peter Cattaneo’s The Entire Monty, among the greatest independent films of 1997. The Entire Monty made over $45 million locally and $240 million worldwide. It had been nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture. Previous films Dinerstein handled the marketing for include: the highly acclaimed and award-winning Pulp Fiction, The Illusionist, The Entire Monty, Hustle & Flow, The Piano, The Ice Storm, Red-colored Condition, The Virgin Suicides, You Are Able To Rely On Me, Cinema Paradiso, Like Water For Chocolate, Mad Hot Ballroom, Reservoir Dogs, and Clerks.

9 Key events within the Evolution of Charlize Theron

Within this weekend’s Youthful Adult, Charlize Theron plays a bitter teen lit author who returns to her home town to reclaim her senior high school sweetheart. (A higher school sweetheart who also is surely a perfectly happy husband and new father.) Just how did the Nigeria-elevated Theron transform herself from the delicate ballet dancer to some Oscar-winning onscreen homewrecker? You could trace an immediate line via a couple of important roles as one example of what brought for an actor’s current success. As a result, let’s take a look at nine pivotal performances that track the evolution of Charlize Theron. a couple of days within the Valley (1996) After an uncredited role within the timeless classic Kids of the Corn III: Urban Harvest, Theron’s first large break came via John Herzfeld’s a couple of days within the Valley, which co-starred the South African beauty like a hitman’s girlfriend that has a legendary catfight with Teri Hatcher. (Epic for the reason that she wears mind-to-foot whitened spandex, calls Hatcher a “bitch” after which throws her via a glass coffee table.) Possibly I ought to rewind though: Before manhandling the near future Desperate Average women star, Theron travelled to La after an injuries derailed her dancing career at age 19. There, she was apparently discovered while yelling in a teller inside a Hollywood Blvd. bank who declined to cash her check. Be aware, ambitious Oscar those who win. The Demon’s Advocate (1997) How can you possibly follow-up a spandex catfight? Should you’re Charlize Theron, by lending the services you provide for bit parts for the reason that Factor You Need To Do! and also the forgettable Michael Richards-Shaun Daniels comedy Learning from mistakes before landing the first significant role inside a major Hollywood film, The Demon’s Advocate. The very first time, Theron investigated her dramatic range by playing a lady who unravels psychologically when her husband (Keanu Reeves) sells his soul towards the demon. Cider Your Laws (1999) Next may be the role which assisted Theron made her first mark on experts. In Lasse Hallstrm’s Academy Award-winning Cider Your Laws, Theron plays Chocolate, a youthful lady who falls for that film’s protagonist [Tobey Maguire] while her boyfriend [Paul Rudd] is away at war. Her performance won her praise and her first Screen Stars Guild Award nomination. Additionally, it cemented her status as superstar enough on her to win roles in three highly promoted (but underwhelming) projects the following year — Reindeer Games, The Legend of Bagger Vance and Males of Recognition. Sweet November (2001) After acquiring her star, Theron reunited together with her Demon’s Advocate co-star Keanu Reeves on her most significantly loathed film at that time, Sweet November. In regards to a dying lady and also the guy she allows love her for any month (or, as Roger Ebert referred to them, “two sick and twisted people playing mind games and calling it love”), the film — a remake from the 1968 original — was laughably melodramatic and foreseeable. To explain Reeves’s character, this movie defies every law of character I’ve seen. It legitimately gained every Razzie jerk and fan-made YouTube compilation that adopted its release. Bad Movie We Like, party of 1. Monster (2003) Then came the role that transformed Theron’s career. To experience her first nonfictional character, an old prostitute-switched-murderer named Aileen Wuornos, Theron acquired 30 pounds and used prosthetic teeth. Not just did she win an Academy Award on her starring role but experts like Roger Ebert recognized her performance as “one from the finest performances within the good reputation for cinema.” Monster also marked Theron’s first producer credit.

Moonves States CBS Is Much More effective Than Its Are You Currently: UBS Confab

When CBS chief Ces Moonves appears within an investor event similar to this week’s UBS Annual Global Media and Communications Conference they need to just get him an orchestra together with a spotlight so they can sing “Everything’s Approaching Roses.” “Everybody calls us a cheerleader but network television’s doing a lot better than it’s carried out a very long time,” he told experts today. He saysthat CBS’ prices for ads inside the scatter market are up “in the mid-teens” inside the upfront although “our rivals do less well.” Heading to the holidays”demand is acquiring again” and handful of are deleting upfront orders for early 2012. “When you gaze at where our ratings are, you don’t desire to cancel a CBS show because (later on) you’ll pay more.” To underscore his confidence in CBS’ finances hethrew some red-colored-colored meat toinvestors:”Could we boost the dividend (next season)? That’s possible.” He’s advised with the additional dollars flowing for the network from retransmission consent handles pay TV entrepreneurs, and reverse compensation obligations to CBS in the affiliate entrepreneurs. In case your local station balked at investing cash to CBS — which familiar with pay stations to keep its shows — then Moonves would consider tugging the affiliation agreement. But according to him that’s unlikely because CBS’ strong prime time period up”is causing them to be a lot of money” by delivering large audiences to local newscasts. Meanwhile he’d like the FCC not torequire that network programming remain onpay TV when entrepreneurs balk at retransmission consent obligations.”This is America. We’ll produce a deal with these males or won’t produce a deal.” Speaking about deals, Moonves states he’s thrilled to sell shows within the CBS library to online streaming services including Netflix. “The future looks very vibrant with this particular revenue stream to consider forever.” Because they states he sights exclusivity being “a dirty word,” lucrative sights Netflix as “more friend than foe. We’re rooting to enable them to expand.” But he won’t start CBS’ new shows. “Those will be the family jewels. People will be the engines that drive almost all our revenue.” He’s also upbeat about sports. According to him thatCBS will bid for Nfl, as well as the cost will rise.”It is rising. They’ve shipped….They’re great partners.” But Moonves adds he’s “not searching to develop” into other sports. He might need a lesson in basketball, though: He referred to as CBS’ joint deal with Turner for NCAA game titles being “ahome run.” But Moonves mostlycreditsentertainment programming for his bullish forecasts. “There’s without doubt that success breeds success.” Having its large audience, CBS has astrong platform to market new shows while focusing on a couple of at any time. “If you have to take eightor 10 shows and throw them in the wall it’s harder being proper.” Furthermore, it emboldens professionals torefresh their agendas, according to him, watching that “it’s advisable to chop a show yearly early when compared to a year late.” For example, CBS cancelled Without Any Trace even though it absolutely was still moderately effective lin its eighth year to have the ability to have a risk onThe Good Wife.”t’s easier for people to accomplish this because we’re effective,” according to him. Showtime is at an extremely different situation. “We’re still Avis (against Cinemax) and looking harder, nevertheless the gap has closed.” Nevertheless the premium funnel is making headway in what Moonvescalls water-cooler shows. According to him he’s “very excited” in regards to the approaching seriesHouse of Lies.For the moment, no less than, the CBS chief states he isn’t worried about seeing lots of pay TV clients cut the cord.Because of the standard of shows on cable “I don’t think it’s possible to produce a significant inroad at this time around.” He adds, though, that “it’s possible we’re ready for.”