CD, Stopline board 'Red Brazil'

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Canada's CD Films and Portugal's Stopline Filmes have boarded two-part miniseries "Rouge Bresil" (Red Brazil), a groundbreaking high-end Brazilian international co-production. Currently shooting in Rio, "Red" turns on the creation in 1555 of the French colony in Rio de Janeiro, and its later destruction, roiled by religious wars. Swede Stellan Skarsgard ("Pirates of the Caribbean," "Thor") is playing the principled French Admiral Villegaignon, the French colony's founder, and Portugal's Joaquin de Almeida ("Fast Five") plays "Red's" villain, Joao da Silva. France Televisions Distribution has taken international sales rights. Marking its final financing mix, "Red" is also produced by Nicolas Traube's Pampa Films in France and Brazil's Conspiracao Filmes, one of Brazil's biggest film-TV companies, in association with Gallic pubcaster channel France Televisions, Globo Filmes and Rio Town Hall equity investment and p&a fund RioFilme. Budgeted at Reais 20 million ($11.3 million), "Red" marks the first high-bracket historical TV fiction investment for Conspiracao, COO Ricardo Rangel said at a presentation of "Red" first footage Wednesday at the Rio Film Festival. It is also the first TV investment by RioFilme, made via a minimum guarantee against international rights, added RioFilme prexy Sergio Sa Leitao. As Brazil's film and TV industry sees exponential market growth -- theatrical B.O. rocketed 156% from 2005 to 2010's $756 million; Brazil's TV market grew 22% in 2010 vs. 2009 to $12.2 billion -- "Red" wasn't the only first unveiled Wednesday at the Rio Fest. Another was RioFilme's first slate financing deal with a producer, Augusto Case's Rio-based pic production house Case, Sa Leitao told Variety. RioFilme has taken equity investments in three movies: 2011 hit release, Jose Alvarenga Jr.'s "Cilada.com," which grossed $15.9 million, and two upcoming 2013 releases, Felipe Joffily's "E ai, comeu," based on Marcelo Paiva's play, and Mauro Mendonca Filho's "No Retrovisor." The slate financing deal rolls off a local comedy boom in Brazil. RioFilme invested originally in Joffily's laffer "Muita calma nessa hora," produced by Case, which grossed $6.5 million in 2010. In yet another first, as the Brazilian film industry rapidly catches up or surges ahead compared with more established film industries in other countries, RioFilme announced its first analysis of its own investment stats. Over 2009-11, it has ploughed Reais60 million ($33.8 million) into 170 projects, spread over festivals, features and shorts. These include 42 features. Total Brazilian B.O. in 2011 on the five films in which RioFilme has invested is 5.5 million admissions, said Sa Leitao. Rate of return on investment for 2011 has run at about 90%, he added. Hardly surprisingly, RioFilme wants more: RioFilme and Brazil's state-backed BNDES bank have now raised Reais18 million ($10.1 million) for a new fund that will invest from 2012 in companies, Sa Leitao added. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

Vaughn re-selected SAG first V . p .

Ned Vaughn, a pacesetter in the Unite for Strength faction, remains re-selected very as first V . p . in the Screen Stars Guild. Vaughn continues for everybody since the lead officer in the Hollywood division in the guild.The Hollywood division board, which has gone to live in some moderate majority since a year ago, selected Vaughn at its meeting Wednesday evening.Anne-Marie Manley, a pacesetter in the dormant Membership First faction, had held the publish between 2008-2010. About 60% of SAG's 120,000 individuals are part of the Hollywood division.Formerly three years, Vaughn remains everyone voice in the self-styled moderates of Unite for Strength. The faction has had the present elections inside the Hollywood Division inside the more assertive Membership First group and contains acquired traction by pushing hard for just about any merger while using American Federation of Television & Radio Artists to produce a single performers' union.Vaughn won a 3-year term for the national board lately, locating the eighth-finest election total from 53 candidates.Vaughn's credits include "Frost/Nixon" and "Courage Under Fire." Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Oka!

A Dada Films (in U.S.) release given Needed Viewing of the Roland Films-James Bruce production. Created by James Bruce, Lavinia Currier. Executive producer, Andrew Fierberg. Co-producer, Norbert Bogbeyate. Co-executive producer, Isaach p Bankole. Directed by Lavinia Currier. Script, Currier, Suzanne Stroh, Louis Sarno, according to Sarno's memoir, "Last Ideas Before Disappearing In the Face of the world.InchWith: Kris Marshall, Isaach p Bankole, Mapumba, Will Yun Lee, Mbombi, Essanje, Peter Riegert. (Sango, Akka, French, British dialogue)If movies were susceptible to sanity tests, "Oka!" will be a crazy old guy having a three-day beard along with a sock filled with kruggerrands under his bed mattress. Suggestive of Monty Python, evocative of Scots novelist William Boyd ("A Great Guy in Africa") and usually disdainful of contemporary stereotypes and patriarchal whitened-guy-on-the dark-region tales, Lavinia Currier's film has got the type of freewheeling sensibility and contempt for conformity that may provide theatrical traction -- even when, in regards to nearly anything within the niche arena, the present climate appears particularly hostile. It could be also as hostile because the atmosphere Ray Whitman (Kris Marshall) finds themself in. Inspired through the real-existence Louis Sarno (adapting his memoir with Currier and Suzanne Stroh), Ray is definitely an ethnomusicologist that has been recording and protecting the background music from the Bayaka pygmies of Yandombe, within the Central African Republic, and it is coming back the place to find Nj to boost funds. When his acerbic physician (Peter Riegert) informs him he's dying, he decides to not wait for liver transplant and rather presses a wealthy patron to invest in another visit to Africa, so he is able to finish his focus on the Bayaka. Ray finds a " new world " changing in Yandombe. He's still the highest, whitest guy around, however the Bayaka happen to be obtaining a difficult time in the Bantu, whose mayor, Bassoun (Isaach p Bankole), has moved the pygmies right into a more compact village and forbidden them from entering their sacred forest. Bassoun is wishing to market the timber privileges to some predatory Chinese businessman, Mr. Yi (Will Yun Lee). The encroachment from the modern around the ancient is really a major theme, both narratively and aesthetically, in "Oka!" (the Bayaka word for "listen"), and upkeep is Currier's apparent message here. But Ray is a lesser messiah than the usual stand-set for the crowd he towers comically within the pygmies, who all make affectionate fun of him. One of the most mischievous local people is Sataka (Mapumba), the tribe's great hunter, who, together with his wife, Ekadi (Essanje), went into the jungle to flee the capricious rule of law. What's refreshing about "Oka!" is its aversion to the type of cliches the Bayaka people exhibit just as much self-interest as anybody, they will use Ray for those he's worth, and they've their decidedly craven side. Sataka's daughter, Makombe (Mbombi), on whom Ray evolves a crush, plays him just like a seafood. Still, the Bayaka would be the sufferers here: Bassoun really wants to frame Sataka to have an elephant killing and accuse the pygmies of poaching, that will enable him to maneuver the Bayaka permanently out, and Mr. Yi in. While Ray is really a hero, he's only one of many, just like the film is just partially a farcical dramedy about endangered people. It is also a character film, the wildlife from the Central African Republic playing a prominent role within the visual storytelling, and Currier eschews the lions and tigers and bears for a lot more hideous and fascinating types of African wildlife. But almost all the species observed in "Oka!" receive a brand new groing through, including homo sapiens. Production values are usually good, d.p. Conrad W. Hall's work exceptional in taking the smoothness of Africa.Camera (color), Conrad W. Hall editors, Kristina Boden, Nic Gaster music, Chris Berry, the music artists of Yandombe production designer, Alexandre Vivet costume designer, Delphi Squires seem (Dolby Digital), David Monacchi line producer, Jean Aubert p Tregomain casting, Lisa Hamil. Examined on DVD, NY, March. 11, 2011. (This Year Telluride Film Festival.) Running time: 106 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Macedonia selects 'Punk's Not Dead' for Oscars

PRAGUE -- Macedonia has selected as its Oscar foreign-lingo entry Vladimir Blazevski's "Punk's Not Dead," a scrappy road movie that evokes the same fiercely independent spirit that typifies this small Balkan country. The pic focuses on hero Mirsa, an former singer from the band that once ruled the Macedonian punk scene. Now 40 and still living with his mother, he gets by selling drugs for a fearsome Albanian. The dealer then hatches a "Blues Brothers"-style mission to reunite the band for a benefit concert in a town with a repressed Albanian majority. Karovy Vary fest, where the pic won the East of the West section for films from the former East bloc, praised Blazevski's script and pic's documentary style, saying it achieves "a sense of absolute conviction." Fest jury also noted pic's "contagious energy." It later won honors at Pristina's fest. London's Raindance fest has also programmed the film. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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New Trailer For The Lady Online

Luc Besson's Aung San Suu Kyi biopicA few weeks on from the teaser, here's a full trailer for The Lady, Luc Besson's biopic of the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, starring Michelle Yeoh and David Thewlis.As you'd expect, much more is revealed this time, both in terms of the film's epic sweep, and its more intimate focus on the dynamic-but-conflicted Yeoh (Suu Kyi) and a weary-looking Thewlis (Suu Kyi's husband Michael Aris, who was suffering from cancer during the period the film covers).Suu Kyi is known as The Lady by the Burmese population, since mention of her actual name is forbidden. Shespent fifteen years under house arrest in Rangoon, after her National League For Democracy won 60% of the vote against the Burmese military Junta in the 1990 general election, but the results were declared void. She was finally released last November. Rather than take in her whole story, the film takes place in the years between 1988 and 1999.Besson calls Suu Kyi "more of a heroine than Joan of Arc," and describes her cause as "the fight of a woman without any weapons but kindness." The Lady is out in most of Europe in November and December, but there doesn't seem to be a UK release date so far.

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A Much Better Existence (Une vie meilleure)

A L'ensemble des Films du Lendemain presentation in co-production with Maia Cinema, Cinemaginaire, Mars Films, France 2 Cinema, using the participation of Canal Plus, France Televisions, Cine Plus, using the support of los angeles Region Ile-p-France, Center Images-Region Center, in colaboration with Soficinema 7 Developpement, Soficinema 7, La Banque Postale Image 4, Manon, Cinemage 5, using the participation of Telefilm Canada, Societe p Developpement des Entreprises Culturelles, Quebec Credit d'impot Cinema et Television -- Gestion Sodec, Credit d'impot Pour Film ou Video Canadien. (Worldwide sales: Wild Bunch, Paris.) Created by Kristina Larsen. Co-producers, Gilles Sandoz, Denise Robert, Daniel Louis. Directed by Cedric Kahn. Script, Kahn, Catherine Paille.With: Guillaume Canet, Leila Bekhti, Slimane Khettabi. (French dialogue)A prepare, his g.f. and her youthful boy find it difficult to pay the bills in "A Much Better Existence," a steadily made, psychologically effective hard-luck drama that nevertheless feels as though a rather odd fit for Gallic thriller specialist Cedric Kahn. Throwing off a couple of brisk, dramatically chiseled reels before settling into an progressively bleak cycle of poverty and misfortune, this well-behaved item basically boils lower to some Euro-Canadian "Quest for Happyness" having a steelier, less sentimental edge. A powerful lead performance by actor-helmer Guillaume Canet could raise the film's already respectable offshore prospects following its The month of january rollout in France. Script by Kahn and Catherine Paille demonstrates a nice feeling of narrative economy in early stages, zipping assuredly with the initial phases of the relationship between Yann (Canet), a thirtysomething Parisian prepare, and Nadine (Leila Bekhti), the gorgeous French-Lebanese waitress he chats up in a restaurant where he's searching for work. The 2 fall rapidly but deeply for each other, while Yann also becomes near to Nadine's 9-year-old boy, Slimane (Slimane Khettabi). Trouble rears its mind not lengthy following the enthusiasts impulsively purchase a large lakeside property inside a secluded province using the aim of making it a cafe or restaurant. Probably the most satisfying facets of "A Much Better Existence" is its focus on the entire process of small-business acquisition the dangerous turning financial loans Yann uses to invest in the acquisition and also the particulars of restaurant sanitation code might not seem such as the stuff of riveting drama, however for a remarkable stretch of screentime they're. Pic persuasively demonstrates not just the way a couple of questionable choices can get out of hand, but additionally how rapidly tenderness and affection can look to bitterness and emotional violence when confronted with crippling poverty. More often than once, Yann and Nadine arrived at verbal if less than physical blows, passed by Canet and Bekhti having a canny embodiment of passion and frustration. So when a given-up Nadine leaves France to consider a apparently lucrative job in Montreal leaving Slimane behind, Yann and also the boy begin their very own tough dynamic within the film's more grinding other half. To not be mistaken with Chris Weitz's recent "A Much Better Existence" (though that drama also hinged on the father and boy beset by financial desperation), Kahn's film consists of nary just one unconvincing moment, ratcheting in the emotional tension with one believably soul-crushing circumstance to another. From Yann's tense discussions having a stern but good-hearted financial counselor to his fury at Slimane once the boy requires a risk they literally can not afford, the drama remains dramatically focused and particular towards the finish. When the result disappoints slightly, it's due largely towards the nagging familiarity of setup and destination, especially from a director most widely known for his twisty thrillers of sexual stress for example "Red-colored Lights" and "L'ennui." Pic is with confidence hired in most departments, offerring a particularly vivid feeling of the cramped, crowded quarters by which this makeshift family frequently finds itself -- first a rundown trailer home, a squalid apartment.Camera (color, widescreen), Pascal Marti editor, Simon Jacquet music, Akido set designers, Francois Abelanet, Emmanuel Frechette costume designer, Nathalie Raoul seem, Olivier Mauvezin, Marie-Claude Gagne, Sylvain Bellemare, Olivier Do Huu. Examined at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 10, 2011. (Also in Tokyo, japan Film Festival.) Running time: 111 MIN. Contact Justin Chang at justin.chang@variety.com

Biz stocks tumble among ad fears

Sun and blue skies in Southern Manhattan Friday, the final day's a stormy third quarter on Wall Street, unsuccessful to calm fears of some other recession coming. Major stock indexes declined and also the S&P 500 was lower 13% for that quarter -- its worst showing because the peak from the financial crisis at the end of 2008. The large five showbiz stocks -- Viacom, CBS, Time Warner, News Corp. and Disney -- that have outperformed the general market throughout the current downturn felt the discomfort as traders socked something that smelled even vaguely of advertising. The punishment came despite aggressive stock buybacks, which traders love, and usually strong companies. "Clearly the road is anxious in regards to a recession," stated Alan Gould, mind of media research at Evercore Partners. He yet others cite chaos within the Euro-zone and also the perception of political gridlock and slowing down growth Stateside -- a double whammy that's convulsed worldwide marketplaces for the majority of the summer time and fall, and is not disappearing. "Advertising has organized to date. However I guess the very first time, in the last couple of several weeks, individuals have been asking me when the ad market will hold, and what it really means of these companies," Gould stated. "It's a time period of worry," agreed fund manager Sal Muoio of S. Muoio & Co. -- a lot of it overdone in the opinion, especially regarding media stocks. Market psychology eats itself. "People worry because individuals are involved,Inch he stated. Consequently, some media stocks are buying and selling like so-known as cyclicals, which follow economic good and the bad, once they should not be, he stated. "Some are plus some aren't. All of them trade on advertising generally. But in my experience, these are the most bulletproof companies you'll find.Inch Large cable developers like Time Warner and Viacom have multiple revenue streams. More compact gamers like Discovery Communications saw revenue increase in 2008 and '09 when confronted with the huge economic slump. Even CBS Corp., probably the most uncovered from the major congloms to advertising, has varied its business to lessen exposure. It is also probably the most viewed broadcast network, and it is getting a kicker of the fall season. CBS stock overall outperformed peers last year and into 2010. Muoio sees deals in media space as stocks tumble. The Attention fell 2.8% Friday to shut at $20.38, but is lower an astonishing 28% in the finish of June. Sister company Viacom dropped 4.9% at the time to $48.36, and it is off 15% for that quarter. Disney, which reduced 1.6% to $30.16, fell nearly 23% throughout the quarter. Time Warner lost 2.8% Friday, closing at $29.97, and fell nearly 17% around the quarter. News Corp. dipped 2.8% during the day to $15.60, and fell about 13% for that third quarter. Ironically, News Corp. has organized the very best of the audience in the last three several weeks despite an enormous phone-tapping scandal within the U.K. that transfixed the media world for a lot of the summer time and it has put chairman-Boss Rupert Murdoch and the boy James within an unflattering light. The greatest casualty within the showbiz space undoubtedly was Netflix, which in fact had its value chopped by over fifty percent from $262 a share to around $113. It closed unchanged Friday at $113.27. Area of the drop was likely a correction to the high-flying valuation. Then, splitting the business's business in 2 between catalog shopping and streaming has triggered Boss Reed Hastings no finish of grief, and the other slide within the stock. "Reed Hastings has not made a lot of mistakes," Gould stated. However in the forex market, it is best to not make any. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com