VarietyLA DVFLA091211 : Page 1

® ISSUE 5 OF 6 ■ MONDA Y , SEPTEMBER 12, 2011 ■ V ARIETY .COM Film Review “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” is the fest’s biggest deal to date. Globes on NBC for now By ANDREW WALLENSTEIN and TED JOHNSON The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and Dick Clark Prods. have reached a temporary truce in their ongoing legal battle that will allow the 2012 Golden Globe Awards kudo-cast to go on. The kudocast has been sched-uled for Jan. 15 on NBC. However, the standoff be-tween the two organizations, which has been delayed in court due to the judge’s illness, See GLOBES page 33 Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a young man with cancer in “50/50.” Even odds for cancer dramedy By JUSTIN CHANG Cautious buyers circle commercial titles By DIANA LODDERHOSE and GREGG GOLDSTEIN This year’s Sundance and Cannes film fests may have both heated up quickly and aggressively on the acquisitions front. But Toronto, while brimming with product, has so far been on a slow simmer. One only has to walk through the Hyatt and pop FISHING FOR DEALS into sellers’ offices to notice that, despite being packed with industryites, the mood isn’t a frantic one. “Buyers are making sure they see everything before putting their eggs all in one basket,” said one producer — a tricky proposition, given that a lot of films are scheduled at similar times. But Sunday is too early to judge how hot See TORONTO page 33 A guy in his late 20s faces even odds of beating cancer in “50/50,” a title that could also describe the ratio of too-obvi-ous humor to genuinely affecting drama in this uneven seriocomedy. Will Reiser’s semiautobiographi-cal script initially prescribes too artificial a story treatment for its characters but is rescued by a ge-nial, low-key vibe that builds in sensitivity and emotion up through the final reels. Handicapped by a depressing if widely relatable can-cer-sucks premise, Summit’s cam-paign is placing misleading empha-sis on Seth Rogen’s rambunctious best-friend turn to sell laff-seek-ing audiences on this likable but hardly uproarious Sept. 30 release. The kind of responsible, risk-averse guy who regularly goes run-ning around his native Seattle and won’t cross a street until the traf-fic light permits, 27-year-old NPR staffer Adam Lerner (Joseph Gor-don-Levitt) is understandably sur-prised when he learns of the ma-lignant tumors along his spine. In an overly cold, anesthetized scene intended to emphasize Adam’s shellshock and the impersonal na-ture of the medical establishment, an Turn to page 30 ‘Contagion’ catches on at sluggish B.O. By ANDREW STEWART The fall B.O. season got off to a typically sluggish start, as Warner Bros.’ epidemic ensembler “Con-tagion” topped the domestic B.O. with an estimated debut of $23.1 million and Disney-DreamWorks’ “The Help” dropped to second place with $8.7 million for a cume of $137.1 million after five weeks. Overseas auds paid for more of the same, as Sony’s “The Smurfs” held onto No. 1 for its fifth straight week. “The Smurfs” turned in $14.9 mil-PictureGroup Paul McCrane pulled an upset at the Creative Arts Emmys, winning for guest actor in a drama series for “Harry’s Law.” HBO GAINS EMMY MOJO By CYNTHIA LITTLETON “Boardwalk Empire” has a head of steam going into Sunday’s Primetime Emmy derby after clean-Complete list of winners, page 29 ing up at the Creative Arts Awards ceremony. HBO’s frosh period drama bagged seven wins, leading all programs at the kudos presentation held Saturday at the Nokia Theater. “Boardwalk” and three wins by HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce” put the pay cabler comfortably in the lead among networks with a total of 15 trophies. Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” and History’s “Gettysburg” See EMMYS page 33 lion over the weekend, bringing the international cume to $321.2 million. But holdovers like “Friends With Benefits” also did well, expanding to major markets. “Benefits,” also from Sony, saw a solid weekend take of $10.2 million, driven by bows in the U.K., France and Germany; cume reached $29.2 million in four weeks. Meanwhile, “Contagion” opened day and date in six markets including Italy with a weekend gross of $2.1 million. The Warner pic, which earned $2.3 million from 254 Imax screens (or 10% of its Stateside bow), had plenty of steam going into the week-end, as most B.O. pundits expected the pic to win with around $20 mil-lion-$25 million. See BOX OFFICE page 32 “Contagion”

Fishing For Deals

Diana Lodderhose And Gregg Goldstein

Cautious Buyers Circle Commercial Titles This year’s Sundance and Cannes film fests may have both heated up quickly and aggressively on the acquisitions front. But Toronto, while brimming with product, has so far been on a slow simmer. One only has to walk through the Hyatt and pop into sellers’ offices to notice that, despite being packed with industryites, the mood isn’t a frantic one. “Buyers are making sure they see everything before putting their eggs all in one basket,” said one producer — a tricky proposition, given that a lot of films are scheduled at similar times. But Sunday is too early to judge how hot Toronto will get — even last year’s sales avalanche didn’t gain full steam till the fest was in its home stretch. President Obama’s recent jobs speech reminding everyone about economic uncertainty and U.S. debt-ceiling politics didn’t make bizzers any more confident. “From a macro standpoint, I think everyone is scared and nervous about the lack of leadership in Washington — not just from Obama, but Congress and everyone else,” said Chris McGurk, CEO of digital cinema distrib Cinereach and vet topper at MGM, Overture and Disney. “No one believes anyone has an answer, and that’s affecting the attitudes of people I’ve talked to up here.” (For the record, McGurk describes himself as an independent who voted for Obama, and his wife Jamie is an active Democratic fundraiser). There have been deals: CBS Films’ bought domestic rights for Lasse Halstrom’s comedy “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” toplining Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor, marking the fest’s biggest deal at an estimated $4 million. Pic screened favorably on Saturday and was bought the next day, though even that turnaround time is tame compared to the latenight dealing of previous years. “I see a few films here already that years ago someone would’ve snapped right up overnight,” Mc- Gurk said. “People’s attitudes about the lack of leadership in the economy is causing them to think two, three, four, five times before a deal is made.” Millennium Films prexy Mark Gill, the WIP and Miramax vet who now produces wide release fare and advises his outfit’s specialty distrib arm on pickups, hasn’t seen the same level of alarm. “The absurdity of it is that we should be most focused on macroeconomic news, because it’s the rising tide that affects all of us. But I think almost everybody has already factored the mediocrity of the traditional Western economy for the next three to four years into their thinking,” he said with a wry laugh. “Anything that goes better will be a pleasant surprise. ... I know there’s a lot of bidding going on for a variety of things — but it’s not 2003 anymore.” It’s not even 2010, when TIFF sales were enhanced by an extraordinary set of factors: hunger for titles among newly launched distribs, a robust crop of films emerging after a post-strike drought, and open calendars among the studios that pared back buying after the economy took its 2008 dive. Those factors made a slight downturn nearly inevitable, but there’s still plenty of commercialfriendly pics that could soon find good homes. Saturday night’s offerings included “The Oranges,” hockey comedy “Goon,” Woody Harrelson starrer “Rampart,” Sarah Polley’s “Take this Waltz” and Matthew Goode starrer “Burning Man.” “Friends with Kids,” toplining Megan Fox and Kristen Wiig, is still up for grabs while Michael Winterbottom’s “Trishna” has slew of offers from U.S. buyers on the table. Sony’s “The Raid,” from Welsh helmer Gareth Evans, has also been a buzzed-about title, while low-budget horror “You’re Next” is likely to secure a deal before the end of the fest. John Flock, CEO of sales-financier W2 Media, stressed that negotiations in the indie financing world have become far more difficult in recent years. “It’s much more of a serious business than it used to be,” he told Variety. “You can’t just run projects up the flagpole and announce that you’re making them — and then not make them. ” In particular, Flock said, buyers have become more educated as the business becomes increasingly complex amid the decline of revenues from DVD. Phase 4 Films CEO Berry Meyerowitz said the economy is making distribs focus more on whether a film will work across all platforms (theatrical, DVD, VOD, pay TV, etc) or if it should just be purchased for one or a few of them. “Everyone is sort of nervous about what the future will bear in this market — what’s going on with the banks, interest rates, jobs, etc.,” Meyerowitz said. “But people who are in this game are trying to look past that. Buyers are genuinely are taking into account the trepidation in the market and the economy, but overall, they’re aggressively negotiating for films, and we won’t see a meaningful decline in purchases.” David Reckziegel, prexy of eOne Films North American, said buyers’ caution isn’t surprising. “Everybody came away from Cannes with quite full shopping bags — with three or four movies,” he said. “It’s very rare that happens. So this year’s Toronto could be more like Sundance a year ago.” (Dave McNary contributed to this report.)

Globes On NBC For Now

Andrew Wallenstein And Ted Johnson

The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. And Dick Clark Prods. Have reached a temporary truce in their ongoing legal battle that will allow the 2012 Golden Globe Awards kudocast to go on. The kudocast has been scheduled for Jan. 15 on NBC. However, the standoff between the two organizations, which has been delayed in court due to the judge’s illness, will continue, according to a joint statement released by DCP, HFPA and NBC. “The parties are pleased to have reached an agreement relating to the 2012 GoldenGlobe Awards, while preserving their respective positions.” The trial had been scheduled to start on Tuesday, but that was postponed after U.S. District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank withdrew from the case. It has been reassigned to Judge Howard A. Matz, but a new date has not been officially set. Even before the delay, time was running short to solidify plans for the 2012 telecast. The HFPA sued DCP in November, claiming that its longtime producer did not have the rights to forge a long-term pact with NBC that would run from 2012 through 2018. But DCP has contended that its contract gave it the rights to produce the telecast as long as it was able to secure an agreement with the Peacock network. The trial promises to be heavy in technical details about contract interpretation, but it also holds the possibility of exposing past rifts within the HFPA as well as the business practices of DCP. In one of her last orders before leaving the case, Fairbank ruled that CBS Corp. chief Leslie Moonves would be allowed to testify via videoconference about discussions he had with HFPA about the Eye network gaining rights to broadcast the ceremony. No host has been announced for the 2012 event, but Ricky Gervais, who created some controversy as host of this year’s Globes, wrote on his blog that he’s looking into doing a commentary podcast next year. “People at home can have the telly on with the sound down listening to us online say things that no broadcaster could get away with,” he wrote. He wrote in another post that the response to his idea has been “amazing.” “Not only was the idea received well, but we’ve had offers of sponsorship, technical support and a bunch of comedians up for it,” Gervais said. He added, “If I actually do it, it will show people how tame my official hosting was last year. I still can’t quite understand how anyone would think I overstepped the mark, was cruel, or pushed any boundaries of taste and decency. It was a network-friendly gentle ribbing of the industry. Nothing more. I didn’t even dress as Hitler in the end.”

Even Odds For Cancer Dramedy

Justin Chang

A guy in his late 20s faces even odds of beating cancer in “50/50,” a title that could also describe the ratio of too-obvious humor to genuinely affecting drama in this uneven seriocomedy. Will Reiser’s semiautobiographical script initially prescribes too artificial a story treatment for its characters but is rescued by a genial, low-key vibe that builds in sensitivity and emotion up through the final reels. Handicapped by a depressing if widely relatable cancer- sucks premise, Summit’s campaign is placing misleading emphasis on Seth Rogen’s rambunctious best-friend turn to sell laff-seeking audiences on this likable but hardly uproarious Sept. 30 release. The kind of responsible, riskaverse guy who regularly goes running around his native Seattle and won’t cross a street until the traffic light permits, 27-year-old NPR staffer Adam Lerner (Joseph Gordon- Levitt) is understandably surprised when he learns of the malignant tumors along his spine. In an overly cold, anesthetized scene intended to emphasize Adam’s shellshock and the impersonal nature of the medical establishment, an oncologist tells him he has a 50/50 chance of survival. Adam tries to remain optimistic, no easy feat after his mother, Diane (Anjelica Huston), and his best bud, Kyle (Rogen), react to the news in ways more overbearing than helpful. Of course, the one who fails Adam is the one he needs the most: Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard), his sexy artist girlfriend, promises to stand by him and nurse him back to health, but her discomfort with the ickier aspects of Adam’s chemo regimen — tastefully depicted here with some heard-but-notseen vomiting — is an immediate giveaway that her commitment is rather less than what it appears to be. Around the same time, Adam begins counseling sessions with newbie therapist Katherine (Anna Kendrick) that are by turns awkward, tetchy and mildly flirtatious. While Reiser’s screenplay has its roots in personal experience, these setup passages ring false in ways that suggest a movie torn between its crowd-pleasing imperatives and its obligation to say something insightful about Adam’s experience as well as Reiser’s. There’s something admirable about the pic’s willingness to suggest that our nearest and dearest do sometimes abandon us in our hour of greatest need, and the searing confrontation scene that seals Rachael’s betrayal is impressively bold and nervy. Yet this subplot as a whole, from its convenient demonization of the unfaithful g.f. to its post-breakup celebratory montage, leaves an altogether sour aftertaste. Similarly problematic is the pat, idealized development of Adam and Katherine’s relationship as they begin to blur the doctorpatient boundaries. If these emotional developments feel too cardboard, there are compensations in Jonathan Levine’s direction, whose overall mellowness feels at one with Adam’s nice-guy passivity. The essential appeal of “50/50” is that the cancer patient here is someone who is decidedly not the life of the party, and Gordon-Levitt is ideally cast as the sort of sensitive, self-effacing guy who seems more special and appealing the longer you spend with him. Actor and script adroitly convey conflicting emotions that patients with long-term illnesses and their loved ones will surely recognize: Adam’s frustration at having to comfort those closest to him rather than be comforted, and his refusal of the easy pity offered by friends and acquaintances in between snatches of small talk. It’s this level of quiet perceptiveness that enables “50/50” to finally, ahem, get into your system. Supporting thesps are effective even when the pic uses them in questionable ways. Howard, who between this and “The Help” is perhaps in danger of being typecast as a villain, nonetheless makes Rachael as human and sympathetic as possible under the circumstances. Rogen, allowed to set perhaps too broad and vulgar a tone at first, eventually dials it down as the pic takes its exploration of Adam and Kyle’s friendship to a deeper level. Best of all is Huston, whose casting in what initially seems to be a slight nagging-mom role pays off down the road with enormous emotion. Final scene is of a piece with the film’s loose, easy mood, yet quietly surprising in the note it chooses to end on. Pic overall marks a flawed but reasonably confident progression for Levine after his 2008 Sundance hit “The Wackness,” with which it shares an exuberant belief in the therapeutic benefits of pot smoking, no matter what ails you. Tech package is no-nonsense but pro, with Vancouver and other British Columbia locations standing in effectively for gray, chilly Seattle.

'Contagion' Catches On At Sluggish B.O.

Andrew Stewart

The fall B.O. season got off to a typically sluggish start, as Warner Bros.’ epidemic ensembler “Contagion” topped the domestic B.O. with an estimated debut of $23.1 million and Disney-DreamWorks’ “The Help” dropped to second place with $8.7 million for a cume of $137.1 million after five weeks. Overseas auds paid for more of the same, as Sony’s “The Smurfs” held onto No. 1 for its fifth straight week. “The Smurfs” turned in $14.9 million over the weekend, bringing the international cume to $321.2 million. But holdovers like “Friends With Benefits” also did well, expanding to major markets. “Benefits,” also from Sony, saw a solid weekend take of $10.2 million, driven by bows in the U.K., France and Germany; cume reached $29.2 million in four weeks. Meanwhile, “Contagion” opened day and date in six markets including Italy with a weekend gross of $2.1 million. The Warner pic, which earned $2.3 million from 254 Imax screens (or 10% of its Stateside bow), had plenty of steam going into the weekend, as most B.O. pundits expected the pic to win with around $20 million-$ 25 million. “Contagion,” toplining Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard, beat two other wide releases: Lionsgate’s “Warrior,” which bowed below expectations with $5.6 million, and Sony’s R-rated laffer “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star,” which earned a dismal $1.5 including Italy with a weekend gross of $2.1 million. The Warner pic, which earned $2.3 million from 254 Imax screens (or 10% of its Stateside bow), had plenty of steam going into the weekend, as most B.O. pundits expected the pic to win with around $20 million-$25 million. “Contagion,” toplining Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard, beat two other wide releases: Lionsgate’s “Warrior,” which bowed below expectations with $5.6 million, and Sony’s R-rated laffer “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star,” which earned a dismal $1.5 million. Domestic box office was down vs. last year by 3%-4%. Monster movie “Creature” also bellyflopped. The film, self-distributed by Sid and Jon Sheinberg’s Bubble Releasing, had an unusually aggressive rollout for an indie title but a paltry per-screen average of just $220 from 1,507 locations. total was an estimated 331,000. In limited release, Sony Pictures Classics broadened Vera Farmiga’s “Higher Ground” to 56 locations, up from 17 last weekend, averaging $2,287 per screen. With a so-so cume of $317,929 after three weeks, “Higher Ground” seems not to have recovered from Hurricane Irene. Rebounding more successfully was fellow Sundance pic “Our Idiot Brother,” which has cumed $21 million. Adult support The frame’s top two titles, both co-financed by Participant Media, hooked mostly over-25 auds, a boon demo for late August and post-Labor Day box office. By contrast, “Bucky Larson” was expected to skew toward males under 25 (Sony didn’t conduct exit polls), though “Warrior” saw a relatively even split between auds over and under 25. In fact, the latter film grossed 51% of its opening from adult moviegoers — a statistic that Lionsgate distribution topper David Spitz attributes to positive reactions from advanced screenings and good reviews. “It’s good to be throwing the first punch in the marketplace,” Spitz said, referring to the usual packed fall lineup of adult-skewing pics. “The strategy all along was to establish ourselves as one of the first important fall dramas.” With “Contagion,” Warner exec VP-general sales manager Jeff Goldstein said he slightly underestimated the film’s weekend estimate, since some adult auds may have stayed home for the 9/11 anni. (Goldstein said the film could go up by roughly $200,000 with Monday’s actuals.) “The Help,” down 40%, saw its biggest weekend-to-weekend drop in five weeks — but that’s not bad, considering how the pic has played so far. “I would have expected a 40% drop in the beginning,” said Dave Hollis, exec VP of theatrical exhibition sales and distribution at Disney. “It’s definitely become water-cooler talk.” Now, that chatter has translated overseas. Last weekend, Disney bowed “The Help” in Australia with $1.7 million, including previews. Then the pic dropped just 18% for a soph sesh take of $1.4 million and a local cume of $3.7 million. Mixed prospects Neither “Warrior” nor “Bucky Larson” were major financial investments: “Warrior” cost a reported mid-$20 millions, while “Bucky Larson” was produced for less than $10 million with minimal P&A. “Warrior,” with a sterling A CinemaScore, could gain steam over the coming weeks, similar to “The Fighter” — at least that’s the hope for Lionsgate toppers Jon Feltheimer and Joe Drake, who OK’d the project. (“The Fighter,” which cumed $93 million, scored an A- rating but benefited from a holiday and awards play period.) Meanwhile, Sony signed on for the Adam Sandler-produced “Bucky Larson” in part because of the studio’s relationship with Sandler . “Contagion,” budgeted at $55 million-$60 million, drew a B- CinemaScore. That’s slightly off the B+ ratings given to last year’s “The Town” and “The Social Network,” which bowed similarly with $23.8 million and $22.4 million, respectively and went on to display sturdy legs. “The Town” cumed more than $92 million; “Social Network,” almost $96 million.

HBO Gains Emmy Mojo

Cynthia Littleton

“Boardwalk Empire” has a head of steam going into Sunday’s Primetime Emmy derby after cleaning up at the Creative Arts Awards ceremony. HBO’s frosh period drama bagged seven wins, leading all programs at the kudos presentation held Saturday at the Nokia Theater. “Boardwalk” and three wins by HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce” put the pay cabler comfortably in the lead among networks with a total of 15 trophies. Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” and History’s “Gettysburg” ran second to “Boardwalk” with four wins apiece. Comedy Central’s “Futurama” drew the nod for animation program. The kidvid kudo went to HBO’s “A Child’s Garden of Poetry.” Paul McCrane pulled off an upset in the heat for guest actor in a drama series — edging out vets including Bruce Dern (“Big Love”), Michael J. Fox (“The Good Wife”) and Beau Bridges (“Brothers and Sisters”) — for his role on David E. Kelley’s latest drama, NBC’s “Harry’s Law.” Backstage, McCrane, who’s also a helmer for “Harry’s Law” and other skeins, told reporters that the real victory is to be able to make a living in showbiz. “Anything else is gravy — and this makes for some awfully nice gravy,” he said, pointing to his statuette. Gwyneth Paltrow picked up her first Emmy, for guest actress in a comedy for her turn on “Glee.” Justin Timberlake won guest comedy actor for his hosting stint on “Saturday Night Live.” He also shared in the win for original music and lyrics for the “Justin Timberlake” tune penned for his monologue along with “SNL’s” Seth Meyers, John Mulaney and Katreese Barnes. Loretta Devine won guest drama actress for her work on “Grey’s Anatomy.” “Survivor” host Jeff Probst made it four for four in the reality host category . “Boardwalk’s” momentum was established right out of the gate when it won the first award of the night, for drama series casting. Its other wins included drama series cinematography, editing, art direction, visual effects, sound editing and non-prosthetic makeup. “Boardwalk” made its Emmy debut this year with a total of 18 noms and is a contender on Sunday for other top honors including drama series. “Mildred Pierce” pulled in the most noms of any program this year with 21; its wins on Saturday came for longform art direction, casting and music composition (for composer Carter Burwell). “Mad Men,” which has a total of 19 noms, took home one trophy on Saturday, for hairstyling for a single-cam series. “Deadliest Catch” won every category in which it was nommed, including reality program and reality cinematography. In each trip to the stage, members of “Catch’s” winning teams paid tribute to Capt. Phil Harris, the crab fisherman featured on the show until his death in February 2010. Multicam cinematography kudos went to CBS’ “Two and a Half Men” and to PBS’ “Downton Abbey” in the longform category. CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” won for editing for a multicam half-hour. Cutter Sue Federman explained the secret of her success: “I’ve edited 136 episodes of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and I’m still not tired of it.” Costume awards went to Showtime’s “The Borgias” for series and to “Downton Abbey” for longform. There wasn’t much suspense in the choreography race, as Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” claimed five of the six noms in the category. The show wound up tying itself, with wins for Mia Michaels and the duo of Tabitha D’Umo and Napoleon D’Umo. Tabitha D’Umo noted that the Emmy victory was particularly sweet as it came on her birthday. “And I don’t have to get her a gift,” added Napoleon. Josh Fox, whose HBO docu “Gasland” was an Oscar docu contender this year, prevailed for directing in nonfiction programming. John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted” was saluted with this year’s Governors Award for his tireless efforts to use television to help police nab dangerous criminals. Speaking to reporters backstage, Walsh noted that he had numerous offers for new TV gigs after Fox decided to end “AMW’s” run as a regular series earlier this year (it has since been picked up by Lifetime). But Walsh had no interest in being a talking head. “This is the only thing I know how to do on television,” Walsh said. “All I want to do is catch bad guys and help missing children.” Among networks, PBS ran second to HBO among networks with 10 wins, followed by Fox (nine), CBS (seven), NBC (five) and Discovery Channel and History (four). Emmy kudos in 25 other categories will be handed out Sunday night in a ceremony telecast live on Fox. Highlights from the Creative Arts ceremony will air Saturday, Sept. 17, on cabler ReelzChannel.

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