Boxoffice-April.2000

Goes Columbian
REEL
DEALS
M'Hil#lM
Hunts for "Mutants"
After a decade on the
Paramount lot, producer Mace
Neufeld has left the studio and
inked a three-year, first-look deal
with Columbia. The move represents
the company's desire to
Neufeld's recent $100 million
release "The General's
Daughter." Neufeld also will
bring several projects with him
when he hangs his shingle at
Sony, including movies based on
author Michael Connelly's
"Black Ice," "Black Echo," "The
Concrete Blonde" and "The Last
Coyote," all featuring LAPD
crime detective Harry Bosch.
Also, "The Man Who Could
Work Miracles," which Neufeld
has had set up at Columbia for
20 years, may finally get made.
Neufeld will continue to work
on at least two projects he has in
the pipeline at Paramount,
including Tom Clancy's "The
Sum of All Fears," with Phillip
Noyce expected to direct and
Harrison Ford attached to star,
and "Asylum," to be directed by
Ted Demme with Liam Neeson
starring.
Meanwhile, MGM has signed
director John Woo and his producing
partner Terence Chang
away from Columbia, offering
their production company Lion
Rock Prods, a three-year, firstlook
film and television deal.
Woo has already committed to
direct Nicolas Cage, who starred
in
his blockbuster "Face/Off," in
Artists label and providing a
home for Woo-Chang television
projects. Woo left Columbia
without helming a single picture
for the company.
Multi-hyphenate brothers Josh
and Jonas Pate have inked with
USA Films to write, direct and
produce films for the company's
Gramercy label. Their first project
will be a sci-fi action thriller
called "Earl Watt."
"With more and more original
productions being put together at
USA Films, we are looking forward
to the Pate brothers' contributions
to our slate," says Russell
Schwartz, president of USA
Films. "Given their background
in independent film, we feel that
USA is just the right place for
them to set up shop."
The Pates first came to widespread
attention in the industry at
Sundance 1996 with their film
"The Grave." Previously they had
co-written, -directed and -produced
"Deceiver," released by
MGM in 1998. Most recently
they created "GvsE" for the USA
Network. The brothers have
signed a separate multi-year television
development deal with
beef up its
Studios USA .
action slate.
Columbia has already bought
two projects for Neufeld to produce:
"The Lion's Game" and
USA has likewise signed New
York-based producer Arielle
"Plum Island," both written by Tepper to an exclusive two-year
Nelson DeMille, who wrote deal to develop films and television
shows for the studio's
October banner. Much of
Tepper's experience lies in the
theatre: She's produced John
Leguizamo's "Freak" and Sandra
Bernhardt "I'm Still
Here. ..Damn It!" on Broadway.
ership position in developin)
Ankling the studio two years
before their contracts expire,
and
product
producing motion
the form,"
pictun
say
in digital
Universal Pictures development
Artisan president Amir Malin
executives Jon Berg and "Intertainer is a service that is oi
Damien Saccani have arranged the forefront of digital distribu
tion, and we are extremely confi
for early departures, forming
their own management-produc-
dent they will prove to be a grea
tion company and inking a firstlook
deal with the studio. Berg-
Saccani will concentrate on
attracting projects with up-andcoming
stars and directors and
mid-sized budgets. Berg and
Saccani also have plans to
launch television and online
divisions.
Having completed her first
feature film, Valerie McCaffrey
has resigned from her position at
New Line as VP feature casting to
sign a first-look directing deal
with financier NewMarket
Capital. "Wish You Were Dead,"
the picture that prompted the
pact, stars Cary Elwes, Elaine
Hendrix, Mary Steenburgen,
Gene Simmons and Lin Shaye in
"Wind Talkers" for MGM. The
ly successful "Omega Code," ha
a love story about a hitwoman
deal also contains provisions for who falls in love with the man pacted with Triple Axe
financing Lion Rock productions she's been hired to kill.
Productions to acquire five of it
through the studio's United
films. The first picture under the
British
director Simon Hunter
has signed a two-picture deal
with producer Ed Pressman.
Hunter's first project will be the
$30 million sci-fi thriller "Mutant
Chronicles," about an odd couple
that joins forces to save the
Earth from alien invaders, and
begins shooting this fall.
Previously, Hunter directed
"Lighthouse," due out this spring
from Stratosphere.
Hearkening back to the studio
system, the Walt Disney Co. has
hired three writers-in-residence,
signing exclusive one-year deals
with Ron Anderson, Chad
Beguelin and Mark Perez. The
three men will work out of
offices on the Disney lot, reading
scripts, penning treatments and
meeting with studio executives a
couple of times a month to share
their ideas. The trio will be earning
low six-figure salaries with
bonuses built in for greenlit
scripts.
In an announcement made a
Sundance, Artisan vowed tr.
team with Internet exhibito
Intertainer to co-develop, -pro
duce and -distribute five feature
length films shot and edited com
pletely digitally. The pics, bud
geted at around $500,000 each
will be available on Intertainer':
cable and online services afte
they have been distributed the
atrically or on the home vider.
market by Artisan.
"With 'The Blair Witcl
Project,' Artisan became knowi
as a studio that broke nev
ground with the marketing o
films on the Internet, and we an
now looking to establish a lead
partner and resource on thesi
films not only as a content deliv
ery vehicle but also as a produc
tion partner."
Commercial production com
pany Orbit Entertainment ha
t<
inked with Phoenix Pictures
produce five films for Phoenix ii
exchange for equity stake ii
Orbit. The strategic alliano
gives Phoenix access to Orbit'
talent pool, which includes "Thi
Sixth Day" director Roge
Spottiswoode, Wim Wender
and Carroll Ballard. Orbit, mean
while, will see a boost its com
mercial and feature film work.
Providence Entertainmenl
which distributed the surprising
deal will be "The Amati Girls,
about the relationship arnon]
four sisters and their recenth
widowed mother. "The Amal
is still Girls" in production, am
the other four films have yet t(
be announced.
Gotham-based GreeneStree
Films has bolstered its digital filn
division by parting* with Thl
Orphanage, a partnership anion
three former ILM special effect
creators who contributed to tw>
Sundance shorts this year. Thl
$15 million-$20 million deccalls
for the Orphanage to mak
at least a dozen features for th
independent production compc
ny. The Orphanage will also fui
nish digital postproduction an
effects for GreeneStreet. The de;
is not exclusive: The visu;
effects company will continue I
offer its services to other compj
nies, including part of the 40C
plus CGI shots in Disney
"Mission to Mars."
10 BOXOHKI