Arcand film among 9 in running for foreign film Oscar
Quebec director Denys Arcand's latest film, L'Âge des ténèbres, has moved a step closer to an Oscar nomination after being chosen as one of nine foreign films left in the running for the best foreign-language film Academy Award.
The film, whose English title is Days of Darkness, is the story of an unhappy civil servant who deals with his mundane life by escaping into vivid, glamorous dream worlds. It was chosen as Canada's entry to the Academy Awards.
Arcand describes it as the lightest and most humorous film of his trilogy, which began with the Decline of the American Empire and included Oscar winner The Barbarian Invasions.
The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released a list Tuesday of nine films left in the running for the best foreign-language film Oscar after whittling down the initial list from 63.
It will announce its five official nominees on Jan. 22.
The other films in contention:
- The Counterfeiters (Austria), directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, a Second World War story about a Jewish counterfeiter dragged into a German plan to destabilize the British economy with counterfeit bank notes.
- The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (Brazil), directed by Cao Hamburger, about a young boy stranded without his family in 1970s Brazil.
- Beaufort (Israel), directed by Joseph Cedar, the story of a group of Israeli soldiers stationed at a remote outpost.
- The Unknown (Italy), directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, about a young Ukranian woman with a troubled past who takes a job as a housekeeper for an Italian family.
- Mongol (Kazakhstan), directed by Sergei Bodrov, about the early life of Gengis Khan, who was a slave before he conquered half the world.
- Katyn (Poland), directed by Andrzej Wajda, about post-war Polish deaths at Russian hands.
- 12 (Russia), directed by Nikita Mikhalkov, a remake of Twelve Angry Men in a trial involving a Chechen boy accused of murder.
- The Trap (Serbia), directed by Srdjan Golubovic, a crime thriller set in contemporary Belgrade.
Roger Moore writing about Bond films
NEW YORK - Roger Moore, the handsome British actor known for playing James Bond in films such as "Live and Let Die" and "The Spy Who Loved Me," has a memoir coming out in the fall.
"The time is right to tell my story," the 80-year-old Moore, whose book is called "My Word Is My Bond," said in a statement released Tuesday by publisher HarperCollins.
Moore will not only write about his work on the Bond films, but his friendship with Audrey Hepburn, his encounters with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and other stars, and his health struggles.
"For the first time, he will share his recollections of playing some of the world's most famous roles, his fears of serious illness, including his own bout with prostate cancer (which he beat), and how his neighbor Audrey Hepburn got him involved in UNICEF, a charity he is still involved with today," according to HarperCollins.
Troubled actor Brad Renfro dies at 25
LOS ANGELES - Actor Brad Renfro, whose career began promisingly with a childhood role in "The Client" but rapidly faded as he struggled with drugs and alcohol, was found dead Tuesday in his home. He was 25.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at 9 a.m., said Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the Los Angeles County coroner's office. The cause of death was not immediately determined, Harvey said, but an autopsy could be conducted as early as Wednesday.
Renfro had reportedly been drinking with friends the evening before his death, Harvey said.
Renfro's lawyer, Richard Kaplan, said he did not know whether the death was connected to any problems with addiction.
"He was working hard on his sobriety," Kaplan said. "He was doing well. He was a nice person."
The actor served 10 days in jail in May 2006 after pleading no contest to driving while intoxicated and guilty to attempted possession of heroin.
The latter charge stemmed from his arrest in Los Angeles' Skid Row area, when he attempted to buy heroin from an undercover officer in 2005.
For several years he was better known for that drug bust and the resulting criminal case than for acting.
After one court appearance, he talked to reporters about drug rehabilitation, saying he was "tired of paying the consequences" for drinking and drug use and eager to get clean.
A native of Knoxville, Tenn., Renfro's film career began when he was 12, acting opposite Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in "The Client." His other credits included "Sleepers," "Deuces Wild," "Apt Pupil" and "The Jacket."
EMI faces 2,000 job cuts
LONDON (Reuters) - Guy Hands, the private equity owner of EMI, plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs at the ailing British music company, in a plan to rebuild the group which has sparked fury from some of its biggest acts.
Hands, previously best known for investment in waste management and pubs, on Tuesday unveiled his plan to make the home to The Beatles more artist-driven after it was hit by online piracy, falling CD sales and a poor release schedule.
In the list of Britain's biggest-selling albums in 2007, EMI's highest entry was Lily Allen's Alright, Still at 26.
The worldwide cuts will come at EMI's troubled recorded music division, which has some 4,500 staff of a group total of around 5,500. The shakeup, in which between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs will go, is designed to boost its roster of talent and increase Internet sales while reducing costs by 200 million pounds ($393 million) a year.
In a bid to allow EMI's labels such as Capitol and Parlophone to focus on finding new artists and promoting digital music, the company plans to bring its marketing, sales and distribution under a single division over the next six months.
But the plans have angered top-selling artists such as Robbie Williams, who questioned whether EMI would be able to devote enough time and money to promote his work.
"We have spent a long time looking intensely at EMI and the problems faced by its recorded music division which, like the rest of the music industry, has been struggling to respond to the challenges posed by a digital environment," Terra Firma boss Hands said.
"The changes we are announcing today will ensure that this iconic company will be creating wonderful music in a way that is profitable and sustainable."
UNCERTAIN FUTURE
The announcement follows a three-month review by Terra Firma which bought EMI last year for 2.4 billion pounds, or 3.2 billion pounds including debt, after years of speculation about the group's future.
At the time of the purchase, Hands said EMI would look to increase its digital sales, keep the company intact and securitize its more reliable music-publishing assets.
But that last proposal, which would have allowed it to borrow against revenue from the publishing division, has been put on hold due to the credit crunch. Terra Firm's management style has also drawn criticism from its artists and raised eyebrows within the industry.
British group Radiohead left last year, describing management as behaving like "confused bulls in a china shop," while Paul McCartney quit, saying the company was "really very boring."
And it has all been played out in the world's press, keen to see if Guy Hands and his "suits" can turn the company around. He had to be escorted by aides past a scrum of journalists on Tuesday morning as he went to meet staff in central London.
One employee of four a half years left the meeting saying it had been "inspiring" but the rest remained silent.
Most industry insiders and observers accept EMI has struggled more than other majors and that a new approach is needed. It has continually struggled in the United States, the world's largest music market, where it fell behind dominant Universal Music Group, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group in album market share.
"Everything in the music business right now is potentially risky," Mark Sutherland, global editor of trade publication Billboard, told Reuters.
"The industry is changing incredibly fast. Certainly this plan acknowledges those changes and attempts to address them. Whether that will be enough to turn around their performance remains to be seen," Sutherland said.
"If they can get the artists to buy in then they've got a good shot for success.."
Report: Studios cancel writers contracts
LOS ANGELES - Four major studios have canceled dozens of writers contracts, effectively conceding that the current television season cannot be salvaged, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
The move signals that development of next season's crop of new shows also could be in jeopardy because of the 2-month-old writers strike, the newspaper said.
January typically marks the start of pilot season, when networks order new comedies and dramas. But with writers not working, networks do not have a pool of scripts from which to choose.
20th Century Fox Television, CBS Paramount Network Television, NBC Universal and Warner Bros. Television each confirmed to the Times that they terminated development and production agreements. Studios typically pay $500,000 to $2 million a year per writer for them to develop ideas for new TV shows.
"I didn't see it coming," Barbara Hall, a writer and producer whose credits include former CBS series "Joan of Arcadia" and "Judging Amy," told the Times, which said ABC executives gave her the news Friday. "I am not entirely sure what their strategy is, all I know was that I was a casualty of it."
Overall, more than 65 deals with writers have been eliminated since Friday, the newspaper said.
Timberlake appearing in Super Bowl ad
SEATTLE - Come Super Bowl Sunday, Amazon.com will get a leg up in the digital music race it's running against Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store. And not just any leg: Justin Timberlake's leg.
The boy band heartthrob turned Grammy-winning R&B singer will appear in a spot for Pepsi, kicking off a yearlong $1 billion giveaway of MP3s, CDs, videos, consumer electronics and other items on Amazon.
Back in 2004, PepsiCo Inc. and Apple forged a similar partnership, which started with an iTunes Super Bowl commercial promoting legal music downloads, to the tune of Green Day's version of "I Fought the Law." The companies gave away 100 million free iTunes downloads that, with rising iPod sales, helped push Apple to the forefront of the digital music industry.
Working with Amazon this year is big deal for Pepsi, which said it will spend more on its "Pepsi Stuff" advertising campaign than on any past marketing effort.
For Amazon.com Inc., the arrangement could mean even more.
In September 2007, Amazon launched a digital music store and committed to sell only MP3-format tunes, which can be copied to multiple computers, burned onto an unlimited number of CDs and played on most portable devices, including Apple's iPod and Microsoft Corp.'s Zune.
Thousands of independent music labels signed deals with Amazon, but EMI Music Group PLC, which already offered songs without digital rights management coding on iTunes, was the only major label to agree to DRM-free sales on Amazon.
But as a rise in sales of digital tracks in 2007 failed to offset the overall decline in album sales, the three big labels have rapidly begun retooling their digital strategies. When Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony BMG signed on to sell DRM-free songs, they chose to do so on Amazon and not iTunes, where more than 70 percent of digital music is sold.
"The record labels are quite annoyed with Apple for the situation — CD sales are declining, and digital sales are not making up for it," said Philip Leigh, a senior analyst with the research group Inside Digital Media.
Leigh said the record companies want more flexibility in the way digital music prices are set. Amazon allows some flexibility, but Apple's 99-cents-a-song pricing still dominates the market. By working with Amazon, the labels are fostering competition and potentially gaining more control over how much a song is worth.
While the companies would not disclose financial terms of the deal, teaming up with Pepsi has the potential to transform Amazon from a niche seller to a major player. Leigh said music consumers who may not think about copy protection today will quickly embrace DRM-free music as they buy new computers and devices and face the hassle of moving libraries full of DRM-protected songs.
"The mass market consumer doesn't want these complications," he said.
Danny Socolof, president of Mega Inc., the Las Vegas marketing firm behind "Pepsi Stuff," said Amazon's decision to sell MP3s meshed nicely with one of Pepsi's brand values: choice.
"As we looked at the landscape of the music business, we realized, many other people realized that trying to lock up music with various different digital rights management schemes was failing miserably," he said, confusing consumers or driving them to music piracy.
The major music labels that will participate — EMI, Warner and Sony BMG, but not Universal — responded to the deal because Pepsi and Amazon could bring millions of new digital music shoppers online, he said.
Socolof, who helped Pepsi forge the music partnership with Apple several years ago, would not say whether he explored a new Apple deal this year.
"I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that it's important that this marketplace grow and that there be many players in it," Socolof said in an interview.