Cuban Actors Who Vanished En Route To Tribeca Seek Asylum In Miami: Reuters

Two Cuban actors bound for the Tribeca Film Festival in New York who disappeared in Miami have come forward and confirmed they are seeking political asylum in the United States, Reuters reports. Anailin de la Rua and Javier Nuñez, cast members of Una Noche (One Night), appeared on TV Friday night on the Miami-based Spanish language channel America TeVe. De la Rua and Nunez said their real-life experience was not as dramatic as the harrowing story depicted in the movie for which Nuñez and Dariel Arrechada shared the festival's best actor award. Una Noche follows three Cuban teens as they attempt to escape on a raft. De la Rua and Nuñez, who fell in love during filming, play a brother and sister. They said their decision to leave Cuba stemmed from the success of the film and invitations to travel to festival premieres in Berlin and New York. 'In part it's hard to leave your family and friends behind,' said de la Rua, who has two sisters and divorced parents in Havana. 'But at the same time you do it so you can help them. There's no future in Cuba.' Nunez said his mother lives alone in Cuba and he plans to help her out economically along with his older brother who left Cuba for Ecuador several years ago. Both now 20, the actors were 15 when they auditioned separately for the film, and then spent two years preparing for their roles. Tribeca honored the film's Lucy Mulloy as best new narrative director. Una Noche also received the nod for best cinematography.

Related: 2012 Tribeca Festival Honors 'War Witch', 'Una Noche' Actors, Director

'Maniac' Reboot, Singing 'Sapphires' Added To Cannes Film Festival Lineup

As expected, the Cannes Film Festival has added a series of titles to the official selection. Two new midnight screenings are in the mix: Wayne Blair's Australian film The Sapphires, starring Chris O'Dowd and Maniac, Frank Khalfoun's reboot of the cult serial killer movie starring Elijah Wood. Candida Brady's Trashed has been added as a special screening. The British film is a documentary about wastefulness. And, in Un Certain Regard, the fest has included Aida Begic's Djeca from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Adam Leon's buddy caper Gimme The Loot and Gilles Bourdos' Renoir. The latter film, about the relationship between Auguste and Jean Renoir and a woman they both see as a muse, will close the UCR section. Final Cut by Hungary's György Pálfi will close the Cannes Classics section.

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Microsoft Invests $300M In Barnes & Noble Subsidiary For The Nook E-Reader

Barnes & Noble shares are up more than 70% in pre-market trading following the announcement. The computer software giant will own 17.6% of the Nook subsidiary, valuing it at $1.7B, and provide a Nook application in its new Windows 8 operating system, the companies said this morning. Barnes & Noble will own the remaining 82.4% of the venture. The agreement also settles the patent infringement complaint that Barnes & Noble raised against Microsoft last year. The bookseller and its Nook subsidiary 'will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft's patents for its NOOK eReader and Tablet products,' the companies said. Barnes & Noble is throwing its College books business into the subsidiary. Its Nook Study software 'will provide students and educators the preeminent technology platform for the distribution and management of digital education materials in the market.' Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch says that Microsoft's investment will help 'bring world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users, (and) will allow us to significantly expand the business.' Barnes & Noble said in January that it was considering a spin off of its Nook business. The book chain says in an SEC filing that Microsoft will pay the Nook subsidiary $60M a year in the first three years after it launches Windows 8, as well as $25M a year for five years to help the enterprise acquire digital reading content and develop technology.

Marvel's 'The Avengers' $178.4M Overseas: Continues Breaking Box Office Records

'Avengers' Pre-Sales Bigger Than Previous Marvel Films Combined

BREAKING' SUNDAY 6TH UPDATE: Still more countries are reporting grosses. The superhero super-blockbuster doesn't come out in the U.S. until May 4th but already it's scooping up 60+% of all pre-sold movie tickets online and more than all the previous Marvel films combined. My sources report $178.4M international box office in its first 5 days of release in 39 territories. Marvel's The Avengers from Disney now is playing in approximately 70% of its foreign run. Latin and South America dominated with the highest opening weekend of all time in major markets like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Central America, Peru, and Boliva. As well as the Asian makets which had the highest opening weekends like Hong King, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines. Big ticket nations like Russia, China and Japan still to open, and May Day is a huge holiday. TThe pic is ahead of Alice In Wonderland, Pirates Of the Caribbean 4, Iron Man 2, and The Dark Knight.

SATURDAY: Performance to date in key territories include: Australia $11.1M, UK $9.4M, France $6.8M, Italy $5.8M, Mexico $4.7M, Korea $4.5M, Taiwan $3.6M, Germany $3.4M, Philippines $3.4M, Brazil $2.8M, Hong Kong $1.8M, and Spain $1.7M. Throughout the smaller Latin American territories opening Thursday, the Friday opening was the best ever Disney and Marvel opening day. Mexico represented the second highest opening day of all time. Brazil was the third highest opening day of all time. In the UK, the 2 days to date have exceeded the opening weekends of previous Marvel films Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. Taiwan was the second highest Friday of all time. Hong Kong was the highest non-holiday Friday result of all time. India opened on Friday to the third biggest opening day for all Hollywood titles ever and highest ever for a Disney and Marvel opening day. Malaysia opened Friday to the #1 biggest opening day of all-time. Vietnam opened Friday to the 2nd biggest opening day of all time. And Iceland opened Friday to the #1 biggest opening day of all-time.

FRIDAY AM, 4TH UPDATE: My sources say Marvel's The Avengers posted an estimated $36.0M in its first two days of overseas release from 25 territories. This represents approximately 45% of its international run. Performance to date in key territories: Australia $8.2M, France $4.9M, Italy $4.6M, UK $4.1M, Taiwan  $2.4M, Philippines $2.4M, Korea $2.3M, Germany $1.4M, New Zealand $1.1M. The UK opening was the third biggest Thursday opening ever. In Germany it opened #1 in the market and is the biggest opening day of 2012. Korea's opening represents the 3rd biggest non-local title opening of all time. Hong Kong's opening is the 4th biggest debut day of all time and the biggest non-holiday opening of all time. Argentina was the third highest opening day of all time. Denmark opened Thursday to the 2nd highest Marvel opening day ever and biggest opening day of 2012. South Africa opened Thursday to the 2nd biggest Thursday opening day of all-time (only behind Twilight 3). Austria opened Thursday to the biggest opening day of 2012. Hungary opened Thursday to the biggest Marvel opening day ever. Chile opened Thursday to the 5th highest opening day of all-time and the biggest Disney and Marvel day ever. Peru opened Thursday to the 3rd highest opening day of all-time and the biggest Disney and Marvel day ever.

THURSDAY AM, 3RD UPDATE: My sources say Marvel's The Avengers has made a total $17.1M overseas already. And the hotly anticipated actioner is already shattering box office records overseas. It earned in U.S. dollar estimates $17.1M from 10 countries: including $6.2M in Australia, $2.7M in Italy, $2.9 in France, $1.3M in the Philippines, $1.3M in Taiwan, $800K in New Zealand, and $900K others. MovieTickets.com reports the superhero actioner in the United States 'is pre-selling more tickets for the upcoming release than the online ticketing company sold for Captain America, Thor, Iron Man 2, and Iron Man combined at the same point in the sales cycle for each film. In fact, pre-sales are over 1 1/2-times that of these past Marvel films combined sales at the same point in the sales cycle'. MovieTickets.com reports that 56% of Avengers pre-sales are from fans wanting to see the film in 3D. And nearly 37% are from moviegoers buying tickets to see the film in IMAX 3D.

Internationally, two nations, Australia and New Zealand, having  were holidays: ANZAC Day, so that helped boost box office. Australia's opening day is the second-highest opening of all time there behind only the final Harry Potter (A$7M). It is also the highest Marvel opening day ever, 214% ahead of Iron Man 2 (A$1.8M Thursday opening) and 136% ahead of The Dark Knight (A$2.5M Thursday opening), and the highest Disney opening day ever for a Disney film. The pic playing in Taiwan is the biggest industry Wednesday opening ever, the biggest opening day of 2012 (173% above Battleship) and the second-biggest opening day for any Marvel film (after only Spider-Man 3). In New Zealand, pic scored highest grossing opening day ever, beating Harrry Potter finale (NZ$975L). The pic isnt even pen yet in China, Russia, or japan.  The Avengers is the first Marvel film to be marketed and distributed by Disney, so this is great news for the studio.

Related: 'Avengers' Tracking Like Superhero: $125+M Opening Weekend With 4-Quadrant Appeal

The pic has been tracking incredibly high because so many well-known characters are coming together for the first time in this PG-13 film directed by Joss Whedon in Digital 3D, RealD & IMAX 3D. So the movie's North American opening on May 4th timed to the official summer season start will be an event.

Video: Jimmy Kimmel's Stand-Up Routine At White House Correspondents Dinner

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'Five-Year Engagement' Bombs: Behind #1 'Think Like Man', #2 'Lucky One', #3 'Pirates'

Marvel's 'The Avengers' Amasses $73.1M Overseas

SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM, 6TH UPDATE: I'm still on vacation but can't ignore four new low-cost movies opening in North American wide release and performing worse than expected at the box office. This was one of 2012's worst weekends with overall box office $110M, or a big -27% off from last year. Full analysis in the morning. Universal's R-rated comedy The Five'Year Engagement (2,936 theaters) from Judd Apatow's banner is tanking. Good thing it was low-budget. It fell victim to both of last weekend's winners and one newcomer. Sony/Screen Gems' holdover Think Like A Man (2,014 theaters) will end up #1 (and may be the first 'urban comedy' to finish on top two weeks in a row since director Tim Story's Barbershop). Warner Bros' The Lucky One (3,175 theaters) should end up #2. But also below Sony's #3 Pirates! Band Of Misfits (3,358 theaters) which could jimp into second place by end of Sunday because of its kiddie matinee bump. Lionsgate's The Hunger Games (3,572 theaters) hangs in for #5 today as it inches towards $375M domestic cume. Lionsgate's Safe (2,266 theaters) and Relativity's acquisition of Intrepid Pictures' The Raven (2,203 theaters) are struggling this weekend. Audiences handed out the following CinemaScores: The Five-Year Engagement 'B-', Pirates! 'B', Safe 'B+', The Raven 'B'. Full analysis coming.

Here's the Top Ten (based on weekend estimates):

1. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 2 [2,015 Theaters] PG13
Friday $5.5M, Saturday $7.8, Weekend $17.7M (-48%), Cume $60.6M

2. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,175 Theaters] PG13
Friday $3.9M, Saturday $4.7M, Weekend $11.6M (-49%), Cume $40.1M

3. Pirates! Band of Misfits (Sony) NEW [3,358 Theaters] PG
Friday $2.7M, Saturday $5.2M, Weekend $11.5M

4. The Five-Year Engagement (Universal) NEW [2,936 Theaters] R
Friday $3.5M, Saturday$4.7M, Weekend $11.0M

5. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 6 [3,572 Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.9M, Saturday $4.7M, Weekend $10.7M, Cume $372.0M

6. Safe (Lionsgate) NEW [2,266 Theaters] R
Friday $2.6M, Saturday $3.2M, Weekend $7.7M,

7. The Raven (Intrepid/Relativity) NEW [2,203 Theaters] R
Friday $2.5M, Saturday $3.0, Weekend $7.5M,

8. Chimpanzee (Disney) Week 2 [1,567 Theaters] G
Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.1M, Weekend $5.6M, Cume $19.3M

9. The Three Stooges (Fox) Week 3 [3,105 Theaters] PG
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $2.4M, Weekend $5.5M, Cume $37.2M

10. Cabin In The Woods (Lionsgate) Week 3 [2,639 Theaters] R
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $2.0M, Weekend $4.7M, Cume $34.8M

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

Hot Trailer: 'Peace, Love & Misunderstanding'

Catherine Keener and Jane Fonda play alienated daughter and mother in this comedy directed by Bruce Beresford in which uptight Manhattan lawyer Diane (Keener) drives her teenage son (Nat Wolff) and adult daughter (Elizabeth Olsen) to meet their grandmother (Fonda) for the first time. Written by Christina Mengert and Joseph Muszynski, Peace, Love & Misunderstanding also features Chace Crawford, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyle MacLachlan. The IFC Films release debuts June 8 in theaters and June 15 On Demand.

Peter Jackson To 'Hobbit' Naysayers: Wait Until You See The Whole Movie

After less than glowing audience reaction to clips of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey screened in ultra-high-resolution at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, director Peter Jackson says 'Nobody is going to stop. This technology is going to keep evolving.' But he hopes moviegovers will wait and judge the finished movie when it comes out December 14. Some observers at the CinemaCon presention thought the imagery shot and projected at 48 frames per second was too sharply different visually from the longtime industry standard of 24 frames per second. A three-time Oscar winner echoed Jackson's observation. 'I think we should let him finish it and see what it's like then, but it seems a little like the look of a soap opera'. Jackson said he noticed that some in the audience seemed to like it more as the show went on. 'I just wonder if they were getting into the dialogue, the characters and the story. That's what happens in the movie. You settle into it.'

Related: 'Hobbit' Footage In New Format Draws Lukewarm Response

Weak Friday: Judd Apatow's 'The Five-Year Engagement' Can't Beat Holdovers 'Think Like A Man' Or 'The Lucky One': 'Pirates!' #5

FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM, 4TH UPDATE: I'm still on vacation but can't ignore four new low-cost movies opening in North American wide release and performing worse than expected at the box office. Universal's R-rated comedy The Five'Year Engagement (2,936 theaters) from Judd Apatow's banner is falling victim to both Sony/Screen Gems7holdover Think Like A Man (2,014 theaters) which will end up #1 and Warner Bros' The Lucky One (3,175 theaters) which should finish #2. Lionsgate's The Hunger Games (3,572 theaters) hangs in for #4 today as it creeps towards $375M domestic cume. Sony's #5 Pirates! Band Of Misfits (3,358 theaters) could overtake because of the kiddie matinee bump. Lionsgate's Safe (2,266 theaters) and Relativity's acquisition of Intrepid Pictures' The Raven (2,203 theaters) are struggling to reach $7M this weekend. Audiences handed out the following CinemaScores: The Five-Year Engagement 'B-', Pirates! 'B', Safe 'B+', The Raven 'B'. Full analysis in the morning. Here's the Top Ten (based on Friday estimates):

1. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 2 [2,015 Theaters] PG13
Friday $5.2M (-57%), Weekend $16M, Cume $58.9M

2. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,175 Theaters] PG13
Friday $3.9M (-57%), Weekend $11.5M, Cume $40.1M

3. The Five-Year Engagement (Universal) NEW [2,936 Theaters] R
Friday $3.7M, Weekend $11.1M

4. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 6 [3,572 Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.9M, Weekend $10.8M, Cume $372.3M

5. Pirates! Band of Misfits (Sony) NEW [3,358 Theaters] PG
Friday $2.8M, Weekend $10.9M

6. Safe (Lionsgate) NEW [2,266 Theaters] R
Friday $2.6M, Weekend $6.9M,

7. The Raven (Intrepid/Relativity) NEW [2,203 Theaters] R
Friday $2.5M, Weekend $6.8M,

8. Chimpanzee (Disney) Week 2 [1,567 Theaters] G
Friday $1.7M, Weekend $5.2M, Cume $18.6M

9. Cabin In The Woods (Lionsgate) Week 3 [2,639 Theaters] R
Friday $1.4M, Weekend $4.4M, Cume $34.6M

10. The Three Stooges (Fox) Week 3 [3,105 Theaters] PG
Friday $1.3M, Weekend $5.4M, Cume $37.5M

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

IMAX Shares Fall After Q1 Earnings Miss Analyst Estimates

The stock is down more than 4% in early trading following an earnings report that showed the large screen theater company ' which has been on a roll so far this year ' barely missed the Street's profit expectations. IMAX reported net earnings of $2.6M, up from a $1M loss in the same period last year, on revenues of $55,6M, up 23%. Adjusted earnings came in at 6 cents a share, shy of the 7 cents that analysts expected, although the revenue number beat forecasts for $54.3M. IMAX says that it took a $700,000 charge to install equipment that enables some of its theaters to play digital or analog versions of movies including Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight Rises. Investors have become bullish on IMAX ' driving its price up 28.6% in 2012 ' as ticket sales recovered from the dismal performance at the beginning of 2011. IMAX's box office sales in Q1 rose 66% to $19.1M. The company says that's due in part to a ''halo effect' from Paramount's Mission: Impossible ' Ghost Protocol, and its shift to fanboy films from family ones. Films scheduled for this year include Warner Bros' The Avengers, Sony's Men in Black 3, Fox's Prometheus, and Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man. The company installed 26 theater systems in Q1 and struck deals to build 23. That brings its backlog of construction projects to 261. IMAX had 510 theaters in commercial multiplexes, up from 386 a year ago. '2012 is off to a strong start,' CEO Richard Gelfond says. 'We are still in the early stages of our international expansion, and our pipeline of new theatre deals remains robust. We believe that the IMAX platform is becoming increasingly important to our business partners and consumers, and we look forward to bringing The IMAX Experience to more and more audiences around the world.'

 

Specialty Box Office: '96 Minutes,' 'Bernie,' 'Elles,' 'Inventing Our Life,' 'Restless City'

Financing wasn't the overriding hurdle for at least two of this weekend's specialty debuts. The crews from 96 Minutes and Bernie contended with other challenges beyond funding to bring their projects to the screen. Meanwhile, the writer/director for Restless City made his production a reality after financing frustration on another project lured him to his latest feature. And remember the good folks at the MPAA who received the righteous wrath of The Weinstein Company and its publicity prowess for the dreaded R rating for Bully? Fellow New York distributor Kino Lorber is making the MPAA's prudishness its marketing ally, hoping to make a box office hit with its erotic Elles, which the company submitted for a rating (something it rarely does). And the result is an NC-17. Exactly what Kino Lorber expected.

96 Minutes
Director-writer: Aimee Lagos
Cast: Brittany Snow, Evan Ross, Sharon Morris
Distributor: ARC Entertainment/XLrator Media
Financed through equity investors in L.A. and Atlanta, writer-director Aimee Lagos' 96 Minutes secured about $1 million and shot over 18 days. The feature revolves around four 'lives slammed together in a shocking moment,' so the tagline goes. 'We had a number of challenges that went far beyond the typical under-resourced/short-schedule issues,' Lagos told Deadline. 'A large part of the movie takes place in a moving car. Rather than using a typical process trailer or a stage, we had a local auto shop create a custom designed SUV surrounded by a camera platform that was driven from the roof. The result was a fully functional moving stage that allowed us to shoot from all angles and also created a more life-like experience for the actors.'

Already available via VOD, which Lagos said it is 'far exceeding our expectations,' 96 Minutes will open theatrically in L.A., New York, Atlanta and St. Louis. Its primary audience is the urban 18-24 year-old crowd.

Bernie
Director: Richard Linklater
Writers: Richard Linklater, Skip Hollandsworth
Cast: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey
Distributor: Millennium Entertainment

Little drama went into production on Richard Linklater's latest, Bernie. The concept for Bernie had been around since the late '90s. The fact-based movie centers on a local mortician who befriends a wealthy widow, then murders her and then creates an illusion she's still alive. 'Ultimately Richard [Linklater] had success and got Jack [Black] and Matthew [McConaughey] attached,' producer Judd Payne told Deadline about the project's long trajectory. Bernie shot in fall 2010 over 22 days with principal cast as well as seven days with its 'gossips.' 'People couldn't visualize what [Linklater and co-writer Skip Hollandsworth] were visualizing by stopping the story for these interviews and then going back,' Payne said when it came to putting financing together. Castle Rock had originally optioned the project, but ultimately it landed with Mandalay Vision and other individuals who stepped in with funds.

'You could talk to three different people on any production and get three different versions of how it all went, it's never easy,' Payne said about financing generally. 'When you deal with a number of investors, it can get complicated. But everyone over there has been incredible.' Still there were complications with cash flow, especially on the outset of production. 'But compared to another [film] I did recently, this was like being on a studio project.' Bernie completed in spring last year, but missed its window to premiere at SXSW, which would have been a natural fit for Austin-based Linklater. Ultimately, the feature debuted as the opener at last June's Los Angeles Film Festival. Payne said they had considered trying for a holiday season release, but decided not to compete with end-of-year Oscar contenders. The film opens this weekend in L.A., New York and Austin followed by more cities in Texas (where the real story took place) next week and Chicago and San Francisco soon after. 'We'll re-evaluate and expand further and go from there,' said Payne.

Elles
Director Malgorzata Szumowska
Writers: Malgorzata Szumowska, Tine Byrckel
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Anais Demoustier, Joanna Kulig
Distributor: Kino Lorber

Perhaps hoping to grab some press (apparently it worked) with an otherwise dreaded rating, the folks at Kino Lorber decided to embrace America's puritanicalism for its benefit and decided to submit Elles to the good folks at the MPAA who typically condemn the erotic while embracing the violent. And they did not disappoint. Elles, which centers on a journalist who immerses herself in a prostitution ring run by university students, received the organization's crowning title ' an NC 17. 'It's a seriously intentioned art film, but there's significant erotic content,' Kino Lorber VP of Theatrical Distribution Gary Palmucci told Deadline. 'We're hoping the rating will send a signal that this is something exceptional in the vein of other films like Lust, Caution and Henry and June.'

Before hitting America's shores, Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska told Deadline that she had always hoped to get French actor Juliette Binoche for the starring role of the journalist when writing the screenplay. 'She liked the script and found it brave and unpredictable,' Szumowska said Deadline. 'She is a brave actor who likes the challenge of working with an unknown.' And the material itself was also a challenge for Binoche. 'She was afraid of the masturbation scene, but was willing to try,' Szumowska added. 'I wanted to make a film about women's sexuality and when the producer came to me about prostitution at a university, I was particularly interested ' but mostly about the idea of sexuality.' Kino Lorber will open Elles in New York at three locations and at the NuArt in LA for a two week engagement followed by a SoCal expansion. Other major markets will follow.

Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment
Director: Toby Perl Freilich
Distributor: First Run Features

Filmmaker Toby Perl Freilich turned the scourge of financing into an unlikely creative ally for her documentary project which takes a look at Israel's kibbutz movement. The director faced periods where she was forced to put the film on hold, but the passing of time allowed for a broader view of the Israeli social movement that has been likened to an experiment in pure communism. 'The fact that it took so long to raise funds ended up being a curse and a blessing,' Freilich said. 'It shlept out the process to the point I couldn't look at it. It's hard to keep it going for seven years. But what it did inject to the doc is the element of time.' Freilich began her research in 2004. She said Israelis were bored at best about the idea of the film, but found enthusiasm from Americans. '[Americans] were thrilled by this. It's a contrast to an age of unbridled capitalism.'

First Run opened the doc at the Quad Cinema in New York Wednesday. It will play the Toronto Jewish Film Festival next month and will open at the Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles in early June.

Restless City
Director: Andrew Dosunmu
Writer: Eugene M. Gussenhoven
Cast: Hervé Diese, Mohamed Dione, Ger Duany
Distributor: AFFRM
Dosunmu's Restless City came about after frustration on another project lead him to take on a film that would require less resources. A professional photographer and music video director, Dosunmu drummed up private equity for this film through his professional connections. 'I realized as an artist I should be chasing the creative and not the money, so out of that frustration, I wrote this script,' Dosunmu told Deadline. 'The whole intention was to be able to write this film with less money. As a filmmaker I didn't want to wait for years to make a film, and I wanted to be able to bang out this [project] with my collaborators.' At the end of the day, Dosunmu was able to have his cake and eat it too. He finished Restless City and is now in post-production on the earlier project that spawned it, Ma' George.

Distributor AFFRM will open the feature in New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta this weekend, followed by Chicago, Detroit, Washington, D.C. and Seattle on May 4th.

EXCLUSIVE: Joel Silver And Warner Bros Pictures Severing 25-Year Relationship

EXCLUSIVE: It's the end of a modern Hollywood era, the quiet finish to one of the most long-term, big-time, noisy, up and down, and ultimately dysfunctional relationships between a film producer and a movie studio. I have learned that Joel Silver will no longer have a production deal at Warner Bros at the end of 2012. His Silver Pictures also won't be housed on the studio's Burbank lot after then ' famously in the offices built for Frank Sinatra in 1963 ' which is why the producer right now is looking for buildings in Santa Monica. So what happened? I can tell you that the tipping point came during Christmas 2011 when Silver began loudly complaining around Hollywood, and using surrogates to grouse directly to showbiz media, about Warner Bros' handling of Sherlock Holmes 2's release. Silver was a producer on the sequel, which was playing catch up to that holiday's runaway No. 1, Paramount's Mission: Impossible 4. Silver and his surrogates bitched about everything, from the studio's marketing and distribution to the fact that Warner Bros shouldn't have paired a first glimpse of its hot The Dark Knight Rises footage with I:M4's IMAX release. They claimed the move goosed M:i4 grosses to the detriment of Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows. (It had PR value but proved revenue neutral.) They claimed Sherlock 2star Robert Downey Jr was so furious he would never work again for the studio. (Not true.) Warner Bros movie chief Jeff Robinov felt the Sherlock Holmes 2 blame game orchestrated by Silver was destabilizing the studio. 'Jeff said to Joel, 'You're panicking as you always do, blaming everyone, infuriating everyone. Internally and externally you're creating problems for us.'

As for pairing the TDKR footage with I:M4, even a rival studio exec told me Warner Bros' 'challenge as always is balancing two big heavyweights: Christopher Nolan and the filmmakers for Sherlock. That commitment to M:I4 was made through IMAX eight months earlier. And then Paramount moved up the date. What Joel did was to paint a picture of Sherlock 2 as a failure, calling up agencies bitching, stirring up the town against Warner Bros by claiming marketing had not eventized the movie. Yes, M:I4 had BMW spots with Tom Cruise. But what was a period film like Sherlock 2 going to do ' show a horse and carriage? In fact it was a successful movie.'

That's when Robinov became fed up with Silver's bad boy behavior that was translating now, and had translated for years, into a series of betrayals. (I understand that Robinov at that point hadn't even heard that Joel went to Jeff's No. 2 executive Greg Silverman and baited him, 'Jeff sucks. You should have his job.') Once the relationship soured, the issue now was how to avoid a bad situation devolving into a bad breakup by publicly embarrassing Joel. So Robinov used his own surrogates to make Silver aware that the studio was about to 'address the economics' of his Warner Bros deal if ' and that was a big 'if' ' it was renewed at the end of the year. Which Silver correctly interpreted as meaning a drastic reduction in his already greatly reduced contract terms even though the studio had not yet presented any details. Robinov counted on Silver imploding, which is exactly what happened. The producer and Robinov met on January 10th to discuss their up-and-downs. 'Joel talked, and Jeff mostly heard him out,' one of my sources explains. Silver insiders say Joel came in and admitted he'd 'lost his cool' over Sherlock 2 and 'was sorry' and had spoken both too soon and out of turn because the movie wound up doing about what the original did domestically but better internationally. Then Silver waxed philosophic to the mogul: 'Maybe it's time for me to go. I don't fit the new mold. Maybe I don't belong.'

And then a few weeks ago Silver met with Robinov again and said he didn't want to stay if the studio wouldn't reup him under the terms he wanted. As one of my sources explains, 'Joel put Jeff in a position where it was impossible to let Joel stay. Said another: 'Understanding the extent to which his working relationship with Jeff had become estranged is the reason Joel doesn't want to be at the studio anymore.'

The end of 2012 is his departure date. After then, Silver is free to set up a deal somewhere else. Some might wonder why Joel at age 59 doesn't take early retirement from the movie biz and go out on top. It's well known in Hollywood that the lavish-living Silver has relied on a longstanding series of loans from Warner Bros by taking advances against the money due him on his movies. Once he leaves Warner Bros, Silver must repay those loans. Will another studio be willing to let him borrow in an arrangement which Silver's lawyer Bert Fields once described as 'a running account between them'. The best guess is Universal and his close friend Ron Meyer whose daughter is an executive at Silver Pictures. But then Universal, like all the movie studios, has dialed back overhead.

Silver has been responsible for billions in ticket sales for Warner Bros over the years ' including four Lethal Weapon movies (the first released in 1987), The Matrix films, Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes 2 ' and is leaving the studio a legacy of big action hits since he started Silver Pictures in 1985. The relationship went both ways. In 2006 Robinov as then president of production sought the producer's advice on how to butch up the studio's marketing of Superman Returns mired in gay buzz.

But then Silver delivered one of Warner Bros' worst flops, the expensive $160M-costing Speed Racer, in 2008. Because his personality had created so many enemies over the years, most of Hollywood was ecstatic by his failure, and rumors spread that Warner Bros was supposedly cancelling or at the very least not renewing his deal there which still had a year and a half to go. (As he told me at the time: 'I know there's a long list of Hollywood types right now kinda elated about that. But Warner Bros is my family, I've been there for 22 years, and we're fine. But I can't stop the slings and arrows of the world around me.')

Cementing their relationship, Robinov rescued Silver and, despite Speed Racer's flopping, put him on as a producer for the already-well-into-development Sherlock Holmes that same summer. ('It wasn't just a mercy fuck. There was a history there,' a source said, referring to Silver's close ties to Downey and his producer wife). Sherlock when released in 2009 was a big satisfying hit for both Silver and Warner Bros. Robinov extended Silver's deal but also cut it in half.

Robinov then decided to reexamine the gross profit participations of all the DC Comics superheroes being developed as Warner Bros movies. Most of the superhero projects were taken back by the studio, and DC Entertainment created to house them. Silver lost Wonder Woman and began to grumble loudly that his by then 10 years of developing her was history. But Silver was allowed to continue bringing low profile The Losers to the big screen under his Dark Castle banner. In 2010, Warner Bros announced that Alan Horn was departing and Robinov taking his place. Silver seemed incredibly secure. But the studio was frustrated that it had to market and distribute his low-brow and low-grossing Dark Castle pictures.

Then, in 2010, The New York Times profiled Silver and asked, 'How does a larger-than-life, free-spending producer fit into a movie business that has been tightening up ' and cutting some of its more grandiose characters down to size?' The article spelled out Silver's financial difficulties, borrowng arrangement with the studio, and looked ar the lawsuit filed by Silver and attorney Bert Fields against Goldman Sachs over Dark Castle. Worse, the article stirred up talk about fissures in the Robinov-Silver relationship. 'Warner, at least in years past, has ignored Mr. Silver at its own peril. Six years ago, Jeff Robinov, then a top production executive at the studio, was hospitalized after a motorcycle accident. As he recovered, Mr. Robinov heard that Mr. Silver was exaggerating the severity of the accident ' and telling people that Mr. Robinov was unable to function. When Mr. Robinov asked Mr. Silver why he was doing this, the producer said it was because the Warner executive hadn't been returning his calls promptly.' Robinov better watch his back now.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

'The Dictator's Opening Scene: Video

Charles Foster Kane had his newsreel, and now Sacha Baron Cohen's General Aladeen gets his in this look at the first scene of Paramount's The Dictator, which opens wide May 16. There's plenty of fresh stuff as well as that clever track and field bit from the film's previous trailer.

Related:
Sacha Baron Cohen Steals Show At CinemaCon
'The Dictator' Spills 'Kim Jong Il's Ashes' On Oscar Red Carpet

Marvel's 'The Avengers' $17.1M Breaking Records Overseas

BREAKING' THURSDAY AM, 3RD UPDATE: More countries are reporting grosses. The superhero certain blockbuster doesn't come out in the U.S. until May 4th. But my sources say early box office estimates are coming out today from 10 of the 42 territories where Marvel's The Avengers from Disney was released today for the start of its international run. And the hotly anticipated actioner is already shattering box office records overseas. It earned in U.S. dollar estimates $17.1M from 10 countries: including $7.2M in Australia, $3.0 in France, $1.3M in the Philippines, $1.2M in Taiwan, and $800K in New Zealand. Two of the nations, Australia and New Zealand, having  were holidays: ANZAC Day, so that helped boost box office. Australia's opening day is the second-highest opening of all time there behind only the final Harry Potter (A$7M). It is also the highest Marvel opening day ever, 214% ahead of Iron Man 2 (A$1.8M Thursday opening) and 136% ahead of The Dark Knight (A$2.5M Thursday opening), and the highest Disney opening day ever for a Disney film. The pic playing in Taiwan is the biggest industry Wednesday opening ever, the biggest opening day of 2012 (173% above Battleship) and the second-biggest opening day for any Marvel film (after only Spider-Man 3). In New Zealand, pic scored highest grossing opening day ever, beating Harrry Potter finale (NZ$975L). The pic isnt even pen yet in China, Russia, or japan.  The Avengers is the first Marvel film to be marketed and distributed by Disney, so this is great news for the studio.

Related: 'Avengers' Tracking Like Superhero: $125+M Opening Weekend With 4-Quadrant Appeal

The pic has been tracking incredibly high because so many well-known characters are coming together for the first time in this PG-13 film directed by Joss Whedon in Digital 3D, RealD & IMAX 3D. So the movie's North American opening on May 4th timed to the official summer season start will be an event. As a result, not only will this type of action film normally skew young and older male, but the tracking is looking strong as a three- and possibly four-quadrant movie, too. Right now Disney and theatre owners are adding screens every day for the U.S./Canada release whose online pre-sales of tickets were selling out weeks in advance. Midnight show business is expected to be phenomenal. Exactly how much the studio can gross for the first weekend depends on how many screenings each theater can pack into 72 hours by finding enough staff willing to work the extra hours and keep the pic running continuously.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

K5 Picks Up Mira Nair's 'Reluctant Fundamentalist' For International Sales

Political thriller The Reluctant Fundamentalist is based on Mohsin Hamid's novel and stars Kate Hudson, Riz Ahmed, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber, Martin Donovan and Om Puri. Nair is directing from a script by Hamid, Ami Boghani and William Wheeler. The story follows a young Pakistani man chasing corporate success on Wall Street, who ultimately finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis and the call of his family's homeland. The film received financing from the Doha Film Institute and is a Cine Mosaic and Mirabai Film production. Lydia Dean Pilcher is producing. Filming took place in Atlanta, Delhi, Istanbul, New York City and Lahore. K5's New York head of acquisitions, Erica Motley, acquired the film alongside Oliver Simon. K5 co-founding partner Daniel Baur, Josh Grode for DFI and Lydia Dean Pilcher for Cine Mosaic negotiated the deal. K5 will launch international sales and show footage in Cannes.

Vibrator Pic Pair Next Humming On Ree Drummond Tale 'Pioneer Woman' For Sony Pictures: Tribeca

EXCLUSIVE: Husband-and-wife writing team Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer, who scripted the invention of the vibrator pic Hysteria that just played at the Tribeca Film Festival, have been hired by Sony Pictures to rewrite Pioneer Woman. That is the film adapted from Ree Drummond's blog/cookbook and memoir The Pioneer Woman: From Black Heels To Tractor Wheels that Sony optioned for producer Laura Ziskin Prods back in 2010, with Reese Witherspoon attached to play Drummond, and Robert Harling attached to write.

Related: Tribeca: Mike Fleming Moderates Universal's Centennial Panel With Robert De Niro And Judd Apatow

The project languished when Ziskin passed away, and Steel Magnolias scribe Harling moved on when he got his TV series picked up. Then, Laurence Mark came aboard to produce with Pam Williams, who was president of Ziskin's production company. After Williams saw the Tanya Wexler-directed Hysteria at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival, she invited the scribes to pitch their vision for Pioneer Woman, and they got the job over other writers. Witherspoon is still attached. Hysteria's exhilarating run at Toronto climaxed in a distribution deal with Sony Pictures Classics.

Stephen Dyer also produced The Playroom, which played Tribeca, so they had two films at the Gotham festival, and a job waiting for them when they get back. The Dyers are repped by Original Artists.

Drummond's blog and her book detail how a spontaneous detour on a trip from L.A. to Chicago led her to Oklahoma, where she met the cowboy of her dreams and transformed from spoiled city girl to domestic ranch wife. Drummond has a large following for a blog she writes from the cattle ranch that covers everything from cooking to tips on home schooling. The film will explore the fantasy of trading big-city living for a wholesome, simpler life. The first time that Deadline revealed Sony was developing a movie on Drummond, the reaction from commenters was enormous. This is certainly a different movie from Fifty Shades Of Grey, but the subject matter seems to have hit the target with a wish-fulfillment tale aimed at adult women.

You can see what all the Hysteria buzz is about with the trailer below:

Kaleidoscope Buys 'The Penguin King 3D'

London / (April 25, 2012) Kaleidoscope Film Distribution (KFD) today announces the acquisition of $20 million family adventure feature, THE PENGUIN KING 3D ' narrated by David Attenborough.

THE PENGUIN KING 3D is the epic and triumphant tale of a young penguin, as he battles his way from adolescent to fully-fledged king. It is an exhilarating, funny, and moving journey through the changing seasons and breath-taking scenery of an un-spoilt Antarctic wonderland.

Our hero must compete with thousands of others to find himself a mate. He must endure ice, and snow, and deadly waves; he must fight off predators attacking from sea, land and air. Yet his greatest test comes when tragedy strikes, and his family depends on him, and him alone. Can he rise to the occasion, and complete the ultimate rite of passage?

KFD will be premiering THE PENGUIN KING 3D ' shot in full stereoscopic 3D ' at Cannes. Screenings are confirmed for Arcades 2, on Day One, Wednesday 16th May, 6pm, and, Lerins 2, Day 5, Sunday 20th May, 10am. A UK theatrical will follow before a home entertainment release in Q4.

The deal was negotiated between John Morris of Atlantic Productions and Spencer Pollard and Caroline Stern of Kaleidoscope. Spencer Pollard, CEO of KFD commented: 'The Penguin King' is a spectacular production that looks stunning in 3D. We feel this type of family film has a huge audience in the UK and internationally and we're delighted to be working with a company of Atlantic Productions' standing on the Worldwide distribution of the film. We're sure there will be huge interest for its Premiere in Cannes.

John Morris, Commercial Director of Atlantic Productions: 'People will love the gripping and funny adventures of our cute and plucky king penguin, and because it's filmed in native 3D it looks fantastic; we're delighted that through Kaleidoscope audiences worldwide will have a chance to enjoy it. '

Hot Trailer: 'Hotel Transylvania'

With Adam Sandler voicing Dracula, Selena Gomez as his daughter Mavis, Kevin James as Frankenstein and Cee-Lo Green as the voice of Murray the Mummy, Sony Pictures Animation's Hotel Transylvania hopes to be the back to school favorite this fall when its set for release Sept. 21. Genndy Tartakovsky, best known for TV animated series like Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars, makes his feature directing debut. The trailer for the native of the former USSR has already been released in Russia. It's unveiled here:

2012 Cannes Directors' Fortnight: Michel Gondry And A Lot Of Subtitles

The 2012 Cannes Film Festival has announced its Directors' Fortnight sidebar, naming the Michel Gondry-directed The We and the I as the opening film. There will be 21 films, 18 of which are premieres from around the world. Here's the list:

3 de / by Pablo Stoll Ward (Uruguay, Allemagne, Argentine / Uruguay, Germany, Argentina)

Adieu Berthe de / by Bruno Podalydès (France)

Alyah de / by Elie Wajeman (France) ' Caméra d'or

Camille redouble de / by Noémie Lvovsky (France)

Dae gi eui wang / The King of Pigs de / by Yeun Sang-Ho (Corée du Sud / South Korea) ' Caméra d'or

Dangerous Liaisons de / by Hur Jin-Ho (Chine / China)

El Taaib / Le Repenti de / by Merzak Allouache (Algérie / Algeria)

Ernest et Célestine de / by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner (France, Belgique, Luxembourg / France, Belgium, Luxembourg)

Fogo de / by Yulene Olaizola (Mexique, Canada)

Gangs of Wasseypur de / by Anurag Kashyap (Inde / India)

Infancia clandestina/ Enfance clandestine de / by Benjamin Ávila (Argentine, Espagne, Brésil / Argantina, Spain, Brazil)

La noche de enfrente / La Nuit d'en face de / by Raoul Ruiz (France, Chili / France, Chile)

La Sirga de / by William Vega (Colombie, France, Mexique / Colombia, France, Mexico) ' Caméra d'or

No de / by Pablo Larraín (Chili, Etats-Unis / Chile, USA)

Opération Libertad de / by Nicolas Wadimoff (Suisse, France / Switzerland, France)

Rengaine / Hold Back de / by Rachid Djaidani (France) ' Caméra d'or

Room 237 de / by Rodney Ascher (Etats-Unis / USA) ' Caméra d'or

Sightseers de / by Ben Wheatley (Royaume Uni / United Kingdom)

Sueño y silencio de / by Jaime Rosales (Espagne / Spain)

The We and the I de / by Michel Gondry (Etats-Unis / USA)

Yek Khanévadéh-e Mohtaram / Une famille respectable / A Respectable Family de / by Massoud Bakhshi (Iran)- Caméra d'or

'Titanic 3D' Blu-ray To Get Major China Push

BEIJING (April 24, 2012) ' In the wake of China's record-breaking box-office opening of TITANIC 3D, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (FOX) AND SONY have announced an exclusive, large-scale bundling partnership for the film's Blu-ray 3D release this fall. Marking the industry's biggest bundling and promotional program to date in China, James Cameron's epic love story will be packaged with SONY's Blu-ray Player and Blu-ray Home Theatre to provide consumers with a fully immersive Blu-ray 3D in-home experience like never before.

With the shipping of more than 5.5 million 3D television sets in China last year ' versus 174,000 in 2010 ' the Chinese consumer is now proving to be one of the most enthusiastic adopters of 3D content in the world, both inside the home and in theaters.

'I'm certain that 3D is the way people will want to continue enjoying their entertainment, whether it's in a movie theater or on television,' commented James Cameron. 'Audiences around the world have embraced Titanic 3D because they were engaged in a distinct heightening of the film experience. We used the depth of 3D to make the screen an intimate window into a compelling reality ' and this type of 3D storytelling can be accomplished whether it's on a theater screen or a TV screen.'

'The extraordinary success of TITANIC 3D in theaters combined with the robust growth of 3D televisions in Chinese homes, creates the ideal environment for a premium 3D home entertainment offering ' providing consumers with a ground-breaking cinematic experience in their living rooms,' stated Keith Feldman, President, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment International. 'We're thrilled to partner on TITANIC with market-leader SONY to create this Blu-ray bundling program in China where the availability of 3D content ' for the rapid expansion of 3D-enabled households ' is still very limited.'

Written, directed and produced by James Cameron, TITANIC is the second highest grossing movie of all time. It is one of only three films to have received a record 11 Academy Awards® including Best Picture and Best Director; and launched the careers of stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The theatrical re-release of TITANIC in 3D ' re-mastered and enhanced with StereoD 3D technology ' coincided with the 100th anniversary of the RMS Titanic setting sail on April 10, 1912.

Movie Pirate Caught Filming At CinemaCon

Interestingly, CinemaCon executives tonight warned the audience that security personnel were using night-vision goggles and other technologies to nab potential movie pirates. It seems to have worked: CinemaCon Managing Director Mitch Nauhauser said one person was caught filming and turned over to local police.

Hot Trailer: 'Butch Walker: Out Of Focus'

The Peter Harding-directed documentary Butch Walker: Out of Focus debuts tomorrow night at the Nashville Film Festival. Walker, who has a long career working in the shadows while his songs and talent have helped propel bands including Train, Weezer, Fall Out Boy, Pink and Jacob Dylan. Walker and his band The Black Widows will be performing at the festival.

Chernin Group Secures $200M Private Equity Investment For US-Asian Expansion

Longtime Hollywood mogul Peter Chernin's indie company has just received a new infusion of capital to help with his goal of expanding into a global media company 'across all fronts with this additional expertise and resources'. Led by Providence Equity Partners, the investors are taking what's being called a 'significant minority equity stake' in his television/movie/internet company The Chernin Group. The official announcement will be made Monday morning. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Deadline has learned the investment is $200M. Chernin and Providence CEO Jonathan Nelson became chummy while they worked together to establish the online video site Hulu as a joint venture with NBCUniversal. The pair tell the Financial Times they also looked at making a bid for Yahoo together over a year - but then decided against it. They say the new partnership would have the resources to pursue 'any deal of any size' around the world, from making multibillion-dollar bids to incubating start-ups. And they say their first deals are 'very close' and could be announced within weeks.

As part of the transaction, representatives of the Providence-led group will join the Chernin Group's Board of Directors. The former No. 2 to Rupert Murdoch at News Corp until he resigned in 2009 to go it alone, Chernin himself will become a senior advisor to Providence. In turn, the Chernin Group 'intends to leverage its partners' expertise and resources to expand and diversify the global media and entertainment operating company', an insider tells me. 'TCG and Providence will work together to invest in, acquire, build and operate media assets around the world, with a particular focus on the U.S., as well as emerging markets such as Asia, particularly in India, Indonesia, and China. Capital raised in the transaction will be used primarily for TCG investments.' The investment bankers Allen & Company represented the Chernin Group on the deal. Legal advisors included Ziffren Brittenham, and Gibson Dunn, and O'Melveny & Myers for the Chernin Group and Weil Gotshal & Manges for Providence.

Chernin's company consists of Chernin Entertainment, which is the media production company he set up after leaving News Corp with a rich package including 'put' TV shows and movie deals. Plus a majority stake in CA Media, an Asia-based media investment company. And several strategic investments in U.S.-based technology and media companies. Chernin Entertainment produced last summer's hit feature film Rise Of the Planet Of The Apes and is currently in production on director Joseph Kosinski's sci-fi thriller Oblivion starring Tom Cruise. The film comedy Parental Guidance starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler will be released in December 2012. The company has been faster off the mark on TV series. it's had four shows on the air: the supernatural thriller Touch on Fox with Kiefer Sutherland, the hit sitcom New Girl on Fox with Zoey Deschanel, the expensive scifi Terra Nova on Fox, the animated comedy Allen Gregory also on Fox, and the crime drama Breakout Kings on A&E. Both Terra Nova and Allen Gregory were cancelled. Chernin Entertainment has 2 pilots in contention for the 2012-2013 season, both comedies: Ned Fox Is My Manny at Fox and an as-yet-untitled series written by Nick Stoller at CBS.

The Chernin Group's majority-owned CA Media based in Hong Kong focuses on investing in Asia, particularly India, Indonesia, and China and has made a series of investments in U.S. digital media ventures, including Pandora, Tumblr, and Flipboard. Chernin founded the company with Paul Aiello, a former CEO of News Corp's Star TV group in Asia.

Providence Equity Partners is a leading global private equity firm whose principals manage funds with over $23B in equity investments in more than 100 companies operating in over 20 countries. Its past and present stakes include Hulu, Univision, MGM, Warner Music Group, Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network, Nextag, and VoiceStream Wireless. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, it also has offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Beijing and New Delhi.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

Sundance Institute And WorldView To Present New Awards At Sundance London

The first-ever Sundance London Film and Music Festival kicks off in the British capital on Thursday. It will host the UK premieres of films that debuted in Park City back in January and will have a music component featuring T Bone Burnett, Placebo and Rufus and Martha Wainwright. As part of the ramp-up, the Sundance Institute and British nonprofit WorldView have announced they'll jointly present awards at the festival to four films that focus on social justice issues in the developing world. Recipients of the prizes are Kashmir-set romance Valley Of Saints by Musa Syeed, which won the World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance 2012; Katie Mark's Street Girls, about prostitutes in Nigeria; Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's Farming, about a Nigerian boy's search for love within a brutal skinhead subculture; and Sally El Hosaini's My Brother The Devil, about a set of British-Arab brothers in London, which also took the World Cinema Cinematography Award at Sundance in January. The prizes come with a £5,000 or $10,000 purse.

GLAAD Media Awards Honor Chaz Bono, Josh Hutcherson, 'Modern Family', 'Drop Dead Diva', 'Hot In Cleveland', 'Beginners'

GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation organization awarded its honors in Los Angeles tonight for most outstanding images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in the media. AP is reporting that the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards went to ABC's Modern Family for TV comedy series, the indie Beginners for wide-release film, and Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva and TV Land's Hot in Cleveland in a tie for individual TV episode. The Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson won the Vanguard Award. But it was Chaz Bono who picked up a pair of trophies: the 43-year-old transgender activist won the outstanding documentary prize and the Stephen F. Kolzak Award.

'Think Like A Man' Surprise $33.3M Weekend And 'The Lucky One' Overperforming $23.5M To Beat 'Hunger Games': 'Chimpanzee' #4

SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM, 3RD UPDATE:  I'm still on vacation but the box office never rests, especially when 2012 delivers another hot weekend. Sony Pictures is in shock that its Screen Gems sleeper Think Like A Man based on the bestselling book by TV/radio comedian Steve Harvey and starring new comedy star Kevin Hart is North America's #1 movie. But also by its gross through Sunday looking like double what execs predicted. And Saturday's number was up +10% from Friday's figure. The weekend total may finish as high as $33.3M. And yet this urban comedy ' like it or not, that's what the movie industry calls this genre ' was playing in only 2,017 locations. It was aimed squarely at African-Americans ages 13 to 49 but then wound up crossing over big-time with all audiences regardless of race and sex. It earned an 'A' CinemaScore from audiences: 'A+' Males, 'A' Females, 'A+' under age 25, 'A' every other category. Big online ticket seller Fandango called this contest early when it reported that Think Like A Man was its top-selling movie grabbing a healthy 42% of Thursday's sales. 'The movie had a negative cost between $12M-$13M so we're thrilled,' a Sony exec emails me. 'Any weekend where you make back the negative cost in the first weekend is a good weekend in our books.'

I'm amused how everybody is getting in line now to tell me all the execs and talent responsible for the huge success of this movie. But, first, let's not forget that Jeff Blake's ace marketing and distribution team can sell virtually anything. And no doubt Clint Culpepper is on a hot streak: this is Screen Gems' third #1 film of the year, and Sony Pictures' fourth #1 in 2012. Besides Harvey, comedian Kevin Hart deserve credit for turning out his rabid fanbase by endlessly promoting the pic and dominating the social media conversation about it. Hart is still a fairly fresh film star: his 2011 standup comedy film Laugh At My Pain shocked the industry by making Top 10 numbers despite playing in very few theaters. Harvey's and Hart's and the cast's popularity allowed Sony to take advantage of some 40+M social connections on Facebook and Twitter. And then there's Tim Story (Barbershop, Fantastic Four 1 and 2) who directed the film. 'How many prominent African American film comedy directors are there after all who have helmed a mainstream breakout hit?' one insider gushed to me. Besides Harvey, screenwriting credit went to David A. Newman and Keith Merryman, while producer credit went to William Hacker.

Knowing that the story skewed towards women, the studio's marketing strived to position the movie from a male point of view while not turning off the female audience. The trailer debuted with New Year's Eve, and it also ran with The Vow, Tyler Perry's Good Deeds, and Red Tails. The usual high-profile sports games were employed, as well as a 'Behind The NBA' promotion featuring Kevin Hart, Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, and Kevin Smith. The film took advantage of a lot of radio cross-promotion, including screening programs and flyaway promotions. It also took over Harvey's morning show during the first week of April with the actresses on one day, and the actors the following day. Sony also reached out to radio DJs from top urban markets, inviting them to the press junket and hosting a special cast dinner with the biggest African American bloggers and websites. Studio also had a big presence on the campuses of historically black colleges and universities, and hosted special fraternity screenings in select markets. Other urban media outlets across TV, radio, print, and outdoor were saturated by Sony. BET created full blocks of programming dedicated to Think Like A Man, and all special programming attracting African American viewers were utilized including the BET Honors, the NAACP Image Awards, and America's Next Top Model.

Warner Bros' romantic drama from star author Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, Dear John), The Lucky One starring Zac Efron is looking like $8.9M Saturday ' about even with Friday ' for a $23.5M weekend. This is another wild overperformer because the studio only expected $15M through Sunday. Playing in 3,115 theaters, it received a 'B+' CinemaScore from audiences. Warner Bros' private tracking saw this film was at the high end for a Sparks  film, which all have a good multiple of approximately 4x. So the studio marketed the movie based on the well-developed fan base for both Sparks and Efron. (Though Zac's box office appeal is going down as his age goes up.) The campaign targeted females both by leveraging Zac's appeal and the novelist's pedigree. 'The heart of our online marketing campaign was leveraging the celebrity and likability of Zac Efron in advertising, publicity and social media, while additionally leveraging the various social networks surrounding Nicholas Sparks and his previous films,' a WB exec told me. The sell was heavily focused on romance, and included aspirational messages like 'What if you were destined to fall in love with someone before you even met?' (I know: barf. But this crap works, obviously.)

Both films right now finished the weekend ahead of Lionsgate's four-weekends-in-a-row winner The Hunger Games which was playing in 3,732 locations and came in #3. I'll update these numbers Sunday morning, but going into this weekend the mega-blockbuster racked up a new international cume of $202.3M and domestic cume of $342.3M for an estimated worldwide cume of $544.7M. It should end up nearing $575+M through Sunday. Look for this first installment of Suzanne Collins' book/film trilogy to break into the Top 20 domestic grossing films of all time this weekend (ahead of Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers).

And nice matinee numbers came in for DisneyNature's 4th documentary Chimpanzee which received an 'A' CinemaScore from audiences. It's looking like $10.3M for the weekend from 1,563 plays. (Who can resist that cute ape face?) That beats last year's African Cats which opened at $6M and made $15.4M, while Oceans in 2010 opened with $6M and went on to $19.4M. Fact that the second day of Chimpanzee went up from opening day is a first for a Disneynature film. Studio claims the label 'enables us to sustain the company's longstanding commitment to conservation. Through donations tied to the first three Disneynature films, Disneynature has planted three million trees in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, established 40,000 acres of marine protected area in The Bahamas, and protected 65,000 acres of savanna in Kenya.' The label launched in April 2008 and keeps turning out high-grossing feature-length nature films. For this simian pic, Disneynature joined forces with the Jane Goodall Institute for a special 'See Chimpanzee, Save Chimpanzees' program. For every moviegoer who sees the pic during opening week, the label makes a donation to Goodall through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund to protect chimps.

More international numbers in the morning. For now Peter Berg's military vs aliens actioner from Universal Pictures crossed the $100M milestone in its first 10 days of international release. Through this Sunday Battleship's first 12-day total should reach $126.7M. The pressure is on for the film to do well in the 50 territories where it's now open ' including China and Russia ' because of its advance bad buzz and very expensive budget. (The studio claims the cost was $209M while outside sources say $250M.) Battleship doesn't open in the U.S./Canada until May 18th because the studio set a strategy to open overseas first. It was the #1 opener in 16 territories this week bringing the film's total Number One openings overseas to 37 in the last two weeks. It dominated the Russian box office with 78% of market share. In China, Battleship gave Universal its largest opening in history on Wednesday. Universal has 14 more territories to open.

Here's the Top 10 based on Friday's grosses:

1. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) NEW [2,015 Theaters] PG13
Friday $12.2M, Saturday $13.4M, Weekend $33.3M

2. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) NEW [3,155 Theaters] PG13
Friday $9.1M, Saturday $8.9M, Weekend $23.4M

3. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 5 [3,752 Theaters] PG13
Friday $4.0M, Saturday $6.9M, Weekend $14.9M, Cume $357.2M

4. Chimpanzee (DisneyNature) NEW [1,563 Theaters] G
Friday $3.5M, Saturday $3.9M, Weekend $10.5M

5. The Three Stooges (Fox) Week 2 [3,482 Theater] PG
Friday $2.3M, Saturday $4.8M, Weekend $10.1M (-41%), Cume $30.2M

6. The Cabin In The Woods (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,811 Theaters] R
Friday $2.4M, Saturday $3.6M, Weekend $8.2M, Cume $27.4M

7. American Reunion (Universal) Week 3 [3,033 Theaters] R
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.4M, Weekend $5.7M, Cume $48.7M

8. Titanic 3D (Paramount/Fox) Week 3 [2,515 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $2.1M, Weekend $5.1M, Cume $52.8M

9. 21 Jump Street (Sony) Week 6 [2,427 Theaters] R
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $2.1M, Weekend $4.7M, Cume $127.1M

10. Mirror Mirror (Relativity) Week 4 [2,938 Theaters] PG
Friday $1.0M, Saturday $2.1M, Weekend $4.4M, Cume $55.5M

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

DC's 'Dark Knight Rises' Trailer To Pair With Marvel's 'Avengers' Release: Confirmed

Attention, fanboys! Once again the earth is about to spin off its axis when comic worlds collide. I've confirmed that Warner Bros/DC Comics' The Dark Knight Rises will debut its 3rd trailer when Marvel's The Avengers opens on May 4th. 'Yes, our 3rd trailer will be out with The Avengers,' a Warner Bros exec just told me. 'We see this placement as a good strategic decision. We always want our trailers to be seen with films that people want to see ' and a lot of people will be going to The Avengers!' The pairing was first teased by the Warner Bros Exhibitor website, and spotted by NolanFans.com. Both 2D and 3D conventional showings of The Avengers (as well as 2D and 3D IMAX showings) will be playing the TDKR trailer. This isn't the first time Warner Bros has placed a big DC Comics trailer in front of a Marvel movie. Back in 2008, the third trailer for The Dark Knight played before showings of Iron Man. (In 2010, interestingly, the final trailer for Christopher Nolan's Inception played in front of Iron Man 2.) When I suggested that newly intensified DC vs Marvel rivalry might preclude this kind of trailer pairing, the studio exec explained, 'It will provide the best potential exposure for TDKR. It's a big positive for everyone!' And certainly a boon for Joss Whedon's pic. After all, when TDKR's first major glimpse paired with Paramount's Mission Impossible 4's release in late 2011, it goosed MI4's opening numbers. The only question now will be which movie makes more moolah: Batman 3 or The Avengers. I'm confident that both could set new 3-day weekend numbers. So far The Dark Knight Rises, which opens July 20th, has released two official trailers ' a teaser that focused on Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), and a trailer that spotlighted the villainous Bane (Tom Hardy).

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

LA Filmmaker Sentenced In Massachusetts Tax Credit Scheme

Daniel Adams was arrested in December and charged with defrauding Massachusetts of about $5 million in inflated tax credits he obtained for the movies The Lightkeepers (2009) and The Golden Boys (2008). He wrote and directed both and shot them in the state. Today, he was sentenced to a 2- to 3-year state prison term that will begin May 10. He was also placed on 10 years' probation and he must repay the state $4.377 million. Prosecutors allege Los Angeles-based Adams intentionally inflated expenses when completing forms for the tax credit and the state overpaid his production companies. One of Adams' alleged false claims was paying Richard Dreyfuss $2.5 million for Lightkeepers when the actor's actual fee was $400,000. Adams was most recently attached to direct The Big Valley, based on the TV series was to have starred Jessica Lange in the Barbara Stanwyck role. His lawyer said today Adams still hopes to finish that movie.

Megaupload Copyright Case Could Hinge On Legal Technicality: Report

The federal criminal copyright case against Megaupload founder Kim DotCom in the United States may never go to trial because although DotCom has been served with court papers, his file-sharing company hasn't, according to a New Zealand newspaper's coverage of the case in the U.S. Federal judge Liam O'Grady said he didn't know if 'we are ever going to have a trial in this matter' after he was informed Megaupload had not been served with criminal papers. Dotcom's U.S.-based attorneyIra Rothken said 'We don't believe Megaupload can be served in a criminal matter because it is not located within the jurisdiction of the United States.' Prosecutor Jay Prabhu told the Virginia court hearing that might not matter because Dotcom owned 68% of the company. Instead of a corporation that might show up for a trial, Prabu suggested it was a case 'seven people who actually don't want to show up.' Dotcom faces a court hearing for extradition to the United States after a warrant was issued for him and six others on criminal copyright charges relating to music and movies on its computer servers. O'Grady raised the possible lack of a trial during arguments over FBI applications to wipe Megaupload's vast database of members' files. O'Grady said those motions to erase  the data on 1100 computer servers seized from Megaupload could be 'premature' and requested more information on why Megaupload had not been served.

Hot Friday: 'Think Like A Man' Surprising #1 And 'The Lucky One' Overperforming #2 To Knock Off 'Hunger Games': 'Chimpanzee' #4

FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM, 2ND UPDATE: I'm on vacation but the North American box office doesn't stop especially not with 2012 grosses staying strong. Big online ticket seller Fandango called this contest early when it reported that sleeper Think Like A Man based on the bestselling book by TV/radio comedian Steve Harvey was its top-selling movie ' representing a healthy 42% of Thursday's sales. This Screen Gems/Sony Pictures' urban comedy aimed squarely at African-Americans ages 13 to 49 is playing in only 2,017 locations. But it's looking like $12M for today and an unexpectedly large $30M for the weekend with an 'A' CinemaScore from audiences ('A+' Males, 'A' Females, 'A+' under age 25, 'A' every other category). 'Think Like A Man is off to an excellent start. At this time it looks very similar to Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?' a rival studio exec told me today. That's far more than the $17M which Sony was predicting. 'The movie had a negative cost between $12M-$13M so we're thrilled,' a Sony exec emails me. 'Any weekend where you make back the negative cost in the first weekend is a good weekend in our books.'

Warner Bros' romantic drama from Nicholas Sparks, The Lucky One starring Zac Efron, is looking like $9.0M today to overperform for $25M weekend playing in 3,115 theaters. It received a 'B+' CinemaScore from audiences.

Both films right now are ahead of Lionsgate's four-weekends-in-a-row winner The Hunger Games which is holding in 3,732 locations its fifth weekend for #3. Going into this weekend, the mega-blockbuster racked up a new international cume of $202.3M and domestic cume of $342.3M for an estimated worldwide cume of $544.7M. It should end up nearing $575M through Sunday. This first installment of Suzanne Collins' book/film trilogy will break into the Top 20 domestic grossing films of all time this weekend (ahead of Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers).

And nice matinee numbers came in for DisneyNature's simian documentary Chimpanzee which received an 'A' CinemaScore from audiences. It's looking like $10.5M for the weekend from 1,563 plays. (Who can resist that cute ape face?) That beats last year's African Cats which opened at $6M and made $15.4M, while Oceans in 2010 opened with $6M and went on to $19.4M.

Here's the Top 10 based on Friday's grosses:

1. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) NEW [2,015 Theaters] PG13
Friday $12.0M, Weekend $30.0M

2. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) NEW [3,155 Theaters] PG13
Friday $9.0M, Weekend $25M

3. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 5 [3,752 Theaters] PG13
Friday $3.8M, Weekend $13.1M, Cume $355.6M

4. Chimpanzee (DisneyNature) NEW [1,563 Theaters]
Friday $3.4M, Weekend $10.5M

5. The Three Stooges (Fox) Week 2 [3,482 Theater] PG
Friday $2.4M (-56%), Weekend $8.4M, Cume $28.5M

6. The Cabin In The Woods (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,811 Theaters] R
Friday $2.3M (-56%), Weekend $7.4M, Cume $26.5M

7. American Reunion (Universal) Week 3 [3,033 Theaters] R
Friday $1.6M, Weekend $6.2M, Cume $48.2M

8. Titanic 3D (Paramount/Fox) Week 3 [2,515 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.3M, Weekend $4.8M, Cume $52.6M

9. 21 Jump Street (Sony) Week 6 [2,427 Theaters] R
Friday $1.2M, Weekend $4.4M, Cume $126.8M

10. Mirror Mirror (Relativity) Week 4 [2,938 Theaters] PG
Friday $1.0M, Weekend $3.5M, Cume $54.0M

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

Disney Buys Spec 'Ground Control To Major Tom'

BREAKING: Disney has paid mid six figures for Ground Control To Major Tom, a romantic comedy by Butter scribe Jason Micallef that has Seth Gordon attached to direct. Butter producer Michael De Luca will produce this with Underground's Josh McGuire and Trevor Engelson. They are keeping the plot line under wraps, so it's unclear how David Bowie will be referenced, since the title is a line from his classic song Space Oddity. Several studios chased the comedy.

Gordon will next direct Identity Theft with Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman, with production starting Monday on the Universal comedy. WME and Underground brokered the deal.

'Hunger Games' Revisits Imax For A Week

The blockbuster will run on more than 100 Imax screens in North America from April 27 to May 3, the large-screen theater company and Lionsgate announced this morning. They say 'overwhelming demand' propelled the decision to bring the film back. 'The Hunger Games has become a cultural phenomenon and we are thrilled to provide moviegoers with another opportunity to see this year's most successful film in Imax,' the theater company's President Greg Foster says. The movie has grossed more than $533M worldwide since March 23, and $13.2M of that came from its one-week run on Imax.

Specialty B.O.: 'Darling Companion', 'Downtown Express', 'Marley', 'Moth Diaries'

Two specialty titles opening this coming weekend might have had studio backing in the past if not for the changing nature of the biz. Darling Companion and The Moth Diaries traveled a more 'independent film' route on their way to the screen, bypassing controls that may have lead to very different films ' if they would even have been made at all. Downtown Express used music and the backdrop of New York City to tell its story shot on a tight budget, while Kevin Macdonald's doc Marley found non-financing challenges on its way through production. Also encountering unexpected turbulence during production, Jesus Henry Christ shot north of the border during some particularly crazy events in Toronto.

Darling Companion
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, Meg Kasdan
Cast: Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Lawrence Kasdan's latest returns his focus to baby boomers reminiscent of some of his past work. In this feature, he spotlights the story of a woman who loves her dog more than her husband. And naturally the situation worsens when he loses the dog. 'What we were shooting for is trying to talk to that generation and about their lives as John Updike did in the Rabbit series,' Darling Companions producer Anthony Bregman told Deadline. 'It's along the lines of other [Kasdan] films that check in with that generation.' But unlike the director's past work including The Accidental Tourist and The Big Chill, studios did not come knocking. 'The industry has changed a lot since those films came out,' Bregman said, adding that studios shy away from stories like Darling Companions so the production had to take a different approach in order to get the feature completed. 'This time, it was an independent production with a quicker shoot. We didn't have the same luxuries that are typical of a studio film,' he said. 'The challenge was to stick to the agenda while maintaining a high production value and ambitious casting.'

Werc Werk Works came on board as the production's main financier and were undaunted by the material.'They were up to the challenge and dove right in,' added Bregman. 'Our actors showed up for 'a bottle of wine' and they worked very hard to promote it.' The film's stars along with Kasdan and his co-writer have traveled with the film to festivals including Miami, Santa Barbara, Boulder and more doing interviews. 'It's a movie that plays well with festivals and to packed houses,' he said. Sony Classics will open Darling Companions in New York and Los Angeles over the weekend followed by more major markets in coming weeks.

Downtown Express
Director: David Grubin
Writers: David Grubin, Kathleen Cahill
Cast: Philippe Quint, Nellie McKay, Michael Cumpsty
Distributor: International Film Circuit

'Our biggest production challenge was our low budget,' director David Grubin told Deadline about his debut feature Downtown Express. The veteran television and documentary director said he was faced with a 17-day shoot for a production that would normally take 30 days, but he was aided in part by a veteran producer who knew the ropes for how to bring both large and small productions to fruition. 'I had a great producer, Mike Hausman, who did Brokeback Mountain, Gangs Of New York and others,' Grubin said. 'He said we'd have to work long hours and we'd have to make those long hours count.' Private equity backed the film which centers on a Russian violinist on scholarship studying classical music but who is drawn to the rhythms he hears on the streets of New York. Grubin noted that one of the biggest drivers of the film's narrative is music, so special attention was paid to the authentic sounds one encounters on the city's streets. NYC's subways also provide a bridge to its disparate neighborhoods, which feature prominently.

'The film depends upon getting a feel for New York and the clash of cultures in New York,' Grubin said. 'The trains connect these worlds from the Russian neighborhood in Brighton Beach to the music scene at Lincoln Center.' Apart from money issues, Grubin said the production faced a number of obstacles when shooting in the subway because of a myriad of restrictions, limiting where and when they could film. 'But I think if you have more money, you can shoot in more areas of the subway,' he added. Downtown Express will open at New York's Quad Cinema this weekend. Depending on its performance, it will roll out to other markets.

Marley
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Subjects: Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Jimmy Cliff
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures

Producer Charles Steel again teamed with director Kevin Macdonald for Marley after the filmmakers were approached by producer Steve Bing who financed this documentary about the late reggae pioneer. Steel and Macdonald made The Last King Of Scotland in 2006. The pair were approached after both Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme were attached at various points, but in the end were not able to take it on. 'We had a wish list of everyone we wanted to interview for the film,' Steel told Deadline. 'But it took a lot of persuasion to get many of them. There are a lot of Bob Marley projects out there, and some people are very reluctant to take part. [We] had the challenge to persuade people to come together for this particular moment and to say that this is the right way to tell this story.' One trump card Marley had going for it was backing from Bob Marley's family including his son Ziggy Marley. Use of Bob Marley's music was assured with family support, though their backing did have some pitfalls. 'Having the family on board didn't always persuade people to participate,' said Steel. 'There are a lot of divisions out there from falling-outs that have occurred. Sometimes it made it more difficult.' In the end, dozens participated and Marley was completed last May.

The film debuted at Berlin and SXSW this year. This weekend Marley will debut theatrically and via day and date VOD through Magnolia Pictures. It will also be available through Facebook, potentially tapping into Bob Marley's 30 million-strong following on the social networking site.

The Moth Diaries
Director Mary Harron
Writer: Rachel Klein
Cast: Sarah Bolger, Sarah Gadon, Lily Cole
Distributor: IFC Films

Producer Edward Pressman and director Mary Harron found box office success back in 2000 with their feature American Psycho (over $34 million worldwide) and re-united for horror feature The Moth Diaries. Originally slated as a Paramount production, Harron and Pressman parted with the studio after it pushed to have the story incorporate elements similar to American Psycho. Harron 'saw The Moth Diaries as a psychological channel that focuses on young women,' Pressman told Deadline. 'So we took it away from Paramount so we could do it the way we wanted.' Financing was a challenge because it lacked heavy-hitting star wattage, but they found resources through Montreal-based Mediabiz. The project also took advantage of Canadian subsidies through Telefilm in addition to help from the Irish Film Board and Lionsgate in the U.K. (Lionsgate released American Psycho).

The film 'gets criticized because it isn't what some people in this area of film think it should be,' said Pressman. 'But it's more of a complicated women coming-of-age thriller than a straightforward vampire film. It's more sophisticated.' Shooting lasted about a month with some pickup shots added during editing. Pressman said The Moth Diaries is more akin to Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides than vampire films like Twilight to which some have compared it. IFC will open The Moth Diaries in New York City and surrounding areas before expanding to additional markets.

Jesus Henry Christ
Director-writer: Dennis Lee
Cast: Jason Spevack, Toni Collette, Michael Sheen
Distributor: eOne

Reliance Entertainment, Red Om and Sukee Chew spearheaded Dennis Lee's Jesus Henry Christ after they read his script and 'fell in love with it,' Lee told Deadline about the feature's beginnings. The groups came on board with financing and the project shot in Toronto in 23 days. Even though financing was secured, the project had to run on a tight schedule and its cast also posed some challenges. 'Our main leads were children, so our compressed schedule was even tighter,' Lee said. Other surprises added logistical challenges to the shoot in Canada's largest city. 'We were shooting on location during the gay pride parade, the G-20 conference and the subsequent riots,' added Lee. And 'with Queen Elizabeth II visiting the city, you can imagine what it was like to get around town. I felt really sorry for our sound team, but we had the most amazing cast and crew, so we were able to make our days.'

The film's domestic distributor eOne is partnering with Tribeca Film for a day and date theatrical/VOD release. Lee sites Tribeca's branding (the film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last year) as a plus for the film's awareness. They're timing Jesus Henry Christ's rollout this weekend with the continuing 2012 Tribeca Film Festival to maximize exposure.