The late writer-director — who was given an Oscar tribute Sunday — has an unproduced screenplay, “Grisbys Go Broke,” floating around the industry ether. Word crept out Friday that Paramount, which has a long history with Hughes, was picking up the script with hope of turning it into a family comedy with Joe Roth (”Alice in Wonderland”) producing.

However, the studio told THR that it is not negotiating to purchase the screenplay, which follows a wealthy Chicago family that loses everything and is forced to move to the sticks. But Paramount certainly has no problem with digging back into Hughes material.

Hughes’ last feature was Paramount’s 2008 Owen Wilson comedy “Drillbit Taylor,” which began as a Hughes original but was rewritten by Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown (Hughes’ story credit appeared under the pseudonym Edmond Dantes).

The writer-director may have walked away from Hollywood in 1994, but he never lost his desire to write. After his death, family members found reams of unpublished and unproduced material.

Hughes also worked with Fox, Universal and Disney, but many of his 1980s classics were developed at Paramount, including “She’s Having a Baby,” “Planes, Trains & Automobiles,” “Some Kind of Wonderful,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Pretty in Pink.” (His “Home Alone” trilogy at Fox grossed more than $800 million worldwide.)

It seems as if the studio, despite “Drillbit’s” disappointing run, would jump at the chance to take part in another Hughes creation. Paramount — or someone else — might still go for “Broke.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

With “The Hurt Locker” winning Best Picture along with the directing, original screenplay, editing and both sound categories, Summit has elevated its status in the kudos realm to complement its box office success as home to the “Twilight” franchise.

“We have a deep debt of gratitude to Summit Entertainment,” said producer Greg Shapiro in his acceptance speech.

It’s an outcome that few could have foreseen in April 2007, when Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger began transforming Summit from a foreign sales company into a full-service production and distribution studio. Friedman, who had been vice chairman at Paramount, came aboard as Summit announced a $1 billion financing deal with Merrill Lynch and a consortium of investors.

A year and half later, Summit bought “The Hurt Locker” at the Toronto film festival — a few months before “Twilight” opened.

“We fell in love with it,” Friedman recalled last year of the decision to acquire “Locker” for $1.5 million. “We see this as being about heroes like Steve McQueen and John Wayne, and it just happens to be set in Iraq.”

When Summit hit it big with “Twilight,” it followed up almost immediately with plans for three more films based on the Stephenie Meyer novels. Friedman and Wachsberger said Summit would stick to its original strategy of releasing and distributing 10-12 films per year with a focus on the mid-range films that the majors are less likely to greenlight.

Summit also decided to hold off on a 2008 release for “Hurt Locker,” staying out of the fall scramble for kudos despite having received mostly laudatory reviews and a Venice film fest grand prize. The reasoning was that the film might stand a better chance with a platformed summer release, so Summit screened the pic at ShoWest in March of 2009, began a low-key publicity campaign and launched the pic in four theaters on June 26.

The film never went wider in the United States than 535 locations during its run, which generated $14.7 million — far better than most other Iraq dramas such as “In the Valley of Elah,” which grossed $6.8 million. “Locker” took in another $6 million overseas.

That’s miniscule compared to the $1.1 billion combined worldwide grosses thus far for Summit’s two “Twilight” films, but the company now has a level of added status that comes from backing a film that enjoyed a strong awards-season run.

Source: Variety

Out of 10 films nominated to win 2009’s best picture, three were directed by men who call Canada home: Avatar, Up in the Air, and District 9. Also, Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallee’s The Young Victoria is up for three technical awards, while Christopher Plummer is in the running for best supporting actor for The Last Station.

Here’s a rundown of each film with a Canadian factor.

Avatar

Nominations: Best picture, directing, cinematography, art direction, film editing, original score, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects.

Canadian connection: Director James Cameron was born in 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ont. He moved to the U.S. in 1971.

Cameron told Vanity Fair: “I think science fiction is a way of making history exciting by putting it in the future and showing you exactly the same s—that’s been happening for the last 2,000 years . . . .”

District 9

Nominations: Best picture, editing, visual effects, adapted screenplay.

Canadian connection: Director Neill Blomkamp was born in South Africa in 1979 before immigrating to Canada 18 years later with his family. He graduated from Vancouver Film School in 1998. His wife, Vancouver writer Terri Tatchell, is nominated with Blomkamp for best adapted screenplay. Sharing a nomination for best visual effects are Canadians Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers and Bob Habros. Also nominated is Vancouver-based editor Julian Clarke.

Blomkamp told Canwest News Service: “If we’re not using spaceships and aliens and lasers, I’m not making this movie. This is about having fun with toys.”

Up in the Air

Nominations: Best picture, directing, adapted screenplay, leading actor and supporting actress.

Canadian connection: Director Jason Reitman was born in Montreal in 1977. His 2007 Oscar-winning film Juno was filmed in Vancouver. Reitman’s Slovakian-born, Canadian-raised father, Ivan Reitman, shares the best-picture nod for Up in the Air with his son.

“If there is a message to my films — and I hope there isn’t — it’s to be open-minded,” the younger Reitman told Canwest News Service.

The Last Station

Nominations: Best leading actress, supporting actor.

Canadian connection: Theatre veteran Christopher Plummer, nominated for best supporting actor for his part as Tolstoy, was born in Toronto in 1929 and raised near Montreal. This is his first Oscar nomination.

“I jumped on [the part], because I love the challenge that real historic figures have,” Plummer told The Independent.

The Young Victoria

Nominations: Best art direction, costume design, makeup.

Canadian connection: Director Jean-Marc Vallee was born in 1963 in Quebec, and studied film at l’Universite de Montreal. His hugely successful third feature film is 2005’s C.R.A.Z.Y. Montreal production designer Patrice Vermette shares a nomination for best art direction.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Nominations: Best costume design, art direction.

Canadian connection: The Vancouver-filmed fantasy’s costume designer is Vancouver’s Monique Prudhomme and the art directors were drawn from the U.K. and Toronto.

Source: The Province

“There is no other way to describe it. It’s the moment of a lifetime,” Bigelow said as she accepted her directing trophy. Thanking writer Mark Boal and the movie’s cast and crew, she added, “I’d just like to dedicate this to the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily bais in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world and may they come home safe.”

His fifth nomination proved to be the charm for Jeff Bridges, who was hailed as best actor at the for his performance as a weary country singer in “Crazy Heart.”

The son of the late actors Lloyd Bridges and Dorothy Dean Bridges, he held his Oscar high as his peers rewarded him with a standing ovation. “Mom and Dad, yeah, look,” he exclaimed, saying, “Thank you, mom and dad, for turning me on to this groovy profession. Oh, my mom and dad loved show biz so much. … I feel an extension of that. This is honoring them as much as it’s honoring me.”

By contrast, Sandra Bullock scored on her first nomination. Her turn in “The Blind Side” as a suburban mom who takes an interest in a homeless black student proved a hit with both the public and the Academy, who bestowed its best actress award on her.

“Did I really earn this, or did I just wear you down?” Bullock joked before turning more serious, offering lavish praise to her fellow nominees, acknowledging Leigh Anne Tuohy, whom she plays in the film and who was in the audience.

As the awards show hit its halfway mark Sunday night, Mo’Nique, the comedian who turned dramatic actress in “Precious,” was invited to the stage to accept the award as best supporting actress.

Her fierce performance as an abusive mother made her only the fourth black actress to win in the category — the first went to Hattie McDaniel for 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” — and Mo’Nique paid tribute to her predecessor by wearing gardenias in her hair.

A number of awards season commentators had criticized the actress for her refusal to visit every stop on the Oscar campaign trail, but she addressed that in her acceptance by thanking the Academy “for showing it can be about the performance and not the politics.”

She went on to acknowledge McDaniel “for enduring all that she had to so I would not have to.” And she concluded with a special word of thanks to her husband, Sidney, “for showing me that sometimes you have to forgo doing what’s popular in order to do what’s right.”

Christoph Waltz picked up the night’s first trophy when he was named best supporting actor for his performance as a cruelly seductive Nazi in “Inglourious Basterds.”

The Austrian-born actor used his moment in the spotlight to pay tribute to the movie’s director, Quentin Tarantino, saying, “With his unorthodox methods of navigation, this fearless explorer took this ship … and brought it in with flying colors, and that’s why I’m here.”

Tarantino, though, was denied the best original screenplay Oscar, which went to Mark Boal for “The Hurt Locker.”

“You honor me and humble me with this,” Boal said. Returning as a reporter from Iraq, he had an idea for a movie. But “the result wildly exceeded my expectations,” he said — a fact he attributed to the talent of director Kathryn Bigelow. The writer also offered a word for the troops, present and past, as well as his father, who passed away a month ago.

Geoffrey Fletcher earned the award for best adapted screenplay for “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.” In his emotional thank-you, he drew a blank, forgetting to mention the author, but did say, “This is for everybody who works on a dream every day — precious boys and girls everywhere.”

Pixar’s “Up” rose aloft with the prize for best animated feature film.

Its director Pete Docter thanked Pixar and Disney “for believing in this oddball film,” the tale of an old man who hitches his home to a flotilla of balloons and just floats away. “The heart of it came from home,” he added as he dedicated the award to “our families.”

The lilting music for “Up” also translated into a best score Oscar for Michael Giacchino. Recalling that when he first began making home movies, his parents never told him that what he was doing was a waste of time, the composer addressed his remarks to “kid out there who do not have a support system,” telling them “if you want to be creative, go out there and do it. It is not a waste of time.”

“Avatar” became the first 3D movie to be honored for its cinematography when that award went to the movie’s Mauro Fiore. “I want to thank the visionary Jim Cameron for the amazing vision of the film,” the Italian-born cinematographer said.

The technologically ground-breaking movie also claimed the Oscar for best visual effects.

The husband-and-wife team of Bob Murawksi and Chris Innis shared in the Oscar for best editing for their work on “The Hurt Locker.” Said Murawski, “Thank you to the Academy for giving the award to this movie that was made without compromise.”

Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett took home best song honors with their country-flavored tune “The Weary Kind” from “Crazy Heart.”

Ben Stiller, in an “Avatar” get-up, handed out the Oscar for best makeup, which went to Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow for “Star Trek.”

“We thank (producer-director) J.J. Abrams,” Hall said. “Your vision inspired us, your energy kept us going, and your insistence on perfection brought us here.”

The rain forests of Pandora translated into an art direction win for “Avatar,” which went to art directors Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg and set decorator Kim Sinclair.

Stromberg delivered an emotional acceptance, saying, “You know, 13 years ago, the doctors told me I wasn’t going to survive, and I thought that this dream of standing here would never come true. And here we are.”

Sandy Powell picked up her third Oscar for the regal costumes in “The Young Victoria.”

“Wow, I already have two of these, so I’m feeling greedy,” she said. She used the opportunity to pay tribute to her fellow costume designers who work in contemporary films and “don’t do movies about dead monarchs or glittery musicals.” They deserve prizes, too, she suggested, though “I’m going to take it home tonight.”

Paul N.J. Ottoson took the first of the two sound awards when “The Hurt Locker” won for best sound editing. He was immediately called back to the stage when he won, along with Ray Beckett, the sound mixing award for “Locker.”

Best feature documentary honors went to “The Cove,” which exposes the exploitation and slaughter of dolphins.

The Argentinean film “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” directed by Juan Joese Campanella and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, emerged as the winner in the foreign-language film category, beating out better-known titles like France’s “A Prophet” (Un Prophete) and Germany’s “The White Ribbon.”

“Logorama,” a satire of brand names run amok, captured the prize for best animated short, beating out the presumed frontrunner, Nick Park’s Wallace & Gromit tale, “A Matter of Loaf and Death.”

The film’s producer Nicolas Schmerkin joked, “I have to thank the 3,000 non-official sponsors that appear in the film. And I have to assure them that no logos were harmed in the making of the project.”

The documentary short prize went to “Music by Prudence,” the portrait of a seriously handicapped Kenyan woman who, through singing, transcends her situation.

“The New Tenants” followed on its heels as the winner of the live-action short prize.

Billed as a showdown between the mega-blockbuster “Avatar” and the micro-grossing “The Hurt Locker,” this year’s Oscar broadcast, which ABC is airing live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, is looking to rope in the widest possible audience thanks to the fact that the Academy nominated 10 movies — including crowd-pleasers such as “Up,” “The Blind Side” and “District 9″ — for best picture for the first time since 1943.

As if to emphasize the star power on hand, the show, produced by Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman, opened with all 10 nominees for best actor and best actress walking out on stage together.

Neil Patrick Harris then kicked off the proceedings by leading a kickline of chorus boys and girls, who in turn gave way to a Ziegfield-like entrance by the night’s hosts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, who descended from the rafters.

The full list of nominees (winners in bold):

Best picture
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

Best actor
Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”

Best actress
Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”

Best supporting actor
Matt Damon, “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”

Best supporting actress
Penelope Cruz, “Nine”
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal, “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique, “Precious”

Best director
James Cameron, “Avatar”
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Lee Daniels, “Precious”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”

Best foreign-language film
“Ajami,” Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow,” Peru
“Un Prophete,” France
“The White Ribbon,” Germany

Best adapted screenplay
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, “District 9″
Nick Hornby, “An Education”
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, “In the Loop”
Geoffrey Fletcher, “Precious”
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”

Best original screenplay
Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, “The Messenger”
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “A Serious Man”
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter and Tom McCarthy, “Up”

Best animated feature film
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up”

Best art direction
“Avatar”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine” “Sherlock Holmes”
“The Young Victoria”

Best cinematography
“Avatar”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The White Ribbon”

Best sound mixing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Best sound editing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Up”

Best original score
“Avatar,” James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker,” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes,” Hans Zimmer
“Up,” Michael Giacchino

Best original song
“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog,” Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog,” Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36,” Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from “Nine,” Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart,” Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Best costume design
“Bright Star”
“Coco Before Chanel”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“The Young Victoria”

Best documentary feature
“Burma VJ”
“The Cove”
“Food, Inc.”
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
“Which Way Home”

Best documentary short
“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner”
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant”
“Music by Prudence”
“Rabbit a la Berlin”

Best film editing
“Avatar”
“District 9″
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious”

Best makeup
“Il Divo”
“Star Trek”
“The Young Victoria”

Best animated short film
“French Roast”
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)”
“Logorama”
“A Matter of Loaf and Death”

Best live-action short film
“The Door”
“Instead of Abracadabra”
“Kavi”
“Miracle Fish”
“The New Tenants”

Best visual effects
“Avatar”
“District 9″
“Star Trek”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

But for gamblers on the hunt for more exciting action, there’s an Irish company that is taking some truly bizarre bets centered on the Oscar ceremony.

Think the winner for best actress will walk onstage with toilet paper stuck to her shoe? That bet will get you 50 bucks for every dollar wagered. Think there will be a streaker during the show, like the famous one who dashed by David Niven in 1974? That’s a 100-1 shot this year.

The real-money bets are being placed at PaddyPower.com, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange. But, alas, it does not take bets from U.S. residents.

Here are some other weird bets people are making there:

– At 3-1 odds, will the best-actor winner cry visible tears during his acceptance speech?

– At 10-1, will any actor mention Tiger Woods by name during his or her acceptance speech?

– At 12-1, will any of the four major winners for acting beat the record for longest acceptance speech? (That record, by the way, is 5 minutes and 30 seconds, according to PaddyPower.)

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The feds signaled in Wednesday’s Throne Speech, which triggers a new sitting of the House of Commons in Ottawa, that it will open the floodgates to more foreign ownership of Canada’s communications industry.

“Our government will open Canada’s doors further to venture capital and to foreign investment in key sectors, including the satellite and telecommunications industries, giving Canadian firms access to the funds and expertise they need,” the speech, read by Governor General Michaelle Jean, said.

Legislative changes to Canada’s Telecommunications Act to allow foreign companies to purchase controlling stakes in media groups like Rogers Communications, Bell Canada and Telus Corp. is expected to unleash a slew of eventual acquisitions of local broadcasters.

“If Rogers, Telus and Bell are bought by foreign interests, we lose control not only of our telecom/satellite industries, but we’re one small step away from foreigners owning our broadcasting/media industry,” ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell warned after the Throne Speech was delivered.

Current legislation calls for 80% Canadian voting control of domestic media assets.

Cultural nationalists contend stringent foreign ownership rules protect Canadian broadcasters and other homegrown media from domination by Hollywood and other foreign interests.

Canadian cable operators and broadcasters, many family controlled, have long complained to Ottawa that existing foreign ownership rules impede their efforts to raise growth capital.

Ottawa telegraphed its commitment to relax and possibly scrap foreign ownership rules in November by overturning a CRTC regulatory ruling and allowing upstart mobile phone operator Globalive to enter the Canadian market, even though it is Egyptian-owned and controlled.

Ian Morrison, a spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, which represents TV viewers, said the sale of telecom and satellite companies to foreigners will inevitably lead to local cable operators and broadcasters similarly selling out to the highest bidders as they demand equal treatment in national legislation.

“Broadcasters will follow suit and several generations of hard work to maintain our cultural sovereignty through Canadian ownership and control of broadcasting will be lost,” Morrison argued.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The 78-year-old Montreal-born Shatner will be in Banff, Alta., to receive the festival’s lifetime achievement award in June, to lead a master class and to discuss his career, organizers announced in a statement.

Calling Shatner “one of the most celebrated pop-culture icons in the 21st century,” festival executive director Peter Vamos said the actor’s ability “to keep pace with the times, leverage the latest industry and technology trends, and inject humour every step of the way have been the keys to an unbelievably successful, decades-long career.”

Seen Sunday performing a tongue-in-cheek ode to Canada during the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Shatner’s upcoming projects include starring in a TV pilot based on the popular Twitter microblog Shit My Dad Says.

His resumé spans television (Star Trek, T.J. Hooker, Boston Legal, 3rd Rock from the Sun), theatre (Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Broadway), film (The Brothers Karamazov, The Intruder, Star Trek, Miss Congeniality) as well a host of notable spoken word performances.

Source: CBC

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on Tuesday gave domestic broadcaster Rogers Broadcasting the go-ahead to launch a digital cable sports channel featuring NHL hockey games, Major League Baseball games and European soccer and other professional sporting events.

Rogers’ existing cable sports channel, Rogers SportsNet, was part of the Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium that broke TV viewership records here with its broadcast of the Vancouver Games.

The broadcast license for Rogers’ latest sports channel, to run to August 31, 2016, stipulates 60% of the broadcast day and at least 50% of the evening broadcast period must comprise Canadian programming.

That condition will hardly bother Rogers, Canada’s largest mobile phone and cable company, whose SportsNet cable channel already features Toronto Maple Leafs hockey games.

And Rogers owns and operates the Toronto Blue Jays MLB club, and OLN, the outdoor lifestyle channel that features professional rodeo events and Tour de France races.

The CRTC in recent years has licensed a number of new cable sport channels, including the NHL Network and Raptors TV, as Canadians remain avid TV sports fans.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. received approval to launch CBC Sports Plus, its own cable channel devoted to professional and amateur sports.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Switzer, head of Canadian broadcaster Chum Ltd. until it was acquired by Rogers Media in 2007, has applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a broadcast license to operate two action-adventure-themed niche channels, Velocity and Adventure.

Switzer, with backing from former THINKFilm founder Jeff Sackman and former Salter Street executive Catherine Tait, is also looking for two additional broadcast licenses for the female-skewing romance services Kiss and The Love Channel.

The CRTC will consider the license applications in April.

Switzer’s 2007 exit from Chum came at the height of Canadian industry consolidation where sector leaders Canwest Global Communications Corp., CTVglobemedia and Rogers Media were buying up TV assets as others with less tolerance for risk in an increasingly digital environment looked to cash out.

Now the former TV execs are using their war chests to back existing companies or start-ups as angel or active investors.

“Here’s an interesting group of guys who understand the content business and do make gut bets,” said Nathan Gunn, CEO of social media game producer Social Game Universe, which recently landed financing from industry veterans like U2 concert promoter Michael Cohl, former Nelvana co-founder Clive Smith, Standard Radio’s Gary Slaight and Score Media’s John Levy.

Separately, Moses Znaimer, another former Chum executive, recently purchased the spiritual cable channel VisionTV to get back into broadcasting.

Jay Switzer was part of another syndicate deal that saw former Alliance Atlantis Communications distribution chief Ted Riley and Gary Slaight, who sold Standard Radio to Astral Media in 2008, jointly invest in GlassBox TV, a cross-platform broadcaster.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter