About That Time Paul Rudd Met President Obama

“He asked about my character in How Do You Know, and I told him I’m a guy who gets into some hot water, and though his intentions are good he gets indicted by the government for possible violations. And Obama says, ‘Oh, so you’re playing a congressman.’ And I was like, ‘No, actually I work for my dad in this corporation.’ I’m trying to explain, and Obama interrupts me and says, ‘It was a joke.’ I just felt so stupid. Of course it was a joke, and it’s actually a pretty good one. I’m normally pretty good at catching them. If you’re not the fucking President of the United States, I can usually identify when you’re joking.” Now you know. [Playboy]

Toronto market's for mavens

Photos, for example "Burning Guy," need to be cleverly looked nowadays. Using the Toronto Film Festival kicking into high gear, retailers are operating among much more difficult turf than recently.InchUnderstanding from the purchasers may be the new game," notes Andy Billings, producer of Aussie drama "Burning Guy," which in fact had its world premiere Saturday evening in the festival.Billings first contacted festival developers in April with "Burning Guy," dedicated to an British chef, described by Matthew Goode, who's coping with complicated family issues. He'd wished a TIFF slot would create the correct quantity of buzz for any purchase when the pic, that CAA is repping domestic privileges, was tested."Five several weeks later, you realize lots of work went into setting it up ready," he stated.But simply because many new purchasers also represent new distribution platforms does not mean they are ingenues, Billings stated."So my task like a producer would be to deliver films towards the market it does not know yet it wants," Billings added. "It needs to actually cover something which moviegoers haven't seen before -- so basically, you are developing a brand-new brand for that buyer."Initially, it might appear that retailers possess the upper hands, with the existence of new purchasers -- Open Road, Relativity, FilmDistrict, CBS Films -- together with the typical variety of purchasers for example Fox Searchlight, the Weinstein Co., Focus, The new sony Pictures Classics, Lionsgate and Summit at the fest. Add new avenues of exploitation via digital and also the picture gets to be more complicated for retailers.The Weinstein Co. introduced a push in to the digital space 2 days prior to the festival began: Tom Quinn and Jason Janego can create a brand new TWC label to create new films along with other niche entertainment to audiences concurrently across multiple digital and traditional platforms. "It's part-and-parcel for retailers to stay in digital realm, that is altering on an hourly basis,Inch notes veteran professional Mark Gill, who spent a long time using the Weinsteins at Miramax and was lately installed as leader of Millennium Films."If you are selling, it takes a lot more study of who desires what," he notes. "There's a lot stratification one of the purchasers, so determining what all of them wants could be elusive since everybody has their niche. There is no such factor like a film that may mix to all of the purchasers."Kevin Kasha, professional Vice president of worldwide purchases and co-productions for Anchor Bay Entertainment, concurs. Anchor Bay, that has handled 70 game titles in 3 years, thinks that retailers are facing an even more complex task."The company was previously about creating $ 1, and today it comes down to making 10 dimes due to all types of digital platforms," Kasha notes. "It was once, 'Do we love to the film or don't we love to it?' We now have to understand who's it for."Anchor Bay designed a first-day buy from the U.S. privileges to "13," Gela Babluani's remake of his 2005 thriller "13 Tzameti." Stars include Mike Riley, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Ray Winstone, Alexander Skarsgard, Michael Shannon, Ben Gazzara, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Mickey Rourke and Jason Statham."I love to believe that we are prudently aggressive since you need to be careful by what we call festival helium -- meaning getting scratchy fingers like a buyer," Kasha stated. "You need to be ready for telephone calls from purchasers at 3 a.m. asking, 'Are you in or are you currently out?'"Bill Bromley, chief purchases officer for Image Entertainment, has reduced his purchasing recently as his label has scaly back releases to pay attention to more identifiable game titles. "I dispise to express this, but it's not hard to spread something that doesn't work in writing," he notes. "Retailers tend to be more educated and arriving better prepared, but they are still attempting to find out what are you doing while we are searching for very specific films that require a primary home. Discussions are much more complicated for many reasons -- because we are rivaling the galleries, filmmakers still would like to get a theatrical release and participants still desire a window prior to the VOD release."About the second day's TIFF, Image acquired U.S. privileges to football drama "Everything Break Apart,Inch starring Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. Alex Walton, prexy of worldwide sales and distribution at Exclusive Films, notes, "Like this past year, nobody understood -- it had not been likely to be as lively you have a large amount of U.S. indies who may have had an excellent start." Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Happy 45th Birthday, Adam Sandler! What's His Finest Onscreen Moment?

Forty-five years ago today, a baby boy named Adam Richard Sandler was born to an electrical engineer and a nursery school teacher in Brooklyn. After breaking big on Saturday Night Live at the age of 24, Sandler would go on to become one of the most successful actor-comedians of our generation and an even more successful movie producer. In spite of the scathing reviews that his films generate, we still love him as an entertainer, laugh maker and occasionally dramatic actor. So gather around the cake, sing-squawk a few off-key bars of “Happy Birthday” and let’s name Sandler’s finest onscreen moment. So many movies to choose from! Although the Saturday Night Live alum has had some funny — adorable even — moments in legitimate comedies like Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer, showed some dramatic range in Spanglish and Reign Over Me, and you know, successfully fit into a pair of tight jean shorts in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, I think his finest moment onscreen occurred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2002 drama Punch-Drunk Love. In an unlikely turn for Sandler, the actor provided depth, darkness and sadness as Barry Egan, a lonely, harmonium-tapping executive who flies into occasionally violent bouts of rage. In the following [NSFW] scene, watch as Sandler’s character is pushed to his limit after being scammed by a phone-sex company and demands to speak with a supervisor (Philip Seymour Hoffman). For this role, Sandler earned his first and only Golden Globe nomination. Now, what do you consider to be Sandler’s finest onscreen moment?

NRK, TSR buy 'Jews and Muslims'

BIARRITZ -- French shingle Phares et Balises has inked pre-sales handles Norway's NRK and Switzerland's TSR on four-part docu series "Jews and Muslims: To Date, So Close" at TVFI's Rendez-Vous mart in Biarritz. The organization can also be in discussions with purchasers from Sweden, The other agents and The country.The Pounds 1.7 million ($2.3 million) skein, which blends 2D watercolor animation with archive material, was commissioned by Franco-German internet Arte. Directed by Karim Miske, who formerly helmed "Muslims in France," it had been composed through the helmer with Sylvie Grunberg-Jezequel, an old Arte France professional, and historian Emmanuel Blanchard.Docu compares the relationship between Jews and Muslims in the seventh century up to the current day, and takes the crowd to Andalusia, Bagdad, Cairo, Istanbul, Palestine and Israel.It offers interviews with European and American historians, authors and humorists.The concept is to possess a historic approach as opposed to a polemical one, and narrate the film within an engaging and aesthetically appealing way," stated Phares et Balises' topper of worldwide development Yasmine Benkiran.The animation is produced by Thomas Azuelos, who highlighted the animated film "Chienne d'histoire," which won the video clip award in Cannes this past year. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

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Latest Clip From 'The Thing' Reminds Us Why We Do Not Defrost Aliens (VIDEO)

Set 72 hours prior to the occasions of John Carpenter's 1982 remake (also entitled 'The Thing'), the approaching horror thriller 'The Thing' follows an Arctic scientific team that stumbles upon a crashed alien ship, accidentally energizes the creature hidden inside, after which discovers hard method in which the alien is really a shape-shifting killing machine. All inside a day's work. In the end have no idea the very first factor about Arctic research (or the way you would react after this type of find), we have seen enough horror movies to understand that you simply let sleeping monsters lie. As you can tell within the latest clip from MTV, though, these researchers are clearly this is not on the amount. Switch off your blowtorches and click on through for that latest creepy clip from 'The Factor.' Mind to MTV to see what Mary Elizabeth Winstead needed to say concerning the film and search for 'The Thing' in theaters on March. 14. How can you think the 2011 prequel will rival the 1982 remake? [via MTV] Photo thanks to Universal Pictures.

Gary Oldman Wants to Direct Colin Firth in His Next Film

Two great Brits that go great together: Fresh off a promotional stint for their spy thriller 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,' Gary Oldman is planning to direct co-star Colin Firth in his next film. "I can't say what it is, but it's a remake," Oldman told Esquire magazine, "and when I worked with Colin I thought: here's the guy to do it with." We can't imagine what it could be, although we're going to speculate it's something classically British. Oldman made his directorial debut with the grim, semi-autobiographical 'Nil by Mouth' in 1997 and this unnamed remake would be only his second time going behind the camera. ''Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,' which is getting fantastic reviews, by the way, is also a remake, of course. It was previously filmed for television with Alec Guinness in the role of retired spy George Smiley. "We're as different as chalk and cheese," Oldman said of filling the late Guinness's shoes," but I'm still playing Smiley, same text, pretty much. That was in the back of my head a bit, the ghost of Sir Alec, knowing that you're not going to completely reinterpret." What movie do you think Oldman has in mind to remake? [Via Daily Mail] image courtesy of WireImage

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Japanese TV Host's Resignation Shines Light on Showbiz Mob Ties

TOKYO -- The sudden retirement of Shinsuke Shimada, one of Japanese TV's biggest stars, on Aug. 24 after links to a boss in the largest yakuza gang were exposed is bringing attention to the long and deep ties between organized crime and showbiz. 'Various parts of society have made active efforts to eradicate links with crime syndicates, but the entertainment world is yet to follow suit," opined an Aug. 30 article in the Daily Yomiuri, the English edition of Japan's, and the world's, biggest newspaper by circulation. Police are now asking for an explanation of the underworld ties from Shimada's powerful agency, Yoshimoto Kogyo, which has been rapidly expanding overseas in recent years, signing deals from Hollywood to Shanghai. Shimada hosted no fewer than six weekly TV shows on some of Japan's biggest networks until it emerged that a weekly magazine was about to run an article detailing his friendship with Hirofumi Hashimoto, head of the Kyokushin-Rengo, a gang affiliated to the huge Yamaguchi-gumi. Shimada's troubles started 10 years back when, during a variety TV show, he compared the chrysanthemum-shaped symbol of an ultra-nationalist group to a certain nether region body part. With the chrysanthemum also being the symbol of the Japanese imperial family, the extreme right-wingers were not amused. They sent sound trucks blaring out abuse about Shimada -- a standard modus operandi of Japanese nationalist groups --- to his house, the offices of Yoshimoto Kogyo and the TV station in Osaka. Using an ex-world boxing champion with gangster links as an intermediary, Shimada turned to the gang boss to help fix his noisy problem with the ultra-rightists, many of whom have close ties to the yakuza. The two remained friends and exchanged text messages, and the gangster frequented a restaurant run by Shimada. Cavorting with gangsters may have gone to Shimada's head, and in 2004 he beat up a female employee of Yoshimoto Kogyo who he felt had failed to greet him with proper respect. He was fined 300,000 yen ($3,750) by an Osaka court; the woman later won 10 million yen ($130.000) in a civil case against Shimada and the agency. The openness with which Japan's yakuza gangs have been permitted to operate in Japan is often difficult for Westerners to comprehend. Membership of the self-styled "chivalrous organizations" is not illegal: They have registered offices and can be found in the phone book. The Yamaguchi-gumi gang federation in which Shimada's tattooed acquaintance was an underboss is estimated to have around 40,000 members, accounting for about half of Japan's yakuza. Gangsters from another Yamaguchi-gumi group, the Goto-gumi, slashed the face of renowned director Juzo Itami in 1992, angry at the depiction of the yakuza as clowns and bullies in his film Minbo no Onna (Minbo is the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion). When the director jumped to his death five years later, many suspect the yakuza provided a helping hand. In 2007, in an episode that could have been written for a comedy crime film, a detective in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was downloading porn onto his computer when he accidentally shared a gigabyte of police files. The files listed front companies for the Yamaguchi-gumi and Goto-gumi and included the name ofBurning Productions, one of Japan's major talent agencies. Although the files spread around the Internet like wildfire, no mainstream media organization -- most of which have major interests in TV and movie production -- named the agency in their reports of the story. "Everybody in the business knows about Burning, it's a kind of open secret," said an industry source who asked not to be identified. Ironically, a penchant for mixing with stars and attracting excessive media attention led to the downfall of Tadamasa Goto, the leader of the Goto-gumi. Following a celebrity-studded birthday celebration and news that Goto had done a deal with the FBI to get a liver transplant at UCLA Hospital in California, he was driven out of the Yamaguchi-gumi. Goto has now supposedly become a Buddhist priest, but there are rumors that it was he who leaked the information to the media about Shimada's links to the underworld. Goto felt that Shimada had been disrespectful to him in the past and described the TV host as a "chimpira" (low-level punk) in his autobiography. In recent years, the National Police Agency, under the leadership of Takaharu Ando, has finally made serious attempts to curtail the power of the yakuza. "We want them to disappear from public society,"Ando told journalists in Tokyo last year after a meeting of police chiefs from across Japan that he called to discuss anti-gang strategies. In October, a new law banning all interaction with gangs comes into effect, and this may have prompted Yoshimoto Kogyo, Shimada's agency, to force his resignation, despite the big financial hit it will take from his departure. The agency, Japan's biggest, was taken over in 2009 by a consortium of all the major TV networks. "One of the reasons for the takeover may have been an attempt to cut out the influence of the yakuza, which has long been rumored to have links with company," said a Yoshimoto Kogyo staffer. Related Topics International Asia

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