Box to Box, the production company behind Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive To Survive, has cornered the sports docuseries market with its breakout docuseries and similar projects in the world of golf, tennis, cycling and rugby.
The company, founded by Amy and Senna producer James Gay-Rees and Paul Martin, who produced HBO’s Maradona, has also made a number of music documentaries including Apple’s 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything.
But it has also been dabbling in new areas including corporate true-crime series with Apple’s Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn and is looking at other weird and wonderful stories for its documentary slate as well as a new push into scripted and a potential investment drive.
“We looked at sport as an area, particularly in the premium space, that felt underserved,” Martin told Deadline. “You had ESPN, which did 30 for 30 and HBO doing Hard Knocks once a year.
The company, founded by Amy and Senna producer James Gay-Rees and Paul Martin, who produced HBO’s Maradona, has also made a number of music documentaries including Apple’s 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything.
But it has also been dabbling in new areas including corporate true-crime series with Apple’s Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn and is looking at other weird and wonderful stories for its documentary slate as well as a new push into scripted and a potential investment drive.
“We looked at sport as an area, particularly in the premium space, that felt underserved,” Martin told Deadline. “You had ESPN, which did 30 for 30 and HBO doing Hard Knocks once a year.
- 9/20/2023
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Religion of Sports, the Emmy Award-winning sports media company founded by director and producer Gotham Chopra, American football legend and Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, has acquired Jiva Maya, a U.K.-based production company formed in 2020 by writer and director Manish Pandey.
The deal marks the second company that was brought underneath the Ros umbrella, following the acquisition of Main Event Media earlier this year.
The combined company plans to significantly expand its work in global football, cricket, and motorsport, especially Formula 1, for which Pandey is known.
“Jiva Maya allows us to plant a flag in Europe for Ros, engaging a new cadre of creators, producers and distribution networks,” said Ameeth Sankaran, CEO of Religion of Sports.
“Manish and his team have enabled us to do that in a distinct and unique way that will allow us to grow with the...
The deal marks the second company that was brought underneath the Ros umbrella, following the acquisition of Main Event Media earlier this year.
The combined company plans to significantly expand its work in global football, cricket, and motorsport, especially Formula 1, for which Pandey is known.
“Jiva Maya allows us to plant a flag in Europe for Ros, engaging a new cadre of creators, producers and distribution networks,” said Ameeth Sankaran, CEO of Religion of Sports.
“Manish and his team have enabled us to do that in a distinct and unique way that will allow us to grow with the...
- 4/18/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Bernie Ecclestone has slammed Formula 1 documentaries currently on the market and said audiences will prefer the “reality” of his upcoming series Lucky!, which Deadline can reveal has added a trio of broadcast and streaming partners.
Dazn, Discovery+ and Star+/ESPN Latin America have boarded the eight-part program, which comes from Senna producer Manish Pandey and tells the story of the development of Formula 1 through the eyes of the nonagenarian media mogul. It’s set to launch this December following a production process that began during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, and its producers have spent the past few months successfully shopping it directly to buyers.
Global sports streamer Dazn acquired rights in Japan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Italy, while Discovery+ grabbed rights in the UK and Ireland. Disney-owned ESPN LatAm acquired rights for its Star+ streaming service and ESPN channels in the region. Other deals are known to be close to completion.
Dazn, Discovery+ and Star+/ESPN Latin America have boarded the eight-part program, which comes from Senna producer Manish Pandey and tells the story of the development of Formula 1 through the eyes of the nonagenarian media mogul. It’s set to launch this December following a production process that began during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, and its producers have spent the past few months successfully shopping it directly to buyers.
Global sports streamer Dazn acquired rights in Japan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Italy, while Discovery+ grabbed rights in the UK and Ireland. Disney-owned ESPN LatAm acquired rights for its Star+ streaming service and ESPN channels in the region. Other deals are known to be close to completion.
- 10/6/2022
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Keanu Reeves is working on a documentary about Formula One for Disney+, Variety has learned.
The as-yet-untitled four-part docuseries will reportedly focus on Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn, who in 2009 bought the Honda team, renamed it Brawn Gp and took it to two unprecedented championship victories.
Reeves will host the doc and has already been conducting interviews. Among those believed to be on board are former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo, whom Reeves was pictured with last month, and drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. Brawn himself is also set to take part.
All3Media-owned North One Television is understood to be producing the series.
Reeves has long been known as a speed freak with an extensive motorcycle collection. He even founded his own motorcycle manufacturer, Arch Motorcycle, with Gard Hollinger.
Last week, Reeves was pictured at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, U.K. (pictured above), where he...
The as-yet-untitled four-part docuseries will reportedly focus on Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn, who in 2009 bought the Honda team, renamed it Brawn Gp and took it to two unprecedented championship victories.
Reeves will host the doc and has already been conducting interviews. Among those believed to be on board are former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo, whom Reeves was pictured with last month, and drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. Brawn himself is also set to take part.
All3Media-owned North One Television is understood to be producing the series.
Reeves has long been known as a speed freak with an extensive motorcycle collection. He even founded his own motorcycle manufacturer, Arch Motorcycle, with Gard Hollinger.
Last week, Reeves was pictured at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, U.K. (pictured above), where he...
- 7/14/2022
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Bernie Ecclestone has said he would “take a bullet” for Vladimir Putin and called the Russian leader a “first class person,” while criticizing Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. intervention.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain earlier, the 91-year-old former CEO of the Formula One Group, who has previously spent time with Putin, said the Russian leader was doing “something he believed was the right thing for Russia” when invading Ukraine, although he countered “like a lot of business people we make a mistake from time to time.”
Ecclestone has been involved with F1 since the 1950s including revolutionizing its sports rights, and he is currently Chairman Emeritus of the Formula One Group, having stepped down as CEO five years ago.
He went on to criticize Zelensky, the man leading the fight against Putin’s Russian invasion, which took place more than four months ago.
“The other person...
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain earlier, the 91-year-old former CEO of the Formula One Group, who has previously spent time with Putin, said the Russian leader was doing “something he believed was the right thing for Russia” when invading Ukraine, although he countered “like a lot of business people we make a mistake from time to time.”
Ecclestone has been involved with F1 since the 1950s including revolutionizing its sports rights, and he is currently Chairman Emeritus of the Formula One Group, having stepped down as CEO five years ago.
He went on to criticize Zelensky, the man leading the fight against Putin’s Russian invasion, which took place more than four months ago.
“The other person...
- 6/30/2022
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Touching reflections from his family and home movie footage make for an intimate biography of the F1 star, if one that leaves his flaws unexamined
‘I miss him every day, but Michael is here,” says Corinna Schumacher at the end of this Netflix documentary, blinking back tears as she talks about life with her husband since he suffered a devastating brain injury while skiing in 2013. That accident is awkwardly and glaringly unmentioned for most of this nearly two-hour film about his life, though of course you’re watching it all – the green-eyed boy wonder of Formula One, his successes, the rivalries and close shaves – in a brace position, waiting for the tragedy to come. Then, in the final 10 minutes, Corinna and the couple’s children, Gina and Mick (a F1 driver like his dad), speak about their loss.
The film is a collaboration with the Schumachers and massively benefits from...
‘I miss him every day, but Michael is here,” says Corinna Schumacher at the end of this Netflix documentary, blinking back tears as she talks about life with her husband since he suffered a devastating brain injury while skiing in 2013. That accident is awkwardly and glaringly unmentioned for most of this nearly two-hour film about his life, though of course you’re watching it all – the green-eyed boy wonder of Formula One, his successes, the rivalries and close shaves – in a brace position, waiting for the tragedy to come. Then, in the final 10 minutes, Corinna and the couple’s children, Gina and Mick (a F1 driver like his dad), speak about their loss.
The film is a collaboration with the Schumachers and massively benefits from...
- 9/17/2021
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
Streaming
“Schumacher,” a documentary on champion German Formula 1 racing driver Michael Schumacher, will stream on Netflix from Sept. 15. The film follows his journey from his humble beginnings to the top of Formula 1 where he dominated with seven world championship titles and a total of 91 victories.
In addition to his father and his brother Ralf, Schumacher’s wife Corinna and his two children Gina and Mick, by now a Formula 1 driver himself, speak openly for the first time, as do his closest peers and competitors. Among them are Jean Todt, Bernie Ecclestone, Sebastian Vettel, Mika Häkkinen, Damon Hill, Flavio Briatore, David Coulthard, Willi Weber, Luca di Montezemolo, Piero Ferrari, his manager Sabine Kehm.
Benjamin Seikel and Vanessa Nöcker from B|14 Film GmbH produced “Schumacher”. Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns, Vanessa Nöcker and Michael Wech directed the film.
London based Rocket Science is representing sales and distribution of the film worldwide and facilitated the partnership with Netflix.
“Schumacher,” a documentary on champion German Formula 1 racing driver Michael Schumacher, will stream on Netflix from Sept. 15. The film follows his journey from his humble beginnings to the top of Formula 1 where he dominated with seven world championship titles and a total of 91 victories.
In addition to his father and his brother Ralf, Schumacher’s wife Corinna and his two children Gina and Mick, by now a Formula 1 driver himself, speak openly for the first time, as do his closest peers and competitors. Among them are Jean Todt, Bernie Ecclestone, Sebastian Vettel, Mika Häkkinen, Damon Hill, Flavio Briatore, David Coulthard, Willi Weber, Luca di Montezemolo, Piero Ferrari, his manager Sabine Kehm.
Benjamin Seikel and Vanessa Nöcker from B|14 Film GmbH produced “Schumacher”. Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns, Vanessa Nöcker and Michael Wech directed the film.
London based Rocket Science is representing sales and distribution of the film worldwide and facilitated the partnership with Netflix.
- 7/30/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix has picked up global rights to Schumacher, a feature documentary about Formula One legend Michael Schumacher, and will release on September 15.
The streamer struck the deal with sales rep Rocket Science. Project comes from Benjamin Seikel and Vanessa Nöcker from B|14 Film GmbH; directors are Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns, Vanessa Nöcker and Michael Wech.
Schumacher features interviews with the driver’s family, including his wife, father and brother, as well as various prominent figures of the motorsport such as Jean Todt, Bernie Ecclestone, Sebastian Vettel, Mika Häkkinen, Damon Hill, Flavio Briatore and David Coulthard. The filmmakers also had access to never-before-seen archive material.
After a glittering career that culminated in him being widely seen as the greatest Formula One driver of all time following 91 race victories and seven world championships, Schumacher suffered a severe brain injury after a skiing accident in 2013 and has since been in recovery.
The timing of the...
The streamer struck the deal with sales rep Rocket Science. Project comes from Benjamin Seikel and Vanessa Nöcker from B|14 Film GmbH; directors are Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns, Vanessa Nöcker and Michael Wech.
Schumacher features interviews with the driver’s family, including his wife, father and brother, as well as various prominent figures of the motorsport such as Jean Todt, Bernie Ecclestone, Sebastian Vettel, Mika Häkkinen, Damon Hill, Flavio Briatore and David Coulthard. The filmmakers also had access to never-before-seen archive material.
After a glittering career that culminated in him being widely seen as the greatest Formula One driver of all time following 91 race victories and seven world championships, Schumacher suffered a severe brain injury after a skiing accident in 2013 and has since been in recovery.
The timing of the...
- 7/30/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
To celebrate the release of Michael Shevloff’s documentary, Mosley: It’s Complicated, Miracle Comms are delighted to offer three copies of the DVD to giveaway.
Mosley: It’s Complicated is a no-holds-barred study of one of the most successful yet controversial figures in motorsport, Max Mosley. Born under the dark shadow of his infamous fascist father Oswald Mosley, Max has fought his entire life to make his own mark. First in the 1970s as the owner of March, the upstart underdog Formula One race-winning team, then with friend and fellow team owner Bernie Ecclestone, Mosley wrestled control of Formula One from the Fia leading to F1’s most lucrative and popular heyday. Mosley himself went on to preside over the Fia striving to improve driver safety following the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in one weekend in 1994.
Denied his political ambition due to the stigma of his father’s legacy,...
Mosley: It’s Complicated is a no-holds-barred study of one of the most successful yet controversial figures in motorsport, Max Mosley. Born under the dark shadow of his infamous fascist father Oswald Mosley, Max has fought his entire life to make his own mark. First in the 1970s as the owner of March, the upstart underdog Formula One race-winning team, then with friend and fellow team owner Bernie Ecclestone, Mosley wrestled control of Formula One from the Fia leading to F1’s most lucrative and popular heyday. Mosley himself went on to preside over the Fia striving to improve driver safety following the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in one weekend in 1994.
Denied his political ambition due to the stigma of his father’s legacy,...
- 7/22/2021
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The life and times of Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is the subject of “Lucky!,” an eight-part documentary series by Manish Pandey, writer/executive producer of BAFTA-winning documentary “Senna.”
Pandey has been given exclusive rights by Ecclestone, who built the Formula 1 franchise, and has also been granted unprecedented access to tens of thousands of hours of archival footage from Formula 1 management.
Ecclestone, now 90, was extensively filmed at his home in Gstaad during the Covid-19 lockdown, revealing his life story and the story of the birth, growth and success of Formula 1.
“Bernie has been able to reflect, not just on his days as one of the greatest sporting impresarios of all time, but also on his life. In his 90 years, he has travelled the world and met everyone who is anyone, yet he remains incredibly personable and immensely funny. It is a joy to tell his extraordinary story, in full, for the first time,...
Pandey has been given exclusive rights by Ecclestone, who built the Formula 1 franchise, and has also been granted unprecedented access to tens of thousands of hours of archival footage from Formula 1 management.
Ecclestone, now 90, was extensively filmed at his home in Gstaad during the Covid-19 lockdown, revealing his life story and the story of the birth, growth and success of Formula 1.
“Bernie has been able to reflect, not just on his days as one of the greatest sporting impresarios of all time, but also on his life. In his 90 years, he has travelled the world and met everyone who is anyone, yet he remains incredibly personable and immensely funny. It is a joy to tell his extraordinary story, in full, for the first time,...
- 6/29/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Former Formula One champ Damon Hill is the subject of a new documentary from Alex Holmes, director of BAFTA-nominated doc biopic Maiden.
The feature will explore the story of how Damon Hill overcame the tragic death of his father, Formula One icon Graham Hill, and set himself the challenge of becoming world champion in one of the world’s fastest and most dangerous sports. It will chart a son’s life-long search to understand his father set against the backdrop of two contrasting eras of the sport, and how Damon wrestled with his father’s legacy.
With the support of Damon Hill, and the Hill Estate, the filmmakers will use Hill’s intimate family archive as well as archives featuring the glamorous but highly dangerous era of 1960s motorsport and the intense on track rivalries of 1990s Formula One icons Schumacher, Senna and Prost.
Production is due to start later this year.
The feature will explore the story of how Damon Hill overcame the tragic death of his father, Formula One icon Graham Hill, and set himself the challenge of becoming world champion in one of the world’s fastest and most dangerous sports. It will chart a son’s life-long search to understand his father set against the backdrop of two contrasting eras of the sport, and how Damon wrestled with his father’s legacy.
With the support of Damon Hill, and the Hill Estate, the filmmakers will use Hill’s intimate family archive as well as archives featuring the glamorous but highly dangerous era of 1960s motorsport and the intense on track rivalries of 1990s Formula One icons Schumacher, Senna and Prost.
Production is due to start later this year.
- 6/9/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Dazzler has debuted a new trailer for the documentary of the legendary Formula One racer Jack Brabham, which is getting a Blu-ray, DVD and Digital release on the 14th of June.
‘Brabham’ reveals the making of an icon, the forgotten godfather of modern Formula One racing, Sir Jack Brabham.
Exposing the media’s role in creating sporting myths, Brabham tells a “David and Goliath” tale of an Australian hero pitted against the giants of Ferrari, Lotus and Maserati. Jack Brabham remains the only person to have won the F1 Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships in his own car.
Greatness, however, comes at a cost – the strain between Jack and his youngest son David portrays two generations of men determined to define themselves on their own terms. The challenges of family legacy and the determination to see the Brabham name reborn are key drivers to this dynastic drama, as the...
‘Brabham’ reveals the making of an icon, the forgotten godfather of modern Formula One racing, Sir Jack Brabham.
Exposing the media’s role in creating sporting myths, Brabham tells a “David and Goliath” tale of an Australian hero pitted against the giants of Ferrari, Lotus and Maserati. Jack Brabham remains the only person to have won the F1 Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships in his own car.
Greatness, however, comes at a cost – the strain between Jack and his youngest son David portrays two generations of men determined to define themselves on their own terms. The challenges of family legacy and the determination to see the Brabham name reborn are key drivers to this dynastic drama, as the...
- 5/25/2021
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
London, May 24 (Ians) Max Mosley, the former president of motorsports' world governing body Fia, has died aged 81.
Mosley became Fia president in 1993 after serving in previous administrative roles in motorsport, including Formula One. He served three terms as president before standing down in 2009.
Former Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone confirmed the news, reports Dpa.
"Max was like family to me. We were like brothers. I am pleased in a way because he suffered for too long," Ecclestone said.
Mosley, who had been suffering from cancer, experienced a family tragedy in 2009 when his son Alexander died aged 39. The coroner ruled Alexander's death was due to non-dependent drug abuse.
His love for motor racing began in his youth and he was involved in Formula 2 for Brabham and Lotus before retiring in 1969.
He founded a car manufacturing company, March Engineering, and oversaw its legal and commercial affairs from 1969 to 1977.
Mosley became the...
Mosley became Fia president in 1993 after serving in previous administrative roles in motorsport, including Formula One. He served three terms as president before standing down in 2009.
Former Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone confirmed the news, reports Dpa.
"Max was like family to me. We were like brothers. I am pleased in a way because he suffered for too long," Ecclestone said.
Mosley, who had been suffering from cancer, experienced a family tragedy in 2009 when his son Alexander died aged 39. The coroner ruled Alexander's death was due to non-dependent drug abuse.
His love for motor racing began in his youth and he was involved in Formula 2 for Brabham and Lotus before retiring in 1969.
He founded a car manufacturing company, March Engineering, and oversaw its legal and commercial affairs from 1969 to 1977.
Mosley became the...
- 5/24/2021
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
"Life is a battle... and I generally only pick the fights I can win." Flat-Out Films has released the official trailer for a biopic documentary titled Mosley: It's Complicated, chronicling the life and times of former Fia president Max Mosley, who was the head of F1's governing body from 1993 to 2005. Over fifty years, Mosley achieved great things, making the family name well respected, until a hidden camera from a Bdsm "party" exposed his colorful sex life in the British tabloids. Some colleagues and friends turned against him. Most public figures would have hidden away, but not Max, who argued his personal affairs are nobody else's business. He sued the News of the World, and won, and was a driving force in the Leveson phone-hacking inquiry. He then went after the lawmakers to implement greater press regulation and data protection laws. Featuring appearances by Max Mosley, Bernie Ecclestone, Hugh Grant,...
- 5/5/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Berlin, March 24 (Ians) Sebastian Vettel knows he will have to be patient when he starts his latest Formula One adventure with the Aston Martin team.
"You have to give the whole thing time," the four-time world champion has said, Dpa news reports.
But the 33-year-old German eventually wants to return to the top after six mainly difficult years at Ferrari where he didn't win another title and where his contract was eventually not extended beyond 2020.
With no vacancy at world champions Mercedes or at his former team Red Bull, Aston Martin was all but the only option for Vettel to keep racing, and to do so at a team which has shown some competitiveness.
Known as Racing Point until last year, the team finished fourth in the 2020 constructors' standings. Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll funded the team and has also acquired a large stake at Aston Martin as the famed British...
"You have to give the whole thing time," the four-time world champion has said, Dpa news reports.
But the 33-year-old German eventually wants to return to the top after six mainly difficult years at Ferrari where he didn't win another title and where his contract was eventually not extended beyond 2020.
With no vacancy at world champions Mercedes or at his former team Red Bull, Aston Martin was all but the only option for Vettel to keep racing, and to do so at a team which has shown some competitiveness.
Known as Racing Point until last year, the team finished fourth in the 2020 constructors' standings. Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll funded the team and has also acquired a large stake at Aston Martin as the famed British...
- 3/24/2021
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
Exclusive: Sam Palmer is a former electrician who moved into the LA super-mansion built by Aaron and Candy Spelling after he became engaged to Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone.
His life, and work as a home staffing expert, is now set to be the subject of a docuseries being developed by Renowned Films, the producers behind Bravo’s Backyard Envy and BET’s Copwatch America, and Critical Content.
Palmer runs Staffing Properties, a concierge service designed to find house staff for the rich and famous. He says he is the only person running such a company who lives in a house that needs staff.
Palmer and Ecclestone, daughter of Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone previously lived in Holmby Hills residence The Manor, the Spelling’s famed 56,000 sq. ft. luxury estate, before selling it for a California record of $119.7M.
He launched Staffing Properties in January 2020 after realising that a house...
His life, and work as a home staffing expert, is now set to be the subject of a docuseries being developed by Renowned Films, the producers behind Bravo’s Backyard Envy and BET’s Copwatch America, and Critical Content.
Palmer runs Staffing Properties, a concierge service designed to find house staff for the rich and famous. He says he is the only person running such a company who lives in a house that needs staff.
Palmer and Ecclestone, daughter of Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone previously lived in Holmby Hills residence The Manor, the Spelling’s famed 56,000 sq. ft. luxury estate, before selling it for a California record of $119.7M.
He launched Staffing Properties in January 2020 after realising that a house...
- 11/23/2020
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
British model and the daughter of Bernie Ecclestone, the former chief executive of the Formula One Group, Tamara Ecclestone, was robbed nearly $67 million worth of jewelry from her London home on Friday. The apparent robbery happened after the 35-year-old Ecclestone left the country with her family for the holidays. Burglars managed to get access […]
The post Model Tamara Ecclestone Robbed Of $66 Million in Jewelry appeared first on uInterview.
The post Model Tamara Ecclestone Robbed Of $66 Million in Jewelry appeared first on uInterview.
- 12/16/2019
- by Sofia Shengelia
- Uinterview
The African American Film Critics Association (Aafca) is set to honor Carolyn Sloss, vice president of Allied Integrated Marketing, as part of its 8th Annual Synergy Atl Program.
“For more than a decade Carolyn has led the growth trajectory of the film and entertainment community in Atlanta,” Aafca President Gil Robertson said in a statement. “Her commitment to the Arts & Entertainment scene has been impactful to the permanent infrastructure that we see today throughout this region.”
On August 1, the group will recognize Sloss during a gathering at the Auburn Avenue Research Library in Atlanta.
“I am thrilled and proud to be named as the 2019 honoree by Aafca and its Synergy Atl Program,” said Sloss. “In my role at Allied, I’ve strived to forge a path that’s wider and more inclusive in the community. To be recognized for achieving this, even in a small way, is truly a great honor!
“For more than a decade Carolyn has led the growth trajectory of the film and entertainment community in Atlanta,” Aafca President Gil Robertson said in a statement. “Her commitment to the Arts & Entertainment scene has been impactful to the permanent infrastructure that we see today throughout this region.”
On August 1, the group will recognize Sloss during a gathering at the Auburn Avenue Research Library in Atlanta.
“I am thrilled and proud to be named as the 2019 honoree by Aafca and its Synergy Atl Program,” said Sloss. “In my role at Allied, I’ve strived to forge a path that’s wider and more inclusive in the community. To be recognized for achieving this, even in a small way, is truly a great honor!
- 7/1/2019
- by Anita Bennett
- Deadline Film + TV
Tamara Ecclestone has been sharing photos of herself breastfeeding her daughter Sophia since she was a baby, and was surprised by the negative reactions she received.
“When I first posted a photo of myself breastfeeding, I did not think anything of it,” Ecclestone, 32, the daughter of Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, tells People. “It was simply an image of a candid moment that I shared with my daughter Sophia. The negative comments I received did not affect me, and on the contrary made me want to stand up and show my support for all the breastfeeding moms out there who...
“When I first posted a photo of myself breastfeeding, I did not think anything of it,” Ecclestone, 32, the daughter of Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, tells People. “It was simply an image of a candid moment that I shared with my daughter Sophia. The negative comments I received did not affect me, and on the contrary made me want to stand up and show my support for all the breastfeeding moms out there who...
- 2/10/2017
- by Gabrielle Olya
- PEOPLE.com
Liberty Media is officially in the F1 driver’s seat. The company run by president and CEO Greg Maffei has completed its $4.4B acquisition of the global motorsports business, whose parent company is Delta Topco, and Formula 1 has tapped former Fox exec Chase Carey as its chief executive. He replaces Bernie Ecclestone, who segues to the role Chairman Emeritus of F1 after more than four decades in the sport. With the deal done, Liberty Media Group will be renamed the Formula…...
- 1/23/2017
- Deadline TV
The mother-in-law of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has been freed from her kidnappers -- Unharmed -- and without having to pay the $36 million ransom ... cops say. According to local media outlets, Brazilian officials say a police operation went down over the weekend -- and 2 suspects were arrested ... after cops traced them to a house in a poor neighborhood near Sao Paulo. Officials say they were able to trace the location of the phone calls...
- 8/1/2016
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
[[tmz:video id="0_jwyndu4k"]] Bernie Ecclestone's family isn't taking any chances after the Formula One boss' mother-in-law was abducted in Brazil -- his daughters are now rollin' with a full security detail, TMZ Sports has learned. Tamara and Petra Ecclestone took their kids out for a stroll in Beverly Hills Tuesday -- flanked by a team of at least 4 huge plain-clothed bodyguards (you can even see the earpieces). The daughters were mum about the active ransom situation involving...
- 7/27/2016
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
The mother-in-law of billionaire Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone was abducted in Brazil and is being held for a $36 Million ransom ... TMZ Sports has confirmed with police. We spoke with Policia Civil do Estado de Sao Paulo ... and a rep confirmed 67-year-old Aparecida Schunk was taken in Sao Paulo on Friday night. The kidnappers are demanding to be paid in pounds sterling divided into 4 bags. 85-year-old Ecclestone is married to 38-year-old Brazilian-born Fabiana Flosi --...
- 7/26/2016
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
[[tmz:video id="0_u1ixzgwx"]] Remember when Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone said women were too physically weak to be taken seriously in the sport???? Well, Danica Patrick says she wants to challenge the guy to an arm wrestling match. Ecclestone caused a firestorm at an advertising conference in April when he said, "I don’t know whether a woman would physically be able to drive an F1 car quickly, and they wouldn’t be taken seriously." So, we asked...
- 6/28/2016
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Racing legend Mario Andretti tells TMZ Sports ... he kinda agrees with Bernie Ecclestone when it comes to women in F1 racing -- "it's clearly more of a men's sport." Ecclestone -- widely considered the most powerful man in racing -- made headlines this week when he said women are too weak to be successful F1 drivers ... and "wouldn't be taken seriously." So, we called up Andretti -- one of the greatest drivers who's ever lived...
- 4/20/2016
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Women drivers will never be taken seriously in Formula One ... so says the man who Runs the organization, Bernie Ecclestone. Ecclestone -- the most powerful person in all of racing -- was speaking at an Advertising Week Europe conference in London when someone asked about women drivers. "I don’t know whether a woman would physically be able to drive an F1 car quickly, and they wouldn’t be taken seriously,” he said Tuesday according to The Daily Beast.
- 4/19/2016
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone's butler did it -- he filed a lawsuit against her husband for mercilessly mocking his sexual orientation. The butler in question, Carl Hajik, says he'd been working for Petra and James Stunt for about a year when a family dinner -- in the mansion they bought from Candy Spelling -- went off the rails. Hajik says he accidentally tripped Petra's 1-year-old niece while serving stunt chili oil for his pizza.
- 12/15/2015
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Quotable characters and legends are around every bend in this lively documentary celebrating the Targa Florio
This feature spin-off from Francesco Da Mosto’s small-screen primers on Italian life documents the Targa Florio, formerly the world’s longest-running road race, deploying a double-pronged approach. The genial, silver-haired Da Mosto – more Rod Liddle than Clarkson – potters around the Sicilian villages the cars once hared through; his interviews are intercut with reconstructions centred on Vincenzo Florio, the race’s founder and Bernie Ecclestone of his day.
An early scene of Da Mosto and co-pilot Alain de Cadanet poring over the dashboard of a vintage Peugeot suggests it’s been compiled with specialist audiences in mind, but it stays lively, interrupting its archive material with trips to a Targa-themed model village and a self-appointed, somewhat self-aggrandising race cobbler.
Continue reading...
This feature spin-off from Francesco Da Mosto’s small-screen primers on Italian life documents the Targa Florio, formerly the world’s longest-running road race, deploying a double-pronged approach. The genial, silver-haired Da Mosto – more Rod Liddle than Clarkson – potters around the Sicilian villages the cars once hared through; his interviews are intercut with reconstructions centred on Vincenzo Florio, the race’s founder and Bernie Ecclestone of his day.
An early scene of Da Mosto and co-pilot Alain de Cadanet poring over the dashboard of a vintage Peugeot suggests it’s been compiled with specialist audiences in mind, but it stays lively, interrupting its archive material with trips to a Targa-themed model village and a self-appointed, somewhat self-aggrandising race cobbler.
Continue reading...
- 10/22/2015
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
Director also talks about an extended cut of award-winning Senna.
Asif Kapadia has responded to accusations that his documentary about Amy Winehouse is misleading in its representation of the late singer’s relationship with her father, Mitch Winehouse.
Prior to the world premiere of Amy at the Cannes Film Festival last month, Mitch Winehouse told The Guardian, “they (the filmmakers) are trying to portray me in the worst possible light”.
Defending his film, Kapadia told ScreenDaily: “Nobody would be in the film unless they gave me permission to have them and their voice in the film.
“I made the film as honestly as I could considering the research and the footage I’ve seen. It is an honest representation of what was going on. I interviewed over 100 people.
“I don’t know who else has come out and said the film isn’t honest.”
The director was speaking at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff), where [link=tt...
Asif Kapadia has responded to accusations that his documentary about Amy Winehouse is misleading in its representation of the late singer’s relationship with her father, Mitch Winehouse.
Prior to the world premiere of Amy at the Cannes Film Festival last month, Mitch Winehouse told The Guardian, “they (the filmmakers) are trying to portray me in the worst possible light”.
Defending his film, Kapadia told ScreenDaily: “Nobody would be in the film unless they gave me permission to have them and their voice in the film.
“I made the film as honestly as I could considering the research and the footage I’ve seen. It is an honest representation of what was going on. I interviewed over 100 people.
“I don’t know who else has come out and said the film isn’t honest.”
The director was speaking at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff), where [link=tt...
- 6/19/2015
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
A version of this story first appeared in the Aug. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. The Aaron Spelling estate is for sale, but who’s buying? Petra Stunt, 25, daughter of Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, has pocket listed the 56,500-square-foot Holmby Hills mansion built in 1991 by the late TV producer and his wife, Candy Spelling, for $150 million. That’s the same price Candy Spelling asked for the estate in March 2009 when she put it on the market, though Stunt scored a relative bargain by paying $85 million in cash in July 2011. Photos Iconic
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- 7/30/2014
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
To mark the release of 1: Life on the Limit on 17th March, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.
Narrated by Michael Fassbender, 1: Life On The Limit is an action-packed, cinematic documentary that channels the speed, excitement and abject danger inherent in this most glamorous of sports. The film charts Formula One’s journey from its comparatively humble beginnings in post-war Britain, through to the game-changing events of the 1976 season recently examined in the smash hit Rush, as well as the untimely death of F1 superstar Ayrton Senna. In so doing, 1: Life On The Limit showcases a world where drivers were akin to rock stars and where safety definitely wasn’t always put first.
Utilising rare archive footage and gathering the largest and most comprehensive selection of Formula One interviews ever collected, the film examines a sport that, even in its Golden Age, was...
Narrated by Michael Fassbender, 1: Life On The Limit is an action-packed, cinematic documentary that channels the speed, excitement and abject danger inherent in this most glamorous of sports. The film charts Formula One’s journey from its comparatively humble beginnings in post-war Britain, through to the game-changing events of the 1976 season recently examined in the smash hit Rush, as well as the untimely death of F1 superstar Ayrton Senna. In so doing, 1: Life On The Limit showcases a world where drivers were akin to rock stars and where safety definitely wasn’t always put first.
Utilising rare archive footage and gathering the largest and most comprehensive selection of Formula One interviews ever collected, the film examines a sport that, even in its Golden Age, was...
- 3/10/2014
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Formula One racing boss Bernie Ecclestone has won a multi-million court case with German media group Constantin Media. Constantin had sued Ecclestone for damages of up to $144 million (£86m) related to the sale of the F1 racing circuit back in 2005-2006. The German group said it lost money because the sport was deliberately undervalued when it was sold to private equity company Cvc Partners, a group with close ties to Ecclestone, in 2005. Ecclestone is accused of bribing the German banker who approved the sale. But in a ruling Thursday, London's High Court judged that while Ecclestone's
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- 2/20/2014
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
German prosecutors said Thursday that they would begin criminal proceedings against Bernie Ecclestone, the CEO of the Formula One racing circuit, over allegations that he paid nearly $44 million in bribes to German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky. The allegations go back to events in 2005-2006, when Gribkowsky, as leading risk assessor for the BayernLB bank, approved a much-discussed deal to sell a 48 percent stake in Formula One to an Ecclestone-friendly investment group. Gribkowsky has admitted to accepting bribes from Ecclestone in exchange for waving the deal through. The stake in the lucrative racecar circuit – featured in
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- 1/16/2014
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Director: Paul Crowder; Writer: Mark Monroe; Narrator: Michael Fassbender; Running time: 112 mins; Certificate: 12A
1: Life on the Limit may be a veritable who's who of Formula 1 - featuring contributions from world drivers' champions such as John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher, Jody Scheckter, Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel to name but a few - but it's really the story of two men, Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley.
It's easy to be cynical about both Bernie and Max - particularly when you think about some of the things they've hit headlines for away from the track. But 1 - which uses the tension between speed and safety as its angle - sheds light on their determination to improve safety that some younger followers of motorsport - this writer included - may not have fully appreciated. Both Ecclestone and especially Mosley are...
1: Life on the Limit may be a veritable who's who of Formula 1 - featuring contributions from world drivers' champions such as John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher, Jody Scheckter, Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel to name but a few - but it's really the story of two men, Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley.
It's easy to be cynical about both Bernie and Max - particularly when you think about some of the things they've hit headlines for away from the track. But 1 - which uses the tension between speed and safety as its angle - sheds light on their determination to improve safety that some younger followers of motorsport - this writer included - may not have fully appreciated. Both Ecclestone and especially Mosley are...
- 1/7/2014
- Digital Spy
Power, passion, glamour. Motor racing has it all. And for over 50 years, the photographer Rainer Schlegelmilch has captured the drama at race tracks around the world. Presented with a unique ‘Bernie Pass’ by F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, Schlegelmilch’s work takes us into the pits eavesdropping on owners and drivers, amongst the mechanics in the garages and then trackside for all the action. Rainer’s incredible photography reflects both the evolution of motor racing and advances in camera technology as he constantly pushes himself to find new and exciting ways of portraying the sport. This exhibition includes work from his very first race in 1962 to his stunning contemporary abstracts. Louise Garczewska, Director of Getty Images Gallery, says “In the run up to the 2014 F1 season, we...
- 1/6/2014
- by Pietro Filipponi
- The Daily BLAM!
The title of this panel was Financing and Packaging: From Indie to Studio, but in fact, the most studio-like film, Rush , by the major director, Ron Howard, and produced by Brit indie production company Revolution (Andrew Eaton) and Hollywood-based Cross Creek (Brian Oliver), is actually quite independent.
Rush (U.S. Universal, International Sales by Exclusive)
Ron Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer whose imagine Entertainment have had an overall deal at Universal for 27 years, however, this mid-budget range film of some $50,000,000 was considered not "big enough" for the majors.
To read more about this complex and fascinating film and its international film business background, read the following articles which are quoted throughout this article with thanks and acknowledgement to:
· Variety September 13, 2013 (reprinted at the end of this blog) · Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2013 · The Hollywood Reporter September 28, 2011
Aside from major director Ron Howard himself, the second “major” element of the film is that Universal is the North American distributor of the film. This happens through the three year minimum-6-picture distribution deal Brian Oliver’s Cross Creek has with Universal in which Cross Creek produces and finances either its own films or films chosen from Universal’s development slate. Cross Creek is set up to generate up to four films per year, with Universal to distribute at least two of them with a wide-release commitment.
Isa (International Sales Agent) Exclusive Media is also an independent. This too is the result of Oliver’s deal with Exclusive to jointly finance two projects per year.
Cross Creek, putting its own cash into the project, split the cost of the picture with Exclusive who financed it through a bank loan made against pre-sales generated in 2011 at the Afm. With Howard there to promote the project to buyers, Exclusive secured around $33 million in foreign pre-sales. See Cinando’s list of distributors .
Additionally, Oliver and Eaton structured the project as a U.K.- German co-production, enabling them to secure about $12 million in soft money from Germany (Egoli Tossell) in accordance with U.K.’s co-production treaty. As a result, U.K. rights ended up with Studiocanal.
Brian Oliver is a “one of Hollywood’s biggest and more unusual financiers of risky films, with coin coming mostly from oil and real estate investments in Texas”. This major Hollywood financier/ producer takes chances which prove his astute, if askew, view of what makes a “Hollywood” picture an indie at the same time, as shown by his credits, The Ides of March and Black Swan.
Andrew Eaton is a British producer with deep Hollywood connections through the British community here, e.g., Eric Fellner of Working Title, the British production company currently owned by Universal. (Parenthetically, I bought U.S. rights to Working Title’s first film, My Beautiful Laundrette for Lorimar along with Orion Classics and so I was quite thrilled to have a chance to be in touch with the talented Brits once again).
Working Title had worked with Andrew Easton on Frost/Nixon. Eric Fellner loved the script and offered it to Universal for funding. However, as said, Universal passed on it because it was too small.
“It is going to be easy for people to think this is a Hollywood movie, and it just is not,” quotes Variety from the film’s British screenwriter, Peter Morgan, who penned Frost/Nixon which was also directed by Howard. “It is a British independent film directed by a Hollywood director.”
Eaton and Oliver spoke of how they put this film together.
“We must champion the fact that this is basically 80% a British film in terms of the people who worked on it, the way it was structured and the way we ran it,” says Eaton, who was behind such indie films as 24 Hour Party People and the Red Riding TV series.
Can a Song Save Your Life? (U.S. UTA, Isa: Exclusive)
Exclusive has another film here, Can a Song Save Your Life? which is also repped by Rena Ronson, Co-Head of the Independent Film Group of UTA. Directed by John Carney who came to the public’s attention with his micro-budgeted Once which plays on stage here in Toronto at the moment, in New York and elsewhere regularly. The Weinstein Company picked it up in Toronto, reportedly paying around a $7 million minimum guarantee for U.S. rights with a P&A commitment of at least $20 million.
UTA as an agency also packages both large (studio) and smaller indie films. Rena Ronson, the co-head of UTA Indie explained how her own indie roots -- first at indie distributor Fox-Lorber and continuing into international sales before becoming the “indie agent” at Wma, succeeding the “indie” founder, Bobbi Thompson, have taught her to speak the language of the international as well as the independent film business. She knows the major modes of operating as well as she knows the independent style of business. She further explained that the successes of the larger films permit the “smaller”, i.e., “indie” films to be made.
UTA repped films in Toronto are listed below. For a full report of rights sold, before, during and after Toronto, watch SydneysBuzz.com for the Fall 2013 Rights Roundup.
Can A Song Save Your Life?
Writer/Director: John Carney Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine, Catherine Keener, Mos Def, Cee-Lo Green Publicity: Falco / Shannon Treusch, Monica Delameter U.S. Producer Rep: UTA / CAA . Isa: Exclusive Media Group
U.S. rights were acquired at Tiff 13 by TWC for a record breaking $7 million.
Since first announcing it in Cannes 2012, Exclusive has made other deals as well for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan (Tanweer), Germany (Studiocanal), Japan (Pony Canyon Inc), Philippines (Solar Entertainment), Russia (A Company), So. Korea ( Pancinema), Switzerland ( Ascot Elite Entertainment Group ), Taiwan ( Serenity Entertainment International ), Turkey (D Productions), the Middle East ( Front Row Filmed Entertainment).
Tiff Special Presentations:
Hateship, Loveship
Director: Liza Johnson Writer: Mark Poirier Writer (Novel): Alice Munro Starring: Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte Publicity: Prodigy PR, Erik Bright
North American Sale: UTA / Cassian Elwes. Isa: The Weinstein Co. Sena has rights for Iceland.
The F Word
Director: Michael Dowse Writer: Elan Mastai Writers (Play): Michael Rinaldi & T.J. Dawe Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Rafe Spall, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis, Amanda Crew Publicity: Strategy PR / Cynthia Schwartz, Michael Kupferberg Us Sale: UTA / Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman. Isa: eOne
After UTA sold the The F Word to CBS Films for the U.S. for around $3 million in Toronto, Entertainment One Films International completed other international sales. Besides Canada and the U.K., eOne itself will release the film in Australia/New Zealand, Benelux and Spain feeding its own international distribution pipeline. Other sales include Germany to Senator Entertainment, Middle East to Front Row Entertainment, Nigeria toRed Mist, Russia to Carmen Film Group, Turkey to Mars Entertainment Group
Night Moves
Writer/Director: Kelly Reichart Writer: Jonathan Raymond Starring: Dakota Fanning, Jesse Eisenberg, Peter Sarsgaard, Alia Shawkat Publicity: Ginsberg/Libby, Chris Libby North American Sale: UTA Isa: The Match Factory
Tiff Vanguard
The Sacrament
Writer/Director: Ti West Starring: Joe Swanberg, Aj Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Kate Lyn Sheil, Gene Jones Publicity: Dda, Dana Archer, Alice Zhou North American Sale: UTA / CAA Isa: Im Global sold to Pegasus Motion Pictures Distribution Ltd . For China
As of this writing, rather 1 hour ago, Magnolia Pictures, which lost on an earlier bidding war here for Joe, is finalizing a deal for the picture reportedly for seven figures.
Coincidentallywith the beginning of the Toronto Film Festival, the front page of L.A. Times quoted Rena Ronson in an article called "Making history as cameras roll" (print edition) or "Wadjda' director makes her mark in Saudi cinema" (online edition) about Wadjda , (Isa: The Match Factory) last year’s Venice and Telluride film which Rena had spotted at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, where it won a script award. It was written and directed by a woman which is notable in such a male-dominated part of the world. She met the writer-director, Haifaa Mansour, and that led to working with her for the next two years to finance the film. Its $2.5m budget was backed in part by the Rotana Group, the largest media company in the Middle East, owned primarily by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The German production company Razor Film owned and operated by Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul whose first coproduction in 2005, Paradise Now brought them into international prominence and who also picked up last year’s Tiff groundbreaking film from Afghanistan,The Patience Stone, and previously coproduced Waltz With Bashir, came on board and brought German broadcast deals and German film funds as well.
Doha and Film Financing
The fourth panelist was Paul Miller, Head of Film Financing, from the Doha Film Institute , Qatar's first international organization dedicated to film financing, production, education and two film festivals. Doha encourages submission for financing film financing opportunities from anywhere in the world. The Dfi Grants program supports first- and second-time filmmakers in producing and developing their own stories. There are two funding rounds per year. Applications are considered from three regions (basically divided into the Middle East, developing nations and the rest of the world – with some exceptions -- each with different eligibility criteria.
Consideration for funding is open to feature-length films in development, production and post-production, as well as short films in production and post-production. Since 2010, Dfi has provided funding to more than 138 filmmakers.
Beyond the regional grants program, Dfi also invests in a diverse slate of international productions to encourage greater collaboration, mentorship and co‑production opportunities between Gulf countries and the rest of the world. Co-financing applications apply to both Middle Eastern and international feature films, television and web series. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year.
Four films at Tiff that Doha has helped finance:
Mohammed Malas’s Ladder to Damacus, screening in Tiff’s Contemporary World Cinema section; Jasmila Žbanic’s For Those Who Can Tell No Tales in the Special Presentation section. Both films were co-financed by Dfi. Dfi grant recipients Néjib Belkadhi’s Bastardo and Mais Darwazah’s My Love Awaits Me by the Sea screening in the Contemporary World Cinema and Discovery sections, respectively.
The fifth panelist, Ted Hope, Director of the San Francisco Film Society, a non-profit training, festival, and funding operation is known to everyone from his history with Good Machine (which was acquired by Universal and renamed Focus Features), and from his blog Hope for Film/ Truly Free Film . In his always-inimitable fashion, Ted proposed a new sort of financing, called "staged financing", based on a progressive meeting of certain criterion from development through distribution. This way of financing is similar to the venture capital models of financing. His broad ideas on what has to change with the industry's funding and packaging methods brought the panelists and the audience to heel at attention. I reprint his blog after this because this idea goes against the current grain of financing an entire film which may or may not prove to be the final box office bingo winner it always purports to be when securing full financing.
The Sffs provided some funding to Thomas Oliver's 1982 which is in Tiff this year. Aside from winning Us in Progress’ $60,000 in post-production services at this year’s Champs Elysees Film Festival, 1982 also received Sffs’s $85,000 post production grant and participated in the Sffs’s A2E labs. The film is being represented by Kevin Iwashina’s Preferred Content.
The panel became very animated as Ted Hope and Rena Ronson faced off about whether a film is made for a broad audience or whether, if targeted correctly, it could actually make money with niche audiences. As always, the two of them, both equally astute, brought much to bear on both sides of the argument. And, I, as the panel’s moderator, hereby declare, They are both right.
The broader the audience the more potential for making money.
However, as Ted points out, with crowd sourcing, crowd funding and crowd theatrical exhibition, there are many other ways beyond ticket purchases that filmmakers can offer in order to make money with their targeted audience.
This, as well as the great contributions made by Doha’s Paul Miller and Revolution’s Andrew Eaton could have extended the panel into a full day. Paul Oliver of Cross Creek was the quietest, perhaps most reticent, of the speakers, but he amply demonstrated that he is one who puts his money where his mouth is. His acumen and taste make us all grateful for his existence as he is a pivotal point person in creating works of art that create substantial revenues for a sustainable art house film business.
The audience as well was most enthusiastic with their questions and post panel discussions with panelists who stayed to talk.
Articles Reprinted Here:
Truly Free Film
Staged Financing Must Become Film Biz’s Immediate Goal
Posted: 06 Sep 2013 05:15 Am Pdt
Each day I become more and more convinced that staged financing could be a cure to much of the Film Biz’s ills. Staged financing? What? Is the phrase not exactly center of your conversations right now? Why not?!! Whatsamattawidyou? Don’t you know a good solution when you see one?
Although it already exists in many fields, and even in a few small patches of our own yard, I recognize that a staged financing strategy is not yet the force behind Indieland’s own gardening. I am however growing convinced it could yield a far more fruitful harvest than our current methods. A staged-financing ecosystem can’t be built in a one-off manner though. Although it also does not need to the rule of the realm, it needs a permanent eco-system to support it.
Staged financing is part of a much bigger solution that we urgently need to bring to our industry: a sustainable investor class . We need smart money and need to stop seeking, encouraging, and propagating dumb money. Most film investors get out, win or lose, by their third film (I have been told this and don’t have the stats to back it up now, but if you do, please share — otherwise just trust that is what my experience has shown). The value of most independent money in the film biz is the money itself, and that is not good for anyone.
Staged financing is exactly what it says to be. I know in this world such literalness is a strange thing, but there is it. Staged financing is a funding process that is there for each distinct stage. In comparison, it is the opposite of up-front financing — the type that monopolizes the narrative feature world. I am proposing that we institutionalize the staged-financing process and make it easier to finance your film in drips and drabs. Why am I so bullish on what probably sounds like hell to many? Why do I think it will save indie film? Let’s count the ways.
Staged financing increases the predictability of success. Investors can base their continued commitment on a proof of prinicipal instead of just a pitch. The longer one waits the more they know — of course the longer one waits the lower the chance for their to be the opportunity for investment, so there. The more investors can project or even predict their success, the longer they will stay in the game, and the more that will gather to pay — i.e. more capital at play! Staged financing allows filmmakers and their supporters to pivot based on real world data. The old way had very little it could do when new information hit. Your film (and investment) could be rendered obsolete over night. But that does not have to be a done deal is this new world. This is just one of the many reasons for #1 above of course. Staged financing diversifies the creative class. Wouldn’t it be great if the film biz was actually a meritocracy? Well, if people had to make good movies to complete their financing, wouldn’t that be a bit closer to the case? Staged financing gives all people the opportunity to prove they have a good idea, whether that idea is completed or not. It is not about who you know, but about what you’ve done and can do. Documentary film — compared to the narrative world — already has a great deal of staged financing institutionalized — and benefits from gender proportional representation among directors. Need I say more?Staged financing allows ambitious artistic work to flourish. Instead of just having “commercial elements”, unique and inspiring work can be recognized for the potential it truly has. Instead of being rewarded for being able to earn trust or arrogantly claim to know what one is doing, staged financing allows good work to be rewarded for being good work. Currently, we mistake confidence for capability and those that boast to be able to predict what the end product will be (where there is no way that they will actually know what the 100+ decisions each day will yield), get to play — not the work that delivers something new and wonderful. Staged financing rewards quality over risk mitigation. Staged financing is actually a better form of risk mitigation than the present form that is only based on regurgitating what has already proven successful. When we limit risk by mimicking what has worked in the past, all we are doing is guessing and covering our ass — and this leads to a film culture of movie titles overrun with numerals. We live in an era of abundance, and as comforting as the familiar may be, we have more access to it than ever before. We rarely need the new version of it. We will however need truly original work more and more as time goes on as we will drowning in the repetitive. How will we prove what works? Staged financing, my friend, staged financing. Staged financing creates a better project as it incentivizes the creators every step of the way. Not that you truly need to incentivize those that are in the passion industries for the right reason, but it never hurts to weed out those that are in it for the wrong reason. When your financing is based on your work and not your connections or investors’ fears, you will do all you can to make each stage of financing shine, justify itself, and be truly competitive. Staged financing requires you to walk a series of steps, proving you have earned the right with every advance — and you better do your homework if you don’t want to get left behind. Staged financing requires you choose your initial partners wisely. It’s not just about the terms of the deal that should determine whom your investors are — but that is how we generally act nowadays. Everyone should instead seek value-add investors. You should get more than just money from your investors. You should benefit from their expertise. Filmmakers, agents, lawyers, and managers, often are willing to leap into bed with anyone who offers the most cash — there’s a name for that practice and it should not be film investment. Staged financing means the creators will have “skin in the game”. When it is an up-front finance model, the creators are not working for a payout in success but working just for the upfornt fees (or some semblance thereof); they may have “profit participation” but basically the only anticipated earnings are what is in the budget. It becomes increasingly difficult to motivate the creative team to be engaged in the needed work after the film premieres. Investors have long recognized that this is not the most beneficial arrangement, yet what can they do? The answer my friend, is… yup, you know the song I am singing: everyone loves that staged financing! Staged financing is a time-tested process that has already been adopted by many industries . Staged financing is the modus operandi of Silicon Valley and all the Vc firms. Other industries, from mining onwards, have seen real benefits from the process. Why do we limit our success and not apply proven models to our field? Could it be that somewhere someone is desperately clutching on to what ever paltry power they perceive themselves to possess? Hmmm… If they don’t offer the model you want at the store, build a new model — or maybe even a chain of stores. Staged financing gives producers of quality work more power. The main objection to staged financing is that it gives financiers more power. That is only true if you are making crap. Or mediocre work. If you are making something wonderfully astounding you will never struggle to progress to the next round — and in fact you will be able to improve your terms. And investors won’t complain either, because they now can have to know a good thing when they see one.
So if Staged Financing is this marvelous thing, why have our leaders not yet delivered it to you? Well, they don’t care about you; didn’t you know that?
And if Staged Financing could really save Indie Film, why has the community not constructed this marvelous ecosystem yet? Well, we’ve all been too busy chasing shiny objects and marveling at the reflections fed back of us.
But change is here. We have hope. We can build it better together. And I have already started. The San Francisco Film Society is committed to it. We have others who want to be part of. We are have spots for more to join in. And we are going to help a few select projects really rock this world.
Watch this space. Let’s do it together and truly astonish the world with your awe inspiring work. Just don’t be slack, okay?
Variety, August 21, 2013:
“Rush,” the high-octane car racing film about the public rivalry between legendary Formula One drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt during the 1970s, has all the markings of tinseltown’s latest flashy biopic, withRon Howard at the wheel, Chris Hemsworth as its star, and Universal Pictures releasing the film Sept. 27. But that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.
“It is going to be easy for people to think this is a Hollywood movie, and it just is not,” says the upcoming film’s British screenwriter, Peter Morgan, who penned “Frost/Nixon,” also directed by Howard. “It is a British independent film directed by a Hollywood director.” Get Weekly Online News and alerts free to your inbox
As the majors focus more on putting their money behind mega-budgeted projects with built-in brand awareness — sequels, reboots, films based on toys, videogames and comicbooks — filmmakers are finding Hollywood’s studio system rapidly shifting under their feet.
“Because studios are less interested in the midbudget area, there is a massive opportunity for independents to step into that (area) at the moment,” says “Rush” producer Andrew Eaton of London-based Revolution Films.
Indeed, it’s getting harder to set up a midbudget range original project at a studio, even for veteran filmmakers like Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer, whose Imagine Entertainment has had an overall deal at Universal for 27 years (the longest standing deal U has had in its 100-year history with a production company). That’s forced directors to look elsewhere to tackle the kinds of films now considered too risky to make or the ones that won’t fill retail shelves with merchandise.
Another Hollywood vet, producer Marc Platt, who’s had a production deal at Universal since 1998 after stepping down as its production head, similarly had to find indie financing for his film “2 Guns” after Universal said it would not bankroll the picture but simply distribute it.
With “Rush,” Howard found himself in an entirely new role as the director of a $50 million film that was his first to be independently financed — through a series of bonds, contingencies and pre-sales. He also was a director for hire, replacing Paul Greengrass, who was originally set to bring the showy personalities of Hunt (Hemsworth), a British playboy; and the more serious Austrian champion Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) to the big screen.
“We must champion the fact that this is basically 80% a British film in terms of the people who worked on it, the way it was structured and the way we ran it,” says Eaton. The exec, who was behind such indie films as “24 Hour Party People” and the “Red Riding” series, is modest, and like most Brits politely shies away from the spotlight, tending not to grab credit even when its due.
But he believes “Rush” shows off Blighty’s mettle.
“These are the kinds of films we should be making in the U.K. because we can do it, and we can do it for better value of money,” he says.
Morgan began writing the story of Lauda, a friend of his wife’s, on spec some years ago, intrigued by the driver’s courageous comeback just 40 days after a devastating crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix that severely burned his face and saw him lapse into a coma, and how that might play against Hunt’s notorious womanizing and party lifestyle that gained him rock-star status.
Eager to work with Eaton again after Fernando Meirelles’ “360,” Morgan showed the producer the first draft of “Rush,” and Eaton was hooked.
“Andrew was always going to be a great fit for this project,” Morgan says. “If (the) responsibility was to make this at a price, Andrew could do this. He could make a $50 million film feel like a $150 million film.”
With Greengrass, another Brit, attached to direct, Morgan showed the script to close friend Eric Fellner at his Universal-owned British production outfit Working Title. Fellner, who had worked with him on “Frost/Nixon,” loved the new script and offered it to Universal for funding.
But the studio passed, considering it risky subject matter, given the biopic elements and low profile of F1 racing in the U.S. Universal also didn’t believe the film could be made for the right price. Still Fellner stayed onboard, and his contacts in the F1 arena proved invaluable. His relationships with Ferrari and McLaren thanks to his work on documentary “Senna” enabled “Rush” to enlist the brands in the pic without losing editorial control.
“Ron (Howard) jokes that my major contribution was engine noise,” Fellner says. “Maybe I can take credit for a bit of that.”
Soon after Universal passed, Cross Creek Pictures topper Brian Oliver reached out to Eaton to finance the project — so eager that he offered to put up $2 million before he even signed the deal so that Eaton could order replicas of the 1970s cars to be ready in time for the shoot. He also was instrumental in steering Hemsworth toward the project.
“Typically we don’t spend that kind of money without knowing the movie is going and the budget is done,” Oliver says. “But I was passionate about the script, and I really thought it was a film with a lot of heart, not just a race car movie.”
Cross Creek, also behind “The Ides of March” and “Black Swan,” has quickly become one of Hollywood’s biggest and more unusual financiers of risky films, with coin coming mostly from oil and real estate investments in Texas.
“He’s an unusual maverick in Hollywood because he really fought to get the budget to the highest level he could,” says Eaton of Oliver. “There’s no bullshit with him — he gets stuff done.” Adds Fellner: “Without Brian, the film wouldn’t have gotten off of the ground. He put his money where his mouth is.”
Shortly after funding started coming together, Greengrass dropped off the project due, ironically, to his issues with the budget. Within 24 hours, Morgan and Fellner enticed Howard to come onboard. The financing arrangement intrigued him, but what really attracted Howard was the ability to re-create the world of Formula One in the 1970s “when sex was safe and driving was dangerous,” as he has said in past interviews.
“Ron was incredibly gracious in trusting us to deliver,” Eaton says. “He was very smart about knowing we needed to make this film in a different way. He’d never made a film with a bond before, and never made a film with a contingency before, but he rolled up his sleeves and was ready to learn.” Some of that indie spirit has already rubbed off on Howard, who is now sticking with a mostly British crew on his next project, “In the Heart of the Sea,” including “Rush” cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and costume designer Julian Day. “Heart” lenses in London.
Exclusive Media came in as the final partner on “Rush,” brought in by Oliver under his deal with Exclusive to jointly finance two projects per year.
Cross Creek split the cost of the pic with Exclusive, with the former putting its own cash in to the pic and the latter financing through a bank loan made against pre-sales generated in 2011 at the Afm, where Howard helped shop the project to buyers. The move proved a success, as Exclusive secured $33 million in foreign pre-sales.
Additionally, Oliver and Eaton structured the project as a U.K.-German co-production, enabling them to secure about $12 million in soft money.
As a result, U.K. rights ended up going to Studiocanal. Universal agreed to distribute “Rush” in the U.S. through its output deal with Cross Creek.
Eaton pressed to put all of the money raised on the screen. “Rush” became the highest-budget film he had ever worked with after 2000’s “The Claim,” which cost $18 million to produce.
“(‘Rush’) was financed in exactly the same way we finance every independent film, and we approached shooting in the same way as we do everything — you try to put as much money as you can onscreen,” Eaton says. “It’s about not wasting money on things you don’t need, like private jets and extravagances.”
Hollywood has tried to bring to life the world of Formula One before.
Sylvester Stallone directed “Driven,” which originally was set in the world of F1, before he changed course and based it on rival Cart racing, instead.
The reason? To gain access to F1, filmmakers must first get the greenlight from the often polarizing Bernie Ecclestone, the 82-year-old billionaire who holds a tight grip on the racing league that has long counted the elite as fans, including Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, and celebs including Michael Fassbender, Patrick Dempsey, Gordon Ramsey, George Lucas, and Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte.
Although Stallone tried to gain Ecclestone’s approval, “I apologize to fans of Formula 1, but there is a certain individual there who runs the sport that has his own agenda,” Stallone said in 2000. “F1 is very formal, and it’s very hard to get to know people.”
David Cronenberg also planned to direct a tentpole around F1 for Paramount, in 1986, with the director scouting the project by attending Grand Prix races in Australia and Mexico. The film, “Red Cars,” would have revolved around American driver Phil Hill winning the world championship for Ferrari in 1961. Plans were shelved when Ecclestone decided not to support the project. Instead, Cronenberg published a limited edition art book based on the screenplay in 2005.
One of the few cinematic standouts so far is Asif Kapadia’s documentary “Senna,” about the charismatic Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, killed in a race in 1994 that’s show in the docu. “Senna” went on to earn $8.2 million, and helped educate viewers of the sport by focusing not on the races but Senna’s iconic presence and his impact on pop culture.
“Rush” is looking to put a spotlight on the personalities behind the wheel and the often riveting rivalries between drivers — what many consider the real draw to the sport. Bruhl has compared them to “modern knights constantly facing death.”
As the film races toward its September release — it will be shown at the Toronto Film Festival out of competition — Howard has screened it for not only racing fans but Formula One, itself.
He recently showed the film to a group of F1 drivers (including Lauda, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa) at Germany’s Grand Prix, calling that audience the toughest test so far, and comparing the experience to screening “Apollo 13” to Nasa’s astronauts and mission controllers in 1995.
In his efforts to promote the film, Howard has called the Hunt-Lauda rivalry one of the greatest in all of sports. “Their story is so remarkable, you (could) only do it if it was true, because people wouldn’t quite believe it. They were willing to risk their lives to attain this elite status. They paid a price for it, but they defined themselves.”
Morgan also has been doing his part to reassure F1 fans that the film is authentic, stressing that it’s about the people in the cars, and not the sport itself.
Any way the wheel’s spun, it’s clear the film’s overall success will largely be driven by how it plays overseas. “Rush” will need to appeal to an international audience that’s more familiar with F1 — a sport second in popularity only to soccer — than to those in the U.S.
But Howard needs to hook moviegoers closer to home — making the American director’s job a much tougher sell.
It’s not really that surprising that there’s nothing all that American about “Rush.”
Formula One is still struggling to find an audience in the U.S. It’s looking to change that through a new $3 million broadcasting deal with NBC Sports that airs 13 races on the cable channel, two on CNBC, and four on NBC. The Monaco Grand Prix was the first of four F1 races to air live on NBC this year, with the final race taking place Nov. 24 from Brazil.
Ratings have averaged a 0.3 rating, although the Monaco race was watched by 1.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched Formula One race on U.S. television in six years, and up 40% over last year’s race when it aired on Speed TV, Nielsen said.
Promos have emphasized the speed of F1’s jetfighter cars, its international appeal and Olympics-like profiles of the drivers.
Formula One also is looking to rev up new fans in the U.S. through the opening of its first permanent track in Austin, Texas, last year, known as the Circuit of the Americas. Howard attended its first race, where Lauda also roamed the track’s garages.
What’s ironic is that Howard isn’t a very good driver. He proved that recently racing around the track of BBC’s hit show “Top Gear” to promote “Rush,” ending up in second to last place on the series’ celebrity leader board — behind Genesis’ Mike Rutherford.
Host Jeremy Clarkson was quick to mock him, saying “We finally found something you can’t do. Good at directing, brilliant in ‘Happy Days,’ a charming human being — but utterly crap at driving.”
Ron Howard's Risky Formula One Movie, 'Rush'
Can this Euro-centric car racing film play in the U.S.?
By Rachel Dodes Conn
Ron Howard's films, like "Apollo 13" and "Frost/Nixon," typically deal with issues very familiar to American audiences. His latest project, Mr. Howard's first independently financed film, is a bit of a departure: "Rush" chronicles the rivalry between Austrian Formula One racer Niki Lauda and his nemesis, the British driver James Hunt, over the course of the historic 1976 season. While competing in Nürburg, Germany during treacherous weather conditions, Mr. Lauda (Daniel Brühl, right) crashed his Ferrari and sustained severe burns to his face and lungs. Yet, fueled by a desire to beat Mr. Hunt (Chris Hemsworth, above), a playboy type whose wife (Olivia Wilde) ran off with Richard Burton, Mr. Lauda was back in his car just six weeks later—still wearing his bandages—to race against him in the Italian Grand Prix.
When Mr. Howard received the script on spec from screenwriter Peter Morgan ("Frost/Nixon," "The Last King of Scotland"), he wasn't a Formula One fan and didn't know who Messrs. Hunt and Lauda were. "I looked them up on Wikipedia," he admits. But as he read about the racers' personalities, he started to see broader themes that would appeal to U.S. moviegoers. "Maybe this is the American in me identifying this," he says, "but both these guys are utterly and entirely individuals—there was no Yoda telling them to seek their higher self."
For Mr. Howard, the process of researching "Rush" was surprisingly similar to learning about space travel for his "Apollo 13," because he found himself having to make arcane automotive engineering terms accessible to viewers. "It was really fun to understand a sport that combines cutting-edge technology with very dangerous competition," he says. "The visceral, cool and sexy element offered a kind of cinematic experience that nowadays exists only with sci-fi."
Formula One isn't nearly as popular in the U.S. as Nascar, and the subject matter is likelier to play well overseas, where the film's financing came from. It premiered Monday, in London, a few weeks before its U.S. opening. The filmmakers say it's more than just a sports picture, and they expect it to appeal to women as well as men.
Saudi Female Filmmaker Succeeds In Making A Movie About A Girl Who Wants A Bicycle
Los Angeles Times
By Rebecca Keegan
Sept. 6, 2013
In a country where women can't freely move around, Haifaa Mansour covertly films the story of a girl's quest for a bicycle.
The production lost two days to sandstorms. The crew faced a last-minute scramble when the nervous owner of a mall changed his mind about allowing filming there. Some days locals chased the cameras away; other days they brought platters of lamb and rice to the set, and asked to be extras.
Meanwhile, the director hid in a van, speaking to her cast via walkie-talkie. In Saudi Arabia, where driving a car is a subversive act for a woman, a 39-year-old mother of two has done something remarkable: written and directed what her distributor believes is the first feature film shot entirely in the ultraconservative kingdom.
Haifaa Mansour is the director of "Wadjda," a drama about a plucky 10-year-old girl who enrolls in a Koran recitation competition in order to win money for a bicycle she's forbidden by law to ride.
Like her young protagonist, Mansour's own story is one of feminine moxie.
In a sly protest of the country's ban on women behind the wheel, she drove herself to her wedding in a golf cart. Because women in Saudi Arabia can't mingle publicly with men outside their families, she shot her movie covertly on the streets of the capital, Riyadh. With movie theaters banned, she screened "Wadjda" in two foreign embassies and a cultural center.
Petite, self-assured, wearing white high-tops and blue nail polish, Mansour is modern in both her fashion and bearing. She speaks English quickly and colloquially, dropping frequent "you knows" into conversation. And she isn't afraid to counter misperceptions about her homeland, as when she gently corrected Bill Maher for calling Mecca the Saudi capital during a recent appearance on his HBO show.
Laced with empathy and humor, "Wadjda" is a quietly provocative portrait of a culture that straddles the centuries, where men wear the ancient white thobe but carry the latest iPads and women hold important jobs as doctors and news anchors but have yet to vote in an election.
"I didn't want to make a movie about women being raped or stoned," Mansour said in an interview in Beverly Hills in June. "For me it is the everyday life, how it's hard. For me, it was hard sometimes to go to work because I cannot find transportation. Things like that build up and break a woman."
The eighth of 12 children of a poet, Mansour grew up in a small town in a home that she describes as nurturing for a little girl.
"My family is very traditional, but my parents are very supportive, very kind," she said. "I never felt I can't do things because I'm a woman."
When Mansour was a teen, her mother removed the light veil she wore while picking her daughter up from school, a gesture that mortified the young woman at the time, but empowers her when she reflects on it now.
Though movie theaters have been shuttered in Saudi Arabia for decades for religious reasons, Mansour said her father, like others, often rented VHS tapes at Blockbuster for the family to watch -- she grew up on Jackie Chan movies, Bollywood productions, Egyptian cinema and Disney animated films. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was a particular favorite.
"In small-town Saudi, there is nothing to do. You don't get to exercise your emotions because nothing much is happening, you know?" she said. "So to see people falling in love and fighting, it's so powerful, you see beyond your small town."
After earning her bachelor's degree in comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, she returned to Saudi Arabia but quickly felt stymied.
"Going back to Saudi as a young woman, trying to assert yourself in the workplace, you have all those ideas … and all of a sudden you realize because you are a woman you are not heard," she said. "It was such a frustrating moment in my life. It was as if you are screaming in a vacuum."
The idea of women holding jobs still unnerves some Saudi men -- writer Abdullah Mohammed Daoud recently encouraged his more than 97,000 Twitter followers to sexually harass female grocery store clerks to intimidate women from working.
Recalling the freedom she found in movies, Mansour decided to make a short film with her siblings serving as cast and crew, a thriller about a male serial killer who hides under the black abaya worn by Muslim women. Her work -- two more shorts, a documentary and a stint hosting a talk show for a Lebanese network -- focused largely on the untold stories of Saudi women.
In 2005, at a U.S. embassy screening of her documentary, "Women Without Shadows," Mansour met her future husband, American diplomat Bradley Neimann. They now have two children, 2 and 5, and live in Bahrain, where Neimann works for the State Department.
When her husband was posted in Australia, Mansour pursued a master's in film studies at the University of Sydney, and wrote the script that became "Wadjda."
The story was inspired by her now teenage niece, who has tamped down her rambunctious personality to fit into Saudi norms.
"I thought, 'Wow, a woman writer from Saudi Arabia won?'" Rena Ronson said. "I had to meet her. She was so open and tenacious and smart."When Mansour's script for "Wadjda" won an award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, it caught the eye of the co-head of the independent film group at United Talent Agency.
Over the next two years Ronson helped Mansour secure financing for her film, which cost a little less than $2.5 million. The primary obstacle, as far as many potential Middle Eastern producers were concerned, was Mansour's desire to shoot in Saudi Arabia, which she felt lent her story authenticity.
The production finally won the tacit approval of the Saudi government -- one of its backers is Rotana Group, an entertainment company primarily owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Another major financier is the German company Razor Film.
Finding actors was another hurdle. Mansour and her producers recruited child performers through small companies that hire folkloric dancers for the Eid holidays. Many of their parents were uncomfortable with a movie about empowering women.
A week before she was scheduled to start shooting, Mansour still hadn't cast her title character when 12-year-old Waad Mohammed entered the room in blue jeans, with headphones clapped over her ears. Singing along to Justin Bieber, she won over Mansour with her sweet singing voice and tomboyish style.
The movie's half-German, half-Saudi crew worked around the rhythms of Saudi life, using cellphone apps that alerted them of the five daily prayer calls. The Germans carried notebooks; the Saudis relied on oral planning.
On the first day of shooting, a start time of 7:20 a.m. came and went. "I don't know what we were thinking," said German producer Roman Paul. "I don't think 7:20 exists in Saudi time. We Germans learned to relax, and the Saudis learned that there is a benefit to doing things at a certain time."
Despite tension on the set -- both from disapproving observers and from the German and Saudi crews learning to work together -- Mansour was buoyant, Paul said.
"She's very fast in overcoming new difficulties, and in an upbeat spirit," Paul said.
Last summer "Wadjda" premiered at the Venice and Telluride film festivals, earning praise for Mansour's subtle direction and a U.S. release from Sony Pictures Classics, which handled the Oscar-winning 2011 Iranian drama "A Separation," about the dissolution of a marriage.
"'A Separation' was such an eye-opener to me in the sense that there were people questioning whether the film went too specific into the Iranian culture," said Michael Barker, co-president and co-founder of the Sony unit. "But if the overall story has a universal appeal, in 'Wadjda' it's about parents and kids and restrictions and freedom, that's something we can all relate to."
Sony Classics has been showing the film to noted feminists -- Gloria Steinem and Queen Noor of Jordan both attended screenings -- and will release it in the U.S. slowly over the fall, starting Sept. 13. (The movie premiered in multiple European countries this summer.)
Mansour said she plans to work in Saudi Arabia again. For her, screening her movie in the kingdom was a high.
"Film is about uplifting, embracing the love of life, it's about moving ahead, it's about victory," she said. "It's not about defeat."
One victory has already been won. This spring, a new law went into effect: With some restrictions, Saudi women are now allowed to ride bicycles.
Rush (U.S. Universal, International Sales by Exclusive)
Ron Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer whose imagine Entertainment have had an overall deal at Universal for 27 years, however, this mid-budget range film of some $50,000,000 was considered not "big enough" for the majors.
To read more about this complex and fascinating film and its international film business background, read the following articles which are quoted throughout this article with thanks and acknowledgement to:
· Variety September 13, 2013 (reprinted at the end of this blog) · Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2013 · The Hollywood Reporter September 28, 2011
Aside from major director Ron Howard himself, the second “major” element of the film is that Universal is the North American distributor of the film. This happens through the three year minimum-6-picture distribution deal Brian Oliver’s Cross Creek has with Universal in which Cross Creek produces and finances either its own films or films chosen from Universal’s development slate. Cross Creek is set up to generate up to four films per year, with Universal to distribute at least two of them with a wide-release commitment.
Isa (International Sales Agent) Exclusive Media is also an independent. This too is the result of Oliver’s deal with Exclusive to jointly finance two projects per year.
Cross Creek, putting its own cash into the project, split the cost of the picture with Exclusive who financed it through a bank loan made against pre-sales generated in 2011 at the Afm. With Howard there to promote the project to buyers, Exclusive secured around $33 million in foreign pre-sales. See Cinando’s list of distributors .
Additionally, Oliver and Eaton structured the project as a U.K.- German co-production, enabling them to secure about $12 million in soft money from Germany (Egoli Tossell) in accordance with U.K.’s co-production treaty. As a result, U.K. rights ended up with Studiocanal.
Brian Oliver is a “one of Hollywood’s biggest and more unusual financiers of risky films, with coin coming mostly from oil and real estate investments in Texas”. This major Hollywood financier/ producer takes chances which prove his astute, if askew, view of what makes a “Hollywood” picture an indie at the same time, as shown by his credits, The Ides of March and Black Swan.
Andrew Eaton is a British producer with deep Hollywood connections through the British community here, e.g., Eric Fellner of Working Title, the British production company currently owned by Universal. (Parenthetically, I bought U.S. rights to Working Title’s first film, My Beautiful Laundrette for Lorimar along with Orion Classics and so I was quite thrilled to have a chance to be in touch with the talented Brits once again).
Working Title had worked with Andrew Easton on Frost/Nixon. Eric Fellner loved the script and offered it to Universal for funding. However, as said, Universal passed on it because it was too small.
“It is going to be easy for people to think this is a Hollywood movie, and it just is not,” quotes Variety from the film’s British screenwriter, Peter Morgan, who penned Frost/Nixon which was also directed by Howard. “It is a British independent film directed by a Hollywood director.”
Eaton and Oliver spoke of how they put this film together.
“We must champion the fact that this is basically 80% a British film in terms of the people who worked on it, the way it was structured and the way we ran it,” says Eaton, who was behind such indie films as 24 Hour Party People and the Red Riding TV series.
Can a Song Save Your Life? (U.S. UTA, Isa: Exclusive)
Exclusive has another film here, Can a Song Save Your Life? which is also repped by Rena Ronson, Co-Head of the Independent Film Group of UTA. Directed by John Carney who came to the public’s attention with his micro-budgeted Once which plays on stage here in Toronto at the moment, in New York and elsewhere regularly. The Weinstein Company picked it up in Toronto, reportedly paying around a $7 million minimum guarantee for U.S. rights with a P&A commitment of at least $20 million.
UTA as an agency also packages both large (studio) and smaller indie films. Rena Ronson, the co-head of UTA Indie explained how her own indie roots -- first at indie distributor Fox-Lorber and continuing into international sales before becoming the “indie agent” at Wma, succeeding the “indie” founder, Bobbi Thompson, have taught her to speak the language of the international as well as the independent film business. She knows the major modes of operating as well as she knows the independent style of business. She further explained that the successes of the larger films permit the “smaller”, i.e., “indie” films to be made.
UTA repped films in Toronto are listed below. For a full report of rights sold, before, during and after Toronto, watch SydneysBuzz.com for the Fall 2013 Rights Roundup.
Can A Song Save Your Life?
Writer/Director: John Carney Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine, Catherine Keener, Mos Def, Cee-Lo Green Publicity: Falco / Shannon Treusch, Monica Delameter U.S. Producer Rep: UTA / CAA . Isa: Exclusive Media Group
U.S. rights were acquired at Tiff 13 by TWC for a record breaking $7 million.
Since first announcing it in Cannes 2012, Exclusive has made other deals as well for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan (Tanweer), Germany (Studiocanal), Japan (Pony Canyon Inc), Philippines (Solar Entertainment), Russia (A Company), So. Korea ( Pancinema), Switzerland ( Ascot Elite Entertainment Group ), Taiwan ( Serenity Entertainment International ), Turkey (D Productions), the Middle East ( Front Row Filmed Entertainment).
Tiff Special Presentations:
Hateship, Loveship
Director: Liza Johnson Writer: Mark Poirier Writer (Novel): Alice Munro Starring: Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte Publicity: Prodigy PR, Erik Bright
North American Sale: UTA / Cassian Elwes. Isa: The Weinstein Co. Sena has rights for Iceland.
The F Word
Director: Michael Dowse Writer: Elan Mastai Writers (Play): Michael Rinaldi & T.J. Dawe Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Rafe Spall, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis, Amanda Crew Publicity: Strategy PR / Cynthia Schwartz, Michael Kupferberg Us Sale: UTA / Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman. Isa: eOne
After UTA sold the The F Word to CBS Films for the U.S. for around $3 million in Toronto, Entertainment One Films International completed other international sales. Besides Canada and the U.K., eOne itself will release the film in Australia/New Zealand, Benelux and Spain feeding its own international distribution pipeline. Other sales include Germany to Senator Entertainment, Middle East to Front Row Entertainment, Nigeria toRed Mist, Russia to Carmen Film Group, Turkey to Mars Entertainment Group
Night Moves
Writer/Director: Kelly Reichart Writer: Jonathan Raymond Starring: Dakota Fanning, Jesse Eisenberg, Peter Sarsgaard, Alia Shawkat Publicity: Ginsberg/Libby, Chris Libby North American Sale: UTA Isa: The Match Factory
Tiff Vanguard
The Sacrament
Writer/Director: Ti West Starring: Joe Swanberg, Aj Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Kate Lyn Sheil, Gene Jones Publicity: Dda, Dana Archer, Alice Zhou North American Sale: UTA / CAA Isa: Im Global sold to Pegasus Motion Pictures Distribution Ltd . For China
As of this writing, rather 1 hour ago, Magnolia Pictures, which lost on an earlier bidding war here for Joe, is finalizing a deal for the picture reportedly for seven figures.
Coincidentallywith the beginning of the Toronto Film Festival, the front page of L.A. Times quoted Rena Ronson in an article called "Making history as cameras roll" (print edition) or "Wadjda' director makes her mark in Saudi cinema" (online edition) about Wadjda , (Isa: The Match Factory) last year’s Venice and Telluride film which Rena had spotted at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, where it won a script award. It was written and directed by a woman which is notable in such a male-dominated part of the world. She met the writer-director, Haifaa Mansour, and that led to working with her for the next two years to finance the film. Its $2.5m budget was backed in part by the Rotana Group, the largest media company in the Middle East, owned primarily by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The German production company Razor Film owned and operated by Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul whose first coproduction in 2005, Paradise Now brought them into international prominence and who also picked up last year’s Tiff groundbreaking film from Afghanistan,The Patience Stone, and previously coproduced Waltz With Bashir, came on board and brought German broadcast deals and German film funds as well.
Doha and Film Financing
The fourth panelist was Paul Miller, Head of Film Financing, from the Doha Film Institute , Qatar's first international organization dedicated to film financing, production, education and two film festivals. Doha encourages submission for financing film financing opportunities from anywhere in the world. The Dfi Grants program supports first- and second-time filmmakers in producing and developing their own stories. There are two funding rounds per year. Applications are considered from three regions (basically divided into the Middle East, developing nations and the rest of the world – with some exceptions -- each with different eligibility criteria.
Consideration for funding is open to feature-length films in development, production and post-production, as well as short films in production and post-production. Since 2010, Dfi has provided funding to more than 138 filmmakers.
Beyond the regional grants program, Dfi also invests in a diverse slate of international productions to encourage greater collaboration, mentorship and co‑production opportunities between Gulf countries and the rest of the world. Co-financing applications apply to both Middle Eastern and international feature films, television and web series. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year.
Four films at Tiff that Doha has helped finance:
Mohammed Malas’s Ladder to Damacus, screening in Tiff’s Contemporary World Cinema section; Jasmila Žbanic’s For Those Who Can Tell No Tales in the Special Presentation section. Both films were co-financed by Dfi. Dfi grant recipients Néjib Belkadhi’s Bastardo and Mais Darwazah’s My Love Awaits Me by the Sea screening in the Contemporary World Cinema and Discovery sections, respectively.
The fifth panelist, Ted Hope, Director of the San Francisco Film Society, a non-profit training, festival, and funding operation is known to everyone from his history with Good Machine (which was acquired by Universal and renamed Focus Features), and from his blog Hope for Film/ Truly Free Film . In his always-inimitable fashion, Ted proposed a new sort of financing, called "staged financing", based on a progressive meeting of certain criterion from development through distribution. This way of financing is similar to the venture capital models of financing. His broad ideas on what has to change with the industry's funding and packaging methods brought the panelists and the audience to heel at attention. I reprint his blog after this because this idea goes against the current grain of financing an entire film which may or may not prove to be the final box office bingo winner it always purports to be when securing full financing.
The Sffs provided some funding to Thomas Oliver's 1982 which is in Tiff this year. Aside from winning Us in Progress’ $60,000 in post-production services at this year’s Champs Elysees Film Festival, 1982 also received Sffs’s $85,000 post production grant and participated in the Sffs’s A2E labs. The film is being represented by Kevin Iwashina’s Preferred Content.
The panel became very animated as Ted Hope and Rena Ronson faced off about whether a film is made for a broad audience or whether, if targeted correctly, it could actually make money with niche audiences. As always, the two of them, both equally astute, brought much to bear on both sides of the argument. And, I, as the panel’s moderator, hereby declare, They are both right.
The broader the audience the more potential for making money.
However, as Ted points out, with crowd sourcing, crowd funding and crowd theatrical exhibition, there are many other ways beyond ticket purchases that filmmakers can offer in order to make money with their targeted audience.
This, as well as the great contributions made by Doha’s Paul Miller and Revolution’s Andrew Eaton could have extended the panel into a full day. Paul Oliver of Cross Creek was the quietest, perhaps most reticent, of the speakers, but he amply demonstrated that he is one who puts his money where his mouth is. His acumen and taste make us all grateful for his existence as he is a pivotal point person in creating works of art that create substantial revenues for a sustainable art house film business.
The audience as well was most enthusiastic with their questions and post panel discussions with panelists who stayed to talk.
Articles Reprinted Here:
Truly Free Film
Staged Financing Must Become Film Biz’s Immediate Goal
Posted: 06 Sep 2013 05:15 Am Pdt
Each day I become more and more convinced that staged financing could be a cure to much of the Film Biz’s ills. Staged financing? What? Is the phrase not exactly center of your conversations right now? Why not?!! Whatsamattawidyou? Don’t you know a good solution when you see one?
Although it already exists in many fields, and even in a few small patches of our own yard, I recognize that a staged financing strategy is not yet the force behind Indieland’s own gardening. I am however growing convinced it could yield a far more fruitful harvest than our current methods. A staged-financing ecosystem can’t be built in a one-off manner though. Although it also does not need to the rule of the realm, it needs a permanent eco-system to support it.
Staged financing is part of a much bigger solution that we urgently need to bring to our industry: a sustainable investor class . We need smart money and need to stop seeking, encouraging, and propagating dumb money. Most film investors get out, win or lose, by their third film (I have been told this and don’t have the stats to back it up now, but if you do, please share — otherwise just trust that is what my experience has shown). The value of most independent money in the film biz is the money itself, and that is not good for anyone.
Staged financing is exactly what it says to be. I know in this world such literalness is a strange thing, but there is it. Staged financing is a funding process that is there for each distinct stage. In comparison, it is the opposite of up-front financing — the type that monopolizes the narrative feature world. I am proposing that we institutionalize the staged-financing process and make it easier to finance your film in drips and drabs. Why am I so bullish on what probably sounds like hell to many? Why do I think it will save indie film? Let’s count the ways.
Staged financing increases the predictability of success. Investors can base their continued commitment on a proof of prinicipal instead of just a pitch. The longer one waits the more they know — of course the longer one waits the lower the chance for their to be the opportunity for investment, so there. The more investors can project or even predict their success, the longer they will stay in the game, and the more that will gather to pay — i.e. more capital at play! Staged financing allows filmmakers and their supporters to pivot based on real world data. The old way had very little it could do when new information hit. Your film (and investment) could be rendered obsolete over night. But that does not have to be a done deal is this new world. This is just one of the many reasons for #1 above of course. Staged financing diversifies the creative class. Wouldn’t it be great if the film biz was actually a meritocracy? Well, if people had to make good movies to complete their financing, wouldn’t that be a bit closer to the case? Staged financing gives all people the opportunity to prove they have a good idea, whether that idea is completed or not. It is not about who you know, but about what you’ve done and can do. Documentary film — compared to the narrative world — already has a great deal of staged financing institutionalized — and benefits from gender proportional representation among directors. Need I say more?Staged financing allows ambitious artistic work to flourish. Instead of just having “commercial elements”, unique and inspiring work can be recognized for the potential it truly has. Instead of being rewarded for being able to earn trust or arrogantly claim to know what one is doing, staged financing allows good work to be rewarded for being good work. Currently, we mistake confidence for capability and those that boast to be able to predict what the end product will be (where there is no way that they will actually know what the 100+ decisions each day will yield), get to play — not the work that delivers something new and wonderful. Staged financing rewards quality over risk mitigation. Staged financing is actually a better form of risk mitigation than the present form that is only based on regurgitating what has already proven successful. When we limit risk by mimicking what has worked in the past, all we are doing is guessing and covering our ass — and this leads to a film culture of movie titles overrun with numerals. We live in an era of abundance, and as comforting as the familiar may be, we have more access to it than ever before. We rarely need the new version of it. We will however need truly original work more and more as time goes on as we will drowning in the repetitive. How will we prove what works? Staged financing, my friend, staged financing. Staged financing creates a better project as it incentivizes the creators every step of the way. Not that you truly need to incentivize those that are in the passion industries for the right reason, but it never hurts to weed out those that are in it for the wrong reason. When your financing is based on your work and not your connections or investors’ fears, you will do all you can to make each stage of financing shine, justify itself, and be truly competitive. Staged financing requires you to walk a series of steps, proving you have earned the right with every advance — and you better do your homework if you don’t want to get left behind. Staged financing requires you choose your initial partners wisely. It’s not just about the terms of the deal that should determine whom your investors are — but that is how we generally act nowadays. Everyone should instead seek value-add investors. You should get more than just money from your investors. You should benefit from their expertise. Filmmakers, agents, lawyers, and managers, often are willing to leap into bed with anyone who offers the most cash — there’s a name for that practice and it should not be film investment. Staged financing means the creators will have “skin in the game”. When it is an up-front finance model, the creators are not working for a payout in success but working just for the upfornt fees (or some semblance thereof); they may have “profit participation” but basically the only anticipated earnings are what is in the budget. It becomes increasingly difficult to motivate the creative team to be engaged in the needed work after the film premieres. Investors have long recognized that this is not the most beneficial arrangement, yet what can they do? The answer my friend, is… yup, you know the song I am singing: everyone loves that staged financing! Staged financing is a time-tested process that has already been adopted by many industries . Staged financing is the modus operandi of Silicon Valley and all the Vc firms. Other industries, from mining onwards, have seen real benefits from the process. Why do we limit our success and not apply proven models to our field? Could it be that somewhere someone is desperately clutching on to what ever paltry power they perceive themselves to possess? Hmmm… If they don’t offer the model you want at the store, build a new model — or maybe even a chain of stores. Staged financing gives producers of quality work more power. The main objection to staged financing is that it gives financiers more power. That is only true if you are making crap. Or mediocre work. If you are making something wonderfully astounding you will never struggle to progress to the next round — and in fact you will be able to improve your terms. And investors won’t complain either, because they now can have to know a good thing when they see one.
So if Staged Financing is this marvelous thing, why have our leaders not yet delivered it to you? Well, they don’t care about you; didn’t you know that?
And if Staged Financing could really save Indie Film, why has the community not constructed this marvelous ecosystem yet? Well, we’ve all been too busy chasing shiny objects and marveling at the reflections fed back of us.
But change is here. We have hope. We can build it better together. And I have already started. The San Francisco Film Society is committed to it. We have others who want to be part of. We are have spots for more to join in. And we are going to help a few select projects really rock this world.
Watch this space. Let’s do it together and truly astonish the world with your awe inspiring work. Just don’t be slack, okay?
Variety, August 21, 2013:
“Rush,” the high-octane car racing film about the public rivalry between legendary Formula One drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt during the 1970s, has all the markings of tinseltown’s latest flashy biopic, withRon Howard at the wheel, Chris Hemsworth as its star, and Universal Pictures releasing the film Sept. 27. But that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.
“It is going to be easy for people to think this is a Hollywood movie, and it just is not,” says the upcoming film’s British screenwriter, Peter Morgan, who penned “Frost/Nixon,” also directed by Howard. “It is a British independent film directed by a Hollywood director.” Get Weekly Online News and alerts free to your inbox
As the majors focus more on putting their money behind mega-budgeted projects with built-in brand awareness — sequels, reboots, films based on toys, videogames and comicbooks — filmmakers are finding Hollywood’s studio system rapidly shifting under their feet.
“Because studios are less interested in the midbudget area, there is a massive opportunity for independents to step into that (area) at the moment,” says “Rush” producer Andrew Eaton of London-based Revolution Films.
Indeed, it’s getting harder to set up a midbudget range original project at a studio, even for veteran filmmakers like Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer, whose Imagine Entertainment has had an overall deal at Universal for 27 years (the longest standing deal U has had in its 100-year history with a production company). That’s forced directors to look elsewhere to tackle the kinds of films now considered too risky to make or the ones that won’t fill retail shelves with merchandise.
Another Hollywood vet, producer Marc Platt, who’s had a production deal at Universal since 1998 after stepping down as its production head, similarly had to find indie financing for his film “2 Guns” after Universal said it would not bankroll the picture but simply distribute it.
With “Rush,” Howard found himself in an entirely new role as the director of a $50 million film that was his first to be independently financed — through a series of bonds, contingencies and pre-sales. He also was a director for hire, replacing Paul Greengrass, who was originally set to bring the showy personalities of Hunt (Hemsworth), a British playboy; and the more serious Austrian champion Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) to the big screen.
“We must champion the fact that this is basically 80% a British film in terms of the people who worked on it, the way it was structured and the way we ran it,” says Eaton. The exec, who was behind such indie films as “24 Hour Party People” and the “Red Riding” series, is modest, and like most Brits politely shies away from the spotlight, tending not to grab credit even when its due.
But he believes “Rush” shows off Blighty’s mettle.
“These are the kinds of films we should be making in the U.K. because we can do it, and we can do it for better value of money,” he says.
Morgan began writing the story of Lauda, a friend of his wife’s, on spec some years ago, intrigued by the driver’s courageous comeback just 40 days after a devastating crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix that severely burned his face and saw him lapse into a coma, and how that might play against Hunt’s notorious womanizing and party lifestyle that gained him rock-star status.
Eager to work with Eaton again after Fernando Meirelles’ “360,” Morgan showed the producer the first draft of “Rush,” and Eaton was hooked.
“Andrew was always going to be a great fit for this project,” Morgan says. “If (the) responsibility was to make this at a price, Andrew could do this. He could make a $50 million film feel like a $150 million film.”
With Greengrass, another Brit, attached to direct, Morgan showed the script to close friend Eric Fellner at his Universal-owned British production outfit Working Title. Fellner, who had worked with him on “Frost/Nixon,” loved the new script and offered it to Universal for funding.
But the studio passed, considering it risky subject matter, given the biopic elements and low profile of F1 racing in the U.S. Universal also didn’t believe the film could be made for the right price. Still Fellner stayed onboard, and his contacts in the F1 arena proved invaluable. His relationships with Ferrari and McLaren thanks to his work on documentary “Senna” enabled “Rush” to enlist the brands in the pic without losing editorial control.
“Ron (Howard) jokes that my major contribution was engine noise,” Fellner says. “Maybe I can take credit for a bit of that.”
Soon after Universal passed, Cross Creek Pictures topper Brian Oliver reached out to Eaton to finance the project — so eager that he offered to put up $2 million before he even signed the deal so that Eaton could order replicas of the 1970s cars to be ready in time for the shoot. He also was instrumental in steering Hemsworth toward the project.
“Typically we don’t spend that kind of money without knowing the movie is going and the budget is done,” Oliver says. “But I was passionate about the script, and I really thought it was a film with a lot of heart, not just a race car movie.”
Cross Creek, also behind “The Ides of March” and “Black Swan,” has quickly become one of Hollywood’s biggest and more unusual financiers of risky films, with coin coming mostly from oil and real estate investments in Texas.
“He’s an unusual maverick in Hollywood because he really fought to get the budget to the highest level he could,” says Eaton of Oliver. “There’s no bullshit with him — he gets stuff done.” Adds Fellner: “Without Brian, the film wouldn’t have gotten off of the ground. He put his money where his mouth is.”
Shortly after funding started coming together, Greengrass dropped off the project due, ironically, to his issues with the budget. Within 24 hours, Morgan and Fellner enticed Howard to come onboard. The financing arrangement intrigued him, but what really attracted Howard was the ability to re-create the world of Formula One in the 1970s “when sex was safe and driving was dangerous,” as he has said in past interviews.
“Ron was incredibly gracious in trusting us to deliver,” Eaton says. “He was very smart about knowing we needed to make this film in a different way. He’d never made a film with a bond before, and never made a film with a contingency before, but he rolled up his sleeves and was ready to learn.” Some of that indie spirit has already rubbed off on Howard, who is now sticking with a mostly British crew on his next project, “In the Heart of the Sea,” including “Rush” cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and costume designer Julian Day. “Heart” lenses in London.
Exclusive Media came in as the final partner on “Rush,” brought in by Oliver under his deal with Exclusive to jointly finance two projects per year.
Cross Creek split the cost of the pic with Exclusive, with the former putting its own cash in to the pic and the latter financing through a bank loan made against pre-sales generated in 2011 at the Afm, where Howard helped shop the project to buyers. The move proved a success, as Exclusive secured $33 million in foreign pre-sales.
Additionally, Oliver and Eaton structured the project as a U.K.-German co-production, enabling them to secure about $12 million in soft money.
As a result, U.K. rights ended up going to Studiocanal. Universal agreed to distribute “Rush” in the U.S. through its output deal with Cross Creek.
Eaton pressed to put all of the money raised on the screen. “Rush” became the highest-budget film he had ever worked with after 2000’s “The Claim,” which cost $18 million to produce.
“(‘Rush’) was financed in exactly the same way we finance every independent film, and we approached shooting in the same way as we do everything — you try to put as much money as you can onscreen,” Eaton says. “It’s about not wasting money on things you don’t need, like private jets and extravagances.”
Hollywood has tried to bring to life the world of Formula One before.
Sylvester Stallone directed “Driven,” which originally was set in the world of F1, before he changed course and based it on rival Cart racing, instead.
The reason? To gain access to F1, filmmakers must first get the greenlight from the often polarizing Bernie Ecclestone, the 82-year-old billionaire who holds a tight grip on the racing league that has long counted the elite as fans, including Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, and celebs including Michael Fassbender, Patrick Dempsey, Gordon Ramsey, George Lucas, and Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte.
Although Stallone tried to gain Ecclestone’s approval, “I apologize to fans of Formula 1, but there is a certain individual there who runs the sport that has his own agenda,” Stallone said in 2000. “F1 is very formal, and it’s very hard to get to know people.”
David Cronenberg also planned to direct a tentpole around F1 for Paramount, in 1986, with the director scouting the project by attending Grand Prix races in Australia and Mexico. The film, “Red Cars,” would have revolved around American driver Phil Hill winning the world championship for Ferrari in 1961. Plans were shelved when Ecclestone decided not to support the project. Instead, Cronenberg published a limited edition art book based on the screenplay in 2005.
One of the few cinematic standouts so far is Asif Kapadia’s documentary “Senna,” about the charismatic Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, killed in a race in 1994 that’s show in the docu. “Senna” went on to earn $8.2 million, and helped educate viewers of the sport by focusing not on the races but Senna’s iconic presence and his impact on pop culture.
“Rush” is looking to put a spotlight on the personalities behind the wheel and the often riveting rivalries between drivers — what many consider the real draw to the sport. Bruhl has compared them to “modern knights constantly facing death.”
As the film races toward its September release — it will be shown at the Toronto Film Festival out of competition — Howard has screened it for not only racing fans but Formula One, itself.
He recently showed the film to a group of F1 drivers (including Lauda, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa) at Germany’s Grand Prix, calling that audience the toughest test so far, and comparing the experience to screening “Apollo 13” to Nasa’s astronauts and mission controllers in 1995.
In his efforts to promote the film, Howard has called the Hunt-Lauda rivalry one of the greatest in all of sports. “Their story is so remarkable, you (could) only do it if it was true, because people wouldn’t quite believe it. They were willing to risk their lives to attain this elite status. They paid a price for it, but they defined themselves.”
Morgan also has been doing his part to reassure F1 fans that the film is authentic, stressing that it’s about the people in the cars, and not the sport itself.
Any way the wheel’s spun, it’s clear the film’s overall success will largely be driven by how it plays overseas. “Rush” will need to appeal to an international audience that’s more familiar with F1 — a sport second in popularity only to soccer — than to those in the U.S.
But Howard needs to hook moviegoers closer to home — making the American director’s job a much tougher sell.
It’s not really that surprising that there’s nothing all that American about “Rush.”
Formula One is still struggling to find an audience in the U.S. It’s looking to change that through a new $3 million broadcasting deal with NBC Sports that airs 13 races on the cable channel, two on CNBC, and four on NBC. The Monaco Grand Prix was the first of four F1 races to air live on NBC this year, with the final race taking place Nov. 24 from Brazil.
Ratings have averaged a 0.3 rating, although the Monaco race was watched by 1.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched Formula One race on U.S. television in six years, and up 40% over last year’s race when it aired on Speed TV, Nielsen said.
Promos have emphasized the speed of F1’s jetfighter cars, its international appeal and Olympics-like profiles of the drivers.
Formula One also is looking to rev up new fans in the U.S. through the opening of its first permanent track in Austin, Texas, last year, known as the Circuit of the Americas. Howard attended its first race, where Lauda also roamed the track’s garages.
What’s ironic is that Howard isn’t a very good driver. He proved that recently racing around the track of BBC’s hit show “Top Gear” to promote “Rush,” ending up in second to last place on the series’ celebrity leader board — behind Genesis’ Mike Rutherford.
Host Jeremy Clarkson was quick to mock him, saying “We finally found something you can’t do. Good at directing, brilliant in ‘Happy Days,’ a charming human being — but utterly crap at driving.”
Ron Howard's Risky Formula One Movie, 'Rush'
Can this Euro-centric car racing film play in the U.S.?
By Rachel Dodes Conn
Ron Howard's films, like "Apollo 13" and "Frost/Nixon," typically deal with issues very familiar to American audiences. His latest project, Mr. Howard's first independently financed film, is a bit of a departure: "Rush" chronicles the rivalry between Austrian Formula One racer Niki Lauda and his nemesis, the British driver James Hunt, over the course of the historic 1976 season. While competing in Nürburg, Germany during treacherous weather conditions, Mr. Lauda (Daniel Brühl, right) crashed his Ferrari and sustained severe burns to his face and lungs. Yet, fueled by a desire to beat Mr. Hunt (Chris Hemsworth, above), a playboy type whose wife (Olivia Wilde) ran off with Richard Burton, Mr. Lauda was back in his car just six weeks later—still wearing his bandages—to race against him in the Italian Grand Prix.
When Mr. Howard received the script on spec from screenwriter Peter Morgan ("Frost/Nixon," "The Last King of Scotland"), he wasn't a Formula One fan and didn't know who Messrs. Hunt and Lauda were. "I looked them up on Wikipedia," he admits. But as he read about the racers' personalities, he started to see broader themes that would appeal to U.S. moviegoers. "Maybe this is the American in me identifying this," he says, "but both these guys are utterly and entirely individuals—there was no Yoda telling them to seek their higher self."
For Mr. Howard, the process of researching "Rush" was surprisingly similar to learning about space travel for his "Apollo 13," because he found himself having to make arcane automotive engineering terms accessible to viewers. "It was really fun to understand a sport that combines cutting-edge technology with very dangerous competition," he says. "The visceral, cool and sexy element offered a kind of cinematic experience that nowadays exists only with sci-fi."
Formula One isn't nearly as popular in the U.S. as Nascar, and the subject matter is likelier to play well overseas, where the film's financing came from. It premiered Monday, in London, a few weeks before its U.S. opening. The filmmakers say it's more than just a sports picture, and they expect it to appeal to women as well as men.
Saudi Female Filmmaker Succeeds In Making A Movie About A Girl Who Wants A Bicycle
Los Angeles Times
By Rebecca Keegan
Sept. 6, 2013
In a country where women can't freely move around, Haifaa Mansour covertly films the story of a girl's quest for a bicycle.
The production lost two days to sandstorms. The crew faced a last-minute scramble when the nervous owner of a mall changed his mind about allowing filming there. Some days locals chased the cameras away; other days they brought platters of lamb and rice to the set, and asked to be extras.
Meanwhile, the director hid in a van, speaking to her cast via walkie-talkie. In Saudi Arabia, where driving a car is a subversive act for a woman, a 39-year-old mother of two has done something remarkable: written and directed what her distributor believes is the first feature film shot entirely in the ultraconservative kingdom.
Haifaa Mansour is the director of "Wadjda," a drama about a plucky 10-year-old girl who enrolls in a Koran recitation competition in order to win money for a bicycle she's forbidden by law to ride.
Like her young protagonist, Mansour's own story is one of feminine moxie.
In a sly protest of the country's ban on women behind the wheel, she drove herself to her wedding in a golf cart. Because women in Saudi Arabia can't mingle publicly with men outside their families, she shot her movie covertly on the streets of the capital, Riyadh. With movie theaters banned, she screened "Wadjda" in two foreign embassies and a cultural center.
Petite, self-assured, wearing white high-tops and blue nail polish, Mansour is modern in both her fashion and bearing. She speaks English quickly and colloquially, dropping frequent "you knows" into conversation. And she isn't afraid to counter misperceptions about her homeland, as when she gently corrected Bill Maher for calling Mecca the Saudi capital during a recent appearance on his HBO show.
Laced with empathy and humor, "Wadjda" is a quietly provocative portrait of a culture that straddles the centuries, where men wear the ancient white thobe but carry the latest iPads and women hold important jobs as doctors and news anchors but have yet to vote in an election.
"I didn't want to make a movie about women being raped or stoned," Mansour said in an interview in Beverly Hills in June. "For me it is the everyday life, how it's hard. For me, it was hard sometimes to go to work because I cannot find transportation. Things like that build up and break a woman."
The eighth of 12 children of a poet, Mansour grew up in a small town in a home that she describes as nurturing for a little girl.
"My family is very traditional, but my parents are very supportive, very kind," she said. "I never felt I can't do things because I'm a woman."
When Mansour was a teen, her mother removed the light veil she wore while picking her daughter up from school, a gesture that mortified the young woman at the time, but empowers her when she reflects on it now.
Though movie theaters have been shuttered in Saudi Arabia for decades for religious reasons, Mansour said her father, like others, often rented VHS tapes at Blockbuster for the family to watch -- she grew up on Jackie Chan movies, Bollywood productions, Egyptian cinema and Disney animated films. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was a particular favorite.
"In small-town Saudi, there is nothing to do. You don't get to exercise your emotions because nothing much is happening, you know?" she said. "So to see people falling in love and fighting, it's so powerful, you see beyond your small town."
After earning her bachelor's degree in comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, she returned to Saudi Arabia but quickly felt stymied.
"Going back to Saudi as a young woman, trying to assert yourself in the workplace, you have all those ideas … and all of a sudden you realize because you are a woman you are not heard," she said. "It was such a frustrating moment in my life. It was as if you are screaming in a vacuum."
The idea of women holding jobs still unnerves some Saudi men -- writer Abdullah Mohammed Daoud recently encouraged his more than 97,000 Twitter followers to sexually harass female grocery store clerks to intimidate women from working.
Recalling the freedom she found in movies, Mansour decided to make a short film with her siblings serving as cast and crew, a thriller about a male serial killer who hides under the black abaya worn by Muslim women. Her work -- two more shorts, a documentary and a stint hosting a talk show for a Lebanese network -- focused largely on the untold stories of Saudi women.
In 2005, at a U.S. embassy screening of her documentary, "Women Without Shadows," Mansour met her future husband, American diplomat Bradley Neimann. They now have two children, 2 and 5, and live in Bahrain, where Neimann works for the State Department.
When her husband was posted in Australia, Mansour pursued a master's in film studies at the University of Sydney, and wrote the script that became "Wadjda."
The story was inspired by her now teenage niece, who has tamped down her rambunctious personality to fit into Saudi norms.
"I thought, 'Wow, a woman writer from Saudi Arabia won?'" Rena Ronson said. "I had to meet her. She was so open and tenacious and smart."When Mansour's script for "Wadjda" won an award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, it caught the eye of the co-head of the independent film group at United Talent Agency.
Over the next two years Ronson helped Mansour secure financing for her film, which cost a little less than $2.5 million. The primary obstacle, as far as many potential Middle Eastern producers were concerned, was Mansour's desire to shoot in Saudi Arabia, which she felt lent her story authenticity.
The production finally won the tacit approval of the Saudi government -- one of its backers is Rotana Group, an entertainment company primarily owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Another major financier is the German company Razor Film.
Finding actors was another hurdle. Mansour and her producers recruited child performers through small companies that hire folkloric dancers for the Eid holidays. Many of their parents were uncomfortable with a movie about empowering women.
A week before she was scheduled to start shooting, Mansour still hadn't cast her title character when 12-year-old Waad Mohammed entered the room in blue jeans, with headphones clapped over her ears. Singing along to Justin Bieber, she won over Mansour with her sweet singing voice and tomboyish style.
The movie's half-German, half-Saudi crew worked around the rhythms of Saudi life, using cellphone apps that alerted them of the five daily prayer calls. The Germans carried notebooks; the Saudis relied on oral planning.
On the first day of shooting, a start time of 7:20 a.m. came and went. "I don't know what we were thinking," said German producer Roman Paul. "I don't think 7:20 exists in Saudi time. We Germans learned to relax, and the Saudis learned that there is a benefit to doing things at a certain time."
Despite tension on the set -- both from disapproving observers and from the German and Saudi crews learning to work together -- Mansour was buoyant, Paul said.
"She's very fast in overcoming new difficulties, and in an upbeat spirit," Paul said.
Last summer "Wadjda" premiered at the Venice and Telluride film festivals, earning praise for Mansour's subtle direction and a U.S. release from Sony Pictures Classics, which handled the Oscar-winning 2011 Iranian drama "A Separation," about the dissolution of a marriage.
"'A Separation' was such an eye-opener to me in the sense that there were people questioning whether the film went too specific into the Iranian culture," said Michael Barker, co-president and co-founder of the Sony unit. "But if the overall story has a universal appeal, in 'Wadjda' it's about parents and kids and restrictions and freedom, that's something we can all relate to."
Sony Classics has been showing the film to noted feminists -- Gloria Steinem and Queen Noor of Jordan both attended screenings -- and will release it in the U.S. slowly over the fall, starting Sept. 13. (The movie premiered in multiple European countries this summer.)
Mansour said she plans to work in Saudi Arabia again. For her, screening her movie in the kingdom was a high.
"Film is about uplifting, embracing the love of life, it's about moving ahead, it's about victory," she said. "It's not about defeat."
One victory has already been won. This spring, a new law went into effect: With some restrictions, Saudi women are now allowed to ride bicycles.
- 9/15/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Interview Seb Patrick 13 Sep 2013 - 06:58
Ahead of the release of F1 biopic Rush, we chat to co-star Daniel Bruhl about playing the legendary driver Niki Lauda...
Spanish-born German actor Daniel Brühl has been something of an indie cinema darling for a decade, now, following his breakthrough in the delightful Goodbye, Lenin in 2003. He came to the wider attention of English-speaking audiences with a superb turn in Inglourious Basterds, but 2013 looks to be the year in which he'll announce himself as a major, and prominent, talent. Later this year he plays Wikileaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate, and it's also being rumoured that he'll be appearing in Michael Winterbottom's The Face of An Angel, based on the Amanda Knox murder trial.
Before all of that, though, comes his turn as 1970s racing driver Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's enthralling biopic Rush. Brühl's performance is dazzling,...
Ahead of the release of F1 biopic Rush, we chat to co-star Daniel Bruhl about playing the legendary driver Niki Lauda...
Spanish-born German actor Daniel Brühl has been something of an indie cinema darling for a decade, now, following his breakthrough in the delightful Goodbye, Lenin in 2003. He came to the wider attention of English-speaking audiences with a superb turn in Inglourious Basterds, but 2013 looks to be the year in which he'll announce himself as a major, and prominent, talent. Later this year he plays Wikileaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate, and it's also being rumoured that he'll be appearing in Michael Winterbottom's The Face of An Angel, based on the Amanda Knox murder trial.
Before all of that, though, comes his turn as 1970s racing driver Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's enthralling biopic Rush. Brühl's performance is dazzling,...
- 9/11/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Though Rush director Ron Howard told us that German investors were keen for an American movie star to play the role of Niki Lauda in the forthcoming biopic, any such apprehensions will have since been put to bed, following the sublime performance by Daniel Brühl – and we had the great pleasure of discussing the film with the actor.
Out on September 13th, Rush explores the intense rivalry between Lauda and James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), which culminated dramatically in the 1976 season. Brühl tells us about his own personal meetings with Lauda – and what the racer had to say of his performance. He also tells us which of the two F1 racers he is more similar to in personality – and who would win in a race between himself and co-star Hemsworth.
What attracted you to Rush and what were your first thoughts when reading the script?
Well, I grew up in Cologne,...
Out on September 13th, Rush explores the intense rivalry between Lauda and James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), which culminated dramatically in the 1976 season. Brühl tells us about his own personal meetings with Lauda – and what the racer had to say of his performance. He also tells us which of the two F1 racers he is more similar to in personality – and who would win in a race between himself and co-star Hemsworth.
What attracted you to Rush and what were your first thoughts when reading the script?
Well, I grew up in Cologne,...
- 9/11/2013
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
If you happened to be anywhere near Leicester Square last night, you may have heard quite a lot of noise coming from London's premier premiere location. Some was from the fans, there to see Rush director Ron Howard and stars Daniel Bruhl (who plays Niki Lauda in the film) and Chris Hemsworth (James Hunt), but a lot of it was from the Formula 1 cars tearing round the block.Current F1 drivers Sergio Perez and Jenson Button were the men in the not-so-London-friendly vehicles, wearing regular smart suits as well as their helmets. Joining them from the world of racing were Bernie Ecclestone, Jackie Stewart, David Coulthard, Niki Lauda himself and, um, David Hasselhoff.Then there was the lovely Olivia Wilde, who also stars in the film, as well as Liam Hemsworth, Chris's little brother, and Elsa Pataky, Fast & Furious actress and Hemsworth The Older's other half.You can see them...
- 9/3/2013
- EmpireOnline
Cologne, Germany – Public prosecutors in Munich have brought charges of bribery against Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone. The charges are related to a $44 million Ecclestone allegedly paid German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky in 2006. German prosecutors said the money was a bribe to get Gribkowsky to wave through a $1.6 billion sale of the Formula One racing circuit to Cvc, a private equity group with close ties to Ecclestone. 10 High-Paid Entertainment CEOs: How Much They Make In a surprise 11th hour confession, Gribkowsky last year admitted to receiving the bribe from Ecclestone. A German court found Gribkowsky
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- 7/17/2013
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Los Angeles, June 12: Model Tamara Ecclestone has reportedly married ex-city trader Jay Jay Rutland in southeastern France.
Tamara, 28, is said to have enjoyed a lavish wedding affair as her father, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, splurged 650,000 pounds hiring 73 rooms at the Grand Hotel in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and 3.5 million pounds on entertainment, including a 30-minute fireworks display and an Elton John gig, reports thesun.co.uk.
Tamara and Jay met in January and got engaged in February. They were spotted at a London registrar's office June 7.
Ians...
Tamara, 28, is said to have enjoyed a lavish wedding affair as her father, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, splurged 650,000 pounds hiring 73 rooms at the Grand Hotel in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and 3.5 million pounds on entertainment, including a 30-minute fireworks display and an Elton John gig, reports thesun.co.uk.
Tamara and Jay met in January and got engaged in February. They were spotted at a London registrar's office June 7.
Ians...
- 6/12/2013
- by Smith Cox
- RealBollywood.com
Queen’s Park Rangers are down. Not quite officially yet of course, but they are as good as down even with 6 games to go.
Harry Redknapp’s side might have an outside chance of staying up, if they go on an incredible run, but I don’t see it given that they did not win their first 16 Premier League games of the season – they were pretty much doomed from the start. Sorry Qpr fans, but a massive non-winning start to the campaign has left you doomed even before Redknapp took on the job.
I feel bad for Qpr – they came into the league with such promise having won the Championship under Neil Warnock and with Tony Fernandes coming on board as the new owner (replacing the previous owners Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore or F1’s crazy old men as they are also known) life seemed good for the R’s.
Harry Redknapp’s side might have an outside chance of staying up, if they go on an incredible run, but I don’t see it given that they did not win their first 16 Premier League games of the season – they were pretty much doomed from the start. Sorry Qpr fans, but a massive non-winning start to the campaign has left you doomed even before Redknapp took on the job.
I feel bad for Qpr – they came into the league with such promise having won the Championship under Neil Warnock and with Tony Fernandes coming on board as the new owner (replacing the previous owners Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore or F1’s crazy old men as they are also known) life seemed good for the R’s.
- 4/10/2013
- by Ian Newby
- Obsessed with Film
It's the female version of a genital challenge ... two wildly rich sisters who are vying for the title of L.A. land baroness ... and in this contest Tamara Ecclestone is giving little sis Petra a run for her money.Real estate sources tell TMZ ... Tamara is on the hunt for a mansion more expensive than the one Petra bought from Candy Spelling which came with an $85 million price tag.We've learned the not-to-be-outdone Tamara went...
- 3/27/2013
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Los Angeles, Feb 10: Socialite Tamara Ecclestone does not wish to see her ex-boyfriend Omar Khyami.
Ecclestone, 28, parted ways with Khyami after the latter delivered their intimate video to her father Bernie Ecclestone in July last year.
"I feel so great. I've got more energy and I'm feeling really positive. I feel like I've finally put all the Omar drama in the past," new! magazine quoted Ecclestone as saying.
"I've changed my numbers and I've let go of everything in the past. In the past, I think I was nervous at the prospect of seeing him, but now it's fine. I have no desire to see him or speak to him," she.
Ecclestone, 28, parted ways with Khyami after the latter delivered their intimate video to her father Bernie Ecclestone in July last year.
"I feel so great. I've got more energy and I'm feeling really positive. I feel like I've finally put all the Omar drama in the past," new! magazine quoted Ecclestone as saying.
"I've changed my numbers and I've let go of everything in the past. In the past, I think I was nervous at the prospect of seeing him, but now it's fine. I have no desire to see him or speak to him," she.
- 2/10/2013
- by Arun Pandit
- RealBollywood.com
Tamara Ecclestone has 'no desire' to see Omar Khyami. The brunette beauty split from her stockbroker boyfriend last July after he had an X-rated tape of them together delivered to her father, Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone, and Tamara now feels more confident in herself to leave the incident in the past. She explained: 'I feel so great. I've got more energy and I'm feeling really positive. I feel like I've finally put all the Omar drama in the past. 'I've changed my numbers and I've let go of everything in the past. In the past, I think I was nervous at the prospect of seeing him, but now it's fine. I have no desire to see him or speak...
- 2/10/2013
- Monsters and Critics
Tamara Ecclestone has ''no desire'' to see Omar Khyami. The brunette beauty split from her stockbroker boyfriend last July after he had an X-rated tape of them together delivered to her father, Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone, and Tamara now feels more confident in herself to leave the incident in the past. She explained: ''I feel so great. I've got more energy and I'm feeling really positive. I feel like I've finally put all the Omar drama in the past. ''I've changed my numbers and I've let go of everything in the past. In the past, I think I was nervous at the...
- 2/10/2013
- Virgin Media - Celebrity
Petra Ecclestone is selling her London mansion for £32 million. The 24-year-old socialite - who is the daughter of billionaire Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone - has put her six-bedroom home in Eaton Square, located in the exclusive district of Belgravia, on the market after purchasing Candy Spelling's Hollywood mansion in 2011 for £51.1 million. Petra's 7,995 square feet townhouse is said to have been paid for by her father in 2009 and she shared it with her husband James Stunt and their pet dogs. As well as half a dozen bedrooms it also includes six bathrooms, three receptions and luxuries such as a screening room and air conditioning throughout. Knight Franks Properties, who have listed the mansion, write:...
- 1/4/2013
- Monsters and Critics
Tamara Ecclestone, daughter of Formula One founder Bernie Ecclestone, has just listed her London home for $32 million! Now, this might sound like a steal if you're thinking of Tamara's recently renovated 55,000-square-foot Kensington Palace Gardens place, which she purchased in 2010 for $73 million and plunked another $20 million into for its transformation. Alas, no buyer would ever be so lucky. The house the 28-year-old heiress is actually trying to unload is another abode—this one being a 6,245-square-foot mansion in nearby Chelsea. The property features a skylit indoor pool, a custom hair and makeup station and a driveway equipped with a vehicle...
- 1/2/2013
- E! Online
Tamara Ecclestone hasn't said a word to her ex-boyfriend since he sent a sex tape to her dad's office. The heiress and her family were devastated when Omar Khyami had X-rated footage delivered to her father Bernie Ecclestone in July, but the brunette beauty admits she would have 'never in a million years' imagined the stockbroker could do such a thing. Recalling what she did after watching the tape with Bernie and her mother, former Armani model Slavica Ecclestone, she said: 'I called my sister, Petra, who came to dad's office and, when she arrived, we were all crying. My dad was as white as a sheet - he's not really an emotional man but I could see...
- 12/5/2012
- Monsters and Critics
Tamara Ecclestone hasn't said a word to her ex-boyfriend since he sent a sex tape to her dad's office. The heiress and her family were devastated when Omar Khyami had X-rated footage delivered to her father Bernie Ecclestone in July, but the brunette beauty admits she would have ''never in a million years'' imagined the stockbroker could do such a thing. Recalling what she did after watching the tape with Bernie and her mother, former Armani model Slavica Ecclestone, she said: ''I called my sister, Petra, who came to dad's office and, when she arrived, we were all crying. My...
- 12/5/2012
- Virgin Media - Celebrity
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