Metallica goes three dimensional

Helmer Nimrod Antal continues to be drawn on to direct a three dimensional film featuring thrash metal cornerstones Metallica. The as-yet-untitled project is going to be created by Charlotte now Huggins.Based on the announcement, the film will mix concert footage with narrative elements starring the band's four people, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo. The film will start shooting in August, striving for any summer time 2013 release.First emerging around the fest scene with "Kontroll" in 2003, Antal has additionally directed British-language actioners "Vacancy" and "Potential predators." Huggins most lately created "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" captured. Metallica lately ended a slew of fest dates with fellow 1980s metal titans Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, then a skill-rock collaborative release with Lou Reed titled "Lulu." This guitar rock band can also be curating its inaugural "Orion Music and much moreInch festival this June in Nj. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Fowler upped at RCA

Jennifer Fowler remains promoted to senior v . p . of online marketing for RCA Records, the The brand new the new sony Music Entertainment label introduced today. Formerly v . p . of marketing for your RCA Group, which was consolidated in to a single label late a year ago, Fowler will oversee digital and mobile marketing for completely new releases. Fowler grew to become part of J Records as new media manager in 2001, carrying out a stint at Emusic.com. She'll are still accountable to RCA leader/COO Tom Corson. "Jennifer is constantly give you the stellar RCA Records' roster with excellent support and dynamic campaigns across all digital platforms," mentioned Corson in the statement. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

IFC Night time nabs 'Grabbers'

IFC Night time has acquired North and Latin American privileges to director Jon Wright's monster comedy "Grabbers," which performed at Sundance. The film, having a script by Kevin Lehane, stars Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, Russell Tovey, Lalor Roddy, David Pearse and Bronagh Gallagher. Film is created by Tracy Brimm and Kate Myers of Forward Films, Martina Niland of Samson Films, Eduardo Levy and James Martin of High Treason Prods. and Piers Tempest from the Salt Co. "Grabbers" is occur a sleepy fishing village from the coast of Ireland, where two mismatched cops make an effort to safeguard the islanders in the giant, bloodsucking, tentacled aliens which are to have them -- with booze his or her only weapon. IFC intends to release "Grabbers" later this season. The offer was discussed by Arianna Bocco, senior Vice president of purchases and productions for Sundance Chooses/IFC Films with Samantha Horley for that Salt Co. and Jay Cohen for Gersh with respect to the filmmakers. IFC Night time is really a sister division to IFC Films and Sundance Chooses and it is possessed and operated by AMC Systems. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

West End eyes Olympics

The advance for 'War Horse' during the Olympic period is almost double that of a year earlier. The massive summer influx of U.K. and foreign tourists traditionally spells bonanaza at the London legit box office. But this summer all bets are off - thanks to the London Olympics.Of all those fans flooding into town for the Games (July 27-Aug. 12) and the Paralympics (Aug. 29-Sept. 9), how many want to see West End shows?Initially, the mood was grim. Andrew Lloyd Webber was the first to fire warning shots, telling the BBC in late December, "I think the theater will have a bloodbath of a summer."According to him, the expected tourist audience was already down by 10% and he would have to close some of the theaters he owns. "That's partly because people can't get into hotels, partly because the hotels are so expensive - they've all put their prices up - and people who want to go to the theater or concerts are not the same sort of people who really want to go to sport."Cameron Mackintosh, also a theater owner in addition to being a producer, was more circumspect. "You sort of veer from fear to optimism depending on who you talk to. I mean, producers are worried," he says. The Society of London Theater, however, has built a marketing strategy to capitalize on the influx of foreigners. According to figures projected last December by the government-funded national tourism agency VisitBritain, there will be 30.7 million visitors to the U.K. in 2012, the same as the previous year. But a chunk of the Olympics tickets sold went to overseas buyers. Additional pop-up TKTS booths will appear across the West End, and Olympics guides and staffers at information centers have been given free tickets to shows over January and February in order to encourage sales. "The message is that you haven't really seen London unless you've been to the theater," says Julian Bird, SOLT exec director. The preparations aren't the only reason some legiters have been taking a more upbeat view. The National Theater's exec director Nick Starr announced in January that the West End production of "War Horse" had already experienced a spike in sales over the Olympics period. That's underlined by Sarah Hunt, the National's director of marketing, who notes that the advance business for the Olympics-Paralympics period for "Horse" is almost double that for the same period in 2011. Hunt cannot report figures for the same period at the National's home, since booking has not yet opened. But she sees potential crowd magnets in the building's starry programming for the period, including legit fave Simon Russell Beale headlining a new production of Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens," Julie Walters starring in a new play, and "War Horse" co-director Marianne Elliot helming a hotly anticipated adaptation of international bestseller "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time."Another reason Hunt remains upbeat: "I cannot believe people will come here and only see, say the 100-meter final," she says. "Why not take in London's attractions and culture?"At the moment, nobody knows what the effect of the Olympics will be on theatergoing - and that's because no real model exists. "There is no precedent for an Olympics in a capital city with the kind of nighttime economy that we have," Bird says. He remains, however, convincingly confident. "The vast majority of London theaters will be open," he notes. The only exception thus far is "Sweeney Todd." However, its prdoucer, Matthew Byam Shaw, explains that the two-week Olympic break is due in part to the contractual necessity to give stars Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton a statutory paid holiday. "We realized it would be best for the show if they took their holiday at the same time," he says. "It made sense to do that over the Olympics."The other key focus of SOLT's strategy has been to address widespread fears about potential transportation chaos. "We know from customer feedback that this is a fear that people have," says Bird. "But we've now seen the detailed planning and it shouldn't be a problem."Detailed traffic mapping for each Underground station has been done for every day of the Olympics. According to these projections, the two stations closest to the majority of London theaters will experience no problems at all. And even if audiences avoid the subway, 95% of theaters are less than a 15-minute walk from an above-ground train station.All of which suggests a potential to maximize sales. Everyone recognizes that audiences for legit and sports may not traditionally overlap, but looking across the sector, legiters are cautious but hopeful.As happens on Broadway during big holiday frames, it may be the highest-profile properties and actors that benefit most during the Olympics. "Big titles or shows with big stars may fare very well," Byam Shaw suggests. "Homegrown stuff with less international appeal may struggle."Bird points to this year's record advances. "We have every reason to be optimistic," he says. Contact David Benedict at benedictdavid@mac.com

Fox News Blasts The Lorax for Pushing Left Wing Agenda and Creating 'Occu-Toddlers'

With Universal's colorful animated tale The Lorax, "the President's liberal pals in Hollywood [are] concentrating on a far more youthful demographic using animated movies to promote their agenda to children," mentioned an annoyed Lou Dobbs now on Fox News. Animated movies! A liberal agenda! HOW DARE THEY. What's the reason behind enabling this "insidious nonsense" to the vulnerable minds within our nation's youth? Bad being a parent, clearly. As conservative radio host Matt Patrick bellowed within the commentator pit, "We are creating Occu-young children!Inch Inside the classic Seuss story -- modified in to a 3-D animated adventure which hits screens inside a couple of days -- an awesome creature referred to as Lorax attempts to intervene becoming an industrialist, driven by avarice, ravages an entire ecosystem. This might seem to produce the Lorax a lot more "dangerous" than previous Fox focus on the Muppets, which needed becasue it is villain a considerably bigger and clearly unlikeable capitalist The Lorax is built to show audiences simply how much they potentially share while using unwitting forest-killer The Once-ler, which explains why it's so effective to begin with. The most popular factor relating to this madness occurs when Patrick advocates intentional littering in movie theaters as a means of protest in the Obama-introduced agenda espoused with the Lorax (as well as the Studio Ghibli animated pic The Important Thing Arena of Arriety, that may lead youngsters lower the slippery slope of talking about things). Throwing popcorn containers on the ground would fly when faced with everything else Dr. Seuss's anti-deforestation, professional-atmosphere tale means, nevertheless it would also lead you to look absurd before your individual children. In my opinion the Lorax's face above states everything. Make the Occu-young children! The Lorax hits theaters on March 2. [Media Matters with the Film Stage]

China seafood story hooks Canada firm

'Back towards the Ocean,' is co-created by Vancouver's IndustryWorks, with animation completed in China. Vancouver-based indie production company IndustryWorks' leader Evan Tylor never likely to be co-creating an animated feature, not to mention one with China. However when he was given the chance to leap onboard "To the Ocean," that was already being produced, he leaped in the chance. Operating with China reveals a massive, quickly growing share of the market and use of financing. Even though China includes a limit of just 20 foreign photos annually which are permitted to become launched theatrically, photos having a Chinese production company involved are thought domestic, and therefore are exempt out of this limitation. "This woke me up to and including whole other possibility," Tylor states of IndustryWorks' first co-production with China, via close ties with Glory & Dream Digital Animation and also the Jiangsu Broadcast Co., the 2nd-biggest broadcaster in China. Helmed by Glory & Dream co-founder Thom Lu, "To the Ocean" follows Kevin, an adventurous youthful flying seafood in the NY Harbor who's taken with a fishing ship and shipped straight to the aquarium of the restaurant in NY's Chinatown. There, he meets a basic Chinese boy that has exactly the same desiring excitement and adventure as his finned friend. The 2 attempt a mission to come back Kevin to the ocean. The voice cast includes Christian Slater, Tim Curry, Mark Hamill and Tom Kenny ("SpongeBob SquarePants"). Pic opened up wide across Canada in 2D and three dimensional on Jan. 27. You will find plans ultimately to produce the film on the wider scale within the U.S. Jiangsu will distribute and broadcast the named version in China. Even though pic (allocated at $8 million-$ten million) already had funding from Jiangsu, producers were keen to obtain a United States company involved to be able to help breech that market. Like a partner, IndustryWorks oversaw completing deliverables, publish-production, distribution, marketing, and contracts with SAG to accomplish casting, connecting up Slater and Currey. In exchange, they now own worldwide ancillary privileges outdoors China. Tylor thinks the pic will find a crowd inside the United States market in addition to China, because of its mix-cultural story. "They produced a tale that's very Western," Tylor states. Lu confesses that Glory & Dream considered the marketplace when plotting the pic. "We believe NY Chinatown has got the perfect mixture of Eastern and Western culture," he states, "this background won't be too Chinese for United States audiences as well as much less American for Chinese audiences." Because the Chinese creative industry keeps growing and are designed for branching out in to the world market, Lu sees more co-productions with Canada and/or even the U.S. "In the artistic side, The United States helps make the best animated films on the planet also it sets the conventional,Inch he states. "Audiences happen to be accustomed to this standard, so it can help us discover the rules from the United States market sooner." Because the animation industry in China is simply getting began, there's deficiencies in professional talent and things are compressed, Lu states. "Should you take a look at our credits because they roll, you will notice what they are called repeating again and again." Even though actual animation for "To the Ocean" was completed in China, with United States partners like IndieWorks, Trigger Music, Technicolor, along with a identifiable voice cast, Lu hopes china animation industry can improve by association simultaneously it finds a brand new export market. In lots of ways, Vancouver appears to become a natural fit for China-Canada co-productions. It hosts a sizable Chinese population and it has extensive existing companies ties to China. Several official visits from Chinese delegations to Bc in the last couple of years have specific collaboration. The China Canada Script Competition was revealed in the 2011 Whistler Film Festival in December. The initiative is headed by Telefilm Canada and China Film Group, China's biggest and many influential condition-run film enterprise, and also the sole importer of foreign films. "Iron Road" (2009), was the very first co-created Canada-China film in 22 years within treaty established within the sixties. Since that time, there has been miniseries' for example "Marco Polo" and "Boy from the Dragon," several features and documentaries, in addition to a quantity of feature film projects presently being developed. And although IndustryWorks does not have anything within the pipeline at this time, it's already exploring future possibilities to co-produce with China. "Culturally these were very eager, very accommodating, sincere, and very polite to utilize -- I've rarely when run into that in United States marketplaces," he states having a laugh, "It had been a pleasant change." Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

SAG, AFTRA prexys make official push for merger

HowardReardonThe presidents of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have made their first official push for the proposed SAG-AFTRA merger.SAG National President Ken Howard and AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon sent a letter to members Sunday, touting the combo. SAG's board approved the deal Friday and AFTRA's followed Saturday.The letter featured the new "SAG AFTRA One Union" logo and said a pro-merger Web site would go live Friday. The missive arrived as the SAG Awards were about to take place at the Shrine Auditorium.The letter: Dear Member,This weekend, the SAG and AFTRA National Boards took a decisive step to strengthen our future by overwhelmingly endorsing a plan to merge Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. If members approve the merger, the new union will be called SAG-AFTRA.The vote of the unions' National Boards came after more than a year of focused effort to hear from members about their needs for stronger union representation and to develop a merger plan to meet those needs. With the enthusiastic approval of our boards, the decision now rests in the hands of AFTrA and SAG members.Merger referendum ballots are scheduled to be mailed on or about February 27th - but all members of both unions will have access to the complete merger documents within the next couple of days on the SAG and AFTRA websites. Full printed merger documents will also be mailed to each voter with the referendum ballot, which will be due for return on March 30th. This will give each member ample time to make a thoughtful and well-informed decision. We're also excited to announce that on Friday, February 3rd, we will launch a new joint website to provide members all the information they'll want to consider before casting their votes. The website will include complete merger details, FAQs, and a comprehensive calendar of events to alert members nationwide to informational meetings and other opportunities for learning about the plan. Watch your email later this week for details of the website launch.After more than a year of intensive work, we are extremely proud to bring you this historic opportunity. We also want to acknowledge the ceaseless dedication of the AFTRA and SAG members and staff who came together as the Group for One Union (G1) to produce this remarkable plan. We look forward to sharing all the details and answering any questions you may have. Finally, we are confident that SAG and AFTRA members will embrace this singular chance to harness the true power of unity, and that SAG-AFTRA will protect members and shape the entertainment and media industries for decades to come.In unity,Ken HowardSAG National PresidentRoberta ReardonAFTRA National President Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com