Tag: DGA
British Thespian Luke Evans to Star in The Amateur American
FilmNation Entertainment and Likely Story have cast Hollywood’s latest leading-man, British actor Luke Evans (Tamara Drewe) to star in the action-thriller The Amateur American. Written and to be directed by Ross Katz, The Amateur American is scheduled to shoot in Europe in September.
Based on the novel of the same title by J. Saunders Elmore, The Amateur American is written and will be directed by DGA-WGA Winner Katz, previously helmed HBO Films’ Taking Chance, who also produced such indie flicks as In the Bedroom and Lost In Translation. This thriller is about a young American living in Paris who accepts a job working for a shadowy employer and soon finds himself framed for murder and caught up in a deadly game of espionage, blackmail, and deceit.
Winners of the 63rd Annual DGA Awards
The Directors Guild of America presented the 63rd Annual DGA Awards on Saturday night, January 29, at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. The King’s Speech won a key award from Hollywood directors, four days after the British royals drama picked up a leading 12 Oscar nominations.
The film’s director, Tom Hooper, was named winner of the union’s prize for outstanding achievement in feature film at a ceremony in Hollywood, beating competition that included another Oscar favorite, The Social Network director David Fincher. The Directors Guild of America contest also included Christopher Nolan for Inception, Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan and David O. Russell for The Fighter. The second of two movies on thing mentioned also received Oscar nominations, along with Joel and Ethan Coen for True Grit, who were unnoticed by the DGA.
DGA Reaches Tentative Deal With AMPTP
The Directors Guild of America is reached a tentative three-year deal with the AMPTP (The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) with key advances in jurisdiction and payment for programming on the Internet.
‘Two words describe this agreement – groundbreaking and substantial,’ said Gil Cates, chair of the DGA’s Negotiations Committee. ‘The gains in this contract for directors and their teams are extraordinary — and there are no rollbacks of any kind.’
DGA touted a trio of new-media gains:
1.Establishing DGA jurisdiction over programs produced for distribution on the Internet;
2.Boosting the residuals formula for paid Internet downloads (electronic sell-through) by double the current rate;
3.And establishing residual rates for ad-supported streaming and use of clips on the Internet.
The DGA deal amps up the pressure from all sides on the leadership of the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since November 5th 2007.
The town’s focus will immediately shift to whether the terms of the DGA deal will be acceptable to the WGA. A group of moderate writers have been pushing in recent days for the leaders not to reject the DGA deal out of hand but optimists believe that the DGA deal will be enough of a breakthrough on new-media questions to pave the way for a WGA pact.
The WGA had no immediate reaction to the announcement but I am sure there will be reactions from the Writers Guild as well.
