Entertainment News November 30 - TOP 3 Stories for Thursday
FILM FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHT VIDEOS
The WILDsound Short Film Festival is perhaps the most unique festival in the world today. It's FULL FEEDBACK and MODERATION talk gives the chance for the audiences to actually state what they thought of the film they just watched, plus it gives the filmmaker a chance to hear what people think of their work.
CLICK HERE and watch the video highlights of last month's WILDsound festival, moderated by Sun Media Film Critic LIZ BRAUN!
WRITERS BALK IN STRIKE TALKS
With the writers strike in its fourth week, contract talks have hit something of a wall -- but the sides have committed to keep talking on Tuesday. On the fourth day of closed-door negotiations, the majors unveiled a sweetened economic proposal that the studios said would "deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation" annually to scribes for new media distribution of their work.
The studios said that they would have preferred to continue talks on Friday but "we respect and understand the WGA's desire to review the proposals." Insiders said the WGA initially showed scant interest in the companies' sweetened package of new-media proposals.
"The WGA is not budging," one insider said. ROUGH START FOR UNITED ARTISTS
The weak box office performance of "Lions for Lambs" marks a rough start for Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner's United Artists, with the film looking likely to gross no more than $60 million worldwide. Pic, which boasted the marquee trio of Cruise, Redford (who also directed) and Meryl Streep, isn't expected to hit the $20 million mark in the U.S. MGM distributed Stateside, and 20th Century Fox Intl. has it overseas.
Removing some of the sting is the fact that the film cost only $35 million to produce.
While it's true that start-up studios and production companies aren't made or broken by their first film, UA is far more high-profile than most ventures, meaning its every move will be scrutinized. "Lions" is the label's first release since being revived a year ago by Cruise and Wagner following their departure from the Paramount lot.News November 30
