"It's official, Universal Pictures has won the intense bidding war for Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat" follow-up movie "Bruno" with a deal worth $42.5 million. The price includes the production budget of the film, rumored to be in the $20 million-$25 million range, and a significant backend component believed to be the 15% range..." (full details)
"Focus Features has acquired "Hunted by Their Families," a project about family honor killings among Muslims in Britain and other European countries, and is developing it as a feature. British director Amma Asante ("A Way of Life") is attached to write and direct the film, which is based on an article by Denise Dowling in Marie Claire..." (full details)
"Farce of the Penguins," the spoof of the popular Warner Independent Picture docu "March of the Penguins," won't be released in theaters, debut instead on homevid at the end of January. "Farce," an adult-oriented, live-action comedy featuring shots of penguins overlaid with Saget's raunchy bits, includes voiceovers from the likes of Jason Alexander, Dane Cook and Whoopi Goldberg. Samuel Jackson sends up Morgan Freeman's narration from the original..." (full details)
"Competing film projects about the Stanford Prison Project, a 1971 experiment involving a faux prison filled and policed by grad students, are the subject of a $50+ million lawsuit. Maverick Films claims that the Inferno production company "stole key ideas for such a film from Maverick after being invited in as a co-producer on an ongoing development project"..." (full details)
