By Jeff Sneider
TheWrap

IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Peter Sattler’s directorial debut “Camp X-Ray,” which stars Kristen Stewart as a Guantanamo Bay guard, the company announced Thursday.

Sattler also wrote the film, which was produced by Gina Kwon and executive produced by Emmy Ellison, Lindsay Williams, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, David Gordon Green and Sophia Lin.

Payman Maadi and Lane Garrison co-star in the movie, which premiered in competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

Stewart plays a young woman who joins the military to be part of something bigger than herself and her small town roots, but ends up as a rookie guard at Guantanamo Bay. Her mission is far from black and white, as she is surrounded by hostile jihadists and aggressive male squadmates. When she strikes up an unusual friendship with one of the detainees (Maadi), both of their worlds are forever shifted.

“Peter Sattler has made a stirring, sensitive and thought-provoking film that features two powerhouse performances by Payman Maadi and Kristen Stewart,” said Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects/IFC Films. “Maadi proves once again that he is a force to be reckoned with and Stewart undoubtedly gives the best and most moving performance of her already remarkable career.”

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, SVP of acquisitions and productions at Sundance Selects/IFC Films, with UTA Independent Film Group and André Des Rochers of Gray Krauss Stratford Sandler Des Rochers LLP on behalf of the filmmakers.

PARIS (AP) — The latest Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie sequel is being described as powerful and elegant with a “mouthwatering finish.”

These raves don’t appear in movie publications — they’re from Decanter magazine’s review of the celebrity couple’s second vintage of rose wine produced at their French Provencal estate, Chateau Miraval.

The 2013 Miraval goes on sale online Friday and will be in shops and restaurants around the world next month. Decanter describes the Cotes de Provence rose as “charmingly pretty in color” with “a delicate structure that deepens through the palate.”

The 2012 vintage, Pitt’s and Jolie’s first since buying the 500-hectare (1,200 acre) estate, was the highest-ranked rose on Wine Spectator’s annual Top 100 wines list.

Around 200,000 bottles of the ’13 will be sold for around 15 euros ($20) each.

By Brent Lang
TheWrap

Friends and family of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman gathered Thursday evening at the “Capote” actor’s wake on the Upper East Side.

Amy Adams, Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly and longtime friend Justin Theroux were among early arrivals at the viewing, which began at 5 p.m. and was scheduled until 9 p.m. at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home on Madison Ave. and 81st St.

Security kept a crush of reporters and photographers at bay while mourners — including Hoffman’s estranged partner, Mimi O’Donnell, and the couple’s three young children — stepped out of cars and hustled through popping flashbulbs on their way inside.

Also on TheWrap:  Philip Seymour Hoffman Death: Suspected Heroin Dealer Held Without Bail; 2 Other Detainees Released

The intimate gathering came on the eve of Hoffman’s private funeral, scheduled for midday Friday at the St. Ignatius Loyola church on 84th and Park. Like the wake, that service was expected to be small — though a public memorial was in the works for later this month.

The night before, hundreds of friends and fans of Hoffman gathered for a candlelight vigil outside his New York theater company (image above).

Hoffman died Sunday of an apparent heroin overdose, though an initial autopsy was inconclusive.

NEW YORK (AP) — “Cries and Whispers: The Ugly Explosion of an Unconventional Family,” announced the Aug. 31, 1992, cover of Time magazine, which bore Woody Allen‘s bespectacled face. The sordid saga involving Allen and erstwhile romantic partner Mia Farrow had indeed exploded into the public consciousness days earlier. The most sensational part: an allegation that the celebrated director had taken their adopted daughter Dylan, 7, into an attic-like space at Farrow’s Connecticut home and molested her.

Allen vigorously denied the allegation and was never arrested or charged with a crime. Despite predictions by some that his career would falter, it hasn’t. At age 78 he still puts out a movie a year, won his fourth Oscar in 2012 for “Midnight in Paris,” and is nominated again this year — his 24th nod — for the “Blue Jasmine” screenplay. The two movies were his biggest commercial hits in years.

Indeed, it’s his continued success that likely brought the abuse claim back into the spotlight. Allen was given a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes in January that included a glowing televised tribute. That prompted critical comments from Mia Farrow and her son Ronan Farrow. (Ronan, an emerging TV personality, is presumed to be Allen’s biological son though Mia recently said he might be Frank Sinatra’s son.)

Also: Dylan Farrow’s brother Moses defends Woody Allen against sexual abuse claims

Then this past weekend, Dylan Farrow, now 28, married and living in Florida, penned an emotional open letter, accusing Hollywood of callously lionizing her tormentor. The letter revived in stunning detail an allegation more than two decades old, the details of which many had forgotten. Here is a look back at key moments and players of a story that, whichever side you believe, is one of the more disturbing celebrity sagas in memory:

___

DECEMBER 1991:
Allen formally adopts two of Farrow’s previously adopted children, Dylan, 7, and Moses, 13, after Farrow tells a court he’s an excellent father. The couple has been together for more than a decade, though they live separately on opposite sides of Central Park.

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JANUARY 1992:
Visiting Allen’s apartment, Farrow discovers a set of nude, explicit photos Allen has taken of her 21-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn (her father is Farrow’s ex-husband, Andre Previn). The discovery precipitates their split.

___

FEBRUARY 1992:
Farrow gives Allen a Valentine with a photograph of her and some of her children; a steak knife is stuck into Farrow’s heart, covered with a photo of Soon-Yi, and meat skewers are stuck in the chests of the children. (The card will be displayed on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”)

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AUGUST 1992:
Amidst lengthy and bitter custody negotiations, Allen visits Farrow’s Connecticut home Aug. 4. There, it will be alleged, Allen takes Dylan to an attic-like space and molests her. Farrow videotapes Dylan accusing Allen of the molestation. On Aug. 13, Allen sues Farrow in New York state court for custody of Dylan, Moses and Satchel (now Ronan). A few days later, Connecticut police confirm they’re investigating the abuse allegations. On Aug. 18, Allen makes an unusual public appearance to deny them.

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NOVEMBER 1992:
In Vanity Fair magazine, author Maureen Orth presents Mia Farrow’s side of the story. Dylan, she reports, told her mother that Allen told her during the episode that “if she stayed very still he would put her in his movie and take her to Paris. He touched her ‘private part.'” Allen appears on “60 Minutes,” describing violent rages by Farrow — and threats to kill him — over his affair with Soon-Yi. He also says Farrow told him weeks before the abuse allegations: “I have something very nasty planned for you.”

___

MARCH 1993:
After a seven-month probe, a team of child-abuse specialists at Yale-New Haven Hospital concludes Dylan has not been molested. The doctor leading the probe, John M. Leventhal, will later say in a sworn statement, reported by The New York Times, that he theorized Dylan either invented the story or had it planted in her mind by her mother. A day later the custody trial opens in New York. Allen testifies he is a “wonderful father.”

___

MAY 1993:
The seven-week trial winds down. Among its many revelations: Moses wrote Allen a letter saying he hoped his father would kill himself. Farrow acknowledges lashing out physically at Soon-Yi. Allen’s lawyers suggest Farrow tried to blackmail Allen for millions of dollars. A psychologist testifies that Farrow threatened to stab Allen’s eyes out.

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JUNE 1993:
Allen loses his custody battle. State Supreme Court Acting Justice Elliott Wilk denounces him as an inadequate, irresponsible and self-absorbed father. The judge says he doesn’t know if the molestation happened, but bars Allen from seeing Dylan for at least six months and limits visits with other children. He also criticizes the Connecticut investigation that found no abuse.

___

SEPTEMBER 1993:
In Litchfield, Conn., State’s Attorney Frank Maco says there was “probable cause” to charge Allen with molesting Dylan and that police had drawn up an arrest warrant, but that he decided not to pursue the case, in part because it would traumatize Dylan. At his own news conference, Allen lashes out at Farrow, police and Maco. The director, who hasn’t seen Dylan in 14 months, reads her a message: “I’m sorry I missed your eighth birthday … I love you, and I miss you, and don’t worry — the dark forces will not prevail.”

___

MAY 1994:
Allen’s appeal of the custody ruling is denied.

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DECEMBER 1996:
A judge denies Allen’s request for better visitation terms, and says Allen still doesn’t understand how he’s made the children suffer.

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JUNE 1997:
Allen loses his bid for disciplinary action against Maco when a state panel rules that the prosecutor was acting within his rights when he announced he had evidence Allen had abused Dylan. Allen had charged that Maco’s statement essentially convicted him of child abuse and prejudiced his custody fight.

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DECEMBER 1997:
Allen marries Soon-Yi in Venice, Italy. The couple continues on to France, where the newspaper Le Monde describes the American reaction to Farrow’s charges as “the outrage of a certain America, family-oriented and puritanical, against a man that didn’t conform enough…” Allen and Soon-Yi will go on to adopt two daughters, Bechtel and Manzie.

___

FEBRUARY 2012:
Allen wins his fourth Oscar for “Midnight in Paris.”

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OCTOBER 2013:
In Vanity Fair, Dylan Farrow gives author Orth her first comments on the record, saying in part: “I have never been asked to testify. If I could talk to the seven-year-old Dylan, I would tell her to be brave, to testify.”

___

JANUARY 2014:
Allen gets the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes; as is his practice, he doesn’t attend. Ronan Farrow tweets: “Did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?” Mia Farrow tweets the next day: “A woman has publicly detailed Woody Allen’s molestation of her at age 7. Golden Globe tribute showed contempt for her all abuse survivors.” (Robert Weide, director and producer of a PBS documentary about Allen, notes in a widely circulated article on The Daily Beast that Farrow had specifically agreed to the use of her “Purple Rose of Cairo” clip in the Globe montage.)

___

FEBRUARY 2014:
Dylan Farrow pens her open letter, which appears on the blog of New York Times columnist and Mia Farrow friend Nicholas Kristof. “Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse,” she says. Allen’s publicist responds: “Mr. Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful.”

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Four people were taken into custody on drug charges after police investigating Philip Seymour Hoffman‘s death executed search warrants, two people with knowledge of the investigation said Wednesday, and the medical examiner’s office said more tests are needed to determine what killed him.

There was no timetable for Hoffman’s autopsy to be finished, said medical examiner’s office spokeswoman Julie Bolcer, who declined to discuss the pending tests. Toxicology and tissue tests are typically done in such cases.

Police believe the Oscar-winning actor may have died from a drug overdose, though his death is being investigated as suspicious pending a more definitive ruling by the medical examiner.

More: Celebs react to Hoffman’s passing | Hoffman’s life in photos

Hoffman was found dead Sunday with a needle in his arm, and tests found heroin — but no traces of the potent synthetic morphine additive fentanyl, which is added to intensify the high and has been linked to 22 suspected overdose deaths in western Pennsylvania — in samples from at least 50 packets in his apartment in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, law enforcement officials have said.

The four people were taken into custody Tuesday night after police executed search warrants at several city apartments based on a tip provided by a confidential source that they may have supplied Hoffman with drugs, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because investigators have not obtained evidence to corroborate the reported connection.

Police say undisclosed quantities of heroin and marijuana were found in three apartments in a lower Manhattan building. The four suspects, three of whom live in the building, face charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance. Two also face charges of criminal use of drug paraphernalia. They were awaiting arraignment.

The New York Police Department hasn’t officially announced a connection between the arrests and the Hoffman investigation.

The NYPD has launched an intensive effort to determine the source of drugs in Hoffman’s apparent overdose even though courts have found that under state law drug dealers can’t be held liable for customers’ deaths.

A 1972 state appellate division case found a dealer can’t be found guilty of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide for selling heroin and syringes to a customer who later dies because, the court ruled, legislation enhancing punishment for drug crimes didn’t redefine homicide to include the sale of an illicit drug that results in death.

And holding a drug dealer criminally liable for a customer’s overdose death could prove difficult for the district attorney’s office, said James Cohen, a Fordham University School of Law professor who runs a clinic that represents federal criminal defendants.

“It’s not just enough that you know, if you will, theoretically or academically, that heroin could kill,” he said.

Former NYPD detective Scott Prendergast, who worked on the high-profile investigation into the 1996 heroin overdose death of Jonathan Melvoin, a keyboard player with the rock band Smashing Pumpkins, said it’s not uncommon for investigators to track down dealers following suspected overdose deaths especially when the drugs are stamped with telling names.

Some of the packets found in Hoffman’s apartment were variously stamped with the ace of hearts and others with the ace of spades. Melvoin was said to have used heroin called Red Rum.

Investigators have determined that the “Capote” star made six ATM transactions for a total of $1,200 inside a supermarket near his home the day before his death, law enforcement officials have said. Investigators are examining a computer and two iPads found at the scene for clues and recovered syringes, a charred spoon and various prescription medications, including a blood pressure drug and a muscle relaxant, law enforcement officials have said.

Hoffman’s relatives have planned a private funeral for Friday.

On Wednesday night, Broadway theaters were to dim their lights in memory of the Tony Award-nominated actor, and members of the theater community planned to hold a candlelight vigil.

 

By L.A. Ross
TheWrap

Woody Allen has asked the New York Times for a chance to respond to accusations Dylan Farrow made in an Op-Ed piece on Saturday that Allen molested her when she was a child, and the Times is considering publishing it.

“They asked and we said, ‘Yes, send it in,'” Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal said in an article by Public Editor Margaret Sullivan posted on Wednesday.

Also from TheWrap: Dylan Farrow’s Brother Defends Woody Allen Against Sister’s Sexual Abuse Claims

But Rosenthal said that all Op-Ed pieces are subject to editing, and the section has not yet decided whether it will in fact publish the response, when it receives it.

“Normally, we don’t publish a direct response,” as a full article, Rosenthal said. Instead, the editorial page runs responses as letters to the editor.

Also: A look back at the allegations against Woody Allen

“In this case, it was so personal, we thought that we should.”

Sullivan wrote that the Allen response may appear in the next few days.

Hollywood reads scripts and “borrows” plots and ideas because ideas and plots cannot be copyrighted. 

“Hollywood” does not need writers, they got their pals and acquaintances, they need ideas and plots. It is about who gets the money, not about great scripts that challenge our world.

Or u could have done DEEP research on Allen BEFORE questioning the letter being put in the column. The FACT that he married the adopted daughter of Farrow (whom he had sex with since

she was 12 – RAPE and INCEST – due to her age and him a “father figure”) should LOGICALLY

lean you toward believing her. As oppose to leaning in support of Allen. Simply because of his celebrity status. I hope you have no daughters, children…

WENN

Late movie critic Roger Ebert wanted tragic Philip Seymour Hoffman to play him in a biopic, according to his wife Chaz.

At a screening of Ebert documentary “Life” in New York on Monday night, the film buff’s widow revealed her late husband was a big fan of Hoffman’s.

She said, “Roger always said, ‘If you ever do a movie where you need someone to play me, I want Philip Seymour Hoffman to play me’. He was one of the most versatile actors ever, and he also was a brilliant man (and) human being – just very smart. When we were at Sundance (Film Festival in Utah), I was talking to someone about that. I didn’t see Phil at Sundance, but I was talking to someone, saying, ‘You know he’s here. I heard Roger would like him (Hoffman) to play him in a movie. What do you think about that?’ We were just talking about that last week.

“Roger and I thought he was just terrific. We thought he was one of the best actors of any age. He was just so versatile, and he was a brilliant, very smart human being.”

Hoffman died of a suspected drug overdose at his home in New York on Sunday.