By Ira Teinowitz
TheWrap

Supreme Court justices on Tuesday hearing a copyright appeals claim against Martin Scorsese’s 1980 Oscar-winning film “Raging Bull,” questioned the potential effects of allowing such a claim years after a movie is made or a copyrighted work is issued.

Paula Petrella, whose father Frank Petrella wrote Jake LaMotta’s autobiography and contributed to a first draft of the screenplay in 1963, is seeking at least $1 million in damages from MGM and 20^th Century Fox.

Stephanos Bibas, an attorney for Paula Petrella, told the court that any Congressional action altered the bar against filing copyright claims years later. The attorney also argued that courts have the leeway to examine specific factual situations.

Also on TheWrap:  Supreme Court to Hear ‘Raging Bull’ Copyright Case; Could Undercut Favorite Studio Defense

Paula Petrella contends that as heir to her father, she won the right to pursue the claim after her father died in 1981 before his 28-year copyright on the script ran out. Her lawsuit, filed in 2009, seeks damages for for the three years before and after her suit was filed and an injunction to halt further distribution of the film, until a financial agreement can be worked out.

The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed her case in 2012 as being filed too late.

Now the Supreme Court has to consider the timing of Petrella’s filing and whether Congress, in adding a provision to copyright law setting a three-year statute of limitations on copyright cases, changed the “laches” that traditionally have limited late claims. The provision opens the door to cases filed years later as long as the cases target continuing earnings and not earnings from years before.

Bibas argued the law did make a change, replacing the judicial “laches” policy with a new Congressionally mandated standard.

“Laches is a gap filler, but Congress filled with gap with a bright line statute of limitations,” Bibas told the judges.

He also argued that a right to injunction would prevent the Petrella suit from ongoing violations.

Several judges questioned that position.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted the federal government’s position that a compulsory license fee might be warranted for Petrella, but not the right to seek an injunction.

Meanwhile, Justice Antonin Scalia said a ruling in favor of Petrella would rewrite the law in ways that could change the economics of copyrights.

“You’re talking about inducing, or causing at least, people who — who proceeded in good faith on the assumption that 20 years have gone by. Nobody — nobody has questioned our doing it. They invested substantial amounts of money, and then when that money starts to pay off, you file suit and – and you get three years’ worth of — of their profits,” he said.

Mark A. Perry, a lawyer for the studios, told the justices the Congressional action doesn’t preclude the “laches” standard.

He also argued that Petrella was unfairly trying to profit from the studios investment in the 25^th year anniversary of the movie by choosing to target profits after advertising spending wouldn’t be deducted from profits.

Pamela Chelin contributed to this story.

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Supreme Court to Hear ‘Raging Bull’ Copyright Case; Could Undercut Favorite Studio Defense

I don’t blame him.

He needs to find loyal people, build a little family, and keep it in the family. Anyone else is in it for themselves, and will sell you out first chance they get.

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Glenn Close is returning to theater after more than 15 years — and it won’t be in a musical.

“I am planning a play in the fall,” Close said in an interview Monday at the Sundance Film Festival, where she’s promoting the film “Low Down.”

The 66-year-old actress wouldn’t say what play she’s joining in advance of the official announcement.

“I’m not sure what the producer’s plan is. I think he might want more of a cast before,” Close said.

However, she hinted: “The world that it is in is a world I know very well. It’s just a very complex play. It’s very challenging. It’s like somebody said, ‘A mountain of a play.’ I’m not coming back in a musical.”

Close, a three-time Tony winner, started in theater before moving to film and TV, including the series “Damages.” She last appeared on Broadway in “Sunset Boulevard.”

By Brent Lang
TheWrap

James Jacks, the veteran producer who helped make “The Mummy” franchise a worldwide box office smash, died Monday, his one-time producing partner Sean Daniel said on Facebook. He was 66.

Jacks’ cause of death was a heart attack, according to media reports.

Daniel and Universal Studios did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s requests for comment.

“Here’s to Jim Jacks,” Daniel wrote on Facebook. “Nobody loved movies more. Passionate, loyal, generous, accomplished, noble, caring, heavily armed, creative, dare I say obsessive on occasion. A good man, a good friend, a wonderful partner, a loving son to his family. You will be missed.”

Also from TheWrap:  ‘Wizard of Oz’s’ Last Female Munchkin Dead at 95

Over nearly three decades in film, Jacks helped guide a range of box office and critical successes to the big screen, teaming with such significant artists as Joel and Ethan Coen, Richard Linklater and Sam Raimi.

His credits include “Raising Arizona,” “A Simple Plan,” “Tombstone,” “Intolerable Cruelty” and “Dazed and Confused.”

Yet, the three “Mummy” films and its spin-off “The Scorpion King” that he produced under the Alphaville Films banner form the spine of his legacy and made him one of the most commercially astute producers of the late 1990s and early aughts. Together the breathed new life into one of Universal Pictures’ oldest horror brands and made over $1.4 billion globally.

The post James Jacks, ‘Mummy’ Producer, Dead at 66 appeared first on TheWrap.

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Entertainment Tonight.

Jonah Hill took quite the pay cut for his decadent role in “The Wolf Of Wall Street.”

The 30-year-old actor admitted on Tuesday’s “The Stern Show” that he wanted to be in Martin Scorsese’s film so badly that he did the film for $60,000. Jonah plays Jordan Belfort’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) sidekick, Donnie Azoff.

His devotion to the role paid off. Jonah was nominated for an Oscar this year for his part in the movie, and the film has grossed over $91 million domestically.

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If the 12 slave don’t win we will all be racist so we should bow down one more time and honor the slave movie… done and over please can we not move on?

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Along with her soon-to-end daytime talk show, fall engagement and recent move from TV to the web as Yahoo’s global anchor, Katie Couric also made a documentary feature shown at Sundance.

“Fed Up” premiered Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival.

Couric linked up with “An Inconvenient Truth” producer Laurie David to make a film that explores the epidemic of childhood obesity and its not-so-obvious causes. Couric produced and narrates the film.

The 57-year-old TV anchor said she pitched David her idea over email, “and it took her about 10 seconds to say, ‘I’m in.'”

“Three seconds,” David said.

Couric said documentaries “are replacing journalism in some cases” because budget cuts and a taste for quick news bites means “nobody invests the time to really investigate some of the biggest social issues.” A collection of headlines doesn’t illuminate can’t illuminate an issue the way a documentary can.

“It’s great to have the time and … to know that you don’t have to turn it around in a day, a week or even a month,” she said. “You have 93 minutes to really flesh out an issue that deserves that and then some. That is so liberating.”

“Fed Up,” directed by Stephanie Soechtig, uses historical footage and news events to show the causes and costs of obesity in the United States.

“This generation of children is the first to live a shorter life span than their parents, and it has ramifications in every aspect of our lives,” she said. “Talk about skyrocketing health care costs: the obesity epidemic is behind these health care costs. And national security: these people are too heavy to join the military…. It affects so many aspects of our country’s health that we really need to start paying attention.”

Couric said she hopes the film informs people and incites them to action so the food industry might become as accountable for its harmful products as the tobacco industry has.

“We really hope this is going to be a wakeup call,” she said.

She also plans to dig into social issues and talk with newsmakers and cultural leaders in her new gig at Yahoo, and she’s not afraid to leave television behind.

“I wanted to be part of the transition that we see happening all around us in media,” she said. “People … may want the immediacy of having things on their mobile phone or on their computers, but I also think they want quality content as well, so hopefully we’ll be able to provide some of that.”

(Reuters) — Robert De Niro may best be known as an Oscar-winning actor, but in a new documentary he takes on the role of a devoted son as he spotlights his own artist father, Robert Sr., for his influential but not well-known works in the New York City abstract expressionist art movement.

De Niro, 70, who won Oscars for his lead role in “Raging Bull” and his supporting turn in “The Godfather: Part II”, attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Sunday to premiere “Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro, Sr.,” a HBO documentary about his father, who emerged alongside contemporaries including Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

Photos: Stars at Sundance

Robert Sr. grew up in a conservative Italian-American family in New York and married fellow artist Virginia Admiral, with whom he had one child, De Niro. The marriage did not last very long and the couple made an amicable split.

Abstract expressionism came about in post-World War II and was the first notable American artistic movement to define a stylistic era. While Robert Sr.’s works emerged during that time period, his style was not described as abstract expressionist but instead as figurist, often depicting still life “in simple set-ups with no pretension,” as described in the half-hour documentary.

Robert Sr. strived to achieve the success of some of his contemporaries throughout his career and worked hard to hone his own craft and style.

He became increasingly disconnected from the abstract expressionist movement, inspired more by early 20th century French artists such as George Roux, Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse. Robert Sr.’s works included vibrant and intense color palettes and fluid silhouettes.

“He was very clear about what he thought was art and what he liked, and yet at the same time he was generous, people can appreciate things, it doesn’t matter if the aesthetic can be different from yours,” De Niro told Reuters at the film’s premiere.

“He didn’t feel that certain things art-wise were art. It was another thing that wasn’t enough for him, and his own style as you see was always the same. It varied some but not a lot,” he added.

De Niro delved into his father’s path as an artist though Robert Sr.’s journals, which revealed the artist’s struggles with his relationship with God and his attempts at coming to terms with being homosexual.

De Niro said his father, who died in 1993 from prostate cancer, may never have resolved those issues.

De Niro founded the TriBeCa Film Festival in New York, a showcase for independent films, but he wanted to bring the documentary to Sundance, the top U.S. independent film festival, to make sure the spotlight was fully on the works and memory of his father.

“We were really thrilled that it was chosen for Sundance because it separates from having it at Tribeca and we see Bob’s father’s works on its own in a different setting than you would in New York,” producer Jane Rosenthal said.

The documentary explores Robert Sr.’s career as well as his role as a loving father, with whom De Niro said he had a very close relationship with. But as De Niro’s acting career took off, he felt his father was somewhat resentful that his own work had never been recognized by a bigger audience.

For De Niro, the documentary, scheduled to air on HBO this summer, serves as an homage to his father, whose paintings are still shown in galleries around the world, and also as a memory for his own children.

“I realized how important it is for children to appreciate certain things (their parents) want to share with them,” an emotional De Niro says in the film.

By Josh Dickey and Lucas Shaw
TheWrap

Zach Braff loves Sundance, and Sundance loves him back.

It’s been 10 years since Braff made a big Sundance splash with “Garden State,” and now the “Scrubs” star is back with “Wish I Was Here,” which earned rapturous applause following its Saturday premiere at the Marc, and a standing ovation for Braff as he took the stage for the trailing QA.

It was an auspicious start for the first Kickstarter-backed project made by a known Hollywood star to play in front of an audience — Rob Thomas’ “Veronica Mars” won’t premiere until March — and bodes well for a quick sale in Park City. “Garden State” was picked up by Fox Searchlight and Miramax for $5 million in 2004, and went on to gross $35 million worldwide.

Braff also stars in his return to directing — he s spent the past 10 years focused on his acting career — and has drawn both applause and ire for his use of Kickstarter, where he raised more than $3 million of the film’s $5 million budget. Braff thanked producer Stacey Sher for encouraging him to mount the crowdfunding campaign.

Also read:  New Zach Braff Movie Hits Kickstarter Goal, Could It Threaten ‘Veronica Mars’ Record?

“The goal was a month — and in 48 hours it was funded by my fans, 47,000 people,” Braff said. “I’ll thank Stacey ’til the day I die.”

Many of those fans were in attendance — though some were left out in the cold, and reportedly vocally grumbled about helping pay for a film they didn’t get to see premiere. But there was no grumbling inside: the crowd at the Marc cheered the contributors when their names showed up in the credits.

In “Wish I Was Here,” Braff plays a 35-year-old struggling actor, father, and husband still trying to find purpose in his life. Braff assembled a starry ensemble for his movie, including Kate Hudson — who’s already drawing rave reviews, including from mom Goldie Hawn, also in attendance — Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad, Ashley Greene and Joey King. Jim Parsons and the late James Avery both have cameos.

Braff acknowledged onstage that he knew people might have gone “apes—” over his decision to crowdfund the film — but said it was worth it to make the exact movie he had in mind. That included helping to pay for the film’s sparkling soundtrack — another trademark of “Garden State” — including original music from Bon Iver and James Mercer of the Shins. 

It helped that the “Garden State” soundtrack was itself a hit.

“People called me back quicker,” Braff joked.

The post Sundance: Zach Braff’s Starry, Kickstarter-Fueled ‘Wish I Was Here’ Rapturously Applauded, Sure to Sell appeared first on TheWrap.

David O. Russell’s “American Hustle” has won the Screen Actors Guild award for outstanding cast, setting up the con-artist comedy as the film to beat at the Academy Awards.

The other nominees Saturday night at the ceremony at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium were “12 Years a Slave,” ”Dallas Buyers Club,” ”August: Osage County” and “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.” Because actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the SAG Awards are considered one of the most predictive tea leaves of the Oscars.

Photos: 2014 SAG Awards red carpet

Saturday’s awards were a somewhat low-key affair with a few memorable speeches but no earthquakes in a rapidly solidifying award season. The night’s acting winners — Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyers Club”), Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”), Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”) and Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”) — are each probably the favorites of their categories.

“It really shines a great light on this bull ride we call acting,” said McConaughey, honored for lead actor in the Texas HIV drama. “I’ve been able to recently find some characters that I can humble myself to their humanities and get feverishly drunk on their obsessions.”

Coming two days after Academy Award nominations, the SAG Awards are particularly monitored for predicting Oscar momentum. The outstanding cast category, the night’s top honor, was perhaps a showdown between “American Hustle” and “12 Years a Slave.” The two very different films were kept separated by drama and comedy categories at the Golden Globes.

Photos: TwitPics from the 2014 SAG Awards

Nyong’o won for supporting actress for her performance as the singular slave Patsy in Steve McQueen’s historical drama. She thanked McQueen “for taking a flashlight and shining it underneath the floorboards of this nation and reminding us what it is we stand on.”

The Kenyan actress, who has been hailed for her red-carpet grace this awards season, recalled her celebratory phone call to her father when she got the part — her first feature film.

“‘Daddy, do you know who Brad Pitt is? I’m going to be in a movie with him!'” recalled Nyong’o. “And he said, ‘I don’t know him personally, but I’m glad you got a job.'”

Leto was honored for supporting actor for playing the gaunt transsexual Rayon, alongside McConaughey’s Texas cowboy. He dedicated the award to those who have died of AIDS and to “the Rayons of the world.”

The “Breaking Bad” victory lap continued as the show took honors for outstanding dramatic cast and for lead actor Bryan Cranston. For his indelible performance as teacher-turned-meth dealer, Cranston added his second lead actor SAG Award, to go with his recent Golden Globe win and his numerous Emmys.

“We have the nicest bunch of white supremacist Nazis I have ever worked with,” said Cranston, looking over his former cast mates. “I swear to you I would kill you all over again.”

Two big-screen veterans won awards for TV films: Michael Douglas for HBO’s Liberace drama “Behind the Candelabra,” and Helen Mirren for the biopic “Phil Spector,” also on HBO.

“I am not here without Matt Damon,” said Douglas, after making a gay sex pun that made his co-star wince.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been a mainstay at award shows recently, both for her acclaimed HBO series “Veep” (for which she won an Emmy) and the romantic comedy “Enough Said” (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe). She won a SAG trophy for female actor in a comedy series for “Veep,” and slyly mocked the award season crush by first thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press and then the Academy of Motion Picture Arts Sciences.

“It’s hard you know because it’s awards season and things get confusing, much like elections,” said Louis-Dreyfus. It’s the sixth SAG Award for the former “Seinfeld” star, whose “Enough Said” co-star James Gandolfini was nominated posthumously for his supporting performance.

The ABC sitcom “Modern Family” enjoyed another round of awards, winning for ensemble in a comedy series and taking the male actor in a comedy series honor for Ty Burrell.

SAG and the academy don’t always agree: Neither “August: Osage County” nor “The Butler” were nominated for best picture, and “The Butler” was snubbed entirely. The effects-heavy, sparsely peopled “Gravity” was predictably overlooked by SAG (except for a best actress nomination to Sandra Bullock), while it garnered 10 Oscar nods.

The SAG Awards are one of the more collegial stops on the awards circuit, with winners almost uniformly express gratitude for an honor chosen by their peers. A good speech (like Nyong’o’s) can help stoke Oscar support.

Emma Thompson, a surprise snub in Thursday’s Oscar nominations for the “Mary Poppins” making-of tale “Saving Mr. Banks,” was just as much the witty, winning award-show attendee she’s been all season. As a presenter, the lead actress nominee noted the show’s cheesy elevator music soundtrack: “Is this music available on CD?”

SAG’s lifetime achievement award was given to Rita Moreno, the 81-year-old “West Side Story” actress whose career has spanned Broadway, television and music. Introduced by Morgan Freeman, the much-honored Latina legend danced to the podium before a standing ovation and let out a gleeful expletive.

“I hope the man with the button was there,” she said. (He was.)

Moreno serenaded the SAG audience with a few bars from “This Is All I Ask”:

“And let the music play/ As long as there’s a song to sing/ And I will stay younger than spring.”

Complete list of winners at the 2014 SAG Awards

Photos: 2014 SAG Awards red carpet