Chris Pine

An esteemed party, led by Costa Gavras, Michel Hazanavicius and TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, crashed a parlay at the Palais on Strengthening The Cultural Exception In Tomorrow’s Europe where MPAA head Chris Dodd was among the policy-maker panelists today. Weinstein spoke on an issue that currently has European filmmakers fighting to preserve the autonomy of their individual film industries. The U.S. and the European Union will enter trade talks later this year which could result in the removal of trade barriers between the world’s two biggest economies. But, included in the draft negotiation mandate for the talks are the audiovisual and film industries. Filmmakers want the arts excluded. Hazanavicius said, “Our fear is if they kill our regulatory system, it will crush us.” Weinstein recalled that when preserving the cultural imperative wasn’t as important in Italy, filmmakers there began turning out clones of American movies, which they felt they needed to do to compete. “We never bought any of those films,” Weinstein said. Costa Gavras and Hazanavicius also showed their support and then the whole crashing party was gone. Earlier, as they made their way to the Palais, the filmmakers explained the stakes to Deadline. Costa Gavras said, “The big risk is having the same ... Read More »

Exclusive Media has announced a four-picture rolling equity slate deal with U.K.-based entrepreneur Toby Moores and Image Entertainment’s Wendy Rutland. The Moores family founded the Littlewoods business and shopping empire, which sold for more than a billion dollars in 2002. Rutland, David Chidekel and Exclusive Media’s Chris Lytton negotiated the deal, which Exclusive’s Alex Brunner... Read more »