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Actor Paul Scofield Dies at 86
20 March 2008 (IMDb News Flash)
Paul Scofield, the imperious British actor of stage and screen who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, died Wednesday; he was 86. Scofield, who passed away at a hospital near his home in southern England, had been suffering from leukemia. Scofield began his acting career onstage, where it would always be centered, and he found his first successes in taking on a variety of Shakespearean roles during and after World War II. His towering presence and amazing performances quickly drew comparison to fellow thespian Laurence Olivier. While continuing his theater work, Scofield began appearing in a handful of films in the 1950s and early 1960s, most notably the John Frankenheimer thriller The Train. In fact, he had only three films to his credit when he was asked to reprise his celebrated role as Sir Thomas More in the 1966 film adaptation of A Man for All Seasons, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Fred Zinnemann. The story of King Henry VIII's Chancellor of England, who refused to go along with the monarch's break from the Roman Catholic Church and was executed for it, the film was a sumptuous adaptation of the Robert Bolt play and a critical and commercial success, winning six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director and Actor for Scofield.

Despite his acclaimed Oscar success, the actor continued to work mainly in the theater, with occasional forays into cinema, primarily in stage-to-film adaptations; notable films in the 1970s included Peter Brook's version of King Lear and Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance opposite Katharine Hepburn. Scofield found the second role of a lifetime in the stage production of Amadeus, where he played the tortured and envious composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham would win an Oscar for the role in the 1984 film). Considered reclusive, a trait he would deny in many interviews, he hand-picked his film roles very carefully, appearing in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet, and he received a second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actor, for Robert Redford's Quiz Show. His last major film role was in 1996's The Crucible, which won him his third BAFTA award. Scofield is survived by his wife, the actress Joy Parker, whom he married in 1943, and their two children, Martin and Sarah. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff

Cruise Concerned About "Flop" Movie
13 November 2007 (WENN)
Tom Cruise fears his new movie Lions For Lambs will be an expensive flop after it failed to break into the top three at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend. The star was hoping that the film - which cost an estimated $35 million to make - would be an international hit, but the Robert Redford-directed movie debuted at number four in the box office chart with takings of only $6.7 million. The movie is the first release from Cruise's United Artists studio, which he set up after he was sensationally dropped by Paramount last year. A source tells MSNBC.com, "Tom wanted to really hit a home run with his first United Artists movie. It was more about how the industry was going to view him than the movie going public that Tom was worried about." However, a statement from United Artists has backed Lions For Lambs insisting they are happy with the box office numbers: "Given the modest production and marketing budgets we do not need to be a blockbuster hit. Everyone at United Artists are very proud of the film and could not have had a more perfect filmmaker to have made our first film."

'Bee' Buzzes Past 'Gangster'
12 November 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Jerry Seinfeld, who is used to making end runs around his competition, has taken the lead at the box office with his animated Bee Movie. The film, which opened in second place last week behind American Gangster, moved to No. 1 with an estimated take of $26 million and should further enhance its standing today (Monday) with kids out of school for the extended Veteran's Day holiday. Its gross now stands at around $72.2 million. "It's so rare to do what Bee Movie has done," Media by Numbers President Paul Dergarabedian told today's (Monday) Los Angeles Times, attributing its jump to first place to "terrific word of mouth." Meanwhile, Gangster remained a potent force as it chalked up earnings of $24.3 million. After remaining ahead of the Seinfeld flick from Monday through Thursday, the film can now boast a 10-day total of $80.6 million. On the other hand, Fred Claus, starring Vince Vaughn -- the film most box-office prognosticators thought would wind up as the top film -- wound up in third place with $19.2 million, at the low end of their predictions. The Tom Cruise-Robert Redford-Meryl Streep anti-war drama Lion for Lambs performed slightly better than analysts had imagined, taking in $6.7 million. The stalker flick P2 opened in 1,032 theaters with $2.2 million. Making an impressive debut in just 28 theaters, the Coen Bros.' No Country for Old Men earned $1.2 million or $42,900 per theater. That compares with $6,600 per theater for Bee Movie.Overall, the box office was down 11.6 percent from the comparable weekend last year. Next week, however, is expected to see a significant rise with the opening of the Robert Zemeckis-directed Beowulf, starring Angelina Jolie. The film will have the largest rollout ever on 3-D screens -- more than 1,000 -- with premium pricing attached to those screenings and those at dozens of IMAX venues.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Bee Movie, $26 million; 2. American Gangster, $24.3 million; 3. Fred Claus, $19.2 million; 4. Lions for Lambs, $6.7 million; 5. Dan in Real Life, $5.9 million; 6. Saw IV, $5 million; 7. The Game Plan, $2.4 million; 8. P2, $2.2 million; 9. 30 Days of Night, $2.1 million; 10. Martian Child, $1.75 million.

Gurus Expect 'Claus' To Fly
9 November 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Christmas will arrive early at the box office this weekend with the new Vince Vaughn comedy Fred Claus. Box office forecasters estimate that it will take in $22-26 million and wind up as the top attraction. Coming in a close second, they predict, will be last weekend's winner, American Gangster, with about $18-22 million -- or possibly Bee Movie, which ranked No. 2 last weekend. Analysts have expressed little hope for the war-related Lions for Lambs, despite the fact that it costars Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Films about the Middle East conflict have all performed poorly at the box office, and Lions, the first United Artists film produced under the aegis of Cruise, has been bombed by critics. This will be the first weekend in which films will premiere without their stars having had access to the late-night talk shows, since most of them are in rerun mode in the wake of the writers' strike. On Thursday, however, Vaughn, an avowed conservative and Republican, appeared on Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News to promote Fred Claus.

Movie Reviews: 'Lions for Lambs'
24 October 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Early trade reviews of Lions for Lambs, starring Robert Redford and Tom Cruise, which premiered Monday at the London Film Festival, suggest that it is likely to face the same difficulties attracting ticket buyers as other recent films targeting the war in Iraq. Ray Bennett writes today (Wednesday) in the Hollywood Reporter: "Boxoffice response to films dealing with the U.S. government's strategies in the Middle East so far suggests that the public is not eager to grapple with the topic onscreen. Redford's film will appeal to those who feel that today's military sacrifices are being made on false premises, but its responsible tone could draw a more widely appreciative audience." In Daily Variety, Derek Elley comments that the screenwriter, Matthew Michael Carnahan, "uses a lot of words to say nothing new" and that the movie amounts to "the movie equivalent of an Off Broadway play." Noting that the film is the first for United Artists since Cruise began running the studio, Elley concludes that Lions "doesn't look likely to roar its way to significant [box-office] gains."

Redford Admits "Hypocritical" Sports Car Passion
9 October 2007 (WENN)
Robert Redford is "hypocritical" when it comes to leading a green life - the active environmentalist admits he likes nothing better than driving around in his sports car. Redford has long been an outspoken opponent of global warming, and while he has lived in a house with solar-powered heating for more than 30 years, he still likes to occasionally speed around in a high-performance, gas-guzzling vehicle. The veteran actor/director tells Playboy magazine, "I drive hybrid cars. I've had passive solar heating and wind generation in my Utah home since 1975. I bike and ride horses as much as I can. But I must say, I do like racing fast cars. It's a hypocritical, weak move on my part. We do what we can. But I've always loved speed. I love finding a good stretch of road and cutting loose in my Porsche. That's all I want to say about that."

Redford Backs Cruise
8 October 2007 (WENN)
Robert Redford has defended Tom Cruise, insisting the Hollywood superstar's behavior was perfectly normal on the set of their new movie. The veteran filmmaker ignored press reports ridiculing Cruise's infamous couch-jumping stunt on The Oprah Winfrey Show, when he ecstatically proclaimed his love for his then-fiancee Katie Holmes, and his devotion to Scientology. Instead, Redford found Cruise to be nothing like his public image on the set of Lions For Lambs. In an interview with Playboy magazine, Redford says, "Tom's a talented actor and I think people will respond positively to him (in Lions For Lambs)... I didn't concern myself with the gossip - I never do - and I knew enough from what I've been through to judge the man based on what I experience firsthand. And I didn't see any behavior on the film that troubled me. Really."

Stylish Stars Make GQ List
21 September 2007 (WENN)
Italian movie star Marcello Mastroianni, David Bowie, Steve McQueen, Bob Dylan and George Clooney have been named among the 50 Most Stylish Men in the Past 50 Years by men's magazine GQ. Elvis Presley, Bryan Ferry, Paul Newman, Johnny Depp, Miles Davis, Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Al Pacino, Warren Beatty and Sean Connery also make the list. A few surprises among the stylish 50 include filmmaker Woody Allen, Beck, punk icons The Ramones and British rocker Pete Doherty.

Cruise's United Artists Debut To Open Los Angeles Film Festival
30 August 2007 (WENN)
Tom Cruise's first movie under his new United Artists moniker has been selected to open the upcoming AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival. The movie mogul became a partner in UA last year after he was unceremoniously dumped by Paramount boss Sumner Redstone over public comments he made about Scientology. Cruise stars in political thriller Lions For Lambs - the first production for the new-look United Artists - which will premiere at the film festival on November 1. The film, directed by Robert Redford, also stars Redford and Meryl Streep.

France Honors Director Friedkin
8 August 2007 (StudioBriefing)
France's Ministry of Culture announced Tuesday that it has named Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) Officer, Order of Arts and Letters (Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres). The prestigious honor had previously gone to U.S. directors Mel Brooks, Clint Eastwood, Gordon Parks, and Robert Redford. Friedkin will receive the award during ceremonies next fall. In a statement, the director said that he was especially honored to receive it "because of the profound influence French cinema has had on all the filmmakers of my generation."

Cruise To Receive Career Honor
12 July 2007 (WENN)
Tom Cruise is set to be honored at New York City's Museum of the Moving Image in November. The Minority Report star, 45, follows in the footsteps of former honorees Sidney Lumet, Robert De Niro, Richard Gere, Al Pacino, Sidney Poitier, Julia Roberts and James Stewart. MOMI director Rochelle Slovin said they chose Cruise for his outstanding 27-year film career, which started with Endless Love in 1981. Slovin says, "Tom Cruise is one of the premier American actors of his generation. Working with the great directors of our time - (including) Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Sydney Pollack, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and now Robert Redford - Cruise has given us indelible characters and performances."

Newman Announces Retirement -- Again
28 May 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Paul Newman, who has not appeared in front of the cameras since The Road to Perdition in 2001 (he was the voice of Doc, a 1951 Hudson, in last year's animated Cars), is again talking about retirement. In an interview with ABC News, Newman, who is 82, said that he has begun to lose his memory, confidence and invention. "So I think [acting is] pretty much a closed book for me." He had made similar comments a year ago, but had suggested he was considering one last screen appearance, setting off immediate speculation that he would team up again with Robert Redford, with whom he had made Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting for the final film. There was no mention of that project during the ABC interview.

'Cool Hand Luke' Director Stuart Rosenberg Dies
19 March 2007 (WENN)
Stuart Rosenberg, the director of the acclaimed 1967 Paul Newman prison drama Cool Hand Luke and the very successful 1979 thriller The Amityville Horror, died Thursday after suffering a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills; he was 79. A prolific TV director who won an Emmy award in 1963 for an episode of The Defenders, Rosenberg made his feature film debut with Cool Hand Luke, which received an Oscar nomination for star Paul Newman and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for George Kennedy; Rosenberg himself received a Directors Guild of America nomination, but lost to Mike Nichols for The Graduate. His films throughout the 60s and 70s included The April Fools (with Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve), The Drowning Pool (also starring Newman), Voyage of the Damned (with Faye Dunaway and Oscar nominee Lee Grant), and The Amityville Horror, a surprise box office hit based on the notorious book about a supposedly haunted house on Long Island. In the 80s, Rosenberg directed another prison drama, the acclaimed Brubaker, starring Robert Redford (Rosenberg replaced initial director Bob Rafelson), and the adaptation of the novel The Pope of Greenwich Village, which scored an Oscar nomination for supporting actress Geraldine Page. His last film was 1991's My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, starring Scott Glenn and Ben Johnson. Rosenberg is survived by his wife, Margot, and his son, first assistant director Benjamin Rosenberg. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff

UA About To Be Reborn
27 February 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Tom Cruise is reportedly close to raising the money needed to bring United Artists, the studio founded 86 years ago by Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, back to life. According to today's (Tuesday) Los Angeles Times, Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner, have raised the nearly $500 million that it will take to finance a slate of films for the now dormant UA, 65 percent of which is owned by MGM and the remainder, by Cruise and Wagner. The money is reportedly coming from a group of Wall Street investors led by Merrill Lynch. According to the Times, UA's first production under the deal with Cruise and Wagner is the Robert Redford-directed political drama Lions for Lambs, starring Cruise and Meryl Streep. The director and two stars agreed to defer most of their upfront fees -- the entire movie is budgeted at just $35 million -- in return for a cut of the gross less production and marketing costs.

CNBC's Bartiromo's Friendship with Fired Citigroup Exec Probed
26 January 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Ethical questions are being raised over CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo's friendship and travels with Todd Thomson, a top Citigroup executive who was forced out last weekend. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Thomson had been seen dining privately with Bartiromo and had flown back from Asia on a corporate jet with Bartiromo. The Journal quoted a CNBC spokesman as saying, "She asked permission from CNBC [to fly on the jet]. She received it. And payment was arranged." Shortly thereafter, it was reported that Thomson had agreed to Citigroup sponsorship of a program featuring Bartiromo and Robert Redford on Redford's Sundance Channel for $5 million. Bartiromo also made three speaking appearances at Citigroup events. Reporting on the matter, today's (Friday) New York Times observed that Bartiromo's associations with Thomson "have raised questions about Ms. Bartiromo's judgment in getting too close to the people and organizations that she covers." The newspaper said that Bartiromo also traveled on the Citigroup private jet following her coverage of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last year. CNBC told the Times in a statement that Bartiromo has made 43 other speaking appearances at corporate events for which she received no fee. "Her travel has been company-related and approved, and involved legitimate business assignments," CNBC said.

Redford: "US Leaders Owe Americans an Apology"
22 January 2007 (WENN)
Oscar-winning Ordinary People director Robert Redford has demanded an apology from US politicians, claiming President George W. Bush's government exploited public support during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The 70-year-old Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid actor used his opening night address on Thursday at Utah's Sundance Film Festival, the largest gathering of independent movie-makers in the US, to criticise the government - and appeal for a public apology. He fumed, "We put all our concerns on hold to let the leaders lead. I think we're owed a big, massive apology."

Redford Condemns Iraq War As He Opens Sundance Festival
19 January 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford, who rarely if ever articulates his liberal sentiments at the Sundance Film Festival, which he founded, castigated the current administration as he opened this year's festival Thursday night. Redford declared that the entire country had come together in "a spirit of unity" after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. "We put all our concerns on hold to let the leaders lead," he said. "I think we're owed a big, massive apology." His speech amounted to a prelude to the opening film, the documentary Chicago 10, dealing with the leaders of the angry anti-war demonstrations that raged during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968.

Newman To Re-Team with Redford for Final Movie?
21 June 2006 (WENN)
Veteran actor Paul Newman is in negotiations to reunite with his Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid co-star Robert Redford for the last film of his illustrious career. The pair, who have not worked together since 1973, are collaborating on a new project which may entice Newman to return to the big screen in his first major movie role in four years. Despite lending his voice to animated hit Cars, which is currently top of the US box office, Newman has kept a relatively low profile since Road To Perdition, and recently revealed he only has one film left in him. But the 81-year-old hopes his swan song will see him re-team with Redford, revealing, "(We're) working on something but it's not by any means a slam-dunk. (It has to be) either a wonderful character in a wonderful film or a character that was acceptable in a film with some social content." Redford jokes, "The real question is whether he can remember his lines or not."

Newman and Redford Working On Movie Script
25 May 2006 (StudioBriefing)
Paul Newman says that he wants to make one last movie, and he wants to make it with Robert Redford. The 81-year-old Newman told reporters Wednesday at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC, where he is attending Friday's premiere of Disney-Pixar's Cars, "Redford and I are working on something, but it's not by any means a slam dunk. ... We're working on a script very hard." He emphasized that it was not going to be a sequel to the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid since the characters that he and Redford played die at the end. Asked by one reporter which of his films he would recommend to a kid who wasn't acquainted with his work, he replied, "The Silver Chalice," his 1954 debut. "Then he'd know what bad really was."

Redford To Present Live Drama on Sundance Channel
15 February 2006 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford is planning to use his Sundance Channel, which primarily presents independent films, to air live TV dramas based on classic books and short stories, the New York Daily News reported today (Wednesday). "I did the last Playhouse 90 that was ever done," Redford said, referring to the weekly live dramatic series that aired live from Hollywood in the late 1950s. (The Redford drama, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, aired in 1960.) Redford told Daily News TV writer David Bianculli that once he finds financial support, he plans to contact actors and directors and offer them the opportunity to do their favorite works of literature. "Why don't we plan to take artists like myself -- I would do it in a flash -- and do short stories, and put them on as originals on the channel?" Redford asked.

Redford: "Sundance Is Getting Out of Control"
13 February 2006 (WENN)
Hollywood veteran Robert Redford fears his Sundance Film Festival is growing too big, after seeing celebrities like Paris Hilton attend the event. Redford hosted his 25th annual festival in Park City, Utah, last month, which was started in 1979 to showcase low-budget, independent films and talent. However, as the festival grows larger and larger every year, some celebrities have begun turning up just for parties, even though they have nothing to do with the films on show. Redford tells Newsweek magazine, "To the outside world, it's a big fat market where you have people like Paris Hilton going to parties. Now, she doesn't have anything to do with anything. I think the festival is close to being out of control." Despite Redford's disdain for the socialite, Hilton has attended the parties of Sundance every year since 2004.

Thurman Awarded French Honor
9 February 2006 (WENN)
Uma Thurman has been made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (Commandeur Dans Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres) by the president of France's Cannes Film Festival. The Pulp Fiction star has been recognized for her work as an actress. Presenting the prize, on behalf of France's Culture Ministry, Gilles Jacob told Thurman she was "admired throughout the world", adding her career would "make her the favorite actress of an entire generation." Thurman replied, "I'm so flattered and touched by your comments." The Order of Arts and Letters is given out twice annually to a few hundred people worldwide. Previous winners include Robert Redford and Meryl Streep.

Correction
24 January 2006 (StudioBriefing)
In Monday's edition we cited Britain's Independent on Sunday as the source of a story in which Robert Redford discussed rumors of a possible remake of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The actual source of the quote was Thursday's edition of Utah's Deseret News, which was not credited in the Independent article. The quote was also published without attribution of any sort in articles appearing on several websites.

Redford Depressed Over Proposed 'Butch Cassidy' Remake
23 January 2006 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford has told a British interviewer that he found the idea of a remake of his 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid depressing. Speaking to the Independent on Sunday, Redford said, "There is no shortage of good, original ideas, and there's just no point to remakes. ... Why do they have to mess with things that were perfect the first time around." The British newspaper said that Redford was responding to reports that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are planning a new version of the film, with Damon in the Redford role and Affleck in the Paul Newman role.

Sundance Film Festival Discloses Competitors
29 November 2005 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival on Monday unveiled its list of 64 films that will compete for awards during its 10-day run beginning January 19. The festival said that it made its selection from more than 3,100 entries. Sixteen films were named in each category: U.S. drama, U.S. documentary, foreign drama, and foreign documentary. Other films that the festival plans to include in showcase categories are expected to be announced shortly.

Redford, Turner and Bennett To Get Kennedy Center Honors
8 September 2005 (WENN)
Hollywood actor Robert Redford and veteran singers Tina Turner and Tony Bennett are among those who will be honored for their contribution to American culture in December. The annual Kennedy Center honors will also be given to actress Julie Harris and ballerina Suzanne Farrell at the ceremony, to be attended by President George W. Bush. The Kennedy Center's Stephen A Schwarzman says, "(Their) contributions to our culture have transformed out lives." In 2004, legendary actor Warren Beatty and rocker Sir Elton John were both recipients of the award.

Fonda Fell In Love with Redford
16 June 2005 (WENN)
Jane Fonda fell in love with co-star Robert Redford when they made three movies together in the 1960s and 1970s - even though she was married at the time. The pair made The Chase, Barefoot In The Park and The Electric Horseman together between 1965 and 1979, and Fonda confesses she harbored secret unrequited desires for the silver screen idol throughout their working relationship. Fonda, who was married to Roger Vadim from 1965 to 1973 and Tom Hayden from 1979 to 1990, says, "There's something about Bob that's impossible not to fall in love with. I was smitten. I couldn't wait to get to work, wouldn't even get mad when he was his habitual one or two hours late. He never knew it, of course. Nothing ever happened between us except that we always had a good time together."

'All the President's Men' Rockets Up Bestseller Charts
6 June 2005 (WENN)
Controversial book All The President's Men and it's film spin-off have both shot back up US bestseller lists following the revelation that former deputy FBI chief W. Mark Felt was the mysterious 'Deep Throat' character who s parked the Watergate scandal. The behind-the-scenes account, written by The Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, covers the events that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. Felt unmasked himself as the mole earlier last week - ending 30 years of mystery and speculation. The DVD of director Alan J. Pakula's 1976 film version, which stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, has rocketed up website Amazon.Com's chart to number seven. Meanwhile, the book currently sits at number 19 on the internet retailer's chart - after beginning the week ranked above 10,000. Victoria Meyer, spokeswoman for the book's publisher Simon & Schuster, says, "It's a huge news story of historic importance, something the world has been speculating about. It's no surprise to us that there is consumer interest in learning more."

Montana Gives Tax Credits to Moviemakers -- Provided They Don't Smoke
15 April 2005 (StudioBriefing)
The Montana Senate has passed the "Big Sky on the Big Screen Act" that would provide tax credits to Hollywood movie and TV producers. The bill now goes back to the House for confirmation of Senate amendments, one of which would withhold the tax credits from producers of tobacco ads. The bill, which faced strong opposition -- it passed by a vote of 30-20 -- had received strong support from Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who had claimed that Montana was losing millions of dollars in spending by film companies to other states that offered tax credits. But one state senator, Dan McGee, suggested that the state really didn't need the business. He told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that after Robert Redford made A River Runs Through It in 1992, people from out-of-state poured into the Gallatin Valley and elsewhere, driving up real estate prices for local buyers.

Newman To Reteam with Redford?
21 March 2005 (WENN)
Paul Newman has hinted his final movie appearance before his retirement will be a big screen reunion with his Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid co-star Robert Redford. The veteran stars - who became Hollywood's two major heartthrobs after teaming up in the hit 1969 adventure and subsequently in 1973's The Sting - have been trying to kick start a reunion project for years, but to no avail. And Newman has only given himself one more chance of working with his pal, after announcing he'll quit the industry following one more starring role in a movie. He says, "I hate to talk about anything until the papers are drawn up, but we've been looking for something for 20 years and now we're looking harder. I hope something will come of it."

Redford Denies Plan To Leave US
27 January 2005 (WENN)
Movie veteran Robert Redford never contemplated leaving America if George W Bush was reelected in November, because he believes in standing up and not shying away from his political beliefs. The actor - a staunch Democrat supporter - was reported to have vowed he would move to Ireland if Republican Bush beat Senator John Kerry to win a second term in the White House. But Redford contends, "It wasn't true... I love Ireland, I have family heritage in Ireland, but I'm an American. I love it here and I'm not leaving just because of some barking dog on the TV. I'm not going to do that. We are who we are and we're not going to shy away from something we need to stand up for."

Sundance Opens; Redford Urges Dissent
21 January 2005 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford kicked off the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Thursday by urging young filmmakers to be a voice of dissent. Redford, a political dissenter in his own right, told an opening-night audience, "I'm here tonight because I wasn't invited to another event," presumably referring to the presidential inauguration. He said that he believes the independent filmmakers unspooling their work at the festival "reflect more accurately the world we live in."

Star of 'Motorcycle Diaries' Lashes Out Against U.S. Distribution Policies
27 September 2004 (StudioBriefing)
The star of The Motorcycle Diaries, Gael Garcia Bernal, has expressed disdain for a Hollywood studio system that relegates pictures like Diaries to limited screenings in so-called art houses. When an interviewer for the Detroit Free Press observed that the movie has the makings of an art-house hit, Bernal responded: "What does that mean, 'art house hit?' Nothing. It still means that most people in your country will never even consider seeing them. These films do not get the chance to compete with the Hollywood films. They get tossed off as foreign and independent films like they are somehow not ready to compete with all that crap that Hollywood produces. Hey, where's my action figure? That's how I will know we are taken seriously, when I get an action figure." Diaries was shepherded by Robert Redford, who bought the film rights to the story, brought in director Walter Salles and writer José Rivera, and supervised its development at the Sundance Institute.

Franken May Become Regular Fixture on Sundance Channel
2 September 2004 (StudioBriefing)
The CEO of Robert Redford's Sundance Channel says he is bringing liberal satirist Al Franken aboard as part of an effort "to broaden our appeal beyond the independent-film fanatic." In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, CEO Larry Aidem said, "They were our foundation, but it's too small an audience in an era of 200 channels." Aidem indicated that he plans to carry a one-hour edited version of Franken's daily radio talk show at least through the November elections and, if it proves successful, beyond the elections. He said that he has scheduled it to air at 11:30 p.m. in the hope that it will pick up viewers from Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which airs at 11:00 p.m.

Spidey, The Champ
7 July 2004 (StudioBriefing)
It's now official: Sony's Spider-Man 2 set a Fourth of July box-office record of $115.8 million from Friday through Monday. It also set another record of $180.1 million for total ticket sales in it first six days. The film also helped the box office itself set a new record for a July 4 weekend with the top 12 movies recording $212.8 million in sales. Also continuing to amaze was Michael Moore's documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, which earned $22 million, about as much as it did during its first weekend last week, bringing its total to $61.1 million. In limited release, MGM's De-Lovely, a biography of composer Cole Porter starring Kevin Kline, earned $400,000 in 16 theaters. The Robert Redford-Helen Mirren starrer The Clearing, from Fox Searchlight, took in $618,674 in 56 theaters. Before Sunset, which opened in 20 theaters, garnered $311,194. The only big loser among the new films was Disney's America's Heart and Soul which took in only $184,917 at 98 theaters, despite efforts by Fahrenheit foes to boost it as a patriotic counterweight and put bodies into seats.

The top ten films over the four-day Independence Day weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Spider-Man 2, Sony, $115,817,364, 1 Wks. ($180,072,888 -- From Wednesday); 2. Fahrenheit 9/11, Lions Gate, $22,027,125, 2 Wks. ($61,118,488); 3. White Chicks, Sony, $11,544,456, 2 Wks. ($46,664,718); 4. DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, 20th Century Fox, $11,355,165, 3 Wks. ($87,609,589); 5. The Terminal, DreamWorks, $10,750,087, 3 Wks. ($57,209,326); 6. The Notebook, New Line, $10,362,521, 2 Wks. ($31,674,074); 7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Warner Bros., $8,541,177, 5 Wks. ($225,719,716); 8. Shrek 2, DreamWorks, $8,387,681, 7 Wks. ($410,688,506); 9. Garfield: The Movie, 20th Century Fox, $4,283,154, 4 Wks. ($64,235,505); 10. Two Brothers, Universal, $3,882,180, 2 Wks. ($12,876,545).

Web Slinger Nets Box-Office Records
6 July 2004 (StudioBriefing)
Moviegoers sat on millions of tuffets to see Spider-Man 2 in the nation's theaters over the Independence Day weekend, setting numerous records. The film took in an estimated $115.8 million over the four-day holiday period, setting a record for the holiday. It also set a record for its first six days -- $180 million -- and seemed certain to hit $200 million by Wednesday, which would make it the fastest film to pass that mark. The previous record for a six-day opening was set by last year's The Matrix Reloaded, which took in $146.9 million during that period. Meanwhile, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 remained a big draw as it took in another $21 million, just 12 percent less than last week, to bring its total to $60.1 million. In an interview with today's (Tuesday) New York Times, Tom Ortenberg, head of Lions Gate Entertainment, one of the film's distributors, remarked: "We absorbed the blow of Spidey quite well." Damned as unpatriotic by its opponents, the film was expected to take a steep dive over the patriotic holiday. By contrast, Disney's red-white-and-blue documentary America's Heart and Soul opened poorly with just $173,000 in 98 theaters over the four days, despite efforts by Fahrenheit foes to support it. In its seventh week, DreamWorks' Shrek 2, adding another $7.9 million to its gross, reached $410.2 million to become the fifth biggest domestic grosser of all time, replacing the original Spider-Man in that spot. Opening on just 16 screens, the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely, starring Kevin Kline, earned a strong $384,000. The Robert Redford thriller The Clearing from Fox Searchlight debuted on 56 screens, earning $647,000. And Castle Rock's Before Sunset bowed on 20 screens with $303,000. Ticket sales for the top 12 films totaled $158.5 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, up 25 percent from the comparable weekend last year, and the most ever recorded for a Fourth of July weekend.

The top ten films for the four-day holiday weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations: 1. Spider-Man 2, $115.8 million; 2. Fahrenheit 9/11, $21 million; 3. White Chicks, $12 million; 4. DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, $10.45 million; 5. The Notebook, $10.3 million; 6. The Terminal, $10.2 million; 7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, $8.1 million; 8. Shrek 2, $7.9 million; 9. (tie) Garfield: The Movie, $3.6 million; 9. (tie) Two Brothers, $3.6 million.

Movie Reviews: 'The Clearing'
2 July 2004 (StudioBriefing)
The critics are also widely divided over The Clearing, starring Robert Redford and Helen Mirren. Up against Spider-Man 2 and a raft of teen-oriented movie fare, the film is described as "solid summer counterprogramming" by Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News. Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post praises the performances of the actors, noting that for Redford, the movie could be called "an anti-vanity film," in which he allows himself to be "photographed in the least flattering of light, so that the ravages time has worked upon his face are fully exposed. This spirit of honesty extends to the character himself, which, far from being the heroic Redford of yore, is shown to have been flawed, weak, inadequate and far from heroic." But Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer describes it as "a suspense movie on Prozac. As still and flat as a lake on a windless day." Mike Clark in USA Today takes an in-between position, writing: "This is one of those moderately engrossing movies that seems to collapse all at once during the wrap-up, yet it's well-acted all around, especially by its star, who once again reminds us why audiences have liked him for 40 years."

Redford Hits Out at Sundance's Commercial Tag
1 July 2004 (WENN)
Veteran actor Robert Redford has blamed the arrival of Britney Spears at his Sundance Film Festival for attracting an unwanted "commercial" tag for the annual event. The annual festival will celebrate 25 years of screening independent movies in Utah in January, and Redford admits he's not too thrilled with accusations his long running event is becoming more and more commercial. He says, "The fact is that Sundance hasn't gone Hollywood. That's a very shallow, outside view. You'll get people like Britney Spears who show up, which has nothing to do with the festival, those people come and they bring the paparazzi. When you get that kind of attention and you're far enough outside, you get the impression that it's gone Hollywood. No. The fact of the matter is, we have never, ever changed our policies for how we program our festival. It's always been built on diversity. We're non-profit, for God's sake. The fact is that the diversity has become commercial. Because independent films have achieved their own success, Hollywood, being just a business, is going to grab them. So when Hollywood grabs your films, they go, 'Oh, it's gone Hollywood.'"

Sundance Channel to Air Anti-Bush Documentary
22 June 2004 (StudioBriefing)
The Sundance Channel said Monday that it plans to air Robert Greenwald's 2003 documentary Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War on Sept. 6. The documentary consists mostly of interviews with former U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers who refute claims made in the run-up to the war by top Bush administration officials, including the president, about the need for a preemptive attack on Iraq. The film was financed in large part by the liberal activist website Moveon.org. The Sundance Channel is jointly owned by actor Robert Redford, Viacom, and NBC Universal.

Downhill Racer Redford Looking To Sell Sundance Channel
3 June 2004 (StudioBriefing)
Hoping to offset serious personal financial setbacks, Robert Redford is looking to sell his $60-80 million stake in the Sundance Channel, the New York Post reported today, citing unnamed sources. The newspaper indicated that Redford has particularly been hurt financially by his floundering ski resort in Utah. "He's extremely involved in restructuring his investment portfolio," said the Post's source, "and is working on restructuring his resort. He's had huge financial problems over the years." The newspaper reported that Redford, who owns 20 percent of the network, hopes to sell his stake to either Viacom, which owns 30 percent, or NBC, which owns 50 percent. The channel operates independently of the non-profit Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival.

Redford's Audience with Castro
28 January 2004 (WENN)
Movie legend Robert Redford sparked controversy on Monday when he met with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro - after taking his new film The Motorcycle Diaries to the country. The Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid star was in Havana exhibiting the film - which charts late Cuban revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara's nine-month motorbike ride through South America - when infamous Castro came to the Hotel Nacional to see him. Redford says, "He came to me. He seemed in good health, good humor, good spirit." The Oscar winner shocked Tinseltown by meeting communist leader Castro, a friend of Guevara, in Cuba in 1988 - and was interrogated by US Treasury Department agents upon his return to America. Another notable attendee at the Hotel was Che's widow Aleida March, who told producer Redford his movie was "excellent".

Redford Praised By Guevara Family
27 January 2004 (WENN)
Hollywood veteran Robert Redford has been hailed by the family of Che Guevara, after making an "excellent" movie about the late revolutionary's life. The 66-year-old - who acted as executive producer on The Motorcycle Diaries - traveled to Cuba on Friday to show Guevara's widow, Aleida Guevara March, and children the new movie. And they were all impressed with the picture - which is based on the Marxist's trip to South America as a 23-year-old medical student. March, who loaned Redford her late husband's diaries says, "The film is excellent." And daughter Celia says, "If you read the book Daddy wrote on his trip through Latin America, you will see that the film is very faithful to the original."

Redford Meets with Che Widow
21 January 2004 (WENN)
Hollywood veteran Robert Redford is poised to spark controversy when he visits Cuba to meet the wife of infamous revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. The Oscar winner shocked Tinseltown by meeting communist leader Fidel Castro, friend of Guevara, in Cuba in 1988 - and was interrogated by US Treasury Department agents upon his return to America. However, Redford is heading back to Cuba on Friday to show Guevara's widow Aleida March his new movie The Motorcycle Diaries - based on the Marxist's trip to South America as a 23-year-old medical student. The movie received a standing ovation when it was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Saturday.

Butch and Sundance Go to Washington
17 December 2003 (StudioBriefing)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Patton (1970), starring George C. Scott, National Velvet (1944), starring Elizabeth Taylor, and Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein are among 25 films added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. Other films, described as historically important by the library, include Lewis Moomaw's 1924 silent film The Chechahcos, about the Alaska Gold Rush that was actually filmed in Alaska (the first feature ever filmed there) and Pixar's first effort at computerized animation in 1988, Tin Toy.

Redford Appeals To Bush To Increase Arts Funding
10 September 2003 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford has urged the Bush administration to abandon its plan to trim government funding of the arts and instead increase its support. Delivering the annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy at Washington's Kennedy Center, the Sundance Film Festival founder said: "Government support for the arts is not the frivolous giveaway that some would have you believe." He added, "It's a good investment, and it is sound economic development." Redford also decried the attack on artists who have criticized the Bush administration's foreign policy. Interviewed by the Washington Post prior to his address, Redford said: "When I began to hear that people who didn't agree with the administration's point of view or interpretation were unpatriotic, it brought up some dangerous memories of things that I thought we had put behind us."

Robert Redford Sued By Ex-Employees
22 August 2003 (WENN)
Movie icon Robert Redford is being sued by two former employees, who are claiming unpaid monies from a severance deal. Jeff Kleeman and Eric Greenfeld have filed a breach of contract suit against the Indecent Proposal star and are claiming $200,000 plus interest and damages, as they say Redford agreed to pay them to leave his firms. Kleeman was president and Ceo of Redford's Catalyst Film Works, while Greenfeld was chief operating officer of his Sundance Productions. In the suit, they state Redford agreed to pay them in order to "settle a dispute arising out of their employment" but failed to pay the installments by the agreed dates. They claim the Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid star failed to make the second payment of $200,000 last October and still "continues to fail and refuses" to do so. Representatives for the 66-year-old actor were not available for comment.

CBS Wins All-Repeat Night
27 May 2003 (StudioBriefing)
All of the networks filled their schedules with repeats on Memorial Day night, with CBS winning all half-hours except the 9:30 p.m., when Still Standing, with a 6.8 rating and a 10 share, was edged out by ABC's repeat airing of the Robert Redford movie The Horse Whisperer on ABC (7.0/10 in the half hour). CBS won the night with an average 7.8/12, followed by ABC, with a 6.7/10. NBC fell to third with a 4.6/7, while Fox trailed with a 4.3/7. The lowest-rated show of the night was NBC's hour-long The Making of Fear Factor at 8:00 p.m., which drew a fearful 3.6/6.

Diva Britney Enrages Redford
28 January 2003 (WENN)
Pop diva Britney Spears made herself very unpopular with Robert Redford at the Sundance Film Festival last week by her rude behavior. Spears, who was at the independent film event in order to make more cinematic contacts to boost her big screen career, attended a screening of the new Holly Hunter movie Levity and made her presence felt. During the film, Britney and her huge entourage chatted loudly and talked on cell phones and committed the ultimate faux-pas - they left before the movie ended. An eyewitness, who observed Redford scowling at the star, says "If looks could kill. Britney would be the deadest pop star in the world."

Redford to Take Sundance on the Road
27 January 2003 (WENN)
Following the ongoing success of the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford plans to take it on the road around America. Redford, 65, whose Sundance Institute took over the festival in 1985, will launch the Sundance Film Series in August, which will last for four months a visit 10 cities. The initial series will showcase four films that were well received at festivals but were not acquired for theatrical distribution. One will play each month and each will then be released on DVD and shown on cable TV's Sundance Channel. Redford, whose festival is currently in progress in Utah, says, "I really believe the spirit of this thing can be spread. Our business now is providing more choices. We're doing it with the Sundance Channel on cable and now with our DVD line, where we give some of the films that for reason or another didn't get wide distribution after the festival another shot. And now we're taking that further with the Sundance Film Series."

Police Visit Greedy Redford Fan
6 January 2003 (WENN)
A greedy film fan got a visit from police on New Year's Eve when he threatened to throw away Robert Redford's lost credit card when the movie star refused to give him memorabilia. Grateful Redford offered the unnamed man a free meal and ski lift passes when he called a resort where the actor was staying over Christmas to report he'd found Redford's card near a convenience store in Utah. But the man reportedly insisted on some signed Redford memorabilia, and was told that was not an option - he then said The Sting star wouldn't get his card back and hung up. Police then called the man, who refused to give his address and told an officer that he threw Redford's card into the rubbish bin. Police traced the call and visited the man's apartment, where they recovered the card. Police didn't charge the man for wasting their time after he happily handed over the lost credit card.

Oscar-Winning Director George Roy Hill Dies at 81
27 December 2002 (WENN)
George Roy Hill, who won an Oscar for directing Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the 1973 box office hit The Sting, died Friday in Manhattan of complications from Parkinson's disease; he was 81. Hill also directed Newman and Redford in their first film together, the hugely popular comedy-western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), which received Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Director, and won four, including one for the song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head." Hill started his directing career during television's Golden Age in the `50s, helming such live dramas as A Night to Remember and Judgment at Nuremberg. In 1957 he moved to Broadway, directing acclaimed productions of Look Homeward, Angel and Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment, which later became his directorial film debut in 1962, starring a young Jane Fonda. Hill garnered attention for the 1964 Peter Sellers comedy The World of Henry Orient, and after taking on big budget films Hawaii and Thoroughly Modern Millie, cemented his status as a breezy, iconoclastic director with Butch Cassidy as well as the The Sting, which received ten Oscar nominations and won seven. Known for taking on challenging material (and defying studio control), Hill also tackled two difficult novel adaptations – Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) and The World According to Garp (1982) – as well as the `70s comedies The Great Waldo Pepper (starring Redford) and Slap Shot (starring Newman). Hill enjoyed later acclaim with the gentle 1979 comedy A Little Romance, starring Laurence Olivier and a 14-year-old Diane Lane, but ended his career quietly with 1984's The Little Drummer Girl and the 1988 Chevy Chase comedy Funny Farm. Hill is survived by his former wife, Louisa Horton, as well as two sons, two daughters, and twelve grandchildren. --Prepared by IMDb staff

Redford in Bush Attack
4 December 2002 (WENN)
Hollywood legend Robert Redford has accused the Bush administration in his native US of a "lack of leadership." Berating America's failure to wean itself from dependence on fossil fuels, the longtime solar power advocate warned the nation's wasteful use of gas and oil created political problems abroad and air pollution at home. He says, "American rooftops can be the Persian Gulf of solar energy. Wind and solar power generate less than two percent of US power - we can do better." Innovation in energy policy, he concluded, "would keep energy dollars in the American economy, reduce air pollution and create jobs at home."

Spielberg Takes Films to Communist Cuba
1 November 2002 (WENN)
Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg is heading to Cuba for the premiere of his latest film Minority Report. The Jaws mastermind will attend the premiere of the Tom Cruise-starring sci-fi flick next week, before opening a festival of his work on the Communist-run island. The director will meet Cuban filmmakers, speak to students at an international film school founded by Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez and visit Havana's main synagogue to meet Cuba's Jewish community. Spielberg's first trip to Cuba was authorised by the Bush administration under a license granted for non-commercial film-related cultural exchange and exhibition activities. The United States has no diplomatic relations with Cuba and has enforced a trade embargo against the Caribbean island for four decades aimed at toppling President Fidel Castro, in power since a 1959 revolution. The political enmity between Havana and Washington has not stopped Hollywood stars - such as Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford and Kevin Costner - from visiting the socialist worker's state. Spielberg's spokesperson Marvin Levy says, "Steven has always said that film is a universal creative medium that can reach out to people across national boundaries and cultures. He is eager to meet with the filmmaking community and the Cuban public."

Universal Bringing Movies To PC's
13 August 2002 (StudioBriefing)
Universal is expanding its relationship with online video-on-demand provider Intertainer, agreeing to provide entire feature films over the Internet for a fee for the first time. "Universal is committed to staying ahead of the curve ... [by] testing IP distribution of our content," said Holly Leff-Pressman, senior vice president of worldwide pay-per-view and video-on-demand, Universal Studios Television Distribution. Among the films being made available are Spy Game, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, K-PAX, with Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges and Mulholland Drive, directed by David Lynch.

Redfords Plan Navajo Mystery Movie
31 July 2002 (WENN)
Robert Redford has turned his new movie project into a family affair by asking his son James to write the screenplay. Redford will co-produce the film Skinwalkers, which was adapted by his writer son from one of Redford Sr.'s favorite mystery novels, written in 1986 by Tony Hillerman. The film follows the exploits of two Navajo detectives, Jim Leaphorn and Jim Chee, as they attempt to find a killer who employs mystic curses to commit his crimes. If the film, starring Windtalkers star Adam Beach and Last Of The Mohicans' Wes Studi, is a hit, Redford, who owns the film rights to many of Hillerman's Native-American-related novels, hopes to make a series of movies with Leaphorn and Chee as his heroes. Redford, a lifelong fan of Native American cultures, admits the project has been a long time coming - he originally pitched the idea for a film about the two Navajo cops in the 1980s but couldn't find a studio brave enough to make the project. He claims Hollywood executives have always felt nervous about making a film about and starring Native Americans. He says, "There's a terrible climate of fear, which results in shrinking opportunities. Personally, I think it's time to make a bold move."

Redford Gets Searched As Olympic Security Man Admires His Work
19 February 2002 (WENN)
Security is so tight at the Winter Olympics even Robert Redford got thoroughly searched - as the security guard told him how much he enjoyed his last movie! The veteran big screen star, who appeared in Downhill Racer as a olympic skier, visited Deer Valley, near to the olympic venue of Salt Lake City, to ski - but encountered the strict security measures brought in following last year's terrorist activity. Eye witness Jerry Warren, who is Redford's mountain manager at his Sundance ranch, says, "He was very gracious about it, and even thanked them for searching him. One of the security guards even said he had really enjoyed Robert's latest film, Spy Game - so identification obviously wasn't an issue!"

Redford To Get Oscar
28 January 2002 (WENN)
Hollywood star Robert Redford will be getting an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards this year. The veteran actor/director will receive the trophy in recognition of his work on both sides of the camera, and as founder of the Sundance Institute, which encourages aspiring film-makers. Academy president Frank Pierson praised Redford's contribution to Hollywood, saying, "Bob's dedication to independent film-making has had an enormously positive impact on the motion-picture industry since he created Sundance 20 years ago." Actor Sidney Poitier will also receive an honorary award for his "extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen".

Redford Slams Hollywood's "Sick Obsession" With Plastic Surgery
10 January 2002 (WENN)
Veteran movie star Robert Redford has slammed Hollywood's "sick obsession" with plastic surgery - vowing never to go under the knife. The 64-year-old actor accepts he's lost his youthful looks, a point rammed home while starring opposite sex symbol Brad Pitt in their new movie Spy Game, but he refuses to resort to the knife to turn back time - because it saps people's souls. He rallies, "Everyone in Tinseltown is getting pinched, lifted and pulled. It's becoming a sick obsession. They lose some of their soul when they go under the knife, and they end up looking body-snatched. So what if my face is falling apart? I don't give a damn. Anyway, it gives me character."

Stars Stay Home; French Box Office Hurt
28 November 2001 (StudioBriefing)
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks several top stars, including Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julia Roberts canceled trips to Paris to promote their films, resulting in "catastrophic" consequences for their films at the French box office, the French daily Le Parisien reported today (Wednesday). In fact, the newspaper observed, the only major star to come to France since the attacks has been Woody Allen -- to promote The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. Le Parisien quoted a spokeswoman for an unnamed U.S. studio in Paris as saying that "some films, like America's Sweethearts and Moulin Rouge, haven't been as successful as planned given the lack of [the stars'] media presence."

It's No Menace
27 November 2001 (StudioBriefing)
The possibility that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone might tie Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace as the only other film to earn $200 million in 10 days evaporated Monday as final weekend results indicated that Warner Bros.' estimates were off by more than $1 million. According to Exhibitor Relations, the film actually took in $57.5 million for the weekend, bringing its total to $187 million. Pixar/Disney's Monsters, Inc. was in second place with $24.1 million, bringing its total to $192.2 million after four weeks. In third place was Tony Scott's Spy Game, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, which debuted with $21.7 million. With some multiplexes setting aside as many as half their screens for Harry Potter, many films were bounced out of theaters entirely or relegated to small rooms. The result was that overall ticket sales for the top 12 films dropped 15 percent over the weekend to $142.2 million compared to the same weekend a year ago.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Warner Bros. $57,487,755, 2 Wks. ($186,978,513); 2. Monsters, Inc. Disney, $24,055,001, 4 Wks. ($192,229,825); 3. Spy Game, Universal, $21,689,125, 1 Wk. ($30,566,960); 4. Black Knight, 20th Century Fox, $11,102,948, 1 Wk. ($15,409,892); 5. Shallow Hal, 20th Century Fox, $8,516,424, 3 Wks. ($54,998,829); 6. Out Cold, Disney, $4,531,665, 1 Wk. ($6,700,687); 7. Domestic Disturbance, Paramount, $4,008,337, 4 Wks. ($39,801,239); 8. Heist, Warner Bros. $3,113,033, 3 Wks. ($20,025,070); 9. Life as a House, New Line, $2,121,159, 5 Wks. ($12,220,980); 10. The One, Sony, $2,075,363, 4 Wks. ($41,880,185).

Redford And Pitt's Huge Differences
27 November 2001 (WENN)
Robert Redford sees one big difference between himself and his Spy Game co-star Brad Pitt - Pitt loves life in Hollywood, while Redford despises it. The 65-year-old heart-throb, who grew up in Los Angeles, sees no attraction to living in the star-filled city, unlike Oklahoma-born, Missouri-raised Pitt. Redford says, "He lives in Hollywood. I don't. I grew up in Los Angeles. It holds no magic for me as a city." But Pitt, 37, who lives in Tinseltown with his Friends star wife Jennifer Aniston, enjoys the bright lights of the often-criticised metropolis. He explains, "I do have a big love for Los Angeles. I'm one of few. But I come from a place without much access to the arts and music." And as well as Pitt's choice of city dwelling, Redford also has little envy for the film hunk's status as a top star. He notes, "Brad has pressures now that didn't exist then. The pressures of stardom, the loss of privacy - all the things I went through. I empathise. Some people wanted fame all their lives and fall all over themselves gobbling it up. Brad is struggling to maintain a balanced place. We talked a lot about having to deal with these issues. You're forced into a kind of cynicism and paranoia. Brad has his own integrity. He's finding his way, while still living in the Hollywood community."

Movie Reviews: Spy Game
21 November 2001 (StudioBriefing)
The reunion of Brad Pitt and Robert Redford in Spy Game is being welcomed by most critics, but none are giving it a top rating. "Enjoy it for what it is," writes Newsweek's David Ansen, "a fleet, handsome fantasy of globe-hopping blond demigods." A.O. Scott says that director Tony Scott (presumably no relation) employs many of the conventions he used in Top Gun, Crimson Tide and Enemy of the State. They are, he writes, "like gadgets in the Sharper Image catalog: sleek, expensive handsome gizmos of doubtful utility." Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times uses a different analogy. "What Spy Game turns out to be," he writes, "is the old reliable family car spruced up around the edges in an attempt to convince a new generation of buyers that it's a hot number." Yet another analogy comes from Rita Kempley in the Washington Post, who gives the film one of its best notices: "The movie is sleek and shiny as a new bullet, reflecting Scott's patented surplus of style, but in this case that only enhances a stirring drama about the moral ambiguities native to intelligence-gathering."

Redford Takes On President Bush In Oil Battle
16 November 2001 (WENN)
Robert Redford is taking on the American government in an attempt to block a bill he believes will destroy the country's rural areas. Redford has taken the gutsy move at a difficult time, with the vast majority of Americans trying to be patriotic and support the government. But in an open letter to his friends, Redford accuses George W. Bush and his party of trying to use the September 11th tragedies as evidence for the need to increase oil drilling. He writes, "Using our national tragedy as an opportunity to advance the narrow interests of the oil lobby would not be in the best interest of the public. This bill, already passed by the House, would not only open the Arctic Refuge to oil rigs, it would also pave the way for energy companies to exploit and destroy pristine areas of Greater Yellowstone and other gems of our natural heritage." He adds, "It would take ten years to bring Arctic oil to market, and when it arrives it would never equal more than two percent - a mere drop in the bucket - of all the oil we consume each year. Our nation simply doesn't have enough oil to drill our way to energy independence or even to affect world oil prices. We possess a mere 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, but we consume fully 25 percent of the world's oil supply. We could drill the Arctic Refuge, Greater Yellowstone, and every other wildland in America and we'd still be importing oil, still be paying worldwide prices for domestic oil, and still be vulnerable to wild gyrations in price and supply." Redford's friend Melanie Griffith is supporting her pal's bid to stand up against the government, posting her own open letter on her widely read personal website.

Hell Wins But Hath No Fury
23 October 2001 (StudioBriefing)
The Jack the Ripper thriller From Hell won the weekend box office race, but not by much, according to final ticket-sales figures released by Exhibitor Relations Monday. The Johnny Depp starrer earned a relatively mild $11 million, closely followed by Riding in Cars With Boys, starring Drew Barrymore, which took in $10.4 million. Training Day, starring Denzel Washington, which had held the top spot during the previous two weeks, dropped to third place with $9.3 million, while Bandits, starring Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton, slipped from second to fourth place with $8.3 million. The Robert Redford movie The Last Castle, which many analysts had expected to be the clear winner at the box office, earned a disappointing $7.1 million to open in fifth place. Both Bandits and The Last Castle appeal to older audiences -- a fact which may have contributed to their selling fewer tickets than expected. "When there are world events that affect people, the older, upscale audience is the one that's glued to CNN, that's glued to NBC," MGM chief Alex Yemenidjian told Bloomberg News.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. From Hell, 20th Century Fox, $11,014,818, (New); 2. Riding in Cars With Boys, Sony, $10,404,652, (New); 3. Training Day, Warner Bros. $9,325,443, 3 Wks. ($57,283,521); 4. Bandits, MGM, $8,304,007, 2 Wks. ($24,884,979); 5. The Last Castle, DreamWorks, $7,088,213, (New); 6. Serendipity, Miramax, $5,446,446, 3 Wks. ($34,426,889); 7. Corky Romano, Disney, $5,307,985, 2 Wks. ($16,185,276); 8. Don't Say a Word, 20th Century Fox, $4,215,594, 4 Wks. ($47,885,454); 9. Iron Monkey, Miramax/Dimension, $3,190,010, 2 Wks. ($10,737,961); 10. Zoolander, Paramount, $3,135,854, 4 Wks. ($40,018,837).

Movie Reviews: The Last Castle
19 October 2001 (StudioBriefing)
Putting James Gandolfini in a starring role in a movie for the first time has both its advantages and its drawbacks, it would seem. Critics are, for the most part, praising his performance in the prison drama The Last Castle, in which he stars opposite Robert Redford. Yet many of those same critics complain that The Last Castle compares poorly with The Sopranos, the HBO series that made Gandolfini a big star to begin with. (In a feature about the movie appearing in today's (Friday) Toronto Globe & Mail, writer Simon Houpt observed: "The Sopranos is so finely wrought, and his work in it so sublime, it is disturbing to see him in something as hackneyed as The Last Castle.") Nevertheless, the film is receive several raves. Jonathan Foreman in the New York Post writes that it is a rare pleasure to see a movie "that combines exciting action with a smart, well-informed script and vivid yet restrained performances." On the other hand, across town at the New York Daily News, writer Jack Mathews scoffs, "I don't know why Redford and the white-hot Gandolfini signed on for this fiasco." Los Angeles Daily News critic Bob Strauss voices a similar verdict. The film, he says, "manages to be howlingly simplistic and ridiculously illogical at the same time." Curiously, Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times admits he has ambivalent feelings about the movie: "The immediate experience of watching The Last Castle is strongly involving, and the action at the end, exciting," he writes. "It's the kind of movie people tell you they saw last night and really liked. I really liked it last night, too. It's only this morning that I'm having trouble with it."

Robert Redford's Personal Terrorist Experience
12 October 2001 (WENN)
Robert Redford suffered personal heart-break when he couldn't find his youngest daughter on 11th September. The legendary star was unable to locate Amy Hart Redford for at least 30 hours after the two jetliners had struck the World Trade Center. He says, "I shared what everybody shared, which was the shock, the fact that it had to sink in. "t had to sink in that this was real. Once I got past that, I tried to locate the part of my family that was in New York. It took me a day and a half. My youngest daughter got through first from a cell phone, but she had witnessed part of it. She had witnessed the second building being hit, and that was tough, so she was having a rough time." He continues, "She dealt with it by going down and volunteering. I think a lot of people did that."

Redford Joins In Traditional Sing-along
16 July 2001 (WENN)
Hollywood legend Robert Redford thrilled fans and tourists when he joined in a singalong in a traditional Irish pub. The Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid star dropped into the Abbey Tavern in Howth, Co Dublin, close to where he owns a luxury apartment. A relaxed Redford downed pints of Guinness in the bar and then headed for the function room for a folk session. A bus load of American tourists who dropped in could not believe their eyes when they saw the superstar swigging beer and enjoying the fun with locals. Redford later dined by himself in the upstairs restaurant. One bar worker says,"We're used to seeing him in here but the tourists could not believe their eyes. But they were careful not to approach him, local people around here know he's in no mood for autograph hunters."

Redford Slams Dubya's Ignorance
10 July 2001 (WENN)
Robert Redford has heavily criticized President George W. Bush, calling him "ignorant" on the environment. Redford has urged other nations to keep pressure on the United States at a global climate conference next week. Redford, an active environmentalist aside from his Hollywood career, has told a German magazine that Bush was oblivious to the extent the United States squandered natural resources compared to other countries. "Bush doesn't have a clue," Redford said, adding that Bush was unaware "we are all living in a global village." Redford said he felt the president relied too much on advisers who joined his administration from industry and military backgrounds. "They are blind and deaf to the changes over the last 40 years," he said. "It's a tragedy because we could really learn a lot from other countries." Redford's comments come at a pressing time for climate issues on the world stage, with talks due to start in Bonn, Germany on July 16th.

Robert Redford Sells Beach House
21 May 2001 (WENN)
Robert Redford has parted with his beachside Malibu property - for more than $9 million. The actor-producer-director sold his five-bedroom home to a physician and his wife for $6 million, and an adjacent lot to another buyer for more than $3 million. He had bought the lot from playwright Neil Simon in 1994 to prevent anyone from building next to the home he purchased in 1986.

Redford Snubs Bush Administration's Condor Plea
14 May 2001 (WENN)
Robert Redford has rejected an invitation to release a rare condor with a top American politician because of the Bush Administration's "abysmal" record on the environment. Redford said instead of helping Interior Secretary Gale Norton, he would spend time trying to counter "the devastating environmental repercussions of the agenda you and President Bush embrace." Redford's snub came days before Bush is expected to announce an energy policy that will further infuriate environmentalists. The California condor, the largest bird in North America, was facing extinction, but more than 160 birds have been bred in captivity, of which 50 have been released since 1992. In her invitation to Redford, Norton said, "You and I have never met, but we do have a common interest." She noted that the actor had narrated a film about saving the condor, and said that she had enjoyed Three Days of the Condor (which wasn't actually about condors). But Redford replied that he was "mystified" that she would think they had anything in common. He added, "Sadly, since assuming the Interior Secretary post, you have compiled an abysmal record of capitulating to big businesses at the expense of the nation's public health, public lands and wildlife."

Robert Redford Hits Out At President Bush Over Oil
26 April 2001 (WENN)
Robert Redford has branded American President George W. Bush a puppet of the oil industry. The actor, a keen campaigner on green issues, claims Bush has used oil money to get elected and is no friend of the environment. Environmentalists have been angered by the Bush administration's decision to allow drilling for oil in Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge. When it comes to protecting natural resources, Redford says the "fox is now in charge of the chicken coop." Redford adds, "I think President Bush is pretty well a puppet for the interests behind him. He and the Vice-President come from the oil business, which gave them the money to get elected. What are they going to do, talk about solar energy?" Redford is a long-time board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Robert Redford Company In Child Labor Scandal
9 April 2001 (WENN)
A company owned by actor Robert Redford is embroiled in a child labor scandal. Redford's Sundance eco-friendly catalog company, which offers organic products, jewelry, and clothing, unwittingly sold hand-crafted furniture made by Twelve Tribes, a racist sect that believes in spanking its young with resin-dipped rods. Sundance, which has sold furniture under the group's Common Wealth label since 1999, has removed the products from its new catalogue, saying it was "distressed" by the allegations. The row over child labor flared up when cosmetics company Estee Lauder cut its relations with the group when its leaders failed to give assurances that they were not using under-age workers to finance its activities. A statement from Twelve Tribes reads, "Like any family-owned business, the children help the parents. We believe in this and make no apology."

Robert Redford Votes Against Plastic Surgery
1 March 2001 (WENN)
Legendary American actor Robert Redford is adamant he'll grow old gracefully and not partake in Hollywood's obsession with plastic surgery. Redford, 63, would prefer to find other methods of maintaining his heartthrob looks, rather than go under the knife of the surgeon. He says, "It seems everyone in Hollywood is getting pinched, lifted and pulled. I'm looking weird because I'm not, but it just doesn't feel right for me to get surgery. I feel this obsession with plastic surgery is like chipping away at oneself. Everyone wants to preserve their time in history. I guess I'll just have to look for other ways."

Redford Expresses Disgust At Movie Industry
23 February 2001 (WENN)
Veteran actor Robert Redford has slammed Hollywood and the film industry as "appalling". Redford, 63, believes that an actor is now required to be devastatingly handsome to land a decent part. He says, "I'm a little old-fashioned in that I always thought it was my job to perform and inhabit the character, and not make a business of myself and how I looked. Competition is so fierce for young actors today and their lifespan seems to have got shorter."

Pitt Slams His New Movie
1 February 2001 (WENN)
Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt has criticised his latest movie - before it has even been released. The star of Spy Game, The (2001), which also stars Hollywood heavyweight Robert Redford, has angered film chiefs with his attitude as he dismissed the thriller as fit only for 7-year-olds. The pin-up mocked the films dialogue, "Listen to this line - 'Target in sight. Do we still have the go?' Being a grown man, I feel silly saying them."

Redford Rules Out Getting Married Again
31 January 2001 (WENN)
Veteran actor Robert Redford gets dozens of marriage proposals a week - but he's vowed never to wed again. The 63-year-old star was married for 27 years to Lola Van Wagenen, and has had failed romances with Brazilian actress Sonia Braga and costume designer Kate O'Rear - which has put him off serious relationships for good. Although Redford is currently in a "happy relationship" with German artist Sibillye Szaggars, the pair will continue to live apart. He explains, "We met through a mutual interest in art after I saw some of her work in a gallery. "Then by pure coincidence I discovered she lived near me in Utah. So I gave her a call and we liked each other. "My first marriage lasted for over 25 years which is a long time and produced a wonderful family but I can't see any point in ever getting married again. That chapter of my life is over and now we move on. But I'm still having a good time."

Pitt's New Toyota Commercial
19 January 2001 (WENN)
Brad Pitt is set for a lucrative new Japanese TV deal - but he's telling agents they only have three days to film it. The movie star who has filmed a string of TV commercials for exclusive use in Japan, including ones for Tag Heuer watches and Edwin jeans, will film a new advert for car giants Toyota next month during a break in filming new movie Spy Game, The (2001), with Robert Redford. Insiders claim the actor will pick up $1 million a day for the Toyota commercial.

Paul Newman Voted World's Best Actor
16 January 2001 (WENN)
Legendary Hollywood star Paul Newman has been voted the greatest movie actor of all time - beating the likes of Marlon Brando, Cary Grant and James Stewart. Newman, famed for his blue eyes, topped the list, which was complied by a group of experts for this week's edition of British listings magazine Radio Times. The panel took into account such criteria as box office success, Oscar nominations, acting range and marriage appeal when deciding who made it on their list of honor. Newman, 75, was nominated for the best actor Oscar seven times during his career, winning it in 1986 for Color of Money, The (1986). A poll among readers of the Radio Times disagreed with the experts, putting Scottish legend Sir Sean Connery, 70, at the top of the list. Sir Sean star only made it to number eight in the experts' league table. Tom Hanks, 44, who is to star alongside Newman in new film Road to Perdition (2001), came second in the list. He was followed by James Stewart (1908-1997), Harrison Ford, 58, Marlon Brando, 76, Cary Grant (1904-1986), Robert Redford, 63, Connery, Tom Cruise, 38, and Gary Cooper (1901-1961).

Redford Set For Exile In Military Epic
15 November 2000 (WENN)
Mark Wahlberg (photos) and Robert Redford (photos) are set to team up in the new $75 million military epic The Castle. Rod Lurie (photos) is expected to direct the action drama, which has been created by Graham Yost for Dreamworks, according to Variety. The story focuses on a general, played by Redford, who faces spending the rest of his life in a remote island penal colony, which is billed as the world's number one maximum security prison, known as The Castle The maverick veteran soon turns the prison population into his own 1, 200-man private army and then threatens a major revolt. Wahlberg is in line to play a young pilot who acts as an intermediary between factions. A source says, "Mark has just played an ex-con in Yards, The (2000), so he's having a long hard think about this one. But the opportunity to work with Redford will probably tip the scales."

Movie Reviews: Bagger Vance
3 November 2000 (StudioBriefing)
It may boast such movie icons as Will Smith and Matt Damon in front of the camera and Robert Redford behind it, but Legend of Bagger Vance, The (2000) will not have an easy go of it at the box office if its reviews are any indication. Clearly critics are deeply divided over this period piece. On the one hand, Rita Kempley in the Washington Post writes that Vance "is a slight, disingenuous script that robs the characters of their histories, deprives the actors of subtext and minimizes the odds each must overcome." Of Smith's role, in particular, Kempley writes, "Isn't it time to put Stepin Fetchit to rest?" On the other hand, Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times must have been seized by inspiration after seeing the movie: "Will Smith could make Bagger Vance insufferable, but the part is written and played to make it more of a bemused commentary ... all oblique and understated. No violins. Is he a real person or a spirit? You tell me. The photography by Michael Ballhaus makes the great course look green, limitless and sad -- sad that every shot must fall and every game must end. There is a dusk here that is heartbreaking, like the end of every perfect summer day..."

Even Redford Has Problems Making Movies He Likes
2 November 2000 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford has told the New York Post that he had to "fight a lot more than anyone would know" to get his current film, Legend of Bagger Vance, The (2000), produced. He says that to get the film made, he had to make a number of compromises. "The challenge now is to continue to make the movies that I find interesting against the weight of the formulas that you have to come up with in order to make the bottom line work, " Redford told the Post. He also expressed dismay over the current action genre: "A lot of films look like they're two-hour commercials, " he observed. "You don't stick with anything very long, you can't get in touch with the characters -- they're just props to move the action along. It's a fast, assaultive ride, then it's over."

Matt Damon Impresses His Dad
1 November 2000 (WENN)
Oscar-winner Matt Damon has finally found a way to impress his dad - introduce him to Robert Redford. Matt, who stars in Redford's latest movie Legend of Bagger Vance, The (2000), says his normally hard-to-impress dad was bowled over by meeting Redford - especially as Damon Jr. and Sr., both avid baseball fans, got to practice their catching with the star of Natural, The (1984). Damon says, "My dad came to visit me while making Bagger Vance. "On a break, we grabbed a couple gloves from the prop truck and started having a catch. Redford came over, picked up a glove and we're just having a catch, not saying much. Five minutes go by, and my father yells, 'I'm having a catch with f***ing Roy Hobbs' It was hysterical. I've never seen my dad get starstruck."

Brad Pitt And Robert Redford Seek British Shelter
18 October 2000 (WENN)
Brad Pitt and Robert Redford have been forced to relocate to Britain - after a real war threatened their war film. The Hollywood pair were shooting director Tony Scott's espionage thriller The Spy Game in Israel - but the mounting Israeli-Palestinian conflict led to fears for the stars' safety. A spokesman for the production says, "You have to think of not just the safety of the stars, but the entire crew. In any case, I think the money and the insurance have been jumping up and down, going nuts at the prospect of filming in a war zone." The CIA thriller has reportedly been relocated to the much calmer Shepperton Studios, outside London.

Matt Damon Swings Out Of Control
22 September 2000 (WENN)
Actor Matt Damon has a painful new passion - golf. Matt, who has been taking five-hour golf lessons every day for six weeks to train for his golfing role in Legend of Bagger Vance, The (2000), admits he's hooked - even though it did land him in the hospital. Damon says, "I play baseball. I couldn't understand golf because the ball doesn't really move. Which is why I swung really hard one day. I swung myself right into the doctor's office." But Damon, who sustained a separated rib, wasn't deterred by the injury and has since become a regular fixture on the golf course. The only person not so happy on the set of the movie, based on Steven Pressfield's 1955 novel, was Robert Redford who, as director, didn't get to swing a club. He joked, "No wonder I'm in such a bad mood. Everyone gets to play golf but me!"

Mayor Intervenes To Keep Redford-Pitt Movie In Haifa
17 August 2000 (StudioBriefing)
The mayor of Haifa, Israel, Amram Mitzna, has persuaded Universal Studios representatives to change their minds about going elsewhere to shoot part of their upcoming film Spy Games starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. According to the online edition of Israel's Business, the studio execs had decided to pull out after business owners in downtown Haifa had demanded exorbitant payments. The business paper said that Mitzna met Wednesday night with the Universal reps and the business owners and that helped iron out an agreement on payments.

Redford Laughs Off Marriage Rumors
28 June 2000 (WENN)
Screen star Robert Redford has laughed off reports that he's asked girlfriend Sibylle Szaggars to tie the knot. The Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) actor apparently "laughed uproariously" after hearing reports that he'd popped the question to his painter sweetheart. His representative says, "They love each other very much. But they're not going to marry. " However, the actor-turned-director did attend a wedding on Sunday - his youngest daughter Amy, wed Scottish photographer Mark Mann in Sundance, Utah.

Newman And Redford To Re-Team???
17 April 2000 (WENN)
Movie star Paul Newman is looking for a suitable script that will see him team up with fellow star Robert Redford for a third time. Newman, who starred with Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and Sting, The (1973) says if the pair are to join forces again, they'll have to do it soon. He says, "We've talked about it for ages, but now we mean to do something about it - before I get too old to learn my lines. " The 75-year-old Hollywood veteran adds, "But I won't accept one that has me playing his dad."

Redford To Make Film About Extraordinary Person
24 February 2000 (StudioBriefing)
Marking an apparent departure from the intimate portraits of ordinary people that have marked his previous directorial efforts, Robert Redford has agreed to helm A Beautiful Mind, a biopic about Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Thursday). The trade paper said that Tom Cruise is likely to star in the film, being produced by Universal Pictures and Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment. Nash, hailed as a mathematical genius in the early 1950s, was later institutionalized for schizophrenia but later made what was deemed a miraculous recovery. He received the Nobel Prize in 1994 for his earlier work. The film is based on a book by Sylvia Nassar. In a review appearing in the Wall Street Journal, book critic Charles C. Mann wrote: "A Beautiful Mind is one of the few scientific biographies ... that could plausibly be described as a three-handkerchief read."

Sundance Opens
21 January 2000 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival got underway Thursday night with the premiere of What's Cooking?, about four families preparing Thanksgiving dinner. It stars Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Joan Chen, Julianna Margulies, Kyra Sedgwick and Mercedes Ruehl. Interviewed at the Sundance site by CNN Thursday, Kevin Spacey, who is due to be recognized at the festival for his "independent vision, " remarked: "Business in the air -- do you smell it? It's the kind of air that makes account ledgers grow."

Sundance Comes To Boston
3 March 1999 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford has announced plans to build an 11-theater movie complex, complete with a film library, restaurant and two bars that will showcase independent films in Boston. The $40-million Sundance Cinema Center is expected to be built behind the historic Fenway Field, home of the Boston Red Sox. In a statement, Redford said that the complex "will bring the spirit of the Sundance Film Festival to the already vibrant independent film and film-going community in Boston.

Women Get Horse Whisperer Web Site
4 September 1998 (StudioBriefing)
Buena Vista International and Britain's Cable and Wireless Communications are teaming up to develop a Horse Whisperer, The (1998) Web site aimed at introducing more women to the Internet, the BBC reported Thursday. In the film, the lead female character, portrayed by Kristin Scott Thomas uses the Internet to track down the Robert Redford character, who is renowned for his rapport with horses. Mario Tilney-Basset of Buena Vista told the BBC that the scene "is a practical demonstration of using the Net to track down things you don't know much about." As part of the marketing campaign for the movie, UCI Cinemas showing the film in the U.K. are giving away a free Internet beginners guide on CD-ROM. (In an interview with the BBC, Thomas said that she is "completely computer illiterate.")

Redford Scolds Hollywood Over Sequels
24 August 1998 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford has blasted Hollywood's increasing dependence on turning out sequels of old movies and theatrical versions of old television shows. Speaking on Saturday via satellite to an audience at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where his Horse Whisperer, The (1998) made its British debut, Redford said, "I see life as being too short just to make formula repeats to make some money." The star also said that he has not seen many of his own films since opening day or even when they were in rough-cut stage. "I don't want to bring a therapist in, but it has to do with looking forward, not back, " he said, adding, "I don't enjoy watching myself on screen."

Godzilla: His Box Office Wasn't As Long As The Hype
25 May 1998 (StudioBriefing)
As expected, Godzilla conquered the box office over the weekend, but the creature's triumph was not nearly so sweeping as its producer, Sony Films, had been hoping for. Godzilla took in $49 million during the Friday-Sunday period, according to studio estimates and should wind up the four-day holiday weekend with less than $70 million, far below the record $90.7 million garnered by The Lost World: Jurassic Park during the same period a year ago, industry analysts said. Well behind in second place for the three-day period was Paramount's Deep Impact, with $15.5 million, bringing its three-week total to $95 million. Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer took in a respectable $10 million in its second week. But Warren Beatty's political comedy Bulworth opened with only so-so results with $7.2 million. In fifth place was Warner Bros.' animated The Quest for Camelot, which garnered $4 million in its second week. Universal's debut of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas tossed snake-eyes with $3.9 million. Other top finishers: 7. City of Angels, Warner Bros., 8. He Got Game, Disney-Touchstone, $1.8 million; 9. Paulie, DreamWorks, $1.1 million; 10. Titanic, Fox/Paramount, $1 million. $2.4 million;

Secondary Impact
18 May 1998 (StudioBriefing)
The impact on the box office wasn't nearly so deep as it was a week ago but Deep Impact (1998) managed to remain the weekend leader, taking in an estimated $23.3 million and bringing its 10-day cume to $74 million. In second place was Robert Redford's Horse Whisperer, The (1998) with about $14 million. But Warner Bros.' quest to challenge Disney in animation with Quest for Camelot (1998) appeared stymied as the film took in only $6.4 million. Fox's Bulworth, which was released in only two theaters (in New York and L.A.) took in a sensational $135, 000, with most screenings sold out by early afternoon. The film will roll out against Godzilla (1998) this week. The top ten films over the weekend according to studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:1. Deep Impact (1998), Paramount/DreamWorks $23 million; 2. Horse Whisperer, The (1998), Disney-Touchstone, $14 million; 3. The Quest for Camelot (1998), Warner Bros., $6.4 million; 4. City of Angels (1998), Warner Bros., $3.2 million; 5. He Got Game (1998), Disney-Touchstone, $2.4 million; 6. Titanic (1997), Fox/Paramount, $2.2 million; 7. Woo (1998), New Line, $1.71 million; 8. Paulie (1998), DreamWorks, $1.7 million; 9. Misérables, Les (1998), Sony-Columbia, $1.5 million; 10. Big Hit, The (1998), Sony-TriStar, $1.4 million.

Movie Reviews: The Horse Whisperer
15 May 1998 (StudioBriefing)
Robert Redford's Horse Whisperer, The (1998) has inspired some fairly lofty prose by reviewers even as box-office analysts were predicting lofty results for its opening. Jay Carr in the Boston Globe wrote that the film "is of a richness and depth and rhythm that do not suggest film but nature itself. It's filled with thoughtfulness and subtlety, yet it's lyrical and primal." Says Janet Maslin in The New York Times: "R