AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Variety
DreamWorks nabs rights to adventure series
DreamWorks has acquired screen rights to “The 39 Clues,” a multiplatform adventure series to be launched in the fall by Scholastic Media. Steven Spielberg is eyeing the project as a directing vehicle.
DreamWorks co-chair/CEO Stacey Snider struck the deal with Scholastic Media president Deborah Forte.
Forte and Spielberg will produce; Spielberg is [...]

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The New York Times
In April, the Walt Disney Company summoned movie theater executives for a rare audience before its reigning king of animation, John Lasseter. A co-founder of Pixar and director of “Toy Story,” Mr. Lasseter was unveiling the roster of films that an aligned Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios planned to release over [...]

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Variety
Majors offer digital downloads of DVD releases
Pricing concessions paved the way for Apple’s sweeping movie sell-through deals with the majors.
Pacts were actually brokered several months ago, shortly after all six majors agreed to rent their movies through the iTunes Store, but not formally unveiled until Thursday. Apple, studio execs say, needed time to “ingest” an [...]

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The Hollywood Reporter
Apple expected to announce deal with major studios
Apple is expected to announce Thursday that it has struck a deal with a wide array of major and mini studios to offer many new releases for purchase at its iTunes Store.
The move would allow a broad slate of top-shelf films to be offered day-and-date with [...]

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The Hollywood Reporter
Focus Features CEO James Schamus and Showtime chairman and CEO Matthew Blank shook hands warmly at New York media hot spot Michael’s earlier this month, but the two entertainment execs generally spend little time in each other’s spheres.
Nevertheless, both will receive special honors at the Museum of the Moving Image’s annual benefit [...]

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Variety
Comicbook giant names ex-Sony whiz exec VP
Marvel Entertainment has tapped Sony Pictures’ former digital guru Ira Rubenstein to head up the comicbook giant’s online and mobile efforts.
Company’s been aggressively eyeing the Internet and cell phones as ways to grow Marvel’s superhero business.
Rubenstein, long considered a Hollywood innovator in the online space, will head up that [...]

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Conde Nast Portfolio
Hannah Montana can carry a tune and, apparently, a billion-dollar corporation. Disney was floundering until it plugged in its tween dream machine, cranking out the bubblegum-pop stars that make young girls scream—and spend, spend, spend.
erhaps it was my daughters singing along with Hannah Montana—“Get up, get loud, we’re pumping up the party [...]

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The Wall Street Journal
Viacom, Lionsgate, MGM Set Venture For Fall of 2009
Pay-TV channels HBO, Showtime and Starz are about to get a new competitor in their lucrative and insular world.
Viacom Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Sunday announced a new joint venture to launch a premium channel, scheduled to debut in the [...]

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The Hollywood Reporter
NBC Universal relaunched its Digital Studio on Thursday with a focus on branded entertainment and two series already in the works.
The studio is headed by its vp, Cameron Death, who was hired last year by Ben Silverman, co-chairman NBC Universal Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. Death and his team report to Silverman and [...]

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Wired
Studio execs have an odd conundrum: Box-office receipts have steadily grown but the number of ticket sales have not. Thanks to the proliferation of home theaters, movies-on-demand and portable video players, moviegoers have fewer reasons to actually “go” to a movie. The studios’ solution? Hike ticket prices by a couple bucks apiece and ramp up [...]

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