June 28, 2006
'Wolverine' pumps up Cine Expo Day 2
By Stuart Kemp
AMSTERDAM -- The promise of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine headlining a spinoff of 20th Century Fox's "X-Men" franchise next year was a highlight of Day 2 here at Cine Expo.
The day also saw MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman deliver an industry rallying cry, the awarding of the Nielsen EDI International Gold Reel prizes and a slick 20th Century Fox showreel with an appearance by directors' Shawn Levy and David Frankel.
20th Century Fox promised the gathered exhibitors a Jackman starrer titled "Wolverine" for next year and Jackman himself sent the show a taped promise to back up the news.
Fox went on to present its upcoming showreel in the early afternoon, featuring Levy's "Night at Museum," Frankel's "The Devil Wears Prada," and "Borat" with special guest appearances from the two directors, and "Borat" star Sacha Baron Cohen as the fake Kazakhstani reporter to support the shindig.
Earlier in the day, Glickman jetted in to call on all European exhibitors to join the fight against piracy, or as it is now dubbed, copyright theft.
The issue of copyright theft, Glickman told the sizeable audience, was "the single biggest threat to the film business."
The animated Glickman dished out a few statistics to the exhibitor crowd, saying that a recently commissioned MPAA research document indicated that more than $18.2 billion worldwide had been lost to piracy.
"This activity (of copyright theft) is deplorable and illegal," Glickman told the crowd in a stern address.
He also warned against any thoughts of complacency in Europe over the piracy issue, a place Glickman said had a long and powerful history of cultural and intellectual influence on the world that ought to be protected and continue.
He said that the MPAA is looking at ways to bring over tailored educational efforts aimed at the youth in Europe to ensure they know stealing intellectual property is wrong, mirroring the organization's efforts in the U.S.
"We need to start educating the youth of the evils of stealing intellectual property," Glickman said, telling the audience to be aware of a growing subculture that believes file sharing is not a crime.
But he also noted that the growth in venture capital cash in the movie business in the U.S. had grown 44% in the first six months of this year, putting a big part of that commitment down to the result in the MGM-Grokster Supreme Court case.
"Some of you may not know but today is the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in the MGM v. Grokster case," Glickman said. The ruling saw peer-to-peer network file sharing on Grokster outlawed and the Web site shuttered.
"We need to stay in front," Glickman said, adding that he would work hard with exhibitors, governments and distributors to "break the piracy plague on our industry."
His early Tuesday morning industry address was followed by a screening of "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," introduced by United International Pictures president and chief operating officer Andrew Cripps.
The day then saw Nielsen EDI International Gold Reel awards dished out for movies that have earned more than $100 million at the international boxoffice with a decidedly reduced number of films achieving the status.
This year, however, saw two films grab a Platinum Reel award, which is reserved for movies that surpass $500 million at the international boxoffice.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire" conjured up more than $600 million at the boxoffice for international distributor Warner Bros. Pictures International and was the highest-grossing movie honored here. Sony Pictures Releasing thrilled its way to more than $500 million to date with the ongoing international rollout of "The Da Vinci Code."
Warner Bros. also scored Gold Reels for "Batman Begins," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Island." SPR also shared a Gold Reel with Spyglass Entertainment for "Memoirs of a Geisha."
United International Pictures once again picked up the largest haul of Gold reels, taking trophies for "King Kong," "Madagascar," "Mission: Impossible III," "War of the Worlds" and "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."
20th Century Fox International earned Gold Reels for "Fantastic Four," "Ice Age: The Meltdown," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "X-Men: The Last Stand."
Buena Vista International scored for "Chicken Little," "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Flightplan."
Nielsen Entertainment International president Nick King also told a lunchtime audience of largely European-based theater operators that the impact of the World Cup soccer tournament has been dramatic in its first few weeks but played down its overall effect as it comes to a conclusion.
The major territories in Europe -- the U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Italy -- are expected to end up down 1%-3% year-to-year during the World Cup weeks, King said
