FEATURE FOCUS
n US STUDIOS SHAKEUPINTERNATIONAL DIVISIONS n FILMNATION’S GLEN BASNER & AARONRYDER n SET REPORT:VEHICLE 19 n MPCA’S BRADKREVOY n INK FACTORY’S STEPHEN & SIMONCORNWELL
Warner Bros used its infrastructure to make a German hit out of Kokowaah
international executives, several studios have recently made significant changes in their approaches to international acquisition, pro- duction and even distribution. It began last March, when Warner Bros shut
down the international acquisitions unit it had launched just 15 months earlier under former New Line executive Camela Galano. Warner’s move was followed in June by the
closure of Disney’s local-language production unit, Walt Disney Studios International Pro- ductions, which under head Jason Reed had scored a hit with Chinese co-production The Magic Gourd but followed it with less success- ful outings such as Indian project Zokkomon and Disney High School Musical: China. Also in June, Paramount shut down its Para-
mount Worldwide Acquisitions Group — a unit whose pick-ups for various territories have included Made In Dagenham, The King’s Speech and Sundance grand jury prize winner Like Crazy — and laid off most of the unit’s staff, including Los Angeles-based group head Matt Brodlie and several executives outside the US. In what may be a related move, Paramount
last month said it will centralise management of its global theatrical distribution operation in
n 8 Screen International at the AFM November 3, 2011
A new approach to international T
Why are some of the US studios closing or restructuring their international production and acquisitions departments? John Hazelton reports
hese are interesting times in the interna- tional divisions of the Hollywood stu- dios. In a series of shake-ups that have claimed the jobs of some well-known
Hollywood. Paramount Pictures International (PPI) president Andrew Cripps, to who Brodlie reported, decided not to relocate from London to Los Angeles so stepped down as president of Paramount Pictures International (PPI). He was replaced by former Disney international distribution chief Antony Marcoly. Neither Paramount nor Disney will discuss
their international retrenchments. But Richard Fox, executive vice-president, international at Warner Bros Entertainment, says the closure of Galano’s unit — whose English-language acquisitions for various territories included District 9, Dream House and Conan The Barbar- ian — was prompted by a dearth of product suitable for acquisition across a number of ter- ritories. “We found out we weren’t doing interna-
tional acquisitions, we were doing country- specific acquisitions,” says Fox, who also oversees Warner’s long-established and still thriving local-language production operation. In future, Fox adds, acquisitions will be made either by Warner’s country managers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK or by the stu- dio’s business affairs staff in Los Angeles. The other studios, meanwhile, have main-
tained their international production and acquisition structures, or at least made only minor changes in approach. Sony is still an active buyer of domestic and
international rights to English-language projects through its Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group, headed by president Steve Bersch. Recent buys have included interna- tional rights to Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and a host of territories including Belgium and France on The Adventures Of Tin- tin: The Secret Of The Unicorn. The studio’s local-language production oper-
ation, overseen out of New York since London- based president Deborah Schindler became a consultant to the division, is now most active in Russia, Germany, Brazil and Asia. Twentieth Century Fox’s Fox International
‘One of the great advantages for us has been the ability to access the News Corp entities deeply embedded in
these markets’ Sanford Panitch, Fox International Productions
Productions (FIP) has remained a force in local production with a string of successes including Chinese production Hot Summer Days, Indian hit My Name Is Khan, Korean thriller The Yel- low Sea and recent German release What A Man. FIP’s Los Angeles-based president Sanford
Panitch puts the division’s success down in part to a policy of working closely with local part- ners, some of them pay-TV platforms owned or part-owned by Fox parent News Corp. “One of the great advantages for us at this
company,” says Panitch, “has been the ability to access the News Corp entities that are deeply embedded in these markets, whether it’s a Sky Italia or Sky Deutschland or a Star Asia or Star India.”
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