Discovery ink cope with Colombia gov't

Discovery Communications has forged a co-production partnership with Colombia's Secretary of state for It and Communications (TIC) to create content for contributing to Colombia in addition to promote and spur television production training programs in the united states.Multiple-year alliance may be the first media partnership for that Colombian government along with a first for Discovery in South America. Discovery has inked similar initiatives elsewhere, the most recent, named "China Imagica," was with China's Condition Council Information Office this year to co produce docus featuring the singular facets of China for worldwide auds.Latest pact boosts numerous questions regarding the discussing of costs and revenues, that your Discovery representative wasn't at liberty to go over.Breakthrough intends to tap local talent including producers, authors, crew etc. It's also opened up a workplace within the Colombian capital of Bogota, which makes it its 4th in the area after Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo and Mexico City.While no specific projects have yet been introduced, the main mandate would be to create documentaries about Colombia across non-fiction genres, including engineering, science, natural background and analysis.An advisory board of Colombian and worldwide experts works to make sure that the subjects selected appeals to local in addition to worldwide auds. The partners be prepared to bring their first co-production to Discovery and Colombian public TV this season.Breakthrough follows a string of media firms that have setup shop in the united states including The new sony Pictures Television, NBCU's Telemundo and Fox. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

RoboCop remake will receive a film author

Concentrate on the forthcoming RoboCop reboot is continually on the go ahead, with MGM announcing that Gran Torino film author Nick Schenk has signed onto write the script.Among a raft of classic characteristics that MGM is attempting to bring back (look at this week's report about Joe Carnahan's Dying Wish update), RoboCop will probably be directed by Jose Padilha, which has defined his plan to delve much much deeper into how Alex Murphy increased to become cyborg."I have my practice it,Inch Padilha told Superhero Hype, "And That I can explain to you: Inside the first RoboCop, Alex Murphy is shot, gunned lower, then you definitely certainly see some hospitals and stuff and also you cut to him as RoboCop. My movie is between people two cuts.""How will you make RoboCop?" he continues. " How will you progressively bring a guy to become robot? How will you really take humanity from someone and the way can you program a brain, as the saying goes, and the way does affecting an individual?InchNo further casting news remains released so far, but whispers hooking up Michael Fassbender for the project refuse disappear. We're not been convinced by the requirement to reboot RoboCop, however when Fassbender were attached, we'd admit for you to get our interest spurred.Production is positioned to begin later this year, with RoboCop is predicted to start in the course of 2013.

Sundance/NHK jerk a 'Close' call

Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) have selected Swedish filmmaker Jens Assur, director from the approaching "Close Far," as champion from the 2012 Sundance/NHK Intl. Filmmaker Award. Award is offered to identify and support a "visionary" filmmaker with their next film, with Sundance Institute staff working carefully using the champion throughout every season, supplying creative and proper support with the development, financing and manufacture of their films. Two films based on the award are screening at Sundance: "Monsters from the Southern Wild" by Benh Zeitlin and "Elena" by Russian filmmaker Andrei Zvyagintsev. Assur's short "Killing the Chickens in order to save the Apes" is playing at Sundance and the writing and pointing debut, "The Final Dog in Rwanda," won honours at festivals in Clermont-Ferrand, Tribeca, Sydney, Rome and Palm Springs. "Close Far" is really a drama thriller including five interlocking tales occur Africa and Europe about folks vulnerable situations whose actions carry personal and global effects. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Relativity, Weinstein Company settle 'Crow' suit

Relativity Media and The Weinstein Company have settled a lawsuit over a remake of 1994's "The Crow" out of court, the companies confirmed in a joint statement."The parties will continue to work on the film together as planned. In addition, Relativity Media has dismissed all of its claims against The Weinstein Company for any wrongdoing regarding the release and distribution of "Nine," and The Weinstein Company has dismissed all of its claims against Relativity Media."TWC originally filed an injunction against Relativity in April to halt the latter's sale of distribution rights to its remake to anyone but TWC. Dispute centered around a contract between TWC and Relativity -- signed "as of March 25, 2009" -- that the suit claims gave TWC exclusive rights to sequels, prequels and remakes of 1994's "The Crow," which grossed close to $100 million worldwide.In May, Relativity fired back, claiming that TWC intentionally masked its financial problems in order to induce Relativity to finance musical "Nine."Plans to remake "The Crow" have been gestating for years. Stephen Norrington first came on to write and direct the movie, based on the comic by James O'Barr, in December 2008. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo recently boarded to direct the film. Contact Rachel Abrams at Rachel.Abrams@variety.com

Now Casting 'House of Cards,' a New Netflix Original Series

Now Casting 'House of Cards,' a New Netflix Original Series By Daniel Lehman January 20, 2012 Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images Kevin Spacey Pat Moran and Associates is casting local Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C. actors for "House of Cards," a new U.S. adaptation of the BBC political drama series of the same name. The series stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, and the pilot will be directed by David Fincher ("The Social Network," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"). Spacey and Fincher are co-producers for the series, which will stream on Netflix as the company's first original programming. Casting director Pat Moran is seeking male and female actors ages 18+ for various roles. Moran is seeking both union and nonunion talent; the show will be covered under an AFTRA contract. Shooting is scheduled to begin in March. For more information on the project and how to submit, view the full casting notice on BackStage.com. (Subscription required.)Moran is a CSA member whose TV credits include "Game Change," "Veep," "The Wire," and "Oz" for HBO, "Homicide: Life on Street," and other pilots. She has also cast many feature films such as "State of Play," "He's Just Not That Into You," "Syriana," "The Replacements," "The Runaway Bride," and more. Now Casting 'House of Cards,' a New Netflix Original Series By Daniel Lehman January 20, 2012 Kevin Spacey PHOTO CREDIT Jason Kempin/Getty Images Pat Moran and Associates is casting local Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C. actors for "House of Cards," a new U.S. adaptation of the BBC political drama series of the same name. The series stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, and the pilot will be directed by David Fincher ("The Social Network," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"). Spacey and Fincher are co-producers for the series, which will stream on Netflix as the company's first original programming. Casting director Pat Moran is seeking male and female actors ages 18+ for various roles. Moran is seeking both union and nonunion talent; the show will be covered under an AFTRA contract. Shooting is scheduled to begin in March. For more information on the project and how to submit, view the full casting notice on BackStage.com. (Subscription required.)Moran is a CSA member whose TV credits include "Game Change," "Veep," "The Wire," and "Oz" for HBO, "Homicide: Life on Street," and other pilots. She has also cast many feature films such as "State of Play," "He's Just Not That Into You," "Syriana," "The Replacements," "The Runaway Bride," and more.

Kodak files for Chapter 11

Eastman Kodak Co., an icon that dates back to the 1880s and the biggest supplier of raw film stock to Hollywood from the beginning of motion pictures, filed for Chapter 11 overnight in U.S. bankruptcy court for the Southern District of NY after struggling for years with fierce competition and shifting technology. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company said Citigroup put out a statement just after midnight Thursday. It said it will provide a $950 million debtor-in-possession loan to allow it to operate during bankruptcy. A bankruptcy judge must approve the loan. Sony and Warner Bros. are named in the filing among Kodak's unsecured creditors, with respectively, $16.7 million and $14.2 million in unsecured notes. For years, Hollywood was based around Kodak products. The 3,332 Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards, opened in 2001. The move has been expected for some months, if not years. Kodak said it will reorganize its businesses, bolster liquidity in the U.S. and abroad, sell non-strategic intellectual property, resolve legacy liabilities, and enable focus on its most valuable business lines. The company has made pioneering investments in digital, it said, generating approximately 75% of its revenue from digital businesses in 2011. "Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation," CEO Antonio Perez said. Kodak was founded by George Eastman who introduced the Kodak camera in 1888. The company went on to invent film, enabling Thomas Edison to develop the motion picture camera, Brownie cameras selling for $1 and Kodachrome film. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Acad: Digital indies face early death

The Motion Picture Academy's Science & Technology Council released the executive summary of part 2 of its "Digital Dilemma" report on the problems of long-term storage of digital movie footage. This new document focuses on the independent and documentary sectors of the movie business, and it paints a grim picture of filmmakers largely unaware how fragile today's born-digital movies are. "In general," says the report "independent films that beat the odds and secure some form of distribution do so after a much longer time period than movies produced by the major studios. This time period quite likely exceeds the 'shelf life' of any digital work; that is, by the time distribution is secured, the digital data may become inaccessible. "Most of the filmmakers surveyed and interviewed for this report were not aware of the perishable nature of digital content, or how short its unmanaged lifespan is compared to the 95-plus years that U.S. copyright laws allow filmmakers to benefit from their work." The original Digital Dilemma report, released in 2007, focused on studio pics. It laid out the expense and difficulty of maintaining a digital archive of any kind, showing it is far greater than that of storing film in a temperature controlled vault. Originally the Acad's Sci-Tech Council recommended a "migration" strategy of moving data regularly from hard disk to hard disk periodically. However in subsequent presentations the Council has said it's been proven to a mathematical certainty that migration is ultimately bound to fail. The bottom line: "Suitable long-term preservation and access mechanisms for digital motion picture materials have not yet been developed." In other words, there's no known way to preserve digital data over decades and ensure it will remain readable. That is not simply a problem for movie footage. The same issues pertain to digital medical records, financial data, and other information. The Acad is working with Library of Congress and other major industries, to search for a method to preserve digital assets. However, because those efforts are being backed by big business, they may not prove suitable for indie films and filmmakers. Indie films that lack studio distribution -- and the financial resources that come with it -- are at particular risk of being lost entirely. "Unless an independent film is picked up by a major studio's distribution arm," says the summary, "its path to an audiovisual archive is uncertain. If a filmmaker's digital work doesn't make it to such a preservation environment, its lifespan will be limited - as will its revenue-generating potential and its ability to enjoy the full measure of U.S. copyright protection." Awareness of the issue was no greater among documentarians than among narrative indie filmmakers. Says the report: "Surveyed and interviewed documentarians did not seem concerned about or aware of the possibility or likelihood of digitally acquired historical footage being lost. To the contrary, they believed that the Internet and today's digital technologies offered unprecedented access to historical footage." The full report, not yet released, will include proposals for more education, sharing of information and collaboration among archives and other orgs. The summary concludes by saying that unless preservation becomes a requirement for planning, budgeting and marketing strategies, it will remain a problem for indie filmmakers, documentarians and archives alike. "These communities, and the nation's artistic and cultural heritage, would greatly benefit from a comprehensive, coordinated digital preservation plan for the future." Contact David S. Cohen at david.cohen@variety.com