Notícias

CANNES -- Kiefer Sutherland, Cliff Curtis and Temuera Morrison will headline Vincent Ward's new historical drama River Queen, set to start shooting June 28 in New Zealand. Negotiations also are under way for Samantha Morton to star in the feature, which is being financed by the New Zealand Film Production Fund, the New Zealand Film Commission (now rebranded as New Zealand Film), the Film Consortium, the U.K. Film Council and British financing outfits Invicta and Endgame. It's being produced by Chris Auty of the Film Consortium and Don Reynolds, representing Auckland-based Silverscreen Films. Executive producers are James Stern, Neil Peplow and Geoff Dixon.

NEW YORK -- This year's Tribeca Film Festival will close with Lions Gate Films' upcoming period piece Stage Beauty -- starring Billy Crudup, Claire Danes and Rupert Everett -- to be screened May 8 at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. The screening will mark a world premiere for Beauty, directed by Richard Eyre and based on a real-life actor in 1660s London who made a successful career portraying female characters but whose livelihood was threatened when men were banned from playing women onstage. The move to bring Beauty to the Tribeca fest marks a homecoming of sorts for the film: Tribeca fest founders Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro are the film's producers, along with Hardy Justice. Jeffrey Hatcher penned the screenplay, based on his own stage play, and Eyre, Michael Kuhn, James Stern, Rachel Cohen and Amir Malin executive produced Beauty. The cast also features Ben Chaplin, Tom Wilkinson, Richard Griffiths and Zoe Tapper. Beauty was originally on the Artisan Entertainment slate before the company's takeover by Lions Gate. The film is slated to hit theaters in October. This year's Tribeca Film Festival will run May 1-9 in various locations throughout Lower Manhattan.

A group of barbers and beauticians is suing civil rights leaders Reverend Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - claiming their comments about the hit movie Barbershop drove away business. The National Association Of Cosmetologists (NAC) filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing the Reverend and Sharpton of intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, and negligence. In September the two politicians criticized the Ice Cube and Eve starring comedy, noting jokes in the film where Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are mentioned in a negative light. Sharpton said, "I think that there are some things that go beyond humor. Martin Luther King died fighting for the freedom of all Americans. I don't think to disparage him, as a line in this movie does, is something that's funny. I don't think to say that Rosa Parks, who was arrested for sitting down in the front of the bus at that time causing a social revolution that led to desegregation, is something that is funny to me." The activists asked for the scenes to be removed for the film, MGM refused, leading to Sharpton threatening to boycott the box office hit. James Stern, chief executive of the of the NAC says, "By threatening to boycott MGM studios, they put a black eye to our subject matter of barbers and cosmetologists in the state of California." In response Sharpton labeled the allegations ridiculous, adding "Every movie critic would get sued. We haven't addressed their business. I addressed the film." Tracy Rice, spokeswoman for Jackson's Rainbow/Push coalition believes the suit will be thrown out of court. Rice remarks, "The First Amendment protects artistic expression, just as it protects Rev. Jackson's right to express his opinion."...