Chase cast in NBC drama 'Awake'

ChaseBailey Chase has been cast for a multi-episode arc in NBC's midseason sci-fi drama "Awake."Series, from writer 20th Century Fox, stars Jason Isaacs as a police detective who can't distinguish the difference between his dreams and reality following a tragic car accident.Chase will play the father of one of the best friends of Isaac's son, Rex (Dylan Minnette).The actor, who appeared in the recently concluded season of DirecTV drama "Damages," is shooting the freshman Western skein "Longmire" for A&E.Chase is repped by Untitled and Gersh. Contact Stuart Levine at stuart.levine@variety.com

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Lensers add two awards

Stefan Tarzan received an Arri Alexa rental package for his cinematography in Western "Absaroka," while Steve Romano picked up a Panavision camera package for his cinematography of "String Theory" as the Intl. Cinematographers Guild handed out two additional awards at Sunday's Emerging Cinematographer Awards in Los Angeles.Romano and Tarzan rounded out the night's eight ICG honorees.Honored films from the ECAs will be screened at the Museum of Moving Image in NY on Sunday. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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San Sebastian confirms market uptick

SAN SEBASTIAN -- With three deals closed at the fest -- Spain (Alta), Argentina (Alfa) and Portugal (Alambique) -- Julie Delpy's dysfunctional family comedy "Skylab" proved a sales standout at the 59th San Sebastian Film Festival, which closes Saturday. But it wasn't the only title sparking trading at the Spanish-world's biggest sprocket opera. Spanish distributors that have weathered the crisis best -- Golem, Alta Films, A Contracorriente -- all made deals on San Sebastian titles and beyond. Evidencing a new industry emphasis at San Sebastian under new director Jose Luis Rebordinos, two of Europe's most important players -- France's Wild Bunch and Spain's Apaches Ent. -- used San Sebastian to unveil significant news: Wild Bunch's acquisition of a majority stake in Spanish distribution company Vertigo; and Apaches' creation of low-budget label Mapache and TV division Apachete. On the sales agent pick-up front, Latin American pic specialists such as FiGa and M-Appeal made the running. Meanwhile, with Spain still taking top honors beside Japan and the U.S. as one of the toughest markets to sell to in the world, Spain's San Sebastian fest is emerging as an ever more important event: the key that turns the door into Spain. FiGa moved Thursday to take North and Latin America sales rights on San Sebastian Competition title "Blood of My Blood," from Portugal's Joao Canijo. A Lisbon family drama, "Blood" took a special mention Thursday from the jury of San Sebastian's TVE-Another Look Award. FiGa had already announced at the Spanish fest that it would handle international on Chilean Rodrigo Marin's "Zoologico." M-Appeal closed world sales at San Sebastian on Isaki Lacuesta's Competition title "The Double Steps." Rubbing shoulders in San Sebastian Competish with "Skylab," a second Films Distribution title, "11 Flowers," co-produced by France's Full House, has initiated sales, selling to three high-caliber distributors: France's Haut et Court, Australia's Palace Films and Israel's New Cinema. After its Toronto world preem, "Americano" was acquired for Benelux (Imagine Film Distribution), Brazil (California Filmes) and Colombia (Babilla Cine), France's Bac Films announced at San Sebastian. (MPI Media Group acquisition of North American rights to Americano was announced out of Toronto.) At San Sebastian, Golem Distribution closed Spanish rights to Filipino auteur Brillante Mendoza's thriller "Captured." Adolfo Blanco's Barcelona-based A Contracorriente has taken Spanish rights on Philippe Falardeau's "Monsieur Lazhar." Also at the Spanish fest, Golem co-founder Josetxo Moreno inked two other high-profile European titles. With Wild Bunch's exec Gael Nouaille, Moreno negotiated Spanish rights to France's 2012 Oscar entry, local B.O. hit dramedy "Declaration of War." Meanwhile, German sales company Films Boutique's CEO Jean Christophe Simon closed Spain with Golem on Alexander Sokurov's Venice Golden Lion winner "Faust." In San Sebastian, The Match Factory sold Locarno Golden Leopard winner "Back to Stay" to Wiesner Distribution for Puerto Rico. A bevy of pics all came into San Sebastian sans sales agent and played to upbeat receptions: Brit actor Dexter Fletcher's crime caper "Wild Bill," Colombia-set road movie "Pescador," from Ecuador's Sebastian Cordero, and, in Films in Progress, Marialy Rivas' "Young and Wild." The Match Factory's sales head Brigitte Suarez reported "very strong interest" from Latin American distributors on Benito Zambrano's Competish entry "The Sleeping Voice." There were also warm reactions for Ignacio Ferreras' senior citizen buddy comedy "Wrinkles," the top-ranking Spanish pic through Friday in San Sebastian's new directors Euskaltel Youth Award, and for David Trueba's 6 Sales-repped period chamber piece "Madrid, 1987." Industry attendance climbed 13% from 2010's 984 accreditations at the festival's Industry Club to 1,117 this year. The international sales market, having bottomed out, is enjoying an uptick in prices paid and competition, FD partner Nicolas Brigaud Robert told Variety, citing bullish sales at Venice, Toronto and San Sebastian on "Skylab," "11 Flowers," "Cafe de Flore" and "Monsieur Lazhar" (see separate story). San Sebastian still remains a festival hub for movies and professionals from Spain and Latin America, Suarez added. Rebordinos announced that he hopes to launch a significant Europe-Latin America co-production forum at 2012's San Sebastian. He already has a basis on which to work. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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September (Eylul)

A Ca Film production. (International sales: Arti Prods., Istanbul.) Produced by Turker Korkmaz. Directed, written by Cemil Agacikoglu.With: Turgay Aydin, Gorken Yeltan, Elena Polyanskaya, Ayten Uncuoglu, Mete Domezer, Serkan Keskin.A mood piece in a minor key, "September" traces the shift in a marriage caused by a wife's mysterious illness. As her body betrays her, cutting her breath short, she turns inward and away from her husband who cannot bridge the widening gap. Relying on empty spaces, fading light and silences, Turkish photographer-turned-helmer Cemil Agacikoglu's debut feature limns the husband's sense of superfluity and newfound vulnerability toward another woman actively seeking his help. Lacking the scope of countryman Nuri Bilge Ceylan's mournful walkabouts, "September" nonetheless reps a quiet fest-bound find. Yusuf (Turgay Aydin), a gentle, introverted goldsmith, cannot sufficiently reassure his sick, frightened wife, Asli (Gorken Yeltan). He goes from sitting silently by her hospital bed to winding gold strips in the workshop above his boss' jewelry store, to pacing his empty apartment, to finally ferrying his wife back to her home village once she regains strength. Meanwhile, Asli's young Russian wardmate (Elena Polyanskaya), beaten by her rich protector and needing sanctary, calls Yusuf, who finds her a hotel room. Helmer Agacikoglu grants these locations tremendously vivid presence, exerting a gravitational pull that anchors his otherwise slight interpersonal story.Camera (color, HD), Ali Olcay Gozkaya; editor, Taner Sarf; music, Dogan Doru; art director, Eda Tutuk. Reviewed at Montreal World Film Festival (First Films, competing), Aug. 27, 2011. Running time: 90 MIN. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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Kaira Pitt Takes The Area At 'Moneyball' Premiere

This opening evening, like a lot of recent ones within the lockout-shadowed sports world, almost did not happen. Kaira Pitt's "Moneyball" was shutdown in the summer time of '09, just days before production ended up being to begin, over concerns that director Steven Soderbergh's take wouldn't attract roaring crowds in the multiplex. But Pitt predicted something of the ninth-inning rally, and something new director later (Bennett Burns of "Capote" fame), the David-versus.-Goliath tale concerning the Concord Athletics shot to existence and, almost 2 yrs later, opened in the Major league baseball team's stadium on Monday evening. Pitt was available underneath the stadium floodlights, as were costars Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman, plus Burns, film writer Aaron Sorkin and ballplayers including current A's designated hitter Hideki Matsui. Photos of Pitt and Matsui provided an intriguing contrast towards the film's central message that the small market team can best its more potent rivals with the savvy utilization of record analysis. As the 2002 A's featured within the flick could win 103 games as well as their division title, the present team is battling through another losing season their 4th in 5 years. If the relaxation of baseball has swept up towards the once-outdoors-the-box-but-now-commonplace approach that gm Billy Bean (performed by Pitt) developed or maybe so-known as sabermetrics is definitely an overhyped phenomenon is really a question for an additional day (and, possibly, another blog). Monday would be a evening for 2 support beams from the entertainment world to get together and celebrate something beloved both in sports and Hollywood: an underdog story. "They are men which are employed in an unfair game," Pitt told MTV News lately concerning the '02 squad. "They're an organization without any money attempting to fight it's David versus. Goliath. How could they be likely to be competitive? How could they be likely to stand an opportunity? They cannot fight another guys' fight they are likely to lose each time. These men needed to re-think it and re-think the things they used to do They are Galileo, in this way, rising against an institution that's not really happy about the subject questioning their norms."

Pia Toscano & Mark Ballas Split

FIRST Released: September 15, 2011 9:39 AM EDT La, Calif. -- Pia Toscano and Mark Ballas have apparently sang their last song and danced their last dance together. Based on multiple reviews, the truth romance between your pair has ended. Sources told E! News the 22-year-old The American Idol Show contestant and also the 25-year-old Dwts ballerina have split. Both of them made the decision with everything else happening they couldnt give one another an amount be fair, another source told People. They mutually made the decision this. Mark is presently preparing for any new Dancing season with celebrity partner Kristin Cavallari. A repetition for Pia wouldn't discuss the reported split when approached by E! but did say, Shes working hard on her behalf new album and cant watch for her fans to listen to it. Pia is overall her The American Idol Show tour and her album is anticipated to become launched soon. Pia opened up up concerning the origin of her then-budding relationship using the ballroom star in April, throughout a trip to Access Hollywood Live, saying, Both of us film at CBS therefore we would bump into one another, and also you know, hes only a really sweet guy. He is an extremely nice guy. Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Corporation. All privileges reserved.These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Van Damme Confirmed For Expandables 2

Nic Cage still a possibilityIf Sylvester Stallone can get his way, it appears that virtually every burly bloke which has hefted ammunition, began a few crooks about or developed a quip after killing someone on-screen can look in a few fashion inside the Expendables follow-up. The latest report had Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis useful for bigger roles now Stallone worked out the record to ensure that Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris are formally aboard, with Nicolas Cage an absolute possibility and Travolta Qantas Video still atop the wish list. Van Damme, clearly, switched Sly lower when asked for in regards to the first film, but seems to own stood a change of heart now he's seen the way it works. "We'll use a large showdown between me and Van Damme, that's been anticipated for just about any very very long time, so it must be worth keeping,In . Stallone notifies Entertainment Weekly. "We've got Chuck Norris but Nic Cage," states Sly. "We want to straighten out different situations. I really like using individuals who stood a moment after which it maybe have fallen on some hard occasions and supply them another shot. Therefore we will always be trying to find stars like Michael Biehn and Michael Pare. I really like people kinds of males. Someone managed to get happen personally and I enjoy discover if I am able to make it happen on the account. We try taking some new blood stream inside, a Navy Seal-type, owing to the Expendables undertake and don't have 20-20 vision any more. They might require outdoors assistance, guy. "Might that new blood stream reference a specific former Twilight werewolf presently itching to prove his action qualifications with Abduction? Taylor Lautner's title originates up in past whispers, but we opting for a strictly wait-and-see approach to that bit of casting.... With Simon West calling the shots this time around around around, The Expendables 2 team will mind to Bulgaria within the finish in the month to start filming. We could likely expect the film next August.

'Travels with my Aunt' launches Brit shingle

Brit producer-scribe Andy Paterson and the film writer wife Olivia Hetreed, who composed Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Levels," have became a member of forces to produce new Brit-based shingle Supportive Ink.Company's first project is really a musical adaptation of Graham Greene's tome "Travels With My Aunt," that the pair have composed and therefore are creating alongside Jolyon Symonds and Nicholas Greene's Ascension Entertainment. Project, referred to being an "up-to-date" version of Greene's story in regards to a upon the market bank manager attracted in to the enchanting realm of his eccentric aunt, reps the couple's first co-scripting effort although not their first project together: Paterson created Hetreed's adaptation of "Girl Having a Gem Earring" in 2003. The pair, who have photos screening in Toronto this season -- Paterson's "Burning Guy" tested to auds on Saturday, while Hetreed's "Wuthering Levels" tested Friday -- have up-to-date the storyline to the current day with flashes towards the late sixties/early '70s.Paterson and Hetreed will write original tunes for that story having a composer, who's not yet been confirmed, as the British Film Institute has boarded the project at development stage. Paterson formerly created Bobby Darin biopic "Past the Ocean," which saw Kevin Spacey inside a musical role."Both of us love musicals," Paterson told Variety. "As well as in thinking about the way you desired to tell this story, this appeared the very best fit."On dealing with her husband, Hetreed added: "We have done script editing for one another on different projects before but we have never written together. Now, it appears quite natural as you may know each other peoples taste and that we trust one another." Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com

Daniel Stamm to Direct Horror-Thriller Remake '13: Wager on Death'

TORONTO-Financing and customers company IM Global has set Daniel Stamm(The Ultimate Exorcism) to direct the British-language remake of Thai horror-thriller 13: Wager on Dying.our editor recommendsToronto 2011: IM Global and Cent Black Team on New Financing FundToronto 2011: IM Global to appear Late-Summer season U.K. Hit 'Inbetweeners' Stuart Ford mentioned Stamm is presently coping with writing partner David Birke to evolve the script, that they aspire to enter production early next season. STORY: Next Gen 2010: Hollywood's Youthful Guns: Daniel Stamm A cult favorite, the first Wager on Dying can be a macarbre satire of media culture that follows a financially strapped sales rep who receives an anonymous mobile call telling him he's about the hidden camera game show, which if he complete 13 tasks, he'll obtain a multi-million cash prize. But, entrapped within the problems changed by unseen site visitors, the protagonist's need to complete the sport will get worse since the tasks grow more extreme, with a devastating point or orgasm. TORONTO 2011: IM Global and Cent Black Team on New Financing Fund Ford and John Kavanaugh-Manley of Automatik, IM Global's production partnership with Alliance Films, will produce alongside Kiki Miyake. "Daniel is amongst the gifted youthful genre company company directors available which we're really excited to determine which he and David is capable of doing together with your darkly riveting source material," Ford mentioned. TORONTO 2011: Market noisy . Slump Miyake's Little Miracle banner initially introduced the broadly attacked project to IM Global's executive v . p . of purchases Amal Elwardi. IM Global collaborator Jason Blum Paranormal Activity, Insidious) and Somsak Techaratanaprasert of Sahamongkolfilm (producer in the original Thai movie) will executive produce. IM Global and Automatik are presently in production or publish-production on 10 features they are creating and/or financing with some other partners, including action-thrillers Safe (Jason Statham), Bullet for the Mind (Sylvestor Stallone) and Thank you for going to the Punch (James McAvoy), and genre game game titles The Bay, from Craig Levinson, Scott Derrickson's Sinister and Make the most of Zombie's The Lords of Salems. Stamm is repped by CAA and Undergrounds Films & Management Birke, by Paradigm and Madhouse Entertainment. Related Subjects Toronto Worldwide Film Festival

Letter From Toronto: Even Killer Elite Can't Quite Outduel Emmerich's Anonymous

The Toronto Film Festival is a world away from Venice, and the difference is especially acute when you hop from one to the other: Toronto is big and glossy, while Venice is intimate and glowing — it’s like the difference between lacquer and gold leaf. But each has its own appeal, and the scale of Toronto is appealing by itself. It’s a little overwhelming but exhilarating, too. Still, my morning didn’t exactly start off with a bang: The day’s first screening, of Gary McKendry’s Killer Elite, began half an hour late, the kind of glitch that can seriously mess up an already tight morning schedule. Worse yet, the movie wasn’t all I was hoping it would be. It wasn’t even half what I was hoping it would be. Jason Statham plays a retired Navy SEAL called out of retirement — doesn’t Statham always play reluctant hit men who just want to retire to a cabin in the woods? — to rescue an old pal, Robert De Niro, who’s been kidnapped by a sheik out to avenge the murder of his sons. Clive Owen plays a member of a Special Air Service vigilante group who’s out to stop Statham and his gang. While the idea of having three fine actors in an action movie together is certainly promising, Killer Elite proves that it doesn’t really matter who you cast if the filmmaking is just more of the same old choppily edited, noisy action crap. De Niro’s character spends most of the movie out of sight, locked up in a room somewhere, though De Niro isn’t bad in the 10 or 15 minutes of screentime he’s got — he puts his crazy twinkle to good use. And he does get to fire a machine gun, which is probably a lot more fun for him than playing Pops Focker for the umpteenth time. Statham and Owen are fine, too, to the extent that they get to do anything. But I’m not sure the best way to use these two actors is to throw them into a blur of grappling, grunting, head-bashing and attempted scissor-stabbing, which is how they first come together. As we already know from movies like Croupier, The International and Children of Men, Owen has much more to offer, and Statham, who was terrific in The Bank Job, desperately needs to break out of the reluctant-action-hero mold he’s been locked into. Killer Elite is a middling entertainment — not terrible, just undistinguished, and maybe that’s worse. In contrast, Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous is, at the very least, a curiosity, one with some clever casting and a very fine performance at its core. Emmerich is usually too busy destroying the world or going back in time to cavort with woolly mammoths to give much thought to who, exactly, Shakespeare really was. But that’s exactly what he does in Anonymous, which suggests — in a highly unbelievable fashion — that the plays and poems we attribute to Shakespeare were really written by one Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, a minor Elizabethan poet. Well, it could be true. Emmerich treats the possibility solemnly, welcoming us into his movie with a tony intro by Derek Jacobi, who steps into a theater spotlight to deliver a semi-informative prologue in plummy tones. The whole affair is rather silly, and more than a little boring, but there are a few flashes of brilliance tucked amid Emmerich’s bid for period-picture classiness. First, there’s the inspired casting of Vanessa Redgrave and her daughter, Joely Richardson, as old and young versions of Queen Elizabeth I. Richardson, with her tumble of pale curls, looks like a living, breathing version of John Millais’ Ophelia, but tougher. Redgrave plays her version of the character as if she has become more emotionally vulnerable, not less, with age — the older Elizabeth just works harder to submerge it beneath her imperious veneer. Both performances are great fun to watch, but it’s Rhys Ifans, as the Earl of Oxford, who keeps the movie spinning. He takes dorky, grandiose dialogue and turns it into something almost — well, Shakespearean. His character has spent his life writing incredible plays and sonnets, but he’s forced to hide his identity from the public. As Ifans plays him, he’s OK with all that — it’s the personal anguish he’s suffered that really matters, and Ifans carries that bruised nobility with him every second. His voice, sonorous and always just faintly sorrowful, reminds me of that of the late, great Richard Harris. Although Harris was Irish and Ifans is Welsh, they’re linked in spirit, rapscallions who can really buckle down and surprise you with their depth and heart. I giggled at parts of Anonymous, especially when our earl’s angry, disapproving wife catches him at his desk and bellows, like Gale Sondergaard with PMS, “My God! You’re writing again!” But I never laughed at Ifans. When you look into those eyes, you could almost believe that this was the guy who wrote all those sonnets.

SAG to recognition Mary Tyler Moore

MooreMary Tyler Moore will get The Screen Stars Guild Existence Achievement Award, the 43rd person receiving the kudo. SAG made the announcement Thursday. The award will be provided on Jan. 29 in the 18thn annual SAG Honours in La. ''Mary Tyler Moore won our hearts as Laura Petrie and Mary Richards, our respect as her production company grew to become symbolic of quality television, our awe as she handled difficult subject material in film as well as on Broadway, and our admiration she switched her public recognition right into a catalyst to highlight critical and deeply personal health insurance and social issues,'' stated SAG leader Ken Howard. ''She truly brings together the spirit behind SAG's Existence Achievement Award, and that we are honored to proclaim her since it's 48th recipient.''She won two Emmys for ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' and four for ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show,'' created at her production company MTM together with her then husband Grant Mess. In the seven-year run, the second skein won 29 Emmys.Moore and Tinker's MTM Businesses created ''The Bob Newhart Show'', ''Newhart, ''WKRP in Cincinnati,'' ''Hill Street Blues'' ''The Whitened Shadow'' (starring Howard) and ''St. Elsewhere.'' Figures from ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' grew to become the main focus for many spin-offs within the seventies: ''Rhoda,'' starring Valerie Harper ''Phyllis,'' starring Cloris Leachman and ''Lou Grant,'' starring Erectile dysfunction Asner.Moore also starred within the 1978 CBS telefilm ''First You Cry,'' ''Heartsounds,'' ''Gore Vidal's Lincoln subsequently,'' and ''Stolen Babies,'' that she won her seventh Emmy.In 1980 Moore was nominated to have an Oscar for ''Ordinary People.'' Other movies include ''Thoroughly Modern Burns,'' ''Six Days,'' ''Flirting with Disaster'' and ''Against The Present.''Moore has composed two autobiographies -- ''After All,'' released in 1995, and ''Growing Up Again: Existence, Loves, and Ok Last One, Diabetes.'' Moore contributed her profits from ''Growing Up Again'' towards the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and it has been the JDRF's Worldwide Chairman since 1984. Moore received the 1984 Women in Film Very Award, was given the American Screenwriters Association first David Angell Humanitarian Award in 2002 as well as in 2009 was honored using the National Association of Tv stations Distinguished Service Award. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com