Photo : Kevin Winter/Getty Images

By Claudia Balthazar

Jennifer Lopez says "The Boy Next Door" was her first micro-budget movie filmed within 23 days for four million dollars, and that a bigger studio would not have cast two Latino leads.

"You know what, we put all four million dollars in front of the camera," she told Robin Roberts on "Good Morning America" on Monday according to The Hollywood Reporter. "We all shared one trailer. We had no craft service, it wasn't that type of luxury movie set, let's say." 

According to Lopez, "The Boy Next Door" appeals to all.

"It's a mainstream movie, it's not 'a Latino movie,' but the truth is, as a producer, I'm very proud because in retrospect, I just picked the best actor for the role," the mother of two said. "But at the end of the day, if a big studio made this movie, I don't know that they would've cast the both of us in this because of that."

The star hopes that the film will do well with "two Latinos opening in a mainstream movie," which would "change things."

"I would love for the Latino community to come out and support this movie because it would give us the freedom," Lopez said."That gives me a lot of freedom as an artist, it gives us a lot of freedom to make more movies in this way. Whatever kind of stories we want to tell -- it's exciting."

The "American Idol" judge plays alongside Latino actor Ryan Guzman, who is a star of the "Step Up" franchise.

Lopez went on to say how she related to the character in the film who is an older woman that went after a younger man, Daily Mail reported.

"It seemed so perfect for me right now in my life," the 45-year-old pop star said. "[Claire Peterson is] late 30s-early 40s .. separated about to go through a divorce, deciding, feeling like at her lowest point in her life. You know how that is, her husband's cheated on her. She doesn't know how to deal with it and is not feeling desirable."

"The Boy Next Door" is set to release Jan. 25.

Check this out at LatinPost.com

By Shubhankar Chakravorty and Christian Plumb

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is making a high-stakes foray into the challenging realm of independent movies, the latest step in its attempt to move beyond simply distributing digital entertainment content to creating it.

Amazon said on Monday it was aiming to produce close to 12 movies a year for theatrical release which would then be available on its Prime video service within two months, significantly faster than the roughly one-year wait it normally faces to stream Hollywood releases.

Amazon expects to focus on "indie" movies with budgets of between $5 million and $25 million, spokeswoman Sally Fouts said. While modest compared with Hollywood blockbusters, the move will add to already hefty spending at Amazon, potentially unnerving investors concerned about the company's lack of profitability.

Such films have proved challenging even for major Hollywood studios such as Paramount and Warner Brothers, which have bowed out of the business in recent years, said Jeff Bock, Box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations.

"It's a tough, tough racket to play consistently," he said, pointing to the difficulty of getting good content and the competition for quality productions at festivals like Sundance.

The move shows Amazon's growing ambitions in digital media, coming just days after the online retailer signed director Woody Allen to create a TV series and one of its existing series won a Golden Globe Award, a first for Internet TV services.

Unlike rival Netflix Inc, a standalone Internet TV service, Amazon's Prime video service comes bundled with the Internet retailer's two-day delivery for items purchased on the site, which costs $99 a year, a key driver of revenue for the company.

'SPECIALIZED FILM VIBE'

It remains unclear whether Amazon believes the movie business can make money on its own, but most of its other ventures are ultimately aimed at bolstering its underlying retail business.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is known for his hunger to tackle new markets but the company has had a mixed track record, as with the recent Amazon Fire phone, whose price tag it has slashed after weak sales.

Its movie-production gamble ups the ante for Netflix, which said in September it would jointly produce a sequel to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and in October signed a deal for comedian Adam Sandler to star in and produce four films to be shown exclusively on the service.

Amazon said it has hired Ted Hope, a producer of independent movies including "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Academy Award-nominated "Eat Drink Man Woman", to spearhead the effort.

“He’s very much tuned into the indie world and the specialized film vibe," said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst at Rentrak. "It’s just a way to get out the kind of edgy, interesting and sometimes enlightening content that these films sometimes provide."

If successful, Amazon Original Movies could further threaten traditional big-screen movie theaters, which have been coping with dwindling audiences. Sony Pictures' recent success in releasing its comedy "The Interview" through video-on-demand services after threats from hackers was also seen as a blow to big-screen businesses.

"That verbiage probably scares theater owners," Bock said, referring to Amazons' plan to narrow the window between theatrical releases and streaming availability, adding that the theater chains could take some solace in Amazon's decision not to go for simultaneous release or just putting films straight out on video.

National Association of Theater Owners Vice President Patrick Corcoran declined to comment on Amazon's move but said the time between theatrical and home video release would play into theaters' decision on whether to take a particular film.

Some theater chains objected vociferously when Netflix said it hoped to release the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" sequel in select IMAX theaters and its streaming service at the same time.

Amazon may have decided to target theatrical releases rather than pushing movies straight to Prime because big name talent still associates paying ticketholders with prestige, said Phil Contrino, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com.

“At the end of the day a theatrical release still generates a lot of publicity, it gets a movie reviewed – every person that goes to watch that movie is paying for it," he said.

While Hope is known for making independent movies rather than big-budget Hollywood blockbusters, Amazon Studios has succeeded in the world of television in part by aligning itself with high-profile directors like Allen and Steven Soderbergh of "Ocean's Eleven" fame.

The company spent an estimated $2 billion on content in 2014 with about $200 million of that used to develop original shows, according to Wedbush Securities analysts. Such projects include "Mozart in the Jungle" and the multi-Golden Globe Award-winning "Transparent".

"The Golden Globes, they got that, now the next step is Oscar nominations," Bock said, adding that only theatrically released movies are eligible for Hollywood's biggest award.

(Adds missing words throughout due to technical problem) 

(Reporting By Shubhankar Chakravorty and Sneha Banerjee in Bengaluru, and Christian Plumb and Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Alden Bentley)

Check this out at Reuters.

ScreenCraft unveiled the jury for the first annual ScreenCraft Short Script Contest.  This first annual competition seeks fresh voices in short film screenwriting – a format that is quickly gaining in popularity and importance as an art form, through branded entertainment and online distribution channels.

The competition is open for entries until April 6^th.  Winners will receive cash prizes and access to industry executives who specialize in short form content.  The grand prize winner will be introduced to the entire jury, including executives from the Cannes Film Festival, Vimeo, and Maker Studios.

The 2015 panel of judges includes: 

• Alice Kharoubi, Director of Cannes Film Festival Short Film Programme
• Marc Hustvedt, Founder of the annual Streamy Awards and Tubefilter.com
• Jeremy Boxer, Creative Director at Vimeo and Co-founder and Director of Vimeo Festival+Awards
• Kamran Kamjou, Senior Director, Maker Studios (a Disney company)
• Ari Lubet, Literary Manager, 3 Arts Entertainment
• Michael Felker, Programmer at Slamdance Film Festival

“I look forward to discovering new screenwriting voices in this unique contest for short film scripts,” said contest judge Kamran Kamjou, Senior Director at Maker Studios.

The competition is operated by ScreenCraft, a Los Angeles-based media consultancy dedicated to helping screenwriters and filmmakers master their craft and connecting them with industry executives who need viable scripts.

“We’re excited to celebrate the increasingly important art form of short film screenwriting. It’s an honor to work with this inaugural jury to discover talented short script writers and connect them with professionals in this growing niche industry of short-form narrative content,” said ScreenCraft’s co-founder John Rhodes.

Submission and eligibility info can be found here: www.screencraft.org/shorts

 

by Nellie Andreeva

NBC has landed Eva Longoria for next season, giving a 13-episode order to her NBC single-camera comedy Telenovela, which will mark Longoria’s first series starring role since Desperate Housewives.

The project already had a big commitment at the pitch stage — Telenovela, set behind the scenes of a Spanish language telenovela — was going to get a 13-episode order if Longoria committed to star and a pilot order if she didn’t. A casting director has been quietly working on the show for some time. Additionally, since Telenovela is set behind the scenes of a telenovela, NBC has had discussions with sister networkTelemundo about doing 4-5-minute segments in Spanish that would be used to promote the NBC series to Spanish-speaking audiences. Despite the straight-to-series 13-episode order, Telenovela will do a pilot.

NBC was one of two networks that was pursuing Longoria in a big way this development season. At ABC, there was a comedy from ABC Studios and the Trophy Wife team of Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. It was fast-tracked as a script that will go to pilot with a 13-episode penalty for Longoria attached if she commits to star.

Longoria had been developing Telenovela through her Universal TV-based UnbeliEVAble at NBC for some time. Written/executive produced by Cougar Town co-executive producers Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein based on an idea by Longoria, it stars Longoria as the willful but popular diva Ana Maria, star of Latin America’s most beloved telenovela who strives to stay on top in a world where the drama on-camera is nothing compared to the drama off-camera.centers on an ambitious telenovela star — a character created for her — who struggles to stay on top in a world where the drama on-camera is nothing compared to the drama off-camera. UnbeliEVAble’s Ben Spector is executive producing with Longoria.

Since the end of Desperate Housewives, Longoria had been focused on producing through her UnbeliEVAble banner.  She executive produces Lifetime’s Devious Maids and her company has sold nine projects this development season, including medical drama Critical at NBC and Texas political/family drama Pair Of Aces at ABC.

Check this out on Deadline.com

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 By Kristin Brzoznowski

BUENOS AIRES/LOS ANGELES: FAV! Network, a brand-new digital entertainment company targeting the Latino market, has tapped former MundoFOX president Emiliano Saccone as its COO.

FAV! was founded by a team of private investors and CEO Alejandro Burato, with offices in Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Central America. Among these investors is MarVista Entertainment, whose CEO, Fernando Szew, will play a strategic role in the company.

The outfit creates digital video content in English, Spanish and Portuguese through a host of owned-and-operated vertical content channels, including lifestyle, food, entertainment, kids, music, technology, gaming, fiction and more. It also aggregates multiple video content channels already existing on YouTube and other digital platforms as part of its content network. FAV! is aiming to maximize the exposure of all of the content in its network via YouTube, Facebook, Vine, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch and other digital platforms.

Saccone will be helping to guide the new venture in the role of COO. Previously, he was the president of MundoFOX in the U.S., exiting in January 2014. Saccone was formerly the president of entertainment and executive VP of content at FOX International Channels, where he worked for 13 years.

Burato commented, “We all know where Millennials spend most of their time watching video. Many of us see it at home through our children first-hand everyday. FAV! is here to capitalize on that, except it will do so without any geographic boundaries from the get-go.

“I’m excited to have Emiliano Saccone join FAV!,” Burato added. “I couldn’t wish for anyone with a better track record in producing content and reaching Latino audiences across Latin America and the U.S.”

“Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to build strong connections with audiences all over the world, and created bold solutions to make those connections an advertiser’s natural habitat,” commented Saccone. “I applied Internet’s Law of the Network Effect across many linear brands to reach unprecedented share levels, and provided opportunities for unknown talent to be heard and be seen. I’m thrilled to be able to bring all that to the table in what seems to me media’s next big chapter for years to come.”

Check this out at WorldScreen.com