THE OBENSON REPORT

Union leaders for striking Hollywood writers said they have reached a tentative contract deal with studios and urged members on Saturday to support it, calling for an end to a three-month walkout that has crippled TV production and overshadowed Oscar season.

The breakthrough was announced via e-mail to the 10,500 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) who launched the union's first strike in almost 20 years on November 5 in a dispute centering on compensation for work distributed over the Internet.

Key points in the deal include:

-- An increase in minimum rates of 3.5% each year. Exceptions include network primetime rates and daytime serial script fees, which will increase 3% each period. Program fees and upset price increase once by 3% in the second year; and clip fees increase once by 5% in the third year.

-- Made-for pay TV residuals: An annual residual payments' increase from $3,000 to $3,500 for a half-hour program and from $5,000 to $6,000 for an hour-long program.

-- For download sales (electronic sell-through) where the viewer pays for permanent use of a program, residuals are to be paid at 0.36% of distributor's gross receipts for the first 100,000 downloads of a television program and the first 50,000 downloads of a feature. After that, residuals are paid at 0.7% of distributor's gross receipts for television programs and 0.65% for feature films.

Read the entire article HERE (Hollywood Reporter).

I don't recall ever seeing a true documentary about the life of legendary reggae star Bob Marley. I checked IMDB and found a few titles, but mostly concert recordings and musical tributes. There are a couple of documentaries listed, but I'm not familiar with any of them, although that doesn't mean that they aren't worthy of mention. It's also surprising that there hasn't been a feature-length narrative film about Marley either. I wonder who would be on the short list of actors in consideration to play Marley on film.

Anywho... I found the following piece of news... I suppose this could be considered the first "major" documentary about Marley's life ever made.

From Variety Magazine...

Martin Scorsese, Steve Bing's Shangri-La Entertainment and international sales agent Fortissimo Films will reteam for the helmer's next musically themed effort -- a yet-to-be-titled documentary about legendary reggae star Bob Marley.

Trio were behind the helmer's Rolling Stones docu "Shine a Light," which opened the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday. Tuff Gong Pictures and Shangri-La are producing the pic, which has been authorized by Marley's family. Docu is set for release on Feb. 6, 2010, on what would have been Marley's 65th birthday.

"I am thrilled that the Marley family will finally have the opportunity to document our father's legacy and are truly honored to have Mr. Scorsese guide the journey," son Ziggy Marley said.

I've seen Hollywood Shuffle countless times - probably Robert Townsend's best work ever! He hasn't made anything quite as appealing since! Found the following 2 clips on YouTube...  I love the caustic humor prevalent throughout the film, and in the below 2 clips. Funny, yet unfortunate. Has much changed since then (1988) - especially with regards to the first clip?

Happy weekend everyone!!!

I couldn't help but laugh at the two photos to the left and below of Jamie Foxx, even though he is in costume for his role as Nathanial Ayers, the real-life musical prodigy, who developed schizophrenia in his second year at Juilliard, and later ends up homeless on the streets of Los Angeles, regularly playing his cello and violin. The film is called The Soloist, by the way, and it co-stars Robert Downey Jr. as the Los Angeles Times columnist, who wrote about Ayers and eventually strikes up a friendship with him.

Might this be Jamie's second Oscar-winning performance? According to Variety Magazine, Jamie has actually been learning to play stringed instruments from a cellist with the L.A. Philharmonic for the film. The film is set to be released later this year.

You can see more of the pictures HERE, thanks to the good folks at JFX Online.

I just learned that Sundance pick, A Good Day To Be Black And Sexy, filmmaker Dennis Dortch's first feature-length film, has been picked up for theatrical distribution by Magnolia Pictures (a subsidiary of billionaire Mark Cuban's 2929 Entertainment). Just 7 years old, Magnolia specializes in both foreign and independent films, with projects from the likes of Steven Soderbergh, Brian De Palma, John Malkovich, and Hal Hartley on their distribution resume - so I'd say Mr Dortch is in very good company, and I certainly hope that Magnolia does the film and filmmaker well! I haven't seen the film, but after all I've read and heard about it, I can't help but be excited at its potential. It's certainly a good day to be Dennis Dortch! No specifics of the deal have been released to my knowledge, but the film is scheduled to be released this year - likely in limited circulation, at least initially.

Next week Monday, Mr Dortch has agreed to appear on my podcast to talk about his film as well as his Sundance experiences! Looking forward to it!

I found the following review of the film from The Hollywood Reporter. It's all good!

A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy
Bottom Line: A smart comedy about bedroom mind games.

Among the well-assembled cast, Mylika Davis stands out as a take-charge innocent who suffers through her teenage dawg days. Chonte Harris is hilarious as a put-upon "other woman" who skewers her married lover with brilliant, irrational logic. As the perplexed player, Marcuis Harris is sympathetic and lamentable.

All performances are on-target and ripe, highlighted by smart turns from Kathryn Taylor as a selfish lover, Emily Liu as an Asian-American with a forbidden yen for a black basketball star, and Brandon Valley Jones as a flustered, neglected lover.

Tech credits are a soothing and sizzling blend, clarifying the psycho-sexual dramas.

Did you know...

... That Spike Lee's younger brother, Cinque Lee, is also a filmmaker, and has written and directed 4 feature-length films since 1995, all independently financed, produced and distributed, with no real contributions from older brother Spike?

The first was a drama called Nowhere Fast, made for just $29,000 in 1995, and is described as "a film powerfully weaved together through stories of its desperate characters and depicting the dangerous hours they face during one fateful day. Lee cast nineteen actors as a motley assortment of disenfranchised, dispossessed and downright weird characters, including junkies, prostitutes, thieves, dealers, dopers, mental patients, street people, and a failed magician, all of whom collide wildly on the hot city streets on a Friday afternoon during a scorching heat-wave in Brooklyn." Do The Right Thing Part 2 possibly?

His second feature was a sci-fi film called Windows On Your Present, made for $50,000, and co-starred his sister, Joie Lee (who has also been featured in a few of Spike's earlier films). In the film, two characters, Europe and Leber, are lost souls in a world where love and color have never existed. They stumble upon a pill that transports them to a world of color and love for a short time. After the effects of the pill ware off, they are returned to their depressing world of no color. They decide to search for the source of the pills and consume enough of them to never return. This was made in 2000. Sounds intriguing... we rarely get to see black people in sci-fi flicks, especially the more seemingly cerebral kind.

And his last outing was a film called UR4 GIVEN, made in 2004, for just $12,000. In the film, a drama, Monica, a 27-year-old woman and a victim of child abuse, is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, splintered personality, flashbacks, repressed memories, and migraines. To help combat her demons she interviews victims of child abuse on camera. Monica eventually realizes that she has to confront those demons. She returns to her small hometown to revisit the place where her rapes took place, and while there, she runs into the man who raped her as a child, but he has no idea who she is. Instead of telling him who she is, she hatches a plan to exact revenge, one that could cost her life. Hmmmm... curious.

Of course, in each of these films, given their individual budgets, don't expect to find any recognizable actors - at least on the star scale anyway. I'd love to get my hands on all of these films out of sheer curiosity. They might actually be worthwhile and in need of support. Of the 4 films, I only found one of them available for sale anywhere - Nowhere Fast. You can find it on Amazon for less than $10. CLICK HERE. I've already placed my order. I'll keep looking for the others. They have to be out there somewhere.

It's rather unfortunate that Spike doesn't talk more about his brother's independent efforts, or help him push his films. Or maybe he does, and I'm just not aware. I'm not saying that he should actively lobby for his brother, but maybe give him a "shout out" every now and then... or even some "props,"... something... anything to let us know that his brother exists and is making art. Unless Spike just doesn't think his brother's films are any good, which is possible, I suppose.

Will Smith's definitely got himself a busy schedule. He has been the focus of several posts on this blog over the last couple of weeks. He's got Hancock with Charlize Theron coming up later this year; then there's Steven Spielberg's film about the Chicago Seven in which he plays Black Panther leader, Bobby Seales, due out later this year, or early next year; and now he's starring in a film called Seven Pounds, which is said to begin shooting this month, so we can expect a late 2008, early 2009 release. Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of Mr Smith over the next 12 to 24 months. Must be nice to be working consistently.

The Hollywood Report announced that Mr Smith handpicked Michael Ealy (Sleeper Cell) to play his younger brother in the upcoming film, Seven Pounds. The film re-unites The Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino with his star Will Smith in another drama. The story is about "a suicidal IRS agent (Smith) who sets out to make amends by assuming the identity of his younger brother. His plans get complicated when he inadvertently falls in love" with a character played by Rosario Dawson, marking another reunion for Will Smith, since Dawson co-starred with him in Men in Black. Woody Harrelson is also starring.

Ealy has just finished work on Spike Lee's WWII drama, Miracle at St. Anna's, about a group of African-American soldiers who are trapped in Tuscany during a Nazi massacre. I'm mos def looking forward to seeing that this year.

MyNetworkTV has ordered 13 episodes of Under One Roof, a new half-hour comedy starring Flavor Flav. The series is scheduled to debut in the Spring of 2008.

"Under One Roof will be a hilarious addition to the MyNetworkTV lineup," said MyNetworkTV president Greg Meidel.

"I am real excited about my new sitcom Under one Roof. I want to thank MyNetworkTV for believing in your boy because we are about to blow this out of the water. I am about to take MyNetworkTV and make it MY network," said Flav.

In the series, Flav plays Calvester Hill, an ex-convict that moves in with his wealthy, conservative brother, Walter (Kelly Perine). Calvester subsequently turns the Hill family's life upside down, parading his old prison cronies through the house; teaching his nephew Walter Jr. to be a gangsta rapper; and butting heads with Walter's snooty wife, Ashley.

Executive Producers, Claude Brooks and Darryl J. Quarles added, "It can't get much better than working on a comedy with a personality like Flavor Flav. This type of program is a perfect fit for his unique brand of humor and we are proud to be bringing it to MyNetworkTV."

YAY! I'm so thrilled and definitely looking forward to this one!

NOT! But I'm sure the ratings will be just as strong as they were for his Flavor Of Love series on VH1.

Karina over at Spout.com wrote an extensive review of the film. Here's a snippet:

The story begins with the suicide attempts of twin brothers Lawrence and Darius. Darius’ is successful, Lawrence’s is not, and after surgery and therapy, he returns to the dreary plot of land he shared with his brother and delivers a letter that passes for a will to Marlee, the estranged mother of Darius’ child.

Read the rest HERE.