Hollywood Beltway

The Hollywood Reporter weighs in with 2008's projected box office tally from Nielsen EDI (the official keepers of the box office numbers for the MPAA and NATO) and it looks mighty sweet: Meanwhile, buoyed by good weekday numbers and potentially strong holds over the holiday weekend, overall domestic boxoffice is poised [...]

Disney has announced that the studio will not co-finance the third installment of Walden Media’s “Chronicles of Narnia” franchise, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

It is widely believed by Hollywood insiders that Disney dropped the project because of the lower than expected box-office take for the second “Narnia” flick, “Prince Caspian.”

The first “Narnia” piled up $745 million internationally while “Caspian” only raked in $419 million.

Although the economic downturn is making Disney execs a tad more timid, they’re partly responsible for the skimpier “Caspian” numbers.

Unlike the first “Narnia,” rather than a Thanksgiving or Christmas release the sequel came out in the spring, and it was up against superhero summer fare like “Iron Man” and “Indiana Jones.” Disney tried to market it as an action flick with limited success.

Thankfully, Walden remains committed to C.S. Lewis’ remaining books.

And if Fox is as clever as its name it’ll jump into Disney’s old spot, snag a profit and hoist entertainment content higher at the same time.

James Hirsen, J.D., M.A. in Media Psychology, is a media analyst, teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University and professor at Trinity Law School.

CBS Evening News has the story. John Fithian, Keanu Reeves and Brad Pitt weigh in: Watch CBS Videos Online

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Bohnet is getting money from places other than the U.S. and Europe.

“To go to America and say, ‘I want money’ doesn’t work anymore,” Bohnet said. “America hasn’t woken up to the fact that it is no longer the bully anymore and that other places are becoming its equal.”

UAE money continues to pour into cinema:

An adaptation of the best-seller “Girls of Riyadh” and a biopic of cult 1960s author Khalil Gibran (”The Prophet”) are among projects German film-fund veteran Susanne Bohnet is developing as part of her new United Arab Emirates- and U.S.-based company, Serafina Releasing.

Bohnet is in Dubai this week finalizing $100 million of financing from a mix of local companies and private individuals for Serafina, which will finance, produce and distribute feature films in partnership with a network of top-tier distribution companies in Europe and the Middle East.

The company’s mandate includes the production of films to serve the Middle East marketplace that continues to expand with new theaters and a projected increase in demand for filmed entertainment.

“There will be 600 million people under the age of 25 in the Gulf region by 2010, and there is a lack of content for them,” said Bohnet, who previously worked in Los Angeles for the German funds Equity Pictures and CineMedia. Her credits include the Pierce Brosnan starrer “Matador” and “The Hostage.” click here for more

With some in Hollywood continuing to fund “torture porn” movies. The venerable BBC decided to get into the act.

A BBC backed film, featuring the stories of serial killers Fred and Rose West, who had tortured at least 12 girls to death, has left people fuming following reports of its screening on television and in theatres over Christmas.

The low-budget-horror film has been partially funded by 10,000 pounds of licence-payers dough and depicts Wests murder rampage, reports the Daily Express.

BBC has incurred the wrath of the victims relatives, MPs, and TV watchdogs, who condemned the timing of the films release and dubbed the channel as a disgrace while accusing it of misspending licence fee money. click for more

WBTV 3 in Charlotte has Will Smith for the premiere of Seven Pounds, but first they want to tell you how the movie theater business is doing (They get the average ticket price wrong in the report; it's really $7.20. The $7.97 figure is what a $2.23 average ticket in 1977 would cost today.): [...]

The Golden Globe nominations are out this morning. Read the list below and place your bets. And go see a movie. BEST FEATURE - DRAMA "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures; Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures "Frost/Nixon" - Imagine Entertainment, Working Title, [...]

An unsubstantiated rumor has been making the rounds about a major American manufacturer that's seeking to boost its revenues with a new deodorant line.

The toiletry will reportedly use the name and likeness of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid recently offered a few remarks at the official dedication of the Capitol Visitor Center. He shared his relief that after the Center opened Congress would no longer have to "smell the tourists" on hot summer days.

"My staff has always said, 'Don't say this,'" Reid divulged. "But I'm going to say it again because it's so descriptive because it's true."

Referring to the long lines of tourists that stream in, Reid revealed that "in the summertime, because the high humidity and how hot it gets here, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol."

Distributors of the new deodorant were hoping to pass out sample packs of the Reid roll-on to the 4-million plus people who are expected to descend on Washington for Inauguration festivities.

But it appears at this point congressional members are going to have to suffer through the odor assault since the company is still waiting on a response from FEMA on its request for emergency funding. It is, however, offering to send an ample shipment of clothespins to the more queasy members of Congress.

The next business venture for the company? Nancy Pelosi breath mints?

James Hirsen, J.D., M.A. in Media Psychology, is a media analyst, teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University and professor at Trinity Law School.

A negative pickup occurs when a distributor agrees to buy or license a film’s distribution rights from a producer.

As part of the deal the distributor will pay an agreed sum to the producer when the distributor picks up the negative after delivery of the project.

This can be a tool for financing a production. Once the producer has a signed negative pickup deal, he or she can go to a bank and offer it as collateral for a production loan.