IW NEWS | Golden Globes Facing Show Without Stars

The Screen Actors Guild said Friday night that its members would not attend the annual Golden Globe Awards on January 13th, supporting action against the event as part of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which runs the event, said tonight it hopes to announce a resolution to the situation on Monday. The complete SAG, HFPA and WGA statements are available via indieWIRE Insider. [Eugene Hernandez] 
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INSIDE WORD | "Full Grown Men" Wins $100,000 Undiscovered Gems Prize

The Gem of 2007... "You all know that distribution is in crisis," said Emerging Pictures' Ira Deutchman on Thursday afternoon in Manhattan, "And anything we can do to get all these films to some sort of audience is better than nothing." The remarks came moments before the company announced David Munro's "Full Grown Men" as the winner of the winner of the 2007 indieWIRE: Undiscovered Gems audience award, sponsored by Sundance Channel and presented by The New York Times and Emerging Pictures. The film will get theatrical distribution through Emerging Pictures, backed by $50,000 in P&A plus a $50,000 license fee for the exclusive broadcast on Sundance Channel. Accepting the prize, Munro told the luncheon guests, "I am sure we have a story like all the films in this seris, we were left for dead. We had a great festivasl run and a lot of people like our movie and a lot of buyers said they liked our movie. And yet, its stil our movie..." Get the latest in a recent iW Video Clip. [Eugene Hernandez]  
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"Atonement," "Wild," "Country," "Blood," and "Zodiac" Nominated for Scripter Prize

The nominees have been announced for the 2008 USC Libraries Scripter Award, a prestigious annual screenwriting prize for adaptations. Selected by a 39-member committee are Christopher Hampton for "Atonement" (based on the novel by Ian McEwan), Sean Penn for "Into the Wild" (based on the book by Jon Krakauer), Joel & Ethan Coen for "No Country for Old Men" (based on the novel Cormac McCarthy), Paul Thomas Anderson for "There Will Be Blood" (based on the book Oil by Upton Sinclair), and James Vanderbilt for "Zodiac" (an adaptation of the work of Robert Graysmith). [Eugene Hernandez] 
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NYT: A Film Year Full of Escapism, Flat in Attendance

Despite a modest increase in 2007 box office receipts, moviedom is trudging into January with a droop in its shoulders. Ticket sales at North American movie theaters totaled $9.7 billion, a 4 percent increase over the previous year, according to Media by Numbers, a box office tracking company. Brooks Barnes reports. 
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AFP: EU screens plan for single market in online films, music and games

The European Commission said Thursday it would draw up plans to boost the online market for music, films and games while promising to uphold intellectual property rights. AFP reports. 
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Guardian: Madonna's directorial debut to take its bow in Berlin

In an intriguing selection that could well enthrall and appall in equal measure, programmers for spring's Berlin International Film Festival have selected Madonna's first film as director among its line-up. Jeremy Kay reports. 
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iW NEWS | Sean Penn to Head 61st Cannes Jury

Actor/director Sean Penn has been named president of the jury for the 61st Festival de Cannes, taking place May 14 - 25, festival organizers announced early Thursday morning local time in France. Penn's acclaimed directorial effort, "Into the Wild," will open in the country on January 9, 2008. Penn won the best male performance prize at the festival in 1997 for "She's So Lovely" by Nick Cassavetes and took an Oscar in 2004 for his performance in Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River," which also screened at Cannes. "In the last few years it seems there has been a rejuvenation of cinema building worldwide [with] increasingly thoughtful, provocative, moving, and imaginative films by talented filmmakers: that a new generation of filmmaking may have begun," commented Penn, in a statement upon accepting the invitation extended by the festival's Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux. "The Cannes Film Festival has long been the epicenter in the discovery of those new waves of filmmakers from all over the world. I very much look forward to participating in this year's festival as president of the jury." [Brian Brooks] 
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INSIDE WORD | Nugent at Hamptons Fest

New Hamptons Programmer... The Hamptons International Film Festival has hired the Newport fest's David Nugent as its new Director of Programming. Nugent, who was hired last month and has left Newport to join HIFF in the new year, worked with the Hamptons last year as a programming consultant following former artistic director Rajenda Roy's move to head the film department at MoMA. We invite readers to send anonymous news tips and buzz to indieWIRE: tips [@] indiewire [dot] com. Note: We have corrected David Nugent's title, which is Director of Programming. 
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iW NEWS | Luketic's "21" to Open 15th SXSW Film Festival in March

Robert Luketic's "21" will open the 15th South by Southwest Film Conference & Festival (SXSW) March 7th, the event anounced Wednesday. Written by Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb, the Columbia Pictures release is based on Ben Mezrich's book, "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Student Who Took Vegas for Millions." The feature stars Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, and Laurence Fishburne and will screen at Austin's Paramount Theater, kicking off the nine day film fest taking place in the Texas capital March 7 - 15. Also joining the partial line up unveiled today along with "21" are Steve James and Peter Gilbert's drama "At the Death House Door," Erik Nelson's doc on author Harlan Ellison "Dreams with Sharp Teeth," Michael Radford's "Flawless" starring Demi Moore, "Run Fatboy Run" by David Schwimmer, and Celia Maysles' doc about her father, filmmaker David Maysles, "Wild Blue Yonder," which iW profiled from IDFA in November. "We're thrilled to have 21 screen as the Opening Night Film of SXSW 2008," commented festival producer Matt Dentler in a statement. "With a great story, as well as fantastic talent in front of and behind the camera, we're willing to bet that audiences will be just as excited." [Brian Brooks] 
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LAT: 2008 Oscar Bait

With awards season pundits already declaring the 2007 race a bust (blame those Iraq war films, a lack of big hits like "Titanic" and the ongoing writers strike), maybe it's time to consider who might be on stage next year at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. Los Angeles Times reports. 
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AP: Lens pioneer Grafton to receive Oscar

David A. Grafton, a designer of lenses used for optical effects, will receive an Academy Award. The Gordon E. Sawyer Award, presented to Hollywood technological innovators, will be given to Grafton Feb. 9 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' dinner to honor scientific and technical achievements. AP reports. 
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indieWIRE HOLIDAY | Happy New Year!

The indieWIRE team is celebrating the new year with a limited publication schedule this week. While we are posting a limited amount of news and information over the holidays, the next edition of indieWIRE: Daily will be published on Thursday, January 3rd. Happy Holidays! 
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iW NEWS | Weekend Estimates: "There Will Be Blood" Breaks 2007 Per Screen Average Record

According to indieWIRE Box Office Tracking (iW BOT) estimates from Rentrak, Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" exploded onto the iWBOT this weekend, raking in an estimated $186,000 on just two screen, for a 2007-high average of $93,000, on the final weekend of the year. Since its Wednesday opening, the Paramount Vantage release has taken in an astounding $310,000. Also opening over the holiday was Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" and Juan Antonio Bayona's "The Orphanage." Both hopefuls for the Academy Award for best foreign language film, "Persepolis" just topped "Orphanage," averaging $13,015 to its $12,791. "Persepolis" was released by Sony Pictures Classics on 7 screens while "Orphanage" was on 18 screens for Picturehouse. Many other Oscar hopefuls expanded over the weekend, with "Juno" from Fox Searchlight again the most successful, taking in an impressive $10.3 million on 998 screens (a more than $10,000 average), bringing its total to $25.7 million as it looks to soon top Miramax's "No Country For Old Men" (which has made more than $41 million) as the top grossing Indiewood release of '07. Among other specialty company releases, according to estimates, two new SPC releases have not fared so well: Coppola's "Youth Without Youth" made $30,000 or so, on 15 screens, for $2,009 per screen in its third weekend, while skiing doc "Steep," in weekend #2, earned just $16,830 on 14 screens, for a small $1,202 average. From Focus Features, "Atonement" from made nearly $3.1 million over its fourth weekend in release on 310 screens, for a $9,951 per screen (and nearly $11.2 million, so far), while the company's "Lust, Caution" earned $18,720 from 19 screens, for a $985 average in weekend #14 (and about $4.5 million today). From Vantage, The Kite Runner made about $1.8 million on 377 screens on weekend number three, for a $4,891 average (and nearly $5.4 million, so far) and "Into The Wild," now in weekend fifteen, made $130,000 on 81 screens, for a $1,605 average as it hits the $17 million mark. The company's "Margot At The Wedding" made just $90,000 on 99 screens for a $909 average and just over $1.7 million after seven weekends. Both in their fifth weekend of release, "The Savages" from Searchlight made $515,000 on 111 screens for a $4,640 average (and nearly $1.7 million, so far) and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" from Miramax made $260,000 on 44 screens, for a nearly $6,000 average and $869,000, so far. indieWIRE's weekly box office column and chart will not be published on our regular schedule this week, due to the New Year's Day holiday. Get the latest in the indieWIRE Box Office section. [Peter Knegt] 
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