InfoAnda - Making France's Intouchables bankable in the U.S. |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Lenovo refuses to confirm bid for Brazil PC maker | 11 December 2008
Japan PM protests Kurils visit in Medvedev talks | 13 November 2010
Oasis to front Paris rock fest | 10 April 2009

BP shares plunge over 9 percent on oil spill fears | 15 June 2010

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Making France's Intouchables bankable in the U.S. |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Social Pulse Business Video The Freeland File Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Issues 2012 Candidates 2012 Tales from the Trail Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Social Pulse Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Nader Mousavizadeh Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Jack & Suzy Welch Frederick Kempe Christopher Papagianis Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Breakingviews Video Money Money Home Tax Break Lipper Awards 2012 Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Investing 201 Life Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (0) Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Exclusive: Fidelity facing "thousands" hit by Facebook woes 24 May 2012 SEC shuts down $11-million Ponzi scheme 1:19pm EDT GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks, euro fall as Europe dents sentiment 2:21pm EDT Facebook market makers' losses at least $100 million | 5:09pm EDT Protests planned after minister calls for gays to be fenced in 24 May 2012 Discussed 151 Exclusive: U.S. lets China bypass Wall Street for Treasury orders 118 Obama presses ailing Europe to focus on growth 93 ”Battleship” bomb may hit studio’s profits: analysts Watched A look at the UK’s most beautiful face Thu, May 10 2012 SpaceX Dragon in Space Station fly past Thu, May 24 2012 A novel way to relocate Thu, May 24 2012 Pictures Reuters Photojournalism Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption Fleet Week The U.S. Navy takes Manhattan for a week. Slideshow The SpaceX mission A privately owned unmanned rocket blasts off on a mission to be the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. Slideshow Making France's "Intouchables" bankable in the U.S. Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Horror film "Chernobyl Diaries" draws some protests 2:35pm EDT "Cosmopolis" brings star Pattinson to Cannes 12:49pm EDT Kidman "oversexed Barbie Doll" in gritty Cannes film Thu, May 24 2012 With kids, career, no time to direct, says Brad Pitt Wed, May 23 2012 Brad Pitt mob movie portrays broken American dream Tue, May 22 2012 Analysis & Opinion Department: Mr Varma, please spare us the trauma Equal rights and the U.S. economy Related Topics Entertainment » Fashion » Film » France » CEO of The Weinstein Company Harvey Weinstein arrives at the 16th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles January 23, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Danny Moloshok (FILM-SAGAWARDS/ARRIVALS) By Jordan Riefe LOS ANGELES | Fri May 25, 2012 4:32pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Last year around this time of France's Cannes film festival, movie producer Harvey Weinstein pondered how to turn a silent black-and-white film, "The Artist," into Oscar gold. His answer was to charm the socks off audiences with a simple tale of old Hollywood romance. This year, his Weinstein Co. has a different French movie on its hands with buddy comedy "The Intouchables," a box office smash around the world that opens in the United States on Friday with a race relations story that may not translate as easily for U.S. audiences. Nevertheless, after winning the best film Oscar in February with "The Artist," Weinstein is heavily promoting its new French movie, "Intouchables," and even if it fails to set cash registers ringing at U.S. box offices, the company has a Plan B - an English-language version is in the works. "We're happy to have ‘The Artist' and now to work on ‘The Intouchables," The Weinstein Co.'s David Glasser told Reuters. "Harvey has always been a lover of foreign film. And obviously this year, we have a lot of French films which are incredible." Based on a true story, "The Intouchables" follows an inner city petty criminal, played by Omar Sy, who is hired to care for a quadriplegic aristocrat, portrayed by Francois Cluzet. While it's rough going at first, the two become fast friends and impact each other in unexpected ways. After shattering box office records in its home country, "The Intouchables," has gone on to sell an astonishing $340 million in tickets worldwide with its odd couple comedy audiences can't seem to resist. "How do you deal with a handicap? How do you deal with a black character? All those things need to be addressed," Sy told Reuters. "That's the great challenge and the great opportunity, actually, to work with clichés and not fall into traps." BLACK AND WHITE IN THE USA Racially-tinged buddy comedies have worked well at U.S. box offices in the past. Examples include "48 Hrs." with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte and more recently "Men in Black" with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. "Men in Black III" is expected to be a big hit this weekend when it opens. Co-director Eric Toledan said he wrote "Intouchables" with an American audience in mind. Yet ahead of its U.S. debut, the movie's racial characterizations have raised eyebrows among critics, which he hadn't expected. Showbusiness newspaper The Hollywood Reporter said the characters are "perilously close to caricature at certain junctures" and Daily Variety was less diplomatic, saying the movie "flings about the kind of Uncle Tom racism one hopes has permanently exited American screens." "Almost 20 million people have seen it and no one saw that," countered Toledan. "I think it's a big misunderstanding. I think the journalist who said that it was racist didn't understand the context of our movie." Glasser called the type of criticism in the two trade newspapers a challenge to overcome in reaching U.S. audiences, and noted that all movies face some promotional hurdles. "We obviously hope all the critics are there, but (audiences) come out of this movie really hot in the sense of wanting to talk about it. So that's what I think is going to sell it," Glasser said. Weinstein is no stranger to controversy, of course, and any good movie marketer knows a little publicity goes a long way in luring people to theaters. Earlier this year, Weinstein Co. demonstrated that rule when it's documentary "Bully" earned a restrictive U.S. film rating that was eventually overturned. The debate over the rating made headlines and helped push the documentary's U.S. ticket sales to more than $3.2 million - a healthy theatrical box office for a non-fiction film. But even if "Intouchables" doesn't take off the way Weinstein Co. hopes, it already is hard at work on an English-language remake. "It's based on a true story so you're going to stick true to form on a lot of the facts," said Glasser, adding that the company won't try to re-work the story of race relations. Colin Firth is attached to play the Francois Cluzet role, and "Bridesmaids" director Paul Feig will helm it. The role of the black, petty criminal portrayed by Sy has yet to be cast. "I'm very curious to see how they navigate that very delicate minefield which we had to in France," Sy said. "How will they adapt it to the American context? That's the big challenge." When asked who he imagines in his role, he smiled broadly and said, "Meryl Streep. She has such amazing depth and range that she would be entirely capable of playing this." (Reporting by Jordan Riefe, Editing By Bob Tourtellotte) Entertainment Fashion Film France Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices Copyright Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Saturday, 26 May 2012
Syrian forces kill 50 in Homs province: opposition group |
Exclusive: U.S. probes China's ZTE over tech sales to Iran |
Qaeda-linked suicide bomber kills 12 in Yemen |
French left ahead in parliament vote: poll |
Turkmen leader sacks oil and gas minister |
Facebook options debut a wild card for volatility |
Dell-Quest deal possible over weekend: sources |
Facebook's market maker losses may top $115 million: sources |
They're here. They're geeks. Get used to it |
HP tries to stem Autonomy exodus after founder goes |
Corrected: Dish, TV networks take fight over ad zapper to judges |
Keira Knightley engaged to British rocker boyfriend |
Making France's Intouchables bankable in the U.S. |
Horror film Chernobyl Diaries draws some protests |
Brother of blind Chinese activist goes missing: lawyer |
Afghan parliament approves U.S.-Afghan security pact |
Muslim Brotherhood seeks unity ahead of Egypt runoff |
Lebanese Syria hostage release delayed, massacre claimed |
Bud weakens to storm off Mexico's Pacific coast |
Clinton to visit Scandinavia, Caucasus, Turkey |
Rooftop gunman kills one, wounds 8 in Finland |
Qaeda-linked suicide bomber kills 12 in Yemen |
Japan's Renesas eyes 14,000 job cuts, chip plant sale: Nikkei |
SpaceX capsule docks at space station, opens new era |
DigitalGlobe, GeoEye jump on nod for imagery funding |
Folk artist Doc Watson's responsive after surgery: agent |
Iran has enough uranium for 5 bombs: expert |
Putin puts Medvedev in charge of Russia's ruling party |
Greek pro-bailout conservatives regain lead: polls |
Israeli settler shoots Palestinian in West Bank |
Pope's butler charged over leaks scandal |
Muslims buried in Bosnia town, Serb veterans march |
Cannes gets happy ending with river film Mud |
Cannes' Middle East films show Arab Spring unfurl |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01