Michael McGowan with Liane Balaban

IFC Films has snared all U.S. rights to the Canuck pic “One Week.”

The picture, written and directed by Michael McGowan, is the story of a young man (Joshua Jackson) who discovers he has cancer and decides to buy a motorcycle and spend his last days on a road trip across Canada.

The movie was featured as a Gala presentation at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and was a hit at the box office in Canada last year.

The deal was brokered by Arianno Boccho and Elizabeth Nastro for IFC and Charlotte Mickie for Toronto-based E1 Entertainment.

The picture was distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media, and E1 Entertainment has global rights to the film.

Source: Variety, Brenden Kelly

Beat The World

Andrew Lockington has signed on to score Beat The World for Inner City Films. Beat the World is written and directed by Robert Adetuyi and is his followup to Sony Pictures’ box office hit Stomp the Yard.

The film is about three dance crews – one Latin American, one European and one Canadian – as they prepare to do battle at the International Beat the World competition in Detroit. Along the way, they struggle with gambling debt, bad break-ups and their own egos.

In the final showdown to become world champions they find that their lifelong hopes, dreams and even lives, are at stake.

Studio buys rights to inner-city hip-hop dance film

Robert Adetuyi

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has acquired all U.S. rights to the inner-city dance pic “Beat the World.”

Written and directed by Robert Adetuyi, the story revolves around young hip-hop crews from Canada, Germany, Japan, Brazil and the U.S. as they descend on Detroit for an international dance championship called Beat the World. Once they reach the final battle and face off, the contestants discover that there’s much more at stake than winning the competition.

The film, which blends hip-hop and parkour (also known as free running), features a global cast of hip-hop dancers and musical artists worldwide, including the Flying Steps and the Pink Ladies.

“I wanted to create a brand new kind of dance film,” said Adetuyi, who made his helming debut with the drama “Turn It Up” and whose writing credits include “Stomp the Yard.” “By blending Parkour and hip-hop, ‘Beat the World’ takes the genre to a whole new level and gives audiences something that they’ve never seen before.”

Film was shot primarily in Toronto and on location in Berlin, Germany and Brazil.

Inner City Films and Telefilm Canada financed “Beat the World,” with gap financing provided by Montreal-based FIDEC.

Amos Adetuyi is producing, and Benedict Carver is exec producing. Carver negotiated the deal with Sony’s Dan Primozic.

E1 Entertainment acquired Canadian, UK and Scandinavian rights.

Diamond Pictures is handling international sales.

Source: Variety

Footage Released from “Journey To The Center Of The Earth” recording sessions. This footage was filmed in October of 2007 at Air Studios in London, UK.

Andrew Lockington at the Podium

Andrew Lockington accepted the 2009 SOCAN Film Award for “Journey to the Center of the Earth” at last night’s 20th Annual SOCAN MUSIC AWARDS held at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, Canada. Other winners included Kardinal Official, Rush, Gordon Lightfoot, Finger Eleven and Feist among others.

The ceremony celebrated SOCAN’s 20 years of awarding excellence among their members. (SOCAN administers performing rights for composers, authors and music publishers in Canada.)

Pic By Borys Kit

Justin Timberlake in negotiations to join live-action/CG

Anna Faris and Dan Aykroyd are in negotiations to star in “Yogi Bear,” Warner Bros.’ feature take on the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Justin Timberlake is in talks to join the project, which is being directed by Eric Brevig and produced by Donald De Line and Karen Rosenfelt as a live-action/CG hybrid. Faris will play a nature documentarian who follows the antics of a bear in fictional Jellystone Park.

Aykroyd will voice Yogi, and Timberlake could end up lending his pipes for Yogi’s constant companion, Boo Boo. Jon Berg is overseeing for the studio, which hopes to get “Yogi” under way in New Zealand in December. Brad Copeland penned the current script with Joshua Sternin and Jeff Ventimilia writing the original draft.

Faris, last seen in front of the cameras with “Observe and Report,” recently has been lending her voice for such animated fare as “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.” She’s repped by Gersh and Raw Talent.

CAA-repped Aykroyd, who is working on a third “Ghostbusters” movie, was last seen on the screen in 2008’s “War, Inc.” Timberlake, repped by WME and Rick Yorn, will next be seen in the upcoming drama “Open Road,” and he recently signed to star in “The Social Network,” the Facebook movie being directed by David Fincher.

A drama centered on a young woman with multiple personality disorder who struggles to remain her true self and not give in to her racist alter-personality.

Source: Filmfestival

The World Soundtrack Academy releases the list of nominees for the World Soundtrack Discovery 2009. The name of the winner will be announced on October 17 at the World Soundtrack Awards ceremony, the closing event of the Ghent International Film Festival

Every year the advisory board of the World Soundtrack Academy chooses a ‘Discovery of the Year’ to celebrate emerging film composing talent. Famous composers as Craig Armstrong, Michael Giacchino and Gustavo Santaolalla were discovered by the board.

The nominees for 2009 are

- Lorne Balfe for Crying with Laughter
- Jérôme Lemonnier for Demain dès l’aube
- Andrew Lockington for Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Nico Muhly for The Reader
- Atli Örvarsson for Babylon AD