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Well-known film producer and teacher Dov Simens and his business partner have a plan to bust open Hollywood’s grip on movie making.

“Hollywood only does 200 movies a year,” Simens said. “The independents make 50,000 features per year.”

So what happens to the other 49,800 films?

Nothing, Simens said.

That’s where Movie Cloud comes in: it’s grants viewers access to the movies they probably didn’t know existed, and fledgling filmmakers access to make their own.

“Anybody can write, produce, direct, act and star in a feature film. Anyone can do it,” Simens said. “We’re giving everybody the resources, the tools, the networking, the funding, if necessary.”

“You can write your script, you can upload it. You can send it to friends. They can rewrite it,” said Movie Cloud co-creator Derek Christopher.

The service would cost $3 a month for a virtual production studio, and $4 a month to solely watch the movies.

But nothing will happen until it launches, and it won’t launch until they raise $350,000 through crowd donations online.

Indiegogo.com is giving them about 50 more days to do just that.

“If we get the money, it’ll launch in January of 2013,” Christopher said.

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‘Space Warriors’ will be filmed at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center later this summer. It’s a fictional tale about a young boy and his father who come to Space Camp.

WHNT News 19 reached out to Amee Halbach, Media and Communications Strategist for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.  Halbach checked with the movie producers, who said the first casting call for extras will be in mid-June. 

There are no exact dates yet.  When we hear something further, we’ll let you know.

Actor Thomas Horn is set to star in “Space Warriors”.  Horn made his acting debut in the Oscar-nominated movie, “Extremely Loud Incredibly Close.”

LOS ANGELES, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – HitFix, a leader in entertainment news, today announced the launch of its first iPad app, HitFix TV.  This new application is the best way for television enthusiasts to get news, reviews, recaps, real-time commentary and alerts for their favorite shows, while offering fans the opportunity to personalize their experience around TV content tailored to their interests.

In addition users can opt to receive push alerts notifying them of new HitFix content about their favorite shows, along with reminders of upcoming broadcasts. The home screen features a TV-only version of HitFix’s popular Event Calendar, along with options to add Music or Movie news to the user experience. Finally, HitFix TV for iPad enables users to participate in HitFix Awards Pools directly from the app.

“We wanted to ensure that our users are the first to get the latest news and recaps for their favorite shows,” remarked HitFix Editor in Chief Gregory Ellwood. “Whether you’re a fan of ‘American Idol,’ ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Breaking Bad’ or ‘Modern Family,’ HitFix TV is the customizable app every TV fan must have on their iPad.”

HitFix TV notable features include:

• Television Event Calendar featuring must watch events for every day of the week
• 7 categories of push alerts, personalized for readers’ favorite TV shows
• Addictive commenting feature surrounds content to spur conversation around TV topics
• Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globes awards pools
• The latest TV news, recaps and analysis streamlined for easy, touch-screen navigation
• Ability to set e-mail reminders for events within the calendar
• Easy content sharing via social media

The HitFix TV app for iPad is the latest development in HitFix’s multi-platform offerings for its media-savvy audience and can be downloaded for free from iTunes here.

About HitFix

Co-founded by Jennifer Sargent and Gregory Ellwood, HitFix is the ultimate destination for 18-34 year old consumers to discover what’s next in entertainment news and events. HitFix calls on the talents of renowned entertainment journalists such as Alan Sepinwall, Drew McWeeny, Daniel Fienberg, Melinda Newman and Kris Tapley to produce wide-ranging news, interviews and commentary on all aspects of entertainment. The site reaches over 20 million monthly unique users across their web, mobile, social and Out Of Home platforms. For more information visit www.HitFix.com.

LOS ANGELES — The integration of Hollywood’s film business with that of China continued Monday as the Bona Film Group, a Chinese movie company, announced that News Corporation, the owner of 20th Century Fox, had acquired a 19.9 percent stake in the company.

Bona said News Corporation acquired the stake directly from the Chinese company’s founder and chief executive, Yu Dong.

The deal is the latest in a series of moves that is forging closer ties between Hollywood and China: DreamWorks Animation has developed plans for a Shanghai-based studio; an investor group headed by Bruno Wu announced a new production complex called “Chinawood”; and the Chinese government agreed to expand its 20-film annual quota of foreign imports by admitting 14 additional films in 3-D or big-screen Imax formats.

The Wanda Group, which operates movie theaters in China, has also been in talks that could lead to its acquiring all or part of AMC Entertainment, which operates the second-largest chain of theaters in North America, according to people briefed on the discussions.

“China’s film market is growing at a rapid pace, positioning the country to be the second-largest film market following the United States,” said Jack Gao, a senior vice president of News Corporation, in a statement. He added: “Bona’s market leadership, compelling value proposition and tremendous growth potential make this an attractive opportunity.”

Earlier Coverage of China-Hollywood Ties

• Making Headway on a Plan to Lure Producers to China
• Disney to Team With Chinese Company to Make ‘Iron Man 3’
• James Cameron on Chinese Filmmakers, Censorship and Potential Co-Productions

LOS ANGELES — The integration of Hollywood’s film business with that of China continued Monday as the Bona Film Group, a Chinese movie company, announced that News Corporation, the owner of 20th Century Fox, had acquired a 19.9 percent stake in the company.

Bona said News Corporation acquired the stake directly from the Chinese company’s founder and chief executive, Yu Dong.

The deal is the latest in a series of moves that is forging closer ties between Hollywood and China: DreamWorks Animation has developed plans for a Shanghai-based studio; an investor group headed by Bruno Wu announced a new production complex called “Chinawood”; and the Chinese government agreed to expand its 20-film annual quota of foreign imports by admitting 14 additional films in 3-D or big-screen Imax formats.

The Wanda Group, which operates movie theaters in China, has also been in talks that could lead to its acquiring all or part of AMC Entertainment, which operates the second-largest chain of theaters in North America, according to people briefed on the discussions.

“China’s film market is growing at a rapid pace, positioning the country to be the second-largest film market following the United States,” said Jack Gao, a senior vice president of News Corporation, in a statement. He added: “Bona’s market leadership, compelling value proposition and tremendous growth potential make this an attractive opportunity.”

Earlier Coverage of China-Hollywood Ties

• Making Headway on a Plan to Lure Producers to China
• Disney to Team With Chinese Company to Make ‘Iron Man 3’
• James Cameron on Chinese Filmmakers, Censorship and Potential Co-Productions

It’s not Too Late for John Hawkes; Nicole Kidman takes a bite out of The Family Fang; Sean Bean climbs Devil’s Peak and Jaume Collet-Serra and Liam Neeson go from Unknown to Non-Stop.

1. Oscar-nominee John Hawkes will take the lead in Too Late, a new drama from Dennis Hauck.

Too Late will be Hauck’s debut as a director (he also wrote the script) and the non-linear film follows “the tangled relationship between a troubled private investigator (Hawkes) and the missing woman he’s hired to help find.”

The cast will be rounded out by Rider Strong, Natalie Zea, Dichen Lachman, Brett Jacobsen and legendary fimmaker Peter Bogdanovich. Hawkes also has the Elmore adaptation Switch on the way – the Jackie Brown ‘prequel’ co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Dennis Quaid.

I can’t imagine that Too Late is going to bust blocks at the box office, but it might just do well on the festival circuit.

Source: THR

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2. Nicole Kidman will take the lead in the adaptation of Kevin Wilson’s novel The Family Fang.

According to Deadline:

“The Family Fang is about a couple of performance artists who routinely sucked their kids into taking part in a variety of bizarre events. When the full-grown children return home in a state of crisis, they are unwittingly enlisted to help in the execution of a daring and mysterious final performance by their parents, who are hellbent on achieving the act of a lifetime. Their kids harbor more than a little resentment and blame the performance art for how badly their own lives have turned out.”

Kidman will produce the film and David Lindsay-Abaire, the writer the actress’ Rabbit Hole will adapt the script.

Source: Deadline

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3. Game of Thrones and Lord of The Rings star Sean Bean is in talks to take the lead in a trilogy of films based on Deon Meyer’s novels-starting with Devil’s Peak.

According to Variety:

“Bean will portray Detective Benny Griessel, the protagonist of the thriller series that begins with Devil’s Peak. Other entries include 13 Hours and 7 Days.”

The plan is for Devil’s Peak to shoot in South Africa in September. Producer Malcolm Kohll said:

“I believe that Deon Meyer will do for the South African thriller what Stieg Larsson did for the Scandinavian crime novel.”

Well, if it’s not a franchise then it’s just not worth it.

Source: Variety

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4. Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra has booked his ticket to join Irish bad-ass Liam Neeson on Non-Stop.

The action film sees Neeson play an Air-Marshall who must stop a threat onboard a flight. Producer Joel Silver will handle the money of the film which sounds a bit like his 1993 Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal team-up Executive Decision.

It looks like Neeson is still the go-to-guy for middle-age action.

Source: Variety

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

Watch Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol Online Now

This week She Him singer Zooey Deschanel landed a gig on Broadway. She’ll be playing a major role on Loretta Lynn‘s musical adaptation of Coal Miner’s Daughter. Also, Whitney Houston‘s family got their own reality series on Lifetime. We’ve also got an update on Eminem‘s upcoming movie Southpaw. Catch up on this week’s news below.

• Zooey Deschanel Going To Broadway: Zooey Deschanel is going to Broadway. According to Billboard, the singer/actress landed the role of Loretta Lynn on Coal Miner’s Daughter. Lynn decided to take the musical and adapt it to the stage, and has chosen Deschanel to play her.
  
• The Houston Family Chronicles: According to Rolling Stone, the surviving family of Whitney Houston will star in an upcoming Lifetime reality series titled The Houston Family Chronicles. The series will focus on Pat Houston, the sister-in-law and estate manager of the late singer, brother Gary, mother Cissy and daughter Bobbi Kristina. The show will premiere later this year. 
  
• Eminem’s Southpaw: Eminem’s boxing movie Southpaw has been put on hold, reports Rolling Stone. It seems that Eminem wants to focus on his music for now. It’s unfortunate news, but as long as he’s working on music, it’s all good. 
  
• “Lost In The World”: And just in case you missed it, Kanye West did release a new music video this week. What? He doesn’t have a new record, does he? Don’t panic, he doesn’t. The rapper released a brand new music video for his song “Lost In The World” recently. Check it out below:

Hope you’re all caught up now. Check in next week for another music news roundup, and don’t forget to keep coming back to BeatCrave for more industry news, and details on the latest bands.

What are you excited for?

After the coffee. Before seeing if there’s a reporter role in the next ‘Avengers’ movie.

The Skinny: A great season finale for Fox’s “New Girl” Tuesday night. Now the network needs to spend the summer figuring out how to get this show, which started out strong and then slipped in the ratings, back in the hearts and minds of viewers. Wednesday’s headlines include a look at how Virgin shot an entire movie up in the air, how Disney survived “John Carter” and posted strong earnings, and a preview of upfront week. 

Daily Dose: NBC is boosting its alternative programming unit by signing new development deals with several top reality producers including Jason Ehrlich (“The Bachelor”), David A. Hurwitz (“Fear Factor”), Alex Katz (“The Biggest Loser”) and Lee Metzger (“The Voice”). Probably a smart move since NBC’s track record with sitcoms and dramas has been nothing to write home about lately.

No walking off the set. In what appears to be a first, Virgin Group shot a film completely up in the air on its flights. The half-hour romance, starring Janeane Garofalo, Ben Feldman and Luis Guzman, was shot over nine days on flights from Los Angeles to London, Dallas, Fort Worth and Sydney, Australia. It will be screened on Virgin flights and is part of a marketing campaign for the airline. Wonder if there will be complimentary popcorn. Details on the 35,000-foot production from the Los Angeles Times.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Remember when Ellen DeGeneres coming out on her old ABC sitcom was a big deal? Nowadays gay characters populate much of prime time and rarely get a second glance either internally or from advertisers. Still, if you’re in a mafia drama and your character is going to come out, you might want to start looking for new work. More on the declining controversy over portrayals of gays on television from the New York Times.

John who? Despite a $200-million write-down of the flop film “John Carter,” Walt Disney Co. reported a jump in profit of 21% to $1.14 billion. As usual, the theme parks and the cable networks —  particularly sports empire ESPN — led the way. The company also said there would be an “Avengers” sequel. There’s a shocker. More on the earnings from the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.

Unhappy prince. News Corp.’s second-biggest shareholder, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has expressed concern about the ongoing ethics scandal and government probe that has followed at the media giant’s British newspapers. The Guardian quotes the prince as saying it is not “helping the name of the company.”

Garth’s new gig. Former veteran network executive Garth Ancier, whose résumé includes stints at Fox, NBC and the WB, is advising tech company Intel Corp. which is hoping to lead the way on creating a broadband programming service that would distribute channels over the Internet much the same way cable distributes through a wire. More on Ancier’s role from Variety.

Start packing. Next week, the broadcast networks unveil their fall schedules to advertisers in advance of selling commercial inventory for the next television season.  The Hollywood Reporter looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the networks as well as what new programs are in the pipeline.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: James Rainey on the financial health of Eyetronics Media Studios, the company that was supposed to be a production partner for non-commercial station KCET-TV.

— Joe Flint

Follow me on Twitter and you won’t need to go to the upfronts. Twitter.com/JBFlint

Photo: “John Carter.” Credit: Walt Disney Co.

When you want to follow the development of a new movie, who do you turn to for news and rumours? And if you’re a film studio, how do you find out about the potential fans who are interested in your project?

Berlin’s Moviepilot.com, which is making its big push into the U.S., hopes to kill both birds with one stone. And, judging from the $7 million Series B round it revealed on Thursday, it’s armed with a boulder.

The round was led by new investor DFJ Esprit, along with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Venture, Grazia Equity and Creative Industries Berlin — all of which have already been backing the site’s German incarnation, moviepilot.de.

That German version is quite a different beast, however. It’s a Google-driven rumor and recommendation site that in turn powers Telekom’s T-Entertain IPTV package, and it’s very successful, with two million monthly uniques and 1.4 million Facebook fans. In fact, that makes it Germany’s most popular Facebook page, bar that for soccer team Bayern Munich.

But, as CEO and co-founder Tobi Bauckhage told me, it was only a first step:

“Based on the recommendations and based on this Facebook understanding, we said we had a chance from Berlin to create a new generation movie site that is concentrating on early fans, using the Social Graph and the Open Graph to learn about the fans, and kickstart recommendations based on that.”

So in October last year the startup opened Moviepilot.com, an English-language second iteration that’s plugged into a separate Facebook page that’s already amassed four million fans. Combined, the two services constitute the social network’s largest movie fan community.

Fans can use the service to discover new projects and follow them — one of Moviepilot’s many facets is that of a curated, personalised news site. And for the studios, the community can provide some sorely-needed marketing insight.

“We’ve always thought the real power of tech is not the distribution but discovery, not even of films, but discovery of audiences,” Bauckhage, a film-maker himself, said. “Discovery and recommendation is still supply-driven, but we’re moving to a model where you have to learn about your audience and build audiences.”

Audience insights

The problem, Bauckhage explained, is that the whole industry revolves around the opening weekend.

“It’s a supply-driven industry with a very limited shelfspace, with only a limited number of cinemas and screening rooms,” he said. “The anomaly of this industry is that you have a market entry phase of only 48 hours – this predetermines the money you’ll make in the whole lifecycle of the movie.”

So what do studios do? Generally, they launch a barrage of poorly-targeted advertising just before the all-important weekend. Moviepilot.com is in a position to tell them who’s following their projects, right from the first rumour to the release.

“For example, we had 15,000 fans for the Avengers before the film came out,” Bauckhage explained. “They use Facebook Connect to follow a project, and we get information back from the fans and understand what the fanbase is made of. We can see that, hypothetically speaking, they are 15 times more likely to be Buffy fans – we believe that the real dimension of how you understand audiences is not demographics, but taste.”

And the industry already seems to be lapping it up. Twentieth Century Fox is currently paying Moviepilot to promote the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter to early fans, and the studio knows it will get very granular data in return. Universal, Disney and Paramount are also clients.

So there you have it: Moviepilot is a pretty unique combination of fansite, rumour and news aggregator, and social marketing agency. Its new funding will allow it to open an office in Los Angeles this year, with a dedicated sales team in tow.

The likes of IMDB and Flixster should be watching this development with a concerned eye.