Focus Features

"The Place Beyond the Pines," one of the hottest acquisition targets coming into the Toronto International Film Festival, has landed at Focus Features. The company, which paid several million dollars for the right to distribute the movie, aims to release the film in 2013. The movie stars Ryan Gosling as an outlaw bank robber and Bradley Cooper as an idealistic cop. The epic family tale, which played strongly at its world premiere Friday night, marks the return of director Derek Cianfrance after his 2010 critical darling “Blue Valentine.” Earlier on Sunday Cianfrance told The Times he thought 2013 was a good window for the movie, giving Focus time to build awareness for what is a sprawling and unconventional family story.

EXCLUSIVE: Another horse looks to be joining the 2013-14 Oscar race. "The Dallas Buyers Club," the long-gestating AIDS drama starring Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, is close to a distribution deal with Focus Features, according to two people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to talk about them publicly. The Universal Pictures specialty division is negotiating to pick up domestic and select international rights to the movie and would release it in the U.S. before the end of the year, the people said, positioning it and its actors for award consideration.

Universal Pictures is in talks to sell its specialty film label Focus Features to investor brothers Alec and Tom Gores, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions, which are still in an early stage, call into question whether the film studio will hold on to its independent film division as it is swallowed by cable giant Comcast Corp. next year. The Gores, who separately run their own private equity firms, have ambitions to build an entertainment empire by cobbling together film libraries and other media assets.

Hurricane Sandy has put a temporary halt to film and TV production in New York City. New York City officials announced that all film permits in the city have been revoked for Monday and Tuesday because of "Hurricane Sandy and continuing safety precautions," according to a statement from the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. "There will be no City authorized outdoor filming within the five boroughs. " At least nine TV shows were affected by the shutdown, including "Blue Bloods" (CBS)

Focus Features remains one of the rare specialty film companies tied to a major studio. And at the moment, it has more to brag about than its parent Universal Pictures. Focus celebrated Mother's Day with the better-than-expected debut of its feel-good documentary "Babies," which chronicles the lives of four infants around the world from birth to first steps. The movie company, known for such unconventional hits as "Brokeback Mountain" and "Lost in Translation," also has one of the most anticipated independent movies of the summer coming July 7, the family comedy-drama "The Kids Are All Right" starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple whose two teenage kids seek out their sperm donor.

"Iron Man 2" may have soared to the top of the box office this weekend, but "Babies" crawled to a respectable start as well. Focus Features opened its documentary with a title as self-explanatory as they come at 534 theaters, nowhere close to the record-breaking 4,380 for "Iron Man 2" but enough for a presence in most major cities and suburban markets. It sold a studio-estimated $1.6 million worth of tickets. On Friday night, most of the movie's money came from highbrow art-house theaters that typically play documentaries.

The Deal Random House Films, in tandem with Focus Features, options Beth Raymer's "Lay the Favorite, Take the Dog," an unpublished memoir about her odyssey through the world of sports betting. The Players Raymer is represented on literary rights by Andrew Blauner (Blauner Books Literary Agency) and on film rights by Creative Artists Agency. The book will be published in 2009 by Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House Inc. The Backstory In gambling, as in book-to-film deals, timing is everything.

In the world of specialty films, success often comes in pairs. Harvey and Bob Weinstein built Miramax into an indie powerhouse. Sony Pictures Classics, which puts more foreign films into theaters than any other distributor, is run by Tom Bernard and Michael Barker. Then there are James Schamus and David Linde, whose four years at the helm of Focus Features, Universal Pictures' specialized film label, culminated with the 2005 hit "Brokeback Mountain."

In Hollywood there is no shortage of strange bedfellows. But could it be that the same people who brought you "The Pianist" and "Lost in Translation" are behind a B-level horror movie about a homicidal redheaded doll? Indeed, come Nov. 12, "Seed of Chucky" will be playing in a theater near you, courtesy of Rogue Pictures, the genre label Focus Features launched earlier this year.

EXCLUSIVE: Another horse looks to be joining the 2013-14 Oscar race. "The Dallas Buyers Club," the long-gestating AIDS drama starring Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, is close to a distribution deal with Focus Features, according to two people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to talk about them publicly. The Universal Pictures specialty division is negotiating to pick up domestic and select international rights to the movie and would release it in the U.S. before the end of the year, the people said, positioning it and its actors for award consideration.

"The Place Beyond the Pines," one of the hottest acquisition targets coming into the Toronto International Film Festival, has landed at Focus Features. The company, which paid several million dollars for the right to distribute the movie, aims to release the film in 2013. The movie stars Ryan Gosling as an outlaw bank robber and Bradley Cooper as an idealistic cop. The epic family tale, which played strongly at its world premiere Friday night, marks the return of director Derek Cianfrance after his 2010 critical darling “Blue Valentine.” Earlier on Sunday Cianfrance told The Times he thought 2013 was a good window for the movie, giving Focus time to build awareness for what is a sprawling and unconventional family story.

In many summer movies, some superhero prevents the world's end. There's no superhero in “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” and there's nothing that can be done to avert Judgment Day. Focus Features nevertheless believes its unusual, R-rated romantic comedy is perfect summer fare. In one of the season's bolder scheduling moves, the studio will open “Seeking a Friend” in wide release this weekend opposite Pixar's “Brave” and Fox's “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” “I always think counter-programming is a really good idea, partly because you get kind of bored of the same genre of film over and over again,” said Keira Knightley, who stars in the $10-million film opposite Steve Carell.

'Jane Eyre,' the film starring Mia Wasikowska that is based on Charlotte Brontë's novel, debuts in limited release in Los Angeles and New York and achieves the highest per-theater average box office of any film this year. 'Lofty 'Eyre' Just like its strong-willed heroine, "Jane Eyre" is proving to be a quiet but powerful force. The new Focus Features film based on the 19th century Charlotte Brontë novel debuted in only four theaters this weekend and generated the highest per-theater average of any film this year.

One of the reigning kings of comedy is hoping that he won't be upstaged by a pint-size teen idol this weekend at the box office. Adam Sandler's romantic comedy "Just Go With It" will face off against "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," a 3-D documentary and concert movie that trails pop star Justin Bieber on his tour last summer. Not that it looks to be an even match-up. "Just Go With It," which also stars rom-com staple Jennifer Aniston and supermodel-turned-actress Brooklyn Decker, will probably beat out Bieber.

Buyers at last year's Sundance Film Festival made big-money bets on two very different films: a thriller starring Ryan Reynolds and a dramedy about a lesbian couple and their sperm donor. If you were a Las Vegas bookie looking at box office odds, you'd have put your chips on Reynolds and his stuck-in-a-coffin story. But "Buried" was a conspicuous flop for distributor Lionsgate, taking in less than half the $3 million the company spent to acquire it. Meanwhile, Lisa Cholodenko's dysfunctional-family tale "The Kids Are All Right" turned into a national conversation piece, grossing $21 million in domestic release for buyer Focus Features, winning two Golden Globes, and looking likely to land several Oscar nominations next week.

"Dogtooth" ? an enigmatic Greek film about family life, with intimations of animal mutilation, incest and "Flashdance" ? has been among the most divisive and talked-about movies on the festival circuit since its award-winning premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2009. Greece's official foreign-language submission for this year's Academy Awards, the film has also turned up in numerous critics' lists and 2010 best-of polls. The film opened in New York last June. But apart from a single screening last summer, L.A. film fans had to wait more than six months longer to see it. Finally, it opened Friday at the under 200-seat Cinefamily theater on Fairfax Avenue ?

Movie studio: An article in today's Envelope section about Grammy-nominated songs from films said that the movie "Once" was from Focus Features. That film is a Fox Searchlight release.

Patience isn't always Hollywood's strong suit. Agents boil over in tantrums, executives chase hot screenplays like jackals and directors yell for everybody to hurry. But when the holidays roll around, the film business can display some surprising composure. The forbearance is part of the industry's platform release strategy heading into Oscar season, whereby many films with awards hopes are introduced in just a few cities at a time. Unlike lowbrow blockbusters, blitzed into thousands of multiplexes on opening weekends, these artier movies ?

Universal Pictures is in talks to sell its specialty film label Focus Features to investor brothers Alec and Tom Gores, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions, which are still in an early stage, call into question whether the film studio will hold on to its independent film division as it is swallowed by cable giant Comcast Corp. next year. The Gores, who separately run their own private equity firms, have ambitions to build an entertainment empire by cobbling together film libraries and other media assets.