Independent Film

She's a 26-year-old former party girl with social anxiety issues, a motorcycle-riding iconoclast who dropped out of USC and attends meetings in Led Zeppelin T-shirts. Megan Ellison is also the most powerful new producer in Hollywood, running a burgeoning movie company from her $33-million compound in the hills above the Sunset Strip - and giving a critical boost to the kinds of adult dramas the major studios have all but abandoned. Hollywood has long attracted wealthy, star-struck investors who don't appreciate the difficulty (or "complexity")

A hostess escorted Emily Blunt to a private room in the commissary on the Universal Pictures lot, where a lone table had been set for a meal. The actress glanced around at the empty, window-less space and asked, "Might we be able to go out into the main dining room? I feel a bit cooped up in here. " As a team of handlers scurried to grant her request, one publicist whispered admiringly, "Wow, I've never had a star ask for less privacy. She's so cool, right?" Blunt, 29, seems to inspire this breathless sort of praise.

With a trio of sharp, literate films that mapped the emotional landscape of the young, American and upscale, Whit Stillman emerged from the '90s independent film scene as one of the decade's most distinct voices. His 1990 debut, "Metropolitan," earned him an Oscar nomination for screenwriting, and his follow-up examinations of the lives of the "urban haute bourgeoisie," as the characters of his movies were dubbed, "Barcelona" and "The Last Days of Disco," only cemented Stillman's reputation.

Independent film darling and Oscar winner Sofia Coppola began production on "The Bling Ring" in Calabasas this week, according to the city clerk's office. The majority of filming, however, is expected to take place in Los Angeles. The movie, inspired by true events, is about fame-obsessed teens growing up on the fringes of Hollywood celebrity culture who become burglars targeting the homes of stars. Leslie Mann and Emma Watson star in the film along with a crop of fresh young faces, including Taissa Farmiga, Katie Chang and Maika Monroe.

"The Artist," produced by Thomas Langmann, won best feature at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday. The black-and-white homage to silent cinema, which is also nominated for 10 Oscars, is considered a best picture front-runner heading into Sunday's 84th Academy Awards ceremony. The top prizes for the independent film community, the Spirit Awards trophies are handed out in 14 competitive categories. The afternoon affair is designed to be a more casual answer to the motion picture academy's lavish Oscar gala.

"Pan Am" may be going the way of Pan Am. ABC's period piece about the 1960s glamour days of jet travel needed to post big ratings in its Sunday finale to stay a contender for renewal next season. But the show just didn't have the engine thrust to do it. A piddling 3.9 million viewers tuned in to the show's Season 1 farewell, according to early data from Nielsen on Monday (final numbers will come Wednesday). That put "Pan Am" last at the gate at 10 p.m., behind CBS' "CSI: Miami" (10 million)

Independent filmmakers are joining Hollywood's major studios in praising a new trade agreement that eases restrictions on distributing movies in China. "We do think it's a breakthrough," said Jean Prewitt, president and chief executive of the Independent Film and Television Alliance, a trade association representing independent production, distribution and sales companies. "For the first time we really have the building blocks to begin to work competitively in that marketplace. " The accord reached Friday increases the number of foreign movies allowed into China under its current quota system and gives foreign studios a larger slice of box-office revenue.

SUNDAY It's a busy night for Ricky Gervais when the actor-comic voices a dolphin on "Family Guy" and appears as himself on "Life's Too Short," a new little-people-in-showbiz send-up starring "Harry Potter's" Warwick Davis. (Fox, 9 p.m.; HBO, 10:30 p.m.) "I Ain't Scared of You: A Tribute to Bernie Mac" salutes the late, great stand-up comic, below, who parlayed his gruff but lovable persona into a hit sitcom and scene-stealing roles in films like "Bad Santa" and "Ocean's Eleven.

Bingham Ray, the co-founder of October Films, one of the top independent film distribution companies of the 1990s, and a former president of United Artists who was a leading force in independent films for more than two decades, died Monday. He was 57. Ray, who was named executive director of the San Francisco Film Society in November, died in a hospital in Provo, Utah, after suffering a stroke last week while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, said Sarah Eaton, a spokeswoman for the family.

Looking to capitalize on the burgeoning Asian market, Saban Capital Group and Lionsgate are partnering with a Hong Kong media company to create new pay TV channels and programming. The venture — Celestial Tiger Entertainment — will launch with six channels, including three owned by new partner Celestial Pictures, which boasts one of the largest Chinese movie channels, Celestial Movies, and a large library of Chinese action films. Saban Capital and Lionsgate, Hollywood's largest independent film studio, will contribute the three channels that they jointly own. The two companies began their collaboration nearly two years ago with the formation of Tiger Gate Entertainment.