Independent Movies

At Cinema Libre, a small new film studio and production house in Canoga Park, the decor sets the counterculture tone. From beneath his ever-present baseball cap, muckraker Michael Moore grins down from a poster for his "Bowling for Columbine" documentary. Studio offices are named for film revolutionaries -- the production office for Costa-Gavras, the special effects suite for Jean-Luc Godard.

Combining Hollywood's two biggest independent film studios and the blockbuster young adult franchises "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games" into one powerful entity, Lions Gate Entertainment has agreed to acquire Summit Entertainment for $412.5 million in cash and stock. The two Santa Monica companies have engaged in on-and-off merger talks since late 2008 as Lions Gate sought to bolster its library of film and TV properties and Summit's investors tried to cash in on the lightning-in-a-bottle success of the "Twilight" movie series, which has grossed $2.5 billion worldwide over four films.

Generally, the tortoise doesn't beat the hare in Hollywood. No matter what Aesop's fable suggests, show business winners are deemed to be films like "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Transformers" -- blockbusters that start off at a sprint and never slow down. There's only one small corner for patience in the film world, and you can find it at the Cannes Film Festival. This year's festival gathering opened Wednesday without many U.S.

Billionaire Ron Burkle has added movie production and concert promotion to the arenas he wants to play in. The man who made his fortune bagging supermarket chains and selling them off for billions went into the live music business Thursday by purchasing Artist Group International, a New York agency that books concerts for Billy Joel, Metallica and others. He concurrently invested in the movie business by taking a stake in independent movie studio Relativity Media. Y Entertainment group, a newly formed subsidiary of Burkle's investment firm Yucaipa Cos., made the two deals separately for undisclosed sums of money.

Hoping to cash in on the increasing popularity of so-called specialty films, the country's second-largest theater circuit is about to start showcasing independent films in theaters in markets where art house viewers are believed to reside. AMC Theatres will announce today that it has designated 72 theaters as AMC Select venues.

Astrange thing happens in "Frida," Julie Taymor's new film about painter Frida Kahlo, when she has a nightmare after a near-death experience. It also occurs in the middle of "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore's documentary salvo against America's gun culture. It happens as well in this fall's black comedy "Just a Kiss" whenever a character on screen steps into dangerous territory.

Bullying is not just an epidemic in American schools, but an increasingly brutal worldwide phenomenon that can result in damaged psyches and death, as the headlines too often reveal. That's what led to the making of "Ben X," an award-winning drama from Belgium opening Friday at the Nuart Theatre.

The festival market for independent films is again attracting Hollywood's attention after several years in the economic doldrums. Witness the quick deal cut at the Sundance Film Festival by the indie market's resurgent showman, Harvey Weinstein. It was just after 10 one night last week when Weinstein stopped by a dinner to meet producers and sales agents of the film "My Idiot Brother," a dysfunctional-family comedy starring Paul Rudd that had just been shown. By the next day, Weinstein, with help from supermarket mogul Ron Burkle, opened his wallet and spent upwards of $6 million for the right to distribute the film in the U.S. and select foreign countries.

Bert Schneider, the iconoclastic producer behind a trio of influential movies — "Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces" and "The Last Picture Show" — that captured the rootlessness and discontent of the late 1960s and '70s and became symbols of a new era in Hollywood, has died. He was 78. Schneider had been in failing health and died of natural causes Monday at Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his daughter, Audrey Simon. The son of a Hollywood power broker — his father, Abraham, ran Columbia Pictures in the late 1960s — Schneider helped revitalize moviemaking in the "New Hollywood" movement in which directors, not studios, held the creative reins and made movies that embraced the sensibilities of the emerging counterculture.

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.

Bert Schneider, the iconoclastic producer behind a trio of influential movies — "Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces" and "The Last Picture Show" — that captured the rootlessness and discontent of the late 1960s and '70s and became symbols of a new era in Hollywood, has died. He was 78. Schneider had been in failing health and died of natural causes Monday at Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his daughter, Audrey Simon. The son of a Hollywood power broker — his father, Abraham, ran Columbia Pictures in the late 1960s — Schneider helped revitalize moviemaking in the "New Hollywood" movement in which directors, not studios, held the creative reins and made movies that embraced the sensibilities of the emerging counterculture.

It's not uncommon for independent movies to debut on video-on-demand the same day they are released in theaters. Most of the time, however, such low-budget films are playing in only about half a dozen theaters nationwide. That wasn't the case, however, with "Margin Call. " The Wall Street drama debuted in 56 theaters three weeks ago and simultaneously became available to cable subscribers who wanted to watch the picture from the comfort of their own homes. The movie has since expanded to 178 theaters and has brought in $2.5 million since its opening, according to an estimate from distributor Roadside Attractions.

These days Saadi Kadafi is on the run, presumably somewhere in North Africa, dodging the rebels who ended his father's 42-year-long dictatorship in Libya. But just two years ago this month, the 38-year-old third son of Moammar Kadafi was perched on a couch surrounded by Champagne bottles, holding court at a glittering rooftop party at the Toronto International Film Festival. As rapper 50 Cent performed and guests sampled Beluga caviar, Kadafi and his American partner, Matty Beckerman, schmoozed with agents to promote themselves as the newest players in the world of independent filmmaking.

"The Art of Getting By," about a high school slacker more interested in a girl than in his homework, barely lived up to its name this weekend at the box office. The film, which stars young actors Freddie Highmore and Emma Roberts, had what even distributor Fox Searchlight acknowledged was a "disappointing" opening. According to a studio estimate, the movie collected only $700,000 from 610 theaters for a dismal per-theater average of $1,148. "The Art of Getting By" — previously titled "Homework" when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January — did worse than two other independent movies that opened this weekend and also played at the Utah event.

These days, Michael Sheen seems likely to turn up anywhere — and everywhere. The actor who gained attention and acclaim with a string of roles drawn from real-life characters in films such as "The Queen," "Frost/Nixon" and "The Damned United" also has demonstrated a fondness for turning more commercial films on their heads — delivering joyously odd performances in vampire franchises such as "Underworld" and "Twilight" and sci-fi outings such...

The gig: Peter Schlessel is chief executive of FilmDistrict, an independent movie distribution company formed last year with the backing of producer Graham King and his business partner Tim Headington. FilmDistrict acquires and releases movies nationwide. Its first offering was the recent low-budget horror hit "Insidious. " Schlessel, 49, also serves as president of King and Headington's production and finance company GK Films, providing strategic advice while devoting most of his time to running FilmDistrict out of the same Santa Monica office.

For years, filmmakers flocked to the Cannes Film Festival to sell their independently financed movies, confident they'd soon see their work exhibited in movie theaters. Like so many show business dreams, those visions have been vanishing quickly as numerous distributors of film-festival fare closed their doors after losing money or corporate support. But there's a potential savior on the horizon called video on demand -- and it may be hiding somewhere inside your cable television box.

In an effort to check the epidemic of non-union film making both in Hollywood and on location, the Directors Guild of America is slashing its rates for low-budget movies. In a new plan beginning today, the union will reduce the up-front pay for directors, assistant directors and unit production managers by 50% for movies that cost less than $1.5 million, and by 40% for feature films that cost between $1.5 million and $2.5 million.

With such actors as Will Ferrell and Ewan McGregor and themes that take on the Holocaust and life on another planet, this summer's independent movies don't skimp on story or star power. Here, some of the select films that will go up against the big studio blockbusters in a battle for the box office and jockey each other for early Oscar attention. "Everything Must Go" Will Ferrell is no laughing matter as an alcoholic bottoming out in writer-director Dan Rush's feature debut, adapted from a Raymond Carver short story.

The reconstituted Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. has found the distribution partners it needs to restart business. The independent studio, which emerged from bankruptcy in December, is on the verge of announcing a renewal of its agreement for 20th Century Fox to release its films worldwide on DVD through 2016. The extended arrangement also for the first time gives Fox the right to sell MGM titles on digital platforms such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes. On Wednesday, MGM signed a deal with Sony Pictures to co-finance and distribute in theaters around the world the next two "James Bond" sequels and potentially future pictures.