Movie Industry

When producer John Wells was preparing to shoot his crime drama "Southland," he chose a digital camera that few had heard of a few years ago. The Red One was inexpensive, easy to use and enthusiastically endorsed by his friend and director Steven Soderbergh, who used it to film his two-part movie last year about Che Guevara. Wells was so taken with the Red camera that he even used it to film the final six episodes of "ER." That was a blow to Panavision Inc.

It wasn't so long ago that, after putting in years building up his career, Denzel Washington finally cracked the $20-million star salary club. But now he's taking a sizable pay cut to star in the upcoming 20th Century Fox film "Unstoppable" after the studio threatened to pull the plug on the picture in order to get its costs down. David Fincher used to make $8 million to $10 million per picture, along with a nice piece of first-dollar gross, as an A-list director.

When "Chicago" and "Hairspray" producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan were looking for their next big movie musical last November, the two ended up in what would seem like an unlikely place: the El Segundo headquarters of Mattel Inc. The duo found their inspiration in the prototypes for an as-yet unreleased line of monster dolls from the toy manufacturer. Welcome to Hollywood's latest gold rush. Movie studio development slates are rapidly filling up with projects based on well-known toys and games.

Location filming for movies and TV commercials on the streets of Los Angeles, once as prevalent as the corner taco truck, is rapidly fading to black. Double whammies of the recession and out-of-state economic incentives for producers have caused on-location film shoots in the Los Angeles area to fall to their lowest levels on record.

Vicky Cristina . . . Rio de Janeiro? The Brazilian city has formed a new film commission, hired a longtime movie industry pro to head it and set an ambitious first goal: landing the next Woody Allen flick. Taking a cue from Barcelona, the Spanish city that was the principal setting for Allen's last film, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Rio is dangling $2 million in subsidies to attract the director's as-yet-untitled next movie. This month, Rio was named the site for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, and city fathers hope it's on a roll.

When it comes to marketing movies to kids, fast food wasn't to Disney's taste. But 20th Century Fox sees nothing wrong with a Big Mac. The News Corp. studio has struck a partnership with McDonald's for five of its major movie releases through 2010, beginning with the summer sequels "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" and "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs."

It's 8 p.m. Friday and the historic Towne Theatre downtown is sold out. About 500 moviegoers have crowded into the three-screen movie house, paying up to $12 a ticket to watch not the latest Hollywood blockbuster but instead the premieres of three Indian movies that are opening simultaneously in India. Tonight's showcase feature: the Tamil action thriller "Aadhavan" starring hunk Surya Sivakumar, who enjoys rock-star status among fans known to break out in cheers when his image appears on screen.

Hollywood's commitment to independently financed movies has declined as much as the stock market. Now, a distributor wants to take advantage of the retrenchment -- the fatalities include Warner Independent Pictures, Yari Film Group, Picturehouse, Paramount Vantage, New Line Cinema and ThinkFilm -- by launching a specialty film label.

A banner year at the box office driven by films including "Fast & Furious," "Star Trek" and "Hannah Montana" is turning out to be a powerful recession vaccine for the nation's biggest movie theater chains. Only a few months ago, investors feared consumers' reluctance to spend money would keep them at home and from going to the movies, depressing business at the country's 5,800 local theaters.

Moviegoers were paying more in 2007, but that doesn't mean they were going more often. Box-office revenue in the U.S. and Canada climbed 4% to $9.7 billion, the second straight year of higher receipts after dismal results in 2005. But the rise came entirely from costlier ticket prices. Attendance was flat, according to research firm Media by Numbers. Moviegoers bought 1.