Studio Canal Plus

In the latest step in the globalization of Hollywood, Universal Pictures and Studio Canal Plus, the production unit of Europe's largest pay-television service, have agreed to co-produce films for worldwide distribution. Canal Plus, with more than 3 million pay-TV subscribers in France as well as joint venture TV services in Germany, Spain and Belgium, has been a regular buyer of film rights from Universal and other Hollywood studios since it was founded in 1984.

Universal Pictures and Paris-based StudioCanal are combining to create a worldwide television and movie production and distribution operation. Vivendi Universal officials say the merger will give the company a broader spectrum of movie offerings. The move is an outgrowth of Vivendi's $40-billion acquisitions of Seagram Co. and most of CanalPlus, the parent company of StudioCanal, in December 2000.

Vivendi Universal offered to buy the shares it doesn't own of StudioCanal, valuing its film production unit at $1.3 billion. Vivendi, which already owns about 86% of StudioCanal, offered $12.25 for each StudioCanal share, or 26% more than Wednesday's closing price.

Vivendi Universal offered to buy the shares it doesn't own of StudioCanal, valuing its film production unit at $1.3 billion. Vivendi, which already owns about 86% of StudioCanal, offered $12.25 for each StudioCanal share, or 26% more than Wednesday's closing price.

Universal Pictures and Paris-based StudioCanal are combining to create a worldwide television and movie production and distribution operation. Vivendi Universal officials say the merger will give the company a broader spectrum of movie offerings. The move is an outgrowth of Vivendi's $40-billion acquisitions of Seagram Co. and most of CanalPlus, the parent company of StudioCanal, in December 2000.

Carolco Makes Changes: Carolco Pictures Inc. announced that it has retained New York investment bankers Allen & Co. as an adviser. Debts have forced Carolco to restructure, despite its success with "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." Carolco Chairman Mario F. Kassar, noting the hiring of Allen & Co. and the continued participation of major investors such as France-based Le Studio Canal Plus, said his company will work "diligently to complete the reorganization plan."

Le Studio Canal Plus, the French pay television giant whose experience in Hollywood hasn't always been on the plus side, named three executives to oversee its reorganized U.S. operations. Olivier Granier, who had been Canal Plus' liaison to Hollywood, was appointed president and chief operating officer of Le Studio Canal Plus (U.S.).

Nanni Moretti's "Caro Diario" (Dear Diary) introduces to American audiences the quirky Italian filmmaker whose eight films over the last 18 years have established him as a cult figure in his own country. Although Moretti has an off-the-wall comic sensibility with an anti-Establishment attitude and a graceful style, he is not likely to enjoy the same success in America as many other Italian filmmakers.

With "Train of Life," writer-director Radu Mihaileanu came up with a clever premise, but you wish he'd played up its potential more for suspense than for broad ethnic humor. To give him credit, he does end on an unexpected note that casts all that comes before in a different light. But so much of this French-language film is tiresome in its relentless reliance on country-bumpkin humor. The time is the summer of 1941, somewhere in rural Eastern Europe.

In the latest step in the globalization of Hollywood, Universal Pictures and Studio Canal Plus, the production unit of Europe's largest pay-television service, have agreed to co-produce films for worldwide distribution. Canal Plus, with more than 3 million pay-TV subscribers in France as well as joint venture TV services in Germany, Spain and Belgium, has been a regular buyer of film rights from Universal and other Hollywood studios since it was founded in 1984.

The family that tends killer whales together stays together. That's the message of "Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home." When you're in need of some familial togetherness, sometimes only an orca will do. The first "Free Willy," released in the summer of '93, was an ecology-era family film about a delinquent boy who bonds with an orca at the local sea park and, in so doing, bonds with his foster parents and a Native American teller of tales and a feminist seal handler.

Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau's effortlessly charming musical "Jeanne and the Perfect Guy" is likely to remind you of the classic "Umbrellas of Cherbourg," and not just because its leading man, Mathieu Demy, is the son of "Umbrellas' " late director, Jacques Demy. Ducastel and Martineau's songs, like those of 'Umbrellas' " Michel Legrand, have a sweetness and buoyancy, and flow naturally out of everyday life.