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.).

According to "Stargate," the great ancient Egyptian civilization that gave us the pyramids actually began on another planet--the planet Abydos, millions of light-years from Earth. The film mainlines our fascination with that ancient culture by making its achievements--quite literally--otherworldly. Now if only the rest of the film weren't so earthbound. Dr.

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.

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.

Jean-Philippe Toussaint's "The Ice Rink" is a trifle as delicate as a soap bubble. It's kept bouncing along by the whimsical wit of Toussaint, a noted French novelist, who celebrates the timelessness of visual comedy. In this regard it could not be a more fitting debut for Dolores Chaplin, the tall and lovely granddaughter of the great Charlie. The film is also a valentine to the demanding and unpredictable craft of making movies.

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.