Tom Rothman

The Game Developers Conference is transforming a long-running event it has held in Austin, Texas, and moving it to Los Angeles. GDC, which holds several events around the world for video game creators, said Monday that next month's GDC Online will be the last annual event dedicated to online gaming. Next year, it will be changed into a conference called GDC Next that focuses on developments in such emerging game platforms and technologies as smartphones, tablets, social networks and cloud storage.

As one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood, Tony Scott's death leaves a quartet of high-priority projects in limbo. Among them was the anticipated sequel to the 1986 blockbuster "Top Gun" that became a cultural touchstone and launched Scott's Hollywood career. It had taken years to get the movie even close to being made due to the complexities of reuniting Scott with star Tom Cruise and producer Jerry Bruckheimer on a concept all three would endorse. The picture was to focus on the world of drones in modern aerial combat.

Screenwriter David Steinberg was invited last fall by a producer to pitch his idea for a rewrite of a "high-concept comedy" about an adult slacker for a major studio. Steinberg figured he had a good shot at the assignment with credits like "American Pie 2" under his belt, even though he heard there were many other writers competing for the opening. After an initial meeting, the producer asked him to prepare a more detailed proposal, known as a "beat sheet," outlining each scene and character.

PARK CITY, Utah--"Fruitvale," a drama based on the real-life story of a young man shot to death at an Oakland BART station, took home the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night. The movie also won the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film. The Grand Jury Prize for U.S. documentary went to "Blood Brother," Steve Hoover's look at his best friend, who moves to India to help children with HIV. The film also won the Audience Award for U.S. documentary. "Fruitvale" is the first feature-length film from USC School of Cinematic Arts graduate Ryan Coogler, 26. Actor Forest Whitaker served as a producer on the movie, which stars Michael B. Jordan.

20th Century Fox launched an initiative designed to spur digital sales, offering its sci-fi thriller "Prometheus" for sale through several major online retailers three weeks ahead of the movie's release on DVD and Blu-ray disc. The Ridley Scott film is one of 600 titles to be sold digitally in high-definition for less than $15 -- a discount from the typical retail price of $20. The movies are available online through Amazon, Apple Inc.'s iTunes store, BestBuy's CinemaNow, Google Play, YouTube and Wal-Mart's Vudu, as well as through entertainment stores connected to the Sony PlayStation and Xbox game consoles.

"Longtime Companion," a frank look at a group of gay friends in New York City coping with the impact of AIDS on their lives in the 1980s, is the kind of feature film some distributors would give the soft sell. But the Goldwyn Co. plans to pull no punches in marketing the movie, which opens in New York May 11 and here a week later.

Fearing that a poor turnout for the black family drama "To Sleep With Anger" will send the wrong message to Hollywood studios, the Beverly Hills-Hollywood Chapter of the NAACP announced Friday that it is launching a drive to get blacks into theaters this weekend. "We know there is interest in this film within the black community," said Sandra Evers-Manly of the local chapter, "(but) where was the money for advertising it?

* 20th Century Fox is reorganizing its executive ranks in the wake of the pending departure of Laura Ziskin, head of its Fox 2000 Pictures unit, who will return to independent movie producing at the end of the year. Production chief Tom Rothman will be promoted to president of 20th Century Fox Film Group. Reporting to Rothman will be Fox 2000 as well as a newly named unit, TCF, which formerly was the production arm of 20th Century Fox.

Tom Jacobson has stepped down as president of worldwide production for Twentieth Century Fox after six years as an executive with the studio and plans to start his own production company and return to the kind of hands-on movie making he did before joining Fox, the company said. Sources speculate that Jacobson will set up shop at Walt Disney Co., where his close friend and former Fox boss Joe Roth runs the motion picture studio.