Gerry produce suoi films!

Visto che è stata aperta questa nuova sezione dedicata all'attività di GB come produttore, ho spostato qui il post che avevo messo in Si Parla di Lui relativamente alla morte dell'autore di Teacher Man, uno dei titoli opzionati da Evil Twins, Frank McCourt

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WRITTEN BY S.T. VANAIRSDALE | 20 JUL 2009, 7:35 AM

Frank McCourt Dead at 78: Frank McCourt, the Irish immigrant-turned-teacher-turned-author whose Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela’s Ashes was adapted to the screen in 2000, died Sunday in New York of complications from metastatic melanoma.
He was 78.
In development when he passed away: Teacher Man, his third autobiographical effort, which Gerard Butler’s Evil Twins shingle optioned last year as a potential starring vehicle for the actor.
The story covers McCourt’s 30 years as a high-school writing instructor in New York.
Depending on The Ugly Truth’s opening this weekend, look for the project to acquire new momentum with Butler in the months ahead. [NYT]

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Scritto da S.T. Vanairsdale - 20 Luglio 2009
Frank McCourt muore a 78 anni
Frank McCourt, l'immigrato irlandese diventato insegnate e poi autore, il cui memoriale vincitore Pulitzer "Le Ceneri di Angela" fu adattato per il cinema nel 2000, è morto domenica a New York per le complicazioni di un melanoma con metastasi.
Aveva 78 anni.
In fase di sviluppo, al momento del suo trapasso: Teacher Man, il suo terzo lavoro autobiografico, che Evil Twins - la compagnia di Gerard Butler - ha opzionato lo scorso anno come potenziale veicolo interpretativo per l'attore.
La storia copre i 30 anni di McCourt come insegnante di scuola superiore a New York.
A seconda del debutto di The Ugly Truth questo weekend, si vedrà se il progetto acquisterà nuova spinta con Butler nei prossimi mesi.

http://www.movieline.com/2009/07/frank-mcc...-dead-at-78.php

Evil Twins ha acquisito i diritti per produrre un film tratto dal romanzo "The Septembers of Shiraz"
Gerry ne sarà solo produttore, ma non lo interpreterà.
Credo che sia una scelta molto coraggiosa. La trama prende lo spunto dall'arresto di un mercante di pietre preziose rare, avvenuto dopo la rivoluzione iraniana che rovesciò lo Scià; accusato di essere una spia l'uomo viene strappato alla sua famiglia, la quale viene chiamata a confrontarsi con un nuovo mondo fatto di caos e crudeltà e con il crollo di tutto ciò in cui avevano creduto.

Gerard Butler to produce 'The Septembers of Shiraz'
September 29th, 2010 7:33 pm ET



Evil Twins, the Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel production shingle, have acquired the film rights to the critically-acclaimed novel The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer.

The novel takes place in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, where rare-gem dealer Isaac Amin is arrested, wrongly accused of being a spy. Terrified by his disappearance, his family must reconcile a new world of cruelty and chaos with the collapse of everything they have known.

Sofer was born in Iran and fled at the age of ten to the United States with her family.

While Butler is producing, he will not star in the production.

For more on Sofer and The Septembers of Shiraz, visit the Harper Collins website ( www.harpercollins.com/books/Septembers-Shiraz-Dalia-Sofer/ ).

http://www.examiner.com/gerard-butler-in-n...mbers-of-shiraz

Starz Develops Allan Pinkerton Limited Series With Bob Cochran & Gerard Butler

BY NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday October 22, 2010 @ 8:11am PDT
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EXCLUSIVE: He co-created 24, in which Jack Bauer often saved the lives of fictitious U.S. presidents. For his next project, Bob Cochran is taking on a man who saved a sitting American president in real life: Allan Pinkerton. Cochran is developing Pinkerton, a 8-10-hour limited series for Starz about the famous spy and detective, with Gerard Butler on board to executive produce. Starz has commissioned a pilot script and a bible for the project, a fictionalized retelling of the exploits of Pinkerton, creator of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the first detective agency in the U.S. "He was an amazing guy -- he took part in all the great sweeping events of the 19th century," Cochran said. Scottish-born Pinkerton, who emigrated to the U.S. at age 23, stumbled upon sleuthing in 1840s Chicago almost by accident. He served as head of the Union Intelligence Service, the forerunner of the U.S. Secret Service. As such, he guarded Abraham Lincoln on his way to his inauguration and foiled an assassination attempt on him in Baltimore. The little-known episode will be featured prominently in the series, Cochran said. Pinkerton also became "the spy master of the North" during the Civil War. His detective agency was hired by the railroad companies to go after outlaw gangs that were robbing trains, including the one led by the infamous Jesse James. Pinkerton caught many robbers but, in what is considered his biggest miss, he wasn't able to track down James. While working for the railroad companies, Pinkerton was also involved with the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses used mostly in the 1850s to smuggle slaves to freedom in Canada. "On one hand he was enforcing the law, and on the other hand he was breaking the law," Cochran said. "He was interested in right and wrong, not so much in the the law." At his agency, Pinkerton developed several investigative techniques that are widely used today, including "shadowing" aka survailance, "assuming a role" aka going undercover, as well as using mugshots and profiling. At the time of his death in 1884, he was working on a centralized database of all criminal identification records which is now maintained by the FBI. Cochran is executive producing Pinkerton with Angela Mancuso, who, as an executive at USA Network oversaw the network's mini-series Atilla the Hun, written by APA-repped Cochran. It starred CAA-repped Butler in one of his first lead roles. It was Mancuso who suggested to Cochran that they take the project to Starz and reach out to Butler who, like Pinkerton, is Scottish. The actor quickly came onboard as exec producer. Butler and his manager Alan Siegel will exec produce through their Evil Twins production company. Also executive producing And while Pinkerton is developed as a limited series, Cochran is leaving the door open for a potential second series.

http://m.deadline.com/2010/10/starz-develo...-gerard-butler/

La notizia ha attraversato l'oceano...

Starz, in arrivo una miniserie sul detective Allan Pinkerton e due nuovi volti per Torchwood
Sabato, 23 Ottobre 2010.

Da 24 all’inventore degli investigatori privati: Robert Cochran è in trattative con Starz per sviluppare una serie sulla spia e detective Allan Pinkerton, che potrebbe essere una miniserie limitata (otto-dieci ore) ma anche diventare un appuntamento fisso. Pinkerton, questo il nome di lavorazione della serie tv, sarà prodotta dalla star hollywoodiana Gerard Butler.

Poliziotto, investigatore e agente segreto statunitense, noto soprattutto per aver creato la Pinkerton Agency, la prima agenzia investigativa privata del mondo: questo il ritratto wikipediano di Allan Pinkerton, che da detective dilettante diventò in breve sceriffo e, trasferitosi a Chicago, diventò titolare della prima e più famosa agenzia investigativa che non solo non creò alcuni pilastri del genere (stilare il profilo dei criminali, operazioni sotto copertura, sorveglianza continua) ma fu anche usata dai presidenti americani (a ragione, visto che fu proprio Pinkerton a salvare la vita a Lincoln nell’attentato a Baltimora).

“Un personaggio straordinario – lo benedice Bob Cochran, creatore della serie e produttore assieme a Gerald Butler – che ha preso parte a molti degli straordinari eventi del 19′ secolo e che, lavorando per la Underground Railroad (un’organizzazione che aiutava gli schiavi), infrangeva la legge aiutando nel contempo la legge. Ma Pinkerton era più interessato al giusto e allo sbagliato e non tanto alla legge“.

Non si tratta dell’unica novità per Starz, secondo Ausiello nel Torchwood più internazionale che la rete via cavo produrrà con BBC faremo la conoscenza di alcuni nuovi personaggi che arricchiranno il cast: si tratta di Rex Matheson, un furbo, duro e divertente agente che non si preoccupa tanto di fare belle figure quanto di farne una durevole (nel ruolo potrebbero essere scritturati Enver Gjokaj di Dollhouse ma anche Chad Michael Murray di One Tree Hill) e di Esther Katusi, un’analista CIA donna che ha una fede mostruosa nella natura umana ed una colossale cotta per Rex: a dare il volto a questo personaggio potrebbe essere l’ex Greek Amber Stevens

http://www.televisionando.it/articolo/star...orchwood/37909/

Mi sono incuriosita...
Ecco a voi Mr. Allan Pinkerton



E qualche informazione su di lui da Wikipedia (in Inglese)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Pinkerton

Sapete perché ho cominciato ad approfondire?
Ecco, brave: indovinato!
Da Gerard che si impegna come produttore esecutivo alla supposizione che possa interpretare l'intrepido e pionieristico tutore della legge è stato un passo molto molto breve

Scots Hollywood hunk to play first private eye
Published Date: 26 October 2010 - By Brian Pendreigh

HOLLYWOOD star Gerard Butler is set to play a fellow Scot who found fame and fortune on the other side of the Atlantic as a detective in a new movie by the producers of hit TV show 24.

The 39-year-old star of such Hollywood blockbusters as 300 and The Bounty Hunter is working on a big-budget film about Allan Pinkerton, the legendary Glasgow-born detective and secret agent who founded the detective agency that bears his name.

Pinkerton was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow in 1819, on a site now occupied by the Glasgow Central Mosque. He left for the United States in his early twenties.

Pinkerton pioneered undercover detective work and secret surveillance techniques, took on some of the Wild West's most notorious train robbers, foiled an early attempt on President Abraham Lincoln's life and organised a network of spies during the American Civil War.

Butler, from Paisley, is working on Pinkerton with Bob Cochran, co-creator, producer and writer of the phenomenally successful American television series 24. The new production was Mr Cochran's idea.

"He was an amazing guy," he said, "He took part in all the great sweeping events of the 19th century."

One of his co-producers suggested approaching Butler, because the Scottish star shared a similar Scottish background with the character.

Butler trained as a lawyer before trying his luck as an actor. He made his big breakthrough as King Leonidas in the historical action movie 300, a surprise international hit four years ago. He now lives in Los Angeles and has been romantically linked with a string of beautiful celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston.

• Background: Undercover detective with a network of secret agents

Butler was so enthusiastic about the project that not only is he set to play Pinkerton, he is also working on it as executive producer as well.

Pinkerton was a complex character. Although his name became closely associated with the American establishment, he had strongly left-wing views, which was one of the reasons he left Britain for a new life in the US.

He was the son of a Glasgow police sergeant, though he trained as a cooper and became actively involved in the Chartists, a political movement that campaigned for social reform and universal suffrage. It seems he may have feared arrest when he embarked across the Atlantic.

He settled in Illinois, where he worked as a cooper, deputy sheriff and then sheriff. In 1850 he founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago. At its height it supposedly employed more people than the US army. Its famous symbol was an open eye and the legend "We never sleep", hence the term private eye.

Pinkerton made a living out of tracking down criminals, but at the same time he aided runaway slaves attempting to get to Canada, where slavery was illegal
He was involved in the Underground Railroad, a secret network of safe houses and routes.

Cochran said: "On one hand he was enforcing the law, and on the other he was breaking the law. He was interested in right and wrong, not so much in the the law."

http://news.scotsman.com/arts/Scots-Hollyw...play.6598322.jp

Problemi legali in vista per Evil Twins, citata in giudizio dalla Evil Twin Prods per infrazione alle leggi di proprietà del marchio... L'altra Società (che nel nome porta una "S" di meno un "Prods" di più) ha chiesto due milioni di dollari di "danni commerciali" poiché, a causa della quasi totale omonimia delle due Aziende, si sono visti subissare di corrispondenza, chiamate e richieste indirizzate alla Evil Twins di Gerard.
Come di solito accade tra Aziende (e visto che la richiesta economica non è esagerata e assolutamente "transabile") le due parti risolveranno in maniera stra-giudiziale o davanti ad un arbitrato... Credo che difficilmente si andrà in tribunale.

EXCLUSIVE: Gerard Butler Sued By Evil Twin for $2M
November 10 2:50 PM 11/10/2010 by Eriq Gardner

If there's any actor who should be able to pick the name of his production company without getting into legal trouble, it's Gerard Butler, right?
Butler, after all, was briefly a lawyer before going on to star in 300, Phantom of the Opera and Law Abiding Citizen .
But he's been sued for trademark infringement over the name of his production company.
Here's the beef: Butler and business partner Alan Siegel named their shingle Evil Twins. But there's another Hollywood company operating under the banner Evil Twin Prods.
According to the complaint, filed yesterday in federal court in Los Angeles, Evil Twin Prods was started by Kristen Armfield and Harri Mark in 1996. They have a registered trademark on "Evil Twin." According to Evil Twin's website, the entity has worked on promotional TV spots for High School Musical 3, The Dark Knight, and Coldplay's last album.
The lawsuit claims that Butler and Siegel announced their Evil Twins Entertainment in March 2008. Ever since then, the first Evil Twins says there's been confusion in the marketplace and it has received correspondence and telephone calls intended for Butler's Evil Twins.
The complaint also says that Butler has been made aware of the controversy and posted a note on his website: "DO NOT contact other Evil Twins or Evil Twin companies listed in Los Angeles."
The current version of Butler's website only admonishes people that there "is no 'productions', 'films' or any other words in the title of" his company.
The plaintiff is demanding an injunction and either actual damages or $2 million in statutory damages for alleged unfair competition.
Siegel had this to say: "We received notice of the lawsuit today, are reviewing it thoroughly and are looking forward to a prompt resolution so that we can continue to focus on several exciting projects under development in our company.”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr...evil-twin-43866

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A prima vista ho pensato: Oh bella, Gerard citato in giudizio dalla sua stessa Azienda!
E' una riprova che i nomi delle due aziende sono praticamente identici...

Dal poco che so di diritto commerciale un'azienda quando si attribuisce il nome deve cercarne uno che sia unico e individuabile, e se utilizza parole di uso comune o forme alterate di esse davanti ad un'eventuale vertenza avrebbe meno tutela dal codice civile. Inoltre è bene consultare gli elenchi delle Camere di Commercio per evitare omonimie (ma non è vincolante, sennò non si spiegherebbe perché io ho nelle mie anagrafiche 4 aziende con lo stesso identico nome e forma sociale sparse in giro neanche per l'Italia ma nella sola Lombardia...).

La legge americana differisce alquanto dai nostri statuti, però per quello che ho potuto leggere in giro e capire, oltreoceano i fondatori di case commerciali hanno l'obbligo formale di verificare che il nome che hanno in mente non sia già stato utilizzato da altri.
Mi sembra strano che Alan (che conosce lo showbiz americano) e Gerard (che, porca paletta, ha studiato GIURISPRUDENZA!) non si siano peritati di fare verifiche in questo senso...

Vedremo come si andrà avanti.

La parola alla difesa!