"Django Unchained" premiere canceled after Newtown shooting

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The premiere for Quentin Tarantino's latest film "Django Unchained," a violent spaghetti Western slave revenge tale, was canceled on Monday in the wake of the school shooting in Connecticut last week, the film's studio said.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the tragedy in Newtown, CT and in this time of national mourning we have decided to forgo our scheduled event. However, we will be holding a private screening for the cast and crew and their friends and families," a spokesperson for The Weinstein Company said in a statement.

Tuesday's premiere in Los Angeles was scheduled to have a red carpet and party, but instead will be a private screening with no media coverage.

The film, which won five Golden Globe nominations last week, stars Jamie Foxx as a slave turned bounty hunter who wreaks revenge on slave plantation owners as he tries to rescue his wife.

It features Tarantino's trademark style of extensive graphic and bloody violence, along with dark humor, and is due to be released in U.S. movie theaters on Christmas Day.

A source at the privately held Weinstein Company told Reuters the cancellation was unrelated to the violence depicted in the movie.

Paramount Pictures canceled a weekend premiere for Tom Cruise's new movie "Jack Reacher" and New York's Lincoln Center Film Society postponed a Monday screening and talk with Cruise out of respect for the Newtown families.

A total of 27 people, 20 of them young children, died in Friday's shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut by a lone gunman, who then killed himself.

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"Hebrew Hammer" sequel profits from crowdfunding campaign

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "The Hebrew Hammer vs. Hitler," the sequel to 2003's "The Hebrew Hammer," will begin filming next year, after an innovative crowdfunding campaign that's raised $35,000 on Jewcer.com, the filmmakers announced Tuesday.

Adam Goldberg will return in the lead role, with principle photography expected to begin in May 2013.

In the film, Goldberg's character, now married and enjoying the good life in suburbia, is forced to dust off his black-leather couture to confront a new menace: a time-traveling Hitler intent on altering key moments in Jewish history.

The original film launched at Sundance and had a limited theatrical release before being picked up by Comedy Central in a five-year deal.

"It's been amazing," filmmaker Jonathan Kesselman, writer and director of both movies, said in a statement. "The fans are making this happen. The cult status of the first movie attracted millions of fans around the world, making crowd-funding a viable option. Funding is now in the hands of fans who can help make the movies they want to see."

Kesselman negotiated for the rights to the sequel with John Schmidt at ContentFilm, ending a near decade-long tussle and several attempts at getting it made.

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Joe Roth, Universal Reunite for "Daughter of Smoke & Bone"

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Joe Roth will produce Universal's "Daughter of Smoke & Bone," a potential young-adult franchise for the studio, it announced on Tuesday.

Laini Taylor's fantasy novel, the first in a planned trilogy, follows a 17-year old art student in Prague who is raised by chimera, a type of otherworldly creature. Universal acquired the rights in December of 2011.

It was one of Amazon.com's Top Ten Books of 2011 and one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2011. The sequel to it, "Days of Blood & Starlight," is a New York Times bestseller and was named a Best Book of 2012 by Amazon.com.

The project is currently in development, still in need of a scribe to adapt the book. Roth will produce and Palak Patel, president of Roth Films, will executive produce.

"Laini Taylor masterfully tells a story of identity and destiny that welcomes readers into a fantastical world with a unique mythology," Roth said in a statement. "It is very different than anything we've seen before and I look forward to bringing the fascinating characters to the big screen."

Roth and Universal last partnered on "Snow White and the Huntsman," a revisionist take on the fairy tale starring Kristen Stewart as the eponymous leading lady. That film grossed just shy of $400 million at the global box office, enough to warrant a sequel that Roth is also producing.

The former head of both Fox and Disney, Roth is at work on a number of high-profile films, from the sequel to "Alice in Wonderland" to Sam Raimi's "Oz: The Great and Powerful."

Like "Snow White," this new project revolves around a female protagonist set apart from society by both circumstance and behavior. Karou, the protagonist, must collect teeth for Brimstone, the exacting chimera that raises her.

As Karou goes on missions for Brimstone, she encounters all sorts of magic and creatures unknown to her fellow classmates. She also meets Akiva, a seraph whom she falls in love with.

Maradith Frenkel, Universal's VP of production, is overseeing the project with creative executive Sara Scott.

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"Bully" honored with "Stanley Kramer Award" from PGA

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The Producers Guild of America will honor the documentary "Bully" with the 2013 Stanley Kramer Award at its January awards ceremony, the organization said Tuesday.

Director Lee Hirsch and producer Cynthia Lowen will accept the award. "Bully" follows five high school students as they are subjected to taunts and ridicule and examines the impact their mistreatment has on their lives and their families.

"'Bully' is a powerful and inspiring film that brought much-needed attention to an issue that just about everyone can relate to at one point or another in their life," said 2013 PGA Awards Chair Michael De Luca in a statement.

Released last spring, the film became embroiled in a heated battle with the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board after receiving an R-rating for language. After its distributor, the Weinstein Company, initially threatened to release the film unrated, it ultimately agreed to tone down some language in order to receive a PG-13 rating.

The award was established in 2002 and is named for producer and director Stanley Kramer, who was the driving force between a number of movies such as "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "On the Beach" that took on social and political issues such as racism and nuclear war.

Previous recipients of the Stanley Kramer Award include such films as "Hotel Rwanda," "Precious," "An Inconvenient Truth" and "In America."

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Bron Studios finds "Sole Mates"

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Bron Studios is moving forward with its first CG animated feature film, "Sole Mates," the company announced on Tuesday.

The film, an "animated journey of love, lost and found, with comedic charm and universal themes set in a familiar world from a new point of view," is due to go into production in 2013, based on an original concept by Deon Taylor ("Chain Letter").

Bron managing director, Aaron L. Gilbert will produce, alongside Taylor and Ahmet Zappa ("The Odd Life of Timothy Green").

Taylor has written, directed, and produced a number of other projects, including "The Hustle" (Charlie Murphy) and the drama "Supremacy" with Danny Glover. He is represented by WME.

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