News

October 13, 2011 - [ TakePart ]

100 international leaders gather to ban the bomb.

On the 25th Anniversary of the Reykjavik Summit, when then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Union's Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev nearly eliminated their nation's stockpiles of nuclear weapons, Global Zero gathered 100 of the world's foremost thinkers and doers to re-up the effort to ban the world's most dangerous weapon.

October 13, 2011 - [ Forbes.com ]

Signs abound that we are finally beginning to understand what Bedouins have known from time immemorial: that water, far from a commodity that can be taken for granted, is, in fact, a resource so precious that nation states are eminently capable of launching preemptive military strikes if ready access to supply is ever denied them.

From a geopolitical perspective, water could turn out to be the oil of the 21st century.

October 12, 2011 - [ Hollywood Reporter ]

The company will co-finance the DreamWorks movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field.

Participant Media is re-teaming with DreamWorks on Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, which the director begins shooting Monday in Virginia.

The socially minded Participant will co-finance Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, and charting Lincoln’s presidency and leadership during the Civil War.

October 11, 2011 - [ Hollywood Reporter ]

The house that billionaire Jeff Skoll built is a happy place these days. Participant Media CEO Jim Berk, 51, and president Ricky Strauss, 44, are enjoying back-to-back box-office success with The Help and Contagion. Thirty-six films in -- including two Oscar-winning documentaries, An Inconvenient Truth and The Cove -- Berk and Strauss have succeeded in fulfilling Skoll's mission to combine moviemaking with social activism.

October 10, 2011 - [ New York Post ]

After producing Lucy Walker’s documentary Countdown to Zero, about the dangers of nuclear arms in the age of terrorism, last year, Lawrence Bender has screened the film for leaders at the United Nations, the CIA and in Kazakhstan. Bender will join a lineup including Sir Richard Branson, George Shultz, James Baker, General (Ret.) James Cartwright, Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Global Zero’s Matt Brown Tuesday and Wednesday at the Global Zero Summit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. The summit’s aim is to move governments closer to completely eliminating nuclear warheads. “We are in a potential second nuclear age, which is more dangerous than the Cold War,” Bender said. The summit will also commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Reykjavik Summit, where Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met.

October 10, 2011 - [ Sacramento Bee ]

As a health care provider and pandemic expert, I have never been interested in movies or television shows involving a massive outbreak. I want entertainment to escape from my work, not to watch it unfold again in front of me. Few movies aside, the medical realism could also hinder my ability to generate compassion, empathy or fear. But Contagion, which opened in theaters last week, is different.

Contagion tracks the anatomy of a viral pandemic, from its zoonotic origin to social disruption. The fear of a cough, disintegration of basic social services, the ineptitude of governmental officials and the death of loved ones are all employed to generate a primal fear that is familiar to viewers. But below the surface is an even deeper fear that society rarely engages – the disintegration and distrust of the health care system. This impact of a pandemic, which the film highlights well, is the greatest fear of health care and public health experts, and for that reason, it is a very scary film.

October 10, 2011 - [ CNBC.com ]

While Steven Soderbergh’s popular thriller Contagion is a fictional account of a mysterious virus that wreaks global havoc, the film is based on real science and outbreaks of disease.

“Is there an agent right now that has the capacity to spread in this fashion and cause this level of disease? No. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t or wouldn’t happen, or that we shouldn’t be concerned about the potential that it could happen,” says Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, an epidemiology professor, and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

October 7, 2011 - [ Huffington Post ]

How many of you saw Steven Soderbergh's latest movie Contagion and told a friend about the realities of a pandemic and started washing your hands? Or after watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy, urged a loved one to talk to their doctor about some undiagnosed health issue?

That's the power of content integration -- it can instantly elevate an issue, spark a dialogue and spur consumer action. And entertain us all at the same time. What exactly is content integration? In commercial advertising, we might call it "product placement" but in the entertainment industry, it's when storylines and social issues merge to create compelling socially-conscious storylines.

October 6, 2011 - [ New York Times ]

THE widespread changes in consumer behavior and technology that are prompting marketers to rethink how they sell products are much on the minds of Madison Avenue. That was underlined on Wednesday by spirited discussions during the third day of Advertising Week 2011.

Participants at a panel sponsored by Google and the Advertising Council talked about different approaches to embedding messages about social change in media like film and television as well as in advertisements.

Using movies to make a case for social change is “a great way to get people to the table,” said Wendy Cohen, director for digital campaigns and community at Participant Media, a film and TV productioncompany that specializes in stories it deems socially relevant. Among Participant productions are fiction films like “Contagion” and “The Help” and documentaries like “An Inconvenient Truth.” In some instances, Ms. Cohen said, the role of film to inform viewers about important issues is “taking the place of what we used to get in a reported piece.”

September 30, 2011 - [ The Star-Ledger ]

NEWARK — John Schreiber thinks big, and he delivers big. The new CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center has been on the job only a few weeks, but there are already signs of what the state can expect from the leader of its most powerful arts institution:

Jazz, collaboration, and a reverence for Newark’s history, for starters. And splash. Big-time splash. Life after Larry (as in Lawrence P. Goldman, NJPAC’s founding and only previous CEO) begins Saturday, when the Newark arts center kicks off the 2011-2012 season with a gala celebration starring singer-actress Kristin Chenoweth.

September 30, 2011 - [ New York Times ]

LAST week, a new public-relations campaign about agriculture got off to a splashy start. With full-page ads in newspapers and panel discussions live-streamed on the Internet, the newly formed U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance began what it called a bid to “reshape the dialogue” about the American food supply.

“When did agriculture become a dirty word?” the Alliance asks on its Web site.

Chris Galen, a founding member of the group and head of communications for the National Milk Producers Federation, said, “There is a feeling across the board in agriculture that Americans have concerns about the food supply, and those are best addressed by farmers.”

September 27, 2011 - [ Hollywood Reporter ]

The actress recently wrapped the Adam Sandler comedy, I Hate You Dad.

Susan Sarandon is in negotiations to join Dwayne Johnson in Snitch, the action thriller which Ric Roman Waugh is writing and directing for Exclusive Media, Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi.

The script centers on a suburban father who is hit hard when his teenage son is sentenced to 30 years under mandatory minimum drug laws. In order to reduce his son's sentence, the father goes undercover to serve up a senior drug dealer. The story is based on a Frontline documentary.

September 26, 2011 - [ National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences ]

Food, Inc., which was broadcast on PBS’ P.O.V., was named Best Documentary and Best Informational Documentary at the 32nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards on September 26 in New York. Please see below for the complete list of winners.

September 23, 2011 - [ Civil Eats ]

On Thursday, September 22, the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), a new trade association made up of some of the biggest players in the food industry—including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Dupont, and Monsanto—hosted what they called “Food Dialogues” in Washington D.C., New York City, U.C. Davis, and Fair Oaks, Indiana.

The USFRA describes the Food Dialogues, and their broader multi-million dollar media campaign, as an effort to amplify the voice of farmers and ranchers and help consumers know more about “how their food is grown and raised.”

September 23, 2011 - [ Los Angeles Times ]

In 1918, the virus circulated for months before the deadly epidemic was identified. The study offers potential lessons to deal with a modern outbreak.

The film Contagion may have been fiction, but the 1918-19 influenza epidemic was horrifyingly real. The "Spanish flu" epidemic tore a path of destruction across the globe, killing an estimated 50-100 million people within months before disappearing into history.

Now, evidence from U.S. soldiers felled by the virus reveals that it circulated in the country for four months before the pandemic was even identified.

September 22, 2011 - [ USA Today ]

The glassy stares of the dead, the garbage piling up in the streets, the frightened, angry mobs smashing their way into drugstores and attacking food lines. The images in the thriller Contagion may be delivered with Hollywood flair, but they also have a ring of truth to those on the medical front lines.

In a stark, almost documentary style, the movie shows what happens when a virus makes its way from a bat to a pig to a person, mutating along the way into a highly contagious pathogen that kills 30% of those who get it. Toward the end, a newscaster announces the death toll has reached 26 million globally.

September 21, 2011 - [ Hollywood Reporter ]

ATO Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to Last Call at the Oasis, which had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last week. The project, directed by Jessica Yu, was developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media.

"We could not be more proud to be working with Participant on this riveting, enthralling doc which we know will open people’s eyes to the severe calamity at hand," said ATO co-founders Johnathan Dorfman and Temple Fennell. "Audiences are in for an eye opening experience and Jessica has done a brilliant job illuminating this vital issue.”

September 20, 2011 - [ Daily Markets ]

Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Cicely Tyson and Mike Vogel to be honored at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Sept. 20, 2011/PRNewswire/ — The 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, are pleased to announce that the cast of DreamWorks Pictures and Participant Media’s The Help – Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Cicely Tyson and Mike Vogel – will be recognized at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony with the “Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award.”

September 19, 2011 - [ Los Angeles Times ]

Contagion and Rise of the Planet of the Apes follow a proud, sick tradition.

A new villain has taken over at the multiplex. It doesn't wear a trench coat and speak with a menacing-sounding foreign accent. Nor does it have razor-sharp fangs or a home address in outer space. It can, however, lurk in the shadows, reproduce at astronomical rates — and it loves to mutate.

Microscopic viruses are the biggest bad guys in Hollywood, multiplying with abandon in films such as Contagion and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, as well as factoring in AMC's zombie-centric TV show The Walking Dead. These infectious agents are an excellent cinematic expression of evil — invisible to the naked eye, they spread with abandon and kill scores with no remorse.

September 19, 2011 - [ Los Angeles Times ]

Medical experts do a checkup of the thriller's premise of a pandemic. The scary part? They find it mostly gets it right.

The hit movie Contagion depicts a nightmare scenario: a bat virus jumps to pigs and then to humans, infecting them with abandon since they have no immunity to the novel bug. The virus circles the globe in a matter of days, causing coughs, fevers and seizures as scientists from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scramble to identify the pathogen and develop a vaccine.

Before they do, millions are infected and about a quarter of them die. Those who are not sickened hunker down at home or panic in the streets, scrounging for food and supplies until the outbreak can be contained.