As part of the multiyear pact, the venture will acquire and publish books for young readers. Naturally, it also plans to turn several of its tomes into film adaptations or pair up properties with other filmmakers.

First published title will be “The Will of Will Wolfkin,” by screenwriter Steven Knight, who penned the pics “Dirty Pretty Things,” “Eastern Promises” and “Amazing Grace.”

Knight is also scripting the third installment of the “Narnia” series, “Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” which Michael Apted is helming.

“Wolfkin” is described as a fantasy set under a glacier in Iceland. It hits bookshelves in fall 2009.

Imprint will be led by Brenda Bowen, VP and publisher of the Bowen Press at HarperCollins, and Deborah Kovacs, senior VP of publishing at Walden Media.

New entity will have offices at HarperCollins’ headquarters in New York and Walden Media in Boston, and will be staffed with its own editorial and marketing team.

Walden and HarperCollins have already been working closely together, adapting “The Chronicles of Narnia” franchise, “Charlotte’s Web” and “Bridge to Terabithia” into films.

“This joint venture solidifies our already successful relationship,” said Susan Katz, prexy and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books. “Having a single imprint will enable Walden Media to focus their book publishing program and Harper to market and sell the books most effectively.”

Altogether, Walden has released 15 pics based on children’s books, including “Holes,” “Nim’s Island,” “The Water Horse” and “Because of Winn-Dixie.”

It’s also co-published a number of books across several imprints at Penguin such as Ingrid Law’s “Savvy,” Mike Lupica’s “Comeback Kids” series, Lauren St. John’s “The White Giraffe” and Michael Reisman’s “Simon Bloom, the Gravity Keeper.” Walden is developing “Savvy” and “White Giraffe” as features. Universal picked up “Simon Bloom” last year.

Variety.com

Greg spoke with Flaherty about Boston-themed movies, Amazing Grace, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, and the ins-and-outs of the movie production business?and how Walden Media has managed to successfully connect its films with audiences.

Greg Wright: I’ve spoken with your brother Micheal a few times over the years, and I have to tell you that he doesn’t sound like a Bostonian in the way that you do. So in listening to your accent, it occurs to me that I should ask: what did you think of Gone Baby Gone?

Chip Flaherty: I haven’t seen it yet. I’ve seen The Departed, though, and the joke around the Walden Media offices is that if we ever make a film set in Boston I’d have to be hired as a language/accent technical consultant. I’m the only guy who speaks with such a thick accent. And why Mike, who is my younger brother, was able to never pick up the accent and why I did, I have no idea.

GW: Good question. But I thought Ben Affleck made the language aspect a huge part of Gone Baby Gone, which I found more immersive in the Boston milieu than even Mystic River

CF: Oh, well, in Good Will Hunting Affleck was fantastic; and in The Departed, I have to hand it to DiCaprio. He was fantastic. And Matt Damon, of course, came from there. But Damon seemed like guys I went to law school with. And he turned out to be a ruthless killer, so I don’t mean in terms of that?but just in that way of always hustling, always looking for the opportunity; and I mean that in a good sense. It falls apart in the end, and his character makes decisions that no one should in their lives. But yeah; the last couple of Boston movies have been pitch-perfect in terms of capturing the mood, the feel, and the geography; and the accent is so big for that. The other thing that’s interesting is that in our CNN-shaped world, so many regions are becoming homogenized and indistinguishable; so it’s strange to see the Boston accent still standing out. And that might be a reason more and more films are being made here, because everybody is sounding the same; but this accent sounds a little quirky, and it’s a little different.

[Read the Rest at Pass the Popcorn]

Amazing Grace DVD

From the makers of Ray, AMAZING GRACE tells the inspiring story of William Wilberforce and his passion and perseverance to pass a law ending the slave trade in the late 18th century. Several friends, including Wilberforce’s minister, a reformed slave ship captain who penned the beloved hymn Amazing Grace, urge him to see the cause through.

[Order Amazing Grace on DVD Today!]

Be sure to find the 5-week small group study series, designed for churches, found in the Special Features section of every AMAZING GRACE DVD. Through Scripture, discussion questions, and movie clips, the study guides small groups into discovering a life of service at home, in the church, and in the community. The perfect way to kick-off 2008!

OTHER AMAZING GRACE SAMPLE THEMES:

Be a world-changer
Finding your calling
The power of community
Putting faith into action
Perseverance, passion, and possibilities

Bristol Bay Productions, in partnership with Swank Motion Pictures, is pleased to provide your church with two options:

$300 AMAZING GRACE FREEDOM PACKAGE

• a site license to AMAZING GRACE at your church
• exclusive access to BE A WORLD-CHANGER, a five-week small group study series on the themes of service
• exclusive access to the first chapter of the New York Times best-selling book Amazing Grace by Eric Metaxas
• movie stills, web banners and printable posters to promote your event
• educational and faith resources

$150 AMAZING GRACE PACKAGE

• a site license to AMAZING GRACE at your church

This licensing program will begin on November 13, 2007 when the AMAZING GRACE DVD is released. If you have questions or would like to inquire about bulk DVD sales, please call 1-888-81GRACE (47223).

[AmazingGraceMovie]

Title: Amazing Grace
Street Date: November 13, 2007
Discs: 1
Run Time: 111 minutes
Rated: PG
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: Michael Apted

Cast: Ioan Gruffudd (The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer), multi-award winner Albert Finney* (Erin Brockovich, A Good Year), Golden Globe nominee** Michael Gambon (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), Rufus Sewell (The Illusionist), Grammy Award winner Youssou N’Dour and Ciaran Hinds (TV’s “Rome”).

Synopsis: Amazing Grace, from acclaimed director, Michael Apted, tells the inspiring story of how one man’s passion and perseverance changed the world. Based on the true-life story of William Wilberforce (Gruffudd), a leader of the British abolition movement, the film chronicles his epic struggle to pass a law to end the slave trade in the late 18th century. Along the way, Wilberforce meets intense opposition from members of Parliament who feel the slave trade is tied to the stability of the British Empire. Several friends, including Wilberforce’s minister, John Newton (Finney), a reformed slave ship captain who penned the beloved hymn Amazing Grace, urge him to see the cause through.

DVD Special Features:
The Amazing Grace DVD is presented in widescreen format with English Dolby Digital 5.1 plus

English, Spanish and French subtitles. Additional bonus content includes:

- Audio Commentary with Director Michael Apted and Ioan Gruffudd
- “How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace” – this half-hour documentary provides an in-depth look at the making of the film and the story’s relevance to today.
- “Finding Freedom” – A Tour of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center providing factual information about modern-day slavery practices.
- Interactive Discussion Tools and Study Guides – The discussion guides provide thought- provoking questions that can be printed out for use in classrooms or bible study groups.
- Music video of Grammy Nominee Chris Tomlin’s version of “Amazing Grace.”

Clips:
Remember

Slave Trade

Set-up

The disc will be available to own from the 13th November, and the manufacturer’s suggested retail price is around $29.98. The film itself will be presented in anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track.

Extras include:

·an audio commentary with Director Michael Apted and Ioan Gruffudd
·a thirty minute How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace documentary
·a Finding Freedom featurette
·Interactive Discussion Tools and Study Guides
·a music video of Grammy Nominee Chris Tomlin’s version of “Amazing Grace.”

Rob: Michael Apted is best known as the director of the new movie Amazing Grace. He joins us on the phone. Michael, welcome to the program.

Michael: Thank you very much.

Rob: Michael, why did you pick Amazing Grace to direct?

Michael: It started in a weird way, because I’d been looking for ages to find a political story to make a film about, something that I thought could shine a different sort of light on politics, and present politics as something, you know, worthwhile, and something that could achieve things, and I’d never really been able to find a subject. I was disappointed with the cynicism that surrounded politics, although I could fully understand why people felt that.

But then this script came along, and this script came more to me as a biopic, and it was very much more weighted in terms of Wilberforce’s faith issue, than necessarily the politics or the anti-slavery. And so I persuaded them to slightly tweak it a bit and put the politics in the middle of it. I thought that would also very much dramatise the issues of faith and also make Wilberforce much more active character in the story and also allow us to play around with time a bit and not just tell a life from beginning to end, which can be very hard to keep the energy in a film going like that.

Rob: And a little more acceptable to the non-Christians, because I know the early scripts were very very Christian focused, weren’t they?

Michael: Yes, that’s true. I thought it’s such a great story, and I was so interested in his spirituality, because I think that’s one of the disasters of the modern world, that religion and politics have become so disconnected. You know, where are the Mandelas and the Martin Luther Kings and the Gandhis and all this sort of stuff. People either use religion as their political basis or they have no kind of spiritual sense at all in their political life; and here was a character who managed to live in both worlds to great effect. So I did want to find a wider audience than just say a faith-based audience to tell this story.

Rob: How hard is it for you ? you call yourself an agnostic? That’s true, is it?

Michael: Yes.

Rob: So how hard is it for you to actually bring out the full Christian side of the story?

Michael: It’s not hard at all. I mean, I recognize it and I admire it, and I thought his was a life of great courage and great will, what he did. It isn’t difficult at all for me to understand that and to celebrate it.

But I do feel as a storyteller that I want to get more than that into the film. And that’s very important, and the most important thing to some people. But I wanted to get a kind of broader view of the character and a broader view of the world than that. But it isn’t difficult to express that at all.

Rob: loan Gruffudd must have been a marvelous actor to direct – he’s had experience in that realm with the Poldark series, hasn’t he?

Michael: Yes, he has. I was lucky with him, because it was kind of essential to me that the main characters in the film were young, it seemed to me a genuine Camelot story, like a Kennedy story if you will, young people with great spirit taking on the establishment. And to do that they really had to cast it young. But it’s hard to find young actors who have any box office heat, but loan does have ? with the Fantastic Four. So that made it easier for me to convince the studio to cast it young.

Rob: Of course when you talk about the Camelot side, I’m sitting there going “Where do I recognize this guy from?” – of course he was Lancelot in King Arthur.

Michael: Yeah, there you go. [laugh]

Rob: What is it about the Wilberforce story that personally inspires you?

Michael: There’s tons of it really, but I suppose at the end of the day how I look at my life is, would I have the will, would I have the courage, to just stick at something in the way he did, and just simply not give up on it, and to be so convinced of the moral right of what he was doing that he just wouldn’t let it alone, although everybody was telling him to leave it alone, and he wasn’t getting anywhere with him. I think he’s a marvelous role model for anybody

Rob: The subject of slavery comes up, and there’s actually more slavery, apparently, in the world today than there was 200 years ago.

Michael: Yeah, frightening isn’t it?

Rob: Do you think people are going to get that message, out of the movie? That they need to do something?

Michael: Not get it out of the film, but they get it, I think, out of the press and the publicity. There was a thing called Amazing Change, which is a big outreach that the American distributors did about the film. They were saying to people, don’t watch this film and think slavery’s been dealt with; it hasn’t. Slavery is never dealt with; slavery’s always with us, in every civilization there’s ever been. And it’s with us now, and be alive to it, be aware to it, sort of educate yourself to what’s going on, and then maybe in a tiny way you can help make things better. So that’s really the follow-up of the film, the press on the film, the writing about the film, that message isn’t really contained within the film.

[New Zealand's Rhema]

“At HUMANITAS, we believe writers are the true power behind the supertanker known as Hollywood and they don’t always get the respect they deserve,” commented Cathleen Young, Executive Director of the HUMANITAS Prize. “So every year, we get to acknowledge the contributions of some of the most talented writers in this town. And in doing so, we get to shine a light on stories that pack a powerful punch — sometimes with laughter, sometimes with tears — stories that tell us the truth about where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going. In the world we live in today, we feel that is crucial.”

Writer Larry Gelbart will receive the 2007 Kieser Award and deliver the keynote address at this year’s luncheon. “Larry is a tremendous talent who possesses breathtaking vision and creativity. We are honored to give him the Kieser Award which recognizes an individual whose work promotes a deeper appreciation for the dignity of each member of the human family. Larry’s work epitomizes that goal,” stated Frank Desiderio.

The HUMANITAS Prize finalists are:
Feature Film Category ($25,000)
AMAZING GRACE Written by: Steven Knight (Samuel Goldwyn Films and Roadside Attractions)
FREEDOM WRITERS Screenplay by: Richard LaGravenese (Paramount Pictures)
VENUS Written by: Hanif Kureishi (Miramax Films)

For more information, please visit the HUMANITAS Prize website at
www.humanitasprize.org.

Matt Lewis: Speaking of new media, most people probably don’t realize that your brother, Michael Flaherty, was very involved in producing the new movie, Amazing Grace. I recently saw it, and can attest that it is a great movie. Can you tell us what it’s like to have a brother in the movie industry, and are you also a big William Wilberforce fan?

Peter Flaherty: I constantly get asked by people if I can convince Mike to put them or their children in a movie. I love following the great work that my brothers Mike and Chip are doing at Walden Media, and seeing the positive influence they are having on the schoolchildren of America. I greatly admire Wilberforce for his selfless and steadfast determination to put his conscience into action to make the world a better place.

ML: So what was Michael like as a kid?

PF: In his fourth grade play Mike was cast as Willy Wonka, and I don’t think he has slipped out of character since.

ML: (Laughter). That’s great. How did it come to be that so many Flaherty’s were involved in Walden Media?

PF: Michael is the youngest of the three brothers, and he founded the company. My brother Chip and I joined him because we believed in the mission, and we have always liked doing things together.

[Townhall to read the rest]

He began by revealing how the film he was going to help make was originally going to be about John Newton, a reformed slave ship captain who penned the beloved hymn “Amazing Grace.”

“Well it really began as the John Newton story and then, as we talked to Walden about it, Phil [Philip Anschutz, a Denver businessman who heads up Walden Media] said, ‘You know, I really am such an admirer of William Wilberforce. Is there some way we can combine the two stories ?’

“So we began to look at this and, sure enough, I found that we could tell the Wilberforce story and also have John Newton influence him since he was thirty-four years older.

“I think this is a major achievement for this motion picture because Michael Apted has done such a fine job in directed it along with a good team. The viewer really feels like they are right there in the seventeen-hundreds in England through the excellent art direction.”

He went on to say, “I had a friend see it recently in Los Angeles and he said, ‘Ken, how in the world did you spend over a hundred-million doing it? It looks like over a hundred-thirty, a hundred-forty million movie! I said, ‘It is a twenty-eight-million dollar movie and we were even under budget by two-million. The average cost of a film now is seventy-eight-million, but if you exercise prudence and go at it with an attitude of excellence and authenticity, it’s amazing what you can do.

“When you see the film, you will feel you’re in the House of Commons as you witness Wilberforce fighting and struggling to see that the bill is passed that ends slavery. He fought for twenty years to see that indeed the slave trade was ended in the British Empire.”

[Journal Chretien for the rest]