Relativity Media Employs Coco Johnson as Executive Vice president

Searching to grow marketing programs for movies associated with major corporate brands, Relativity Media has hired Coco Johnson as executive v . p ., marketing close ties, confirming to Relativity Boss Ryan Kavanaugh and Terry Curtin, leader, theatrical marketing. Johnson is going to be seeking possibilities to build up what the organization calls "robust marketing programs" because of its movies, transmedia efforts along with other movie, music and digital premium content created by Relativity and it is Rogue digital content studio. One of the movies she'll focus on would be the large budget action movie Immortals, The Raven and Relativity's up to now untitled Snow Whitened movie. Johnson was most lately with JiWire, a mobile media company and was at Current TV like a vice president, doing mix platform advertising sales and close ties. She's also labored at Yahoo! Variety and IFILM. Over 2 decades, she's also labored with Wired, Ziff Davis and CNET. Related Subjects Relativity Media

Netflix develops pact with Discovery

Among debate around the major cost hike and losing its valuable pact with Starz, Netflix has inked one or more lasting deal: the business has extended its pact with Discovery Communications to include more prior-season and back catalog programming, and restored the non-exclusive agreement for just two more years.Discovery's Digital senior veep, Rebecca Glashow, mentioned in the release Wednesday ayem the organization "is actually platform agnostic and dedicated to satisfying curiosity on all consumer distribution platforms with different effective economic model."And Netflix's economic model is changing -- the business introduced this year's week that it may be splitting its DVD-by-mail service also it is much more lucrative streaming service into two separate companies, while using former re-named Qwikster. The restored concentrate on streaming content puts added pressure around the organization to produce deals like that certain.Programs trained in new deal include Discovery Channel's "Guy versus. Wild," TLC's "Agree the gownInch and Animal Planet's "River Monsters." Contact Mike Thielman at mike.thielman@variety.com

Dolores Hope Dead at 102

Dolores Hope, the 102-year-old widow of Bob Hope, passed away from natural causes on Monday in Los Angeles. An acclaimed singer and devoted philanthropist, Mrs. Hope had spent 69 years married to her husband before his death in 2003 at age 100; she died in the Toluca Lake home the couple bought together in 1940. R.I.P. [NYT]

Former SAG pension exec claims embezzlement

A dismissed executive of the Screen Actors Guild - Producers Pension and Health plans has filed a complaint with the federal government asserting that he was terminated for acting as a whistleblower about alleged embezzlement at the fund.The board of trustees of the plans -- which are operated separately from SAG -- has denied the allegations and retained outside counsel to review the matter.Craig E. Simmons alleged in a complaint filed this week with the U.S. Department of Labor that he was fired in March due by chief executive Bruce Dow due to Simmons' refusal to mislead board trustees and government investigators about embezzlement by the plans' former chief information officer, Nader Karimi.Simmons also alleged in the complaint that Dow and other executives have participated in kickbacks and used insider information for purchases of stock and funds for their personal benefit.''Unfortunately, the Trustees have apparently chosen not to act on the information provided to them despite strong evidence of violations,'' Simmons said in the complaint to the Dept. of Labor. ''As a result, I am now seeking an additional independent investigation into this troubling matter.''Simmons said he made allegations in March and August to the SAG-PPHP board of trustees. The board issued a statement Friday.''The Board of Trustees of the Screen Actors Guild-Producers Pension and Health Plans are aware of recent allegations made by a former employee,'' the statement said . ''We take these allegations very seriously and we have retained outside counsel to conduct a full review of the matter. Bruce Dow has a nearly thirty year unblemished record of running this organization and continues to have the full support of the SAG-PPHP Board, as we believe these allegations are without merit.'' Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

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'Contagion' goes viral

Warner Bros.' 'Contagion' nabbed $22.4 million last weekend.The last weekend's domestic B.O. race will be a mixed bag of fine and -- let's be genuine -- abysmal performances from wide releases. Beginning while using good, Warner Bros.' "Contagion" acquired $22.4 million, which was in line with last year's hearty publish-Labor Day photos "The CityInch ($23.8 million) and "The Social MediaInch ($22.4 million). Even Lionsgate's "Warrior," getting a $5.2 million opening, has possible ways to grow, due to the film's positive critical and audience reactions. Now for the bad. Some wide releases -Body studio pic, one independent -- flatlined throughout opening weekend: Sony's "Bucky Larson: Born to become Star" was one of the least expensive-grossing debuts in recent memory for just about any studio wide release, with only $1.4 million, while indie distrib Bubble Factory needed an abnormally aggressive wide-release approach having its monster movie "Creature," which continued 1,507 locations for just about any paltry $327,000 -- the worst wide release ever. It is not uncommon for review-challenged films striking theaters throughout late August or early fall that period features a status to become a drop zone as students go back to school. But adult-skewing counterprogrammers (i.e. "Contagion") could also find success throughout the timeframe, and people trying to find early honours buzz can beat the hurry of fourth-quarter product. "We grown the seed a couple of days ago,Inch states Lionsgate distribution topper David Spitz, "which we simply hope that audiences still respond." Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com

Toronto: Film Movement Buys Historias

The deal volume of major festival acquisition titles has been slooow so far (see Toronto: Where Are The Film Deals?). So the small distributor Film Movement takes center stage for news that it has acquired North American rights to Historias, the debut film by Brazilian director Julia Murat. The Portuguese-language drama had its debut in Venice. As for the high-profile titles that topped buyers’ lists when the festival began, there are a number that have offers and are headed toward deals. They include You’re Next, Goon, Friends With Kids and Trishna. There are more acquisition titles premiering tonight, including the Jamie Linden-directed Ten Year, with a young cast topped by Channing Tatum. But it does seem like a lot of deals will be made after the buying crowd leaves the festival, an evacuation that starts tomorrow and Wednesday.

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Toronto 2011: Customers Cast Their Lines for 'Salmon Fishing inside the Yemen'

TORONTO - Lasse Halström's Ewan McGregor-Emily Blunt comedy Seafood Fishing inside the Yemen has emerged one of the darlings in the Toronto Film Festival if this involves interest from major U.S. customers, including Summit Entertainment and CBS Films.Related Subjects•Toronto Worldwide Fil... The British comdy was modified for your screen by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Uniform), and is founded on it by Paul Torday. PHOTOS: Toronto Film Festival: 13 Films to comprehend Amr Waked and Kristin Scott Thomas also star in Seafood Fishing, which notifies the storyplot from the stuffy British fisheries investigator who's asked for having a fishing-obsessed Arab sheik to accomplish the impossible - introduce British seafood for the wadis of Yemen. McGregor's character is progressively won over with the charming sheik, additionally to falling for your sheik's attorney (Blunt). Seafood Fishing -- from BBC Films, Kudos Pictures and Lionsgate Uk -- opened up at Toronto on Saturday evening, and in a hour after it ended, have been drawing the queries having a minimum of six domestic entrepreneurs. Affiliates say Summit and CBS Films are positively pursuing the project. One hitch: Acquisition professionals required to decide between prone to see Halstrom's film or comedy The Oranges, another title up available in your area. On Sunday morning, people experts who visited start to see the premiere in the Oranges Saturday evening clustered to have an 11 a.m. industry screening of Seafood Fishing. UTA is repping domestic rights for Seafood Fishing--which might be the first acquisition from Toronto--while Lionsgate Worldwide is handling foreign. Affiliates the filmmakers aren't always requiring a 2011 release, giving entrepreneurs more flexibility. Another Toronto title drawing rates of interest are cop drama Rampart, also premiering Saturday evening, and horror pic You're Next, which opened up inside the Evening time Madness section in the last weekend. Related Subjects Toronto Worldwide Film Festival Emily Blunt Ewan McGregor Worldwide