AWARDS HEADLINES
Oscar Math: Why ‘Inside Out’ is a Lock While an Original Song Win is Up for Grabs
The mathematical models for the seven Oscar categories show the most lopsided category and why best original song remains a nail-biter. You don’t need math to tell you that Inside Out is headed toward a best feature animation Oscar victory — that win appears almost wrapped up. The model also suggests Inside Out could be joined by foreign-language film winner Son of Saul and documentary feature winner Amy. (THR)
Oscars Poll: 50 Critics Pick Who Will and Should Win Come Sunday
On the flip side, Indiewire skips the math and looks to critics in their annual poll. Last year their critics picked 12 correctly out of the 14 categories offered. Here’s this year’s recommendations. (IW)
OTHER HEADLINES
Former Relativity President Tucker Tooley Co-Financing Survival Flick ‘6 Below’
The first film that former Relativity Studios president Tucker Tooley is co-financing since forming monied production shingle Tooley Productions is 6 Below, a fact-based survival thriller that Scott Waugh will direct with 30 Days of Night‘s Josh Hartnett playing former Olympic hockey player Eric LeMarque. (DL)
HAN Capital Management Raises Half Billion China Film Fund
New York-based HAN Capital Management has raised $500 million for an entertainment fund that will invest in Chinese film and TV productions. Productions will target Chinese and global audiences and could have large budgets of up to $150 million. (VAR)
‘Creed’ Writer-Director Ryan Coogler Goes Behind Bars with ‘Short Term 12′ Helmer Destin Daniel Cretton for TV Series ‘Minors’
Minors promises to take an unflinching look at institutionalization, examining juvenile facilities and the children who grow up in that system. The series will show how that system shapes young people over a one-year period. (DL)
Pilot Locations 2016: Everything’s Coming Up Roses for Los Angeles
California’s new $330 million-a-year tax credit, which was expanded to TV pilots, is paying dividends as the number of broadcast drama pilots filmed in Los Angeles has risen for a second consecutive year. (DL)
How Lionsgate’s Peter Levin is Upping the Game by Fusing Together Hollywood and the Video Game Industry Like Never Before
Peter Levin has led Lionsgate to invest in four game companies, most recently with Fifth Journey, a developer that specializes in making games based on movies. Fifth Journey will get involved earlier in the process- reading scripts of films instead of being handed a fully-baked concept with a demand that a game be produced on a tight time frame. (AA)
Judy Greer’s Breaking Out Her Business Suit to Star in Fox Human Resources Comedy Pilot
The actress, fresh off two seasons of FX comedy Married, has been tapped to star in Fox’s untitled human resources comedy pilot. The single-camera comedy centers around Jane (Greer), who is described as the overused and underappreciated head of human resources for a New Jersey plastic molding plant, where a new eccentric CEO is changing the direction of the company and continually making her job more difficult. (THR)
Netflix is Moving on Up and Taking Over Hollywood’s Icon Building
Netflix is upping its Hollywood footprint, leasing the remaining five floors of the 323,000-square-foot Icon office building at Sunset Bronson Studios. The additional lease amounts to another 123,000 square feet of space. (VAR)
Screenwriters: 2015’s Best Picture Winner, ‘Birdman’
In honor of the big show on Sunday, here’s the script for last year’s Best Picture winner, Birdman, by Alejandro Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo. (IW)