Date Night, a comedy opening April 9 at a theater near you, offers blue-chip stars Tina Fey and Steve Carell in the tale of a married couple whose dinner plans go very, very wrong. It was directed by Shawn Levy, the guy responsible for both Night at the Museum movies. So how do you think it’ll do at the box office? And would you care to make a little bet—er, investment—on that?
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Last week CEO Robert Swagger and other execs at the TrendEx were eagerly awaiting approval from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. The TrendEx is a subsidiary of the Swagger-run Veriana Ventures, which is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, but would operate the TrendEx out of an office at 190 S. LaSalle in Chicago. A decision had been scheduled for no later than April 2, but at the last minute Swagger and his team hit a bump: In a letter to the CFTC, a coalition of five major movie-industry trade associations—representing everyone from directors to theater owners—registered their opposition and asked the commission to put its decision on hold. This came on the heels of a letter from the Motion Picture Association of America that likened the proposed trading to “unbridled gambling” and worried that “the reputation and integrity” of the industry could be “tarnished.”
Far from damaging the industry, Catania maintains, the TrendEx would provide a vital tool many other industries already have: the ability to limit losses by trading options and contracts that’ll pay off if the movie doesn’t. Knowing they can buy this kind of “insurance,” Catania says, will make potential movie backers more likely to invest. Swagger began work on the idea in 2007. Changes in the economy since then have only made the need for it more urgent, Catania argues. With the current credit crunch and no way to manage risk, he says, “even major producers and directors are having to go out of the country to find investors.”
A statement released last week by the MPAA, the Directors Guild of America, the Independent Film & Television Alliance, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and the National Association of Theater Owners, says both proposals are “based on a faulty understanding of the film industry and create a risk of rampant speculation and financial irresponsibility at a time when the nation is still seeking to recover from an economic meltdown of the financial markets.”
