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Michelle Yeoh is making 2023 her year.

Months after making history as the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress, she married her longtime partner, Jean Todt. The newlyweds have been together for 19 years after meeting in Shanghai in June 2004. Their wedding program, posted on Instagram by Brazilian racecar driver, Felipe Massa, gave guests a summarized history of their love story.

“We met in Shanghai on 4th June 2004,” the program begins. “On 26th July 2004, J.T. proposed to marry M.Y. and she said Yes!”

“Today after 6992 days on 27th July 2023 in Geneve, surrounded by loving family and friends, we are so happy to celebrate this special moment together,” the program continued. A picture of Yeoh and Todt is posted above the wedding note.

Yeoh had two wedding outfits, one was simple and elegant and consisted of a white silk button-up top and a long white frayed skirt.

Actress Michelle Yeoh finally tied the knot with her fiancé of 19 years, ex-Ferrari CEO Jean Todt. And among the featured guests was her Academy Award.

Yeoh and Todt married Thurday in Geneva, Switzerland, according to an instagram post by one of their guests, Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa. The post included the wedding program and pictures from the nuptials, including one in which Yeoh held up her Best Actress Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

According to the program, the duo met in Shanghai in June 2004 and were engaged about a month later in July 2004. A whirlwind love affair to be sure, the couple made up for that by waiting nearly two decades to actually tie the knot.

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The program reads: “Today after 6992 days on 27th July 2023 in Geneva, surrounded by loving family and friends, we are...

Michelle Yeoh’s 19-year engagement to former Ferrari CEO Jean Todt came to an end on July 27 when the couple officially tied the knot at a wedding ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland. The actress had all of the most important people in her life present at the event, including her friends, family, and the golden Oscar she was awarded when she made history as the first Asian American to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards earlier this year.

“We met in Shanghai on 4th June 2004. On 26th July 2004, J.T.

Michelle Yeoh and Jean Todt have entered a new chapter in their life together.

The Oscar-winning actress and the former Ferrari CEO tied the knot on Thursday in Geneva 19 years after Todt proposed to Yeoh, a representative for the actress confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ex-Ferrari Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa shared an Instagram post from the wedding, with a photograph of the wedding program. It reads, “We met in Shanghai on 4th June 2004. On 26th July 2004, J.T. proposed to marry M.Y. and she said Yes!”

The program, which featured an older photo of Yeoh and Todt, continued, “Today after 6992 days on 27th July 2023 in Geneva, surrounded by loving family and friends, We are so happy to celebrate this moment together!”

Massa posted more photos from the wedding, including ones with the bride and groom, as well as group shots from other attendees of the ceremony. He also shared...

Michelle Yeoh is married! On July 27, wedding guest and former Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa shared photos from Yeoh and ex-Ferrari CEO Jean Todt's wedding ceremony in Geneva on Instagram. Among the photos was a snap of the couple's wedding program, which included the sweet story of their 19-year engagement.

"We met in Shanghai on 4th June 2004," the program read. "On 26th July 2004, J.T proposed to marry M.Y and she said Yes! Today after 6992 days on 27th July 2023 in Geneva, surrounded by loving family and friends, we are so happy to celebrate this special moment together!"

In addition to sharing the couple's program, Massa also included a photo of himself with the bride, groom, and the bride's best actress Oscar for "Everything Everywhere All at Once." He shared another photo of Yeoh wearing a cream, silk shirt paired with an intricate skirt standing alongside her new husband and several wedding guests,...

Los Angeles, July 28 (Ians) Oscar winning actress Michelle Yeoh has married ex-Ferrari CEO Jean Todt, 19 years after he proposed to her in June 2004.

Yeoh, 60, and her long-time beau Todt, 77, married in an intimate ceremony in Geneva on Thursday.

The news was confirmed by Brazilian racing driver Felipe Massa, who posted about the happy occasion on Instagram.

He shared a card that was displayed at the wedding which detailed the couple’s love story.

The card read: “We met in Shanghai on 4th June 2004. On 26th July 2004, J.T proposed to marry M.Y and she said Yes”.

“Today after 6992 days in Geneva, surrounded by loving family and friends, We are so happy to celebrate this special moment together!”

Massa captioned the post: “Happy marriage #JeanTodt & #michelleyeoh love you so much.”

Massa also shared a selection of photos of the happy couple and their loved ones, including a selfie that showed...

Michelle Yeoh and ex-Ferrari CEO Jean Todt have tied the knot after a 19-year engagement.

The pair married in an intimate ceremony in Geneva on Thursday, with ex-Ferrari Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa confirming the news on Instagram.

He shared an array of pics, including one of the wedding programme.

The message read of the pair’s love story, “We met in Shanghai on 4th June 2004.

“On 26th July 2004, J.T proposed to marry M.Y and she said Yes!” confirming the pair got engaged after less than two months of dating.

It continued, “Today after 6992 days on 27th July 2023 in Geneva, surrounded by loving family and friends, we are so happy to celebrate this special moment together!”

Read More: Michelle Yeoh Opens Up About Her Dream Of Owning A Dance Studio: ‘I Never Dreamt Of Being An Actor’

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After a staggering 6992-day engagement, Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh has finally married her long-time fiance, ex-Ferrari CEO Jean Todt. The intimate ceremony took place in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday, July 27, an incredible 19 years after Todt first proposed to the Everything Everywhere All At Once star. Former Ferrari Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa shared his congratulations to the happy couple on Instagram alongside a series of photos from the wedding, which features Yeoh and guests posing with her recently won 2023 Best Actress Oscar statuette. One of the snaps shows the wedding program, which reveals that Yeoh and Todt met in June 2004, and the former Ferarri boss proposed after just a month-and-a-half of dating. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Felipe Massa (@massafelipe) “We met in Shanghai on 4th June 2004,” the wedding program reads. “On 26th July 2004, J.T proposed to marry M.Y and she said Yes. Today after...

Outfit by Versace

Ranveer Singh is a hit not only in India but all over the world. Ranveer’s rise in the world of cinema, along with his vast and highly impressive knowledge of sports, films, music, and fashion, have earned him the distinction of being known as India’s bona fide pop culture icon. From the USA to the UK, to Marrakesh to Abu Dhabi, Ranveer has been hitting his mark at all of his international appearances.

The actor is widely known to be a sports enthusiast and huge fan and most recently had a fantastic time with international celebrities at Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In fact, on Sunday, Ranveer met and interacted with some of the most prominent artists and athletes from across the globe.

He was first taken on a tour of the track by none other than Formula One legend, the revered Brazilian driver Felipe Massa.

Making the most of her time in Spain, Bar Refaeli showed up at the VIP launch party for Terrazza Martini at Port Vell in Barcelona on Thursday (May 7).

Joined by Claire Williams, Lucia Villalon and race car driver Felipe Massa, the gorgeous Israeli model worked her magic in a sexy black getup with strappy heels.

Unfortunately it appears that Bar’s fiancé Adi Ezra didn’t make the trip with her, though his business back in Israel likely keeps him pretty well occupied. They announced their engagement back in March.

Vettel records overshadowed as Webber ends on a High

Sebastian Vettel was unchallenged as he extended his record to 13 wins for the season with his ninth consecutive victory, but it was somewhat ignored by the F1 fans as Mark Webber waved goodbye to Formula 1 with a fantastic second place finish, standing atop the podium for the 42nd and final time.

He battled with Alonso throughout the race in an interesting duel, the Ferrari driver breaking back onto the podium for the final chance of the season, ahead of a resurgent McLaren team and Mercedes rivals. Whilst the 2013 race lacked the excitement of last years’ event, it still provided a generally entertaining final race of the year, far surpassing that of the more recent races.

Into the Weekend

Formula 1 returned to Brazil for the season climax after a successful second outing in Texas just a week ago. Brazil is always enjoyable as it is a brilliant,...

Vettel dominates otherwise amusing Texan Trial

It was business as usual for first place with Vettel sweeping away into the distance, out of reach of any racing under the bright Texan sun. Behind him however there was some good racing and on-track action to help take the awful Abu Dhabi after taste out of our mouths.

Grosjean drove to a strong second place, holding off the tough challenge of Webber in the closing stages, whilst behind them Mercedes, Ferrari, Sauber, McLaren and even Williams all tussled for points, with some excellent action and back-and-forth overtaking moves through the first corners after the climb up the hill. For a second year in a row since its inauguration the Circuit of the Americas has proven itself to be an enjoyable venue, better than all the other recent additions to the calendar combined.

Into the Weekend

Formula 1 returned to the United States for...

The title of this panel was Financing and Packaging: From Indie to Studio, but in fact, the most studio-like film, Rush , by the major director, Ron Howard, and produced by Brit indie production company Revolution (Andrew Eaton) and Hollywood-based Cross Creek (Brian Oliver), is actually quite independent.

Rush (U.S. Universal, International Sales by Exclusive)

Ron Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer whose imagine Entertainment have had an overall deal at Universal for 27 years, however, this mid-budget range film of some $50,000,000 was considered not "big enough" for the majors.

To read more about this complex and fascinating film and its international film business background, read the following articles which are quoted throughout this article with thanks and acknowledgement to:

· Variety September 13, 2013 (reprinted at the end of this blog) · Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2013 · The Hollywood Reporter September 28, 2011

Aside from major director Ron Howard himself, the second “major” element of the film is that Universal is the North American distributor of the film. This happens through the three year minimum-6-picture distribution deal Brian Oliver’s Cross Creek has with Universal in which Cross Creek produces and finances either its own films or films chosen from Universal’s development slate. Cross Creek is set up to generate up to four films per year, with Universal to distribute at least two of them with a wide-release commitment.

Isa (International Sales Agent) Exclusive Media is also an independent. This too is the result of Oliver’s deal with Exclusive to jointly finance two projects per year.

Cross Creek, putting its own cash into the project, split the cost of the picture with Exclusive who financed it through a bank loan made against pre-sales generated in 2011 at the Afm. With Howard there to promote the project to buyers, Exclusive secured around $33 million in foreign pre-sales. See Cinando’s list of distributors .

Additionally, Oliver and Eaton structured the project as a U.K.- German co-production, enabling them to secure about $12 million in soft money from Germany (Egoli Tossell) in accordance with U.K.’s co-production treaty. As a result, U.K. rights ended up with Studiocanal.

Brian Oliver is a “one of Hollywood’s biggest and more unusual financiers of risky films, with coin coming mostly from oil and real estate investments in Texas”. This major Hollywood financier/ producer takes chances which prove his astute, if askew, view of what makes a “Hollywood” picture an indie at the same time, as shown by his credits, The Ides of March and Black Swan.

Andrew Eaton is a British producer with deep Hollywood connections through the British community here, e.g., Eric Fellner of Working Title, the British production company currently owned by Universal. (Parenthetically, I bought U.S. rights to Working Title’s first film, My Beautiful Laundrette for Lorimar along with Orion Classics and so I was quite thrilled to have a chance to be in touch with the talented Brits once again).

Working Title had worked with Andrew Easton on Frost/Nixon. Eric Fellner loved the script and offered it to Universal for funding. However, as said, Universal passed on it because it was too small.

“It is going to be easy for people to think this is a Hollywood movie, and it just is not,” quotes Variety from the film’s British screenwriter, Peter Morgan, who penned Frost/Nixon which was also directed by Howard. “It is a British independent film directed by a Hollywood director.”

Eaton and Oliver spoke of how they put this film together.

“We must champion the fact that this is basically 80% a British film in terms of the people who worked on it, the way it was structured and the way we ran it,” says Eaton, who was behind such indie films as 24 Hour Party People and the Red Riding TV series.

Can a Song Save Your Life? (U.S. UTA, Isa: Exclusive)

Exclusive has another film here, Can a Song Save Your Life? which is also repped by Rena Ronson, Co-Head of the Independent Film Group of UTA. Directed by John Carney who came to the public’s attention with his micro-budgeted Once which plays on stage here in Toronto at the moment, in New York and elsewhere regularly. The Weinstein Company picked it up in Toronto, reportedly paying around a $7 million minimum guarantee for U.S. rights with a P&A commitment of at least $20 million.

UTA as an agency also packages both large (studio) and smaller indie films. Rena Ronson, the co-head of UTA Indie explained how her own indie roots -- first at indie distributor Fox-Lorber and continuing into international sales before becoming the “indie agent” at Wma, succeeding the “indie” founder, Bobbi Thompson, have taught her to speak the language of the international as well as the independent film business. She knows the major modes of operating as well as she knows the independent style of business. She further explained that the successes of the larger films permit the “smaller”, i.e., “indie” films to be made.

UTA repped films in Toronto are listed below. For a full report of rights sold, before, during and after Toronto, watch SydneysBuzz.com for the Fall 2013 Rights Roundup.

Can A Song Save Your Life?

Writer/Director: John Carney Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine, Catherine Keener, Mos Def, Cee-Lo Green Publicity: Falco / Shannon Treusch, Monica Delameter U.S. Producer Rep: UTA / CAA . Isa: Exclusive Media Group

U.S. rights were acquired at Tiff 13 by TWC for a record breaking $7 million.

Since first announcing it in Cannes 2012, Exclusive has made other deals as well for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan (Tanweer), Germany (Studiocanal), Japan (Pony Canyon Inc), Philippines (Solar Entertainment), Russia (A Company), So. Korea ( Pancinema), Switzerland ( Ascot Elite Entertainment Group ), Taiwan ( Serenity Entertainment International ), Turkey (D Productions), the Middle East ( Front Row Filmed Entertainment).

Tiff Special Presentations:

Hateship, Loveship

Director: Liza Johnson Writer: Mark Poirier Writer (Novel): Alice Munro Starring: Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte Publicity: Prodigy PR, Erik Bright

North American Sale: UTA / Cassian Elwes. Isa: The Weinstein Co. Sena has rights for Iceland.

The F Word

Director: Michael Dowse Writer: Elan Mastai Writers (Play): Michael Rinaldi & T.J. Dawe Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Rafe Spall, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis, Amanda Crew Publicity: Strategy PR / Cynthia Schwartz, Michael Kupferberg Us Sale: UTA / Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman. Isa: eOne

After UTA sold the The F Word to CBS Films for the U.S. for around $3 million in Toronto, Entertainment One Films International completed other international sales. Besides Canada and the U.K., eOne itself will release the film in Australia/New Zealand, Benelux and Spain feeding its own international distribution pipeline. Other sales include Germany to Senator Entertainment, Middle East to Front Row Entertainment, Nigeria toRed Mist, Russia to Carmen Film Group, Turkey to Mars Entertainment Group

Night Moves

Writer/Director: Kelly Reichart Writer: Jonathan Raymond Starring: Dakota Fanning, Jesse Eisenberg, Peter Sarsgaard, Alia Shawkat Publicity: Ginsberg/Libby, Chris Libby North American Sale: UTA Isa: The Match Factory

Tiff Vanguard

The Sacrament

Writer/Director: Ti West Starring: Joe Swanberg, Aj Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Kate Lyn Sheil, Gene Jones Publicity: Dda, Dana Archer, Alice Zhou North American Sale: UTA / CAA Isa: Im Global sold to Pegasus Motion Pictures Distribution Ltd . For China

As of this writing, rather 1 hour ago, Magnolia Pictures, which lost on an earlier bidding war here for Joe, is finalizing a deal for the picture reportedly for seven figures.

Coincidentallywith the beginning of the Toronto Film Festival, the front page of L.A. Times quoted Rena Ronson in an article called "Making history as cameras roll" (print edition) or "Wadjda' director makes her mark in Saudi cinema" (online edition) about Wadjda , (Isa: The Match Factory) last year’s Venice and Telluride film which Rena had spotted at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, where it won a script award. It was written and directed by a woman which is notable in such a male-dominated part of the world. She met the writer-director, Haifaa Mansour, and that led to working with her for the next two years to finance the film. Its $2.5m budget was backed in part by the Rotana Group, the largest media company in the Middle East, owned primarily by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The German production company Razor Film owned and operated by Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul whose first coproduction in 2005, Paradise Now brought them into international prominence and who also picked up last year’s Tiff groundbreaking film from Afghanistan,The Patience Stone, and previously coproduced Waltz With Bashir, came on board and brought German broadcast deals and German film funds as well.

Doha and Film Financing

The fourth panelist was Paul Miller, Head of Film Financing, from the Doha Film Institute , Qatar's first international organization dedicated to film financing, production, education and two film festivals. Doha encourages submission for financing film financing opportunities from anywhere in the world. The Dfi Grants program supports first- and second-time filmmakers in producing and developing their own stories. There are two funding rounds per year. Applications are considered from three regions (basically divided into the Middle East, developing nations and the rest of the world – with some exceptions -- each with different eligibility criteria.

Consideration for funding is open to feature-length films in development, production and post-production, as well as short films in production and post-production. Since 2010, Dfi has provided funding to more than 138 filmmakers.

Beyond the regional grants program, Dfi also invests in a diverse slate of international productions to encourage greater collaboration, mentorship and co‑production opportunities between Gulf countries and the rest of the world. Co-financing applications apply to both Middle Eastern and international feature films, television and web series. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Four films at Tiff that Doha has helped finance:

Mohammed Malas’s Ladder to Damacus, screening in Tiff’s Contemporary World Cinema section; Jasmila Žbanic’s For Those Who Can Tell No Tales in the Special Presentation section. Both films were co-financed by Dfi. Dfi grant recipients Néjib Belkadhi’s Bastardo and Mais Darwazah’s My Love Awaits Me by the Sea screening in the Contemporary World Cinema and Discovery sections, respectively.

The fifth panelist, Ted Hope, Director of the San Francisco Film Society, a non-profit training, festival, and funding operation is known to everyone from his history with Good Machine (which was acquired by Universal and renamed Focus Features), and from his blog Hope for Film/ Truly Free Film . In his always-inimitable fashion, Ted proposed a new sort of financing, called "staged financing", based on a progressive meeting of certain criterion from development through distribution. This way of financing is similar to the venture capital models of financing. His broad ideas on what has to change with the industry's funding and packaging methods brought the panelists and the audience to heel at attention. I reprint his blog after this because this idea goes against the current grain of financing an entire film which may or may not prove to be the final box office bingo winner it always purports to be when securing full financing.

The Sffs provided some funding to Thomas Oliver's 1982 which is in Tiff this year. Aside from winning Us in Progress’ $60,000 in post-production services at this year’s Champs Elysees Film Festival, 1982 also received Sffs’s $85,000 post production grant and participated in the Sffs’s A2E labs. The film is being represented by Kevin Iwashina’s Preferred Content.

The panel became very animated as Ted Hope and Rena Ronson faced off about whether a film is made for a broad audience or whether, if targeted correctly, it could actually make money with niche audiences. As always, the two of them, both equally astute, brought much to bear on both sides of the argument. And, I, as the panel’s moderator, hereby declare, They are both right.

The broader the audience the more potential for making money.

However, as Ted points out, with crowd sourcing, crowd funding and crowd theatrical exhibition, there are many other ways beyond ticket purchases that filmmakers can offer in order to make money with their targeted audience.

This, as well as the great contributions made by Doha’s Paul Miller and Revolution’s Andrew Eaton could have extended the panel into a full day. Paul Oliver of Cross Creek was the quietest, perhaps most reticent, of the speakers, but he amply demonstrated that he is one who puts his money where his mouth is. His acumen and taste make us all grateful for his existence as he is a pivotal point person in creating works of art that create substantial revenues for a sustainable art house film business.

The audience as well was most enthusiastic with their questions and post panel discussions with panelists who stayed to talk.

Articles Reprinted Here:

Truly Free Film

Staged Financing Must Become Film Biz’s Immediate Goal

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 05:15 Am Pdt

Each day I become more and more convinced that staged financing could be a cure to much of the Film Biz’s ills. Staged financing? What? Is the phrase not exactly center of your conversations right now? Why not?!! Whatsamattawidyou? Don’t you know a good solution when you see one?

Although it already exists in many fields, and even in a few small patches of our own yard, I recognize that a staged financing strategy is not yet the force behind Indieland’s own gardening. I am however growing convinced it could yield a far more fruitful harvest than our current methods. A staged-financing ecosystem can’t be built in a one-off manner though. Although it also does not need to the rule of the realm, it needs a permanent eco-system to support it.

Staged financing is part of a much bigger solution that we urgently need to bring to our industry: a sustainable investor class . We need smart money and need to stop seeking, encouraging, and propagating dumb money. Most film investors get out, win or lose, by their third film (I have been told this and don’t have the stats to back it up now, but if you do, please share — otherwise just trust that is what my experience has shown). The value of most independent money in the film biz is the money itself, and that is not good for anyone.

Staged financing is exactly what it says to be. I know in this world such literalness is a strange thing, but there is it. Staged financing is a funding process that is there for each distinct stage. In comparison, it is the opposite of up-front financing — the type that monopolizes the narrative feature world. I am proposing that we institutionalize the staged-financing process and make it easier to finance your film in drips and drabs. Why am I so bullish on what probably sounds like hell to many? Why do I think it will save indie film? Let’s count the ways.

Staged financing increases the predictability of success. Investors can base their continued commitment on a proof of prinicipal instead of just a pitch. The longer one waits the more they know — of course the longer one waits the lower the chance for their to be the opportunity for investment, so there. The more investors can project or even predict their success, the longer they will stay in the game, and the more that will gather to pay — i.e. more capital at play! Staged financing allows filmmakers and their supporters to pivot based on real world data. The old way had very little it could do when new information hit. Your film (and investment) could be rendered obsolete over night. But that does not have to be a done deal is this new world. This is just one of the many reasons for #1 above of course. Staged financing diversifies the creative class. Wouldn’t it be great if the film biz was actually a meritocracy? Well, if people had to make good movies to complete their financing, wouldn’t that be a bit closer to the case? Staged financing gives all people the opportunity to prove they have a good idea, whether that idea is completed or not. It is not about who you know, but about what you’ve done and can do. Documentary film — compared to the narrative world — already has a great deal of staged financing institutionalized — and benefits from gender proportional representation among directors. Need I say more?Staged financing allows ambitious artistic work to flourish. Instead of just having “commercial elements”, unique and inspiring work can be recognized for the potential it truly has. Instead of being rewarded for being able to earn trust or arrogantly claim to know what one is doing, staged financing allows good work to be rewarded for being good work. Currently, we mistake confidence for capability and those that boast to be able to predict what the end product will be (where there is no way that they will actually know what the 100+ decisions each day will yield), get to play — not the work that delivers something new and wonderful. Staged financing rewards quality over risk mitigation. Staged financing is actually a better form of risk mitigation than the present form that is only based on regurgitating what has already proven successful. When we limit risk by mimicking what has worked in the past, all we are doing is guessing and covering our ass — and this leads to a film culture of movie titles overrun with numerals. We live in an era of abundance, and as comforting as the familiar may be, we have more access to it than ever before. We rarely need the new version of it. We will however need truly original work more and more as time goes on as we will drowning in the repetitive. How will we prove what works? Staged financing, my friend, staged financing. Staged financing creates a better project as it incentivizes the creators every step of the way. Not that you truly need to incentivize those that are in the passion industries for the right reason, but it never hurts to weed out those that are in it for the wrong reason. When your financing is based on your work and not your connections or investors’ fears, you will do all you can to make each stage of financing shine, justify itself, and be truly competitive. Staged financing requires you to walk a series of steps, proving you have earned the right with every advance — and you better do your homework if you don’t want to get left behind. Staged financing requires you choose your initial partners wisely. It’s not just about the terms of the deal that should determine whom your investors are — but that is how we generally act nowadays. Everyone should instead seek value-add investors. You should get more than just money from your investors. You should benefit from their expertise. Filmmakers, agents, lawyers, and managers, often are willing to leap into bed with anyone who offers the most cash — there’s a name for that practice and it should not be film investment. Staged financing means the creators will have “skin in the game”. When it is an up-front finance model, the creators are not working for a payout in success but working just for the upfornt fees (or some semblance thereof); they may have “profit participation” but basically the only anticipated earnings are what is in the budget. It becomes increasingly difficult to motivate the creative team to be engaged in the needed work after the film premieres. Investors have long recognized that this is not the most beneficial arrangement, yet what can they do? The answer my friend, is… yup, you know the song I am singing: everyone loves that staged financing! Staged financing is a time-tested process that has already been adopted by many industries . Staged financing is the modus operandi of Silicon Valley and all the Vc firms. Other industries, from mining onwards, have seen real benefits from the process. Why do we limit our success and not apply proven models to our field? Could it be that somewhere someone is desperately clutching on to what ever paltry power they perceive themselves to possess? Hmmm… If they don’t offer the model you want at the store, build a new model — or maybe even a chain of stores. Staged financing gives producers of quality work more power. The main objection to staged financing is that it gives financiers more power. That is only true if you are making crap. Or mediocre work. If you are making something wonderfully astounding you will never struggle to progress to the next round — and in fact you will be able to improve your terms. And investors won’t complain either, because they now can have to know a good thing when they see one.

So if Staged Financing is this marvelous thing, why have our leaders not yet delivered it to you? Well, they don’t care about you; didn’t you know that?

And if Staged Financing could really save Indie Film, why has the community not constructed this marvelous ecosystem yet? Well, we’ve all been too busy chasing shiny objects and marveling at the reflections fed back of us.

But change is here. We have hope. We can build it better together. And I have already started. The San Francisco Film Society is committed to it. We have others who want to be part of. We are have spots for more to join in. And we are going to help a few select projects really rock this world.

Watch this space. Let’s do it together and truly astonish the world with your awe inspiring work. Just don’t be slack, okay?

Variety, August 21, 2013:

“Rush,” the high-octane car racing film about the public rivalry between legendary Formula One drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt during the 1970s, has all the markings of tinseltown’s latest flashy biopic, withRon Howard at the wheel, Chris Hemsworth as its star, and Universal Pictures releasing the film Sept. 27. But that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.

“It is going to be easy for people to think this is a Hollywood movie, and it just is not,” says the upcoming film’s British screenwriter, Peter Morgan, who penned “Frost/Nixon,” also directed by Howard. “It is a British independent film directed by a Hollywood director.” Get Weekly Online News and alerts free to your inbox

As the majors focus more on putting their money behind mega-budgeted projects with built-in brand awareness — sequels, reboots, films based on toys, videogames and comicbooks — filmmakers are finding Hollywood’s studio system rapidly shifting under their feet.

“Because studios are less interested in the midbudget area, there is a massive opportunity for independents to step into that (area) at the moment,” says “Rush” producer Andrew Eaton of London-based Revolution Films.

Indeed, it’s getting harder to set up a midbudget range original project at a studio, even for veteran filmmakers like Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer, whose Imagine Entertainment has had an overall deal at Universal for 27 years (the longest standing deal U has had in its 100-year history with a production company). That’s forced directors to look elsewhere to tackle the kinds of films now considered too risky to make or the ones that won’t fill retail shelves with merchandise.

Another Hollywood vet, producer Marc Platt, who’s had a production deal at Universal since 1998 after stepping down as its production head, similarly had to find indie financing for his film “2 Guns” after Universal said it would not bankroll the picture but simply distribute it.

With “Rush,” Howard found himself in an entirely new role as the director of a $50 million film that was his first to be independently financed — through a series of bonds, contingencies and pre-sales. He also was a director for hire, replacing Paul Greengrass, who was originally set to bring the showy personalities of Hunt (Hemsworth), a British playboy; and the more serious Austrian champion Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) to the big screen.

“We must champion the fact that this is basically 80% a British film in terms of the people who worked on it, the way it was structured and the way we ran it,” says Eaton. The exec, who was behind such indie films as “24 Hour Party People” and the “Red Riding” series, is modest, and like most Brits politely shies away from the spotlight, tending not to grab credit even when its due.

But he believes “Rush” shows off Blighty’s mettle.

“These are the kinds of films we should be making in the U.K. because we can do it, and we can do it for better value of money,” he says.

Morgan began writing the story of Lauda, a friend of his wife’s, on spec some years ago, intrigued by the driver’s courageous comeback just 40 days after a devastating crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix that severely burned his face and saw him lapse into a coma, and how that might play against Hunt’s notorious womanizing and party lifestyle that gained him rock-star status.

Eager to work with Eaton again after Fernando Meirelles’ “360,” Morgan showed the producer the first draft of “Rush,” and Eaton was hooked.

“Andrew was always going to be a great fit for this project,” Morgan says. “If (the) responsibility was to make this at a price, Andrew could do this. He could make a $50 million film feel like a $150 million film.”

With Greengrass, another Brit, attached to direct, Morgan showed the script to close friend Eric Fellner at his Universal-owned British production outfit Working Title. Fellner, who had worked with him on “Frost/Nixon,” loved the new script and offered it to Universal for funding.

But the studio passed, considering it risky subject matter, given the biopic elements and low profile of F1 racing in the U.S. Universal also didn’t believe the film could be made for the right price. Still Fellner stayed onboard, and his contacts in the F1 arena proved invaluable. His relationships with Ferrari and McLaren thanks to his work on documentary “Senna” enabled “Rush” to enlist the brands in the pic without losing editorial control.

“Ron (Howard) jokes that my major contribution was engine noise,” Fellner says. “Maybe I can take credit for a bit of that.”

Soon after Universal passed, Cross Creek Pictures topper Brian Oliver reached out to Eaton to finance the project — so eager that he offered to put up $2 million before he even signed the deal so that Eaton could order replicas of the 1970s cars to be ready in time for the shoot. He also was instrumental in steering Hemsworth toward the project.

“Typically we don’t spend that kind of money without knowing the movie is going and the budget is done,” Oliver says. “But I was passionate about the script, and I really thought it was a film with a lot of heart, not just a race car movie.”

Cross Creek, also behind “The Ides of March” and “Black Swan,” has quickly become one of Hollywood’s biggest and more unusual financiers of risky films, with coin coming mostly from oil and real estate investments in Texas.

“He’s an unusual maverick in Hollywood because he really fought to get the budget to the highest level he could,” says Eaton of Oliver. “There’s no bullshit with him — he gets stuff done.” Adds Fellner: “Without Brian, the film wouldn’t have gotten off of the ground. He put his money where his mouth is.”

Shortly after funding started coming together, Greengrass dropped off the project due, ironically, to his issues with the budget. Within 24 hours, Morgan and Fellner enticed Howard to come onboard. The financing arrangement intrigued him, but what really attracted Howard was the ability to re-create the world of Formula One in the 1970s “when sex was safe and driving was dangerous,” as he has said in past interviews.

“Ron was incredibly gracious in trusting us to deliver,” Eaton says. “He was very smart about knowing we needed to make this film in a different way. He’d never made a film with a bond before, and never made a film with a contingency before, but he rolled up his sleeves and was ready to learn.” Some of that indie spirit has already rubbed off on Howard, who is now sticking with a mostly British crew on his next project, “In the Heart of the Sea,” including “Rush” cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and costume designer Julian Day. “Heart” lenses in London.

Exclusive Media came in as the final partner on “Rush,” brought in by Oliver under his deal with Exclusive to jointly finance two projects per year.

Cross Creek split the cost of the pic with Exclusive, with the former putting its own cash in to the pic and the latter financing through a bank loan made against pre-sales generated in 2011 at the Afm, where Howard helped shop the project to buyers. The move proved a success, as Exclusive secured $33 million in foreign pre-sales.

Additionally, Oliver and Eaton structured the project as a U.K.-German co-production, enabling them to secure about $12 million in soft money.

As a result, U.K. rights ended up going to Studiocanal. Universal agreed to distribute “Rush” in the U.S. through its output deal with Cross Creek.

Eaton pressed to put all of the money raised on the screen. “Rush” became the highest-budget film he had ever worked with after 2000’s “The Claim,” which cost $18 million to produce.

“(‘Rush’) was financed in exactly the same way we finance every independent film, and we approached shooting in the same way as we do everything — you try to put as much money as you can onscreen,” Eaton says. “It’s about not wasting money on things you don’t need, like private jets and extravagances.”

Hollywood has tried to bring to life the world of Formula One before.

Sylvester Stallone directed “Driven,” which originally was set in the world of F1, before he changed course and based it on rival Cart racing, instead.

The reason? To gain access to F1, filmmakers must first get the greenlight from the often polarizing Bernie Ecclestone, the 82-year-old billionaire who holds a tight grip on the racing league that has long counted the elite as fans, including Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, and celebs including Michael Fassbender, Patrick Dempsey, Gordon Ramsey, George Lucas, and Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte.

Although Stallone tried to gain Ecclestone’s approval, “I apologize to fans of Formula 1, but there is a certain individual there who runs the sport that has his own agenda,” Stallone said in 2000. “F1 is very formal, and it’s very hard to get to know people.”

David Cronenberg also planned to direct a tentpole around F1 for Paramount, in 1986, with the director scouting the project by attending Grand Prix races in Australia and Mexico. The film, “Red Cars,” would have revolved around American driver Phil Hill winning the world championship for Ferrari in 1961. Plans were shelved when Ecclestone decided not to support the project. Instead, Cronenberg published a limited edition art book based on the screenplay in 2005.

One of the few cinematic standouts so far is Asif Kapadia’s documentary “Senna,” about the charismatic Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, killed in a race in 1994 that’s show in the docu. “Senna” went on to earn $8.2 million, and helped educate viewers of the sport by focusing not on the races but Senna’s iconic presence and his impact on pop culture.

“Rush” is looking to put a spotlight on the personalities behind the wheel and the often riveting rivalries between drivers — what many consider the real draw to the sport. Bruhl has compared them to “modern knights constantly facing death.”

As the film races toward its September release — it will be shown at the Toronto Film Festival out of competition — Howard has screened it for not only racing fans but Formula One, itself.

He recently showed the film to a group of F1 drivers (including Lauda, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa) at Germany’s Grand Prix, calling that audience the toughest test so far, and comparing the experience to screening “Apollo 13” to Nasa’s astronauts and mission controllers in 1995.

In his efforts to promote the film, Howard has called the Hunt-Lauda rivalry one of the greatest in all of sports. “Their story is so remarkable, you (could) only do it if it was true, because people wouldn’t quite believe it. They were willing to risk their lives to attain this elite status. They paid a price for it, but they defined themselves.”

Morgan also has been doing his part to reassure F1 fans that the film is authentic, stressing that it’s about the people in the cars, and not the sport itself.

Any way the wheel’s spun, it’s clear the film’s overall success will largely be driven by how it plays overseas. “Rush” will need to appeal to an international audience that’s more familiar with F1 — a sport second in popularity only to soccer — than to those in the U.S.

But Howard needs to hook moviegoers closer to home — making the American director’s job a much tougher sell.

It’s not really that surprising that there’s nothing all that American about “Rush.”

Formula One is still struggling to find an audience in the U.S. It’s looking to change that through a new $3 million broadcasting deal with NBC Sports that airs 13 races on the cable channel, two on CNBC, and four on NBC. The Monaco Grand Prix was the first of four F1 races to air live on NBC this year, with the final race taking place Nov. 24 from Brazil.

Ratings have averaged a 0.3 rating, although the Monaco race was watched by 1.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched Formula One race on U.S. television in six years, and up 40% over last year’s race when it aired on Speed TV, Nielsen said.

Promos have emphasized the speed of F1’s jetfighter cars, its international appeal and Olympics-like profiles of the drivers.

Formula One also is looking to rev up new fans in the U.S. through the opening of its first permanent track in Austin, Texas, last year, known as the Circuit of the Americas. Howard attended its first race, where Lauda also roamed the track’s garages.

What’s ironic is that Howard isn’t a very good driver. He proved that recently racing around the track of BBC’s hit show “Top Gear” to promote “Rush,” ending up in second to last place on the series’ celebrity leader board — behind Genesis’ Mike Rutherford.

Host Jeremy Clarkson was quick to mock him, saying “We finally found something you can’t do. Good at directing, brilliant in ‘Happy Days,’ a charming human being — but utterly crap at driving.”

Ron Howard's Risky Formula One Movie, 'Rush'

Can this Euro-centric car racing film play in the U.S.?

By Rachel Dodes Conn

Ron Howard's films, like "Apollo 13" and "Frost/Nixon," typically deal with issues very familiar to American audiences. His latest project, Mr. Howard's first independently financed film, is a bit of a departure: "Rush" chronicles the rivalry between Austrian Formula One racer Niki Lauda and his nemesis, the British driver James Hunt, over the course of the historic 1976 season. While competing in Nürburg, Germany during treacherous weather conditions, Mr. Lauda (Daniel Brühl, right) crashed his Ferrari and sustained severe burns to his face and lungs. Yet, fueled by a desire to beat Mr. Hunt (Chris Hemsworth, above), a playboy type whose wife (Olivia Wilde) ran off with Richard Burton, Mr. Lauda was back in his car just six weeks later—still wearing his bandages—to race against him in the Italian Grand Prix.

When Mr. Howard received the script on spec from screenwriter Peter Morgan ("Frost/Nixon," "The Last King of Scotland"), he wasn't a Formula One fan and didn't know who Messrs. Hunt and Lauda were. "I looked them up on Wikipedia," he admits. But as he read about the racers' personalities, he started to see broader themes that would appeal to U.S. moviegoers. "Maybe this is the American in me identifying this," he says, "but both these guys are utterly and entirely individuals—there was no Yoda telling them to seek their higher self."

For Mr. Howard, the process of researching "Rush" was surprisingly similar to learning about space travel for his "Apollo 13," because he found himself having to make arcane automotive engineering terms accessible to viewers. "It was really fun to understand a sport that combines cutting-edge technology with very dangerous competition," he says. "The visceral, cool and sexy element offered a kind of cinematic experience that nowadays exists only with sci-fi."

Formula One isn't nearly as popular in the U.S. as Nascar, and the subject matter is likelier to play well overseas, where the film's financing came from. It premiered Monday, in London, a few weeks before its U.S. opening. The filmmakers say it's more than just a sports picture, and they expect it to appeal to women as well as men.

Saudi Female Filmmaker Succeeds In Making A Movie About A Girl Who Wants A Bicycle

Los Angeles Times

By Rebecca Keegan

Sept. 6, 2013

In a country where women can't freely move around, Haifaa Mansour covertly films the story of a girl's quest for a bicycle.

The production lost two days to sandstorms. The crew faced a last-minute scramble when the nervous owner of a mall changed his mind about allowing filming there. Some days locals chased the cameras away; other days they brought platters of lamb and rice to the set, and asked to be extras.

Meanwhile, the director hid in a van, speaking to her cast via walkie-talkie. In Saudi Arabia, where driving a car is a subversive act for a woman, a 39-year-old mother of two has done something remarkable: written and directed what her distributor believes is the first feature film shot entirely in the ultraconservative kingdom.

Haifaa Mansour is the director of "Wadjda," a drama about a plucky 10-year-old girl who enrolls in a Koran recitation competition in order to win money for a bicycle she's forbidden by law to ride.

Like her young protagonist, Mansour's own story is one of feminine moxie.

In a sly protest of the country's ban on women behind the wheel, she drove herself to her wedding in a golf cart. Because women in Saudi Arabia can't mingle publicly with men outside their families, she shot her movie covertly on the streets of the capital, Riyadh. With movie theaters banned, she screened "Wadjda" in two foreign embassies and a cultural center.

Petite, self-assured, wearing white high-tops and blue nail polish, Mansour is modern in both her fashion and bearing. She speaks English quickly and colloquially, dropping frequent "you knows" into conversation. And she isn't afraid to counter misperceptions about her homeland, as when she gently corrected Bill Maher for calling Mecca the Saudi capital during a recent appearance on his HBO show.

Laced with empathy and humor, "Wadjda" is a quietly provocative portrait of a culture that straddles the centuries, where men wear the ancient white thobe but carry the latest iPads and women hold important jobs as doctors and news anchors but have yet to vote in an election.

"I didn't want to make a movie about women being raped or stoned," Mansour said in an interview in Beverly Hills in June. "For me it is the everyday life, how it's hard. For me, it was hard sometimes to go to work because I cannot find transportation. Things like that build up and break a woman."

The eighth of 12 children of a poet, Mansour grew up in a small town in a home that she describes as nurturing for a little girl.

"My family is very traditional, but my parents are very supportive, very kind," she said. "I never felt I can't do things because I'm a woman."

When Mansour was a teen, her mother removed the light veil she wore while picking her daughter up from school, a gesture that mortified the young woman at the time, but empowers her when she reflects on it now.

Though movie theaters have been shuttered in Saudi Arabia for decades for religious reasons, Mansour said her father, like others, often rented VHS tapes at Blockbuster for the family to watch -- she grew up on Jackie Chan movies, Bollywood productions, Egyptian cinema and Disney animated films. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was a particular favorite.

"In small-town Saudi, there is nothing to do. You don't get to exercise your emotions because nothing much is happening, you know?" she said. "So to see people falling in love and fighting, it's so powerful, you see beyond your small town."

After earning her bachelor's degree in comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, she returned to Saudi Arabia but quickly felt stymied.

"Going back to Saudi as a young woman, trying to assert yourself in the workplace, you have all those ideas … and all of a sudden you realize because you are a woman you are not heard," she said. "It was such a frustrating moment in my life. It was as if you are screaming in a vacuum."

The idea of women holding jobs still unnerves some Saudi men -- writer Abdullah Mohammed Daoud recently encouraged his more than 97,000 Twitter followers to sexually harass female grocery store clerks to intimidate women from working.

Recalling the freedom she found in movies, Mansour decided to make a short film with her siblings serving as cast and crew, a thriller about a male serial killer who hides under the black abaya worn by Muslim women. Her work -- two more shorts, a documentary and a stint hosting a talk show for a Lebanese network -- focused largely on the untold stories of Saudi women.

In 2005, at a U.S. embassy screening of her documentary, "Women Without Shadows," Mansour met her future husband, American diplomat Bradley Neimann. They now have two children, 2 and 5, and live in Bahrain, where Neimann works for the State Department.

When her husband was posted in Australia, Mansour pursued a master's in film studies at the University of Sydney, and wrote the script that became "Wadjda."

The story was inspired by her now teenage niece, who has tamped down her rambunctious personality to fit into Saudi norms.

"I thought, 'Wow, a woman writer from Saudi Arabia won?'" Rena Ronson said. "I had to meet her. She was so open and tenacious and smart."When Mansour's script for "Wadjda" won an award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, it caught the eye of the co-head of the independent film group at United Talent Agency.

Over the next two years Ronson helped Mansour secure financing for her film, which cost a little less than $2.5 million. The primary obstacle, as far as many potential Middle Eastern producers were concerned, was Mansour's desire to shoot in Saudi Arabia, which she felt lent her story authenticity.

The production finally won the tacit approval of the Saudi government -- one of its backers is Rotana Group, an entertainment company primarily owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Another major financier is the German company Razor Film.

Finding actors was another hurdle. Mansour and her producers recruited child performers through small companies that hire folkloric dancers for the Eid holidays. Many of their parents were uncomfortable with a movie about empowering women.

A week before she was scheduled to start shooting, Mansour still hadn't cast her title character when 12-year-old Waad Mohammed entered the room in blue jeans, with headphones clapped over her ears. Singing along to Justin Bieber, she won over Mansour with her sweet singing voice and tomboyish style.

The movie's half-German, half-Saudi crew worked around the rhythms of Saudi life, using cellphone apps that alerted them of the five daily prayer calls. The Germans carried notebooks; the Saudis relied on oral planning.

On the first day of shooting, a start time of 7:20 a.m. came and went. "I don't know what we were thinking," said German producer Roman Paul. "I don't think 7:20 exists in Saudi time. We Germans learned to relax, and the Saudis learned that there is a benefit to doing things at a certain time."

Despite tension on the set -- both from disapproving observers and from the German and Saudi crews learning to work together -- Mansour was buoyant, Paul said.

"She's very fast in overcoming new difficulties, and in an upbeat spirit," Paul said.

Last summer "Wadjda" premiered at the Venice and Telluride film festivals, earning praise for Mansour's subtle direction and a U.S. release from Sony Pictures Classics, which handled the Oscar-winning 2011 Iranian drama "A Separation," about the dissolution of a marriage.

"'A Separation' was such an eye-opener to me in the sense that there were people questioning whether the film went too specific into the Iranian culture," said Michael Barker, co-president and co-founder of the Sony unit. "But if the overall story has a universal appeal, in 'Wadjda' it's about parents and kids and restrictions and freedom, that's something we can all relate to."

Sony Classics has been showing the film to noted feminists -- Gloria Steinem and Queen Noor of Jordan both attended screenings -- and will release it in the U.S. slowly over the fall, starting Sept. 13. (The movie premiered in multiple European countries this summer.)

Mansour said she plans to work in Saudi Arabia again. For her, screening her movie in the kingdom was a high.

"Film is about uplifting, embracing the love of life, it's about moving ahead, it's about victory," she said. "It's not about defeat."

One victory has already been won. This spring, a new law went into effect: With some restrictions, Saudi women are now allowed to ride bicycles.

With the announcement this week that Felipe Massa will be leaving Ferrari at the end of the season after eight years with the Italian outfit there have been some great moments, both elating and heartbreaking. Starting out at Ferrari in 2006 with the mighty Michael Schumacher after a year as a test driver, following a strong beginning with Sauber-Petronas, Massa developed into a great driver, challenging for the championship in 2008 and taking 11 race wins, 14 pole positions and 15 fastest laps.

Against my predictions, Ferrari announced that Kimi Raikkonen is making a return to the Scuderia for 2014, leaving seven races for Massa with the Italian giants before he hopefully moves onto a new drive in Formula 1.

I really hope he secures a good one for next season, as I think he deserves it and has so much to offer the sport, and hope we can see more great moments of him in future.

The Spa Grand Prix is the longest track in the F1 calendar with a total length of 7km per lap. Spa is famous for it’s multiple overtaking spots and famous corners such as Eau Rouge and Blanchimot. I personally love the Spa circuit as it always provides an exciting race.

Qualifying

The qualifying this year was a wet affair with some discrepancies in the usual starting order. Both Marussias and Giedo van der Garde managed to get into Q2 because of excellent tyre choices in the wet weather. This meant that both Williams and Toro Roso drivers were out along with Caterham’s Charles Pic and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez.

Q2 saw the exclusion of the other Caterham driver Giedo van der Garde in 14th, a career best for him, along with the two Marussias of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton in 15th and 16th place respectively. Sergio Perez...

Vettel holds off Lotus to claim first home Win

Sebastian Vettel took a tough victory for the first time in front of his home crowd at the Nurburgring ahead of two charging Lotus cars to stamp his authority on the championship race once more after his failure to score in Britain.

The legendary circuit boiled in the summer sunshine, delivering high temperatures that saw the tyre performance shift and the Mercedes cars slip backwards again with degradation problems while the Lotus cars found form not seen since Bahrain. Pole sitter Hamilton slipped back to fifth as the champion held off a late charge from Raikkonen, while Grosjean held onto his podium from a rapidly advancing Fernando Alonso.

Into the Weekend

Following a breathtaking duel in Britain, the main story yet again for Formula 1 was tyres. After the huge failures we saw at Silverstone, Pirelli have been under the microscope regarding...

The Wall of Champions is perhaps one of the most recognisable walls in Formula 1. It has claimed the cars of many champions over the years such as Hill, Schumacher, Vettel and Jacques Villeneuve the son of the great Gilles Villeneuve whom the Canadian circuit is named after. Partly wet and partly dry, this race weekend was excellent.

Qualifying

Throughout qualifying there was a steady amount of rainfall which helped in mixing the grid up for the race. Q1 saw both Marussia and Caterham drivers out along with Romain Grosjean and Paul Di Resta again. A poor showing from the Force India team as Di Resta had to start out of position again. Romain Grosjean was also put to the back of the grid after he was given a 10 place grid penalty for his collision with Daniel Ricciardo in Monaco. Q2 was disrupted towards the end by Felipe Massa spinning off...

The classic street circuit played host to the sixth round of the championship and always provides an incident or two. Here is the roundup of what happened at the weekend.

Qualifying

Q1 saw Massa fail to set a lap after smashing into the barriers at the first corner. Ferrari tried their best to fix the car in time for qualifying, but the damage was too great. Jules Bianchi suffered car issues and would start in 21st with Massa in 22nd. Max Chilton secured 20th, with Gutierrez 19th, Charles Pic 18th and Paul Di Resta an unexpected 17th. He was unable to pit for a fresh set of intermediate tyres and subsequently lost out on Q2. Q2 saw Maldonado who had been fastest in Q1 only manage16th in his Williams with the Caterham of van der Garde gaining 15th, Caterham’s best qualifying result and he is now starting to show great promise.

The Circuit de Catalunya begins the start of the European F1 tour, with a small detour to Canada, and saw host to the 5th round of the championship. Spain is the home to a certain Fernando Alonso and the crowd were certainly out in force to cheer on their driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying saw the usual four cars drop out at the first stage. Giedo van der Garde out-qualified both his teammate and both Marussias to claim 19th ahead of Bianchi, Chilton and teammate Pic in 22nd. Surprisingly both Williams’ were knocked out in Q1 as last year’s winner Pastor Maldonado could only manage 18th behind his rookie teammate Bottas in 17th. Q2 saw both Saubers pick up 15th and 16th with Hulkenberg in front of newcomer Gutierrez. Jenson Button had a terrible qualifying session only managing 14th in the McLaren, not a place he wanted to be in. The...

Ferrari step up in Spanish sunshine

Ferrari’s Spanish weekend turned out almost perfect at Fernando Alonso stormed from the third row of the grid to take an all-conquering victory in front of his adoring fans at Barcelona. Utilising an aggressive four-stop strategy, Alonso was able to push past his rivals to take the chequered flag, as teammate Felipe Massa drove an equally strong race from ninth place to take third and bring Ferrari within 14 points of Red Bull in the constructors championship.

Into the Weekend

After a three-week break, the European season opened with the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, home of thousands of miles of pre-season testing. The teams had their first chance to get back to the factory since the season began, and sought to bring a raft of upgrades to either consolidate or improve their current position in the field after the shakedown of the first...

Bahrain is currently in amidst with protests and civil unrest, yet as with last year the Grand Prix went ahead as planned. Security was increased dramatically around the circuit and it proved effective as no indecencies were reported. The circuit is again a high wear track much like China last week, so there was plenty of pit lane action. Two Drs zones and a multitude of overtaking spots made this race an excellent one to watch.

Qualifying

Q1 saw the battle at the back continue with Caterham finally managing to out-qualify the Marussia of Jules Bianchi. Charles Pic with some new upgrades was able to go nearly a second faster to secure 19th. However he was still half a second off the pace of Gutierrez in 18th and Maldonado, who was surprisingly evicted to 17th by Jean-Eric Vergne. Vergne narrowly avoided the first drop with his 16th place, behind the second Williams of Bottas.

Sebastian Vettel Returns to Dominance in Unsettled Kingdom

Vettel and Red Bull dominated in the desert with a reversal of their strategic fortunes from China, creating an unstoppable balance of performance and protection that carried them to a comfortable victory that keeps them in control of the championship ahead of the European season.

Into the Weekend

For the fourth race of the season so far, the Formula 1 circus touched down in Bahrain, against a backdrop of continued civil unrest, to wrap up the opening fly-away leg of the 2013 calendar ahead of a trip back to base. With temperatures predicted at a constant 35 degrees centigrade for the duration, the dry desert heat makes a change from the high humidity of Malaysia and China, providing different challenges to the teams in their pursuit of perfection.

A typical Hermann Tilke circuit of modern times, Bahrain blends high-speed straights with low-speed corners to provide an emphasis on straight-line speed,...

The Chinese Gp has been on the F1 calendar for nine years and features a bit of everything. From some of the most technical corners to one of the longest straights, China has it all. The circuit features two Drs zones which should encourage a lot of overtaking throughout the race. Tyres are a big thing here as the circuit wears more on the front than the rear, meaning that teams have to plan their strategies to utilise the tyres as efficiently as possible.

Qualifying

Q1 saw both Caterhams and the Marussias drop out as usual. Jules Bianchi out-shined his teammate Max Chilton again by being almost a second faster. He is most certainly one to watch for the future. He is in the Ferrari program after all. Marussia have done some excellent work to get their car significantly quicker than the Caterhams. The other new boys to F1, Gutierrez...

The Malaysian Grand Prix usually doesn’t fail to provide a thrilling race. Last year we saw Fernando Alonso holding off youngster Sergio Perez to win in wet weather, and this time round we saw a slightly different picture. Plagued by controversy it was more the after story rather than the race itself grabbing the headlines. So let us delve into what happened over the weekend’s action.

Qualifying

Qualifying produced a mixed bag of results with it being dry for Q1 and the beginning of Q2, and wet for the rest of the hour. Q1 saw the usual suspects fail to qualify for Q2. Marussia won the battle of back end with Jules Bianchi gaining 19th nearly a second quicker that Charles Pic in the Caterham who could only manage 20th. Max Chilton wasn’t too far off Pic’s pace getting 21st and van der Garde occupied 22nd.

A new season brings a new look to Formula 1, slightly new rules, one less team and a host of new drivers. The stepped noses have gone! No more ugly cars for us to look at. Double Drs made famous by Mercedes is now banned for all the teams this season. As there is one less team this year, six cars instead of seven will be eliminated in each stage of qualifying which will still leave the final 10 to battle out for the pole position.

So let’s take a look at the drivers and teams for this year.

Red Bull

1 – Sebastian Vettel, 2 – Mark Webber

The same team from last year are back to hopefully maintain their run of excellent results not only in the constructors championship, but for three time and current reigning world champion Vettel.

Ferrari

3 – Fernando Alonso, 4 – Felipe Massa

Ferrari stick to their same driver line up which...

Lotus Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen showed exactly why he has been considered a title contender in pre-season with a solid win in Melbourne.

The 2007 world champion finished more than 12 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso, whose Ferrari showed great pace in the dry conditions. Sebastian Vettel, who had started on pole, finished third.

Vettel’s Red Bull team will be disheartened by their lack of pace, struggling in particular with tyre degradation. “After a good two-three laps the tyres were falling apart,” said the third-placed German. “We couldn’t go as long as other people.”

It was a world away from the latter half of last season, where a Red Bull pole position had almost guaranteed a Red Bull win. Mark Webber, who had an awful start in what could be his last home Grand Prix, passed the chequered flag in sixth place.

Mercedes, too, will be slightly disappointed by the result.

In October, Felipe Massa secured another season sitting in a Ferrari for the upcoming calendar – despite having a dismal start to the season, the Brazilian was rewarded for a string of improved performances, including a podium position in Japan. That was his first podium in 35 races. He has always been a number two in Ferrari colours, but does the 31 year old still have the pace to compete for one of the top 3 teams in the sport?

Massa’s career in red has been an eventful one to say the least: replacing fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello for the 2006 season at Ferrari, Massa landed himself a seat partnering Michael Schumacher in the German’s farewell year. Finishing on the podium in the European, French and Japanese GPs, plus victories in Turkey and is home race in Interlagos, Massa’s first season with Ferrari was fairly successful. And when the chequered flag waved...

Circuit of the Americas Summary

The last two races in this year’s season saw a brand new track for everyone and a classic which has been on the Grand Prix calendar for several years. Last week we saw F1 return to the USA at the new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. With the circuit being freshly laid it made the track very interesting to drive on as it offered little grip to the drivers. Qualifying wise Vettel managed to snatch pole from a very fast Hamilton, and the other title contender Alonso, could only manage 7th. The race as a whole was great. Lots of overtaking, and very large run off areas made it an interesting race with some great moves throughout. Hamilton managed to pass Vettel for the lead to clinch his fourth victory but it wasn’t enough to impact on the title standings. Alonso...

With three races remaining and 75 points up for grabs, one thing is for certain – Sebastien Vettel and Fernando Alonso need to deliver this weekend.

Going into this weekend, Vettel is leading the Driver’s Championship by 13 points. 240 to Fernando’s 227. With 25 points for a race win, Red Bull can ill-afford any mistakes this weekend.

On paper, Red Bull have clearly the fastest car on the grid. They have endured a resurgent return to form in the last 6 races, with Vettel winning in India, Korea, Singapore and Japan with also a 2nd place finish in Belgium.

The season has been a difficult one for Red Bull – with the being new regulations regarding the infamous “Blown-Diffusers” from last season, they have struggled to repeat their dominant form from 2011. However, as the season has progressed, Adrian Newey and his team have managed to develop their car into a similar dominant force as they enjoyed throughout last season.

Sebastian is the only driver this season to win back to back races. That shows you how good a season this one is. Seven different drivers have won a race compared to last year’s five. Vettel also managed to win back to back races on four separate occasions last year, whereas this year he is the only driver to manage that feat. This shows how much more competitive Formula 1 has become.

In other news…

Hamilton is moving to Mercedes next season when they bring back the Turbo engines. McLaren offered him more money but he still decided to leave. Lewis will be stepping into the shoes of Michael Schumacher as he announced his retirement from F1. Will Michael be retiring for good this time? The young Mexican Sergio Perez will be moving from Sauber to take Lewis’s old seat at McLaren. I think the partnering of Jenson Button...

The news was not a shock. Eddie Jordan on the BBC website was the first to reveal Hamilton and Mercedes were in negotiations, and with each passing interview with Martin Whitmarsh or Lewis Hamilton, I never had the feeling either British party was going all in to sign on the dotted line.

The first thought that comes to mind is money. Reports are mixed as to which team – McLaren or Mercedes – offered the largest basic salary. The Telegraph pointed to sources saying Mercedes were offering close to £60million over three years, an increase on Hamilton’s current £15million a season deal with McLaren. The Woking based team, on the other hand, were looking to make economies. Ron Dennis said his contract was signed during less austere times, indicating McLaren were looking to offer the former World Champions less money. The signing of the talented Sergio Perez, backed by Carlos Slim’s billions,...

Lewis seemed to have gained his winning ways back, and this could possibly have put him back into championship contention. Going into the race around the Marina Bay Street Circuit Fernando Alonso had a 37 point lead over Hamilton in the championship and almost had the luckiest Ferrari since the Schumacher era. Alonso has been the most consistent so far with only one non points finish caused by a certain Frenchman trying to fly a car. The Frenchman in question, Grosjean, was back to racing after his ban so could he hopefully have some success for a change? Either way, onto the only night race in the calendar.

Qualifying

Speaking of the Frenchman Grosjean, he set the fastest time in Q1 guaranteeing himself a place in Q2 alongside his teammate Raikkonen who also posted an impressive first session time. Q1 saw the familiar faces of Hrt, Marussia and Caterham dropping out at the first qualifying hurdle.

Can lightning strike twice? The answer is yes it can. I would put a link to something showing how lightning works but you’re here to read about the F1 so I’ll keep the Physics lesson for another day.

Monza is home to Ferrari and is one of the fastest tracks on the calendar. The cars are full throttle for nearly 80% of the lap meaning a strain on engines, and with the sheer amount of gear changes with all the hairpins, a strain on the gearbox too. A regular sight in Monza is the red sea of Ferrari fans that make up the Tifosi and will scream at anything red with the prancing horse on its nose.

Qualifying

Caterham, Marussia and Hrt were the first departees of Q1 along with Driver of the Day from last week Nico Hulkenberg who had a suspected gearbox problem and had to pull over leaving him in 24th.

Two races into the second half of the season and a McLaren has led from start to finish. After Jensen Button romped home from pole in Spa, Lewis Hamilton repeated the trick at Monza. Button qualified second behind his team mate and a one-two looked on the cards, but a fuel supply problem ended hopes for a dream weekend in Italy.

Spa and Monza are high speed circuits, with high speed straights that suit the McLaren’s characteristics. With Lotus struggling with their much hyped double-drs system, it is the team from Woking who have made the most of the mid-season break. Fernando Alonso continues to wring as much as is humanly possible from the Ferrari, Red Bull appear to have taken a step backwards, while Mercedes and Lotus are still unable to extract race winning pace from their cars.

However, the rocket red shirts that come out for a...

Lotus finally proved they are a force to be reckoned with when their cars are working but they had no answer for Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren blitzing the Hungaroring to win from Pole. Kimi Raikkonen got close to Hamilton after a scrap with his team-mate but was held off by the 2008 Champion who took his 2nd win of the season to close the gap on Alonso before the Summer break.

Hamilton got away well at the start with Vettel having a nip at the Lotus of Grosjean but getting pushed out and overtaken by Jenson Button dropping the Red Bull to 4th. Grosjean proved to be a thorn in Hamilton’s side as he closed the gap quite quickly whilst on the softs but once he got close he simply couldn’t make the advantage count. Raikkonen wasn’t having any of that, letting everyone pit and running long on...

Fernando Alonso started on Pole at Silverstone and couldn’t bring it home, but he had no such issue on Sunday in the Ferrari. Harried by Jenson Button’s McLaren until the final few laps, Fernando drove brilliantly to extend his lead in the Drivers Championship. Vettel followed him over the line in 2nd but is under investigation after passing Jenson Button off the racetrack on the penultimate lap.

Button drove brilliantly from 6th, eating slowly into Alonso’s lead but to no avail in the end finishing 3rd pending Vettel’s result. Raikkonen drove well in the Lotus but strategy stopped him catching the leaders, running 2 stints on the soft tyre and only one on the preferred harder option which performed better on the cars.

Sauber once again showed their dominance of the midfield, getting 5th and 6th with Kobayashi and Perez who took a penalty at the start...

At a wet Hockenheim, Fernando Alonso stormed to pole for Sunday’s German Grand Prix. Sebastien Vettel will join him on the front row, while a five place grid penalty means Mark Webber will start eighth, with Michael Schumacher and Niko Hulkenberg making it three Germans in the top 4.

Jenson Button is 6th, Lewis Hamilton will be 7th, and Paul Di Resta will be 9th.

Q1 started dry but rain came down in Q2, and teams quickly moved from dry to intermediate, and finally full wet tyres. The lap times demonstrated the unpredictability that rain brings, especially when race day is set to be dry, as the teams are locked into their set up from the end of qualifying. Do they gamble with a dry set up that will make them slow in the race, or go for grid position hoping the notoriously poor weather forecasts that accompany F1 races turn out to be wrong?...

Mark Webber drove a beautiful race to win at a surprisingly sunny Silverstone Gp, snatching the win from Fernando Alonso in the dying stages of the race with a perfect strategy. Alonso led the race up until the 48th lap of 52 but had to finish the race on the Soft tyres which led to his downfall as Webber completed the race on the harder compound which kept their life to push him to the win.

Red Bull started the race on the soft compound unlike Alonso on the harder which meant they could run the strategy of completing the last 2 stints on the preferred hard tyres. Alonso pushed as much as he could but unfortunately his soft tyres started gaining in the last few laps enabling Webber to close in and pass through the Drs section with a lot more grip.

Sebastian Vettel started closing on Alonso but ultimately was...

Were into the 2nd race of the European section of the F1 Calendar and at the pinnacle of motorsport, Monaco. Many a F1 driver has dreamed of the perfect lap, the perfect race and receiving the trophy from the Prince of Monaco. We start with some news of Pastor Maldonado taking a 10 place grid penalty for scything into Sergio Perez during practice 3, this is along with Michael Schumacher taking a 5 place grid penalty for hitting Bruno Senna in Spain.

Q1 is underway and a lot of people having major trouble with traffic. Maldonado quickly sets a fast lap but a lot of drivers on the track leads to a lot of people being blocked. There is a few potential points going up to the stewards on people blocking quick laps, right up until Sergio Perez smacks the barriers after setting the fastest middle sector. At least this year he isn...

The new Formula One season revs into gear this weekend, but who’s who and which team will be employing those hopeful drivers this year?

This is a quick summary of the key facts you need to know about the first six drivers for 2012.

Red Bull Racing

1. Sebastian Vettel (Ger)

24 years old

Current World Champion with Red Bull (2010, 2011)

He scored 392 points last season with 11 race wins and a record 15 pole positions.

Former F1 Employers: BMW Sauber, Scuderia Toro Rosso

2. Mark Webber (Aus)

35 years old

Veteran in his sixth season with Rbr

He finished third last season with 1 race win and 3 pole positions, scoring 258 points.

Former F1 employers: Minardi, Jaguar, BMW, Williams

McLaren

3. Jenson Button (Gbr)

32 years old

Former World Champion with Brawn Gp (2009)

He finished second in the 2011 standings with 3 race wins, totalling 270 points.

Former F1 employers: BMW, Benetton, Renault, Honda, Brawn

4. Lewis Hamilton (Gbr)

27 years old

Former World Champion...

Lewis Hamilton fought a terse battle with Fernando Alonso to take a convincing victory after Sebastian Vettel made an unscheduled exit from the race on the first lap at the Yas Marina circuit today.

Vettel looked confident that he would bring another race victory after his qualifying performance yesterday but fate conspired against him and after flying ahead in his usual style he was pitched unceremoniously from the track as his right rear tyre suddenly exploded. The young German was spun violently across the runoff area with his tyre in shreds and despite managing to limp back to the pits he was clearly unhappy when his engineers told him the damage was to severe to repair.

As Lewis Hamilton took full advantage of his good fortune and set about building up his lead, further down the field the Mercedes Petronas pairing of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg pushed each other...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theseoduke/6340894942/

Fia F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2011

Race Report

Hamilton seizes glory as Vettels luck runs out.

Lewis Hamilton fought a terse battle with Fernando Alonso to take a convincing victory after Sebastian Vettel made an unscheduled exit from the race on the first lap at the Yas Marina circuit today.

Vettel looked confident that he would bring another race victory after his qualifying performance yesterday but fate conspired against him and after flying ahead in his usual style he was pitched unceremoniously from the track as his right rear tyre suddenly exploded. The young German was spun violently across the runoff area with his tyre in shreds and despite managing to limp back to the pits he was clearly unhappy when his engineers told him the damage was to severe to repair.

As Lewis Hamilton took full advantage of his good fortune and...

Formula 1 drivers are going head-to-head off the track to see whose exclusive, signed photo raises the most money for the charity Sightsavers International.

Following on from his amazing win in the Indian Grand Prix this weekend, Sebastian Vettel’s Eyes on F1 photo has gone up for auction this week. The social media campaign has already raffled photos of Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton. Still to come are Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

Read more...

They entertain people, but this time around it was the turn of celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Bipasha Basu and Deepika Padukone to let their hair down at pop icon Lady Gaga.s maiden performance in India and party hard.The singer, who has chart-toppers like .Poker face., .Judas. and .Born this way. to her credit, performed at the F1 after-party at the Jaypee Greens Golf and Spa Resort in Greater Noida Sunday night. The party was attended by the Who.s Who of India.s film, fashion, F1 and business worlds.Actress Bipasha Basu, who flaunted a short orange and black dress, said: .I am very excited about Lady Gaga.everyone wants to see Lady Gaga. My favourite track of hers is .Bad romance...Celebrities stopped over at the red carpet to share their excitement with the media about watching Gaga live..I am looking forward to watching Gaga.

Rupert Grint closed out the Singapore F1 Grand Prix in grand style along with many other VIPs and celebrities at Amber Lounge, as reported by Plushasia.com At the exclusive club, revelers celebrated the end of the Grand Prix over two nights of music, mingling, and dancing. Along with our own favorite F1 aficionado, Amber Lounge played host to many F1 drivers, including Singapore Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso, Rubens Barichello, Felipe Massa, and Nico Rosberg, to name but a few. Photos of Rupert from Amber Lounge can be seen here in our gallery .

Richard Hammond has said that he is still recovering from the injuries sustained in his high-speed car crash three years ago. The presenter told Top Gear Magazine that reading about Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa's recent accident reminded him of his own experience. Hammond said: "I damaged the front of my brain in my crash in 2006 and the thought of someone else having to set off on the lengthy journey to recovery from (more)...

Cologne, Germany -- The surprise return of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher to Formula 1 car racing is certain to rev up ratings for German broadcaster Rtl when Schumacher hits the track again next month.

Schumacher will climb back into the cockpit Aug. 23 for Ferrari, replacing driver Felipe Massa, who was severely injured in a crash last week.

The comeback is temporary -- Schumacher is expected to make way for Massa at the end of the season. But Rtl is still betting on a major ratings boost because, for Rtl viewers, Schumacher is the equivalent of nitroglycerin in the tank.

Some 13.4 million Germans tuned in to watch his last race in 2006 and Rtl's ratings for the sport have never been higher than when local hero "Schumi" was behind the wheel.

"He's an absolute audience magnet, no doubt about it," said Rtl spokeswoman Heike Schultz. "These are tragic circumstances with Massa's injury...