TheChek News Flow

The Culver Studios, where ‘Gone With The Wind’ was filmed, may be leased for content arm

Apple is eyeing the studio where films from Gone With The Wind to The Matrix were shot, as the base for its big push into Hollywood production.

The iPhone maker is in discussions to move its original content division to The Culver Studios, whose former owners include RKO, Howard Hughes and Cecil B DeMille.

Apple’s interest in a studio which has been central to Hollywood moviemaking for close to a century, comes amid an intensifying Silicon Valley battle for the best movie scripts and television projects.

Google’s YouTube is producing original television series, as is Amazon, which recently won Oscars for Manchester by the Sea and has been linked with a move to The Culver Studios.

The Culver Studios would give Apple room to expand as it hires top Hollywood talent, according to three people familiar with the discussions. The site has 13 soundstages up to 32,000 sq ft in size that can accommodate TV show shoots and full-length feature film work. But Apple is mainly looking for office space, albeit in an iconic location that signals its ambitions to become a big force in Hollywood.

Apple declined to comment. The Culver Studios did not respond to requests for comment.

Apple intends to spend more than $1bn a year on original content and recently hired Sony duo Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg to lead its push. The pair oversaw the production of hit programmes including Breaking Bad and The Crown, and have been set the task of building a library of around a dozen original TV shows. 

Among the projects Apple is vying for is a high-profile drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, set on a morning TV chat show. The company is bidding against the likes of Netflix for rights to the drama, according to people familiar with the discussions, in a sign that Apple is considering premium productions akin to those found on HBO, the TV network.

However, despite its latest push, Apple has struggled to make a serious dent in the TV industry. Its recent Planet of the Apps reality show, streamed through its Apple Music service, has widely been seen as a flop, while a recent study by analysts at Parks Associates found that Apple’s TV box is losing market share in the US to rivals Roku, Amazon and Google.

Still, the scale of Apple’s new budget and recruitment of the sought-after Sony pair is making some in Hollywood believe that this time it is more committed to breaking into the film and TV industry.

“They woke up and said, ‘Let’s really do this’,” said one Hollywood agent. “It’s a lot different to a year or two ago.”

The Culver Studios is close to the Sony Pictures studio lot in Culver City, as well as Beats, the audio group Apple bought two years ago.

Apple’s expansion in the heart of the entertainment industry comes as the company has said that it wants to double the amount of revenues it receives from services such as Apple Music, iCloud and the App Store by 2021 to make them into a $50bn business. 

Apple, which is expected to unveil a new version of its TV box at a press event on September 12, has said that its services division is already the size of a standalone Fortune 100 company.

*CHINA MERCHANTS IS SAID TO ANALYZE SEADRILL, SHELF DRILLING

Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, is one of several big-name investors who have backed the offshore testing of the experimental herpes inoculation by the company Rational Vaccines, The Daily Beast reported.

A former Hollywood filmmaker, who has not been identified publicly, was also a financial backer — and has claimed that the vaccine was successful during clinical trials, The Daily Beast reported.

The investment group kicked in at least $7 million for the research, and hoped to run tests in Mexico and Australia, according to the report.

The trials were reportedly performed in St. Kitts from April to August 2016 — without approval of the US Food and Drug Administration or the oversight of an institutional review board, also known as IRB — on a group of 20 people, mostly Americans.

St. Kitts officials told The Daily Beast the tests were conducted without government permission.

“The Ministry of Health states categorically that neither the Cabinet, the Ministry of Health, the office of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) nor the St. Kitts and Nevis Medical Board has ever been approached on this project,” a government press release said Wednesday night.

Agustín Fernández III, co-founder of Rational Vaccines, told The Daily Beast that his partner, William Halford, assured him he informed the St. Kitts government.

But Halford, a tenured professor at Southern Illinois University and lead researcher on the island project, died of cancer in June.

American researchers in recent years have opted to test new drugs abroad to cut costs. FDA rules require them to be monitored by an IRB or international equivalent when experimenting on humans.

Rational Vaccines claims there was little or no risk of the participants being harmed — because they already had herpes.

Still, experts told The Daily Beast that there is almost no chance of the vaccine being approved by the FDA, due to the fact that the company refused to follow American regulations or traditional safety rules.

“You can’t just ignore human-subject protections that have evolved since the end of the Second World War,” said Jonathan Zenilman, chief of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center’s Infectious Diseases Division.

“What they’re doing is patently unethical,” he added. “There’s a reason why researchers rely on these protections. People can die.”

Thiel’s reps did not respond to Daily Beast requests for comment.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. fund investors regained their risk appetite during the latest week, draining money market funds and pouring their cash into stocks after six straight weeks of withdrawals.

Stock exchange-traded funds in the United States attracted $9.2 billion during the week ended Aug. 30, the most since June, according to Lipper data on Thursday.

That more than offset the $3.1 billion that bled from equity mutual funds in the same period, the research service said. Mutual funds are heavily favored by retail investors, while ETFs draw a diverse set of clients, including fast-trading hedge funds.

Tom Roseen, head of research services for Thomson Reuters’ Lipper unit, said there is plenty to worry about with ongoing conflict between North Korea and the United States as well as “lofty” U.S. stock prices. Yet the global economy looks good.

“People were a little bit more aggressive,” Roseen said of ETF investors. “They were just focused on the good news.”

Funds focused on domestic shares pulled in $3.9 billion, the most since June. Internationally focused equity funds pulled in $2.2 billion, the most since July, Lipper said.

Money market funds, which have pulled in tens of billions this summer as calm markets turned turbulent, posted $19.9 billion in withdrawals during the latest week, the data showed.

But Roseen said uncertainty is keeping demand up for some safe-haven investments. Gold is trading at $1,321 an ounce, up nearly 9 percent from early July.

Precious metals commodities funds, which invest directly in gold and other similar assets, pulled in $766 million in their largest week of inflows since June. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF pulled in $213 million, the most since March. That fund buys shares in companies that produce bullion.

MICROFOCUS - Ex the special div of today of 168p post the HP deal completion...

VIVENDI - Q2 UMG recorded revs grow +17% and margin also expand 270bps (20).+3%

VOLVO - New bullish medium term targets are bit above consensus ests (138)+1-2%

H&M - Upbeat CEO interview on Direkt; says '18 sales target to be met (203).+1%

AIRBUS - We UPGRADE to Neutral, raising our FCF ests by 1-2% for '18-'19(71)+1%

INGENICO - FT reporting Hellman & Friedman is in the lead to buy NETS (84)..+1%

MTU AERO - We U/G to Neutral. Strong growth ahead, near term headwinds(119).+1%

WIRECARD - FT reporting Hellman & Friedman is in the lead to buy NETS (72)..+1%

MINERS - Copper +0.1%, Iron Ore fut +1.1% with BHP OZ +0.1%, RIO OZ +0.37%..u/c

NYRSTAR - Completes sale of Contonga mine for $21m. Is not material (6.04)..u/c

GEMALTO - Op profit inline with preannouncement/ guidance from July (45.4)..u/c

ILIAD - Revs solid, up 7.7% YoY but EBITDA a touch light, KPIs mixed (215)..-1%

INDIVIOR - Loses ruling over 3 patents for suboxene / their main drug (354)-15%

Gemalto +2-3% Q2 revs inline, H1 margin light, short int has increased

Iliad M/P Revs 1% ahrad, EBITDA 1% light

Indivior -c10% Loses rulings over three patents for Suboxone

Miners UNCH Copper +0.10%, Brent +0.85%, Iron Ore +3.00%, China UNCH

Peugeot +0.5% French wew car registrations climbed +9.4% y/y in Aug

Renault +1% French wew car registrations climbed +9.4% y/y in Aug

Sonova M/P Appoints Arnd Kaldowski as new CEO

Vivendi +3-5% EBITDA up 16% to €203m. Confirms FY Outlook

Volvo +2% Announces a new operating margin target of above 10%

ZPG M/P Small acquisition - Acquires Ravesworth

* Indivior INDV- Sees Significant Risk to Guidance After Court Ruling. -15%

* Intermediate Cap ICP- Stephen Welton joins Board as NED, current Chief Exec of Business Growth Fund. Unch

* Jackpot Joy JPJ- Jorgen Nordlund steps down as NED. Unch

* Rathbones RAT- Merger talks with Smith & Williamson terminated, Rathbones taking a £5m charge in relation to expenses to this. -1%

* Rio Tinto- Completes Sale of Coal & Allied to Yancoal. Cutting Thermal Coal guidance to 13-14m tonnes from 17-18m tonnes. -1%

* Vertu Motors VTU- Sells Freehold on Leeds dealership for £14m, Current Trading inline with previous est’s. Unch

* ZPG- Buys Ravensworth, a leading printers for Estate Agent services. Unch

*VIVENDI-Q2 Rev 2.77b(2.70),UMG OG 15.2%,Op Margin 12.3%(10.9%).....+3%

*ACCOR-Confirms Etchandy-Stabile leaving HotelServices France......U/C

*GEMALTO-H1 Rev 1.39b(1.38),OP 93m(93),FY OP 293m-323m(323m)........-2%

*AUTOS-French Aug Regs +9.4%,PSA +7% in Aug,Renault +12% in Aug.....+0.5%

*ILIAD-H1 Rev 2.46b(2.44),NI 232.6m(209.5),New Mobile Subs 440k.....-1%

*SONOVA-Names Arnd Kaldowski as CEO from 1st April 2018.............U/C

*LUFTHANSA-Condor mgmt considering full takeover of Air Berlin(N/D).+0.5%

*H&M-To roll out click & collect,1hr delivery,itro a new brand......+0.5%

*WIRECARD-Nets PE bids DK31.3b,Wirecard is a rare asset,SI 8.5%.....+0.5%

*UBLOX-Read across from Gemalto sees grth in M2M into H2,SI 7%......+0.5%