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The History of American Cinema: 2009

September - December

New Line and the Tolkien Trust reach an agreement over the distribution of profits for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, leaving the way clear for production of The Hobbit to begin in 2010.   The Trust filed a suit against New Line in February 2008. [ADD]

Gerald and Patricia Green are found guilty of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, eight counts of violating the act and seven counts of money laundering relating to the Bangkok Film Festival. [MORE]

Screenwriter Roger Avary is sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for causing a car crash that killed passenger and injured his wife on 13^th January 2008. [MORE]

Quentin Tarantino announces that he plans to film a third installment of the Kill Bill series. [ADD]

The US files its formal request for the extradition of Roman Polanski from Switzerland.  The 76-year-old director has been in custody since his arrest in Zurich on 26^th September 2009.  He faces a prison sentence of up to two years if he returns to the States. [ADD]

Paranormal Activity, the $15,000 horror film from Paramount rises to the top of the weekend box office with a take of $22 million.  By comparison, Saw VI takes just $14.8 million in its opening weekend despite playing in over a thousand more cinemas than Paranormal Activity. [ADD]

Screenwriter Paul Haggis resigns his membership of the Church of Scientology in protest at its position on same-sex marriage. [MORE]

Rumours start to circulate that the troubled studio MGM will be effectively auctioned off within weeks. [ADD]

Will Ferrell is named Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Movie Star by Forbes Magazine, largely because of the disastrous box office performance of Land of the Lost (2009). [MORE]

The Twilight Saga: New Moon earns a record-breaking $72.7 million (£43.7 million) on its’ opening day at the US box office, beating the old record held by The Dark Knight by $5.5 million (£3.3 million). [ADD]

Katherine Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker wins best feature and ensemble cast awards at the Gotham Independent Film Awards. [MORE]

Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, in which George Clooney stars as a corporate hatchet man who spends 320 days a year travelling across the world to fire people from their jobs, wins four awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor at the National Board of Review Awards. [MORE]

Jennifer Jones, the Hollywood actress who starred in such movies as The Song of Bernadette (1943), Duel in the Sun (1946) and A Farewell to Arms (1957), dies of natural causes at her home in Malibu, California at the age of 90. [ADD]

James Cameron’s keenly awaited fantasy Avatar, the first live-action film to be shot entirely in 3D, earns $77 million (£48 million) domestic and $236 million (£147.1 million) worldwide in its opening weekend.   The film cost a total of $425 million to make and market.  Industry observers estimate the film needed $79 million (£49 million) domestic in its opening weekend to break even, although attendances may have been adversely affected by severe snowstorms on the east coast. [ADD]