65283 Two Bunch Palms Building LLC v. Coastal Harvest II, LLC
Facts: A landlord and a commercial tenant enter into an oral month-to-month occupancy agreement while attempting to negotiate a written lease agreement for use of a commercial property. The commercial tenant takes possession of the property to operate a business selling agricultural produce grown in above-ground pots. Unable to agree to a written lease agreement and with rent paid current, the landlord serves the tenant with a 30-day notice to quit. The tenant refuses to vacate. The landlord files an unlawful detainer (UD) action to recover possession.
Claim: The tenant claims the landlord may not maintain a UD action on a notice to quit since the tenant operates an agricultural business which bars a UD action due to a one-year holdover exemption.
Counterclaim: The landlord claims the tenant is not protected by holdover exemptions for agricultural businesses since the tenant was not in default on their payment of rent.
Holding: A California appeals court holds the landlord may maintain a UD action against the tenant for failure to vacate prior to expiration of a notice to quit since the tenant occupied the property under a month-to-month rental agreement and does not qualify for the agricultural business one-year holdover exemption as the tenant was not in default on their rent. [65283 Two Bunch Palms Building LLC v. Coastal Harvest II, LLC (2023) 91 CA5th 162]
65283 Two Bunch Palms Building LLC v. Coastal Harvest II, LLC
Related Form:
RPI Form 552-5 Commercial Rental Agreement — Month-to-Month Tenancy
Related Articles:
Rent collectible under a lease agreement
Related Reading:
Real Estate Principles: Chapter 34: The tenancies in real estate
Real Estate Principles: Chapter 81: Notices to vacate — Holdover tenancy
Legal Aspects of Real Estate: Chapter 39: Attorney fees reimbursed
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Sumitomo Corporation had won the bid for the two neighbouring plots in 2019 but the deal has been finalised now.
Goisu Realty Private Limited, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Realty and Development Company Limited of Japan, has leased two adjoining plots of almost 3 acres in total in Mumbai’s prime business district Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for 80 years for over Rs 2,067 crore. This deal along with other transactions entered into by Goisu Realty in Mumbai strengthens the financial capital’s position as the country’s hub for global financial/banking services and private equity firms, said real estate consultants.
“This is an affirmation of Sumitomo’s commitment to India and the financial capital Mumbai. Sumitomo has clearly identified Mumbai as one of the prime destinations within their global office portfolio. Given the prominence of BKC, India’s top financial district, the Japanese firm sees Mumbai as a strategic investment. Overall, there are four commercial investments that the Japanese conglomerate has made in Mumbai—three plots in BKC from MMRDA and one in Worli (in a deal with Wadia Group flagship Bombay Dyeing). The BKC deal cumulatively will be around 2 million sq ft of Grade A office development across two towers (once the structures are complete) and the Worli site has the potential of over 6 million sq ft of commercial footprint,” Karan Singh Sodi, senior managing director at property consulting firm JLL India, told Moneycontrol.
These deals further strengthen Mumbai’s position as the financial capital and with planned infrastructure upgrades, attracting talent from other cities will be easier. Moreover, this deal will encourage other Japanese firms to take up commercial space in these locations, he added.
An email has been sent to Sumitomo Realty & Development.
The company paid Rs 111 crore as stamp duty for registering the deal that was sealed on September 3, documents accessed by CRE Matrix showed.
Sumitomo Corporation had won the bid for the two neighbouring plots in 2019 but the deal has been finalised now. It will be permitted to construct an area of 65,000 square metres on the 12,486-sq m plot (a little over 3 acres) at BKC.
Bombay Dyeing had on September 13 announced that its board of directors had approved a proposal to sell a land parcel of about 22 acres (along with the associated floor space Index, or FSI, which is the proportion of the land area to the permissible area of the building on it) in the Worli area of Mumbai to Goisu in two phases, for a total consideration of about Rs 5,200 crore.
In a statement, Bombay Dyeing had said the transaction is subject to the approval of its shareholders. “Upon approval of shareholders, BDMC (Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company) will receive about Rs 4,675 crore from the buyer for Phase-I. The balance amount of about Rs 525 crore will be received upon completion of certain conditions by BDMC and execution & consummation of the definitive agreements thereto for Phase- II,” the company said in a statement.
“I am happy to inform that BDMC is entering into agreements with the Sumitomo Group for the sale of about 22 acres of land (along with the associated FSI) in Worli, Mumbai, for a total consideration of about Rs 5,200 crore,” Nusli Wadia, chairman of BDMC had said.
Last year, a report published in Nikkei had said that Japan’s Sumitomo Realty & Development will invest 500 billion yen ($3.58 billion) in office building projects in India, expanding in what is projected to become the world’s most populous nation mere months from now.
The real estate arm of Sumitomo Corporation, which had earlier acquired another BKC site, plans to construct two buildings with a total floor area of about 130,000 sq m each on the two sites. Completion is expected between fiscal 2025 and 2027, the report had said.
Sumitomo Corporation was established in 1919 and is spread across Asia, Europe, America and Africa. It deals in infrastructure, realty, media, metal products, transportation and construction systems, minerals, energy and chemicals.
A report by JLL India has said that real estate developers had acquired a record 2,181 acres of land between January 2022 and May 2023. This has an estimated development potential of around 209 million square feet. Valued at over Rs 26,000 crore, the acquisition comprised 104 separate land deals. About 84 percent of the 2,181 acres or around 1,822 acres was for proposed residential developments.
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Samuel L. Jackson has become the latest face of UK’s biggest bakery brand Warburtons, joining a series of A-list legends who have taken on the role.
In the new two minute advert the Pulp Fiction star, 74, turns his hand to the top job in the Warburtons business, alongside the bakery’s real chairman, Jonathan Warburton.
While the bread advert may not have the same gravitas as his Oscar-nominated role in Pulp Fiction, Jackson will no doubt have received a hefty cheque for his day of work.
Although bakery boss Jonathan Warburton will not disclose the exact figure he shelled out he confessed the Hollywood partnerships are a ‘huge outlay’ with Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, and George Clooney said to have received six-figure sums when they starred in his campaigns.
Now, MailOnline takes a look at the Hollywood heavyweights who swapped the silver screen for British TV adverts.
Snoop Dogg and Just Eat
In 2020 legendary rapper Snoop Dogg partnered with takeaway service Just Eat, starring in their adverts and recording a new song for the company.
The star gives the jingle ‘Did somebody say Just Eat’ a new twist in the popular advert.
He is said to have been paid £5.3 million for the 30 second clip, with a source explaining: ‘It’s easy money and the adverts have proved a hit with audiences.
‘Snoop is a legendary character so the negotiation took time and plenty of cash. But having him on board has not only driven sales, it’s given the brand a massive boost.’
The music insider added the song has proved very popular on social media and is the company’s most successful advert.
After its success in the UK, the campaign was rolled out across Europe and Australia.
Britney Spears, Kevin Bacon and EE
Golden Globe winner Kevin Bacon has been a brand ambassador for British mobile network operator EE since 2012 and has been featured in several ads for the company.
One notable advert saw him team up with Britney Spears, donning the singer’s iconic red catsuit and dancing around in front of the less than impressed pop star.
EE chief executive Marc Allera said they had chosen Spears for a recognisable and retro feel to the ad campaign, explaining: ‘We were looking for an instantly recognisable star and track with mass appeal, that Kevin could impersonate.
‘We also needed someone willing to embrace the playful nature of our ads and have a bit of fun. Britney was the perfect choice with her red rubber catsuit and her world famous Oops I did It Again track.’
Bacon is allegedly paid in the seven figure range for his EE partnership.
Mr T and Snickers
The A-Team star Mr T starred in one of Snickers’ most memorable and controversial adverts in 2008.
The clip showed the actor in a tank pulling up alongside a man exercising in tight yellow shorts before shouting: ‘Speed walking? I pity you fool. You are a disgrace to the man race. It’s time to run like a real man.’
He then forces the man to break into a sprint by taking pot shots at him with a Snickers machine gun.
It ended with Mr T uttering the slogan to the current Snickers campaign – ‘Get some nuts’.
However, just days after the advert debuted it was taken off the air following strong protests from the U.S. – despite the fact it was never shown on American television.
The U.S. lobby group Human Rights Campaign claimed the advert was homophobic, criticising Mars – which makes Snickers – for condoning ‘the notion that the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is a group of second class citizens and that violence against GLBT people is not only acceptable but humorous’.
A spokesman for Mars said: ‘This ad is the second in a series of UK Snickers ads featuring Mr T, which are meant to be fun and have been positively received in the UK.
‘However, we understand that humour is highly subjective, and it is never our intention to cause offence. Accordingly, we have pulled the Mr T speedwalker ad globally.’
Nicole Kidman, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Compare The Market
Veteran actor and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger surprised fans in 2015 when he signed up to promote a two for one cinema offer with price comparison website comparethemeerkat.com.
In the advert, the former action hero Schwarzenegger was seen facing off against the hugely successful marketing campaign’s loveable meerkats Aleksandr and Sergei Orlov.
An insider said of the casting: ‘Arnie has worldwide appeal. He’s not going to come cheap but it will pay off in the long run.’
Later in the year, Arnie was replace by Oscar winning actress Nicole Kidman.
In the 40-second television advert, mother-of-four Nicole was seen arriving at the door of meerkat Aleksandr’s LA mansion – but proceeds to go on a date with his pal, Sergei.
Much to Aleksandr’s annoyance, the Australian actress finds Sergei adorable for using his Meerkat Movies code to take her to the cinema, and is seen stroking his face affectionately.
Gary Oldman and HTC
Three-time BAFTA winner Gary Oldman lent his star power to phone company HTC in 2014.
While Oldman is famously a method actor, he wouldn’t have needed to immerse himself too much for this role, which saw him say just three lines.
In the clip for the HTC handset One M8 smartphone, Oldman said: ‘Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
‘It doesn’t matter what I say, because the new HTC is designed for people who form their own opinions.
‘So go on then, ask the internet’.
HTC’s global marketing manager, Fiona Naughton, said of their new campaign. ‘We are investing in marketing talent to create different marketing that is not mainstream because we want people to understand the brand as well as the product.’
While it’s not known how much Oldman was paid for the advert, his predecessor Last year Robert Downey Junior was rumoured to have been paid a staggering $12 million to appear in a quirky commercial for the company.
Ryan Reynolds and BT
In 2016, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds parodied his Hollywood lifestyle in an advert for BT.
The big budget campaign featured Reynolds jumping out of cars, walking through glass doors and mass signing autographs while being unable to slow down due to his hectic lifestyle.
The advert was rolled out across TV, national press and online but ended up banned following a complaint from rival Virgin Media.
The campaign promoted its ‘up to’ 52Mb Infinity fibre service as the ‘fastest speeds vs standard entry-level fibre products of major broadband providers’, with one ad including a comparison with Sky that used speedometer graphics.
Virgin Media lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority arguing that the ad misleadingly implied BT’s 52Mb Infinity service was the fastest maximum speed service for a lowest-priced package available in the UK.
The ASA concluded that the ads were misleading and had breached the UK advertising code.
Bruce Willis and Sky Broadband
Action man Bruce Willis starred in a comical Sky Broadband advert in 2013, with the star seen sprinting into an office while in his dressing gown.
The Hollywood heavyweight is struggling with his broadband in the clip, and is unable to watch himself in Die Hard without the picture pixelating.
He ultimately ends up deciding to switch to Sky Broadband before landing a date with an attractive office worker.
However, the advert was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority because it didn’t make clear the commitment customers needed to undertake in order to take advantage of their promotional pricing.
Jackie Chan and Woolworths
Martial arts legend Jackie Chan surprised fans when he appeared in an advert for the now defunct Woolworths in 2008.
The advert was in the style of a sitcom and saw the Karate Kid star chatting to puppets of a sheep and sheepdog.
The bizarre clip saw the puppets run to Woolworths to buy clothes while Chan stayed in the house showing off his karate moves.
While it was not revealed how much Chan was paid for the advert, it may have been more than the High Street department store could afford, as the company went bust in the same year.
UK Commercial Property REIT Limited
Legal Entity Identifier: 213800JN4FQ1A9G8EU25
Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them
1
Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)
Name
Mr Peter Pereira Gray
2
Reason for the notification
a)
Position/status
A Non-Executive Director and PDMR of UK Commercial Property REIT Limited
b)
Initial notification/ Amendment
INITIAL NOTIFICATION
3
Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)
Name
UK COMMERCIAL PROPERTY REIT LIMITED
b)
LEI
213800JN4FQ1A9G8EU25
4
Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)
Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument
Identification code
ORDINARY 25P SHARES
GB00B19Z2J52
b)
Nature of the transaction
ACQUISITION OF SHARES
c)
Price(s) and volume(s)
Price(s)
Volume(s)
£0.53934300
1,280
d)
Aggregated information
— Aggregated volume
— Price
N/a – single transaction
N/a – single transaction
e)
Date of the transaction
2023-09-12
f)
Place of the transaction
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE,MAIN MARKET, XLON
Enquiries
Company Secretary
Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited
PO Box 255, Trafalgar Court
Les Banques
St Peter Port, Guernsey
GY1 3QL
+44 (0)1481 745001
Autonomous aerial vehicles have made headlines since the start of the Ukraine war, with commercial drones changing tactics almost overnight. Given this transformation, policymakers are calling for a renewed focus on autonomy on the ground.
The U.S. Department of Defense is at an important juncture as it thinks creatively and ambitiously on how to leverage this critical new technology at scale for strategic advantage.
The last decade has seen significant technological progress on the ground. An AI-driven revolution is currently underway on American roadways, with important implications for both our economic competitiveness and our national security. After many years and billions of dollars of private sector R&D, autonomous vehicles have arrived.
While autonomous technology will soon begin to fundamentally change the way goods and people move, its impact may soon reach far beyond American roadways. AVs will change the strategy for modern ground warfare while saving lives and keeping our service members out of many dangerous situations.
For years, the U.S. Army has experimented with autonomous ground operations, in which a human-driven leader vehicle would chart a path for one or more autonomous follower vehicles. While the “Leader-Follower” approach frees up manpower and reduces potential human casualties, it also makes leader trucks high-value targets; disabling a single lead vehicle could potentially put an entire convoy at risk.
While the technology developed for “Leader-Follower” was a major innovation, in the past five years American commercial autonomy developers have leapfrogged the many DoD-funded efforts. Passengers can now hail driverless taxis in multiple cities and developers are planning to deploy the first driverless trucks next year — no “leader” vehicle is required.
While these vehicles are not yet as resourceful as human drivers, they are programmed to come to a safe stop, pull over, return to base, or even call for a human to offer remote assistance.
Encouraged by this progress, the Defense Innovation Unit, in partnership with the Army, piloted a program in 2022 to leverage commercial autonomous solutions to make the Robot Combat Vehicle fully autonomous. Through this defense acquisition approach, DoD reaps the benefits of continuous software improvements being learned on U.S. roads every day, while de-risking its technological investments and ensuring solutions are being developed and integrated at the speed of relevance.
The Army continues to think through the best use cases that leverage AVs for high-risk missions such as re-supply, reconnaissance support, casualty evacuation, route clearance, and explosive ordnance disposal. Using human-robot teams offers a solution to an enduring challenge for ground forces — building mass to leverage as a force multiplier. Allowing each soldier to control a small fleet of ground and air systems has the potential to address this challenge, exponentially increasing the capability and flexibility of deployed forces.
Human-robot teams will offer additional capabilities beyond what humans can do alone. Low-cost, attritable autonomous systems can overwhelm adversarial forces by saturating an operational area to force an adversary to move, be detected, or be targeted. They may be able to employ deception to confuse the adversary’s operational picture by making it difficult to differentiate real targets from decoys.
Ground vehicles could also be outfitted with ISR assets and short-range air and missile defense systems and driven autonomously to forward deployed positions to provide better situational awareness, planning, lethality, decision support, and more dispersed and enhanced protection for soldiers in theater.
Re-imaging Army acquisition
However, to fully harness this burgeoning technology and take advantage of the tremendous progress in the commercial sector, the Army should re-imagine its acquisition strategies and be open to new concepts of operations. While Ukraine has understandably caused the Army to double down on its existing focus on resiliency and lethality to better prepare for a high-intensity conflict, it should also be thinking critically about how autonomous systems can focus on injecting redundancy, flexibility, and adaptability into force structure through autonomous systems.
A common myth in defense circles is that commercial industry can only function with fixed infrastructure, well-mapped roads, and structured environments. The reality is that American highways are incredibly unpredictable environments, on par with what Army vehicles must contend with.
The millions of autonomous miles of public road driving these companies have completed gives them a significant advantage as they adapt their mature systems to make meaningful progress in complex environments, off-road, and without a human driver in the vehicle. Companies that are operating commercially will deliver an autonomous solution to the military faster; they have moved beyond science experiments and lab demonstrations to developing and delivering a product.
When it comes to adopting ground autonomy at scale, the U.S. military needs to think ambitiously about how to leverage the advances of the commercial sector for a meaningful strategic advantage for the troops.
Don Burnette is the founder & CEO of Kodiak Robotics, a Mountain View, California-based supplier of autonomous vehicle technology. Lt. Gen. Joe Anderson (ret.) is a former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army.
A Korean media company dropped $37 million to buy a 113,000-square-foot office building near Midtown Manhattan’s Koreatown, Commercial Observer has learned.
RJF Realty unloaded the property at 110 West 32nd Street, with an alternative address of 115 West 31st Street, to a partnership led by MediaWill, a Korean media company, and Tony Park, according to one of the brokers on the deal.
“The sale demonstrates the continued demand for well-located office product with proximity to major transportation hubs such as Penn Station,” Albert Sultan of Kassin Sabbagh Realty (KSR) said in a statement.
Sultan and Sophia Gaines of KSR represented RJF Realty in the sale while Elad Dror of PD Properties negotiated on behalf of MediaWill.
“We are currently seeing a lot of private capital from Europe and Asia looking for opportunities in strong locations in Manhattan, in this case, the building’s proximity to Koreatown and Penn Station was very attractive to the buyers,” Dror said in a statement.
MediaWill paid about $370 per square foot for the property, which has been in the hands of the seller for about 40 years and will be delivered vacant.
“This partnership is looking for additional opportunities in Manhattan across all asset classes,” Park said in a statement.
MediaWill and RJF Realty could not be reached for comment.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
It continues to be a tough market
Real estate insurance rates are up 33% year-over-year while accounting for nearly 10% of an owner’s quarterly per-unit operating expense, according to a report by Marcus & Millichap.
According to Tom Lynch (pictured), Jencap’s senior vice president, this is due to “the way that claims are being litigated and their payouts, plain and simple.”
“However, it goes both ways, if these buildings are in poor condition, they’re not being physically maintained and people are tripping and falling in and around the property, the onus is on the landlord or building manager.”
In a conversation with Insurance Business, Lynch spoke about why this is a tough business class to insure. He also revealed whether new entrants into the space have been pricing incorrectly and whether he sees these rate hikes plateauing or decreasing anytime soon.
“Insurance companies have to underwrite to create a profit”
According to the Marcus & Millichap report, “Insurance costs are rising at an accelerated rate for commercial real estate, while providers concurrently implement new policy limitations to decrease their exposure.
“Together, these dynamics are eroding commercial real estate owners’ and developers’ margins, especially in states with higher environmental risk factors, including Florida, California and Texas.”
Reflecting on this data, Lynch noted how habitational, or commercial insurance, continues to be a tough business class to insure.
“All it takes is one person over the course of a 365-day span to file a claim,” Lynch said. And depending on the severity of that claim and the ensuing litigation, a pretty hefty payout can be expected.
Meanwhile, “insurance companies have to underwrite to create a profit,” Lynch said.
Companies that have been writing business in this space for a while have the analytical tools to back up these prices and need to be transparent with insureds about the negotiation and data mining that goes into each policy.
“While it may not make sense to the consumer, in order for us to even stay in this space in business and be able to pay your claims out, these prices must be where they’re at,” Lynch said.
In his 10 years, the SVP has noticed that many new entrants have come into the space, with a promise to offer rates that are half of what their more established peers are able to underwrite.
“However, the ones who seem to stick around the longest underwrite with integrity, have managed claims and know what to expect setting reserves and defense costs,” he said.
Using emotion instead of legitimate data
Further expanding upon the impact of new entrants into the commercial real estate space, Lynch noted that some budding carriers are unsustainably offering lower rates to lure consumers.
This is driven by a “web of greed” where offering lowered rates to a larger pool of insureds is seen as a good business proposition, Lynch said.
Lynch is quick to note that these carriers are well-intentioned, but they are playing to consumer emotion rather than the legitimate data that might negate their pricing.
“For example, they charge a very cheap rate, let’s say $100 per unit for a 1000-unit building, collecting $100,000 in premium,” Lynch said.
“Something, unfortunately, goes wrong, and now the insurance company is paying $250,000 for that claim. Think of the price they’re going to have to charge the following years for that risk to be profitable.”
What this results in is consumer mistrust since they were initially promised a particular rate that will substantially bloat to recover from a loss or shuttering an operation completely due to a nuclear verdict.
At the end of the day, pricing has to make sense for the insurer
With a healthy bit of optimism, Lynch noted how insurers with a firm grasp of the market have been able to price and adjust accordingly.
It would not make sense for a carrier to write a coverage if there is no return on investment, but that should not scare away consumers from procuring a policy.
“For the folks who are doing things properly there are ways to get involved in better insurance programs. And when you do well, when your claims perform well, your premium is going to reflect that,” Lynch said.
An insurer or broker can significantly mend a policyholder’s risk profile by educating them on how to better safeguard their building from any threats or exposures that commonly lead to a claim.
“Sometimes it’s the building not being in good shape or there are handrails missing from the staircase. There’s a defined middle ground that the insurance company can educate on and try to make everyone happy,” Lynch said.
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Commercial fishermen Karl Warr (left) and Matt Douglas are still feeling the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle on the waters seven months after the event. Photo / James Pocock
Commercial fishers say their catches are down and there’s still debris and sediment heaped on the ocean floor of Hawke’s Bay, as the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle linger seven months on.
Occasionally, debris surfaces –
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23:58 13 Sep 2023, updated 00:10 14 Sep 2023
A new trailer for the upcoming movie Saw X lampoons a viral commercial Nicole Kidman did for AMC two years ago.
In the initial ad, released in September of 2021, Kidman talked up the fun of going to the movies as the industry sought to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic closures.
The new ad for the horror film casts Billy the Puppet in the role Kidman had in the initial ad.
Billy the Puppet is seen making his way into a theater with his own twist on the reverent monologue Kidman delivered in the original ad.
‘We come to this place for a reawakening,’ Billy the Puppet said. ‘We come to the theaters to scream, to beg, to play.’
‘That indescribable feeling we get when the lights flicker on and off, and your calls for mercy go unanswered, and you wake up chained in a dirty warehouse, somehow still breathing.’
Billy the Puppet is seen making his way around the theater on a tricycle as scary scenes from the horror anthology are seen playing on the screen.
‘Somehow, self-amputation feels good in a place like this,’ the ghoulish character said. He ended the clip in saying: ‘Traps – they make movies better.’
Saw X, which is due in theaters September 29, is placed in the franchise timeline between the first and second film, and set in Mexico.
Kidman starred in the movie theater chain’s $25+ million multi-media campaign, which included ‘national television advertising across the United States.’
According to an AMC press release at the time, the campaign was the ‘first national advertising program by a major theatrical exhibitor in the history of cinema.’
Most of AMC’s $25+ million in funding on the ad was ‘spent on network television advertising,’ which was ‘used in nine countries in Europe by AMC’s Odeon Cinema Group.’
Aiming to highlight the ’emotion and experience’ of viewing films on the big screen, the theatre chain crafted multiple cinematic commercials, ranging from 60-seconds, 30-seconds and 15-seconds.
They were directed by Academy Award nominee Jeff Cronenweth, known for his directorial work in 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and his brother Tim Cronenweth.
The commercials were thoughtfully written by Captain Phillips screenwriter Billy Ray, who famously earned an Oscar nod for the 2013 biographical thriller.
‘We come to this place for magic,’ narrates Kidman in a 60-second commercial spot.
She can be seen trekking through the rain towards an illuminated AMC theater.
Kidman goes on to say that people often ‘come to AMC theaters to laugh, to cry, to care’ by means of their favorite films.
The Moulin Rouge actress, rocking a fitted pinstripe suit, strolls into one of AMC’s many theaters and, after walking slowly up a slew of dimly lit steps, finds a seat dead center.
‘Because we need that. That feeling we get when the lights begin to dim and we go somewhere we’ve never been before. Not just entertained, but somehow reborn,’ she continues via narration while various films appear on the big screen before her, including Wonder Woman and Creed.
‘Dazzling images on a huge silver screen. Sound that I can feel. Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this.
‘Our heroes feel like the best part of us. And stories feel perfect and powerful. Because here… they are,’ the star dramatically concludes.
Each commercial spot, in a clear attempt to combat the rise of home-theatrical releases, stresses that AMC theaters ‘make movies better.’
In a statement to THR at the time, AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron said he believed it was ‘high time for an industry leader like AMC to go on television to remind today’s audiences of the magic that can only be found in a movie theatre.’
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak revealed today that the UK is undertaking efforts to support commercial shipping in the Black Sea transporting grain from Ukraine and deterring Russian attacks on cargo ships. This comes as Russia has continued its nightly attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea and Danube seaports despite continuing calls to resume the grain agreement.
On the eve of the G20 Summit starting in India, the prime minister’s office announced a series of new initiatives by the UK designed to promote global food security and respond to “Putin’s weaponization of Ukrainian grain.” The UK blames a spike in global food prices on Russia’s actions highlighting that since “Putin’s decision to rip up the initiative,” Russia has declared that all ships transiting to Ukrainian Black Sea ports are treated as military vessels irrespective of the cargo they are carrying.
In response, the UK said as part of its surveillance operations, “the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft are conducting flights over the area to deter Russia from carrying out illegal strikes against civilian vessels transporting grain.” The UK notes that Russia however did fire shots and board one cargo ship bound for one of Ukraine’s Danube ports, “Actions which may constitute a violation of International Humanitarian Law,” they said in their statement.
Since July, the UK assesses that Russia has also damaged or destroyed at least 26 civilian port facilities, warehouses, silos and grain elevators. These attacks they believe have directly reduced Ukraine’s export capacity by one-third and destroyed enough grain to feed more than one million people for an entire year.
Ukrainian officials highlight that the attacks are continuing with reports that 14 drones were destroyed over the Odesa region, including the Danube ports, on Thursday night. The Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council told the BBC that more than 270,000 tonnes of grain have been destroyed during the recent attacks. The attack on Wednesday night into Thursday morning lasted three hours with additional damage to grain silos and conveyors.
Before the war, the UK reports Ukraine was the world’s fifth largest wheat exporter, fourth largest corn exporter, and third largest rapeseed exporter. Grain accounted for 41 percent of Ukrainian export revenue, and almost two-thirds of the grain exported by the country goes to the developing world, said Sunak.
“We will use our intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to monitor Russian activity in the Black Sea, call out Russia if we see warning signs that they are preparing attacks on civilian shipping or infrastructure in the Black Sea, and attribute attacks to prevent false flag claims that seek to deflect blame from Russia,” Sunak said outlining the UK efforts.
In November, the UK supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, will convene an international food security summit. The focus will be on tackling the causes of food insecurity and malnutrition. In addition, the UK will contribute £3 million to the World Food Program.
These efforts came as Ukraine reported it is expanding grain exports from the ports in neighboring Romania and now Croatia. Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister admitted that Croatian ports are a “niche trade route,” but said it is popular and they look to increase exports along this route. Romanian previously said it was expanding access from the Danube to its seaport of Constanta. This is happening as Russia has not shown any willingness to restart the Black Sea grain agreements.