Roadside to play '30 Beats'

Roadside Attractions has acquired U.S. and Latin American rights to Alexis Lloyd's directorial debut "30 Beats." Lionsgate will handle all non-theatrical rights, including VOD, DVD, and television in the U.S. and Latin America. Roadside will release the pic June 1 theatrically and day-and-date on VOD. Studio 37 acquired French rights and will jointly release the pic with Latitude 49 theatrically in France on March 21st. Ensemble cast includes Paz de la Huerta, Justin Kirk, Lee Pace, Thomas Sadoski and Jennifer Tilly. Pic follows a group of NYers whose lives intertwine through a series of sexual encounters during a summer heat wave. Lloyd, the former topper of Pathe U.K., loosely based the pic on Arthur Schnitzler's play "La Ronde." Helmer also wrote and produced the film. Molly Conners and Carl Ford also produced. Exec producers include Susan Batson, Ronald Guttman and Pierre Lagrange. Roadside co-prexy Howard Cohen negotiated the deal on behalf of the distrib, with Lloyd and attorney Evan Krauss negotiating on behalf of the filmmakers. Contact Rachel Abrams at Rachel.Abrams@variety.com

Idris Elba Promises 'Prometheus' Contains The 'Great DNA' Of 'Alien'

There's plenty of mystery surrounding the impending release of "Prometheus." The trailer did nothing to clear the air about the movie's plot or connection to the "Alien" franchise, and all of the film's stars have been doing their best to keep it that way. Needless to say, when MTV News recently caught up with star Idris Elba, no one expected him to give much more information than what is already out there. And that's exactly what he did, though I'm pretty sure he's downplaying how significant his role is in the movie. "There's a ship and I fly it. That's it! It doesn't get any more interesting than that," Elba teased of his character, the captain of the ship at the heart of the film. Though he wouldn't give away much of the plot of "Prometheus," Elba was willing to address its connection to the "Alien" franchise. It's long been known that "Prometheus" takes place in the same universe as "Alien," but won't act as a direct prequel. Elba confirmed that, adding that "Prometheus" will be an entirely different beast from director Ridley Scott's previous sci-fi film "Ridley allowed us to live in his idea, his dream of what this film is about. Aliens aside, Ridley again creates a new character, a series of characters that are in a crazy predicament," Elba said. "It captures all the great DNA stuff of 'Aliens,' that's all in this film as well. But it's a different film altogether." But will "Prometheus" be good? Elba certainly thinks so. The movie doesn't hit theaters until June 8, but Elba has seen some footage already and is a big fan. "I just saw some of it literally last week. It looks amazing. It looks amazing!" he said. Are you looking forward to "Prometheus"? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!

Mythology picks up 'Altered Carbon'

Mythology Entertainment, the recently minted banner formed by Brad Fischer, Laeta Kalogridis and James Vanderbilt, has acquired feature rights to Richard Morgan's sci-fier "Altered Carbon." Fischer, Kalogridis and Vanderbilt will produce, with Mike Medavoy and Arnie Messer exec producing. Kalogridis, who penned "Shutter Island" and exec produced "Avatar," will adapt the novel along with David Goodman. The deal for "Altered Carbon" also covers books in Morgan's "Takeshi Kovacs" series. "Altered Carbon" was previously set up with Warner-based Joel Silver. First published in 2002, "Altered Carbon" is set in a future where consciousness is digitized and stored in cortical stacks implanted in the spine, allowing humans to survive physical death by having their memories and consciousness "re-sleeved" into new bodies. The story follows specially trained soldier Takeshi Kovacs, who's downloaded from an off-world prison and into the body of a disgraced cop at the behest of a highly influential aristocrat who's convinced he was murdered and wants Kovacs to find out the truth. "?'Altered Carbon' is one of the most seminal pieces of post-cyberpunk hard science fiction out there -- a dark, complex noir story that challenges our ideas of what it means to be human when all information becomes encodable, including the human mind," said Kalogridis. Mythology launched in November and has closed deals on the John Bellairs' series of family-fantasy books, beginning with "The House With a Clock in Its Walls," which "Supernatural" creator Eric Kripke is adapting; and drama series "The Lobotomist" at HBO with Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way, with Dan Thomsen writing the pilot and Robert Schwentke directing. Shingle's in production on Antoine Fuqua's Suge Knight documentary for Showtime. Mythology is repped by attorneys Katz Golden Rosenman and McKuin, Frankel & Whitehead. Morgan is repped by Alan Nevins at Renaissance Literary & Talent on behalf of the Orion Publishing Group and Carolyn Whitaker of London Independent Books. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

Reese Witherspoon's MTV First: 'This Means War' Begins Now!

In addition to gentlemen, you should not need to fight each other with time with Reese Witherspoon. You'll be able to all possess a nice, extended interview while using Oscar winning actress the next, at this time around, on MTV First: This Means War! Beginning at 7:56 P.M. EST, tune into MTV as your own Josh Horowitz chats track of Witherspoon. We'll be debuting a distinctive new clip within the Valentine's rom-com, additionally to some 30-minute chat that'll occur the next on MTV.com. Reese will show you about her approaching spy movie opposite Tom Sturdy and Chris Pine, in addition she'll also spill the beans on whatever you ever wanted to learn about her days getting started in Hollywood, who she thinks is her all-time most difficult working costar (spoiler: he's a vampire which he loves tigers), and even more. Everything starts tonight, so stay updated now!