Monica Seles Writing Memoirs

Monica Seles Is Working on Memoir

Former tennis great Monica Seles is working on a memoir.
She said in a statement Wednesday that she hopes “to share how I found balance, strength and happiness in my life after a rollercoaster ride of exhilarating accomplishment and sometimes overwhelming tragedy”
The book, currently untitled, will be published in 2009 by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).
Seles, 34, won nine Grand Slam tournaments and as a teenager was the top-ranked women’s player for three years, in the early 1990s. But she is also known for one of the sport’s most bizarre and terrifying incidents: In April 1993, at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, she was stabbed in the back by a man who climbed out of the stands.
Seles returned to the game 27 months later and immediately reached the 1995 U.S. Open final. Her final Grand Slam title then came at the 1996 Australian Open. She did reach two more major finals but was hampered by a left foot injury. Her last match was a first-round loss at the 2003 French Open. She officially retired last month.
Seles, who has struggled with weight problems, is currently a contestant on the hit ABC series “Dancing With the Stars.”
“After years of having every aspect of her training, diet and life dictated and scrutinized by others, Monica took control, deciding what she wanted from life and set out to obtain it,” her publisher, Avery, said in a statement.
“Cutting through the fog of sadness, fear and frustration that made Seles overweight and unhappy, today she looks and feels better than ever and has created a life in balance.”

via AOL

Tennis icon Monica Seles has sold her memoir to Avery, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). The untitled project is scheduled for publication in March 2009. The auction for world rights was conducted by Dana Beck at Bill Adler Books.

In this inspiring and revealing memoir, Seles will explore her remarkable journey of brilliant tennis, fame, tragedy, loss and self-discovery. After years of having every aspect of her training, diet and life dictated and scrutinized by others, Monica took control, deciding what she wanted from life and set out to obtain it. Cutting through the fog of sadness, fear and frustration that made Seles overweight and unhappy, today she looks and feels better than ever and has created a life in balance.

Seles said, “On February 14th, I officially retired from professional tennis, closing one chapter of my life. I’m now opening a new chapter where I hope to share how I found balance, strength and happiness in my life after a rollercoaster ride of exhilarating accomplishment and sometimes overwhelming tragedy. Avery is giving me the opportunity to put this journey in words, and I’m thrilled to be working with them.”

Megan Newman, Publisher at Avery, said, “Avery is delighted to be publishing Monica Seles’ book. Her remarkable, uplifting story is one that will resonate with readers — those who were fans during her illustrious tennis career and those who will meet her for the first time. It is an honor to be working with such a talented athlete and promising author.”

John Steele, Senior Vice President at IMG, who represents Seles in her non-tennis activities, added, “Since Monica won the French Open at age 16, she has been living in the public spotlight but she has never really discussed the struggles that went along with all the victories. It will be both a remarkable read and a motivating story of finding health and happiness.”

About the Author

Earlier this year, Seles, 34, announced her retirement from professional tennis. Over her extraordinary career, she earned nine Grand Slam titles and won 53 singles and six doubles tournaments. She first became No. 1 in the world in March 1991. Seles was No. 1 for 178 weeks during the next two years — the youngest No. 1 ever at the time — until tragedy struck in April 1993, when she was stabbed in the back by a deranged fan during a match in Hamburg, Germany. She was not able to play again for more than two years. When she did return, she won even more hearts with her comeback win at the Canadian Open, and then reached the U.S. Open final the following month. Remarkably, she then won her ninth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January 1996. Seles joined the cast of the sixth season of ABC’s hit “Dancing with the Stars” in 2008.

About Penguin Group (USA)

Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Viking, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Penguin Press, Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books, Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Avery, Philomel, Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, and Frederick Warne, among others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.

About IMG

Operating in 30 countries, IMG’s diverse businesses include: consulting services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models representation; licensing; golf course design; and client representation in golf, tennis, broadcasting, speakers, European football, rugby, cricket, motor sports, coaching, Olympic sports and action sports. IMG Academies are the world’s largest and most advanced multi-sport training and educational facilities, delivering world-class sports training experiences to more than 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult, and professional athletes each year.

IMG’s media and entertainment operations include content production subsidiaries Darlow Smithson Productions and Tiger Aspect Productions. Globally, IMG produces and distributes more than 11,000 hours of sports, documentary, drama, comedy, entertainment, popular factual and children’s content annually. IMG also represents the broadcast rights to many of the world’s premier sporting events and has the world’s largest sports archive with more than 250,000 hours of footage.

Forstmann Little & Co. purchased IMG in 2004.

via MSN

Terminator Salvation: ‘The Future Begins’ Anticipated In May 2009

Terminator 4 to open May 2009

The fourth TERMINATOR movie, entitled TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE FUTURE BEGINS will open in May 2009, according to Variety.

Warner Brothers announced the news to the trade. The actual date penciled in for the McG starrer is May 22, 2009, the start of Memorial Day weekend. Christian Bale will star in the new movie as hero John Connor.

The trade says that he plot of the latest movie is being kept under tight wraps, but the film is the first part of a planned three-picture arc that begins after Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust.

Shooting kicks off in New Mexico on May 5th of this year. Bale will next be seen in another Warner Brothers franchise, the highly anticipated BATMAN BEGINS sequel THE DARK KNIGHT.

via thehollywoodnews

T4 Gets Release Date

So much for Judgment Day. The Terminator has been assigned a new target: May 22, 2009.

That’s the date Warner Bros. has scheduled to unspool its heavily anticipated Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, per the trades.

The sequel, which will also serve as the first installment of another planned trilogy in the fabled man vs. machine sci-fi tale, picks up shortly after the first Terminator trilogy left off. Christian Bale plays the adult John Connor, leading a rebellion against the sentient computer network known as Skynet that seeks to wipe out all of humanity.

The studio will distribute Terminator Salvation in North America after securing a pact with Halcyon Co., which owns the franchise rights. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group will control international distribution.

Warner Bros.’ summer tent pole will bow the same day Twentieth Century Fox plans to roll out Night at the Museum II: Escape from the Smithsonian, the follow-up to its 2006 comedy hit Night at the Museum, in which Ben Stiller will reprise his part as the hapless security guard of a museum whose exhibits come to life after dark.

The original fantasy grossed $250 million in domestic ticket sales and the second Night is sure to give Bale and company a run for their money at the box office.

Despite its overwhelming popularity with the ComiCon crowd, the billion-dollar Terminator series has seen its blockbuster status slip in recent years. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the indestructible robot role that made him famous, grossed $150 million domestically when it opened in 2003, but cost an estimated $200 million to make. However, the film more than made up for it internationally, raking in $283 million in foreign ticket sales to bring its global haul to $433 million.

By contrast, 1984’s The Terminator cost $6 million and tallied $38 million in the U.S., and eventually finished with $78 million worldwide. The biggest of them all was 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which generated a whopping $204 million in U.S. ticket sales before going on to earn $516 million internationally.

The first two films were written and directed by James Cameron and the third by Jonathan Mostow.

Taking the reigns on the fourth chapter will be McG, a Hollywood director who started out in music videos but found big-screen success helming the feature film version of Charlie’s Angels and its subsequent sequel.

But whether or not the director, whose real name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, has the chops to deliver the high-octane action goods of his predecessors remains to be seen.

The filmmakers have been tight-lipped about T4’s plot, but one thing’s for sure: it will not feature Schwarzenegger, who’s busy finishing out his term as California’s governor.

The story, penned by T3 writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris, is said to be set in the postapocalyptic nightmare briefly alluded to in the first three movies after Skynet fomented a nuclear holocaust hoping to destroy its human makers.

Aside from Bale—who’s pulling double hero duty as the Caped Crusader in this summer’s Batman sequel, Dark Knight—actor Sam Worthington is also in talks to come aboard. As it happens, Worthington is in the midst of wrapping a key role in Cameron’s sci-fi action-adventure epic Avatar, the self-anointed king of the world’s first Hollywood film since 1997’s Oscar-winning Titanic.

Shooting on Terminator Salvation is scheduled to kick off in New Mexico on May 5 and continue there for two months before moving on to other locales.

via eonline

Reference: The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction/action film directed and co-written by James Cameron. It features Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn.

The film takes place in 1984, introducing the concept of a “terminator”, specifically the titular character (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a seemingly unstoppable cyborg assassin who has been sent back from the year 2029 by a race of artificially intelligent computer-controlled machines bent on the extermination of mankind. The Terminator’s mission is to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) whose future son founds a resistance against the machines. A human, Kyle Reese, is also sent back from the future to protect her.