Royals, Presidents & Celebs Head to Olympics; Ryan Seacrest's Food Fight: Biz Break

Also in Friday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, Israel's celebrated doc The Flat is headed to the U.S. as is Sundance doc A Place at the Table. Oscar-winning writer Dustin Lance Black gets a new gig writing a disaster movie for Universal and R.I.P. Lupe Ontiveros.

Israel's The Flat Headed to the U.S.
A winner at the Jerusalem and Tribeca film festivals, Arnon Goldfinger's doc The Flat will head to North America via Sundance Selects which picked up the title. The film centers on the director's experience clearing out his deceased grandmother's apartment in Tel Aviv, a home she shared with her husband for decades since immigrating from Nazi Germany. Sifting through her belongings, he discovers a treasure-trove of photos, letters, files and objects that reflect three generations of Germans both Jewish and non-Jewish. Sundance Selects will reelase the film October 19th.

Doc A Place at the Table Heads Stateside
Magnolia Pictures picked up the documentary from Participant Media, the folks behind An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc (the latter which Magnolia released). The Sundance debut featuring Jeff Bridges and Tom Colicchio (then called Finding North) takes on the food issue from a new angle, shining a light on the 30% of American families—more than 49 million people—that don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Magnolia plans a release in the first quarter of 2013.

Around the 'net…

Star-studded Audience for Olympics Opening
Monarchs, presidents, prime ministers, other royals and a venerable who's who will be joined by the likes of David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Hugh Bonneville (Downtown Abbey) along with U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama at the opening of the Olympics Friday. The show, a 27 million pound ($42 million) spectacular titled "Isles of Wonder," will end with a performance by Paul McCartney, A.P. reports.

Ryan Seacrest & Paramount Team for Food Fight Pic
The comedy is loosely based on celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and his reality series Food Revolution Seacrest will produce the project based on a gourmet food truck operator who is sentenced to work at a school, revolutionizing the lunch program, THR reports.

Milk Writer Dustin Lance Black Set for Earthquake
The Oscar-winner will write the big scale disaster Earthquake for Universal and producer JJ Abrams. The feature will apparently not be a remake of the 1974 film that starred Charlton Heston of the same title, Deadline reports.

R.I.P. Lupe Ontiveros
The actress who starred in Selena and As Good as It Gets died Thursday at 69. The actress appeared in both film and television over four decades, Deadline reports.