Paramount Pictures is set to launch a new production business for movies budgeted at less than $100,000. The as-yet-unnamed division plans to finance as many as 20 "micro-budget" movies annually starting in 2010, according to people familiar with the studio's plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because the formal announcement has not been made. A current Paramount executive will run the business, but the selection has not yet been revealed  publicly. Funds for the movies -- no more than $2 million total annually -- will be part of Paramount's existing production budget. The division does not plan to acquire completed movies at film festivals and markets.

See LA Times article below...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/12/paramount-to-launch-microbudget-movie-division.html

Three years ago, I lost a dear friend on my birthday. Leonard Schrader was an extraordinary friend, mentor, filmmaker, and human being. He was such a kind-hearted individual. A man of wise words and a heart of gold. He was destined to be a great teacher. Every year, he never failed to show up to my birthday parties.  Until November 2nd, 2006.

He is sorely missed.

Len always had the wisest comments about film-making. This was one of my favorite quotes, along with the one up top.

“A screenplay is a pearl necklace. You come in with a box of pearls, And you string them together to make a necklace.” – Leonard Schrader

As passionate as he was a teacher; he was just as passionate about the movies. He had one of the largest lobby-card collections I had ever seen. 

The screenwriter Leonard Schrader, who passed away in late 2006, wrote screenplays in both Japanese and English; his love for and immersion in the culture of Japan resulted in Mishima, an audacious and ravishing film, co-written with and directed by his brother Paul. A year later, Schrader’s powerful adaptation of Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman earned him, director Hector Babenco, and producer David Weisman Oscar nominations. In addition to teaching and writing, Schrader was a passionate collector of vintage lobby cards, leaving behind a personal collection of over 8,000 original cards, many from rare silent films. (LACMA website)
 
The Collection consists of 8,462 vintage lobby-cards and 5,000 related items - many the sole surviving traces of long-lost silent films - acquired by late screenwriter/filmmaker Leonard Schrader over the course of 27 years. While Schrader preserved his collection with painstaking care in hundreds of 13x15 photographer’s albums - or “binders” - mysteriously he left no written inventory or index of this vast archive’s contents.

If you are a film lover and have a few minutes, I would highly recommend a visit. A rare, classic collection.
http://www.leonardschradercollection.com/index.html