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Archive for January 7th, 2009

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 7, 2009

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

Kelsey Grammer is taking another stab at a sitcom. The Alphabet net has given a pilot commitment to a half-hour, multicam laffer starring Grammer as a corporate tycoon who reconnects with his family after being downsized out of his powerful job. “Everybody Loves Raymond” alum Tucker Cawley is penning the pilot, which will come from Tom Werner’s Good Humor TV and Warner Bros. TV.

Showtime is developing an hourlong drama from “Bridges of Madison County” scribe Richard LaGravenese focused on an open marriage. Drama centers on a suburban couple who get mixed results when they try to spice things up by meeting new friends.

PROJECT UPDATES

ABC has given a six-episode order to a new celeb take on the sports-themed franchise “Superstars.” Casting has begun on the alternative series, which ABC plans to run this summer. Juma Entertainment and Blue Equity’s Blue Entertainment Sports TV, which owns the franchise, dusted off the title and shopped it around last fall.

Disney has set McG to direct “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo,” a family film that is being fast tracked by the studio. McG, who most recently helmed “Terminator: Salvation,” had multiple studios vying for his next slot. Sources said he will be paid $8 million against 7% of gross. Sean Bailey (“Tron 2.0″) is producing with McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision. Scripted by Bill Marsilli, the film is an origin story of Nemo as he creates his warship, the Nautilus. The characters come from the Jules Verne novel. The 1954 original “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” was the first live-action film made by Walt Disney, who famously bet his studio on a movie best remembered for the giant squid scene. It became the second-highest grossing film that year and won three Oscars. The film has also been the basis for various rides at the Disney theme park over the years. Disney hopes to make the film this year.

Mickey Rourke has joined the ranks of “The Expendables,” joining the ensemble of the Sylvester Stallone-directed action adventure for Nu Image/Millennium Films. Rourke will play an unscrupulous arms dealer who becomes the go-to guy for a group of mercenaries planning to topple a South American dictator. Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture and Dolph Lungdren play the title characters. Forest Whitaker and Ben Kingsley are also circling the project. The Stallone-scripted film begins shooting in March in Brazil.

D.J. Caruso is up for slaying giants. New Line has set him to direct “Jack the Giant Killer,” a drama that takes an adult look at the Jack and the Beanstalk legend. When a princess is kidnapped, a long-standing peace between men and giants becomes threatened, and a young farmer is given an opportunity to lead a dangerous expedition to the giant kingdom to rescue her.

Neil Flynn has been tapped to star opposite Patricia Heaton in ABC’s comedy pilot “The Middle.” The WBTV-produced “Middle” revolves around a middle-class couple (Heaton and Flynn) in middle America who cope with the financial and emotional strain of trying to raise three kids.

ACQUISITIONS/FESTIVAL NEWS

Regent Releasing has acquired Lynn Roth’s period drama “The Little Traitor,” starring Alfred Molina as a British officer in occupied Palestine. Pic won the Audience Award at the Palm Beach Intl. Film Festival and is set to unspool at the Palm Springs fest Jan. 16. Regent will release it in the fall. Set in 1947 — months before Israel becomes a state — story centers on a militant 11-year-old Palestinian seized by Molina. Pic was adapted from Amos Oz’s tome “The Panther in the Basement.”

BUSINESS NEWS

NBC and Warner Bros. TV remain locked in negotiations over the new John Wells drama “Police.” According to insiders, the two sides have been haggling for weeks — but so far haven’t been able to come to a deal that would bring the series to the Peacock. Staffing on the show has slowed down as the two sides work on an accord. Issues still unresolved include episodic order and license fee, as well as the show’s scheduling. NBC and Warner Bros. have kicked around both 12- and six-episode orders but are said to be far apart in determining the show’s episodic license. Also in the mix: Wells’ and Warner Bros. TV’s “ER.” Although a longshot, it’s believed additional episodes of “ER” are on the table as well. That could impact NBC’s episodic order for “Police,” which is expected to assume the Thursday 10 p.m. slot once “ER” retires.

Jack Lechner has inked a first-look deal with Washington Square Arts & Films. Under the pact, he will work with company founder Joshua Blum to expand its film and TV production efforts, with the goal of mounting four to six projects a year. Lechner is an indie producer and former exec at Miramax, Film Four and HBO. He helped oversee “The Crying Game” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” A doc he produced, “Smile ’til It Hurts: The Up With People Story,” will debut this month at Slamdance. Washington Square’s production arm is known for backing projects such as Kelly Reichert’s “Old Joy” and PBS doc “Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life.” Blum is exec producer of Reichert’s follow-up, current release “Wendy and Lucy.”

On the heels of a showdown between Viacom and Time Warner Cable, CBS said Tuesday it reached a favorable five-year deal with the cabler for carriage of Eye-owned stations. Terms of retransmission pacts are famously safeguarded, but the company has said that extensions of retrans deals with a range of providers will generate around $200 million in total annual revenue. A person close to the Time Warner talks confirmed it netted CBS more than the sought-after fee of 50¢ per subscriber.

INDUSTRY MOVES

Sony Pictures TV has bumped up its comedy and drama lieutenants. Glenn Adilman has now been named exec VP of comedy development, while Sharon Hall has been promoted to exec VP of drama development. Both report to Sony Pictures TV programming presidents Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Ehrlict, who made the announcement Tuesday.

UTA has promoted film agent Jeremy Barber to become the percentery’s 19th partner. Barber, who joined the agency in 2003, headed the indie film packaging group before repping movie talent and literary clients. His list includes Don Cheadle, Patrick Dempsey, Steve Coogan, Sigourney Weaver, actor-writer Justin Theroux, scribe Peter Baynham and writer-directors Peter Morgan, Noah Baumbach, John Carney, Julian Fellowes and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

STRIKE NEWS/LABOR ISSUES

The Screen Actors Guild has quietly delayed bargaining on its basic cable pact — which expired three weeks ago. SAG has yet to set a date to start negotiations with about 20 cable companies while actors continue to work under terms and conditions of the two-year pact, originally bargained in mid-2006. The pact, which covers live-action shows produced directly for cable such as “The Closer” and “Monk,” reached expiration on Dec. 19 following an extension from its original June 30 expiration.

NEW GRAPHIC NOVELS

HEXED #1 (Boom Studios): It’s said there’s no honor amongst thieves. Add to that a thief operating in the occult underground, and it’s whole different kind of nasty Luci Jenifer Inacio Das Neves, Lucifer for short, takes a new job that will expose her to the macabre underbelly of the city, and a secret that she’d rather nobody know.

SHRAPNEL #1 (Radical Comics): Humanity has a new empire. Our solar system has been colonized and each planet is dominated by the brutal will of the Solar Alliance. All except Venus, the last free colony and final relic of democracy! As Venus and its’ people suffer the enforcement of the Alliance, one woman may be able to turn the tide. Samantha “Sam” Vijaya, a Solar Alliance war veteran and hero, lives on Venus in self-imposed exile, hoping to escape the life she once knew. However, when the skies burn and civil war comes to her doorstep, Sam has no choice but to join the fight. With the freedom of humanity on the brink of extinction, Sam must emerge from exile to destroy the same forces she once led.