13 « January « 2009 « Film News Briefs

Archive for January 13th, 2009

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Jay Chandrasekhar of Broken Lizard fame has signed on to direct “Opposites Attract,” a comedy from Bold Films. Written by Dan Ewen, “Opposites” is a body-switching comedy involving a young couple who must “walk a mile in each other’s shoes” in order to make their relationship work. Bold and Chandrasekhar are aiming to do an R-rated take on the body-switching genre while looking at the differences between the sexes.

Craig Brewer is double-shifting. The “Hustle & Flow” writer-director has signed a development deal with New Regency to write and direct “Mother Trucker,” based on a Maxim article written by Steven Russell. Peter Jaysen of Moving Pictures AMG and Maxim is producing. Writer Gary Scott Thompson (“Knight Rider”) is exec producing. Pegged as an updated take on “Smokey and the Bandit,” the classic 1977 Burt Reynolds-Jackie Gleason chase movie that spawned two sequels, “Trucker” is an action comedy about a man who escapes from jail, steels an 18-wheeler and heads across the South to see his dying mother with police on his trail.

After locking down Jerry Bruckheimer and Jada Pinkett Smith last week, TNT has put Ray Romano into its burgeoning original-programming slate. The cabler has added an eighth hourlong to its series slate, greenlighting Ray Romano-produced character drama “Men of a Certain Age.” Series stars Romano alongside Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula, and is focused on three fortysomething college buddies who are each coming to terms with a midlife that doesn’t live up to their previous expectations.

Sony will report a 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) operating loss for fiscal 2008, ending in March, according to a forecast by the Nikkei business daily. This contrasts with the $2.2 billion operating profit Sony predicted in October. The Nikkei said the loss could balloon to $2 billion, depending on how successful Sony is in cutting inventory in the January-March quarter. If the Nikkei forecast comes to pass, it will be Sony’s first loss in 14 years, when it took a one-time charge for its pictures division.

FilmNation has bought the international arm of GreeneStreet Films. Glen Basner, the former Focus and the Weinstein Co. international vet who runs FilmNation, will be scouting pics in Sundance for the venture. Under the new deal, the company will sell pics financed and produced by A Bigger Boat, the TV and film partner of GreeneStreet just launched by ex-Lionsgate exec Peter Block. Amy Beecroft, head of GreeneStreet Films Intl., is joining FilmNation as senior VP of international sales. GreeneStreet and Basner have been linked for many years, having collaborated on such titles as “In the Bedroom.”

Warner Bros. and Fox are “close” to reaching a settlement regarding the “Watchmen” lawsuit, according to those familiar with the dealmaking. A federal judge has ruled that Fox has distribution rights to the film, which is scheduled to be released by Warners on March 6. Talks between the two sides got serious during the weekend, and the parties met behind closed doors Monday in Los Angeles federal court to discuss details. Neither Fox nor Warners would comment on the discussions, which continued for about 30 minutes in the chambers of Judge Gary Feess. Warners has not pressed its earlier request to move up the Jan. 20 injunction hearing, suggesting a settlement is near.

HBO has hired Diane Tryneski as senior VP of studio and broadcast operations. The ABC vet will be responsible for the general management of HBO Studios in New York and Los Angeles, as well as the HBO Communications Center in Hauppauge, N.Y. Tryneski has worked at ABC since 1987, most recently as senior VP of TV operations. Her tenure at the Alphabet was truncated by a three-year stint at Discovery Networks from 2003-06, where she served as exec VP of production, technology and media services.

Lakeshore Entertainment’s David Scott Rubin has been named exec VP of physical production at CBS Films. Rubin will oversee physical production for all pics produced by CBS Films. He will report to Amy Baer, prexy-chief exec of the division within CBS Corp. Rubin joins CBS Films from Lakeshore, where he served as exec producer and senior VP of physical production since 2005. While at Lakeshore, he oversaw production on films including the Jason Statham starrer “Crank” and the soon-to-be-released sci-fi action thriller “Game.”

SAG’s national board moved closer to tabling its strike authorization vote and removing national exec director Doug Allen as the guild’s lead negotiator after lengthy closed-door sessions on the first day of the board’s two-day emergency meeting. Leaders of SAG’s moderate wing — which gained a narrow majority in the fall over the more aggressive Membership First faction — took several steps at Monday’s confab toward pulling the plug on the authorization vote, including an executive session to discuss Allen’s job. The national board meeting’s set to conclude this afternoon. SAG had no official comment about the developments as of late afternoon Monday. But people close to the situation said that the board is also considering replacing SAG’s negotiating committee with a task force that more closely mirrors the makeup of the 71-member national board.