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Archive for January 16th, 2009

Friday, January 16th, 2009

FRIDAY JANUARY 16, 2009

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

CBS has kicked off the official broadcast pilot pickup season with an order for comedy “Tick Tock.” The single-camera project, whose pilot pickup is said to be cast-contingent, hails from CBS Paramount Network TV. Written by Bill Kunstler (“The War at Home”), “Tick Tock” centers on an unconventional single mom in her 30s who decides to focus all of her energy on finding love.

Twentieth Century Fox is bringing the Japanese anime TV series “Cowboy Bebop” to the big screen, with Keanu Reeves attached to star as a bounty hunter traveling through space in 2071. One of the big titles in anime, “Bebop” is set in a time where “astral gates” make interstellar travel possible. Humanity, decimated by a lunar explosion resulting from a gate accident, spread out across the solar system, as did crime, which gave rise to the use of bounty hunters. Reeves would play Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter and former member of a crime syndicate. Spiegel, along with Jet Black, a fellow bounty hunter and former cop, are the two pilots of the spaceship Bebop. Peter Craig is writing the script.

Philip Seymour Hoffman has reeled in his directorial debut, signing on to helm Overture Films’ “Jack Goes Boating,” an adaptation of Bob Glaudini’s Off Broadway play in which he’ll also star. Amy Ryan (“Gone Baby Gone”) will co-star opposite Hoffman, while John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega will reprise their roles from the stage production. Play’s described as an unconventional romantic comedy about two misfits in New York City, laced with cooking classes, swimming lessons and illegal drugs.

PROJECT UPDATES

Emma Stone is in final negotiations to star alongside Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg in the horror/comedy “Zombieland” for Columbia Pictures. Ruben Fleischer will direct the pic, which centers on a band of survivors who team to fight the living dead in the post-apocalyptic Southwest after a zombie plague ravages America. Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese penned the screenplay.

ACQUISITIONS/FESTIVAL NEWS

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired domestic rights to the Iraq war doc “Brothers at War.” The pic was helmed and produced by Jake Rademacher and executive produced by thesp Gary Sinise and Dave Scantling. The film revolves around Rademacher’s two brothers serving in the military and follows Rademacher, who embedded himself in four combat units in Iraq in order to tell his brothers’ story. Samuel Goldwyn Films is planning a March release.

BUSINESS NEWS

Warner Bros. and Fox have resolved their dispute over “Watchmen,” with the studios scheduled to present the settlement to Judge Gary Feess on Friday morning and request that the case be dismissed. Terms of the agreement will not be disclosed, but it is said to involve a sizable cash payment to Fox and a percentage of the film’s boxoffice. Fox will not be a co-distributor on the film, nor will it own a piece of the “Watchmen” property going forward. The studios are set to release a joint statement announcing the agreement Friday.

Oscar-nominated actor-producer Don Cheadle and his Crescendo Prods. are making a big push in television with a two-year, first-look deal at Universal Media Studios. Under the pact, expected to be announced today during NBC’s portion of the winter Television Critics Assn. press tour, Crescendo will develop series projects for the studio.

NBC is expected to slot John Wells’ new police drama “Southland” in the Thursday 10 p.m. slot following the conclusion of the Wells-produced veteran medical drama “ER.” The heavily promoted new drama “Kings,” originally scheduled to air Thursdays at 10, is said to be moving to 8 p.m. Sundays as a lead-in to “The Apprentice.” NBC recently greenlighted three additional episodes of “ER” and picked up six episodes of “Southland,” fueling speculation that it may keep the 10 p.m. Thursday slot Wells-branded for the rest of the season.

NBC has given early pickups to Peacock staples “The Office,” “30 Rock” and “The Biggest Loser.” Renewals were announced Thursday afternoon during NBC’s portion of the TV Critics Assn. press tour by new primetime entertainment prexy Angela Bromstad and incoming alternative topper Paul Telegdy. Peacock also announced that Conan O’Brien’s last night on “Late Night” will take place on Feb. 20, with new host Jimmy Fallon taking over on March 2. As for spring airdates, NBC confirmed that new John Wells police drama “Southland” will fill the “ER” void on Thursdays at 10 p.m. starting April 9; the “ER” finale, meanwhile, has now been pushed to April 2. ”ER” will say farewell with a one-hour retrospective that night at 8 p.m., followed by its two-hour send-off.

Rick and Julie Yorn, who split from The Firm to form a new management/production venture, have made a first look deal at 20th Century Fox. Fox is an easy fit for the Yorns. That is where Firm Films had its deal. After she phased out her management business, Julie Yorn ran Firm Films, and the shingle produced such films as “Max Payne,” “Bride Wars,” “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and “First Sunday.” Separately, Rick Yorn is a producer on “The Wolf Man.” Erik Olsen is leaving his post as Silver Pictures senior vice president to join the production company.

Executives at the soon-to-be reconstituted DreamWorks are keeping a good thought and marching forward, with one collective hand outstretched and the other digging deep to make good on a scheduled product payment. Free of their recent corporate overseers at Paramount, DreamWorks brass said Thursday that they had completed the purchase from Par of 17 film projects developed while under control of the Melrose studio. A $26.5 million payment was shared equally by DreamWorks’ new financial partner, Mumbai-based Reliance Big Entertainment, and studio co-founder Steven Spielberg. Although DreamWorks execs would not comment on the payment beyond their brief statement, it’s also known Spielberg previously paid $10 million to get operations going at the new DreamWorks once the Par exit was completed. J.P. Morgan Securities is working with a half-dozen lenders to construct a $325 million bank syndication intended for first-phase completion by March 31. The next two weeks are considered key to its success, with a matching $325 million commitment from RBE likely to morph into renewed negotiations with the Indian conglomerate should the syndication run into snags.

INDUSTRY MOVES

Molly Thompson has been tapped veepee of A&E IndieFilms, the cable net’s documentary arm. She’ll head up branding and festival strategy as well as the unit’s financing and distribution negotiations. Thompson has been aboard since the shingle’s 2005 launch and has exec produced all of its original projects, among them Oscar-nominated docus “Jesus Camp” (2007) and “Murderball” (2005), as well as 2008′s “My Kid Could Paint That.”

STRIKE NEWS/LABOR ISSUES

That would seem to be the thinking behind SAG leadership’s latest strategic shift. Exec director Doug Allen has written to guild directors seeking a membership vote, but not on a strike authorization — a former goal that almost cost Allen his job this week — but rather one on the latest film and TV contract offer. Allen got little traction when he initially floated the contract-vote proposal in a recent executive session of the SAG board. Instead, he and SAG president Alan Rosenberg spent most of Monday and Tuesday fighting efforts by disgruntled board members to oust him as their chief negotiator in stalled contract talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. On Wednesday, Allen wrote to the entire board — even alternates — to push the contract-vote idea further. Ironically, opposition to the proposal comes largely from those who believe the guild should settle with the AMPTP on current terms but feel Allen and Rosenberg wouldn’t conduct a fair vote on the proposed pact. Rosenberg told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday that he remains committed to conducting a strike-authorization vote if board members fail to embrace Allen’s proposal to vote on contract terms.

WEBSITE TO WATCH

http://www.jaman.com/

This movie download site, which we’ve featured before, announced Wednesday it is spreading its wings to international shores, opening up a new London-based office and debuting a UK site offering more than 1,000 British titles available for rental in British Sterling. The move, which includes lining up local sponsors and partnerships, is a natural next step according to Jaman founder and CEO Gaurav Dhillon, as the site’s strong catalogue of international titles have already attracted a loyal following in several foreign territories. The company seems to be doing everything right so far – designing an easy to navigate interface, steadily adding quality indie titles to its a la carte catalog and following the PC-to-TV trend by completing integrations with Tivo and AppleTV. Yet what has moved the needle most for the start-up is its social networking efforts, says Dhillon. Jaman was quick to add a Facebook Connect option and has rolled out a couple of fun embeddable widgets that have helped spread the word about the service.