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Archive for January 20th, 2009

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

TUESDAY JANUARY 20, 2009

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, Katie Holmes and John C. Reilly are set to star in “The Extra Man,” a comedy that will begin production in February in New York. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (“American Splendor”) will direct. The film is based on a novel by Jonathan Ames; Pulcini and Springer Berman wrote the script with the author. The duo last directed “The Nanny Diaries.” Kline plays a failed playwright who works as an escort for rich widows on the Upper East Side. He develops a mentor-student relationship with a troubled aspiring playwright (Dano).

PROJECT UPDATES

Chris Evans, Brandon Routh and Brie Larson have joined the cast of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” Edgar Wright’s adaptation of the cult favorite Oni Press graphic novels for Universal. “Pilgrim” centers on young slacker Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), who meets the woman of his dreams (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) but finds he can win her heart only by battling and defeating her seven evil ex-boyfriends. The books, by Bryan Lee O’Malley, feature romance, teen angst and plenty of fantastical action involving a large supporting cast. The fifth installment of the book series will be published in February.

ACQUISITIONS/FESTIVAL NEWS

For a brief moment Monday, it looked like the sales action was picking up at the Sundance Film Festival. Then the moment passed. The day broke with a big sale to Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group of the blaxploitation movie “Black Dynamite.” At about 6 a.m. local time, Endeavor reps and execs from the Steven Bersch division concluded an all-night negotiation that began when the film finished screening at about 1 a.m. Sony agreed to pay about $2 million and made a strong marketing commitment for all North American rights to the violent and campy 1970s tale. Actors in the Scott Sanders pic are signed for a sequel, and Sony hopes its summer or fall release will be the start of a franchise along the lines of the “Friday” or “Austin Powers” properties. The sale was a coup for optimists hopeful that this would kick-start a big day of sales Monday. But that didn’t materialize, as other gestating deals failed to come together by evening and the specialty divisions clearly were holding their fire.

When it comes to hot Sundance property “An Education,” someone may be giving someone else a lesson. The only question is: Who’s the teacher, and who’s the student? In the festival’s first negotiation drama, an offer from Fox Searchlight for the Lone Scherfig coming-of-age dramedy met with a notably higher counteroffer from sellers CAA and Endeavor. The Peter Rice specialty division is said to have made an offer in the $1 million range for the British period pic shortly after the movie played like gangbusters at its Sunday afternoon Park City premiere. But filmmaker co-reps CAA and Endeavor, believing they had a bigger commercial play on their hands, turned down the offer and countered with an amount in the high-seven figures, with some pegging the number as high as $10 million. The exchange scotches for the moment hope for a sale to Searchlight of the Nick Hornby-penned tale about a young woman (Carey Mulligan) and her older suitor (Peter Sarsgaard) in 1960s London, keeping the hot title in play.

A four-day tango for indie comedy “Humpday” ended Monday night when Magnolia closed on a deal for the pic. The unorthodox pact will see Magnolia release the film first via video-on-demand this summer and then in a theatrical run one month later. The movie stars Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard as friends who, on a lark, decide to make a gay porn movie. A number of distributors had made offers on the pic, with IFC and Roadside among the buyers in the mix.

BUSINESS NEWS

In one fell swoop, Fox has ordered most of its pilot slate this development cycle. The network has greenlighted four comedy pilots, “The Station,” “Walorsky,” “Two Dollar Beer” and “Sons of Tucson”; and three dramas, “Maggie Hill,” “Human Target” and an untitled reincarnation-themed project. The seven pilots — hailing from 20th TV or Warner Bros. TV — join drama pilot “Eva Adams,” which is finishing casting, and fall comedy pilot “Boldly Going Nowhere,” which is being tweaked and will be reshot. Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said last week that he planned to order five comedy pilots and at least five drama pilots and that his comedy picks would be closer in tone to the quirky, offbeat “Malcolm in the Middle” and “The Bernie Mac Show” than uninspired recent additions like “Do Not Disturb.”

Endemol has bought Southern Star Group, Australia’s largest independent television production and distribution org, from Fairfax Media. Included in the sale is Southern Star Intl., one of the world’s largest indie distribs of English-language programming, selling to more than 200 countries from offices in Sydney, London and Paris. Among the skeins the company reps are “Home and Away,” “Wire in the Blood” and “Packed to the Rafters.”

STRIKE NEWS/LABOR ISSUES

The tug of war continues on the labor front. Moderate forces on SAG’s national board responded Monday to a letter sent to the guild’s membership the day before by national executive director Doug Allen. In a message made available by Unite for Strength leader Ned Vaughn that was sent to guild members through regional lists, the moderates cited “a crippling leadership crisis,” charging that Allen’s latest proposal is “not a serious effort to get a better deal.” After last week’s marathon emergency board meeting, Allen proposed bypassing a controversial strike-authorization vote and delivering the studios’ contract offer to the membership for a ratification vote. Before doing so, he suggested meeting with the AMPTP one last time, then sending out the contract for a vote with no official board recommendation. Allen reiterated all of that in a letter sent to members Sunday.

WEBSITE TO WATCH

http://www.slacker.com/

This online music service launched a free radio app for the IPhone last week, and while it’s no Pandora, it does offer some nice features its competitor doesn’t. Curiously the app forgoes the artist-specific stations it offers on its website to focus only on genre-based selections. When choosing genre-based stations (Rock, Punk, Alternative, etc.,) Slacker does give you further customization features Pandora doesn’t, however – allowing you to modulate the songs by personal favorites, popular favorites or year of release. Oh, and the Slacker app is not too lazy to add radio-style audio ads (rather than visual ads) that cannot be skipped. These are a necessary evil for such services, but will no doubt draw ire from users in the short term.