FRIDAY JANUARY 9, 2009 « Film News Briefs

January 9, 2009

FRIDAY JANUARY 9, 2009

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried are set to star in “Chloe,” an Atom Egoyan-directed thriller to be fully financed by StudioCanal. Moore will play a successful doctor who suspects her husband (Neeson) of cheating. She tests his fidelity by hiring an escort (Seyfried) to seduce him. The move creates complications that put her family in danger. Erin Cressida Wilson wrote the script.

Director Peter Weir will find “The Way Back” with Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan. The thesps are in final negotiations to star for Weir in the fact-based story of a group of soldiers who engineered a grueling escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942. Weir wrote the script, based on the memoir by Slavomir Rawicz. Farrell plays a tough, tattooed Russian; Harris an American; and Sturgess portrays a young Polish inmate. Ronan will play a Russian on the run who meets up with the fugitives.

BUSINESS NEWS

ABC and the Disney Channel have landed exclusive rights to televise two of Barack Obama’s inaugural events, including the new president’s first appearance at one of an array of inaugural balls on the night of Jan. 20. ABC will broadcast “The Neighborhood Ball: An Inauguration Celebration,” a first-ever event expected to include Obama and his wife Michelle’s first dance of the night, along with performances from musicians and other personalities. Obama also is expected to deliver his first speech of the evening at the event, to be held at the Washington Convention Center. The ball was announced earlier this week by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, with plans to feature Webcasting and text messaging to link with neighborhood celebrations around the country.

Oscar winner Stephen Gaghan is returning to his TV roots with a blind put pilot commitment at ABC. Under the seven-figure deal, Gaghan will write and executive produce an hourlong project for the network. He’s also attached to direct the potential pilot if his feature schedule permits. ABC landed Gaghan after heated bidding with Fox. There is no studio yet attached to Gaghan’s project, with Sony TV and ABC Studios said to be in the running.

President-elect Barack Obama is urging Congress to postpone the Feb. 17 switch from analog to digital television broadcasting, arguing that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air channels won’t be ready. In a letter to key lawmakers Thursday, Obama transition team co-chair John Podesta noted that the Commerce Department has run out of money for coupons to subsidize digital TV converter boxes for consumers. People who don’t have cable or satellite service or a new TV with a digital tuner will need the converter boxes to keep their older analog sets working. Obama officials are also concerned that the government is not doing enough to help Americans – particularly those in rural, poor or minority communities – prepare for and navigate the transition.

AMC prexy Charlie Collier went right to the question on every reporters’ mind at the start of the cabler’s Television Critics Assn. panel on Thursday afternoon: The fate of the net’s Emmy-winning drama “Mad Men.” The period skein will return for its third season this summer as skedded, despite the prolonged contract negotiations between producer Lionsgate TV and creator/exec producer Matthew Weiner, Collier assured.

NBC and Warner Bros. are close to sealing a series order for John Wells’ “Police” — with an episodic extension of “ER” to boot. Such a deal comes following weeks of heated negotiations on “Police.” The two sides had also been talking about prolonging “ER’s” swan song as part of a “Police” pickup. According to insiders, the Peacock is expected to add three more segs to “ER’s” 15th and final season and will pick up six episodes of “Police.”

The hefty pricetag to advertise during the Super Bowl may have scared off major marketers during a down economy, but it hasn’t forced Hollywood to sit on the sidelines. Nearly every studio will push pics during the big game, airing on NBC Feb. 1, with the movie lineup naturally made up of summer tentpoles whose studios hope to appeal to the nearly 100 U.S. million viewers that tune in to the broadcast.

STRIKE NEWS/LABOR ISSUES

The sides in SAG’s strike authorization vote battle are becoming more vocal in advance of the guild’s emergency national board meeting next week to determine the fate of the proposed referendum. The Screen Actors Guild’s Hollywood leadership made the case for allowing the vote to proceed in the January edition of its “Call Sheet” newsletter that is posted on the SAG website. Meanwhile, a group dubbed SavetheBiz.org has released a short vid featuring former SAG board member James Cromwell urging guild members to vote against a strike to protect the health of the film and TV biz. SAG’s national board is skedded to meet Monday and Tuesday to consider the planned referendum, which SAG leaders had hoped to initiate earlier this month as a means of giving the guild more leverage in its long-stalled film and TV contract negotiations with Hollywood’s majors.

WEBSITE TO WATCH

http://i.tv/

One of more elegant multiplatform personal media solutions out there for the iPhone and iPod touch is this helpful site. If you watch a lot of TV (or go to a lot of movies) this app is one of the best arguments for getting an iPhone. It provides a visually elegant location-based run down of everything that is on TV or playing at your local theaters, including accessible bios of stars and directors. A bright red tag alerts you to new episodes or premiers. Community members can rate, review and recommend shows for the uninitiated. iTV also integrates with your Tivo and Netflix accounts, making it simple to schedule recordings or to manage your queue. The new updated version also streams select full TV episodes (although this drains the battery pretty quickly,) enables movie ticket purchasing and provides entertainment news and show recaps. All of these tasks can be completed with different apps but it’s nice to have them bundled in one place.