TUESDAY JUNE 30, 2009 « Film News Briefs

June 30, 2009

TUESDAY JUNE 30, 2009

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

Dimension Films is developing a remake of “An American Werewolf in London,” setting up the project with producers Sean and Bryan Furst. The original 1981 pic was written and directed by John Landis and starred David Naughton, Griffin Dunne and Jenny Agutter. Pic, which won an Oscar for makeup, centers on a college student going on a rampage after surviving an attack by a werewolf on a Yorkshire moor. The Furst brothers produced “Daybreakers,” a pic set in a world conquered by vampires and to be released in January.

Richard Wenk has sold a twist-laden untitled heist pitch to Overture Films. State Street Pictures, the shingle run by director-producer George Tillman Jr. (”Notorious”), brought the pitch to Overture, where it has a production deal. Tillman and Robert Teitel from State Street are producing with Richard Arlook, who manages Wenk.

Veteran scribe Dan Gordon has been anointed to pen “The King of Sting.” The writer behind “The Hurricane” and “Wyatt Earp” has signed to write the screenplay for the drama about the life of con man Craig Glazer. Based on Glazer’s eponymous book, the project tells of the author’s 20-year exploits canvassing the country posing as an undercover narcotics agent and pocketing money from stings. Glazer and a partner were so adept at conning victims that the Kansas City Police Department hired them to conduct real stings.

PROJECT UPDATES

Jason Lee and Michelle Trachtenberg have joined the cast of Warner Bros. cop comedy “A Couple of Dicks,” starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Kevin Smith is directing. Marc Platt’s producing the project with Polly Johnsen and Michael Tadross. The scripting team of Robb and Marc Cullen penned the screenplay, centered on a pair of cops who track down a stolen baseball card, rescue a Mexican beauty and must deal with gangsters and laundered drug money. Trachtenberg will play the daughter of Willis’ character, and Lee will portray her stepfather.

Columbia, which is still trying to make “Moneyball” work with Brad Pitt and Steven Soderbergh, is hardly the only studio grappling with the budgets of star-driven films in the new economic realities for Hollywood. Fox is going through the same budget-scrutinizing process on “Unstoppable,” the Tony Scott-directed drama to which Denzel Washington and Chris Pine are attached. The picture, in which a young conductor and a veteran engineer chase a runaway train filled with toxic chemicals, had originally been pegged to start production in August for a summer 2010 release. Studio insiders said the film isn’t yet greenlit, but the studio is wrestling hard with the cost of mounting a big-scale action pic plus the star salaries of Scott, Washington and Pine, who chose this film as his first since his breakout role as Captain Kirk in “Star Trek.” Studio is optimistic that it will get the film off the ground, but fall is now a more realistic starting point.

Amy Adams is in negotiations to star alongside Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg in Relativity Media’s “The Fighter.” Paramount Pictures will distribute the David O. Russell-helmed drama domestically. Adams would play a gritty bartender from Massachusetts who ends up dating Wahlberg’s character, “Irish” Mickey Ward. Pic, which is scheduled to start lensing this summer, tells the story of Ward’s early days on the rough streets of Lowell, Mass., and how he was helped to the world lightweight championship by his half-brother, portrayed by Bale. Melissa Leo’s also been cast.

Guy Pearce is in final negotiations and Bailee Madison is set to star with Katie Holmes in “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” Miramax’s supernatural thriller being directed by Guillermo del Toro protege Troy Nixey. Del Toro is producing with Mark Johnson. “Dark” is based on a 1973 ABC telefilm about a young girl who moves in with her father and his girlfriend and discovers they are sharing the house with demonic creatures. Madison will play the girl, who discovers the creatures and is fascinated by them — until they prove dangerous. Pearce will play the father, an author frustrated by his daughter’s tales of monsters, not believing her even when his girlfriend (Holmes) backs her. Del Toro and Matthew Robbins wrote the script.

BUSINESS NEWS

Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay have finally sealed a deal that will keep them on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” for the next two seasons. Also, NBC said Christine Lahti is set to guest star in next season’s first four episodes of “SVU,” while former series regular Stephanie March, who plays ADA Alex Cabot (and returned on a limited basis last season), will once again show up on the drama starting with episode five, for at least 10 episodes. Meloni and Hargitay are believed to have secured a payday at just below $400,000 an episode — slightly up from the approximately $375,000 each was making under their most recent deal.

Here Media has launched Here Films, a motion picture acquisition and distribution division. As part of the move, the staff of sister company Regent Releasing will be folded into the newly formed parent company Here Media. Mark Reinhart, exec VP, distribution and acquisitions, will continue to head up the distribution team. Reporting to Reinhart are John Lambert, senior VP, theatrical distribution; Liz Mackiewicz, senior VP, sales and distribution; and Jonathon Aubry, VP, marketing and distribution. Here Films will release eight to 12 films a year and handle the remaining Regent slate through the rest of this year.

Even though “My Name Is Earl” is dead, creator-exec producer Greg Garcia didn’t have long to mourn: The scribe has already landed a put pilot at Fox. Single-camera half-hour will revolve around a 25-year-old who winds up having to raise an infant with the help of his quirky family. The kid was the result of a one-night stand with a woman who ended up on death row for murder. Twentieth Century Fox TV, where Garcia is in the middle of an overall deal, is behind the project. Garcia is about to start writing the script.

Chris Kattan has landed his first post-”Saturday Night Live” TV series. The 10-year “SNL” veteran has joined ABC’s new comedy “The Middle” as a regular. Kattan, who guest-starred in the pilot, will play Bob, a good friend of fellow car salesman Frankie Heck (Patricia Heaton). The WBTV-produced “Middle” is a single-camera comedy about a middle-class Midwestern family seen through the eyes of the mother (Heaton). It is slated to premiere Sept. 30, airing in the 8:30 p.m. Wednesday slot.

INDUSTRY MOVES

Former K2 Pictures principal Jay Peterson has joined Original Media, where he’s been named senior VP of production and development. Peterson will be based in New York and oversee day-to-day operations, production and creative development at the shingle, which is behind NBC’s new drama “The Philanthropist.” He’ll manage the Original Media staff in both New York and Los Angeles and handle talent, co-production and network deals, as well as domestic and international sales.

STRIKE NEWS/LABOR ISSUES

The Writers Guild of America West has appointed Katherine Shannon Christovich as director of legal services after three months as interim director. Christovich will manage and supervise the legal and claims department, including staff attorneys, business representatives, and support staff. The guild said she will also contribute to the development and execution of integrated enforcement policies, including compensation matters and disputes involving intellectual rights.

The Screen Actors Guild’s top attorney has warned the guild’s elected leaders — again — that they’re not allowed to bash the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists. SAG general counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland issued the admonition Sunday during the early portion of the annual meeting of the Hollywood division, attended by about 200 members. SAG and AFTRA had no comment about Crabtree-Ireland’s warning. The two performers unions agreed last fall to a deal brokered by the AFL-CIO that included “nondisparagement” language along with fines and other discipline for violators, in order to end the bickering that had pervaded their relations for years. For its part, AFTRA’s widely believed to have complained to the AFL-CIO this year about alleged violations of the pact. The labor federation has refused repeated requests to comment.

WEBSITE TO WATCH

http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Spinal_Tap/Back_from_the_Dead/SPINALTAPisBack_2037.aspx

This comedic video portal, the contractual home for Harry Shearer’s internet stylings, has been promoting the return of the legendary mock-metal band Spinal Tap. The band, the fictional subject of Rob Reiner’s classic 1984 comedy This Is Spinal Tap, has its own new web home as well, relaunched in March. (They’re there all the time, 24 hours a day.) Spinal Tap will release a new album digitally on Amazon, iTunes and Play.com on June 16 and return for a 25th anniversary “One Night Only World Tour” at Wembley Arena on June 30 with The Folksmen, (the comedians’ folk counterpart from Christopher Guest’s A Mighty Wind.) It’s interesting how fictional creations can be made into cottage industries with the help of a little viral marketing muscle. Spinal Tap has been amazingly digitally savvy for a trio of crusty old rockers. The band launched it’s first mock web site – “Tapster” – back in 2000 where their song “Back from the Dead” was made available for download. Then there’s all those Stonehenge videos Nigel Tufnel appeared in for (all due respect) National Geographic.