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Listen to what Ben says about Tom Rothman. Oy vey! But the mogul -- surprisingly -- took it well. I hear Stiller even sent over T-shirts with Red Hour's new Fox logo (I don't want to spoil the punchline) to senior people on the lot. Updates my previous, Ben Stiller Moving Red Hour From DreamWorks To 20th Century Fox
Los Angeles – Internet writers employed at CBS studios in the L.A. area have unanimously voted to be represented by the Writers Guild of America, West. The vote was conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.
"This is good news for new media writers. Congratulations and welcome to the Writers Guild," said WGAW President Patric M. Verrone. "As more and more news, sports, and promotional content is distributed on the Internet, it is essential that its writers win respect for their work and all the benefits of a WGA contract."
WGAW Union Representative Lynda Whittaker and WGAW Organizer Laura Watson worked closely with WGAW shop stewards – Kathy Kiernan, Scott Gutman, and Brett Galde – throughout the campaign. The next step for the 15 writers is contract negotiations. “We hope to reach a fair deal with CBS as soon as possible,” said Whittaker.
”I know in this ever-changing world it’s important to be heard ... and it might be cliche, but there is strength in numbers. I’m not always sure the meek shall inherit the Earth, but I know the weak don't have a chance. I applaud the Guild for making us all stronger,” said CBS web writer Alan Carter.
Quentin's already much maligned Weinstein Company/Universal pic is getting 50s in "'definite interest" from men. And women are stronger on Inglorious Basterds than on District 9, even though the Sony pic opens a week earlier. (That movie's "looking really good, too," a rival studio exec tells me. "It's gotten some movement over the last few days.") The only competing movie tracking higher with young guys right now is G.I. Joe. Yes, that much maligned Paramount pic coming out August 7th. It is 86 overall, with males in the 90s (just to give you a relative comparison). For weeks, Paramount's claims that the movie works have fallen on deaf ears. But now a rival studio even tells me, "Paramount is doing a good job ignoring the sniping and snarking. It's come on tracking really strong. It's looking to open at $50M-$60M -- which is a great result."
Now for the bad news: Since most marketing say "unaided awareness" is a more important data point (that's when you tell the pollster that you are aware of a certain film coming out without being given the title), Basterds' aided awareness is very low ("1" overall, with a "2" for males). The unaided awareness numbers for District 9 are good but not great ("4" overall, with "7" for younger males, and "5" for older males).
Meanwhile, I've confirmed that Inglorious Basterds, to be released August 21st, is still the same length it was when it screened at the Cannes Film Festival. (Well, technically, it's 1 minute longer now.) This was also confirmed last night when Basterds screened as the closing film at Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival.
Tickets sold out in under an hour. Cliphones and cameras were collected, and metal wands passed to make sure no recording devices were brought into the 700-seat venue. Eli Roth presented the film and explained that Quentin was in Berlin on the press tour. Roth addressed the various rumors about Tarantino's edit, saying that Quentin had re-cut the version shown at Cannes. But during the six weeks he'd also added various scenes for the version that Montreal saw. Other scenes were tweaked based on Cannes reactions.
Roth told the crowd it was a difficult film, a ballsy film, but a great film: "If you like it, tell your friends, blog about it, Twitter about it, write about it on Facebook and IMDB. If ... Read More »
(This video was auto-playing, so I deleted it last night. Now it's not annoying.)
When you're the 3rd highest paid CEO in Corporate America, Wall Street holds you to a different standard. So after Bob Iger announced that Disney's 3rd-quarter profit had slid 26%, shares of the stock moved sharply lower -- as much as -3.5% -- when the market opened this morning. The main culprit was the same for the Mouse House as for every other Big Media company -- poor advertising sales at the broadcast and cable networks and O&O's, and lousy DVD sales, as well as a slump in bookings at theme parks and resorts. News reports say J.P. Morgan downgraded Disney to underweight (from neutral) this morning. 
Disney has always been one of those stocks that grandparents buy for grandkids, so the stock price is felt strongly by consumers saving, say, for their kids' college education. Revenue at Disney's filmed entertainment division fell 12% for an operating loss of $12M. Sales of current DVD titles like National Treasure 2 and Enchanted, and older catalog DVD titles, were down in the quarter. Iger said Thursday that one way to combat decreasing DVD sales and the rising popularity of rentals is to concentrate on making movies that are more convenient to own than to rent, especially Pixar toons. Still there was some glimmer of good news: CFO Tom Staggs said ad sales "appear to have stabilized" at Disney's broadcast and cable television networks, echoing remarks from Viacom and Time Warner. But Staggs predicted lower upfront sales at ABC than in recent years.
Here's the email Iger sent out to Disney employees yesterday:
Dear Fellow Cast Member:
Today, we announced our third quarter 2009 earnings which reflected the challenging global economy. Our earnings per share for the quarter before restructuring and impairment charges were $0.52 compared to $0.62, excluding certain gains in the prior year period. Revenues declined by 7%.
Despite the decline, we remain encouraged by the relative strength of our businesses. The Disney brand continues to differentiate us in the global marketplace. Our business strategy, with its emphasis on creativity, technology and international expansion to grow shareholder value, is working. And we’ve proven our commitment to making our operations more efficient while preserving quality. We do see signs of economic stabilization, but the pace and strength of recovery remain uncertain and we are managing accordingly.
At our movie studio, Up has proven to be an artistic triumph and a big commercial success around the
... Read More »
Two things you should know from Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier's bombshell announcement is this: Tad Smith wasn't fired. 
He actually resigned in July because he has another job starting September 1st. It was merely announced Thursday because so much other news was being announced, too. Like disastrous earnings, and a distress sale of its U.S. media. Tad stays through August 31st and then heads to a big consumer media organization. They're lucky to get him. (He once tried to buy the New York Observer from Arthur Carter. He likes print that much.)
And the other is that folks at Broadcasting & Cable, MultiChannel News, and many other of the 80 or so trades controlled by Reed Business Information-US now on the auction block (except Variety) never saw it coming. In fact, so certain of survival were they that I received this email late Tuesday night from an insider: "Thursday is the Reed Elsevier parent company earnings report... Reports out of England say Reed won't sell the US businesses (RBI) after all..." I also heard from a source that B&C thought Reed considered it "a sign of hope" for moving so much of its revenue off of print to event and digital businesses. While competitors like TV Week vanished into the night. (Have you seen their website lately? It's like a bad tabloid wannabe. One day, 5 headlines consisted of different sex stories.)
So, to sum up, Reed Elsevier CEO Ian Smith who took over in March, and Keith Jones, whose duties were expanded to include RBI globally in December, and Anthony Habgood, the non-executive chairman of Reed Elsevier as of May, all bear responsibility for this newest bloodletting. It followed an overall "strategic review" after Reed tried and failed to get a decent price for RBI-US last year to reduce its massive debt load. And Tad Smith had been working with the bosses for months to help figure out what stays and what goes. So John Poulin takes over Tad's job, and the shakeup at the top of the company is complete. Now it's the people at the bottom who'll suffer while wondering if they have jobs in the future.
Here is Tad Smith's internal email:
From: Corporate Communications (RBI-US)
To: RBI-US All Employees
Sent: Thu Jul 30 13:03:27 2009
Subject: Message from Tad SmithDear Colleagues,
My note today is not so much a resignation as it is a “thank you.” Joining our company a little over nine years
... Read More »
Arthur's work is his own and does not necessarily reflect my views. Creative license. (And to the dimwits who don't appreciate Arthur's graphic commentary: this is based on Francisco de Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son.)
There's a lot happening behind the scenes at Deadline Hollywood Daily to bring you a better, bigger, and (as usual) ballsy news and analysis website. But it's also going to take time away from my 24/7 reporting for a few weeks. There already have been some missed stories. And some hours with no posts. And a lot of technical woes. But I've given myself permission occasionally to go AWOL and deal with the nuts and bolts behind the website during August -- in order to unveil the new DHD after Labor Day weekend. Thanks for your patience.
Judd Apatow will direct those next 3 films, 
so Universal will now be his helming home. Obviously, this means the studio has great faith in his pic Funny People opening this weekend which already has a Rotten Tomatoes positive review score of 70+%. Although there've been media doubts about the film's 2-hour, 25-minute length and dramedy subject matter, weekend estimates now range from Universal's $25M (to lower expectations), to rival studios' high $30sM and even $40M. The tracking is showing big and broad 4-quadrant appeal, with the most interest coming from young men and even older females. But Universal keeps comparing this R-rated pic to a Jim Brooks-type direction, and his more successful movies only opened in the high teens but then enjoyed a huge multiple. Given the studio's trouble at the box office this summer, Funny People must make at least $100M domestic. Its cost is estimated at $70M.
Apatow has only helmed films at Universal after making his directorial debut in 2005 with the breakout comedy hit starring Steve Carell and Catherine Keener, The 40-Year Old Virgin. The film made over $177 million worldwide and was largely credited for setting a new standard in raunchy but heartfelt adult comedies that were smart and cutting-edge. In 2007, Apatow directed Knocked Up for Universal, a breakout laugher hit starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann that made over $219 million worldwide. (Interestingly, Funny People is not that much longer than Knocked Up.) Apatow also created a comedy wheel-type ensemble cast for his movies, helping launch a number of big-screen comedy careers including Carell, Rogen, Heigl, Jason Segel, Russell Brand and Jonah Hill.
Reuters is reporting today from Havana that the city's Malecon seaside avenue is hosting Hollywood stars like Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Robert Duvall and James Caan who all arrived in Cuba on Wednesday. Del Toro is in town to receive an award today from Cuban artists and intellectuals for his portrayal of Che Guevara in the biopic Che directed by Soderbergh. 
The other three are said to be working on a "research project", a spokesman told the news service. Others in the movie industry are accompanying the group, including some unnamed producers. (Who are you?) In the past, filmmakers like Oliver Stone, Steven Spielberg, Kevin Costner, Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson have been excoriated for visiting Cuba despite the long-standing U.S. trade embargo and ban on American visitors to the Communist country. But now a "recast" of U.S.-Cuban relations has begun under the Obama adminstration, and cultural exchanges are being encouraged after years of being unwelcome during the Dubya administration. The celebs' spokesman said the current Hollywood group visiting Havana is traveling under a license granted by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Well, well, well... Summit Entertainment thought it could get one over on the Twilight Saga fans. After all, one red-headed actress is interchangeable with 
another, right? But the studio's gambit failed when Rachelle Lefevre who was recast after starring in the franchise's first two films enlisted fan support against Summit when the studio hired Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron Howard's daughter) in the role. Ouch! (See LeFevre's statement and Summit's response below.) Here's the problem: once a studio lets the fans into the filmmaking process, it's impossible to keep them out. And that's been the situation with Summit and its lucrative Twilight Saga franchise from the start. The studio courted the Twilight fans ever since Summit saw 1,500 Twilighters lined to meet Stephenie Meyer at a book-signing in Pasadena. It's why Summit made the vampire romance into a movie when Paramount passed. It's why the first film in what was to become the studio's uber-valuable franchise succeeded. 
But then things got hinky. When I broke the news that director Catherine Hardwicke was being replaced on the sequel New Moon, fans were in an uproar. Eventually, they calmed down -- but only because new pick Chris Weitz began talking directly to the Twilighters. And kept talking, ad nauseum. Very few directors do that. Either they're too arrogant to care, or they don't want pander (which it is). But now Summit is stuck with a bunch of buttinskis who feel as if they have ownership in the franchise. They expect to be consulted about every decision. There had been talk about recasting Taylor Lautner for New Moon because the part was brawnier and, by comparison, the actor was a pipsqueak. (He plays a 7-foot-tall werewolf.) But the fans rebelled. So, helped by a growth spurt and intensive training, Taylor held on to the role. Now, like Hardwicke's replacement, Lefevre's ouster is a fait accompli without any fan input. And with the actess pushing back about being pushed out, a PR nightmare for the studio:
Rachelle Lefevre gave this statement "exclusively" to several media outlets:
"I was stunned by Summit's decision to recast the role of Victoria for Eclipse. I was fully committed to the Twilight saga, and to the portrayal of Victoria. I turned down several other film opportunities and,
... Read More »
UPDATES WME Pay For Assistants Worse Than WMA
WME this week put in place that new pay schedule for WME assistants I told you was coming. The New York office's was announced first, followed by the Beverly Hills headquarters. "Can you believe they decided to break the news to us in a meeting disguised to discuss our new health insurance plans?" one BH source tells me. "And, of course, nothing in writing... Just a scale told to us nonchalantly." The new agency had to "recalculate" the pay for WMA assistants (about $13.50 an hour) to be more on par with Endeavor assistants (about $9.50 an hour). Manwhile, Endeavorites were earning more overtime tham WMAers.
So here's what begins August 1st:
Under 1 year - $11/hour
1 - 2 years - $12/hr
2 - 3 years $13/hr
Over 3 years - $14/hr
The pay increases $1/hr for every year over 3 that the assistant is employed.
Any raises from the end-of-year reviews have been taken off the table.
Official hours are from 9-7 PM and a 50-hour work week is expected.
There are faint rumblings of a walk-out, especially because the assistants tell me that they are taking on much more work. Needless to say, the famous UTA joblist is making the rounds especially among the majority of William Morris assistants who are taking a huge pay cut -- on average 20% to 35%! -- and sense that the ladder of opportunity for them no longer exists. The WMAers feel there is favoritism being shown the Endeavorites. They claim that whenever Ari Emanuel makes the rounds, he chats with many Endeavor assistants but does not take any time with the WMA assistants. It sounds petty, but this stuff does matter. On the other hand, not all th ese assistants are wet behind the ears. Many have law and business graduate degrees or years of working in other fields, and knew going in that the agency biz has a god-awful paying apprenticeship.Then again, there've been many California government crackdowns on what is tantamount to showbiz slave labor.
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