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Saoirse Ronan and Alexis Bledel star in Violet & Daisy as a pair of hit girls swept up in intrigue with their latest target (James Gandolfini). Precious writer Geoffrey Fletcher wrote and directed the 2011 Toronto Film Fest entry. Cinedigm is promising a June release but has yet to lock down a date. Check out the trailer:
Travel Channel is embarking on its post-Anthony Bourdain life by adding four new series to its 2013 programming slate, which was unveiled today as part of Scripps Networks Interactive‘s upfront presentation today in NY. The lineup includes a new show from host Adam Richman, Adam Richman’s Fandemonium, 
which will premiere July 14. The other three greenlighted shows are the wilderness survival series Get Lost, the take-out food series Best Daym Takeout starring YouTube food critic Daymon Patterson, and the antique car restoration show Backroad Gold. Travel Channel also set premiere dates for Season 3 of Hotel Impossible (August 12) and Season 5 of Mysteries At The Museum (August 15).
Food Network is celebrating its 20th anniversary and along with sibling Cooking Channel will add more than 20 new series to its lineup, Scripps said today. HGTV unveiled nine new original series.
Here’s a look at the networks’ new and returning shows: Read More »
At Discovery Communications’ upfront today, the company’s Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and Investigation Discovery presented their slates of new and returning series. (See Discovery/Harpo-owned OWN’s announcement here). Discovery Channel, which had its highest-rated January ever in total viewers and adults 25-54, is putting an emphasis on live events with specials Fast N’ Live and the Grand Canyon tightrope walk Wallenda Live as well as scripted TV with its first scripted project, miniseries Klondike. The network’s unscripted slate features 10 new series, including The Huntsmen, Rock Raiders, two Naked shows, Hidden Kingdom and Survival.
Related: Discovery Shows Off Star Power At Upfront Presentation
TLC’s slate features 52 new and returning series, including the return of pop culture hit Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Breaking Amish and its spinoff. Animal Planet returns 20 series and new ones like Eel Of Fortune, about hunting prized eels off the New England coast. Its best-performing series ever, River Monsters, returns April 7. Investigation Discovery, meanwhile, is offering up its second original newsmagazine Deadline: Crime With Tamron Hall and the Jerry Springer-hosted Tabloid.
Here are details for all the Discovery networks: Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol’s Paula Patton has signed with CAA. She had been repped at WME. Patton, whose credits include Deja Vu and Precious, makes the rep switch after completing Disconnect opposite Jason Bateman and Alexander Skarsgård (the film opens April 19); Two Guns opposite Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington (opening August 16); and the Fox Searchlight romantic comedy Baggage Claim, which opens in October. Her husband, singer Robin Thicke, is also repped at CAA. She continues to be lawyered by Jason Sloane and Shelby Weiser.
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Arclight Films has acquired crime-romance project The Lookalike which wrapped in New Orleans in time for Berlin. The cast includes John Corbett, Justin Long (who is also aboard as producer), Scottie Thompson, Jerry O’Connell, Gina Gershon, Gillian Jacobs and Luiz Guzman. The Lookalike is the tale 
of a drug lord’s obsession with a woman and the complications it presents for his gangland buddies who unexpectedly have to find a lookalike. The film is directed by Richard Gray who’s also a producer, and written by Michelle Davis-Gray. Clay Epstein negotiated on behalf of Arclight Films with Gray’s Yellow Brick Films. Arclight is presenting the film to buyers in Berlin.
Myriad Pictures is here pre-selling Weightless, the first directing gig for Oscar-nominated Monster’s Ball screenwriter Milo Addica. Jessica Alba is in negoatiations to star as Maysie Overall, an astronaut who 
causes a fatal motorcycle accident before heading off on her first space mission. When she survives the crash of her space shuttle, her conscience drives her to seek out her own victim’s family and falling for his brother, a cop, in the process. Myriad’s Kirk D’Amico will produce with Steve Norris, alongside the UK’s Apollo Productions and its partners, Pinewood Studios and Double Negative.
Fortissimo Films will sell international (outside North America and China) on Jeremy Lin documentary Linsanity. CAA is repping the U.S. on the movie about the basketball player’s meteoric rise which just premiered in Sundance. Evan Jackson Leong directed and Christopher C. Chen of Endgame Entertainment, Brian Yang of 408 Films and Allen Lu produced.
Jake Paltrow’s Young Ones is getting underway in South Africa with a cast that now includes Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Elle Fanning and Kodi Smit McPhee. Paltrow directs and wrote the story about a young boy 
struggling to protect his family in a world where water has become the most precious and fastest dwindling resource on the planet. Tristan Orpen Lynch produces through Subotica and Michael Auret produces through Spier Films. 6 SALES and The Exchange are handling international rights. UTA is repping North America. Peter Garde, Marina Fuentes Arredonda, Quickfire’s James Atherton and Jan Pace, and Brian O’Shea are exec producers.
Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: Smokewood Entertainment has just inked a script deal for Killshot, a feature thriller set against the backdrop of the top-secret CIA program that researched and utilized a teachable psychic-based protocol called Remote Viewing for use in real-world military spy operations and battlefield situations. Screenwriter Paige Cameron, who’s writing a Salvador Dali film for Imagine Entertainment, has been tapped to develop and co-write the script with Oscar-nominated Precious producer Sarah Siegel-Magness. Siegel-Magness will produce with her husband and Smokewood co-founder Gary Magness. Read More »
CBS used some precious Super Bowl promo real estate to air the first teaser for its summer series Under The Dome, from Stephen King and Steven Spielberg. The project, based on King’s novel, is still casting, so the teaser is just conceptual and kicks off an interactive Under The Dome site.
UPDATE: The Weinstein Company has confirmed Deadline’s break on this deal. Release appears below original story.
EXCLUSIVE: Harvey Weinstein is salting his Oscar arsenal for next year. After a heated auction with numerous bidders, The Weinstein Company is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Fruitvale for a bit north of $2 million, and a commitment for a big theatrical release. Deal covers English-speaking territories, I hear. 
The Ryan Coogler-directed drama is about the last day in the life of 22-year-old Oscar Grant before he was killed in a case that galvanized protests against police brutality in Oakland. It is the first big theatrical deal for Weinstein at the festival. The bidding on this one has been going hot and heavy since last night with multiple distributors. Weinstein got into exclusive deal talks after late-hour negotiating that also included Fox Searchlight, Paramount Pictures, Focus Features and CBS Films.
Related: Sundance: Is ‘Fruitvale’ This Year’s ‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild’? Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: Fruitvale, the Ryan Coogler-directed drama about the last day in the life of 22-year-old Oscar Grant before he was killed in a case that galvanized protests against police brutality in Oakland, is at the center of a multi-distributor auction that will be wrapped up first thing Monday morning at Sundance. I’m hearing that the deal will be worth just north of a $2 million minimum guarantee with commitments for screen commitments and a theatrical release, with P&A. The suitors in the mix at this late hour are led by The Weinstein Company and Fox Searchlight, with Paramount Pictures and Focus Features in the mix. Read More »
The MPAA certainly gave the documentary Bully a hard time with its rating, but the Producers Guild of America is showing the anti-bullying documentary some love: It has awarded the film its Stanley Kramer Award, bestowed on a film which raises public awareness on an important issue. The film, which initially received an R rating until filmmakers cut a few cuss words to get the PG-13, is shortlisted for Best Documentary in the Oscar race. This comes months after The Weinstein Company‘s Harvey and Bob Weinstein were selected to receive the PGA’s Milestone Award, which will be presented at the same event January 26. Here is the PGA’s official announcement: Read More »
Brian Brooks is Managing Editor of MovieLine.
A slew of indie actors have movies opening in the specialty arena this weekend. Alan Cumming has won festival raves for his role in Music Box Films’ Any Day Now. The film actually has a more ambitious initial rollout than most among its peers. Zoë Kravitz and Gabourey Sidibe star in Yelling To The Sky, Victoria Mahoney’s personal story of growing up in a rough neighborhood. Also hitting theaters in limited release this weekend is IFC Films’ Save The Date, which assembled its production team in what is best described as “six degrees of separation” (or less). And Let Fury Have The Hour is a Tribeca Film Festival debut that took years to ake that only finished once festivals came knocking.
Any Day Now
Director-writer: Travis Fine
Writer: George Arthur Bloom (original)
Cast: Alan Cumming, Garret Dillahunt, Isaac Leyva, Frances Fisher
Distributor: Music Box Films
Bloom wrote the original script about a gay couple that fights a biased legal system to retain custody of an abandoned special needs teen. “The script sat on his desk for 25 years,” said writer-director and co-producer Travis Fine. A music supervisor turned Fine onto the script and spoke with Bloom about taking it on. “George allowed me to give my perspective and allowed me to create the story I wanted to tell,” Fine added. “He said please be kind and gentle, but I think he’s pleased.” Fine cold-called actor Alan Cumming’s agent in New York who pitched the actor along with his manager. Cumming committed almost immediately. After he came on board, the other acting team easily came together. Read More »
Samantha Morton and Michael Shannon have been cast as the leads of The Harvest, a psychological thriller to be directed by Wild Things helmer John McNaughton. Precious producer Elephant Eye Films is producing and handling international sales; Living Out Loud Productions will finance. The story centers on Katherine (Morton), a successful heart surgeon and overprotective mother, and Richard (Shannon), her co-dependent husband who has retired from his career as a nurse to care for their sick son Andy. Andy lives in a controlled world until an innocent 13-year-old neighbor moves in and gives Andy hopes of a better life. As the teens grow closer, the tight-knit world Katherine has created begins to unravel. Charlie Tahan, Natasha Calis, Leslie Lyles, and Meadow Williams co-star. Stephen Lancellotti wrote the script. Kim Jose, David Robinson, Steven A. Jones, and Williams are producing the film, which is shooting in Palisades and Brooklyn through January. Read More »
In September, Travel Channel added a trio of original unscripted series to its lineup. That same month, it renewed five series for second seasons. Today, the network says it has greenlit production on a group of six new original series that “transports viewers to the far reaches of the world.” The shows are food/travel series All Forked Up with food critics Al Mancini and John Curtas; Burger Land, hosted by George Motz on his quest for the ultimate hamburger; relic-hunters show DigFellas; competition series Fortune Diggers; Gem Hunt with Ron LeBlanc and Monumental Mysteries about America’s great landmarks and hosted by Don Wildman. Following are descriptions of the six new 2013 projects: Read More »
Angela Bassett has been added to the cast of White Bird In A Blizzard. “Filming the new Gregg Araki movie today with Gabby Sidibe, very excited!” announced the Oscar nominated actress on her Facebook page today. Bassett will play Dr. Thaler in the indie drama about a young woman whose life spins out of control when her mother disappears. Shailene Woodley plays the young woman. Precious’ Gabourey Sidibe, Eva Green, and Shiloh Fernandez are also in White Bird. Former Law & Order: SVU star Christopher Meloni recently joined the project too. Bassett is staring and executive producing the Vanishing Point project that NBC closed a deal on in September. The actress will also be seen in the upcoming White House thriller Olympus Has Fallen with Gerald Butler. The movie is scheduled to be released on April 5, 2013. Bassett is repped by the Gersh Agency and Lighthouse Entertainment.
From The Hunger Games to “Heard It Through The Grapevine” — Lenny Kravitz is set to play Marvin Gaye, Deadline has confirmed. The part of the Motown legend in the Julien Temple-helmed film will be the first lead role for the Grammy-winning Kravitz as an actor, after he has appeared in supporting roles in Lee Daniels’ Precious as well as The Hunger Games. (He also will be seen in Daniels’ White House drama The Butler and in the upcoming sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.) The Gaye project is scheduled to start filming next year and will focus on the time Gaye spent in Europe in the early 1980s, when the soul singer attempted to get his addictions under control and career back on track with the help of British music promoter Freddy Cousaert. Gaye was shot by his father and died in Los Angeles on April 1, 1984. Temple, a video and documentary director, helmed Absolute Beginners and, more recently, the 2012 Summer Olympics docu London: Modern Babylon.
Read More »
This week UK attention will turn back to the phone-hacking scandal as it morphs into a wider discussion about freedom of the press. On Thursday, Lord Justice Brian Leveson will unveil the long-awaited findings of his inquiry into UK media ethics and make his recommendations on how to regulate the industry. 
It’s expected the report will call for some form of statutory underpinning to press regulation. That has the British media girding for battle and crying foul against its rights. Independent editor Chris Blackhurst in August said Leveson was “loading a gun” against newspapers. Prime Minister David Cameron also has a challenge on his hands as he risks alienating his media allies and/or his own government based on his reaction to the findings. And, he’ll only have 24 hours to fashion a response after getting an early look at the report on Wednesday. Cameron’s press office on Sunday said the PM remained “open-minded.”
It was Cameron who convened the inquiry in July 2011 as the phone-hacking scandal blew wide open at Rupert Murdoch’s News Of The World tabloid. During its run, the probe heard evidence from more than 150 witnesses including Murdoch, Tony Blair, Hugh Grant, J.K. Rowling, the Dowler family and Cameron himself who in June faced uncomfortable questioning about his relationship to former Murdoch lieutenant Rebekah Brooks. He recently told the BBC’s Andrew Marr he would “absolutely” abide by Leveson’s suggestions on regulation as long as they were reasonable. “The status quo is not an option,” he said. Deputy PM Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband are expected to back Leveson’s proposals, but some members of Cameron’s own Conservative party are leaning towards non-statutory regulation, including London mayor Boris Johnson. At the same time, there is a group of Conservative MPs who want radical reform, The Guardian has noted.
Should he support statutory regulation, Cameron will risk alienating members of the media who are already unhappy that a light has been shone so brightly on their underbelly by an inquiry that he ordered. In April, Rupert Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry, “When it comes to regulation, I just beg for some care. A varied press guarantees democracy.” But some papers who have not been accused of wrongdoing are likely to be caught in the crossfire. Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: Christopher Meloni is in negotiations to play the male lead in White Bird In A Blizzard to be directed by Gregg Araki. He joins Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), Eva Green (Casino Royale), Shiloh Fernandez (Red Riding Hood) and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), who are already attached. Araki wrote the script, about a young woman whose life is upended when her mother disappears.
After wrapping a long run in Law & Order: SVU, Meloni has gotten busier on the feature front. Next year, he will be seen in Jackie Robinson-Branch Rickey drama 42, the Superman reboot Man Of Steel, and Small Time. He just wrapped production on They Came Together, which will be released in 2014.
Meloni is represented by Gersh and Industry Enertainment’s Bill Butler.
(Los Angeles, CA; November 12, 2012) — Cinedigm Entertainment Group, a division of Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. (NASDAQ: CIDM), has acquired North American distribution rights to writer-director Geoffrey Fletcher’s VIOLET & DAISY, which world premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. Fletcher recently earned the Cinevation Award for his work on VIOLET & DAISY at the 2012 Savannah Film Festival. Cinedigm’s theatrical distribution will commence in 2013, with subsequent roll out across on-demand, digital and DVD.
2ND UPDATE 3:20 AM: Following Saturday’s resignation of BBC director general George Entwistle, the BBC Trust appointed Tim Davie, an executive from outside the news chain, to become acting director. A permanent director is to be appointed in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, Davie has written to BBC employees. He sent an email to staff this morning, which The Guardian has posted in its entirety. In part, it reads: “The BBC is a precious institution and I am determined to give the BBC the clarity and leadership it deserves in the next few weeks. What I will also do is continue what George set out – to work tirelessly on getting rid of anything that gets in the way of delivering the best of British creativity to our audiences. There will be no handbrake turn.” Read More »
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