By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors, Books | Thursday March 4, 2010 @ 7:11am PST
EXCLUSIVE: After tackling corruption in high finance with Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Oliver Stone is turning his attention to a three-way romance and the Mexican drug cartels. I’ve learned that Stone has just closed a deal to direct and produce Savages, a Don Winslow novel that Simon & Schuster will publish in July. Winslow and Stone will collaborate on the script, with the author writing the first draft while Stone completes the Wall Street sequel for April 23 release.
In Savages, two pals from Laguna Beach pals share the same girlfriend and a thriving business growing and distributing the best-quality pot on the planet. When they resist being muscled by a Mexican drug cartel , the girl is kidnapped and the ransom is every cent they've made for the last five years. They agree to pay but hatch an alternate plan to get her back, get revenge, and then get lost.
I’m told that Stone hopes to make Savages his follow-up to Wall Street 2. He believed in it enough to put up his own money, a maneuver that's growing in popularity with control-craving directors. It allowed Michael Mann to call the shots when he set The Fields with District 9-financier QED, with his daughter Ami Canaan Mann directing Sam Worthington. Steven Soderbergh just got Warner Bros to step up for his ... Read More »
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors, Movies | Thursday March 4, 2010 @ 7:08am PST
In a move that pave the way for a daring FBI undercover agent to get his movie moment, Benicio Del Toro has signed on to play Jack Garcia in Making Jack Falcone. Before he retired, Garcia took down 39 members of New York’s Gambino Crime family. The Cuban-born G-man was so convincing while pretending to be Italian that he was invited to become a made man before the feds broke out the handcuffs.
While undercover cop movies like Donnie Brasco bared the dilemma of conflicted loyalties of undercover work, Garcia’s biggest dilemma was keeping his cover straight. He would go from the New York case to Miami, where he posed as a New York capo in a sting against crooked cops, to Atlantic City, where he pretended to be a drug dealer in another case. An appearance on 60 Minutes (see video below) shows Garcia was not a logical candidate to be such a chameleon at 6'4" and 390 pounds. Del Toro has been a bit of a chameleon himself, most recently starring in the under-performing The Wolfman and preparing to play Moe Howard in The Three Stooges.
Del Toro reunites with Steven Soderbergh and Peter Buchman, who directed and wrote Che. Buchman wrote the script, and Soderbergh is producing with Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher and John Henson. They originally set it up at Paramount, which will probably let it go. They will get a director and then send it out to financiers.
I wanted to get this in the Gotham record, even though it happened yesterday. Sony Pictures Classics partners Michael Barker and Tom Bernard picked up North American distribution rights to Woody Allen's new film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. The London-set picture stars Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Freida Pinto and Naomi Watts, and SPC will release it this fall.
Barker and Bernard released Allan's last film, Whatever Works, and 1999’s Sweet and Lowdown. The new film was financed by Spain-based Mediapro, which is also funding his next film, a Paris-based untitled comedy that has Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard starring with Rachel McAdams.
"I know my films are in good hands with them," Allen said of Barker and Bernard, who brought their tuxes to Hollywood this week, as distributors of Best Picture nominee An Education.
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors | Wednesday March 3, 2010 @ 11:46am PST
Neil Patrick Harris has a TV-heavy resume. Now he's just landed the lead in Smurfs: The Movie for Sony. Harris won’t have to walk around as a blue-tinted Avatar, either. The Raja Gosnell-directed film is a mix of live action and animation, and Harris is the lead live action character. Filming begins in April, when he’ll be on hiatus from CBS' How I Met Your Mother.
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors, Directors | Tuesday March 2, 2010 @ 2:01pm PST
EXCLUSIVE: I've just learned Woody Allen has set Marion Colillard to play the "Muse" and star opposite Owen Wilson in that untitled film he's shooting this summer in Paris. France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, also has been mentioned as a possible participant, but nothing's set as of yet. Allen's pic is being financed under his 3-picture deal with Spain’s Mediapro. It still seems odd watching the quintessential New York director shoot in Paris, London, or Barcelona. (Though he returned for Whatever Works.) Allen long enjoyed a relationship with studios that few directors could match, where they financed his films without even reading the script. Those days are long gone -- except overseas. Woody recently wrapped You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger in London and scheduled for release in September. Cotillard most recently starred in Nine.
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors, Books, Directors | Tuesday March 2, 2010 @ 1:16pm PST
Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner have spent years trying to frame an epic film about President Lincoln and his agonizing decision to prolong the war and crush the South because it was the only way to abolish slavery. But now I've learned that directors Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov have found another angle on the Lincoln story: Abe's lifelong mission to kill vampires. They'll produce with Jim Lemley a movie adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the Seth Grahame-Smith novel that Grand Central Publishing released today.
Graham-Smith kicks off with the revelation that Lincoln’s mother was killed by a supernatural creature, which fueled his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers. The novel depicts the 16th U.S. president as an axe-throwing, highly trained vampire killer. The author is making a career of marrying classic tales with a genre bent, and this becomes his second film deal after Lionsgate and Natalie Portman signed on to adapt Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which infuses a familiar Jane Austen tale with an attack of bloodthirsty zombies. David O. Russell is circling that project as director and Portman is producing and playing the feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet.
Burton, whose Alice in Wonderland opens Friday, has long been a fan of macabre subject matter, with an adaptation of Dark Shadows looming for him and Johnny Depp. Bekmambetov, who despite reports continues to work on his Wanted sequel, covered the bloodsucker terrain with his 2004 Russian film ... Read More »
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors, Awards | Tuesday March 2, 2010 @ 10:29am PST
UPDATE: Neil Patrick Harris tweets, “I will not be performing a duet with Martin Short to open the Oscars. Misinformation, I’m afraid. Should I maybe pull a Kanye, mid-show?”
EXCLUSIVE: Stop reading if you want to be surprised, but I know how the Oscarcast will get underway Sunday night. (That is, if Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman don't change their minds because of this spoiler.) The first 2 men on stage won’t be hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Instead, the show will open with a silhouette of a pair of guys only … wait for it ... they're Neil Patrick Harris and Martin Short. Anything can change, but that unlikely duo has been rehearsing an original opening song and dance routine that is one of 2 big production numbers choreographed by executive producer Adam Shankman. (The other involves extreme street dancers who’ve performed on So You Think You Can Dance where Shankman is a judge and who’ll hoof to samplings from the Best Original Score nominees.) Though Harris is predominantly a TV star, he's an awards show regular. Short also is a TV regular these days, but he has a long relationship with the broadcast’s musical director Marc Shaiman, who put together the opening number. In fact, Shaiman/Short collaborations go back to Saturday Night Live, and include The Martin Short Show and the one-man stage show Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. I heard the producers had approached Robin Williams, but he declined.
Anika Noni Rose and Hill Harper hosted the 41ST NAACP IMAGE AWARDS, which was broadcast live from Los Angeles’ historic Shrine Auditorium tonight on FOX. The star-studded event was executive-produced by Vicangelo Bulluck. Celebrated were the accomplishments of people of color working in the fields of literature, music, television and film. Special honors were presented to Tyler Perry who received the NAACP Chairman’s Award, Wyclef Jean who received the NAACP Vanguard Award, Clarence Avant who was inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame, and Van Jones who received the NAACP President’s Award.
The 41ST NAACP IMAGE AWARDS winners are:
Outstanding Comedy Series
§ “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
§ Daryl “Chill” Mitchell – “Brothers” (FOX)
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
§ Cassi Davis – “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
§ Lance Gross – “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
§ Keshia Knight Pulliam – “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Outstanding Drama Series
§ “Lincoln Heights” (ABC Family)
Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series
§ Hill Harper – “CSI: NY” (CBS)
Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series
§ Jada Pinkett Smith – “HawthoRNe” (TNT)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
§ Delroy Lindo – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (NBC)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
§ S. Epatha Merkerson – “Law & Order” (NBC)
Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
§ “Gifted Hands” (TNT)
Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
§ Cuba Gooding Jr. – “Gifted Hands” (TNT)
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: 3-D, Actors, Distribution | Friday February 26, 2010 @ 12:54pm PST
EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that Summit Entertainment has acquired domestic distribution rights for The Three Musketeers, a 3-D period adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel that will be directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Constantin Films and Impact Pictures are producing a film that will be shot in “real 3-D.” The action will be shot in Babelsberg Studios in Germany, and on location in France. The late summer start gives Anderson a decided advantage over a rival film based on Dumas’ swordsmen that has taken root at Warner Bros. That film was conjured up by producer Lionel Wigram with a stylized take similar to the one that breathed life into Sherlock Holmes. Peter Straughan (The Men Who Stared at Goats) is writing the script.
What the Anderson-directed 3-D Musketeers won’t have is Taylor Lautner, who is in business with Summit on two more Twilight sequels and the action film Cancun. He had been offered the role, but passed last week.
By TIM ADLER | Category: Actors, Foreign | Friday February 26, 2010 @ 12:53pm PST
From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: You wait ages for one cozy class-bound drama to come along again, and then two come along at the same time. Bit like London buses really. The BBC this week announced it has signed a deal with PBS to remake that classic ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs, which told the story of the aristocratic Bellamy family and their staff and stayed a huge Sunday night hit for ITV in the 1970s. PBS' Masterpiece Theater had a good run with it in the U.S., too. This new Upstairs, Downstairs for the Beeb will be a 3-part series set just before World War II in the same London house as the original. WGBH Boston and BBC Worldwide will co-produce the show to air next year.
However, next month ITV starts filming what seems like a remarkably similar series. Downton Abbey is for all intents and purposes a weekly TV version of Robert Altman's hit film Gosford Park. Carnival Films/NBCU has even hired Julian Fellowes, Gosford Park’s Oscar-winning screenwriter, to pen most of the 7 episodes. Downton Abbey will star Dame Maggie Smith as Violet, Dowager Duchess of Grantham, with Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern. There’s even a butler called Carson and a cook called Mrs Hughes similar to Upstairs, Downstairs' butler Hudson and cook Mrs Bridges.
Jay Leno made news when he announced that Sarah Palin will be among his high-profile guests when he returns to The Tonight Show next week (aka "The Jaysurrection"). Now David Letterman's lineup for next week pits Mitt Romney against Sarah Palin on Tuesday night -- and the ratings may well provide clues on which probable GOP presidential contender may be most popular. The week's lineup for Letterman's Late Show are: MONDAY, Bill Murray; TUESDAY, Mitt Romney; WEDNESDAY, Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Brokaw; THURSDAY, Tom Hanks; and FRIDAY, Matt Damon. Leno's first week of guests are: MONDAY, Jamie Foxx, Olympic Gold Medal Skier Lindsey Vonn; TUESDAY, Sarah Palin, Olympic Gold Medal Snowboarder Shaun White; WEDNESDAY, "Jaywalk All-Stars” with the Cast of MTV's Jersey Shore, Chelsea Handler, and the most decorated American Winter Olympian of all time Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno; THURSDAY, Matthew McConaughey and Jason Reitman; FRIDAY, Morgan Freeman and Meredith Vieira.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Actors | Thursday February 25, 2010 @ 2:46pm PST
This may be welcome news to people like me who have Jennifer Aniston fatigue. After receiving Golden Globe, Emmy, and SAG nominations for her title role in the canceled ABC sitcom Samantha, Who?, Christina Applegate is segueing once again from TV to film. She's about to close a deal to join Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, and Jenna Fischer in Hall Pass, the Farrelly brothers comedy for New Line. Applegate will play one of the wives who give a hall pass to their husbands allowing them to have sex with another woman without consequence. Written by Bobby Farrelly, Kevin Barnett, Peter Farrelly and Peter Jones, the pic began shooting this week in Atlanta. The film is being produced by Bobby Farrelly, Bradley Thomas, and Peter Farrelly with Peter Farrelly directing. Applegate also stars alongside Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, and Charlie Day in the upcoming comedy Going The Distance, also for New Line. She is repped by Management 360, CAA, and lawyer Steve Warren.
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors | Wednesday February 24, 2010 @ 10:20pm PST
Bradley Cooper has fallen out of This Means War because the July start date overlapped the Warners comedy The Hangover 2, which is a big payday for Cooper. This Means War, the McG-directed Fox comedy starring Reese Witherspoon, now needs to find both of the best friends who become enemies when the duo realize they are pining for the same woman.
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors | Wednesday February 24, 2010 @ 7:26pm PST
EXCLUSIVE: This may not be the best of times to develop a lovable whale tale considering the tragic death of that trainer by an Orca. Universal is making Everybody Loves Whales, a fact-based story of the 1988 rescue of a trio of California gray whales trapped under the ice of the Arctic Circle. I'm told Drew Barrymore is circling the role of a Greenpeace activist and Ken Kwapis is set to direct. Shooting is slated for the fall.
The film has all the makings of a heartwarming family film. Despite the frigid surroundings, the actual event caused a thaw in relations between the U.S. and Soviet superpowers, which worked together with activists, media, and locals to save the whales after both President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev got involved. Jack Amiel and Michael Begler wrote the script. Universal harpooned the project after Warner Bros set it free. Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin and Michael Sugar will produce it with Working Title’s Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Liza Chasin. Barrymore is hot again after winning several awards including the Golden Globe for HBO's Grey Gardens.
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors, Agents | Wednesday February 24, 2010 @ 6:49pm PST
Halle Berry, who left ICM two weeks ago, is back for the 2nd time with CAA. She left there to join WME and then moved to ICM. Berry continues to be managed by longtime rep Vince Cirrincione.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Actors | Wednesday February 24, 2010 @ 4:28pm PST
EXCLUSIVE: What's better than being really, really ridiculously good-looking like Zoolander? Being really, really ridiculously good-looking in the 2001 cult classic's sequel. Finally, Paramount and Ben Stiller are pulling together a PG-13 Zoolander 2 with Tropic Thunder and Iron Man 2 writer Justin Theroux who'll also direct. I've learned that Ben and Justin are working on the script together, and Theroux is going to Fashion Week in Paris to "immerse himself on what is current in fashion". "It's got momentum," a studio source just told me. Everyone's hoping Owen Wilson co-stars again but no deal is set. The villain likely will be Jonah Hill who's in negotiations.
If you remember, Zoolander came out on September 28, 2001, right after 9/11 so no one ever saw the pic in theaters. But it was a hot DVD and is still a bestseller on iTunes. And when Ben Stiller goes overseas, he's always asked to do "Blue Steel" which is saying a lot about a movie that earned only $45M domestic and $16M international because of its lousy timing. The problem is that no one's sure what the sequel can do because the original was so thwarted. Paramount wants to keep the budget below $50M so what's being discussed is some upfront reductions in exchange for bigger upsides. And yet everyone still really wants to do the pic in order to bring Derek and Hanzel to life again.
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors | Wednesday February 24, 2010 @ 12:59pm PST
Now that his career is resurrected from the ashes thanks to Darren Aronofsky and The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke is deservedly hot again and in demand. Currently, he's being courted by Millennium Films and Lionsgate to join the remake of Conan The Barbarian, titled just Conan, which is the Marcus Nispel-directed reinvention of the Robert E. Howard creation. Rourke is negotiating to play Corin, the father of Conan who's played by Jason Momoa. At the same time, Rourke is negotiating for the Tarsem Singh-directed War of the Gods and the part of King Hyperion, the ruler of Ancient Greece who does battle with the divines. Henry Cavill also stars.
Conan begins shooting in Bulgaria in late March and War of the Gods begins April 7th, so it is possible he might need to make a choice between the 2 projects. Both offers come as Rourke is now being seen in trailers for Iron Man 2 in the role of Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, the villain who goes mano a mano against Robert Downey Jr’ s Tony Stark. The fervor for Rourke is a good lesson to remember for all of those actors testing for the role of Captain America and bristling about the low paycheck. Reps for Rourke, who was coming off an Oscar-nominated turn in The Wrestler, went through a bare-knuckle negotiation on Iron Man 2, with Marvel initially offering him just $250,000. But the buzz? Priceless.
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors, Comic Books | Wednesday February 24, 2010 @ 10:50am PST
UPDATE: I've learned that Marvel Studios and director Joe Johnston are testing candidates for The First Avenger: Captain America which Paramount will distribute on July 22, 2011. I’ve scooped their wish list: most but by no means all of the contenders are young hunks who come from both movies and television -- Chace Crawford (CW's Gossip Girl), John Krasinski (NBC's The Office), Scott Porter (NBC's Friday Night Lights), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Michael Cassidy (CW's Privileged), Patrick Flueger (Brothers). They also wanted Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy), but he so far hasn’t made a test deal. The studio yesterday tested several candidates from this list. It's not surprising that the roster contains so many little known actors: Marvel after all cast a complete unknown as Thor, Chris Hemsworth. The role is enticing, but Marvel is known for driving hard bargains on its superhero deals. There's a salary scale, but if you're not a known quantity like Crawford or Krasinski, the offer is around $300,000 for the first film. And whoever gets the role will have to sign for another nine options for future films that include sequels, Avengers movies, or anything else Marvel decides. In fact, I’m told reliably that Captain America director Johnston recently reached an impasse with Marvel and briefly walked off the film when Marvel informed him the budget was too high and he’d have to take a pay cut. ... Read More »
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors, History | Tuesday February 23, 2010 @ 8:19pm PST
EXCLUSIVE: In this tough marketplace, if you want to make another movie about a complex historical figure like Robert F Kennedy, you'd better bring to the table an actor with chops and bankability to excite a financier. Matt Damon does both those things. I've just heard that a deal closed at New Regency for an RFK film that has Damon attached, with Gary Ross directing and Steven Knight scripting. Damon will wait to see the script before we know whether or not the project will really happen. The film will be based on the Evan Thomas biography His Life, which Landscape Entertainment’s Bob Cooper optioned and will produce with Ross and his Larger Than Life partner Alison Thomas.
While Damon just played South African rugby star Francois Pienaar in Invictus, he has never played a real figure like Kennedy. The film will trace RFK's transformation from the younger brother in the shadow brother President John F Kennedy to a strong national leader in his own right before he was gunned down in 1968. His assassination at the Ambassador Hotel was the backdrop for Emilio Estevez’s Bobby, and Chris Columbus and his 1492 partners are developing The Last Campaign on RFK's presidential run. Ross, too, has long been fascinated with Kennedy and once optioned the Thomas book himself.
Knight, the Eastern Promises writer, just got hired by Columbia Pictures to adapt the Dan Brown novel ... Read More »
Carl Icahn Now Wants ALL Of Lionsgate 
Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … 
I wanted to get this in the Gotham record, even though it happened yesterday. Sony Pictures Classics partners Michael Barker and Tom Bernard picked up North American distribution rights to Woody Allen's new film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. The London-set picture stars Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Freida Pinto and Naomi Watts, and SPC will release it this fall.
Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner have spent years trying to frame an epic film about President Lincoln and his agonizing decision to prolong the war and crush the South because it was the only way to abolish slavery. But now I've learned that directors Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov have found another angle on the Lincoln story: Abe's lifelong mission to kill vampires. They'll produce with Jim Lemley a movie adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the Seth Grahame-Smith novel that Grand Central Publishing released today.
UPDATE: Neil Patrick Harris tweets, “I will not be performing a duet with Martin Short to open the Oscars. Misinformation, I’m afraid. Should I maybe pull a Kanye, mid-show?”
This may be welcome news to people like me who have Jennifer Aniston fatigue. After receiving Golden Globe, Emmy, and SAG nominations for her title role in the canceled ABC sitcom Samantha, Who?, Christina Applegate is segueing once again from TV to film. She's about to close a deal to join Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, and Jenna Fischer in Hall Pass, the Farrelly brothers comedy for New Line. Applegate will play one of the wives who give a hall pass to their husbands allowing them to have sex with another woman without consequence. Written by Bobby Farrelly, Kevin Barnett, Peter Farrelly and Peter Jones, the pic began shooting this week in Atlanta. The film is being produced by Bobby Farrelly, Bradley Thomas, and Peter Farrelly with Peter Farrelly directing. Applegate also stars alongside Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, and Charlie Day in the upcoming comedy Going The Distance, also for New Line. She is repped by Management 360, CAA, and lawyer Steve Warren. 
EXCLUSIVE: What's better than being really, really ridiculously good-looking like Zoolander? Being really, really ridiculously good-looking in the 2001 cult classic's sequel. 
Now that his career is resurrected from the ashes thanks to Darren Aronofsky and The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke is deservedly hot again and in demand. Currently, he's being courted by Millennium Films and Lionsgate to join the remake of Conan The Barbarian, titled just Conan, which is the Marcus Nispel-directed reinvention of the Robert E. Howard creation. Rourke is negotiating to play Corin, the father of Conan who's played by Jason Momoa. At the same time, Rourke is negotiating for the Tarsem Singh-directed War of the Gods and the part of King Hyperion, the ruler of Ancient Greece who does battle with the divines. Henry Cavill also stars.
UPDATE:
EXCLUSIVE: In this tough marketplace, if you want to make another movie about a complex historical figure like Robert F Kennedy, you'd better bring to the table an actor with chops and bankability to excite a financier. Matt Damon does both those things. I've just heard that a deal closed at New Regency for an RFK film that has Damon attached, with Gary Ross directing and Steven Knight scripting. Damon will wait to see the script before we know whether or not the project will really happen. The film will be based on the Evan Thomas biography His Life, which Landscape Entertainment’s Bob Cooper optioned and will produce with Ross and his Larger Than Life partner Alison Thomas.
While Damon just played South African rugby star Francois Pienaar in Invictus, he has never played a real figure like Kennedy. The film will trace RFK's transformation from the younger brother in the shadow brother President John F Kennedy to a strong national leader in his own right before he was gunned down in 1968. His assassination at the Ambassador Hotel was the backdrop for Emilio Estevez’s Bobby, and Chris Columbus and his 1492 partners are developing The Last Campaign on RFK's presidential run. Ross, too, has long been fascinated with Kennedy and once optioned the Thomas book himself.
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