By Nikki Finke | Category: Foreign | Tuesday February 23, 2010 @ 1:51pm PST
BURBANK, Calif., February 23, 2010 – Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group announced today the acquisition of a majority stake in Rocksteady Studios, a privately held developer of interactive entertainment targeted at teens and adults, continuing Warner Bros.’ pattern as one of the industry’s fastest growing games publishers.
“Rocksteady demonstrated its professionalism and extraordinary development abilities with Batman: Arkham Asylum,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. “This arrangement is a great strategic fit and we are very pleased to solidify our relationship with this talented development team.”
Founded in 2004 in London, England, Rocksteady specializes in developing action-adventure video games, including Batman: Arkham Asylum, one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2009. The title has enjoyed robust sales, shipping over three million units worldwide, and has garnered numerous industry awards.
“We are proud to strengthen our association with WBIE, a world class publisher that we have enjoyed working with since we began developing Batman: Arkham Asylum,” said Jamie Walker, studio director, Rocksteady Studios. Sefton Hill, games director, added, “The Rocksteady team is very much looking forward to creating more great games based on widely recognized Warner Bros. brands like Batman.”
Warner Bros. continues to grow its games business through key acquisitions, building internal development capabilities, leveraging its global video distribution infrastructure, and focusing on developing major games franchises such as Batman, Mortal Kombat, The Lord of the Rings and LEGO.
“With the successful release of Batman: Arkham Asylum, a franchise that is a key focus for Warner Bros., Rocksteady has proven
LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK (October 24, 2009) — The National Board of Directors of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) met today by videoconference plenary in Los Angeles and New York.
The AFTRA National Board approved that the tentative agreement with the video game industry for an extension to the AFTRA Interactive Media Agreement, which is currently set to expire on December 31, 2009, be sent out for ratification by a referendum vote of the affected members who perform work under the contract. The Board is sending out the referendum with an overwhelming and strong recommendation for a yes vote on the new terms. The AFTRA Interactive Media Steering Committee, which is made up of members around the country who work this agreement, and the AFTRA Administrative Committee previously approved and recommended to the Board the tentative agreement, which was reached with video game employers in early October. If ratified, the 15-month extension will take effect on January 1, 2010, and remain in full force until March 31, 2011.
The extension delivers a 2.5 percent wage increase and a 0.2 percent increase in employer contributions to the AFTRA Health and Retirement Funds, both effective April 1, 2010, and a new liquidated damages payment provision to incentivize employers to give notice of vocally stressful work – the first-ever such payment under any union contract. The agreement also preserves the extra “Remote Delivery” payment for performers – currently 135 percent of the original session fee – and establishes a
I first heard about this because of the rumor that "Peter Guber is buying all of Comic Con." Well, that proved false when I checked it out. But, instead, he's one of 3 grown men who are also media veterans aiming to feed the appetite of what they're calling the "geekerati" audience by launching today a free daily email newsletter they want to be the definitive voice of geek culture. (A newsletter? How quaint...) It's called GEEKCHICDAILY and it will purport to cover the tastemakers' choice of video games, toys, tech & apps, movies & TV, comic books and collectibles and gear. Announced this morning at the Big Apple Comic Con, it's backed by Wizard Entertainment's Gareb Shamus, the founder and publisher of Wizard magazine of comic book, toy and character-based genre fare whiuch also started out as a newsletter. Shamus also owns and operates the Big Apple, Chicago, Philadelphia, Anaheim, and Toronto Comic Con festivals. Ergo why that rumor began... Also involved is Internet executive and video game investor Peter Levin. [Full Disclosure: Levin was my business agent in the sale of Deadline Hollywood to MMC.] Also in the partnership is Peter Guber, the CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group and former Sony Pictures studio mogul. The newsletter will be edited by Scott Gramling, former editor-in-chief of FHM and Wizard. “Gareb and I have been friends for many years and we’ve searched for the right project to embark upon together. Peter Guber became the secret sauce and GeekChicDaily was brought to life," Levin said in a statement. "We strive to bring ... Read More »
Los Angeles (October 2, 2009) — Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) today announced they have reached tentative agreements with video game companies on new contracts. The agreements -- which become effective upon ratification and remain in full force until March 30, 2011 – achieve parity between the AFTRA and Screen Actors Guild contracts and include contemporaneous expiration dates of March 30, 2011.
In addition, the contracts deliver a 3 percent wage increase upon ratification for SAG, thereby bringing SAG’s wages into parity with AFTRA’s, and another 2.5 percent increase on April 1, 2010, for both unions. Both pacts contain increases in benefit contributions and a liquidated damages provision to incentivize employers to give notice of vocally stressful work.
The contracts also establish a new category of performance for “atmospheric voices” that is designed to increase work opportunities for union performers by allowing Producers the flexibility to record multiple minor character voices in a single session. The agreements also establish a cap of $125,000 on contributions to the AFTRA Health and Retirement and SAG Pension and Health funds. The cap will only apply to performers who are paid more than $125,000 by a single producer in a single year for work done on the same game franchise.
The tentative agreements must be approved by Screen Actors Guild’s National Board of Directors and the AFTRA Administrative Commitee, both of which will meet in the coming weeks.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Media | Tuesday August 18, 2009 @ 4:11pm PST
First, the Avatar movie website crashes. Then Fox shows footage to those media who didn't attend Comic-Con. Now, Friday will be "Avatar Day" when audiences worldwide get their first look at selected scenes in 3-D at select cinemas and IMAX theaters as well as the film's trailer. Fox also will take the wraps off its special “3-D”/lenticular one-sheet posters for the film, and Ubisoft will unveil the trailer for their videogame James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, while Mattel will reveal the action figures for the film’s Avatar and alien Na’vi characters. The extended look at Avatar will unspool for two showings only on the evening of August 21. Information on reserving tickets for these very limited showings will be available are at avatarmovie.com. The film opens everywhere December 18th.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Finance | Tuesday October 21, 2008 @ 12:43am PST
When it rains, it pours, especially if you're over-leveraged Sumner Redstone. Despite Monday's stock market rally, the share price for his videogame publisher Midway Games hit the skids and lost a whopping 12% of its market value. The maker of titles Unreal Tournament 3 and Mortal Kombat fell 15 cents to close at $1.10. That's down 67.1% from its year-ago price. As Forbes.com noted, Midway Games had "a doozy of a day" -- making Redstone's really rotten. His holding company National Amusements already had to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shares in Viacom and CBS at rock bottom prices. Forbes speculated Monday that perhaps Redstone was "going to turn around and lend the money to the struggling Midway Games just to keep the company afloat". Redstone already is said to be in talks with bankers to renegotiate terms on $1.6 billion in debt because of the losses in value of his contrlling shares of CBS and Viacom used as collateral. Geez, it wasn't long ago that other media moguls were envious of Redstone for having the foresight to invest in videogames -- which he once boasted were "the hottest part of the entertainment industry” -- not for Viacom but for his personal portfolio. Are they feeling sorry for Sumner now? Anyone? Anyone?
Video below. Politico says comedian turned U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken helped head writer Seth Meyers brainstorm tonight's SNL opening sketch mocking John McCain. Ugh, it was lame. Not funny at all. In fact, the whole show stank.
Given that Grand Theft Auto IV blew away the global retail sales record, a day doesn't go by that I'm not asked about when it's going to be made into a movie. Of course, that happens with every best-selling video game. But this isn't a case of the project veering horribly off track like, say, Halo. Nah, this is something altogether different. I've learned that Fox Atomic owns the rights to Grand Theft Auto. But to the movie title, not the game. It was, of course, Ron Howard who wrote and directed and starred in the little pic Grand Theft Auto back in 1977 for Roger Corman. So Fox optioned the rights for the Howard/Corman movie title a while back. A studio insider clarifies for me: "Yes, Fox owns the Corman movie. Yes, it has been one of 400 development projects for several years. But they are nowhere on the script. It has certainly not been a front-burner project." Strangely, the success of the video game hasn't put any new impetus on the studio to formulate a plan. And it doesn't matter that a supposed legal settlement over the game/movie/title dictates that Rockstar can't make a Grand Theft Auto movie or Corman/Howard/Fox a video game out of the title. C'mon, the movie can still shrewdly piggyback off the game's global branding. Here's my idea: Fox for old times sake should offer the project to Ron Howard since GTA jump-started his directorial career. Then let him incubate as a producer a new ... Read More »
Back in January during the writers strike, Jimmy Kimmel made news when he went from host of his own show to guest on Jay Leno, and vice versa. Now Kimmel will be sitting with David Letterman this coming Monday (but I don't think Dave will return the favor anytime soon). I'm told it's rare for the Los Angeles-based ABC talk show host to get to NYC, so that's why Jimmy is making the rounds: May 12th guesting first on Good MorningAmerica, and then appearing on Howard Stern, before filling in for Regis Philbin. It all leads up to May 13th when Kimmel will do his annual send-up at the ABC upfront. So, with all this talk about Leno possibly moving to ABC (and, of course, Fox), I have to wonder: Does ABC realize what it's already got in Kimmel? Especially factoring in how he and girlfriend Sarah Silverman are definitely the "it" couple media-wise right now.
It's certainly in demand: tonight, before Rockstar's creation hits store shelves, a few UPS workers were fired for stealing pre-ordered copies of Grand Theft Auto IV. There's no doubt it's going to set a new sales record for entertainment product starting tomorrow -- perhaps $400 mil and 6 mil copies because it plays on both Microsoft's Xbox 360 as well as Sony's Playstation 3, way beyond the previous record-holderHalo 3. In fact U.S. retail sales of video games jumped 57% in March, and analysts predict increased hardware sales due to the new game release. So on the eve of GTA IV's release, I turned to my video game guru Keith Boesky, whose company is responsible for selling the most intellectual property and developers into the game business and who has opined on video game violence here as well as on video games versus movies here. Now he analyzes whether GTA IV has really got game:
"To put it lightly, if the other things made for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are called 'games', we have to come up with a new word for GTA IV. I think the word is 'platform'. By every measure, GTA IV is orders of magnitude larger than anything else on the market, including with the critical scores. The fact you are reading this and know what I am talking about is already an indication of the scale. How many of you knew the second largest game on the Playstation, Gran Turismo: Prologue came out a
I'm going to keep a spotlight on video games over the next days because of all the hype surrounding the April 29th release of Grand Theft Auto IV which is going to set a new sales record for entertainment product (perhaps $400 mil, way beyond the previous record-holderHalo 3). Again, I look to my video game guru Keith Boesky, whose company is responsible for selling the most intellectual property and developers into the game business, to answer the oft-asked question: is there more violence in video games than movies? Keith takes issue with my recent description of GTA IV as "loathsome" and compares the game's content to past and present violent Hollywood films and TV:
"I love Nikki, I love GTA, so I have to address the adjective. I could think of a lot of ways to describe GTA IV. Perhaps 'mind boggling in scope,' 'unbelievable achievement in game making,' 'more technologically complex than the NASA systems that put a man on the moon,' or just 'beautiful.' ...GTA IV is an 'M' rated game -- the industry equivalent to the MPAA's "R" rating -- and will not be sold to anyone under 17. The GTA series drives its medium forward and takes us where we’ve gone in films like The Godfather, Scarface, or more recently, The Sopranos.
"Isn’t the most troubling part of watching those movies feeling like you might do the same thing in the same situation? In GTA, you don't feel it, you do it. In each
With all the hype about how the loathesome Grand Theft Auto IV is going to set a new sales record April 29th for entertainment product (perhaps $400 mil, way beyond the previous record-holderHalo 3), I look to my video game guru Keith Boesky, whose company is responsible for selling the most intellectual property and developers into the game business, to answer the oft-asked question: are games bigger than movies?
"At this year's Game Developers Conference, a Microsoft executive proclaimed not only is the game business bigger than the movie business, but it is bigger than music. This statement was made last month, but we are about to see this repeated a whole lot more. Some stories were triggered by the annual NPD report on industry growth, others will be triggered by the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV. The articles are complete and utter bullshit on so many levels.
"We can look from the standpoint of mild deception. Game revenues are in fact larger, but they are only larger because we charge 6 times as much per consumer. The elephant standing in the room next to this statement is the actual market is significantly smaller. Especially when you consider NPD's number includes hardware sales which are between $250 and $600 per box. This would be the same as counting DVD players in home video sales - which, incidentally, without DVD players are larger than the game market.
What an incredible list of petty, mean-spirited and just spiteful behavior the Hollywood CEOs are compiling for themselves. Really, they're never going to be able to explain away this stuff when the strike eventually ends and they're held accountable by everyone else. I've been confirming episode after episode of the AMPTP's giant multimedia members retaliating in every way possible against anyone in Hollywood helping the WGA's side in this strike dragging on and on. I'll keep updating as more instances come in to me (so keep refreshing for the latest):
-->The latest is that Disney/ABC has rescinded offers to pay for tickets for TV show executive producers going to the SAG awards -- just two days after sending them emails saying ABC would provide four tickets per show. The exec producers are often hyphenates who also belong to the WGA.
-->Disney/ABC has decided not to pay for hair and make-up and even cars for its stars going to the SAG awards, something the studios and networks always do, since the actors have aligned themselves with the WGA and the SAG show received a Writers Guild waiver while it's increasingly unlikely that the Oscars televised by ABC will. "Their reasoning is that they don't want to pay for SAG actors to get all dressed up only to bad-mouth the studio on the Red Carpet," a source told me. Oh, like that couldn't happen at the Academy Awards, too, although ABC wouldn't air it.
-->Harvey Weinstein received a number of phone calls from the moguls warning him "You shouldn't do it," and "We can get this done with the DGA," when ... Read More »
Now that Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien -- both WGA members -- have announced they will be "reluctantly" returning to the airwaves without their writers on January 2nd, the WGA East and West is reminding everyone of its pre-approved "Strike Rules pertaining to Comedy/Variety", which were sent to all comedy/variety shows prior to the strike. "These are the rules we expect all the hosts to adhere to if they go back on the air without their writers, who will still be on strike," a WGA spokesperson says. Meanwhile, David Letterman's Worldwide Pants continues negotiations for The Late Show and The Late Late Show starring Craig Ferguson with the WGA for that "interim agreement" that's supposed to be a sure thing:
NOTICE TO ALL WGA MEMBERS WRITING FOR COMEDY/VARIETY SHOWS
The Council of the Writers Guild of America, East, Inc. and the Board of Directors of Writers Guild of America, West, Inc. (collectively the “Guild”), have adopted Strike Rules which will go into effect if the Guild calls a strike. The Strike Rules, among other provisions, prohibit Guild members from performing any writing services during a strike for any and all struck companies. This prohibition includes all writing by any Guild member that would be performed on-air by that member (including monologues, characters, and featured appearances) if any portion of that written material is customarily written by striking writers.
Here were today's statements by the NBC late night hosts:
Jay Leno: “This has been a very difficult six weeks ... Read More »
UPDATED THROUGHOUT: Sources tell me the Writers Guild Of America is intending to grant David Letterman's independent production company Worldwide Pants an "interim agreement" that allows the Late Show host and his writers to return to the airwaves during the strike because it doesn't involve CBS. This comes after Letterman's long-time executive producer Rob Burnett, who's also president/CEO of Dave's production company Worldwide Pants, has repeatedly tried to secure a WGA waiver for The Late Show. (See below for details of the bills Letterman has been paying since his show went off the air.)
This trumps NBC's announcement coming Monday that Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien will be returning by January 7th 2nd. Presumably, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel won't be far behind. "A major announcement will be made by more than one network on Monday," an insider noted. But Jay and Conan, who are just hired hands and not show owners like Dave, won't have their writers to rely on when they come back on the air. And Dave will. The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, also owned by WP, would return with writers.
Here's the statement from Rob Burnett:
“Worldwide Pants has always been a writer-friendly company. Dave has been a member of the WGA for more than 30 years, and I have been a member for more than 20. Because we are an independent production company, we are able to pursue an interim agreement with the Guild without involving CBS in that pursuit. Therefore,
I should start this post by noting that everyone I know, young and old, doesn't get lunkhead NBC's Last Call host Carson Daly's appeal. Indeed, I've seen chimps with better TV charisma and good looks and interviewing skills. And yet NBC at the time was so delighted about hiring him just because he dated starlets and pop stars and smarmed MTV. So the network is more enthusiastic than ever now that Daly today announced that he is the first of the late night hosts returning to the air despite the ongoing writers walkout. He plans to resume taping Wednesday for new episodes that will begin airing next week. "He wanted to go back to support his staffers," the network spokeswoman said. NBC has informed the non-writing staff of Daly's show, as well as Jay Leno's and Conan O'Brien's, that they face layoffs at the end of this week unless the shows return to the airwaves. (Meanwhile, NBC is so desperate to get Leno back behind The Tonight Show deskthat it's humiliating him with "vintage" episodes which should be destroyed, not aired.)
Tonight, the striking Writers Guild of America issued this statement of criticism: “We’re disappointed at Carson Daly’s decision to return to work. Mr. Daly is not a writer and not a member of the WGA, unlike other late-night hosts Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Kimmel, who have all resisted network pressure and honored our writers’ picket lines. We hope he’ll change his mind and follow the lead of the other late-night hosts.”
Emails came flooding in to me that Jimmy Kimmel just announced on national TV that he doesn't need writers to host the American Music Awards. But Kimmel is a member of the WGA. MONDAY AM: Here are Kimmel's comments in context, as transcribed by an alert DHD reader:
KIMMEL: This is going to be a little bit loose tonight. I’m a member of the writers guild. We’re on strike. It may not look like it, but I’m striking right now in my heart. So I was not allowed to write the jokes for tonight’s event, which is good for those of you in the front area, but bad for the rest of the world who has to sit through made-up crap. So what I’m going to do, instead of entertaining you with my comedy, I’m going to entertain you with my little-seen dancing ability tonight.
By Nikki Finke | Category: AFTRA | Friday November 9, 2007 @ 12:57pm PST
A news report says NBC informed the nonwriting staff of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that they will be laid off at the end of next week in the wake of the show shutting down for the writers’ strike. Leno is still refusing to cross the picket line, but the network is talking about bringing the show back on the air Nov. 19 with a bunch of guest hosts.
Carl Icahn Now Wants ALL Of Lionsgate 
FINAL MGM BIDS DUE FRIDAY: So Who's In And … 
Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … 
BBC Drama Unfreezes Development Money; … 
Lionsgate Board Rejects Icahn's $6/Share 
Is Betting On Box Office Good For Films? 
Marvel Still Looking For Captain America 
'Sopranos' Creator To Film Rock Drama 
LIVE-SNARKING THE 82ND OSCARS... 
'ALICE' IS A MONSTER! $116.3M Blows Past … 
Oscar Not-So-Thriller: Diller Mogul Picnic 
'Precious' Sweeps 25th Indie Spirit Awards 
Howard Stern Won't Be Next 'Idol' Judge 
Justin Theroux Readying 'Zoolander 2' For … 
First, the Avatar movie website crashes. Then Fox shows footage to those media who didn't attend Comic-Con. Now, Friday will be "Avatar Day" when audiences worldwide get their first look at selected scenes in 3-D at select cinemas and IMAX theaters as well as the film's trailer. Fox also will take the wraps off its special “3-D”/lenticular one-sheet posters for the film, and Ubisoft will unveil the trailer for their videogame James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, while Mattel will reveal the action figures for the film’s Avatar and alien Na’vi characters. The extended look at Avatar will unspool for two showings only on the evening of August 21. Information on reserving tickets for these very limited showings will be available are at 
When it rains, it pours, especially if you're over-leveraged Sumner Redstone. Despite Monday's stock market rally, the share price for his videogame publisher Midway Games hit the skids and lost a whopping 12% of its market value. The maker of titles Unreal Tournament 3 and Mortal Kombat fell 15 cents to close at $1.10. That's down 67.1% from its year-ago price. As Forbes.com 
in talks with bankers to renegotiate terms on $1.6 billion in debt because of the losses in value of his contrlling shares of CBS and Viacom used as collateral. Geez, it wasn't long ago that other media moguls were envious of Redstone for having the foresight to invest in videogames -- which he once boasted were "the hottest part of the entertainment industry” -- not for Viacom but for his personal portfolio. Are they feeling sorry for Sumner now? Anyone? Anyone?
I've learned that Fox Atomic owns the rights to Grand Theft Auto. But to the movie title, not the game. It was, of course, Ron Howard who wrote and directed and starred in the little pic Grand Theft Auto back in 1977 for Roger Corman. So Fox optioned the rights for the Howard/Corman movie title a while back. A studio insider clarifies for me: "Yes, Fox owns the Corman movie. Yes, it has been one of 400 development projects for several years. But they are nowhere on the script. It has certainly not been a front-burner project." Strangely, the success of the video game hasn't put any new impetus on the studio to formulate a plan. And it doesn't matter that a supposed legal settlement over the game/movie/title dictates that Rockstar can't make a Grand Theft Auto movie or Corman/Howard/Fox a video game out of the title. C'mon, the movie can still shrewdly piggyback off the game's global branding. Here's my idea: Fox for old times sake should offer the project to Ron Howard since GTA jump-started his directorial career. Then let him incubate as a producer a new ... 
Back in January during the writers strike, Jimmy Kimmel made news when he went from host of his own show to guest on Jay Leno, and vice versa. Now Kimmel will be sitting with David Letterman this coming Monday (but I don't think Dave will return the favor anytime soon). I'm told it's rare for the Los Angeles-based ABC talk show host to get to NYC, so that's why Jimmy is making the rounds: May 12th guesting first on Good Morning America, and then appearing on Howard Stern, before filling in for Regis Philbin. It all leads up to May 13th when Kimmel will do his annual send-up at the ABC upfront. So, with all this talk about Leno possibly moving to ABC (and, of course, Fox), I have to wonder: Does ABC realize what it's already got in Kimmel? Especially factoring in how he and girlfriend Sarah Silverman are definitely the "it" couple media-wise right now. 
This comes after Letterman's long-time executive producer Rob Burnett, who's also president/CEO of Dave's production company Worldwide Pants, has repeatedly tried to secure a WGA waiver for The Late Show. (See below for details of the bills Letterman has been paying since his show went off the air.)
I should start this post by noting that everyone I know, young and old, doesn't get lunkhead NBC's Last Call host Carson Daly's appeal. Indeed, I've seen chimps with better TV charisma and good looks and interviewing skills. And yet NBC at the time was so delighted about hiring him just because he dated starlets and pop stars and smarmed MTV. So the network is more enthusiastic than ever now that Daly today announced that he is the first of the late night hosts returning to the air despite the ongoing writers walkout. He plans to resume taping Wednesday for new episodes that will begin airing next week. "He wanted to go back to support his staffers," the network spokeswoman said. NBC has informed the non-writing staff of Daly's show, as well as Jay Leno's and Conan O'Brien's, that they face layoffs at the end of this week unless the shows return to the airwaves. (Meanwhile, NBC is so desperate to get Leno back behind The Tonight Show desk that it's humiliating him with "vintage" episodes which should be destroyed, not aired.)
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