In a move that potentially eliminates the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of TV and Radio Artists from being played against one another in the upcoming negotiations on new prime-time and feature contracts, SAG's national board overwhelmingly voted to negotiate side-by-side with AFTRA. The proposal received 78% approval. The ... Read More »

Steven Spielberg now has two agencies working for him. In the high stakes game of representation of giants, WME on Friday signed to represent the television part of Spielberg's business. He remains at CAA for feature representation. WME announced the signing internally late Friday.

Spielberg, who began his career as a ... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE: Robert Downey Jr. is negotiating a deal to star in Gravity, the 3D space film directed by Alfonso Cuaron. Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures will co-finance.

Cuaron wrote the script with his son, Jonas.

Downey will play the leader of a team ... Read More »

FLIPPING THE SCRIPT: BEYOND HOMOPHOBIA IN BLACK HOLLYWOOD -- African American writers, actors, directors, producers, and execs explore LGBT portrayals on TV and film

WHAT:           Co-sponsored by the Writers Guild of America, West’s Gay & Lesbian Writers Committee and Committee of Black Writers, FLIPPING THE SCRIPT: BEYOND HOMOPHOBIA IN BLACK HOLLYWOOD on Tuesday, March 23rd is set to be a revealing and enlightening look at key issues involving African American gay and lesbian characters on the big and small screens. The evening’s dialogue will explore both positive and negative portrayals of LGBT characters, recurring homophobia (within black society as well as among black filmmakers/producers) that has limited and/or informed such portrayals, stereotyping controversies and contradictions, and positive gains that have been made – and need to continue to be made – within the entertainment industry.

WHO:             Panelists currently scheduled to appear include: Paris Barclay (producer-director The Good Wife), Quincy LeNear and Deondray Gossett (writers-producers-directors, The D L Chronicles), Jasmine Love (writer, The District), Maurice Jamal (writer-producer-director, Chappelle’s Show), Tim McNeal (VP, Talent Development and Diversity, Disney/ABC Television), Brian White (actor, Men of a Certain Age), and Tajamika Paxton (GLAAD Director of Entertainment Media). The panel will be moderated by award-winning stage and screen actress Sheryl Lee Ralph (Dreamgirls, Moesha).

WHEN:         7:30 PM, Tuesday, March 23

WHERE:       Writers Guild of America, West

From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: In this youth-obsessed age, it’s nice to see BBC Films taking a risk on a 72-year-old first-time director. Dustin Hoffman is in talks to replace Richard Loncraine as director of Quartet starring Maggie Smith, Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay. The pic about retired opera singers is based on a 1999 stage comedy by Ronald Harwood, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Pianist. Finola Dwyer, one of the producers of An Education, is currently in Los Angeles working on the project.

EXCLUSIVE: It's been weeks since the Sundance Film Festival. But Bob Berney’s Apparition has teamed with the Sony Worldwide Acquisitions Group to acquire domestic distribution rights to Welcome to the Rileys, the Jake Scott-directed Ken Hixon-written drama that stars James Gandolfini, ... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: Cinema chains including Cineworld, Odeon and Vue have all been able to upgrade to digital free of charge thanks to the British government. Whereas other exhibitors have had to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds installing 3D digital projectors and screens, only to see the big chains receive a massive leg-up on 3D courtesy of the public purse. It costs between £70,000 and £100,000 to convert each screen to digital. No wonder rivals to the Big Three think this is unfair competition. 

The UK Film Council has invested £12 million ($18 million) in equipping 240 screens in 213 cinemas across the UK, or what's called its Digital Screen Network. The DSN covers approximately 8% of screens in 1/3 of UK cinemas. Of those, half are controlled by Cineworld, Odeon, and Vue. Cineworld was apparently the first chain to begin upgrading its 73 DSN screens. Then Odeon and Vue followed. Cineworld has just posted a £40 million profit for 2009, boasting how it’s led the way in 3D.

The idea behind the DSN was to enable multiplexes to show a certain percentage of officially approved films across all screens. Otherwise, the UKFC could take their equipment away. But the rush to screen 3D Hollywood blockbusters like Alice In Wonderland and Avatar have elbowed these official movies out of the way. So there’s a question whether the multiplexes will hit the quota targets for officially approved films they agreed to. A review of the DSN is due to ... Read More »

BURBANK, Calif. – March 12, 2010 – The Walt Disney Studios and ImageMovers Digital (IMD) today announced that they will close operations at IMD’s Marin County facility after production is completed on Mars Needs Moms. The IMD facility is expected to be closed by January, 2011.

“Bob and the entire IMD team successfully built a state of the art studio and produced an amazing film, A Christmas Carol, at a time when the dynamics of the industry are rapidly changing,” said Alan Bergman, President of The Walt Disney Studios. “But, given today’s economic realities, we need to find alternative ways to bring creative content to audiences and IMD no longer fits into our business model.”

“I’m incredibly proud of the talented team that we assembled at IMD and the fantastic work they have accomplished,” said Robert Zemeckis, one of the co-founders of ImageMovers Digital. “Their pride and dedication to making quality movies is evident in everything we have produced.”

The Studio is hoping to create a new long-term production deal with Zemeckis and his IMD partners, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey, which will include the continued development of the Yellow Submarine project.

EXCLUSIVE Report & Analysis From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: The BBC tells me that development funding is now flowing again. It had been frozen for 6 months. Indie producers supplying drama shows to the Beeb had to borrow money from outside financiers to keep script development going. Some indies faced going out of business before the BBC turned the funding tap back on. One producer I spoke to couldn’t understand why the BBC froze development funding in the first place. “I mean, it’s not as if the government stopped paying its £3.4 billion [$5.2 billion] annual licence fee, is it?” he says.

Now that the Beeb has opened its purse again, what exactly is BBC Drama developing? It used to be we could rely on the BBC to make period dramas. A glance now through the BBC America schedule shows vampires, dinosaurs and space monsters. Auntie, as the BBC is affectionately known, is facing unprecedented squeeze on her finances. Until now, it’s expanded with each year, mapping everything the private sector does. No more. It’s just announced plans to close two radio stations and halve its internet output. The budget for Hollywood acquisitions could be cut by one third. Critics complain it’s the least the BBC could do given the chorus of criticism.

The licence fee comes up for renewal in 2012. It’s expected that a Tory government will freeze it. The Beeb must show the next government that it’s living up to its public ... Read More »

Universal won't start production this spring on Central Intelligence, the comedy that had The Office's Ed Helms starring and Dean Parisot directing. Rumors raced yesterday that the film was scrapped. Insiders insist that isn't so. I've learned the comedy won't likely come before Helms reprises in The Hangover sequel, giving ... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE: David Fincher is trying again with Heavy Metal, the animated anthology film he set up two years ago at Paramount, only to see the studio drop the project.

Fincher's shopping a version I would call vastly more appealing. I'm told that Fincher has Avatar director James Cameron ready to direct ... Read More »

Renee Zellweger has returned to CAA after leaving for a 9-month stint at WME. I Haven't seen much of the Oscar-winner lately. When Sunday's Academy Awards used past co-workers to give intimate introductions of Best Actor and Best Actress nominees, I wondered why Julianne Moore introduced Colin Firth (she noted ... Read More »

Since you asked, I've been traveling and will continue to be out of the country next week. However, I'll start posting intermittently. In the meantime, help Mike Fleming continue to do a great job. More exciting developments coming up.

Showtime's announcement of an exclusive output deal with Disney that includes up to 35 DreamWorks films through 2015 begs the question: will Steven Spielberg get behind the camera and deliver one before that deal is up? A flirtation with Paramount ... Read More »

Rupert Wyatt has moved into pole position on 20th Century Fox's Planet of the Apes prequel. No start date, but Wyatt's come aboard to develop to direct. Script's by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. Wyatt last directed The Escapist.

Universal Pictures has set Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman to star in The Change-Up, the David Dobkin-directed body-switching comedy. Reynolds was also being courted for Universal's supernatural comedy RIPD, but chose a comedy that has a priority for the studio since ... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE: How many movie directors does it take to make a comedy pic? Try 17.

Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media has signed on to co-finance an untitled comedy. Each of those directors are shooting segments for a film styled in the ... Read More »

The latest author to take a Broadway turn? John Grisham. D.C.-based Arena Stage has rounded out its 2010-2011 schedule with the world premiere of A Time to Kill, the John Grisham bestseller that has been adapted for the stage by Rupert Holmes. The Premiere is set for May 6, 2011,  ... Read More »