Lionsgate and Sylvester Stallone could sure use a hit when it opens August 13th. But what an irresistible concept seeing Stallone directing and starring with Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, and even Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger (for nanoseconds). It's the kind of old school camp that the action box office needs. So what will it make? My box office gurus are predicting at the very least $30+M and maybe as much as $40M because it's R-rated, only 2D, but helped by a short running time of only 1 hour, 43 minutes. Comic-Con: 'The Expendables' Panel

UPDATE: Bill Butler is leaving Gersh to manage his client Melina Kanakaredes, who is moving to WME for agency representation. Also, Karen Forman -- a talent agent at Metropolitan, APA and most recently Domain -- is partnering with Danielle Del and Didi Rae at D2 Management.

FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM: As July ends, three opening studio movies -- Dinner For Schmucks, Charlie St Cloud, Cats & Dogs 3D: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore -- are making for a crowded summer box office what with holdovers Salt, Inception, and Despicable Me still going strong. Here are Friday and estimated weekend and cume grosses for the U.S. and Canada. This weekend will be the first since June 4th without a $30+ million grossing pic. But overall ticket sales still look to total $135M a point or two ahead of last year:

1. Dinner For Schmucks (Paramount) NEW [2,911 Dates]
Friday $8.3M, Estimated Weekend $24M

The behind-the-scenes maneuvering to turn this DreamWorks movie from a mediocre grosser to average makes for an always interesting but far from atypical story. Back on June 9th, I reported that the buzz had been "it's not working" on this pic so Paramount, DreamWorks, and Spyglass delayed Dinner For Schmucks originally scheduled for release on July 23 to the younger-skewing weekend of July 30. Well, within minutes of my writing that, I was told no less than "129 people involved with the film lost their minds" as only Hollywood types can. I received panicky calls and emails admitting why the buzz was bad and explaining why it wasn't anymore. What happened is that the movie's first test screening last March in Thousand Oaks produced only average scores. Excellent was 35, the top two boxes were 70, and the definite recommend was 50. "Literally, right on the norm. But not where ... Read More »

UPDATE: NBC's new series Los & Order: Los Angeles has locked in its cast, with one day to spare. CSI: Miami alumna Wanda De Jesus and former Ally McBeal co-star regina Hall have landed the last regular roles on the crime procedural, which starts production on Monday. De Jesus will play Lieutenant Arleen Gonzales, the cool and authoritative captain of the LAPD Robbery Homicide Division. Hall will play DDA Eva Price, a gorgeous and brainy bombshell with a strong sense of moral rectitude. The two join previously cast Skeet Ulrich, Alfred Molina, Terrence Howard, Corey Stoll. De Jesus, repped by Diverse Talent and manager Bob McGowan, appears on All My Children. One of Hall’s first acting gigs was a guest spot on New York Undercover co-created by Dick Wolf. The actress, repped by ICM and Principato Young, went on to work mostly in features (Scary Movie, Death At A Funeral). Molina and Howard will alternate as Deputy D.A.s, while Ulrich and Stoll play Detective Rex Winters and TJ Jaruszalski, respectively.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA, July 30, 2010 – Four-time Emmy® Award recipient Glenn Weiss and two-time Emmy® Award recipient Steve Bass have been named to the 62nd Primetime Emmy® Awards production team, Executive Producer Don Mischer announced today. Weiss returns as Director and Bass as Production Designer of the telecast, airing live coast-to-coast on Sunday, August 29 (8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT) on NBC from the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles. Also returning to the Primetime Emmys for an encore performance, is the 17-piece “dream team” band under the direction of Steve Jordan and David Paich and comprised of renowned rock, jazz and studio greats, including guitarists Dean Parks and Ray Parker, Jr., keyboardist Michael Bearden, saxophonist Tom Scott, bassist Darryl Jones and percussionist Lenny Castro.

As Executive Producer of seven Tony Awards and Director of the last ten, Glenn Weiss has received four Primetime Emmy Awards. Aside from collaborating with Mischer in 2009 for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, the pair has joined forces on many other projects, including working as co-executive producers of the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Super Bowl Halftime Shows with Prince, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen respectively. In addition, Weiss has directed numerous television specials which recently includes The Neighborhood Ball: An Inauguration (2009), the Academy of Country Music Awards (2009, 2010) and the American Music Awards (2008, 2009) among many others. Weiss’ television series credits include The Singing Bee, Wanna

... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE: Is it an exaggeration to say not since Gone with the Wind has the actress casting search for a studio film captured such attention? The decision on who'll play Lisbeth Salander in Sony Pictures Entertainment's The Girl With The Dragon ... Read More »

Despite speculation about the new judges on American Idol reaching fever pitch, word is that Fox will not make any announcements at its TCA presentation Monday as previously anticipated. On the other hand, new ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee, who had been a question mark for ABC's TCA session ... Read More »

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline's TCA coverage.

At today’s TCA session on NBC's Outsourced, the producers and actors made the claim that the already controversial sitcom about a U.S. company that outsourced its call center to India, ... Read More »

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline's TCA coverage.

Is a spy drama with two black actors as the male-female romantic leads a revolution for network television? At TCA today, the producers of NBC’s upcoming Undercovers, which is just such a show -- hemmed and hawed in answering the question that really shouldn’t be a question in 2010 but, well, still is.

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EXCLUSIVE: Writers on TV's late-night comedy shows are still angry at the news that for the first time their category won't be part of the Primetime Emmy telecast. Instead, as part of last year's agreement between the TV Academy and Writers Guild, their category will be presented at the Creative Arts Awards the week before. Now those same scribes have been invited to write pre-taped bits for the shows nominated in the Best Variety, Music, or Comedy Series category. “Kinda insulting, no?" said one of the nominated writers approached for the gig.

A spokesman for the TV Academy explained: "While we are upholding our current agreement with the WGA, we still wanted to find a way to include the VMC writers in the telecast as it is always an entertaining part of the show. [So] the producers of this year's telecast have reached out to the VMC Series writers to contribute to the nomination packages which are a highlight of the ceremony."

In the past, when there was one writing for VMC series/special category, it was usually highlight of the ceremony. "It has always been one few moments during the Emmys to contain actual entertainment, because the writers come up with those funny pre-taped bits that roll while all those Jewish surnames are being read," one writer said.

As part of the agreement last summer following the split of the variety music or comedy categories in two, series and specials, the far-less-prominent writing for a VMC special category will be presented at the Primetime Emmy ceremony, slated to air Aug. 29 on NBC. Read More »