RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Big Bang’ Widens Lead Over ‘Idol’, ‘The Finder’ Jumps 32%

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 9:18am PSTTags: American Idol, Ratings, The Big Bang Theory, The Finder
Nellie Andreeva

CBS’ The Big Bang Theory proved that its narrow demo ratings win over American Idol in the 8-8:30 PM slot last week was no fluke. Last night, the hit CBS comedy (5.4/15 in adults 18-49, 16 million) was up 4% from its fast national result last week, finishing well ahead of Idol (4.8/14, 15.5 million) in the half-hour among adults 18-49. (Last week, the margin was 0.1) Big Bang also topped Idol in total viewers, adults 18-34 and adults 25-54. Additionally, the comedy tied the entire Thursday edition of Idol (5.4/15 in 18-49, 17 million) in 18-49 for the first time to finish No. 1 for the night. Versus last week’s fast nationals, Idol was down 6%. There was good news for Fox’s new drama The Finder (2.9/7), which was up a big 32% from last week. The Bones spinoff was probably aided by weaker competition at 9 PM, with no The Office and Person Of Interest airing a rerun vs. an original last week, but the steady, double-digit growth is nevertheless impressive especially given the show’s underwhelming start.

News was not bad for another new series in its third week, CBS’ comedy Rob (3.5/9), which was down a tenth from its fast national last week and flat with the final. CBS aired drama repeats at 9 PM and 10 PM. NBC’s 30 Rock (1.6/4) was even with last week’s season low, while Parks And Recreation (1.7/4) was down 11% to a series low. Another 30 Rock original (1.9/5) aired at 9 PM, followed by an Up All Night rerun (1.4/3) and a new The Firm (1.0/3), which bounced back from last week’s series low, up 11%. ABC aired reruns.

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News Corp Executive Matthew Anderson To Step Down From London-Based Post

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 7:35am PSTTags: James Murdoch, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch

London, 27 January 2012 – News Corporation today announced that Matthew Anderson, News Corporation’s Group Director, Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Europe and Asia, will step down from his position in London effective 31 March 2012.

Mr Anderson will fulfill plans to return to the San Francisco Bay Area with his family and pursue new opportunities. He will continue his relationship with News Corporation as a senior advisor to the company focusing on select international initiatives and relevant directorships.

“For more than a decade, Matthew has made a valuable contribution to building News Corporation’s businesses in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He is a tenacious and effective executive whose counsel and skills have made a real difference,” said Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation.

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De Angelis, Tandem In Worldwide Distribution Pact on $30M ‘Titanic’ Mini

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 7:13am PSTTags: 3 Arts, Tandem Communications, Titanic: Blood and Steel

Italy’s De Angelis Group has reached a worldwide television distribution agreement with event miniseries specialist Tandem Communications on the $30 million Titanic: Blood And Steel. Chris Noth, Neve Campbell, Kevin Zegers and Derek Jacobi star in the 12-part series directed by The Tudors’ Ciaran Donnelly and slated to coincide with this year’s 100th anniversary of the sinking of the famed liner. The mini is a co-production from De Angelis and Tandem along with RAI TV, LA’s 3 Arts, Canada’s CBC, the UK’s Artist Studio, Ireland’s Epos Film and Spain’s Antena 3. Separate rights agreements were concluded in the UK, Ireland and Canada. France’s Studiocanal recently acquired a majority stake in Tandem, which is also co-producing the miniseries World Without End with Ridley and Tony Scott’s Scott Free Productions. Here’s the release: Read More »

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National Geographic Signs 3-For-1 Development Deal With Ben Silverman’s Electus

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 7:08am PSTTags: Ben Silverman, Chris Grant, Electus, Howard Owens, National Geographic
Nellie Andreeva

The Reveille cohorts are back in business together. In one of his first major deals since taking the reins of National Geographic as president, Howard Owens has signed a three-for-one project deal with Ben Silverman’s Electus. It includes the development of three projects, one of which is guaranteed to be picked up to series. The pact reunites Silverman and new Electus CEO Chris Grant with Owens. Grant and Owens were members of the core troika Silverman brought with him when he launched Reveille in 2002. Both left Shine, which acquired Reveille in 2008, last year. “National Geographic Channel is making a targeted effort to be in business with the best and brightest television makers in the world and Ben and Chris set the standard,” Owens said.

One of the three concepts in development under the deal is a large-scale reality series based on the Mayflower expedition, which will re-create the actual 60-six day journey the passengers took in search of the new world. Some of the people featured in the series will be descendants of the original Mayflower passengers. “Our vision for the Mayflower series is to re-create, as closely as possible, the real experiences that the original passengers faced,” Grant said.

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TV Castings: Lenny Venito To Star In ABC’s Dan Fogelman Pilot, Graham Patrick Martin Cast In ‘Closer’ Spinoff

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 7:03am PSTTags: Dan Fogelman, Graham Patrick Martin, Lenny Venito, Major Crimes
Nellie Andreeva

Lenny Venito (Men In Black 2 & 3, The Sopranos) has landed a lead role in ABC’s untitled Dan Fogelman comedy pilot. The single-camera project, from ABC Family and Kapital Entertainment, centers on Marty Weaver (Venito) who, in order to give his kids a better life than he had, moves his family — wife Debbie (Jami Gertz) and three children — to an exclusive, lush, curiously affordable gated community in New Jersey, which has only one drawback: everyone else living there is an alien from Planet Zabvron.

Graham Patrick Martin has been cast as a series regular on TNT’s upcoming The Closer spinoff series Major Crimes. He will play Rusty, a homeless juvenile character that is being introduced in the series finale of Closer. Martin, repped by TalentWorks and Untitled, was a regular on The Bill Engvall Show and has been recurring on Two And A Half Men.

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James Murdoch Resigns From GSK Board To Focus On BSkyB, News Corp

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 4:08am PSTTags: BSkyB, James Murdoch, News of the World

Embattled News Corp scion James Murdoch is stepping down from the board of drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, the company announced today. GSK said Murdoch would not stand for re-election in order to focus on his role at BSkyB and in light of his decision to move to the U.S. Amid the eruption of the News Of The World phone-hacking scandal in the UK this summer, there was speculation that Murdoch might leave the pharmaceutical giant’s ranks. At the time, a spokesman told Reuters: “With regard to the activities that are alleged to have taken place at News International, we believe that the full facts must be established and the ongoing investigations be allowed to take place and come to a considered conclusion.” Today, GSK chairman Sir Christopher Gent said: “James Murdoch has decided to stand down from the Board with effect from this year’s AGM. James has taken this decision to focus on his current duties as Non-executive Chairman of BSkyB, and following his decision to re-locate to the United States, as Chairman and Chief Executive, International, of News Corporation. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank James for the very strong contribution he has made since he was appointed in 2009 and wish him well for the future.”

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Theater Chain Won’t Play Lionsgate Film

By NIKKI FINKE | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 2:04am PSTTags: Groupon, Lionsgate, Marcus Theatres, OneFor The Money

Lionsgate-Summit Offers Discounted Tickets For Films This Weekend

EXCLUSIVE: To movieogers on the coasts, the Marcus Theatres chain isn’t a household name. But people in flyover country go to the more than 50 first-run theatre locations in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. So Midwest audiences won’t see Lionsgate’s One For The Money in a Marcus Theatre because the theater chain and the studio couldn’t come to financial terms. It’s always about the money — in this case, I hear the chain objected to Lionsgate’s deal with Groupon this weekend for discounted movie tickets to One For The Money. It may not matter. Hollywood doesn’t expect th pic to gross over $5M even though it’s based on Janet Evanovich’s bestselling novel. (Time for Katharine Heigl to fire her Momager.) Meanwhile, the trailer had to play three times before I realized that brunette was the blonde actress

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‘The Artist’ Nabs 10 César Nominations, But Maiwenn’s ‘Poliss’ Leads With 13 Nods

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 2:02am PSTTags: César Awards, Poliss, The Artist

Maïwenn’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Poliss leads the nominees for France’s César Awards with 13, including all the major categories and several acting nods for the ensemble. The Artist garnered 10 nominations including Best Film, Director, Actress, Actor, Original Screenplay, Original Score, Cinematography, Editing, Costumes and Art Direction. Gaumont’s box office smash Untouchable has nine including Best Film and Director for the duo of Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, with lead actors Omar Sy and François Cluzet competing against one another in what this year is an expanded category. (The acting, directing and film fields have all recently been widened to seven slots from five). Other films to score multiple nods include Bertrand Bonello’s House Of Tolerance and Pierre Schoeller’s L’Exercice De L’Etat. The latter film will compete for Best Film alongside The Artist, Valerie Donzelli’s Declaration Of War, Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre, Untouchable, Poliss and Alain Cavalier’s Pater. Best Foreign Film nods went to Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, Tom Hooper’s Oscar winner The King’s Speech, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s The Kid With A Bicycle, Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies, Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation and Lars von Trier’s Melancholia. Roman Polanski will present Kate Winslet with an honorary César at this year’s ceremony on February 24 in Paris. The late Annie Girardot will also be honored with a tribute. The full list of nominees follows: Read More »

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Slamdance Announces Feature, Documentary, Short Film Winners

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 2:02am PST

The 18th annual Slamdance Film Festival tonight announced the feature film and short film recipients of this year’s awards in the Audience, Grand Jury and Sponsored Award categories. Juries of industry figures and filmmakers determined the Slamdance Jury Awards for Narrative, Documentary and Short Film categories. Audience, Sponsored and the Spirit of Slamdance awards were also anounced. The feature competition films in the Documentary and Narrative Programs are limited to first-time filmmakers working with production budgets of less than $1 million. From the release:

AUDIENCE AWARDS

  • Audience Award for Feature Documentary: GETTING UP by Caskey Ebeling
  • Audience Award for Feature Narrative: BINDLESTIFFS by Andrew Edison

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Picturehouse, Revolver Jointly Acquire ‘Liberal Arts’, ‘Imposter’ For UK: Sundance

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 1:19am PSTTags: Josh Radnor, Liberal Arts, Sundance Film Festival

Revolver Entertainment and Picturehouse Entertainment have jointly acquired all UK rights to Josh Radnor’s Liberal Arts and Bart Layton’s feature documentary The Imposter. Both films premiered in Sundance this week. Liberal Arts stars Radnor along with Elizabeth Olsen, Zac Efron, Richard Jenkins, Allison Janney, John Magaro and Elizabeth Reaser. Radnor plays a divorcee who returns to his alma mater and falls for a sophomore (Olsen). Earlier this week, IFC acquired the film for North America. The Imposter is a stranger-than-fiction tale about the disappearance of a Texas boy who later resurfaces in Spain with a shocking story of kidnap and torture – but all is not what it seems. Produced by Dimitri Doganis, the film is an A&E IndieFilms, Film4 and Channel 4 presentation of a RAW Production in association with Red Box Films and Passion Pictures. Executive producers on the film are John Battsek and Simon Chinn. The Liberal Arts deal was struck between Revolver’s Dave Bishop, Picturehouse’s Clare Binns and Hyde Park International’s Ruzanna Kegeyan and Gersh’s Jennifer Dana and Jay Cohen. The Imposter deal was handled by Bishop, Binns and Protagonist CEO Ben Roberts. The joint acquisition is a first for Picturehouse and Revolver.

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John Hurt To Receive BAFTA Award For Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 12:52am PSTTags: BAFTA Awards, John Hurt

London, 27 January 2012: The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is delighted to announce that John Hurt will receive the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award at the Orange British Academy Film Awards ceremony at London’s Royal Opera House on Sunday 12 February. Universally acclaimed for his acting talent, Hurt’s vast range of distinguished performances has shaped an impressive career spanning six decades.

The Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award, introduced in 1978, is presented annually in honour of Michael Balcon. Previous recipients include Mike Leigh, Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jarman, Mary Selway, Ridley and Tony Scott, Working Title Films and Lewis Gilbert. Last year’s recipient was the Harry Potter series of films.

Hurt has starred in a variety of remarkable film roles working alongside some of the most important figures in the industry including Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Steven Spielberg. The legendary characters he has portrayed include Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Rich in A Man For All Seasons – a film which won seven BAFTA Awards and six Academy Awards – and Max in Midnight Express, for which he won the BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Supporting Actor.

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Hot Trailer: Guy Pearce In ‘Lockout’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 12:21am PSTTags: Guy Pearch, Lockout, Luc Besson, Maggie Grace

Wrongly convicted of espionage, Guy Pearce turns out to be the government’s go-to guy when the president’s daughter is trapped aboard an orbital maximum security prison. Executive producer Luc Besson co-wrote with first-time feature directors James Mather and Stephen St. Leger. Known under other names abroad and re-titled Lockout for the U.S. market, the FilmDistrict/Open Road sci-fi prison thriller is scheduled to open April 20.

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Ferris Bueller Returns For The Super Bowl

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 26, 2012 @ 11:27pm PSTTags: Ferris Bueller, Matthew Broderick, Super Bowl

The Web is abuzz over this 10-second Super Bowl clip-tease featuring Matthew Broderick as a grown-up Ferris Bueller. What might he be advertising?

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Ex-Agent John Fogelman Signs Deal To Re-Imagine J.C. Penney – & J.J. Abrams Helped

By NIKKI FINKE | Thursday January 26, 2012 @ 9:05pm PSTTags: Factorymade Ventures, J.C. Penney, J.J. Abrams, John Fogelman

EXCLUSIVE: Former Hollywood agent John Fogelman just phoned to tell me that his FactoryMade Ventures and JC Penney are announcing a 3-year partnership on Friday. The retailer announced on Wednesday it is rebranding itself “jcpenney” and will have a new pricing strategy, corporate identity, new merchandise and updated stores by 2015. One of its brand partners will be Ellen DeGeneres. Penney wants Fogelman’s outfit to help ”re-imagine innovative media and entertainment opportunities”.

This is the introduction that Fogelman’s former client/investor/partner J.J. Abrams set up before the TV producer/filmmaker decided he was too busy and exited those roles. Abrams is friends with ex-Target Chief Marketing Officer Michael Francis who recently joined forces with ex-Apple Retail stores guru Ron Johnson to reinvent J.C. Penney. “They want my company to help reimagine the bricks and mortar experience and online experience,” Fogelman told me. “Just the way that we helped reimagine Hasbro from a toy company into a media company.”

Fogelman, whose company also advises Telefonica, claims that under the 3-year partnership with JC Penney his firm will be paid an annual consultancy fee. Fogelman says another deal with a new client for a new venture announcing March 1 will be the biggest project yet for his firm. Fogelman, a former WME board member, Fogelman brought with him the entire WME skunkworks division in September 2011 to develop a hybrid entertainment and media business and consulting firm.

Fogelman’s is not the only marketing and branding firm hired by J.C. Penney for the transformation to work alongside the retailer’s in-house creative team … Read More »

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Video: Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Facebook Police’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 26, 2012 @ 8:56pm PSTTags: Facebook Police, Jimmy Kimmel Live

Jimmy Kimmel Live put together this demonstration of Facebook’s pending changes in profile and update policies that are more than a little annoying.

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Jeffrey Okun Re-Elected As VES Chairman

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 26, 2012 @ 8:38pm PST

Jeffrey A. Okun, head of visual effects for Prana Studios, has been re-elected for a fourth one-year term as chairman of the board of the Visual Effects Society. Okun, an innovator and creator of groundbreaking effects designs, pledged to continue work on behalf of visual effects artists in all media. Movies he’s worked on include The Last Starfighter, Stargate, The Last Samurai and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Other officers on the VES board are first vice chair Michael Fink, second vice chair Pam Hogarth, treasurer Bob Coleman and secretary Kim Lavery. Eric Roth is executive director of the society. Fink is a veteran visual effects supervisor with well over 50 movies under his belt including Avatar and Tree of Life. Pam Hogarth is director of marketing for Look Effects and Bob Coleman is president of Digital Artists Agency. Lavery is a veteran VFX producer with more than two decades of experience whose resume includes the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Last Samurai, X-Men: The Last Stand and Enchanted.

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R.I.P. James Farentino

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 26, 2012 @ 8:32pm PSTTags: James Farentino

James Farentino, veteran actor of stage, movies and TV, has died in Los Angeles. Farentino was 73 and died Tuesday at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. A family member told AP that Farentino had a heart ailment. His work on Broadway included productions of Death Of A Salesman, Night Of The Iguana and a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire in which he played Stanley Kowalski. His movie resume included the sci-fi flick The Final Countown and horror movie Dead And Buried. He enjoyed a prolific TV career including ER, Dynasty and Melrose Place and several TV movies. Farentino’s marriages to Elizabeth Ashley, Michele Lee and Debrah Mullowney Farentino ended in divorce. Survivors include his fourth wife Stella Farentino and two children.

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As Sundance Winds Down, A Buyers Market For Small Distributors: Fleming Analysis

By MIKE FLEMING | Thursday January 26, 2012 @ 6:03pm PSTTags: Sundance Film Festival
Mike Fleming

You can tell that Park City is being returned to the skiers by the fact that street traffic on Main Street was as thin as the air here today. The Sundance acquisitions marketplace is winding down, and the deals dropping are the smaller ones. Most execs are back in New York and L.A, and sellers are scheduling distributor screenings for films that haven’t yet sold. Buyers told Deadline at the start that 2011′s pace of big deals has been much slower than last year. Many of the expected big movies were less commercial than buyers hoped. Though more than one buyer has labeled the festival “dismal,” sellers still feel that most of these titles will find homes. But as these press releases are dropping, we’re at the point where smaller distributors have swept in with low offers for movies they can live without. Some of these films might get a small theatrical release, but a lot of them will be released on VOD.

Both buyers and sellers are still pondering the potential and pitfalls of this coming onslaught of VOD titles on cable systems. After Margin Call, will theater owners make their screens available on films playing on TV, and will they demand higher splits? Will talent and filmmakers accept having their features play on TV? One buyer brought … Read More »

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Michael Cuesta Signs Overall Deal With CBS Studios, Will Direct CBS Pilot ‘Elementary’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday January 26, 2012 @ 5:51pm PSTTags: CBS TV Studios, Elementary, Michael Cuesta
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Hot off directing the pilot for Showtime’s acclaimed new drama series Homeland, which he also executive produces, Michael Cuesta has signed an overall deal with CBS TV Studios. Under the seven-figure pact, which starts immediately and runs through June 1, 2013, Cuesta will direct and executive produce the studio’s contemporary Sherlock Holmes drama pilot Elementary. He will also develop for next season, probably with his brother Gerald Cuesta, with whom he did the cult 2007 CBS/20th TV zombie pilot Babylon Fields. Michael Cuesta will likely write a pilot, which he will direct if greenlighted. If not, he will helm another pilot for CBS TV Studios next season. The overall deal won’t interfere with Cuesta’s duties on Homeland, on which he will continue as executive producer and primary director at least through Season 2. Cuesta recently received a DGA nomination for helming the pilot of the Golden Globe-winning series.

The pact reunites WME-repped Cuesta with CBS TV Studios after he directed the pilot for the studio’s CBS drama series Blue Bloods. He also directed the pilot of another hit series, Showtime’s Dexter. Elementary is described as a modern take on the cases of the pipe-smoking private eye created by Arthur Conan Doyle, with Sherlock now living in New York City. Veteran Medium writer-producer Doherty wrote the script and is executive producing with Cuesta, Sarah Timberman & Carl Beverly.

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