MTV Moves Video Music Awards Start Time For Obama Speech 
‘Beauty And The Beast’ Eyes CW’s … 
Weinstein Company Near Big Deal For Bin Laden Hunt Pic … 
2012-13 Fall Broadcast Primetime Grid 
‘Hemingway & Fuentes’ Set To Go With Anthony … 
ARC Acquires ‘Whole Lotta Sole’ 
Sony Pictures Classics Acquires ‘Love Is All You … 
CBS’ 2012-13 Schedule: ‘Two & Half … 
TNT & TBS Announce Development Slates 
Paramount & Dreamworks Animation Open Cannes: Sacha … 
Cannes: Hot Film Titles For U.S. Buyers 
Bill Block’s QED Gets Cash Infusion From Media … 
Aaron Sorkin To Script ‘Steve Jobs,’ Based On … 
Warner Bros Tops $1B At Global Box Office 
Waterstone Enlists Chris Pine And Pals For Indie Comedy … 
Jimmy Kimmel Skewers ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox & The … 
Steve Jobs Biopic Starring Ashton Kutcher To Cannes: … 
Alexander Payne Wants Bruce Dern And Will Forte To … 
Amy Adams In Talks To Venture Into ‘Dark 
ABC’s ‘Mistresses’ Summer-Bound, … 
Alec Baldwin And James Toback Team On Cannes Docu … 
Max Greenfield has joined Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler in the cast of They Came Together. Greenfield, seen on Fox’s New Girl, will play the wayward couch surfing younger brother of Rudd’s character. David Wain directs the romantic comedy. Wain wrote the script with Michael Showalter. The duo last worked together on Wet Hot American Summer. Lionsgate is behind They Came Together. Showalter will produce. Wain will be the Executive Producer. Greenfield is repped by WME and Greenlight Management.
Max Greenfield Joins ‘They Came Together’
Dimension Films Acquires Thriller ‘Compulsion’
New York, NY, May 16, 2012 – Dimension Films announced today that they have acquired U.S. distribution rights to the psychological thriller COMPULSION starring Heather Graham and Carrie-Anne Moss. The film, now shooting in Ontario, Canada, also stars Kevin Dillon and Joe Mantegna and is being directed by Egidio Coccimiglio.
COMPULSION is based on the South Korean film “301, 302″ and centers on two women occupying neighboring apartments, each grappling with obsessions that have begun to overtake their lives. Graham portrays Amy, a vivacious, calculating chef whose need to be desired is so far-reaching that she becomes a star in her own imaginary cooking show. Moss is Saffron, a reclusive but alluring ex-child star who is battling anorexia. Their complex, ever-intensifying relationship builds to a surprising climax as their emotional connections to food and one another boil over.
Obama Gives ‘The View’ Ratings Boost
President Obama’s visit to The View on Tuesday gave the show a 15-month ratings high. His appearance drew a 5/15, attracting 4.7 million viewers. It was his fourth visit to the ABC morning talk show and the first of his re-election campaign. Today, Barbara Walters announced that the show has extended an invitation to presumed Republication nominee Mitt Romney to appear; he has appeared previously. Read More »
CBS Brags Traditional TV Ratings Dominance At Upfront Presentation
CBS chief Les Moonves diverted from the pack in this year’s upfront presentations by talking up the ad value of conventional television over digital media. “Everyone is still talking about the first screen, the TV screen,” he told the Carnegie Hall audience. “The first screen must come first, and there’s no second screen without it.” He noted that CBS’ ratings lead its competitors “by the largest margin of any network in 23 years. (Facebook CEO) Mark Zuckerberg was five.” And he adds that “we feel confident that we’re going to win again.” This coming season CBS will broadcast the football’s AFC championship, the Super Bowl and the Grammy Awards over the course of just a few weeks. The company didn’t ignore digital. CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler says that CBS has 167M fans across social media and that the Grammy Awards ceremony was its biggest social media event. And this month the company launched CBS Connect, a social network site that gives fans opportunities to interact with TV stars. “Integrated sales has become part of our culture,” Moonves says.
CBS Upfront Presentation: Live Blog
CBS brought back its traditional opening taped comedy video that spills into the stage of Carnegie Hall. This time it was built around the network’s freshman hit 2 Broke Girls whose leads, Max (Kat Dennings) and Caroline (Beth Behrs) read about ad buyers with a lot of money coming to Carnegie Hall for CBS’ upfront presentation and decide to go there to try and sell the rich “men in suits” some cupcakes. After a cameo by David Letterman and Regis Philbin as customers at the diner Max and Caroline work at, the two girls, boxes with cupcakes in hand, dash to Carnegie Hall and walk up the stage where they are greeted by CBS’ head of sales Jo Ann Ross in a glitzy version of the duo’s waitress uniforms.
Next off, hip-hopera mashup by a mezzo-soprano singing the Toast aria from La Traviata and LL Cool J who is rapping about CBS’ ratings success. He goes on to introduce CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves as “the mack daddy behind the CBS phenomenon.” Replied Moonves, “Mad respect to my main man, LL Cool J.”
As usual, Moonves talked up CBS’ ratings strength. “CBS has been the most watched network for 23 years. Mark Zuckerberg was 5.”
The two stars of another CBS Monday comedy series, Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell come out to talk about their show where their characters just got married. “We are hopeful there will be a lot of kids and … Read More »
Comcast’s XFinity Launches Skype Service
PHILADELPHIA (May 16, 2012)–Comcast today announced that Skype™ on Xfinity®, a new widescreen HD video calling experience, is now available in Boston and Seattle as the company begins its nationwide rollout of the service. Before the end of the week, the service will also be available in the following metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Augusta, Ga., Chicago, Detroit, Harrisburg, Pa., Indianapolis, Miami and Pittsburgh. With Skype on Xfinity, customers are able to make and receive video calls from their TV in HD picture quality, as well as send and receive instant messages via Skype while watching TV at the same time.
National CineMedia Adds Comedy And Music To Pre-Movie Programming
Moviegoers will soon be able to see comedy clips from Funny Or Die, music videos from VEVO, and food preparation techniques from celebrity chefs in First Look — the pre-movie programming that National CineMedia provides to theaters — the company said today. It will be up to advertisers to decide what content they want to include or create and selections can vary by region, film, and genre. First Look runs for about 20 minutes before the trailers. Here’s the announcement that National CineMedia made today from its first advertiser upfront presentation in New York: Read More »
Morgan Freeman In Talks For ‘Last Vegas’
EXCLUSIVE: Morgan Freeman is in negotiations to join the cast of Last Vegas. The film, which already has Michael Douglas and Robert De Niro on board, is about four friends of retirement age who reunite in Sin City for one last blowout at the bachelor party of the only one of the pals who has stayed single. Jon Turtletaub will direct. Laurence Mark and Amy Baer are producing with CBS Films and Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane’s newly announced Good Universe. Kahane and Nicole Brown will executive produce. Matt Leonetti is co-producing. Morgan Freeman is repped by CAA.
MTV Moves Video Music Awards Start Time For Obama Speech
MTV does not want to split the vote with Barack Obama. The network has shifted the start time of its Video Music Awards on September 6 in LA so it won’t slam into Obama’s acceptance speech the same night at the Democratic National Convention. “We will be airing the VMAs on Thursday, September 6th from 8-10 PM as opposed to our traditional 9-11 PM time slot to avoid conflict with the Democratic National Convention proceedings that evening,” a MTV spokesperson told Deadline. The DNC had no comment on the potential clash, nor could it say exactly when the president is scheduled to take the stage at the convention in Charlotte, N.C. However, if recent past political conventions are an indication, the nominee traditionally beings his speech around 10 PM EST. This is the second broadcast schedule move around the president’s speech; the NFL said in February it was moving its 2012 regular-season opener on NBC from September 6 to September 5 (a Wednesday) to avoid conflicting with Obama. The Democratic convention runs September 3-6.
Related: MTV Video Music Awards Moving To L.A.’s Staples Center
Viacom And Time Warner Cable Resolve Mobile Streaming Dispute
The fight began last year: Viacom charged that Time Warner Cable violated its licensing agreement and Viacom’s copyrights when it streamed the company’s programming to customers’ iPads and other mobile devices. Time Warner Cable said that it was within its rights to just offer the shows in subscribers’ homes, likening the iPad to another TV screen. The companies sued each other, but also struck a standstill agreement in June to buy time to work things out. Viacom says on its blog that with the new agreement Time Warner Cable customers now will be able to watch shows such as MTV’s Jersey Shore and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart via the TWC TV app, available for iPads and Android tablets. Although the companies didn’t spell out financial terms, they said that they also resolved “unrelated business matters.” Time Warner Cable will carry some of Viacom’s marginal channels including MTV Hits, MTV Jams and Centric. In addition, Time Warner Cable will provide TV Land HD and BET HD in New York City and other top markets.
Here’s the companies’ statement: Read More »
Hot Trailer: ‘Hit And Run’
Parenthood‘s Dax Shepard wrote, co-directed (with David Palmer) and stars in Hit And Run, and the trailer for the action romantic comedy begins playing ahead of The Dictator this week. The movie, formerly titled Outrun, is about a nice guy (Shepard) with a questionable past who risks everything when he busts out of the witness protection program to deliver his fiancé (Shepard’s real-life wife-to-be Kristen Bell) to Los Angeles for her dream job. They are chased by feds and gangsters. Bradley Cooper, Tom Arnold and Kristin Chenoweth co-star. Open Road is releasing it August 24.
‘Samsara’ Bought For Australia, New Zealand By eOne, Hopscotch: Cannes
eOne and Hopscotch Films have acquired Australian and New Zealand rights to Samsara, the follow-up to Baraka. Filmed over a period of five years in 25 countries on five continents and shot on 70mm film, Samsara reunites director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson. They teamed on Baraka and Chronos. Samsara depicts the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders and by dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, the film veers from the traditional documentary. eOne Canada already bought rights to the film in Canada and will release it in the fall. Oscilloscope releases the film August 24 in the U.S.
Jane Fonda Joins ‘Better Living Through Chemistry’
EXCLUSIVE: Jane Fonda, in Cannes to make an appearance for L’Oreal, has just joined the cast of the comedy Better Living Through Chemistry. She joins Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Michelle Monaghan, Ray Liotta, Ben Schwartz and Ken Howard in the film. She plays a customer of the pharmacy run by Rockwell’s character, and her character is the conscience of the film. David Posamentier and Geoff Moore wrote the script. It is an Occupant Entertainment production, produced by Joe Neurauter and Felipe Marino. Filming is underway in Maryland, and Fonda will shoot her scenes when she returns from Cannes.
Record Entries For 2012 Nicholl Screenwriting Competition
Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition has received a record 7,197 entries for 2012, up from last year’s record of 6,730. The Academy will award up to five fellowships of $35,000 each in November.
This year, entries came from all 50 states in the U.S. as well as from 65 other countries. The competition includes first-time entries from Estonia, Indonesia, Latvia, Liechtenstein and Nicaragua.
‘Beauty And The Beast’ Eyes CW’s Post-’Vampire Diaries’ Slot
I hear Beauty & The Beast, the CW‘s reboot of the 1980s series, is likely to snag the network’s marquee launching pad behind The Vampire Diaries on Thursday in the fall. The series, starring Kristin Kreuk, is one of five new scripted series the CW has picked up for next season — the most in the network’s six-year history. Among those is Arrow, based on DC’s Green Arrow character, which, like Vampire Diaries, is a genre show but skews a lot more male. That makes Beauty & The Beast, a cop procedural set against a love story between Catherine/Beauty (Kreuk) and Vincent/Beast (Jay Ryan), a more suitable companion to the vampire love saga.
Related: CW Picks Up ‘Carrie Diaries’, ‘Arrow’, ‘Cult’, ‘Beauty And The Beast’, ‘First Cut’ To Series
Speaking of female-centered new CW series, the network has the Sex And The City prequel The Carrie Diaries on tap. The series shares a lot of its DNA with CW veteran Gossip Girl — both are about high-school fashionistas in New York, just living in different time periods, and both are produced by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Because of the similarities, with Gossip Girl ending its run with a 11-episode final season, it is logical for The Carrie Diaries, already hailed as its successor, to also succeed Gossip Girl on the schedule when it goes off the air. (Though how funny would it … Read More »
James Badge Dale In ‘Iron Man 3′ Talks
James Badge Dale will play Savin, a villain in Iron Man 3. Robert Downey Jr stars and Shane Black is directing. Badge Dale just finished The Lone Ranger for Disney, and will next be seen in the Robert Zemeckis-directed Flight with Denzel Washington and World War Z with Brad Pitt. Marvel Studios gets underway with the film later this month. Ben Kinsgley has been rumored as The Mandarin, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Rebecca Hall are also in the film. Badge Dale is repped by CAA and MJ Management.
Fox Film Taps Louise Kaufman To Run New York Publicity Office
LOS ANGELES (May 16, 2012) __ Twentieth Century Fox has tapped veteran PR executive Louise Kaufman to run the studio’s New York publicity office. The announcement was made today by Fox’s executive vice president of publicity Bumble Ward, to whom Kaufman will report.
With over 20 years of industry experience, Kaufman comes on as senior vice president of publicity and will oversee all publicity and promotional operations in New York. She is set to take her post on May 29th.
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘NCIS’ Ends Up, ‘Private Practice’ Way Up
Tuesday brought more finales, more Howard Stern and a good night for NCIS and Private Practice. The 8 PM season finale of CBS’ NCIS (3.5/11) was up 13% from last week. The end of the police procedural series’s ninth season, which saw Jamie Lee Curtis return, was the No. 1 show of the night. The following two-hour finale of NCIS: LA (3.0/8) was even with last week. The second broadcast of America’s Got Talent (3.4/10) with Stern as a judge was down 8% from Monday’s premeire and last year’s second night. On the upside, Talent scored a season time period high for NBC in the Tuesday 8-10 PM slot; the show was up 48% from season averages, with 10.4 million viewers. The 10 PM Fashion Star (1.6/4) finale was up 23% from last week’s 8 PM show. Over on the CW, the season finale of 90210 (0.5/2) was down from last week. L.A. Complex (0.2/1) matched its series low of last week. CBS won the night among adults 18-49 and total viewers. Read More »
Weinstein Company Near Big Deal For Bin Laden Hunt Pic ‘Code Name Geronimo’
EXCLUSIVE: In what is shaping up as the first major deal made on the ground at the Cannes Film Festival, The Weinstein Company is in hot and heavy negotiations for U.S. rights to Code Name Geronimo, the John Stockwell-directed drama about the manhunt for 9/11 terror attack mastermind Osama bin Laden. The deal is in the $2 million range, and is being negotiated on the basis of a trailer for a film that is in post-production.
That footage was unveiled today by Voltage Pictures’ Nicolas Chartier and WME Global’s Graham Taylor (who just landed in Cannes), and Weinstein moved quickly to hammer out a deal with attorney Craig Emanuel.
What is most intriguing about this is that TWC can put the film into theaters in early fall, a move that would put it before the Kathryn Bigelow-directed Zero Dark Thirty. That film, which has an ensemble cast including Joel Edgerton and Jessica Chastain, won’t be released until December 19 after Sony Pictures decided not to put it in theaters during the presidential elections. Already it is clear that President Obama’s green light of the SEAL Team 6 mission will be a major issue in the upcoming presidential campaign, and Republicans have already railed against the notion that writer Mark Boal got inside information from the administration for his script.
Related: Kathryn Bigelow Bin Laden Film Getting DC Scrutiny Read More »
-
Marketplace
-
-
-
News/Opinion Poll
Loading ...Box Office Poll
Loading ...
- Ridley Scott Talks 'Prometheus,' 'Blade Runner 2' And James Cameron
- Nick Stahl Missing: 'Terminator 3' Actor Has Not Been Seen In A Week
- 'Moonrise Kingdom': Bill Murray Poses For Harper's Bazaar (PHOTOS)
- 'Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted' Clip: Stefano Gets Shot Out Of A Cannon (VIDEO)
- Robert Downey Jr. Paid $50 Million For 'Avengers': Report
