Tim Roth & Alexander Cary Create FX Bank Robbery Family Drama For Roth To Star

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 2:56pm PDTTags: Alexander Cary, FX, Tim Roth
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: FX has put in development a drama project created by Oscar-nominated actor Tim Roth and Homeland co-executive producer Alexander Cary as a starring vehicle for Roth. The untitled project, from Fox21, is described as a drama about addiction, bank robbery, and an extremely volatile family dynamic.

The FX project, which has received a script commitment, stems from the deals both Roth and Cary have with Fox21 parent 20th Century Fox TV. It reunites the duo who first worked together on the Fox/20th TV drama series Lie To Me. In his first U.S. series gig, British actor Roth starred in the drama procedural, which Cary joined as a story editor at the beginning of the second season, rising quickly by the end of the season to executive producer and co-showrunner. Roth is with CAA and attorney Geoff Oblath, Cary is with WME and New Wave.

Related: Tim Roth Inks Deal With 20th Century Fox TV, ‘Homeland’ Co-Executive Producer Alex Cary Signs New Overall Deal With 20th TV

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Betsy Sodaro Upped To Regular On New NBC Comedy ‘Animal Practice’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 2:53pm PDTTags: Animal Practice, Betsy Sodaro
Nellie Andreeva

Up-and-comer Betsy Sodaro has been upped to a regular on NBC’s new single-camera comedy series Animal Practice, which stars Justin Kirk as a House-like veterinarian, who loves animals but usually hates their owners. Sodaro plays Angela, an animal handler. She was a guest star in the pilot, her first ever, and after a strong showing has landed a promotion to her first series regular role. Sodaro is with 3 Arts. Animal Practice, which is recasting its female lead, launches this fall in the Wednesday 8 PM slot.

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Fox Names New SVP Domestic Distribution

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 2:42pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, Chris Aronson, Spencer Klein

Twentieth Century Fox has named Spencer Klein SVP and assistant general sales manager — the first official hire by Fox’s new domestic distribution president Chris Aronson. Klein, previously with Dallas-based The Film Group, will handle the studio’s theatrical distribution activities in the U.S. and Canada.

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Hot UK Trailer: ‘Magic Mike’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 2:34pm PDTTags: Channing Tatum, Magic Mike, Steven Soderbergh

Lionsgate, which is distributing the movie in the UK, has put up its version of a trailer for Magic Mike, which Warner Bros has in the U.S. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the picture starring Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer and Matthew McConaughey looks like it may deliver more than we expected. You can decide whether that’s a good thing or not:

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‘Death Of A Salesman, ‘Other Desert Cities’, ‘Once’, ‘Follies’ Top Drama League Awards

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 2:32pm PDTTags: Death Of A Salesman, Drama League Awards, Follies, Once, Other Desert Cities

2011-2012 DRAMA LEAGUE AWARDS WINNERS

DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A PLAY
Other Desert Cities
Lincoln Center Theatre
Andre Bishop, Artistic Director; Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer

DISTINGUISHED REVIVAL OF A PLAY
Death of a Salesman
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Scott Rudin, Stuart Thompson, Jon B. Platt, Columbia Pictures, Jean Doumanian,
Merritt Forrest Baer, Roger Berlind, Scott M. Delman, Sonia Friedman Productions,
Ruth Hendel, Carl Moellenberg, Scott and Brian Zerlinger, Eli Bush, producers

DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL
Once
New York Theatre Workshop/Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
Barbara Broccoli, John N. Hart Jr., Patrick Milling Smith, Frederick Zollo,
Brian Carmody, Michael G. Wilson, Orin Wolf, The Shubert Organization,
Robert Cole, New York Theatre Workshop, producers

DISTINGUISHED REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
Follies
Marquis Theatre
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (David M. Rubenstein, Chairman;
Michael M. Kaiser, President; Max A. Woodward, Vice President), Nederlander Presentations Inc.,
Adrienne Arsht, HRH Foundation, Allan Williams, producers

DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE AWARD
Audra McDonald
The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess

DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSICAL THEATRE
Alan Menken

UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEATRE
Rosie O’Donnell

FOUNDERS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN DIRECTING
Diane Paulus

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Nick Santora Signs Deal With CBS Studios

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 1:40pm PDTTags: CBS TV Studios, Nick Santora
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Breakout Kings co-creator Nick Santora has signed a two-year overall deal with CBS TV Studios. Under the pact, he will join the studio’s new CBS drama series Vegas starring Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis as co-executive producer and will develop new projects. The deal reunites Santora with CBS Studios president David Stapf. As a writer-producer on the CBS drama The Guardian Santora worked with Stapf, then head of current programming at CBS.

Santora did stints on The Guardian, The Sopranos and Law & Order before joining Fox’s Prison Break right after the pilot. He worked on the Fox drama for its entire four-year run, rising to co-executive producer and landing an overall deal with the series’ producer, 20th Century Fox TV. Santora and Prison Break executive producer Matt Olmstead went on to create Breakout Kings, originally for Fox. The project migrated to A&E where it was picked up to series and ran for two years via 20th TV’s Fox21 until the network’s decision yesterday not to proceed with Season 3. Both Santora and Olmstead have already lined up their next gigs — Santora is off to CBS Studios and Vegas, Olmstead recently signed on as showrunner on the new NBC/Dick Wolf drama series Chicago Fire. Read More »

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UPDATE: Facebook’s Big IPO Trading Day Results In A Gain Of Just 27 Cents A Share

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 1:23pm PDTTags: Comcast, Disney, Facebook

Facebook IPOUPDATE, 1:23 PM: Investors swapped 460M Facebook shares — the highest ever day-one trading volume for an IPO. (It beat 458M shares that traded for General Motors when it returned to the market in 2010.) But those who expected to see a big first day pop have to be disappointed. Facebook closed at $38.23, +0.7% from the offering price. Investors may have lost some enthusiasm Friday as the overall market continued to slide, at least partly due to ongoing concerns about the European debt crisis. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.74%. Still, Facebook’s IPO is estimated to have created at least 1,000 new millionaires. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Facebook staffers to “stay focused,” Bloomberg reports. “Right now, this all seems like a big deal. Going public is an important milestone in our history,” he said. “But here’s the thing: Our mission isn’t to be a public company. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected.” Read More »

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BOMBS AWAY! ‘Battleship’ Starts Weak In Still Strong ‘Avengers’ Wake: ‘The Dictator’ Disastrous Behind Lame ‘What To Expect’

By NIKKI FINKE | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 12:46pm PDTTags: Battleship, Box Office, John Carter, The Dictator

FRIDAY 12:45 PM: What a disaster at the North American box office this early summer weekend with everything from today and a week ago tanking except for Marvel’s The Avengers which should make another $53M. Universal’s Battleship is stuck at $9M-$11M today and $30M (which is around the same meager amount where Warner Bros’ Dark Shadows debuted last weekend and is on life support now). Parament’s The Dictator which opened weakly Wednesday is completely falling apart even for an ‘R’ rated movie with just $12M. And Lionsgate’s What To Expect When You’re Expecting is beating it with $15M. Hollywood is in a very dark mood today — and I’m finding that the movie moguls are not appreciating my humor when I ask, “Are your bags packed?”

FRIDAY 7:45 AM: Universal’s Battleship is “certain to be soft,” according to my studio sources. ‘There’s no indication it’s going to break out and do huge numbers.” It opened with only $420K midnights from 1,074 theaters: that’s weaker than Warner Bros’ underperforming Dark Shadows last weekend and even Disney’s notorious 2012 bomb John Carter. Universal cautions that “both of those films have a bigger ‘geek base’” whereas the strength of Peter Berg’s military vs aliens actioner is “that it’s the anti-geek, anti-midnight movie of all time”. What does this mean? That the studio is hoping the patriotic pic does well in flyover country. It already has made $220M internationally, thus mitigating its $209+ budget and advance bad buzz in North America … Read More »

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Demi Moore Is One Of The ‘Very Good Girls’

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 12:46pm PDTTags: Demi Moore, Elizabeth Olsen, Very Good Girls

EXCLUSIVE: Screenwriter-producer Naomi Foner’s upcoming directing project Very Good Girls has added Demi Moore to a cast that already includes Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Olsen and Peter Sarsgaard. Fanning and Olsen play best friends determined to lose their virginity as a rite of passage into the adult world, but when they fall in love with the same boy, the relationship is tested. Moore plays Olsen’s mother in the film that’s produced by Norton Herrick’s Herrick Entertainment and Michael London’s Groundswell Productions. Shooting is to start in New York in June. K5 is handling international sales. Moore is repped by CAA and Jason Weinberg at Untitled Management.

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Paradigm Signs Smokewood Producers; Repping Domestic On ‘Long Time Gone’

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 12:44pm PDTTags: Lee Daniels, Long Time Gone, Paradigm

EXCLUSIVE: Film and TV company Smokewood Entertainment and co-founders, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness and Bobbi Sue Luther, develop and produce projects with positive messages. The company and Siegel-Magness have been signed by Paradigm for representation in all areas. Magness and Luther are also now repped by the agency as producers.

Siegel-Magness and husband Gary produced Lee Daniels’ breakout Precious and she recently shot her directorial debut, Long Time Gone. The Paradigm Motion Picture Finance Group is now repping North American rights to the drama that chronicles a broken family that is healed when the girlfriend of the youngest son comes to live with them. Virginia Madsen, Anthony LaPaglia, Eva Longoria, Zach Gilford, Amanda Crew, Sam Trammell and Graham Rogers star. Karen Lutz, whose credits include Legally Blonde and The Ugly Truth, penned the screenplay based on April Stevens’ novel, Angel, Angel. Luther, Magness, and Karen McCullah produced with Andrew Sugerman and Seth Jaret exec producing.

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John Karna In Talks For ‘Premature’

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 12:44pm PDTTags: Casting, John Karna, Kevin Smith, Premature, Slamdance

John Karna is in negotiations to play the lead in Premature. The University of Oklahoma freshman would play a high school student in the movie, which occurs on Groundhog Day. Dan Beers will direct Premature from the script he co-wrote with Mat Harawitz. Aaron Ryder and Karen Lunder are producing. Karna’s last film Bindlestiffs was at Slamdance this past year. It was picked up for distribution by Kevin Smith. Karna is represented by the Coronel Group and attorney Jeff Frankel.

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‘Brave’ Premiere To Open Dolby Theatre But Will Dolby Mix Be Ready?

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 11:27am PDTTags: Brave, Disney, Dolby Theatre, Oscars

Brave Premiere Dolby TheaterDisney/Pixar’s Brave is set to mark the grand opening of the newly named Dolby Theatre on June 18 when it has its world premiere at the Oscars‘ Hollywood & Highland home. But Dolby’s new sound technology to enhance the 3D animated film might not make it in time. The company said at CinemaCon this year that Brave would be the first feature film test-mixed in its newly announced “life-like sensory experience” Dolby Atmos technology. Now it is racing to make sure they can make the premiere deadline. “The team is in the studio working hard to get this done now. We have every intent to have the mix complete in Dolby Atmos and Dolby 3D for the Brave premiere on the 18th of June. If it isn’t, the world premiere will be in Dolby 3D and Dolby® Surround 7.1,” a Dolby spokesperson told Deadline. (Update: An insider tells Deadline that Disney/Pixar has to sign off on the Brave Dolby Atmos mix once it’s done) Brave would be the first feature film to utilize Dolby Atmos technology.

Related: Oscar Right Where It Belongs: Hammond

The announcement that Brave would open the Dolby comes less than three weeks after, as Deadline told you first, Dolby took over the former Kodak Theatre. Kodak relinquished its sponsorship lease after filing for bankruptcy in January. Dolby said on May 1 that it would begin upgrading the 180,000-square-foot theatre with their … Read More »

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Specialty Box Office: ‘Elena,’ ‘Never Stand Still,’ ‘Polisse,’ ‘Virginia’

By BRIAN BROOKS | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 10:31am PDTTags: Dustin Lance Black, Elena, First Run Features, IFC Films, Polisse, Virginia

The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing and at least two distributors are bowing their Cannes cache this weekend. Zeitgeist Films is debuting Elena in the U.S. The film won awards in Cannes and elsewhere before its long (and somewhat bizarre) road to the screen. Sundance Selects, meanwhile will roll out French César and Cannes winner Polisse in theaters and day-and-date VOD using some of its past offerings as a distribution template. Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s directorial debut Virginia opens in limited release and documentary Never Stand Still starts its rollout in New York before heading to other cities.

Elena
Director Andrei Zvyagintsev
Writer: Oleg Negin
Cast: Nadezhda Markina, Andrey Smirnov, Aleksey Rozin
Distributor: Zeitgeist Films

Elena started as an English-language project spearheaded by a British producer who had an idea for a film about the Apocalypse. Four directors from four continents were attached, with Zvyagintsev set to represent Europe, but the project fell through. The director didn’t want to give up and pitched it to a number of Russian producers who declined, but finally met producer Alexander Rodnyansky. “It took me one night to read the script, call him back and say that I am ready to produce and finance it,” said Rodnyansky told Deadline. “It has been a very rewarding experience both from the creative and financial points of view.”

With Russian financing set and a Russian-language script, Zvyagintsev cast relative newcomer Nadezhda Markina as the lead, which was a risk. “She’s not a celebrity so to speak,” said Rodnyansky. “In fact, her filmography list is rather short — some minor roles in a few films or TV series.” But the choice turned out well, Rodnyansky said, praising her “nuanced” and “multi-dimensional” approach to the role, which also garnered her some acting nods including the Durban International Film Festival and the Festival Nouveau Cinema Montreal. Also in the cast is Andrey Smirnov, a big name in Russia, having directing some Soviet-era classics. Forced to take a hiatus from filmmaking, he took up acting and appeared in Elena, though even that almost come together due to a conflict with his own return behind the camera after a nearly three decade absence. After a latenight persuasion session aided by a bottle of Calvados, Zvyagintsev along with his wife and son convinced the director/actor to stay on board. “They managed to arrange a special shooting schedule for Smirnov so that he could have fewer shooting days and not to have a long break in his editing,” noted Rodnyansky. Read More »

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Exclusive Media Boards Thriller ‘Still Of Night’: Cannes

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 10:21am PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Exclusive Media, Jonathan Mostow, Still Of Night

Cannes, France (May 18, 2012) – Exclusive Media will finance and produce the new thriller STILL OF NIGHT, written and to be directed by Jonathan Mostow (TERMINATOR 3, U-571, BREAKDOWN) and starring Michelle Monaghan (SOURCE CODE) with Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon (DEAD MAN WALKING) in final negotiations to star, it was announced today by Exclusive Media Co-Chairmen, Nigel Sinclair and Guy East.

Read More »

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RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Scandal’ & ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ End Seasons Up

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 9:58am PDTTags: American Idol, Community, Grey's Anatomy, Ratings, Scandal

Scandal ABCThe season finales of Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy brought ABC good numbers last night. The Season 8 finale of Grey’s Anatomy (3.9/11) at 9 PM saw the show up 11% from last week, drawing 11.9 million total viewers. Wrapping up its first season, political drama Scandal (2.4/7) was up 26% from last week’s season low in its 10 PM slot. The 8 PM finale of the now-cancelled Missing (1.3/4) saw an 18% jump from last week’s series low.

On American Idol (4.2/14), the contestants were down to a final two and the show was up 8% over last week, making it the night’s top show in the adults 18-49 demo and among total viewers (15.8 million) — its highest viewer total since March 29. After Idol, Touch (1.8/5) was down 5% from last week. Fox won the night in the demo. CBS edged Fox 11.27 million-11.09 million in total viewers. Read More »

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UPFRONTS 2012: The Year Of Underdogs, Comebacks & Second Chances

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 9:43am PDTTags: Cult, Partners, The Mindy Project
Nellie Andreeva

In my decade covering American television I can’t think of a year when more projects that started as also-rans, or came back from the dead, or barely made it to pilot, or overcame major recastings, went on to land series orders. And some of them are among next season’s most buzzed-about new shows. It feels like almost all pilots that had recastings — once an ominous sigh for a project’s future — went to series, and those that went through hardship on average fared much better than their non-problematic counterparts.

Related: Upfront 2012: What Pilots Are Still Alive

TV Upfronts 2012When a pilot script is passed on by the network that developed it, in 99.99% of the cases that means the end of the road, with the script headed to the writer’s drawer as its final destination. But in the case of Mindy Kaling’s medical comedy The Mindy Project, a pass by NBC where it was developed led to a pilot pickup at Fox, where the project quickly emerged as the network brass’ darling and landed on the fall schedule in the plum post-New Girl time slot.

Related: 2012-13 Fall Broadcast Primetime Grid

Cult CW MidseasonLike rejected scripts, dead pilots also hardly get resurrected. Sci-fi veteran Rockne S. O’Bannon wrote Cult for the 2005-06 development season when he landed a pilot order at the WB but the project became a casualty of the UPN/WB merger and the pilot was never made. Six years later, O’Bannon’s updated Cult script got a pilot order at the CW, the pilot was shot and took another step forward, landing a midseason series order.

Partners CBSIt took Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchick about as long to get a comedy inspired by their real-life straight man-gay man friendship on the air. The idea’s first incarnation was at CBS during the 2006-07 development season and the second at ABC the following season. Both times, Kohan and Mutchick’s scripts went to pilot starring Jay Mohr and Brian Austin Green (CBS) and Alan Tudyk, Josh Cooke and Ty Burrell (ABC). Both times Kohan and Mutchnick felt there were script, casting and other issues. The two had moved on when last year CBS approached them about revisiting the idea but getting it right this time. The result is Partners, which also went to pilot. Read More »

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BiteSize Entertainment To Launch As Vertically Integrated Studio: Cannes

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 9:17am PDTTags: BiteSize Entertainment, Cannes Film Festival, Rebekah Brooks

Ron Bloom, chairman and CEO of video site Mevio.com, and producer Gene Kirkwood are in Cannes talking up their new venture, BiteSize Entertainment. The vertically integrated studio that’s setting up shop at Hollywood & Vine will produce franchise content for the Web and other platforms including feature films. Among the films being developed are a biopic of former Rupert Murdoch lieutenant Rebekah Brooks. Kirkwood tells me he’s optioned the Vanity Fair artcle Untangling Rebekah Brooks as a basis. A press release on BiteSize follows: Read More »

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Disney XD’s Top-Rated Series ‘Lab Rats’ Renewed For Second Season

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 9:00am PDTTags: Disney XD, Lab Rats
Nellie Andreeva

Lab Rats Renewed Disney XDEXCLUSIVE: Disney XD has picked up its top series Lab Rats for a second season. Created and executive produced by Chris Peterson and Bryan Moore, the sci-fi comedy is about a teenager who lands the ultimate wish fulfillment when he gets three super-human step-siblings. It stars Billy Unger, Spencer Boldman, Kelli Berglund, Tyrel Jackson Williams and Hal Sparks. Its premiere was Disney XD’s No. 1 original series telecast of all time in total viewers and key 6-14 and 9-14 demos, and Lab Rats is now pacing as the network’s highest-rated series ever in total viewers (1.1 million), kids 2-11 (684,000/1.7 rating), kids 6-14 (719,000/2.0 rating), kids 6-11 (563,000/2.3 rating) and tweens 9-14 (489,000/2.0 rating). “Chris and Bryan have created a smart comedy about a bionic family with a twist that’s tailor-made for Disney XD,” said Adam Bonnett, SVP Original Programming, Disney Channels Worldwide.

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‘Avengers’: $400M In 14 Days Sets New Domestic Speed Record; #6 All Time Highest Grossing Film

By NIKKI FINKE | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 8:22am PDTTags: Box Office, Disney, Marvel, The Avengers

Marvel’s The Avengers on Thursday set a new domestic speed record, reaching the $400M box office threshold in 14 days. Worldwide, it has passed Toy Story 3 and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest to become the #6 highest-grossing film of all time and the highest grossing Disney release ever. Internationally it is the #9 highest-grossing film of all time.

The Avengers’ cumulative performance to date: International box office $668.7M and Domestic $402M for Global $1,070.7M.

Additional highlights to date:

· Fastest film to reach $350M (10 days), $300M (9 days), $250M (6 days), $200M (3 days), $150M (3 days) and $100M (2 days) at domestic box office.

· Disney’s fifth release to cross the billion dollar global box office threshold.

· Biggest domestic opening of all time ($207.4M).

· Biggest domestic second weekend of all time ($103M).

· Highest-grossing domestic film of 2012, passing The Hunger Games in just 12 days of release, and is now the 12th highest grossing domestic release of all-time.

· Highest domestic Saturday tally ($69.5M).

· Highest domestic Sunday tally ($57M).

· Second-highest domestic single-day tally ($80.8M).

Related: ‘Battleship’ Weak In ‘Avengers’ U.S. Wake: ‘The Dictator’ Even Weaker Domestic Start; Sacha Could Lose To ‘What To Expect’

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