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Cannes: Well Go USA Lands N.A. Rights To ‘On The Job’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 2:21pm PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, On The Job, Well Go USA
Mike Fleming

Well Go USA Entertainment acquired all North American rights to Erik Matti’s On The Job, a Filipino crime action-thriller, ahead of its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight on Friday. The film is set for a fall 2013 theatrical release. Written by Matti and Michiko Yamamoto, On The Job was inspired by a real-life corruption scandal involving the temporary release of inmates so they could work as contract killers for crooked politicians. It stars many of the Philippines’ mainstream actors including Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson, Rayver Cruz, Shaina Magdayao, Empress Schuck, alongside vets such as Joel Torre, Angel Aquino, Vivian Velez, Joey Marquez, Leo Martinez, Michael de Mesa, Al Tantay and Niño Muhlach.

“On The Job reiterates that it is an exciting time for Filipino cinema,” said Doris Pfardrescher, President of Well Go USA Entertainment. Said Matti: “All the hard work and patience has paid off. After almost four years, we have finally seen this movie cross over internationally. And we are happy that our company, Reality Entertainment, is at the forefront of bringing Filipino movies to a wider, more competitive market thanks to XYZ and Well Go.” Pic was produced by Matti’s Reality Entertainment and Star Cinema. The deal was brokered between Pfardrescher and Nate Bolotin and Aram Tertzakian of XYZ Films.

Related: Cannes: Sundance Selects Picks Up ‘The Selfish Giant’

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‘Good Morning America’ Hits 19-Year Viewership High Over ‘Today’; ‘Good Day NY’ Beats NBC Morning Show In May Sweep

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 2:13pm PDTTags: Good Morning America, Today, TV Ratings

Dancing With The Stars may have hit its lowest finale ever on Tuesday night, but it helped provide a nearly two-decade high to Good Morning America. With DWTS winners on the show on Wednesday, the ABC morning series continued its dominance over rival Today by beating the NBC show by 1.6 million viewers. That’s the largest single-day total viewership spread GMA has had in fast affiliate results over the NBC show since May 18, 1994. Good Morning America pulled in 6.1 million total viewers compared to Today’s 4.5 million. Back on that May day in 1994, GMA had 5.7 million viewers over Today’s 3.8 million. Until Wednesday, the biggest spread between the two was on November 28, 2012, when GMA’s 5.7 million viewers topped Today by 1.3 million. GMA had DWTS winners from last season on that day too. Read More »

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A&E Cancels ‘Intervention’ Reality Series

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 2:06pm PDTTags: A&E Network, Intervention

After 13 seasons, A&E‘s Intervention is coming to an end. The final five episodes of the Emmy-winning series will air beginning Thursday, June 13 at 9 PM, the network announced today. Intervention brings attention to the social, economic and environmental cost of drug addiction, alcohol abuse and compulsive behavior. Each episode follows addicts through their daily life and the devastation their dependency has brought to their family and friends. Upon reaching the brink, their loved ones stage a surprise intervention conducted by one of four specialists. In the end, they are pushed to get the help they need with the hope of turning their lives around before it’s too late. Intervention is produced by GRB Entertainment for A&E Network. Gary Benz, Michael Branton and Dan Partland are executive producers. Sam Mettler is executive consultant. A&E executive producers are David McKillop, Elaine Frontain Bryant and Brad Holcman.

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Cannes: Sundance Selects Picks Up Directors’ Fortnight Title ‘The Selfish Giant’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 2:01pm PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Sundance Selects, The Selfish Giant

Sundance Selects has acquired its fourth film of the Cannes Film Festival, making a deal for North American rights to writer-director Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant. Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas and Sean Gilder star, and the pic was produced by Tracy O’Riordan with the backing of British Film Institute and Film4. It premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the fest. The contemporary fable is about about a 13-year-old boy (Chapman) and his best friend (Thomas). Excluded from school and outsiders in their own neighborhood, the boys meet a local scrapdealer (Gilder). They begin collecting scrap metal for him using a horse and cart but tensions eventually build among the trio, leading to a tragic event that transforms them all. Sundance Selects already closed deals here for U.S. rights to a pair of competition titles, François Ozon’s Young & Beautiful starring Marine Vacth and Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is The Warmest Color. It also landed U.S. rights to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Two Days, One Night, which is in preproduction with Marion Cotillard starring.

The deal for Selfish Giant was negotiated by Sundance Selects/IFC Films’ Arianna Bocco with Mike Goodridge of Protagonist Pictures on behalf of the filmmakers.

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Pandora Shares Rise On Stronger Than Expected Q1 Sales

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 1:54pm PDTTags: Pandora

Many investors weren’t sure what they’d see after February when the streaming music company, eager to control its royalty costs, put a 40-hour-a-month cap on mobile listening. But they liked what they saw in the Q1 report out today, even though the net loss increased: Pandora‘s shares are up 9.3% in post-market trading. The company lost $28.6M in the quarter that ended in April, worse that last year’s $20.2M loss, on revenues of $125.5M, +55.4%. The revenue number beat expectations for $123.8M. And the net loss, at 10 cents per share not including one-time expenses, matched the consensus forecast. Total listener hours were up 35% to 4.2B and Pandora says that ad sales increased 49% to $105.1M. Much of the jump is due to mobile use: The company generated $23.23 in ad revenue for every 1,000 ad-supported listener hours, +29.9%. Read More »

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Evan Peters Joins ‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 1:41pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, Bryan Singers, Evan Peters, X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Bryan Singer once again has used Twitter to announce a casting for the new X-Men movie. Fox confirmed that Evan Peters will play Quicksilver in X-Men: Days Of Future Past, which is now in production for a July 2014 bow. “Before he was an #Avenger, he was just a REALLY fast kid. Thrilled to say #EvanPeters is joining #XMen #DaysOfFuturePast as #Quicksilver“, Singer wrote today. According to X-Men comic mythology, Quicksilver is the son of Magneto (Michael Fassbender/Ian McKellen) and is sometimes a good guy, sometimes a bad one. Singer has used the social network to say that most of the original X-Men cast is back for this one including Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Hugh Jackman, McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Halle Berry. Omar Sy, Peter Dinklage and Fan Bingbing are also aboard alongside James McAvoy and Fassbender. Read More »

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MGM Buys ‘Modern Family’ Producer Ben Karlin’s ‘Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 1:16pm PDTTags: Ben Karlin, MGM, Modern Family, Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: MGM has acquired screen rights to Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me, the best-selling humor anthology edited by Ben Karlin. Script will be written by Kyle Pennekamp & Scott Turpel, who scripted the upcoming Get A Job. Karlin is the Emmy-winning former executive producer of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. In the book, he drew on his own experiences and those of many other men to share that shame walk that has happened to every guy: getting dumped and trying to get over the humiliation.

The film will be produced by Karlin and Kevin Misher, who’s readying the MGM remake of Carrie that Kimberly Peirce directed with Chloe Moretz playing the title character and Julianne Moore as her mother. Andy Berman will serve as executive producer. They’ll cull the Dumped book for the ingredients to a male-oriented comedy. Karlin, who co-wrote America (The Book) and edited the satirical newspaper The Onion, produced the feature 50/50 and co-wrote and produced the upcoming A.C.O.D. (Adult Children Of Divorce). He is co-executive producer on the Emmy-winning ABC sitcom Modern Family.

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Pam Veasey Signs Development Deal With Jerry Bruckheimer TV, Warner Bros TV

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 12:42pm PDTTags: Jerry Bruckheimer TV, Pam Veasey, The Tomorrow People, Warner Bros. TV
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: As CSI: NY just ended its nine-season run, the series’ executive producer and showrunner Pam Veasey is staying in business with its production company Jerry Bruckheimer TV. She has signed a two-script development deal with Warner Bros TV-based company. Additionally, she has joined the upcoming WBTV drama series for the CW The Tomorrow People, which is slated for the post-Arrow Wednesday slot, as a consulting producer. Veasey, repped by CAA and Nina Shaw, was with CSI: NY for its entire run. During the 2011-12 season, she juggled running the CBS forensic crime drama and the CW’s Ringer. Her credits also include The District and In Living Color.

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Lionsgate Shares Rise On Growing Optimism About Earnings Report

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 12:29pm PDTTags: Lionsgate, Lionsgate Stock

The stock is up about 4% in mid-afternoon trading after Piper Jaffray’s James Marsh raised his price target for Lionsgate this morning by 18.5% to $32 ahead of the studio’s financial report next week for the quarter that ended in March. The analyst says that investors may be impressed by DVD and VOD sales for Twilight, which he figures generated about $150M in revenues for the quarter. In addition The Impossible, a film about the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, “largely slipped under the radar,” grossing just $19M at domestic theaters but $154M overseas. He expects Lionsgate’s TV operation to impress with results from Mad Men, Anger Management, and Nashville. Looking ahead, Marsh says that he’s “comfortable that management will find a way to extend the Twilight franchise” while Hunger Games could could do better than expected “driven by international box office and high margin merchandising opportunities.” On Monday Stifel’s Benjamin Mogil also upped his price target, in his case by 16% to $29. He says Lionsgate is “tracking materially ahead” of its financial guidance.

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‘Fashion Police’ Writers Chant On Picket Lines: “Give Us Back Our Paycheck B****”

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 12:25pm PDTTags: E! Entertainment, Fashion Police, WGA

Ross Lincoln is a Deadline contributor

UPDATE, 12:25 PM: The protest just wrapped up around its scheduled 12:30 PM target. Among the speakers was writer Bryan Cook, who addressed the picketers that reached about 150 in number and generated notice from passersby on foot and in cars along Wilshire Boulevard. He touched on why the writers are seeking union representation. “We’ve worked hard to make Fashion Police one of E!’s top-rated shows, and we don’t even get health care benefits,” he said. “It can be hard to get how hard this work is. It’s not like were working in a coal mine — you can’t get black lung from writing jokes, but rest assured, E! will try to find a way.” Said fellow writer Ed Rice to Deadline as the event was breaking up: “I don’t know what’s specifically next on our part. To a certain extent, its a stand-off — the ball’s really in their court. What we want is a phone call from the network to our representative at the guild saying they accept them as representation and would like to offer us a guild contract. That’s the only next step from the network we will accept.”

PREVIOUS, 11:43 AM: Striking writers from the Joan Rivers-hosted series Fashion Police are protesting today in front of E!‘s headquarters on the Miracle Mile in LA. Among the chants overheard from the 100-plus on the scene holding signs: “We’re … Read More »

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FX Drama ‘The Bridge’ Gets Premiere Date

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 12:19pm PDTTags: FX, The Bridge
Nellie Andreeva

FX‘s newest original drama series The Bridge will debut on Wednesday, July 10 at 10 PM. Based on the European series Bron, which was set on the border of Denmark and Sweden, The Bridge is a crime thriller exploring the tensions on the U.S.-Mexico border. When an American judge known for her anti-immigration views is found dead on the bridge connecting El Paso and Juarez, Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) from El Paso PD must work with her Mexican counterpart from Chihuahua State Police, Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir), to catch a serial killer operating on both sides of the border. The case quickly pulls them into a string of murders on the border, a scene already consumed by illegal immigration, drug trafficking, violence and prostitution. Meredith Stiehm and Elwood Reid adapted The Bridge for American television, with Shine America producing.

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Cannes: ‘Salvo’ Wins Critics Week Grand Prize; ‘Come And Play’ Takes Short Film

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 12:04pm PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Critics Week, Salvo

While the big Cannes Film Festival awards will be unveiled this weekend, Salvo took the Grand Prix Nespresso, the top prize at Cannes Critics Week. Salvo was directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza. Salvo also took the France 4 Visionary Awards. The Discovery prize for short film went to Come And Play by Daria Belova. Pleasure by Ninja Thyberg won the Canal+ short film award, while the Society of Authors, Directors and Composers Award for best screenplay went to Le Demantlement by Sebastien Pilote. The opening film was Suzanne, which premiered out of competition, and Sundance pic Ain’t Them Bodies Saints also had a special out of competition screening in the slate.

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R.I.P. Steve Forrest

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 11:41am PDTTags: Steve Forrest

Veteran actor Steve Forrest, who had more than 100 TV credits including starring on the mid-1970s police actioner S.W.A.T., died May 18 in Thousand Oaks. He was 87. The brother of actor Dana Andrews, Forrest made guest appearances on scores of TV shows and recurred on the original Dallas. He also played Lt. Hondo Harrelson on ABC’s 1975-76 police actioner S.W.A.T. — he had a cameo in the 2003 feature adaptation — and starred as John “The Baron” Mannering on the 1966 Cold War spy drama The Baron, the first color series on UK TV. Read More »

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David Slade To Direct Syfy Drama ‘Helix’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 11:37am PDTTags: David Slade, Helix, Ronald D Moore, Syfy
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Feature and TV director David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) is set to direct the opening episode of Helix, Syfy‘s upcoming series from from Battlestar Galactica developer/executive producer Ronald D. Moore. The project, written by Cameron Porsandeh and produced by Sony TV, is a dark thriller about a team of scientists investigating a possible disease outbreak. Moore, showrunner Steven Maeda and Lynda Obst executive produce and Porsandeh co-exec produces the series, with Slade set to executive produce the premiere episode. Production is slated to begin this summer in Montreal. Read More »

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Universal Makes Seven-Figure Deal For ‘The School For Good And Evil’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 11:28am PDTTags: Joe Roth, Soman Chainani, The School For Good And Evil, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Boy, does Joe Roth have the hot hand when it comes to irreverent fairy tale fare. Deadline revealed last Thursday that the Oz The Great And Powerful producer had partnered with Jane Startz Production to acquire movie rights to The School For Good And Evil. After a spirited auction, Universal Pictures won the property in a seven-figure deal for book and scriptwriting fees. It’s the first title in a novel trilogy by Soman Chainani that will be published in the U.S. by HarperCollins on May 14 and in the U.K. on June 6. The trilogy tells the story of ordinary boys and girls who are kidnapped from their homes and sent to The School for Good and Evil, where they are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains, princesses and witches.

The protagonist is Sophie, a beauty who is dumped into the School for Evil while her homely best friend Agatha is taken to the School for Good. Both girls find their fortunes reversed and are forced to confront the truth about their unexpected destinies. The book debuted this weekend #7 on The New York Times Bestseller list. Read More »

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Steven Soderbergh Will Interrupt Retirement To Direct And Produce Cinemax Series ‘The Knick’ With Clive Owen Starring

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 11:15am PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Cinemax, Clive Owen, Steven Soderbergh, The Knick
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: We need to qualify Steven Soderbergh‘s self-imposed retirement from the business with an asterisk: feature films only. Just as his final film Behind The Candelabra airs this Sunday on HBO, Soderbergh is in talks to team with Clive Owen on The Knick, a period series set in New York in 1900. I’m told that he and Owen will set this series at Cinemax, which will give him a 10-episode season commitment. Soderbergh will direct all of the episodes. The setting: downtown New York in 1900, a tumultuous time of massive change and great progress. The series centers around the groundbreaking surgeons, nurses and staff at Knickerbocker Hospital, who are pushing the bounds of medicine in a time of astonishingly high mortality rates and zero antibiotics. Jack Amiel & Michael Begler wrote the pilot on spec, and they will be executive producers on the series. Owen and Soderbergh are also executive producers and so are Anonymous Content’s Michael Sugar and Soderbergh’s longtime producer Gregory Jacobs.

Related: Fleming Q&A With Steven Soderbergh: Retirement, Liberace, Legacy

While this might make some might look cynically on Soderbergh’s “retirement,” he told me the other day in an interview for the Michael Douglas-Matt Damon Liberace movie that for the moment, he has shut the door on feature films. I can see that he likes the energy present in pay and basic … Read More »

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CNN Sets June Debut For Summer Talk Show

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 10:55am PDTTags: CNN, Stroumboulopoulos

The cable news network announced today that its new talk show Stroumboulopoulos will debut on June 9 right after the Season 1 finale of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Fronted by Canadian talk show host George Stroumboulopoulos, the 10-week series will move to its regular Friday 11 PM slot on CNN on June 14. The Sunday premiere comes just over a week before the debut of CNN’s new morning show New Day, the jewel in Jeff Zucker’s rebranding of the network. CNN first announced the Friday pop culture interview show back in early April. Stroumboulopoulos will film in LA. CNN is certainly aiming to get a lot of mileage out of the new short-run show: Stroumboulopoulos will re-air at 2 AM and 5 AM on Fridays as well as at 11 PM, 2 AM and 5 AM ET on Saturdays for the summer.

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‘Reign’ Co-Creator Stephanie SenGupta Exits

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 10:42am PDTTags: Reign, Stephanie SenGupta, the CW
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: There is a change at the helm of the CW‘s high-profile new drama series Reign. Co-creator/executive producer/co-showrunner Stephanie SenGupta has departed, leaving co-creator/executive producer Laurie McCarthy as the sole showrunner. The move is not completely unexpected as there had been chatter that the two didn’t quite see eye to eye. SenGupta, who I hear originally came up with the idea for Reign many years ago, is moving on to focus on creating a new show on her own. The CBS TV Studios-produced Reign, a soapy reimagining of the teenage years of Mary Queen of Scots in the French Court, is one of the buzziest new CW series and landed the coveted post-Vampire Diaries slot on the fall schedule. SenGupta most recently served as co-executive producer on CBS’ Hawaii Five-0, also produced by CBS Studios. She came out of the Law & Order camp, having worked on both the mothership series and on spinoff Criminal Intent.
Related: CW New Series First Looks: Video

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Cannes: EOne Announces Itself As Player In U.S. Distribution By Acquiring Naomi Watts-Starrer ‘Diana’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 10:34am PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Diana, eOne, Naomi Watts
Mike Fleming

Diana Movie Naomi WattsEXCLUSIVE: Entertainment One has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Diana, the Oliver Hirschbiegel-directed drama about a secret love affair that Princess Diana had shortly before her tragic death. With Naomi Watts as the princess, this was one of the higher-profile pictures shopped at the Cannes Film Festival and eOne bought the rights from Embankment Films and Ecosse Films. eOne will also distribute with major releases in the UK, Canada and Spain with the U.S. film coming in Oscar season later this year.

Hirschbiegel helmed the Oscar-nominated Downfall, and screenwriter Stephen Jeffreys wrote The Libertine. Watts, coming off an Oscar nom for The Impossible, stars with Naveen Andrews (best known for ABC’s Lost and The English Patient) in this drama about Diana’s covert love affair with Dr. Hasnat Khan, a Pakistani heart surgeon. This happened in the last two years of her life, before she met Dodi Fayed, and the need for privacy led to her meeting her lover in disguises. This gave her a sense of living an anonymous life, but her incredible worldwide fame became an issue. The film is produced by Ecosse Films’ Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae. Read More »

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