The Spike Lee-directed remake of Park Chan-wook’s cult Korean classic will now see its wide release on October 25, 2013, after FilmDistrict originally slated it for October 11. Oldboy will now bow opposite Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 5, which already had the date. Josh Brolin, Samuel L. Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen and Sharlto Copley star in the revenge pic, which was originally part of Park’s Vengeance trilogy that included Lady Vengeance and Sympathy For Mister Vengeance. That latter movie is also getting a U.S. remake, with Silver Reel and Lotus Entertainment announcing in Cannes that they are partnering with di Bonaventura Pictures and CJ Entertainment for an English-language version from a script by Broken City‘s Brian Tucker.
FilmDistrict Shifts ‘Oldboy’ Release Date
Will LIN TV Stations Go Dark On Time Warner Cable?
The broadcaster has begun to warn more than 1.5M viewers in 14 markets that its stations could disappear from Time Warner Cable and Bright House Network systems at the end of next week unless the companies reach a new retransmission consent agreement. Stations at risk include LIN TV‘s NBC, CW, and MyNetworkTV affiliates in Austin; CBS and CW stations in Buffalo, NY; NBC and CW outlets in Dayton, OH; and Fox and CW stations in Green Bay, WI. The two cable companies account for about 20.6% of LIN’s viewers, according to SNL Kagan data. LIN says on its Buffalo CBS affiliate’s website that “It costs a substantial amount of money to produce local programming, bid for top-quality programming, invest in high-definition, and make other upgrades to equipment and technology so we can deliver a superior product.” It adds in a statement that it wants “less than what Time Warner pays for many of its cable networks with far lower ratings.” But Time Warner Cable spokesman Jon Gary Herrera says that LIN is asking for a 50% rate hike, “a very steep increase from a contract negotiated two years ago.” Stations and pay TV companies typically settle retransmission consent disputes at the eleventh hour. But LIN’s stations were blacked out on Time Warner Cable for 25 days in fall 2008 when negotiations reached an impasse.
Cannes: Drafthouse Snags German Import ‘Nothing Bad Can Happen’
EXCLUSIVE: As this year’s sales market came to a close at Cannes, Drafthouse Films acquired North American rights to German drama Nothing Bad Can Happen ahead of its premiere today in the Un Certain Regard section. Pic marks the directorial debut of filmmaker Katrin Gebbe, who also scripted, and follows a young Christian punk who moves in with the family of a man he meets by chance and becomes the
target of a cruel game designed to test his faith. Drafthouse Films, the distribution arm that Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse launched in 2010, has sprung repeatedly for edgy international fare. I hear Gebbe’s film had Drafthouse buyers reminiscing on Bullhead, the Belgian pick-up that was nominated for Best Foreign Oscar in 2012 taking Drafthouse to the Academy Awards in its second year of operation.
Drafthouse is plotting a theatrical and multiplatform release for 2014. In March they picked up Cheap Thrills out of SXSW and will next release the award-winning docu The Act Of Killing in July. James Shapiro negotiated the deal on behalf of Drafthouse Films with Hengameh Panahi of Celluloid Dreams.
Hot Trailer: Ron Howard’s ‘Rush’
Universal has dropped the second trailer for Rush, the Ron Howard-directed racing pic about 1970s Formula 1 rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl star alongside Olivia Wilde and Alexandra Maria Lara. Peter Morgan wrote the script. This trailer will play ahead of Fast & Furious 6 this weekend. Rush bows on September 20. Check it out:
ABC Family Picks Up Game Show ‘Spell-Mageddon’ For Summer

ABC Family has picked up to series Spell-Mageddon, an hour-long game show where contestants take on hilarious distractions while spelling increasingly challenging words. The series, created and executive produced by Adam Reed, Adam Freeman and Leslie Greif of Thinkfactory Media (Hatfields & McCoys), will premiere on July 24, joining ABC Family’s Wednesday night comedy line-up at 9 PM, following Melissa And Joey and Baby Daddy.
CBS New Series Trailers: ‘The Crazy Ones’, ‘Hostages’, ‘The Millers’, ‘Mom’, ‘We Are Men’
Here are the full looks advertisers got last week at CBS’ new fall series during the network’s upfront presentation in New York. Still to come is midseason drama Intelligence.
Related: CBS 2013-14 Schedule
The Crazy Ones – Comedy
Hostages – Drama
WME Signs ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Creator Kurt Sutter

Kurt Sutter, the colorful creator/executive producer of FX’s Sons Of Anarchy, has signed with WME. He was with ICM Partners. Last year, Sutter inked his first overall deal: a three-year pact with FX Prods and 20th Century Fox TV, whose division Fox21 co-produces SOA with FX Prods. In addition to running SOA, which is heading into its sixth season, Sutter has been developing new projects for FX, including a comedy that may star his wife/SOA star Katey Sagal and an action/horror drama with John Shiban. Last year, the Shield alum executive produced Kurt Sutter’s Outlaw Empires for Discovery Channel. He continues to be repped by attorney Michael Gendler.
Adele Lim Signs Overall Deal With CBS TV Studios, Joins ‘Star-Crossed’ As Co-Showrunner

Adele Lim (Private Practice, One Tree Hill) has signed an overall deal with CBS TV Studios. Under the pact, she will serve as executive producer/co-showrunner on the studio’s new CW drama series Star-Crossed (previously Oxygen) alongside the project’s writer-executive producer Meredith Averill. Star-Crossed chronicles the epic romance between a human girl and an alien boy when he and eight others of his kind are integrated into a suburban high school. Also executive producing the series are Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, Richard Shepard and Bryan Furst. Star-Crossed marks WME-repped Lim’s return to the CW and CBS Studios where she served as co-executive producer on Life Unexpected. Her credits also include Life On Mars, where she worked with Applebaum, Nemec and Rosenberg, and One Tree Hill.
Matt Rogers Set As Host Of USA Competition Series ‘Summer Camp’
Matt Rogers will be the host of USA Network‘s new competition reality series Summer Camp, which will pit 16 die-hard campers in over-the-top competitions inspired by classic camp games. The final competitors eventually face off in an Olympic-style finale to determine the winner. The eight-episode one-hour series will premiere July 11. Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan are producing the Sony Pictures TV series via their Fly on the Wall Entertainment. Rogers was the former host of GSN’s Beat The Chefs, Discovery Channel’s Really Big Things, CBS’ There Goes the Neighborhood and Lifetime’s Coming Home. He is repped by APA and Untitled Entertainment.
Shareholders Quiz Time Warner Chief On Political Ties And Gun Coverage
CEO Jeff Bewkes must be glad that he only has to meet with ordinary shareholders once a year. Two dominated the Q&A session at today’s gathering with questions based on a view that Time Warner is engaged in campaigns to promote President Obama’s political fortunes, and gun control legislation. One found it suspicious that Michelle Obama awarded the Oscar for Best Picture, won by Warner Bros’ Argo. He noted that actor George Clooney — one of the film’s producers — had hosted fundraisers for the Obama campaign, and that the President and First Lady attended TNT’s annual Christmas In Washington special to raise money for the Children’s National Medical Center. “What a way to say ‘thank you’,” the shareholder said. Bewkes explained that the TNT show invites “sitting office holders that we have elected, whether wisely or not. They are not candidates.” As for the Oscar, “that’s done by the members of the Academy….That’s a whole forest if you wander into that.” Read More »
CANNES TOLDJA! Weinstein Co Officially Acquires ‘Philomena’, Eyes Fall Release

This turned out to be the first big bidding battle of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which is now winding down. The Weinstein Company won out after sparking to the seven-minute teaser reel shown to buyers during the fest, outbidding others including Focus Features. Now it will join the distributor’s already bursting awards-season slate that includes Sundance winner Fruitvale Station, August: Osage County with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, Long Walk To Freedom with Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela, the Lee Daniels-directed The Butler, Grace Of Monaco with Nicole Kidman, and the Shane Salerno-directed documentary Salinger. Here’s the official release:
CANNES (May 23, 2013) – The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today from the 2013 Cannes Film Festival that they are acquiring distribution rights in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Spain to director Stephen Frears’ (HIGH FIDELITY, THE QUEEN) dramedy PHILOMENA. Seven minutes of the film were shown to buyers in Cannes on May 16th, with TWC outbidding a number of other studios vying for rights. Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope penned the screenplay, which is based on the 2009 novel The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith. The project stars Judi Dench (NOTES ON A SCANDAL, THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL) and Coogan (THE TRIP, WHAT MAISIE KNEW) and was produced by Coogan, Tracey Seaward and Gabrielle Tana. Baby Cow’s Henry Normal, BBC Films’ Christine Langan, Pathé’s Francois Ivernel and Cameron McCracken and Magnolia Mae Films’ Carolyn Marks Blackwood executive produced.
Hammond On Cannes: Paramount’s ‘Nebraska’ Hits Town As Only Major Studio Movie In Competition

Alexander Payne says he only finished postproduction last Friday on his Cannes competition entry
Nebraska, which had its press screening this morning and will premiere tonight. Reviews coming in so far are largely mixed to very good. Even though Paramount won’t release it until November 22, Payne likes to take awhile in post to get everything right. There was initial concern about even making the Cannes date, so that is why until just a week before this year’s official lineup was announced did Paramount and Payne even decide to take a shot. He brought the film to Paris, showed it to Thierry Fremaux with only two days to spare, and landed tonight’s slot. Payne is becoming somewhat of a Cannes regular — although other than 2002′s About Schmidt, this is only his second film in competition. He has served on the juries of both Un Certain Regard and, last year, the main selection.
Nebraska, which will be one of Paramount’s Oscar hopes this year, played well to nice but brief applause from the press at the screening and at the press conference that followed (especially when stars Bruce Dern and Will Forte were introduced). It’s pure Payne in its humanist, gently funny style and captures that Middle America folksy style in beautiful black and white, but it is definitely what I would call a small film that will need tender loving care from the studio (the only major studio film in competition). Read More »
Starz Sets Premiere Date For ‘White Queen’

Starz/BBC series The White Queen will debut on Starz on Saturday, August 10, following the Friday season finale of Magic City. The 10-episode drama, based on the bestselling historical novels by Philippa Gregory, is set against the backdrop of England’s Wars of the Roses and stars Max Irons, Amanda Hale, James Frain, newcomers Rebecca Ferguson and Faye Marsay and Oscar nominee Janet McTeer. Colin Callender is executive producer for the series, produced by the UK’s Company Pictures.
Hot TV Trailer: ‘The White Queen’
CMT Buys Off-Net Rights To ‘Hell’s Kitchen’
LOS ANGELES – May 23, 2013 – CMT has reached a multi-year licensing deal with distributor Debmar-Mercury to become the exclusive cable partner for off-network episodes of HELL”S KITCHEN, produced by ITV Studios America, it was announced today by Katie Buchanan, senior vice president of programming strategy, CMT. The series will debut weekdays beginning this Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, at 12 p.m. ET/PT on CMT and will also be available on CMT VOD.
“The high energy and drama Gordon Ramsay brings to this series is a perfect companion to the CMT brand and complements our action-packed summer lineup nicely,” said Buchanan.
Cannes: J.C. Chandor Sets Next Project ‘A Most Violent Year’
EXCLUSIVE: All Is Lost and Margin Call director J.C. Chandor has set his next project. He will write and direct A Most Violent Year which will shoot this fall in New York City. The logline is being kept under wraps,
but I’m told a group of A-listers are being approached and that there will be several in the movie. It will be a bigger-scale film than the previous two, which were made for $3.4M and $9M, respectively. Neal Dodson via Before the Door Pictures and Anna Gerb, who both produced All Is Lost, are producers. Glen Basner is exec producing via FilmNation and has global sales. Chandor is here in town for his Robert Redford-starrer All Is Lost which received a glowing reception last night at its official screening.
Cannes: Caution In The Market
With the market officially wrapped, the deal pace has slowed to a crawl and the focus turns back to the movies. That’s after a week of international sales on some key titles and a few high-profile domestic deals in an environment that nevertheless was marked by caution. Oftentimes as Cannes is about to start, there are splashy announcements of domestic pick-ups on fest-related movies and that helps set the pace. In 2011, The Weinstein Co. acquired The Artist before the curtain lifted. Last year, it grabbed The Sapphires and Sony Pictures Classics bought Susanne Bier’s Love Is All You Need on Day One. This year, there were no eve-of-the-fest acquisitions on titles that are in official selection (although Warner Bros. moved in on Ryan Gosling’s How To Catch A Monster which is currently shooting and Lionsgate arrived in town having taken the upcoming The Quiet Ones). Ultimately, U.S. buyers that I spoke with ahead of the fest said they would be opportunistic, but cautious. “Everyone goes in very carefully,” Sony Classics’ Tom Bernard told me. “There’s a lot of pushback in the ancillary areas so when you’re spending money, you have to spend it wisely.”
Foreign sellers say there’s a shift in the balance of key territories. China, Russia, Brazil, the Middle East and even India – which has such a massive local box office – are becoming “significant pieces of the puzzle.” Spain and Italy remain the places that make sellers misty given the economic crises there. Rai, however, did pick up The Gunman starring Sean Penn in what was a notable buy for the company. That movie virtually sold out for Studiocanal. Read More »
Kevin Brockman Takes Charge Of GLSEN Board
The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network has named Disney/ABC Television Group’s EVP Global Communications as chairman of its board. GLSEN is a leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. “The work GLSEN is doing to ensure that schools across our nation are safe for all children is nothing short of inspiring,” Kevin Brockman said. “I’ve had the great pleasure to hear directly from many of the incredible students that they’ve helped over the years, and when you are faced with that kind of courage and that kind of compassion, it’s easy to agree to become a bigger part of the process.”
Discovery’s Revision3 Launches Science-Themed Web Channel: TestTube
San Francisco, Calif. – Discovery Communications and Revision3 announced today the launch of TestTube, a digital video network designed to ignite online audiences who are incurably curious about the world around them. TestTube debuts with a robust slate of 15 short-form series and many more in development, and hosted by some of the Internet’s top personalities. TestTube is available at TestTube.com, and through Revision3’s mobile site and apps, YouTube, Xbox and additional distribution partners.




