SUMMER SLUMP? Will Smith’s ‘MIB3′ Slows … 
Cannes Finale: The Jury Talks And Hammond’s Analysis … 
Nicole Kidman Speaks Out On Taking Risks, Roles And Taking … 
Oscilloscope Takes U.S. Rights To ‘Reality’ 
‘Mud’: Did Cannes Save One Of The Best For … 
Cannes Podcast: Pete Hammond On ‘Lawless’, … 
Over-Achievers Of This Year’s Upfront 
Aussie Pay-TV Shakeup Impacts Hollywood 
USA: ‘Rebounding’ & ‘Modern … 
Interview: Philip Kaufman At Cannes With ‘Hemingway … 
R.I.P. Television Mogul Lee Rich 
Cannes Biz Shines Despite Wind & Rain 
Full 2011-2012 TV Season Series Rankings 
2011-12 Season Network Rankings: Fox Still On Top But Down, … 
HLN Set To Air Daytime Emmy Awards 
Grant Bowler Cast As Richard Burton Opposite Lindsay Lohan … 
UPDATE: Dish Network And Broadcasters Ask Courts To Decide … 
Cannes Surprise Screening: Change Of Plans On Juan Antonio … 
Kevin Hart In Talks To Join Kevin James In ‘Valet … 
Anthony Hopkins Up For ‘Red 2′ Villain; Can … 
Cannes Conflicted Over ‘The Paperboy’ As … Michelle Williams, Luke Kirby and Seth Rogen star Take This Waltz, a romantic triangle written and directed by Sarah Polley. From Magnolia Pictures.
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Aussie Pay-TV Shakeup Impacts Hollywood
Freelance journalist Don Groves is a Deadline contributor based in Sydney.
Australia’s Foxtel is poised to tighten its control of the nation’s pay-TV industry after the takeover of the other significant provider Austar, which may result in a restructuring of movie deals with Hollywood studios. The $A1.9 billion deal creates 
a national subscription TV service reaching 2.2 million households. That’sabout 34% of TV homes, but CCZ Statton Equities analyst Roger Colman forecasts likely penetration of 70%-80% by 2017, driven by broadband rollout and growth of Internet TV services. Colman notes Foxtel (co-owned by News Corp., telco Telstra and James Packer’s Consolidated Media) faces miniscule competition from Fetch TV and Quickflix, although Google has acquired Australian pay-per-view rights to movies from Disney, Sony, Columbia, Icon, Lionsgate and Village Roadshow. The Movie Network (co-owned by Warner Bros, Disney and Village Roadshow) pact with Foxtel expires December 31, and the Premium Movie Partnership (Universal, Sony Columbia and Fox) expires at the end of 2013. With its stronger position, Colman predicts Foxtel will not renew either deal but will negotiate directly with the studios. Foxtel now pays about $160M per year for studio movies, he estimates.
TBS Comedy ‘Men At Work’ Off To OK Start
TBS last night premiered its first original series using its high-flying off-network comedy, The Big Bang Theory, as a launching pad. New comedy Men at Work drew 2.65 million total viewers, 1.63 million adults 18-49 and 851,000 adults 18-34 at 10 PM. That was up 14% in 18-34 and 7% in 18-49 from the Big Bang Theory repeats TBS ran in the Thursday 10 PM slot for the past four weeks. (Big Bang served as a lead-in to Men At Work last night). Additionally, the guy-oriented series created by Breckin Meyer garnered more men 18-34 (395,000) than any previous TBS original sitcom premiere, good news for TBS’ male-skewing late-night talk show Conan. (TBS’ aired a second episode of Men at Work at 10:30 PM, averaging 2.29 million total viewers, 778,000 (18-34) and 1.43 million (18-49).
Related: Breckin Meyers’ Comedy Pilot ‘Men At Work’ Picked Up To Series By TBS
In the main ratings categories, Men At Work was behind most of TBS’ noteworthy sitcom premieres in the past 5 years, Are We There Yet? (3.2 million viewers, 1.6 million adults 18-49), Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (5.8 million viewers), Perry’s Meet The Browns (4.0 million viewers) and The Bill Engvall Show (3.9 million), but they all premiered at 9 PM vs 10 PM for Men At Work. Men edged one other half-hour TBS comedy that premiered at 10 PM, the 2006 My Boys (1.78 million total viewers; 1.63 million adults 18-49; 756,000 … Read More »
FCC Adds WGAW To Open Internet Panel
The Writers Guild of America West has been selected by the Federal Communications Commission to participate in the commission’s first Open Internet Advisory Committee. It will assist in tracking and evaluating the FCC’s Open Internet rules. WGAW assistant executive director Charles B. Slocum will be one of 21 OIAC members.
Swartzlander To Run ‘Cougar Town’ On TBS
Comedy veteran Ric Swartzlander (Garry Unmarried) has been tapped as executive producer/showrunner of Cougar Town as the comedy is moving from ABC to TBS with a 15-episode fourth-season order. He succeeds Cougar Town co-creator/executive producer Bill Lawrence who is stepping down to focus on development under his Warner Bros. TV overall deal but will remain involved and is keeping his executive producer title. (Lawrence has extra connection to the show as his wife, Christa Miller, co-stars on it.) Lawrence co-created Cougar Town with Kevin Biegel, who will become a consulting producer. Swartzlander has ties to both TBS and Cougar Town producer ABC Studios. He did a pilot, In Security, for TBS and recently worked on the ABC/ABC Studios comedy Man Up! His single-camera credits also include the ABC Studios-produced Samantha Who?
USA: ‘Rebounding’ & ‘Modern Family’ Mating?
Comedy pilot Rebounding is looking to live up to its title as producing studio 20th Century Fox TV has been shopping it to other networks since its surprising pass at Fox two weeks ago. Meanwhile, one of USA Network’s main priorities is getting an original comedy series ready by next summer to launch as a companion to its prized off-network acquisition, ABC hit Modern Family. Could Rebounding fit the bill? I hear USA is looking at the pilot starring Will Forte as a man recovering from the death of his fiancé with help from his idiot buddies on a pickup basketball team.
Related: Fox Passes On ‘Rebounding’: Will Steve Levitan Ever Again Sell A Show There?
Rebounding and Modern Family seem like potentially great companions — the two single-camera shows share a sensibility (comedy with heart) and a lot of creative DNA. Rebounding, which was created by Joe Port and Joe Wiseman based on Port’s real-life experiences, is executive produced by Modern Family co-creator/executive producer Steve Levitan in his first major project since Modern Family. The pilot was directed by Jason Winer, who also helmed the pilot for Modern Family, with Levitan and Winer’s collaboration on Rebounding drawing parallels to the duo’s chemistry on Modern Family. The Rebounding pilot actually tested higher than the pilot for Modern Family at the studio. 20th TV produces both Modern … Read More »
CBS Releases Trailers For ‘Elementary’, ‘Made In Jersey’, ‘Partners’, ‘Vegas’
CBS released full trailers today for the network’s new series that were announced last week. Trailers were shown to press covering CBS’ upfront presentations but were not made available for general release until today.
CBS’ Elementary
Produced by CBS Television Studios. From executive producers Rob Doherty, Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly and Michael Cuesta. Directed by Michael Cuesta (pilot):
CBS’ Made In Jersey
Produced by Sony Pictures Television in association with CBS Television Studios. From executive producers Jamie Tarses, Kevin Falls, Julia Franz and Mark Waters. Written by creator/co-executive producer Dana Calvo (pilot). Directed by Mark Waters (pilot):
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Cannes Directors Fortnight Prizes ‘No’
The Cannes sidebar event Directors Fortnight today honored Pablo Larrain’s No, which stars Gael Garcia Bernal as the young advertising executive who engineered the advertising campaign that toppled Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in a 1988 referendum. The well-received movie was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics earlier this week. Other films honored in the Fortnight under the auspices of Europa Cinemas were Merzak Allouache’s El Taaib and Noémie Lvovsky’s Camille Rewinds. The Fortnight also recognized the short film Fyzal Boulifa’s The Curse and Basil da Cunha’s The Living Also Cry.
Interview: Philip Kaufman At Cannes With ‘Hemingway And Gellhorn’ HBO Premiere
Unlike last year when three entries in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival went on to grab
Oscar nominations for Best Picture (and The Artist even won) this year it’s different, at least going into the final weekend. Cannes doesn’t seem to have even one sure candidate for Oscar’s big prize. But in a real twist the world’s most famous film fest is launching a surefire Emmy contender: HBO’s Hemingway And Gellhorn which premieres here tonight with a Red Carpet gala at the Grand Theatre Lumiere three days before debuting on HBO May 28. Movie stars Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen will be giving the paparazzi lots to shoot and 75-year-old director Philip Kaufman – whose career includes such acclaimed works as The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, The Wanderers, The White Dawn, Henry And June and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers in addition to writing Raiders Of The Lost Ark - will be ascending those famous stairs for the first time. And how ironic this quintessential filmmaker is doing it for a TV movie, albeit one on HBO. But this movie about the tempestuous marriage of Ernest Hemingway and his third wife, war correspondent Martha Gellhorn has the look and feel of an epic spanning the Spanish Civil War, the conflict between the Soviets and Finland, the Japanese occupation of China and World War II.
Related: Cannes Biz Climate Shines Despite The Wind And Rain
Kaufman knows people will see it on TV but he’s hoping critics watch it first on a big screen. I watched it on my 61-inch set at home before heading here as it was sent out a few weeks ago in HBO’s Emmy For Your Consideration box. He wanted them 
to hold it back but HBO was intent on getting it to the voters. He is very excited to see how it will look on the giant Grand Theatre Lumiere screen.
Despite making the kinds of films Cannes seems to love, Kaufman has had very little contact with the Festival. 48 years ago he was here and awarded the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique (the Young Critics award) for his first film, Goldstein (tying with a very young Bernardo Bertolucci who is also back in Cannes with his new film Me And You). When we talked this week at an outdoor cafe overlooking the beach Kaufman told me he has only been back a couple of times to raise money for films he was trying to make. TV movie or not, Cannes was anxious to give him the full treatment (although the film is out of competition). “I don’t think they have ever done this with an American movie before. There was Carlos which was a miniseries made for French TV but Olivier Assayas is Cahiers Du Cinema and this is a French film festival. What an honor for me for a movie made for television to be selected here. I know HBO is thrilled.”
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NBCU Hoping To Buy All Of MSNBC.com
NBCUniversal is in negotiations to buy out Microsoft’s stake in MSNBC.com, the Wall Street Journal and AdWeek report. NBC acquired Microsoft’s last remaining stake in the cable network in 2007. But the website MSNBC.com has remained a joint venture with a separate identity from the liberal network. NBC News is eager to have its own website and identity — NBCNews.com, perhaps. Discussions have been going on for months about how to integrate staffs at NBC News in New York with the website staff in Redmond, Wash. NBC is also hesitant to give up the traffic that MSNBC.com attracts because of its place on MSN’s portal. MSNBC.com got 42 million unique visitors in April. Any deal would likely allow the site to retain some of that traffic.
R.I.P. Television Mogul Lee Rich
2ND UPDATE: Lee Rich, the powerful TV mogul responsible for some of the medium’s most popular programming like The Waltons, Dallas, and Eight Is Enough, 
died on Thursday. He was 93, according to Warner Bros. (Even though the birthdate on his official biography would make him only 85). Recognized inside and outside the television industry for his extrardinarily successful career spanning six decades, he helped found and became chairman of Lorimar in its heyday (where he was nominated for 5 Emmys and won Best Drama Series for The Waltons) and later took over MGM-UA. His death comes just as Warner Bros Television next month unveils its next generation Dallasdrama series on TNT.
“Lee’s passion for television, his business acumen, and his love of the creative process made him an extraordinary mentor for all of us who had the good fortune to work for him,” said Bruce Rosenblum, President Warner Bros. Television Group and Chairman & CEO, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “Lee was a creative force who established the gold standard for independent production companies, and the Lorimar/Warner Bros merger was transformational for Warner Bros. Television.” Said CBS Corp chief Les Moonves: “Lee Rich was a giant in the television industry who produced some of the most iconic series in the history of the medium and influenced audiences worldwide. He also served as an early mentor to me while I was at Lorimar, providing valuable guidance for which I will forever be appreciative.” TV icon Norman Lear called Rich “one of the greatest producers to ever come out of advertising and he knew talent better than anyone else.”
“Lee Rich was an indelible talent who helped to shape the television landscape,” said Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, Co-Chairmen and CEOs of MGM. “We are incredibly proud that MGM is a part of his legacy. Lee’s role as Chairman and CEO of MGM/UA and the prolific body of work he created throughout his career continue to inspire the work we do today.”
Rich started his media career at Benton & Bowles advertising agency where he packaged and sold such seminal sitcoms as The Dick Van Dyke Show for Procter & Gamble and The Danny Thomas Show and The Andy Griffith Show, both for General Foods. In those early days of television, admen like Rich enjoyed almost total control over programming, and Rich ultimately headed the television programming and media departments. He left the agency as SVP in 1965 to form his own production company, Mirisch-Rich Productions which produced Rat Patrol and one of the first Garry Marshall/Jerry Belson shows, Hey, Landlord. Rich returned to advertising to run the Leo Burnett Agency. But then he left again to form the indie Lorimar Productions (later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution) with Irwin Molasky and Merv Adelson. Here is a wonderful 1999 interview done with Rich by the Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences (obit continues below):
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘SYTYCD’ & ‘Duets’ Premiere Lack High Notes, ‘Awake’ Ends Up
Thursday night’s battle of the competition premieres left neither really strutting their stuff. The two-hour 8 PM time slot premiere of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance(2.4/8) saw a misstep from last year. SYTYCD was down 27% from last year’s season opener. Going toe to toe with SYTYCD in the slot was ABC’s Duets (1.7/5) With American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles as judges, Duets can lay claim to some serious singing star power. ABC’s new singing competition show was up 8% over SYTYCD in total viewers, though Fox dominated the Adult 18-49 demo by 41%. Duets brought in around 6.7 million total viewers over the two hours to Fox’s approximately 6.2 million. However, Duets was down 29% from last year’s Expedition Impossible premiere but that still made it ABC’s biggest audience in the slot on a post-season Thursday in 4 years.
With the season over and heading into the Memorial Day weekend, it was a night of repeats on NBC that paid off for the finale of Awake (0.9/3) The now canceled police procedural’s season one closer was up 29% from last week’s season low. Over on ABC in the same 9 PM time slot, the third season of Rookie Blue (1.4/4) started off down 13% from last year’s premiere.
In a night of repeats on CBS the 8 PM The Big Bang Theory (2.3/8) repeat drew over 8.2 million viewers. That was followed by 6.2 million watching Rules of Engagement (1.7/6) 7.8 million watching Person of Interest (1.4/4) and just a little more … Read More »
Cannes Biz Shines Despite Wind & Rain
The dealmaking story of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival was succinctly summed up this way by Inferno’s Bill Johnson: “Worst weather I’ve ever seen in Cannes, no big headlines, but a solid market with nice product, but probably too much of it. The good news is that distributors around the world opened their wallets, there are plenty of private equity and high net worth investors.”
Last year’s Cannes saw domestic and foreign buyers plunking down big sums to acquire films based on little more than sizzle reels. And for drama, you had Lars von Trier’s bizarre application to the Nazi party, and the wonder of Terrence Malick’s return to directing with Palme D’Or winner and eventual Best Picture Oscar nominee Tree Of Life.
This year, the most widely hyped competition film has been Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy, mostly for the graphic, depraved sexual exploits perpetrated by Nicole Kidman’s death row groupie. Then there’s all the free-love doled out by Kristen Stewart and Garrett Hedlund in Walter Salles’ adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. Neither film drew raves. Despite a 16-minute standing ovation for Paperboy at its festival screening and enthusiasm in the market, the biggest record set at this festival was for rainfall – and contents of the pockets of those guys selling $50 umbrellas along the Croisette.
Related: Cannes Conflicted Over ‘The Paperboy’ As All-Star Cast Hits Town
That doesn’t mean this wasn’t a very successful festival that demonstrated vibrancy of film around the world. Despite the struggling economies in European countries, sellers all week reported surprisingly strong sales, with Italy and Greece the exceptions. Japan was pre-buying again and the importance of China is growing. These territories weren’t shy about making deals for films that have no domestic deals.
Read More »
Sony Seeks ‘Revenge For Jolly!’ With Domestic Acquisition
LOS ANGELES, CA, MAY 25, 2012 – Atlas Independent announced today Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has acquired Revenge for Jolly!, for distribution in the U.S. and Canada. The acquisition marks the first for the newly-formed affiliate company of Charles Roven’s Atlas Entertainment. A unique dark comedy that examines the moral ambiguity of revenge, the film most recently premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. The deal was negotiated by Sony with UTA Independent Film Group.
Directed by Chadd Harbold and written by Brian Petsos, Revenge for Jolly! stars Petsos and Oscar Isaac, with special cameos by Elijah Wood, Adam Brody, Ryan Phillippe, and Kristen Wiig among others. The film follows a man (Petsos) who, with the help of his cousin (Isaac), seeks to avenge the death of his beloved dog, who was killed under confusing and suspicious circumstances. The two men follow a series of clues in an attempt to track down the dog’s murderer, leaving a path of destruction in their wake.
Full 2011-2012 TV Season Series Rankings
Here are complete series rankings for the 2011-12 season in adults 18-49 and total viewers. Several highlights: NBC’s Sunday Night Football was the No.1 program of the season in both adults 18-49 and total viewers, ending American idol‘s eight-year streak topping both categories. SNF also became the first sports series to rank as the most watched primetime TV show for a full season. The highest-rated new series of the season are CBS’ 2 Broke Girls (in 18-49) and CBS’ Person of Interest (in total viewers). It was a strong year for freshman series as there where were 4 first-year series in the Top 20 among adults 18-49: 2 Broke Girls (#9), Fox’s New Girl (12), Fox’s X Factor (13) and ABC’s Once Upon A Time (16) vs. one, The Voice, last year. In total viewers, two freshmen, Person of Interest and X Factor, made the cut this season vs. 3 last season.
Related: 2012-12 Season Network Rankings: Fox Still On Top But Down, NBC Third, CW Falls
The highest-rated series to get canceled this year: CBS’ Rob (18-49) and Unforgettable (total viewers). The lowest-rated series to get renewed on the Big 4 networks: NBC’s Rock Center With Brian Williams and Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares. The top scripted series of last season was ABC’s Modern Family, in a virtual tie with CBS’ The Big Bang Theory among adults 18-49. CBS’ NCIS had the honors in total viewers.
2011-12 Season: Series Ranking In Adults 18-49: Read More »
TV Academy To Create Reality Peer Group
North Hollywood, CA, May. 24, 2012 –The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors voted this evening to approve the creation of the first-ever Reality Peer Group and rename the current Nonfiction Peer Group as the Documentary Peer Group. Prior to tonight’s vote, both reality and documentary television professionals comprised the membership of the Nonfiction Peer Group.
The new Reality Peer Group will be made up of Academy members engaged in reality programming for national exhibition. The renamed Documentary Peer Group will continue to include members involved in documentary programming, produced for informational or entertainment value by programmers and filmmakers, as opposed to documentaries produced by news organizations for national exhibition.
The changes reflect the growth and strength of reality programming and the producing and craft communities associated with the genre, while also differentiating the work of documentary style programming. This will bring the Academy’s number of Peer Groups to a total of 29. To accommodate the additional Peer Group governors, all active members of the non-profit Television Academy will be asked to vote for a by-law change that will permit an increased and variable number of governors.
New Trailer: ‘The Apparition”
This supernatural thriller directed and written by Todd Lincoln is from Joel Silver’s Dark Castle and distributed by Warner Bros. It stars Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton, Julianna Guill, and Luke Pasqualino, and has a release date of August 24th:
JoAnna Garcia Set As Female Lead In New NBC Comedy ‘Animal Practice’
Better With You star JoAnna Garcia has been tapped as the female lead opposite Justin Kirk in NBC’s new fall comedy series Animal Practice. The office comedy stars Kirk as George, a House-like veterinarian, who loves animals but usually hates their owners (especially the new woman who runs the clinic). Garcia will play that woman, George’s intelligent and beautiful old girlfriend, now engaged to another, who is assigned to run the animal hospital. Garcia replaces Amy Huberman who played the role in the pilot. Co-starring on the series, created by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, are Tyler Labine and Bobby Lee.
Related: ‘Animal Practice’ To Recast Female Lead
Garcia took a winding road to the fall schedule this season. She was originally attached to a multi-camera family comedy project written by Better With You creator Shana Goldberg-Meehan, which sparked a bidding war before landing at ABC with a production commitment but ultimately didn’t go to pilot. Garcia was then quickly cast as the female lead in CBS’ untitled Greg Malins/Greg Berlanti comedy pilot, which came close to a series order but ultimately missed the cut, making WME-repped Garcia available. She was immediately approached for Animal Practice and, after negotiations and a chemistry read with Kirk, was cast in the role.
Did Britney Spears Take Page Out Of Paula Abdul’s Playbook In Walking Off ‘X Factor’?
At the first taping of Season 2 of The X Factor today, new judge Britney Spears walked off the stage in the middle of the show, leaving Simon Cowell, LA Reid and Demi Lovato to dish out critics by themselves for awhile, TMZ reports. Rewind to the series premiere of X Factor last fall when Paula Abdul too walked off the stage in the middle of the taping. Coincidence? Both walkouts, an element normally designed to add drama to a show’s narrative, were triggered (or as it seemed) by an outlandish performance, a guy dropping off his trousers (Abdul) and a guy butchering one of Spears’ songs (Spears). For all the changes X Factor producers said they would make for Season 2, are they going by the same script with Spears cast in the role played by Abdul last season? Between the two new female judges, Spears is the older and better known, just was the case with Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger. For the newcomers’ sake, lets hope that a season that started the same as the last one won’t end the same, with a judging panel shakeup. As for the host position, also left vacant after Season 1, X Factor doesn’t have one (or two) in place yet and has been taping without an emcee today.
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