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ICM Partners Signs Rachael Harris

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 8:10pm EDTTags: Bad Management, ICM Partners, Rachael Harris, Suits
Nellie Andreeva

Rachael Harris has signed with ICM Partners. She was with UTA. Harris most recently starred opposite David Spade in the ABC comedy pilot Bad Management, which remains in serious contention for a series pickup. She also recurs on USA drama Suits and did an arc on Fox comedy New Girl. On the feature side, Harris is probably best known for role as Ed Helms’ girlfriend in The Hangover. She also starred in the indie Natural Selection, earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination, as well as the Diary of A Wimpy Kid trilogy. She next will be seen in the Yahoo! comedy series We Need Help opposite Cheryl Hines. Harris is managed by Principato Young Entertainment.

Related: David Spade & Rachael Harris To Star In ABC Comedy Pilot ‘Bad Management’

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Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts Sign New Overall Deal With ABC Studios, Will Be Executive Producers On ABC’s ‘Revenge’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 7:30pm EDTTags: Aaron Harberts, ABC Studios, Gretchen Berg, Revenge
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Writer-producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts have inked a new two-year overall deal with ABC Studios where they have been since 2010. At the studio, the duo served as executive producers on ABC’s medical drama Off The Map, as executive producers/showrunners on ABC’s GCB and most recently as consulting producers on another soapy ABC series, Revenge, this past season. Under the new pact, Berg and Harberts will serve as executive producers on the upcoming third season of Revenge, which is undergoing a showrunner transition, with executive producer Sunil Nayar replacing creator Mike Kelley.
ICM Partners-repped Berg and Harberts previously served as executive producers/co-showrunners on the NBC medical drama Mercy, as co-exec producers on the ABC dramedy Pushing Daisies and created/executive produced the WB dramedy Pepper Dennis.

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Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play “College Donnie Brasco”

By JEN YAMATO | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 7:29pm EDTTags: Fox, Narc, Ninjas Running Wild, Zac Efron

EXCLUSIVE: Zac Efron NarcFox has snapped up life rights for the true crime project Narc, based on the actual story of an All-American college kid-turned-police informant. Zac Efron is attached to star as a student, frat president, and lacrosse team captain who’s busted for drugs intended for a party, then secretly turns narc and helps the cops bust criminals while carrying on his BMOC campus life. Efron’s manager and producing partner Jason Barrett will exec produce with Underground-repped Doug Banker. They’ve got a familiar friend in Fox exec Jason Young, who briefly departed the studio to help Efron establish Ninjas Runnin’ Wild in 2010 before returning as Fox’s VP of Production. Read More »

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Disney Apologizes For Gluten-Intolerance Jokes On ‘Jessie’, Yanks Episode

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 6:30pm EDTTags: Disney Channel, Jessie

Jessie Gluten IntoleranceDisney Channel is not backlash intolerant. After catching flak over an episode of its sophomore comedy Jessie that made fun of a young character’s gluten intolerance in two scenes, the cable outlet has offered a mea culpa — apologizing and pulling the half-hour titled “Quitting Cold Koala.” “We are removing this particular episode from our regular programming schedule and will re-evaluate its references to gluten restrictions in the character’s diet,” Disney Channel said on Facebook. “Please accept our apologies for the upset this episode caused you and your family.”

Related: Disney Channel’s ‘Jessie’ Renewed For Third Season

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ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production Changes Heading Into Second Season

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 6:28pm EDTTags: ABC, Nashville
Nellie Andreeva

Nashville became the only ABC freshman drama to get a renewal after spending most of the spring on the bubble. And now that Season 2 is a go, the show will undergo some changes. For now, they appear to be limited to the production/post-production areas. Line producer Loucas George, who ran the operation on the ground in Nashville, where the series is filmed, announced on Twitter shortly after the renewal 10 days ago that his contract had not been renewed. That also applies to his team, including production supervisor Don Bensko, as the new line producer is expected to bring in his/her crew.

Changes on Nashville were expected following a rocky freshman season, with the show going through growing pains and struggling with its creative direction as well as the ratings. I’ve reported accounts of tension between co-producers ABC Studios and Lionsgate and other behind-the-scene issues, including star Connie Britton being unhappy with the experience. In an editorial for The Santa Clarita News, Bensko’s wife Micaela, lamenting the decision not to pick up her husband’s option, spoke about “14-20 hour days with an unrelenting schedule due to issues beyond their control” and “a string of endless and exhausting shoot days” as “a string of delayed scripts and tripping storylines kept everyone on edge.” She also recounted an on-set accident, in which “one of our crew lost his footing while rigging for a huge arena … Read More »

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Cannes: Barry Levinson Tapped To Direct Shanghai-Set Love Story Based On Chinese Novel ‘The Cursed Piano’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 6:18pm EDTTags: Barry Levinson, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up

Barry Levinson has come on board to direct a love story loosely based on the best-selling novel The Cursed Piano by Chinese author Bei La. It takes place across Leningrad and Shanghai over the course of 40 years. Shanghai Film Group is teaming with Mike Medavoy, Levinson and Oscar-winning scribe Ronald Harwood on the project. Hannah Shakespeare wrote the original screenplay. Producing with Medavoy are Raffaella De Laurentiis and Edward McGurn. Shanghai Film Group is fully financing the pic, which starts production in Shanghai in February.

Related: Mike Medavoy, Shanghai Film Group Team On Two China-Set Movies

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CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults 18-49 In Season’s Final Week

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 5:59pm EDTTags: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, the CW, TV Ratings

As everyone knew they would, CBS has taken the top spots for the 2012-2013 TV season for the first time in over 20 years. However, ABC topped adults 18-49 for the final full week of the season and is tied for top spot in the May sweep.

Strong showings from veterans NCIS and The Big Bang Theory, sporting events like the NCAA Tournament and The Masters plus airing the Super Bowl this year, put CBS on top for the season in both viewers and among adults 18-49 for the first time since 1991-1992. With just a couple of days until the season wraps, that breaks Fox’s eight consecutive season hold on the prized demo.

Related: ‘American Idol’ Hits All-Time Finale Low

There were a numbers of factors that contributed to Fox slipping into second place among adults 18-49 but certainly the network was plagued by a sharp more than 20% decline for American Idol, which hit an all time finale low last week. Add to that disappointing X-Factor season 2 numbers, Mob Doctor cratering, a lack of traction among its comedies, a lackluster baseball post-season and plethora of preemptions in the fall and Fox was lucky it was muscular enough to only tumble to second place. For all that change, some things have stayed the same. This season is the second year in a row that sees ABC in the fourth place spot despite a second-season … Read More »

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Deadline Festivals & Markets Watch Podcast – Cannes 2013

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 5:41pm EDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Keanu Reeves, Sean Penn

Listen to (and share) the latest episode from the Cannes Film Festival of our audio podcast Deadline Festivals & Markets Watch, featuring Deadline International Editor Nancy Tartaglione. She talks with host David Bloom about which distributors and projects are making a splash so far; whether Keanu Reeves’ directorial debut, with considerable Chinese backing, can move beyond China to a worldwide hit; how a film starring Sean Penn managed to sell its international rights even before it has been shot; and the crime wave hitting the Croisette.

Deadline Festivals & Markets Watch, Cannes 2013, (MP3 format)
Deadline Festivals & Markets Watch, Cannes 2013, (MP4a format) Read More »

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Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots Projects With Billy Crystal, Richard Gere

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 5:25pm EDTTags: Billy Crystal, Isla Fisher, Mike Lobell, Richard Gere, Sienna Miller
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Mike Lobell, the veteran producer whose 14-years of persistence helped make the remake Gambit happen, is getting close on three other projects with strong elements. He has re-teamed with former partner, writer-director Andrew Bergman, on A Film By Alan Stuart Eisner, an ensemble comedy which so far has Project X‘s Oliver Cooper, Shirley MacLaine and Robin Williams attached, with Rob Reiner making a cameo. Lobell reports that the film has added Sienna Miller, Isla Fisher and Audra MacDonald. Eisner is a comedy dealing with a young man making a documentary to learn what happened to his family during WWII. He is out looking for financing.

Gambit, by the way, ended up with Michael Hoffman directing a script by Joel and Ethan Coen. Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz and Alan Rickman star and CBS Films is releasing.

At the same time, Lobell is getting traction on This Man This Woman, the adult love story written by Frederic Raphael. The project has gotten a boost with the attachment of Richard Gere, who long ago sparked to a film which focuses on the trials and tribulations of a marriage. This was the picture that once nearly went into production with Meg Ryan and Sean Penn. Lobell and Gere will now look for a director and their female lead. Read More »

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Dennis Lehane To Adapt ‘Travis McGee’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 5:20pm EDTTags: Dennis Lehane, Leonardo DiCaprio, Travis McGee

Dennis Lehane will adapt Travis McGee for Fox and Appian Way, based on 1964′s The Deep Blue Good-By and 20 subsequent novels by John D. MacDonald. Chernin Entertainment and Leonardo DiCaprio are producing, with the latter eyeing to star. The project previously had Paul Greengrass and Oliver Stone circling to direct.

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FX Ups Julie Piepenkotter To EVP Research, FX Networks

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 5:15pm EDTTags: FX, Julie Piepenkotter

LOS ANGELES, May 21, 2013 – Veteran research executive Julie Piepenkotter has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Research for FX Networks, it was announced today by FX Networks President and General Manager John Landgraf, to whom she will continue to report. In her new role, Piepenkotter will oversee all facets of program and consumer research for FX, FXM and the new network, FXX, which will debut on September 2. Based in Los Angeles, Piepenkotter joined FX as Senior Vice President, Research in 2009. During her tenure at the Network, she has overseen all aspects of program and consumer research for FX and Fox Movie Channel. She also worked with Fox National Cable Networks on special research projects. Prior to joining FX Networks, Piepenkotter spent 20 years working at The Walt Disney Company, most recently as Senior Vice President of Research for the Disney ABC Television Group in charge of program research for ABC Family, SOAPnet and consumer insights across the Disney ABC television portfolio. She began her career as a media buyer and planner with The Leo Burnett Company in Chicago.

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Warner Bros Sets Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ For November 20

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 4:43pm EDTTags: Her, Spike Jonze, Warner Bros

Spike Jonze wrote and directed Her, which stars Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Samantha Morton and Olivia Wilde. The film is about a guy who falls in love with the voice of a computer, a la the iPhone’s Siri. Warner Bros will open the pic November 20, 2013 in limited release, two days before fellow specialty pic Nebraska from Alexander Payne and Paramount, Disney’s Delivery Man and of course Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Her has been percolating for a while, with Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures coming aboard to finance it in March 2011. Jonze’s last feature was 2009′s Where The Wild Things Are. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has international rights. Joining Jonze as producers on the film are Vincent Landay and Megan Ellison. Daniel Lupi and Ted Schipper will serve as executive producers.

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Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider Entertainment Stock Offering

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 4:26pm EDTTags: Daniel Loeb, Sony, Third Point

The company’s U.S. stock closed +9.3% today — at $22.91, the highest it’s been since late 2011 — in unusually heavy trading after Japan’s Nikkei news service reported that Sony‘s board will explore the proposal from billionaire Daniel Loeb‘s Third Point. Sony was noncommittal last week when the hedge fund disclosed that it had paid $1.1B for a 6.4% stake in the electronics giant, and wanted it to create a separate stock for the movie, television, and music production and distribution operations. Loeb proposed that Sony sell as much as 20% of the entertainment unit, and use the cash to shore up the core electronics businesses. Sony shares have appreciated about 16% since then. (Third Point partnered with Deadline’s parent Penske Media Corp in its acquisition last year of Variety.)

Related: Who Is Sony Investor Daniel Loeb And What Does He Want With It?

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Carol Barbee Joins TNT’s ‘Falling Skies’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 4:12pm EDTTags: Carol Barbee, Falling Skies, TNT
Nellie Andreeva

New Falling Skies showrunner David Eick has started to put together a strong writing staff for the hit TNT drama’s fourth season. Veteran showrunner Carol Barbee has joined the alien-invasion series as a consulting producer. She recently worked with Eick on Fox’s Touch where she was an executive producer and he was a consulting producer. Season 3 of Falling Skies, executive produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Noah Wyle, kicks off with a two-hour premiere June 9. It is yet to be renewed for a fourth season though that is considered a formality as Falling Skies is TNT’s #1 scripted series in the younger demos. WME-repped Barbee previously served as executive producer/showrunner on cult CBS drama Jericho which, similarly to Falling Skies, was set in a post-apocalyptic world.

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Alki David Agrees To End Name Games With Aereo And Barry Diller

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 3:26pm EDTTags: Alki David, Barry Diller, FilmOn

The freewheeling head of FilmOn has to stop using names including Aereokiller and BarryDriller.com for his broadcast streaming service according a settlement overseen by U.S. District Court Judge Audrey Collins. The decision appears to end three lawsuits: Last year IAC chief Barry Diller — a major investor in Aereo — sued David for creating a site called BarryDriller.com. In February, David returned fire, suing Aereo for trademark infringement after he bought the naming rights to a product called Aero.  And in March, Aereo sued David for creating a site called Aero.tv. Like Aereo, FilmOn streams programming taken from over-the-air signals — and has also incurred the wrath of broadcasters who say that it violates their copyrights. A New York court has allowed Aereo to expand while it weighs the broadcasters’ challenge. But in December a California court granted a temporary injunction that applies locally against David’s service. Even so, he says that with the trademark settlements FilmOn now “can continue rolling out our service nationwide. We are currently in 45 markets compared to Aereo’s two.” He adds in a statement: “So eat s*it Barry.”

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A&E’s ‘Bates Motel’ Rises In Finale

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 3:18pm EDTTags: A&E Network, Bates Motel, TV Ratings

The Season 1 finale of Bates Motel last night on A&E got 2.7 million viewers with 1.5 million among adults 18-49 and 1.4 million among adults 25-54. That’s up 15% in the 18-49 demo from last week’s show and up 8% in total viewers and among Adults 25-54. The finale was down from the show’s March 18 premiere that was the most-watched original drama in the demos in A&E’s history. The debut of the Psycho prequel garnered 3 million total viewers and 1.599 million viewers among adults 18-49 and 1.633 million viewers among adults 25-54. Those numbers made it a no-brainer that A&E announced on April 8 that it had renewed Bates Motel for a 10-episode second season to air in 2014. Overall, Bates Motel averaged 2.7 million viewers in its first season with 1.5 million in both the 18-49 and 25-54 demos. Those results are the best any A&E drama has performed in the demos. The numbers place Bates Motel as the No. 2 top new cable drama of the season behind History’s Vikings.

Related: Carlton Cuse On ‘Bates Motel’s’ ‘Twin Peaks’ & ‘Psycho’ Heritage

The series, whose first season ran for 10-espisodes, details the dark backstory of Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and how deeply intricate his relationship is with his mother Norma (Vera Farmiga). Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Kerry Ehrin (Friday Night Lights) executive produce.

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JS Communications Settles Rhythm & Hues Fee Dispute

By JEN YAMATO | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 3:06pm EDTTags: JS Communications, Rhythm & Hues

Rhythm & Hues bankruptcyJS Communications has finally settled for a reduced break-up fee in the drawn-out Rhythm & Hues bankruptcy saga. It’s been two months since troubled VFX house R&H sold out of bankruptcy to Prana Studios-led Holdings, LLC following a roller-coaster closed-door auction. At issue was the court-approved $425K fee promised to JS Communications as stalking horse bidder if a qualified rival beat them out for the Life Of Pi company, which JS was eyeing to buy. But in a hotly contested development, JS failed to meet a deadline to submit its bid (exec David Shim told me then that his dealings with Fox and Universal left him less than optimistic about buying R&H without future work assurances). Per a court document filed this week (read it here), JS will receive a $300K break-up fee. If approved in court June 4, that should put the R&H saga to bed for the time being; multiple class action lawsuits against R&H filed by former employees have yet to be settled.

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Kino Lorber Acquires U.S. Rights To Jia Zhangke’s ‘A Touch Of Sin’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 3:00pm EDTTags: A Touch Of Sin, Jia Zhangke, Kino Lorber

New York, NY – May 21, 2013 – Kino Lorber is proud to announce that it has acquired all US rights to Jia Zhangke’s (24 City, Still Life) latest film A Touch Of Sin, a four-part story inspired by real-life events and focused on the violent impact (and hefty human sacrifice) of the Chinese economic boom on its own citizens.

While prepping the film for a late fall or early winter national theatrical release, Kino Lorber will book this acclaimed Chinese film in select film festivals across the United States. This deal was negotiated between Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber and MK2′s International Sales Executive Victoire Thevenin.

The New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis recently referred to A Touch Of Sin as Jia Zhangke’s “finest film since his 2006 feature Still Life,” also describing it as “a portrait of contemporary China told through four savagely violent episodes that take place in distinct areas of the country.”

Read More »

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Next-Gen Xbox One Unveiled With Content Including Spielberg-Produced ‘Halo’ Series

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 21, 2013 @ 2:47pm EDTTags: microsoft, Nancy Tellem, Xbox, Xbox One

David Bloom is a Deadline contributor

Microsoft finally unveiled the Xbox One, its next-generation successor to the Xbox 360 game console, with an impressive demonstration of a voice- and gesture-controlled device focused more on integrating and controlling all kinds of entertainment and social capabilities far beyond just playing videogames. The #XboxReveal event at Microsoft’s Seattle-area campus included the announcement by Xbox Entertainment Studios President Nancy Tellem that Steven Spielberg will create a new live-action TV show based on the “Halo” game franchise. In a video, Spielberg, a longtime game fan who also oversaw the launch of the DreamWorks Interactive game studio in the 1990s, briefly said “the Halo universe is an amazing opportunity to be at an intersection where technology and myth-making converge.”

Related: Nancy Tellem Talks Microsoft’s Xbox Entertainment Studios Read More »

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