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Robert Downey Jr.’s Wish Leads To ‘Pinocchio’ Talks With ‘Mitty’ Helmer Ben Stiller

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 2, 2013 @ 12:53pm PDTTags: Ben Stiller, Pinocchio, Robert Downey Jr., Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

During one of a zillion press junket interviews for Iron Man 3, Robert Downey Jr was asked who he’d like to direct him in Pinocchio, after Tim Burton fell out. Downey said it would be his Tropic Thunder accomplice Ben Stiller. That got a lot of press play. The pair talked about it briefly at CinemaCon, where Stiller’s teaser reel for The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty got a rousing response from exhibitors. So guess what? Now, Stiller is in talks with Warner Bros to helm the film. No negotiations yet, but they have gone as far as starting discussions with writers for the film that Downey and his wife Susan Downey will produce under their Team Downey banner. Downey, who would play Geppetto, wants to change the direction of the film creatively from what he and Burton had originally conceived. The studio likes the new take. Dan Jinks is producing with Team Downey.

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Hollywood’s Proud Past Lives Again This Week With AFI, TCM Classic Film Festival And Danny Kaye Centennial

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday April 24, 2013 @ 6:37pm PDTTags: AFI Night At The Movies, Barbra Streisand, Ben Stiller, Danny Kaye, Funny Girl, Max Von Sydow, TCM Classic Film Festival, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Turner Classic Movies
Pete Hammond

In Hollywood they say ‘everything old is new again’ and that has never been more true this week than with a massive celebration of classic films and stars. There is tonight’s AFI Night At The Movies with 13 classic titles (including Best Picture winners like In The Heat Of The Night  and Terms Of Endearment) taking up every screen at Hollywood’s Arclight Theatre complete with in-person introductions from their original stars (Shirley MacLaine, Cher, Sidney Poitier, Sally Field and Harrison Ford among them). There is a year-long centennial celebration of the great Danny Kaye and a reminder of his talent at year’s end with the Fox remake of a Kaye classic, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. And starting Thursday with the World Premiere restoration of Funny Girl, the 4th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival kicks off its four day run in Hollywood.

Even as competing fests this week at Tribeca and in San Francisco try to steal the spotlight for new films from a new generation, The Turner Classic Movies fest has become a big deal focusing on the past. And not only for the network, but as a signature event where studios can show off new digital restorations of classic films with the same hoopla that might have accompanied their original premieres. Though its stars Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif won’t be attending the Funny Girl restoration’s premiere at the Chinese Theatre tomorrow night (Sharif is in Europe; Streisand is sending a statement to be read by TCM host Robert Osborne) many vintage stars including festival honorees like Eva Marie Saint, Ann Blyth, Max Von Sydow and numerous others are expected to walk the red carpet. Competing for attention across the street at the Hollywood Roosevelt Pool will be TCM’s pristine digital presentation of 1958′s South Pacific with stars Mitzi Gaynor and France Nuyen on hand. TCM’s longtime talent exec, Darcy Hettrich has the herculean task of turning out all the great stars of Hollywood’s past  that keep these fans buzzing. Read More »

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CinemaCon: Fox Unveils Ben Stiller’s ‘Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’ Which Could Be Oscar Bound

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday April 18, 2013 @ 2:08pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, Ben Stiller, Chris Aronson, CinemaCon, Jim Gianopulos, Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock, The Heat, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Wolverine
Pete Hammond

20th Century Fox (“and it is called 20th Century Fox,” as Distribution President Chris Aronson wryly noted in his welcoming remarks) presented to theater owners at CinemaCon today. The highlight was about 12 minutes of selected scenes from the studio’s holiday release The … Read More »

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Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Sells 2 Guy-Centered Family Comedies To ABC, Including One Written By And Starring Michael Ian Black

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday December 17, 2012 @ 12:00pm PSTTags: ABC, Ben Stiller, Big Deals TV
Nellie Andreeva

Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Television has scored two more sales in its maiden development season for comedies You’re Not Doing It Right and Between Two Kings. Both have been set up at ABC with a script commitment through ABC Studios, where Red Hour is under a deal, and are executive produced by Stiller, Red Hour TV’s Debbie Liebling and Stuart Cornfeld.

Single-camera You’re Not Doing It Right is starring and written by Michael Ian Black who is also executive producing with his manager Ted Schachter. Based on Black’s book and set “in the wilds of Connecticut,” the show is described as a comedy about modern marriage and parenting and takes a hard look at what happens when you wake up, look around, and don’t recognize the life you are living as your own. Black is repped by UTA.

Between Two Kings is written/executive produced by Jeff Kahn. It centers on a divorced and devoted father with sole custody of his 11-year-old son who moves into his narcissistic father’s house to care for his ailing dad and finds himself torn between the constant needs of both his self-centered father and his demanding son. Kahn is repped by WME and Andy Cohen at Grade A Entertainment. Read More »

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Ben Stiller Honored By American Cinematheque, Called “Renaissance Man Of Comedy”

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday November 16, 2012 @ 2:32am PSTTags: American Cinematheque, Ben Stiller, Tropic Thunder
Pete Hammond

“Of course we are all here for one reason, and that’s because Deadline Hollywood might tweet a link to a write-up about this and we all might get mentioned,” Ben Stiller joked in his very funny acceptance speech as the recipient of the 26th annual American Cinematheque Award on Thursday night at the Beverly Hilton. Friends and co-stars including Jennifer Aniston, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Laura Dern, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Stiller’s wife Christine Taylor among others offered tributes to the star-writer-director-producer-humanitarian the Cinematheque’s chairman Rick Nicita called a “Renaissance man of comedy” — to which Stiller said later, “I didn’t know you could be a Renaissance man of just one thing. It’s like  being a jack-of-all-trades of carpentry.” But judging from the numerous clips and in-person tributes, he is about much more than just “one thing”. Read More »

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Ben Stiller Cinematheque Set Presenters

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday October 31, 2012 @ 8:26pm PDTTags: American Cinematheque, Ben Stiller

Jack Black, Patton Oswalt, Jennifer Aniston, Will Ferrell and Jeffrey Katzenberg will lend support as live presenters. Ben Stiller receives the American Cinematheque Award at the organization’s November 15 gala at the Beverly Hilton. The star of the upcoming The Secret Life of … Read More »

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Ben Stiller To Produce ABC Comedy Co-Created By And Starring Bonnie Hunt

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday October 26, 2012 @ 3:09pm PDTTags: ABC, Ben Stiller
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Stiller is teaming with another comedy multihyphenate, Bonnie Hunt, for a comedy project at ABC that will star the comedienne. Hunt will write the half-hour, titled compliKATEd, with her writing partner and frequent collaborator Don Lake. The ensemble comedy centers on Kate (Hunt), a confidently insecure woman with a complicated life. It is produced by Stiller’s Red Hour Television, Hunt’s Bob & Alice Prods and ABC Studios, where Red Hour TV is under an overall deal. Hunt and Lake will executive produce with Red Hour TV’s Stiller, Debbie Liebling and Stuart Cornfeld. Read More »

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Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Television Sells Two Comedies To ABC; One Inspired By His Life

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday September 21, 2012 @ 5:30pm PDTTags: Ben Stiller
Nellie Andreeva

In its maiden development season, Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Television has sold two single-camera comedies to ABC, Please Knock, written by Kevin Napier, and The Notorious Mollie Flowers, written by Adam Resnick (The Larry Sanders Show). Both … Read More »

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Ben Stiller Spoofs ‘The Bachelor’ For Yahoo

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday June 4, 2012 @ 4:40pm PDTTags: Ben Stiller, Yahoo

Yahoo today launched a new online-only satirical series executive produced by Ben Stiller. Written by Erica Oyama, Burning Love is a spoof of that horrendous show The Bachelor and features a bunch of well-known actors like Kristen Bell, Ken Jeong, Malin Akerman, and Michael Ian Black as well as Stiller himself (briefly) … Read More »

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‘Madagascar 3′ And A ‘Big Brother’ Movie Premiere In Cannes

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 5:04pm PDTTags: Ben Stiller, Big Brother, Cannes Film Festival, Chris Rock, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Reality
Pete Hammond

On the third day of the Cannes Film Festival it was a day for familiar names taking the spotlight on the famed Palais steps. First up tonight was the return of DreamWorks Animation. One way or another DreamWorks Animation honcho … Read More »

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Fox’s Alien Comedy Retitled ‘The Watch’ After Florida Shooting

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday May 4, 2012 @ 12:19pm PDTTags: Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, The Watch, Vince Vaughn

Here’s 20th Century Fox‘s red-band trailer for the retitled alien invasion comedy The Watch. Fox abandoned its original marketing scheme for the formerly titled Neighborhood Watch to avoid any unintended association with the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin tragedy in Florida. The R-rated comedy concerns a group of suburban men who form … Read More »

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Sean Penn In Talks To Join Ben Stiller’s ‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’ Remake

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday April 23, 2012 @ 1:03pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, Ben Stiller, Sean Penn, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mike Fleming

Sean Penn Walter Mitty MovieEXCLUSIVE: Sean Penn is in negotiations to play a small but pivotal supporting role in 20th Century Fox’s remake of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, the comedy that Ben Stiller is directing, with … Read More »

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OSCARS: Ben Stiller Tapped As Presenter

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday February 16, 2012 @ 10:04am PSTTags: 84th Academy Awards, Ben Stiller, Oscars

Oscars Presenters 2012Beverly Hills, CA – Ben Stiller will present at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony, telecast producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer announced today. Stiller will be playing the title character in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,”

… Read More »

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Adam Scott Joins ‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday February 13, 2012 @ 7:19am PSTTags: Adam Scott, Ben Stiller, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Adam Scott is in final negotiations to join Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Patton Oswalt and Shirley MacLaine in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the Stiller-directed remake for Red Hour and 20th Century Fox. Between his work on the … Read More »

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Ben Stiller To Star, Direct And Produce HBO Comedy Pilot Produced By Scott Rudin; Alan Alda In Negotiations To Co-Star

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday January 23, 2012 @ 5:30pm PSTTags: Alan Alda, Ben Stiller, HBO, Scott Rudin
Nellie Andreeva

HBO has assembled another star-studded team for its next pilot, comedy All Talk. Ben Stiller has signed on to star, direct and executive produce the project from acclaimed novelist Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). Emmy winner … Read More »

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Shirley MacLaine In Talks For Fox’s ‘Walter Mitty’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday January 13, 2012 @ 10:30am PSTTags: Ben Stiller, Fox, Shirley MacLaine, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Shirley MacLaine is in negotiations to play the mother of Ben Stiller’s lead character in Fox’s The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. Stiller also is directing the pic, on which he came aboard after sparking to a new script … Read More »

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Hot Teaser Trailer: ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday December 9, 2011 @ 3:29am PSTTags: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith

With the first two grossing more than $1.1 billion worldwide, it’s a cinch we were going to see more of these guys. This time they travel through Europe with a circus. Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen and Cedric the Entertainer return, with Frances … Read More »

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Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Signs Deal With ABC Studios; Debbie Liebling To Run TV Unit

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday November 11, 2011 @ 8:00am PSTTags: ABC Studios, Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld
Nellie Andreeva

Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films is making a major move in television, signing an overall deal with ABC Studios and bringing in veteran film and TV executive Debbie Liebling to run the company’s TV division, Red Hour Television. Under the pact, which will run through May 31, 2013, with an option for another year, Red Hour TV will develop and produce comedy and drama projects for ABC Studios. At the studio, Red Hour joins such pods as Mark Gordon Prods, Shondaland and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld’s Red Hour has ventured in TV before, co-producing several comedy pilots — including an untitled half-hour starring Stiller’s wife, actress Christine Taylor, at CBS; The Station at Fox; and, most recently, Justin Theroux’s Documental at HBO. But now the company is launching a dedicated TV division with Liebling at the helm. “Debbie is an incredibly talented executive,” said Stiller, who started in television as an actor on Saturday Night Live and The Ben Stiller Show. “I am hoping she helps us get a show on the air that is culturally relevant, groundbreaking, and doesn’t get canceled after 12 episodes. If she does that, I will consider the deal a major success.”

Liebling has experience in developing long-running series — she was Chief Development and Production Executive for Comedy Central for seven years, where she developed South Park. Other series she shepherded there include The Man Show, Win Ben Stein’s Money, Battlebots and Primetime Glick. Liebling most recently served as President of Production at Universal Pictures until May, when she exited as part of a department restructuring. At Universal, she oversaw the development and production of Bridesmaids, The Change-Up and Tower Heist, among others. She was previously President of Fox Atomic Pictures and spent five years as EVP Production for 20th Century Fox Films, where she was responsible for such films as Borat and the Stiller-starring Dodgeball, which he also produced. “I have known and worked with Ben over the years and always been in awe of his work ethic and standards and great taste,” Liebling said. Read More »

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Fox Acquires Helen Childress Spec ‘The Mountain’ For Ben Stiller To Direct

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday October 20, 2011 @ 6:20pm PDTTags: Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Fox has preemptively acquired The Mountain, a spec script by Helen Childress that Ben Stiller will develop to direct. Stiller and his Red Hour partner Stuart Cornfeld will produce. It’s a re-team for Stiller and Childress, who … Read More »

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