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Open Road Making Deal For Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Side Effects’; Film To Star Blake Lively, Jude Law, Channing Tatum

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday January 18, 2012 @ 9:18am PSTTags: Blake Lively, Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Open Road, Side Effects
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Open Road is locking a distribution deal for Side Effects, the Scott Z. Burns script that Steven Soderbergh will direct as his next film. Blake Lively, Jude Law and Channing Tatum will star. The film is being financed by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures, with production to start in April on a thriller that has a budget in the $30 million range. This is a surprise outcome. Deadline revealed in early December that Summit was the frontrunner for a script (which had been called The Bitter Pill at the time). The script wasn’t distributed widely, at least initially. David Linde’s Lava Bear and Paramount were the other initial places (producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s deal is there), though a few equity financiers mulled the project as well. Soderbergh sparked to the film after Warner Bros halted The Man From U.N.C.L.E. after disagreements over budget and difficulty finding the lead after George Clooney dropped out because he was having surgery. READ MORE »

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Eddie Redmayne Joins ‘Les Miserables’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday November 1, 2011 @ 10:45am PDTTags: Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively, Cameron Mackintosh, Chloe Moretz, Debra Hayward, Derick Martini, Eddie Redmayne, Eric Fellner, Film Castings, Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables, Russell Crowe, Tim Bevan, Tom Hooper, Universal Pictures, William Nicholson, Working Title
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Hot off My Week With Marilyn, Eddie Redmayne has been set to play the role of Marius in Les Miserables, the Tom Hooper-directed musical for Universal Pictures that stars Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert … Read More »

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Warner Bros Acquires Post-WWII Don Winslow Novel ‘Satori’ For Leonardo DiCaprio

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday October 3, 2011 @ 12:32pm PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Baz Luhrmann, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, Clint Eastwood, Don Winslow, Jennifer Killoran, John Travolta, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, Rick Yorn, Shane Salerno, Taylor Kitsch
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has acquired the Don Winslow bestselling novel Satori and will develop it as a star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio to play a Westerner, raised in Japan and taught an assassin’s skills, who gets caught up in the chaos of post-WWII as the U.S., Soviet Union, France and China maneuver for power in Southeast Asia in the early 1950s. Shane Salerno will write the script with Winslow, and John Lesher’s Grisdi Productions and DiCaprio’s Appian Way partner Jennifer Killoran are producing. Salerno is executive producer.

DiCaprio will play Nicholai Hel, raised in Japan by a martial arts expert and genius at Go, the complex chess-like Japanese game. The master, a Japanese general, passes on all his secrets and the student repays him by murdering his mentor as an act of devotion; the military leader would have been disgraced and killed as a war criminal.

Leonardo DiCaprioFor that act, Hel is thrown in solitary confinement in a Tokyo prison and tortured for three years. He is finally sprung by the CIA after agreeing to assassinate the Soviet commissioner to China. Hel is trained for the task by a beautiful French woman he falls in love with. Though he now sees a happy ending to the dangerous assignment, Hel is betrayed by his backers and, using his Go skills for strategy, makes his way through Vietnam hunted by American, Chinese, Russian and French intelligence agencies as well as a Corsican mob and Vietnamese criminal syndicate. It’s a sophisticated thriller, and the studio sees potential for its own Jason Bourne-type action franchise. Read More »

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Universal Pictures Chairman Adam Fogelson Re-Upped Through 2014

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday September 19, 2011 @ 12:37pm PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Adam Fogelson, Akiva Goldsman, Alexander Skarsgard, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, Brian Grazer, Carl Rinsch, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Espinosa, Denzel Washington, Don Winslow, Guillermo Del Toro, Hugh Jackman, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, Joseph Kosinski, Keanu Reeves, Kristen Stewart, Liam Neeson, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Bay, Mila Kunis, Oliver Stone, Peter Berg, Rihanna, Robert Schwentke, Ron Howard, Ron Meyer, Rupert Sanders, Russell Crowe, Seth MacFarlane, Shane Salerno, Stephen King, Steve Burke, Taylor Kitsch, Tom Cruise, Tom Hooper, Tony Gilroy, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: NBCUniversal’s new owners at Comcast have given a vote of confidence to the studio’s feature film operation. They’ve exercised an option on Universal Pictures’ Chairman Adam Fogelson and extended his contract through 2014. I’m told that Fogelson is, in turn, in the process of exercising the option of Donna Langley and she will continue as the studio’s co-chairman. They will also keep their executive team intact. Fogelson will continue to have full day-to-day operating responsibility for the Motion Picture Group, reporting to Universal Studios President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Meyer (whose contract was recently re-upped through 2015) and will now also report to NBCUniversal Chief Executive Officer Steve Burke.

While Universal has had its ups and downs, higher-ups are clearly convinced that Fogelson, Langley and their team are making progress. They’ve had recent hits –Bridesmaids, Hop! and Fast Five– but also had some recent misses that include The Dilemma, Change-Up and Cowboys & Aliens. In the latter case, the studio was on the hook for one-third of the film, and shared that third with Relativity Media. It has also been a year in which Fogelson and his team have made some painful decisions and let pricey productions go. That began with the Guillermo Del Toro-directed At the Mountains of Madness, which Universal developed for years and which was ready to go with Tom Cruise, until the studio made a late decision not to go forward because of the possibility the $150M film could carry an R-rating. Universal also dropped two projects that were in advanced  stages of development: The Dark Tower, the Akiva Goldsman-directed adaptation of the Stephen King novel series that was to be made into three feature films and two limited-run TV series, with the first film and TV segment directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer and Goldsman; and Oiuja, the Hasbro board game that had McG directing and Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes partners producing with Hasbro. The moves were surprising because Howard and Grazer are cornerstone filmmakers for Universal; and Del Toro and Hasbro have overall deals there. Ouija is one of several Hasbro properties the studio dropped, the others being the Gore Verbinski-directed Clue, the Ridley Scott-directed Monopoly and Magic, The Gathering. These were part of a groundbreaking deal the studio made with the toymaker several years ago, but the studio and Hasbro have re-focused their attention solely on Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, and Candy Land. Read More »

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Jennifer Lawrence Frontrunner For ‘The Silver Linings Playbook’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday July 20, 2011 @ 5:13pm PDTTags: Andrea Riseborough, Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively, David O. Russell, Gary Ross, Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Wahlberg, The Weinstein Company
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: I’m told that Jennifer Lawrence is in pole position for the role in The Silver Linings Playbook, the drama that David O Russell will direct with Mark Wahlberg starring. This was a coveted role that many young actresses wanted.

Among … Read More »

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Don Winslow To Write Prequel To ‘Savages’ As Oliver Stone Ramps Up Production

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday June 6, 2011 @ 10:19am PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Blake Lively, Don Winslow, Emile Hirsch, John Travolta, Oliver Stone, Salma Hayek, Savages, Shane Salerno, Simon & Schuster, Taylor Kitsch, Uma Thurman
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Simon & Schuster has made a deal for Don Winslow to write a prequel novel to Savages, his bestseller that forms the basis of the film that Oliver Stone will begin shooting for Universal Pictures July 6, with Taylor … Read More »

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Chris Nolan To Meet Actresses For Batman 3

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday November 11, 2010 @ 12:43pm PSTTags: Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively, Chris Nolan, Keira Knightley, Movie Deals, Movies, Naomi Watts, Natalie Portman, Rachael Weisz, The Dark Knight Rises, The Dark Knight Rises Casting
Mike Fleming

… Read More »

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Baz Casting Wider Daisy Net For ‘Gatsby’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday November 1, 2010 @ 11:28am PDTTags: Abbie Cornish, Amanda Seyfried, Baz Luhrmann, Baz Luhrmann The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrmann Workshops The Great Gatsby, Blake Lively, Craig Pearce, Keira Knightley, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michelle Williams, Movie Casting, Movies, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, The Great Gatsby, The Great Gatsby Casting, The Great Gatsby Daisy Buchanan
Mike Fleming

… Read More »

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Comic-Con #10: ‘Green Lantern’ Panel

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday July 24, 2010 @ 3:18pm PDTTags: Blake Lively, Comic-Con, Comic-Con Convention, Greg Berlanti, Mark Strong, Martin Campbell, Peter Sarsgaard, Ryan Reynolds, Superhero, Superhero Movie, Warner Bros

Luke Y Thompson is covering the Con for Deadline:

First up is Warner Bros’ GREEN LANTERN writer Geoff Johns, who says the week he spent on the movie set was the best week of his life. And we have some footage to see: The screen goes black, as a voice tells us we all have been selected, but before we can be recruited, we must be tested. Green swirling energy appears on the screen, as the voice tells us to focus our mind and “move the light with your will”. Then images: Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan holding the alien power ring. The purplish corpse of dying alien Abin Sur. Peter Sarsgaard’s head getting bigger and veinier. Blake Lively looking out the window. Voiceover of Reynolds uttering the familiar Green Lantern oath: “In brightest day, in blackest night…” Read More »

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