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Two- time Academy® Award Nominee John Travolta (SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, PULP FICTION) is set to star in BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning director Philip Martin’s THE FORGER produced and co-financed by Code Entertainment (Code) alongside The Solution Entertainment Group (The Solution), it was announced by Code’s Al Corley and Bart Rosenblatt and Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel, co-founders and partners of The Solution.
Plans are being made to shoot later this year, in between festival honors for his work in his upcoming release Killing Season. Code’s Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt, and Eugene Musso will produce THE FORGER, along with Prospect Park’s Rob Carliner. Jonathan Dana and Randi Michel are executive producers with The Solution’s Myles Nestel and Lisa Wilson who will handle all international rights to the film and introduce it to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. Anson Downes and Linda Favila will serve as Co-Executive Producers. Siren Studio’s Craig Chapman, Kyle Jackson and Brandon Nutt are also executive producing the film. READ MORE »
Cannes: John Travolta To Star In Heist Pic ‘The Forger’
Oscars: Past Nominees Hayek, McCarthy, Neeson & Travolta Set As Presenters
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Actors Salma Hayek Pinault, Melissa McCarthy, Liam Neeson and John Travolta will present on the Oscar telecast, show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today.
Hayek Pinault earned an Oscar nomination for her leading performance in “Frida.” She will be seen next in “Grown Ups 2.”
McCarthy earned a nomination for her performance in a supporting role in the 2011 hit film “Bridesmaids.” She stars in the recently released film “Identity Thief” and will be seen next in “The Heat.”
Randi Michel Exits WME To Head Principato-Young Gotham Outpost
EXCLUSIVE: Longtime WME agent and partner Randi Michel is leaving the agency to head the New York office of Principato-Young Entertainment. They are still working out the particulars regarding clients as she transitions from agent to manager, but it is … Read More »
Spielberg, Cooper, Lawrence, Travolta Help HFPA Distribute $1.2 Million In Grants
“I’m here to get nominated,” laughed Dustin Hoffman (who is making his directorial debut at age 
75 with the 2012 Weinstein release, Quartet) as he took the stage at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s annual lunch to present grants to non-profit entertainment related organizations and scholarship programs. It was meant as a joke but clearly there is some truth to it, as this luncheon, held today at the Beverly Hills Hotel, often draws a lot of awards hopefuls to accept the generous grants in front of virtually the entire HFPA membership. If you’re a film or TV contender it certainly doesn’t hurt to be seen in this room. Awards consultants and PR Execs eagerly cooperate with the HFPA to get a strong turnout of contenders at this early pre-season kickoff to yet another awards race. Among the many PR types present you heard the same phrase over and over, “well here we go again”.
Among those presenting the total of more than $1.2 million to some 40 organizations today in addition to Hoffman were Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), John Travolta (Savages), Don Johnson and Kerry Washington (Django Unchained), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games), Jack Black (Bernie), Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Kelsey Grammer (Boss) and Carla Gugino (Political Animals). Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook) opened the proceedings for the Foreign Press group by joking that ”the 40 grants are as diverse as the people sitting in this audience today”. Read More »
Hot Trailer: Oliver Stone’s ‘Savages’
Universal has released its first trailer for Savages, the Oliver Stone-directed adaptation of the bestselling Don Winslow novel about two pot growers from Laguna who are muscled by a Mexican drug cartel. When the cartel kidnaps the woman they share, … Read More »
HAMMOND: An Emotional Governors Awards
OSCARS: 2011 Governors Awards – Photos
At Saturday night’s third annual Governors Awards, Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) was seated next to me and before the show unexpectedly said of being in the room with Oprah: “This is extreme for me. I am an Oprah worshipper.” After this year’s recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award earned a trio of standing ovations and ended 
her emotional acceptance speech to bring the big night to a close, Cody concluded, “I feel like I have just freebased Oprah”. Indeed it was Oprah’s night in this room. But it also belonged to the other honorary Oscar winners, too – makeup legend Dick Smith and actor James Earl Jones, who accepted his award from London’s Wyndham stage in a segment taped earlier in the day after a matinee performance of Driving Miss Daisy in which he is appearing alongside Vanessa Redgrave.
So far I have been to all three Governors Awards ceremonies and I would say this seemed the most emotional of them all with both Winfrey and Jones referencing their long journey from Mississippi to this Hollywood moment. One attendee told me afterwards, “I was really moved by this more than any other year”. If only the speeches could be this good on the Oscar show itself. Then the Academy wouldn’t have to worry about who hosts or produces the show.
Academy President Tom Sherak made his entrance in a Darth Vader uniform (in tribute to Jones) and opened with the same line he used to introduce a screening of the Jones film, The Great White Hope on Friday night: “How was your week?” It was an obvious reference to the tumultuous events surrounding this year’s Oscar show. But that was the only time the week’s events came up all evening. This was a night for the honorees and they all made the most of it. Before dinner a stirring reel was shown highlighting the entire 84-year history of honorary Oscar winners, followed by a touching tribute to past Oscar show producers Laura Ziskin and Gil Cates who both died this year.
Alec Baldwin got the show rolling after dinner by honoring his The Hunt For Red October co-star Jones saying, “Unlike many actors, James Earl Jones never had to get his career back because he never lost it. He is one of the greatest actors in history”. Glenn Close came out to praise him by referencing his Broadway triumph Fences. “He is the only actor who has broken me apart and transformed me until I was a screaming slobbering mess. James Earl Jones is indeed a world treasure.” Redgrave via tape surprised her co-star by bringing on Sir Ben Kingsley with an Oscar to present to Jones. ”You achieve what every actor is striving for. You are always so damn good,” Kingsley praised.
Jones was genuinely taken aback. “If an actor’s nightmare is being onstage butt-naked and not knowing his lines, then what the hell is this?” he laughed. ”This is an actor’s wet dream. I am gobsmacked at this improbable moment in my life. You cannot be an actor like I am and not have been in some of the worst movies like I have. But I stand before you deeply honored, mighty grateful, and just plain godsmacked.” Read More »
OSCARS: 2011 Governors Awards – Photos
HAMMOND: An Emotional Governors Awards
J.J. Abrams, Glenn Close, John Travolta, Alec Baldwin, Larry Gordon, Rick Baker, Mary J. Blige, and Maria Shriver were some of the names who helped the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences present Honorary Awards to actor James Earl Jones and makeup artist Dick Smith and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to philanthropist Oprah Winfrey. It was the Academy’s 3rd Annual Governors Awards dinner last night at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center. Photos on next page: Read More »
AFM: Robert De Niro, John Travolta Team For ‘Killing Season’
LOS ANGELES, CA – Millennium Films, Corsan Pictures and FilmEngine will begin production January 16 on “Killing Season,” starring Robert De Niro and John Travolta. Mark Steven Johnson (“Ghost Rider,” “Daredevil”) will direct from a script by Evan Daugherty
Will Money Woes Bump Off John Gotti Pic?
All the while that producer Marc Fiore was making pricey pay-or-play deals and holding press conferences in New York and Cannes to trumpet John Travolta, Al Pacino, Lindsay Lohan and Joe Pesci taking part in Gotti: In The Shadow Of … Read More »
Quentin Tarantino Setting Don Johnson For ‘Django Unchained’
Django Unchained director Quentin Tarantino has offered the role of wealthy plantation owner Spencer Bennett to Don Johnson, and they are negotiating for Johnson to join a cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and … Read More »
Warner Bros Acquires Post-WWII Don Winslow Novel ‘Satori’ For Leonardo DiCaprio
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.
For 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 »
ICM Signs To Rep New York Magazine Articles For Film And Television
EXCLUSIVE: After brokering over 30 film and TV option deals for articles from The New York Times since signing the daily as a client, ICM has just signed New York Magazine. It will rep the magazine in all areas to … Read More »
Barry Levinson, Al Pacino To Team On Philip Roth’s ‘The Humbling’ Before Gotti Mob Saga
EXCLUSIVE: Before Al Pacino and director Barry Levinson re-team for Gotti: Three Generations, the duo will first reunite on an adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Humbling, which has been set for a fall start and will be financed by Avi Lerner’s Millennium Films/Nu Image. It is just the latest in a period of extreme productivity for Levinson, some of it directly attributable to the acclaim he got for directing Pacino’s Emmy-winning turn as Jack Kevorkian in HBO’s You Don’t Know Jack.
The Humbling revolves around Simon Axler (Pacino), a famous stage actor in decline who is revived when he retires to his upstate New York farmhouse and takes up with a much younger woman. It has a script by Buck Henry, Michal Zebede and Levinson. Levinson will be looking to quickly cast the young female lead, the actor’s agent, and several other eccentric characters you would expect in a Roth novel. Levinson committed to this movie after completing production on the low-budget eco-horror film The Bay, which he shot on hand-held cameras and which Lionsgate will release. He just spent time at the Cannes Film Festival to help stir interest in the offshore rights of the Gotti movie; and he’s right now in China, heading the jury at the Shanghai Film Festival.
I caught up with Levinson at Cannes, where he was uneasy about the idea of having to hawk a film (Gotti) that he and his Bugsy co-writer James Toback are giving a page one rewrite. He was completely sparked to be shooting a variety of films, from horror to documentaries (he helmed for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series The Band That Wouldn’t Die). But industry players who passed by us in the Majestic Hotel seemed intrigued at his chance to create a major new Mafia movie, and one prominent figure even volunteered to join a preliminary cast that includes John Travolta (Gotti Sr.), Joe Pesci and Pacino, whom Levinson recruited. Read More »
Don Winslow To Write Prequel To ‘Savages’ As Oliver Stone Ramps Up Production
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 »
Broadway Spider-Man Re-Writer Tackles ‘Glee’ And ‘Carrie’ Remake
EXCLUSIVE: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the playwright and comic book writer who was brought on to rewrite and hopefully save Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, has booked several projects to follow. On the TV side, he’ll become a co-producer and writer of the hit series Glee. And I’m told that he’s just been set by MGM and Screen Gems to write a remake of Carrie, the Stephen King thriller about the telekinetic teenager who gets pushed too far at the prom and wreaks havoc on her fellow high school students. King’s bestselling book was turned into the 1976 film that starred Sissy Spacek, John Travolta, Amy Irving and Piper Laurie as the repressive mother.
For Aguirre-Sacasa, these diverse projects are right in his wheelhouse. On Carrie, he will write a version that is more faithful to the King book than the earlier movie, much the same as Joel and Ethan Coen went back to the Charles Portis novel True Grit to present a version that didn’t really feel like a remake. Aguirre-Sacasa has a relationship with the author, after writing the graphic novel version of King’s The Stand, King’s seminal apocalyptic novel. Read More »
Mob Movie Mania: Relativity Buys ‘Ness/Capone’ As Other Pics Percolate
EXCLUSIVE: At a time when organized crime films are back in vogue, Relativity Media’s Ryan Kavanaugh is wetting his beak. He’s acquired Ness/Capone, a Grant Pierce Myers script that made the 2010 Black Script and puts a new spin on the epic battle between Eliot Ness and Al Capone during the Prohibition Era 1920s. That battle was famously chronicled in the Brian DePalma-directed movie based on the TV series The Untouchables. Myers went back to the history books and came away with a much different version of Ness. While Kevin Costner played him as an incorruptible married choirboy who had to be taught to meet the mob on its own crooked terms, Ness/Capone’s Ness is a skirt-chasing 26-year old publicity hound who seemed to get an adrenaline charge out of courting danger, kicking in doors, smashing moonshine stores and rubbing it in the noses of Capone and other mobsters. He paraded confiscated bootleg trucks past Capone’s hotel, calling Capone in advance to suggest he look out the window. Deals are still being worked out, but the film will be produced by Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Jeremy Bell along with Hollywood Gang’s Gianni Nunnari and Virgin Produced’s Jason Felts and Rene Rigal.
This puts Relativity Media in another potential pic race (it has already gone to the mattresses against Universal over rival Snow White films). Warner Bros has its own Capone project, the Walon Green-scripted Cicero, an origin story. I’ve reported that the project has interest from David Yates when he resurfaces from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, his fourth and final Potter pic. Warner Bros also is going gangbusters on Gangster Squad, the Ruben Fleischer-directed pic that has Sean Penn negotiating to play L.A. mobster Mickey Cohen, and Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin as the cops who try to bring him down. Read More »
John Travolta, Uma Thurman And Blake Lively Join ‘Savages’ Cast
EXCLUSIVE: Oliver Stone is putting together a killer cast for Savages, the drama based on Don Winslow’s bestselling novel. Stone is arranging a Pulp Fiction reunion of John Travolta and Uma Thurman, as the two actors are in talks to … Read More »
Joe Pesci Joins “Iconic” John Gotti Biopic; Lindsay Lohan Latest In Talks For Big Role
Fiore Films made the announcements today at a NYC press conference attended by John Gotti Jr as well as the already cast John Travolta and already attached director Nick Cassavetes. The biopic, titled Gotti: Three Generations, begins shooting in October with an eye to a late 2012 release. Until now, the film had no financier, but today the independent production company announced it will finance the film itself, but declined to say how much it will budget. Producer Marc Fiore says that Joe Pesci has now joined the cast as John Gotti Sr’s deputy Angelo Ruggiero, and Lindsay Lohan (newly with ICM) is in talks for a role. 
The production will cast Gotti Jr “within the next week or two,” Fiore says. This is the first film about the Dapper Don being made with the cooperation of his son and will show the infamous mobster as “an iconic figure in American history,” says Fiore. But Cassavetes says that he’ll show Gotti Sr’s “warts.” Gotti Jr says the script shows his dad was “a man’s man” who “paid for every sin he may or may not have committed.” Unlike other projects that told the family’s story “from a journalistic or government viewpoint,” Gotti Jr says this biopic will show that “Everybody’s a victim. … 
There a lot of ups and downs. A lot of tears. And a lot of happiness.” Travolta is playing the one-time Gambino crime family boss who was convicted in 1992 of five murders, loan sharking, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery and tax evasion. Travolta called this ”probably the most interesting untold story in this country,” adding that Gotti Sr was “filled with dichotomies.” Travolta claims Lohan ”happens to be a very big fan of mine,” and added, ”I’ve always thought she was gorgeous and talented and filled with a lot of depth.” Read More »
John Travolta & Cast Of ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ To Reunite At TV Land Awards
John Travolta will reunite with the cast of Welcome Back, Kotter at the TV Land Awards 2011 where the 1970s sitcom will receive the 35th Anniversary Award. Welcome Back, Kotter, which ran from 1975-1979, revolved around an inner-city high school … Read More »
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